Open Iris Photo & Films

Category: Gear

engagment photographer Thousand Oaks

Film Inspired Engagement Shoot

Engagement photography Malibu

Sometimes I like to change things up and shoot  film during a photography session . This engagement session was taken in Malibu , California on 5/17/2013. I used a Canon A1 in manual mode with Kodak Ektar 100 film . I scanned the image in using the Wolverine F2D2 film scanner and imported into Photoshop for basic corrections along with simple manipulation. The film was expired and was exposed to elements,but overall I love the outcome! Film is a great way to simplify , yet get creative looking images. If you have any questions about gear/ technical I’d be glad to help you out! For booking engagement sessions you can e-mail us at [email protected]

 

” 5 Reasons to buy the New MacBook Pro “

First of all 2012 has been a great year for photographers and media designers alike. For myself it started with the release of the extraordinary Nikon D800 and it’s un-rivaled image quality , and now the announcement of the new Macbook Pro has launched me into pixel euphoria. If you are a photographer , cinematographer , designer , or use your computer for presentations and require a professional , reliable , experience… LOOK NO FURTHER! 5 Reasons this Apple is for you!

1. See More Pixels “Retina Display”
One of the gripes of professionals using laptops while on the go or as a workstation is that the screen resolution and size tend to make your eyes bleed. Well maybe not that dramatic, but it does make it hard to be productive and see more pixels without zooming times ten. Apple has now graced us with it’s beautiful retina display to be seen on 15.4″ of scheer LED bliss. With a resolution of 2880×1800 pixels your mouth will drop and sing the praises of Apple’s leap forward. What does this mean ? You see more , a lot more!

2. FLASH STORAGE
What is Flash Storage? It’s what the rest of the world refers to as SSD “Solid State Drive” and is an incredibly fast hard drive. Not only will you see a huge performance increase in daily task , you will also notice that your laptop will be less noisy and run at lower temperatures. In programs like Photoshop CS6 and Premiere CS6 you will notice faster render times as well as a faster scratch disk. The huge plus is that Flash Storage is less likely to fail on you due to it’s reliability. That’s good news to all professionals. Work faster and safer.

3. A Monster GPU “GRAPHICS CARD”
One of the lacking components in most laptops is the graphics card. Most laptops that are marketed to professionals have an integrated intel graphics card which is sometimes hidden by cheap sales gimmicks like , “oh did you see how big the hard drive is?” Laughable. Apple has made sure to give you a power house computer that rocks a solid Nvidia 1GB GDDR5 graphic card. Awesome for photo editing , video editing , and general media usage. Simply put, this is one bad ass graphics card.

4. Hello USB 3.0 + Thunderbolt
Yes , finally USB 3.0. Apple has complied with the rest of the world and given us USB 3.0. I have no doubts that Thunderbolt will continue to wow us with a plethora of devices in the near future, but for now I’ve been needing a USB 3.0 port on my Apple. For photographers and cinematographers shooting video from a DSLR they will be happy to have faster transfer times from CF cards using USB 3.0 devices. Throw in the fact that you also have thunderbolt and you’re as happy as a kid in a candy store.

5. HDMI
Now Apple is just showing off. If you ask, you shall receive. The outcry of Apple’s lack of an HDMI port on its computers did not fall on deaf ears. This is a huge upgrade for those who rely on their MacBook for presentation purposes. The HDMI powered by an extreme , profound laptop will give you more peace of mind when presenting or sharing media with clients or at memorable events.

Apple has outdone itself once again! Sure it’s pricey at $2199 but it’s well worth it! The retina display alone makes this laptop worth every dollar. If you are a professional this Apple Macbook Pro will not disappoint.

laptop for photographers

Are you in Focus? Getting your lenses sharp!

I was in a fashion shoot a couple weeks ago and I was really excited about how things were going and the overall feel of the shoot. Nothing could ruin my flow, as the photo gods blessed my shoot.Now keep in mind I’m no Zach Arias or Chase Jarvis, but I love what I do and I work hard at it! As every good photographer does(or should)I backed up my photos and started to peep in Lightroom.I started noticing that some of my photos seemed a bit soft.I was so tired and spent from the shoot, that I didn’t think much about it and went home.I had a conversation with a friend who’s a DSLR video freak and told him what I had experienced.His reaction was the same as mine…lol.whatever.I think his exact statement was something like “you are trippin”. As I went through the photos I had noticed a couple more soft images from that same lens. Nothing to waste,but soft.It could have been really easy to blame the AF system of the 5DmII,but I didn’t go there.Instead I found the most amazing tool that will calibrate your lenses and make your photos tact sharp.It’s a tool called LensAlign MkII . It calibrates your lenses to the body of your camera and yields amazing results.In the photos below I calibrated my Canon 5DmII with a 24mm-70mm f/2.8 lens.The end results were so fantastic.If you look closely at the 0 mark on both photos you can see one is a bit soft and one is sharp. The greatest thing about this kit is that it’s easy to use.If you are a professional, or get paid, you owe it to yourself and your clients to invest in this or something similar. You can always send your gear to the manufacturer, in this case Canon, and they will calibrate for a fee.I’m not sponsored by LensAlign, I just really loved this kit. You can buy the LensAlign MkII here.No matter if you’re a wedding photographer, fashion photographer, or nature photographer, this kit will improve your focus.If you have any questions about the kit or equipment used just reply to the post and I’ll try my best to help you out.I hope this helps!Now go and create better photographs.

Gear Used:
Canon 5DmII
Canon 24mm-70mm f/2.8
Manfrotto Tri-pod
LensAlign MkII

Out of focus with Canon 24-70