chiefstingy

A Glass of Bokeh - California

Testing out the Bokeh of the OMD E-M5. Lights set up in the back to cause bokeh. Used a bounced light to the left to add highlights to the glass. Used white bal...
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Testing out the Bokeh of the OMD E-M5. Lights set up in the back to cause bokeh. Used a bounced light to the left to add highlights to the glass. Used white balance bracketing to play with the coloring.
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E-M5

Aperture f/1.8 ISO 200 Shutter 1/25

upload_date

Dec, 2013

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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photo in my home in my living room. It just happened to be the place where I was experimenting with an idea/concept.

Time

This was taken in the evening after getting home from a long day at work of my second job. I had two jobs back then. It was during winter so the sun came down later making the house darker earlier.

Lighting

The lighting was simple. I took some Xmas lights and strung on the wall. It took a while for me to get the placement of the lights the way I wanted. The idea was to make the lights seem like they were being poured or falling into the glass. I also bounced a simple desk lamp off of the near the glass placement. Lastly I flagged off some of the light with a black piece of paper. Since I as at home and not at work, a lot of the materials I was using were simple household items.

Equipment

I wanted to see the performance of my micro four thirds camera. So I was shooting with my new (at the time) Olympus OMD EM-5. I mounted it on a simple tripod. The lighting as mentioned before was a cheap $10 desk lamp. Simple cheap holiday lights served the back/bokeh lighting. Over all the setup was really simple since I was photographing at home and not at work.

Inspiration

When I bought my Olympus camera there were a lot of criticisms about photographing with a camera with a smaller sensor. One of th main concerns people brought up was the depth of field. Many say that smaller sensors can not get the depth of field of a ledger sensor. I used to teach photography and what creates depth of field is, focal length, distance to subject, distance behind subject and Aperture. Sensor has NEVER been a factor. I wanted to prove it. So with some research of bokeh ideas I came up with this concept.

Editing

Yes. Although the colors of the lights were yellow, in camera I tweaked with the white balance to make them pink and more interesting. But there was stil a small bit of yellow tinge, so I tweaked the colors a bit for better transitioning to black. I also darkened the mid blacks a bit. A little dodge and burning on the glass to sharpen the lines.

In my camera bag

My equipment changes based on the type of photography I am doing. I usually shoot Olympus. For travel I tend to bring my OMD EM-1ii for shooting events and people. I use my OMD EM-5ii for long exposure landscapes. I usually have my M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/2.8 pro, 12-40mm f/2.8 pro and 17mm f/1.8. Also iPad for wireless controlling. For portraits I usually carry my OMD EM-5, OMD EM-5ii. Lenses include 45mm f/1.8 and 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro as well as MacBook Pro for tethering.

Feedback

“If your pictures are not good enough, you are not close enough” - Robert Capa. Take this in mind when shooting for shallow depth of field. Also remember that your backgrounds lights have to be really far back. The lights in the background are about 15 ft away from the subject. Try to use constant lighting to light the foreground as a strobe/flash will be too powerful and will require you to stop down the Aperture. Lastly, have fun, don’t expect the same results invent something that is yours.

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chiefstingy

chiefstingy

A Glass of Bokeh - California

Testing out the Bokeh of the OMD E-M5. Lights set up in the back to cause bokeh. Used a bounced light to the left to add highlights to the glass. Used white bal... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow chiefstingy

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Testing out the Bokeh of the OMD E-M5. Lights set up in the back to cause bokeh. Used a bounced light to the left to add highlights to the glass. Used white bal...
Read more

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Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.