Behind The Lense
Feb, 2016Views
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NatureLoverJJWal
April 04, 2017
hahaha i love the color of the nails. Congratulations on your award!
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken on a lazy Sunday evening in December in my room, only a few days after I received my wonderful digital camera on Christmas Eve.Time
As mentioned, it was in the evening, about 9PM.Lighting
Since it was dark outside, I had closed my window blinds and turned on my bright LED lamp on the ceiling, which gives the camera in the picture a nice, daytime-like light directly from above. Additionally, I lit the Christmas decoration which I put on my window every year (it's a nice tradition!). Then, I turned my old camera towards the window. Only after taking the photograph, I realized how nicely you could see the tiny little Christmas-y shooting star reflecting on the lens of the Praktica! You should definitely try this out, too, playing around with different decoration reflecting on the lens.Equipment
I shot this picture with my new digital camera, a Nikon D5300 (DSLR) with a 18-105mm lens. Instead of using a tripod or shooting hand-held, I just placed my two cams, the digital and the analogue one, on my bed, facing each other. I did not use a flash or any other equipment, only my two cameras.Inspiration
Truth be told, I did not plan this photograph in any way; but after having received my DSLR, I was absolutely excited to shoot about everything that was in reach! So I was sitting on my bed, scrolling through the menu of the camera, thinking of what to shoot next, when I realized I could totally take a picture of my Praktica with the Nikon, and find out about different features and settings of my new camera!Editing
Since I cannot do any post-processing (mostly because I never tried it), I do not retouch my photos after having taken them. I just set my camera into B&W mode, shooting in JPEG (sorry, I was a beginner, you know?), but that was about all the retouching I had done to this particular image.In my camera bag
When it comes to photography equipment, I like to follow this approach: Keep. It. Simple. I have my Nikon D5300 with the 18-105mm lens that came with it, and of course the Praktica (which is about 40 years old - holy grail! It's working perfectly fine, though.). I buy my negative films at a nearby photography store, and I only ever get the ones by Kodak, either in color or B&W. I also own a tripod by the brand KF-Concept, it is a carbon tripod made for travelling, but I hardly ever use it, since I prefer shooting hand-held. (And to be honest, I never bring it for traveling. Too. Much. To. Carry.) Since I hate how the camera strap that came with the Nikon looks (it's so boring!), I crafted my very own out of a leather belt and studs. It's all about the looks, people! ;) That's a perfect weekend DIY project, by the way. And if leather and studs are not your style, just search the Internet for "DIY Camera Strap", there are thousands of ideas waiting out there. And finally, having discussed what is IN my bag, I am going to tell you WHICH bag I normally use: I bought a very small one by the brand CosySpeed in grey. Not the most stylish option, but extremely functional nonetheless. Most often I just put my camera in my normal black backpack, which looks nice and also prevents the camera from getting damaged. My experience tells me that if you only bring that little equipment like me, it's totally fine to put the camera in your normal bag (preventing pickpockets because it doesn't show off that there is a cam inside). I bought my backpack at H&M for about 15 bucks, and I couldn't be happier with it!Feedback
If you want to recreate a similar shot, I would recommend getting a beautifully looking, preferably old camera and just taking a few photos of it using a delayed exposure (mine was 5 seconds). Make sure you capture the light nicely (especially if you add background lights like I did), hit the shutter (having set a delayed exposure), quickly place your hands as you want to (or take them away if you don't want hands as a part of your picture), and boom! Instantly cool photograph. It can be extremely helpful if you have got a camera (the one that you shoot with) with a rotating screen. Just flip open the screen so that you can see what exactly you're doing and shoot!
