You can guess just by looking at the photo.
Probably a 35mm at f/2.8-4(doesn't matter as long as output is sharp), 1/50 shutter at a mid-high ISO. No ND. No Tripod.

My prediction maybe a bit off.
But it's essentially a picture taken in a mid sized room with dim lights.


This post has been edited by LegendLee: Dec 29 2014, 10:18 AM

That doesn't make sense.
One can obtain similar image at 1/10s or 1/100s

One uses t-stop and the other uses f-stop
t-stop is calculated based on loss of light (accurate for videography)
f-stop is based on the aperture value without considering the loss of light.

I used to have the sigma 50mm f/1.4
It's a pretty ok lens. Optics are good.

The Samyang t/1.5 would be even cheaper and it has the nice follow focus gear for you.
Optics wise, I've not really tried it but it's also full manual. So it'll be difficult if you decide to do any photography.
I heard it's a steal on a pure video standpoint though.

Perhaps someone here has used the Samyang t/1.5 before ? I personally have not tried it out yet.

This post has been edited by LegendLee: Dec 31 2014, 03:17 PM

Just shot a wedding dinner yesterday.
It's been a long time since I last shot a dinner by myself.

It was just a neighborhood restaurant and making the shots look good wasn't easy. But I came prepared !

Pretty sure they're hot-swappable
No problem with changing lens without switching off your camera.

Yeap, eneloops are good.
Not because of their capacity but because they retain their charge
I'm using them for practically all my AA and AAA Battery needs too

Welcome to the world of strobes/flash !

Yeap just like what Goldfries has mention, shutter speed does not affect exposure from flash.

Think of flash as a very fast burst of light (Think a thousandth of a second*)
Imagine in a completely dark scenario, even if your shutter open for 1 second or 1/100 of a second; this will not matter at all as your image will be completely dark !
Now if there was a flash, all that matters is your shutter capturing the flash !
Since to the camera, the brightness and duration of the flash is the same. (Your shutter open for 1 second or 1/100 second, but the flash duration is only 1/1000 second*)

Thus you get the same exposure.

The reason why your image above is slightly brighter in the long shutter speed is because there is some slight ambient light your camera is getting.

---
Placing lights further/nearer will not only cause change in intensity but also the "softness/harsh" of the light.
In most cases, we do not use the exact same light output in multiple flash setup. The Key(Main) light is usually always 2X to 8X stronger than the Fill light. Intensity is not just the flash power, the distance and attachment(softbox) plays a role too.
For photographers who're really picky about this, they'll use a lightmeter

Another tip.
You can't go above 1/200 normally.


* Flash duration range from 1/200 to 1/13000 depending on flash/strobes and intensity selected*

This post has been edited by LegendLee: Jan 7 2015, 12:27 AM

You can try reading up on several lighting setups.
Food, Portraits, Real estate all have different techniques.

There are just way too many to cover and they all serve a specific purpose.

A 40 degree angle from slightly above is a simple way to start it off.

For me though, some tricks I use are.
For Food, I like to have a large softbox placed above/behind to give my food a slight glow
For Portrait, I ask the talent to look at the light source.

For softer shadows, have
1. Larger source of light. Eg Softbox
2. Move your lightsource closer to subject so it'll be bigger subjectively.
(That's why the sun on a clear midday will give you harsh light even though the sun is really really big. But it's so far away it seems small subjectively)

Second lightsource may fill the shadows but it will not make the shadows "softer"

This post has been edited by LegendLee: Jan 7 2015, 12:53 AM

No problem, learning how flash works can be really rewarding.

I'm hoping they'll provide 4k video without the price of the c-series camera.
Price will be dropping (even further) for 5D3 too.

One of the faults of canon's sensor technology.
Beaten by nearly every other manufacturer.

It can be mitigated but it's just a little troublesome. Especially with all overblown skies and I had to resort to HDR.

There is no harm in hoping for a better tool for the same money you pay.

This post has been edited by LegendLee: Jan 28 2015, 07:18 PM

Nikon lens in general have more lens in the pricy region.
They still have good and cheap lens though but canon has a better range of great lens at a better price.
Of course canon does have it's own share of really expensive glass as well like the 70-200 is II and 24-70 II which are more expensive than it's Nikon counterpart.

For those looking for a cheap macro lens
There's now another option.

With 2:1 magnification ratio (twice the Canon 100mm macro)

http://petapixel.com/2015/02/02/review-ven...infinity-focus/

Probably really bad at anything else other than macros though.

Nice shot.

It's not easy to create such a high magnification macro lens that can focus to infinity without any issues in sharpness /Aberrations.

Non macro doesn't work on FF cameras
That and I'm still skeptical on the refinement work these manufacturers can produce. It's not easy to produce good aspherical elements and coating needed to beat aberrations.
We shall see when more reviews are out.

This post has been edited by LegendLee: Feb 6 2015, 09:24 AM

It's a pretty good try !

If it was me, I would
1. Shoot at a slightly higher angle
2. The background behind the wooden mat (a complete black background would be good)
3. Metal is a bit hard to handle in lighting, especially the flash reflected by the spoon on the bowl. If you want, you can try using gobos to block that specific part of light hitting the spoon.
4. Fix the spoon scratches on photoshop. (frequency separation and slowly clone/brush it out)

This post has been edited by LegendLee: Feb 15 2015, 02:16 AM

Eh, I thought it's spelled GOBO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobo_%28lighting%29

Try triggering twice with 5 seconds in between.
Once to wake. Another to flash.

If thy doesn't work, turn off sleep mode on ur flash.
I use the phottix strato and it works well with the flashes I have tried.

This post has been edited by LegendLee: Mar 10 2015, 03:38 PM

I always keep my flashes in always ready mode.
Can easily last a whole dinner session.

Ah. Do you have any shots from a lower angle ?