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Tag Archives: Technical

What I bring with me

26 May 2010 – 8:48 am

Hello Internet! Yeah I know it’s been an awful amount of time since I updated this blog last time… I am really sorry for that. I could find excuses, telling you that my cats change my admin password and that it made me unable to post any updates, but no. I simply have been too busy working on shoots, on my website design and post-processing.

Sooo again sorry, but that also means that there are good things to come! Stay tuned!

In the meantime this is just a small update because I received lots of questions recently about what I was bringing to a wedding or a shoot. It actually slightly depends on the shoot and the size of the wedding but generally it all comes down to what I can carry by myself when I don’t have a second shooter with me. So here goes: I generally bring two bodies, 4 lenses which all fit in my trusty Boda Bag and my light rod. You can see all of these in the following shot and if you need more details don’t hesitate to ask!

bobby-001

I am getting back to work, and I will be posting real good updates pretty soon.

By Pascal | Posted in FAQ, Technical | Comments (2)

FAQ - Studio Rig

20 January 2010 – 1:15 pm

After my two latest posts, I had some questions from faithful readers concerning my studio rig. So I took the opportunity of another studio shoot to take some pictures of my studio setup.

When I decided to setup the studio for interior shoots, my objective was to have an efficient and versatile setup. I wanted something which would give me enough freedom and that I could easily move or transform. I also had to take into consideration the space I had available and the fact that I wanted to be able to take apart everything easily so that I could setup a mobile on location studio if I needed.

In the end, in order to balance all these requirements and constraints, I decided to setup something simple but efficient. Although I would have loved to setup big light modifiers it didn’t suit my needs and style.

So here is a shot a typical studio setup. I took a wide shot so that you can see the whole space.

studio-rig

Here for this shoot, I decided to use a standard three lights setup. I generally use between three to five lights depending on what I want to achieve (and the number of people involved in the shoot). But for a single person, three lights is more than enough and it can already be a lot to manage.

My first light is on my Camera left. This is my main source of light and it is meant to be directional. I am using a medium size softbox, the light is a bit harsh but as I need to be able to pack everything rapidly this is the best solution for now. I might look into getting an octogonal softbox in the near future.

My second light is just in front of my camera in the shot, you can see the lightstand sllightly on my left. It is used as my fill light to provide me with additional light to lift some shadows created by my main light and it gives me a softer and more uniform overall lightning.

Finally my third light is in the back on the right. It is my hair light. Here I am using a speedlight. For this shoot, I positioned it so that I can have some light spill from the back of my model: I wanted some nice cross-lightning with my main light. As I wanted some spill, I set it up bare with no grid or snoot.

I use a white background as it is also the most versatile. With white I can do white (duh obviously), black, any shade of grey and colors. It’s the best !

And if you want to see the result here is a shot in situation with the most gorgeous model I could manage to get.

Be prepare Internet, it’s pretty awesome!

aoshi-studio-001

Or maybe not.

Pascal Tran Binh Aoshi Studio Photographe Mariage Portrait Lifestyle Paris France International

Pascal Tran Binh Aoshi Studio Wedding Portrait Lifestyle Photographer Paris France International

By Pascal | Posted in FAQ | Also tagged FAQ, Studio | Comments (0)

Canon 1D Mark IV + Lenses Hands-On

1 November 2009 – 2:31 am

Today I was invited by Canon to one of their event session where they presented the Canon 1D Mark IV and the Canon 7D to pros. It was an opportunity to discover and try the Canon 1D Mark IV and some lenses in the best of conditions i.e. in a studio with models, with a one to one presentation of the camera and with very few people crownded around you. It was really perfect!

So I got to try the Canon 1D Mark IV a bit. As it was a pre-production model I couldn’t put a CF card of my own, so I won’t be able to comment on the ISO performances, the detailed image quality or to show you samples.

In terms of construction, the body is everything you would expect from a high-end professional camera. Those already owning a 1D Mark III will feel very at ease with it. It fits in your hand very well, it’s really comfortable and it feels robust and solid. It’s heavy, a real brick! But this is to be expected from a camera of this caliber.

The AF feels great. There is a high level of customization you can set it up the way you want and it is very accurate and very fast. Out of the 45 points of focus, 39 are cross shaped! The focus zone is still located in the center of the frame though but it’s not really a bother. As I said the AF is very precise, very responsive, the camera answers in a fraction of a second and you are able to follow a moving subject very easily. The rate of shooting is impressive given the resolution and the buffer handles the load very well. I even have the feeling that this camera could focus in a cave! As I couldn’t see any images on a computer screen I can’t comment much more on the performances of the AF and on its impact on the images, we’ll have to wait for a real test with a production model for this.

The video mode feels good also, it is possible to shoot in full HD at 24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps and the image quality seems on par with what Canon delivered with the 5D Mark II. However, as the body is bigger and heavier, you will definitely need a rig if you plan to handhold it for filming.

All in all, the first impressions are very good. Though I know this will probably never be a camera for me (I need to be able to handhold my camera with one hand when I shoot and this one is definitely too heavy for me to do that), I definitely want to see and try a production model to actually review the image quality and the ISO performances.

This session was also the occasion to try two lenses I had my eyes on: the 200mm f2 and the 24mm f3.5 Tilt-Shift. I mounted the lenses on my 5D Mark II and I took advantage of the studio setting with a gorgeous natural light and grabbed a few shots with the models (yeah I know my job is so tough).

The 200mm is impressive, it’s not as heavy as I though it would be, it is definitely heavier than the 70-200mm f2.8 I have but it is still manageable. I need to be more careful when I shoot with it and I can’t be as mobile as with the 70-200mm but for situations when I don’t need to run it should be okay. It focuses very fast, and I am impressed by the image quality. The 70-200mm already delivers wonderful images, but the 200mm is just better. I really like the colors right out of the camera and you just can’t beat this f2 aperture: the background is so buttery, you’d want to smear it on a bagel!

The 24mm is equally good, it definitely require a bit of practice to be able to shoot with the Shift on the fly but the results are so worth it.

Here are a few shots from the day.

canon-open-studio-01