witty title

A Flickr buddy Matthew Coughlin runs through the softboxes he uses and how.

Matt makes some awesome pics.

Check out some more pics from Matt.

Nikon Imaging released a new 50mm lens into their line up yesterday.

What does that mean? Why does it matter? They already have a 50mm 1.4 G and a 50mm 1.8 D….

Entry level Nikon cameras don’t have a focussing motor in the body of the camera that the lens uses to Autofocus. Therefore users of these entry level cameras had to buy the more expensive AF-S lenses which have motors in the lenses themselves.

Cameras like the D3100 (older model D3000) and d5100 (older model D5000) are guilty of this, so for buyers of these models to have access to the famous 50mm it meant they had to choose between the ‘cheap’ 50mm 1.8D (still a fantastic lens) which wouldn’t autofocus. Or, They had to plump for the more expensive AF-S lens the 50mm 1.4G, at 3 times the cost of the 1.8 lens this was usually a tough choice for an amateur on a budget.

Great decision by Nikon to release the new 50mm 1.8 into the AF-S range and allow these entry level DSLR’s access to the 50mm AF world, the price will be something in the region of 220$ and be in stores from July.

The Full spec for the new Nikon AF-S 50mm 1.8G

Check out some examples of what you can achieve with a 50mm 1.8 and now with AUTOFOCUS to make it that much easier…

*Please note these are not sample images from the new 50mm 1.8 lens they are just various 50mm lens photos from Flickr tagged with an aperture of f1.8.

Basic Photo Retouch from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

I wanted to change the post layout on here to enable full width posts, ditch the sidebar on single posts and then incorporate some kind of rollover effect for a before and after edit of a photo. For now here is the before and after in post with a description of Post Processing applied. Then I’m going to try and figure out the rollover. Now done albeit needs testing.

Mouse over the image to see the Before.

Post Processing

1. Cloned out the Cymbal that was in shot next to the Childs right arm & the mans arm top right.
2. Cross Processing using a PS action.
3. High pass filter (5) set to overlay then masked out all but the main subject, the Cello and player.
4. Masked Curves adjustment to add a slight vignette.
5. Another Masked Curves adjustment to lighten the center area of the image.
6. Exposure layer to darken the image, I then masked out the parts of the image that I wanted to bring back to normal brightness, the Musician with Cello, and the Child watching.
7. Black block across the bottom, two reasons there was something in shot that was distracting and it gives a slight cinematic feel.
8. Added text ‘When I grow up…’

Some recent favs from da Flickr…