Scrap-Cards for Free

I like to give something very unique and special for those I care about. Giving a pre-made e-card is too common, of course it's easy to make one, just fill in the blank...and voila...you have it. But, look again,  your e-card won't be something unique, there maybe million of them being send worldwide at the same time.

So, this time, I will share you what I usually do when a special occasion is approaching.

Introducing Scarpblog (http://www.scrapblog.com/) !
With Scrapblog, you can create beautiful and completely one-of-a-kind layouts, share them online with your friends and family, and even print high-quality photobooks, greeting cards or postcards. In my case, I normally export them as JPEG (first have to publish them), and share them on my favorite social-networking site - Facebook ;)

Creating and sharing Scarpblog is absolutely free of charge. There are a lot of free pre-made templates, backgrounds and stickers you can choose from. For more sophisticated templates, backgrounds and stickers, you could purchased them using your credits (it works like a prepaid account).

As for the picture, you could upload pictures from your computer, or even download online from flickr (you need to have a flickr account), then all the last minute quick edit can be done on scrapblog.

This is one of the example of what I usually made for friends and family. Give a try on it, you are going to love it too!


Cheers,

Novita

Result for ActionSampler Flash

I've got back pictures from my ActionSampler Flash (along with its negative.....it's quite strange since I haven't touch any negatives in the last 7 years or so LOL).

So....starting with open the package, check the negative and CD (I didn't print out the picture, instead I put them into the CD-R)...my heart beat faster than ever....and the result

(Drum rolling.....................)

They turned out not so bad. Above are 4 example pictures I took. The first two (top) were taken when I wasn't moving, but the model moved. The last two (bottom) were taken when I was the one who moved, while the model basically stay put.

I can't denied there are lots of noise on the picture, those pictures were taken with Fuji Film Superia iso 200 (only 200......ghee....I feeling snob of playing with my ISO on "A" mode on my D-SLR hahahahahaha). But they actually gives more artistic touch to the picture. What I like most is the effect that made when I turn the camera in a spiral movement, look at those leaves behind subject !

Overall, I could say, this first test with my second toycam (the first one should be my Diana F+) is considering "quite successful", so I think...I am ready to roll with another roll of film for another round of fun and original pictures.

*_* Novita

First (ever) lomography camera

When I stopped by at Photo Vision at Laussane yesterday, my sole purpose is to look for antique cameras (for my collection and deco at home) - all they have is only a "not so good shape" Kodak folding Rangefinder dated back to 1948. Just when I went out of the store, and gave my last glance to its window...I found couple of Lomography cameras there, yay!!!!!!!

Well...most of the Lomography cameras they have are Fish-Eye style, which interest me the least (since I have a real fish-eye lens at home, Canon EF-15mm f2.8 USM fish eye). They only have 4 Diana F+ lomography camera (series Glow in the dark, El Toro, Mr. Pink, and the one I got for myself, Tokyo Rising) and 1 Lomography multi lenses camera (chrome series, I bought this one too LOL).

So this Diana F+ Tokyo Rising is my first (ever) lomography and medium format camera. It's quite a bit tricky for me to load the film on it, since I have no idea what the 120 film is all about. Fortunately, the manual instruction book is quite handy with its step by step instruction. Nothing really complicate about this camera, all is manual, and operate it on the simplest way (I've ever known).

In a period of 24-hour, I've used up the film -  Kodak 120 VC, for now, all I could say is...be patient, cause it takes 1 week for the pro-lab to develop the film for me (can't be develop in any photo service due to the format). Once I've got them on hand, no matter how terrible they will be, I will certainly share with all of you......my first ever, experience, with a real lomography camera (so far I only playing around with my photoshop for the lomography effect LOL).

Have fun,

*_* Novita

I found treasures !

Searching the storage room at home, among tons of craps, I found 4 good stuffs. 4 "like new" Cokin filters including a Cokin filter holder. Those four filters are : Cokin Radial Zoom A 185, Cokin Pastel 1A 86, Cokin Pastel 2A 87, and Cokin Color Diffuser A 089.

I did some tests with those filters, just to figure out how to use them to get the optimal result, by putting the filter holder on my EF 50mm f/1.4 USM which was mounted on Canon EOS 5D mark II. Please note that I set the ISO of my camera to automatic, and I did the shots on f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.8, f/5.6, f/8.0, f/11.0 and f/16.0 (except for the radial zoom, I also did it on f/22.0). After playing for a while, here are my conclusion :

Cokin Radial Zoom A 185 - certainly my least favorite filter. You really need to be so patient to move the filter on its holder until you can have a clear view of your object, and don't forget to put the aperture of your lens to minimum (on the picture below, I put the aperture to f/22.0)

Cokin Pastel 1A 86 - great for portrait. I figured out that you can use it easily at any aperture, depends on how you would like your pictures look like. Below you may find pictures that I took on f/1.4 , f/5.6, f/8.0 and f/16.0. Feel free to choose which one is you like the best ;)

Cokin Pastel 2A 87 - great for closeup. I like it best when I put it on the maximum aperture, in this case f/1.4. It has more intense "blur" compare to the Pastel 1A 86.

Last but not least is the Cokin Color Diffuser A089. It gives a beautiful color vignette around your picture. There is one area in the middle of the filter which is colorless, so basically, before taking picture, you need to move the filter on its holder and put the colorless part on the point where you want to put your focus on, otherwise, trust me, your camera will having problems in finding it's autofocus. I like it best when I took picture on f/8.0 and f/11.0. It shows more sharpness of the object and also the color on the "vignette".

Below you may find pictures I took with those diffusers on f/1.4, f/5.6, f/8.0 and f/16.0. Except for the test on Cokin Color Diffuser A089, f/1.4 , f/8.0, f/11.0 and f/16.0.

Feel free to choose which one you like the best ;)

Test on Cokin Pastel 1A 86

Test on Cokin Pastel 2A 87

Test on Cokin Color Diffuser A 089

Have fun,

Novita *_*

Shape Collage :)

You may have heard about it....a free software which enable you to create a unique collage, however you want, light up your creativity ;)

All you need to do is just download the program from the link. Once it's done, all you need to do:
1. Drag as many pictures as you want.
2. Choose the shapes you want your collage to be (there are some shapes all ready been preset, you can even make your collage in the shape of word).
3. Then create :)

Below is the example of heart shape collage I just did couple minutes ago using pictures from my sister's wedding last July.

Novita *_*

Lomo-Junkies

Lately, I really get myself into the lomography. From searching for Lomography cameras to learning how to make a "lomo-look-alike" picture.

In Lomography, the most significant things are, saturation, vibration and vignette effect. Now, you could either buy one of those "vintage lomo-cameras" (such as Holga, Diana, Lomo LC-A...etc), or a more modern version of lomo-cameras (fuji mini 7s and 25) then you are only one step away from showing your lomo-masterpiece. Please be aware that, all the vintage lomo cameras are either using the 35mm film (standard photography film which are easy to find at your nearby shops) or a medium format - 120mm film (it's quite difficult to buy it directly, but you could easily purchase them online). On the other hand, Fuji mini 7s and 25 are using the instax (instant film) which work like polaroid. Apart from the instant film, Fuji cameras are considering more affordable than those vintages one, but of course you can attract more attention when you walk around with your "grandma" camera around your neck :)

The last solution for those who don't want to invest for "another" camera, you can still use your current digital camera, but then you just need to venture your photo editing program to get the precise "lomo" feeling on your picture. Just remember what I wrote above, lomography is all about saturation, vibration and vigenette effect.

Have fun.....

Novita
PS: pictures above I took during Fètes de Genève 2010.

Save Every Precious Moment (in any lighting condition)

Many people, when they have to take pictures under an extreme-unfavorable lighting condition, they either have it too dark or too bright, then either they have to repeat taking the picture by setting the exposure correction or they lost the moment once and for all.

Here the trick that I usually do, under the condition above or even just in the time when I have to make sure all picture I take during that moment could be used, I always put the bracketing setting "ON". Please note, not all DSLR could support the bracketing mode, you may want to look at your manual book to find out how to set your camera with bracketing mode. When the lighting contrast is "bad", I normally set the bracketing from -2/3,0,+2/3 to -1,0,+1. But in case of "worse" lighting contrast, for example when you are at the dessert with very bright sun light, on the beach, etc, then you might really want to consider to put it to -2,0,+2. 

Sometimes you will find picture with "no" exposure correction turn out to be useable, but in this case, I would like to talk about, saving every precious moment, meaning, none of the picture could be failed. 

When you do the bracketing, there are couple of things to be considered.

1. Never set your ISO to automatic.

2. Set your camera to aperture value setting.

and the most imporant thing...

DON'T FORGET TO TAKE THREE PICTURES IN A ROW

otherwise, you will ruin either your current picture or the next round bracketing.

*_* good luck, and have fun............

Fêtes de Genève

I spent my whole day at Geneva. Stroll along the lake, Geneva has changed it face to something looks more like Santa Monica than any other city in Europe LOL. Lake side filled with mostly food stalls and attractions. Very unfortunately, I didn't stay for the fireworks, kiddos got knocked out before 8 PM.

This picture was taken in the middle of the crowd using my EF 24-70mm f 2.8/L USM. This is actually one of my favorite lens for this kind of event, it has a decent focal range, nice bokeh, and "wide" enough to catch up sorrounding's ambience.

I'M BACK !!!

Sorry guys,

being MIA for a while... I was going back to Indonesia until end of July for my little sister's wedding. There were so many stories which related to photography that I would like to share with you guys, so please be patient and I will coming back with plenty of stories, pictures and more tips of course. Thank you so much ;)

Cheers,

*** me and my girlfriends @ Plaza Indonesia - Jakarta***