Flash Update no.2

My D90 has grown bigger!
Bought myself a battery grip~!
Whooo~!

This battery grip is not an original product by Nikon though...
The brand is called Phottix...

Model of the battery grip is BP-D80

Here is my own review of the BP-D80~

Functions of this battery grip is exactly the same as the original Nikon MB-D80...
No complains there...
The shutter release button and the rubber grip doesn't feel as nice as Nikon's but that is not important...
The AE-L/AF-L button doesn't feel very nice also...
Other than that...
I'm very satisfied with the BP-D80~

And did I mention that ALL Phottix products come with a one year warranty and it's a 1-to-1 exchange~
*woots*

I only decided to buy this after reading some reviews about it...

Phottix is a highly recommended third-party brand by the way...
Lots of positive reviews on the net...

Now all I need is a second battery then can have longer shooting time~

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Quote of the day:
"A picture is the expression of an impression..."
-Ernst Haas-

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The Bokeh Filter Upgrade~

I've "upgraded" my Bokeh filter from this:

To this:
This my own version of the "Sliding Bokeh Filter"~


This is very convenient when I want to change the shape...
When I was using the Bokeh filters with my S602 Zoom...
I would have to remove the cap, take out the current filter, reinsert another filter, and place the cap back on the lens...

But when I got my D90 I had to make my own cap...
The cap I used for my S602 Zoom was made from a...
Err...
Ribbon roll??
You know how toilet paper has that brown cylindrical thing in the middle to "hold" the tissue together?
Well that white transparent thing (picture above) was what "held" the ribbon together...

Anyway...
Getting back...
Since I had to make a new cap for my D90...
I decided to make a slider...

Changing the shapes is a lot faster now...
Saves me plenty of time...
Now my chances of missing a nice shaped Bokeh shot is lower~

Here are some shaped Bokehs that I took earlier...
Nothing great though...

As I mentioned in my previous post...
My shaped Bokeh shots would have to be cropped...
So the next few shots you are about to see have all been cropped except for one...

Music note shaped filter...
One of my favorite filters...

Maple leaf shaped filter...
I like this filter too~

Tulip shaped filter...

Star shaped filter...

Cross shaped filter...

Heart shaped filter...
My all-time favorite filter~

This is what my shaped Bokeh shots would look like if uncropped...
Most of the area of the picture is covered by the filter except for the center...

I seriously need to get myself a 50mm lens...
But I'm low on bread at the moment
*sobs*

Ah wells...
I'll just have to make do with what I have at the moment...

That's all I have today~
Ciaos~!

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Quote of the day:
"Black and white are the colors of photography... To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected..."
-Robert Frank-

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Bokeh Bokeh Bokeh~

Was playing around with my Bokeh filter at my dad's office yesterday...
Got some really nice shots...
In my own opinion that is...
*hehehe*

Remember how I said in one of my older posts that the size of my cut-outs can be about 3cm...
I was wrong about that part...

I forgot that when my lens is zoomed all the way the aperture is automatically set to f/5.6 (it can go higher of course... but that's the lowest value when at maximum zoom)...
So if I divide 105mm by f/5.6...
I can only cut out a shape no bigger than 18mm...
I was a bit disappointed but..
Ah wells...

I needed to do some cropping with the shaped Bokeh shots...
If I uploaded the picture uncropped...
Well...
Let's just say it isn't that nice...
At least the shapes turn out~ =]

So all the shaped Bokeh pictures that you see/will see from this post onwards has most probably been cropped before...

Here are the shots I took...

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*note*
Pictures are all unedited unless specified...
Pictures have also been resized thus causing a drop in photo quality...
Original photos are much sharper...
Click to enlarge...
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I found out that the Bokeh filter can be used with not only lights but plants too~

This was before the filter was applied...

For the next 6 pictures...
I used a function on the D90 that allows me to set the color of the white balance...
Thus giving me different colored shaped Bokehs...

There is this patterned window at my dad's office...
And when the sun starts to set and shines its light on to it...
The patterns on the window reflects different colors of the spectrum...
I thought it would go really well with Bokeh effects and here are my results~
I tried to get the colors of the rainbow on to a single heart shaped Bokeh...
But this was the best I could get...This shot would've been nicer if there were more hearts around...

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Come to think of it...
I haven't showed you guys what my D90 looks like with the new Bokeh filter on...

*jeng jeng jeng*

After taking this shot above...
I kinda got carried away and started snapping more pictures of my D90...
*hehe*
It's nothing special though...
Just some ordinary shots...


Oh...
Did I mention I bought a...
Err...
Blower?
(is that what you call it?)It was a 5 in 1 cleaning kit that cost me RM38...
The set came with cotton buds, a bottle of cleaning solution, a stack of lens cleaning tissues, and a wiping cloth...

I find the cleaning solution rather useless...
Because every time I use it to clean the UV filter it seems to make it worse!!
Maybe I'm just not doing it right...
Help anyone?
*heh heh*

I'm now at a lost as to which camera equipment I should get next...
I'm stuck between the:

Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens

The Nikon Speedlight SB-900 (external flash)

The MB-D80 Battery Grip

I've added a poll at the side bar for you readers to help me decide what to get...

Decisions decisions~
*sigh*

Oh~
By the way...
Do check out this video...
It's pretty impressive...



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Quote of the day:
"In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality..."
-Alfred Stieglitz-

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*Chik Chak*

I took more pictures using my D90 yesterday...
Played around with more functions...

Still haven't got the chance to take pictures of people yet...
But tonight is Fellowship Night...
It's some event (not sure if you can call it an event) in my church where all the cell groups gather together for well... Fellowship~
So yeah~
Great opportunity for me to test out the D90 with human subjects~

I've also been asked by one of the church members to be the photographer for their daughter's birthday party...
But this is not confirmed yet...
Hopefully they "hire" me la~
(I'm not getting paid though... I'm just doing it for exposure...)

Anyway...
Without further delay...
Here are the pictures...
Enjoy~

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*note*
Pictures are all unedited unless specified...
Pictures have also been resized thus causing a drop in photo quality...
Original photos are much sharper...
Click to enlarge...
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Another example of the "Cross Screen" Effect...
I used 8-pointed stars this time...

I edited this image using the "Fish Eye" effect...
Here is what it the original picture looked like...
After editing the image above with the "Fish Eye" effect...
I decided to use the "Color Balance" function on the D90...
I gave the picture a stronger blue and this is what I came up with...Looks like as if it is floating on water~
This is one of my personal favorite~

These Bokeh shots were taken inside the Smart Tunnel...

Failed shot of KL Tower...

Times Square aka La-la Land~

Random pictures of a lamp post~
Picture of a fountain using a slow shutter speed...


I was checking out the "Repeating Flash" function...
Didn't understand how it works at first...
But after some experimenting...
Here is what I came up with...
What the "Repeating Flash" function does is this...
It repeatedly fires the flash for a set amount of times (the amount of times the flash fires can be set) when the shutter-release button is pressed...

Say for example this picture above...
It was taken with a shutter speed of 1.6" and the flash was set to fire 5 times...
As I pressed the shutter-release button...
I moved the camera in a circular motion thus capturing the objects at 5 different points...

But the amount of times you set the flash to fire may differ (not sure if this is the right word to use) depending on the shutter speed and the frequency of the flash (this can be adjusted also)...
Say for example if I use a shutter speed of 1/20 and the flash is set to repeat 10 times...
The time gap there may be too short for the flash to fire 10 times...
Then again this depends on the frequency of the flash that was set...

Hope I managed to explain that clearly...
It's much easier to explain it in person~
*hehe*

This was taken with the flash set to fire 3 times...


That's all I have today...
I'm hoping to get some good shots tonight~

Now I'm off to make some new Bokeh filters~

Ciaos~

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Quote of the day:
"There are no shadows that cannot be illuminated in photography..."
-August Sander-

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