Hidden Lake Gardens, Tipton, MI. Nikon D600, AF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5D @ 90mm, f/16, 1/200, ISO 250 (Auto)

Yuck. That’s an abundance of oil spots!  This is after 8316 shots and approximately 5000 shots since the last time the sensor was cleaned.  Since normally my work is cosplay portraiture and I shoot in the  f/1.8-f/5.6 range, I never see the oil spots in 90% of my photos; however, I realize now the extent of the sensor oil problem as I was shooting around f/11-f/16 for close ups of flowers today and well… the above shot unprocessed shows how bad it is.

I just had my sensor cleaned by Midwest Camera Repair. They do free sensor cleanings from time to time during events at PROCAM and Camera Mart and always do a good job with the cleaning.  I highly recommend them if you’re in the area.  From what I’ve read about the D600 and the oil spot problem it should be much less of an issue at this point due to the number of shots I’ve taken.  I’ll update this point if it ever comes back.

I will likely get a lot of requests for this convention so priority will be given to requests for the Lucky Seven package or any large groups. To submit a photo shoot request, please email me with:

1) What cosplay(s) you are interested in getting photos for.
2) How many people are in your group (if applicable).
3) What package you’re interested in ( http://rensuchanphotography.com/pricing )
4) What day you’d prefer to shoot (I will be doing more shoots on Friday and Saturday than Sunday)
5) What time of the day you’d prefer to shoot.

I’ll be pooling all data together and be contacting people that I’ll be shooting on May 1 as well as releasing a list. I hope to hear from you!

All of the lovely models!

Welcome to the Youmacon 2012 Lolita Fashion show!

I’ve personally been a follower of Lolita Fashion for a few years now. A lot of my individual photo shoots have been with lolita models so I’m familiar with the styles and a lot of the popular prints / dresses. This is the first year Youmacon had a show for the lolitas so I was eager to cover it! Also, my girlfriend was a model in the show and was able to gather a few shots of the lolitas as they were preparing for the show. The lighting was tough because of the multi-colored stage lights but you have to work with what you’re given I suppose.

Here are some various scenes from before and during the show.

Following are individual shots of all of the models and their lovely outfits.  Sweet Lolitas went first, followed by classic and then gothic.

Maid Caitlin is ready to serve you!

Though I’ve been going to Youmacon since it’s early days, this is the first time I’ve stopped in the maid cafe.  It’s a great place to just take a seat and grab a dessert and some herbal tea to boost your immune system (important during conventions).  I can definitely say I want to do this again next year.  Here is a collection of shots from the cafe for you to enjoy~

Don’t get me wrong; I will never really be a fan of the perfectly smooth faces on models with absolutely no wrinkles, blemishes, or other marks that make people human… that’s just not real to me.  I still view post-processing as an enhancement tool, not a panacea.  In order to get an image that’s worthy of post, you still need to get the basics down and get a picture with sharp focus and good composition.  A totally bad photo can’t be fixed in post but a good photo can be enhanced.

Modern photography allows us to do in smaller amounts of time what people in film darkrooms spent a considerably greater amount of time doing years before I even picked up a camera.  I can take an image and enhance things in an hour’s time… it’s pretty amazing!  That being said, it’s still an hour of work and remember if you’re paying a photographer, the “Digital Darkroom (or Lightroom)” is where most of time is spent.  It may take an hour to get a set of 100 photos (typical portrait shoot for me when I’m being deliberate), to 1000 photos (wedding pros) but going through those photos and choosing “keepers” is time spent, then after that, depending on the extent of the edit, expect your photographer to spend 15 minutes to over an hour per image.  This means a set of 20 images could take in excess of a day’s time to edit. This is why the pros charge what they do.

Let’s see an example of what typically goes on in rensu’s digital Lightroom…

Nikon D600 | AF-S 80-200mm f/2.8D @ 145mm | f/2.8 | 1/500 | IS0 100

This is the base image from a photo shoot I did last weekend.  Focus is good, subject is exposed fairly well (slightly underexposed but that’s okay) for the scene, overall it’s a pretty nice composition and image.  There’s one thing I can say about it right away that could be enhanced though… the subject looks a little bit washed out.  If I did nothing to this image but enhanced the contrast a little bit, it would already be an improvement since it would make the subject stand out more.  There’s more than just the contrast though; there’s a large blemish on her neck, a few small blemishes on her face, and her eyes look pretty dark.  Also, the top of her head is a bit dark compared to the lower half due to the light reflection off of the surface on the right side.  The overall shot (this is personal preference) is a bit warmer than I generally like so I’m going to adjust that too. Here’s the final image…

Nikon D600 | AF-S 80-200mm f/2.8D @ 145mm | f/2.8 | 1/500 | IS0 100 | Lightroom 4.2

This was all done in Lightroom 4.2.  If it wasn’t for the things that seemingly broke or became worse with the latest update, I may have been able to cut off a few minutes from the overall fix time, but in about 30 minutes I was able to turn this picture from the first one to the second.  Blemishes were removed and the skin around her eyes was softened (within reason), the big mark on her neck was reduced to almost nothing, her eyes were brightened, contrast was increased, color temperature was decreased, some curves adjustments were done to bring her out from the background more, and some selective brightening of her face (cheeks and above) was done.  I also applied a vignette which is a feature I like to put on almost all of my portraits because it draws attention away from the edges and to the subject.

And post-processing isn’t limited to this at all.  For this portrait, I wanted to enhance as well as bring out a very cool mood with the photo.  Post-processing can definitely help to bring out what a photographer’s vision was from the shoot.  Without post, there are certain looks I wouldn’t have been able to create.  A good example of this is the Dark Snow White photo from a few months back (featured in this post, second from bottom).  I saw the final photo in my head as I was shooting it and without the post-processing tools to selectively darken and de-saturate the parts I wanted to, it wouldn’t have been possible.

Remember, your camera is a tool, your lens is a tool, and your post-processing software is also a set of tools. How you combine all of those tools is what will produce the final result!

I bit the bullet and bought my first professional grade 2.8 zoom… 80-200mm AF-S.  It was expensive… but it was worth it for sure, the lens is ridiculously sharp even wide open.  I’ve never used anything so amazing before!

Combine that with my D600 and we have an amazing picture making tool set!  Remember, cameras are just tools and it’s up to the photographer (and model in portrait situations) to make the picture.

In any case, I got my first chance to try out the camera and lens combo today taking photos of my friend in her White Mage cosplay.

I feel like captioning the last image…. “Pissing off your White Mage is a good way to get your party killed.”  I think I will later xD.

It was a fun shoot  I still need to work on my technique though as a lot of shots ended up with some mild blur even with shutter speed set at 2x focal length.  I will need to get used to the weight of that 80-200 f/2.8 for sure, it’s a beast!

Doing some testing with Figures of course!  Here’s Nagisa from Clannad~

Setup shot Below~

The flash is actually sitting on top of the computer cart… it’s bounced off of the ceiling and reflected towards Nagisa.  The glare off the monitor was very unattractive using other angles for the flash.

The Image Quality is great!  But it is far easier to do figure photography with the D7000 so I think I might try to head out to a park… or maybe a CITY to do some wide photography this weekend.  One of these days I want to go shoot Grand Rapids because I think the skyline there is awesome ^^

I will post more D600 images as I have more available!