Freitag, 28. Mai 2010

#6 Smoke

A few stills from my actual work.
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Creating pictures like psychedelic paintings was my target, as I decided to shoot the «smoke» series. The results look crazy and I like it.

It's not rocket science to create these photos. The only things you'll need are incense sticks (the scent is up to your choice and doesn't affect the final picture), a really, really dark room with a possibility to open the window frequently, a system flashlight and your DSLR. A tripod helps too. Last but not least you should add a little Photoshop skills and you're done. If you like to do some shots like these by yourself, you'll find a little tutorial at the end of this post.


Brief tutorial to shoot smoke pictures: 1.) You'll need a piece of cloth (black and as matte as it can be, best is to take velours). This piece of cloth should not reflect any light. Use it as background. 2.) Place an incense stick in front of the cam. The distance depends on how much smoke you like to see in your final frame. 3.) Form with a piece of cardboard a cone (approx. 30cm in length), with the diameter of the size of your flash on one end and a slightly smaller opening on the other. Tape this cone to your flash as a custom made light former and point with it at the incense stick. 4.) Light the incense stick and try an ideal framing of the smoke. 5.) Put your cam on the tripod in the appropriate distance as tested in step 4 and make your cam adjustments. I prefer f/8 and 1/60s Sutterspeed @ ISO 100 and my AF-S VR Micro Nikkor 105mm f/2,8G IF-ED. 6.) Turn off the lights and start shooting. Be aware that incense sticks produce a lot of smoke and dust. To prevent reflections from this dust open the window between each stick you want to light off. 7.) After shooting, start your prefered RAW developing process and choose a picture. 8.) Open it in Adobe Photoshop. Inverse the picture, set the white point as appropriate. Clean all spots from possible reflections with the stamp tool. 9.) Create a new layer and adjust it to "screen". Now paint with the brush tool and a color of your choice on the parts of the smoke you like to appear in this color. 10.) Put the transparency mode to a value of your choice. The exact amount depends on what style you like to achieve in the final picture. Now repeat this steps as often as you like with some more layers and different values of transparency and colors. That's it.

Enjoy, Alfredo Briccola

Legal: All pictures in the «Onehundred ISO Photography» Blog are property of Alfredo Briccola. It is strictly not allowed to copy, alter or use this pictures for print, electronic media or other media without the permission of the creator.

Mittwoch, 26. Mai 2010

#5 Patterns of Asia Part Three

A few stills from my actual work.
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The third part of the series "Patterns of Asia". This time the topic is food again. Food on Thai markets is important. That's why I took so many pictures of it. The subjects are so multifaceted that I can't stop finding new pictures. Some times I stay for more than 2 hours between the food stalls with my cam. This has a nice side effect: I do not just take photos, I have every time the possibility to try some really yummy and healthy food.


This series will be continued in a future blog. If you want to see more, stay tuned and become a continuous reader.


Shots taken without flash, just using the available light. I used my NIKON D200 DSLR with a NIKKOR AF-S DX VR 18-200mm, f 1:3,5 - 5,6 G ED tele zoom lens. All pictures were made without any tripod. I use the VR-funtion of the lens instead.

Have fun, Alfredo Briccola

Legal: All pictures in the «Onehundred ISO Photography» Blog are property of Alfredo Briccola. It is strictly not allowed to copy, alter or use this pictures for print, electronic media or other media without the permission of the creator.

#4 Patterns of Asia Part Two



A few stills from my actual work.
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Part two of this blog contains some colorful patterns from Asian Markets. The shots show the non food part of the session.





All shots were taken with available light. I used my NIKON D200 DSLR with a NIKKOR AF-S DX VR 18-200mm, f 1:3,5 - 5,6 G ED tele zoom lens. The DX is light and gives me the ability to shoot different angles without changing the lens.

Have fun, Alfredo Briccola

Legal: All pictures in the «Onehundred ISO Photography» Blog are property of Alfredo Briccola. It is strictly not allowed to copy, alter or use this pictures for print, electronic media or other media without the permission of the creator.

Dienstag, 25. Mai 2010

#3 Patterns of Asia Part One



A few stills from my actual work.
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One of the weirdest things I found on many of my trips to Asia, especially to Thailand was the crazy patterns that were formed by food or other items sold on local markets. All the goods are displayed not alone or in pairs as on western markets, they come in hundreds or thousands and forming these fascinating patterns. I just had to grab my cam and catch these pictures.

I divided this blog in 3 Parts. Part one is a little bit fishy in it's real meaning. All of the Shots are taken on countryside local markets in Phuket/Thailand. I wrote about them in my blogpost #2 "Thai Sweet Candies".


All shots were taken with available light with a NIKON D200 DSLR and  a DX semipro lens. I used the NIKKOR AF-S DX VR 18-200mm, f 1:3,5 - 5,6 G ED. This lens gives me the ability to shoot a lot of angles without changing the lens and I do not have to carry around a big bag full of equipment.

Have fun, Alfredo Briccola

Legal: All pictures in the «Onehundred ISO Photography» Blog are property of Alfredo Briccola. It is strictly not allowed to copy, alter or use this pictures for print, electronic media or other media without the permission of the creator.

Freitag, 21. Mai 2010

#2 Thai Sweet Candies

A few stills from my actual work.
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Food on Thai markets is colorful. Especially the sweet stuff. And there are many of them to find. Looking on all that sweet desserts on markets, I'm still wondering how the Thais stay in slim shape? Besides, the Thai sweets don't just look tasty, they taste really, really yummy.

On my last stay at Phuket 2010, I took a lot of pictures on Thai food markets. These markets are held normally at the road side under simple tents or textile roofs, and provide the possibility to work with daylight or with the available artificial light at night.


The colors always take my full attraction and I can't stop to take pictures. Trying if possible, to shoot by using the available light. On vacations I use normally my NIKON D200 DSLR with various DX and professional FX lenses. For shots like this, I opt for the next time to take my NIKON D3 and a NIKKOR AF 85mm f1:1,4 lens, because of the far better high ISO ability compared with the D200. The shots are made with a DX semipro lens. I used the NIKKOR AF-S DX VR 18-200mm, f 1:3,5 - 5,6 G ED. A quiet good lens for travel purposes. And because of the VR there was no need of any tripod.

Sawasdee Khrop, Alfredo Briccola

Legal: All pictures in the «Onehundred ISO Photography» Blog are property of Alfredo Briccola. It is strictly not allowed to copy, alter or use this pictures for print, electronic media or other media without the permission of the creator.

Donnerstag, 20. Mai 2010

#1 Calligraphy Stills

A few stills from my actual work.
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Chinese calligraphy was always fascinating to me. I loved the hand made tools, the super thin papers and that everything is covered with gilded ornaments.
I got these beautiful Chinese calligraphy brushes, inkwells, writing paper rolls and seals a few years ago at a Chinese paper ware shop in Hong Kong and used them from time to time for a little artworkespecially for gift cards for my friends. Looking for new objects to shoot some stills, I reused these items for a small series of shots.



Taking pictures like this is really no rocket science. All you need is a good DSLR and really fine lenses, an eye for compositions and light, just a little time and a lot of fun in finding things worth to act in your pictures. You'll find the objects of preference at your home or in your neighborhood.

These stills were made in a totally easy way by simply putting the Chinese calligraphic items on a table, arrange them a wee bit and shoot with a mix from daylight and ordinary electric light. No flash was used at all! The shots are made fully freehand without using a tripod. I took the pictures with a NIKON D200 DSLR and a NIKKOR AF-S 17-35mm f 1:2,8 D professional lens @ 400 ISO and f=2.8. Afterwards, I developed the pictures on an APPLE Mac Pro and APERTURE 3.

Enjoy, Alfredo Briccola

Legal: All pictures in the «Onehundred ISO Photography» Blog are property of Alfredo Briccola. It is strictly not allowed to copy, alter or use this pictures for print, electronic media or other media without the permission of the creator.