Photo Skills by Constantin Chirila » Photography

Fashion Photographer Mario Testino – Behind the Scenes

Constantin Chirila — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:17:03 +0000

I recently found a video series of an interview and a “behind the scenes” made by CNN of the well know fashion photographer (and photographer I look forward to) Mario Testino. Testino is the world’s famous fashion photographer, having his work featured across the globe in magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and V and he has contributed to the imagery of leading fashion houses such as Gucci, Versace, Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, Hugo Boss, among many others.

Enjoy the video series!

via petapixel

Release: 5 Megapixels Photo Samples Shot with New iPhone4

Constantin Chirila — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 09:10:42 +0000

For all of you iPhone lovers, (or future lovers after you see this) here are some samples of photographs shot by the new iPhone 4. Here are some re-sized photos, but if you want to take a look at full version check out the official page.

My first impression was “Wow!”, taking into account that this is a camera-phone. What do you guys think of the quality of the camera and how it compares to existing phones?

Finally I can say “I am Back!”

Constantin Chirila — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:25:41 +0000

Hello guys. First of all I would like to apologies for being inactive for more than 6 months now. I had some problems with my hosting service and took a while until I was able to get back my database with all my posts and comments.

So what I was up to?

So you might be wondering what I was up to, for the last 7 months. Well the most important thing is that I worked for 6 months at a national newspaper here in Romania, where I learned a tremendous amount of things, from camera equipment all the way to studio lighting (yes studio lighting in press, I shot had to shoot like 15-20 girls a month for an yearly Miss contest). But I recently quit to start my own business in graphic design and photography.

Speaking of graphic design, I have finally finished my personal website with portfolio for web and graphic design, and I will soon launch an website for my wedding photography entitled Nunta in Imagini (Wedding in Images) , and after that I will launch a portfolio for the rest of my photography . Stay tuned for updates.

What’s next?

Well, I promise I will update this blog at least weekly with news from photography world, and more photography and photoshop tutorials and this time in video format for better understanding. This is a future feature, and I need to learn more about video compression and the best way to shoot a video tutorial.

Help Portrait By Jeremy Cowart

Constantin Chirila — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:54:07 +0000

Today I had some spare time on my hands and found this interesting “call to action” video made by Jeremy Cowart. Basically this video tries to make all of us, photographers, professionals or not, to take a photograph and print it, of someone who can’t afford it. It’s an amazing idea that has to remind us that photography is not about the money or the fame, it’s about the happiness of you, the photographer, can offer to anyone despite the social differences. Anyway, I will let you watch the video.

Also you can find more info about it here: http://www.help-portrait.com

Help spread the word.

Consequences of Creativity by Chase Jarvis. Cool video.

Constantin Chirila — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:57:58 +0000

I recently watched this video, and it’s amazing. I am a fan of Chase Jarvis. I recommend it to everyone that are suffering from “photographers block” or anyone who likes to boost his creativity. I really like it and changed my perspective about a lot of things.
Enjoy.

Chase Jarvis CURRENT: The Consequences of Creativity from Chase Jarvis on Vimeo.

Improved “Avanquest Send Photos 2″ Software

Constantin Chirila — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:14:51 +0000

Just a few days back I have found that the people from Avanquest improvised their web application: SendPhotos 2. What’s this? Well is a free photo sharing solution

So what’s so special about this application? Well the most important of all, it has certified support for more than 160 telephones, including iPhone and Blackberry, followed by other features as :

complete revision of the Web client interface
the acceptance of the iPhone
the creation of a plug-in for iPhoto
management of the leading social networks including Facebook, MySpace and Picasa.

The Avanquest SendPhotos photo-sharing web site, now available in the free public Beta 2 version, lets users to shares their photos with friends and family trough the web browser either from PC or Mac, with increased security, due to fact that the photos are completely private, hidden from search engines. Also they offer 1 GB of free space, meaning you can put as close as 1000 images close to a size of 1 mb per photograph, in which you can also store safely your precious photographs.

Bottom line: although this is excellent for people to store photos from their phone, I am not very impressed for it to be an amazing photo-storing or even sharing solution. But I have to admit that I really like the design and functionality of the web site.

Spider Camera Holster: Inventive Way to Hold your DSLR with NO Back Pain

Constantin Chirila — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:18:19 +0000

So what exactly Spider Camera Holster do? Well, it’s a belt clip with a “spider pin” adapter that can be screwed into your camera (where you screw your camera to your tripod). In my honest opinion, this is genius, because moves the weight of the camera from your neck to you neck. Many times i find myself wandering for hours with my camera hanging on my neck, be it a wedding or just walking through the city taking random shots. This is getting tiring and at the end of the day I often find myself with a pain in my neck, or my back. So as soon as it’s released I will definitely buy it and try it to see if it gives the security I need for my camera, because the system looks kind of unsafe for the camera. But, i can also put the neck strap on my shoulder so in case the holster fails at least I have a second thing to count on to hold my camera from crushing to the ground.

Also feel free to watch the presentation video:

You can now follow me on Twitter.

Constantin Chirila — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:37:51 +0000

For like 3 days I have joined Twitter with the rest of the bloggers, after understanding and seeing how important is micro-bloging platform for the internet comunity.

So now that I have a Twitter account you can easily follow me at http://twitter.com/ConstantinC or you can easily click on the Twitter icon at the top of the blog near the RSS feed.

What you are going to gain to follow me on Twitter? Well, I usually surf the net a lot, and I find a lot of cool things worth to share, and Twitter allows me to post and share a lot easier than writing an article on the blog. I also daily read more then 60-70 blogs from witch more than half it’s about photography, so I can provide you with more information than this blog allows me.

Thank you.

PMA: Sigma Shows Off with 3 New Lenses

Constantin Chirila — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:01:13 +0000

A couple of days ago, at PMA show, Sigma presented 2 entry level lenses both with OS (optical stabilization) and one ultra-wide lens.

Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM

It seams that Sigma improved the popular ultra-wide lens 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM made for APS-C/DX sensors (Non Full Frame), making the new version with fixed a aperture of f/3.5 through the focal range. It also has two Super-Low Dispersion and two Extraordinary-Low Dispersion glass elements for the correction of chromatic aberrations. It will be available with mounts for Canon, Nikon, Sigma, Sony and Pentax DSLRs. Hopefully this will at leas as good as it predecessor, we will see some future reviews, I would like an ultra wide lens for my cropped sensor 40D.

Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8-4.5 DC OS HSM

Sigma also has released a standard zoom lens featuring an optical stabilizer and a wide aperture at it’s shortest focal length. This is also having two Super-Low Dispersion glass elements for the correction of chromatic aberrations. As the previous lens it has a Hyper Sonic Motor (HSM) for fast and silent focusing. Sigma also states that its OS it would work on Sony and Pentax bodies with in-body stabilization systems. This also will be available with mounts for Canon, Nikon, Sigma, Sony and Pentax DSLRs. Bottom line this is a good lens to replace the kit lenses, because this is faster.

Sigma 50-200mm f/4-5.6 DC OS HSM

Sigma also talked about it’s telephoto zoom lens. This lens has the same image stabilization as the 18-50mm f/2.8-4.5 and also has the Hyper Sonic Motor. Something to note, due to fact that is a low-budget lens, is the fact that it has internal focusing with a non-rotating front element. Also the lens is treated for correction of chromatic aberrations.

PMA: Ricoh CX1, First Camera with Built-in High Dynamic Range Mode

Constantin Chirila — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:21:29 +0000

At this years PMA show there was announced the Ricoh CX1 camera. Lately Ricoh have done some innovative things. I am usually not impressed by a point&shoot camera (being a DSLR user), but this one drown my attention having a few rarely seen in a camera and innovative features. Beside the four photos braketing (and my DSLR have 3 braketing) and the 9MP resolution, it has a CMOS sesnsor which can only be met at DSLR cameras, which might mean lower noise than other Point&Shoots.

But the cherry on top of the cake is the fact that it can record a photograph that contains a high range of brightness, which a normal camera cand record. This is doing by take 2 consecutive shots at different exposure and automaticaly combines them in a photograph with a High Dynamic Range to up to 12 EV closer to the dynamic range of the human eye. Now this being developed I think it’s only a matter of time until othe camera manufacturers follow the trail. And I hope we will see this feature especially in future DSLRs which greatly need this function.