New Logo!

It is actually a name change from Jonathan Scott Photography but jonathanscottphotography.com isn't available(and its really long). Unfortunately there is a johnscottphotography.com, the clearly incorrect way to spell Jon(I'm lookin' at you Bible). First here it is going super fast(in action).

Nikon D3100 w/18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 1/500th f/11 24mm ISO 800 in November 2010

And the actual logo.

There is also Jonathan Scott Photo. Which do you prefer Jonathan Scott Photo or Jon Scott Photography? Comment below.

Photo of the Day 6-27-11

It was a crappy day out(had a flash flood warning) and I was working all day. So indoor photo it is. And I'm going back to basics(for me anyway), product photography. It is my razor and brush, that's right old school, on a peice of glass propped up on my chair. Bounced the flash off the ceiling and used a black pillow for a gobo to keep the chair back dark.

Nikon D3100 w/18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 1/200th f/5.6 34mm ISO 100 & Nissin Di866

Photo of the Day 6-26-11

Continuing in my buying streak I got an internasal lens. Its for taking pictures inside your nose. I think I pushed it up to hard because all I got were pictures of brain cells.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/100th f/1.8 ISO 400

Photo of the Day 6-25-11

Yeah, I bought a new TV today. Some dude named Squirrel sold it to me. Only cost me 20 cans, he gave me a discount because it only gets one channel. Thanks Squirrel! But really I was just scouting for future shoots.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/640th f/2.0 ISO 800

Photo of the Day 6-24-11

Sorry its been awhile, I was traveling and visiting in Massachusetts. To make it up to you here is the first triple photo of the day. I got to the top of a parking structure and shot a few pics.

First up is some kind of factory or plant. The light inside was green so I color corrected it to white to get the blue and pink colors.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/15th f/2.5 ISO 800

Sky...

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/40th f/9.0 ISO 800

Here is a mega ISO shot of a train. I split toned it, to make it look like it was shot on some five cent film.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/15th f/13 ISO 12800

Photo of the Day 6-18-11

Lukie Dookie. Poor guy just lost some of his manhood yesterday but is doing fine today. He is also the reason for that flooring project I mentioned before. This was shot with natural light there was a door behind him and I cranked up my exposure compensation. Came out pretty sharp for 1/6th of a second with a spastic lab.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/6th f/1.8 ISO 800

Photo of the Day 6-17-11

Fuquay-Varina. A strange name for sure, you can find out where the town got its name here. This is a shot in FV at sunset. Where the track meets the street is a surprisingly large hump, I wanted to shoot an airborne car but everyone slowed down a lot at the crossing.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/200th f/4.5 ISO 100

Photo of the Day 6-16-11

High voltage! Some power lines and greenery near my house. Between the second and third towers is the driving range and the golf course is on the left.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/60th f/9.0 ISO 100

Photo of the Day 6-15-11

Flashing my fans. Actually flashing behind the fan and its lighting itself. Flash was behind a table on the floor with a light blue gel. Once I corrected the yellow fan light to white the blues got really intense. Used a radio flash trigger to pop off multiple flashes during one long exposure.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 2.5sec f/22 ISO 100 Nissin Di866 & Cowboy Studio radio trigger

Photo of the Day 6-14-11

Leaves you can't rake up. I was walking down the street last night and noticed the cool shadows the trees make from the streetlight above them. So I went back to shoot them tonight. I like how the lower leaves make darker shadows than the ones up high.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/30th f/1.8 ISO 3200

Photo of the Day 6-13-11

Today's PotD is an event picture. The event occurred almost two months ago but its impact is still clearly visible in the area surrounding me. This is storm damage from the tornado that ripped its way through Raleigh on April 16. Last week the city of Raleigh put aside $400,000 for low interest loans to help in the rebuilding process.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/100th f/6.3 ISO 200

Photo of the Day 6-12-11

Panoramic! I went to Rose Garden Park in Raleigh this morning to shoot for an upcoming article. While I was there I thought this would be a good opportunity for a panoramic. Here is a 180 of the park. Make sure you click the image to see the high res version. The original was about 28,000px wide this one is resized to about 7,000.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/200th f/8.0 ISO 200  Composed of 12 images

Photo of the Day 6-11-11

Another work day, but managed to get to the lake a few minutes from the house to do some duck hunting. Quack!

Nikon D3100 w/18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 1/320th f/5.6 55mm ISO 400

Photo of the Day 6-10-11

The vines that live on my doorstep. Floor shopping(long story) and job hunting today so nothing too exciting for you. But I like it. BTW look at the ISO. Pretty good for a D3100.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/50th f/1.8 ISO 6400

Photo of the Day 6-9-11

Day trip to Charlotte to see the city. Tim and I ended up going to Light Factory(photography exhibits) but that was pretty underwhelming. Got to walk around for a bit and some guy asked to "borrow" my camera. Haha, no. Here is one of four statues that was on one street corner. Each one was about 20 feet tall.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/800th f/3.5 ISO 100

Photo of the Day 6-8-11

More pet pics. Sorry but I swear it's not mine. It's my friend's parents' dog, Kallie(sp?). And she is pretty cute for a 3.5lb dog. Like a mini ewok that walks on all fours.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/50th f/1.8 ISO 1600

Photo of the Day 6-7-11

I feel like I have been doing stuff all day but now I can't remember what I did. I know I drove around a bit and took some pics of a medical helicopter(I don't like the pics very much, so not PotD). Here is a self pic from this afternoon. I probably should have cleaned the mirror first but oh well.

Nikon D3100 w/18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 1/60th f/5.3 45mm ISO 400 & Nissin Di866

Photo of the Day 6-6-11

Duke! Took a trip to Durham to see the Duke campus. Found something I didn't expect, a bridge covered in graffiti! I think it is one of those places to scroll out some school spirit without being arrested. So here is a piece of the bridge.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/2000th f/1.8 ISO 400

Photo of the Day 6-5-11

I'm in North Carolina! And somewhat settled so PotD will resume. This is a water tower in the next town over with what I thought were crows sitting on it. But once I pulled over and got a better look I realized they are turkey vultures. They are big and ugly.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/4000th f/1.8 ISO 100

June Photo Assignment

Are you ready for your first assignment? Oh come on quit being so lazy. I want anyone and everyone who reads this post to submit an image. You don't have to be a photographer and it doesn't have to be perfect.

Your mission if you choose to accept it:
A Focus on Metal

Pretty broad but will hopefully help focus your image capturing. It can be metal of any kind, but bare or oxidized are preferred over painted.

To submit your photo leave a comment with a link to your image in the comments below. You can host images for free(no registration either) at TinyPic.

And have fun!

PotD Update

I am moving this week so PotD will be temporarily suspended. Stay tuned!

Photo of the Day 5-28-11

Sick. So this is an older photo(end of April) taken in Nashua, NH.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/160th f/3.5 ISO 200

Photo of the Day 5-27-11

Special PotD today. An HDR Photo! Hopefully it will make up for missing yesterday :) Taken in Nashua, NH at drunk-o-clock(Bruins were playing). Four exposures melded into one.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 Varied Shutter Speed f/1.8 ISO 200

Photo of the Day 5-25-11

My face! I challenged myself to shoot my PotD in 5 minutes. Here is what I came up with. About 4 minutes to set up and 1 minute to shoot. Setup is a 44" white umbrella, 4 ft from me, to the right and rear of the tripod.

Nikon D3100 w/18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 1/200th f/5.6 55mm ISO 100 & Nissin Di866

Photo of the Day 5-24-11

Time crunch getting ready to move. This is a photo of a carving I did in high school, I think. It's amazing what you find when you look through the things you have. I also have a plaster mask of Cyclops(X-Men) I made in middle school.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/40th f/2.8 ISO 400

Photo of the Day 5-23-11

I have refrained from pet pictures as long as I could. I tried to make a desert out of sugar(forming wind ripples) but I didn't have the coke handling skills to do it. So here is Bella Sassafrasquatch. I think she has eyes the speed of light because every time I strobed her she blinked.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/200th f/4.0 ISO 100 & Nissin Di866 on the Left

Ryan and Lindsay's Engagement Shoot!

Photo of the Day 5-22-11

Bovine bokeh. This was shot for an assignment over at Photography.ca. The assignment is for the creative use of bokeh. For those of you who don't know bokeh is the appeal of the out-of-focus parts of an image. I really wanted the cows face surrounded by out of focus leaves but she just wasn't cooperative enough for that.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/320th f/1.8 ISO 100

Photo of the Day 5-21-11

There is a condemned building in Pepperell, MA that will be torn down soon. The Mass Department of Environmental Protection and the EPA have been around town recently to oversee the project. I have some pics of that but they just aren't that interesting. The PotD is a decorative washer on that condemned building. I kind of want to steal one but they had security posted outside the building.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/60th f/1.8 ISO 400

Photo of the Day 5-20-11

This freaky little creep was lurking outside my work today. I thought he was going to attack so I shot him. I think its a moose stuffed animal turned inside out. It was pretty well camouflaged with the damp pavement and sand left over from the winter.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/125th f/1.8 ISO 100

Photo of the Day 5-19-11

Oh I've heard your shouts, cries and demands so it's back for an encore. The decrepit building! You didn't want more? Well to bad dammit! Here it is.

Really I just didn't have much time today, but you gotta use what you got.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/200th f/4.0 ISO 100

Photo of the Day 5-18-11

Yay! It finally stopped raining... kinda. I got the chance to do some shooting on my lunch break and shot the nasty building I work in. It should probably be condemned but provides alot of grungy textures to explore. So here you have it, a mix of structure and nature.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/200th f/1.8 ISO 100

Photo of the Day 5-17-11

Geez feels like England around here. Overcast, rainy, just plain not fun. Photo of the Day! Can you tell how many candles are in the photo? There is something that will give it away, but I wont tell you what.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 1/250th f/1.8 ISO 800

Photo of the Day 5-16-11

Oh-oh. It was 9pm and I hadn't done my photo of the day(POTD) yet and it was raining outside. I could post an older pic but that's not why I started POTD. So I went to find something interesting indoors to shoot. My brother had brought over some homebrewed beer and left the bottle(thanks Bro). So I have my interest now what? Glass + Flash = FUN!

And here is how it was setup: My Nissin Di866 w/ a blue gel sitting on top of my Cowboy Studio radio trigger(awesome and cheap!). This is the actual ambient lighting as well. The strobe was set so that I could overpower the ambient light.

Ma-ma-ma-Mega ISO

I know what you have been told. "Keep your ISO as low as possible to reduce noise." Well that is correct for most shooting situations but why not experiment? I put my ISO to 12,800 also known as Hi2. And was impressed by the results. Below is a crop of that sample shoot, its just my dresser drawer at about 66% of original size(when you click on it).

Nikon D3100 w/ 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 at 50mm f/5.6 ISO 12800

This is some very cool looking grain... I mean "noise". So I have decided to do some more experimentation with it. It gives photos that vintage look, so I decided to shoot some antiques in color and converted to B+W.

Color Performance

First group is straight out of camera.

ISO 100

ISO 12,800

The biggest difference I notice other than noise is the color of the blacks. They have a purpley magenta color which adds to the retro look.

Next up is my retouched versions of the photos. Again we are looking for an old school dirty film look.

ISO 100 Grain added

ISO 12,800 Grain natural

The ISO 100 shot was much harder to manipulate to what I wanted it to be. I also lost some of the warmness in the wood trying to get my purpley blacks. Overall the ISO 12,800 ISO was just easier to manipulate. Which do you prefer?

Black and White Time

Let's switch photos here and look for some differences. This first batch is with minimal editing(crop and white vignette).

ISO 100

ISO 12,800

As you can see there is not much of a difference between the two. So when you go out in the future, intending to do some black and white, don't be afraid to push your ISO more than you normally would in color.

Time to get crazy. Let's see what happens when some Lightroom grain is added, more vignette and proper cropping.

ISO 100

ISO 12,800

There turned out to be minimal difference once the grain was pumped up. I would love to use this style for shooting a Civil War reenactment, burlesque show or a cowboy action shooting event. That's what this article was missing, a handlebar mustache.

Summary

If you are willing to deal with a little grain than higher ISOs can be great. Especially if you are thinking you would love to shoot something but there isn't enough light. I would rather capture a great shot with some grain to it than miss out on an opportunity. Remember all of these samples are coming from Nikon's bargain offering, the D3100, and higher end cameras(especially those with non-cropped sensors) can give you better high ISO performance. Now get out and shoot!

Photo of the Day 5-15-11

Out for a walk in the rain. Actually it had stopped briefly when I went out, just overcast. I shot this from the underside of the bush into my light source(sky). I think the exposure on the flowers vs. the leaves gives a cool effect. Looks like a dream to me.

Nikon D3100 w/35mm f/1.8 at 1.8  1/80 sec  ISO 100