Ordered, Paid yet NOT Received: Beware of ExpressPro

It is time to continue my previous post. I was happy browsing the photography accessories offered by amazon.com. I could see that a small yet cool photo studio can be built based on two flashes. I ordered 2 light stands, 2 umbrellas, 2 flash shoe holders, reflectors and Camera Shoe Cord Cable for my flashes. This cable could be very useful if you want to place your master flash away from your camera. Unfortunately, the amazon.com does not delivery some of ordered items to Hungary. I went to the sister web page working in Great Britannia, called amazon.co.uk. The prices become European; in other words more expensive than in the USA. However, there was nothing to do, I placed the order. If you order from the USA, then you can choose one of the three possible ways of delivery. In the English site, you have no choice.

Later, I got to know that my order was divided into parts as items of my order would be sent by two different firms: BV-eletronics and ExpressPro. BV-electronics is a correct firm. They did what they had undertaken. I received everything from then.

It was interesting that cost of delivery was £25.20, in case of ExpressPro. However, on they profile page the cost of the delivery is £1.21-£2.75 per item and I had 2 items. The difference between the offered and the used amount of delivery is £19.70. It was the first red sign I ignored. They cheated my by £19.70 before placing my order. I was silly and I wanted my studio very much. So, I placed the order.

I was waiting for the other part of my order. I did not have so called tracking number, using which you could track where your order was. I was waiting patiently. Suddenly, I received an e-mail from ExpressPro via the mailing system of amazon.co.uk. They informed me that my package had been returned. Their e-mail written in very arrogant style said that I had to pay £25.20 again and then they would resend my order. Their e-mail also mentioned that my address was invalid, and they gave the tracking number to check it.

How interesting! BV-eletronics was able to deliver my order. In their case my address was valid. It was also interesting why ExpressPro had not been able to tell me the tracing number. Why did they tell me only after the package was returned.

I do not know how they handled the problem of invalid address. I was curious why they thought that resending my order would make my address valid.

I asked him to cancel my order and pay back my money including the cost of delivery. My address is valid and everybody can find me except ExpressPro. Therefore, the delivery failure must be their fault.

Their answer was even more arrogant than their first e-mail. They paid back my money but they kept the cost of delivery. Why? Nobody knows. They did not explain anything.

My money has not arrived, yet. However, it should have arrived about a month ago. I sometimes wondering if they indeed sent my package or it was just a lie.

Now, I do not have ordered items and I do not have money. I only hope that my money, £66.15, helped ExpressPro to survive the financial crises.

I wrote this post to help you. If you do not want to support unknown and probably not poor swindlers, then do not buy anything from ExpressPro.

This post does not contain any pictures. I was not able to take shots as ExpressPro stole my money and my items. Do not forget! If you want to take shot, then do not order anything from ExpressPro.

Light and Shadow: Beware of ExpressPro

I like the shots containing the play of the light and shadows. I have a small light reflector with diameters of 30 cm (about 12 inches). The reflector has two different colors, silver on the first side and golden on the other side. Such way the reflected light can be hard or warm.

I indeed enjoy using this reflector. It was as much interesting as I forgot to control the amount of the light falling the subject. My first shots taken with help of the reflector were not realistic. Looking at them, you have the feeling of two suns shining on the target.

Later, I improved my technique and I suppose I reached better result. At least, I would like to hope so.

The only problem related to reflector is the some kind of light is required. In my case, the light was the sunshine. Sunshine is very beautiful; but you are not able to control it. I wanted some thing else. I wanted to have studio lights. A real photo studio even for hobby is very expensive and requires much room to use.

I decided to buy a flash as the first step towards to the studio. A flash is small enough to hold it in the cupboard after the photo session. My first flash was Canon Speedlite 430 EX II. I had used the built in flash of my camera. I did not expect such different shots with the usage of Speedlite 430. They were indeed great. Browsing the users’ manual of the flash, I learned that this flash can be used in a flash-network. My wife was on a holiday by her parents. I took advantage of her absence and bought one more flash of the same type.

I met a problem when I wanted to build a flash network. I set the slave mode on one of the flashes and put the other one on my camera and clicked the exposure button. The slave flash did not work. I read the manual. Unfortunately, I did not find anything helpful. A bit later, I had a shrewd idea that maybe some other equipment was required. It was very dubious that every example in the manual contains a master flash and the type of the master flash was Speedlite 580. Nobody said that Speedlite 430 could not be used as a master flash and nobody said that it could be. The answer was found in the Internet. Of course, Speedlite cannot work as a master flash.

I took the newer Speedlite 430 and went back to the shop, where I could change it to a Speedlite 580 EX II. I was able to do it as my wife still did not return home. :)

My new beauties worked together very well. Then I met the next problem. I did not have a tripod or anything to hold flashes in the proper position and one of the flashes must have been attached to the camera. There was also a problem of hard lights. It would have been good to have diffusers to make soft lights.

I used to order books from the amazon.com portal. I remembered that they sold photography accessories, too. I found soon what I wanted to buy. What happened then? I am going to write a post soon. Until the post, I must warn you: Do not order anything from ExpresPro!

Canon 50/F1.8 EF II

From one hand, I was happy to have a DSLR camera. From other hand, the sharpness of my shots sometimes did not satisfy me. I tried the change aperture size. It did not gain better result. I was sure that there was a way to create crispy captures with this lens. I just did not know how. I will open this big secret after realizing it.

While I was reading about the properties of different lenses, I found a very cheap yet very popular lens. This lens was Canon 50/F1.8 EF II. People usually say that 50 mm focal length is optimal and you can use it everywhere. Well, on my camera, the focal length of this lens increases to 50 * 1.6 = 80 mm. At that time, I was interested in taking portrait shot. In fact, I still fan of portrait shots. My only problem is the lack of models. I sometimes can persuade my wife to stand before my camera, but she hates it and she usually refuses my offer.

I especially liked how this lens is able to blur the background of the capture. Browsing the sample shots, I realized that I would have this lens as soon as I can.

Finally, I bought it. It looks so strange. Its length was very short in comparison with my kit lens. I hate changing lenses, but there was nothing to do but to change the lenses. I changed them as soon as I could. I took some snapshot with the smallest aperture number and I was afraid. I was sure that the auto focus of this lens did not work properly. Only after dozens of shots, I realized that the deep of the field is very small and it could be a challenge to make properly focused capture with the biggest aperture size. Learning that my lens worked good made me happy.

At last, I was able to enjoy my new lens. I loved the small deep of field very much and I took shots everywhere I could.

I still like this lens and I usually take it with me whenever I go to take shots. As the focal length of this lens is fix, I had to use manual change of the focal length, in other words, I must walk closer to the subject or walk away from it. But, this is the part of the capturing process. :)

Some weeks later, there was an occasion to use this lens capturing portraits. I was content with it.

The lens worked good in case of landscape shots, too. However, the practical focal length was a bit big for landscapes.

I can only recommend this lens. The shots taken by it are very sharp and the captured colors are vivid.

DSLR and First Impressions

I have not posted anything for a while. No, I do not intend to give up blogging. I was very busy with my work at the end of the last year. I did not have enough time even to go to take shots.

Also, I bought my first DSLR camera. I was content with SX10; I just wanted to move forward. I gave up smoking; therefore, my wife could not stop me. I am joking. Of course, she could. However, we had a deal about giving up smoking. In short, I have a Canon 500D (or Rebel Ti1 or Kiss X3) camera kit. The kit contained Canon 18-55/F3.5-5.6 EF-S IS lens. Many people say it is not worth buying this lens. However, its price was very low because of the kit.

My first impression was rather ambivalent. I liked the focus related functions of the SX10. Now, I have small black dots, which turns into red if the get the focus. By default, all of these dots are active. It means that the focus will be set on the closest object. Is not it very useful? As soon as I could, I made only the central AF point active. It gave me a bit more comfort. Changing the active AF point is not difficult. I am able to do it with viewfinder on my eye.

So, I had only one lens. It is indeed limited possibility in comparison with the SX10. All serene! I like landscape shots. I mentioned I was very busy; therefore, I could take my camera late afternoon. Soon, I realized that my old tripod is not suitable for the new DSLR. The moving mirror of the camera made the tripod shake. Yes, there is a mirror lockup function. I did not know of this feature that time and it is not the most comfortable method the prevent camera shake.

I tried to take shot holding the camera with AUTO ISO settings. It gave unbelievable good result. The shot above was taken with ISO 1600.

I liked the colors also. The shots taken with 500D contain more colors than I could achieve with SX10. One of my favorite shots was about the benches of course.

The colors were great. The sharpness is another problem. In certain conditions, the image can be sharp using this lens. In certain conditions... I read interesting articles about the unbelievable great sharpness of this lens. It is called “To people saying 18-55 is not sharp enough.”. You can read it on flickr. The author of the article showed some captures as an evidence. The only problem is that images having small size are always sharp. Examining the shot in its real size, hmm, well, maybe, the sharpness will go away. From the other hand, if this kit lens were so great, nobody would buy more expensive lens.

I like these lens and I have some nice shots taken with it. Just, I suppose there are better lenses.

HDR Images

I have different feelings on HDR images. I sometimes like HDR shots having futuristic peculiarity. They looks very interesting. I also like HDR images, which look realistic. What I do not like is unnatural finery of colors. I do not like when every color, every tone shine in the picture, like an advertisement.

Creating HDR images from technical point of view is interesting for me. But, I prefer the shots made by camera. It does not mean that I am fun of SOOC. I am far from it. I believe that some postwork makes the photo better until it garbles the truth.

I like to try everything new, so, I wanted to create my own HDR image. It was not easy to find good tutorials. The only problem was that almost all tutorial was created for Photoshop users. I do not have Photoshop. Maybe, it is very good software; but it is too expensive for me. I spend enough money for buying photography accessories. According to my wife’s opinion, I waste too much money for my hobby. It is why I became a GIMP user. I have not found a good tutorial for GIMP users; I created my own method. The idea of the technology was stolen from Photoshop tutorials. If you have a better method to create HDR images, please leave comment to this post or send me an e-mail.

Let us start. To create a HDR images, you must have at least to shots, which differ only in exposure value. I usually use 3 shots. I read that others created a HDR images from 5 or more shots. I tried it too, but I did not see the positive effect of usage of more than 5 photos.

The keywords of taking shots for HDR images are fastness and accuracy. Fastness is important especially if the subject of the shots is movable or moves. For example, it is very difficult to take such shots of trees moving in the wind. The result will be blurry. My first HDR shoots were taken manually. Then, as I became cleverer, I used the AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing). It is faster and easier. :)

I use one or two exposure values difference between the shots. I usually take three shots. The first shot is taken with correct exposure, the second is overexposed and the third is underexposed.

Accuracy is provided by the usage of the tripod. I do not want to waste my time with adjusting images, so I want my subject to be exactly on the same place in all shots. Somebody wrote she could hold the camera without tripod. Well, I am far from being superhero. My advice is to use tripod.

Now, let us say you have 3 different shots. Open your GIMP and load the shot with correct exposure value. Then create two transparent layer on the shot. Open the underexposed (darker) shot, select the whole image and paste the middle layer of the base photo. When you are ready, do the same with the overexposed shot, but insert it in the third layer.

Right click on the middle layer, you will get a menu. Select the “Add Layer Mask” menu. In the opening window, select “Greyscale copy of layer” option and add it to the image (Add button).

Then click on the third layer containing the overexposed shot. Select the “Add Layer Mask” menu. In the opening window, select “Greyscale copy of layer” option and be sure that “Invert mask” option is clicked. If you are ready, then add the mask to the image (Add button).

That is all; you are ready. I usually Merge down the layers until I have only one layer. It is worth to adjust levels (Adjust color levels) to make colors more vivid.

Darkness in the Wood

I always admired water shots taken with long exposure time. I tried to capture water, but the photo became overexposed, as it was not dark enough. Finally, I bought an ND8 filter. I wanted to try it as soon as possible, but I had to wait until the weekend.

I remembered a nice place, where I met waterfalls and cascades in every 10 minutes. I had not been there since my teen ages. Nevertheless, I hoped that my memories would not play the fool with me.

We arrived and I realized that my expectations were correct. The wood was wonderful and hidden streams ran in several places among the trees not far from the side path.

It was the first time I had used ND8 filter. I read that it was difficult to use, because the photographer could not see clearly through the dark filter. My bridge camera has an acceptable live mode, so I did not really meet this problem.

I took some shots of blurred streams and I like them. I realized that long exposure time made colors deeper in the capture. Of course, I used my good old tripod. The LCD screen on my camera contains few pixels (260.000 ?). In the wood, I did not think of the size of the LCD screen. I was just happy looking at the awesome colors.

Well, the colors were wonderful and the waterfalls were blurred nicely. I wanted more. I wanted a white silken stream instead of the water. I took out the CPL filter from my bag and put it before the ND8. Such way, I gained more exposure time. I enjoyed taking shots very much.

I was excited while I was downloading pictures from the camera to my notebook. When the download process finished I opened the images in the picture browser. I realized only at home that most of my shots were overexposed. Well, not the whole photo was overexposed, just its parts, where the sky could be seen via the trees. The sky was white. Tones were lost beyond recovery.

I selected some shots that could be rescued. It was not an easy lesson for me. I knew I would never forget to check if there is overexposed part on the capture.

Next time, when I was in other forest and used long exposure time, I took shots and checked every shot carefully on the LCD display. I think the photos became better, at least from technical point of view.

Mini Photo Studio

I bought a Dolica PS-240 Portable Photo Studio Kit. It contains two studio lamps, a small camera stand, a dual-sided non-reflective background screen and 4 background drops (black, white, red and blue). The main element of the kit is a bag, where you can store lamps, camera stand and background drops. It is very easy to install, in fact the bag itself is a tent. The dimensions of the tent are 45 * 9 * 45 cm (17.5 * 3.5 * 17.5 inches). Its price is very low approximately 60 USD. Of course, it is not the highest quality photo studio kit, but, it is a quite good solution for hobby purposes. Studio lights are just a lamp having professional design. Unfortunately, they can work for no more than 10 minutes without a break.

So, I was working (or playing) with this kit. Before starting, I had to iron out the background drops. Well, I am not very good at ironing and I was afraid of burn the background. Some process of ironing lasted for about half hour. The white background looked better; the black one remained a bit creased.

The first subject to be captured was an old Soviet camera. I decided to use white background. It was my first experiment with lighting. My approach was far from scientific; I just switched on the lights and moving them checking the result. I did not have much time to experiment, as the light can work for only 10 minutes. However, this stage is very enjoyable. Believe me. :)

The most problematical was the usage of the camera stand. Fixing the camera is not easy. I had to hold the camera, find its horizontal position and fixing the bolt at the same time. I hated it.

The tent and the camera stand stood in a table. It was also a problem, as I could capture only the top of the subject. The only solution was to bend the tripod. Here, there was a possibility to play again while fixing the camera. I had to say this camera stand is not my favorite. Later, I took it away and use my tripod instead.

At the end, I could take some shots. The subject, the old camera was black with some shine metallic lines. I realized that a bit overexposing the photo, the white background became almost invisible.

This technique works well until the subject is dark. If you examine the sample shot, you can realize that the background is not white enough. It is because I used the automatic white balance. It would have be better to use manual settings.

I met a problem during using the white background. I was in a hurry to install the photo studio so mush that I forgot to take away the tablecloth. I cannot realize it until I switched on the lights. Then I was too lazy to take the tablecloth out. Now, I have a pretty nice shot, where you can see its pattern through the white background. :(

I had some problem with the black background, too. As I mentioned it was not smooth enough, as I was not very good at ironing. The tine waves could be seen on my every shot.

I started playing with exposition like in case of the white background. Of course, I wanted to make my capture darker. But, it did not work well. The subject itself became dark too.

I do not have PS, as it is too expensive not for me but for my wife. :) She tries to limit financial outgoings on my new hobby. Well, I would better buy a DSLR camera instead of PS. Fortunately, the GIMP is always with you. I made a small postwork on my shots with black background with gimp. With adjusting color levels function I cut off the black tones from my capture. Such way, I got a nice black background instead of dark waves.