De Vetpan studios

Kalmthout

devetpan — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:51:57 +0000

Ok this is getting a bit boring, seriously need to get some street shots or maybe even better… people portraits? I went to the “Kalmthoutse Heide” this morning, basically a massive heathland at the border of The Netherlands & Belgium.. At the break of dawn the scenery out there is magnificent, many hidden lakes in the woods, wide open fields filled with the most precious plants and the best of all, there is no one out there..

This small series is taken with my brand new 50mm from Zeiss, most of the photos taken on f/2.0 and I’m totally loving it! I still can’t give you guys a good verdict about the lens because I’d like to take some street shots aswel to see how it handles those sceneries. Oh and I received my Zeiss 85mm 1.4 today, think I’ll post some pictures of both lenses upon my blog tomorrow.

I Am Still Nikon But Without Nikkor

devetpan — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 12:10:40 +0000

Not quiet long after I Tweeted “I was a Nikkor lover, but love can fade away” many of you where exited to see some photos from one of my brand new Carl Zeiss primes… Today I’ve swapped all my Nikkor primes for the brand new Carl Zeiss ZF.2 primes for Nikon. Not many Nikon users are using the primes from Zeiss compared to the Canon users, but since today they can add 1 more nikon Zeiss user to their list.
I swapped my Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4G for the Carl Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 ZF.2 Planar T* and my Nikkor 85mm AF 85mm f/1.4D for the Carl Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 ZF.2 Planar T* (the 2 objectives on the left of the photo shown above) for now I only have the 50mm 1.4 the 85mm has to be imported from Japan so I’ll get my hands on that monster at the end of next week. I did make a few indoor “test” photos with the gorgeous looking 50mm on my D700 and gosh what a difference!

The build quality of the lens itself is truly amazing, a full metal casing and focus ring runs like a knife through butter with a very long and precise focus range. But thats no miracle since the Zeiss lenses are produces by Cosina the same factory that build the mighty Voigtländer. Once you’ve mounted the lens on your body you seriously get a nostalgic feeling like you have when you’re holding a Leica M8 or M9.. it just blows you mind..

So here are just a few quick and dirty photos made a few minutes ago ;) in a range from f/1.4 to f/2.0

Mocha Frappucino Tutorial

devetpan — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:17:48 +0000

So it has been quiet for a few days on the blog, but don’t worry I was working on something for you guys! Upon request of many people I made you a special tutorial for the processing of your portrait photos. This tutorial will show you how to apply a Mocha Frappucino layer on your photos within a few simple steps. The tutorial is based on a simple selfie made with basic window light, but I guess it will also work on outdoor photos.
Read the steps below or even cooler watch the screencast that you will find at the end of this post!
My setup for this selfie, as you can see nothing special.. Go to the adjustments window and select “Curves” draw a curve just like you see on the screenshot below.
Or enter the following digits “output 94″ and “input 112″
Go to the adjustments window again and select the “Hue / Saturation” tool. move the Saturation slider to -51 as you can see on the screenshot below.
Go to the adjustments window and select “Curves” draw a curve just like you see on the screenshot below.
Or enter the following digits “output 90″ and “input 74″ and the second point “output 184″ and “input 158″
Go to the adjustments window again and select the “Color Balance” tool. move the sliders of the “Midtones” like you see below in the screenshot.
Go to the adjustments window and select “Curves” draw a curve just like you see on the screenshot below.
Or enter the following digits “output 79″ and “input 102″ and the second point “output 140″ and “input 145″
Go to the adjustments window again and select the “Color Balance” tool. move the sliders of the “Midtones” like you see below in the screenshot.
The final step will add a soft overlay, Go to Layer > New fill layer > Solid color > OK
Enter the following RGB code: R51 G85 B105 and finish with OK, set the layer fill opacity to 51%
Oh and here’s the screencast, way cooler :)

Summer Of Love

devetpan — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:48:34 +0000

BAM! a new wallpaper on the Blog!
This is actually one of my all time favorite summer shots, the golden fields under a blue sky filled with whipcream clouds. I took this photo last year, as you can see the style is pretty different from my lastest series kinda like both styles. Last week I’ve been featured on a brand new website called Photocurious.com with a huge interview, might be worth to read because there are a few things written that I’ve never shared before ;) Read it here!

I wanna thank you all for the requests in the comments and by eMail, some interesting posts are on their way like photography techniques and how you can add one of my processing styles to a portrait photos. And even more amazing stuff is in the pipe-line like a brand new ID for De Vetpan Studios! that will be designed by Marius Bauer, one of the very few persons that have followed my work since the very beginning (+ a few collabs on desktopography )

Like to send me your request for a wallpaper?
Follow me on Twitter and simply tweet your message to @Vetpan

August Morning Dawn

devetpan — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 08:49:15 +0000

Remember my previous post “Foggy Swamp” well this is the exact same location only 2 months later. This is actually one of my favorite locations to shoot though all the year, because there are so many various plants all over the field. After a early wake up this morning I knew this had to be the perfect moment to capture thousands of dewdrops that where glittering in the golden light of the morning sun. Luckily this place is only a 2 minute drive from my place so I went straight out of bed to the field without brushing my teeth, shaving, and my hair do.. just to be there on the right time.

Love Whispering Fields

devetpan — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:37:43 +0000

All week long I’ve been looking for the best field filled with wheat near my own city, it was pretty hard since the harvest has already started last week. I guess today was one of my last chances to capture the wheat fields, and surprisingly everything turned out the way I wanted. The sun acting like a huge softbox, a huge field of wheat still standing and the 85mm 1.4 mounted on my camera made me fall in love with the moment..

It’s pretty easy to make a photo series like this yourself. I’m pretty sure that there are a few local farmers outside your city. Search for a field filled with wheat or high grass at sunset or sunrise (even when it doesn’t look that interesting) and jump right into it! Take your photos towards the sun for gorgeous higlights, bokeh, contrast ect. and use a prime lens with a wide aperture like f/1.8 or f/1.4 for gorgeous shallow bokeh. This was the location of my shoot you can as you can see it’s pretty dull, but that doesn’t show off in the photos.

Summer Ice Cream Tutorial

devetpan — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 11:11:01 +0000

Guess we’ve sen it all, the late summer sunsets that creates a stunning golden scenery. My experience is that this golden light almost never shows up in the photos that you take during sunset, most of the times the photos never show what it really looked like.. This tutorial will show you how to apply a Summer Ice Cream layer on your photos within a few simple steps. First of all you have to shoot some photos during sunset and load them in you Mac (or Pc). Open the sooc version in Photoshop and your ready to go!

I took this photo from a heathland as example. Don’t let that huge area with blown highlights distract you, it will be much softer after the processing.
Go to the adjustments window and select “Curves” draw a curve just like you see on the screenshot below.
This will ad more contrast in the shadow area and will bleach the highlights even more.Hit the arrow below in the adjustments window, and select “Curves” again.
Now draw a curve just like you see on the screenshot below, and you’ll see that the contrast and colors re popping even more. To get rid of that harsh bleach white lightning you’ll have to apply a huge yellow cast.
Go to the adjustments window again and select the “Color Balance” tool. move the sliders of the “Midtones” like you see below in the screenshot.Select “Highlights” in the color balance window and move the sliders like you see below in the screenshot.The final step will add a soft overlay, Go to Layer > New fill layer > Solid color > OK
Enter the following RGB code: R36 G53 B103 and finish with OK, set the layer fill opacity to 51% and your done!This is my final result, you’ll have to watch the screencast below this photo to see if you’d like to know what additional things I did.

If you’re living in Germany this video might not be available, sorry for that.. Sony copyrights. Try an anonymous browser ;)

Material World

devetpan — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:44:33 +0000

You can’t avoid the fact that we live in a material world. I found these photos in my archives from Antwerp that where taken in 2009, the creamy yellowish processing just fitted perfect to the scenery. It’s pretty obvious that Antwerp is the city that really got me, like Paris does for many others. For me it’s like Paris but only like 20 minutes away in stead of a 4hr drive, and way easier to navigate through the city if you go by car because there aren’t many French rookies :) If you’re ever planning to visit this superb city, feel free to mail me for tips and tricks.

Anyway enjoy this small collection from the past, there might be something fresh and new coming up if the weather plays nice this weekend.

Summer in Antwerp

devetpan — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:53:23 +0000

Jet another exclusive wallpaper! A few of you have mentioned me at twitter to publish the VW Beetle that I used in the header of my Blog as wallpaper, I would love to do that but it’s way to early to send out a free high res. version of that lovely Beetle. I searched through my archives and found this polka dotted bike that I captured in Antwerp during a steaming hot summer day. Just press the preview and you’re download will start.

Like to send me your request for a wallpaper?
Follow me on Twitter and simply tweet your message to @Vetpan

Foggy Swamp

devetpan — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 08:20:24 +0000

A break from all the San Francisco madness thats going around here on my blog. I totally forgot that I had a series of foggy swamp photos somewhere in my library, I took them right before my vacation but the idea of processing them never ended up in my head. In this small series you’ll see a small swamp covered in a thick layer of fog that gets burned away by the rising sun, you can see that by the contrast and color depth that increases pretty fast during the sunrise.

It’s pretty easy to capture a foggy swamp yourself, be sure to be on the swamp just before the sun hits the water and I’m pretty confident that you’ll be able to see a magnificent scenery coming alive. There is only one downside.. be careful for ticks in the last 2 years I’ve had more than 12 ticks on my arms and legs, even while wearing jeans and long sleeves. Always check yourself before you go to bed.