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Rokinon 14mm F2.8 Lens photos samples at Tunica Casinos

Tunica, MS -June 21. 2018: For taking photos of the casinos in Tunica I used exclusively the Rokinon 14mm F2.8 lens. Tunica is well known for its beautifully lighted gambling casinos, but I had to set the camera to Bracketing Mode so I could get multiples exposures due to the extreme lighting contrast.

For example, I did one exposure for the bright signs, one for the sky and one for the buildings.  I did this so I could later combine them in Photoshop.

Most editing software will automatically combine multiple exposures and is not exclusive to only Photoshop but it happens to be the one I use.

I like the crazy perspectives from the Rokinon 14mm. For instance, most extremely wide angle lenses no matter what the cost have barrel distortion (leaning buildings) and vignetting (darkened edges) that can be fixed in Photoshop or Lightroom.

I, however, most of the time just leave the anomalies as they are; i just think there are kind of cool.

I recommend this lens since you can get under under $300 for the Sony E-mount cameras. I think right now it’s actually the cheapest 14mm F2.8 full frame E-mount on the market  You can price it and read more reviews at Amazon.com

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Waterspout Tampa Bay, filmed with Sony A7

This waterspout was filmed with the Sony A7 ILCE full frame camera with the Sony 85mm 1.8 lens. It was after twilight but the lens pulled through since it I had the aperture wide open at F1.8.

The photos below were taken the the Rokinon 14mm F2.8 lens on the A7.  I had the aperture wide open at F2.8 to let as much light in as possible.

This sounds a but backwards but the higher the Aperture number, the smaller the aperture gets thereby letting less light in on the sensor resulting in a darker picture with less detail.

 

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HDR Photos using the Rokinon 14mm f2.8 Lens

June 9, 2018 - Bracketed photos shot with the Rokinon 14mm f2.8 lens on a Sony A7 ILCE full frame camera at the Toyota Car Dealership in Paducah KY/craigcurriephotography.com

Each of the HDR Photos below consist of 3 bracketed shots taken with the Rokinon 14mm F2.8 lens on a Sony A7 ILCE full-frame camera.

Each bracketed set were 2-stops apart that gave us a normal exposure, a under exposure and an over exposed picture. We then combined them.

Instructions and steps to combine the shots in Photoshop:

Open Photoshop and go to File, then Automate, then Merge to HDR Pro and choose your photos that you want to combine. Photoshop will then do its magic which and open these combined pictures in Camera Raw.

Photoshop’s Camera Raw plugin enables you to have more control over your editing like never before. 

 

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Artistic Street Photography

Night Street Photography using Sony A7 on Bourbon Street, New Orleans, LA/Dec.2017 craigcurriephotography.com

Artistic Street Photography is fun, and the best part is that ‘there are no rules’ to follow.  From long exposures with light trails to adding your own background, anything goes with this genre.

It’s a no judgement zone – so to speak. Blurry subjects, lens flares or just bad pictures in general are all welcome in this melting pot of photo art.

The video includes photos from New Orleans and some from the city of Paducah, a small quaint town in the Midwest.

I hope the video and photos inspires someone out there. I remember my first time when I saw a long exposures and ridiculously overly processed images for the first time; it inspired me to try and create my own works.

The camera used was the A7 Sony full-frame with the 24-70mm F3.5 Sony kit lens and the Rokinon 14mm  F2.8 wide angle lens.

BELOW PHOTOS: New Orleans, LA

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Rokinon 14mm F2.8 used for Gothic Church

Rokinon 14mm F2.8 on A7 Sony ILCE used for Gothic Church/ craigcurriephotography.com

The Rokinon 14mm F2.8 FE e-mount lens was used on Sony A7 full frame camera to take these super wide angle photos of this historic gothic Church built in the 1800s in Paducah, Kentucky.

This is considered an economy lens that goes by three names: Rokinon, Samyang and Bower. They are all the same exact lens depending on what countries they are sold in.

The 14mm is a fixed lens meaning the focal length (14mm) is not adjustable. This focal length is extreme, maybe too extreme for some.

These photos were taken around sunset with cloud cover to boot. But with the big F2.8 aperture, it had no problem gathering enough light to brighten up those dark shadows a bit.

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Using Sony 85mm F1.8 for Pet Portraits

VIDEO: I used the Sony 85mm F1.8 lens on a A7 Sony camera to take portraits of  numerous pets during a dog show in Paducah, Kentucky. In short, I was quite happy with the results.

The organizers didn’t allow photographers to use any flash or lighting equipment since it could scared the dogs and that was perfectly understandable. It turned out that Paducah’s convention center had really nice overhead lighting, so everything worked out great.

I kept the aperture settings wide open at 1.8 since I really wanted to see how it would perform with the natural overhead lighting.

Please bare in mind that neither my old A7 Sony full-frame or the 85mm lens had any kind of built in image stabilization. However, since the 1.8 lens is fast, hand held shots came out okay.

I tried to keep the shutter speed at around 1/ 170 to prevent camera shake. The formal calculation for the correct shutter speed  is focal length 85mm x 2 = 170. The calculation worked out well but 1/500 shutter speed was even better.

I kept my ISO on Auto most of the time since I just wanted to talk with people and have some fun.

In conclusion, the Sony 85mm F1.8 performed beyond my expectations.

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Pet Portraits natural light

No flash or lighting equipment was allowed during this particular dog show but the overhead lights (ambient lighting) were more than enough for an 85mm lens maxed out at F1.8. I love these dogs….

Paducah Kennel Club Dog Show 2018