Engagement Photos: Lindsay & Kyle
I had the pleasure of working with Lindsay and Kyle last week as we went around the city shooting for their upcoming wedding. They were great to work with and I hope you enjoy the pictures! Click here for the full gallery! 
Chicago Photography: Tile Store
I recently visited a specialty tile store here in Chicago. They had some really cool installations and amazing patterns and colors. I wish I had taken more, but I don’t think all the sales people appreciated a loud “CLICK” while trying to outfit a multimillion dollar bathroom…
Most of these were taken at 100 ISO, 18mm, and f/3.5-4.5. There was a lot of natural light coming through into the show room, but there were a bunch of lamps wit all sorts of different color light coming in, so on the camera I used auto white balance. Once I got them into Lightroom I realized how off some of the colors were, so I adjusted as needed (particularly the one with the stool). I also realized that no matter how still you stand and line up, straight lines on a wall are hard to keep straight.
Thanks for looking! Leave comments below! RB
Some updates: ryanbing.co.cc
Hi everyone,
Check out www.ryanbing.co.cc for my new splash screen and small portfolio page. My hope is that I can keep the blog separate from a “portfolio” view. Let me know what you think!
Chicago Photography: My Birthday Boating
ISO 3200, 18mm, f/3.5, 1/6sec, UV filter
I’m on a boat! Thank you to the love of my life Jenn for a great opportunity to get on Lake Michigan and watch the Navy Pier fireworks on a sailboat. And what a surprise it was! She wouldn’t tell me what we were doing – only that I needed to bring my camera and some bubbly. This picture turned out great. It was a pretty calm night (great for pictures, not so much for sailing) but I’m real proud of this one.
For post, I slightly adjusted the angle, used the grayscale LR filter which bumped up the exposure +1.15 and turned up the blacks. I smoothed it out in Photoshop and did some minor touch-ups on the sky because of some flare from all the lights. I kind of like that it’s barreled so I left that 🙂
Thanks honey!
Chicago Photography: Taxicab
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| ISO400, 18mm, f/3.5, 1/15sec, UV filter |
This shot was taken under Michigan Avenue yesterday afternoon.
The lighting is pretty different underground and there was a ton of sunlight on either side of this shot – but you can’t really tell. The lights diffuse this orangey red hue. On the left middle of the picture you can see some florescent lights and you can really see a difference. The blur of the taxi was meant to capture rush hour in Chicago – I don’t know where else in the world you could get such an open shot with cars flying by.
I didn’t do too much in post. I cropped it a little to eliminate a manhole cover and lane line in the very foreground. I liked the rafters at the top. I warmed it up a little more at first, but then I feel I lost the grey of the asphalt and it looked too red with the maroon cab. I wish it was a yellow cab!
Chicago Photography: Bridge
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| ISO100, 24mm, f/7.1, 1/200sec, UV filter |
I really enjoy this bridge and this view – I’ve taken a ton of pictures here. I thought this was an interesting angle because it follows the lines of the bridge, not the horizon. I think the Sears Tower is framed well by the bridge and the building on the right. I also think the boat gives a good size comparison to give it some perspective on how large these buildings are. I wish I had the boat in some sunlight…I think it gets lost in the shadow.
There are some blacks on the bridge that I left because the details weren’t there. I looked at this as a monochrome but I think it lost a lot – I like all the blue in the picture. It was a pretty clear day and about 5:15 pm when I took this. The golden hour for this time of year is more like 30 minutes and it starts at 6:30pm-ish. I was hoping to get more red hues, but at least there wasn’t a ton of harsh light coming through, but there is a ton of light shining through the buildings lighting up part of the shot too.
Chicago Photography: Sidewalk Sale
Hi everybody! Long time no post! I’ve been very busy at work and have been neglecting my shooting. I’m also preparing myself for a engagement session sometime this week or next, so I’ve been reading up and looking at examples of engagement styles. I’m excited because I’ve never done a session before, and I don’t shoot candids or people that often, so it should be interesting!
For today’s pictures, I decided to show them in the form of a gallery. These were mostly all taken at or near Daley Plaza today for the City of Chicago Sidewalk Sale. Interesting things! A lot of cool items and clothing stalls set up with nice people – even on this crazy hot day. I didn’t take a lot of pictures of the stalls, as you know how people don’t appreciate a random guy shooting you, but I thought I got some interesting shots of the surroundings.
I read a post recently that basically explained that while digital storage is very easy to come by these days, it’s important to delete! I tried this methodology of making ‘passes’ over all of the pictures I took today. Out of ~45 images, only 9 or 10 made it to the gallery. That’s a 20% retention rate – not great! I hope to increase that number by taking less but better pictures.
I’ll dive into each of these separately, but check them out!
Chicago Photography: Lightning and hail
ISO 200, 18mm, f/6.3, 3.0 sec, UV filter
ISO 200, 18mm, f/7.1, 3.0 sec, UV filter
Check out the lightning from tonight! Click on each picture for a full sized one!
I took these tonight with the big storm that produced hail in downtown Chicago. I thought that our windows might crack! These pictures were taken with a D3100 at 3.0 seconds on a small tripod. I was on manual focus just under infinity to capture the distance. I took over 60 shots to grab these two. What do you think?
Pet Photography: Sibling Rivalry
ISO 100, 55mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec, UV filter
These two guys are adorable. What is it about dogs and cameras? They perk up when they see a big black thing pointed at them? Maybe I just find the friendly ones. These pups are bother and sister. Their expressions are classic. I was in line getting my favorite ever freaky-fast sub when I was approached by the owner, who also appreciates a tasty sub sandwich. I was reviewing the pictures on my camera and I showed her what I shot. I asked her if they were bother and sister, not even noticing the different color leashes. I think their expressions told me exactly who was who. They were outside and together turned at each passing car or when someone walked by. Like I said, adorable.
Summertime Flower
ISO 400, 18mm, f/7.1, 1/1000 UV filter
I had the day off and decided for lunch to visit my favorite super-freaky-fast sub place around the corner from our apartment. On the way this little flower caught my eye. The flower was on a concrete wall and had great contrast in color. I took a bunch of pictures of this guy and I like this one because of the dead vines on the wall with the growing and flowering plant. What do you think? Click on the photo to see it with a small black frame, which I think helps (hard to see on the post background).
Inanimate Street Photography: Hydrant
ISO 100, 18 mm, f3.5, 1/200 sec, UV filter, Lightroom Adjustments
I wanted to find texture. I wanted to see if I could express it in a different way, see if I could find a few different types in one shot. I was walking around my neighborhood and came across this hydrant and took one shot. This is the result. Want to see the original? (more…)
Leo Burnett Building
This is a picture of the Leo Burnett Building in the Loop, home of United Airlines. I was meeting Jenn for lunch last week and captured this. I changed it pretty heavily in Lightroom but I’m happy with the black and white version of this photo. The sun was bright and the reflection was great to help make this photo more dramatic. (more…)
Funky Budda
I took a long photo-walk today and came up with quite a bit of good stuff. But this guy was my favorite!
ISO 100, 29mm, f6.3, 1/160sec, UV filter
Market
Near my apartment is the Chicago French Market. It’s an indoor market with a lot of vendors and some really great produce and fresh proteins at cheap prices. It’s a great alternative to the grocery store. I walked in with my camera last week and tried to capture all of the colors and flavors of the spring. This red pepper was sitting with it’s brothers and sisters on a great market-style display. The red is so vibrant!
I had a crazy high ISO for this (1600) because I wasn’t using my built-in flash and the lighting was overhead and harsh. 1/20 sec, 55mm, f5.6. No real post-editing for this on – I took the Lightroom “punch” preset and tweaked the contrast a touch.
Comments are always welcome!
Coke
Copyright Ryan Bing 2011
Taking my walk the other day I found this Coke can on the ground with some rocks. I loved the contrast of the big red can, slightly crushed, among what looked like ruins of something else. I took another shot with the can a little closer to the center of the frame but I liked this one better since I think your eyes immediately focus on the main item but then discover other things (cigarette butts, twigs, wires, etc.) as you discover the rest of the photo.
In lightroom I added some vignetting and put a contrast gradient from the can up and to the top left corner. The detail and sharpness I left alone – I felt my camera did a pretty good job picking up a lot of the little things. I turned contrast up on the whole frame too to get rid of some of the glare that was in the right side above the can. I’ve ordered filters and a hood for my camera since I tend to take a lot of outside shots that fill with all sorts of light.
Thanks, comments are welcome.
My afternoon
I caught this shot as I was walking by the post office. I played with Lightroom quite a bit for this one. What do you think?
DPChallenge Entry – Honey
- So sunny, but so sad
I recently came upon the website DPChallenge and entered into their most recent open photo challenge. The subject was “honey” and was to be a tribute to the disappearance of honey bees that has recently made the news headlines. I had a bunch of flowers I bought Jenn when she got home from her last international trip. The flowers had wilted over the week since she got home and I thought they looked sad. I had a taken a bunch of pictures from below the bunch, focusing on three dropping flowers with the white ceiling as the background to help them pop. As I stood up I caught the moving El train behind the bunch and I thought that having a sad flower in the city would be even more appropriate. Chicago in the spring is a wonderful time of year because of all the blooms and trees filling in. It’s full of new life! How dramatic would it be to have a flower on a bright shining morning look so sad…why? No bees.
I hope to continue to post these pictures and others I find are a good showing. Please comment.
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