Category: Photography

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End of Summer – soon to be winter

We had a nice summer, and I managed to get a few summer shoots in.

My last outdoor shoot which was to be last month, had to be cancelled due to the training bringing my model got cancelled as did its replacement.

We have had some lovely days, and I took the opportunity to get out and shoot some film medium format.

Generally though the weather is heading colder and we have been having a little mist in the mornings and some fog at night.

This has led to a few photographic opportunities and a few nice moody pictures.

The final bursts of colour are now coming to the end as we reach mid autumn.

Here’s hoping for some nice days, and of course moody weather to produce worthwhile images.

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Can you trust what you see?

Since before digital, in the dark room, photographers have been producing composite images, from multiple negatives, a landscape image with a sky from a different negative.

In my wedding images I shoot multiple shots of groups, and occasionally have to combine them to get a single image of everyone looking good at camera.

Model images, a tweak here and there to soften skin, remove a pimple.

Leica M10

But now with modern AI, we can create what ever kind of image we want. So how can we trust what we see?

Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) and the C2PA standard hopes to address this. Big players in the software world have signed up, like Microsoft and Adobe. Nikon and Leica are the first camera manufactures to sign up, but its Leica, working with their partners, the German government and Adobe that are the first to release a camera that supports this with a built in image authentication chip.

If you’re interested in Leica’s new M11-P I would suggest heading over to https://www.slack.co.uk/articles/the-leica-m11-p.html where Jonathan Slack will soon have a good overview of the camera.

https://contentauthenticity.org

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Busy two weeks for Nikon – Zf and now Plena

A new named lens from Nikon, the Z mount 135mm f/1.8 Plena. We are promised no vignette and beautiful rendition and transition to the the out of focus areas.

From what I have seen from the preproduction models, that is what we have gotten. A stunning lens, not to big, about the same as the 85mm f/1.2 and yes if your asking, f/1.8 at 135mm is more then fast enough to blow away the background and get impressive subject separation.

That now leaves me with a dilemma; the 85mm or the 135mm first?

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The Nikon Zf is here

So its arrived, the retro full frame Zf. Was it a Z5 or Z6 in a different shell as many were expecting? Certainly not.

This is an all new camera, it has a sensor from a Z6 but reworked, more auto focus points and it has the power from the Z8 and Z9 new Expeed 7 processor. So video and focus that can only be bettered by the Z8/Z9, better stabilisation at a claimed eight stops.

This is a real powerhouse.

I love the quick black and white selector, and the ability to use face and eye detect with manual focus lens is brilliant really making this a great camera with manual lens.

The question to ask is this what the Z6III will be or will that add anything else.

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Building the light

When shooting film it took a lot of experience and skill with a light meter, to understand what the reading meant and how it would look in the in the final image.

Now with digital we get instant feed back. We can get it close with a light meter and then tweak by eye.

Slowly building the image light by light and seeing the results instantly.

Here we have me building the scene starting with the separation lights, first the stage left, then right and then both together. Finally bringing it all together to create the stunning image at the top.

With all modern cameras now being so good, having instant feed back, we can hone are skills quickly and easily and produce lovely photographs so much easier then in the past.

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Colour Grading, for impact

Colour grading can be noticeable but not over the top like in this shot of Jasmine.

Again in this photograph of Helen, I have been quite heavy with the colour grading but it’s still reasonably natural looking. The eye excepts it.

Sometimes its fun to just go crazy.

One can also use tints to match clothes to give a overall colour theme.

Play and have fun; if using destructive editing techniques then work on a copy, or if working non-destructively, like a product like Adobe Lightroom