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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

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Retro Cameras – Nikon Zf

Nikon has a strong history of iconic manual cameras like the original F and F2, the FM and FM2. I own and use a FM2.

Since the world went autofocus, camera design has evolved to what we have today. Cameras like the Nikon Z9 or Canon R3; amazing cameras that can be highly customised so that every function you personally need can be accessed quickly with the camera still at you eye, so you never need miss a shot.

There is a lot of nostalgia for old style cameras, and certainly for Nikon, the F mount Df was their first step back into their retro heritage. It was basically a Nikon D4 in a retro style body and while never hugely popular it was loved by the few that wanted it.

Fuji have really made the traditional dials and retro look popular, I think Nikon had a surprise success with the new Nikon Zfc. You can see a lot of people using them with the new chipped manual focus Voigtländer glass. It makes a great setup for people wanting to go old school. I see photographers using a Z7/8/9 and the best Nikon Z glass for their professional work and a Zfc when having fun.

Its been rumoured now for over a year that with the success of the Zfc which is a Dx crop format sensor, we will see a full frame version.

It’s likely to happen, but Nikon have some tough choices ahead. Will people pay for a real metal body. Performance wise, keep it cheep with a Z5 sensor and focus, or go higher end, Z7 sensor and the new computing power of the Expeed 7 processor.

Each nice to have drives the price higher. A tough one for Nikon, where do they price this?

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Cameras I love but do not own – Leica Q

Is it any surprise that there is a Leica in my list of cameras I love but do not own. I think the reason I do not have this, is the lens. While I like 28mm for me I would want a 35mm for a general walk around camera like this.

The handling and focusing of this is simply brilliant. Once of the best compact cameras available but it is expensive.

With the release of the Q3 and its 60MP sensor for many gets round the limitations of just having a 28mm lens, cropping to 35 or 50mm still gives you a relatively large file size.

So much to love, build quality, the way you can auto or manually focus so well, just the price against it.

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Importing files to Adobe Lightroom Classic

Lightroom import dialogue box can be confusing, there are two options, simple and advance. I have on occasion gotten my import wrong myself, generally importing files to the wrong location but its an easy fix.bad credit loans uk direct lenders

I can think of a couple of other ways of importing photographs but rarely use them. Recently on YouTube I saw this and thought it was a easy way to import if you struggle with the other methods.

The video shows you how but basically create a folder in Lightroom where you want the files to go and then when highlighting that folder select import to this folder.

Simple and easy.

I still use the normal import methods, I have presents that apply things like basic develop settings and metadata which is the advantage of the normal import methods. Creating import, development and location presets to get a lot of the leg work done in advance can really speed up your work flow.

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Colour Grading

Colour or Black & White?

Or shall we say what colour?

In cinema, colour grading is a big thing to give a mood to a scene. If you watch the matrix movies the colour grading for the scenes in the matrix and outside in the ‘real’ world are very different.

I do occasionally colour grade some one off images but rarely.

But for my last shoot of last year, a lifestyle, and lingerie set, I did some extensive colour grading. The smart modern kitchen set suited it well so I toned the shadows a steely blue, while just giving the highlights a hint of extra warm tone.

With one set of images I combined some in camera work with post. This image above has the cool colour grading of the first but I also used half CTO on a small soft box. The majority of the light in this image is from a large shoot through umbrella, there is then a small soft box with a orange gel on it, to give the warm sunlight look.

With these first two images the colour grading while noticeable is relatively subtle. In this image above the colour grading is more more obvious, its selective colour saturation and grading which gives it a monochrome look.

Lastly a standard black and white image. Even with this, using digital capture there are lots of options available. The image is still made up of the three colour channels and by changing the amount of each and their ratio to each other you can dramatically change an image.

A vintage look. What would you have done?

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The Nikon D8xx series replacement is now here!

The D800 was amazing and just got better and better.

The Nikon D850 is quite rightly rated the best digital SLR ever made. Its unlikely it will ever be bettered.

The above shot was taken with my D800, its been my bread and butter working camera since it was released, as I try not to upgrade my cameras more then every five to ten years I have skipped the D810 and D850.

Since adding a Z7 to my cameras I have been waiting for a real pro level Z camera that would suit me. The Z9 and now the newly released Z8 are the two hot bodies at the top of my list.

Many wondered what the Z8 would be. Many hoped for a higher resolution camera like the Sony A7RV a very competent beast of a camera at 61MP. But you need to ask yourself, with the small increase that 61 MP over 45 MP gives in resolution, what do you loose. Speed is a big issue for some, its a slower camera but then at 61 megapixels it’s aimed at landscape and studio photographers, but at 61MP diffraction is going to be a big issue. Stopping down more than f/5.6 is going to start to impact the image quality, while at 50MP you can still use f/8. For some studio work that is not going to be an issue but 35mm format at over 50MP is going to be a niche product. While people want more, will they understand what they are loosing. If you want more resolution then 50MP you really want to go to medium format.

What Nikon released was a smaller Z9, you loose some function buttons and a PC port for studio flash, the large battery and built in GPS. So if your mixing old flash systems and need the extra custom buttons or shoot a lot with large lens and want the built in grip to help balance and the extra battery life, the Nikon Z9 is the one for you, but if your happy with losing the extra function buttons, quick access to drive modes, GPS and grip, plus poorer battery live, save some money to for more glass.

Nikon, Canon, Sony and Leica now have cutting edge mirrorless cameras for us, all with pros and cons, and differences in ergonomics. Despite what you will hear on the socials none of them have a clear lead and all are highly capable.