Month: October 2013

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Reliance on the Internet

Macbook Air -top

 

Well the move is complete, we still have lots of work to do, including the basics like plumbing in the washing machine, but things are slowly coming together.  We have had very little internet access for the last few days, even now its still slow and flakey but its slowly getting better.

Its really surprised me how much we have missed the internet access.  Just about everything now a days is easier to do online.  Even little plumbing and joinery jobs we have been doing, I would usually just check on line and watch a few YouTube videos just to make sure I knew what I was doing.

We really do live on line lives today.

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No Blog Tuesday – and possibly Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

Steep Hill GigIts sometimes tough, sometimes very enjoyable, but when I started this blog I set the rules that I would blog at least once a month, and where possible four times a week; Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Well so far I have been pretty good and I have managed to keep to my rule.  For the rest of this week though I’ll not be blogging.  The reason is that we are moving.

No not virtually but physically.  Currently we live in a lovely village just outside Lincoln but it does lack room and when ever I need to use a studio I have to hire a space, either in Lincoln or my favourite studio in Worksop.

Studio Complex Lighting Setup
Studio Complex Lighting Setup

Well this week we are now moving to another lovely village near Lincoln but this time, we have room not only for my office, but also for my Photographic Studio; and also for Caroline’s Craft Studio.  It will be a while before we have everything fully setup, and will be welcoming clients and models to our new place but this week is the start.

So lots of hard work ahead but great times are ahead.

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World PhotoWalk 2013 – Photos

Another great World Photo Walk.  A good walk and the standard this year looking at the local flicker group is even higher then usual.  I have only edited a few of mine so far which you can see above.  The Lincoln shots that the group has put together can be found here:

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Its World PhotoWalk 2013 Time

Worldwide Photowalk 2013This weekend is the Worldwide Photowalk, there is still time if you hurry to find a city near you and subscribe.  Its free, its fun and you could win some great prizes as well as make some new friends and have a good day taking photographs.

I’ll try and blog about the day next week and publish a few of my shots.

University in HDR

 

Until then heres a shot I took of the local University on one of the previous photo walks.  Photoshopped and HDR used way over the top but I think the building can take it!

 

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Support for smaller formats

Richard & ChrisI tend to use a tripod quite a lot, part of this is down to my camera and lens choice.  Two of my cameras are impractical to use without a big heavy tripod, and several of my lens are far easier to handle with a tripod then hand held.  I have posted about tripods before here, but thought I would mention them with respect to the smaller formats.

My little Leica’s M4 & M8 and my Nikon V1 virtually never see a tripod.  Its one of the advantages for these smaller cameras, being small light and mirror less they can be used at slower shutter speeds with less impact of camera shake.

But one of the advantages of the smaller sensor’ed cameras like the Nikon V1 and Micro FourThirds is the reach one can get and the lower cost of long telephotos.

If you have a long telephoto for your SLR then your long lens may come with a tripod collar who one is available as an option, but if you look at the current long telephotos for the small sensor’ed cameras, none of them come with tripod collars.  This is a major limitation in my view.

Luckily third parties now seem to be addressing this, lets hope the lens manufactures learn from this.

Tripod Collar for FourThirds.

 

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Compositing and Backgrounds

Alice

 

I always like where possible to get things right in camera.  The above shot was taken outside in the garden, the sun was a light source but I also used a Elinchrom flash head and large softbox on a C Stand, the flash was actually the main source and the daylight as fill, but often its just not possible to do this kind of thing as the location is not suitable.

It is in situations like this where compositing can be the answer.  You take a photo outside to use as a background and take the main photo in the studio.  You then combine the two using photoshop.

Below is a quick fantasy composite that is not intending to be realistic to show what I mean.Composit

The key to making a realistic composite is making the lighting match and shooting with the intention of making a composite.

Composit Candidate

 

The above shot would make a likely composite.  The plain background was due to a seamless infinity curve in the studio, would make it easy to select just the model and place it on a background.

For the backgrounds I have never had a lot of success but then I read some tips on Scott Kellby’s blog about shooting for backgrounds.

Check it out and have a go, I know I will.

http://scottkelby.com/2013/how-to-realistic-shallow-depth-of-field-backgrounds-for-compositing/