Well after the power cut at my home village earlier in the week giving me lots of fun with Lightroom, we had another bigger power cut this evening taking out a lot of Lincoln and the surrounding area.
Film Scans in LR4
It made me think about our modern reliance on power and so tonight I packed my Hasselblad bag with some medium format film and am going to try and shoot some film for the next few days.
The down side is that I will not be able to share the images, well at least not for a few months with you on this site as it takes me a while to finish a roll of film, get it developed and scanned and published.
If I am shooting fixed subjects like landscapes or buildings then is likely to only be a few shots of each scene. When shooting wildlife or people then I can end up with a thousand or more images to have to sort through.
Well the first job is to get those image on to internal hard disk of my computer. I then import and copy them into the local Lightroom. The import also copied the files to an external disk. Once the majority of the editing is complete the Lightroom files get moved to external disk. By this time Apple’s time machine will also have a copy on its disk so I’ll havE several copies before the memory cards get wiped and I also clear down the local hard disk for the next set of images.
Something to remember with Adobe Lightroom V5 is that you can create something called a smart preview. This enables you to edit and image but not actually have the image with you, great for when your out and a about but wanting to get some work done on an old MacBook Air with only a small SSD inside.
So you now have a thousand or so images sat in Lightroom, how do you quickly find the great ones. Well there are several ways but I find it a lot easier if I use two monitors, one set to grid view and the other set to loupe. This enables you to flick through the your images in grid view but evaluate them properly.
I also tend to group similar photographs together, you can then just pick a couple of good ones that ones that are very similar.
I also find its good to do an edit close to taking the photographs but also go back over your old work and look again at the ones you did not select. To often you can chose photographs because of the amount of effort it took to capture and not based on the content. Time can be a good equaliser.
Its always good to have a few photography projects running, I have one based on female backs, one one drinks and two based on location, one a local park, with each shot taken from exactly the same point through a period of several years and then this one based on Kings Cross in London.
The Kings Cross Project is a set of photographs showing the people and architecture of this great train station. I have been photographing the area with either the Leica M4 using film or my M8, with all shots processed as Black & Whites.
I was in London again yesterday so once again while waiting for my train back home I took the opportunity to work the area some more.
Kings Cross Coffee Break
As projects go this one is pretty relaxing and focuses on the building and people in it. When ever I go to London it makes a break to work on this and build on my ideas.
People are often surprised to find out that I still use film.
I sometimes shoot 35mm film on my Nikon FM2 and my Leica M4 for fun.
I shoot landscapes on my medium format Hasselblad and my Large Format 4 x 5 Ebony, both of which I still use film.
Its a bit like an artist using watercolour or oils to paint with, some artists use one, some the other and still some, both. As a photographer I mainly shoot digital but film for me has a place too.
While the selection of films is gradually reducing, film use is growing, and some film manufactures are increasing their production.
Today Kodak came out of Chapter 11, they are back in business. Film users are worried but I think there is still hope. We have to admit film now is always going to a small niche product and I am not hopeful for colour but I think Black & White has a bright future.
I always find it amusing when I see photographers with cameras costing thousands of pounds using cheap consumer zooms. The rule has always been spend the money on the glass not the camera.
Now some consumer zooms are very very good. The Nikkor 70-300mm is a good case in point, while a consumer lens and built to a price, it does seem a little flimsy in its construction compared to the pro glass but for its price it produces excellent results. Sometimes having super zoom so you can react and get the shot instead of having to change lens can be an advantage.
I see comments on forums saying Canon glass is better then Nikon or Olympus is better then Panasonic. Judging a lens one must consider the design criteria. Sharpness and Contrast are what people want from modern lens, Canon and Nikon prioritise one of the other and each manufacture has picked differently so the look from the lens is different. Depending on which you prefer you might prefer one manufacture over the other.
Also how a lens treats contrast and sharpness can make it suitable for different purposes. Many portrait photographers like the look of older lens, they seem to blow and soften the highlights in an extremely pleasing way and while you can do it in post production there is a trend now to trying to get it right in camera again, and some of the great classic portrait lens can be purchased quite cheaply.
Its making use of old lens that has made micro four-thirds so popular. Adapters are available now for most of the lens available and with the crop factor of that format, the cameras are using the sweet centre spot of the lens.
When your talking exotic glass then people immediately think about the Leica Noctilux 50mm. Over the years this lens has gotten faster and faster with the latest version being now f/0.95. The other lens thats worth mentioning in the Leica world is the new 50mm Apo-Summicron M which is f/2. Now that does not sound like a special lens but this 50mm was designed to be as close to perfect and modern design could make it. No matter what aperture you use its close to perfect. Leica said a few years ago after they had designed this lens that they would not put it into production as no one would buy it. At nearly six thousand pounds for an 50mm f/2 you would be hard to justify it, but Leica changed their minds and put it into production and its selling like hot cakes.
The other exotics that people think about are the telephotos. The 600mm and 800mm monsters, used by sports and wildlife photographers. These lens have a fantasic price and a fantastic weight to match. If you can afford one, then you also need to budget a couple of thousand for a matching tripod and gimbal head.
While Nikon make some very big lens that are special order, the only off the shelf big telephoto until recently was the 600mm, but now they have a new 800mm which comes with a matched teleconverter to bring it up to 1000mm.
The wildlife and landscape photographer Moose Peterson recently posts a fun little YouTube video about this lens which you might want to check out. If your interested in this kind of lens then remember to be sat down when you read out the price ;).
I have shared this one before with you before as a photograph of the month, but I thought I would share a little more information about this shot.
Technically it is very simple, I think it was shot at 1/60 at about f/8 on a Leica M4 with a Leica 35mm Summicron. The film was Ilford HP5 Plus and was developed in Kodak X-Tol developer. Its been many years since I last had my own dark room so I now send out my films and have then developed and scanned for me.
I see a time in the future that I may have to go back to doing this again myself as less and less labs are around to deal with film, particularly Black & White and none 35mm film such as 120 and 5 x 4 film which I also shoot. Lets hope its a long time before that happens.
This is a local antiques shop near to the Bailgate in uphill Lincoln, I find it a interesting view point. So I setup opposite and waited for interesting people or interesting compositions to occur. Up hill Lincoln is a great area for photography and an area I return to about once a month.
Handbags costing hundreds of pounds, shoes that cost more then a months wage, fine watches and fine wines. Apart from the last two I cannot quite see the point.
Limited edition electronic equipment does not make quite as much sense as a piece of finally crafted none electronic equipment, often I feel some of the limited editions devalues the company. Over the last few years many photographers feel that Leica moved away from real photographers. The company ignored digital with the exception of the re-badaged Panasonic compact cameras, and kept releasing ever so strange and odd limited edition film M series cameras. Well at least it kept the company afloat, and now with the release of the Leica M (digital M 240) and the Leica S medium format SLR’s, they have not only embraced digital but have produced two stunning lines of cameras that are attracting professionals back to the fold. For my medium format use, I use the excellent Hasselblad V series. This modular camera system has been the main stay of many professional wedding and studio photographers. You can either shoot film or digital, just chose a suitable back module. For a while now Hasselblad having been pushing their newer H series system but some of the changes to try and lock photographers into upgrade paths have made some switch back to their trusty V series or with the ever increasing megapixel race in SLR’s, people have switched to full frame digital SLR’s like the Canon 1D series and the Nikon D3x and D800e. Some even went to the Leica M9 with its full frame CCD sensor giving a similar feel to medium format.
Now though it feels that Hasselblad are moving away from the needs of real photographers. With the release of the Ferrari Red Hasselblad H and now the rebadged Sony NEX-7 people feel that Hasselblad have lost there way. They have now announced the discontinuation of the V series. Well at least that in a way is good news for me, its driven down the cost of Hasselblad lens so I can buy some more, and its proving good news for Leica, Canon, Nikon and PhaseOne to sell there highend offerings.
For a while now if you bought a Leica you got a free copy of Lightroom V4. Leica have now made there expected announcement that all new cameras, whether a re-badged Panasonic to a Leica M or Leica S, will come with a license for Lightroom V5.
On this weeks Photographic trip there was two things I wanted to capture on film. A
picture of Tintern Abbey which hopefully I had achieved the other day and a photograph of the Wye valley from the view point known as Symonds Yat. This was the goal for today.
Symonds Yat is also well known for its nesting Peregrine falcons that nest in the cliff face. So today I would be packing both the large format camera equipment but also the the digital SLR’s with a selection of lens from the 24-70mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8 and finally the 300mm f/2.8. Just in case I also had a Nikkor TC17 which to the lay person is a converter which can magnify the effect of a lens by x1.7 but only lose a stop and a half of light.
When we arrived the light was quite poor so I left the large format equipment in the boot of the car and just went up to the view point with the 35mm SLR equipment. The Peregrine falcons were nesting in the cliff face opposite but proved to be far to quick on the wing to allow a mere amateur wildlife photographer such as me to get a clear shot. The buzzards in the area also made a brief appearance but they too kept their distance.
We had a view visitors on some of the nearby trees but I did not manage to get a clear shot of any of them. The above shot was about the best it got.
After a few hours of perseverance we headed back to the cafe to partake of the local lamb pasty. We then decided to pack up and go for a walk in the hope that once the sun started to set the weather might improve to enable me to capture the valley on the large format equipment.
We left the bulk of the camera gear in the car and just took the Leica and headed out on a short four mile walk through the forest. Unlike yesterday where we were carrying the large format gear and the big tripod up some quite challenging slopes today was much easier.
I spotted a few views that might make possible photographs in the future and its definitely an area I would come back to.
With the walk finished we went back to the hut near the view point to enjoy an ice cream and while there the clouds started to break and a hint of blue was to be seen. It looked like the might be a small chance of getting the photograph I wanted, so Caroline kindly headed back to the car to collect the large format gear and tripod.
Did the light improve and did I get my shot? Well when I get my film back I’ll blog some more.
I have photographed Tintern Abbey on two previous occasions. The first was on a major motorcycle tour where we visited each of the major points of the Island that is Great Britain. The first time I took a few snaps on a dull day. The second time was bright midday sun. Neither was conductive to great photography but I managed some pleasing reference shots.
Today the goal was to try and a get a good shot with the large format Ebony. I thought the best option was from the English side of the river. Yesterday I had tried to find a spot with the car but that proved impossible.
So today we had a long walk. We parked up at the Abbey and walked to the nearest bridge. On crossing I had hoped to be able to photograph the Abbey from the East bank but the bank was private property so the only option was to climb the tree lined valley side.
We kept on climbing but the trees kept obscuring the view back to the Abbey.
We knew from a previous visit and asking local people that some fine views could be had from a viewpoint called the Devils Pulpit but were unsure as to what it looked down on and exactly how far it was.
We kept on climbing and despite the difficult terrain and having to carry the large format camera equipment an a big heavy series five Gitzo tripod we eventual found ourselves at the viewpoint called the devils pulpit.
It did in deed have fine views of the river and of the Abbey so I set up to photograph it. It would have been better with a telephoto lens but the longest lens I current own for the Ebony is a standard 150mm. Still with the rocks that made up the Devils Pulpit I had a bit of foreground interest.
Once I get the film developed I’ll blog about this shoot some more but the climb was worth while.
