Category: Photography

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Photo Tip: Sharpness 2

Sharpness.

Something all photographers worry about, this the second in a series of posts will look at:

Tripods.

Most people own one, but how many of us actually carry one with us. I’ll put my hand up. I certainly don’t use it as much as I should.

A few points to consider, a tripod thats not with you is useless.

Invest in a good one, a good head and get the brackets for your camera.

If your looking at saving money then spend all your budget on a set of legs.  Then when you can afford it buy the head later.  Then buy the brackets for the camera.  If your eager to start using your tripod then buy a cheap head that comes with a quick release platform, but beware you will need to replace it.  A poor head design will after a while frustrate you to the point you will stop using your expensive tripod.

If your after a recommendations for legs then Manfrotto and Gitzo are top of the class.

For heads then most pro photographers use not Manfrotto or Gitzo heads but Arca or Really Right Stuff Heads.  A warning to you, you can spend over £1000 on a good head.  For most of us that is over kill but do consider spending over £100 pounds.

Lastly a brackets for your camera.  A cheap quick release plate may do to start , if your using medium format or large format then this may be all you need.  For 35mm where you will be switching from portrait to landscape and back, and generally be more active on the tripod you may want to consider custom brackets that will not slip once fitted.

For more information see a previous blog entry here and also Chris Bennet’s blog.

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Model’s and TF

TF, used to be called TFP now often TFCD.

It means Time For Print or Time For CD.

Basically the photographer and the model both work for free unpaid, each covering their own costs. Both work hard to get some great images that would benefit both their portfolios.

At the end both get copies of the final edited images for their own use.

Most weeks I get approached by models asking for TF, generally I turn them down. This is not cheap photography, my time, the studio and the editing afterwards, all costs me money. The model must either be something special or I want to test out something in the studio, and this saves me from having to book and pay for a models time.

So models, feel free to contact me for TF shoots, but please do not be disappointed if I turn you down, I only have time for one TF shoot every month or so, but please do contact me again in the future sometimes I might just need a model and you could save the day.

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Lightroom – Importing Presets

Installing Lightroom presets can be a little tricky but as Mat from Lightroom Killer Tips has recently found out, there is a far easy way;  Just Drag and drop the preset file on to your Lightroom icon. Thanks Matt.  Another great reason for having a Apple Mac, it just makes things so easy for you.

If you’re a Windows user then double click the preset file. It will most likely say it does not understand the file type. Associate the file type with Lightroom and then double click will install it.

Have not tried it in Windows, as I do not have a Windows machine handy to test it on, only Apple Mac’s, Linux, and Solaris at present. Must rebuild that Windows 7 test machine of mine.

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Loading a Hassleblad 120 back

Film: Loading a camera.

A bit of a lost art now a days.  Most 35mm SLR users have now switched to digital, and most of the last 35mm SLR’s were auto loading.  For users of medium format, large format camera’s, film is still the medium of choice.

For Hasselblad users of the V system, loading a film for the first time can be tricky so heres a very useful youtube video to help you out.

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Wildlife and Early Mornings

An early start and I was at the location for just before dawn where I met Chris. Chris being the wildlife photographer while I am more a people and landscape photographer.

We set ourselves up near the lake and waited for the early morning sun to appear.

As far as the weather it started fine but a gentle drizzle soon started.

There was continuous over cast cloud overhead, and good light never appeared, so it was a no go for landscape photography.

As we setup a Heron appeared and settled on its nest on the island in the middle of the lake. More birds gradually appeared but with the heavy cloud cover the sun did little to improve the light levels.

With the cameras set to high ISO (ASA) we practiced our photography but with little hope.

A few Cormorants flew in as did some Canadian Geese, to join the Ducks and Cootes already on the lake.

We spend an hour photographing the wildlife before the rain started to get a little too heavy even for our weather sealed professional lens and bodies so we packed a way and headed for the nearest Starbucks to warm ourselves up with hot coffee.

A shame we did not get any good shots but wildlife photography is difficult and one should always practice when one can. You will never get that award winning shot if you stay home in your nice warm bed. At least thats what I keep telling myself.

If you want to see some better shots check out Chris photos from last week. His shots from this morning are here.

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Corporate Portraits

Its a long day, today.

The day started with some corporate photography.

Not always the easiest subject. It was an award presentation. As usual the room was less then idea, the presentation took place with a glass wall behind, so I had to ask them to move slightly to make the best of it.

I have yet to back up the photos, complete the editing and photoshop the final selects which are due to the customer on Monday.

Not only that, I have a wildlife and landscape shoot tomorrow at Dawn. Oh hard is the life of a photographer.

Looking forward to getting home and at least getting a little sleep. I love landscape photography but my downfall is always the early starts.

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A final day in North Yorkshire

Well today Friday was our last day.

On the Wednesday, we took a trip up to a region of North Yorkshire popular with a number of famous Landscape Photographers, near Pateley Bridge in Nidderdale.  I have to admit whilst not travelling too far I managed to get a number of pictures I am pleased with.  We also visited the oldest sweet shop in England.

Thursday was a trip to Scarborough, I got some good shots of Scarborough Castle.

Today, Friday, was our final day, so we decided on one more castle to visit.  The morning was spent walking around Helmsley Castle. With the low winter sun, illuminating the castle it was well worthwhile carrying around the medium format kit, tripod and Digital SLR.

Carrying all of this around really makes me think about getting a high quality large sensor compact camera.  Then when I want to haul around medium or large format equipment, i’ll just use the compact for reference shots with potential.

Afterwards we treated ourselves to a cafe latte and a slice of quiche, wow the slice of quiche was huge.  If you ever in Helmsley try the Castlegate Cafe.

Of course did we get any good pictures in this week?  Well I certainly found some great locations, well worth going back to, but you will have to wait for my picture of the month.

I would say that the light improved as the week went on and as the light improved so did the pictures.