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Projects – Kings Cross

Kings Cross, Leica M4, Film HP5Plus
Kings Cross, Leica M4, Film HP5Plus

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.

Kings Cross Project- Leica_

 

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
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.

 

 

 

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A Compact with an EVF

Leica Compact with EVFIn the continuation of the partnership with Panasonic, we have one of the most interesting small sensored compacts yet.

Since the world went digital viewfinders are the exception rather then the rule.

Fuji with the little X10 produced the first small compact with optical view finder and have upgraded it this year with the X20.

Now we have a new small compact to add to this list of one.  The Panasonic model is called the Lumix DMC LF1.

Panasonic LF1While the Leica model is called the Leica C Type 112.  Its a jointly produced model with the electronics being Panasonic and the lens being Leica.  The only other difference is the firmware, with Panasonc and Leica using their own firmware giving them each a different colour signature.

Leica C CompactThe big thing about this camera is the small Electronic Viewfinder a first for a small sensored compact.

Most people would go for the Panasonic model at £200 cheaper it makes sense if you live in the EU.  The EU enforces a two year guarantee for electronic goods, so apart from the Leica look from the files due to the Leica firmware the only extra you get is a free license of Adobe Lightroom.

If you live outside the EU then the Leica makes more sense as you get a two year guarantee with Leica products and depending on which non EU country you buy it in you may only get a six or twelve month guarantee with the Panasonic.

So its your choice, is the Leica Badge, the Leica Firmware and Colour signature, a license of Adobe Lightroom V5 and the two year guarantee worth £200 to you?

 

 

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Summer Colour or Black & White

I find my photography tends to develop in phases.  I’ll shoot mainly colour for a few months then shoot mainly Black & White for a few months.

This summer has seen me shoot a lot of Black & White.

Flower Basket

 

The reasons are complex.  Most people think of summer shots as being colour, like the shot of the flower basket above.

This last weekend saw me taking a lot of photographs, while I was working on Sunday shooting for a client and providing them with nice colour photographs as they expected, I always give them a few Black & White options.

The Saturday saw me in Lincoln as it was Lincoln Folk Week shooting for myself.  There was lots of dancing and events going on.  Many of the dancers were wearing colourful outfits, but once I got home I found myself converting many of the photographs to Black & White.

Lincoln Folk Weekend - Dancing before the Cathedral

The reasons were mainly two fold.  First, some of the shots were taken in bright midday sun, like the shot above, the very bright light and high contrast was at the limit of the dynamic range of the camera.  While a lot of post processing did get it back under control, it was easier to produce a Black & White image which suited the lighting conditions better and this also brings me to the second reason, I just think some of these shots look better in Black & White.

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Apple System Status

Apple ServicesCloud Computing is the new buzzword. Rent computing power, hosting, email etc all from on line providers. Its not really new but has become a lot bigger.

The last few weeks some of the big players have had major outages, Google, Microsoft and Amazon have all been hit. A self inflicted outage recently occurred at Apple, due to a security issue. Apple closed their developer site for a week while the issue was fixed.

As more and more of us rely on these services repliability and knowing whats happening becomes more important.

If your an Apple user then its likely you use their iCloud services. If you are having issues you can find out the status of Apple’s services here:

http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/

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Wacom Intuos Pro

Back in the golden years of Hollywood the retouchers tools were a soft B pencil and a scalpel. In the darkroom cardboard masks and little circles of card to stuck to wires to dodge and burn was required.

Charlotte

In the hands of experts, blemishes were removed and complexions made perfect.

Today we use our mouse or touchpad, but often for more detailed work the experts day a pen and tablet is the order of the day.

This week is Photoshop World and many manufactures and software developers are releasing new versions.  One of the offers that did catch my eye was the new Wacom Intuos Pro from Wacom.  I am not sure yet if this is genuinely a new pen and tablet or just a rebrand of the well known Intuos 5, but as I will be having a major office redesign soon I may just have to test one out and see if there is a place for one in my current workflow.

 

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Adobe & Creative Cloud

Creative CloudAdobe came in for a lot of criticism when they release the Creative Cloud.  If you just wanted a single app is was expensive, if you wanted and used a lot of the apps then it was good value.

As a photographer I want Lightroom and occasionally Photoshop.  For users like me the full price is too much.  Well today during Photoshop World Adobe announced a new offer better focused on photographers.  They say its a limited offer which would be a shame as its much more focused on what a photographer needs.

It will be interesting on the take up.

 

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Is Film Over?

Kings Cross, Leica M4, Film HP5Plus
Kings Cross, Leica M4, Film HP5Plus

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.

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TV Resolution – SD, HD, 3D and now 4K

As with still cameras which have steadily increased in resolution, with have seen TV’s continually step up in recent years.

From CRT TV to Flat screen, then HD; in our consumer society there is always a need to make people upgrade. 3D was the next big thing, but while moderately successful in movie theatres was less so in homes. Now we have the next big thing 4K which has 4 times the resolution of HD.

I suspect we will see still cameras with 4K soon, we have already seen some mobile phones with 4K but I expect thats more marketing over usability.

One interesting aspect of this is going to be what happens with media and to broadcast. While Blue Ray can cope its likely we will need an updated format as we are close to its limits and that leaves no room for extras. Broadcast is even more of an issue, we would loose the majority of our channels as there is insufficient bandwidth to deliver 4K channels in the current numbers.

Interestingly Sony have come up with an interesting answer. Last year there first 4K TV coast $25,000, this year the current model is $5000. For deliver of content they have released a 4K media server at $700. Movies can come on either SD card or by download.

For many physical media is a thing of the past and it seems 4K may mean that for movies as well.