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Colour – technically correct or artistic choice

Nikon Z7 35mm f/1.8

Do you use auto white balance, let the camera get the exposure, or use a colour checker and grey card. Meter your flash carefully with your flash meter, or just guess by eye.

All approaches are valid but having a system that gives you a consistent base is in my opinion is best, its certainly what works for me.

That saying, getting things technically correct is not the be all of a great picture. Having a consistent base to work from makes life easier when you want to get creative.

In the picture above, I have tweaked the colour balance, saturation and added colour grading to the shadows and the highlights. The resulting image is certainly not ‘correct’ in exposure, white balance or colour but I find it a pleasing image.

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Nikon Z30 released, what is it for

The new Z30 from Nikon is a great new vlogging camera from Nikon.

Many Nikon users are asking ‘what is this for’. Its not a camera for a lot of us, but with USB charging while in use, a flat video profile, 2 hours recording it hits a lot of the spots YouTube users want.

Its a little expensive I feel, but it is the same price as the equivalent Sony.

The two biggest let downs are, no sensor stabilisation; so your lens need VR or you use the digital stabilisation. Secondly, we lack the wide angle lens needed for selfie work.

I would love to see a camera like this with a corner EVF or add on EVF, for travel, ie a more rangefinder style, that I feel would also sell well.

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Flash System Support

Olympus and Nikon have been the leaders in new flash tech from the camera brands; but now as the camera market shrinks Nikon are now engaging with third parties to enhance their flash system support.

This has been an area that Leica have been lacking but I see now with the release of a new controller from Profoto they now have Leica support which will please quite a few people.

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Profoto – New Trigger

I am a huge fan of Profoto, yes its not cheap but your paying for the R&D and the licenses for the frequencies that Profoto use.

Last weekend I was at a local studio and I was not using my Profoto gear but their gear. I wasted a good half an hour getting their triggers to work correctly.

The fans of the cheaper Chinese studio flash systems will gleefully point out that their controllers have had power readout for a while and are cheaper, but us Profoto users who don’t use the A10 as their controller but have the older ProFoto controller will definitely upgrade and leave our old triggers as spares.

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Jubilee – Her Majesty’s 70 year on the throne

The British love a celebration, and this weekend we have good reason to celebrate. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has now been on the throne for seventy years.

No matter what your views on the monarchy you have to agree she has given us loyal service representing the county for all that time.

Our village has gotten into the spirit of things, with decorations, we also have a small beacon in the pub carpark which we lit.

The queen is the head of the Anglian church here. Our village church has a lovely bell tower.

So we had the bell ringers in ring a peal of bells all morning.

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Shooting Events

Two years into COVID-19 and events are starting to open up.

Last month we had the local duck race at one of the local Lincolnshire villages.

I could not resist making one of the pictures I took there, photo of the month.

We still need to be careful, in doors I am often still masking up, but its nice to see local events like this happening again.

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Outdoor shoots – starting to plan

The weather is starting to improve, and so as well as booking studio shoots I am now starting to arrange a few outdoor shoots.

Last year I did some great work outdoors in the good weather. I go a few good shots early in the year but it was cold and the models were brave.

Here’s to better weather and summer shoots.