Tag Archives: camera

Two Cows

25 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by in Photography, Wildlife

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Evening

Everyone has a camera these days, ranging from high end through to budget DSLR‘s, the ever popular “point & shoot” or just the plain old camera phone. But even though there are people with cameras everywhere how many people do you see pointing them at things – not very many.

People have cameras, but they don’t take the opportunities for pictures – if you have a camera and carry a camera then what’s the use of it being in your pocket or handbag. Take it out and point it at something and take a picture.

Here in the UK there has been a week or more of pretty bad snow (well, pretty bad for the UK) and I have been out and about in it a fair bit – but I have seen very few people taking pictures. Snow is a beautiful thing, it brings pictures alive, makes landscapes magical winter wonderlands and makes for people wrapping up in colourful scarfs.

I was out walking my two dogs, a regular dog walking area and I glanced up and saw these two cows just looking, it’s just two cows, but the pose and the snow and the look just said it all. Dozens of people walked on by – I didn’t – and now every time I look at this picture I smile

two cows

And putting a smile on a face is what a picture is meant to do – invoke emotion, be it a smile, a grimace, being startled or just going “wow”.

So next time you are out, in the snow rain or sunshine, just take your camera out and have a look around – you never know – you might see something that will make you smile.

 

Best – Colin

Shooting in Clubs

27 Thursday Dec 2012

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Evening

A couple of days before Christmas I was offered the opportunity to Photograph a cabaret  evening at a local venue – now this is not something I would normally shoot but I knew one of the acts personally and so took up the offer.

The venue seats around 200, reasonably large enough I thought to have plenty of light on stage so that I could get some good shots without going to too high an ISO setting.

Upon arrival I was shown to my shooting area, actually on stage – great – going to be able to get some good shots – I thought

There was some lighting on the stage when I arrived, but this was just a 40watt lightbulb (it wasn’t really, but the light wasn’t much brighter!). I went and asked the sound engineer when they would turn the “proper lighting” on and my heart sunk when he said the 40watt lightbulb was it.

When shooting in dimly lit clubs and other venues its important to have the right gear with you. Especially important is the type of lens, a fast lens is usually accepted to be at minimum a f 2.8 aperture and even faster lenses are available, 1.8. 1.4 and even 1.2.

Coupled with a fast lens you ideally need a camera body that is able to shoot in low light conditions at reasonably high ISO settings. Most modern cameras of today are capable of shooting at high ISO and with a little post processing acceptable results can be easily achieved.

When I got back to my shooting point I set up my body and attached my 24-70mm 2.8 lens – as I was close to the action this lens gave me the flexibility of being able to shoot at wider angles and also to get up close and shoot tight if needed. I’m a manual shooter, the only parameter I let the camera decide what to set for me is the ISO – I set auto ISO to “On” and this meant that I could manually set the aperture and shutter speed and the auto ISO feature of my particular body will adjust the ISO (within certain parameters) to enable a correct exposure.

With my lens wide open (f2.8) and my shutter set to 1/100 and with the 40watt stage light set up in place I was shooting at ISO 12,800 on occasions. It really is a testament to the technology available today for it was not that many years ago that shooting at ISO 800-1000 was considered “pushing it”.

On the night there were many performers, but this one singer stood out – an amazing voice. Gavin Lazarus

Gavin Lazarus

Gavin Lazarus

Gavin Lazarus

Gavin Lazarus

 

Gavin Lazarus

Gavin Lazarus

Gavin Lazarus

Gavin Lazarus

 

Gavin Lazarus

Gavin Lazarus

Gavin Lazarus

Gavin Lazarus

 

Best – Colin

iPhoneography

30 Friday Nov 2012

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Afternoon

iPhoneography – taking photos with your iPhone – right?

A brief history lesson first – back in November 2008 a fellow called Glyn Evans launched a Blog onto the unsuspecting world, called iPhoneography.com. Glyn’s Blog bought the phrase iPhoneography to the masses, more so because Apple has Patent rights on the term iPhone and to date have not pursued him for infringement – thus implying tacit approval. 

iPhoneography has become very big business these days. With the explosion of the App store there are literally thousands of Apps for the iPhone and many are specifically related to the Camera function of the phone.

Like most people with an iPhone, I have downloaded my fair share of “Apps” for the camera, I have the usual HDR Apps & Camera Plus, along with the almost mandatory Instagram App, but yesterday I downloaded an App I had only been made aware of via an advert in an online magazine, and its called Hipstamatic.

Hipstamatic uses the iPhone’s camera function to enable you to shoot square photographs, to which it applies a number of software filters to make the images look as though they were taken with an antique film camera. You can then choose among a number of effects which are presented in the application as simulated lenses, films and flashes. 

Its a pretty cool App to play with, you can change lenses and film types with just a swipe of your finger to give you hundreds of different possibilities when shooting – but does it cut the mustard?

One of the great things I learnt pretty quickly is that rather than having to change lenses and film types between shots (which could get very time consuming) you can enable a “shake to randomise” feature. Just shake your iPhone and you will get a random selection of lens and film type. I looked pretty daft shaking my phone vigorously  every few minutes!!

Here are twenty of the best, different subjects, different lens/film combinations.

Would I recommend Hipstamatic? You bet

Would I have taken any of these photos if I had been using my DSLR? Nope

Is it art? I think so 🙂

Foxy Lens - GS0 Film

GSQUAD Lens - Kodak XGrizzled FilmJimmy Lens - Ginas 1962 FilmLibatique 73 Lens - Kodak X Grizzled FilmFoxy Lens - Blanko FilmTejas Lens - Inas 1969 FilmLucas AB2 Lens - GS- 0 FilmFoxy Lens - XGrizzled FilmJimmys Lens - Inas 1969 FilmFoxy Lens - XGrizzled FilmLibatique 73 Lens - Sugar FilmMelodie Lens - Blanko FilmJames M Lens - GS-0 FilmHipstamatic - blog-16GSQUAD Lens - Big Up FilmLucas AB2 Lens - Inas 1969 FilmMelodie Lens - Dream Canvas FilmSusie Lens - Sugar FilmSusie Lens - Rock 11 FilmLucas AB2 - Blanko FilmLibatique 73 Lens - Inas 1982 Film

 

Best – Colin

Get Creative with White Balance

23 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by in General, Lighting

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Afternoon.

Light is all around us, both natural and man made – but not all light is equal. Every light source has a different colour, or temperature to them and this is why visible light is measured in degrees using the Kelvin scale. Warm light has a high number and cool light has a lower number.

Our eyes adjust seamlessly to these different light temperatures, or colours, but cameras are not so clever and have to be told what the temperature of the light is to render the scene correctly.

But just because there is a button that allows you to set the White balance correctly, doesn’t mean you actually have to set it correctly.

Take a look at these two images for example. The White Balance was set in camera at the time of capture, to 3330k

Of course, you can change the White Balance settings in post processing, using Camera RAW or Aperture or your own favourite image processor. But doing it in camera at the point of capture, allows you to instantly see the results on screen, so that you can adjust the settings if needed or discard the shot entirely.

 

A colour temperature of 3330k renders the scene very blue and makes the skin tones much cooler, but in these particular images the effect works well. Not all scenes would suit this colour temperature – and purists would discard the images as they are not “correctly exposed” – but from a creative viewpoint you can experiment and create some striking images, just by taking your camera off “Auto White Balance”.

For the purpose of comparison, the image below was taken straight after the image above, but the White Balance is set to “Auto”

 

This is a more natural looking scene, skin tones are more natural and the light appears how we would expect it to appear – white.

I’ll let you decide which you prefer.

 

Best – Colin

 

Cameras don’t take pictures, photographers do.

26 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by in Photography

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Afternoon.

Photographers are always chasing that one “special” image, be it the most dramatic landscape lit by the once in a lifetime sunset spectacular, the “killer” Motorsport shot where it all comes together with perfect composition, great motion blur or panning and the jauntiest of angles or that perfectly and meticulously planned and thought out studio shot – we are always after it.

Some of us are lucky to get that image, some of us are not – but nearly all of us are guilty of one thing, and that is buying the latest and greatest camera/lens/flash/or other bit of gear that, if you are to believe the manufacturers, “will make you a better photographer”.

It won’t.

That super fast 1.2 85mm prime you crave for, it won’t make you a better photographer, nor will that new super duper camera body with pixel count off the scale that you are keen to remortgage the house for. None of it will make you a better photographer.

To be a good photographer you have to “see” the picture, look at the way the light falls, look at the shadows, have an understanding of depth of field and to be able to visualise that in the scene you are looking at – photography comes from within.

If you can shoot well then you can take a compelling photo with an iPhone, a compelling photograph comes from inspiration, not from the latest equipment.

The photograph below was taken at my old studio, I was setting up my lights and getting everything ready and the model was just chillin’ in the window frame waiting for me. I turned around and immediately “saw” a picture, my studio lights were pointing the other way, my DSLR had the wrong lens on, so I quickly picked up my trusty X100, (a fixed lens rangefinder type camera) and asked the model to tie her laces on her ballet shoes – I took three images, no flash, just ambient light.

This image is my favourite – it was the models too and it just shows you don’t NEED lots of high end expensive equipment to take a half decent image!

Best – Colin

X100 shoots Ballerina Girl