Still images in a video

I just came across this promotional video featuring some thirty of my images. 



This is part of a multi language promotional video series from Regent Lighting. I really like the effects they've used. Here's the video. For more of my professional work, you can look here.

It's certainly given me a few ideas for using some of the many images i have in my archives that are just taking up space.

Thanks for reading.

Lowry in 2012

I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I'm a bit of a philistine when it comes to art.

I do know however, what I like and what I don't like and I can (if pushed) recognise a Rembrandt from a Rubens.

What does this have to do with photography I hear you ask?

Well last week, as recounted in the post before this one, I was doing a photographic tour in the French part of Switzerland. One of my ports of call was the Geneva ice rink. My brief was to show how Regent's lighting system illuminated the rink. 

At first I shot from the first row of public seating to concentrate mainly on the folks enjoying themselves on the ice.

 Canon EOS5dMKII

1/10sec @f9 400 ISO

Then I went farther back. Right to the top of the stand to get the whole of the rink plus the lighting system. 

 

Canon EOS5dMKII

1/10sec @f9 400 ISO

Later when I was reviewing the images back at the hotel, the image that presented itself on my laptop display reminded me of a famous painting by the Lancashire artist L.S.Lowry.

The figures on the ice rink photo seem to have a "Lowryesque" look about them. A quick search on the Northern School of British artists website showed me the painting I was thinking of.

L.S.Lowry "Going to work"

I also seemed to remember that there was a song in the British hit parade which celebrated the life and times of Lowry. I couldn't however, remember anything about it. A quick Facebook message to my cousin Gary in the UK supplied me with the info I needed. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of pop music and gave me the answer within seconds.

Thanks Gary

Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs by Brian and Michael No.1 on 8th April 1978 for 3 weeks

Funny how the last post I did about art was also inspired by my doing a photoshoot in the French part of Switzerland. You can read more about L.S.Lowry by going here.

Thanks for reading.

I't's nice to see them so big.... Part 2

You may remember I wrote a post back in June about my images being enlarged for an exhibition stand at which the company I work for was participating?

We are currently exhibiting at the Basel based Ineltec technology exhibition and the stand designer Marcel Brodbeck has again made good use of my images. He has selected several of them to be enlarged to  two meters thirty. That's about seven and a half feet!

My favourite image (below) was made with the EOS 5d and my 50mm standard lens. I shot it hand-held on a ladder in RAW format. I then processed it in Canon's own DPP software and outputted it as a TIFF at 350 dpi.

That's me standing beside the EOS 5d enlargement

 This one was made with a Hasselblad

He's also made use of my images, although not on as big a scale elsewhere on the stand. There are fifteen enlargements of various sizes adorning the shelves which showcase the company's products.

The Ineltec exhibition runs from the 13th until the 16th of September 2011.

Thanks for reading.

It's nice to see them so big!

I work for an international company and as such, I get to see my pictures used all over the world in everything from brochures, posters, newsletters, catalogues and in magazines etc.

The images normally range in size from small postage stamp dimensions for use in pocket catalogues to A3 (29.7 cm x 42 cm) in books.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised recently to see some of my images blown up to 3 meters and used to cover walls at exhibition stands.

The following two images were taken at the "Restauro Ferrara" exhibition in Italy. The original image on the wall was snapped last year at the "Giannada Fondation" when I was in the French speaking part of Switzerland on a photo-tour last year.

What I find especially pleasing is that it was taken with my EOS 5d and a 17 - 40 L lens! That's right. A 24 x 36 sensor. Granted, a bit of post production work went into the image (not from me though. My thoughts of after image editing are here.)

This second image was taken at the "Sisseg" exhibition in Paris.

You can see two images on the walls. One was taken again with my 5d and the 17 - 40 The other was taken with a Rolleiflex SL66 and a 40 mm wide angle lens, using Kodak EPT tungsten balanced film in one of my studios in Basel. Which is which? Well the 5d is the one on the left.

 

On closer inspection, they both look equally sharp.



I took delivery of a digital Hasselblad earlier this year and am already blown away by the amount of details recorded. It'll be interesting to see what level of enlargement we can achieve with it.

 The old

... and the new (pic by Marcel Brodbeck)

As a side note. Both of the exhibition stands you see here were conceived, designed and produced by our in-house Visual Communications director Marcel Brodbeck.

Comments anyone?

Earning and shooting bread...

Interesting problem last week.

The company I work for has developed a range of LED lights which can be adjusted to complement various products from meat to designer textiles.

There's a setting for meat to bring out the succulent bloodiness of fresh produce on a butcher's counter to accents to subtly highlight delicate fabrics on a mannequin in a shop window. The lights can also be dimmed without losing colour.

Anyway, I digress.

We discovered at the last minute that there wasn't a suitable image of bread that we could use. I solved this by going to the bread department of a shop where the lights are already installed and working successfully.

The baker in charge gave me a selection of products to play with and I arranged them on a wooden palette. I set the EOS 5d on my Benbo and shot the buns in a vertical orientation because I knew from studying the layout that this would be ideal. My 28 - 135 zoom allowed me to crop tightly and fill the frame as envisaged by our art department.

The setup recorded with my Samsung Galaxy

That finished, I returned and they are now, as I write this, being incorporated into a brochure.

 Close-up. Again taken with the Galaxy

 That's it for now. My next assignment is to shoot some meat and a range of designer lights.

By the way. If you want to know more about these LED lights, my company has produced a microsite where all your questions will be answered. You'll find it here.

Thanks for reading.

Photography in the evening

T'was a full day of photography yesterday.

I spent the morning photographing a new lighting set up at Zaugg AG, a large construction company based in Rohrbach.

The afternoon and evening were spent about 10 kilometers (six miles) away surprisingly enough, in a another construction firm also with new premises by the name of Koenig.

Of particular importance to us was the exterior lighting provided by the company for whom I work, Regent lighting.

Dusk is the best time to photograph "night time" images as you sill get detail in the sky. Unfortunately, you only have about 20 minutes to a half an hour before it gets completely black and featureless.

Luckily, darkness is coming earlier as we draw towards the end of the year and that meant that dusk (or Dämmerung as it's called in German) is earlier. I took some twilight photos for Regent earlier this year and had to wait until a quarter to ten for it to start to get dark. Last night I began at a quarter to eight.

Luckily I have a standard exposure which I use for twilight shots. I set the exposure to 2.5 seconds at f10 and bracket one and a half f/stops each side. Then I combine all three later into a HDR which I DON'T (most of the time) Tone-Map.

Here's a picture I took of my EOS 5 on the tripod. I used my new Samsung Galaxy phone to test it^s night time capabilities.

 Taken with the Samsung Galaxy

This image however is the finished HDR picture.

Taken at 20:04 in the evening

 That's it for now. Have a great weekend.

Tom

I'm bushed

As mentioned yesterday, I'm now in the beautiful city of Lausanne. It's been a long day but very productive.

I've shot nine projects for Regent Lighting (the company I work for). Everything from the Lausanne public transport command centre to a small art gallery.

Everything has gone smoothly thanks to careful and meticulous planning. My images have been backed up and I'm now ready for bed.

I'll leave you with this image taken earlier in the art gallery. It shows me trying to figureout how to get the ceilng AND the floor in the same pic.(it was a very small gallery!)

Thankfully, my lovely 17 - 40 at the wide setting came to the rescue and gives an impresson of space.

Good night