Always use protection. . .

In my courses, I always stress the importance of using a filter on the front of your lens.

I am not talking about polarisers, grads or ND filters here. A simple skylight, UV, haze or protection filter is good enough.

Every couple of weeks a post pops up in my Facebook thread about whether or not to use one. The opponents argue that lens manufacturers go to great lengths to ensure that their products are optically perfect and putting another piece of glass at the front will degrade the quality. The proponents argue that with a good quality filter, you will not notice the difference and will be afforded another level of protection.

I am (and always have been) an advocate of using a filter to protect the lens for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I never use lens caps and the filter protects the front element when in my bag and when carrying it around. Secondly, I would rather wipe any dirt or water from the filter than risk smearing or scratching the front element. Thirdly, if the camera slips off your shoulder or is knocked against a hard surface, the filter will take the brunt of the damage as mine did last Tuesday. 

I returned from a photography class and had my Fujifilm x100 on my shoulder. The camera simply slid off my shoulder and fell lens first onto a marble floor. The only damage was to the filter. This was soon replaced and nothing major happened to prevent me continuing to shoot, nor did my camera have to be sent away to be fixed*.

I have always had a skylight, UV, haze or protection filter on the front of my glass. I do make sure though, that it is of good quality. How do I do this? I simply buy a well known brand (Tiffen, BW, Hoya etc)  if I don't know the brand, I will simply take a couple of pictures at varying apertures with and without the filter. They will then be enlarged to 100% to check if there are any glaring differences between them.

The picture on the wall behind me on the picture above was taken with a Canon EF 50mm f1.4 lens fitted with a Hoya skylight filter. I defy anyone to tell me that the quality would be better without a filter. the enlargements are three meters by three meters!

So my conclusion is to use protection in the form of a clear filter on the front of your lenses.

Thanks for reading.

* To add insult to injury, the lens hood which would also have protected my lens, fell off, unknown to me, on the way to the photo class!

A couple session

I received a message last week from a model friend with whom I had lost contact with. Steffi had moved away from the area but was now back in my neighbourhood and made contact with me.

We talked a while and it was suggested that I take some updated photos for her portfolio. I was happy to do so and duly turned up at their house a day or so later. 

It was freezing cold and very overcast outside but thankfully her and her partner's apartment was lovely and warm. After a meal we set to work.

Because it was quite dark with the room lighting, I decided to use my Lightsphere Chinese clone to soften the flash. I attached it to my Speedlite 430 EX II and fired away. I really enjoy using my Lightsphere clone. The effect it has on the flash output is quite dramatic and turns what would normally be harsh shadows into soft pleasing romantic light.      
 

My Lightsphere copy on the table and at work

After moving some tables and chairs to make some space, we began the shoot.

The images above were all taken with the 24 - 105 using flash and the lightsphere clone. The ISO was 400.

After the sitting room, we went to the bedroom to get some photos of Steffi and her partner Marc as a couple. I wanted a light airy "feel" to the images so I mounted my two Speedlites on tripods and bounced them off the ceiling. The flash output was set to overexpose by one stop. To add to the "light and airy" mood, we took the duvet covers off. To trigger them, I used Phottix Odin transmitter and receivers. The Phottix Odins are simply fantastic to use and haven't ever let me down. They are way cheaper than Pocket Wizards and are more versatile.

I told Steffi and Marc to ignore me and just interact with each other. Their two cats joining us from time to time, helped produce some very pleasing images.

 One of the few images without flash

 

All the images above were taken with the 50 1.4.

Marc was also kind enough to take some images of me "at work".

Although, as usual, I took too much gear with me, I ended up only using my EOS 5D MKII, the 24 - 105 zoom and the 50mm 1.4. Still. It's better to take too much gear and not need it than to take just a few items and find that you miss something. 

Steffi is a real professional and a pleasure to work with. Nothing is too much trouble for her. If you'd like to see her online portfolio, you can use this link (German).

That's it for now. Thanks for reading and please feel free to leave some comments below.

On location. Olten

A quick snap taken yesterday whilst on location doing interiors at a doctor's practice in Olten. I used the EOS5D MKII with a 17 - 40 for the room photographs and my EOS 7d with a 50 mm f1.4 was used for detail pics.

Reflecting on keeping it simple

Back in June and early in July, I wrote about an impromptu photo session with Kristina. The gear I used couldn't have been simpler.

A camera body (in my case, the EOS 5d MKII), a standard 50mm lens, a flash (Speedlite 430 EXII) and a silver reflector.

Although I have a backpack full of camera gear I chose to work as simply as possible because it would make me concentrate on the picture and the framing as I wouldn't be able to zoom back and forth.

The shoot was in my bedroom at home and I spread two black fur blankets on the bed for a minimalist, non intrusive background. 

The bedroom faces west and because the shoot took place in the afternoon, we had strong light coming through the window which wasn't necessarily a good thing!

I posed Kristina mostly with her back to the light source to give her blonde hair some backlighting. This of course threw her face into shadow. This was solved with the aid of my Lastolite reflector. This reflector has been a constant in my camera bag for over twenty years. It is small, light and portable and a great help at "kicking" some light into the shadows.

 The reflector shown folded and open. 

This was the gear used for all three shoots

 

At the start of every pose, I would take a meter reading from her face with my aperture on the camera set to about f4. the ISO was set to 400. The exposure was then noted and transferred to manual mode. This was for two reasons. The exposure was unlikely to change and the wide aperture meant that the background would be slightly out of focus. Because of these parameters, I had to make sure that the eyes were always in focus. That's what people look at first on a portrait.

On this image, the reflector is just in front of  Kristina's 

knees throwing light back onto the face. f3.5 1/400sec

I was so please with the results that a few days later I received a call to take a basic head and shoulders portrait for a magazine story.

Although I had all my gear in the car, I turned up for the shoot with the above equipment.

To better show the difference when using and not using the reflector I took these two pics.

Before and after using the reflector 400 ISO

1/80 sec @f5.6

Of course you don't have to buy a reflector and can make your own. A colleague of mine used to use an A3 sized piece of card with aluminium foil stuck to it. Make sure though that it's the dull side that is reflecting and not the shiny side. The light will be softer and less prone to making your subject squint.

One negative aspect of making an A3 reflector as mentioned above is that it wasn't foldable, was cumbersome in the field and prone to getting scratched, torn etc. my advice would be to get a Lastolite or similar. take a look at their website. They have some interesting tutorials.

That's it for now. Hope you've enjoyed this piece. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Tom

Kristina part 2. Another impromptu photoshoot.

I wrote back in June about an impromptu photo session with my sister in law Kristina.

She visited again last week and I managed to persuade her to pose for me again. This time she was less self concious, especially after seeing the finished results from our last time together and this new attitude came across in the photos we made.

As before, I only used my Canon 5dMKII set at ISO 400 and coupled with a 50mm f1.4 lens.  My Speedlite was always bounced from the ceiling and a silver reflector was used to direct light back into her face when her back was facing the (window) light.

The complete set can be found on my website here.

Thanks for reading.

Back in time.

I recently attended a photo exhibition by an online colleague of mine Roger Albani. the event was held on the premises of a former watch making factory in Welschenrohr.

Sharing some of  the exhibition space on another part of the factory floor was an elderly gentleman surrounded by old blueprints, measuring devices and LOTS of watches in varying states of dismantlement.

 

After viewing Roger's images, I walked over to the other stand and began to inspect some of the very interesting and fully functioning devices there.

The owner of the stand turned out to be on Herr Alois Zäch who was responsible for development of the "Tourist" which was first illuminated wrist watch back in 1957 manufactured by the Tourist-Everlight Watch Company, Ad. Allemann Son, Welschenrohr, Switzerland.

 1957 advert for the 1st illuminated watch.

Herr Zäch had lots of stories to tell and was a mine of information about the "Tourist". He worked at the factory in Welschenrohr until it shut it's door in the late eighties and still has lots of memorabilia.

Some of the memorabilia includes the props used at the 1957 Basel fair to display the watches' illumination capabilities.

The advertising blurb says "illuminates the watch

 face and the surrounding area" The watch on this

 image (top left) is the one illuminated.

So. I hear you ask. "What has this to do with photography?" Well back in the day (as they say) I was always on the lookout for interesting articles to cover in order to hone my skills at reportage and also as a way of making money by sending said articles to magazines such as "Weekend", "Titbits" or maybe "Woman's Own".

I still have the urge, as a photographer to discover more about the world and the people around me and am not averse to asking questions. I decided there and then to do a little reportage on this interesting time in the Swiss watch making industry. Not to sell, but just to record and take some pictures.

Mr Zäch interested me because he represents a bygone era when electronics began to get smaller and smaller and be integrated into everyday items.

I took all the images that day with my 5D MkII and a 50 mm f1.4 lens.

    

(Left) original press release for the Tourist debut at

 the Basel fair in 1957. (Right) blueprints and watches.

Also on display was the battery charger. At that time, the watch didn't use small button cells as is the norm today. Instead, you had to hook it up to a charging device.

  

   Two images showing the charger open and closed.

And last but not least. The reportage would not be complete without a  photo of the man himself.

Herr Alois Zäch

Here's an excerpt from "WATCH. History of the modern wrist watch. By Pieter Doensen"

The first watch with a display illuminated by a small lamp of 1.2 mm, is the 'Tourist Everlight' of Ad. Allemann Fils S.A. of Welschenrohr, Switzerland. Three models were shown at the 1957 Basle Fair: a steel, goldplated and 18 K gold version. A small lead battery, the 'DEAC Dry-Accumulator' had to be recharged by a normal 1.5 V battery. In the United States, the 'Robot Everlight' was distributed by Robot Time New York.

So all in all, a very interesting day. I got to see some interesting images by Roger and learnt a little bit about Swiss watch making innovation. Oh! On another note. On the way home I spotted a lovely little shrine beside the road and made a mental note to return and photograph it. More later.

Thanks for reading.

Kristina. Impromptu photoshoot

My wife's sister came to visit us over the weekend.

At my suggestion we arranged an impromptu photoshoot. Using only one lens (a 50mm f1.4), a silver crumpled reflector and a Canon Speedlite on my 5d MkII which I always bounced.

We went through a couple of changes of outfits and 167 images.

I started off with a few head and shoulder shots just to relax her (she's a bit self conscious) and always let her see the results every few minutes.

Two hours later we had a great selection of images.

What do you think?

There is a more complete selection on my website here.

Take some time out

I was on my way to work last Friday when I saw this beautiful sunrise.

I am by nature not an early bird so I'm thankful for the Winter mornings when the sun can be seen (weather permitting) rising.

I parked beside the church in our village because this afforded me an elevated view on the sunrise. I used my EF 50 mm lens and selected a speed of 1/160 to let me handhold it. The aperture chosen by the camera (in TV mode) was f5.6 The ISO speed was 400.

I ran the RAW file through Canon's DPP programme and sharpened it up a bit. The shadows were lightened just a touch and the saturation increased slightly. What you see here is as near to reality as I can get it.

When I record things like this, I am glad that I have such a passion for photography and that nature constantly provides me with such great subject matter.

Thanks for reading

How did I do that? Part 2

Banishing reflections

I work a great deal with reflective surfaces in my job. It could be a highly reflective silver grid on a light or even just the inside surface of a light reflector. Either way, these surfaces produce reflections which detract from the image.

Add to the fact that these surfaces are sometimes concave or convex then the problem gets worse as the curved surface takes in the whole room!

For small surfaces it's relatively simple to place the object in a white light tent. For larger objects it can get problematic and the images may have to be extensively retouched.

I had this problem recently when I was photographing one of a new range of LED lights produced by the company for which I work.

I had done all the catalogue standard shots and wanted to finish with a shot showing the light source itself.

When I looked into the reflector through my viewfinder, I could see myself! The light was just a bit too big to place in a light tent so I came up with another solution.

Here's what I did:

 

Camera is mounted on the FOBA stand. There's also a spirit level in the hot-shoe.

First result: 

That's me reflected in the silver reflector.

A large piece of white card with a lens sized hole in the middle is called for:

I used the self timer function on the camera to give me ten seconds of time to position the board correctly

 

This was the final result.

I make no apologies if you already know of this technique, but I simply like to share my knowledge.

Thanks for reading