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20/02/2017

May – A Great Month For Photographers!

May 2017 promises to be a great time for photographers able to visit London’s museums.

‘The Radical Eye’ exhibition of Sir Elton John’s photo collection, which includes some true photography classics, runs at Tate Modern through until 21 May. Meanwhile David Hockney’s exhibition, including video works, is at Tate Britain until 29 May.

The Sony World Photography Awards 2017 exhibition is at Somerset House from 21 April until 7 May and Photo London is at Somerset House from 18-21 May.

To my mind that all adds up to a visual feast of inspiration…

…and the weather should be getting better, creating more opportunity to get out and shoot.

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05/02/2017

The Challenge Of Finding Something New

It really can be quite a challenge to find something new in a much photographed city.  I avoid the number one ‘go to’ locations most of the time.  Even so, walking the streets and parks of Bristol I often find that a ‘new’ image that captures my attention turns out to be a subject someone else has already photographed.  (There is, I think, a degree of inevitably about this.  There are thousands of photographers, from seasoned pros to city visitors seeking to record their trip on a ‘phone, creating images every week.)

That may mean I reject a shot in favour of a different subject/location.  Alternatively, it may result in the picture being given additional scrutiny to determine whether it can reasonably ‘compete’ with others of a similar nature.  Maybe, the angle, framing, light, or perhaps the lens used serves to make it just sufficiently different to pass my personal web publishing criteria.  Then again, sometimes I just like the shot enough to post it anyway.

I’m under no illusions about the fact that I will continue to ‘find’ many photo opportunities that have attracted others before me – and will more in the future.  It can be a little disheartening. Nevertheless, I’ll bet there are many photographers roaming the streets of Bristol running through similar thought processes…

… and, after all, challenges are fun.  That once in a lifetime image could be round the next corner!

25/01/2017

More Pixels Save The Day

There’s no doubting the benefits of having more pixels in an image when you want to crop.  In some cases it can really save the day.  The image of Abbots Pool to be found in the Bristol Parks gallery (and currently showing on the Home page as the ‘Latest Image’) started out looking rather different, see below:

In fact, it was nearly rejected from the ‘keepers’ folder of that day’s shoot.  I felt the original lacked a real focal point.  The eye did not know whether to look left at the pool or right up a woodland path. Yet, there seemed to be something there.  I settled on a severe crop to remove the right hand side of the frame and move the focus to the small bridge in the foreground and the pool in the background.  That drastic crop might have been too much for a lesser sensor but with today’s high megapixel counts it’s not really an issue.

The lighting still needed a tweak, so the sky has been darkened, the foreground shadows have been brought up a little and the light across the bridge and pool modified to lead the eye more towards the pool.  The addition of a vignette also helps draw the viewer into the frame in the Bristol Parks gallery version.

It’s actually not the best photograph from the day but what it hopefully does is provide a reasonable  visual ‘description’ of the location – and perhaps there’s just a hint of Turner about it.

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16/01/2017

Old Film Cameras – A Great Way To Learn The Basics

In these days of digital cameras and autofocus why would anyone want to bother with film cameras? Well, it seems plenty do and Kodak is even bringing back its Ektachrome 100 product.  There are many photographers who love the particular look and feel of film and there is certainly a good reason for ‘bothering’ as a way of learning the basics of photography.

With today’s camera ‘phones and point & shoots, it’s easy to capture images without ever really understanding the relationship between the three underlying elements – aperture, shutter speed and ISO – that determine whether a picture is correctly exposed.  Sure, the theory is not hard to get to grips with and when you graduate to a better digital camera you’ll probably soon learn once you switch out of ‘Auto’ mode.

I would argue, however, that there’s nothing like a completely manual film camera when you are learning the basics.  I mean really manual – no batteries, no computer chip, no opportunity to change ISO other than by changing the film in the camera (or ‘pushing’ the film when its developed).  You have to select the film for the light conditions, take a meter reading, then set the shutter speed, choose the aperture and turn the focus ring to get your subject sharp.

Under such circumstances, you soon instinctively know which combination of aperture and shutter speed you need when its sunny, cloudy, or downright gloomy.  Also you think carefully before each exposure because you only have 24 or 36 frames on a 35mm camera film.

Is using film an expensive way to learn?  Not really.  You can pick up an old fully manual 35mm camera for a few pounds from a charity shop or on-line.  Then you have to buy the film and pay for processing (unless you also fancy having a shot at doing your own). All in all, that’s not a lot of money to get a firm photographic foundation.  Once you move on to something more expensive in the camera line, with a computer on board to do the thinking when you don’t want to, you’ll probably still find you shoot a few rolls of film every now again just for the fun of it.

Go on-line and search ‘old manual 35mm cameras’ or similar for loads of advice on some of the vintage film camera options.

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08/01/2017

No Need For The Best Gear To Be A Wildlife Winner

Finally made it to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards exhibition at Bristol’s M Shed.  As usual, the images on show are stunning. From underwater life to mountain vistas, many of these pictures leave you yearning to visit dramatic, far-away places and aspiring to match the skills, and patience, of the winners and finalists.

For those suffering from Gear Acquisition Syndrome, the technical details of the kit used may give rise to a degree of envy but it’s also worth looking at the images and equipment lists from a different perspective.

• Not all the images are taken in exotic locations, some are much closer to home.
• Whilst high end cameras predominate, there’s also a reasonable smattering of lower end, less expensive cameras, including near entry level DSLRs and compacts.
• Great and ‘modern’ glass is certainly on show but I also spotted a Helios 44, 58mm. These manual lenses were made in various versions, from the late 50s through to the 90s.  You can pick them up second hand for just a few pounds and they have something of an enviable reputation among vintage lenses.

The message must surely be that you shouldn’t discount yourself from entering simply because you don’t have the very best gear and haven’t been on shooting trips to far flung places.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition is organised by the Natural History Museum and the exhibition is on at M Shed, Bristol until 5 March 2017.

Details of the Bristol exhibition at:

https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/m-shed/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-2016

Details of the competition at:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/wpy.html

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02/01/2017

Don’t Forget The JPEGs

If you are looking for the best image quality and greatest manipulation opportunities, the chances are you shoot/save files in RAW & JPEG.  It’s then a fairly natural next step to open up the RAW files in Lightroom and begin adjusting them to meet your requirements.  It’s certainly been my usual workflow approach. Other than a quick initial thumbnail reference, the JPEG’s haven’t really had much of a look in – until recently, that is.

After spending time tweaking a RAW file to get the image as close as possible to the way I wanted it and exporting the result as a TIFF back into my main image folders, I happened to open the associated JPEG in Photoshop and thought, actually, it looked great straight out of the camera.  I then opened up the TIFF and displayed the two images on screen side by side.  They were similar enough for me to question why I had just spent a while working on the RAW file.

It hasn’t changed my workflow.  I still go first to the RAW files and work with them but I do also now often use the JPEGs as a means of cross-referencing the changes I have made.  This is particularly the case when shooting conditions were favourable and my objective is to offer a faithful representation of the subject matter, rather than a creatively rendered and modified version.

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