Wednesday 3 March 2010
We've Moved!!
Today has been quite exciting because I've just set up my new 'blogsite'. It's a blog that's a website and a website that's also a blog. I won't be updating this blog again. The new blog can be found here.
Tuesday 2 March 2010
SWPP Awards
The SWPP competition judging continues throughout the year and I'm pleased to report that this month I've achieved Silver Awards in the Pet Portraiture and Science and Nature categories. Silvers are often received with mixed feelings - the Society recognises that there can be little separating Silvers from the coveted Gold awards and as such each Silver is re-assessed by an independent panel later in the year.
The tally so far stands at 3 Golds and 3 Silvers.
The tally so far stands at 3 Golds and 3 Silvers.
Friday 26 February 2010
Shooting In Low Light
The recent SWPP conference was the biggest in industry history, packed with photographers, journalists and speakers from around the globe. The schedule is always a packed one, with hundreds of seminars and lectures running over 5 days at the Novotel in London's Hammersmith. It's a chance to learn from the finest photographers of our generation, and it's a bit of a buzz to see so many famous names in one place. It's also really hard to decide which seminars to choose, particularly if budget only allows a couple of days of attendance. My decision to attend Morag MacDonald's lighting seminar was a very good one, as it turned out, because working in low light levels is something most photographers approach with trepidation or even horror. There's so much to go wrong - we're forced to use wide open apertures and slow shutter speeds, not to mention high ISO/ASA ratings. Adding supplementary lighting can have its own pitfalls, depending on your location and your agenda, but Morag's lecture taught us to see opportunities for striking photography when previously we might have chosen to put our cameras away. Morag is also an absolutely lovely lady to work with and every member of our small group felt we were taking away some pretty special and cutting edge lighting techniques.
During the first hour of her presentation Morag reminded us of the way light has been employed by the great masters of the art world, over hundreds of years. Those classic lighting patterns are, of course, what we try to emulate today but camera sensors don't record information as it's seen by the human eye, making each low light shoot a challenging one. Moving into the modern era, the theme of Film Noire affords great opportunities for creative photography, the lighting is in many respects outlandish and unnatural, but nevertheless dramatic and mercifully easy to recreate.
Talking is one thing, but putting it into practice is what matters. The low winter sun was just starting to set when we ventured outside the hotel to explore our first exercises, and that is working with available light. That doesn't just mean natural light, as some believe, but it means seeing and utilizing any light which is present in and around your location. This might be in the form of sunlight, or the lights adorning the interior where you're working, or street lighting. Using that light creatively is what counts, and our job is all about doing what we can with the hand we're dealt. As light levels fall, we need to supplement the available light in some way and here small portable lighting systems come into their own. This was my first introduction to LED lighting which is fantastic for recreating the film noire effect mentioned earlier, where primarily (or sometimes only) the face is illuminated. LED lighting is of course very blue, or even greenish, and when shooting RAW this can be corrected, but I rather like the funky-fashion feel of the strong colours it generates. Obviously as the light is falling we're starting to push the ISO up and up - beyond the point where many of us are comfortable. I can honestly say I've never shot at 3200 ISO before, and I dreaded seeing the results, but I was pleasantly surprised when I came home and edited the files. Having a good-natured and wonderfully striking model is a huge bonus and Jo was a bit of a star that day.
Morag is a well known author and trainer, and is based in Bristol.
During the first hour of her presentation Morag reminded us of the way light has been employed by the great masters of the art world, over hundreds of years. Those classic lighting patterns are, of course, what we try to emulate today but camera sensors don't record information as it's seen by the human eye, making each low light shoot a challenging one. Moving into the modern era, the theme of Film Noire affords great opportunities for creative photography, the lighting is in many respects outlandish and unnatural, but nevertheless dramatic and mercifully easy to recreate.
Talking is one thing, but putting it into practice is what matters. The low winter sun was just starting to set when we ventured outside the hotel to explore our first exercises, and that is working with available light. That doesn't just mean natural light, as some believe, but it means seeing and utilizing any light which is present in and around your location. This might be in the form of sunlight, or the lights adorning the interior where you're working, or street lighting. Using that light creatively is what counts, and our job is all about doing what we can with the hand we're dealt. As light levels fall, we need to supplement the available light in some way and here small portable lighting systems come into their own. This was my first introduction to LED lighting which is fantastic for recreating the film noire effect mentioned earlier, where primarily (or sometimes only) the face is illuminated. LED lighting is of course very blue, or even greenish, and when shooting RAW this can be corrected, but I rather like the funky-fashion feel of the strong colours it generates. Obviously as the light is falling we're starting to push the ISO up and up - beyond the point where many of us are comfortable. I can honestly say I've never shot at 3200 ISO before, and I dreaded seeing the results, but I was pleasantly surprised when I came home and edited the files. Having a good-natured and wonderfully striking model is a huge bonus and Jo was a bit of a star that day.
Morag is a well known author and trainer, and is based in Bristol.
These images were shot with a 5D and one of my favourite lenses, the Tamron 28-75 f2.8 - I always choose this lens when I want to travel light and when I need reliable autofocus in dim conditions.
Visit our main site here.
Visit our main site here.
Monday 1 February 2010
Sussex Photographer Wins Three SWPP Golds
I'm absolutely delighted to announce that this month I've received three Gold Awards from the SWPP (The Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers) and have been nominated for the coveted Photographer Of The Year 2010, which will be announced at a gala dinner in London in January 2011 (filled with all the movers and shakers in the industry). I'm very pleased to say that I've also received a Silver in the Pictorial category. I'm over the moon. The competition is an international one with around 2,000 submissions arriving each month. For years I've looked longingly at the images recognized by the Society, never thinking my own work would be given the same credence.
Visit our main site here.
Visit our main site here.
Monday 11 January 2010
Rain, rain, rain ......
Portrait photography in Sussex isn't always plain sailing, and it was pouring down with rain during the second week of December, so yet another shoot had to be postponed. If it's raining there's no point going ahead since it's harmful to the equipment and uncomfortable for the subjects. Another problem we have at this time of year is the lack of available light, and that particular Saturday was pretty dark. This causes some obvious technical difficulties in terms of the light's quality and directionality, which is so important for natural portraiture. However, it did mean I could enjoy a much-needed day off, and so I accompanied my partner to Surrey for a family birthday. I grabbed a couple of minutes outside with a one-in-a-million model, who needed no direction whatsoever (this is why I love shooting children so much, and this one is adorable).
There was just enough ambient to auto-focus most of the time, but with an active subject I was looking at shooting wide open at a fairly high ISO in order to keep the shutter speed at a usable level. Indoors, the use of strobe would have been intrusive, so we're looking at high film speeds/ISO and wide open apertures. Shutter speeds will be even slower, pick your moments carefully, accept some softness and consider your DOF. This is a great opportunity to engage in the candid reportage shots many of our subjects ask for. If you're at an event as a guest it's nice to pass your hosts copies of any pictures they like.
Kit for this outing was simple - my favourite dual format setup (two loaded bodies, one 35mm FX, one APS-C) with two f2.8 zooms. I could have used a fast prime indoors, but the zooms meant I wasn't in anybody's way. I still love the look of film grain so I rarely, if ever, apply NR to my monochrome low light shots - there's really no need to when shooting full-frame providing the noise pattern isn't objectionable.
There was just enough ambient to auto-focus most of the time, but with an active subject I was looking at shooting wide open at a fairly high ISO in order to keep the shutter speed at a usable level. Indoors, the use of strobe would have been intrusive, so we're looking at high film speeds/ISO and wide open apertures. Shutter speeds will be even slower, pick your moments carefully, accept some softness and consider your DOF. This is a great opportunity to engage in the candid reportage shots many of our subjects ask for. If you're at an event as a guest it's nice to pass your hosts copies of any pictures they like.
Kit for this outing was simple - my favourite dual format setup (two loaded bodies, one 35mm FX, one APS-C) with two f2.8 zooms. I could have used a fast prime indoors, but the zooms meant I wasn't in anybody's way. I still love the look of film grain so I rarely, if ever, apply NR to my monochrome low light shots - there's really no need to when shooting full-frame providing the noise pattern isn't objectionable. Nothing beats a simple traditional head-shot, and I used a soft-focus lens for one of them, and from there the venerable 70-200 f2.8 IS to compress the background a little. Just enough light kicked back off the dining room window to get some catch-lights into the eyes. If you're really picky, try and get them at either 10 o'clock or 2 o'clock where the pupil joins the iris.
Visit our main site here.
Visit our main site here.
Friday 8 January 2010
Winter Wonderland
The snows have hit Sussex badly in the last few days (I dread to think how people in Scotland and some other regions are coping) and the small estate where I live is impassable by car and dangerous by foot. Our roads are deserted and many of the country lanes where I live are suffering from fallen or bending trees - many of which are lying at or below head height. This is terrible for many workers and inconvenient at best for others. I'm supposed to be attending the annual SWPP international photographers convention in London next week, but it's looking increasingly unlikely that I'll get there, unless a taxi is able to collect me on a neighbouring B road, and the trains are running.
Today a walk to the village was a necessity, so I decided to load up with a camera and document my excursion.
Today a walk to the village was a necessity, so I decided to load up with a camera and document my excursion.
Tuesday 5 January 2010
Rights and Permissions
There are countless misconceptions which surround the business of photography, many of which are adding to the increasing frustrations of the job. The internet is littered with myths regarding image capture and usage. The law is clear and unambiguous however this is not supposed to be a definitive or formal statement on any subject and should not be regarded as such. You should seek clarification from your legal adviser on any issues which affect you or your business. Any commentary made here relates to the law in England and Wales. Laws may differ in your jurisdiction.
There is the widespread public belief that a photographer always requires permission to photograph a person or their property. That is of course not the case, or news reporters, event photographers, street photographers, wedding photographers, and paparazzi would not exist as we know it. In England and Wales you may engage in photography in a public place or at a public event (where there can be no reasonable expectation of privacy) or in any location where photography is not expressly prohibited (such prohibitions often apply within museums, historic monuments, some places of business and military installations). Property owners cannot prevent you from taking pictures of them or their property, even when on private property - providing you have permission to be there, however any site owner may impose their own conditions upon those entering their land. An invasion of privacy might be exemplified by the use of a long lens to capture images of individuals in their home or a private place such as a toilet.
There is an erroneous belief that there exists a separate set of rules and laws governing minors. This is not the case and it is not illegal to photograph children in any public place or any place where photography is permitted (providing you do not intentionally photograph children naked, or attempt to sexually exploit them via the sale or display of indecent material). Parental consent is not required. Be mindful that in some circumstances the photographing of children may draw unwanted attention towards the picture-taker and many schools adhere to strict policies in response to extreme concerns by some parents. Be aware that some children's events may impose restrictions upon photography, even if you are a parent of a child attending that event.
Nobody can demand that you cease your activity nor are you required to submit your camera, cards or film to anyone unless they possess the necessary warrant. In some cities, or parts of cities, photography is not permitted, this relates to Section 44 of the Terrorism Act.
The moment the shutter is squeezed, under Copyright law that image is the property of the person who has taken it, and the subject(s) within that photograph do not have any rights or claims to that image. The photographer may publish and profit from the images they have taken providing the image is not defamatory, is not subject to the restrictions mentioned above, and that the usage is 'editorial' (which includes the use of images as art or for public interest). Almost all professional photographers have wording in their Contracts and Terms reminding clients that they have the right to display the images they've taken. However the photographer is required to gain written consent if they wish to use those images commercially - such as passing them to a stock library, or to any party who may use them to promote, advertise or endorse products or services. On these occasions the photographer must obtain permission from the subject (or the subject's guardian if a minor) in the form of a signed 'model release'.
I am yet to encounter a client who is uncomfortable at the thought of our studio displaying pictures of them, their family, or their property but nevertheless we all need to be mindful of any subject-matter which may be sensitive. Rights aside, it's professional courtesy to consider the feelings of our clients - not every Bride wants her 'boudoir' shots made available for her new in-laws to see and not every mother-to-be is comfortable with her most intimate portraits taking pride of place on your website. Most photographers comply with most reasonable requests, others don't, some apply a surcharge to their fees to offset the loss to their portfolio, and others may choose not to work with that client. How you operate your studio is your concern, but common sense should always prevail.
Further information can be found at the following sites: The Telegraph, e-Photozine, UK Photographer's Rights, The Photography Pages
Visit our main site here.
There is the widespread public belief that a photographer always requires permission to photograph a person or their property. That is of course not the case, or news reporters, event photographers, street photographers, wedding photographers, and paparazzi would not exist as we know it. In England and Wales you may engage in photography in a public place or at a public event (where there can be no reasonable expectation of privacy) or in any location where photography is not expressly prohibited (such prohibitions often apply within museums, historic monuments, some places of business and military installations). Property owners cannot prevent you from taking pictures of them or their property, even when on private property - providing you have permission to be there, however any site owner may impose their own conditions upon those entering their land. An invasion of privacy might be exemplified by the use of a long lens to capture images of individuals in their home or a private place such as a toilet.
There is an erroneous belief that there exists a separate set of rules and laws governing minors. This is not the case and it is not illegal to photograph children in any public place or any place where photography is permitted (providing you do not intentionally photograph children naked, or attempt to sexually exploit them via the sale or display of indecent material). Parental consent is not required. Be mindful that in some circumstances the photographing of children may draw unwanted attention towards the picture-taker and many schools adhere to strict policies in response to extreme concerns by some parents. Be aware that some children's events may impose restrictions upon photography, even if you are a parent of a child attending that event.
Nobody can demand that you cease your activity nor are you required to submit your camera, cards or film to anyone unless they possess the necessary warrant. In some cities, or parts of cities, photography is not permitted, this relates to Section 44 of the Terrorism Act.
The moment the shutter is squeezed, under Copyright law that image is the property of the person who has taken it, and the subject(s) within that photograph do not have any rights or claims to that image. The photographer may publish and profit from the images they have taken providing the image is not defamatory, is not subject to the restrictions mentioned above, and that the usage is 'editorial' (which includes the use of images as art or for public interest). Almost all professional photographers have wording in their Contracts and Terms reminding clients that they have the right to display the images they've taken. However the photographer is required to gain written consent if they wish to use those images commercially - such as passing them to a stock library, or to any party who may use them to promote, advertise or endorse products or services. On these occasions the photographer must obtain permission from the subject (or the subject's guardian if a minor) in the form of a signed 'model release'.
I am yet to encounter a client who is uncomfortable at the thought of our studio displaying pictures of them, their family, or their property but nevertheless we all need to be mindful of any subject-matter which may be sensitive. Rights aside, it's professional courtesy to consider the feelings of our clients - not every Bride wants her 'boudoir' shots made available for her new in-laws to see and not every mother-to-be is comfortable with her most intimate portraits taking pride of place on your website. Most photographers comply with most reasonable requests, others don't, some apply a surcharge to their fees to offset the loss to their portfolio, and others may choose not to work with that client. How you operate your studio is your concern, but common sense should always prevail.
Further information can be found at the following sites: The Telegraph, e-Photozine, UK Photographer's Rights, The Photography Pages
Visit our main site here.
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