Lunar eclipse obscured by clouds
Last night's lunar eclipse was only partially visible from where I live. I had planned on capturing a time lapse of the event but once I realised that I wouldn't be able to get the whole thing I decided to just go to bed. Shame. Apparently they had good visibility down in parts of England, plenty of pics up on the newspaper sites. Here's what I did get. The pic on the right shows the eclipse entering it's first phase.
Is split toning a good idea for wedding photos?
The image below has 'split toning' applied to it. Essentially the image is broken into highlights and shadows and then a colour chosen to represent each, in this case a subtle mix of orange and purple before being desaturated slightly. It gives the photo a nice look and feel which looks kind of 1970's to me! Maybe its just the curtains!
Anyway, this technique is very popular with American wedding photographers (as are another load of processing tricks). I struggled to find any wedding photographer in Scotland using a similar approach. Are they just lazy, behind with the times and prefer not work on their images, is it because we prefer far more traditional wedding photographs in this country or is it because the technique itself makes for unappealing photos?
What's in my camera bag?
Canon 5D MK2
Canon 24-70 F2.8
Canon 580EX and two 430EX
external battery pack for flash
Pocket Wizard's
light diffusers and gels
flash stands and sync cable
Rode videomic
LCD viewfinder
filter wrenches (for pulling focus)
spare batteries
Canon 1D MK2
Canon 70-200 F2.8
remote timer
small Manfrotto tripod
ND4 filter
Cokin filter with two ND8's
duct tape
lens pen
small USB cable
spare CF cards
By no means an exhaustive list. Other essentials include pen and paper, business cards etc. I don't take the filming stuff (mic, viewfinder) everywhere and usually just pack what I think I will need. I have another holdall which takes my bigger tripod, light stand, softbox, reflector, video slider and large white sheets. Good footwear and the right clothing are also very important.
Stewart brewing images
Been working on some pictures I took for Stewart Brewing, an Edinburgh based independent brewery who have produced some award winning beers. Not quite finished touching up yet, the best part was getting to sample all the beer of which I'm already a big fan!
Alex Salmond opens new university building
A few weeks ago, Alex Salmond, Scotland's leader, opened a new building at the University of St.Andrews. The building is dedicated to biological sciences and Salmond had a go at blasting some electrons with a laser. He later joked how years of playing space invaders as a teenager would come in handy. My press images are syndicated with universal news and sport and the scribe. I will come up with a better watermark at some point, even I could Photoshop that one out.
One BIG flash
I stumbled across this video of photographer Dave Black showing just how far you can go with off-camera flash. He regularly attaches up to 8 flashes (yes 8!) to a tripod to shoot sports photography.
Similar photos could be achieved with just one flash, so why so many? Canon's 580EX has an effective range of 58 metres whether you use one or fifteen.The real need for all this light is the shutter speed at which he shoots. Taking advantage of high-speed sync Dave is able to shoot at 1/4000 of a second with really long lenses! Fast enough to freeze the action in any sport and cut out almost all ambient light (if he wants). The cluster formation also softens the light by increasing the size of the light source too.
Of course he could just use more powerful lighting! This would require a bigger battery pack and would make the set-up a bit more cumbersome. However, it might look a bit strange but I will have to give this a go with a three flash arrangement. When I get my Pocket Wizard back that is.
Zombie Nation
It seems the whole country has gone zombie mad. 'Zombie walks' took place in Edinburgh and Glasgow a while ago as bystanders saught refuge from this horrible affliction. I myself was not immune to this particular strain and found myself helping film a zombie based music video. As camera operator I was heavily involved and the uber precise focusing required of the 5D didn't make it the best option given the speed of the shoot. I had fun though and the prosthetics looked amazing! Here is a still showing one of the props being set-up. Yes, that is an eyeball hanging out. And yes, she does have no clothes on.
Gordon Brown book launch
Former PM Gordon Brown gave a speech in Dunfermline to local school children last week to help launch his new book. I've always admired Gordon, mainly because he wasn't the archetypal leader found at the helm of most political parties. And he definitely wasn't the blank canvas that modern PR led politics demanded of him. He even said thank you to me as he left, although I didn't realise at the time as I had my head stuck in my camera bag! My press images are available from universalnewsandsport.com and thescribe.eu
Snow!
It snowed like mad here in sunny Fife last week. Certainly the deepest snow I can remember. Unusual sights included a horse reduced to eating branches off a tree and what can only be described as thick waves of freezing fog.Click to go full screen.
Broken Pocket Wizard
Pocket Wizard's are amazing gadgets. Capable of controlling remote flashes or cameras up to 1600 feet away. However, if you find yourself in my situation, one Pocket Wizard on it's own is useless. I noticed that a battery in one of mine had started to corrode the terminals and then last week to my surprise the terminal snapped off completely. A hard lesson for leaving the batteries in these little gadgets. Although I don't use them day to day for photo work I love knowing they are there if I have enough time to set them up. I had also planned on doing a few shoots over the coming weeks; can only hope the repair is cheap and speedy. This is the last photo I took using my beloved Pocket Wizards: my sister and nephew sat where I'm sitting right now in front of my computer screen.
When photography and film collide
The Canon 5DMK2 has been available for some time now. It was the first full-frame DSLR to incorporate HD video. It quickly became one of the most sought after cameras, oddly for both photographers and filmmakers. Certainly a first for what is essentially a 'stills camera' at the end of the day. Photographers were drawn towards the 21MP sensor. The same sensor found in Canon's top of the range 1DS MK3 - a camera with a price tag the same as two 5D's! For filmmakers, the huge sensor provides a beautiful, shallow depth of field equivalent to 35mm film, albeit digitally. In addition, the beauty of incorporating video recording into a DSLR is the ability to attach separate photographic lenses: from long telephoto to super wide all with very large (or fast) apertures. Of course, the camera is not perfect for both of these demands. Having owned one for some time now I can safely say that for photography the auto-focus is woeful, never EVER a substitute for the auto-focus of my 8 year old 1D MK2. On the other hand, I have dabbled with the video functions of the camera and have learned a few things about cinematography along the way. I've even worked on a few 'short films' because of it. It has always been said that photography is the best route into film work. Despite this I don't think I'll be pursuing a career in film...the future job prospects are no better than photography!
Anyway, here are some photos from a film I helped out with that was shot on the Isle of Skye. A whole week on a beautiful and remote island I hadn't been to before...great! I thought, then I realised after the first day that my camera assistant role would mainly involve carrying a load of gear around and being responsible for the most important equipment we had! When I had a moment to myself I was able to shoot stills for the production, here are just a few of the hundred's that were taken (click to view larger).
Quick before and after edit with Lightroom
I've only been using Adobe's Lightroom for a couple of months now but it has quickly become an indispensable tool. Let me show you what you can do with this software with a quick 'before' and 'after' photo edit. So shown to the right is the original image (click to see larger). A rather badly composed shot of a friend on his downhill bike. A simple off-camera flash hidden behind a tree to the rider's left. The flash here being perhaps the only good thing about this photo adding some much needed dynamics to the lighting. Without it I would have probably just deleted this one - although I like the rider's stance, a bit menacing. Now for some touching-up. After importing into Lightroom I cropped the image quite tightly - mainly to help bring the subject more into play. The fact that the woods are rather dark I decided to play on this and blocked out any sunlight coming through the trees behind the rider to give the impression it is night time. To do this I used the adjustment brush and completely underexposed all of the patches of light coming through the trees. Now the unique thing about Lightroom is that it combines some of the essential tools of Photoshop but in a much more user friendly and photography orientated manner. I would have struggled to figure out how to use the adjustment brush in Photoshop but not in Lightroom. I'm a complete Photoshop amateur so Lightroom is a perfect compromise for most of my needs. After playing with the some of the levels in Lightroom (highlights, shadows etc), I also adjusted the saturation and luminance of specific colours in the photo - another great tool usually only found in advanced editing software such as Photoshop. Below is the finished photo after exporting (click to view larger). Despite the hefty cropping I'm still left with a 3700x1800 pixel image that is still tack sharp and has plenty of detail. Far from perfect and perhaps a little 'Photoshopped' for some but nonetheless far more striking than the original.
Welcome to my blog!
As this is my first post I will give you a bit of info.
My name is Hamish and as the title indicates this is a blog about photography. Mainly my own photography but I will also mention great pictures, industry news, tips and techniques etc.
I would describe myself as a semi-professional photographer. It is not my main source of income (although I would like it to be!). Being self-taught I have learned a lot - and still do - about photography from the internet. So I thought it was about time I started my own blog.
The blog is intended as an accompaniment to my website - when I finally get round to building it that is! Now a lot of my best pics will probably not appear on this site as they could be stolen very easily, at times I will watermark stuff but I will always try to display high resolution images.
My name is Hamish and as the title indicates this is a blog about photography. Mainly my own photography but I will also mention great pictures, industry news, tips and techniques etc.
I would describe myself as a semi-professional photographer. It is not my main source of income (although I would like it to be!). Being self-taught I have learned a lot - and still do - about photography from the internet. So I thought it was about time I started my own blog.
The blog is intended as an accompaniment to my website - when I finally get round to building it that is! Now a lot of my best pics will probably not appear on this site as they could be stolen very easily, at times I will watermark stuff but I will always try to display high resolution images.
