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Posted on December 17, 2010
Whitstable harbour; 9.00am; -3 wind chill; absence of sunlight; descending mist; 45 minute shooting time. The first time in my life that my fingers got so cold that I couldn’t press the shutter button.
Option 1 – fake sunlight with strong backlight from Speedlite 580EX at full power, Stofen diffuser, shooting into the light to create a bit of flare; second Speedlite 580EX at 1/2 power through a softbox. Pockewizards. 100-200 ISO, f5.6-F8 @ 1/60 – 1/80. Ambient something like ISO 400 F8 @ 1/60 deteriorating in sheltered areas to ISO 800 F4.0 1/125.
Option 2 – natural light only. ISO 800 using overhang to push light into subject’s eyes from the front.
Posted on November 26, 2010
One of the magazines I supply editorial photography to – NHS’ “Your Health” – scooped “Best Magazine” at a top awards ceremony in Brighton on Friday (19 November). The 15-month-old title, produced by NHS Eastern and Coastal Kent to encourage healthy lifestyles, was announced a regional winner at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) PRide Awards. These awards recognise public relations success and achievement and a sparkling trophy and certificate were presented to members of the Communications Team at the Brighton Metropole. CIPR Chairman Lisa Bradley MCIPR said: “The judges said Your Health is a professional publication which clearly meets the needs of the audience it targets in eastern and coastal Kent. The photography, layout and content are clear and consistent and deliver an engaging read when combined with real life stories “.
Posted on November 6, 2010
I don’t normally go straight into a techie comment, so if you don’t want that and just want to go straight to some images from the week, please skip the next bit.
Now the nice people at Canon, via the CPS network have fixed the following faults with only a modest dent to my credit card – but here’s the story. I get my camera gear serviced annually whilst away on holiday and so at the end of August everything came back to me via courier in the usual way. I’d noticed that I’d been losing a number of shots due to inconsistent focus which I has initially put down to poor tracking in AI servo or human error. But these started to happen at 1/250 @ 5.6 – subject’s eyes not pin sharp and a creep in focus to the right. I reported this to those that know but was not happy with the margin or error that is allowed for. So, at a conference this week I found myself with a load of shots that were front focusing by 6 inches – seriously. If you locked onto the speaker’s eyes, only the lecturn and mic would be in focus. Thinking it was my 70-200 I switched to my 24-105 – which returned an intermittent error 99 because the IS had decided to break…suddenly I was the pilot on Airbus with the second engine about to shut down. I limped back to base and managed to salvage enough – but the great close up shots were unusable.
The problem was the horizontal focus sensors on the 1d had taken the equivalent of LSD and were permanently tuning in and dropping out. The IS on the 24-105 – even when you switch it off – will still return an intermittent error – displaying the same symptoms as lens/body connection issue, battery compartment issue or dirt on the connectors.
Anyway, some pictures from the week : off-camera flash as fill-in or as dominant light by balancing for or killing off the ambient. I call the latter the “Observer Mag” look. The interior shots in the mix are all lit with brollies and positioning of lights – yes, old school rather than just bracketing ambient or using ETTL but it means I don’t have to correct anything in post production or painting in layers!
Posted on October 28, 2010
Lovely bloke is Mr Wakeman – but he plays the piano with his eyes firmly shut! Below are a few extracts from a week of being the official photographer for the Canterbury Festival. Willard White, McChrystal & Ogden, Begbie sculptures and Stacey Kent to follow on Saturday. Technical note -Wakeman, softbox and second flash off-camera; Begbie 2 x Speedlites and Pocketwizards; everything else, stage lighting, mainly 800 ISO.
Posted on September 20, 2010
Teokath is a fantastic bridal wear boutique that opened this summer in the historic Cathedral City of Canterbury, Kent, showcasing a stunning collection of designer bridal gowns.I was shooting some interior pictures for use on their website and other promotional material.
The fit-out is amazing, but from a photographer’s point of view contains a few challenges. It’s large, it contains lots of mirrors and has contrasts sitting at the far ends of the spectrum – deep, dark greys and blacks and whites and creams of the wedding dresses. Wedding silk and other fabrics are reflective and can easily burn out. The lighting in the shop is fantastic for creating mood which means that it is low in places and must not be overpowered by pumping flash everywhere.
I had just under two hours and have 2 speedlites. In an ideal world I would have used gels to balance the lighting – but we’ve got florescent and tungsten bouncing around and I’m relying on the fact that the mixture of colours actually might work in my favour if I can create pools or shafts of white / daylight balanced light to make things look as 3D as possible. The bottom line is not to kill the ambient to death and not to blow the highlights on the dresses – but I must use shafts of light where I can to create lines / definition.
I put a brolly on one light stand to make a larger light source and also a second light (no brolly but with a Stofen) on another stand. The brolly light is positioned to make large corridor shapes in lieu of a window or doorway, placed behind walls. The Stofen is used for directional light because I can’t use bounce flash (it will pick up colours from the walls or be absorbed into the grey/black furnishings). I think most of the time I’,m at between ISO 200 and 400, F8 and shutter speeds no longer than 1/25. Tripod, mirror lock up and timer. At ISO 200-400 we’re in control of the noise which can creep in on longer exposures. I think lower ISO produces better contrast but that’s just my opinion. Now at these settings and with speedlites we’re not going to light the whole room – but we don’t want to. There are times when with portable lights to completely relight a scene, with ratios and areas of shadow just like you would a film set – but not today!
Problems? Well, the 5D Mk1 still drives me mad with the limited 9 focus points, the outer points always struggling in less than perfect light. That’s my fault for selling my 1Ds to have something lighter in weight. It’s the only reason I haven’t bought a 5D Mkii because the autofocus system is the same as the Mki. The only other thing was reflection of the lights in the mirrors or myself or the tripod. There were a couple of places where I just could not light the scene I wanted. There were a few times I overlit a dress or two but we got there. I also did some close-ups and had a finished set of 60 pictures to give to the client. Lenses – 17-40L with come correction in PS; 24-105L.
Posted on May 28, 2010
Emma Slade is a yoga instructor in Whitstable and we had half an hour to get some shots near to Whitstable Castle. In was nearly midday with the sun overhead and harsh or it was dodging behind the clouds. I’ve left in the gallery below what tends to happen with this – a blown out sky. By using two off camera flashes to add definition to Emma, we took control underexposing the background and then deciding where we wanted to pump in the light!
Posted on May 28, 2010
Canon are based down in Reigate and I’ve been one of their preferred suppliers since 2003 covering a variety of corporate work including campaigns, events and some brochure illustrations. The images I took yesterday were some headshots. The weather kept changing from rain, overcast and then bright sunshine. Although I had a meeting room with studio lights set up just in case, I shot outside and in the reception area. The sun was harsh and pointing straight at the building – but placing the subject in a shade and controlling the light with off-camera flash created the look I was after.
Posted on May 26, 2010
Ok, an odd one today but I was asked to photograph the last ever flight of an RAF Nimrod. The final flight today (Wednesday 26th May 2010) was from the base at RAF Kinloss in Scotland before landing at Manston, Kent’s international airport. At the controls were Squadron Leader Stuart “Roxy” Roxburgh aided by his crew. There was restricted access on proximity to the aircraft and even though I would have wanted to put speedlights all over the place, I could not do that today!
Posted on May 26, 2010
More food photography, this time at Restaurant de la Cote, a mainly French menu to be found at 101 Tankerton Road, Tankerton, Whitstable – 01227 281180. Yet again I was working on an empty stomach and yet I had to photograph it, nor eat it!
Posted on May 26, 2010
Geoff Newman at Recruitment Genius in Sevenoaks called me for some headshots – and so I booked a room as a dry weather base at the Riverside Business Centre and shot the bulk of the pictures outside. The idea was to create a variety of images for different press releases. The weather was dull and so I had to use off-camera flash to create some definition! If you’re thinking it’s time for some new corporate pictures or staff headshots please do get in touch and look at www.timstubbings.co.uk
