A Championship Winning Score (2) (Photo 32)

A Championship Winning Score (2)
NEX-6, 55mm-210mm E-Mount Lens @ 159mm, Aperture Priority Mode, 1/500 secs, ISO 100, f/8 Zoom Blur effect added in Photoshop Elements 10.

During my 3 month absence from posting to this blog, I attended the Le Mans 24 Hour Race in France with 5 friends, but I have held off from posting the photos purely because I took others that I was more excited about in the meantime! You might be forgiven for thinking that this post will be all about fast cars and ridiculous engines, but I’d rather take you through the Le Mans experience in more detail than that! As there are quite a few photos to share, in order to provide you with as much information as possible, I have decided to do so through the medium of a list of Do’s and Don’ts, so here goes…

DO borrow a 7 seat people carrier – make sure the 5 in the front bays have limited but adequate room, whilst the poor bugger in the back is cocooned by all of the luggage.

DO get to the camp site early, to make the most of the health and safety-lacking communal power supplies! Gaffer tape is useful at this point; and at all other points over your 4 day camping experience.

DO make sure to take a 6 man tent, dining table, chairs, fridge, stereo, plastic cups and plates, and a BBQ. Beer, Merlot and meat can all be purchased at a local supermarket in Le Mans, ensuring that you only lose all feeling in your legs for the last hour of queuing to get in to the campsite. All of this MUST fit in the people carrier with yourselves, your rucksacks, sleeping bags and pillows.

DO make sure that your vehicle is decorated accordingly.

DON’T run out of time to order the vinyls for your car, and then end up having to make your own (tasteful) versions. Electrical tape is also useful over the course of the holiday.

Those are a few things that you will want to consider whilst planning your trip, as is making sure that you arrive on the Thursday – giving you time to set up camp and give yourself a hangover for Mad Friday! This is when the real fun begins, and has become a long-standing tradition over the years, whereby people in cars perform burnouts on the access roads to the campsites (all around the town and track areas), egged on by people in fancy dress with beer and water pistols. Here are some more tips, this time to help you survive Mad Friday…

DO dress like a bunch of ****s. This provides you with an excuse to drink cheap French beer and get very (too) involved with the festivities.

DON’T ride through the crowd in any sort of open chariot.

I said DON’T ride through the crowd in an open chariot!

DON’T be a policeman! Especially in an open chariot!

DO drive through in a car, but keep your windows up, and your doors locked!!!

DO take a vuvuzela. This makes a lot of unpleasant noise and can also double up as a drinking funnel – beer or merlot. Another reason gaffer tape is useful, too.

DO use the vuvuzela to annoy the over-zealous Germans who are pouring water in to the cars of innocent passers-by.

DON’T annoy the Germans when they have possession of a very powerful water bomb catapult!!! Unless you want to have a little lie down like this chap.

DO make a Formula One-style STOP/GO sign, to encourage burn outs. Gaffer tape is useful for this as well.

DO use said sign for any passing vehicle, even when it may not at first seem appropriate.

DO perform burn outs for the crowd! It causes cheers and makes everybody drink more.

DO get as close to the action as possible. BUT be aware that the cars don’t always go in a straight line.

DO take a horse head.

DO make friends with a girl who has come in her Aston Martin.

DO take a photo of her driving round the track in the Aston Martin.

DON’T forget that it is no longer the 90’s!

DON’T forget to watch at least some of the racing! Although you will hear it constantly for the 24 hour duration, this is easily done because of all of the other entertainment (beer and merlot).

DO keep your camera ready along the drive to Le Mans, as you never know when a brand new F-Type is going to fly past.

So, that is my main Do’s and Don’ts list finished, and if you stick to it you should come home alive and without too many injuries (Colin would also not recommend borrowing a bicycle when drunk, but I don’t have a photo of that to share, unfortunately!). Despite all of the fun to be had on the campsite and around the track, we did manage to see a good few hours of racing at the start and finish of the race. Which gave me a chance to take some shots of moving cars – something that I hadn’t really attempted before. I have read a number of tips in the past on how to go about it though, but as with most other aspects of photography, practice makes perfect.

This was one of the Audi entrants (sadly I missed a photo of the winning car – but it looks exactly the same really). These diesel-powered beasts went by with a strange whooshing noise, more akin to a jet engine, whilst the other petrol-powered cars roared and crackled.

The main points to consider really are that you probably want to have a forgiving depth of field f/ stop, unless you really know what you’re doing, and a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the car but allow the background to blur. When shooting from the side, as in these shots, you will also need to track the car and keep your camera moving with it whilst you press the shutter release, and until the shutter has closed again. In practice, this means that it is best to keep the camera moving for a short time after you think it has finished exposing the shot. Le Mans cars move extremely quickly side to side, from 50 metres away, so this will require a little getting used to. If you are in a position to shoot head on to a car, then the focusing with be slightly easier to perform, or you can even pre-set your focus and wait for a car to pass through the correct spot.

After a few attempts and more careful shot composition, this was probably the best image of the cars that I captured.

I chose to use this for the featured image because I had aimed more carefully to avoid getting the track’s fencing in the shot. I know that the final image does look a little cheap with the zoom blur effect, but the point of this blog is for me to try out different photographic techniques, and this means that post-processing is something that I want to try out as well. I actually followed a tutorial from Digital Photo magazine, which was quick and easy to do. Well that’s all for this post, with more photos than writing for once! Just one last thing to say though…

Sadly, one of the driver’s (Allan Simonsen) crashed after 10 minutes of the race starting, resulting in fatal injuries, but the race continued in his honour. It wasn’t announced for a few hours after the crash, and it was definitely a sobering moment when the news did come in over the radio. I’m sure that everyone around the track and campsites took a moment to reflect on the tragedy, remember the dangers that do still exist in motor sport, and think of the brave people that do risk their lives to entertain us and themselves.

The Face of Innocence (Photo 31)

The Face of Innocence
NEX-6, 50mm E-Mount Lens @ 50mm, Aperture Priority Mode, 1/125 secs, ISO 100, f/1.8

Following on from my last post, Wedding Magic (2), I am using some more of the images that I took at the wedding, and the featured photograph is of my friends’ recently born daughter, Poppy. I have chosen this because of what looks like a smile on the contended face of Poppy, along with the fact that it is difficult to find something more innocent than a newborn. I was using my new 50mm Prime, E-Mount lens (SEL50F18), which has a maximum aperture of f/1.8 and gives sharp results with great bokeh and depth of field effects. The wide aperture means that it is possible to use the lens hand-held in low light conditions, as the shutter speeds can be kept high enough to prevent camera shake, and the ISO can be set lower to prevent digital noise affecting your images.

The original, colour image that I took of Poppy.

When comparing the featured image to the one above, it is fairly obvious that I have again carried out some post-production work; the obvious differences being a conversion to black & white, along with the addition of some vignetting. I didn’t bother cropping the photograph, which may have been good in order to follow the rule of thirds, because I wanted to keep Poppy’s face central and away from the vignette, and I also thought it was nice to show that she was on the shoulder of another of our friends, Jayne, to reinforce the contact between baby and adult. When children are being carried by a parent, or other trusted adult, I think it is possible to get some really good shots of them looking comfortable and secure.

Flora resting her head on Alice’s shoulder.

During the wedding ceremony, I was sat behind Alice and Flora, and so I took the opportunity to take the above photo whilst the congregation stood during a part of the service. I had a little bit of time to set up the shot, so set my NEX-6’s point of focus over Flora’s eye, and also composed the shot so that same eye is around the cross-section of the rule of thirds grid. I again converted the image to black & white in Aperture 3, with the original looking like this:

The original shot lacks a bit of punch and vibrancy.

This is the untouched RAW file, and as such I would expect it to require a little bit of work to make it look closer to what I saw in my head when pressing the shutter. The great thing is that shooting RAW gives you the flexibility to alter your images and create something more akin to your original idea, without losing any detail. It also lets you play around further with images, allowing you to discover potentially unexpected results. The two images above both show a relaxed (if slightly bored) little girl, who is resting her head calmly on her mother’s shoulder, and looking into the camera’s lens inquisitively. The scene can appear quite different, however, with some further adjustments to Curves and Levels, along with changing the tint of the image.

Colour tints and more aggressive adjustment of Curves and Levels can give a grittier feel to an image.

It is probably just me, but the tint applied here, combined with darker shadows, lends a less optimistic feel to the image, and looks more as though it was taken in an A&E corridor with Flora’s look seeming to be caused by confusion and concern now. It is interesting how the colours in a photograph can really change the dynamic and feel of it, and it is something that can be quite a powerful tool as is seen in films which choose to utilise certain colour schemes. Apart from the moment captured above, Flora was rather camera shy and not interested in letting me take her photograph. I did, however, manage to capture another two candid shots of her.

Flora excited to see her Dad, Graeme, who was busy with Best Man duties for much of the day.

Neither of these other two photos are particularly great unfortunately, but I was glad to capture this one of Flora smiling (which her Mum had bet me would not happen!).

Flora sitting on the grass, not looking at the camera as usual.

This was the only other half-decent photo that I managed to take of Flora. It can be quite challenging taking photographs of children who have no interest in being photographed, which is why you have to think of ways to capture the shot and adapt to taking the types of images that you can. A few things can help, such as ensuring they are fed and watered, and don’t need the toilet – maybe give them something to play with, or get their parents involved. After all, who wouldn’t want a great photo of themselves with their pride and joy? It is also nice for the child to be able to look back in years to come, and see what their parents looked like without (too many) wrinkles! Obviously, I haven’t achieved this in the above photographs, but it is definitely something to keep in mind when attempting similar photos yourself.

Wedding Magic (2) (Photo 30)

Wedding Magic (2)
NEX-6, 50mm E-Mount Lens @ 50mm, Aperture Priority Mode, 1/800 secs, ISO 100, f/1.8

Despite my first ‘Wedding Magic’ photo being only 4 posts ago, I couldn’t resist using this image of my friends, Dion and Caroline, which I took at their wedding this weekend. With no more weddings on the horizon, and the fact that I love the happy couple’s expressions, stances and movement, I thought that I might as well tick off the second wedding photo from the list. This post will only feature two photographs, however, as  I aim to discuss the magic that can be added to photos with the help of processing software such as Aperture 3 or Lightroom. I use Aperture 3, but Lightroom isn’t too different (from what I have read) and you can essentially create similar effects with either tool. Here is the original photograph, that I took in RAW format, straight from the camera without any improvements:

My starting point for this post’s featured image.

The Bride & Groom arrive at the reception, where a tunnel of guests with confetti await. I was not the official photographer, and so I didn’t want to start jumping in and snapping away as though I were. I had spent the majority of the event taking photos of friends, leaving the Bride & Groom in the safe hands of the professionals, but I couldn’t resist getting in on the action as they arrived, albeit from a less favourable position than the official photographer.

Anyway, now on to my workflow process…

Once I have loaded all of my photos in to Aperture 3, I take a quick run through selecting the best (I simply ‘flag’ them, but pros probably use star ratings) and deleting the worst. I will probably go through the shots a few times before settling on my overall favourites, which lets me get to know each of the shots fairly well. Then the editing process can begin, with my first port of call almost always being the ‘Auto Enhance’ (Magic Wand) Button, which you can find just under the histogram, on the Adjustments tab, next to the Add Adjustment and Effects drop down lists. That tends to do something like this:

The magic of Aperture 3’s ‘Auto Enhance’ button.

You can see that the image is now punchier and more vibrant, as the software has made certain decisions on how the image can be improved, by changing things like the White Balance, Saturation, Vibrancy, and it also makes some small adjustments with the Curves tool. My photo is generally OK I guess, but it lacks that certain something that great wedding photos have, and is slightly spoiled by the official photographer being in the way of the Groom. To me, wedding photography is all about the expressions on faces, with the addition of some drama and feeling which is created by the photographer playing with things like the colour in their post-processing software, even if that means removing the colour and creating a black and white image. Therefore, what this image really needs is a good crop, so that we can see the expressions of our subjects clearly, and remove any unwanted elements from the scene. After hitting ‘Auto Enhance’, I generally then move on to cropping and straightening my images before getting too involved in making further adjustments – I think it helps to know what you’re going to be working with before you start adjusting areas of a photo that you are later going to crop out. This is how my first final image turned out:

B&W final image, cropped to remove the official photographer and to really show the joy on the faces of the Bride & Groom.

I don’t want this to read as a tutorial on how to use Aperture 3 – it is intended more to introduce you to some of the features that can seem rather daunting and confusing when first using the software. For instance, it is easy to convert an image to B&W by moving the Saturation slider to the far left, which simply removes all colour from your image. However, you will get much better results by adding the ‘Black & White’ adjustment, and playing with the Red, Green and Blue sliders, which give you total control over every shade of Black, Grey and White in your image, letting you choose which areas are darker and lighter.You can then Dodge, Burn, change Exposure and Contrast (amongst other things) to really make your final image shine.

I am by no means a professional at playing about with images, and it has taken me quite some time to get to grips with what each slider and Adjustment does to an image, but I have grown gradually more and more confident through general use of Aperture 3, and watching tutorials on YouTube and putting what I learn from those into practice. As I was never a child genius or anything like that, I have had to learn bit by bit, rather than watching all of the tutorials available and suddenly knowing and understanding exactly everything about the software. However, I have had several epiphanies about how things work and fit together along the way, with my latest coming after another round of watching a load of tutorials in the last week or so, and this latest has kind of made feel as though I am really beginning to understand the software and its possibilities. Here is a list of my main ‘Eureka Moments’ with Aperture 3, which may help you and give you ideas of what to look for on YouTube as well, starting from the beginning, when I first realised what a RAW file was:

• Shoot in RAW – I cannot stress this enough! If you do not believe me, set your camera to shoot both RAW and JPEG, and shoot one image with good contrast – say a sunny landscape with plenty of sky, white clouds and darker greenery in the land. Put both versions in to your editing software of choice, and start playing around with the exposure slider – you will start to realise just how much information is lost when your camera converts an image to JPEG itself.
• Take time looking through the various Adjustment sliders and seeing what they do for your images – just stick with the basic options that are added as standard by Apple to the left of the screen when you first open an image (I’m not sure how Lightroom handles these), as these are basic options that will really improve your image in small but significant ways, affecting things like Exposure, Colour Saturation, Shadows, the Black Point and Contrast. With these, you will effectively be making the decisions that your camera automatically would when shooting in JPEG format.
• The Quick Brushes are great for making targeted adjustments to your images, whether that be dodging and burning or removing dust spots from the image and wrinkles from faces! Again, watch some online tutorials on how to use the dodge and burn tools (I’m still having some difficulties getting these to work well for me, but I need more practice with them).
• Start to learn about Curves and Levels – type ‘Aperture 3 Curves Tutorial’ into YouTube and be prepared to be amazed at the possibilities. Do the same with ‘Levels’, then start applying these to your own photographs, to really increase contrast and get some different effects.
• Learn to experiment with the individual colour channels in the Curves adjustment. These can give your photos a professional-looking tint, and really make it stand out (in conjunction with other alterations of course). I realise that it may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but I really liked the following photo of my friend, Alice, seeing that it had some potential in an arty kind of way. Using a combination of Curves adjustments to the RGB spectrum and then the Red spectrum alone, along with Levels adjustments and so on, I think that I made it realise its potential and bring out more of what I wanted to see in the original.

Straight from the camera – I enjoyed the blown out background and halo-effect it had on Alice, but the image looks washed-out with not enough contrast or vibrancy.

A few adjustments later, and the image is punchier, with a bit of a colour tint to compliment Alice’s eyes.

Back to the original photo now though, and whilst I was extremely happy with the B&W image that I had created, I wanted to try out a few different things with it, so my next idea was to change the crop to fit all of Dion and Caroline in the frame. This meant including a slice of the official photographer, unfortunately, and I also decided to give it a sepia tone – I’ve seen many wedding photographs done with a sepia tone, so it seemed to make sense to at least try it.

2nd attempt at a final image of the happy couple, using a different crop and sepia tone.

As a rank amateur, the only way to learn is to practice and try different methods until you start to get a better feel of what works for you. In the above image I was happy with the idea of seeing the Bride & Groom from head to toe, but the smile on Caroline’s face, and the fact that she appears to be looking straight into the camera, made me feel that she should be placed centrally in the next frame I was to attempt – which would turn out to be the featured image, and the one that is without doubt my favourite edit of any photograph that I have ever achieved. To give you an example of what sort of things that I did to get the final image, I have taken some screen shots of the Adjustments that I added to the photograph. There is no point in copying them, as every photograph is different, but it would be worth while seeing how each of them affects your own images. This is the standard set of adjustments that Aperture 3 gives you when opening a new image:

Basic Aperture 3 Adjustments.

I needed to use two screenshots to get the full length of final adjustments that I used for the featured image:

They don’t quite match up in the middle of the Curves adjustment, but you should get the general idea. The areas that interest me the most right now, as this was the first time that I had really used them, are the change to the Green Curve, the reduction of the Saturation, and the use of the Polarize and Intensify Contrast Quick Brushes. It is often easy to boost Saturation, when in reality you can get a much more interesting result by decreasing it. At the end of the day, you need to take each photo on its own merits and try out a few different techniques to find the one that suits it.

Above all though, please remember that getting to grips with this type of software will probably take practice and patience, so take your time and learn the basics well before trying to do too much with your images. In my experience at least, it is too easy to read about techniques and think that they will suddenly be easy to replicate, when in reality it can take a bit of experience to really appreciate and refine your use of them.

Well, I hope that this post hasn’t been too boring, but during my own attempts to find ways of using Aperture 3 to make my photos look more professional I wasn’t able to find a great deal about how the Adjustments could be mixed to get different results. Therefore, I hope that this has been of some use to others in a similar position to myself, and if you have any gems of wisdom to share with me and others then please do so in the comments section. Another quick tip that I can give you though, is that using the full screen option for Aperture 3 is a real joy – just remember to hit the ‘H’ key to bring up the HUD, in order to actually make the changes that you wish to make.

My next post will probably use a number of other photos that I took at Dion and Caroline’s wedding, and will be for ‘The Face of Innocence’. As you can probably imagine, these photos will not be of the dance floor at the end of the night, but will be a selection of shots that I took of my friends’ children, which I am also quite pleased with.

Other Lands, Other Cultures (Photo 29)

Other Lands, Other Cultures
NEX-6, 18-55mm E-Mount Lens @ 25mm, Aperture Priority Mode, 1/60 secs, ISO 250, f/8

The main reason for my lack of posts over the last three months or so is that I have been travelling a fair bit in both my work and personal lives, so it makes sense to tick off the ‘Other Lands, Other Cultures’ photograph with some shots that I have managed to take abroad – specifically in Majorca (work) and Portugal’s Algarve (personal). I have chosen the featured image as it embodies the theme quite nicely, due to the lack of outdoor kitchens (manned by fishermen at least) in the UK! I also enjoy the engagement between subject and photographer, as the fisherman proudly displays his catch, which is about to be prepared for myself and a number of family members and friends to eat.

A couple enjoying a rest in Majorca.

In order to really show the ‘other cultures’ part of the title, it is necessary for the photographs to contain a human element more often than not, which takes the majority of the shots you will see in this post into the realms of ‘street photography’ – something that I am not fully comfortable with just yet! Whilst I really do enjoy looking at other people’s street photography images, and would dearly love to take many of my own, I think I need to build up my confidence in approaching random people and taking candid photographs of them, as I really feel as though I am intruding when doing so!

This smooth gent didn’t have much to say about me taking his photograph!

In theory, compact cameras like the NEX-6 are less obtrusive for street photography, when compared to something like a full sized DSLR, but I still seem to get gripped almost every time I point my camera at somebody that I don’t know! And in some ways the smaller camera makes me feel more self-conscious because it makes me look more like an amateur taking random shots of people (which I pretty much am!), than if I had a larger, more professional-looking DSLR – which may turn me from ‘strange creep’ to ‘interesting photographer’ in the mind of my victims. At least some of my subjects cannot complain though, as in the above shot.

Our waiter preparing flambéed crepes for dessert. Cinnamon powder being added is the cause of what he referred to as ‘stars’.

What I find easier than taking photos of complete strangers going about their daily lives, is when in a situation where you already have built a rapport with the subject, even though you may not have known them for more than a few minutes. I took the above image in a restaurant in Carvoeiro, whilst the waiter was preparing our dessert. He seemed to really enjoy preparing the crepes, and was more than happy for me to take photos of him at work. A slowish shutter speed of 1/50 of a second allowed me to capture some movement in the burning cinnamon, and I can claim justification for the photo’s inclusion in this theme because the waiter told us that it was now illegal for this to be done at the table of restaurants in the UK, for health and safety reasons! I haven’t checked to see whether or not that is true…

Some young models promoting Roxy and Quicksilver take a stroll, with price labels still attached to everything.

Towards the end of the holiday in Portugal, I visited a type of fair in a local town where many things were happening, including a dog show, fashion show, street entertainers, and many stalls showing off local products. I found this to be a good way of overcoming some of my concerns about photographing people that I did not know, as there were many people there working and expecting to have photos taken of them. I snapped the youngsters above from a distance to begin with (probably about 40 metres), using my telephoto lens, not realising that they were models and assuming they had been to the beach recently. It was only when they got closer that I realised they were promoting clothes and accessories, and I didn’t feel so guilty about having taken their photograph.

I took this photo of a Roxy model during their fashion show.

A little later in the day I happened to walk by the same models putting on a fashion show – along a catwalk with music and announcer. I have never photographed a model previously, but managed to get a couple that I was relatively happy with – for this shot I crouched down and angled the camera slightly, for a more interesting composition. I probably didn’t have to crouch too low in order to shoot up at the model, being shorter than her to begin with, but it was good to get some blue sky in the background.

A performer entertains visitors to the fair.

Walking amongst the visitors there were a number of other entertainers, such as mimes, jugglers and the lady above. The photo of her would have benefitted from a clearer background, but I was limited by the number of people walking by (there are others about to walk into shot from the right!), and I also had my 55-210mm telephoto lens attached when I saw her, so wasn’t able to get too close without completely removing the ribbon from the shot. Maybe it will be possible to remove the people walking behind, with the help of Photoshop, so I will need to look into trying that when I get a chance.

The local radio station was broadcasting from the event, which meant I was able to grab this shot of the DJ.

I caught this little chap taking a well earned rest, and looking proud of himself, having won a 1st prize in the dog show earlier.

Whilst people and animals are often very useful for telling a tale of different cultures, it is not always necessary for them to be the main focus of an image. During my earlier business trip to a convention in Majorca, I grabbed a few shots during one of the break sessions – when everybody was able to enjoy a bit of sun, outside on the balcony.

Not a standard business setting for the UK.

Simple objects can also be used to tell a story with your photography, setting a scene and telling people something about where you took the shot. Below are two images that I took in the town of Albufeira, along the coast from where we were holidaying. One shows a lifeguard station on the beach, and the other shows the effect of tourism on the town!

I’ve never seen this on Blackpool beach.

Brits Abroad! Presumably this outdoor escalator was built for tourists who find walking up and down ordinary stairs too much of a drag when on holiday.

Of course ‘culture’ can mean many different things, from food and entertainment, how the weather effects people’s daily lives, and even the way in which graffiti may be drawn or painted. In Portimao, I came across a couple of buildings that had been turned into a celebration of art.

This derelict building had been painted to advertise the Portugal Underground Film Festival, from the previous year.

Right next door to that was another wall which had been converted into a piece of art, which by itself was very interesting. However, I do believe that my photograph went from being a simple record shot of the artwork, into something telling more of a story, by the inclusion of the young lady that kindly posed for me to take the shot. This is definitely one of my favourite shots that I have ever taken, because I made the effort to add a bit of humour (or mystery) to the image, which makes it more interesting overall.

I enjoyed taking this shot above all others, as I had a direct impact on the outcome by asking the girl to pose in the way she is doing.

I have to admit that I did not come across a vast number of derelict buildings that had been turned into something more interesting, in order to brighten up the area, and I’m sure that there are a number of projects along the same lines in the UK as well, but it was still nice to see that people had made an effort to make the most of a potential eyesore. As in the UK also, not all of the graffiti I came across was particularly full of artistic merit, but I did quite like this small slogan spotted on the walk down into Carvoeiro one evening.

During my two trips abroad I took the opportunity to take more than just street photography and/or candid type shots, with plenty of landscapes and holiday snaps of my family and friends thrown in as well. They would not really fit into the theme of this post though, but I will let you into a secret of a special little beach that we found, just in case you are ever in the area. A word of warning though – it isn’t easily accessible to those who have difficulty with stairs, as you need to walk down a steep staircase through the cliffs. It could really do with an escalator!

A view of the rocky outcrop at Praia do Carvalho, taken from the surrounding cliffs.

I was experimenting with my fish eye lens whilst on the beach, to see how it suited a different style of photography to which they are normally used for.

Another shot of the rocky outcrop taken from the above cliffs, this time using a natural hole in the rocks to frame the shot.

So, if you plan on holidaying on the Algarve at some point, please do search out Praia do Carvalho if you are in search of a picturesque sun trap one day. It is fairly close to Carvoeiro, which is worth a visit itself as well, where I can recommend the restaurant Casa Ibérica – sit upstairs and when David (waiter and the owner’s son) gives you a free glass of port at the end of the meal, tell him I sent you and ask for one of his father’s cigars to go with 😉

A great restaurant, by Carvoeiro beach, for some tapas and a bottle of wine – finished nicely with port and a cigar.

So, during my time away I feel that I did get some good practice at taking street photography style shots, often helped by the fact that my subjects weren’t just random passersby, and as such were quite open to having their photographs taken. Now I just need to get some practice and build my confidence when shooting the general public…

Anthropomorphic Animals (1) (Photo 28)

An Anthropomorphic Animal
NEX-6, 55-120mm E-Mount Lens @ 130mm, Aperture Priority Mode, 1/100 secs, ISO 3200, f/5.6

Well, it has been getting on for three months since I last posted, which is quite upsetting as it means I have fallen really far behind in my quest to complete the bucket list in just two years! However, I am hoping that once I have gotten back into the swing of it with this post, I will continue posting on a weekly basis once more. I haven’t simply just decided to be lazy – I have been away or out and about pretty much every week and weekend in these last few months – and if it helps, my house and washing/ironing piles have been equally neglected!

Another Anthropomorphic Animal – The way in which this little chap holds on to the grille over the light bulb reminds me of how a bored teenager might hold on to a railing or spiral iron staircase.

One thing that I have not neglected, however, is my passion for taking photographs, and my camera has been with me to Portugal, Le Mans and various family and friend type occasions – with a number of the images that I have taken ready to be used for posts in the coming weeks. So, on to the topic of this post – Anthropomorphic Animals. For those who do not know already, this means an animal that has something about it which reminds you of a human, such as the expression on their face, or the way in which they move or hold themselves, or maybe if they start having a conversation with you – such as Walt Disney and Pixar characters. In real life though, we would normally have to make do with monkeys and gorillas.

The expression on the face of this tiny little monkey looks very human to me – with the white moustache finishing off the look nicely.

I visited Chester Zoo with my Mum, Brother and Nephew back in April, and was keen to take some shots of the various animals that they have there. Unfortunately, as you may be able to see from the three photos so far, it is not all that easy to capture well-lit photos from a close distance. The featured shot was taken through a large glass window, in dim conditions, and coupled with my carelessness of forgetting to set the ISO to a lower number (less than 1600 ideally) has turned out rather flat and full of digital noise. To be fair, I wasn’t really expecting to have much use for it, because of the conditions, so I didn’t really pay much attention to the settings before shooting. It does have the most human-like expression though, which is why I decided to use it after all.

Not an Anthropomorphic Animal – or is it?! There is a striking resemblance to my ex-girlfriend!

For me, the favourite shot I took that day was the vulture above. The details in the beak and feathers are nice and sharp, with the colours on the beak adding even more interest. It is somewhat ruined by the fact that I was shooting through a wire fence of course!

An Amphibious Animal

Once again, my artistic intentions were ruined by the confines of the animals’s container, with thick glass being the culprit on this occasion. Along with the digital noise created by me leaving the camera in automatic ISO mode, allowing it to choose 3200 as the setting again. The twig in the foreground doesn’t do a great deal for the overall picture either, of course.

You may have realised by now that I didn’t take a note of any of the animal species that I photographed – these are birds of some description!

I was fairly pleased with this shot from the bird sanctuary, but you can still make out the blurred string fence which looks like a line of heat haze. The fencing often made it quite difficult to focus on the animals, as my camera’s autofocus often thought that the fence was more interesting. With a bit of help from the Direct Manual Focus (DMF) setting though, I managed to overcome that obstacle, and composed this shot along the rule of thirds grid that I choose to overlay my NEX-6’s viewfinder.

Not all of the animals were obstructed from view, but those that were not often had to be set well back from the general public, to avoid any mishaps, which meant that I was still unable to get anything resembling the award winning photos that I had intended to take when first setting out.

In reality, I should have been able to take some more interesting photos, with the issue being more about the fact I was photographing animals than about where the animals were and what they were behind. The fact that I was with a group of non-photographers, including a 21 month old toddler, with the attention span of a 21 month old toddler, meant that I did not really have the luxury of hanging around each of the animal enclosures for as long as I needed to in order to capture images of the animals doing things more out of the ordinary.

I am under no illusion that it would be far more rewarding photographic animals in their natural habitats, moving around freely instead of being confined to relatively small areas. However, it would also be much more difficult to do, in terms of time, finances, extra long lenses, danger and so on… So for now at least, I will have to stick with my local zoos whenever I feel like shooting (pictures of) exotic animals.

See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil
These three wise monkeys were huddled up in the top corner of their accommodation, and I needed to heavily alter the image to bring them out in to something resembling a view. They made me chuckle a bit though, so thought that I should include them here.

A Perfect Rose (Photo 27)

A Perfect Rose
NEX-6, 30mm Macro E-Mount Lens @ 30mm, Aperture Priority Mode, 1/60 secs, ISO 400, f/3.5

Each week, once I have put my post up here, I share a few of the photos on the Sony UK Facebook page, and earlier this week I received a request on there for tips about taking close up shots. So, I thought this weekend would be a good time to post ones I had taken of some roses a couple of months ago, along with a more thorough explanation of how I approached them. I chose the featured photo because I feel the composition fits in neatly with the title – it fits the golden ratio spiral almost perfectly.

A similar shot to the featured image, but with the rose being centred in the composition.

When composing your shots, it often helps to follow The Rule of Thirds, which means that your subjects should ordinarily not be centred in the frame of the shot – they should be positioned around a third of the way along, and up/down, the image. This is fairly easy to achieve with the Sony NEX-6, as the electronic viewfinder can have such a grid overlaid for composing your shots as you take them. Even without this though, it is not too difficult to imagine and can always be fine tuned with a little cropping in computer software, such as Apple’s Aperture or Adobe’s Lightroom.

My first shot of the roses contained some blown out background, which I like as it makes the image look as though it has had the white background added in Photoshop.

The roses that I was photographing were the ones that my Mum had at her house from my Grandma’s funeral, as she asked me to come and take a few shots of them for her. The equipment that I used was my NEX-6, macro lens, tripod and reflector, and I think I used my Dad as a reflector stand from time to time. The fact that I used a camera is pretty obvious, but the other items could probably do with a little explanation for anybody who is looking to indulge in a little close up photography for the first time, and hasn’t read any other more helpful guides already!

The same shot as above, but with a cyanotype filter applied in Aperture 3. This gives the image a faux-infrared feel, which I think compliments the blown out background.

Whilst a macro lens isn’t essential for close up photography, you will find that it allows you to get much closer to your subject than an ordinary lens will, as ordinary lenses will not focus on objects that are very close to them. My macro lens does not magnify anything and cannot be zoomed, but it does allow me to focus on objects that are literally a few millimetres away from the front lens element, which means that if you wish to get really close to your subjects, and capture every possible detail, a macro lens is going to give you the very best opportunity to do so. However, using a macro lens does come with its own set of unique obstacles; the biggest of which is the fact the closer you are to a subject, the narrower the depth of field becomes. You can see this in my featured image, for which I naively used the widest open aperture of the lens – f/3.5. The sharpest area of the shot is the top of the petals in the centre of the flower, but if you look to the left, you can see that the detail on the petal a few millimetres further from the lens is already starting to become blurred. With macro photography, your depth of field really can come down to millimetres, which means that you will often have difficulty in creating an image that is truly sharp across the whole range.

This shot was taken from further away, with an aperture of f/8, but the background is still more blurred than you might expect from that setting. Again, this is due to the lens being much closer to the subject than it might ordinarily be for other types of photography.

As a result of every millimetre being important, it really is a good idea to use a tripod when attempting macro shots. This allows you to set the camera’s position, manually focus on the exact spot that you want to, and then release the shutter to take the shot. If attempting to do this hand-held, you will more than likely move the camera a millimetre here or there, which can ruin your shot before you even take it. The simple act of depressing the shutter release can cause you to move your hands slightly, and adjusting the camera’s focus ring can be even more troublesome. Use a tripod, and also a remote shutter release whenever possible, to make sure that your camera is kept absolutely still – then all you have to worry about is the wind moving your subject (if you are outside)!

I used what little artistic thought I have, and scattered a few fallen petals on the table to make the background more interesting. Even with an aperture of f/11 here, the depth of field is still relatively small. If shooting a landscape, you would expect an aperture of f/11 to give you a fairly sharp image from front to back.

Another reason for using the tripod is that the smaller your aperture, the longer your shutter will need to remain open for, in order to expose the image correctly. Photography, at its most basic, is about capturing light and recording it, and the amount of light that you capture affects the final image by either making it too bright, too dark, or well exposed. There are three elements to this exposure triangle, which are your aperture size, shutter speed, and ISO setting – as you change one, you will need to change another, in order for your images to remain well exposed. Personally, I usually set my camera to Aperture or Shutter Priority, set my ISO level manually (to keep it as low as possible and avoid unwanted noise in my images – when I remember to, of course!), and then let the camera choose the other remaining setting for me.

The sun coming in to my parents’ living room was very bright, as you can see from the deep shadows to the right hand side of the roses and their petals.

As great as natural sunlight is for illuminating your subjects, it is essentially a very strong light source that shines from only one direction. You can affect the direction by positioning your subject accordingly, when outdoors, or waiting for the Sun to be in a certain position. However, this may not always be practical, so it can often be very useful to use a reflector. This is usually a large shiny surface, that you position on the opposite side of your subject to the Sun, and it bounces some of the light back to give you a more even exposure and prevent very strong shadows from overwhelming your subject. You can use different reflective surfaces, to change the colour of light, and also the intensity of the light you reflect back, but the general principle is the same. In the shot above, there was no reflector being used, but you can see the difference compared to this next shot, when I did have a reflector and reflector stand (Dad) in place.

The reflector bounces sunlight back on to the roses from the right hand side of the shot, bringing light, colour and detail back to the image, where previously there had only been dark shadows.

Obviously it is not always practical to have a tripod with you, or somebody who can hold a reflector up, in which case it is probably best to search for a happy medium between shutter speed and aperture size. You should try to maintain a relatively large depth of field to prevent your point of focus becoming your point of non-focus, but also keep as quick a shutter speed as possible, to prevent blur from camera shake. You can do a few things to steady your shot, such as keep your elbows tighter to your body, lean against a post or wall, or even set your camera down on a solid surface if there is one suitable. There is always the possibility of increasing the ISO setting on your camera, too, but you will want to choose one depending on your camera’s low-light ability so that your images don’t start to contain too much grain.

A perfect example of the pitfalls of taking macro shots hand held.

This above shot was the one I shared on Sony UK’s Facebook page, which prompted this post, and it is actually one of my favourite photos that I have taken so far. However, it does serve as a good example of the problems that shooting macro shots by hand can cause. Firstly, I had not learned my lesson, and was using the aperture wide open, which has resulted in too shallow a depth of field – the central flower should probably be in sharp focus throughout for the shot to be truly effective, but instead just the leaves to the bottom are sharp. It also looks as though my main point of focus is either the flower above it, or the one to the left of it, which is as a result of the difficulty of trying to focus manually whilst keeping the camera completely still. Had I used a tripod, I would also have taken more care over the composition generally, and I would have actually taken a number of shots with different settings, to see what ended up working the best. Unfortunately though, I was rushing too much and did not get the great shot that I think this could have been (relatively speaking of course). Hopefully you might take more heed of my advice than I have done so far, if trying out similar shots…

Wedding Magic (1) (Photo 26)

Wedding Magic (1)
NEX-6, 55-210mm E-Mount Lens @ 191mm, Aperture Priority Mode, 1/100 secs, ISO 400, f/6.3

For the first of two Wedding Magic posts (there are two wedding photos in David Busch’s book), I had really planned on using a photo of the Bride & Groom together, enjoying their day, as this is really what a wedding day is all about. However, I couldn’t resist using this shot of one of the bridesmaids because I like the candid moment of her fastening her earring, along with the backlight coming from the sun shining through the large patio windows. The light, combined with the depth of field blur, just gives the shot a bit of a dreamy effect to my mind, and it was one of the few moments where Sarah was not painfully aware of the camera!

If I had been completely intent on using a shot that included the Bride & Groom, I would have used this as the featured shot – it captures the spirit of the whole day, with everybody smiling and looking on as the happy couple kiss.

I had been asked to take photographs of the Bride and Bridesmaids getting their hair and make up done in the morning, as the Bride is my best friend’s sister. She had a professional photographer for the main ceremony of course, but they thought that it would be nice to have photos of the whole day, whilst it would also benefit me being able to take shots for this blog, and so this was my very first experience of wedding photography. I’m glad that it was just a favour for a friend, as I certainly do not feel confident enough to have the pressure entirely on me of photographing the happiest day of a couple’s life just yet!

The day began with the girls having their hair and make up done. This is the Bride, Louise.

As I was excited to be taking photos of the wedding, I was awake by half six in the morning, even though I was not due at the house where they were getting ready until eight o’clock – I had even packed all of my camera gear the night before in preparation (for a change!). When I arrived, the first Bridesmaid was already in the chair, having her hair done and make up applied. I had done a little bit of research on wedding photography, to make sure I had some idea of what I should be doing, and so took this shot of Emma’s reflection in the mirror.

Whilst I do not think the shot is particularly flattering, I do like the composition of the mirror hinge directly down the centre of Emma’s face.

Unfortunately, the mirror being used was nothing like I had seen in the wedding photos I found during my research, and it was also a little on the dirty side. However, I think it was good how this allowed my shots to concentrate on the girls’ eyes to a large extent, as you can also see now with the third Bridesmaid, Karen.

I used a different angle here, to avoid cutting Karen’s face in half!

As I have mentioned in previous posts, it is seriously important to get your subject’s eyes in sharp focus when taking portrait style photographs, and so I was making a real effort to concentrate on doing just that. I was using the Focus Peaking setting on my NEX-6 to help with this, which highlights the areas of the shot which are in the sharpest focus – I believe that most Sony interchangeable lens cameras have this feature (if not all), which is not found on other manufacturers’ models. I also set the focus mode to Direct Manual Focus, which allowed the camera to autofocus quickly, whilst leaving me the option to manually adjust it by turning the focus ring of the camera’s lens for extra precision. This is actually a setting that I use a great deal, as I find that it allows me to focus on my intended subject in the shortest amount of time in most cases.

It looks as though Sarah is flashing a smirk for the camera here, but really she was smiling at the thought of how she could inflict the most pain upon me – if I didn’t stop taking shots of her without make up on.

I think that special mention should really be made of the make up artist in charge of getting the four of the ladies looking their best for the day, Sarah Green. I have been to a number of weddings where the Bride and Bridesmaids look really unnaturally made-up, but Sarah really did Louise and the others proud, making them all look stunning and natural at the same time. You should really check out this website for some professional images of her work and talent – www.sarahgreenmakeup.co.uk

I probably haven’t done justice to the make up with this shot, but I do enjoy the contrasting shadows and light across Karen’s face. Although it would have been better if the light was slightly higher up, and on her eyes.

Although the Bride and Bridesmaids are an extremely important part of a wedding day, the dress, flowers and other bits and pieces of the Bride’s outfit are also crucial, and something that should be remembered. I am a little bit more used to photographing inanimate objects than I am people, so felt more at home with the flowers that arrived half way through the morning. I did also take photos of the dress and jewellery, but not as successfully as I would have liked.

This is probably one of my favourite shots of the dress, which tells you a lot about the others that I attempted!

At least I had more luck with the bouquets (I think so, at least), and I even tried out a few special effects when processing those shots in Aperture 3 – mainly by playing about with the Curves adjustment, which is something that I have only recently started to understand the benefits of.

This was Louise’s bouquet, which I haven’t messed about with too much in Aperture.

This is a fairly untouched shot of one a Bridesmaid’s bouquet.

For this close-up shot, I couldn’t resist making the purples pop a bit more than they may have done in the original photograph.

This shot of a buttonhole rose is the one that I have altered most drastically, using the Curves adjustment in Aperture 3.

Taking photographs at a wedding has pretty much taken my interest in photography full-circle, as it was looking at the photos of friends’ weddings that originally made me realise what great shots were possible when using an interchangeable lens camera. I must admit that I prefer candid shots, over those where I would ask my subject to pose or do something specific – apart from the confidence issues that can surround telling another person what to do, I really enjoy seeing the natural expressions of people when they are not busy thinking about the camera.

The mother of the Bride 🙂

Once the hair and make up was all finished (only 30 mins late) it was time to get the Bride in the wedding car, and send her off to meet her Groom. Due to the fact that this was very much a rush, I didn’t get much chance to take photos of her getting in to the car and so on, but I did get the odd snatched moment to snap away.

Louise, waiting for her father before setting off for the wedding venue.

As the professional photographer was ready and waiting at the ceremony (and I was following the wedding car, making me as late as the Bride) I did not take any shots of the wedding itself, but did take my camera out again once that had finished, keeping it to hand throughout the meal, speeches, and until the first dance.

The Bride & Groom about to leave for a quick drive and bottle of champagne.

I suppose that one of the most magical parts of photographing a wedding is the opportunity to capture human emotions and all of the other special moments that combine to make a day that everybody will remember. Here are a few of those moments:

Fun & Laughter

Family

Happiness

Giving Thanks

Merriness

Last, but not least – The First Dance

I took nearly 600 photos on the day, many using my external flash unit (which I think was invaluable in helping the lighting of the indoor shots), used up both of my camera batteries, and was awake for much longer than I would normally care to be! It was a great deal of fun though, and really lovely to be a part of the couple’s special day. I don’t think that I could cope with doing it every weekend though – although I will possibly be taking a few snaps at another friend’s wedding later this year!

A Floral Abstract (Photo 25)

A Floral Abstract
NEX-6, 55-210mm E-Mount Lens @ 55mm, Aperture Priority Mode, 4 secs, ISO 400, f/4.5

After seeing a video on DigitalRev TV, where they were setting fire to flowers, I thought that would make an excellent subject for this week’s post – A Floral Abstract. After my problems with last week’s theme, I really wanted to get a good photo and I am definitely happy with the results, but as usual things did not go as smoothly as I first expected! Aware that this is often the case, I began my preparation on Tuesday, and started my hunt for Isopropyl Alcohol (which they used in the video that I saw) and some flowers.

My first attempt at a photo of a flower on fire – I like the shape of the flames, almost like a fire angel with a rose for its head. The flames are not delicate enough for the effect that I was looking for though.

It turns out that it can be very difficult to find anywhere that sells Isopropyl Alcohol, also known as Rubbing Alcohol for its cleaning properties, and so after stopping at hardware shops and chemists (as advised on the Internet) I was still empty handed. I also did not have any flowers, as the one florist in my local area decided to lock up before 16:40, despite advertising a closing time of 17:00. In the end, I decided to go to Morrisons where I bought a bottle of 40% brandy, along with a small bunch of roses and a small bunch of orange germini – the checkout girl must have thought it was somebody’s lucky night!

I chose orange germini, as I wanted the blue flames of alcohol to contrast with the orange flower.

Despite all the hype of setting Christmas Puddings on fire, this brandy was not catching light for me. Having had a number of flaming sambucas in my time, I am fully aware that alcoholic drinks are more than capable of being lit easily, but I think it has something to do with getting the right mix of vapour off the liquid and so on, and I didn’t have the first idea of where to start with figuring that out! Come to think of it, I should have tried lighting the brandy in my mouth – that would have been a good test to find out whether or not it actually was flammable. I have plenty left to test at least! Anyhow, things were not going to happen that evening, and so I ordered a bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol off Amazon as a back up.

I thought that three flowers in the same plant pot would create a reasonable effect, but my lack of lighting for this shot stops it from working I think.

Wednesday came around, and I searched the Internet for suggestions of where to buy Isopropyl Alcohol on the High Street. I came across one post that mentioned Maplin, the electronics retailer, so I called the local branch and they confirmed that they had it in both spray and can form, so I opted for the spray in order to have more control over where I applied it to the flowers, and also to prevent myself from getting it everywhere. That evening, I took all of my equipment outside and started taking shots of the flowers in plant pots that I have on the wall – I originally bought these to grow herbs in, but as the herbs died within days of me planting them I’m just glad that I have finally found a use for them.

I have three plant pots, so stuck a flower in each and set my lens’ aperture to the maximum size, to create a shallow depth of field.

Other than the featured image, the shots that you have seen so far were taken on the Wednesday evening, when I finally had a reliable flammable liquid. I was using my camera in Aperture Priority mode, as I wanted to control the depth of field, but wasn’t too concerned about what shutter speed the camera was going to choose. However, I forgot to change the ISO setting out of Auto, so the camera chose the maximum Auto setting of 3200 (the maximum manual setting of the NEX-6 is 25600), which is why the shots look too grainy for my liking.

This was my favourite overall shot from my first attempt with the flowers. It looks sharp, and I like the fact that the colourful pots are included too.

Unhappy with myself for forgetting to set the ISO manually, I had another quick attempt at photographing flaming flowers last night. Due to the bitterly cold, strong wind and the constant light snowfall that we have been experiencing across the UK the last two days, I decided to take the shots in my kitchen, with the tiled floor presumably being fairly fire-resistant if the worst were to happen. Luckily, nothing terrible happened and I did not cause any fire related damage to the house, but I did get a couple more shots that I was really happy with – the featured shot being one of them. I also really like this next shot too, as it seems to be the sharpest of the photos that I took, with the flower’s petals also being quite untouched by the flame at that point.

My 2nd favourite shot from this week’s post. It is reasonably sharp, with good colour and flames, but it would have benefitted from a smaller aperture so that the stem is also in sharper focus.

My technique for capturing the images was basically the same both nights (apart from the ISO setting of course). I used a tripod to keep my camera steady, and decided to use my telephoto lens as it seems to give a more pleasing depth of field effect than my kit 18-55mm lens does. I positioned the flowers and then sprayed them with the Isopropyl Alcohol, before lighting them with a standard plastic lighter. I set my camera to Aperture Priority mode, and allowed it to decide what shutter speed to use, as I knew that it would decide on something around a second or longer, due to the lack of ambient lighting.

I edited the original shot slightly, using CameraBag 2, to see what other effects I could get with the image. I prefer the stronger circle of light behind the flower here, but the highlights in the flames have been pushed a little too far up, losing some of the detail.

The longer shutter speeds allowed the flames to be captured with more of a blur effect, and I used my remote control to take the photos to prevent any camera shake from blurring the flowers as well. As I also wanted to control the point of focus, I was manually focusing on the flowers beforehand, and left the camera’s focus mode in manual, so that it did not try to refocus once I was ready to take the actual shots.

I applied another CameraBag 2 filter to create this black and white version of the featured shot.

I chose the featured image because of the slightly vintage feel I get from the background. The 4 second shutter speed allowed more ambient light to come back off the background, and I added a vignette in Aperture 3 to create a more circular effect to that light. It is not as sharp as my second favourite shot, but I prefer the overall effect. Incidentally, my second favourite shot was taken with a shutter speed of just one second, which is why the background looks completely black, as there was not time for enough ambient light to reflect back on to the NEX-6’s sensor.

I hope that you have enjoyed the photos, and if you’re going to try, please do be careful not to let any burning liquid fall on to children, pets or soft furnishings – do it outdoors if you can.

The Colours of Infrared (1) (Fail!) (Photo 24)

Well, it was bound to happen at some point, and that point has arrived – I’ve failed miserably in my attempt to capture a photo for this week’s post! However, I have learned a fair bit in the process, which should hopefully help me to take a decent infrared (IR) shot in the future. I’m glad that there are two other photos using this technique, on the bucket list, as I’ve decided not to put up a featured photo because there really is nothing to be proud of! I will, however, try and share what I have learned (along with the photos I took), to help anybody who is equally surprised by the difficulty as I was.

Knowing that IR photography was on my list I have researched it from time to time, and basically came to the conclusion that I needed a specially converted camera, but then I saw a video on DigitalRev TV (see it here) which made me think that I would be able to achieve reasonable results with a filter on the front of my camera lens. So I ordered the Hoya Infrared (R72) Filter from Amazon, and looked forward to taking some great IR shots.

To see the potential of IR photography, take a look at some wonderful shots here – I underestimated the difficulty of achieving shots like those in a massive way.

Firstly, I should explain what IR photography is about, and that is using a camera to record the light that our eyes cannot see from the infrared area of the light spectrum. We humans can actually only see a fairly small proportion of the light that is around us, but camera sensors are sensitive to IR light although manufacturers add filters to block this light out to a large degree. This means that there are two ways in which you can allow your camera to record IR light – you can have the filter removed, which is probably expensive and restricts your camera to only taking IR photos, or you can buy a filter for the front of your lenses, which only allows IR light to pass through. The second option is much cheaper (around £30), but it does mean that you need to use long exposure times of at least a minute or two, to allow enough IR light to pass through the camera’s internal filter, which attempts to prevent the light from reaching the sensor. As I mentioned above, this is the option that I chose, and this is how my first test shot turned out.

My 1st test shot with the Hoya R72 filter attached to my NEX-6. I used a 2 minute exposure and an aperture of f/18

As you can see, this is NOT how the IR photos I had seen look – not even close! What was I doing wrong?! Even now I am not 100% sure, but I do now know that the IR images that you can see around the Internet are not straight out of the camera – they require a fair amount of post-processing in Photoshop. The image is red because although the IR filters look black, they are in fact a very deep shade of red. I also took the above photo whilst it was somewhat overcast, which meant that there was not enough IR light being reflected off the green leaves and grass for them to turn the white shade that is customary in IR photos.

Being somewhat perturbed by my very red image, I decided to do some more research and scoured the Internet for more tutorials. I found that many of the tutorials did not really explain what to expect a straight-out-of-the-camera IR shot to look like, despite going through the various steps that you should follow when attempting such shots, and so I was still left a little bemused. For that reason I think it is important for somebody new to IR photography to be able to know what they should expect, to avoid the confusion that I was suffering at that point, so I will now take you through my journey of discovery! I do not have all of the answers, but I think that I can at least provide some help and understanding to people just starting out with this. The first thing that I realised I was doing wrong was that I was not setting a custom white balance, which should be set against green grass in good sunlight, so I quickly set this using Aperture 3 (one of the benefits of shooting in RAW format is that you can change the white balance when editing your shots, without any issues). This is how the above photo looked with a white balance set against the grass in the photo.

Adjusting the white balance helps to bring other colours through the red tint.

Changing the white balance has brought other colours to the surface, but everything is still heavily tinted by red. If you click on the image, you will also see a brighter spot in the centre, which is apparently as a result of using a long exposure with a filter on the lens, as the IR light is reflected off the camera’s own filter, and around the lens elements before landing back on the camera’s sensor – effectively over-exposing the centre of the image. This does not happen with all lenses, and so really you need to test your own kit to find a lens that works well. Of my E-Mount 16mm pancake, 18-55mm kit, and 55-210mm telephoto lenses, I found that the telephoto lens was the only one not to suffer from this hot spot. It so happens that this is the only lens of the three which has glass across the full diameter of it, with the front elements of the other two being smaller than the lenses themselves, which may or may not have something to do with it. The main problem with this is that a telephoto lens is not particularly ideal for taking landscape shots! If you have a converted camera though, I do not think this would be an issue.

Another thing that I had read about IR photography was that you need very strong sunlight in order to get the best results, with midday shooting being advised for a change. The problem with living in Stockport is that many days can be overcast and wet, and so during Thursday and Friday I had no chance to take any more test shots. However, I had also read that IR light comes from any light source, even man-made light bulbs, so IR photography is also possible at night. This is backed up by some IR shots that I have come across being of night scenes, so I ventured out on Friday evening to have a go at taking shots of a church in Poynton which is lit up and also surrounded by fairly bright street lights. I decided to use an exposure time of 5 minutes, with a wide aperture to allow as much light in as possible. This is what I got in return.

5 minute exposure at night – the light trails are from cars on the roundabout, but none of the rest of the scene is visible!

Obviously, I was less than impressed once more, and so got straight back in the car and went home again! I had been taking some test shots in my kitchen earlier that evening, to prove to myself whether or not it was possible with artificial light, and also to test which lenses had a hot-spot, as well as taking the opportunity to experiment with the white balance settings. As I had at least been rewarded with more than just a black screen with those images, I was especially disappointed by the experience I had in Poynton. Here are a couple of the shots that I took of coloured chopping boards in my kitchen.

I set a custom white balance in camera, without the IR filter on the lens, for this shot.

I set a custom white balance in camera, with the IR filter on the lens, for this shot.

I think that is probably safe to say that the custom white balance should be set without the IR filter on the camera’s lens, to avoid some overly green images, but then again – does it matter if your image is very green as opposed to very red?! If you can advise, please do so in the comments section at the bottom!

It probably makes sense to give you a quick checklist of things to do when taking your shots with an IR filter on the lens now:

• Use a tripod for long exposures – you will probably need a minute or two depending upon the light.
• Take your shots in Spring and/or Summers, when there are plenty of leaves on the trees to turn white in the final image.
• Set a custom white balance, based on green grass in direct sunlight – I’m not convinced this is necessary though, as when I have played about with custom white balances in Aperture, it doesn’t seem to make a difference what area of the photo I choose as the white balance point!
• Remove the IR filter from the lens in order to frame and focus your shot – use manual focus to prevent the camera trying to auto-focus when you take the shot. With the IR filter on, you will not be able to see anything other than a very dark red (if not black) image.
• Use the Manual setting of your camera, and turn it to Bulb mode for exposures of more than 30 seconds – you will need a remote to achieve this without keeping your finger on the shutter release button.
• Use a large aperture to allow plenty of light through the lens, although landscape photography is best with a smaller aperture to give a greater depth of focus – adjust exposure times to compensate for this.
• Try to shoot on a still day – long exposures and wind don’t mix well if you want sharp images of trees!
• Choose a bright, sunny day in order to get white leaves and grass.
• Images with a lot of trees, water and sky seem to work well.

On Saturday I did manage to get a couple of shots in my back garden, when the sun decided to show for about 10 minutes. I could immediately see the difference this made to the leaves in the image.

I left the camera in auto white balance for this shot. The bright sunshine turned the green leaves white at last!

This shot looks the most like the odd out-of-camera shots that I did manage to find on the Internet, so I think that it probably makes sense to not bother setting a custom white balance in camera, and deal with that in your editing software. This is what changing the white balance in Aperture, based on the leaves, looks like – along with a few other exposure and definition changes.

Setting the white balance against the leaves made them much whiter.

I also took a shot after setting a custom white balance in camera, with the IR filter on the lens.

White balance set in camera, with IR filter on the lens.

This looks dreadful, but by setting the white balance against the leaves again in Aperture, the final image came out like this.

In camera custom white balance set, but then changed in Aperture.

To be honest, it doesn’t seem to matter how you set the white balance, and it probably makes sense to try doing so in different ways, as it then allows you to achieve different colours in the final image. The real magic happens when you move the image in to Photoshop and start playing with the channel mixer, and swapping the red and blue channels. You need the full version of Photoshop in order to this though, which is not cheap! I have Elements, which does not include the channel mixer, and so am currently unable to try and achieve a truly great IR photo look. There is a plug-in for Elements though, called Elements+, which promises to unlock the channel mixer, but I was unable to get this working in the short time that I had between realising the enormity of the task ahead of me and having to go and get drunk for a friend’s birthday!

I will of course be trying to get to the next step of IR photography in due course, but will be waiting for the leaves to come out on the trees, and I will also need to sort out access to photo software with a channel mixer! In the meantime, I hope that I have helped any newcomers to IR photography realise that they are not mad – it is just a lot harder to do than many of the tutorials on the Internet make it seem! Please leave any advice and comments that you may have, as I would really like to create a stunning IR image in the near future.

The Optimism of Youth (Photo 23)

The Optimism of Youth
NEX-6, 18-55mm E-Mount Lens @ 47mm, Aperture Priority Mode, 1/50 sec, ISO 3200, f/5

This week I wanted to try out my new Sony HVL-F60M Flash, and so I decided to take some photos of my friends’ little boy, Callum, for ‘The Optimism of Youth’. This was my first attempt at flash photography, as I have spent the last year or so following the purists’ path of shooting with only the available light. All I can say is that the purists are missing out! Learning to use a proper external camera flash is not something that I think is going to be easy to do, however, but I can already see the benefits that will be available from making the effort to do so. Here is a quick shot I took to show the difference between using a flash and not.

Callum in his armchair, using only the available light.

Callum’s ‘photo shoot’ was nothing too grand or well staged, and involved his Dad lying on the sofa helping me to get Callum to stay still, and his Mum in bed with a migraine. We managed though and took some shots in a few different locations of the house, with the cold and rain preventing us from going outside for a change of scenery. Callum has his own little armchair and foot stool, probably because John wants more room to stretch out on the sofa for himself, and so I placed this in the corner of the room, next to the window for some natural light. I had my new flash unit mounted on my NEX-6’s Multi Interface Shoe, which also acts as a standard hot shoe, conforming to the ISO’s measurement standards (more on this later though).

This photo was taken using the flash unit.

Comparing the two photos with and without flash, you can immediately see the huge improvement in the quality of light, with all of the shot bathed in an even light which brings the image to life much more. I was using the flash as a Fill Flash, which basically means that it fills in most of the shadows that you would see when a subject is lit from one direction (e.g. by the Sun, or a window during the day), and you can see how those shadows from the first image are filled in by the flash in the second. I was also using the Quick Shift Bounce movement of the flash unit – directing the flash up at the ceiling, so that it would then bounce back down more evenly, and softly, rather than having a very direct light pointing right at Callum, which would probably blind him too.

Using a flash in your portraits (animal or human) also adds interest by creating ‘catch lights’ in your subject’s eyes.

I think one of the most important benefits offered by using a flash in portraits has to be the ability to bring out your subject’s eyes. I have mentioned in previous posts how it is important to make these the focus of the image (unless you are trying something a little different), and the addition of a flash makes them stand out even more, especially when you get ‘catch lights’ reflecting in them (this is just the flash reflecting back off their eyes – and could come from other light sources if they are facing the correct way). The flash also brings out the colour much more, as you can see in Callum’s big, blue eyes above, compared to the earlier shot without flash, where they are much darker and not so obviously blue.

I didn’t really ever need to ask Callum to pose – he was constantly pulling faces and playing around – I just needed to ask him to stay still most of the time.

As I am so completely new to using flash in my photography, I was happy to leave the HVL-F60M to work out what strength it needed to be at for the best exposure, which it and the camera work out between them when you use the TTL (Through The Lens) mode of the flash unit. I think that in pretty much most instances where you will be taking a number of fairly quick shots, and you will need to react as things happen, this is the only mode that you would want to use, switching to manual mode when using the flash in a more creative way to create the exact amount of light that you require. You may do this either on or off-camera, and this was something that I was really interested in trying out for my vision of what the featured shot would be for this post. I did manage to stick to my vision, but not in quite the same way as I had originally planned to.

One of my first attempts at creating the shot I had envisaged for this post. Sadly, I was using autofocus and the NEX-6 did not focus on Callum’s face/eye, which is really my own fault for not taking more control over this feature.

My slightly pretentious vision was to have Callum opening a box, from which bright light was spilling on to his face, as a metaphor for a child’s optimism and interest when investigating even a mundane cardboard box! We made do with his toy box though, which slightly spoiled the idea, as what average child wouldn’t be interested by the prospect of opening their own toy box?! I moved Callum’s toy box in to the hall way, closed the doors and got John to hold up a towel to block light coming through the window of the front door, so we had a pretty dark setting. The light from the toy box comes courtesy of the flash unit’s LED video light, rather than the actual flash itself. This leads me to a few issues that I have with the Sony flash – despite the fact that it is very good on-camera, it simply does not work off-camera with the NEX-6.

I like the way in which Callum’s face is lit from his right, throwing shadows over his left side.

Both the Sony NEX-6 and A99 have the new Multi Interface Shoe, which is both the same height and width of a standard hot shoe. However, due to a number of contacts at the front end (so that camera and attached peripherals are able to ‘talk’ to one another better), the Sony shoe is actually deeper than the standard. This is fine if you want to fit another manufacturer’s flash to a Sony product, but it means that the Sony flash does not fit in to other manufacturer’s products – in my limited experience at least. I really wanted to use the flash off-camera, which means that you need a way of triggering it when you press the shutter release of the camera. There are a number of ways in which this can be achieved – on-camera flash can be synched to fire the flash unit, wireless remote triggers can be fitted to both devices and send the signal from camera to flash, or you can purchase a cable that runs between the two devices and sends the signal ‘hard-wired’. Whilst the Sony A99’s on-camera flash is capable of being synched with the HVL-F60M, for some reason (which I am currently not aware of), the NEX-6’s in-built flash is not capable of doing so. I purchased some cheap wireless radio transmitters, in the hope that I would be able to fire the flash that way, but because of the extra contacts for the Multi Interface Shoe, my flash does not fit in to the receiver, although the transmitter will fit in to the shoe on the camera. I am currently attempting to modify the cheap receiver, so that the flash unit will fit, but it is a work in progress and will require me filing down some of the metal hot shoe, which I do not think will be very easy!

I was tempted to use this as the featured photo, as we can see more of Callum’s face, but his expression doesn’t exactly scream ‘optimism’.

I’m not really sure whether or not there is currently a hard-wired option available for me to use, but that is not really ideal as I would like to experiment with the flash well away from my camera, and not be limited to a couple of metres of cable. As the Multi Interface Shoe is so new as well, there are probably not any third party manufacturers currently making compatible wireless triggers (as the market for them to sell to is simply not large enough at the moment), but hopefully this will change over time, so please could everybody reading this go out and buy either an A99 or NEX-6 to bring that day closer?! Seriously though, I will update this if/when I find out any further information on the issue, and I am happy to try and answer any questions people may have, so please leave a comment if that is the case. The problem I have is that I am so new to all of this, have no experience of other manufacturer’s hot shoes, and there is also sooooo much misinformation on internet forums that I have come across whilst trying to find a solution, so I will try to get some definitive info from Sony UK directly, and share this when possible. In the meantime, I may have to invest in a cheap speedlight which should work with my wireless triggers, and simply use the the Sony flash on-camera – which it is undoubtedly going to be great for in many situations to come. At least I could use the LED video light to fulfil my idea for this post.

After telling me that one of his Mr Potato Heads looked like me, he moved on to making them hold hands whilst posing for some more photos.

Happy that I had a shot that I would be able to use for this post, we put John and Karen’s house back in order (mostly) and then I decided to take a few more shots of Callum playing with his toys. I was pointing the flash up at the ceiling again in the above shot, but you can see the reflection in the radiator behind him – this was reduced significantly when I attached the diffuser that came with the flash though.

Another example of what these photos would have looked like without using a proper flash unit.

I think that it is very important to get down to the same level as your subjects much of the time, as you can see from all of the shots that I have used in this post. I have nothing against experimenting with different angles from time to time though, but when photographing rug rats you really need to be prepared to get down on your hand and knees. It is sometimes a good idea to go all the way down to lying flat, to capture a more unusual angle – and the kids can often find that entertaining in itself, which helps to bring something new out in their response to the camera as well.

Although this is not one of the better photos of Callum, taking the shot from so low down helped to make him do different things, and actually peaked his interest in the camera.

So, that was my first attempt at flash photography! I  have so much more to learn, and I also know that it is going to be quite complicated if I want to have a really good understanding of the topic, but the potential that using a flash (or flashes) brings with it is really going to be invaluable for a number of my future photos. I won’t be using flash all of the time of course, as many of the photos that I will be taking will not require it, but there are definitely a number of really interesting and artistic effects that can be gained from it. So, much like every new thing that I learn about photography, I’m really excited to keep using and improving with it.