Why you should know how

True HDR is just a shot that has a High Dynamic Range, no more no less.

I'm mindful of what my camera can capture, while it doesn't dictate what I shoot, I'll try to frame the shot in a way that lets me capture as much info as the camera is capable of capturing. You should know your cameras limitations; If anything you should embrace them and get the most out of them. I guess we all know now that a camera is just not capable of capturing everything the eye can.

Old one shot's still got it

The brightness levels in this shot taken on the South bank in London,
Is within the dynamic range of my camera. I knew that already just as
I knew it when I shot Ange with the zippo. The light in this scene
was twice as bright as the shot of Ange. You can't tell that as I
exposed for the light. It's not something the viewer needs to know
but it's important that I knew it


Now of course you shouldn't be thinking about these things if you're looking at photographs. But you should know about it; You should know about it because you're a picture maker, you should understand it because shooting without knowing what you're doing is like shooting without intent or arriving at a destination and not knowing how you got there.

It has nothing to do with style, it's invisible. You never thank a writer for spelling well or having correct grammar (Something I struggle with). You never thank a musician for staying in tune


You learn it, so you can forget about it.


"Develop an infallible technique, then put yourself at the mercy of inspiration."

Zen maxim

Why

Me old mate Ken said in the HDR post that people forget why they photograph. I guess that you could say that most pictures aren't worth remembering. That's nothing new and it'll always be so

So why bother

If I could tell that kid anything it would be something that's already been said below, better than I ever could. I'll just stick to taking his picture

HDR

Has the blood run from your veins, Kras?


I know, I know... It does the same to me. But fear yee not! You're noting going to see some acid trip landscape. I'm just going to waffle about my first go with some HDR software. I just want to use it to control dynamic range, I'm not after cranking it up to 11.

I've been testing two bits of software. Nik HDR Pro and Photomatix which are the big players in HDR software. This is not an in depth review of the software, I know very little about either of them but when it comes to trying to keep your photographs looking like an actual photographs, Photomatix gets my vote. It's just been easier to achieve and I'm sure I'll get better at it as it's my first time

Boring but a good test, three shots from inside our lounge looking out to the garden.
Each shot is 2 stops apart

So I loaded them in to Photomatix and here's the result

As a first attempt I'm quite pleased with the test result. Shot on a tripod naturally, but there are options for hand holding that I haven't tried. I can see some banding and I'll look in to that. Might  need another shot or two as that's quite a high contrast range to deal with. I'm sure I'll get better results with more use


Edit:

Seems a much easier deal outside. I'd personally find it hard to tell that is was an HDR shot. In fact because of the Dynamic range it's quite film like (click on the shot)

Three shots from 1/125 sec to 1/1000 sec

Brain meter

Ange f/11 @ 1/100 sec iso 125

That exposure is my anchor point for the lights Ange is in. bright shade, no shadows, just one stop down from Sunny sixteen. I don't normally go beyond F/11 (diffraction). Had it been a stop brighter I'd have just used an exposure of f/11 @ 1/250 of sec which is my anchor point for bright sunshine (harsh shadows)

The real beauty is that there is only 5 stops between any situation you'll find out in the daytime. You don't need spot metering, evaluative metering or any other kind of metering. Your peepers are incident light meters which are far superior than a cameras reflective metering. Your experience of shooting in that light and your inbuilt light meter is far more reliable than any camera you'll ever own

Next time you're out in bright sunlight set you camera to f/16 @ 1/100 sec iso 100 and you'll have nailed the exposure. That's your anchor for that light. You can than change it to f/11 @ 1/250th f/8 @ 1/500th f/5.6 at 1/1000 sec and on and on. It's it's the same exposure for the same scene you just control how you get there based on what you need.

Bright midday sun to the darkest shade is just 5 stops. F/16 to f/4 @ 1/100 sec iso 100, covers everything that daylight's going to throw at you.

Just 5 stops... aint that a comfort?


A must read even for us city dwellers

A Charity Walk

The motley crew went on a bit of a charity walk round Canvey Island in aid of Fairhavens.

Here we are tucking in to a good English breaky at the end. Don't quite know why but I love this shot of Kev & Angie.

Pass the salt!

Kras

Shooting manual

I've shot manual for almost all of the time that I've been using a camera that allows that control. It's also very rare that I use lights on auto (E-TTL) mode. The two main reasons being
1: consistence
2: I don't like the camera/lights guessing at what I'm trying do

Just been fooling around in the kitchen and took two quick snaps

One in Manual

f/5.6 @ 1/50 sec iso 800

I wanted it dark, I wanted  the light to be subdued & Kinda cinematic. I wanted just enough depth of field to leave some detail for the living room. I could have increased the ISO by a stop which would have allowed me to stop down to f/8.0 for more DOF while keeping the same exposure. But it's only a test (shots are unedited)


Auto

F/2.0 @ 1/60 sec iso 800

Well you can see what the camera's thinking, expose for the door frame. It sure as hell wasn't what I was thinking. Trouble is it has no idea what I want to do, only I know that. TV & AV mode didn't fair any better. Shutter priority (1/50 sec) gave me F/1.4!

Lets say though I'd have been happy with that but changed the focus to the cups. Well you'd have had a different exposure entirely

You don't have those issues shooting manual. Once you know the exposure you can balance it out anyway you want to, you have full control, the exposure will be consistent from shot to shot.

Same with lighting. When I took that shot of me reading the Book that Ken bought me (fine book) I tried the lights in E-TTL and it was so inconsistent. It's easily tricked by changing focus. There are times when it's handy but seldom have I found it to be much use in tough lighting

I think shooting manual is part of the craft to, it's just good practice. Even if you prefer to shoot in TV AV or full auto dipping your toes in manual will be a good exercise

You can make a small fortune in photography...

You just need to spend a large one first.


So I'm going to start charging for my photography and as I've already spent a fortune on gear it shouldn't be too painful. Having said that, my Epson R2880 just isn't going to cut it. It's a fine printer but it's only A3 and isn't intended for heavy use, it only comes with 11ml cartridges which just isn't cost effective for commercial use. It makes stunning prints and for a serious user that wants the control and enjoyment of making their own prints at homed it's hard to fault.

Have a look at this baby

It costs £3120 (ouch I know) It's 24 inches wide and will print on roll media up to the length of the roll (looooong panoramas). Epson have a cost calculator on their site. A 24x24 inch canvas print will cost £9.24 in ink and canvas, which might seem a lot until you go looking to have that done for you. Cheapest I've found so far is around £45 without delivery and they're using machines of a similar spec.

I need to cut out the middle man and take the profit for myself. I'll have to learn how to stretch and hang the canvas which I'm sure I'll manage. The 7900's big brother is Epson 9900 which can print up to a 44 inch wide and would be my dream machine I could make a lot of profit on that. I'd be limited to a width of 24 inches with the 7900 and you know how things are, people always want bigger


Anybody needing a spare kidney, please drop me a line

Norway

It was one of those rare days yesterday where I missed the news. It was 1:30 am this morning before I found out about the terrible news in Norway. I got my news from this blog


Ken

Your anger and upset is justified.


Our thoughts are with those that have lost their lives and with the people they left behind.


Sean & Diane

Edit Kras

As the stories are coming out they are breaking my heart. I want to show this again from Bob Robinson. I truly can not imagine, no one can.

Bergen High Street 02:00 AM 25th July 2011

The above screen snap. If you look closely you will see the candles burning for the dead (lower left). Top right is someone driving down the pedestrian part (they got out and lit a candle). It is not often you see this scene from Bergen High Street live cam in the middle of the night.

You can never go home again

I think recapturing the the past can be a little like living in it. It's not a great idea, you'll end up stuck there while the present slips by.

Ben 2005

Ben 2011

The first shot was over half a life time ago for Ben. Shooting the past... well... How can you when it's gone

Portraits

I shoot people; Since picking up a camera I've shot little else & It's hard to for me to explain why that is. Robert Frost was once asked to explain a poem and he replied with "You want me to say it worse?"

Master of light

Cinematographer Stanley Cortez's masterful use of light

Night Of The Hunter is in my top ten favourite films of all time. In my humble opinion this scene is one of the greatest in movie history. One that I could talk about for hrs but I'll let the film do the talking


Edit:

Dave Said:

"I am a massive critic of modern films etc and the lousy lazy all over lighting. You'll have to lend this to Ken - looks brilliant."


It is a brilliant film, Dave, Robert Mitchum at his very best. Surprisingly its the only film Charles Laughton directed. Why he stopped after night of the hunter I don't know but it's our loss.

There's an episode of the Simpsons (The Seven Beer Snitch) where Chief Wigum is slagging off how CSI is shot and lit. You then see a shot of Wigum from inside a coke can and he looks down in to the hole and says " Yeah that's it... All flash and no meaning"


I watch a hell of a lot of movies. Any lighting has to be appropriate for the scene or subject, Like photography. The temptation to go Noir with lighting is hard to resist. I get just as pissed by over cooked lighting. Some times less is more and sometimes more is more but the content/subjects got to dictate that.

Another beautifully lit Film is the Coen Brothers: The Man Who Wasn't there



Shot by the brilliant Roger Deakins who's worked a lot with the Coen brothers. He shot their remake of True Grit and the cinematography is stunning

Tanks

That's just a paddies way of saying thanks

f/4/.0 1/10 sec iso 200 with lights

Edit: About the shot


Well it's just a snap shot style shot to say thanks. There are some little clues that it's lit.

f/4.0 1/10 Sec iso200 without lights

That's the bed without lighting. To my eyes the scenes much brighter. But our old peepers have much more dynamic range than our cameras. Trick is is to try and use lighting to bring the scene in to the dynamic range of the camera as without the lighting I'd have been pretty much in shadow. Subtle, unobtrusive, natural blah blah.  Need two lights for that, one for the bed and one for me. The shutters so slow because it's the shutter that controls the ambient light (the lamps basically). It looks more how it did to my eyes.


I know it's techie and I seldom if ever talk about photographs in those terms and brother Smith doesn't use lighting, so why bother? Might be useful to someone, was to me when I learned it.

Mirrors and Windows

There's a book I've always meant to get but never have. I know a lot about the the book and the premise of the show that gave birth to it. Some photographs offer windows in to another persons life, other times they are a mirrors that reflect the photographers.

Sometimes they're both

Too literal so a bad example

It's not easy to do both well. Sally Mann does it well, she's out of frame but in every shot of her family. Ken's done it with some of the shots of Ange during her treatment. Nick Nixon has done it with some of his portraits of strangers, as have others. It's nothing new now but it's no easier so you keep trying

Old Man Bullock & Old Man Smith

Angie captured a great shot from our local Summer Fete this weekend. It rained, and it rained.

and to add a bit of context :)

Motown Gold

Kras

London (part two)

Forget my old school, The Big Event was meeting the Keanes, by far.

The very first shot, most of the time the best.

The Keanes

To the Pub

Keane

The first beer

Viv meets the Smiths & Keanes

The Keanes

 The farewell

more to follow

Edit:

You know my left sides my best side

New Orleans

 

Ken: A tribute

Smoking

I recon this might turn out to be my favourite street shot from London. Might be too soon to judge as I haven't seen them all but it's my kind of street shot. I like street photography that has some regard for its subjects and while I love humour in street photography I hate seeing people mocked, that ain't humour, that's sneering.

The boys just look like that break is well earned. It's packed round Chinatown and the store being closed and all the goods gone of the shelf's hints at a busy day and it being late in the day. But I recon there day's far from over.

Three waiters

Another thing:

Photographs that work well in colour usually work well in black and white to. Not quite the same in the reverse which might sound like bullshit but it's true and easily tested. Try it

London

Well it turns out that we were 30 years too late to take on the Krays. So we met the Smith's instead and to our surprise (and Dave's relief) there was no bloodshed or gang land violence.

But I did shoot a lot of people in London

That includes The Smiths...

More later


Later:

Ange with Zippo

It's not PC to say but man some people look cool smoking. I could never carry it off, I looked like some SS officer in a black and white war movie, camp as Christmas in a nutshell. Ange is more like a spy in a war movie, she's cool under fire/zippo

Check out Dee & Kras in each eye

Saint Smith

Ange proving that sometimes it's better to ask for permission than forgiveness

I shot this lady and her dogs. Didn't get a good shot but I got a good shot of the girl that did.

Tate Modern

A Big Event

Yesterday I went to see my old school, a Big Event they called it. It is being destroyed this summer, so have a party!

I'd not been back since I collected my failed O'level slips and a few CSE passes. 16 years old I guess. It was a rough old school and walking round yesterday nothing had really changed. I met an old teacher (Mr. Eve) and a mate (Vic) I'd not seen since. I shot a lot of pics. But this one of the doors . . . . I spent five years of my life going through those doors, and it's just the same apart from the pink and will be gone in a month or so.

What a day of memories.

E Block

Kras

Ask

Eddie

Some of the very best street & none street photographers were/are very shy. Robert Doisneau's first shots were of torn posters and cobbled streets, he was too shy to shoot people. Later you can see people shot from a safe distance but balanced perfectly with the working class (just thought I'd get that in) neighbourhoods of Paris he loved.

"When it comes down to it, constraint's no bad thing. My shyness censored me, and I took people only from a distance. As a result, there was space all around them"



People don't know it, or don't believe that I'm shy. I work around it in funny ways, like I don't mind speaking to a room of 200 people but other times I'm too shy to go to a BBQ. Anyway...

This isn't a street shot, it's a portrait. This is Eddie from Kirby Lonsdale. Had a pint with Eddie and took some portraits of him. I would never of got this shot without asking. And while I do recon it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission, there are times when you can work around it.


Bit like shyness really

indicommons

A great resource of archived photographs from around the world linking to flickr for more. Well worth checking out.

indicommons

Kras

Summer time in England

Some days you wake up with a good feeling. This day I had a good feeling right through to my bones and till the late hours. Truly one of the best days for me. A Summer time in England (stay with Van the Man, one of the best songs ever)

Can you meet me . . . . .

in the long grass . . .

Kras