I have made a lot of Panoramic HDRs lately, I got various complaints about the bending on these. I think I owe an explanation about that. I do my panoramic photographs using a 16mm in portrait, inevitably much like a fisheye lens, the closer to the centre of the panoramic you get the closer you are to the subject and thus the “fisheye” effect as shown in the photograph bellow made from 5 portrait photographs.

But here is one photograph that does not have that effect, yet it is indeed a panoramic made of no less than 7 portrait photos, so why is there no bending? Simple there is nothing in the centre, so you cannot see it! But look at the horizon line, it is bent so ever slightly…

And there you have it, the simple explanation.

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I am a proud Joburg Photowalker nearly since inception just over 2 years ago. The guys and gals are great and a special mention goes to Mark Straw for organizing some amazing locations and so much more. In the old group many have helped out and helped to organise something some point in times. It’s been a group effort.

Unfortunately, success comes at a price and that price is as we have more walks we have greater numbers and greater numbers mean requires greater care.

Etiquette on street photography and photo walks as I see it is paramount, I find that it makes for better photos. I thought I’d share what I consider proper and please note this is not researched by far this is my thoughts.

1. Be mindful of your surroundings and fellow photographers, do not put yourself in front of another’s lens.
2. Be courteous, it cost nothing and brings out the best in people.
3. Before you even pickup your camera to shot someone, ask, you will rarely be told no, I never have.
4. Children are fascinating but this in my opinion is a sensitive subject, more so every day. Ask the parents for permission first, if you can.
5. Do not invade private space, this only creates an uneasiness that will be felt in your photos and gives a bad reputation to all photographers.
6. You can take anything and anyone in public space, it does not mean you should, think and look before you pull the trigger, you may just be embarrassing someone or invading their privacy.
7. Do not hog a space, you are not the only photographer there.

Though I intend to expand on the subject in the future, those are my 7 rules, what are yours?

1. By anonymous:  “10 000 images does not make for a good photo walk – think before you press the button- it’s a question of quality not quantity.”

Related posts:

1. Photo walking

High Dynamic Range or HDR is an abused process that bad photographers use to hide the fact that they can’t shoot. I am paraphrasing here but I heard it, I read it and I disagree and here is why!

A good, not an over the top, over done HDR, a good HDR requires planning and thought. The framing has to be right, the light has to be right and the contrast has to exist and textures helps a lot. You mess one of these up and that is it, the HDR is no good. Much like traditional photography, it’s in the eye and experience, the more you do HDRs the more you pickup what will and will not work before you shoot it.

I have, in the past months, created many HDR and even often tackled Panoramic HDRs, not the easiest of feats. Most of which was handheld because most have been done during photo walks and to be honest I hate carrying around a tripod for 3 hours to use it a couple of times, a monopod does little to help in the HDR world, so I don’t carry either. Instead I learned to use my body as a tripod and sweep panoramic like a robot.

The equipment helps, obviously, in fact I would probably not be able to do what I do without a tripod if it was not for my ever faithful Canon EOS 7D. It’s shooting speed and bracketing, even though it can only do 3 (this is where I am jealous of the NIKON owners, whom in some cases can go up to 7) and presets make my life easier. When I see an HDR opportunity, I switch to preset 3 and voila I am in HDR mode.

What is my HDR mode? Well f/8, bracket 0 , –2, +2 stop at – 0.5 of a stop, ISO 100, RAW. The only things I will change is the ISO and rarely the aperture, I found f/8 to be a sweet spot for HDRs and the lens I use, the 16-35mm f/2.8 L from Canon.

What is the aim of an HDR? Triple the colour, triple highlight and triple  shadow information allows for triple the details. Triple the details allows for a better visual experience, closer to what the eye sees. In my case, I bring back colour and details, I try not to over do it and from the reactions to my HDRs, it seems I go a good recipe.

The bottom line, try it, I have a short primer here and there are wonderful books by the like of Trey Ratcliff of www.stuckincustoms.com and many others.

I will post about the issues I encountered with HDRs in a latter post, it’s not all fun but the results are what they are stunning images.

Related posts:

1. High Dynamic Range revisited
2. Mini book Review: Rick Sammon’s HDR Secrets for Digital Photographers

As you all know I take part in photo walks, particularly with the Joburg photowalkers.

I get a lot of question about Joburg photowalkers, here are a few typical ones and answers:

• How do you join?
  Like “Joburg photowalkers” on Facebook, the Flickr group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/1210029@N21 or  go to http://www.meetup.com/joburg-photowalkers/.
• How much does it cost?
  Nothing and nada, though you may have to pay for access, tour guides or transport for time to time.
• What do I need?
  You need a good pair of walking shoes, I advice a backpack or bag with something to drink, take a lot of patience with you too and be open minded and inspired. Oh, you mean to ask what camera and lenses? Sorry. All you need is a device digital or analogue that can take a photograph, from your mobile phone to the mighty DSLRs no one will care, anything is good enough.
• Is that it?
  No there is another important element, enjoy yourself, your photos will show it.

On last Saturday, the 16 of January 2012, we took a 3 hour walk in Alexandra, a 100 year old township, which was cut short by bad weather. here is the route we took.

View Alexandra Heritage Photowalk – January 2012 in a larger map

As usual, the result of a photo walk is photographs and here they are:

I would like to thank Mark Straw and the tour guides for making this possible.

No related posts.

Going to the Namaqualand I did what every photographer does packed my bag with everything, in the end I could have left it all behind and just took my 16-35mm as I took 90% 0f my photographs with it.

I found the the close focusing distance and shortness of the lens was handy, additionally small flowers are well defined. It’s not a macro by far but it works. I had a 100mm macro along and used it far less then I expected, just the length of the lens was a problem, seriously try to get under a 200mm bush with a camera that is 200mm, does not work well, take it from me. My wife however found it hilarious…

So how does one capture this splendour? I opted to try something very different, I call it the “ant view”, how would an ant see the flower? From under obviously, not all my shots are like that but very few are from the “human” view as well, in fact I tried my hardest not to do the “human” thing, it’s so snapshot  don’t you think? I also found a low aperture (f/2.8-4) advantageous, since flowers are in scattered bushes it give an illusion of depth, who said that photographers can’t be magicians? For some reason, I also found that shooting at 1/3 to a stop lower gave a far better contrast and definition to the final product, it may have to do with the blue sky.

I also shot a few panoramic composites, all prepared for HDR, only one worked as an HDR, the drama in the sky tell it all.

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Disclaimer: Firstly and again I have no affiliation with Lensbaby or any of their partners. Now, that I have that out of the way…

I recently acquired two new Lensbaby Optics, the Soft Focus and Sweet 35, both of which I will be reviewing, the first in this post. For full disclosure, this was tested on a Canon EOS 7D with a Lensbaby Composer attached.

First shock, is how soft the Soft Focus is. The aperture is controllable as with most Lensbaby Optics using normal Lensbaby disks or 3 of these multi-hole disks that are specific to the Soft Focus. I found that focusing with it is a bit a of a challenge, you never quiet sure if it’s correct or if you missing the point but I think that also brings some charm to the process. However, the Soft Focus, unlike most of it’s siblings is focused across the view finder, and photograph, in pretty much the same way, there does not seem to be a sweet spot as such.

The dreamy soft look may appear to be Photoshoped  but I can assure you that the sample photograph was not altered beyond some exposure correction. I assume you could get the same results in Photoshop in post-processing but would it be as much fun? I do not think so.

Related posts:

1. Lensbaby Composer with Double Glass & +10 Macro review
2. Lensbaby Composer with Double Glass, +10 Macro, +4 Macro
3. Lensbaby

On the 15^th of June 2011, we had a full lunar eclipse. A question that was asked often was how to shoot such an event.

Firstly, the good new is that you can enjoy this event without the worries of damaging your eyes or equipment’s sensor.

Shooting the moon is actually pretty easy, manually set your camera at f/8 and about 250/s at ISO 100 and you are set, these are approximates and may change according to environmental conditions.

Now for the harder parts, you will need the following:

1. A sturdy tripod
2. A zoom lens, 400mm and above, I use a 2x tele-convertor too.
3. Either a remote trigger or you can use the camera timer to reduce shake
4. A lot of patience.

The biggest problem faced when shooting any celestial bodies is the fact that they are moving, we are moving and for some odd reason I cannot understand we cannot ask any one to stand still for a second. So you will have to re-adjust your tripod position every 90 seconds without fail. Irritating I know but, as I mentioned earlier, patience is required.

Lastly, if required, as it was in my shoot of the eclipse, do not go under a second of exposure, the moon moves too fast, rather increase your ISO.

Related posts:

1. Photographing the Namaqualand
2. Living with a Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens in the wild.

Photo-walking is one of the ways I am forcing myself to pick up my camera and go to “make” photos as opposed to sit at my desk working.

There are pros and cons to going photo-walking. The pros outweigh the cons every time. So why do it?

Mark Straw, one of the men behind the ever-growing Joburg Photowalkers, asked this very question on Facebook the other day and the answers were varied.

In my opinion, being with other photographers and the immediate synergy is a serious attraction. But there is so much more to it, meeting interesting people and making friends. Discovering your inner photographer, discovering new interesting places in your own backyard and you get to have some exercise to boot. Photo walks are for everyone from beginners to professionals and what is more is that no one will turn you down or laugh at you if you have a problem on site. It’s all about the socializing and enjoyment of sharing one passion, photography.

One more advantage is that Photowalkers end up criticizing each other’s work and I found that the criticism is rather positive.

So how about getting involved in photo walks in your city?

In Johannesburg, follow Joburg Photowalkers and PhotoComment for the next walk.

Related posts:

1. Photo walking is great but…
2. The triangle of light, overview.

I cannot say that I am an expert in HDR or even photography, but I can say that i truly enjoy most type of photography. As many, I wish I had more time to practice it. However I digress, this post is about basic HDR.

Firstly, if you are really serious about HDR there is a wonderful tutorial on Stuck in Customs by Trey Ratcliff, or his amazing book A World in HDR which acts as a inspirational, tutorial and coffee table book. This post covers my basic understanding in a short summary.

1. Shooting an HDR photograph:

• HDR photography is not that different from standard photography, however you will need a tripod or something to rest your camera on as you will be taking multiple shoots of the same thing.
• Set your camera
  • Newby way: Set your camera to Aperture Priority, Continuous Mode and bracketed by 2 stops. Nikon cameras will do up to 7 photos in some models where as Canon cameras will only take 3.
  • Advanced way: Once you have your scene meter the highest light and the darkest shadow, from here you will take a photograph every 1 stop from the one to the other. This would be done in manual mode whilst locking the aperture and ISO and only using the shutter speed. So if the scene as a range between 1/125 and 1/2 of a second the resultant would be 7 photographs each taken at 1/125, 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2  of a second.
    F-Stop equivalence in shutter speed. Values shown in seconds.
    

    8

    4

    2

    1

    1/2

    1/4

    1/8

    1/15

    1/30

    1/60

    1/125

    1/250

    1/500

    1/1000

    You can use this scale as a reference, I do.

• Shoot RAW
• Make sure that your auto focus is OFF.
• Make sure that the tripod does not move or vibrate.
• Take your time!!!

That concludes the easy part.

2. Compiling the HDR

• You will need either Photomatix Pro or HDR EFEX Pro both have a trial. There are more HDR software out there, these two are the highest rated. HDR EFEX Pro will also require Adobe Photoshop CS4 or above,  Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 or above or Apple Apperture 2 or above all of which are also available for trial.
• Do not colour correct unless you do it on the whole set.
• Do not crop or alter the photos at this time. 
• Do convert them to JPG at maximum resolution.
• Import the set into your favourite HDR program and adjust as required.
• DO experiment, I personally like it when the final output is natural.
• At this point you can crop and adjust the photograph.
• Once the HDR process is complete you may want to get back the colours, I use a plugin called Topaz Lab Adjust mostly using the Spicify or Photo Pop presets.

That’s how I do it and here is some examples:

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One thing that came with my MacBook Pro was iLife, it contains a bunch of tools to do photo management and basic editing (iPhoto) to write music (Garage Band). One of the tools that interested me was iMovie a video editor.

iMovie, much like the rest of the suite and OS X, is very intuitive. Easy to get, easy to use until… I own a SONY Cyber-Shot DSC-HX5V, it is on the list of compatible cameras for iMovie but what I found is disturbing. I took you the SD card from the camera and put it in my card reader as I do for my photographs. To my surprise, I got a message telling me that no compatible files where found, though I could see it. Admittedly, it was greyed out. I could not import this file. Than it came to me, the camera is compatible, what if the file was not? So I connected my camera with the USB to my MacBook Pro and behold, I successfully imported the video, it even picked it up by itself. Great or not.

You see I have a bunch of videos done with this camera on my hard drive, how do I import those? MTS files are not recognised as valid video files by iMovie (I even tried to rename it), so now what Apple? Do I have to put them back on the camera to import them? That would just be silly!

I will keep you updated.

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1. The inevitable 20 uses of the iPad…
2. The inevitable 20 uses of the iPad, the software I use.
3. Products worth mentioning for small start-up businesses

I was fortunate enough to enjoy the unforgettable Pilanesberg Game Reserve for 4 days over a 2 weeks period. The first was a long weekend and the second 1 lonely Sunday with some friends form Belgium and France.

Something you should know about the park is that it has deteriorated over the past few years, I was forced to ask a friend for her 4×4 to travel through it with guests, not so much for it’s 4 wheel drive as for it’s ground clearance. The North-West province, the owners and curators of the park, are building beautiful and impressive entrances to the park but not maintaining it’s roads. As far as the rest of the park is concerned it look as beautiful as ever.

Something odd happened between my 2 visits, a week apart, it comes to show how un-expectable and temperamental nature is. I have always said that entering a nature reserve is a bit like going to a casino you know what you enter with, hopefully an open mind, but you don’t know what you will get out. The first weekend we were there we saw an abundance of elephants and very few rhinoceroses, the second we saw an abundance of rhinoceroses but no elephants. This is a typical example of nature’s will at work, it will give you what it will. I can always guarantee that going to any reserves makes for interesting trips.

Pilanesberg Game Reserve also has a charm about it, being in a 1300 million year old volcano helps, this is best enjoyed in one of the many picnic sites. Take something to eat with you and have a small barbeque at lunch in one of these, I guarantee you you will enjoy it. The many dams should also be visited, most have bird hides, they often have unexpected sights such as fish, birds, bucks and maybe a predator. Another positive aspect of the Pilanesberg Game Reserve is it’s distance to Johannesburg, at about 200km, it is an acceptable distance for a day visit.

Photographically speaking, it’s a gem, because of it’s abundance of wildlife and distance to Johannesburg. You will need a long lens and I recommend a polarising filter when near dams, the glare can be quiet bad. I usually only take my 100-400mm lens along with my point and shoot for such a trip, anything else is a waist of space.

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This time I say “So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish” to this wonderful monument. I will need to return to redo the main room and maybe some photographs for the top, I have a slight fear of heights that could prohibit the latter though.

There are things I learned for this project and I thought I would share them with you.

1. I had pre-visualised and planed the Panoramic HDR of the Cenotaph Room and it shows in the final image.
2. Organise with the caretaker to be able to enter with your tripod before hand, maybe even to get in at a time where the monument is empty.
3. Do not be in a rush, if you need to do the photo again, do it.
4. Think up, down and both ways the Cenotaph fisheye photograph came about that way.
5. Take your time looking and planning on site too, something I need to learn.
6. Take your time with the post processing, redo it if you feel you need to.

And finally a big tank you to the staff of the Voortrekker Monument for their support.

Related posts:

1. The Voortrekker Monument

I have often heard people say that the Voortrekker Monument is an ugly monolith representing the shame of the Apartheid era.  After many visits, I can not help but disagree.

It might have become a symbol of a system of government that did not work for or represent the greater good of all South Africans in the country’s infancy. It might not be the prettiest or most photogenic of monuments I have ever encountered, however it speaks. It might be ugly on the outside, but it has a heartbeat – a life and story of struggle, of creation. It’s a part of the fabric that gives us our heritage.

It speaks of the hardships of the Afrikaner people and reminds us of one viewpoint on the historical events of our beloved rainbow nation. The Voortrekker Monument is no more a relic of the apartheid regime than the Castle of Bastille would be to the French Revolution. It’s a reminder of how the combined stories of many nations have collectively made up the multi-coloured tapestry that is the country we call home.

Thanks to Geraldine Paulsen, custodian at the Voortrekker Monument, who provided the necessary permission that allowed me to use my camera and tripod. I spent three very short hours preparing for a few HDR’s that I will post on Flickr over the next few weeks. I can only hope that I my offerings showcase and give the credit to each of the artists that painstakingly carved this monument’s beautiful interior.

For more information:

• http://www.voortrekkermon.org.za/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voortrekker_Monument

Text edited and reviewed by Michelle Ashburner from South Africans You Should Meet

Related posts:

1. The Voortrekker Monument – Part 2

This is a panoramic composite view of Blydepoort Dam and the 3 Rondavels at Blyde River Canyon I took in June of 2005. Except for the merging of the photos using Canon PhotoStich no other post-processing was done, in fact if you look carefully you will see the lines where the photographs are joined.

Fast-forward to 2011, I decided to have a look at this panoramic photograph again and see what I can do with today’s tools.

Step 1, merging the same 5 JPGs using Adobe Photoshop CS 5 and adding some content fill for good measure.

Step 2, Adjusting the merged photograph in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.3 (I am too lazy to do it in CS5)

The result

A far cry from what I did 5 years ago.

Related posts:

1. Some post-processing comparisons
2. The Voortrekker Monument – Part 2

In my last post I talked about Rick Sammon’s HDR Secrets for Digital Photographers book, I finished reading it last night and thought that it was a good time to share my thoughts on it.

In short, if you are thinking of going HDR this is a brilliant book to start with. It has step by step instructions on every aspect of HDR photography, coupled with amazing photography. The results are I managed to replicate what I call the Rick Sammon HDR Look without too much mental effort on my first outing with HDR in mind. I also like the fact that the book is riddled with tips not limited to HDR photography but rather tips on every aspect of photography. One can only make better photographs after reading such a book.

For more information on Rick Sammon as well as good photography tips and how-to’s head over to his site: www.ricksammon.info

One disappointment though, it tries to pitch some products a little to hard, but it’s all forgiven through the rest of the content.

On that note, and I am not trying to pitch anything, to enjoy this book you will need a DSLR, a tripod, a MAC or PC with trials of Photomatix and Topaz Adjust.

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1. Book Review: "The Hot Shoe Diaries" by Joe McNally
2. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V mini review
3. High Dynamic Range revisited

I am not big on “New Year’s Resolutions” but this year is a little different. Last year was a bad year, I mean a really bad year. I need to change that.

Resolutions (in no particular order):

1. Start making serious money out of my photography by the end of this year!
2. Post more photographs.
3. Blog twice a week as opposed to the current once, that would be at least 1 blog entry on each of my blogs (www.onlyinsouthafrica.com and www.theaspnetguy.com) or 2 entries on one.
4. Make time to go and photograph more often.
5. Learn and/or master the following techniques:
1. HDR (Tone Mapping)
2. Location portrait photography with and without flashes
3. Studio photography
4. Street photography
5. Lensbaby photography
6. Landscape photography (Panoramas with an SLR)
6. More macro photography, I actually enjoy that.
7. Learn to put work in working hours so I can do all the above.
8. Improve “Only in South Africa” by adding functionality and ease of use.

Add to that a one month trip to a place I have either never been or have not been in a long time.

That is it!

Happy New Year too all. 
May it be healthy, happy and fruitful.

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1. And now for something completely different… Geotagging
2. My Camera history – The Digital Age.
3. Blogs I read

A while back, here to be exact, I touched on HDR, in fact I even tried it. I found it rather disappointing and uninspiring, so I gave it up. But that was last year!!!

Since I stumbled on 2 of the HDR masters, Trey Ratcliff and Rick Sammon, bought both their books, A World in HDR and Rick Sammon’s HDR Secrets for Digital Photographers respectively, and fell in love with the look.

So here is my first attempt at the “Rick Sammon“ look.

Hartbeespoort Dam Arch wall

Tan’ Malie se Winkel to the right of the entrance

Tan’ Malie se Winkel to the left of the entrance

Tan’ Malie se Winkel the entrance

How was it done? Well 2 to 5 photos at 1 f-stop apart, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Photomatix, Topaz Adjust and a lot of patience. The results are incredible.

This last one I was just really playing and ended up with something I liked… Now it tell a story…

Tan’ Malie se Winkel interior

Related posts:

1. A word on High Dynamic Range
2. Mini book Review: Rick Sammon’s HDR Secrets for Digital Photographers

I have been asked recently how I handle my photography workflows, the truth is I have more than one depending on the type of photography I do, so I decided to give the most complete and comprehensive version. I do not always go through every step as some steps may not be valid for the photography type that is to be applied.

1. Copy the files to their final resting place, a Drobo S. I use the Canon software for this, amazingly enough. Though I am looking at alternatives, mainly because the Canon software does not handle video files well, particularly if it’s not a Canon file.
2. Download the geo-tagging file from the GPS and save it to the photograph folder so it does not get lost.
3. Apply the geo-tags to the raw files, this is by far the longest part of the process.
4. Do an in-place import using Adobe Lightroom at this point apply the copyrights (depending on the job type) and keywords. Keywords are important, it allows me to find the photographs quickly. My folder structure is by date and I cannot always remember when I took a photograph.
5. Go through the photographs and rate them as follows:
1. Forget it, out of focus, to dark, blown out, … in short the garbage I will be deleting.
2. Keep, maybe one day it will be useful.
3. Good photographs that may be published.
4. Definite publishing quality
5. Ultimate keeper, it goes into my portfolio (Rare, very rare)
6. Either process the HDRs in Photomatix or the Panoramas in Adobe Photoshop Elements though I am thinking of upgrading to CS 5 for the content aware fill. This does not include any editing yet.
7. Editing
1. A 2 minutes limit in Lightroom to enhance the photograph.
2. If the photograph is worth it, jump into Topaz Adjust or Adobe Photoshop Elements, no time limit set here.
8. Publish the 4 and 5 stars to DVD for clients or if it is of a personal nature Facebook, Flickr and my blog, depending on the situation.
9. If it is a 5 star, I also often print it.

Not an overly complicated workflow, but one that works.

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1. Wildlife photography in a studio!

Today I was walking in my garden when I stopped dead and marvelled at what I was witnessing, it was something I had seen many times but for some unknown reason it revealed itself to me today. Proof that a photographer must always be opened to the light and his or her environment.

So what was it that caught my attention so that I just had to go and fetch my camera? Bees, simply bees feeding, gathering in one of my bushes… And so I grabbed my camera, fitted my LensBaby fitted with the double glass lens a +10 macro and the teleconvertor (I did not intend to get stung for coming to close). A weird contraption If I ever seen any but it did the job brilliantly.

Both photos were modified in Photoshop Lightroom and Topaz Adjust.

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This photo was taken at “The Glen Shopping Centre”, my question is how do I pay the 6 Rand (close to $1) for the parking?

Unfortunately, in South Africa, you are often expected to pay for parking anywhere you go. This is to supposedly secure your vehicle and content, though I am unsure of that. The problem is that pay stations are either missing or not maintained, so you end up running around to either find one that works or going to the management office to be able to get out. I already find it a rip off as the shops pay a levy (often linked to their turnover) for this but to also make me loose time is the bitter pill on top. Unfortunately, the practice of payable parking at shopping malls has widely been adopted around the country so going to another shopping mall does not help.

No related posts.

Whilst in Cape Town I took some photos with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V as I did not take the big Canon EOS 7D. As I explained in a previous post an SLR is not always practical, in fact an SLR can be a real problem, particularly when traveling on business or simply going to a function. The question is are compact any good? Do they cater for these situation? And is the quality reasonable enough to be taken seriously? I will let you decide.

These are a few of the photographs I took at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, for the sake of realism I have not modified these photographs other then resizing them.

Panoramic photograph with the Nautica docked.

This photograph of the Ferris wheel was cropped and sharpened slightly for dramatic effect. In this case, the camera and I were not in agreement with the lighting requirements so I put it in manual and forced it to do my bidding.

No related posts.

Had you told me a year ago that I would consider buying a SONY product, let alone owning one, I would of laughed at you, let’s just say my experiences with SONY are not the best. Then again, things change.

I needed a solid functional with reasonable resolution pocket camera and I mean “pocket”. Though the Canon Powershot G12/G13 and the Nikon Coolpix P7000 are great, they are cumbersome, not pocket stuff. I was left with The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V. By the way, where do the marketing department find these names anyways?

The first thing I was reminded of when I got the camera was the fact that, as is with most point-and-shoot cameras, there is no RAW function. However, I do not believe that this function is required on point-and-shoot cameras. To me point-and-shoot cameras need to be practical and in reach, no more, no less.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V certainly has a comprehensive feature list that would satisfy most photographers from excellent low light capability to in camera HDR not forgetting two of my favourites, panoramic sweep and 10 frames per second burst. I found that leaving it in full AUTO I get far better results than trying to out smart it. The only time I take it out of AUTO is for panoramas, which it does very well if you know how to, and HDR which actually works well enough for my use, finally for video.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V also has some shortcomings, for one the aperture is rather limited from f/3.5 to f/8 and to be honest the GPS is really slow to acquire a fix. Lastly, this may surprise everyone, it’s heavy but that brings a sense of solidity not often found in this type of camera.

In short, it is not an SLR but it does a brilliant job for what it is a pocket camera that is always ready.

I posted some sample photos to my Flickr account.

You can find in-depth reviews here:

• http://www.digital-photography-school.com/sony-cyber-shot-dsc-hx5v-review
• http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Sony_Cyber-shot_DSC_HX5/

Samples:

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1. Mini book Review: Rick Sammon’s HDR Secrets for Digital Photographers
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I was lucky enough to cross with a grasshopper this weekend, in flight it was magnificent. But how to catch such a fast and small insect (no more then 5 cm) in flight?

The truth is I was only armed with a 70-200mm, I can honestly tell you it is not the lens for this type of photography.

In my opinion this is how, though I have not tried you can be assured I will, I just need to find another co-operative grasshopper (this may be the biggest problem):

1. A long lens, 300mm or above. I will try with a 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L USM.
2. Ideally a fast f/2.8, I have to settle with f/5.6
3. A high burst rate, 5 frames a second or higher.
4. The camera set to continuous centred focus, this is debatable.
5. A lot of luck and patience

For now though here are the “heavily” cropped photos I did this weekend.

No related posts.

As I explained in my previous post, I am experimenting and loving the Lensbaby Composer. I am hooked, no really, I am.

So I am outside playing with the dogs when I see an ant on one of my rose bush. My immediate reaction is to run for my camera, put on the Lensbaby (remember I somehow associated the Lensbaby with macro photography), screw on the +10 Macro and the +4 Macro, the f/4 disk and I am good to go.

29 photos later the ant got shy of the paparazzi hovering over it and bailed out. First things first though, I did not realise how fast an ant was, try looking at one with a Macro lens. Secondly, the rose bush moves, the ant moves, the light changes, the dog licks…  Set focus, shutter and click… Try manually focus tracking an ant 3 mm away from your lens. It’s a challenge to be sure. And it sounds exactly what it sounds like, insane. But results speak for themselves.

Related posts:

1. Lensbaby Composer with Double Glass & +10 Macro review
2. Lensbaby Soft Focus Optic Mini Review
3. Macro photography extension tubes.

One thing is certain, the Lensbaby is not an easy piece of equipment to use and I do not mean that in a bad way, on the contrary. It makes you think and I have the felling that I will be spending a lot of time with it. I also think it’s not for everyone, in fact I would venture to say that it is a niche product for photographers to learn and see differently than through a normal lens. I am still at the “keep it straight” stage, no bending as yet.

Also, I do not know why, but when I pick up the Lensbaby I think macro photography and reach for the  +10 Macro without thinking, maybe it’s a phase. But the urge is overwhelming me., at least it make me shoot.

The Lensbaby on the 2 Canon cameras I own only work in manual, the aperture shows as “00”, but that is expected as the Lensbaby is fully manual and does not feed back any information to the camera. It makes for interesting thinking, now the triangle of light is more important than ever. Much like the Twilight Zone, you now control the vertical and the horizontal, in fact you control everything! And that is a good way to learn photography, it takes you in a very uncomfortable place and pushes you to see things differently. With the Lensbaby composition is key I think, I can see it from my tests.

Today, I decided to go outside and put on the Double Glass and +10 Macro with the f/4.0 aperture disk and shoot some plants, flowers mostly. Here are the results, I can see I need more practise, a lot more… But that’s fine, it’s a whole lot of fun.

I am not giving up and expect more in the coming weeks.

Related posts:

1. Lensbaby Composer with Double Glass, +10 Macro, +4 Macro
2. Lensbaby Soft Focus Optic Mini Review
3. Lensbaby

I recently acquired a Lensbaby Composer and part of the Optic Swap System. I can tell you this it’s a challenge but more importantly a whole lot of fun. Lensbaby calls it Artistic Distortion, I call it purposeful image degradation much like Lomography only better because it’s digital. Call it what ever you want, it’s going to keep me busy for a while so expect a few post about it in the coming weeks.

For more information on Lensbaby click here.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Lensbaby whatsoever.

Related posts:

1. Lensbaby Soft Focus Optic Mini Review
2. Lensbaby Composer with Double Glass & +10 Macro review
3. Lensbaby Composer with Double Glass, +10 Macro, +4 Macro

This year the “Photo and Film Expo” was something of a spectacle when compared to last year. All the big camera and lens manufactures were present, that in itself is a large step forward in the right direction. There was various demonstrations and talks around the show floor, none of which I had the time to attend unfortunately, bad planning on my part.

A welcome sight was that Canon was present this year, their stand was a little cramped though. I had the opportunity, however brief to have a look at the Canon EOS 60D. In short, I will need more time with it, but it does feel solid enough and very 7Dish. As per last year, Nikon had an obvious presence with a “stand” at least twice that of Canon, in fact that applies to Sony as well. Never the less they were present, hopefully they will take the show more seriously next year.

This year was also crowded with various smaller or niche manufactures which was a welcomed sight too, from Lensbaby to Hasselblad and even Sigma and Thinktank they where there and they could be bought.

In short, the show has vastly improved, let us hope that it’s a trend that will continue.

Related posts:

1. Photo and Film Expo, Johannesburg.

Today I thought it might be fun to try something new for a change, so I went out into the wind and tested the effect of my filters.

So how was this test conducted? Well, I can tell you it’s far from scientific. I put my camera on a tripod, pointed it out there and did some arbitrary settings.

The settings are Focal length: 70mm, ISO 100, f/8.0, Shutter Speed: Decided by the camera, time of day: just past 12:00 am, no cloud (constant light). Camera: Canon EOS 7D, Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L.

Why 12 am? Maximum light, that is why, if you want to test ND filters do it at midday.

The results, well I am confused (Translate that I am going to do this again) see for yourself. None of these photos have been modified outside being resized.

No Filter (1/200) I find it odd that the definition and contrast are better here that with the UV filter, it could be due to the fact that the sensor has a UV filter already.

UV Filter (1/200)

Circular Polariser @ 0° (1/60)

Circular Polariser @ 45° (1/50)

Circular Polariser @ 90° (1/60)

Neutral Density – ND2 (1/125)

Neutral Density – ND4 (1/60)

Neutral Density – ND8 (1/30)

Neutral Density – ND2+4 (1/40)

Neutral Density – ND2+8 (1/20)

Neutral Density – ND4+8 (1/13)

Neutral Density – ND2+4+8 (1/8) Something went wrong here…

Neutral Density – ND2+4+8+Circular Polariser @ 0° (0”5) I just love the colours on this one and the trees, I said it was windy.

At the end of the day I am going to try something else as a test soon, since this does not show what I was hoping for…

No related posts.

I am outside looking out onto the valley, it is 30 degrees Celsius with a light breathe and my wife and dogs are lying down enjoying the outdoors even though the threat of a thunderstorm is very real. It is a typical summer day in Johannesburg and I am typing away at my keyboard wondering if I would not be better off writing this post in my air-conditioned study, maybe not, I might miss a courting bird in the large mimosa next to me.

So really what is this post all about? Summer and a photograph I wish to share with you and how it was taken.

I have long learned that I can never be ready for any eventualities, this is more true then ever with wildlife. Last week my wife and I decided to do a photo assignment “Flowers”, she enjoys shooting flowers and she is getting into photography as a serious hobby. You should see some of her still life, I might be a seasoned wildlife photographer, but still life she just a natural. I plainly do not have the eye for it. But, not so unusually, I digress.

Back, to last Sunday, we were shooting flowers at the Walter Sisulu botanical garden, it is worth the visit if only for the waterfall and chance to see some black eagles. So here I am looking at a pond and I notice some frogs, my wildlife photographic instinct kicks in and instantaneously, without thinking I grab my camera take off the 24-70mm and mount the 70-20mm, the whole move is done in less time than it takes me to take in the deep breath I need to brace myself and stay still to trigger that shutter! Oh, by the way, I got those frogs, though I did not quiet like the shots… Photographer’s prerogative, don’t like it, don’t show it.

Suddenly, I see a butterfly go right past my lens, it settles beyond the bench across the path, I leap onto the bench as I am changing back to the 24-70, completely forgetting the frogs. Stabilizing myself on the hard back of the bench. I focus and shoot this marvel of nature, no time to check f-stop, speed or ISO, I literally only had the time to take 5 photographs before it left. The moral of the story you might ask? Truth be said, the 70-200mm f/2.8 is a wonderful lens that rarely leaves my side but if you want to shoot flowers or butterflies it would be far from my lens of choice, if only for the focusing distance. The problem is that changing lens in the field is always a bad idea, dust, water and other debris could settle on the back of the lens or the sensor. Furthermore changing the lens in mid air does not let you the time to setup the camera for the optimal settings either.

So her are the settings: ISO 100, 65mm, EV –1, f/2.8, 1/6400, Aperture Priority. If you tell me I should of completely miss that shot, I would have to agree… But it’s my shot of the month.

Download the wallpaper version:

• 16:9 – HD Screen – 1920x1080px
• 16:10 – Wide Screen – 1680x1050px
• 4:3 – Standard Screen – 1600x1200px

The photo is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

No related posts.

My house is reasonably big but in all honesty, I have no space for a permanent photography studio. Ideally, you will need a 5 by 5 or 6 meter area, that is 30 square metres, who has that spare?

So, I temporarily convert my garage into a photography studio, it is 6.5 by 6.5 wrapped with cupboards all around but it still leaves me with plenty space to work and it’s cheap. One thing I had to do was to add wall plugs all around and dedicate a trip switch. Try sharing a 15 amp trip switch with 900 Watts of big flashes, power trips no flash goes off… You get the picture.

So what will you need to transform your garage into a functional studio?

1. A backdrop fame, they not too expansive (cheaper than a studio).
2. Various backdrops, I use black (my favourite by far), white and green Chroma key, I can change them in minutes should I need to, mine are in light cloth so they are easy to store and carry.
3. Strobes and stands, I use 3 x 300 watts, I do not see the need to go above that I barely go above minimum.
4. Some soft boxes, I personally like the Octagonal ones, I have 120cm one and that works for me (I also have a rectangular and square one).
5. A couple of reflectors, a medium round and a really large (2×1 meter) 5 in 1 should do.
6. A fan, the more the power the better, to blow hair for fashion type shoots.
7. Dense Foam Mats, these are interlocking soft tiles that you can lay, so if your subject wants to lay down, it’s not a problem. Besides, garage floors tend to be a little hard and cold and if you are like me you kneel down often, the mats are welcomed.
8. A sturdy tripod
9. A bar stool or similar for Head an shoulders portraits, trust me on that, it makes life easy.

There is 2 more items, for one a camera (preferably an SLR) and a trigger for the flashes, that is where things get a little interesting. There are 3 ways one can go about this:

• TTL (Though the lens), this is done using you camera flashes, usually the one on the camera is a master and does not emit light, unless your camera can act as a controller like the Canon EOS 7D or you have a controller unit but they rather expensive. This uses infrared and in a studio environment works well. The pro part is that the camera will decide on the required flash output for you. And you will be able to control it too via the flash compensation. The bad is that little strobes are not that powerful and you are going to go though a lot of AA batteries.
• Having big strobes (since most come with a light sensor trigger) triggered by the camera’s flash, do not laugh it works, but controlling to light is a tad difficult, I have tried, it becomes too complicated. If you do that set you on camera flash to minimum and in manual, all it does is trigger the other ones, you do not want to over power them.
• Radio remotes, in my honest opinion this is the best, because it works inside and outside.

So the results?

Garage Studio Left

Garage Studio Right

Studio Portrait Test 1

Studio Portrait Test 2

I still look ugly and stupid, but I really wanted to show you some results and could not find a model, actually the model didn’t pitch but hey who is counting?

Notice that there are no reflection on my glasses? Well, I was playing around and then it came to me, put the darn edge soft box at the beginning of my face, so I only catch the fall off. I don’t know if I like it because the catch light is off.

And there you are, that is how I do it. The pain is to assemble and disassemble it every time you need it…

Any thoughts?

Edit changes: Adjusted images and added captions and names.

Related posts:

1. Wildlife photography in a studio!

This is the last post on “publishing to Facebook” I promises, at least for the next few weeks, unless I suddenly get the urge to do a “Publish to Facebook with the iPhone” post.

To my surprise shortly after Adobe released Lightroom 3.0.1 comes 3.2 and this is more than bug fixes, under the hood enhancements and Camera Raw 6.2 Update too, built in is a Facebook publisher place under Publish Services along with the trusted Flickr and new SmugMug services, they must have been spooked by Apple’s Aperture 3.

So how hard is it to use? Well it literally takes 2 minutes to setup and you are ready to go, see bellow. Click on “Set up…”, authorize LR on Facebook with your login, pick a default Album, a few other settings and you are done.

Click to enlarge

to create a new album is just as easy, right click on the Facebook button, select “Create Collection…”, drop in the photos you want to upload then right click the newly created collection and select “Publish Now” and LR will do the rest.

Now what if you do not have Adobe Lightroom 3? There is a plug-in available from Jeffrey Friedl, you can find it here. He has a few more plug-ins so have a look around.

By the way you can download the update / trial for Adobe Lightroom 3.2 for Windows from here.

Related posts:

1. The quick way to publish to Facebook with Windows Live Essential
2. Uploading photographs to Facebook – Step by step using a browser.

I would never venture on telling anyone what camera to buy, but it’s odd how many times I get that question… So here is a personal opinion aimed at the first camera buyers or at those thinking they are ready to leap to the world of the SLR.

I must first tell you that I often wish I had a small, light and versatile Point-and-Shoot, after all I own 2 SLRs. They are heavy, I mean after 4 hours they are like a ball and chain!!! See “Does the camera really makes a difference in the real world? Part 1 – Intro” post for more.

OK now that we have established that SLRs are not always the right way to go… So get one with a f/1.4 (or 1.8) 50mm lens… Ok, maybe not, but it would be a good start. Why SLRs do not get bundled with that lens is mystery to me. So, all one has to do is weigh the pros and cons.

This is in short how I see it, if you are going to use your SLR at parties 3 times a year, get a point-and-shoot, if you go out photographing every weekend (or 2nd weekend) and are looking for a photographic challenge go for the SLR. But don’t come to me and complain latter about the weight and price.

By the way I purposefully omitted MPCs (Mobile Phone Cameras), that is  just plainly not in the same league. But as a famous photographer, I forget his name, says “the best camera is the one you have with you”.

I’ll leave it there… For now… And please don’t ask me that question anymore…

And please don’t go down the Canon vs. Nikon vs. Sony vs. Panasonic vs. Fujifilm vs. Pentax vs. any one else, get what feels good to you.

PS: Is there anything else than Canon? And so the war begins

Related posts:

1. About photographing marine wildlife from terra-firma…
2. The triangle of light, overview.

I just finished "The Hot Shoe Diaries" Big Light from Small Flashes by Joe McNally and I though I’d give my 2 cents worth. If you have not read this book yet and you own a flash, well … You should either be shot or you should be running off to buy it.

The book concept is not to explain to you step by step the technical aspect of using flashes for that your flash manual will do, the book is more about the essence of light using flashes. Joe McNally does a brilliant job of explaining how to use your flash without being overly technical. And that to me is worth far more than the detailed technical stuff. Don’t mistaken me, there is technical stuff but in a fun and humorous way.

If you are going to use your flash for anything, read this book and you will see small flashes in a very different way, I know I do.

Find out more about it here and head over to his blog.

Warning: This is a Nikon centric book, though the techniques can be applied to any manufacturer.

Related posts:

1. Mini book Review: Rick Sammon’s HDR Secrets for Digital Photographers
2. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V mini review
3. Lensbaby Composer with Double Glass & +10 Macro review

For those that are as lazy as I am there are easier ways to upload photos to Facebook or any other social sites. If you happen to have Microsoft Windows XP or greater and do not have Windows Live Essential yet download it now!

The important part of Windows Live Essential in this case is the Photo Gallery once configured it will allow you to upload your photos to Facebook in a second without having to worry about resizing and installing Java on you machine and so on. And if you realy adventurous have a look at the beta, not covered here.

So now that you have the Windows live Photo Gallery installed, what now? Open it and let it index your Image folder, it may take a while so prepare a tea for yourself.

Now comes the harder part, close Windows live Photo Gallery. Head over to http://liveuploadfacebook.codeplex.com/ download it and install it.

Open Windows live Photo Gallery, go to Publish –> More Services –> LiveUpload to Facebook in the menu, follow the instructions and voila, you are ready.

Enjoy the uploading…

[Edit] Looks like the new Windows live Photo Gallery has Facebook (and other social sites) upload built in.

Related posts:

1. Publish to Facebook with Adobe Lightroom 3.2
2. Uploading photographs to Facebook – Step by step using a browser.

Today I am going to take time off photography and talk a bit about sharing your photos, this is really for beginners but are we not all beginners at something?

There are some issues you should consider before uploading any images to any online services, one of these is the licence and copyrights of the service. In the instance of Facebook, you are giving them a lot of rights by uploading any images to it. Please read the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities carefully before you upload any images to it. Particularly section 2, which states (last updated on April 22, 2010):

You grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (“IP License”).

Now that we have the legalities of of the way, here are a few tips before you upload any images to any social sites:

1. Resize your images to a maximum of 600 pixels on the long side.
2. Compress them to at least 70% and save them in JPG format
3. Make sure you save them in a separate folder that you can easily find again (I called mine Facebook) and do not overwrite your original photo.

Now, here is how to upload images to Facebook, for cross operating system compatibility’s sake I will be using Mozilla Firefox as my browser, though this should not matter.

First, to create an album go to your profile and click on Photos ad the following screen will appear:

Fill it in and click on Create album, this will bring you to this screen:

If you click “Select photos” the process can be lengthy and not very friendly, I advise using the Java Uploader. You will need the Java plugin to do this so allow it to download. Click “Install Missing plug-ins…” on the right top corner of your browser. Should you encounter a problem you may acquire the Java plug-in here: http://www.java.com/en/download/inc/windows_new_xpi.jsp

Once Java is installed you will get the obligatory “waiting for…” screen

But it is well worth the pain.

Now you can select and rotate your images at will before uploading them as shown bellow.

When you ready to upload, click Upload and you will get this screen

Followed by “Upload Successful!, click OK

Facebook will then redirect you to the Edit Album Screen, edit your caption here.

Then click “Publish Now” and you are done, you have successfully created an album.

There are many more function feel free to explore.

Related posts:

1. The quick way to publish to Facebook with Windows Live Essential
2. Publish to Facebook with Adobe Lightroom 3.2

This weekend I decided to do some studio photographs for my business cards and ended up, wildlife hunting in the studio, the results where rather interesting…

But first, the requirements:

• 1x large garage to be transformed into 1x photography studio.
• 1x Chromakey green screen 3x6m
• 1x Partner (to setup the studio and push the trigger, not to mention give some odd ideas)
• A couple of 300W big flashes, remote triggers and soft boxes to boot.
• A tripod
• 2 DSLR and a couple of lenses
• 1x fluffy penguin
• Lots of patience, I do not particularly enjoy being on the wrong end of the lens.

As I said it all started for a shoot aimed at allowing me to complete my business card… And ended up with me shooting a penguin with a 100-400mm lens as shown above.

A couple of things I learned doing this, do not forget the flash sync speed on a Canon camera is between 60 and 200 m/s ! I though that there was something wrong with my camera, the right of the picture was always dark, like an idiot I had my camera set to 250th of a second. I knew better but still managed to loose an hour at attempting to figure this out. Secondly, it takes me about 2 hours to setup shop, and then an hour to pack it all up, so if you use your garage as a studio and to park your cars be ready for that. And thirdly, padded mats, those tiles used by sports people, rock. My knees, survived the whole shoot and it was not uncomfortable lying down either, so I recommend it.

This is my fist attempt at using a Chromakey background to do a special effect. Though the one here above has not effect save the fact that I removed the key. Now take the image above (can you still call it a photograph?) and replace the background and the fluffy penguin with a cheetah …

I agree I did not put a lot of effort in this case but imagine…

Related posts:

1. My photography studio, garage or workshop…
2. Wildlife shooting
3. About photographing marine wildlife from terra-firma…

I was recently in the Kapama Private Game Reserve for a 4 day wildlife shoot. I feel I need to share my experiences of that shoot.

1. What equipment to pack?
   Now that is a rather good question, to shoot wildlife I recommend the following 2 lenses:

   - A 100-400mm, you will need the reach
   

   A long lens is advisable for shoots like these.
   - A 24-70mm f/2.8, to shoot before and just after sunrise/sunset, when reach is not that important any more.
   - I would also take a 70-200mm f/2.8 if I could for the same reasons as above.

   I also recommend a professional flash for the night and spare batteries. To catch the boma’s (restaurant), a tripod may come in handy. Don’t forget plenty storage and camera batteries.

   

   A tripod is required to get shoot’s like this one.

2. Travelling
   If you are travelling by plane, chances are that an international carry-on bag will not fit in the cabin of a local flight to a small airport like Eastgate Airport in Hoedspruit, to my horror. It will fit under the seat but to your comfort cost. I have a Think Tank Airport Acceleration V2 and under the seat it just fits. I recommend that you check what kind of airplane you will be using and the maximum weight allowed on board.
3. Shooting
   Be ready for anything, choose your lens carefully before leaving, I typically leave with a 70-200mm early in the morning and switch to the 100-400mm when light permits. In the evening I apply the same reversed.
   Set your camera to the highest continuous shooting mode it has, I also set my ISO to auto but be careful to check that it does not go too high. I also shoot entirely in RAW and mostly in Shutter Speed Priority.
   I get asked why Shutter Speed Priority, it is really simple to avoid movement blur, unless I want it.
   Slow shutter speeds will result in movement blur.
4. The rangers
   Talk to your ranger and try to sit behind him, you’ll get a better angle every time.
   Framing can be achieved with your ranger’s help.
5. Flash?
   I hear a lot of criticism regarding flashes in wildlife photography, so I will let a couple of photos speak for themselves and let you decide…

But I think more important is to enjoy the experience and come back with some trophies.

On a personal note I would like to thank the rangers and staff of Kapama Main Lodge for their impeccable support and assistance.

Related posts:

1. Wildlife photography in a studio!
2. About photographing marine wildlife from terra-firma…
3. To SLR or not to SLR that is the question.

In the days of film, there was only tree things that a photographer had to worry about once the film was inserted. These were how many shots do I have left, getting the exposure and aperture right and getting a beautiful photograph goes without saying but this is a technical post and we will forgo the actual photograph framing, beauty and quality for a while.

In the digital age, not much has changed except that we are no longer limited by film but there is a new factor, ISO. In the analogue days this was a constant once the film was in the body. This brings me to the triangle of light exposure, aperture and sensitivity.

Each of these factors have now become vital from the time you pickup your camera. Each have their own pros and cons, our jobs as photographers is to mitigate these to achieve the best possible photograph.

Let’s talk about each factor individually before we address them in unison.

• Exposure, the time taken to capture the image, measured in seconds or parts thereof.
  

  	Pro	Cons
  Higher Speeds (1/1000s)	Freezing motion	No low light capability
  Lower Speeds (2s)	Low light capability	Motion blur

• Aperture, the amount of light allowed to traverse to the sensor at any time, measured in f-stops or parts thereof.
  

  	Pro	Cons
  Higher Apertures (f/1.4)	Low light capability	Low depth of field
  Lower Apertures (f/22)	High Depth of Field	No low light capability

• Sensitivity, the light sensitivity of the sensor, measured in ISO
  

  	Pro	Cons
  Lower ISO (100)	Sharper image, no noise	No low light capability
  Lower ISO (1600)	Low light capability	More noise, less sharpness

I will go deeper on each subject in further posts.

So what does it all mean? Generally, it means that, as photographers, we often have to compromise on something. The aim is to get the middle of the triangle all the time, but it is seldom possible.

The good news is that there are very good tools for one of those factors, noise…

Related posts:

1. Photo walking
2. To SLR or not to SLR that is the question.

As a photographer I get a whole lot of questions about a whole lot of photography related things. Some are easy to answer others need to be demonstrated. This one needs to be demonstrated…

I will not go into great technical details, however understand that a zoom lens usually allows for more than one “ZOOM” factor and it has moving glass in addition to focus. In fact it is usually safe to assume that the further away the glass elements are, the longer the lens is, the higher the zoom factor.

So what do we mean by zoom factor? It is the magnification that a lens can produce in relation to the human eye. In photography, it is generally accepted that a 1x zoom factor is equal to a 50mm lens on a 35mm film/digital format camera, I am not going into more details than this as it is not relevant to this post. So assuming that 50mm is 1x what would be 400mm ?

The equation is:

In a Canon EOS 5D the answer would be (400×1)/50 or 8x magnification. However with a crop sensor camera such as the Canon 7D, it would be (400×1.6)/50 and thus would result in a 12.8 magnification. But what about a 16mm wide angle lens? Well (16×1.6)/50 results in a 0.512 magnification which is a theorical negative magnification. So what are the actual result in a photo? Here are a few photos of commonly used zoom factors to illustrate, all taken at the same place with a Canon EOS 7D with a 1.6 crop factor.

16 mm (0.51x)	24 mm (0.77x)	35 mm (1.12x)	50 mm (1.60x)
70mm (2.24x)	85 mm (2.72x)	100 mm (3.20x)	135 mm (4.32x)
150mm (4.80x)	200 mm (6.40x)	300mm (9.60x)	400 mm (12.8x)
500 mm (16x)	600 mm (19.2x)	700 mm (22.4)	800 mm (25.6x)

Related posts:

1. Living with a Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens in the wild.
2. Canon 24-70mm f/2.4 L – First impressions.

Sometimes when taking wildlife well funny things happen…

Wasn’t me, I swear, wasn’t me…

Move over you bully… It’s my spot!

Hey dude I can do that photography stuff too you know. I shoot those pesky impalas, yes? Now where is da button dude?

Hey, I got developed in black and white, OK. Now stop staring at me!!!

Sharp corner, don’t fall, must not fall, stay up…

Don’t trip, don’t trip…

I coming Zorro. To the rescue I go!!!

The case of the Mapungubwe Red Baobab, yep a new sub-species

No related posts.

Finally, I was able to take my Canon EOS 7D into the field, I mean by that into the bush, how did it fair though?

Let me be honest up front, so there are no misunderstanding, after 6 months of using the camera I am still learning how to get it right. I may know how to, technically and theoretically, take a photograph but this machine is still partially a mystery to me. A mystery mostly because yours truly is off the “auto mode” and into some serious photography. Besides “auto mode” does not give me what I want, just what I expect and that is not good enough.

A tip for you, when you go into the bush choose you lens carefully, chances are you will not be able to change it as it will make you loose the moment. So, what lens are suitable in the bush for wildlife? You can look at this previous article I wrote, Choosing a lens to suit wildlife photography and Living with a Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens in the wild, but it gets more complicated than this. Consider light, are you going out in the day or twilight? In full day light a 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 will do fine, in twilight you would be better off with a 70-200mm f/2.8 as the reach would be limited anyways. Fine so the next question is what about flash or high ISO to compensate? Flash, forget about it, it’s unlikely to help because of the distance we are talking about. As for high ISO, in the case of the Canon EOS 7D up to 12800 which I never used, it does help and the noise control of the Canon EOS 7D makes it all worth it. At ISO 6400, you have noise but less then my Canon EOS 400D at ISO 1600, besides there are wonderful tools to reduce grain/noise, check out Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta 2 for example.

So what have I learned about taking photos of wildlife with the Canon EOS 7D ?

1. Set it to aperture priority, AV Mode. Then again I only shoot in this mode, it gives you control over the depth of field.
2. Set the ISO to Auto, surprise surprise, yes and leave it that way, it will avoid profane language when you set it to 6400 and forget that you did, I found that the camera it very good at choosing the right ISO setting.
3. Set the focus to AF Point Expansion, it will give you a little more control over the focus point then Single Point AF, just in case the subject moves.
4. Set it to spot or centre weighted average metering, I find it gives me a better result overall
5. Set to AI focus, again for flexibility (double tap the trigger and it acts as AI Servo) although AI Servo would work too but it may start hunting.
6. Set it to High or Low Speed Continuous, though for fast moving subjects High Speed Continuous shooting is advisable.
7. Have a high capacity CF card 8GB and above, trust me.

Oddly enough, I never shoot wildlife in RAW, simply because in RAW I can only shoot 6 frames (less then a second) in High Speed Continuous shooting  before the camera slows down, in JPG this rises to a cool 70 (10 seconds).

Please note that none of the photos below have been modified except for the resizing required for the web.

Here is a sequence of Impala chasing Impala shot with the Canon EOS 7D in relative low light (twilight) with the settings above, set at f/4.5 using the Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens, the camera chose ISO 1600.

This photo of Rhinoceroses was shot after sundown with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM at f/2.8 at 1/4 sec and ISO 6400, it was on a tripod. You will notice noise but remember it was dark to the point where I could only see shadows.

In daylight the Canon EOS 7D paired with the Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens give this result.

in brief, The Camera is very good and well suited for wildlife photography, if paired with the right lens.

Related posts:

1. Living with the Canon EOS 7D – Part 2
2. Living with the Canon EOS 7D
3. Does the camera really makes a difference in the real world? Part 1 – Intro

Mapungubwe National Park is not exactly a place you decide to go too on a hunch, unless you are my wife and I, situated on the northern tip of South Africa, bordering both Botswana and Zimbabwe, it is a solid 6 hour trip from Johannesburg. So was it all worth it? The short of it is a resounding yes, with a few caveats along the way.

Things to know about Mapungubwe National Park:

1. Use a high rise vehicle,  an SUV, 4×4 or similar ideally.
2. Deflate your tyres to about 1.8 to 2 bars, will help on the badly maintained roads around the park. Inside are dust roads so deflated tyres are still a good idea.
3. There is no cellular signal, except at the gate if you are lucky.
4. There are no shops anywhere near Mapungubwe National Park, so stock up.
5. The closest petrol station is a cool 70km away, so refuel there first before entering the park.
6. The park is divided into 2 sections, west where the World Heritage Site is and east where the camping grounds are. The is a 45 minutes between the two.

Now let forget about the caveats and get back to the business of Mapungubwe National Park.

We went to Mapungubwe National Park without any preconceived ideas or expectations, what we faced was breath taking beauty rarely seen. Mapungubwe National Park has wildlife, we saw elephants and rhinoceros as well as foxes and the usual bucks and antelopes and it has a viarity of predators but no buffalos leaving it with only 4 of the Big Five. But we found out that one does not go to Mapungubwe National Park for the wildlife but rather for the incredible sceneries of contrasting colours and carved landscape, not forgetting a lesson in African history. The first day we got there, we booked a sunset drive with a ranger, Johannes in this case, we often do this to get the layout of the land, the local rangers know their parks better then we do. The drive was spectacular, yet we saw little wildlife, though I did add an animal to my collection of photographs, the bat-eared fox.

The next day was rather educational, we booked the visit to Mapungubwe Hill, the World Heritage Site inside the park, I am not going to tell you the history but needless to say it’s a little confusing to say the least, lots of theories and uncertainties. One thing is sure, it belongs with the Lost Cities of the world. I would highly recommend the visit. Cedric, our guide, was well informed and neutral enough in his narration, he gave us more then one theory and was not shy to add his own.

In short, if you have a high rise vehicle and a passion for Africa as well as not looking too much for wildlife, it scores a 4/5 across the board.

Related posts:

1. Marakele National Park
2. Day 4: Witsand Nature Reserve – Augrabies Fall National Park (338km)
3. Day 5: Augrabies Falls National Park – Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park [Twee Riveren Restcamp] (381km)

I was asked a simple question the other day: Why are photographers so expensive? A fair enough question from a potential client, I explained to her all that it entailed and oddly enough she agreed that the price I was asking for was reasonable.

The first thing that anyone that wants to hire a photographer must understand is that this professional often has a big responsibility, no matter what he shoots. The photographer has to deliver photographs that represents what they were hired to do, in many cases there are no second chances, think of your wedding for a second, if the photographer misses the first kiss or the exchange of the rings?

I will use a typical wedding photographer as my case study, mostly because it is the most common use of the profession that affects you and almost anyone can relate to it.

First up is experience, the more a wedding photographer has experience the more expansive he becomes, I have heard people calling wedding photographers rip-offs, I do not agree entirely. The more the experience, the larger the portfolio,the better the work becomes, the least likely there will be something going wrong and the more the demand… And there you are, the more the demand, trading 101, the more the demand, the more expensive things become, particularly when it comes to services.

Second is the equipment, the better the equipment, the better the photographs. Equipment compliment skill for a professional photographer, he needs to have the tools to cater for most situations and that costs. Let us start with the camera, a semi-pro camera will set you back in the region of R13000 for the body alone! A entry professional grade camera about R20,000 for the body. These are often changed every 3 years and need to be maintained, that is a serious cost. The table bellow shows the initial outlay a serious wedding photographer has to do, often in the form of a loan. The following is the strict minimum that a serious professional photographer will need based on professional grade equipment using Canon’s prices:

That is about a repayment R3,500 a month add to that the monthly cost of telephone, internet connectivity, web hosting, space rental, transport, etc… Well you get the picture.

There are also cost involved per event, a serious professional photographer will not stop at an interview or two, once they have secured the job they will go to scout the venue for good places to shoot and introduce themselves to the venue co-coordinator. They will also get in contact with the official that will carry out the ceremony, the caterers, the wedding coordinator, the videographer and anyone else the will be involved in the event. They will also have their camera cleaned and serviced for every event. Now as you can see there is a lot of preparation prior to the event itself and cost associated with it.

On the day itself, the cost are limited to the transport to the venue and more often than not the refreshments, assuming it is not a “location” wedding, but that is another affair all together which is not applicable here.

The post production, for ever 1000 photos taken during the event, you can estimate that a day is used to sort out and edit the photographs, that is a day’s work that must be paid. After that there are other cost such as the DVD(s), prints, albums, etc…

As you see you actually not paying a photographer for the event time but rather a series of specialised services and skills to which the outcome is a capture of your memories and more then often the things you have missed.

So are photographers a rip-off? I am sure some are, as in all professions there are bad apples, but generally your are paying for more than you think, most of the work happens before and after the event. The skill, for a professional photographer, is to minimize the post production time by getting it right at the event.

In short a typical 4 hour wedding shoot will take 24 hours of actual work, let’s assume that the cost was R5000 that is an actual R208.33 per hour, call your plumber or electrician, see how much that costs.

I can only hope that I have enlightened you a little about what it means to be a professional photographer today, until next time, enjoy.

Cross-posted from http://www.pascalphotography.co.za/?p=105

No related posts.

As you all may have noticed I have been blogging less, there are various reasons why but the most important have been my endeavour to start a new Web and Business development company and I have also been busy with another dream of mine, a photography studio. And so was born Pascal Photography Studio as the title suggests, it was inevitable, it had to happen one day and it has. I have been busy with the site and it’s far from finished but I have begun as usual using WordPress and this time my base theme is Picture Perfect theme by Wayne. I still have a lot of work. As of today, all photographic equipment and tips or even techniques will be cross-posted from there so to find out more on what my offerings are head over to Pascal Photography Studio and watch it develop, pun intended.

So what will happen to Only in South Africa? Pretty much nothing I will be restarting the “Photo of the Day” soon and maybe even more, as for the rest well since it will be cross-posted you will still be able to enjoy to goodness (or awfulness) of my thoughts on equipment, techniques, software, suppliers and more.

No related posts.

It’s been a while since I have received the Canon EOS 7D, ad to tell you the truth I am rather happy and even sometimes very impressed with it, the ISO noise reduction is amazing but I’ll leave that for another day.

But as all things good and 95% of this camera is pure goodness itself but I encountered certain limitations that are from the unexpected to the absurd, all related to the use of flashes. I have to be honest too, the following is advanced stuff and I mean advanced, but not all of it.

First up, to me not advanced but rather required, is “rear curtain sync” using the built-in infrared remote remote on the camera, mind you we tried the same with a Canon Speedlite 580EX set as a commander too with the same results, well he is the news flash (sorry for the pun), it is not possible! Read the manual it will tell you so, absurd you say? I agree completely. Obviously, whether you use a  Canon Speedlite 430EX or 580EX on the camera’s shoe, it will work 100%. I could not find a Canon Commander to test this with, so I cannot tell about that but I suspect the same issue will arise.

The second one is what is known as Multi or Strobe, this function allows the photographer to have multiple flash exposure on one exposure, the Canon EOS 7D does this with ease using it’s pop-up flash, unfortunately it is far from powerful enough. So I put it in remote to trigger the 3 Canon Speedlite 430EX and… The option in no longer available. Ok so maybe I ask a little too much, it is advanced stuff. I fit a Canon Speedlite 430EX to the camera shoe and the option is still not available. So the pop-up flash can do it but not the semi-professional flash… Confusion sets in… So, thanks to the guys at Cameratek, we put a Canon Speedlite 580EX on the camera shoe… Multi is now available! And it works, but here is the kicker, you are going to love this! Put the Canon Speedlite 580EX in Multi mode and make it a master, guess what! The Canon Speedlite 430EX receive the Multi order and execute it. So the Canon Speedlite 430EX is capable of it but it looks like the Canon EOS 7D’s infrared commander is not a “full” commander.

But do not mistake this for a rant, these are true limitations of the flashes, I still love my Canon Speedlite 430EX as well as my Canon EOS 7D and find very little wrong with it.

Now here is a word to Canon, DO NOT DO HALF A JOB!!! Nikon’s have no issues with this to my knowledge, so next firmware update include it in! Both please!

Related posts:

1. Living with a Canon EOS 7D – Part 3 – In the field, Wildlife Photography.
2. Living with the Canon EOS 7D
3. Does the camera really makes a difference in the real world? Part 1 – Intro

I am going to talk about a scary subject in a few forthcoming posts, one that frightens me terribly…

Imagine for a moment, maybe in horror because that’s what is happening to me right now, that you taking this prise winning photograph and your beloved Canon EOS 5D, yes Charl I was thinking of you, or Canon EOS 7D’s shutter locks up or something happens that renders your professional camera completely useless. It gives me the shivers, just thinking about it. There is nothing in the world that you can do about it. What now?

But wait, there is a Canon EOS 1000D in your bag! Your partner uses it from time to time to help out at a wedding or other event where you need to be at 2 places at the same time. You are saved!!! But are you, really?

I am not really exactly talking from experience here, but I have had my share of catastrophes that came uncomfortably close to this scenario. The worst was our trip to the Kalahari where my prized Canon EOS 300D and Sigma 170-500 were destroyed just before entering the park for 5 days. I had no backup cameras, I could not afford one at the time. To tell the truth going to any game reserve without a camera would be the equivalent of being blind for me. I was lucky enough to have found a Canon EOS 400D in Upington and I still had a kit 55-200 lens with me which I promptly used for the rest of the trip.

Today, I feel a bit like the Mythbusters, I am going to simulate that very improbable catastrophe using 2 very different cameras both 1.6 cropped. One is considered as the ultimate Canon entry level, Canon EOS 1000D, the other camera is the one that may have change the way Nikon fans, whether they admit it or not, look at Canon cameras, the Canon EOS 7D. Do not mistaken this for a comparative review, it’s not. It’s about living with an uncontrollable event and how to handle it and make the best of it.

Firstly, these are 2 completely different cameras with 2 completely different characters, never mind specifications, check Digital Photography Review for the reviews of each. The Canon EOS 7D is a pro level SLR, the rig is with a battery grip and 2 batteries in it and a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM L weighs a massive 2.5KG, than again you can feel the the magnesium alloy body quality as you grip the camera, it feels and holds right… On the other hand the Canon EOS 1000D is an entry level that with one battery and the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM L weighs a respectable 1.6KG but because it it smaller physical size it is going to be harder to handle.

Next, the real life test, for that I will use the same lenses and flashes with both cameras, either the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM L or the Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 USM L and do the same photos with the same settings with both and see how hard it can get without having to spend more money.

Till next time when I take the challenges of a studio photography environment.

By the way, should you have a couple of challenges for me please feel free to add them to the comments and I’ll try to do some, given time.

Editor’s note (2010-03-10): The Canon EOS 1000D was returned to the workshop due to an error 99, so this may be longer to test then expected.
Further note (2010-08-28): The Canon EOS 1000D keeps jaming at the worst moment, the 7D no so much (it had a lens communication error today, it was the 1st glitch, fixed it in 10 seconds)

Related posts:

1. Living with the Canon EOS 7D – Part 2
2. Living with a Canon EOS 7D – Part 3 – In the field, Wildlife Photography.
3. Living with the Canon EOS 7D

Yesterday, I tried something new, something I had never done in photography. True macro photography. And though my shoulder, back, neck, hand and right arm are complaining today I am thrilled with what I have learned and achieve.

So what have I learned? Well how about a short list of things you have to consider when making macro photographs:

1. The gear.
   • I do not have millions to spend on another lens, particularly when it would be a specialised one that would not be used often. So opted to go the extension tube route, a set of Kenko to be exact, why these? because they have the necessary connections to the lens, so you can still control your Depth of Field and, though completely futile, the auto-focus still works. But when you are 1 cm away from your subject auto-focus just hunts, even with a Canon EOS 7D.
   • Use a 70- 200mm with a f/2.8, it will make your life easier, I started with a 24-70 that I could only use between 50 and 70mm.
   • Use a tripod!
   • And have something (or someone) to give shade when required, which I found was most of the time.
2. The technique:
   • Pick one or more extension tube, I would recommend the shortest to start with, put your choice of lens on and find a really small flower or use a book and focus on the text, it makes for interesting photographs too.
   • Set the whole gear up on your tripod.
   • Set your focus ring to the closest possible point in manual, no kidding.
   • Use your zoom ring to focus, it took me a while to get that, forget about the focusing ring. If you cannot get focus you are either too close or to far, you will also find that you need to change distance if you add or remove tubes. As my instructor said a zoom between 80 and 130mm works best, find your lens sweet spot if you are not using a pro grade lens (I find Canon’s EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L lens perfectly suited).
3. The catches:
   • DOF, I tried to change it from f/2.8 right down to f/22 I could not see a difference.
   • Because of the above, if you are using all 3 extension tubes, I did not check with different combinations, you end up with a depth of field focus area of about 5mm, believe it or not a bee’s back side and it’s wings can be in perfect focus but not it’s head, so be careful with that.

And that is it, go and try, it’s loads of fun and your garden is the first please to visit, I know it’s a long trip. By the way, none of the photos below have been tempered with outside of being resized, what you see is exactly what the camera gave me, no colour calibration either than white balance set to day light, the camera used was a Canon EOS 7D.

Click on photos to enlarge

Click on photos to enlarge

Related posts:

1. Lensbaby Composer with Double Glass, +10 Macro, +4 Macro
2. Lensbaby Composer with Double Glass & +10 Macro review

Firstly, this is NOT a review, if you are looking for a review please go to dpreview.com they dissect the camera to the nth level and then put it back together or Digital Photography School. By the way, DPReview’s rating is “Highly Recommended” with an average of 9.16/10 as compared to Nikon’s D300s (which I have a lot of respect for) with an average of 9.16/10, how odd is that? Anyways, this is about living with it and I have the camera for nearly a month.

First thing you have to understand about the Canon EOS 7D, it is a professional graded “still” camera!!! I will come to the video in a latter post, 1 thing at a time. So what do I mean by that? Well, coming from the very good and light Canon EOS 400D, its like coming off a bicycle with training wheels and driving a racing bike, I know I said this before and I will probably say it again.

First thing you will notice when you pick up the Canon EOS 7D is it’s weight at 918g with the battery in is not light add a battery grip with 2 batteries, a CF card grip and  a 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens and here comes 2,378 kg, not light at all I can tell you.

Second thing you will notice is it’s size, it is massively larger than the Canon EOS 400D, but what a grip, with 2,5kg in your hand you better have a good grip and you do.

Thirdly you will feel the magnesium alloy quality of this professional camera, it fells so good.

And then you switch it on and at first glance life just became more complicated, the buttons and the menu (until you figure out the Quick and Custom menus) looks devastatingly confusing. I read the manual cover to cover 3 times so far, about to do it again but not cover to cover this time. I can now drive the racing bike around a track but I am still far for being able to race…

There are little things I have noticed using the camera, if RAW is used at high ISO you might be disappointed with the amount of noise, oddly enough I did not find this problem with the use of JPGs, most probably due to the high amount of post processing. Taking movement of anything whilst is high burst mode (up to 8 frames a second)  is wonderful but watch how quick you fill your memory card. Lastly, it is deadly silent in comparison to other DLR’s I have used or tested.

So would I recommend it as an upgrade from a 400D/450D/500D? Not unless you are going into photography seriously, the price does not warrant it. If you are doing casual photography and want the ability to do the odd video clip, I would advise either the Canon 500D or the cheaper but versatile Canon PowerShot SX20 IS (I will do a “living with the Canon PowerShot SX20 IS a little later). If you, like me, are either in action, sport or wildlife photography the Canon EOS 50D will do fine if you do no care about video. But if you are serious and have the finance for it the Canon EOS 7D paired with a versatile L lens, I recommend the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM to start with bringing you to an equivalent of 39-112mm of this 1,6 cropped sensor,  is the way to go.

I will write more about this in the weeks to come as I will soon have the opportunity to try a Canon EOS 5D Mk1 and maybe others in the field. I am also taking some courses in the next few months of subject maters I had not really thought off previously. But first impressions are that It was a very good investment.

Related posts:

1. Living with the Canon EOS 7D – Part 2
2. Living with a Canon EOS 7D – Part 3 – In the field, Wildlife Photography.
3. Does the camera really makes a difference in the real world? Part 1 – Intro

Authors note: I do not print my photographs often, in this case I made an exception. It is hung in my house with by best photographs. I find it the most descriptive photograph of the Kalahari that I have ever done.

Species: Gemsbok

Location: Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park, Northern Cape, South Africa

View Only in South Africa Travels in a larger map

Related posts:

1. Photo of the Day – The mighty Gemsbok
2. Photo of the Day – Ostriches of the Kalahari
3. Photo of the Day – Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park river bed

Species: Suricate a.k.a. Meerkat

Location: Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park, Northern Cape, South Africa

View Only in South Africa Travels in a larger map

Related posts:

1. Photo of the Day – Ground Squirrel on the look out
2. Photo of the Day – Black Backed Jackal
3. Photo of the Day – Female Kudu