The Photographic World of Drew Gardner

My Ten tips for Great food photography.

2012-02-01T02:38:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate enough to work on a now multi award nominated food book 'Loose Birds and Game' by Andrew Pern multi award winning chef and co-owner of 'The Star inn'

It was a truly mammoth undertaking, which has opened many doors for me in the world of food and drink, and bringing in a regular amount of work.

I like to think I picked up a couple of cooking tips along the way too.

Its worth bearing in mind if you have an interest in food photography that the self publishing revolution means there will doubtless be some good work to be picked up.

But how to go about it?

Food photography has more associated folklore than any other field of photography with stories of petrol being poured on food to 'give it the right sheen', a smouldering sanitary product placed user food to keep it warm and moist, hollowing out mass produced fish fingers and substituting it with a fine Cod fillet, not cooking the food at all and just using a blow torch, and of course the realms of using things that look like food which are not intact food at all.

All of these are reputed to be true, some I doubt, but a couple I know are.....I wonder if you can spot them?

But lets be honest here, there are two different types of food photography, one where you have a team, including a food stylist, who's services can be worth their weight in gold, the other kind a more 'real word approach, rather like the excellent series 'Heston's Feasts' on Channel 4, where a more real world aesthetic take precedence (I wonder what they filmed it on? some shots had a DSLR look to them but I suppose it could have been a Sony F3, though it would have been a bit unwieldy in a kitchen)

So this is post is not for you if you are about to shoot a major food campaign, it is aimed ay the smart one man shooter who has been asked to undertake a food photography project for the first time.

1. As I so very often say 'Shoot what you Love, Love what you shoot' if you have no interest in food at all and you try to convince the client you do, despite your lack of experience you are playing with fire. If you have no interest at all consider declining the assignment.

2. Try to get some sort of idea of what dishes/food you will be photographing, go away and research what it SHOULD look like, if cooked and shot well, this will give you some sort of target to aim for. Ask the client what sort of food photography he likes, will it be something like Jamie Oliver's photographer David Loftus? Or do they like the very clever and different food photography that one sees in Pret A Manger?

3. Work closely with the chef who is preparing the dish, perhaps spend time with them as they cook the dish for you, building great relationships is all
This too will give you an idea of what the food should in fact look like and make the most of the that time to come up with a plan of how you both think it should look. Yes, have some sort of game plan, even if you don't stick to it.

4. You will need some sort of space, no matter how small, so work out where you are going to shoot it. It should be close to, or in-fact IN the kitchen for reasons I will come to shortly. And it should be near a window....

5. The cornerstone of good food photography is to shoot with natural light. Natural light is just that, and it has a look and feel which is very difficult to achieve by other means. You can, and I have shot with flash but the nuances of lighting food are not to be taken lightly. Lighting with natural light with a series of homemade reflectors to add or subtract light from areas of a dish will take you a long way. Make sure there are no artificial light sources anywhere even close, or at least that they absolutely cannot influence your dish, imagine the shadow areas of your beautiful dish filled in with the green of a fluorescent or the yellow of a warm plate....

If you have never ever used a grey card in your life, this it the time to start using one, at regular intervals throughout the shoot too. You know that that colours of the food are spot on

6. Timing. This is the big one that no-one talks about. It does not matter about anything else if you keep hot food hanging around on a plate, everything you will have done will be for nothing.
The food will flag, sag and the fat and juices will congeal and no matter what you do it will not look right.
Sometimes you will have minutes, sometimes only seconds.
When we shot the Gull's egg I reckon we had under 60 seconds to get the egg yolk running just right before it congealed. We shot six gull's edges which cost £80.00 from Harrods and only one shot worked out. Gulls edges are so delicate, cutting the top off ruined many and then we over cooked some too.
I'm very pleased with this shot though.

7. Find the way in to the dish, don't be afford of moving the plate around, there really is no hard and fast rule, the view point might look good from overhead but it really is down to you to move the camera around and find the 'right angle' but be aware that if you have shot all the dishes from overhead and you choose to shoot one at just below eye level it might look out of place.

8. Keep it simple. Don't go for the overcomplicated look. It can look fussy and down right messy.
With food photography, less really is more, I'm a big exponent of the simple white plate.

9.Invest in a good quality tripod and precise head. I favour a Gitzo, with the brilliant Manfrotto 405 geared head, perfect for food photography with its precise adjustments (the Manfrotto 410 is much cheaper but nowhere near as good ), if you are shooting for a more depth of field you will be using a slow shutter speed if you are going for long exposures it is advisable to lock the mirror up and, you would be amazed at the amount of vibration mirror bounce can cause.

My well used 405...

10. Get a good macro lens. In my opinion there is simply no substitute for a really good prime lens for food photography. I shoot with Phase One and Canon and I have a macro lens for both.

The 120mm F4 Phase One Macro lens was used for all the plated dishes in 'Loose Birds and Game' while my Canon 'L'series 100mm F2.8 Macro with its very handy hybrid IS system was used for detail shots on the fly in the kitchen.

I reckon both of these lenses are some of the sharpest currently available anywhere.

So there you have it, if you would like to see the fruits of this project I have a limited number of books at a very special price available thorough my blog.

A mere £15.99 plus postage for a seasonal taste of the countryside.

I'm considering doing free webinar about food photography, if there is appetite for one, do let me know.

Another brilliant photographer that you may not have heard of....

2012-01-31T01:33:00.000-08:00

I guard links on my blog quite jealously.

There has to be a very good reason for me to feature a link.

Justin Sutcliffe has been a friend for more than 10 years, but that is not why I link to his blog and website.

Justin is a super talented photographer of the Photojournalistic genre, and so very much more besides.

He started his career on the South West New Agency, before leaving to set up his own agency in New York City ultimately returning to work on quality broadsheets in the UK.

I used to work alongside Justin on the Sunday Telegraph, back in the day, I considered myself to be a pretty handy news photographer, but when working alongside him in a hard news situation, I never came out on top once.

Ever.

And so it went that he went on to become the man to send on any of the tough situations around the planet.

I have forgotten more of the mad, bad and dangerous to be in situations he has been in, but here are couple which just spring to mind.

One of the only photographers to get a photograph of one of the victims of the Moscow Theatre siege, where many people were killed by poison gas which was intended to incapacitate the Chechen gunmen.

For this he was nominated for a World Press award.

Pinned down for some hours in Afghanistan with the Parachute regiment and shooting a cracking set of images, this one made the front page of the Sunday Times, and I believe a large print hangs on the wall in their offices too....

A bonkers arrest situation in Pakistan where a very wise journalist thought it would be funny to put her name down as Osama Bin Laden, I received a voicemail from him via a smuggled phone that he was under arrest locked in a shed I seem to recall.

There are no pictures of this but it was quite a story...

Justin is an exponent of the risky, but ultimately rewarding talent of heading the other way from the pack in a news situation too, often getting a different aspect of the news story of the moment, like his striking take of the McCann's facing the massed media in Portugal.

It's not just hard news in which he excels.

Justin's reflective take is what sets him apart from many others.

I mean who would think that two smashed tree stumps would tell the tale so eloquently on the first anniversary of the Indonesian Tsunami.

And his shot of the Alison Lappa sculpture featured in the prestigious Association of Photographers awards.

Praise indeed.

He is pretty damn handy at portraits too.

My favourite being this super dreamy portrait of singer song writer Cerys Matthews. (like myself, Justin is a big fan of the Canon 'L' Series 35mm F1.4)

I wanted to start the day by saluting a single minded and great talent who after more than 20 years in the game is still shooting beautiful, considered and intelligent work.

Keep an eye on his site and blog, more great things are on the way from him.

A blast from the past- A very welcome one

2012-01-30T09:19:00.000-08:00

My professional and personal photography is like most others I suspect, strictly digital these days.

I have half a dozen boxes of 5x4 sheet film in the fridge which, though currently in date, I'm not sure it will see use before the sell by date passes.

I have a Speedgraphic (somewhere) for which I harbour thoughts of a new as yet unspecified project.

Why film?

Why?

It is difficult to come up with a rational reason to shoot it.

Film can and does have a different quality which does stand out but cost, and general faffing around are, to my eternal shame, a little too much for me to bear, for all of its aesthetic benefits.

There is only one kind of Film that would make me change my mind and that is Type 55.

Polaroid Type 55 was a stunning black and white film which gave you an instant print AND a negative of great quality (providing you remembered dip it in a bucket of hardening fixer)

The results it gave would vary, quite drastically, depending on how you stored the film and by the batch you used

It gave you this wonderful wobbly edges on the rebate with little hole punches too.

I never used it in anger but my partner Lucinda Marland undertook a project which was featured in 'The Guardian' Weekend Magazine.

It was about 'The Lebensborn' the children who were the offpring of German soldiers in World War II.

The Lebensborn programme was established by Heinrich Himmler in line with the racial and eugenics policies of the Nazi's.

So a very sensitive subject matter to tackle.

Lucinda set off for Norway in her Citroen ZX loaded with Type 55 and stacks of hardening fixer to shoot some portraits of these remarkable people and tell the story of their fight for recognition and justice since the end of the war.

It could have been possible on digital, but just look at them.

Type 55 is simply another dimension.

But that was 3 years ago, Polaroid no longer make film and Type 55 has gone forever...

Or so it seemed.

Until I stumbled across this amazing and welcome piece of news.

A gentleman by the name of Bob Crowley is trying to bring it back to life, under the name 'New55'

Bob might well be considered by some as mad as a box of frogs by some for attempting this, but not by me.

I see he is reconsidering a kick-starter project.

And judging from the traffic if he did try he would succeed.

I know by the following that this great film had, that if he got anywhere close in terms of quality he would have a hit on his hands.

The last batch of Type 55 was selling for around £300.00 a box.

So I think it could work out.

Why do I care?

Firstly, there is a really big project that I would like to shoot on this new film.

Secondly, it would open many photographers eyes to such wonderful photographic possibilities.

When Lucinda started to shoot 5 x 4 type 55 it was a steep and somewhat fraught learning curve, but she mastered it, in my rather biased opinion.

As Lucinda herself says 'When I started to shoot with it is was so difficult, it did make me slow down and consider every shot so much more carefully, it made me such a better photographer, even when I use my DSLR the type 55 experience is with me'

Perhaps we could all do with a dose of that?

ps if anyone out there is interested, Bob Crowley is seeking someone to make a short video for his kickstarter, if you live anywhere near Boston and you want to help this wonderful project get off the ground do get in touch with him.

Infra Red Update from Mike Curry

2012-01-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

In response to my Infra 'appeal' to Phase One, London based photographer Mike Curry got in touch via Twitter and told me of an interesting route he had taken and that it WAS actually possible to get a Phase One back which is sensitive to Infra red.

Though it does involve it going back to the factory.

The result is not the true flexibility of the Achromatic but it does deliver some cool results

Mike had his Phase One P21+ modified and this is what the test shots look like so far.

So there you have it, quite some sparkle....

To be honest I had heard of this route before, but I had not expected it to be quite so effective.

Though Mike has put quite a bit of work in experimenting with different lenses.

Summer days- IR from PODAS Weston Park

2012-01-26T23:15:00.000-08:00

I have been doing some rather belated filing and I was sorting through some shots from the PODAS workshop at Weston Park late Summer 2011.

It was great to meet some new people who's passion for photography had bought them from the four corners of the world to experience the pinnacle of currently available Medium format photography in the shape of the astonishing IQ180, in surroundings that were considered good enough to be the retreat for the leaders of G8.

If you ever get the chance to go there do take it, Weston park is simply wonderful, with an art collection that includes a Caravaggio or two.

But for all the new photo friends and sublime surroundings, they were not the highlight.

Not for me anyhow.

The highlight for me was that I got further hands on time with the photographic world's equivalent to a limited edition carbon fibre Lamborghini - the Phase One Achromatic+ back.

It is out of this world in so many respects, price (the priciest back that Phase One makes) in rarity (there truly must be more carbon fibre Lamborghini's) oh and yes, in sheer superlative photographic quality.

What is this rare, expensive, exotic back?

To quote Phase One

'Achromatic+ is a 39 megapixel medium format digital back designed specifically for black and white photography, with Bayer filter, and no interpolation'

In other words a digital back which captures 'pure' black and white.

And not just in the visible spectrum, it records all the way from Ultra Violet to Infra Red.

And it is the Infra red spectrum that I like to shoot in, through a Lee 87 Infra Red filter (focusing is a matter of trial and error.

Why do I love it so much? I have waxed lyrically about it before in other posts and you may have seen a rather fun bts video too

You see things the human eye cannot (which as a matter of interest why I feel we all love super slow mo photography)

This shot is not from Weston but it is one of my favourites....

So why this post?

I will never be able to afford one of these remarkable devices.

So this an appeal to Phase One.

Can you please make a version that has some, but not all of the capabilities of the Achromatic back but at a considerably reduced price.

It would create a generation of shooters of a different kind, and further build the Phase One brand I think.

I know nothing of the technicalities involved and how difficult it would be but this back in hundreds of peoples hands would be wonderful.

One can but dream, unless someone out there knows differently....

Living the dream -31k Portraits for Peace by Diego Huerta

2012-01-26T04:18:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week I blogged about Diego Huerta and his highly ambitious and remarkable '31K Portraits for Peace Project'

And yesterday I conducted an interview which him and his producer Dany Gutierrez via Skype where they describe their remarkable journey, share how Diego lit the portraits and how to carry on when people are firing automatic weapons into the ground at your feet...(no joke)

So, brave as well as talented.

Remarkable project, remarkable people, and some really damn fine environmental portraits.

If you want to be truly inspired and learn a photographic trick or two, take time out to watch the interview.

The exhibition opens tomorrow at the Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, Texas at 7pm

I just see that perhaps modesty prevailed and they neglected to mention that they have been announced as finalists in the SXSW Interactive Awards

Accolades come no higher.

They are looking for more exhibition space at the moment in Europe and the rest of the world too, if you can help do get in touch with them, and be part of something truly special.

New Canon 5D MkIII or 7d - Out in the wild

2012-01-25T03:04:00.000-08:00

I don't normally like to get involved in idle speculation but the post on Stephen Oachs blog is simply too much for a Canon junkie like myself to resist.

For the full story about how Stephen of the Aperture Academy, who most probably is not on Canon's Christmas card list anymore, came across the yet unreleased Canon DSLR out in the wilds of Africa you really must read his blog.

It is almost excruciating.

The Canon employee who was involved in this most unfortunate episode has, one imagines, made a career decision.

So what is it?

A 5DMkIII or a 7D MKII? Or could it be something else?

It is worth pointing out that this may not be the camera in its final form as they can change as they are being developed, but judging by the condition, fit and finish of the camera it looks like a preproduction model from the line, something that is relatively close to launch. Not a hacked about prototype model with temporary decals on the buttons, the likes of which were visible on pre production Canon C300's

Let's have a look at it in forensic detail.....

1. Locking Function wheel, Amen to that!

Photographers were crying out for that from launch, it is possible to get this retro fitted to your 5DMkII, but it should have been there from day one, it seems Canon have listened.

2. Relocated On/Off Button

This does seem to have been moved to an ergonomic logical and streamlined position, just requiring a flick of your left thumb.

I have a slight reservation though, the current on/off switch on the MKII seems to be in a bit of an odd place, but it is not really possible to knock it to the 'On' position by mistake, I wonder if this is true for this switch?

3. 'Paintbrush' button

Could this be a rapid way of accessing the in camera picture styles?

4. Rate button

One suppose that this is exactly as it says, a fast way of rating images, some people will find this very handy.

5. Mic ?

On back of camera, logical place for voice tagging

6. LED?

Perhaps, could this work with the mic?

7.M/Fn Button

You can never have too many user programable custom function buttons, could this be one of those?

Easy access position too.

8. Video/stills selection button

Like the 7D, this would be a welcome addition to the 5D as it's currently a bit of a 'faff'

9. Q button

Could be another user programable 'Quick' access button

10. Gaffer tape

Why, oh why is there not more of this.....??????

11. Lock

Does this 'Lock' all the settings on the camera with a single switch??? or could it be linked to...

12.Grip/battery

I only commented on this as it makes it clear in my mind at least that it is not a 1 series derivative.

Overall quite a rare and revealing little snap shot of a forthcoming Canon DSLR.

But which one?

Ladies and Gentlemen place your bets.

I have no inside line on what this camera is, or is not

But I strongly suspect it is a Canon 5D MKIII

Why?

The MKII was launched in September 2008, 4 years ago this September.

An age ago in the world of digital photography.

The MKII, as good as it is, is surely due for replacement.

What would I like to see on a MKIII?

In no particular order...

Faster and improved Autofocus, faster frame rate ( how about 6fps?) better body sealing (though this has never been an issue for me), more user friendly Codec for the video.

Better connectivity for mic's etc would be nice too.

And when will this come?

Photokina would be a natural place to launch this camera but this camera looks very finished to me, so perhaps before then.

What do you think?

Which Tripod for the Canon C300?

2012-01-24T06:14:00.000-08:00

Currently I use a Manfrotto 504 tripod which has suited me pretty darned well for DSLR video making and with the Canon XF305.

It is a fast and easy video tripod to use, with very respectable performance.

When Lan Bui and I had the Canon C300 on loan though we started to consider would the 504 be enough.

Considering the C300 is a small compact lightweight package the 504 should be more than man enough for the job, but the C300 is a modular camera that you can add a whole ton of stuff to, depending on your requirements.

We made a short video comparing it to the Manfrotto 509 tripod, a tripod that needs batteries( there is a good reason for this though when you see it's party trick)

Watch for the biting cold taking its toll on Lan and I, with the dog running around the background and a random bonfire in the background (not a smoke machine on this occasion, I promise)

Diego Huerta 31K Portraits for peace project

2012-01-23T03:53:00.000-08:00

I first became aware of Diego in July 2010 when he shared a link with me of his excellent set of pictures of Monterrey in Mexico, which was hit by hurricane Alex.

A great peace of proactive work, getting of his backside and recording the efforts of his community.

If you have not seen it, do take a look, truly inspirational.

Well, he has been at it again, this time on rather a grand scale with '31k Portraits for peace'

In Diego's own words

'With the objective to counteract the negative impact of more than 31,000 deaths in the last four years in Mexico, Diego began a project of a lifetime on February 14, 2011.

In order to accomplish his objective, Diego traveled the 32 states in Mexico and was able to photograph 31,000 people with a blue paper dove in their hands named “La Huasteca”.

Hopefully, by doing this, he would achieve one of his goals; to change people minds and turn their negative thoughts into something positive. In addition, the message of “Peace Starts by Believing” to every single person he met.

A mammoth and gargantuan task.

But it's not just about the numbers, using his own one man lighting set up he has taken some truly excellent portraits.

These are just two that jumped out at me.

If you want to learn some great one man lighting field craft have a look at the videos at the bottom of the page.

All of this will culminate in at least one exhibition in Austin, Texas.

I do not have the date to hand.

Diego aso invited me to shoot an image for his remarkable project, I have to admit I was a little slow at shooting it....it took me nearly a year to get round to it.

But this weekend i did it, a portrait of my daughter Georgie, aged 9

It was a windy day, so my technique was a variation of Diego's

I used a Canon 5d Mk1 (my MkII's are of at the cleaners) with an 85mm F1.2, using a Lee 0.9 ND Filter to cut down the ambient light it enabled me to expose the image (hyper sync with Pocket Wizard TT5) 500th/sec at F1.2, and lit Georgie with a single Canon Speedlite 550EX with a solid white vinyl umbrella.

I focussed the camera on a tripod on my Manfrotto 057 Tripod and Manfrotto MH057 tripod head

Holding on to the light so it would not blow over and triggering the Canon with the TC80-N3...arm outstretched.

Processed in Capture One Pro 6....with no adjustments at all.

I'm very pleased with the shot....but I am biased.

Support Diego in any way you can, spread the word, and see what you can learn from him and his remarkable project.

I hope to conducting a Skype interview very soon.

Always be ready for that opportunist time-lapse

2012-01-20T12:53:00.000-08:00

This was in no way at all planned.

Lucinda and I were having a spot of lunch when we saw the field at the back of our house bing ploughed.

I hesitated for a few moments then I thought it would be a great fun little time-lapse.

I dashed up stairs and worked out the framing to include more sky than foreground as the clouds were superb.

I set the Canon 5d MkII to small jpg, plugged in the TC-80N3, shooting a frame every 6 seconds on my Manfrotto MT057C3 with super stable MH057M0 ball head and let it run for 2 hours.

Oh, I forgot to mention I used a Lee Filter holder with a hard .6 ND Graduated filter on the sky.

I used a 24-105mm 'L'Series lens

It went quite well but I was a little disappointed with the colour so I adjusted the contrast and saturation on all 1500 ish images in Capture One Pro 6, just to make it 'Pop' a little more.

I then made a sequence in Quicktime Pro, and cut it together with this great piece of music by Douglas Black Heaton in FCP X.

Great music makes or breaks a video.

I'm quite pleased with it, as there has been quite a lot going on today in the office.

It goes to show if in doubt shoot it.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

But the moment never comes again.

Drew and Lan's Commentary on the L'Oreal/UNESCO Heather Whitney Video

2012-01-19T06:56:00.000-08:00

On workshops I often say to people that if they want to learn cool shots and lighting for their stills or moving images, the directors commentaries which come with some DVD's are worth their weight in gold-truly a master class for free(one of my favourites being for 'Garden State')

Now I'm not putting Lan Bui and I into the great directors bracket, but I'm prepared to bet some of you have been approached to shoot some kind of corporate video.

If this is the case, you will hopefully find this commentary useful.

If you want to see the video without commentary you can find it here.

Faces of British Soldiers Before, During and After Afghanistan

2012-01-18T13:35:00.000-08:00

I love smart and clever ideas.

As I have said on many other occasions, the concept is king.

In the past couple of months I saw two different takes on the same idea.

What toll does conflict take on soldiers in war?

I saw a project by photographer Lalage Snow where she shot a series of portraits of soldiers before, during and after deployment to Afghanistan.

You can read a little more about her project here

I asked her about the portraits.

She came up with the idea as long ago as 2007.

When she was struck by the difference between soldiers prior to deployment and after deployment.

Often good ideas take a little time to mature.

In her own words she says the photo's 'aren't technically brilliant'

She used no lighting 'just ambience hence the vast difference in Afghanistan' and a small amount of post production.

'I had a black sheet I bought from John Lewis fabric dept but it blew away in the wind when a Chinook helicopter landed, so I improvised with black bin bags and gaffer tape which was tricky given the sheen on normal bin bags and perhaps is why some of the shots are in flatter light. but you do what you can in these situations and trust to hope it will be okay in the end'

Amen to that.

The lighting may not be as consistent as one would ideally wish but these were not ideal circumstances.

'Lally' really has told a story with these remarkable pictures.

A cracking idea.

I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

Rodney Charters New Years Day Chat Part 3- Closing thoughts

2012-01-17T02:30:00.000-08:00

So here its is, the third and final part of Lan Bui and I chatting to Rodney Charters, very affable DP of '24' and forthcoming 'Dallas' about the Canon C300 and other matters photographic.

He talks about the possibilities of shooting in stealth mode, without tripod and how good long focal length lenses can lend a different dimension to shooting cinema.

And reliability.

A camera, no matter how good, is nothing without reliability.

After the Gold Rush by Tomer Jacobson

2012-01-16T12:46:00.000-08:00

Last week I received an email form Tomer Jacobson in Israel.

Tomer sent an image titled'After the Gold Rush'

It is part of a series he has just started which is based on his interpretation of songs that he likes .

This part is very important in my books as when we shoot anything we like, or love, it is always so much better for it.

Needless to say this one is his interpretation of the enigmatic Neil Young song.

Enigmatic in that I don't think Neil Young has ever revealed what the song is about, interestingly he has also never released any of his songs for use in commercials.

Tomer shot this image.....

So, a well executed and lit shot but the clever part for me is the concept.

In the world of 'Me too' coming up with a clever and original idea carries so much more weight and significance, in my eyes at least.

I suspect in the wider world too.

Tomer has posted BTS video of the shoot here.

Its in Hebrew so I can't understand the words, but really there is no need to, you see him getting on with it and doing a great job and working with the light not against it

He ended up using an image shot with available light, I'm not that surprised, smoke machine shots seem to work very well with available light...and a hint of flash

With a little help from my old friend the smoke machine.

Like myself, Tomer chose to buy sooner than rent to save money long term, so I suspect we will be seeing it again in the series.

I look forward to seeing what else Tomer comes up with.

The concept is king

What is yours going to be?

Fuji X-1-Pro, Please, Please, Please let the auto focus be up to the job

2012-01-13T01:49:00.000-08:00

Rumors abounded last week that Kodak was seeking bankruptcy protection.

The Yellow box seems to be destined for the pine box in the long run.

Fuji also seemed to be wracked by inertia over the past decade, with the occasional glimmer of decent product raising the companies prospects from time to time.

That was until they came up with the X100.

A clever and beautiful camera.

Arguably, for the first time since the advent of digital photography they were leading the game and not playing catch up.

Anyone who has read my blog or indeed many of the others comments on the web that this camera has more than its fair share of quirks.

Hit and miss AF being the big one for me.

I often joke that on occasion, it can take a certain kind of out of focus image.

Like this.

Fly by wire manual focus is not the best, add to that a labyrinthine menu, slow write speed to card and a need to format the card every time you download photos, if you want the camera to start up in less than a minute and it can be deeply frustrating.

As Fuji themselves said in their promo material

'The Professionals choice'

Oh dear.

A year later we are hearing the 'P' word again from Fuji, only this time it is the name of their new X series camera, the X-Pro-1.

It looks quite lovely, with a very promising looking range of lenses too.

On the face of it a winner.

Tempting, very tempting.

But what about the autofocus?

I was going to write this piece without sniffing around on the net (I don't normally do this before I blog, but I made an exception on this occasion)

My initial finding gave me cause for optimism.

With the respected British Journal of Photography saying 'Fujifilm goes back to its professional roots'

Then I read a posting by Gizmodo Australia

'Fuji X-Pro-1 Hands-On:Intoxicatingly Simple'

Sounds good but upon further reading Fuji seem to have taken the whole keeping it simple a little too far by having a similar focusing system to the X-100.

'the autofocus isn’t going to be as snappy as it is on other cameras. Fuji says thats because that’s not what this camera is about. Fine, but it’s going to annoy the hell out of you if you’re used to a good point-and-shoot camera or DSLR'

Now I have not held let alone seen this camera and we cannot take Gizmodo Australia's word as gospel but it might be worth bearing in mind that these words are attributed to Fuji, not Gizmodo.

You can have all the jewel like interchangeable lenses, fantastic build quality in a pretty camera body but if the bloody thing won't focus as it should then it will alway be handicapped.

Fuji in all probability were locked into a research and development cycle which meant they had to retain the X100 like focusing system.

But I cannot help but think that they would have been better off postponing the launch and getting the AF right.

I cannot say they have got it wrong until I have tried the camera myself however.

I suspect when the photography history books are written that the X100 will be known as a beautiful camera with daft focusing which did quite well until another manufacturer came along and did something very similar aesthetically and the focusing worked.

Fuji have a great opportunity with this family, lets hope they do not squander it, I for one want them to have a bright future.

If they wonder what the consequences of getting it wrong are, all they need to do is to look at where Kodak is right now.

Rodney Charters New Years Day Chat Part 2

2012-01-12T00:13:00.000-08:00

Here is part two of the chat Lan Bui and I had with DP of '24' Rodney Charters.

If you watched part one you will have some idea of what awaits. If not, it is well worth a watch in my opinion.

Rodney talks about the art of the possible and using the tools we have to make images.

Real world solutions for real world situations.

Wether you are into still or moving images.

Enjoy.

David Hobby joins the Phase One 'Club'

2012-01-09T07:50:00.000-08:00

I see that David has finally taken the plunge and bought a Phase One camera and P25+ back.

I'm not really surprised.

Though I must admit I'm a little surprised and disappointed by some of the harsh comments on his blog.

But whatever your views it is after all just a camera, albeit a very good one.

But what I always say to anyone who is considering taking the plunge into the Phase One world, this camera system is not like so many others that seek to flatter and turn the average shooter into a talented photographer.

I refer to it as the ultimate blank canvas.

Yes, thats right.

A blank canvas.

The sweet spot of the big sensor removing some of the constraints that a DSLR user faces.

A really good pen was not the making of William Shakespeare.

Living life, loving, losing and struggling had more to do with it than the pen.

And so it is with photography.

You may have the best camera in the world but no amount of megapixels, gigabytes and frames per second are going to MAKE the photograph.

Do they help? Well they can but I sometimes think we forget about the end result and focus way too much on how we get there...

To this end I believe Nikon with the D4 and Canon with the 1DX have created two totally brilliant camera's which are aimed at a diminishing end of the market.

The sports and news shooters who need a trazillion frames a second, and autofocus which knows where the subject is going before the subject does.

How much R&D budget has been expended on these giants of the high speed world heaven only knows.

I'm not sure how much they will recoup either.

One can only speculate how much the timing of the release of these camera's has to do with the Olympics this summer.

Make no mistake, this camera is made for AP, Getty and the like, along with the wedding shooters who enslave themselves to an age of post production with 30,000 images from a single wedding...yes my friends they DO exist.

It is all about the right tool for the job.

David decided he did not need a digital chain gun, look at his photography.

In the same breath any sports shooter who sat on the touch line of a ball game with a Phase One might well be asking for trouble.

Very interested to hear he likes Capture One, it is a great piece of software which has matured into a real gem.

And all I was going to blog about was 'Turning Pro'

Next on my list.

Who on earth is Alan Roberts?

2012-01-08T03:59:00.000-08:00

Alan Roberts is a name in all probability a name you will not be familiar with.

But he is important

Very Important.

Rewind a year or so and Canon had launched the XF series of video.

On the face of it, the XF series was another video camera offering which was good, but not really a player on the field against the mainstream players of Sony, Panasonic etc?

Right?

Wrong.

It did all seem rather unlikely with its unfashionably small sensor (I admit I scoffed at it at launch), but with its high 50mbs bit rate and super sharp optics in a very useable package it was very good.

Canon did at last have a video camera which matched in most area's, and outperformed in others, competitor offerings.

But how to communicate this to a sceptical broadcast world where other manufacturers seemed to have an unassailable grip on the market.

Enter Alan Roberts.

He is not a cameraman but in the words of the 'Guild of Television Cameramen' whom he won an award with in 2009

'A leading colour scientist, working for BBC research and development, he has not only contributed to the technology behind the camera, with a huge number of white papers, but has directly helped untold numbers of TV cameraman to get the best images out of modern digital and high definition camera's'

He has now retired form the BBC but his word clearly still carries much weight.

So imagine the impact of a very positive white paper he wrote on the Canon XF300 and XF305.

It made the BBC approved list of camera's for independent productions.

People sat up and took notice and it sold by the pallet load.

Fast forward to 2012 and Alan Roberts has written a report on the Canon C300, you can find the PDF of his report here

Will it have the same impact as his report on the XF300 and XF305?

Probably not, as the world and his wife are singing it's praises.

An important milestone all the same.

Playing with Fire- best Canon C300 video yet

2012-01-07T10:45:00.000-08:00

Well in my opinion anyhow

By Bruce Dorn

Edited by Cadu Medina

Between them they came up with this very clever but beautiful way of showing off the C300.

Simple

But quite brilliant

Good job guys.

Something for the Weekend

2012-01-06T08:16:00.000-08:00

For all of you who follow my blog who's primary interest is stills photography, I appreciate your patience, be assured more stills on the way very soon.

But all of my Canon C300 posting made me recall another rather smart little Canon video camera the X100, the tiny brother of the XF305 which also shoots at 50mbs, and shares the excellent MXF file format.

I used it to shot the BTS of this stills shoot I was doing with the Phase One Acromatic back.

Why the XF100 camera and not my XF305?

Well it is so small it let's me keep a very low profile, but the main reason was that it shoots in infra red at the flick of a switch, no filters required.

Fitting the spirit of the Phase One Acromatic perfectly.

The Palms from drew gardner on Vimeo.

You can read the whole post I put together here.

Forgive me if you have seen the movie before.

How the C300 affects Hollywood and what it means to us.

2012-01-05T02:10:00.000-08:00

New Year's start no better than this.

After eating the Turbot we picked up at Billingsgate and seeing in the New Year, we persuaded Rodney Charters, DP of '24' (not that he needed persuading) to have a chat on camera to talk about the Canon C300 and what the implications will be.

When watching the footage back I was struck by Rodney's candour and how this interview style chat has implications for all of us no matter what we shoot on.

As Bill Clinton once said 'Its the economy, stupid' this is a case of 'Its the story, stupid'

This video is the first of three.

Prepare to be inspired, and work out what your next project will be with your DSLR.

And why 8 bit with the Canon C300 is no handicap.....

Why you no longer need tons of lights to shoot a TV programme...

And much, much more.

I hope you enjoy watching this controversial video as much as we enjoyed making it.

Canon C300 - Shooting in Canon Log

2012-01-04T10:42:00.000-08:00

I must admit I was daunted when it was recommended by some people in the know that we should shoot with the C300 in Canon's high dynamic range, flat image quality, Canon Log Mode, if we truly wanted to get the best out of the camera.

In Canon's Log game mode it allows you to retain more image information for colour correction and post processing.

Jem Schofield on the Canon USA website has written an excellent and illuminating article on the subject.

It is well worth reading even if you do not intend to buy a C300 as it will give you a good understanding of the subject.(check out the section on 'View assist' where you can set the LCD to give you a predicted display of how the Canon Log will look after post production, sounds a bit bonkers but in practice this works VERY well)

I have to admit I have read it a couple of times.

But why was I daunted?

I was fearful of getting bogged down in post but actually I was surprised how easy basic post processing and colour correction was in FCP X.

When I take delivery of my C300 one of my first tasks will be to have a stab at adjusting the Gamma curve on my Canon XF305 to get somewhere in the same ball park so it will cut in OK.

It may seem an unusual combination to some, as they are very different camera's.

Crucially they both shoot the MXF format at 50mbs

But picture this, a talking head interview much like the one Lan Bui and I did of Dr Heather Whitney

Imagine we had only one operator you could use the C300 as the 'A' camera with the XF305 as a 'B' camera set on a tripod with no operator but with the very smart IAF (Intelligent AF) tracking the subjects face as they move in the frame.

Not ideal, but a solution to a situation that many of us face on a regular basis.

I'm really looking forward to getting my C300 as there are a couple of jobs it will prove very useful for in the very near future.

Stay tuned for avery special video which Lan and I will be posting tomorrow where Rodney Charters give an insight as to how he see's the C300 changing the game in Hollywood.

The Ultimate low light test with a Canon C300? perhaps not, but a real eye opener as my eyes were starting to close

2012-01-03T14:19:00.000-08:00

Picture this.

Rodney Charters, DP of '24' and DSLR guru Lan Bui round the Gardner house on New Years Eve.

It was a fun day, but by close to 2AM on the 1st January I was fading FAST.

At this point after much, much rambling about life the universe and everything Rodney suggested we do a low light test shot with the Canon C300.

With an iPad

Yes, an iPad as a light source.

Madness?

Perhaps

Or perhaps not.

You decide

I'm sure you in no way at all will find it amusing that I am falling asleep....

Food Glorious food

2012-01-02T11:15:00.000-08:00

Readers of this blog will now have gathered that I love cooking.

Even down to the Michaelmas Goose filmed on the Canon C300 by Lan Bui.

Here is a still of the recipe which I shot for the book 'Loose Birds and Game' by Andrew Pern of the the Star Inn, Harome, North Yorkshire (if you are ever anywhere even remotely close to the Star inn, do pay them a visit, a treat awaits)

I shot this at the chef's table with my Phase One P45+ and 120mm macro lens, supported by my Gitzo GT5660SGT and super precise variable ratio geared Manfrotto 405 head, using available light.

As I say often in my blog, the key to great photography is 'Shoot what you Love' and I cannot think of anything I Love to shoot more than this simply wonderful food.

In the run up to Christmas I was commissioned by the John Lewis partnership to shoot environmental portraits in the the kitchen where they develop new dishes.

It was an eye opener, not for food 'tricks' but for the sheer passion of the team who work so hard to come up with different and divine dishes which grace the shelves of Waitrose.

If you like me, were one of the many unlucky people who failed to get hold of one of Heston Blumental's Christmas puddings with an Orange inside you might take some sort of twisted solace in this shot I did of it.

I think this was one of the mini puddings for one with a tangerine, not an orange inside.

Again I shot this with available light (THE trick when shooting food)

But this time with my Canon 5d MkII and the silly-super-sharp Canon EF 'L' series 100mm Macro lens which feature a very clever hybrid optical image stabilisation system which really works very effectively. Just the job for on-the-fly macro work in rapidly evolving situations.

Coming back to the book 'Loose birds and Game' in which I shot all the main photography, it has collected a bevy of awards.

For a very limited period of time I will be offering the book at the special price of £15.99 plus postage.

The book has an RRP of £39.99

In the unlikely event that you want the book signing I'm very happy to do so.

Farewell 2011

2012-01-01T11:42:00.000-08:00

2011 was a very tough year for many people.

It was a mixed bag for me too.

A birth, a death in the family, two house moves and plans for a wedding.

So, the gamut of emotions.

More than anything for me it was a year of sowing seed which will start bearing fruit early in 2012.

The documentary is still in post production, Lucinda and I have a major exhibition in early March in a GREAT Location(more of that in the very near future)

So often in any creative endeavour you feel that you are not getting anywhere at all, even when you are, and through 2011 was no exception.

The best things are worth striving and fighting for.

Success does not come overnight.

In December I was lucky enough to get my hands on a Canon C300, it was a truly a great way to end the year (Quite a few more posts to come on this, as you might imagine.

2012 Will be a very tough year for many of us no matter what we do for a living.

To that end in January I will be launching another digital download titled 'Turning Pro' to arm photographers and would be photographers, with information to advance their careers.

More to the point though I will be sharing my own formula which has bought me success as a Pro photographer for more than 30 years.

At Billingsgate Fish Market with the Canon C300, Rodney Charters and Lan Bui

2011-12-31T09:49:00.000-08:00

We shot a bit more footage at Billingsgate Fish Market yesterday.

What a great camera to handhold...particularly when no tripods are allowed.

We were lucky enough to have Rodney Charters, the DP of '24' along for the ride and he shot this short BTS video of us in the market.

Much more to come.

Back to New Years eve..

My goose is well and truly cooked - A left field short with the Canon C300

2011-12-29T14:52:00.000-08:00

No executions in the desert

No gang fights

No CGI

Just real life at Christmas.

I was cooking dinner for six after pounding the phone to set up our main feature.

Lan Bui was keen to video me cooking the sublime but simple 'Michaelemas Goose' from the award winning 'Loose birds and Game' by Andrew Pern.

So all pretty fraught on the cookery front has you might imagine.

But just check the video out.

Filthy,horrid, florescent lighting but the Canon C300 just shone.

Once again Apple's FCP X made for rapid colour correction

The whole thing was shot using Canon Log mode, which gives 14 stops dynamic range.

14 Stops....

Anyhow off to bed right now as we are up super early for what should be a fun shoot over the next 2 days.

More adventures with friends old and new.

With more than a sprinkling of Hollywood on hand.

What a tease I am, stay tuned and all will be revealed.

Our first video with the Canon C300

2011-12-28T12:20:00.000-08:00

Lan Bui shot this beautiful sequence titled 'Grand Union Canal'

It is exceptional in many ways.

Primarily in that it was shot in under an hour.

Read his blog for full details of the gear used.

But aside from that it is an eye opener to just how well this camera works with existing Canon glass which you may well already own.

This is a big, big deal.

Yes, I know it is obvious, but when the penny drops....

We have been organising permissions for our 'main' feature shoot's

Doing this over the Christmas period has been a challenge to say the very least.

Canon C300 Day 2- Discussing the strengths and weakness's, as I cook dinner.

2011-12-28T01:13:00.000-08:00

We shot a little bit of footage yesterday on the Canon C300 which we will be posting a little later on today, we think it is an EXCELLENT camera.

But we wanted to share a conversation we were having about the Canon C300 as I was cooking dinner.

As we thought people might find it interesting.

Is it just a glorified DSLR? What about the Sony F3 shooting 10 bit? (Phillip Bloom touched on this in his review)

Have a look and join the debate

As I said more footage on its way later today......

Joining the fortunate few - Having a Canon C300 on loan

2011-12-24T10:13:00.000-08:00

It should really say joining the VERY fortunate few.

Lan Bui and I have a Canon C300 on loan.

It arrived on Friday and we will be putting it thorough its paces over the next few days.

So many things to try, so little time.

You can see our very first impressions of what promises to be a truly remarkable camera.

I say promises as we have not had chance to shoot anything just yet.

We will be shooting a couple of shorts and running some tests too.

In fact we have to get back to that...right now.

Please do ask any questions and we will do our very best to answer them.

Changing your mind about the Canon C300

2011-12-17T06:03:00.000-08:00

The much trailed Hollywood 'Historic announcement' which heralded the launch of the Canon C300 and strategic announcement by RED of the Scarlet X.

The amount of negative comments regarding the C300 were many.

And from people who had never used it.

One which stood out for me, and was often quoted was by Nino Leitner

He said in a blog post on November 4th

RED announces SCARLET X, totally blows Canon C300 out of the water

Ouch!

Strong stuff.

Pretty unfair I thought too.

Fast forward to early December and Nino was one of the lucky select few who got their hands on a C300 and made this really cool short with the C300

He posted tests and BTS on his blog too.

Informative and enjoyable stuff.

But I still had the inflammatory 'Dead in the water' comment in my mind.

So I Tweeted him.

The conversation went like this....

Drew Gardner @Photogardner13 Dec

interesting to see that @NinoLeitner says that the Canon C300 will be his next camera, having previously said 'It was dead in the water'

Nino Leitner @NinoLeitner

@Photogardner yep I changed my opinion 180 degrees after I worked with it. I still think it's a bit overpriced, but it fits most of my needs

Nino Leitner @NinoLeitner

@Photogardner RED Scarlet is great, but overkill for 95% of what I do - also the additional investments in postpro hardware are considerable

Drew Gardner @Photogardner13 Dec

@NinoLeitner just messing with you :) it is bloody fantastic isn't it? Really enjoyed your 'cigarette' short and informative comparisons

Nino Leitner @NinoLeitner

@Photogardner thanks mate! Yeah it's really great

So as you can see Nino has been won over by the C300 and he is a good guy as well as a top film maker.

As a foot note, one really has to wonder what was going on with the whole unfortunate episode with the RED community and Phillip Bloom.

One of the most influential video voices on the web had a RED Epic, and he doesn't anymore.

How on earth could RED have let this happen?

Phil's comments regarding the RED Epic and RED Scarlet would have been difficult to take but they were in my opinion at least fair and considered.

The words of Lyndon B. Johnson in regard to FBI director J Edgar Hoover came to mind...

'It's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in'

With Phil heading off to France for a week with a pre production Canon C300, one cannot help but think the chill wind of this spat will be felt by RED for a long, long time to come.

L'Oreal/UNESCO 'For Women in Science Video' shot with Canon DSLR's...with a little help from the XF 305

2011-12-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

I was commissioned to shoot a video for a very cool project earlier this year

The L'Oreal UNESCO 'For Women is Science' award which aims to 'promote and highlight the critical importance of ensuring greater participation of women in Science'

Every year a bursary is given to four women in the UK and in other countries around the world to help women fund their research.

In this world of increasing sexual equality there are still a great disparity of women working in science, so this is a particularly cool programme.

The subject of the short film was Dr Heather Whitney who is studying iridescence in plants.

Iridescent plants have to been seen to be believed.

It was a particularly challenging project as it involved everything from interviews to working in glasshouses to shooting slow motion of insects.

This project used just about every video capable camera I own (as well as a loaner Achromatic Phase One back)

We shot parts of the interview on a Canon XF305 but apart from that it was a Canon DSLR only zone as we wanted to use a shallow depth of field and the light weight of the camera's enabled us to have a bit of fun by making out own Jib Crane, as though the shoot was on a very tight budget we wanted to do some imaginative shots but more of that later.

Kit List for the Shoot

Camera's

Canon XF305 Used for tight shot in the interview that we we did not have to worry about audio

Canon 5D MkII for just about everything else

Canon 550d To shoot 60p slow motion of the bees.

Audio

Rode NTG-3 Mic for interview, great Mic at a great price

Rycote Mic Mount. say goodbye to handling noise

Lenses

Canon EF 'L' Series 100mm F2.8 this lens ,which could just be the sharpest lens I have ever used, was used many, many times.

Canon EF 'L' Series 24-105mm F4 Useful all rounder for all the other bits.

Canon EF 'L' Series 16-35mm F2.8 This lens was used for the Jib Crane Shot.

Lighting

Chimera Triolet 1k with a Chimera Medium Softbox, key light for the interview

3 x Mini Litepanels We used these for back light in the interview and the Bee sequence

California Sunbounce Small reflector For fill on the interview and also some of the glasshouse shots.

Tripods

Manfrotto 546 MVB I use this for just about everything that involves video

Manfrotto 536 MPRO Great on the uneven ground of the Glasshouse

Other Stuff

Manfrotto Stacker Stands 1005BAC So strong, but so neat and tidy with the added bonus that they don't make a horrid rattle when packed in the car

Kessler Crane Pocket dolly.Great value, I take it on all my movie shoots.
I use this a lot as it lends a whole level of production to shots. We used this extensively in the glasshouse and for the bee going down the tube and for the specimen shot in the glass case. I have taken this all over the world and it is a very valuable tool....big bang per buck.

Manfrotto Avenger A475B. We used it to mount a camera on to hang over the spiral stair case as you will see. If I had one light to use for the rest of my life it would be this one. There truly is very little you cannot do with it. It does cost more than the 'normal' Manfrotto 420B boom stand but is capable of taking much higher loading thanks to its rectangular legs, one of which is adjustable meaning you can set it up on uneven ground or even stairs. There is a modest weight penalty over the 420 too, but I can live with that.

Manfrotto Avenger A4050 CS. A large boom stand of seemingly limitless versatility which we used to support the home made jib crane.

Zacuto 'Z' finder. shooting video is fun, but better to know if it sharp! The 'Z' finder is THE difference when shooting video...perfect for 'Run and Gun' if you buy just one accessory for DSLR shooting it should be this.

Zacuto EVF. Which is one of those that you thought you would never need and when you have one you wonder how you ever did without.

I opted for the EVF 'flip' which has the added advantage of being able to 'Flip' the 'Z' finder out of the way and use it as a 'mini monitor' (if you don't have a 'Z' finder already they do a Pro bundle which works out a little cheaper)

Here is Lan getting down with the beetles with the EVF Slider combo.

Ah yes, the jib crane.

We wanted to add some production value to the shoot without going down the rental and pushing the budget.

How to do it?

I have an excellent and very strong cantilevered lighting boom made by a company called Red Wing.

Normally I use it in conjunction with large Chimera softbox, Chimera Octoplus or Elinchrom Octa for laying down lots of soft light from on high, for this application it is truly superb.

But Lan Bui and thought we might be able to modify it and put a Canon 5D MkII with the 16-35mm F2.8 (we duct taped the lens at 16mm)

To adapt the Red Wing boom end to take the camera lens comboI used a circular Manfrotto clamp, put the shaft from a floor stand through it and then used a super small mini tripod head on it which was just able to do the job without weighing too much.

Are these the optimum components ? No, but they are what we had to hand.

Control was never going to be easy as it was not built for the job so it was a matter of practice

Here are our practice sessions in my back yard.

Lan became quite competent with this rather unique set up in the back yard but we did not factor in how difficult it was going to be when we used it in the glass house of Cambridge University with all of the trees and plants to contend with, and an earth floor.

With a bit of steadying in post though I thing we pulled it off though.

We used the Zacuto EVF on a long HDMI cable to monitor the shot, it was invaluable.

Not only did the Zacuto EVF play a staring role from on high it was great for the low shots of Dr Heather Whitney going up the stairs.When you are lying flat you just cannot monitor the shot with the camera's LCD and the EVF plays it part again. It is highly recommended as it is so light and compact you barely know you have it in your bag.

The macro Bee photography was where the Canon 550d came in with the 100mm Macro, used again with the Zacuto EVF and the Zacuto 'Z' Finder which I used for a long time prior to having the EVF

With the Litepanels inside the Bee tank.

We shot the sequence at 60p and slowed it down to 25p in Cinema Tools then in FCP X we slowed it down to 50 percent of that, so around 125FPS.

Here is the before and after

FCP X has some great features and for the money it is a bargain, no plug in needed for this.

Music was by the talented Douglas Black Heaton, a man whom is never far away from any of my projects....including the forthcoming documentary.

Closing thoughts and comments on the RED v C300

2011-12-08T02:11:00.000-08:00

I received a comment on my previous posting from Simon which was spot on and I wanted to make sure it was not missed so I have posted it here...

'I've read a bunch of the to-ing and fro-ing between Red and Canon users and it's getting just a little irritating now. They are clearly different cameras. PR wise they've both made a mistake in pitching to each others audience and people should be spoken to about that.

Will feature Hollywood movies be made on the C300? Probably, but not that many. Will they on the RED? At the lower end of multimillion dollar budgets, I'd say yes they will.

Will the RED be used on TV shows? Not many I'd bet, you don't need to shoot at 4K when the max transmittable res is 1080p.

Will the C300? Yes, a lot.

You can compare and contrast as much as you like and say one's better than the other for this that and the other. But if I was shooting a TV doc you better believe I'd go for the Canon, if it was a movie, it would be RED.

In my opinion, RED has never really been about mass market whereas Canon has. Therein lies the problem.'

And here is my response

Hi Simon,

Thanks for your comment which are absoloulty spot on.

A very good overview of how I think it will actually pan out.

The rationale behind my C300/RED Scarlet blogs was the hysterical comments by the RED fanboys about the Canon at launch.

Such as 'its dead in the water' 'obsolete at launch' The C300 is a ******** disaster'

All comments which Believe are totally unfair.

I was seeking to write something that would provoke but importantly make people THINK and consider the options in a much more balanced manner.

RED is a different animal and will be used more by the movie boys and yes, the Canon will be used by the TV guys, with exceptions in both camps.

To consider the Scarlet and the C300 as true competitors IS a mistake.

I actually like RED as a company and believe that without them movie camera development would be several years behind.

Good on them! Whats more I sincerely hope they will be around for many years to come.

But RED have a certain degree of responsibility for this situation by shifting their product launch for the same day as the C300 to steal some of Canon's thunder, which indeed they did.

In the very short term they did indeed grab the headlines with a 4k for $9k.

Long term I'm not really quite so sure that they did the right thing.

Grabbing the headlines on 4th November is one thing but slowly, surely and quietly the tide is turning in the C300's favour as people become aware of just how significant it is with its stellar low light performance and sheer day to day practicality.

When you go head to head with a large multi national like Canon, you as sure as anything should make sure the product is spot on and not released prematurely as when people have looked beyond the sexy spec sheet, they start to see the shortcomings and the disappointment grows.

I know of 2 people who were going to buy the RED Scarlet on the strength of the spec sheet but when they looked at the small print they realised it was not the camera for them.

Those people have now placed orders for C300's

I wonder how times this has happened?

I wonder how much better it would have been for the long term best interests of the company NOT to go head to head with Canon, by enjoying the fantastic but perhaps short lived launch hype but waiting until they had the new sensor and having a real world battery solution.

Short term gain, long term pain I think

Regards

Drew

Enough, lets wait to see what its like.

Can you afford to shoot a day of 4K Footage on a RED Scarlet?

2011-12-06T03:47:00.000-08:00

Now this is something I had not even considered until I read an insightful article by Phillip Bloom 'To buy a Scarlet or not to buy, that is the question'

Firstly is is a bargain compared to the Canon C300, right?

Well not exactly.

As Phil points out for $9k you just get a box, you have to spend $14k to get a package that you can just about shoot with.

Then the batteries...oh my word, why more people are not talking about this is beyond me.

They last a pitifully short period of time, 35mins in standby according to Phil.

Yes, thats right folks 35 wonderful minutes

At least you get 2 of them I suppose in the $14k kit.

But if you want to shoot for more than an hour you will need more.

Phil needs 12 to get him through a days shooting

That is $2350.

A BP975 battery lasts 305 mins in a Canon C300.

Storage.

Oh my word this is where it gets really eye watering.

To quote Phil again

'To be honest on all my Epic shoots I have come close to filling up all 4 of my 128gb SSD cards, never running out, but close. If I shot a feature doc on them for sure I would run out, unless I compressed the redcode to the max. Each one of those cards costs $1800. Yes, you don’t need that many for some shoots, but unless you have someone on hand to offload for you during the shoot, you are playing with fire not having enough cards. It will grind your production to a halt and cost you time!'

4 of those cards is almost $8000!!! That has bumped the price up rather!!

You have to be pretty set to shoot at 4K to follow this through.

I don't doubt that some people DO need 4k and this could be the camera for you, but I think it would be wise to not fall in love with a spec sheet and go into the purchase with your eyes wide open.

Hands on with the Canon C300

2011-12-04T08:01:00.000-08:00

I was invited to attend a hands on session with the Canon C300 at Top-Teks on Friday.

It was a real eye opener.

I have been looking forward to getting my hands on this camera since its launch last month.

And I was excepting it to be good.

But nothing quite prepared me for how good it is.

It does bear a resemblance to a medium format camera (it even has a 'Start/Stop' where the shutter release was on Hasselblad 500 series)Speaking of the buttons and switches they are very high quality, notable is the precise Camera/Off/Media button so no accidental switching to the 'Media' setting.

Another very useful feature is the ability to lock all of your chosen settings into place.

The build quality on the per production models I saw was impressive and the buttons on the left hand side of the camera are inset a subtle black 'crackle' finish which shouts quality.

In your hands the first thing that strikes you is just how light it is and how easy it to hold steady, without any form of support.

Lan Bui is getting to grips with it here.

I'm not quite sure why this is, but I was not the only person to comment on this.

Add an image stabilised lens and it becomes something I had not really imagined, a great set up for free hand 'run and gun' shooting.

I tried my favourite 'L' series work a day lens the 24-105mm lens which was very nice, but the EF-S 17-55 F2.8 gave a more useful zoom range,even if it did not feel quite as nice as the 24-105, but in common with all EF lenses it is capable of resolving 1000 lines of resolution.

With the crop factor of the super 35mm sensor, those used to a Canon 5D MkII might have to reassess their lens choice.

My beloved 85mm 'L' series F1.2 becoming the equivalent of 136mm

So a replacement might be the 50mm EF cinema Prime CTZ-30 from the forthcoming range of lens from Canon.

One curious quirk of the C300 is the front 'toe' on the base.

Initially it did get in the way, as you can see.

But after a sustained period of handling, it did not bother me.

The toe can cause problems with some follow focus set ups apparently with certain lenses, but Canon had the foresight to let makers of after market accessories loose on the camera before launch. (Please note other manufacturers they did this and the world did not come to end...)

Zacuto are notable amongst these coming up with some useful mods including a follow focus extension to overcome this.

The top mounted LCD module did concern me when I saw the first images at launch.

In my eyes at least it had the look of almost an after thought.

But on handling it is nothing of the sort, and it is in line with the superb build quality of the rest of the camera.

Being able to reposition this module, with its articulated and mirroring LCD (which is EXCELLENT by the way) means you can locate exactly as you need to for whatever job you are doing.

The viewfinder is from the Canon XF305, and to be honest I was not sure how it would fare.

But again it is excellent, super high quality and manual focusing is in no way a chore.

Sony would do well when to take note when they refresh the F3.

That is something else I LOVE about the C300, if you want to use one of these you had better get practicing as it is manual everything (Focus, exposure and colour balance)

Skill counts for everything with the C300.

So on to image quality.

Sadly the camera's were in preproduction form so no footage is available for posting.

Once again I was struck by just how good it is.

The high ISO performance is simply staggering.

The noise up to 5000 ISO is smooth as, with the noise at 20,000 ISO being present but acceptable.

Jonathan Yi has down this brilliant, funny and very informative piece on the C300, which will give you a very good idea of what the camera is capable of.

Canon EOS C300 = Awesome from Jonathan Yi on Vimeo.

This camera will be a game changer in the way scenes are lit, with less light needed.

Relatively small low powered LED's are going to be a massively useful tool with this camera.

What is missing?

The only feature it does not have which I would really like is a 60p frame rate at a full 1080p not the 720p currently on offer, having said that, the footage I have seen shot at 720p did look better than everyday 720p footage.

It is a disappointment all the same though.

Much has been made of its inability to shoot Raw, but this for me is not a deal breaker having worked extensively with the excellent MXF file format on the XF305 and it is made for the grade. Lots and lots of data to play with in there.

But what of 4k? If I have a job where they ask for 4k I will have to hire something in, but as of yet any client or TV channel is asking for no more than 1080p, and there still in no worldwide standard for 4k.

And what of the RED Scarlet? To be honest I don't really want to immerse myself in the hysterical imbalanced name calling which has raged on the net ever since the launch of the C300 and the RED Scarlet.

Canon users who have all the lenses will probably gravitate toward the C300 while owners of the RED will probably gravitate toward the Scarlet.

Having said that, I know of one very well known Hollywood DP who owns a RED and he has said he will be buying the Canon C300 and not the Scarlet.

Why? Its low light ability, ease of use to existing workflow, and that it is a brilliantly resolved package that works straight out of the box.

I tweeted a day or so ago that when the true enormity of the capabilities of the C300 sink in that not many RED Scarlet's will be sold, I stand by that statement.

I would go further, I think that the Scarlet in its current form will bomb.

Should you buy one? Well if you need what it does and you KNOW that it will generate revenue for you then yes.

If you are happy with your DSLR then great!

Will I be buying one?

Yes, I will.

I have order number one at the Flash Centre (I spoke to Alex Ray) in London, it is worth bearing in mind that the small dealers may be the place to buy a C300 as waiting lists are growing at the big dealers.

And that brings me on to the big problem. Supply

I have no idea how many camera's will make it into the UK this year but I confidently predict that it will be nowhere near enough to meet the demand that I have seen with my own eyes.

The Building the Ultimate Portfolio

2011-11-27T02:51:00.000-08:00

At my Turning Pro workshops that I held earlier this year the subject of portfolio's came up quite a bit.

Now before I start let me make one thing very clear, there is no such thing as the ultimate portfolio.

Truthfully it is never exactly right.

Here are my 10 top portfolio tips

1. How many pictures should be in there?

I'm a great believer in 'Less is more' unless it's a potential client who has been stalking you for an eternity I would aim for 25 to 30 images.
Every art buyer or picture editor I have met is super busy, and it is a matter of making brilliant and representative impression of you and your work without boring the pants off them.
You might just get 10 or 15 mins.

2.What should I put in there?

Well like everything, play to your audience. Include photos that will be of interest to them and their publication. No point in showing photos that will be of little or no interest to them.
Try not to have too many images of the same assignment which 'say' more or less the same thing, it just means you come across as indecisive an lacking confidence in your own work.
There is no need to make the same point twice.

Oh and if you don't entirely believe in a photo which is in your portfolio..THROW IT OUT!

3. Analogue or digital?

There are no rights or wrongs here but it is about catching their eye and holding their attention, if they have seen 9 photographers portfolios that day on iPads and you turn up with yours on an iPad then you will merge into the herd.

Likewise if the prospective client has seen acres of physical portfolios and you turn up with an iPad you will be a breath of fresh air.

Content is king at the end of the day so focus on how you are going to talk about your work.

If you are are going into a meeting with an iPad though, make sure your screen sparkles and is not all grubby with a fog of fingerprints.

4. Colour of portfolio.

Does this really matter I hear you ask?

Well, yes it does actually if a retired art buyer whom I once met.

She said nearly every photographers portfolio is black and leather.

Think about it, we are all trying to stand out and what do we do?

Follow the herd and choose black leather.

Black leather like EVERYONE else.

Yes, you will surely be entirely forgettable, along with all the other shooters who have submitted their black leather portfolio's.

You are seeking an edge over your competitor, no matter how small.

Here are my portfolios, Key Lime Green the other in Burnt Orange both with Sky Blue embossed lettering built by Bookworks, not cheap but the BEST

With a nice grey interior so as not to distract your eye from the goods...

5. Size

Size really does matter, no what anyone tells you.

Too big and it can't be couriered by bike and it will not fit in a Fed Ex box.

Too small and you don't come across as a 'player'

A3 seems to be about the right size

But having said that, in pre iPhone days I made a small 'flick' book which would comfortably fit in my shirt pocket to take to Visa Pour La Image, on double sided paper (it took me quite a while, I made 10 of them in fact) bound together with double sided tape and it was possibly the most popular portfolio I ever had.

6.Weight

Most art buyers in ad agencies are women, most of whom are not muscle bound

When they call in portfolio's for shoots may have a whole big heap of portfolios to wade through

If they are big and heavy leather you can imagine how popular this task is, no matter how good the photography is in them.

Say they have 20 to go through, imagine their aching limbs and the temptation of stopping this weight lifting exercise half way through the pile and settling for an early selection......they are only human.

Do I know for certain that this has happened? No, but I can imagine it happening.

7. Loose leaf or bound?

Once again both have their good points and bad points.

If it is a handmade bound book, or a book made by Blurb, Asuka, Bob books or one of the many other similar offerings your portfolio does have a fantastic resolved appearance and does to my mind lend credibility.

Then why don't I use one as my main portfolio?

Well for two reasons, firstly I'm a photographer who is always adding to their body of of work and once you have made your book your portfolio is 'frozen'

There are some quite good loose leaf books made by Hahnehmuhle(I do use their excellent photo rag paper), Permajet and many others too but they will never have the finish of a custom made or bound portfolio and we then have the other problem that they tend to be black or navy blue, an without branding.

Why do I use loose leaf?

Well, it means I can add and subtract photos at a whim.

But what is more important is I can tailor my portfolio to a meeting at a moments notice, ensuring it will be something that it is of interest to the prospective client.

One of the downsides is that sometimes a print or two goes missing, but I take that as flattery.

I have had entire portfolios books stolen which is rather more disappointing.

The rather excellent photographers quoting and invoicing software Blinkbid has a portfolio tracker in it so hopefully this won't happen again.

8. It should be able to speak for itself without you being there

What I mean by that is frequently you are asked to drop your folio off at an agency and you have no chance to wax lyrical about your work.

Your book should be able to speak volumes without you being in the room.

9. Don't wait until...

You have the perfect portfolio before you start hitting the mean streets with it.

It will never happen

What's more you stand no chance of winning friends and influencing people if you don't show it.

To hesitate is to lose.

10. The best portfolio is...

To borrow a phrase from Chase Jarvis 'the one you have with you'

If you have a smart phone make sure you have a mini slide show on there.

You never know when the golden oppoutinty will arise to show your portfolio to someone who can hire you.

You would be surprised how many clients I have managed to win with my iPhone.

In summary I have a physical loose leaf portfolio, an iPad version with all the the benefits that brings and my iPhone, I choose the right one for the right meeting.

Sometimes I get it wrong, sometimes I get it right.

But the important thing is to get your work out there.

Interview with Giles Babbidge

2011-11-22T03:53:00.000-08:00

I bumped into the likeable Giles Babbidge of the Active Photographer at the Manfrotto Imagine More Lab in Convent Garden on Friday.

He collared me for an interview on life the universe and everything.

I haven't listened to it in full (I do hope I have not said anything too controversial!) but it was wide ranging and definitely of the moment.

Much more very soon.

My view on the Canon C300 and RED scarlet

2011-11-10T02:58:00.000-08:00

Well 'it' is here.

Depending on your viewpoint 'it' could be the Canon C300 or the RED Scarlet

On the face of it the announcement of the long promised almost fabled Scarlet and has stolen Canon's thunder, not to mention some colourful and interesting views from the web.

Regarding the Canon XF codec and it's ability to shoot to CF cards ' what good is that to someone who wants to shoot something decent?'

'Canon C300 announced and already made obsolete'

'Scarlet X totally blows Canon out of the water'

'The Canon C300 is dead in the water'

I did not have to look very far for Strong and emotive quotes.

But let's have a closer look.

Now let me make one thing plain straight away, though I am a Canon user in the shape of the 5D Mk II and the XF305, I have massive respect for the crew at RED, who have been making game changing equipment for the movie industry for some years now, in fact one of the first relatively well priced alternatives to film.

To me at least, RED was always a 'big boys' option, niche and rather out of my reach.

RED has snatched the limelight with an impressive feature set which at first glance Canon seemingly is outgunned by.

On further investigation though I believe what we are looking at is two different approaches.

RED uses its sensor, in many ways to do many things, using only a small portion, by the time you get to higher resolutions

Canon uses its 4k sensor in a completely different manner by effectively using the sensor as traditional sensor block.

DV info give a great explanation of how it works

'The 8.3 megapixel Super-35 sensor in the C300 is a new CMOS design by Canon. It is not borrowed or re-engineered from the still photography side of the company; instead it has been created “from the ground up” and dedicated specifically to digital cinema applications. The sensor has a resolution of 2,160 pixels tall by 3,840 pixels wide, which qualifies as native 4K. Canon claims that rolling shutter skew is greatly reduced in this sensor relative to current HD-DSLR camera models. Also, each frame can be scanned by the Digic DV III processor more quickly compared to an HD-DSLR, such as the 21 megapixel CMOS sensor in the Canon EOS 5D Mk. II, which has 2.5 times as many pixels as the C300.

Canon says that their Digic DV III processor reads this new sensor differently; it does not use the line-skipping method found in high-res HD-DSLR sensors. Instead, every four pixels (two green, one red, and one blue) are sampled for each final output pixel. In other words, color is assembled the same way as a traditional three-chip sensor block… two megapixels of red, two megapixels of blue and four megapixels of green (twice as much green as red or blue, since green carries the luminance info). Each primary color sampling off of the sensor is native 1920×1080, each color value alone is equal to the final output resolution. Canon claims that the processed signal has 1,000 lines of TV resolution, and the moire, diagonal line stair-stepping and other artifacts are greatly reduced in this chip compared to HD-DSLR cameras.

The benefits of using a large Super-35 sized sensor are high resolution output, high image sensitivity in low-light shooting situations and shallow depth of field for fine focus control.'

I use a Canon XF305 and that uses the same codec as the C300.

I have just produced a documentary on a pair of XF305's and this codec is truly made for the grade, lots of information in the files, really lovely.

In terms of files produced, this camera and its codec spelled the end of my love affair with HD DSLR's.

And then there is the pricing.

The RED costs half of the Canon C300.

Well not exactly.

The RED only costs $9900 if you buy the 'box' with not accessories included..if you buy the Canon Eos mount the price listed jumps to around $14,000.

Still a handy saving of $6000, right? Well perhaps, but I cannot help but think that the launch RED Scarlet will not have passed Canon by, and I would not be surprised if they responded accordingly in terms of pricing.

Speaking of which, one UK Canon stockist is already listing the C300 at £10,000 around $16,000

So not quite so half price anymore.....

Over at Nofilmschool.com they make a similar point too, though they received a ton of Rabid comments.

RED also have done themselves very few favours by promising spectacular product and then not delivering.

The first Scarlet for instance was touted around 2 or more years ago and then never materialised.

I have also heard Phillip Blooms issues with RED Epic too.

These maybe one off occasions or perhaps the user was plain unlucky, either way I'm pleased it was not me, can you just imagine????? Guys I feel for you.

I always felt it was only a matter of time before one of the seemingly sleeping mainstream giants, in the shape of Canon, Panasonic or Sony, woke up to what RED had been doing, and came up with their very own alternatives.

I believe that is the scenario that is with us right now.

I do hope that RED continue to thrive though, as more choice for the end user, inevitably means more competition, and better product.

My disappointments with the C300? I would have to say the lack of 60fps at 1080p is the one glaring omission.

I too initially questioned why RED were able to offer EOS lens AF when Canon did not offer this function for their own lenses on their own camera. I'm willing to bet that they tried it and it may not have worked in an optimum fashion, so they left well alone.

I could well be wrong though.

But my views, nor the intemperate comments surrounding the C300 do not count.

All that counts is what use these Camera's are put to, and how happy those users are with them.

The proof in the pudding will be in the eating, not the ranting and raving on the net.

The last Canon I can recall which received such a rough ride on its debut was the Canon 5dMkII....and that did not work out so badly did it?

'Travelling Light' webinar with Manfrotto

2011-10-31T03:37:00.000-07:00

Kick boxing on the Thai Cambodian border 1993

This in some peoples eyes at least might seem to be an unusual subject for a webinar.

But many of us travel with our camera gear.

And in the last decade just how difficult has this become?

Often the 'problems' one encounters are not security driven but airline rules and regs.

Tighter rules on the number of pieces of luggage and a big focus on the weight of bags.

How many times have you had to put your expensive gear in an unlocked bag in the hold?

On 17 /11/11 at 19.00 GMT I will explain and share some of my coping techniques which have helped me navigate sometimes baffling rules.

All of my tips are legal and can save you delay or excess baggage charges.

I will also share incidents of where I have come unstuck and I will talk about carnet's too.

Please come and join me (it is free!) and see if you can save yourself some time, money and trouble next time you fly.

Canon Pro Solutions Day 2 - Looking for the end of the rainbow

2011-10-27T06:59:00.000-07:00

After my second presentation on behalf of Apple, which I was blessed with an engaged audience who asked more than an intelligent question or two, I had a little more time to check out some of the new offerings.

I got some hands on time with the latest itineration of the Canon EOS 1D series, the Canon 1DX.

First impressions? A product of evolution not revolution, beautifully built, a very well resolved package which if you are a Canon user who shoots news or sport, I think you will be buying one of these...sooner or later. Lots of features you notice straight away like the speed....but there are stacks of features that are not obvious straight away, like the ethernet port (Cat 5) which answers all the camera connectivity questions you may have had and more besides, the Wi-Fi connectivity via the optional WFT-6 E6 transmitter which uses the 'N' protocol (not 'G'), and that the video output which is close to 50Mbs(the magic HD spec for the BBC), never mind the zillion ISO capability.

I must stress I have not used it in anger but it all looks very promising indeed.

As I left the show I walked past a display case of milestones for Canon and one camera which I had not previously heard of caught my eye.

The 1957 Canon VT Deluxe

A beautiful looking camera, with a juicy looking 50mm F1.2 lens.

And a thought came into my mind...I have a Fuji X100 which is so close to greatness it hurts, but needs some of the bells and whistles that Canon could easily bring to the party.

Picture this, a full frame digital version of the Canon VT with the hybrid finder like the X100 but with DIGIC 5 processor and autofocus which is a step up from the X100.

I would dare to suggest a camera like this would sell in comparatively large numbers, for a camera of its type.

I'm guessing that it will not happen though, bit too retro for them.

I suppose the company which will do it will be Leica and it will end up costing the same amount as a small car.

As I left the Islington business centre there was a beautiful rainbow arcing over the sky which stopped many people in their tracks.

Canon had many fine products on show, but the particular model I really wanted to see was not there, nor does it actually definitely exist.

One end the rainbow was in Islington the other, at least for me lies in Hollywood where on 3rd November there will be (according to many sources on the net) an 'Historic announcement' by Canon.

I don't know what it is, but RED are making an announcement the same day, and Canon have opened a new technology centre in Hollywood.

All these factors could be unrelated and it might just be the launch of a printer, but I doubt it.

Only 8 days to go and we will all find out what 'It' is

Day 1 at Canon pro Solutions and a dislike of Tomatoes

2011-10-26T02:28:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all who came to my 'Crossing the Line' seminar at Canon Pro soloutions, I was speaking nominally about Canon XF305 and Final Cut Pro.

I do not claim to be an editor, let alone a trainer but I did speak a little about FCPX.

Now love it(and I do actually like it)or hate it(as quite a few people said they do) it is here and we might as well start to explore the possibilities of this new way of doing things.

What struck me was when I asked the audience how many people had used it and only one hand went up. Though there maybe a few points of contention, why on earth not at least give it a go?

My daughter Georgie does not like Tomatoes and I always joke with her that how does she know that she doesn't, as she has never actually tried one?

It seems to me that tomato syndrome could be taking hold......

More on the Canon Pro solutions show tomorrow

What I have been doing....

2011-10-20T03:53:00.000-07:00

I have been uncharacteristically quiet, posting very little.

Well I can tell you a little now

For the past 2 years I have been working on a documentary for TV

I produced the programme with a really outstanding team.

It took us to 8 countries and the long process of post production begins.

I can't say too much more here but I will be saying a little more at 'Canon Pro Solutions' next week where I will be presenting for Apple.

Why Canon Pro solutions? Well we shot the documentary on a pair of Canon XF305's one of which I rented from the Flash Centre, the other I own.

It is a cracking camera and if you are shooting something which could be broadcast it shoots in full 1080P HD at 50Mbs, the magic threshold for BBC HD broadcast.

Needless to say I will be blogging extensively about the project in the future

Fuji X100 part 3

2011-10-19T03:10:00.000-07:00

Readers of this blog may recall my initial musings about the Fuji X100

Upon first handling I was intrigued but I nominally gave the nod to the Sony NEX 5

And pointed out some of the X100's short comings.

Then why do I find myself looking at one on my coffee table, having shelled out a premium for this fabulous, if at times flawed, camera.

I cannot recall quite so much so much been written about a camera.

Though this is not why I bought it.

It is one of those Camera's which has actually been following me around, you know bumping into people who have one and to a man and woman they all have been passionate about their X100, all had a certain glint in their eye, and talked about joy in their picture taking.

I took a call last week form a friend who is going to be working as a stills photographer on a major Hollywood production over the next few months, they asked me what I thought a good unobtrusive and silent choice for a camera alongside their Canon 5d's and I found myself suggesting they try out an X100.....and in the process I somehow persuaded myself to buy one.

Well a couple of weeks into ownership, I have no cause to regret my decision, not yet at least.

I have been lucky enough not to be affected by some of the issues which reportedly affected the early camera's, such as lock ups and pretty compromised firmware.

That is not to say it has all been plain sailing as I will explain.

Fuji have designed a truly beautiful camera, one which really looks and feels a cut above the rest, with some ground breaking features too, including it's clever hybrid viewfinder.

When I bought the camera I thought I would not use the EVF but I must say I find it so good I don't use the optical finder as often as I thought I would

It is compromised by a super baffling menu system, which does seem to take an age to navigate ones way around, battery life can be suspect too if you don't watch it, it caught me out today in fact.....

Battery indicator goes from three bars, to two bars, to flat in moments

It also needs a lot more horsepower in terms of how fast it is, write speed can be slow, and it's not possible to make any adjustments while it is writing to card, a glaring fault.

Having spent a lot of the budget on look feel and build perhaps Fuji ran out of money for a decent processor inside the camera.

And while we are on the subject of speed and cards, I was initially caught out by a 40 second start up time, my first thoughts were 'what have I just bought?'

What I have found out is it is very card sensitive, and when I switched the card out for a super fast 16gb Hoodman Raw Steel (named thus because it is steel reinforced and is so much more robust than other offerings which can be rather fragile) I found it improved matters no end, and providing I ALWAYS reformat the card in camera, it starts up in an acceptable second or so.

Autofocus is passable, in good light all is well, but in low light, the natural habitat of the X100, it can really struggle, even when you actively seek out points of contrast and AF friendly areas it can take two or three attempts to get focus, in which time the picture has often been missed. This, in my opinion, is the single biggest single failing of the camera
and the Manual focus is an act of cruel comedy so you can't reliably fall back on that either and I feel is best avoided as is the video mode, which is average.

Fuji have made something of a rod for their own back when some bright spark in the marketing Dept came up with the catch line 'the professionals choice'

Ok here we go, is it a full on pro camera?

No.

Expect it to be and be prepared for the mother of all disappointments.

Can it be used on a Pro shoot? Certainly and I have been doing so, but for a particular type of photo.

A particular type of photo?

Well yes, in action the X100 is THE most unobtrusive camera I have ever used, not just because it has a silent mode, but somehow people are simply not quite so aware that you are shooting. When you use the X100 in silent mode you seem to don a Harry Potter esq cloak of invisibility, you just disappear, on more occasions than I can recall while filming my new documentary I was simply unaware that I was being photographed.

Here is my good friend Vu Bui, unaware I was shooting him...really!

Perhaps it is why it is such a hit in the film world, with Academy award nominated DP's and the like using them.

The camera has it's faults but I still bought one, and I did not buy the very capable Sony NEX.

The reason is soul, something the Fuji X100 has in spades but I have found curiously lacking when I have used the NEX, as good as it is.

All of this comes from a man who has owned five Alfa Romeo's, four rapidly dissolving Alfasuds and a tempetuos GTV6, not the most reliable of cars but goodness SOUL!

If any member of staff of Fuji is reading this, revel in the success that this camera has been, but please wake up to it's shortcomings which led me to tweet

'Fuji X100.... a dim witted fool of a camera trapped in the most beautifully engineered body. I still like it though'

Words I stand by, but I would still heartily recommend this quirky, deeply flawed but charming camera

It dares to be different in a world of sameness, and delivers photographs that no other camera can.

STOP PRESS ! UPDATED FIRMWARE 1.11 RELEASED FOR FUJI X100!

I'm waiting until I'm in a silent distraction free environment before I do this, as it does look rather more involved than updating the firmware on a Canon or Nikon, though it does claim to improve the AF...fingers crossed.

Steve Jobs

2011-10-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

Much has been said about Steve Jobs, his achievements and his untimely passing.

I feel I can add little to what has been said about this great man.

Let us reflect,not only his great life but how we live our own

In his very own words.

'“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Lack of posts, with good reason I hope

2011-09-27T06:29:00.000-07:00

Lots to tell you all but I can't for reasons which will become plain in just a couple of weeks.

In many ways this is a bit of a no news post but I wanted to let you know that something BIG is on the way.

I have been producing in an epic project which has been much more difficult to execute than I ever could possibly have imagined.

It will take me across 4 countries and the outcome is far from certain.

The objective is to take you ALL with me, one way or another.

Needless to say it will include friends old and new to do something that has never been done before.

I don't think I will be posting next week either as my plate is rather full.

When I have completed it, expect a LOT of blogging and a dedicated website to the project.

Life after DROBO...QNAP

2011-09-07T08:04:00.000-07:00

Readers of this blog may recall my less than satisfactory experience with my Drobo Pro.

It was quite a saga which was scary and time hungry to say the very least.

I was struck by the sheer number of responses and the myriad suggestions of alternatives.

I then recalled Anders C Madsen a photographer who has good knowledge about storage too, who came on one of my workshops last year.

I contacted him and asked him the best route to take and he suggested I investigate QNAP.

QNAP?

What is that?

QNAP Inc is the Quality Network Appliance Provider

I had never heard of them....and they still seem to be rather unknown in the Photographic world.

Based in Taiwan, they manufacture all different shapes and sizes of Network attached storage.

What appealed to me about them is the OS is Linux based not proprietary which means if something does go badly wrong a whole host of companies could help you recover data.

Anders recommended that I set the QNAP TS859 up in the RAID 10 configuration

Here is his reasoning...

"One of the really nice features is the ability to use RAID10, which is the absolutely fastest way to configure your disks - but unfortunately also the most expensive.

The thing is, you're basically using 4 pair of disks that mirrors content so if one disk fails, the other has the exact same content and chugs along until the defective disk has been replaced.

Lumping 4 mirrors together in one big "virtual disk" means that you are writing and reading to and from 4 disks in parallel, which again means a real life write speed of four times the write speed of one disk. If disk performance has ever been a problem for you, here is the best cure.

Read speed is also four times that of one disk but because of different cache systems in the disks and controllers, read speed is always a lot higher than raw write speed and thus less likely to be a problem anyway. Search operations that runs through large amounts of data is likely to benefit very much from RAID10 versus RAID5.

Problem is, using sets of mirrors means that your available disk space will be half of that mounted in the drive bays - that is, 8 x 2 TB disks will give you 4 x 2 TB available disk space (the other 4 x 2 TB being used for mirroring).

Using RAID5 instead will give you 7 x 2 TB available disk space (2 TB is used for something called "parity data" which essentially means that one disk can fail without causing data loss) but you will be writing and reading to and from one single disk at a time so it will be a lot slower than RAID10.

I followed his advice (but I filled it with 3TB Hitachi drives) and I'm really pleased I did.

One of the drives failed last week.

Always a sticky moment but I need not have worried, the hot swappable nature of the QNAP TS859 meant I just hot swapped out the dead drive and fitted a new one, it took a while to rebuild but all was well.

So safety and I have to say speed in Raid 10 has been a real bonus, out performing the Drobo Pro comfortably.

I have owned the QNAP TS859 since march and I'm very impressed.

I have filled my TS859 and have just bought another.

It just ticks away without drama, day in, day out>

Never needing my attention, very robust and reliable.

Isn't that what we all want?

But the benefits do not end there.

It has built-in remote replication and it can back up to Amazon S3 cloud storage, if you schedule it to do so and of course if you have an account.

Guess what mine is doing right now?

Backing my picture library up to Amazon S3.

It also has a web file manager which means you can access the NAS remotely and do whatever you want with the files.

The QNAP does have a wealth of features and I'm not talking about all of them but the ones which I use.

For me it has been a very good experience and I cannot recommend it highly enough, I have recommended them to other photographers and those who had bought them are happy.

The only downside I found was it was initially a little more difficult to set up than the Drobo Pro, but I did manage it and I'm no technical whizz when it comes to IP numbers, in fact I have a total aversion to them.

QNAP is relatively unknown amongst photographers

It really does not deserve to be overlooked.

Vrygrond Township -Photographic workshop

2011-08-12T05:07:00.000-07:00

I could and perhaps should call this a tale of two workshops in the light of my forthcoming PODAS workshop at Weston Park

A little over a year ago I took a workshop for underprivileged youth in the South African township of Vrygrond, near Cape Town

My good friend Katherine Holley shot this short film of our time there.

Vrygrond Township, South Africa from drew gardner on Vimeo.

It makes me want to do more for these guys.

Moving.

Life changing, for me at least.

London Riots

2011-08-09T03:24:00.000-07:00

Difficult to know what to say really.

Naked criminality with the root being poor parenting....where do they think their kids are going at night?

with the school holidays and good weather being factors too.

I just came across this time lapse of the Tottenham riots.

Video by Prokopi Constantinou @ http://www.itdrewitself.com

Score by Dogtanion @ http://www.facebook.com/dogtanion

Fun with email scammers....

2011-08-08T02:19:00.000-07:00

With the world banking system facing oblivion and areas of London smouldering post riot I thought I would share this with you as a humorous Monday morning distraction........

From: Drew Gardner <drew@drew.it>
Date: 4 August 2011 22:08:30 GMT+01:00
To: Reservation Departament <information@allhotels.com>
Subject: Re: Hotel Camelback Inn, A JW Marriott Resort & Spa made wrong transaction
Thanks for your email

I can send you the money but I have a small problem

During my stay I lost my wallet and I'm certain it was one of your cleaners who took it

Her name was Marianne

We had a good time together then she took my wallet

If you could help me with this matter I will be very happy to see that you receive the money

Regards

Mr Trew

Sent from my iPad

On 4 Aug 2011, at 20:42, "Reservation Departament" <information@allhotels.com> wrote:

Dear guest!
Transaction: Visa 5159923_O
This letter notifies that on July 26th, 2011 Hotel made an error of transaction from your credit card. Total sum of decommissioning is $1473
Due to the termination of service contract between Hotel and Booking Company this Hotel was divested accreditation in our company.
For the return of funds please contact your bank and fill information in the attached form.
In the attachment you will find expense sheet with the sum of wrong transaction error of transaction.
Company just mediates and bears no responsibility for any money transactions made by Hotel.
Thank you for understanding. We trust you can solve this unpleasant problem.
Tertius Cookingham,
Manager of Reception Desk & Reservation Departament

I'm still awaiting a reply.......

If Drew Gardner shot weddings......

2011-08-05T01:55:00.000-07:00

Followers of my Twitter feed will know that I did just that on Saturday, when I shot my Niece's wedding.

My first full wedding shoot since 1981.

It was actually a lot of fun, but bloody hard work.

With so many bases to cover, the day just races by.

I now have enhanced respect for wedding shooters.

I shot the whole thing on a pair of Canon 5D MkII's and shot the vast majority of the day with the wonderful 'L' Series 35mm F1.4 and 85mm F1.2 lenses.

Even with the right focusing screens, in this case the Canon Eg-S super precision matte, the attrition rate of soft shots could be a bit worrying at times when shooting wide open with these lenses.
(If you own a fast prime lens and you don't have one of theses GET ONE! it is the cheapest way to get the best from your camera and lenses)

Like anything in life when you live to your 'Edge' it isn't easy.

But shoot wide open with these lenses and get it right, the angels sing.

Practice is the only course to take I'm afraid.

It's not all about primes though, and my general purpose lens to 'fill in the gaps' was the 'L' Series 24-105
F4.

I shot this rather 'Drew' ish shot with it.

I wanted to create something special and different that was 'me'

'Signature' is all in this world of 'Sameness'

There was this great view from Belvoir castle which dominates the valley beneath, and it came into my head to put the bride and groom at the centre of their own 'Painting'

Being part of but not totally dominating the scene, something which you could hang on your wall without being too cheesy....

Followers of this blog will know I gain much inspiration from the great painters

I lit the couple with a pair of Elinchrom Rangers, triggered with PocketWizard TT5 transmitter and ST4 receivers on the packs (no cables, and good range make them a very good choice)

I modified the light camera left with a Chimera Medium soft box and other on camera right just had a kill spill.

I mounted the set up on a pair of Manfrotto 'Stacker' master stands, which extend to over 3.5 metres. But thanks to their clever stacking design clip together and take up the least amount of space in your bag possible, with their very 'flat' profile.

A long but really lovely day.

I want to talk about the edit which I did in half a day.

Yes, 1500 shots edited and processed in half a day.

Am I a genius?

Certainly not, but with Capture One 6 and its fast and flexible local adjustments it enabled me never to go into Photoshop - at all.

This and a now sparkling sensor cleaned by Canon at Elstree.

Time IS money.

The less time I spend on the post production the more time I have to do other things.

So not having shot a wedding for 30 years, guess what I'm doing tomorrow?

Shooting another.

A birthday Indulgence - F1 to BSkyB.

2011-07-29T10:37:00.000-07:00

I nearly always stick to photography in my blog but please allow me this indulgence, it is my birthday after all.

As some fans may have gathered I like Formula One, its excess cannot be justified but I like it

In fact I have followed it for much of my adult life.

Here is a pic I shot of the late great Ayrton Senna at a Silverstone test session way back in the day when he drove for McLaren Honda.

So my birthday did not start so well when I saw that coverage of F1 was going to be shared with BSkyB.

As BSkyB says in its current ad campaign 'Believe in better'

Really?

REALLY!

There is some good coverage on BSkyB, the digital satellite format does allow for great detailed coverage.

But the art of BSkyB is to charge us the population of the UK for broadcasts which we have previously received for 'free' or at least included in the very reasonable BBC licence fee anyhow.

Do I blame BskyB for getting the deal with F1?

I don't actually.

Yes, we the fans will indeed lose out, if we do want to see every race in the season, as the BBC will show half of the races.

But if I want to see the other half, yes folks I have to sign up to BskyB.

Which I will not do.

Now this is very interesting because most of my diehard F1 friends do not have BSkyB and have no intention of getting it either.

Bernie Ecclestone has always stated his objection to 'Pay for view' F1, but somehow he has had a change of heart or wallet....

Mercedes, Renault and all of the 200 mph sponsorship billboards, will I believe, be seen by far less people.

Cricket has been demoted to a niche sport since it is pay to view, once again short term gain to the long term detriment of the sport.

Is this what the sponsors want? a ring fenced sport which will be seen by fewer viewers, not more?

Less reach for all of the advertising budget.

Sponsors could be harder to find and down it all goes.

'Believe in better' by all means but you are going to have to pay for something which was formally 'free'

Or perhaps lose interest in and not bother to watch it anymore?

* Those of you whom have stuck with my blog thus far, I have a little tease for you. Sometimes I post a lot , sometimes not very much, but about once a week. I'm embarking on the single biggest photography/film project of my career and over the next 3 month I will be sharing with you the highs and lows of what I sincerely believe will be the pinnacle of my working life so far. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

I've seen that somewhere before....

2011-07-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

My head is so full of stuff its about to pop!

But I did a double take when I saw the 1 year countdown to the London 2012 Olympics.

Synchronised swimmers made a '1' in front of the great and the good.

A bit like the '1' I did for Phase One in Denmark........

Here is a behind the scenes video of my shoot for Phase One, crewing the '1' was a lot of fun, though 10 meters does seem a long way up on a diving board (what a lightweight I am...)

I prefer mine as it is more defined.....but I'm biased

PODAS Fashion and Portraiture Workshop, Weston Park

2011-07-24T14:56:00.000-07:00

There are workshops and there are Workshops.

Phase One with their PODAS (Phase One Digital Artist Series) really have taken them to a whole new level and to the four corners of the planet.

They go something like this, take a small group of enthusiasts whom in all probability would bleed photography if you cut them, have the very best camera's that money can buy, and throw in instructors who want to share their considerable knowledge in the very best surroundings.

Against this background I was very flattered and more than a little thrilled to be invited by Phase One to co lead the PODAS fashion and portraiture workshop at Weston Park, with super talented and renowned shooter Natalie Dybisz (aka Miss Anelia) if you have not seen her work, do check it out, it is truly unique.

What really piqued my interest though is that we are hiring the WHOLE of Weston park to ourselves.

Weston Park is very special,with more than 1000 acres and its Palladian architecture, it even hosted the G8 Summit retreat in 1998.

As Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister - 8th June 1878 said

"You will find Weston beautiful. I marvel whether I shall ever see the like of it again! It is a place that always pleased me."

This short film gives you a good idea of the place and its rich heritage

We wanted to give this a twist, so instead of the usual 'model shoot' theme, we have decided to give it a period costume theme very much in keeping with Weston Park.

We will have a sack load of Phase One DF camera systems fitted out with the excellent IQ160 60 Megapixel backs, along with the best of the Profoto range, so we can use the super high speed sync.

We should also have one of the amazing Achromatic+ backs which I have been using to shoot people, perhaps not quite what the designers had in mind but the results are stunning. It will be a great oppourtunity to shoot with this most exotic back.

Here is a sample of just what it is capable of, check out the eyes......

It is described on the PODAS page as 'intense' and it certainly will be, as while we are not planning, shooting, or post processing our work, we will be living and breathing photography every moment, sharing knowledge and ideas.

The workshop will be limited to no more than 16 delegates, who will be split into two groups - this really is all about the quality and an experience which will be with every delegate long after they have left.

You can find out all about the workshop in full here.

London Street Photography Festival 2011

2011-07-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

This is a pet favourite subject of mine.

Being harassed by security guards and Police while attempting to legitimately take photos in a public place

And I'm sure like many of you, like me and the subjects of this project, have ended up on the wrong side of officialdom and worse still the law for doing nothing worse than taking pictures.

This 16min long video (it sounds long but it is well worth sticking with) IS provocative in places but it illustrates the problem very well.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how well the 'Boys in Blue' came out of all this.

Hats of to the photographers who made this, taking time, trouble and energy to make it happen.

Have a great weekend.

The Apprentice - What every photographer can all learn from it.

2011-07-19T03:07:00.000-07:00

This blog is primarily aimed at UK followers, as if you can't view it you won't really know what I'm talking about.

I have to admit I'm a sucker for well shot and excellently produced series 'The Apprentice' and Wednesday nights will not be the same again for a while.

Were the contestants the cream of British business acumen?

Hardly.

But show had some valuable lessons which we all can apply, and I'm not talking about the mesmeric ariel shots either.

In the last three episodes it dawned on me that Tom was the only person who would win.

Why?

Alan, now Lord Sugar made his money producing Amstrad (Alan Martin Sugar Trading) computers making satellite receivers for a man whom if you turn your television on today at 2pm BST you will see answering questions for a parliamentary committee.

So a man who made his money making things.

Lets have a quick look at what the finalists had to offer.

Susan. Boundless enthusiasm with bags of get up and go but firmly rooted in selling cosmetics. Amstrad cosmetics? mmmmmmm

Jim. Front up salesman 'par excellance'. I would be nervous being anywhere near this man as I'm sure he would sell me something even if i did not need it.

Helen. Strong performer throughout the series, but when it came to it she did not have an idea based heavily in the service which other companies are not doing already.

Tom. Call him what ever you like Lovely guy, nerd, geek, who was often steamrollered by pushy team mates, who came up with a business plan in the final which was flawed and of little interest to Lord Sugar.

And he won

Easily I would say too.

Why?

Because he is an inventor and an innovator who can and will turn stuff out that Lord Sugar will make a packet from.

He has something that Lord Sugar WANTS.

So to those of you have stuck with me this far, what does this have to do with photographer kind?

Don't bother getting in touch with clients whom you have no synergy with.

Reminds me of when I went into a prospective client around 10 years ago for lifestyle work with a portfolio of Guinness World Record holders and wondered why they showed me the door in pretty short order.

Ouch!

To get your hit rate up with prospective clients ask your self this question?

Who out there will want what I have to offer?

Who out there WANTS what you have to offer?

Target these clients and watch your client list grow...

(Small) Bumps in the Road With the Canon XF305

2011-07-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

So some months into ownership of my Canon XF305 I have to say I'm rather enjoying the experience.

It is a lot take in and one does have to think differently.

Yes, the depth of field due to the small chip does not give me the shallow depth of field I would ideally like but as I have said before I use it in conjunction with the Canon 5dMKII, here is a sample of it in action.

And of course the Bui Brothers excellent 'Zebra' BTS shoot

Here is Alex Ray from the Flash centre on Steadicam with the XF305

It does make you wonder, if Canon can achieve such lovely results from such a small sensor what could they achieve with a full form chip?

I can't see Canon letting Sony have it all their own way with the F3 forever surely it is only a matter of time before they release something very similar?

But I did have quite a nasty moment with my XF305 the other day.

I was in the middle of shooting a new comercial on a very bright and sunny day and left the camera on tripod with the EVF toward the sun.

It was not for very long either.

But the consequences were breath taking.

When I next put my eye to the camera

Where before there was a lovely clear view, now there was a horrible white 'splodge' right in the middle.

The sun had burned a hole in the middle of the electronic view finder.

A heart stopping moment, particularly as we were mid shoot.

Initially I thought the 3 CCD chip had been wrecked, but when I checked the LCD on the side of the camera I saw it was ok and I could carry on with the shoot.

I resigned myself to hefty repair bill, as there is a note in the instruction manual, until mentioned it to a contact at Canon who told me that mine was not the first to be affected and that they would repair it on a goodwill basis.

It is only fair to say that this affects all makes of camera, not just Canon's, which have an EVF so beware.
In adition to this there would be a 'fix'

It came in the shape of a branded eyepiece cap, which I have secured with this piece of string until I find a more elegant solution.

They put this warning sticker on too

So apart from an excursion to the polite and efficient Canon service centre at Elstree, what else to report on the XF305?

Well, there are a couple of other pitfalls which have caught me out.

Firstly that diffraction kicks in at F9.5.

Small apertures and small chips are not the best of friends and it means that resolution drops off dramatically, so you need to use the built in ND filters to keep it in its sweet spot.

In a high pressure situation I had my DSLR head on and even though I was aware of it, I overlooked it, thankfully I noticed in time........

Upon further investigation though I found it was possible in the 'Other functions' to select 'Iris Limit' which means you can make sure you don't get caught out.

Once again it is common knowledge and there IS a warning in the manual, albeit a bit vague.

And the other little niggle?

Dust

If you are shooting into the light on a small(ish) aperture with the super sharp 'L' series lens on a wide zoom setting, it does show ANY dust which is on the front element

And Brothers and Sisters there is no clone tool to get you off the hook.

Wide angle, small aperture and small sensors sometimes give you more than a depth of field than you bargained for.

So its out with chamois leather it is between shots.

All in all I'm very happy with the camera and would heartily recommend it, as it does pack a big bang for the buck.

FCP X thoughts and musings

2011-06-23T12:12:00.000-07:00

FCP X if the hype was to be believed was going to be a game changer.

The new way of doing things.

And from my dabblings with FCP 7 an update or radical rethink to this cranky piece of OS 9 inspired software was sorely needed

So like the rest of the Apple community I waited with baited breath.

Within moments of launch there was a blizzard of negative comments

'I'm off to Avid' 'The Pro community has been deserted' 'It should be called iMovie pro' and 'This is the worst software lauch ever'

Now I have not been anywhere near it yet, it does not yet support the files from my Canon XF305.

Maybe I should throw another negative comment on the fire?

Perhaps not.

At the moment FCP X does not have a full feature set.

XML support is missing, it cannot read FCP 7 projects, it does not support tape, RED and multi camera's.

So quite a lot not there.

Yet

Oh yes, the 'Y' word

This launch has annoyed some big industry names.

Apple could have done themselves a big favour by not having the main import icon as 'import imovie event' red rag to all the pro bulls out there

But I think in time all of these missing features will be added or fixed.

And in the meantime you CAN still use FCP 7, FCP X does not overwrite it.

Perhaps I should keep my mouth shut as I don't have tons of old FCP 7 projects hanging around?

After all I have never even used it as I say.

All I'm saying is a more measured response might be in order, and perhaps get used to this app little by little to get accustomed to it, while continuing to use FCP 7 as our workhorse.

I will leave you with a couple of thoughts

Perhaps wait until FCP X carries the features you need before you buy it

Check out the blog of Larry Jordan, a fair assessment me thinks.

I have working pro friends in the USA and France who are using FCP X already and have lots of good things to say about it.

The Need for Speed

2011-06-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

My Elinchrom Rangers have been a little neglected of late.

Particularly with the advent of the Elinchrom Quadra.

A fine compact unit which packs 400 ws and has Skyport built in, for triggering and adjusting the flash remotely.

But when you need raw power there is no substitute for the Ranger which has 1100 ws output.

It is big and heavy but it does a great job.

Just the small matter of how to trigger it.

I like to use Pocketwizards as they are super reliable.

On this particular shoot I was running up against a limited Flash sync of 1/350th sec.

A bit disappointing, having become accustomed to my Quadra's firing reliably with the Skyport speed transmitter.

I visited the Pocketwizard website and sure enough according to the manual it IS possible to use the Pocketwizard Multimax on its speed setting but alas, mine are early models so its not possible.

I remembered seeing an announcement of a new Pocketwizard receiver ST4 for made specially for
Elinchrom RX flash units.

Reading a little more about them on Tom Bol's blog it seems you can indeed sync to silly speeds, which does open the door to quite a few possibilities.

I have purchased two receivers and will let you know how I fare.

My Experience with Cinestyle by Technicolor

2011-06-17T06:03:00.000-07:00

A little while ago I wrote about the Canon 5d MkII profile by Technicolor called 'Cinestyle'

Well I have been giving it a go and I thought I would share my experiences so far.

Let's get one thing clear, Cinestyle DOES deliver more detail in the shadow area's than any other profile I sampled.

It is super flat, and therefore gives a great range of detail.

Now if you were to shoot a major production and the images were going off to be graded professionally it would give the grader a whole world of options.

But how many of us fro the vast majority of projects send out footage off to be graded?

On a day to day basis not many I would wager.

I have found that trying to grade it myself on small projects it is very difficult to get a pleasing look.

I was left with top DP and massive 5DMkII fan Sane Hurlbutt's words ringing in my ears.

'If you want to get the best out of the 5d shoot it in the style that you want it to look like, and try not to mess with it too much' (funny how this theme keeps cropping up isn't it? Getting it right in camera.......)

I'm not saying that Cinestyle is bad, far from it.

Its just that its is not suited to the way I work and before you shoot too much with it you should be aware of its impact on your workflow.

Drew Gardner 'Groups Webinar' with the Manfrotto school of Excellence

2011-06-12T03:30:00.000-07:00

Henry V on the Night before Agincourt by Drew Gardner

Group photography is one of my trade marks.

I like shooting groups, no I LOVE shooting groups.

Why?

They are such a tremendous challenge, there is no doubt about that.

Yes, lighting on a large scale is a whole other world, but once you have lit the group you have to make sure that they are portrayed in a consistent and relevant way.

Directing the group to get them to do what you want is crucial.

And that is when you have all the people in the same place at the same time.

But what about when you don't?

A cornerstone of all high end advertising and commercial photography is shooting a photograph in elements, a person or an element to a photograph one piece at a time.

I shot this during one of my classes at the EXCELLENT Maine Media Workshops

Animals one by one........

The whole thing was as a result shot in sections.

It can all get rather involved.

On 16th June courtesy of the 'Manfrotto school of Excellence' I will be holding a one hour webinar where I will share my experience of group photography, both traditional and composite.

Hopefully it will be a useful and you will be able to apply some of the techniques I use to your photography.

Its free, but places are limited so sign up to avoid disappointment.

I look forward to 'Meeting' you then and doing my best to answer your questions.

Yet another bag! All be it a VERY good one.

2011-06-07T02:45:00.000-07:00

I have many,many camera and equipment bags.

In fact so many I do need to have a good clean out of them.

So what did I do? I went out and bought another.

Sigh.

But here is my excuse, sorry sound reason for doing so.

To transport my lightstands and softboxes I use the brilliant and all but indestructible California Sunbounce roller bags. I'm still using one which is around 10 years old.

But there is nowhere to put my Elinchrom Quadra's in there.

So I have been looking for a solution which I could carry around a complete set of lights, stands and modifiers.

I popped into the Flash centre the other day and the Palm 1 bag by Kata caught my eye.

It does look slightly unusual.

It appearance maybe due to the fact it is based on a design for a rocket launcher case.

Think of swords into ploughshares...

It has become my standard 'medium' lighting job pack.

I can fit inside just about all the lighting gear I need.

It fits neatly inside the boot (trunk) of a small hatchback too

This is what is in it today.

4 x Manfrotto stacker stands.

3 x Elinchrom Quadra packs and heads.

1 x Small Chimera soft box (this is the only compromise as my medium sized soft box does not fit)

1 x Umbrella(solid not shoot through)

1 x Gitzo carbon tripod with Manfrotto 468rc2 ball head.

This little lot will do for most things.

The clincher in all this though was the bargain price.

The Kata Palm 1 Normally sells for £350 and the Flash centre have a very limited number at the bargain price of £150.

Hustle

2011-06-01T04:06:00.000-07:00

A while ago I was commissioned to shoot stills for the BBC TV series 'Hustle'

It had quite a star studded cast including Robert Vaughn, who starred in the man from U.N.C.L.E , Marc Warren(Band of Brothers), Ashley Walters (Dead man Running), Robert Glenister (Many British TV appearances including A touch of Frost and Spooks) and Jaime Murray who has multiple TV drama appearances under her belt .

Now when you are shooting on a TV set or film set it is important to try and get a good rapport with the crew but especially the floor manager as a stills photographer is often greeted with all the enthusiasm of a rabid lepper.

This time the crew were very accommodating but time is beyond premium so you sometimes have seconds, not miniutes, as with this line up a la usual suspects, they gave me 30 seconds at the the end of the scene before they broke the set down and a new set was put into place, yes it really works like this, so you HAVE to get on with people if you are to have any kind of success on set.

I shot it at a very low shutter speed 1/4 sec at F8 on my Canon 1ds using a 24/70mm lens lit with one Elinchrom Ranger with a Chimera Medium softbox, high and off to camera right.

The brief was to shoot portraits of each of the stars, so i negotiated that we could do this between filming scenes.

But there was a problem. They could not leave their dressing rooms as they were waiting to be called for the next scene.

Think famous actors, some of whom had worked in Hollywood and you think of spacious changing rooms, the very lap of luxury.

The reality tends to be very different.

On this occasion the dressing rooms were some kind of converted offices in an old mill which were tiny.

Barely any space at all, and let's just say the the decor had seen better days.......

How to shoot something creative in a micro space like this?

This in my opion is where you earn your money.

Under pressure and having to come up with a creative solution which will see you hired next time.

I shot Jaime Murray in the tightest of spaces but with a little creative lighting, a simple beauty shot with 2 small Chimera soft boxes on Elinchrom Rangers which literally left space for the actress and I

They were set up in a butterfly array with the top light on full power with the fill light on the floor on half power, to give this rather glamorous sexy look.

I shot between the soft boxes with my Canon 1ds exposing at 1/80sec F11

We were lucky in that we had a plain background to work against and we managed to get this rather alluring portrait in a minute or so.

One down 4 to go, all of which went pretty well, but the shot I was most pleased with was of Marc Warren

Why?

His dressing room was a real challenge, the was actually a little more space in this one but the decor was erm challenging.

Time to create an interesting background from more less nothing.

I had a flash of inspiration though and I saw the frosted glass and I hatched a cunning plan........

I got the assistant to put a flash head on a light stand and put it outside the window, pointing back into the dressing room from outside, all a bit risky and hap hazard as we were 4 stories up.

I used one of my Norman 400b flashes which have now been replaced, following my Internet giveaway, with Elinchrom Quadra's. The job would have been made easier with these as I can adjust the output with the Skyport controller.

It took a couple of frames but the rather dull background was transformed.

The key light on Marc as a Elinchrom Ranger with a medium Chimera softbox to camera left.

When undertaking a high pressure high profile assignment you MUST get the safety shot.

Always.

But it is pushing the boundaries and trying something a little bit different which will make you stand out from the crowd.

Making sure you get the next assignment.

Mixing it with the Canon 5DMkII

2011-05-26T10:02:00.000-07:00

Good steam is even more fun than smoke machines

Particularly when you get your own locomotive to play with for a day, courtesy of Bill Tyndall and the Talylln Railway in Wales.

I shot this portrait of Bill with a Canon 5DMkII 24-105mm zoom and lit it with two Elinchrom Quadra's, one for Bill fitted with a Chimera Medium softbox, the other on axis in the background as backlight for Bill and the steam, this one with a barebulb head, both triggered via Skyport.

Simple lighting that WORKS.

A shot I'm very pleased with.

But I had to shoot video too......

I talk about shooting stills and motion quite a lot.

Infact I even made a digital download series about DSLR videography with Dennis Lennie.

I have to say though anecdotaly and through various online surveys, notably on dpreview, I think only a tiny percentage of us are using our DSLR's to shoot video.

Why?

Fair enough if you just like your stills and you don't want to shoot video.

But I think if you are a pro and you are not shooting video you just might be missing a trick.

With a tidal wave of new talent coming into the business, it pays to be open to new forms of creativity, and the revenue streams that accompany them.

Which brings me back to video.

The Canon 5DMkII was a game changer which ushered in this possibility DOES give an amazing look, filmic and all the rest of it.

But....but...

Although shooting documentaries and shorts on a 5DMkII is entirely possible, it can be quite a challenge with separate sound, full manual focus all the time.

A BIG handful and if you are shooting with a small crew you need to have your wits about you, as the opportunity for mistakes are many and manifold.

After two years of numerous video shoots with the 5DMkII and with an increasingly heavy video workload I decided on a different approach.

I have a Canon XF305 which is a lovely camera, which I use for all of my main video work.

It has many benefits, including all the high quality audio connectivity you can shake a stick at, and a silly super sharp 'L' Series zoom lens.

Its achilles heel is its very small sensor, which Canon have worked nothing short of a minor miracle wringing the performance they have from it.

But a small sensor brings with it a deep depth of field that there is simply no way around though.

Solution?

Shoot all the beauty shots and 'B' roll on my DSLR and all the rest on the XF305.

Is this an ideal scenario? Possibly not

But it IS working for me right now, but I do have my eye on integrated video solutions, in the shape of the Sony F3.

But it is quite an investment.

Will I go there ? Can the investment be justified? Time will tell.

Here is the finished video on the John Lewis partnership Website

I'm very pleased with the result.

Can you spot where the 5DMkII is at work? it's not too difficult.

Milk Workshops

2011-05-23T04:31:00.000-07:00

Its workshop time again.

But not one of mine.

To get a mention on my blog a workshop needs a twist, and this one certainly does.

Goodness knows we have enough workshops which are run of the mill and very 'me too'

My friend Jarek Wieczorkiewicz, better known to the photographic community for his Arum Light Blog
is holding a workshop based around his brilliant and mesmerising milk photographs.

This has to be worth a look

Jarek is pushing boundaries and creating images which are cutting edge.

I'm rather tempted myself.

Second take on Fuji X100

2011-05-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

I still have not quite shot in anger with the cute, if a little pricey Fuji X100.

But I did get hands on with one again after the London Going Pro seminar, courtesy of World Press Photo winning Edmond Terakopian, who came along to the workshop.

He has a pretty interesting blog too.

Here he is, shot on his Fuji X100

Edmond Terakopian shot on a Fuji X100

We were hanging out in the pub together with a couple of other delegates and we dropped a few beer frames, here is the evidence...this time shot on Edmond's Leica X1.

Pic by Edmond Terakopian

After my first handling of the X100 at Focus on imaging, I have read the sort of articles a camera manufacturer can only dream of.

Are these articles well founded or not.

Well hands on for a second time, it did seem very impressive

Enough to make me consider getting one.

This shot of delegate Nicola Taylor, who got me thinking of CRM software, gives you a good idea of the kind of detail the camera can deliver.

As sorely tempted as I am by this jewel of a camera nagging doubts remain, in the shape of reports of little quirks in performance.

Such as slow start up, slow write speeds, variable AF performance at close quarters.

Indeed Katrin Eismann returned hers.

Are these criticisms valid? I really don't know as I have not given this camera a proper extended test.

It does have lots of promise though.

Which brings me onto the second part of the X100 blog.

An email from NewPhotoDigest, where Simon Towler gives an overview of the camera

Simon makes some good observations which are spot on, but I'm not so sure about the point he makes by asserting that Pro shooters should not expect too much from this camera.

I DO get where he is coming from but I would just like to say that if a camera manufacturer is going to charge £1000 for a compact camera they had better make sure it is spot on.

This sort of money buys some very capable prosumer DSLR's

Going Pro 10/05/11

2011-05-11T03:07:00.000-07:00

Picture by Edmond Terakopian

I went into yesterday's Going Pro workshop in London with a little trepidation

After all it was my first UK workshop, and my first ever where I was talking about nothing else other than business side of photography, and what has proved successful for me over the years.

Delegates had come from as far afield as Denmark and Spain to hear what I had to say

I need not have been concerned.

The turn out was excellent not just in terms of numbers but with the quality of delegates.

Delegates too who were engaged and engaging.

Which made for great debate and ensured we all got the most out of it, myself included.

We were lucky enough to have in attendance World Press Photo winning photographer and all round good bloke, Edmond Terakopian, adventure and lifestyle photographer Tim Glasby and Petra Exton, who has agency art buying experience and has now turned her hand to photography.

Having delegates with such a wealth of experience was priceless.

I will blog further about this at a later date, but judging by the comments on Twitter it was a hit.

I have space left for the Birmingham seminar tomorrow

I will not be repeating this workshop anytime soon.

Canon 5D MkII CineStyle by by Technicolor

2011-05-04T04:06:00.000-07:00

I first heard about this as part of the NAB banter.

A special profile created by Technicolor, the big name from many a Hollywood movie.

Why so special?

Anyone who has shot commercially with the Canon 5d MkII knows that their can be benefits to shooting with relatively flat profiles.

Particularly if like me you are mixing footage from the Canon XF305 with the Canon 5D MkII.

The XF 305 has good but muted colour, whereas the 5D is quite contrasty and the colours rather....vivid.

This can lead to fun and games with the edit, trying to get a consistent look.

So needless to say I have my own settings to make things a little more consistent.

There are other profiles out there, what makes CineStyle so special?

In the words of Technicolor...

'When the Technicolor CineStyle is selected in the camera it puts the standard H.264 REC709 color space into a log color space. Video images are recorded in log space. Still images are also converted into the same log color space. This is the first implementation of its kind for the Canon EOS line of cameras'

So there you have it, worthy of investigation, I will be giving it a go.

Here is Vincent Laforet's take on it.

Crooked Path Films ran a test, which makes interesting viewing.

Technicolor Cine Style - A Quick Test from Crooked Path Films on Vimeo.

The really clever part is that Technicolor has made itself super relevant to DSLR shooters and therefore future film makers.

There are many big companies out there in their Hollywood ivory towers who are not engaging.

They will be the ones who will lose out as the wind of change blows.

Turning Pro Workshops in London and Birmingham

2011-04-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

One of the most frequent conversation I have is with photographers who want to go pro

Who have day jobs, or have just left university and want to explore the possibilities of going pro, or perhaps they want to just earn some extra money in their spare time.

The fact is easier to take good pictures than ever before, like any industry photography is driven by supply and demand, and my goodness do we have a lot of supply out there.

Just on the further education front in Britain more photographers are trained than there are jobs for, not just in the UK but in the whole of the EU.

Think of it.

It is against this backdrop that I have decided to run two 'turning pro workshops'

One in London the other in Birmingham.

What's more there will not be a light or camera in sight.

This will be to explore why some brilliant photographers sit at home, and I mean some of the very best photographers in Britain, waiting for the phone to ring, while some less talented individuals work ceaselessly, with full diaries.

There are no hard and fast rules of how to go pro and different photographers have different philosophies.

I will share my philosophy which has kept me competitive and productive in the photographic business for more than 30 years.

I will take you through as many areas as we can cover in one day, promotion, targeting new clients, current clients, why does the other guy the job and not me? Invoicing, shooting stock, should I shoot for free?, what should be in my portfolio, deliverables and I will share the mistakes I have made over the years, so hopefully you won't make them.

This is business based so it will apply to you wether you are a social photographer, wedding photographer, photo journalist or food photographer.

In fact any kind of photographer currently working.

My aim is that delegates will leave with the tools to help them be profitable, professional and happy in their work.

So far the London workshop on the 10th May is pretty much full, though I have a couple of places left, with delegates traveling from as far afield as Denmark and Spain to attend.

I have more spaces available in the Birmingham 12th May workshop though, so if you are interested you can book through my website

Affordable too, at whisker less than £100.00

These are the first ever paying seminars I have done in the UK, yes really!

There will be lighting seminars/workshops from me in the UK this year, along with some much further afield

But I feel very passionately about this much negleted subject.

Come and join me?

Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros

2011-04-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

I never met Tim Hetherington.

But quite a few of my friends did and were impressed with him in many ways.

When his death along with Chris Hondros, in the besieged city of Misrata was reported it was dark news indeed.

Not only for his friends family and loved ones who's pain can only be imagined, but also for the wider photographic world.

Stories of his great humanity and bravery have been recounted for much of the day.

Tim was a mover and a shaker who started off in stills and went on to cross over into moving images, even collecting an Oscar nomination along the way.

As Tim said “If you are interested in mass communication, then you have to stop thinking of yourself as a photographer. We live in a post-photographic world. If you are interested in photography, then you are interested in something — in terms of mass communication — that is past. I am interested in reaching as many people as possible.”

I know nothing of Chris so I feel unable to say anything about him other than like Tim he paid the ultimate price while telling the world what is happening in Mistrata.

A sad day indeed.

Infra red survey

2011-04-08T00:39:00.000-07:00

As regular readers of his blog will know, I have been shooting a ton of work on the brilliant if rather pricey Phase One Achromatic back.

I love democracy in Photography so I'm asking readers to suggest other Camera's which work well in IR, wether they be DSLR or compact, I'm seeking your input.

I'm also keen to hear of people's experiences with modified DSLR's

Which is best?

Canon, Nikon, Sony?

Do let me know

It would be great if more people shot IR and not all of us have access to exotic kit.

Raymond Blanc at Le Maison Aux Quat'Saissons

2011-04-01T01:08:00.000-07:00

Choosing exactly where to shoot an environmental portrait when you are on assignment is crucial.

Recently I was commissioned to shoot a portrait of one of the most celebrated chefs in the UK, Raymond Blanc, the proprietor of Le Maison Aux Quat'Saissons, two starred Michelin restaurant and hotel

He is an exceptionally nice guy with an eye for detail which is second to none.

Just goes to show that to be a top Chef you don't have to swear, scream and shout......

Now in addition to shooting solo portrait it had to be a location which could accommodate up to 3 people, which complicated things just a little, as it was piercingly bright sunlight and I wanted to get the frontage of his hotel and restaurant in the background.

At times like this my friends head for the shade.

But just where?

There was a portico across the courtyard which should have been the natural choice, but it was an open pillar construction which at first glance seemed to provide little chance of the shade I was looking for, meaning I was going to get shadows and hot spots on the subjects faces no matter what I did.

But then I looked again and saw that if I was very precise and placed the subjects between the two pillars in the centre of the frame there was a tiny sliver of shade which I could locate them in AND still get the iconic building in the background.

Having done the trickiest part it was just a matter of balancing the light with an Elinchrom Quadra diffused with a Chimera Medium softbox (what else?) which I knew would give super softlight on Mr Blanc but also enough coverage for a group of 3 if I had to, this time I used the Avenger A480BU Stacker stands by Manfrotto (I like the super sturdy square legs) and I jammed this combo into the portico, and I thought it would be enough.

I did a test shot to pre light the scene and saw that while it was nice enough, I could in fact do better by adding a backlight coming in from the left hand side of the frame, so bring on a second Quadra and a Chimera small softbox, flagged by one of those pillars. Meaning the backlight would hit the subject and not the front element of my lens.

Illustration by Jarek Wieczorkiewicz

The key light was on full power, as was the backlight.

All set it would seem, but the next challenge was managing a steady stream of cars and delivery vans which wanted to park in shot.

The trick on these occasions is to ask very politely for them to move.

It is always well worth the being extra nice and polite to people at all times, no matter how much stress you are under.

Staying calm, unflustered and polite while under pressure is one of the best bits of self promotion you can do......

The great bonus was that after all the shunting and cars and positioning of lights the frontage of the building came into full sun.

A bit of luck is always welcome.

Infra Red shoot with Ivory Flame and Madame Bink

2011-03-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

Readers of this blog will know I LOVE a challenge.

So in the depths of an English Winter I decided to shoot an Infra Red 'Rainforest' type shoot with an 'Eden' vibe

Where to do it?

I hear Cape Verde is a great location but budget prevailed and I had to come up with an alternative.

So I came up with a green house somewhere in England.

I had the small issue that I wanted it to be a full nude shoot with live snakes.

I asked the location if I could do the shoot and for a fee they agreed.

With the proviso that the glasshouse would be open to the public.

'No problem' I said

At no point did they ask if any nudity or snakes, courtesy of Wrigglies, would be involved.

So operating under the banner of 'don't ask don't tell' it was full steam ahead.

I told the just plain brilliant models Madame Bink and Ivory Flame what they were in for and they did not bat an eyelid, I was more nervous than they were!

With strategic positioning of softboxes and California Sunbounce reflectors, public decency was not offended and nobody rumbled us.

But to say it was a hurried shoot is an understatement.

We lit both of these shots with a Chimera Lantern on a Manfrotto AvengerA4050 lightstand which was which gave the whole scene this great overall look, filling in from the front with a Chimera medium softbox at one stop under the lantern.

I love the A4050 lightstand as it is very flexible, not just very substantial lightstand but a boom too, a must have on any location shoot

Both using Elinchrom Quadra's.

When we had the lighting fixed we just went for it both the portraits and the landscape shots

A very simple set up but it hit the spot.

It was all shot on a Phase One DF camera with the quite amazing Achromatic digital camera back. I used the Razor sharp Schneider LS 110MM lens with a Lee 87 infra red filter.

The video was shot on a Canon XF100 DV camera, which despite its small size is super high quality and has one other feature which was invaluable - it can shoot in infra red too.

The Palms from drew gardner on Vimeo.

All in all a great experience, but nerve wracking all the same.

'IT'

2011-03-23T03:04:00.000-07:00

I'm always looking for, no searching for 'IT'

'IT' is rather indefinable, it can be found anywhere come in any shape or size, and be just about anything.

For 'IT' is something new (or old) which gives me and my photography the edge, and helps me to create or reinforce my signature

At the moment 'IT' comes in the form of the unique, exotic and rather pricey Phase One Achromatic+ digital camera back.

The Achromatic back is unique because it shoots in Black and White only

Instead of using a colour sensor, it is the first medium format digital back which uses a black and White sensor.

To quote Phase One

'The Achromatic+ is the first commercially available medium format back that is a true replacement for almost all scientific black and white film types at much higher quality and with far more consistency.
Traditionally, most camera sensors have a Bayer pattern of individual red, green and blue filters for each pixel. These individual colors are then interpolated through numerous methods to create RGB data for each pixel. The Achromatic+ back is designed to be a black and white only product with no color filters on the sensor'

What this means is not only do you get digital black and white quality like never before, but you can shoot in non visible spectrum of light.

Like ultra violet or infra red........

Now this got me excited.

So I decided to try some shots

Not of the traditional black skies and glowing trees (an easy decision to reach in the depths of an English winter) and sweeping landscapes but I thought I would try shooting people.

Some with available light and some with artificial light.

I used a Lee 87 Filter

Which really spiced things up in that I could not see to focus

At all.

Yes, the infra red focusing mark maybe present on some lenses but I found this to be variable in accuracy to say the least.

So tethered shooting it was

Even then it was a pretty 'willow the wisp' to get in focus.

When shooting in the non edible spectrum with things that move, like people and animals, it was a challenge.

But boy what a challenge!

I have not had so much fun taking pictures in a very long time

When digital photography came along so did an immediacy, which meant the 'heart in the mouth' moment of 'has it come out?' was gone forever.

Until now.

You simply never know how things are going to work out when you shoot in infra red.

Fun is back.

But like so many things fun has it's price.

And that price is high, very high.

More than £20,000

Why?

Black and White sensors are made in such small numbers that the price is sky high.

Who knows they may one day have an offering which sells for less? I would not hold my breath though.

Perhaps some of the more switched on rental houses will get them in?

In the meantime there are companies which will convert your DSLR to infra red for much less.

But this is still with colour sensors and infra red only, I hope to be trying a conversion out in the future.

I still think it is worth looking into, though.

It is an 'edge' in a world of 'me too' predictable photographic results.

Very unpredictable and exciting, and a great way to stand out from the rest of the pack.

Something great to go into a meeting with and impress clients

Focus on Imaging- Show report 2

2011-03-18T04:40:00.000-07:00

Like any other stills guys going into moving images I'm sure many of you, as I have, been stopped in their tracks by the big monster we all fear and don't know enough about.

Sound.

To be honest you really are best off working with an experienced sound recorder if you want to get the very best quality on a commercial paying job.

Remember, if the sound is screwed, the whole project can be too.

But what about the rest of the time when you are dealing with it by yourself, for solo or low budget jobs?
Well it is quite a learning curve, I have all sorts of Gizmos like booms, Rode NTG-3 shotgun mic, Sennheiser radio mics and the obligatory Zoom H4N audio recorder, for when I need separate audio.
If you are anything like me you will find yourself struggling to handle stuff mid shoot.
Where to put the Zoom H4N while I'm shooting?

Well when I'm working on a tripod I use the brilliant little magic arm made by Manfrotto, the Mini Hydrostat arm 814 which I attach to the head of my Manfrotto 504HD head and I can monitor sound.

This hydrostatic arm has a ton of uses, like attaching a monitor, but also for more general applications, which I will be blogging about at a later date.

But what about working on the fly, you can mount the Zoom on the hot shoe, but that does leave you open to the inevitable 'handling' noise.
I bumped into the irrepressible Tim Constable from Rycote, who are renowned the world over for their sound recording solutions, such as wind jammers and mic suspension systems.
The portable recorder Audio kit, and their mic works on a patented 'lyre' which really does the job.
Rycote has now made a variant of this system to enable the mounting of the zoom to the hotshoe or via a handle which minimizes handling noise.

Tim bought an early version of it to focus and gave me a quick demo.
I shot and edited a short video on my iPhone. There is a higher res version on Vimeo

I have not yet used it in action, but feel it is very worthwhile of investigation.
If it is something which can make a difference to improve audio quality when you are up against it, I m keen to give it a go.

Focus on Imaging - Report 1

2011-03-14T04:15:00.000-07:00

A couple of ways of doing things

I had heard a little about the new Fuji X100 and it does seem to be a keenly anticipated camera
indeed.

The last manufacturer to try this route, other than Leica with it's fast selling M9, was Epson with it's quirky RD1. It even had interchangable lens's and could take Leica M mount and Voigtlander lenses.A camera which was ahead of it's time in many ways, but in other ways too different to succeed in the mainstream.

So before the show opened, I went along to the Fuji stand to see why the X100 is so keenly anticipated.

The first thing that strikes you are its look and it does look the part, reminiscent aesthetically of a Leica M3.

On handling it also feels solid as, very substantial. The design team on this project clearly have a passion for Camera's and photography. It fits nicely in your hand and even though I'm not familiar with Fuji camera controls I found the layout to be intuitive in the short time I got hands on time with it.

It is packed with new and innovative features too, most notable of all is the hybrid electronic/optical finder which you can select with a button on the front of the camera.

This set up works better than I anticipated, with the electronic viewfinder even having a line which turns green when you are holding it level.

I suppose I ideally would have liked an autofocus point in the optical finder, not just the electronic finder, but perhaps that's me just being too picky.

On random shooting around the stand it seemed to be very responsive with lag not an issue, though I have to reserve judgement on this as you never can tell until you use it in the field.

The camera has a fixed Fujinon 23mm F2.0 lens which is compact and will suit most people needs for general use.

The 12mp sensor may raise eyebrows amongst some.

Can 12mp be enough? Almost certainly if you don't crop.....but Cartier Bresson we are not, so we will end up cropping. Bear in mind too you can't change lenses either which makes the possibility of a crop even more likely, so as with any camera, to get the best from it fill that frame.

I cannot comment on the final image quality but the test prints which the representatives from Fuji showed me at varying ISO ratings were impressive.

So that would have been that had I decided not to wander over to the impressively confident Sony stand where I decided to check out the mirrorless Sony NEX-5 which first appeared last year at Photokina.

The representative from Sony described the NEX range to be a DSLR in a compact body which I was initially sceptical about until he told me that it had a 14.2 megapixel APS C sensor in the body.

Big sensor, small body really got my attention.

Now in the past Sony have been nothing if not innovative witness their latest DSLR offering with a fixed mirror which allows AF while shooting HD video.

The NEX is anything but conventional in form, and if you are as old as I am you will recall previous attempts by other manufacturers to reinvent the form of cameras have not always been successful and when I hear of a new form camera I get nervous and wonder how the shareholders will feel about such a brave experiment.

Sony have taken a smart path though with the NEX range as it is a camera which is based around a lens instead of lens stuck on a camera.

Why is this such a big deal? Shake baby shake.

Or should I say lack of it

Anyone who comes on one of my workshops will know about this all too well.

Hold a camera properly by cradling the lens in your left hand and the road to sharp images is open to you.

With the NEX you cannot help but hold it by one of it's interchangable E mount lens's (there is even an adaptor to let it take the legendary Carl Zeiss lenses.

It ships with an 18-55 F3.5/5.6 and fits so snuggly in ones hand, it feels fantastic.

So we know the design route is unconventional, but the net result of this is a stable and beautifully built package, which ought to make other manufacturers sit up and take notice.

The feature set is no less outstanding.

I enjoyed the flip out LCD, which as with the rest of the camera felt very robust.

Carrying out the same shooting random people doing stuff on the stand test it seemed extremely responsive, with no discernible lag, but once again one would need to shoot for real to find out

I even got to try out the rapid fire 'sweep' stitch mode for shooting panorama's which worked very well in camera.

I did not get to see any images from the NEX but would expect them to be very good.

Conclusions

I said a couple of different ways of doing things and they really could not be more different.

But they are I feel competing for similar ground.

Both are beautifully built.

But any similarities end there

One company is looking at past glories with retro styling and a clever feature set the other is trying a new road with it's avant-garde approach in all areas.

Which is best?

I have used neither so I cannot say, but that is down to the individual user and their shooting style.

If you shoot nothing but street photography at close quarters then the Fuji may be the one for you.

If you want a camera with a versatile camera with depth of capabilities thanks to it's interchangeable lenses, then the Sony could be the one for you.

Accepting the 'horses for courses' argument, and that both cameras are beautifully built, like many things in life price will inevitably come into play.

The Sony NEX-5 costs roughly half the price of the X100.

Focus on Imaging 2011

2011-03-13T08:50:00.001-07:00

It may just be me but in what seems to be the trend of all trade shows right now numbers seemed to be down (to my eyes at least)

3 years ago show goers would have been able to visit strong and significant stands by Apple, Canon, Hasselblad and Microsoft to name but a few.

None of those players were represented in any significant way at all this time.

It is kind of a chicken and egg situation, fewer big players attend, attendance at the shows falls, the big names find it easier to justify not coming.

One could argue that with the high cost of stands at trade shows they have made the right call.

The beneficiaries, in my humble opinion, were the very well attended stands of Sony, Panasonic and Nikon.

At the Phase One stand I saw bigger crowds and more interest than ever, thanks in no small part to the ground breaking IQ digital camera backs. In the middle of these uncertain times Phase seems to be bucking the trend. Since shooting the food book 'Loose birds and game' I have seen further benefits of the platform compared to 14bit DSLR files, with CMYK conversions from the native 16bit Phase One captures being on a totally different plane.
The amount of fiddling with the files was minimal, compared to the sleepless nights the small but significant hardcore of DSLR files gave me.

If you are involved in shooting pictures for books I would heartily recommend you investigate them, even if all you can afford is a used one. It's about the quality of the file, not just megapixels.

I will be splitting detailed reports into two parts.

Lee filters..........my new little habit.

2011-03-11T02:17:00.000-08:00

The Big Stopper blocking out the sun...

After years of not owning a filter system, I started to use Lee filters.

I find the ND and the ND grad filters particular useful.

As a result I can be seen on a regular basis scrabbling round in the bargain basement bins of the camera retail world looking for that bargain.

I now have quite a collection for all occasions.

But the rare and obscure filter, which was bought to my attention on this blog by Sean Bolton, had eluded me for a few months.

The Lee filters 'Big Stopper' which as the name suggests is a big stopper of light. It is a 10 stop ND filter, yes that's right 10 stops.

Because the filter is fixed you don't get the optical issues which can manifest themselves with a Vario ND filter, no matter how much you pay for one.

After leaving my name on a couple of waiting lists for a couple of months Robert White finally came up with the goods, though I had to pay in advance to secure the order.

I hear word that Lee Filters maybe getting on top of the somewhat problematic matter of the supply of their filters sorted out following more staff being employed.

Let's hope so, as supply issues seem to be the only thing standing in the way of this great little company going from strength to strength (in fact I was chatting to the guys from Lee filters at 'Focus on Imaging' and yes production has gone up but demand continues to outstrip supply by some margin....sigh)

I will be using the 'Big Stopper' on a moving image shoot I'm doing combining the Canon 5D MKII, for all the cool, special detail shots, and the brilliant Canon XF305 for the rest.

It is easy to see why this video camera has been such a big hit with Broadcasters and production companies alike, and it is now on the BBC approved camera list and I hear they have bought a large quantity of them.

I will post the results of the final edit shortly.