The Pitfalls of stopping down

In my early photography career if I wanted a greater depth of field or wanted to carry out a very long exposure, I would stop down and see a consequential drop in image quality.

At photographic college I learned why.

Its due to diffraction.

'Diffraction' is the 'bending power' of a medium, such as glass, on light.

But it does not just have to be glass, it can be the Aperture blades.

There is a great in-depth explanation of diffraction at Cambridgeincolour which should tell you all you need to know.

Before you dismiss this as some technobabble that will not effect you, think again.

Shooting with a Canon XF305 video camera last Summer I was caught out VERY badly indeed by stopping down (F16 I think) to way past F8.0, the truly safe 'zone' to avoid diffraction with the camera which utilises a very small sensor.

The results were dramatic, and not in a good way.

If I were to say 'soft focus' footage which was much, much closer to 360p than 1080p, you will have some kind of idea of the world of pain I went through.

I should have known better, resorting to an ND filter instead of stopping down.

I have sine burrowed down deep into the custom functions of the Canon XF305 and have discovered you can limit the aperture to F9.5 (fractionally not far enough, as beyond F8.0 diffraction well and truly kicks in, it would be great if they would change this or allow this to be user set)

Lesson (re)learned the hard, costly way.

Why am I talking about this?

Today I received an email link from Phase One software whizz Niels V. Knudsen better known as the Image Quality Professor

Niels shows some really great samples of diffraction at work and suggests using Neutral Density filters instead of stopping down to really small apertures.

I heartily recommend this blog even if you don't use the excellent Capture One software, as he shares a whole wealth of knowledge on a regular basis in an easy to understand way.

Beware too if you go down the ND filter route, particularly some brands of vario ND filters which rob so much detail that they should really be rebadged as soft focus filters.

After much pain on the rocky vario ND road (with various brands) I switched to the old school, but super sharp, Lee filters (who can only really be criticised for sometime poor availability of their products)

Another tool at your disposal is low ISO which seems really unfashionable amongst camera manufacturers, and I really can't fathom why.

Until recently you could not shoot below 200ISO on some Nikons and even now most Canon and Nikon camera's, only allow very low ISO in 'expanded' setting, as often it delivers inferior colour graduation  compared to 'standard' ISO selection and poorer dynamic range, thanks to its lower colour bit depth

I will be talking more about lower ISO in the very near future, where shooting ay the very low native 35ISO of the Phase One made a world of difference to my latest forest shoot.

Latest in the forest series....prelude post

No posts from me of late.

I have been busy, very busy.

I have shot another in my 'Forest' series, and I'm in post with it right now.

As ever with these shoots it is the logistics which are the killer.

The success or failure of the shoot came down to a calculation of how many journeys we would have to make up and back down the trail with Elinchrom Rangers, light stands and still be in the right ambient light 'window' to give a great picture.

Working for the first time with the Phase One IQ180, a new smoke machine too.

I had shot a total of nine shots in the series but of those nine only seven are good enough, so two shots are in the bin at not inconsiderable expense.

I'm pleased to report this one will make it number eight.

I will be sharing the details of this very ambitious project in the weeks ahead with all that went right, and all that went very wrong too, and how the Phase One IQ180 and the Gitzo tripod tipped the balance in my favour.........

New Backs from Phase One - Wifi enabled.

I'm presenting on the Manfrotto stand at Focus on Imaging 2013, good fun it is too.

What this means is you don't get a very good opportunity to look around at the other stands and see what offerings there are.

At breakfast this morning I bumped into Eric Joakim of Phase One, who told me of some very interesting developments with their backs, in fact they have just unveiled three new IQ backs.
The IQ260, IQ260 Achromatic and the IQ280.

Notably the IQ260 is capable of exposure times up to one hour, which some people missed with the demise of the P45+.

I currently use a Phase One P65+ back, which I'm very pleased with, though I do have an eye on one of the IQ back.

I have always regarded the IQ backs by Phase One as 'Suspicious devices'

Let me explain before someone calls the bomb squad.....

The IQ back is a little bit bigger than the P series back, no big deal you might think, but in this age of ever increasing miniaturisation it is unusual to see any kind of incoming product bigger than the out going product.

Why did they do this?

I had my suspicions that they left space for 'something else' inside?

I think we may well have found out what that 'something else' is.

The new IQ2 backs are Wifi capable, you can connect them directly to an iPad, via the excellent (and free) Capture Pilot.

You get to view previews of the images on your CF card and Art directors can rate the shots as you go ( the tags are transferred onto your CF card as you shoot)

Eric Joakim (who missed his breakfast to record this) gives us a walkthrough.

Phase One goes WiFi from drew gardner on Vimeo.

In the very short demo, the ease and reliability of connection was highly impressive stuff.

Oh, and one more thing.

The IQ backs are now working with beta software implementation of USB3.

World War Two bunkers and defences by Jonathan Andrew

I Love personal photographic projects.

When I saw Jonathan Andrew's series of well executed and beautifully lit photo's of World War Two defences I just had to know more.

If you want to see more from the series check out his site.

But What inspired him?

Why and how did he do it?

He answers all of these questions and more in this interview I did with him which runs just over 15 mins.

We can all learn a lot from him, particularly about just getting out there and shooting when you have the gear.


Very inspiring.

A nice bloke too.

Enjoy.

Hands on and samples from the Phase One 28mm and 240mm LS lenses.

I was fortunate enough to get some hands on and real world experience with the 28mm and 240mm LS lenses, the two latest pieces in the jigsaw puzzle from Phase One.

One that I knew I wanted and had been hoping they would make, the other a lens which I did not know I wanted until I used it.

In my forest series I have often used the quite brilliant 28mm F4.5 lens which is very sharp and remarkably little distortion. Importantly it gives full coverage of Phase One's biggest sensors, which is not the case with Hasselblad's offering, and played a small but significant part in my switch to Phase One a few years back.

 28 mm LS f/4.5 Aspherical

I used it on the Zebra shoot.

I have been in many situations where my widest lens was not quite wide enough and I hankered for a 28mm.

It has very low distortion for a medium format lens of its focal length too.

For all its strengths it did have one glaring shortcoming, in my eyes at least.

It had no leaf shutter, meaning I was stuck at 125th sec with my Elinchrom Rangers and on occasion it could be very frustrating.

A few years back when I suggested they make a version with leaf shutter I have to admit they did look at me somewhat sideways in a sort of 'why on earth would you want one of those? kind of way.

Well now they have done it and it is wonderful.

What photo opportunity did Phase One come up with to demonstrate the benefits of the 28mm with a leaf shutter?

Simple.

Phase One CEO Henrik Hankonsson would put some sort of nasty flammable liquid in his mouth and breath fire, hopefully without setting himself or me on fire.

It might look like quite simple but it was a bit scary.

Its difficult to imagine another CEO of any company at all doing this for a photo and it does give you some sort of idea of the man AND the company.

Here is a 100 percent screen grab.

It was a little bit windy and the consequences of the fire blowing back into HH's face did not bear thinking about, so the location chosen for the shoot was a sheltered area in a former Danish military installation dating back to the Cold War.

It was one of those shoots where we had to get it right, I did not want to hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons...

The area was a bit on the tight side as you can see so the 28mm was just the tool for the job, the leaf shutter meant I could shoot at 500th sec with big flash.

I lit the shot with two Profo 7B's.

Key light from the left with the back light on axis, the key light with a soft box, the back light bare bulb, using the built in kill spill.

I located them both very close to the walls of the bunker to give maximum stability and safety.

I will admit this shot took a couple of attempts.

When we all climbed back into the car unscathed I breathed a BIG sigh of relief.

Time then to get some hands on with the Phase One Schneider LS 240 mm f/4.5 the longest available telephoto lens for the Phase One 645DF camera. 

There has been a telephoto sized gap in the Phase lens line up and this lens was keenly awaited.

240 MM LS F/4.5 IF

Which at first glance, a slightly curious focal length lens, I can't think of another 240mm very easily.

The boffins at Phase were particularly interested to see what I made of it for a couple of reasons.

It was designed as a 240mm as this was found to be the optimum during the design process.

The resulting performance is remarkable.

When shooting on medium format I normally don't gravitate to the telephoto view, I tend to hover around the 120mm and wider, so while interested I did not think I would be THAT interested.

A brief walk around the streets of Copenhagen had me thinking a little differently though.

This is a really super sharp lovely lens with beautiful bokeh.

Here is 100 percent screen grab.

The internal focus mechanism works a treat and though it is not the lightest of lenses, weighing in at 1.6 kg/3.53lb's hand holds very well indeed, making a very stable package with the Phase One DF.

The AF seemed very snappy too, and on the new DF+, which I have not tried yet, one would imagine it would be even better.

One of the major failings of medium format lenses of this focal length is that they do not focus close enough.

This one does.

A close focusing distance of 170cm/5ft takes it well into the realms of a creative portrait lens.

My only slight reservation is the lack of a separate tripod mount for the lens.

I did not have chance to try the lens mounted on a tripod but the engineers at Phase One assured me this was not an issue due to the balance of the camera back /combo.

Lenses of this quality and calibre don't come cheap, and while I'm unsure of the final pricing of them, but I have never bought a Phase One LS lens and regretted it.

I have placed my order for the 28mm LS and look forward to shooting some more forest shots on it soon.

Farewell Terry Spinks - An Olympic Golden Great

When I turned the radio on to listen to 'Today' I heard the sad news that Terry Spinks, who won an Olympic Gold for Flyweight Boxing at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic games has died.

Terry featured in our 'Olympic Golden Greats' exhibition, Sponsored by Manfrotto, at John Lewis in the Stratford Centre.

In fact he made it to the private view, along with his Cousin Rosemary and her husband Terry, who have cared for him for many years.

I cannot claim to have known the family well but they are Lovely kind people, who's kindness and generosity are sadly no longer the norm in society.

In fact their deeds hark to days gone by.

Terry is said to have given most of his money and possessions away - while he was out on a cold night he gave away his fancy coat to a homeless person.

Think of that for a moment if you will.

Rosemary led a long campaign for him to receive an honour from the Queen, an MBE is normally the order of the day, but it took a hard fought campaign before he finally received one in 2002.

Lucinda and I shot him at the atmospheric West Ham Amateur boxing club, which has changed little since Terry trained there for the 1956 Olympic Games.

We wanted to shoot on the Phase One DF with P65+ with a very shallow depth of field, F2.8.

To light him, and the club.

We used 3 Elinchrom Quadra's.

Key light on Terry from camera left, with a Chimera small soft box

Back light on Terry from Camera left, with a Chimera extra small soft box and a grid.

One light in the far distance on camera left to light the background.

We used my BIG Gitzo 5560SGT and its remarkable height  to be half on and half off another boxing ring to get the right angle. This tripod has made the difference on so many occasions because you can put your camera in extreme positions in a very stable way.

Here is Lucinda with Terry and his cousin Rosemary.

It was a special day.

My GoPro v iOS for timelapse on the move

My travels around the Far East on the Phase One IQ tour were a great opportunity to shoot a few time lapse sequences from every stop on my trip.

I cannot say I planned this at all, but I had the idea while I was in Bangkok after shooting a time lapse in Hong Kong on my iPad 3.

Shooting time lapse on an iOS device is surprisingly easy with any one of a number of app's to do the job.

I tried iTimelapse, Timelapse and Motion pics, all which have their own strengths and weakness's.

The great benefit of this being you can render, export and share it straight away from the device.

The other benefit being no one pays much attention to you, particularly if you are using an iPhone for the task in hand.

The downside of this is that there is still no truly suitable and secure way of attaching your iPhone or iPad to a mount, and the few that are we're not available on my travels.

Even if there were, a bigger problem is that you can't use your device for anything else while shooting a time lapse.

Then there is the small matter of jeopardy - while traveling would you really be happy hanging your main means of communication out of the 23rd floor window of a hotel?

With all this in mind I scored myself a GoPro Hero 2.

Relatively cheap, verging on the indestructible, and not totally the end of the world if it gets stolen.

Try to bear in mind that though the GoPro 2 is a step forward over the first version, low light is still not it's strong suit.

Note in this cracking GoPro promo short there is no low light work at all.



Next the mounting solution.

It may come with a couple of single use sticky pads, a sucker cup, a head band or even a flotation device, and a waterproof housing, depending which version you buy.

But it does not come with a tripod mount.

It is listed as a spare part but I found no shop which stocked them on my travels.

I resorted to buying an unbranded clamp which had a tripod mount in the bottom.

This opened the gateway to a myriad of solutions, the cornerstone of which being the Manfrotto Super clamp which I used in conjunction with the Manfrotto 709B mini tripod, from which I use the tiny ball head to bolt to the clamp, and sometimes use the mini column too.

There are many, many things you can achieve with this set up.

My friends the Bui Brothers use something called the 'Nasty Clamp' which is lightweight, effective and takes up little space in your bag.

I then use the SD adaptor from the iPad camera connection kit to check the framing, the optional LCD screen that GoPro sell would be good but I'm holding out for the WiFi adaptor instead so I can see what shot I'm getting via my iPhone.

Then there is the small matter of powering the camera

The standard battery will power the camera for around two and a half hours.

But what happens if you want to shoot for more than that?

Once again GoPro sell clip on battery pack for additional power, once again no one sold these in the Far East and if they had anyway I'm not sure I would have bought one, because I had another solution.

When I last saw Lan Bui of the Bui Brothers he was travelling with a large external battery called an iSound.

Now it looked big and bulky so I took the mickey out of him for having it.

I mean, why on earth would you need one of these?

Fast forward a couple of months and I had to eat my words as I bought one.

This meaty looking device will charge your iPhone, iPad and yes, you can run a GoPro for hours and hours, though not while in its waterproof housing.

Here it is alongside a hotel flower.

The big downside with the GoPro set up was that while on my travels I had to resort to computer surfing to render my files using QuickTime Pro 7, as I could find no way of doing this on the iPad 3, it should be possible but there was always one factor or another which got in the way.

If anyone knows differently please do let me know.

One thing to bear in mind if you are shooting time lapses from indoors are reflections.

There may not seem to be any when you set the camera up but when the lights come on in the building you are in it can ruin your best efforts.

Here is what happened in Jakarta.

All clear at the beginning......

And then the lights came on, while I was away of course.....

I did get away with it (just) by trimming the worst reflection from the end of the clip and by using local adjustments and a vignette in Capture One Pro 6 to minimise the effect.

I run all my time lapses through Capture One Pro 6 to tweak them, and I found the 'Clarity' tool particularly useful to cut through haze on city scopes.

Here is the GoPro set up on the Manfrotto 709B in the Jakarta hotel.

If you have a busy schedule and you want to make sure the camera is OK, you can even recruit a friendly security guard and reward them appropriately.....

Here is my final timelapse from the roof of the spectacular Marina Sands Bay Hotel complex, which offers unrivalled views of Singapore.



Once again I bolted the camera to the safety railing and stood with the camera for more than three hours, unhindered by security personnel, imagine doing this in London? I suspect it would only be moments before they kicked you off.

I waited until my return home before dealing with the files.

I was bitterly disappointed to see the camera set up had been more adversely affected by people leaning on the railing and made the sequence sporadically 'jump' because of the movement of the camera.

This is one of my pet hates and characterises poor time lapse, in my books anyhow.

I was adding the audio track in Final Cut Pro X and thought I would try the stabilisation setting.

To my great surprise it worked a treat and banished the dreaded 'bounce' of the camera.

Many of us have it in our minds to shoot time lapse but getting round to it seems another matter entirely.

The truth is it has never been easier.

The rewards are great when you do though.

Why not try it this weekend?

Phase One IQ Far East tour-Jakarta.

Indonesia, my first time here.

To be honest, I had no real idea what to expect.

Chaotic traffic, way beyond Bangkok in terms of constant near misses from seemingly homicidal cab drivers and errant motorcycles made a pretty strong first impression.

My furrowed brow was met with laughter from our driver 'this' he said 'is nothing.....'

To give you a little flavour of the spicy traffic have a look at this time lapse I did from the hotel with the GoPro Hero 2.



Such a great way to document your travels in a fun way.

I will share my set up with you another time, but if you don't have one I heartily recommend you get one, I cannot easily think of anything else which gives a bigger bang for the buck.

I was surprised to see that Indonesia was the best attended seminar on the tour (so far).

The delegates asked a ton of pertinent questions and I was left with the impression that there was lots commercial shooting in Jakarta.

At the break I met Chris Bunjamin, who after training in Canada had returned home to try to break into his home market.

As you can see he has shot some really lovely work on his Phase One IQ180.

Top notch stuff.

I think his break will come soon enough.

The live shoot consisted of building up a mini set on stage with plants from around the hotel, which was fun.

But as I collected my GoPro camera up from its time lapse position I noticed these pleated white drapes which I thought had potential.

I decided to give it a go.

But where is the light?

When shooting on location concealing the light source is a priority.

So, I tried a new little trick, one that I will use again.

I hid the light in the elevator, jamming the doors open, a bit selfish but there were 3 others for guests to use.

The Golden rule of photography is that there are no rules.....

It's not every day I get to use the top of the range Phase One IQ180 so I'm making the most of it on this trip.

Next stop Kuala Lumpur.

Bangkok.......Lots of colour

In more ways than one.

The crowd at Phase One's Thailand agent Sunshai's studio was diverse.

What was remarkable was the number of hobbyist shooters present, and the level of their work.

The bar is getting higher by the day, with standards rising all the time.

A really fantastic Jewellery shooter and a 'fashion' portrait shooter really stood out, and I will be sharing their work at later date.

Telling tales of adventures in photography through an interpreter to the audience went much smoother than I anticipated.

It was soon time for the 'Live shoot'

This time with a Phase One IQ180, a full fat 80 megapixels.

I was shooting tethered, though with its amazing LCD you don't really need to, think of an iPhone on the back of your camera and you won't be so far out. A quantum leap from the P65+ I normally use.

I thought I would try something a little different and shoot with undiffused lights and 3 different coloured gels, red, green and blue, all heads set at different angles to ensure some freaky shadows.

The pic at the top of the post was the very first frame, in someways a shame that her foot was clipped by a light stand, we did many retakes but predictably none had the power and expression of that first joyful leap, so often the case, right?

Next stop Jakarta.

Location:Bangkok, city of traffic jams.

The Lure of the East

A bagged packed and I'm waiting to board a plane to Hong Kong, first on a whistle stop tour of the Far East for Phase One, where shooters will be getting hands on time with the IQ backs and Phase One DF Camera's.

In addition to Hong Kong I will be travelling to Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.

It will be interesting to see what is going on in the Pro market over there and I will be reporting back on what I find.

Needless to say, blogging may be a little interrupted but I will do my best on this fast and furious schedule.

Medium Format V's DSLR

In the Golden Greats project, all the images were shot on my Phase One P65+ with Schneider lenses.

All that is apart from one.

When we held the private view somebody asked if they were all shot with Phase One?

I said one was not, and asked that person if he could spot it?

I was all too aware which was shot on a DSLR when the prints were being done....and I will come on to that a little later.

But could other photographers there spot it?

Every single one did, and it became quite a talking point, and I found myself, rightly or wrongly, justifying or even defending myself for shooting that one portrait on a DSLR.

Why did Lucinda and I shoot this on the Canon 5d MkII?

Well the idea was to shoot the portrait at F1.2, and this was the very first shot in the series, we wanted to shoot the image on the Phase but time just didn't allow it to happen.

Lucinda was in the Canon camp while I was in the Phase One camp......

We were, and still are, very pleased with the portrait of David Hemery who won gold in the 400 meters hurdles in Mexico 1968, check this YouTube video of his win out and see the margin by which he wins, setting a world record in the process.

I knew there would be a difference between DSLR and Phase One, but I must admit I was taken aback by the gap.

Let me make one thing clear this is not an attack on the 5dmkII.

And I'm not really being totally fair, two different sized files etc

But this is a real world comparison as to how two similar files look when printed BIG

It remains my DSLR of choice(5d MkIII pending, until my credit card gets over the pounding meted out by the purchase of the brilliant Canon C300)

A truly amazing and versatile camera, though don't expect it to hold up compared to a Phase One, particularly if you intend to make a print more than a meter wide.

I know it is not every day that one does this, but when you do what a difference.......

21 megapixels v 60 megapixels, are I believe only part of the story, the rest of the disparity coming from 16 bit capture and those Schneider LS lenses.

I formally used the Hasselblad 'H' System with various different Phase One backs and I made the switch to the Phase One system, a big part of the decision was the lenses, I feel the Schneider LS lenses outperform the Hasselblad lenses on every level, they are smaller and lighter too.

Digital fusion ran a series of tests which make pretty interesting viewing.

How would the Nikon D800 have fared? I would like to do a test at some point but suspect that even with more pixels than the 5D MkII that it would not be close.

Professional Imaging Show - Nieuwegein, The Netherlands

Nieuwegein.

I was there for 3 days and I still can't pronounce it.

That aside I had a great time presenting on the Adobe stage, talking about Location photography, The Olympic Golden Greats and The Descendants.

The Dutch crowd came from far and wide, as ever they were engaging and friendly.

From my perspective at least a vibrant photographic community with a thirst for knowledge.

I would not have been there if it had not been for the talented and prolific shooter Frank Doorhof, whom I shared the stage with, along with Dave Black, who is as talented with people as he is the camera(think of the 'James Stewart' of photographic world and you won't be so very far out)

Here is a short video Frank and his team put together on Day 1



In adition to the shooters the Adobe team were presenting Lightroom 4 to the delegates and was well received.

The super aggressive pricing, half the cost of Lightroom 3 on a permanent basis, will doubtless have an impact on the RAW processing software market and we will have to see how competitors react.

Interest was very strong on the Phase One and Leaf stand too, which following similar interest at Focus on Imaging would seem to back up my suspicions that medium format is very much in vogue right now.

Enough kit talk, what about my fellow speakers?

Frank Doorhof, yours truly and Dave Black...a serious event as you can see

Dave Black is a sports shooter with more than 30 years experience.

Just check out how he does it though, using big and small strobes at spotting events to give him an edge over fellow shooters.

I sat through all his presentations and learned a great deal, he is a pleasure to listen to.

His presentation on light painting really gave me food for thought.

If you would like to know more about how he gets such distinctive and classy shots I strongly suggest you check his blog out.

I know I will.

Frank Doorhof has been shooting for a good few years less but is so prolific it is remarkable.

I reckon he shoots more in a month than I do in a year!

Damn fine work too.

Take a look at this, the very first frame from a live shoot in a packed auditorium.

It is one thing to turn in a shot like this after a long shoot when you are not being scrutinised by hundreds of pairs of eyes, but live on stage it is another matter entirely.

Frank is a lovely guy and he shares his knowledge in a generous and accessible manner on his blog too.

Once again I learned a lot from him, and have dusted my light meter off too but I will talk about how he changed my thinking another time.

As we said our farewells, Frank very kindly gave me a copy of his latest DVD 'Live in Boston'

I will be taking a look at it in the next few weeks and will let you know what I think.

We did it! Olympic Golden Greats opens at John Lewis Stratford City

It took Lucinda and I two years to pull it together but we made it.

Last night we had our private view of the exhibition which is on show at John Lewis in the stadium suite at Westfield Stratford City until 20th March.

With the passing of my Dad it meant that I had not seen the installed show until I walked through the door 15 mins before the party started.

It was only possible as Lucinda took the helm and with the help of my good friend Justin Sutcliffe, the show was hung in record time.

They did a fantastic job.

Never underestimate how long it takes to hang a show......

After Andy from John Lewis introduced us, I gave a short speech thanking all the people and companies who made it happen.

Manfrotto have sponsored the show and without them it simply would not have happened.

At all.

The images were printed on a Canon LFP printer by Velmex, if you are wondering why Canon LFP you could do a lot worse than have a look at the installed prints.

My good friend Brian mentioned on twitter that this show is a great place to see the difference between medium format and DSLR's

I will be posting specifically about this later this week, but if you go to the show before I do you might like to play a little game.....one of the images is shot on a DSLR, can you tell which one? I was surprised to note that EVERYONE got it right!

Not only are there prints on display but we have 4 videos on giant screens where some of the medalists talk bout their experiences and what it means to compete and win gold.

You will be able to see these on my blog next week.

Lucinda and I were also lucky enough to have 3 Olympic Gold medalists there too.

Judy Grinham, who won Gold for backstroke in Melbourne 1956

Terry Spinks, who won Gold for flyweight boxing in Melbourne 1956

Ann Packer who won Gold for the 800m in Tokyo 1964

Ann also came along to the press call where she spoke to kids from the local school about her achievements.

I will be blogging all this week as time allows, I'm in Holland speaking at the Professional imaging show along with Dave Black, Frank Doorhof and many others too.

I could not think of a more fitting way of closing my speech at the private view than by dedicating it to my Dad, he would have been so very proud.

What next after this two year long adventure?

Well, I have already done it, it's just a matter of when it will see the light of day.

This time I did not sell a car to make it happen, but a house.

The stakes are high, but the glittering prize is worth it.

Australian Workshops with Shutterclass

In my 47 years I have never been to Australia.

That is all about to change.

In April I will be doing 2 workshops, one in New South Wales, the other in Victoria.

Think girls, animals, smoke and you will not be far off.

These are not going to Drew 'Light' either but each will be a two day download of my heart body and soul which attendees will be able to take forward into their own sphere of photography, what ever that may be.

Think of it as a tool kit to get the best out of your photography.

On every level.

I will be holding nothing back, as any previous attendee's will tell you (I hope!)

Not only will it be a great chance to unlock potential in your own work but L&P will be along and you will get a chance for some time with the simply stunning IQ Phase One system and state of the art Profoto flash.

I apologise for not announcing this workshop on this blog, I see from my Google Analytics I have followers in Aus.

The bookings site went live a couple of days ago and I'm pleasantly surprised by the number of bookings already.

If you want to get my take on taking your photography to the next level and adding a certain wit and sparkle to your photography that your competitors will not have please do join me.

I do not intend to repeat these workshops in Australia at any point in the near future.

Olympic Golden Greats Exhibition Dates

Anyone who knows me will know how important personal projects are to me.

This one more than others as it is my very first joint one, with my partner Lucinda Marland.

Our society is so obsessed by by youth, and we wanted to celebrate the achievements of the often overlooked senior citizens.

So we set out to photograph every British senior citizen who has an Olympic Gold Medal, that is anyone who will be 60 and over this year.

It has been a wonderful experience and we have leaned so much from these remarkable individuals.

The show has been sponsored by Manfrotto to whom I'm eternally grateful.

Please come along and visit the show.

It is running from the 9th-20th March in the John Lewis store stadium suite overlooking the site of London 2012.

It is a spectacular location.

Here is a panorama of the location shot by Lan Bui on an iPhone....

If you would like to know more about the project I will be talking about it at Focus on imaging on the Manfrotto stand.

You can also meet me at the Phase One stand where I will be talking about the benefits of medium format.

Focus on Imaging 2012

I'm at Focus on Imaging nearly every year.

But this year is my busiest ever, on the Manfrotto stand AND Phase One, where I'm more normally seen.

Perhaps see you there?

Olympic Golden Greats 2 -Dick McTaggart

Dick McTaggart won a Gold medal for Lightweight Boxing at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic games and the Val Barker Trophy as the games most outstanding boxer.

In his career of 634 bouts he was only beaten 24 times.

Truly remarkable.

Lucinda and I set out to shoot environmental portrait in locations that were of significance to the Gold medalist or failing that somewhere impressive.

We really wanted to shoot Dick in Glen Coe, but that was a long, long winter drive from southern Scotland, and Dick was understandably not quite so keen on the idea.

So we started to explore alternatives and came up with the Isle of Arran, which is sometimes dubbed 'Scotland in Miniature' and had the added advantage that it was only a short ferry ride away.

Sure enough it lived up to it's beautiful reputation and we found the perfect location of Glen Rosa, which has featured in a number of fashion shoots.

But the weather played its part and seemingly jeopardised the entire shoot as the whole of the UK was hit by an icy blast and heavy snowfall.

How on earth were we going to get a man in his early 70's to this beautiful but challenging location?

Enter Kate Samson of the National Trust who very kindly offered to assist us.

Without her is would simply not have been possible.

It was around minus 14C....bloody freezing.

We drove by LandRover as far up the glen as we could and then walked for a mile or so.

So it was now a matter of walking with all the gear up the Glen, bring not to fall through frozen streams.

Lucinda was pregnant at the time so I carried most of the gear, which weighed a lot.

I was feeling quite wobbly by the time we made it to our chosen location and I'm not sure how much further I could have gone.

I make no apology for the iPhone footage, as dodgy as it is.



When we found a spot to shoot, time was of the essence and due to the extreme cold we did not hang around very long at all.

Just as long as it took to set up the Elinchrom Quadra, Gitzo tripod, tethered set up for the Phase One and we were away.

Lit with one Elinchrom Quadra from the left, modified with a Chimera medium Softbox, shot with a Phase One DF P65+ 110mm LS Schneider at F2.8

Dick did well but the cold was clearly taking its toll.

We literally shot for a few minutes and we turned tail.

The sense of relief knowing we had pulled it off without any injuries to any of the participants was quite something.

It is part of my 'Golden Greats' exhibition which starts on 5th March in the Stadium Suite of John Lewis at the Westfield centre, Stratford.

Manfrotto are sponsoring the show and I will be speaking about this project and much more besides at 'Focus' on Imaging'

I'm printing the show right now on Canon IPF printers, with their latest and greatest media.

Golden Greats -By Drew Gardner and Lucinda Marland

On the 'Nikon D800 is no competitor to Medium Format' post last week.

I posted a portrait shot on my Phase One DF with a P65+ back.

That was part of a project Lucinda and I have been shooting for the past two years.

Titled 'Golden Greats'

We have photographed every senior British Olympic Gold medalist (Individual) it has taken us all over the world and occasionally pushed us to the limit of physical endurance as you will see....

The idea behind the project was to celebrate the often overlooked if not forgotten sporting heritage of Great Britain, of sometimes towering sporting achievements from a different generation.

The media with its obsession with youth often fails to pose the question of 'How did we get here?'

The first portrait I'm posting is of Allan Wells who won Gold in the 100m at the 1980 Moscow games.

He won in lane 8 by getting a greater proportion of his head over the finishing line than the runner who came second....it was that close.

A friendly and affable bloke, Allan gave us some time to shoot this portrait.

We shot it on the Phase One DF P65+ with a Schneider Kreuznach LS 80mm at  f/2.8 1/200 sec, rated at 50 ISO.

If you want an idea of the detail this delivers check out this screen grab of his truing shoe and the 5p coin I used to position him

Getting medium format sharp wide open is, shall we say a challenge...it can be so hard that you can think the picture out of focus.

But the rewards are worth it .....

Shooting straight into the light just to make the task in hand even more difficult...and the angels sing.

Lit with Elinchrom Ranger 1200, with a Chimera Medium soft box, on a Manfrotto stacker stand.

I will be posting extensively about this projection the run up to the exhibition which starts on 5th March in the Stadium Suite of John Lewis at the Westfield centre, Stratford.

Manfrotto are sponsoring the show and I will be speaking about this project and much more besides at 'Focus' on Imaging'

I'm printing the show right now on Canon IPF printers, with their latest and greatest media.

God knows how I have time to post this...have to dash

Why the Nikon D800 is not a medium format competitor

Judging by the fact that Nikon has closed preorders for the D800 it would seem they have a hit on their hands.

Interesting to note this even though Canon called an end to the megapixel 'arms race' with the Canon 1D-X which has 'only' 18 megapixels and yet replaces the 1D MKIV and the 1DS MKIII.

This is particularly interesting as Canon make their own CMOS sensors and are therefore able to call do more or less what they want in terms of specification, not relying on third party sensor manufacturers.

So there must be something in it, right?

Infact when the eagerly awaited Canon 5D MKIII(if indeed it is going to be called that)is launched I'm prepared to wager that it will have a similar number of pixels to the MkII, no I don't have any insider knowledge, but the 1DX does certainly suggest that.

But the whole Canon v's Nikon thing is not the Point of this post.

It has more to do with some claims made that the D800 will be a competitor to medium format.

I recall in some early reports of the excellent in its day Canon 1DS MKIII that some people were giving up on medium format....well some people may have but it didn't quite work out that way did it?

The D800 may have a lot of pixels but I don't believe it is a true medium format competitor.

Why?

1. Physical sensor size of medium format gives the most wonderful depth of field, if you enjoy a full frame sensor, imagine how your images would look if the sensor was bigger?

Here is a portrait I will be talking about more in the next few weeks, for reasons that will become clear

I shot this on the Phase One DF and P65+ with the Schneider 110mm LS lens at F2.8, full frame, un-cropped.

2. Dynamic range? 12 stops of full fat goodness. Do I NEED it? Not always, but it fits so beautifully in with my analogy of the Phase One being the 'ultimate blank canvas' it has the ability to record what is in your mind better than anything else.

3. 16 Bit colour capture. DSLR's capture in 14 bit, 14 to 16bit not a big gap, right?

Wrong.

14 bit capture has 16,384 possible values for each colour channel.

16 bit capture has 65,536 possible values for each colour channel.

Quite a difference.

4. Aspect Ratio

I find the aspect ratio of 35mm does not suit my creative shoots nor indeed my really big commercial shoots

It is too wide, and I often end up cropping one or another of the ends off the shot.

As Nikon seem to have done in their D800 brochure, rather proving my point.

5. Speed.

By it's very nature medium format is not, nor has it ever been a speed king.

You have to slow down, think.

And consider.

When that happens the quality of my work just goes up.

It's when one adds all of these qualities together that you end up with images that are removed frm anything that a DSLR can produce, no matter how many megapixels it has.

The Nikon D800 is going to be a very good camera, but don't for a moment think it is going to challenge or replace medium format.

Zack Arias - Another Phase One Convert

2012 looks like it could be a very interesting year- in terms of what some of the more notable names on the web are shooting with.

Firstly, David Hobby announced that he had bought a Phase One, and rather eloquently put his case forward as to why he made this choice.

Now, another big name on the web Zack Arias has chosen a Phase One, this time in the shape of the cutting edge IQ140.

Why?

Well, if you read his blog you will see he shares many of the reasons that David Hobby does.

Image Quality, Sync Speed, Slowing Down and 'That Look', amongst others.

Image quality is on a higher plane from anything else, without doubt in my mind and you can reach the heady heights of 1/1600 Sec sync speed with big flash which is unparalleled but I want to take a closer look at the two later points, Slowing Down and 'That Look'

'That Look' is rather difficult to put ones finger on but it is a massive factor for me. I believe that it is a culmination of sheer physical sensor size, dynamic range, 16 bit capture, optics.

There are other factors too, Zack does allude to it but I believe sitters sometimes do behave differently when in front of a medium format camera, even the most non camera aware sitter is often aware that this camera is different.

So, a sense of occasion and the formats sheer difference should be overlooked as in my opinion they are a factor.

Slowing down is such a big deal.

When you slow down you think, when I slow down my attention to detail is greatly enhanced, which makes a massive difference to the final shot.

Great photography happens in the brain.

At the end of this month I have a major exhibition (more details very soon.....), and not one of the prints are  smaller than a meter along the longest edge.

I would not consider anything else other than a Phase One for this.

The photograph of Shala at the top of this blog, taken at the excellent 'Nordlandsdagarna' in Sweden where I was invited to speak at last year, is shot on a (Borrowed) Phase One IQ 180 (and other than downsized is untouched)

The excellent IQ180 is not cheap, by any stretch of the imagination.

But take a look at David Hobby's approach, he bought a Phase One P25+, he wanted the big sensor and 16bit capture to give his photographs 'That Look'

I shot my 'Alice' series entirely on the Phase One P25.

These backs are available secondhand at very modest prices, if you want a foot on the ladder you could do much, much worse.......