Smoked Cheese

What Type of Photographer?

Occaisionally I pick up a photography magazine looking for some tips on various techniques and styles, last week this led me to the summer 2011 edition of Better Photography.  There was a piece on a local photographer Ben Ali Ong

Photograph from Ben Ali Ongs Songs for Sorrow collection (as featured in Better Photography magazine)

One of the statements he made was 'I've never been interested in wedding or commercial photography, what struck me about Des Crawleys work was that is was aesthetically based and this is what appeals to me'. 

This article really struck a cord with me, it got me thinking about where I want to take my photography, do I want to be a Wedding Photographer? do I want to go into photojournalism? do I want to be one of those annoying photographers with a booth at the mall? 

I came to the conclusion that my main goal is to be an art photographer, I started Smoked Cheese as an exploration of the art form which I love, an art form for which my passion continues to grow. Now I say this knowing that I may one day still put myself out there as a wedding/event photographer, or do portraits as that can provide some great opportunities, however it is not my goal to replace my full time job (at least not the way I am currently thinking).

Ok, I am hearing you ask what is an art photographer, all this really means is a person who takes photos because they want to make beautiful art. Generally to claim the moniker you need to display your work, be it in a gallery, a market, or even the street corner, although this is just my guess there doesn't seem to be a general rule on this.

 

Thursdays three good reasons to.... have a lesson

Another new feature I am throwing into the Smoked Cheese mix is the 'Thursdays three good reasons to...', something to compliment Title Tuesday and the Thursday Tutorial, adding some variety to the rotation.

This weeks all about learning your equipment, through a lesson with a professional.  What is the inspiration for this you may ask, well last weekend I had a lesson with James Dixon to learn how to effectively use my shiny new toys. 

Now to the reasons...

Reason 1 - The manual won't get you as far as hands on experience.

I would never advocate not reading your manual, there are some important details (particularly specific controls and features) to gain from this, however the experience of a professional can add so much.  From my time on the weekend I can definitely attest to this, although my manual explains how to set fixed shutter (where the flash will always provide sufficient light for the camera at a 1/200 shutter speed, good for very dark rooms or consistent speed/lighting conditions) or auto shutter (where the shutter speed will change to reflect the lighting conditions, as well as firing the flash, good for fill-in flash to remove shadows from the subject) there is no explanation of the benefits of each, you are meant to just know. 

This image is a mix of auto shutter speed (so fill-in flash) and bounce flash, the light was aimed at the wall to my left and back the toasting cup. 
 

Reason 2 - A kick up the backside.

Sometimes we buy these shiny new toys, admire them for a while, maybe play with them but never take the time to truly understand their place or how to make the most of them.  Now I am not saying one lesson (or even several) will make you an expert in how to use the equipment, but its a starting point to develop an understanding.  In my case I now have an understanding of where an external flash can be useful and why it was worth getting a unit with a moveable head (this is for bounce flash, such as illuminating your subject with light reflected from the roof).  I still have a long way to go to get the most out of my shiny new toy, but I now know how creativity can add to the use of a flash, its not as simple as 'point the light at my scene'.

 

Reason 3 - Remind you of the basics.

No matter what your skill level sometimes its helpful when someone pulls you back into line to make sure you don't forget the basics, such as the rules of composition.  I don't know about everyone else, but my mind definitely seems like bucket of water, you can't add more without loosing some over the edge, a simple reminder can be what stops the important lessons from going over.

What do you think, leave a comment if you can think of another reason for a professional lesson.

Age doesn’t matter unless you’re cheese

 

Well its now August and my birthday is officially over for another year, I know technically its only one day but its not properly over until the last piece of birthday cake has been eaten (which I enjoyed over the weekend).  Its been a very photographic birthday this year with my parents giving me a set of extension tubes (these basically allow me to get closer to my subject and still focus, I will have a play and put up the results soon), Jaime and Arvie banded together to get me an external flash unit.

My sneaky Jaime did take a number of my photos and put together a wonderful array of business cards to promote my blog, no more looking for a piece of paper when talking about Smoked Cheese.  The Boucher crew gave me 'Typepad for dummies', sure to be full of great ways to supercharge the blog, but you will have to wait and see on that one.  Last of the Smoked Cheese related gifts was from Barry, the inspriation for this posts title, a book with inspiring quotes, see how many work their way into here.

Thankyou everyone for the wonderful gifts, these are definitely some great additions to my kit.

Monitor Calibration

The further I delve into the world of Digital Photography the importance of good post processing is becoming more apparent.  Probably the most important part of post processing is your computer monitor, now I like to think that i have some good knowledge when it comes to computer equipment, it is after all my day job, however all the standard ratings for monitors are useless when it comes to photography set-ups.

There are several types of panels in LCD monitors, most are built using a TN panel, which is the cheapest offering a fast response time and is more than adequate for games and videos, the downside is a poor definition of tones.  For most uses this doesn't matter, however when editing your images it means what you see on the screen is not what comes out of the printer.  Now I am no expert on what makes a good monitor, from what I have read so far IPS panels are the best at offering true colour representation, naturally they are also the most expensive. 

No matter what type of monitor you have it needs to be calibrated, there seems to be many different schools of thought on how best to do this.  I am going to take you through a simple method to calibrate brightness/contrast.

First thing to do is put your contrast up full.

The below image consists of a scale from black to white, and the top row is alternating black and grey

The next step is to adjust your brightness so you can only just differentiate the grey and black squares in the top row.  The bottom row is important to watch as a warning, if you adjust the brightness to far the boxes on the end will merge.  Once you have adjusted your brightness you should see 21 shades on the bottom row.

In the coming weeks, as I learn various techniques, I will add further adjustments you can make to your monitor to get the perfect picture. If anyone knows of a good monitor calibration technique, post a comment.

Food Photography

On Saturday I ventured up to Sydney to attend a workshop run by Billy from A Table for Two.  Billy is a food blogger and aimed this workshop towards bloggers.  He had some very useful tips on getting good shots of food, both in a restaurant and home cooked.

One of the first things he showed us was a trick to get the prefect white balance (well as close as possible to the right balance).  The method is slightly different in all cameras (and not all compact cameras have the feature) but with a Canon you take a shot which is a full frame of white, then in the menu you choose 'Custom WB', select your white photo and the camera will detect the right colour temperature.  Hopefully this tip will help me reduce my blue and yellow photos, although it will still involve me remembering to change the white balance, which seems to be my greatest issue.

As you can see in the above photo the workshop was held at Mumu Grill in Crows Nest, the food there was absolutely amazing, but it was the colours in the dishes that really made the day, after all this was a photography workshop. 

Probably the most useful part of the entire workshop was after lunch when Billy took us through some of his methods for post processing, AKA his photoshop techniques.  I think the golden nugget here was that no matter how well you have your camera set up to get the perfect image, especially when being loaded to the web, there is always some photoshop work to be done.  Quite a few pieces of advice he gave really resonated with me, as a blogger himself he had a lot of tips on preparing your images for a blog, many of which I intend to use on Smoked Cheese in the coming weeks.

Thursday Tutorial - How to pack for a super shoot

And now for something completely different..... no, there is no man with a tape recorder up his nose.   Monty Python jokes aside, this week I am going to share some of the knowledge I have gained so far in the world of photography.

What equipment should you take on a shoot? Well the answer is itself another question, What are you shooting? Once you have been building your gear for a while, most likely you will have a collection sitting on a shelf and take with you what you need for a shoot (I know I am one lens away from doing this myself), so the type of photographs you are intending to take becomes very important.

The way I see it there are two types of shoots, the unplanned where you are just grabbing the camera in case you want some photos and the planned shoot, where you are going with the specific purpose of taking some shots.

For the unplanned shoot I see the following as essential:

A Good Bag - It might do the job to have a little old backpack/satchel that you have your gear in but having a good camera bag, with space for a reasonable amount of equipment makes life so much easier. The three things I looked for in choosing my bag was waterproof (just in case), strong and had plenty of room, both for equipment and extras. I recommend Lowepro bags (www.lowepro.com.au), I have one for my point and shoot as well as my SLR.

Spare Battery - This has to be one of the most essential inclusions, there is nothing more annoying than setting up a wonderful shot only to have 'Change battery pack' on the screen.  Even if I leave my bag in the car, the spare battery will go in my pocket.

Spare Card - Despite the enormous sizes of today's memory cards, they can still fill up fast, a spare memory card will ensure you can take your shots without having to cull your work on the camera (personally I find it hard to know how good a shot is until I get home to the computer and see it on the big screen).

So far the bulk of my work on planned shoots has been nature and landscapes, with some still life shots thrown in for good measure, the equipment below I have found provides some good versatility on the planned shoots:

Lenses - Obviously if you are using a 'Point and shoot', you won't need this, but in my bag I carry my three lenses, at a minimum my standard lens and a Telephoto lens are always with me.

Filters - you can get some amazing effects by adding a filter to your lens, I would recommend keeping your filters with you when you are shooting.  Currently I only have a polarising filter (which makes my shots in full daylight clearer).

Cleaning Equipment - Something a lot of people forget about, there has been many occasions when I have taken a shot only to realise that there is a smudge on the lens, I would be lost without the Lens Pen.  For those who don't know a Lens Pen is one of the styles of lens cleaners, it contains a dry powder you apply to the lens in a circular fashion, I would definitely recommend everyone has one.

Tripod - You never know when you are going to want to take a long exposure, maybe from low light or movement you want to capture.  The only piece of advice I have here is don't leave it in the car, I have done this far too often.

First Aid Kit - Especially if you are going into the bush in the search of the perfect shot, you should have at least a basic first aid kit in your bag.

Notepad and pen - I have found this can be handy for several reason, but mainly so you can note your camera settings for a particularly good shot and/or where you found the subject for future reference.

Manual - Until you have been using the full features of your camera for a while its a good idea to keep your manual with you for easy reference when you just can't get the camera to do what you want.  I refer to mine a lot.

TV Cord - Not essential, but incredibly useful if you have the chance to review your photos on a large screen.  Not all camera have these connectors, but it does seem to be becoming more of a standard inclusion.

When you get home from your shoot, one of the first things to do is de-clutter your bag.  This involves emptying any rubbish/nic nacs you have collected during the day, load your photos to the computer, clear the card and put the battery on charge.  All this will mean next time you need to leave for a quick shoot its all ready to go.

These collections of equipment are what I have found helpful for capturing that sought after shot, I hope this list will be useful to you in setting up your bag.  I would love to hear if there is anything you think I should add to the above lists please leave a comment.

Giveaway - Camera Strap

A warm welcome to our first giveaway store, allana C. My etsy addicted wife discovered Jodie’s work when she was determined to make our camera more "us". On finding allana C one of their fresh original handmade camera straps was a must have!

From Jodie

So to a wee little bit about me.....I love handmade and I have been crafting, making, sewing for as long as I can remember. When I got a SLR camera last year I thought the strap needed brightening up so I made a new strap for my camera and liked it so much I decided to add them to my online shops. They have sold really well and encouraged me to start attending a couple of markets in Canberra. Unfortunately this has meant my photography has suffered but I still really love taking photos whenever I can.

Our new strap is so comfortable to wear, it has personalised the camera and we have got quite a few complimentary comments on it already. I am won over by our distinctive cheery strap and am very impressed with the quality of sewing.

You can visit Jodie's wonderful stores at allanac.etsy.com or madeit.com.au/allanac  

In celebration of all things locally handmade Smoked Cheese is offering you the chance to win the unique camera strap below.   

To enter leave a comment on this post by Wednesday 12^th May

The winner will be drawn at random and announced here soon.

Night Photography

The night skies have always allured me, capturing this on film (well sensor these days, but you know what I mean) has eluded me. I signed up for my local class on Night Photography run by Irene from Canberra School of Photography.  We started early in the evening at the top of Mount Ainslie, with a cold wind coming over the mountain, I wish I had of included a jacket in my camera bag.  The cameras were all set up along the edge of the lookout, for the next hour the air was filled with the beep of timers.

Once we were all thoroughly frozen we moved to the National Museum to look at shapes, its amazing the textures made by the lighting. It felt very otherworldly as I explored I kept expecting to see the tardis.

Final stop for the evening was the shores of Lake Burley Griffin, the full moon offered some fascinating reflections on the water.

It was interesting to step back and see Canberra at night, not just glimpses from behind the drivers seat, to truly appreciate beauty in our own backyard. I now feel more familiar with my camera settings for night lighting, if you are interested in the dark side this is a good course to start with.

Here is the most my most essential night shot, the moon.

Canberra Photographic Society

Recently I became aware of the Canberra Photographic Society who operate in the Canberra region to promote excellence in photography, both as a recreational pursuit and an art form.  They offer prospective members the opportunity to attend several meetings as a visitor, I am considering becoming a member so this week Jaime and I scoped them out.

On the second Tuesday of the month they hold an Activity night, which may involve a practical activity or a lecture/presentation covering an area of photography (next month they are covering how despite the advances in technology the basics of photography stay the same).   This month was a practical activity on home made light box set-ups, 3 members showed their set-ups allowing other members to try them out. 

My favourite of the 3 set-ups was the remote flashes, naturally I liked the most expensive set-up.  They had 3 flashes set-up with a remote trigger attached to the hot-shoe of the camera, the end result was that the three flashes would illuminate the object and cover the shadow form the other flash.  I used a sea shell as my object, wonderful results.

The other set-up that I was quite impressed with was simply made with a box, some black cardboard (like you get from a newsagent) inside, and three lamps shining through holes on the top and sides.  As you can see below this can create some very impressive results, I will definitely be trying to make one.

The final set-up they had was simplest, a polystyrene box with lamps (no surrounds just the lamps next to the box). This was interesting but the results (my poor focusing skills aside) were not as good as the previous set-up.

It was a very interesting evening, friendly people with lots of experience to share, I am convinced that it is worth becoming a member and will be joining in the coming months.

Photoshop & Colour Correction

Over the weekend I was looking at some of my images and noticed how important colour correction can be when it comes to the presentation of a photo.  Take this photo I took of gulls at Lake Burley Griffin, the top photo is nice but the wonderful colour of the rocks on the shore has been lost, with the colour correction I have restored the wonderful red of the rocks, as well as the birds legs which were a bit washed out originally.

This can also provide the facility to overcome some of the limitations of the original situation.  Take my '34' entry for the Photomarathon for instance, the butcher had a purple light over the meat, with Photoshop I was able to reduce the purple tinge and restore a normal colour.

 

Of course the most useful part of Photoshop is the ability to remove parts of an image using the clone tool, done well this can really improve the photograph.  I have done this (as well as colour correcting) on my 'Can't live without' (water) photo from the Photomarathon, unfortunately I didn't notice the dust spots at the time but these were simply removed in Photoshop.

 

Of course everyone has a different eye for taking photographs, no 2 people will take exactly the same photograph when given free reign, I am sure some people reading this prefer the original images or would have adjusted the images differently. 

There are several aspects to a photograph that need to be adjusted as part of colour correction, with a fine balance needed to achieve results.

1. Colour Balance: There are three scales of colour to balance, Red to Cyan, Green to Magenta and Blue to Yellow. Of course this also provides opportunities to add an effect to a photograph, such as pushing up the red scale to create the effect of looking through rose coloured glasses.

2. Brightness/Contrast: This one can be tricky, I find that increasing the contrast adds depth and clarity to an image, however this does make photo appear lighter, one trap I have fallen into a few times is overcompensating on the brightness, leaving the image dark, which can cause a problem on some computers and printers.

3. Saturation/Hue: I am not sure how adjusting the hue can be beneficial at the moment (would be grateful if anyone has pointers), however the saturation is the other sid of the equation to the Contrast to add depth to the image and make the colours really stand out.  The saturation can also be used to dull the image, take my new background I decreased the contrast significantly so it wasn't an attention grabber and your attention is drawn to the main content.

The one thing I am learning from dabbling with colour correction is that a course on the basics of Photoshop would be very useful, unfortunately I have yet to find one in Canberra that is reasonably priced and is not held during the day during the week, after all some of aren't lucky enough to list photography as our full time profession.