#258 – Blog Recommendations

They’re nearly all listed in my blogroll, but here’s an overview of some blogs that I subscribe to:

Münchow’s Creative Photo Blog some really interesting posts on here on photography related creativity, a difficult topic to write about as I’ve found out!

alanclogwyn.wordpress.com Quarryscapes – Alan Clogwyn / Richard Alan Jones photoblog of the North Wales Quarries, a subject I find fascinating and one I’ve photographed myself. He’s also very enthusiastic about film, something I’m getting back into.

andybeelfrps.co.uk - monochrome photography of a very high standard. Instructive and inspirational, especially if, like me, you’re into your black and white.

therailwaymuddler.blogspot.com - some interesting posts and photographs on transport, history, industry and other stuff

geotopoi.wordpress.com - Graham Stephens photographs of his wanderings around, North Wales, Scotland and beyond. Some great photographs of some fascinating locations and interesting finds. Plenty of quarries, but lots of other stuff as well.

stevemccurry.wordpress.com - one of my all time favourite photographers, and he doesn’t even take pictures of the things I do. I’ve spent hours just looking at images on here, it’s superb.

martincreese.blogspot.com- well known railway photographer and charter organiser posts some excellent write ups of his charters and other railway photography.

http://artprofilesworld.wordpress.com - the work of some brilliant creative minds showcased here – not just photography, but art of all kinds. Several posts a day, and some of the stuff is mind boggling!

#241 – A (slight) change of direction?

Photography is a fairly solitary pursuit, so a recent photo charter I attended brought me into contact with a load of other photographers. I was intrigued to see the variety of equipment people were using. As well as a few high end pro level DSLR’s such as Nikon D700′s and Canon 5d Mk2′s, the majority were using (for lack of a better expression) entry level and mid range DSLR’s. However, there were a few people using film SLR’s, and two using medium format film camera’s. Now I also had a film camera and used it to take a dozen or so shots to finish off a film, but I wouldn’t want to shoot the entire day on film. Why not? Other than the obvious inability to instantly check my results, the poor and changing light made the ability to change the ISO a godsend. And yet, photographers made do with this for years, although the ability to change backs on some medium format cameras does give the ability to change ISO. And the lack of continuous shooting and limited number of exposures per roll demands more thought as to when to press the button, rather than just clatter away and select the best shot afterwards in post processing.

My Nikon F100 – looks like a D700, handles like a D700, isn’t a D700.

Although digital photography is here and won’t go away, there are not only people who haven’t and won’t move over from film, but also people who’ve used digital and either use both or have jacked in digital completely. Going onto film photography forums and flickr groups is a bit deceiving as you get the impression that there’s loads of people using film, when in reality, there isn’t, it’s just that they all go on the forums. OK, so I can’t prove that last statement, but it’s a phenomena you see in any minority community that thinks they are bigger than they actually are because they don’t see beyond the community.

All this pondering brought me round to thinking about using my own film cameras more. I’ve done a bit of medium format before, I even have a Mamiya 645 somewhere that yields nice results but I can’t get used to the lack of a meter and the upside down view in the waist level viewfinder. And although I run a few films through my Nikon F100 a year, it’s very much in support of my digital camera. So how about giving the digital a rest for a while and using more film? The downsides are the expense and the wait to get the film back. And there’s the argument that if you’re going to scan it anyway, you might as well just use digital. And yet, I always find myself thinking a bit more when using film – you’re paying for each shot you take, so might as well make them count. It’s just that digital is so convenient! But there is a question that’s nagging away in my head – am I using the awesome technology of my DSLR as a crutch to support me, or as an aid to improve my photography? There’s a subtle distinction to be drawn there.

With film, there’s something satisfying about getting a packet full of photographs and negatives that you haven’t seen before and seeing how well they came out that I sometimes miss. I think my challenge for myself this year is to shoot 15 rolls of film, just to see if this is a passing whimsy that I need to get out of my system, or something I need to get into more. While I think I’m competent enough a photographer to be able to take a half decent picture on any camera, it’ll be interesting to see how I get round the limitations of film and older camera technology.

# 194 – The Myth Of Manual Mode

A recent discussion on Talk Photography got me thinking about camera technique, something I don’t tend to give much thought to. Someone had asked why they should use manual mode, and the consensus seemed to be, quite refreshingly, use it when you need to, but don’t use it slavishly. Great advice, although some people still insist that they’re a better photographer because of it. Good for them, personally it’s something I use maybe 10% of the time in my photography.  Sure, in some situations it’s essential – panoramas, studio phtoography and wherever you need absolute control of the settings. For everything else though, I personally use Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Program (no scene modes on my current camera, not that I ever used them on my old camera).

While there is some merit in using manual for people learning photography, it’s a bit like learning to drive a car – you do everything by the book, then once it’s all internalised, you can do a lot without giving it conscious thought.

Where speed is required, manual mode falls down (although street photographers still use it, often with their camera pre-set though), especially on modern cameras where the shutter and aperture settings are not as visible as on old cameras, and either require looking though the viewfinder or on a screen to set up, rather than twisting an aperture lens on the lens or a dial on top. To me, letting the camera take partial or full control of exposure allows me to concentrate on composition, which is something you can’t adjust in post processing, whereas exposure can be tweaked using levels and curves.

Bottom line is this – no-one has ever asked me what mode I used to take a photograph, or complimented me on not allowing the camera to make exposure decisions. No-one cares. They’re bothered about what the photo looks like, not the finer points of technique!

# 193 – Moo Cards: a portfolio in your pocket!

Not being a professional photographer, I’ve had no real need for business cards – the only ones in my wallet are for my real job, and that’s got nowt to do with taking pictures.

However, when I heard about Moo and their double-sided cards that you could put anything on, my attention was grabbed. They’re a doddle to make – you go to their website, select a template, or use a blank one if you like, enter your text or upload a design of your own (they only have a limited number of fonts), then upload your photographs or designs for the reverse side, and then place your order (minimum of 50).

I think I uploaded 13 different images, so I’ve got 3 or 4 of each, but what this allows me to do is carry with me a portfolio of images in my pocket, along with my contact details and websites url’s. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to articulate verbally what you take pictures of, it’s far easier if you have pictures to hand to show people, and then give then a card and ask them to check out your website. Anyway, time to go and practice my 2 minute ‘elevator speech’ for the next time I’m asked by someone what I’m doing with my camera……..

#191 – Published (again) in Amateur Photographer Magazine

May has been a good month, and the third bit of good news was today when I picked up Amateur Photographer (Saturday 4th June Edition) to see my pictures had been printed in Reader Spotlight, and had been chosen for ‘Editors Choice’! I don’t always buy the magazine, but if I’m out and about I’ll pick it up – good job I did as they didn’t tell me in advance this time round.

But that’s a minor quibble – here’s the article:

#190 – Royal Photographic Society Portfolio Part 7 – The panel

Finally some pictures!!!!

I’ve been working on them for that long that I’ve now got some better images, but at some point ou have to freeze the selection, otherwise you’ll never submit. I’m considering pushing on and putting together a panel for the Fellowship, but that’s 20 images, and it sounds like they’re going to change the rules so you cannot use any images from the Associate panel, so it’s going to be a case of starting the process from scratch. But still, having trod the path once already, at least I have an understanding of what the journey entails, although the standard required for the FRPS is very high indeed.

Anyway, this is the panel, I’ve put them in order, but you’ll have to look at the Hanging Plan to get an idea of the layout.

And that concludes this series, hope it’s useful to someone out there!

#189 – Royal Photographic Society Portfolio – part 6 submission

OK, so I’ve got a pile of prints and some blurb to describe what it’s all about, we’re now in the final straight. The guide in this is the RPS distinctions handbook which you can download from the RPS website, it’s superb – well written and very informative. It’s got pretty much everything you need to know about the process.

So on to the remaining actions:

1) Fill the application form in – possibly the easiest part of the entire process. What wasn’t easy was filling the cheques in - £180 in total, gulp. Not cheap, especially when you consider the cost of the Nomad box, courier costs, all the paper and ink I’d used, etc.

2) Book a place on an assessment day. The LRPS assessment days are more frequent than ARPS and FRPS, and also tend to be at the weekend. The ARPS ones tend to be during the week, but I couldn’t attend on the day – getting to and from Bath from Chorley during the week is a slog, especially if you need to be there before 10 – that’s a long day, and I wasn’t in a position to stay over as that would mean eating into my annual leave. In retrospect it was an inspired decision – on the day of the assessment I was laid up at home in bed with a virus, so I couldn’t have attended anyway.

3) Buy a suitable box. Nomad of Market Harborough are the recommended supplier, and I can back up that recommendation. When I called, they were in the middle of a stock check and couldn’t tell if the box I wanted was in stock. When I explained the urgency, they went for a look in the warehouse and rang me back to confirm. Good stuff – I like that kind of service.

4) Produce a hanging plan – this is basically the sequence of the photos so that someone at the RPS can see how to lay them out on the racks for the assessors to see. I also had to individually number each image on the back, just to remove any ambiguity.

EDIT 19/06/2011: 5) Pack the prints carefully! When I got my box back, it had taken a serious kicking, to the point that a dent had pretty much penetrated the box, and the hanging plan. Fortunately, the prints were bubble inside the box (the hanging plan was on top of the bubble wrap) so no damage was sustained. I don’t know whether the damage occured coming or going to the assessment, but if it had happened on the way down, and there had been no bubble wrap, then at least one of the prints would have been damaged. My advice – bubble wrap the package of prints inside the box if you’re using a cack-handed courier to ship your panel.

6) Finally, I arranged for Interlink to come and collect the box, and all I could do then was cross my fingers and wait!!

The result of course was worth waiting for, and given the amount of time, money and effort over the 3 years or so, I was mightily relieved! But of course, this was as much about the journey as the destination, and I feel that the process has made me a better photographer, and that alone was worth the time, money and effort.

#187 – Royal Photographic Society Portfolio – part 4 printing and mounting

As mentioned before, I was considering getting my prints done by a lab, but given the amount of control I needed over the final output, I opted to print them myself, without quite realising the amount of time and money I’d end up throwing at it

Calibrated my screen – wow, what a huge difference!!!!!!

As Margaret Salisbury is sponsored by Fotospeed Papers, she recommended them to us, and jolly good they are to, but they’re not cheap! I ended up using Fotospeed PF Gloss which was recommended to me, and then I was recommended  Baryta paper, which sounded good until I realised just how much it cost!!!!!! Given that I was printing A3, the cost of the paper and the large volumes of ink made this the most expensive bit of the entire process by some distance. Thankfully, the cost of consumables was spread out over an 18 month period, otherwise I’d probably be divorced by now.

I’d previously bought an HP A3 printer with some overtime money, as it was on a great offer and the price of  ink looked almost reasonable compared to Epsons, and I’d also heard they were very good at doing neutral B +W. However, the more I got into it, the more I realised what a nightmare printing monochrome on inkjets is. Basically, you’re going to get some kind of colour cast unless you have a RIP software on your computer, and they’re hugely expensive. The initial cast was red, so I printed a test sheet out and sent it to Fotospeed for them to produce a profile for that paper and my printer (a free of charge service on Fotospeed branded papers BTW). This pretty much eliminated it, but I struggled then with the selective colours, so I had to get another one done just for them. Under certain lights, there is still a slight green cast, but not others, so I just took a leap of faith and hoped that the lights at the RPS were ones that were OK.

For the mounting of the prints I opted to window mount them using plain white card, and back them with board for stiffness. I decided not to tape the backing and the mount together, as I then had the option of re-using the mount if I needed to re-submit.

Learning Points

Colour management = minefield, but if you’re serious about your photography, and print out regularly, then it’s a necessary evil.

Printing monochrome on an inkjet is a right pain in the arse. Using bespoke profiles for your printer and papers are a good thing but not a panacea.

Good quality papers make a world of difference - forget the supermarket rubbish and even the printer manufacturers own, papers from the likes of Permajet, Fotospeed and Hahnemuhle are the way forward.

#185 – Royal Photographic Society Portfolio – part 3 Post processing

As discussed in a previous post, I’d never really got into doing lots of local adjustments to my images, more global ones. The concept wasn’t new to me, as I’d done it in the darkroom at college, but had never followed through and done that much of it digitally.

With my final selection pretty much frozen, I re-visited pretty much every image and took another look at nearly all of them. Some were pretty much the finished article, others required vast amounts of work.

Certain things were easy – burnt out highlights are an absolute no-no, so highlighting areas and using levels to bring back some grey was easy, but the headaches began when I looked at the images that I’d previously done using HDR. Close examination showed halos and jagged edges, reasons I’d stopped using the technique in the first place. So, even though the image looked OK at normal size, it looked awful at magnifications of 50-100% and even when printed large it didn’t look great. So a number of images were an outright start from scratch with the raw file, although a couple of HDR images survived, one untouched, one with some additional local adjustments.

The selective colour question

I’d originally planned on having just the one selective colour image (green door), for reasons of balance, but I then decided that the image at Backbarrow Ironworks was worthy of inclusion. This left me with a headache as I couldn’t figure out how or where to include them in the sequence – it just didn’t work. I was left with the dilemma of either leaving one out or finding another image to do in selective colour. Unfortunately, these were the only two images I’d ever done using this technique. After hours of exhaustive searching, I eventually stumbled across the photo of a foxglove at Dinorwic slate quarry that I thought might have potential. While it was easier to cut out than the fern at Backbarrow (cutting out my own appendix would have been easier and less painful) it was still a right pain in the arse, which should serve as a reminder to anyone who insists on using this technique that the results rarely match the efforts. But still, I had something which when viewed as a panel, looked reasonably cohesive.

One important thing is to get a similar ‘look’ to all the images, by which I mean in terms of contrast, etc. This was a headache as the images had all been taken at different places, at different times, in different light and processed at different times. However, they’re all broadly the same idea – high contrast with heavy blacks and greys, but I took a bit of a leap of faith with a lot of them, and hoped that the assessors showed some discretion. Where I was completely starting again with images it was relatively easy to get a similar look as I was using Nik Silver Efex to do my conversions, and the settings I was using in this were broadly the same.

In the end, the panel looked reasonably cohesive. The biggest worry was whether I would be able to get them looking as I wanted on paper, but that’s for a future post!

#184 – Royal Photographic Society Portfolio – part 2 image selection and sequencing

As I was going to be submitting a panel of my urban exploration images, I had many to choose from, but only a few were actually good enough.

I had a short list of about 30, and these I discussed with Margaret Salisbury. In these discussions, I picked up several things of immense value:

1) You have more control of how your images are seen by the assessors if you submit prints, especially if you’ve printed them yourself. I’d originally planned on submitting the panel digitally (on cost grounds) but I then ran headlong into the wall that is monitor and projector calibration. In other words, what I saw on-screen on my computer was not necessarily what would be seen once it was put through the RPS projector. Additionally, getting your prints done commercially can be a headache as they don’t know how you want them to look.

2) As the panel of prints will be displayed as two rows (normally a seven and an eight) then consideration needs to be given to the sequence of images (which I’ll discuss further  in a future post) and consequently the right images need to be chosen that work together, rather than just the best fifteen.

3) Things to be considered are – having a strong opening image, achieving a balance to the panel, selecting the last image carefully so it acts as a visual ‘stop’, is there a story that can be told in the sequence, remove any images that are similar, etc.

This was a major eye opener to me, so I went away again and had another think! It put some very strong images out of contention, as I just couldn’t find a way to incorporate them into the panel.

I had to freeze my selection at a certain point, which was difficult as a) I was taking pictures on a regular basis, b) I felt I was getting better as a photographer, which meant that the pool of potential images I had to choose from was constantly expanding. But if I didn’t freeze the selection, I’d never ever submit it. So I froze it and set to work.

The actual order of the images is vitally important, to the extent that it could impact your image selection. The displayed panel has to be cohesive, and should ideally be symmetrical in shape so the placement of landscape and portrait format images needs to be considered.

My selection was quite broad in its range – I didn’t want to just include building exteriors, as that is only half the story, and the story telling aspect is the reason I entered the panel into the ‘Applied’ section. So I included a number of images that contributed a bit more to the party, such as the discarded payslip,  the reflection in the mill-pond, the barbed wire topped Huncoat image – all strong visual storytelling elements that weren’t just broken windows and rubble. I’ll post the full set in a future post.