Nice to see someone as enthusiastic about IR as me. Maybe time to dust off the converted D70. I did mine myself a long time ago and is very low-tech by comparison to his Fuji. The big difference with converting a more modern camera is that you can get live-view to show you what the IR is doing. My D70 is more trial and error. The Fuji also has a black and white mode which gives you live preview of what it’ll look like in mono (though there is something fascinating about the colour IR)
St Anne’s at Shandon in Colour IR. Took a bit of perspective adjustment in LR (and still not sure it’s right). Shame the fish doesn’t stand out more.
After an nice quiet Christmas Break, it’s nice to be taking photos again. I had a very lovely, short portrait session yesterday in the Hayfield Manor (great location as always and even nicer – or me anyway – that it too is quiet at the moment). And today, with the sun out, I just wandered out of the office with one of my less used cameras and walked the Marina.
I have realised that it’s easy to disappear into the Internet when you are stuck at home: too many gear sites; too many photos of exotic locations; other people’s ‘interesting’ lives.
It’s easy to forget that I actually just like taking photos, and the camera is just a tool that enables that (and one camera or lens might do that better than another).
And most of all, we are blessed to live in Cork. If you care to look, there is something interesting to photograph all over the place!
St Vincent’s Bridge and Bachelor’s Quay, Colour Infrared
Nice sunny morning yesterday and cloud was forecast for later in the day so I went out early with the infrared converted D70. This camera has a opaque filter installed over the sensor instead of the normal AA filter, so it only uses the part of the sensor that’s sensitive to the infrared end of the spectrum.
Green foliage tends to reflect more IR, blue skies block out a lot so they go extra dark. And the D70 sensor colour sites tend to get a bit confused. Most notably, the jpegs do this browny-black / blue / white feel but the RAW images have a distinctly red hue (of the same capture). Normally I’d do a black and white conversion to normalise all that but the colours are often interesting.
Everything looks kinda spooky. Love the really dark skies.
But although the IR-effect can make everything look more interesting, the image still needs to be interesting to make it work. It’s tempting to take some very simple compositions just to enjoy the IR-effect but really you still need to work the composition.
It’s just that certain elements are different. For example. you can’t let the white grass take over, whereas you’d often leave a good bit of green grass in a shot to balance things out.
Also using the ancient D70 is fun. You’ll constantly read about how new models make older cameras into trash but that’s nonsense. The D70 was a great camera in it’s day. Sure it’s lower res, lower DR, has a tiny screen, is slow and less effective autofocus. But it is by no means unusable and actually works really well for scenic images. It has a very satifying ‘clunk’ to the shutter and there’s something nice about having small files to work with for non-critical work.
Just an update on the current state of Lockdown 3.0
I’m here if you need me. A lot of what I normally do isn’t possible under the current restrictions but like many small businesses I’m trying to keep trading as much as I can.
I have some Commercial work still on: Product Photography, Digital Reproduction and Fine Art Printing can all be done safely without contact.
I am still processing print orders from Family, Communion and Confirmation sessions from last year (and the year before, and the year before that!)
So it’s a good time to look out those proofs and think about finally getting prints.
But I’m not in the office full time. I’m here when I need to be – generally mornings after the school drop (or after I make sure my home schooler is out of bed). So if you want to call in it’s best to phone to make sure I’m in the office when the time suits you – 087 683 8511
It’s no problem coming in to do something or meet you.
Otherwise I’ll be in my pink chair, drinking coffee in my garden – which is starting to spring to life again
I have put the three most popular values up on the site but you can also customise your voucher by adding value in €10 units.
Vouchers are effectively a pre-pay for the a session and include products up to the value selected. Or they can choose to take the value of the voucher as a credit against another product like larger Framed prints, Tryptichs, Storyboards or Albums.
You can of course still phone or email me to get more info on vouchers and purchase them direct from me: 087 683 8511 rob@roblambphoto.com
I do so many headshots these days that I set myself the lockdown project of trying a self portrait (again). I even bought a remote release to make it easier.
It’s going to take a bit more work.
Apart from the normal ‘oh god do I look like that’ thing (and a few more grey hairs), just being alone is weird: no one to do what I do for everyone else. But I guess that’s in the nature of a selfie.
In fairness there are a few in there that are worth looking at in more detail. I’m not gone on the studio feel but this is where I was today.
But I think I’m not really sure what mood I was going for today – and TBH not really in the mood. And there was no one there to ‘make the magic happen’ except me.
I didn’t realise this was going to be so difficult.
A lot of lens filters pretty much died out with film: all those weird coloured filters you used with black and white film, fancy 1970s effects filters, even gradient filters (for most people). All can be replicated in post production. Doing it in post just makes it easier – and saves wrecking a good capture with poor filter choice.
But one filter still has a place in my bag: the circular polariser. That’s because some of the effects of the polar filter can’t be replicated in post. It works in three dimensions to affect a 2D capture.
It came in handy this week for what should have been a pretty standard external view of an office building. With low sun on the building, the windows had strong reflections that wiped out the branding on the window.
Polarising the light largely removed those reflections. The reflected light as a particular orientation which can be removed by the filter if you rotate it to the correct plane.
Can’t do that in photoshop!
Now we can also now see the crap in the window of the apartment above – and I’ll have to remove the bird poo in photoshop. But the branding is now clear.
The other main use of the Polarising Filter is to saturate your skies. Now that you can do that in Photoshop but the filter gives you a head start.
I do get questions about filters and this is it: just the Circular Polariser. And buy a good one.
People are still sold UV filters to protect their lenses. Hopefully you spent as much as you could afford on a good lens that has coated elements throughout to optimise the image and reduce internal reflections. So why put a cheap bit of plastic (or even more expensive glass) on front and undo all that? Unless there is a real chance that something nasty is going to get on your front element: salt spray, mud, snow – or you are up a proper mountain – use your lens hood to protect your lens.
If you are a serious landscape photographer then you probably should learn to use gradient filters. But for us mere mortals, we shoot RAW and apply a gradient filter in Lightroom.
Social Distanced Family Photo Shoots can still be fun
It’s great to be out and about in Cork out doing Family Photo Sessions again.
On the wall of this guy’s house are pics of him and his Mom and Dad I took when he was a baby. Next to those are pics I did when his sister was a baby. And this week I went back to take photos of him and his little brother (and sis and Mom and Dad of course).
I would be a big fan of letting kids outdoors anyway – and back gardens are the perfect spaces. Plenty of surfaces and things to do. The kids are comfortable out there: really at home. And it’s not so big a space that they can run off and we end up too spread out.
In the New Normal of Covid-19 precautions and restrictions, it’s the ideal solution to a responsible safe session.
As Clients and Suppliers return work next week, I’m looking forward to getting back to the office and starting to work out what the New Normal is.
I’ve had commercial clients cancel, PR work postponed and there have been no Communions and few Confirmations this year.
I have some print orders to fulfill from work shot before the Lock Down and I can get those out to people now that the Framer is back at work. Socially Distanced, safe collections are possible.
But can I conduct a safe, socially distanced photo shoot?
There’s no reason why Product Photography shouldn’t go ahead. So anyone looking for product for their new (or expanded or renewed) web store can get those done.
In general people look better further away and 2m is probably about right for a good headshot. So anyone looking for a profile image is welcome to get in touch. Assuming that their lock-down haircut is presentable!
And in particular the kind of feature session that shows how your business is adapting to trading in the current environment is a really good idea.
A formal family photo shoot is probably going to go OK but I specialise in the informal, intimate portrait and that’s going to be difficult. Especially with younger kids who tend to almost adopt me by the end of the shoot.
I think the biggest hit for most photographer right now is the loss of the Wedding Business. But if you’re planning something more intimate within the new restrictions, feel free to talk to me about how I can be part of that. We can tailor coverage and delivery appropriately to suit your plans
