All posts filed under: Photography

On the Bookshelf: Faces by Jane Bown

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Faces: The Creative Process Behind Great Portraits by Jane Bown is back to basics portrait photography. She used black and white film (Kodak Tri X),  a simple manual camera (Olympus OM1), natural light and a whole lot of talent. For 50 years she worked as a photographer for the Observer newspaper. Turning the pages of her book takes you on a journey through modern history. You start with the likes of Margot Fonteyn and Orson Welles, and finish with modern lumineries including the Coen brothers and Spike Lee. The book is well worth checking out. It has left me inspired to put some black and white film in my camera.

Studio Shoot – Tomoko

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Here’s the first image from the latest studio shoot. A big thank you to the model Tomoko Peters, and Kim Clay for makeup. The main light was a gridded beauty dish over my right shoulder. A second light behind the  model was used as a hair/rim light. I shot with both the 645D and the 67II. The above image was taken using the 645D and a 67 100m macro lens. You can see a slightly larger version of the image on Flickr. And here’s another image from the shoot. In this one Kim did a peacock/amphibian eye which looks very cool. Using the macro lens allowed me to get in close for this shot, but I did find that the maximum aperture of f4 on this lens means that focusing is more difficult compared to the f2.4 105mm.  

British Journal of Photography – Pentax 645D Review

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In the latest edition of the British Journal of Photography, Adam Woolfitt gives his first impressions on the Pentax 645D. A few interesting comments include the long length of time it takes to write data to the card (the files are very large) and the ability to check the depth of field quickly and easily.  He also mentions that Hasselblad have had to once again drop the prices of their medium format digital cameras. The other camera manufacturers are going to have to fight a lot harder to maintain their share of the pie. The post is titled Pentax 645D tested: the New Contender. One question the writer doesn’t ask or answer is “A contender for what?” Answers on a postcard please…  

Decisions

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Just made thirty A3 prints from which I will choose about twenty for the portraits section of my December exhibition. I’d already decided to select only images where the subject was looking directly at the camera. The majority, if not all, will be also be  head and shoulder crops. There’s a nice mix of images taken with the Pentax 67 and the Pentax 645D. I wonder if visitors to the exhibition will notice the difference.

Pro Skateboarder Tetsuharu Sai

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Yesterday I did a shoot with professional skateboarder Tetsuharu Sai. Photographer David Washington helped provide the battery power and assistance, while skateboarder Matt Hill got me the introduction. The setup was relatively simple. I used a Profoto 300W compact strobe with a magnum reflector, this was powered by David’s Tronix Explorer XT battery pack and triggered with a PocketWizard. We used a flash meter to first check the ambient light and then measure exposure with the flash.  I expected to struggle as I didn’t have a lens wider than the 645D’s 55mm but this turned out to not be a problem It looked like we might have to postpone the shoot due to bad weather, but the rain didn’t get past a few drops and the cloudy skies added a bit of drama to the background. Thanks again to Tetsuharu, David and Matt for making this shoot possible.

Pentax 645D review on The Luminous Landscape

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Photographer Nick Devlin just posted a review of the Pentax 645D on The Luminous Landscape. Well worth a read. It is interesting that he talks a lot about how good the camera feels, this was one of the first things I noticed, particularly the solid grip you get on the body. It is also the kind of comment you can only give if you’ve used the camera, rather than just regurgitating the specs from the manufacturer’s website.

Macro testing

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I thought I would test just how close I could focus when using the 100mm macro lens from my Pentax 67 camera on the 645D. I first took some photographs of a steel ruler (as shown above) then moved on to the lego man (naval officer?). First 645D body, 67 to 645 adapter, and 100mm macro lens. Then add the 1:1 adapter to the front of the lens (This comes with the 100mm macro lens) And then add extension tubes 1+2+3 It should be noted that these are the full size images and not crops. If you use the macro lens with the 1:1 adapter, and extension tubes you can focus so that an object 19mm in width will fill the frame. Of course you could then crop the image further. This is a crop at 100% from the above shot. This leads me to ask the assorted creepy crawlies on Okinawa… “Are you ready for your close-up?”

Beeping Cameras

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Digtial Discovery #10 Modern cameras beep a lot. The beeps may be useful for some photographers, but I imagine they cause more than a few raised eyebrows if you’re shooting in a temple, shrine, monastery, library or secret laboratory. Help make the world a quieter place. Find the beep menu in your camera’s settings and deselect the various options. Enjoy the crack of the shutter, and leave beeping to The Road Runner.