Printing your own work

A few months back I attended a photography workshop called Pixels 2 Pigment, and it was led by Martin Bailey who is a brilliant photographer and teacher. The main takeaway from the workshop, for me, was the tuition on colour management and printing. After two days of learning I was confident enough to invest in a printer and start printing my own work.

So far I have made several canvas gallery wraps and I have hung a couple in my living room:

The largest canvas gallery wraps I can do are 16" x 14" due to the maximum media size of my printer

I used the EasyWrappe 29mm stretching system by Breathing Color

These are mounted just above my sofa in the living room

London Fashion Weekend September 2012

I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to shoot the show at the London fashion weekend in Somerset House. Canon ran a short seminar that provided guidance on key facts to aid our photography, for example, the runway lights were set to 3000 kelvin and consistent lighting meant that shooting at 1/640, f/4-f/5.6 and 400-800 ISO provided the correct exposure. 

I took 1335 photos in total; this was unavoidable because we were advised to use burst mode to capture the model's stride and turns at the end of the catwalk (I found myself firing up to eight shots for a single turn!).

 I have only posted a small selection of the ones I like, but I will be creating a blurb book for my hard copy portfolio. I was using a 24-105mm f/4L and a 70-200mm f/4L with two bodies. The shorter lens was better in the first session when I was in the front of the photographer's pit, but in the second session I was in the back, so the longer lens became invaluable.

 I wanted to use some primes, but I was advised before hand not to bother due to the nature of trying to take photos of subjects walking towards you. I am so glad I listened. After this experience I am very thankful for AI-Servo autofocus tracking and the fact that good quality lens keep focus while zooming in and out.

It was a fun day, and I would definitely do it again (I would also wear more comfortable shoes). 

More photos here 

Olympics 2012 at Waltham Cross

Possibly a once in a lifetime event was on my doorstep, and if it wasn't for my wife's excitement I probably would have missed it. Here are the brief highlights:

"I'm on fire!"

"Crap it's gone out; has anyone got a light?"

"... don't all come at once"

Camera bag that fits an iPad.

I have many camera bags, but none of them would fit my iPad. I researched into many mainstream camera bag manufacturers, and I discovered that Lowepro, Crumpler, Kata and Domke did not make a medium size should bag that could contain my 5D MkII and an iPad comfortably. However I stumbled upon the ThinkTank Retrospective 20 that does fit an iPad and a pro size SLR or two. At the time of writing Think Tank were sold out in the UK, and I am pretty sure I got the last one. This bag is by far the best camera bag I have ever owned, and maybe this will be the last bag I buy (I won't hold my breath).

Here is a review for the ThinkTank Retrospective 20; but if this is too big for you, then you can go for the smaller ThinkTank Retrospective 10. The Think Tank Urban Disguise 30, 35 and 40 will also fit an iPad, but I don't think they look or feel as nice.

I love my Canon 135mm F/2

Last weekend I participated in the November London Photo Walk at Portabello Market, and these are some of the shots I made:

Geotagging solution with the iPhone and Lightroom

Have you got a camera that does not support geotagging?
Do you have an iPhone?
Do you use Lightroom?

If  you ansered yes to these questions, then follow the steps below:

Step 1: Download Geotag Photos Pro and get tracking!
This app allows you to records your location while you are taking photos; just remember to synchronise the time on your phone with your camera. Here is a review for this app.

Step 2: Register an account at Geotag Photos
If you create an account a Geotag Photos, then you have the ability to upload GPS data collected by the App to your new account. You can then download the GPS tracklog; this is the key to tagging your photos captured by your GPS unaware camera.

Step 3: Download Jeffery  Friedl's GPS-Support Plugin
This plugin allows you to use the GPS tracklog downloaded from Geotag Photos, and update your photos with GPS data. Just remember to ensure “Shadow GPS Injector” is enabled on export; read the section on shadow data for more information. Check out this post for more information.

Is the Canon 50mm F1.2L worth it?

‘Canon EF 50mm f/1.2’ by Thomas Hawk, available at here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic License

There has been many reviews on the Canon 50mm F1.2L, and many say it is not worth the money when taking into consideration the quality you get from the cheaper 50mm 1.4. My favourite Canon lens review website concludes that the 50mm F1.2L is worth the money, but only if you value the standard L features and exceptional performance between apertures F1.2 and F2.8. I know many pros buy this lens because it is arguably the best that money can buy, but I want to know if it is a value for money purchase for amateurs like myself. I decided to hire the lens for my annual trip to Spain; this way I could test the lens by shooting as if I was using my 50mm F1.4.

These are my thoughts on using this lens:

• The image quality is absolutely amazing; anyone who has used L glass before will understand how good the colour contrast and sharpness can be.
• The lens is big and heavy, and when paired with a 5D MkII it is a solid combination. This characteristic actually makes it a joy to use because it is well balanced and therefore steadying the camera for focusing is easy, but I did notice the additional weight and bulk in my camera bag.
• I immediately noticed the auto focus speed was slower, but quieter than the F1.4 version of this lens. Personally I would sacrifice near silent auto focus for faster performance (as long as the auto focus does not get as loud a the F1.8 version that sound like a wasp stuck under a plastic cup).
• The lens performs well wide open, and is sharp enough between F1.2 to F2.0. However pixel peepers may be disappointed that images do not pop as much straight out of the camera.
• The lens handles chromatic aberration, which is my pet hate, very well. However this distortion still happens in extreme cases.
• The bokeh is simply amazing; for some bokeh addicts this a reason alone to buy the lens.

So is it worth buying this lens?

It depends if there is a need for the performance, described above, when the lens is wide open. If this is the case, then this lens is worth it. However if you have used the F1.4 version, you will realise that this lens is not far behind in image quality. I have decided to stick with my 50mm F1.4 until either canon releases the rumoured mark 2 version or I start missing the benefits of it's bigger brother; the latter is very unlikely but you never know.