M A Andrew Black and White Photography Blog

You have probably looked around the web and seen images with fantastic clarity and colour fidelity and thought why don’t my images have the same vibrancy and colour rendition? Well chances are you need to follow a couple of basic steps. I use the word basic because I am deliberately avoiding recommending spending (too much) money on costly colour calibration tools. Anyone can get their colours in the right general area.

1) Calibrate your monitor with the tools you probably didn’t know you had installed.

Windows: If you own Photoshop 3 or later, you will probably don’t realise that it comes with a little utility called Adobe Gamma. Find this by doing a quick search and follow the on screen prompts. This should get your monitor displaying colours in the right ballpark.

Mac Users: Use the System Preferences–>Display—>Colours—> and Calibrate to fine tune Mac Colours.

2) Invest in a cheap ebay white balance lens cap.
These are available on ebay for about £1 GBP typically from Hong Kong. Some professionals will pour scorn over the quality of these but again they will get you in the right area colour wise. They are dead simple to use. Before shooting a scene, place over your lens, find your cameras white balance settings and choose custom white balance. Shoot the image with the lens cap on. (You might need to leave your lens in Manual focus mode to shoot). Once the white balance is captured successfully, you are good to carry on shooting.

3) Shoot Raw.
If your camera has a raw/jpg option, choose raw. Raw is like a digitial negative and allows you to make far more adjustments than a compressed JPG image. Professional photographers are shooting raw and with the cheap price of memory today (Raw files are larger), coupled with the speed of most modern computers (for editing raw files), you really have no excuse.

4) Make final adjustments in Photoshop/ Lightroom/ Image Editing
Sometimes, the white balance in a scene might need a little adjusting. Sometimes to true a white balance is not as aesthetically pleasing as you might want. Use a photo editor to adjust contrast and saturation. Hopefully, your shots should be free from colour casts!

A lot of people ask me to shoot weddings but up until recently I have been quite reluctant to accept for a number of reasons.

1) I shoot mostly landscapes, still life, abstracts etc
2) I shoot mainly black and white images.
3) All my photographic gear reflects 1) and 2)
4) You are talking about a very special day for the bride and groom which will (hopefully!) not come around again.

Having said all that, I have always fancied dabbling particularly after looking at some so-called Wedding Photographer’s images of friends’ weddings etc. I know i am not alone in thinking “I could have done better!” So with trepidation and excitement in equal measure, I began to accept bookings.
I write this entry as a guide to those people who want to follow in my footstepts!

1) Ensure you have the right gear. If you don’t - don’t accept (or buy some!)

By this, I don’t mean the latest canon/nikon £2500 10FPS monster but there are certain things you need in order to do a good job IMHO. For me, the very basics are two DSLRs, a couple of reasonably fast lenses and two flash units. This isn’t as expensive as it might sound. A Canon 20D/ Nikon D100/ Sigma SD10 can be picked up on ebay for a ridiculously low price at the moment and would do the job. Equally flash units can be picked up in the same way.

Lenses should be fast enough to cope in lower lighting conditions that a wedding throws up. i.e. A kit lens that has a F3.5 -5.6 minumum aperture will probably just not be quick enough to cut it as the light fades/ indoors. Once again, second hand ebay F2.8 or lower lenses are the way to go. I would use a telephoto and a zoom as a minimum. i.e 70 - 200 and 24 - 70

2) Preparation is key.

I know this sounds like the most obvious piece of advice ever but it certainly is true. This is why you need backup cards, cameras, lighting units and lenses. Things will break when you least expect it, so be prepared. Make sure you know and have visited the venue and the location. Speak to the couple and go through the shots and the timings. Think about when you will change lenses before the wedding itself, where you will get the shots (i.e. where you are stood) how much time you have etc. Know your camera inside out. This last statement again is a given. Chances are, people wouldn’t be asking you if you didn’t but just in case, ensure you have shot with that particular model and know how it meters, how it behaves in different situations.

What mode will you shoot and when? You should have a rough idea in your mind as to when you might need to switch. For example, when you move indoors into the church, how much light can you expect. Can you set the camera to M mode here? When might Aperture priority be more appropriate?

Have you charged all your batteries in advance? Do you have spares? What happens if you car breaks down? For every eventuality, you need to have thought of a contingency plan. Hopefully you might not need it but what if you do?

3) Be Assertive

People expect you to take charge. Think about it. You are the photographer. If you want people to behave a certain way, tell them - politely of course. If the B&G want formal shots, organise people how you want them. Talk to them, get them to do what you want before you shoot. If not, chances are you will end up with second rate shots and missed opportunities.

4) Be discreet

Some of the best shots can be taken when people are unaware of the lens. This type of shooting is asked for more and more today and candid shots often more accurately capture the mood of the day. Be careful not to overdo this type of shooting as it can become monotonous and boring. A good telephoto lens is needed here but be sure to ensure shutter speed doesn’t fall too far as camera blur will ruin a good photo.

5) Do the job from start to finish.

Sometimes it is tempting to get caught up in the festivites, particularly if friends or family are involved. By this I mean that if you are a guest at the wedding, make sure you have all the shots in the bag before you indulge in any drinking etc. If the B&G have asked you to take the responsibilty on of shooting their day, do it properly. If you think this may present a problem, don’t agree to accept the wedding.

Good Luck

In recent weeks, I have been asked by a number of different people about the camera and lenses I use. In particular, I keep getting asked about the SD14 - Sigma’s latest DSLR which I have used almost exclusively since Easter of this year. In that time, I have shot images in Ireland, Morocco, Italy and London as well as the odd wedding. In this time, I have had a chance to get to know the camera well. I also must declare a little bit of bias with this mini review as I have arrived at the SD14 via the Sigma SD9 and then SD10. I also have a range of Sigma EX lenses in the Sigma SA mount.

To begin with, the SD14 is a fairly large step forward from the Sigma SD10. That camera, Sigma claimed was a 10.2 megapixel camera. The SD14 gets its title from the 14 Megapixel images it can produce. The figures can be a little misleading as the camera produces these images from its unique Foveon sensor. Unlike other cameras, the Foveon sensor is arranged with Red, Green and Blue photosites one on top of the other. Typical Bayer cameras have a Red, Green and Blue array placed over there sensors. You can read more about this by googling Foveon or Bayer. For me, in terms of image quality, the camera produces exceptionally sharp images. I was more than happy with the SD10’s quality but the SD14 is even more impressive. The images look superb at A1+ sizes. In order to do this camera justice, EX lenses must be used. These are Sigma’s flagship lenses and allow the camera to produce excellent images.

The camera comes with a JPG conversion engine built in - a feature missing on the SD10. To be honest, I am not particularly impressed by this and shoot exclusively in RAW. Converting from RAW is done by the Sigma Photo Pro software. The windows version of this is bug ridden to say the least but thankfully the Mac version (2.2) works very well indeed. Alternatively, Adobe Lightroom in its latest guise supports SD14 raw files.

The SD14 is also improved in terms of lower light performance. If you are looking to shoot at ISO 1600+, then this camera is probably not for you. However at ISO 200-800, the camera produces images with very little noise. The key thing here is to expose your image correctly. I usually use +0.3 EC as a matter of course as the meter in camera seems to underexpose images somewhat.

The camera’s shot to shot speed is not particularly quick by today’s standards. I think the buffer (6 frames) is the limiting factor. Again, there are other cameras out there that perform better in this area.

In terms of image quality, the camera really excels. In my opinion, with decent EX lenses the images produced are as clear and detailed as any camera I have every used. The new sensor has improved dynamic range and the raw images at times are jaw dropping. The camera does require the user to think about what they are doing and it is probably not the quickest on the market but for me the image quality is the most important thing. Some examples have been posted below. You can find more here:-

www.picturesforwalls.com

More examples are here…    www.picturesforwalls.com

In Hong Kong, I am always drawn to the view from up here on Victoria peak. Getting this shot is not as easy as it looks as Hong Kong can be quite smoggy depending on what time of year you visit. I took a taxi ride up there at around 11.30 p.m. Even at this time, the place was still surprisingly busy. Thankfully, visibility was good so I set up and this was the result. The shot is around 6 seconds exposure time. If you look closely in the harbour you can see the trails of boats captured by the delay.

The technique for doing this is quite straigthforward but I thought people might be interested in how to get this type of shot.

1) Use a tripod (or sturdy place)

If you don’t have a tripod, then try and use something to balance your camera on. A wall is usually as good a place as any.

2) Turn off your flash.

It was funny but the majority of people I saw up at the peak that night were shooting with their flashes on as if you could illuminate the whole of Kowloon with flash. Flash is useless in this situation so it is better off turned off.

3) Watch for glare.

Sometimes a street light just out of the shot that you haven’t noticed might introduce unnecessary glare into your shot. A simple way to avoid this is to shoot well away from overhead light sources. A lens hood is a good idea but if you don’t have one, you could use your hand.

4) Use the timer

If you set the camera up and then press the shutter, you will introduce camera shake. This is not what we want. Use the cameras timer and then stand back to avoid nudging the camera.

5) Set your camera to aperture mode (if you can) - This is the tricky bit

Most modern digital cameras come now with a plethora of presets most of which you do not need. It’s a bit like most washing machines. You don’t really need to bother with most programmes on your washing machine, they are simply included as part of the marketing. Aperture mode is usually indicated on the dial with the letter A. This mode will allow you the user to control the amount of size of the hole allowing light into your camera. The smaller the hole, the less light into the camera so the longer the exposure. In aperture mode, the camera will adjust the shutter speed as you control the size of the hole.

Aperture (or the size of the hole) is indicated by an F Stop number. i.e. F2 , F 2.8, F 4 , F 8 and so on. If you set your aperture to 2.8 say. This means the hole is wider. A wider hole means a faster exposure but it also means less depth of field. Depth of field relates to how much of the photograph we want to have in focus. To ensure most of the photograph is in focus, set your aperture to somewhere between F8 and F11.

The camera will now calculate the shutter speed.

6) Watch for wind/ movement.

Any slight movement to the camera will blur detail. Try to make sure the camera is perfectly still throughout the exposure. The following are images shot with this technique