DigitalHeMan's Digital Life

Blog Relocation

2010-02-28T16:19:00.004+01:00

Cobra
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

As of February 28th 2009, this blog has relocated to:

http://www.simonleechphotography.com/blog

Please reconfigure your blog readers, rss feeds, and services such as feedblitz to visit the new location instead.

Thanks for visiting!

Backstage at Harley Davidson/Marlies Dekkers photoshoot with Ralph Lemarechal

2010-02-02T22:16:00.004+01:00

Recently I helped out my studio partner, Ralph Lemarechal of Photoshoot.me, with a project to create some high fashion images of some of Marlies Dekkers' latest lingerie, together with an exclusive (and very expensive) Francois Noel black lace wedding dress. Ralph had managed to get permission to do the shoot at the Harley Davidson dealership in Amsterdam, Harley World, and had lined up a custom Harley for his model Maike to sit on.

Ralph's original plan had been to shoot the bike on location outside, but unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side, so we ended up spending the day inside. The team at Harley World were very receptive to our needs though, and let us set up a full mobile studio in the space upstairs.

I was just assisting Ralph so wasn't actively shooting, but did manage to snap a couple of backstage photos from the day. I'm sure Ralph will post some of his finished photos on his blog once he has worked on them.

Since Harley World stores most of their bikes downstairs, and usually uses the upstairs as a cafe or meeting place, the first thing we had to do was get the bike upstairs. Luckily the guys from HW were on hand to help us, and within a few minutes the bike was lifted up with a fork lift and in position.

The bike itself was pretty impressive, as you can see from the image below - I used HDR to bring out some of the details in the bike. Unfortunately the background was not so great, but hopefully it would be possible to improve upon that with careful lighting and careful post processing.

Our stylist for the day, Monica from Styling Amsterdam, was the first to try out the bike for size :)

We brought the Elinchrom heads with us from the studio, and set the light up with the large Octabox on one side, and the Deep Octa on the other. We also had a wind machine to give some movement to the model's hair.

The first shoot of the day was with our model wearing the black wedding dress, and as Monica made sure the dress was fitted correctly, Pieter from Mushota hair and make-up did some final alterations to the hair.

The dress itself had a long lace train, and flowed over the back of the bike, giving an opportunity for some nice shots. We set the lights up crossing over so that the large octa would be lighting up the bike, with the deep octa providing the light for the model's face

Pieter did a great job with the make-up, and was always on hand to make any necessary adjustments.

Once Ralph had finished shooting the dress, Maike changed into the Marlies Dekkers lingerie, and the shoot continued

Ralph had assembled a great team for the day, and the shoot was a lot of fun. Although we weren't able to achieve all we wanted, it was definitely a good project to be involved with. Maybe again in the summer? :)

Gear Review: Comparing the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR to the Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR

2009-12-29T22:09:00.014+01:00

A question that comes up often on various Nikon oriented internet forums is which lens is more suitable, the Nikon 300mm f/2.8G VR, or the Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR? Obviously this is a very loaded question, as it depends what the photographer is intending to use the lens for, but I will use this blog post to try and answer the question from my experience with these lenses, which is predominantly nature based. This is not intended to be a technical review, simply comments based upon my own experiences.

I have owned the 200-400/4VR for 3 or 4 years now, and earlier this year picked up the 300/2.8VR as well. I use both lenses on the D3, and have previously used the 200-400 and the 300 on the D200.

Of course, being a zoom, the 200-400 wins here. On DX, the effective focal range of 300-600mm means the 200-400mm is a very effective lens for using for general nature photography, and I used it with success on a number of field trips over the past couple of years. Perhaps the time I was most thankful for the lens was when I took it with me on a safari in Africa. One of the main 'problems' with safari photography in Africa is the amount of dust that finds its way into the camera. This is further amplified by lens changes, so the ideal solution is to have a single lens that covers all eventualities. I found the 200-400mm to be just this, and it was pretty much the only lens I needed to use when shooting out of the safari jeep:

I also took the lens with me on a trip to photograph puffins in Scotland and Northern England, and again the 200-400 on a DX body came into its own, allowing me to shoot birds all day without switching lenses.

The flexibility that the 300/2.8 offers is slightly different. Although hand held shooting is not too much of a problem with the 200-400, the lens does tend to get heavy after a while. The 300/2.8 is a slightly smaller and more lightweight lens, and the ergonomics mean that walking around with it in the hand or on the shoulder is comfortable, and can be used for an extended period of time, such as in the shot below where I had been tracking the deer through the woods for some time.

<

Especially since turning to full format, I have been using my telephoto lenses more and more often with teleconverters. This is an advantage of the fixed aperture pro telephotos that do allow the use of teleconverters whilst maintaining all functionality.

However it is with teleconverters that the 300/2.8 has advantages. It is a full stop faster than the 200-400, which means that the light loss caused by the tc-14e and 17e still leaves the photographer with a usable combination - either a 420/4 or a 510/4.8. This should really be compared to the 200-400 together with the 1.4, which, at the top end, becomes a 560/5.6.

With the tc-14e:

Both lenses work fine with this tc, but the focus on the 200-400 does seem to suffer slightly in terms of speed, especially in duller light. In good light the image quality on the 200-400 is fine, but in slightly worse light, the 300mm with tc leaves the 200-400 behind. The following shot was taken with the 300mm on a D200 with the tc-14e, in early morning, overcast light:

With the tc-17e:

The 200-400 works, but has occasional AF problems, and can not be trusted in low light. The 300/2.8 works fine, and AF is still spot on. Image quality wise, the 300 beats the 200-400 here.

Handling:

Both lenses offer the build quality and usability of every Nikon pro lens. Most switches (for example focus limiters AF on/off) are in the same place on each lens. One notable difference between the two is that with the 300/2.8 the VR is turned on using a ring, whereas the VR on the 200-400 is activated by a switch alongside the other switches. From experience this is a lot harder to see, and a lot easier to knock on and off without noticing.

Image quality:

Both lenses are capable of excellent quality images, both with and without teleconverters. However I have always had a bit of a love hate relationship with the 200-400. I sometimes get the feeling that it really is a good weather lens - if the light is a bit grey and dreary, the 200-400 will amplify that and I will come away with unsatisfying images. The 300/2.8 on the other hand never fails to impress me. Even in lower light, I can still get spot on focus, and sharp contrasty images, such as the following image taken from a boat.

Conclusion:

To be honest, if I had to sell one of the two lenses, I would keep the 300/2.8, and sell the 200-400. Although the 300 isn't a zoom, what it lacks in flexibility, it makes up for in speed and image quality, and with the teleconverters it is almost as flexible. Especially when paired with the 600/4, it provides the wildlife photographer with an excellent tool set. But remember, both are pro quality lenses, and I am just picking faults. Either lens is capable of top images.

Gear Review: Nikon 50mm f/1.4G lens

2009-12-19T22:44:00.009+01:00

Bad day at the office, aka "I want milk"
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

30 or so months ago I wrote a blog reviewing the Nikon 50mm f/1.8D prime lens. When I wrote the article I was still shooting with a DX crop body, and I summised that the 50mm on a DX body was a great portrait lens, and ideal for use at live gigs.

Now I've moved full format with the D3, the 85mm f/1.4D has become my weapon of choice for gig photography, and I find the 24-70mm invariable for using in the studio due to the flexibility of the zoom.

Still, I maintain that the 50mm is an ideal focal length for the above type of photography on a crop body. For a while there was a bit of a gap in the Nikon lens lineup though, as some of the newer crop bodies (like the D60 and most of the newer entry level SLRs) are unable to autofocus with the lenses that don't contain a focus motor, and require an AF-S lens for full functionality.

However, at Photokina in 2008 NIkon updated their prime lens range to also include the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens. Not only did this update the optical formula of the old 50mm f/1.4D lens, it also added an internal motor, making this an AF-S lens, and putting it within the reach of people starting out with the entry level SLR.

The main criticism that internet pundits had of the new 50/1.4 was the price - at around €350 at introduction (can be picked up for €300 now), it was almost three times the price of the 1.8 variety, and for only a slight improvement in light sensitivity, was thought to be a bit expensive.

It was this reason that also stopped me from picking up the 50/1.4 initially - after all, the 50/1,8 had never given me any problems, and with all the other lenses in my arsenal, I wasn't missing out on anything by not having it.

So, fast forward 12 months, with the imminent arrival of our baby, Tabatha (born October 18th 2009!), I'm thinking out my camera strategy :) The 24-70mm is a great general purpose lens on the D3, but it's big, wieldy, and pretty scary to a new born. Add to that the business travel I do, it's a lot easier to take a body and a couple of small primes (think 24mm, 50mm, and maybe either a 16mm fish or an 85mm) than a big zoom lens.

So I decide the 50mm will become my solution for quick, around the house, shooting, and to begin with, the 50/1.8 was working fine, and gave me fine results such as the following:

But then, the NAS demons began playing in my head, and, on the way back from visiting hours at the hospital, I passed the camera store, and the rest, as they say, is history.......

Som how does the 50/1.4 compare to the 50/1.8? Well, to be honest, they are both very fine lenses. Both are small, light, and can be tucked away into a corner in a camera bag very easily. There are a couple of advantages of the 50/1.4 that I have noted:

- Firstly, the lens is provided with a lens hood. Although this is only a fairly lightweight plastic, it does provide protection should the lens get knocked or dropped. (of course a lens hood is also available for the 50/1.8, but this is extra cost)
- Next, it has an AF-S motor. With such a small lens, this doesn't help so much with focusing speed, but I have noticed a definite improvement over the amount of time it spends searching for the focus point in low light, compared to the 50/1.8. And of course this makes the lens compatible with some of the newer Nikon cameras
- Finally the lens has the advantage of going down to f/1.4, giving you that extra bit of flexibility when shooting in low light, as well as a nice bright viewfinder. To be honest I have probably spent most of the time shooting with this lens wide open, despite a fair number of people suggesting it is soft until it is stopped down a couple of shots (in fact all shots taken by the 50/1.4 in this blog entry were taken wide open at f/1.4, and I find results more than sharp enough)

The 50/1.4 has a plastic lens body, the same as the 50/1.8, although I must say in defense of the 1.8, it does feel slightly more sturdy. It's a 58mm filter size compared to the 52mm on the 1.8, although I have not bothered mounting a filter on this lens, due to the protection the lens hood gives.

This lens has been mounted on my camera pretty exclusively on the occasions when the D3 is sitting at home and I am not using it on a job. I've found it an ideal lens for (baby) snapshots, and it makes the D3 a lot less imposing than one of my larger pro lenses.

So, do I recommend this lens? That's a difficult one, as the 50/1.8 is such great value for money, so it really boils down to whether or not you need the extra lens speed, and the built in focusing motor. If you have the money, go for it! But if you already have the 50/1.8, you might want to think carefully about upgrading.....

Painting the Studio

2009-09-27T20:41:00.001+01:00

Video showing the repainting of our studio in Amsterdam.

OK, so there is one thing that is more boring than watching paint dry - watching someone doing the painting in the first place. But I have a new video camera, so wanted to try a video blog out.

Promise to do some more interesting sessions in the future

Help me find the perfect camera messenger bag!

2009-09-27T09:46:00.004+01:00

Like other photographers, I have plenty of camera bags, including the following great bags:

- LowePro Super Trekker AWII
- LowePro Photo Trekker AWII
- LowePro Slingshot 200 AW
- Lowepro Stealth Reporter D550 AW
- ThinkTank Airport International
- Billingham 206

However what I really miss, especially when travelling to and from my studio in Amsterdam, is a shoulder or messenger type bag that is big enough to take the following:

- Nikon D3
- Nikon 24-70 f/2.8
- Nikon 85mm f/1.4 (optional)
- Sony HDR-TG7 handycam (optional)
- Spare batteries, memory cards etc

Ideally it shouldn't look like a camera bag, and it should be soft, durable, padded and comfortable to carry. At the moment I am using a bag around 30x20cm (12x8") and probably 8cm deep. I typically carry the camera without the lens attached.

So far my studies have found the Tenba Messenger (maybe a bit too big), or the Domke F-803 Waxwear (probably a bit too small)

So if you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Trip Report: Feldberger Seenlandschaft, East Germany

2009-08-10T20:38:00.003+01:00

This blog is long overdue, but back in May I made a trip to Feldberger Seenlandschaft in East Germany with Patrick and Tom. We had found out about a Ranger living in former East Germany near the Polish border who has built a network of hides in various fields around Feldberger, and offers these out to photographers in the hope that they might go away with some satisfying images.

The plan was fairly simple, we would make the 8+ hour drive on the Wednesday, spend Thursday to Sunday in hides, and then drive back again on the Monday. Fred Bollmann would look after us during our stay, and be at our call to take us to and from various hides. We would stay at the Mecklenburger Hof, a small and basic hotel with friendly service and good prices, and they would feed us three meals a day, including packed lunch and breakfast.

On the evening of arrival Fred was very keen to explain all the possibilities he could offer. He told us that various hides would not be worth visiting at that time of the year, but in addition to the hides he could also offer us the possibility to go out on his boat and attempt to photograph a local Sea Eagle.

Of course, as with all nature photography, it is always the luck of the draw as to what you will see when you sit in a hide for any length of time, and I can attest to that, after spending 12 hours in a hide on two occassions, from 7 in the morning to 7 in the evening, without seeing a single bird!

The hides themselves are well constructed, and have all the facilities you need in a modern hide (basically a window, a chair, and a bucket to relieve yourself in). Some of the hides are large enough for three people (which is an advantage when you have to sit there for 12 hours) whereas others are made for two people or even just one.

So in fact, out of three hide sessions we only had luck on one occassion, in a small hide where we witnessed a pair of buzzards eating a dead deer (Fred is well known in the community and receives all the local roadkill for his freezer). The buzzards landed fairly close to eat from the strategically placed deer, and in spite of our presence wearily pecked away at the corpse. The photos here were taken with the 600mm f/4G VR Nikkor on the Nikon D3

The highlight of the trip though was witnessing the Sea Eagle swooping in and picking up various fish from the lake near our boat. In the interests of full disclosure, the fish that were caught were thrown into the water by Fred, so we knew approximately where the eagle would be coming to, but nevertheless it was an impressive spectacle to see. The birds really do have 'eagle eyes', as he was able to see the fish landing in the water from a good 500 meters away, and slowly swooped and circled before catching his prey.

I took the above shots using the D3, with the 300mm f/2.8G VR lens attached. I used aperture priority to fix the aperture to f/5.6, and used the auto-iso feature to ensure the shutter speed stayed above 1/500s so to freeze the motion. Of course the lens was in the continuous AF mode. The high shutter rate of the D3 paid for itself here, capturing all of the above images in less than a second.

So although we didn't see all the birds that we had intended, it was still a successful trip - it's not every day you get to see a sea eagle capturing fish from the water. However in hindsight we were there at the wrong time of the year - in the spring there is plenty of prey for birds of prey to capture, and Fred's hides are much more densely visited when food is in short supply, for example in the winter months when there is snow on the ground.

Definitely a location I would recommend to other photographers looking for birds of prey images!

Off to Germany

2009-05-06T06:13:00.005+01:00

Buzzard in a tree
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

Today I am leaving for East Germany, near the Polish border. The plan is to return home with pictures of sea eagles, and other birds of prey.

I'll update the blog once I return!

Trip Report: Texel, April 2009

2009-05-01T17:29:00.016+01:00

Last weekend I joined a group of photographers for a bird photography workshop on the Dutch island of Texel, hosted by Jeroen Stel. The trip was scheduled for three days, starting on the Friday morning, and we were blessed with good weather for the whole weekend. It was a good opportunity to do nothing but take photos for three days!

At this time of year there are plenty of birds to see on Texel, since a number of bird sorts congregate there to breed. So there was a lot of activity to see, albeit it often a little bit too far away to photograph easily. Although I took a pretty large arsenal of lenses along with me, I used the 600mm on the D3 most of the time, occasionally attaching the tc-14e teleconverter when I needed a little extra reach.

I have been to Texel a couple of times in the past, and have always ended up shooting at the Wagejot. I had hoped to find some alternative locations this trip, and although we shot in a lot of different places, it seems like Wagejot is still my prefered location; in fact all of the shots in this post, apart from the last one, were taken there.

Wagejot is a good location to find Avocet (kluut), Little Ringed Plover (kleine plevier), Curlew (wulp), Black and Bar Tailed Godwit (grutto/rose grutto) and Common Tern (visdiefje). We were most successful early in the morning as the light was appearing, as this is one of the most active periods of the day for the above birds.

Whilst shooting early in the morning the D3 again paid his way by delivering outstanding performance at high isos, necessary in order to maintain the high shutter speeds needed to freeze the bird activity.

You can view a selection of around 30 shots from this trip on my website by clicking here - it may take a couple of minutes for all images to load.....

Deer at the Amsterdamse Waterleiding Duinen

2009-03-22T22:03:00.007+01:00

Fallow Deer Buck
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

On Saturday I decided to 'discover' a new area and try and take some photos.

Amsterdamse Waterleiding Duinen (AWD) is one of the Netherland's largest dune areas, at around 3500 hectares (including 530 hectares of forest). The national park is located in between Zandvoort, Bloemendaal, and Noordwijk, and is mostly used as a water catchment area for the Amsterdam region. The area hosts a large variety of landscape, from fairly open to dense forest, and rich flora and fauna.

Although I have been to AWD once or twice in the past, I have always been with other people, and never come away with any pleasing results. This time I decided to go on my own, and see what I could find. It was also an opportunity for me to try out my new 300mm f/2.8G VR lens, so I decided to see if I could find some deer, since this would be a good target for a 300mm lens.

I arrived at AWD around 0930, which was already a bit too late for the good light, but after a hectic week I didn't feel like getting up too early. On arrival at the park I was disappointed to discover multiple groups of senior runners had descended on the park (I assume as part of some organised event, since they seemed to be split into groups of 20, all following their leader's instructions), so it was a bit hectic and not particularly 'quiet' inside. I felt this wasn't going to help my chances of finding deer, but nevertheless decided to persevere.

Roe Deer Doe
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

I had entered the park at the Oase entrance, and knew from my previous visits that there was a lot of dense woodland to the left of the main path. I started walking, and after about 25 minutes saw my first doe, just off the path. I carefully moved into the woodland area, taking care not to disturb any of the animals, and patiently waited behind a tree. Luckily I remained unnoticed by the deer, and was able to get a number of shots of the does, including the one in this post.

I stood and watched a small group of female deer from my position behind the tree for around 30 minutes until they were scared by a group of runners. They also managed to scare the remainder of the herd (around 50-70 animals, including some bucks) who had been grazing further into the forest, who ran past me, pausing every now and then, and I was able to get the buck shot at the start of this post.

For the remainder of the morning I wandered around the park, but didn't shoot too much, since the light by now was fairly harsh (and the runners were patrolling the park in packs) but I fully intend to go back and explore some more soon.

I was happy with my first experiences with the 300mm - it's a nice size to work with, and a lot more portable than dragging the 600mm around. The first shot in this post was taken together with the tc-14e teleconverter (Nikon D3, 420mm, f/4, 1/500s, iso400) and the second shot was bare (Nikon D3, 300mm, f/4, 1/500s, iso800). Both shots were taken using a monopod for support. I'll provide a full review of the 300VR once I have had some more experience using it.....

Gear review: Nikon 600mm f/4G VR lens

2009-01-25T22:23:00.007+01:00

Kingfisher
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

I've been the proud owner of the new Nikon 600mm f/4G VR telephoto lens now for over six months, so I thought it was about time I wrote about it on my blog. I've already posted a number of images taken with the lens, so if you look further down in my blog you will find some additional shots I have made.

First the reasoning behind my acquisition of the lens. I have owned the 200-400mm f/4G VR lens for a couple of years, and have always had a love-hate relationship with it. The reach was very nice on the DX format (equivalent to 600mm on full frame) but when I switched to the D3, I found myself missing the reach of 600mm. Of course I could use the 200-400 with the tc-14e to give 560mm, but the loss of a stop meant that I often didn't have enough light (especially in the Netherlands), and I wasn't impressed with the results.

I had also set myself the target of photographing a kingfisher in 2008, and shortening my effective range by going full frame wasn't helping me achieve that goal. So in February I decided to place an order for the 600mm, shortly after it was released. I placed my order with Nivo Schweitzer in Amsterdam. They're a really friendly, knowledgeable shop, and I wish I could make more of my purchases there, but alas their prices are normally too high when compared to the ever competitive internet retailers, so I don't. But this time they were prepared to give me a good price on the lens, so I gave them my custom.

It wasn't until June that Nikon was able to deliver the lens to Nivo Schweitzer, due to the worldwide lens shortage that was caused by the Olympics, but when I finally received it I was amongst the first people in the Netherlands to get hold of it (if not the first, excluding the press). The first thing that struck me about the lens was the size. I was used to Nikon Super Teles, with my 200-400mm experiences, but the new 600 was in a class of it's own. As you can see by the attached photo, the dual lens hoods make this into a monster. (photo credit Patrick de Paepe)

Even with the lens hoods turned around in their storage position, the 600 is a big item to transport, and Nikon deliver it in a hard case. I have already discussed my choices for a new camera bag in a previous blog post. In terms of handling, though, the 600 also brings its own challenges. It's not really hand holdable. Anyone that tells you it is, is either a) Iron man, or b) lying ;) Of course it is possible to take the occasional shot from the hand, as the lens does have VR, and I can hold it for a couple of minutes before it gets tiring, but for real stability, the lens needs to be resting on something. For the 200-400 I was satisfied with a Gitzo Series 3 with Markins M20 ballhead and a Wimberley Sidekick, but for the 600 I wasn't sure that this would be stable enough, so went for the Gitzo 5540LS, together with a Manfrotto 519 fluid video head. This gives me more than enough stability, and is flexible enough for panning when needed.

It is worth noting that the standard lens foot that Nikon provides with the 600 is very 'tall', and in my opinion not really stable enough for a lens of such a size. Although I have not done any scientific testing, to me it looks like it would be a lot more prone to flex than some lower alternatives, so one of the first things I did was replace the Nikon foot with a Kirk LP-46, available from Nikonians PhotoProShop - not only is this a lot lower profile, but it also includes an integrated arca swiss plate, so it can be mounted on a full size Wimberley for example without any additional lens plate. I would recommend anyone considering the 600 to switch to this lens foot as soon as possible.

However I have found that often I am in situations where using a tripod is not practical, and then it is possible to get enough support by resting the lens on a bean bag - the shots of the kingfisher (shot from a hide) and the buzzard (shot from a car) in this blog are testament to this. (Note: often when shooting with the bean bag I tend to leave the second of the two lens hoods unmounted, simply to make the lens a little more easy to handle)

Buzzard
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

Since this is a big, heavy, and not to mention expensive, lens, I decided that I would protect the lens from day one, and bought the LensCoat neoprene lens covering, to avoid any scratches to the lens and to help maintain the resale value (not that I ever intend to part with this lens). The LensCoat covers also provide me with basic camouflaging, should I wish to remain incognito when tracking a subject.

Although I was expecting a bit of a learning curve with this lens, I was pleasantly surprised that I was quickly able to adapt my long lens technique to use the lens, and was able to get good shots from day one. I am still continually impressed with the quality, sharpness, and contrast of the images that I am able to shoot with this lens. It's one of the sharpest I own, and is up there with the 200mm f/2G VR, which is a lens known for superior sharpness. Providing the shutter speed is kept to a reasonably high value, it is possible to get great shots, even when used in combination with the tc-14e teleconverter (I have even had good shots with the tc-17e). The following shot is such an example, taken with the D3, 600mm F/4VR with TC-14e, 1/800s, f/5.6, 400iso.

Deer Stag
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

Based upon my usage of the tc-14e with the 200-400, where I had not been so impressed, I was very surprised with only a minor (hardly noticeable) loss of quality when the teleconverter was used together with the 600mm, and I find myself using this combination more and more often.

Those of you who are existing users of Nikon VR telephotos will be familiar with many of the functions on the lens - it has a focus limiter, which restricts the focusing range between 10m - infinity, instead of the normal minimum focus distance which is around 5m. It provides buttons that can be used to program a focus lock, can be used in M, A/M, and M/A focus override modes, and supports touch focusing for any last minute changes and to override the AF. It uses the familiar ring VR ON/OFF control, which seems to be the Nikon standard for fixed focal length VR lenses, as opposed to the slide switch on the 200-400.

In fact the only major change in controls over the earlier VR lenses is the VR mode switch - there is now a choice between 'Normal' and 'Tripod' mode - previously this was either 'Normal' or 'Active'. I guess Nikon engineers that a lens the size of the 600 is less likely to be used in situations that the Active mode was designed for, and instead decided to optimize the lens to work well when mounted on a tripod. In any case, this mode seems to work very well.

Buzzard
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

So in summary, I am very, very pleased with the 600mm lens. Whilst it is an expensive acquisition and I accept it is not for everybody, if you can afford to buy it and are into wildlife shooting, this is the ideal lens to use for bird and animal photography. One thing to note, even at 600mm smaller birds will not fill the frame unless you are fairly close, but this can be helped by using a teleconverter. The sharpness, colors, and contrast of this lens make it a pleasure to work with, with the traditionally excellent Nikon build quality, I hope this is a lens that I will be able to continue to enjoy for many years to come.

First steps into HDR

2009-01-10T21:03:00.012+01:00

Clipper Nelly
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

According to wikipedia, HDR is "a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDR is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows."

Digital has made the creation of HDR images a lot easier, since many cameras now include an auto bracketing mode, which allows the photographer to make many images of the scene using different exposures. It is not uncommon for an HDR photographer to blend together 3 or even 5 images to create an image that is able to give good representation of both the light and dark areas of the image.

I've always been a bit of an opponent to HDR photography, for no other reason that I believe(d) that it should be possible to get an aesthetically pleasing shot without the need for excessive post processing in digital imaging software afterwards. Additionally, many of the early users of HDR techniques maybe didn't understand what they were doing, so ended up creating unrealistic, over the top representations of a scene, giving the whole HDR scene a bad name (at least in my opinion).

However, a friend of mine, Philip, who goes by the name of milliped on Flickr, has been a long time user of HDR, and the results he comes out with aren't that bad (in fact, they're mostly very impressive!). Recently we were out together on a recent photo trip around Rotterdam harbour. It was a pretty grey day, and 'normal' photos were coming out a bit dull, so I decided to give HDR a go.....

As mentioned above, modern cameras make HDR photography (or at least the image capture part) very easy, and all I really needed to do was set my Nikon D3 to 5 shot bracketing, and expose 5 shots, each at a different exposure either side of the original exposure reading. With earlier versions of HDR software it has always been necessary to use a tripod to ensure that the images actually line up once they are combined in the digital darkroom, but whilst discussing the latest version of Photomatix Pro with Philip in the car on the way to Rotterdam, he informed me that it was now able to automatically able to realign slight deviations in image alignment, so, combined with the high frames per second speeds of the D3, I figured I could get away without using a tripod.

I chose to use Aperture Priority Mode on the camera (which I typically do for most daytime photography) and exposed at -2, -1, 0, 1, and 2EV deviation on the base exposure reading. This left me with 5 shots of each scene, and when I reached home, all I would need to do would be to combine the images in Photomatix, and I would be able to create my HDR image.

I have been a long time follower of Trey Ratcliffe's Stuck in Customs blog, and I knew he had an excellent tutorial on how to get started, so I downloaded a copy of Photomatix, paid my license fee, and read the tutorial. (Incidentally you can get a discount on the purchase of Photomatix if you visit Trey's website and use the discount code he has there)

It turns out creating the HDR image is a lot easier than I had thought. Once you open Photomatix, you choose 'Generate HDR image' from the menu, and Photomatix allows you to choose the images you want to combine. Clicking OK takes you to an options screen - normal usage seems to be to leave everything unchecked, although I enabled the 'Align Source Images' option, and chose Adobe RGB as my colorspace.

The generation of the HDR image can take a while, especially on a slower computer, and once it has been generated won't look that impressive. The next step however is to click on 'Tone Mapping' in the main menu, which will start the main work to get the HDR looking good.

The options available here are numerous, and Trey's tutorial provides a lot more detail on how to use them than I will write here, but suffice to say, you can have a lot of fun playing around. So far I have not needed to do much more than up the strength to between 80 and 100, increase saturation a bit to maybe ±70, and adjust my white and black points to improve exposure. Sometimes I will play with luminosity, or adjust smoothing to High or Very High, and from time to time the other settings may be changed also, but there is no real right or wrong way of going about it - just play until you find a mix that works for you!

Once the image looks good in the preview window, all that is left to do is click on process, and choose to save the image. This can then be further improved in Photoshop or Lightroom, although typically I find that not much more needs to be done.

In order to show the improvement HDR can make to an image, I have posted two images. The first one shows the train signal with the standard Nikon matrix metering exposure choice. As you can see, it was a pretty grey, uninteresting day weather wise. The second shot shows the same train signal, but after having gone through the tone mapping procedure in Photomatix. Of course, everyone has their own opinion as to which is the better image, however I think the HDR treatment in this case has created a much more dynamic, more intriguing to look at image.

Train signal
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

So after making a couple of shots and converting them back home on the computer, my impression of HDR imaging has changed. Although I won't be using it for every shot I make from now on, I can definitely see uses for it, and will be keeping it in my toolbox as one more tool to use to improve the results I am able to get out of my camera.

(As a side note, all shots in this blog entry, with the exception of the first shot of the Clipper Nelly, were taken using the Nikkor 16mm f/2.8D Fisheye lens. One of the lenses I thought I would miss most when moving over from DX format was the 10.5mm fisheye, but it seems the 16mm is able to offer the same excellent images as his younger DX brother. This was my first major outing with the lens, and I think I will be using it a lot more in the future.)

Gear Review: Lowepro Super Trekker AWII

2009-01-03T14:38:00.009+01:00

When I got back into (nature) photography a couple of years ago, I realised that the correct camera bag was going to play a pretty important role in whether or not I was going to be able to carry my gear around comfortably. Previously I had owned various camera bags, and all had been pretty useful for the task they were bought for. But when I purchased the Nikon 200-400mm f/4G VR, I accepted that having a shoulder bag was no longer feasible, primarily because the lens wouldn't fit inside. So I acquired the Lowepro Photo Trekker AWII on the recommendation of fellow photographers, and was very happy with the bag. The Photo Trekker is a large size camera rucksack, and offers enough capacity and customisation to be able to be loaded with a couple of bodies, the 200-400, 70-200, and a few other additional lenses as required. The integrated harness meant that it could be adjusted to fit the photographer's back to give a comfortable fit, and the SlipLock connectors on the side meant I could expand the bag by adding Lowepro lens cases for my smaller lenses.

However, when I purchased the Nikon 600mm f/4G VR I had a problem. The lens is delivered in an aluminum case, which, whilst giving good protection to the lens, is not practical to carry for long distances, and does not offer any additional space for the camera body, let alone any additional lenses. And with the word 'Nikon' emblazoned on the front, draws attention to what you have inside. So I evaluated my options......

First thing I did was try to get the 600mm inside the Photo Trekker. Admittedly it did work, as you can see from the accompanying photograph, however this required the removal of most of the internal dividers. In addition to the 600mm I could also carry the pro body, a couple of teleconverters, a wide angle zoom, and a small size beanbag. But the biggest disadvantage was that I was unable to carry the lens with the body mounted, and this meant I would lose time in the field getting it set up, and introduce the possibility of dust into the camera sensor chamber. So with Christmas around the corner, I asked Father Christmas what my options were. She looked at the Lowepro website and told me there were two ways of solving the problem.

So a couple of weeks ago I went along with Father Christmas to Kamera Express in Capelle an der Ijssel with the intention of buying the Lens Trekker 600 AWII. This is a revised bag that Lowepro recently announced at Photokina 2008, and has been specifically designed for use by photographers who wish to carry the 600mm with a body attached. I looked at it, and was impressed with the usual Lowepro quality of manufacture, but quickly realised it didn't really solve the problem. Sure it enabled me to comfortably carry the 600mm with the body attached, but there was limited room for anything else. It didn't really win me anything in addition to the Photo Trekker that I was already using.

The second option that Santa had suggested was the Lowepro Super Trekker AWII. This is basically a larger version of the Photo Trekker that I already had, but in this case size does matter, and I would have more than enough space for all I wished to carry, so I chose for this bag instead.

The first difference between the two bags is that the internal dimensions of the Super Trekker (14.6Wx6.5Dx25.6H inches/37Wx16.5Dx65H cm) are much bigger than the Photo Trekker (12Wx5.9Dx19.1H inches/30.4Wx15Dx48.5H cm).

Visually they are both similar externally, although the Super Trekker does have additional pouches that connect to each side of the bag, using the Slip Lock system. One is padded so can be used to carry a lens, whereas the other is not, so is more useful for chargers or a water bottle.

One of the nice features with the Lowepro range of bags is that they provide you with enough internal dividers to fulfill even the most imaginative of configurations. Some are stiffer than others and can be used as the base dividers, and others are softer and can be bent as needed.

The first thing I did was remove all of the dividers to make sure that I would be able to fit the 600mm in as desired, which was not a problem. There was more than enough space, and I could even fit a teleconverter if needed. It was still not possible to have the lens hoods attached in the shooting position, but I accepted long ago that that would end up being a very large bag if it were possible......

Theoretically there would also be enough space to add a second super telephoto, such as the 200-400mm f/4G VR or the 200mm f/2G VR, but that would lend to a very heavy pack. But for reference I took a shot with the 600mm next to the 200-400, to show the possibilities, and there are certainly enough dividers to make it possible.

After playing around with the dividers for a while, I finally came up with a configuration that allowed me to pack all the gear I needed for an 'average' trip, (D3, 600mm, 70-200mm, teleconverters, 24-70mm, 17-35mm, D300 etc) with enough additional space for other lenses if they were needed. This configuration also has enough space for a bean bag to sit on top of the 600mm, and my Gitzo sits outside on the Trekker Tripod Mount. To see exactly what lens is located where, click through to the image with annotations at flickr.

Overall, I am happy with the Super Trekker - it is comfortable to carry, has enough configuration options to change as my lens collection grows or shrinks, or when I want to carry less gear, and is built with the normal Lowepro quality. So far I have taken it out a couple of times, and have comfortably carried it for a couple of kilometers without feeling the weight.

Some additional features worthy of a mention:

- Adjustable waist band allows the weight to be split across the shoulders and the waist, giving a more comfortable carrying position

- Internal metal frame

- DayPack, which can be clipped to the outside of the Super Trekker, allowing for further carrying options, as well as the possibility to detach and carry as a separate bag for smaller trips

- Trekker Tripod Mount for carrying a tripod. Included compression straps allow for stability of the tripod when mounted vertically. I am able to mount my 5 series Gitzo together with Manfrotto video head without any problems

- Water resistant 600D Endura nylon and YKK zippers

- All Weather Cover hidden in the base which can be pulled out to provide even better protection against the elements when needed (although since the bag is made of Endura nylon, the bag is well enough constructed to do without this in most weathers)

- Zip cover to cover back harness, to make for easier transporting

In conclusion, this bag is all I need it to be. Although it is not as easy to take on a plane as something like a ThinkTank Airport International, it is definitely suited to the occasions when I need to get the majority of my gear on my back, and hike with it to my final destination, and is pretty much the only solution available when I need to take the 600mm.....

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-01T18:59:00.003+01:00

Robin Red Breast
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

Happy New Year to all my readers..... I hope 2009 brings you and your family all you want, both in your professional and personal life.

I seem to remember writing a resolution on my blog 365 days ago promising to write more blog posts in 2008. Well, with only 11 under the belt that didn't really happen as planned, so I'll try and improve that for 2009.

I have a couple of ideas for blog posts, and hope to be able to write blogs on the following subjects at the start of 2009:

- Gear review: Lowepro Super Trekker AWII
- Book review: Wedding Photography by Mark Cleghorn
- Book review: Annie Leibovitz at Work by Annie Leibovitz
- Gear review: Nikon 600mm f/4G VR lens
- Gear review: Nikon 200mm f/2G VR lens

So now I've written that to the web, I have to do it..... stay tuned!

For now, here's a shot of a robin I made in my parents' garden over Christmas. This was taken at iso2200 with the D3, using the 600mm. Still fairly heavily cropped, and could have really done with a bit more focal length on this one.

Website updated

2008-11-17T22:12:00.005+01:00

Deer Stag, Hoge Veluwe
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

Updated my website over the weekend to include some galleries and hopefully let people see more of my work. Still think I need a slightly less basic design, so would welcome any comments, critique, or suggestions where I can go to get a better one made ;)

The website is at this address

DRR User? Move your pictures!

2008-10-31T10:44:00.002+01:00

Kingfisher, ruffling feathers and having a squawk
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

Probably not so many readers of my blog are using the services of Digital Railroad, an online photo archiving solution like PhotoShelter, but in case you are, please make sure you know that they have filed for bankruptcy and have given their users until as early as 2359PST on October 31st to move all files off their servers, or risk them being lost for good.

More information on line here

Of course, backing up is an important part of the digital workflow, and it really doesn't help if your chosen online archive goes belly up. Hopefully most users were using DRR purely as a backup facility, and still have a local copy of any files that were online...... hopefully.....

Kingfisher, Oostvaardseplassen

2008-10-12T16:18:00.004+01:00

Kingfisher
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

At the start of the year one of my photographic resolutions was to shoot a kingfisher in 2008.

It took me until October, but today I was finally lucky enough to find a kingfisher that was willing to pose for me. More to come.....

Taken on the D3, 600mm VR with tc-14e, 1/320s @ f/8, 1600iso

September 22nd 2008: Stag, Hoge Veluwe

2008-09-22T21:43:00.004+01:00

Shot with the D300, 200-400mm f/4G VR with tc-14e at 550mm, 1/250s, f/5.6, 800iso

September 21st 2008: Herd of deer

2008-09-21T20:53:00.004+01:00

Light wasn't so great today, so photo opportunities were not as plentiful as the previous days. Plus it's hard to find a different angle to photograph a stag portrait from when you have already taken so many...... :)

September 20th 2008: Deer Stag, Hoge Veluwe

2008-09-20T21:22:00.002+01:00

Day two at Hoge Veluwe. Today we wandered through the woods somewhat unsuccessfully to try and find some mushrooms to photograph, and ended up on the wildbaanweg again in the late afternoon in readiness for the day's rutting.

Still haven't seen any contact rutting, but the stags are getting friskier.

Both shots taken with the D3, 600mm f/4G VR and TC-14e

September 19th 2008: Deer Stag, Hoge Veluwe

2008-09-20T21:17:00.006+01:00

Today was our first full day at Natuurcamping Hoge Veluwe after arriving yesterday evening. We quickly discovered that there isn't much wildlife around during the day time, as much of it remains in the woods, which during the rutting season are out of bounds for visitors.

However after around 5pm the deer and stags come out and play. Although it can get pretty busy with a lot of photographers, there are some accessible vantage points along the wildbaanweg where one can get a good picture.

Taken with the D3, 600mm F/4VR with TC-14e, 1/800s, f/5.6, 400iso

Gear Review: Nikon D3

2008-05-17T17:45:00.004+01:00

When Nikon first announced the D3 in August 2007, I told myself I wasn't going to buy one. I thought my reasons were good:

- I do a lot of wildlife photography, so I would miss the crop factor
- Full frame wouldn't really benefit me
- I'm not a pro, and don't need the extra resiliency that the D3 provides
- It's a lot of money to spend on a camera
- Who needs to shoot 9fps ISO6400 anyway?

So, on the day the D3 was announced along with the D300, I went to my local store, and ordered the D300. It also had great high ISO performance, right? And the AF was the same as the D3 in any case.....

But then the D3 was available on the shelves, people started buying it, and reviews appeared on the net. It turns out it's a really great camera! (which, to be honest, looking at the specs I didn't need someone else's review to tell me that). I got thinking, and realised that, based upon the lenses I had, I could sell off most of my DX format stuff, and still have 24-400mm covered. And with the money I would get for all the DX lenses and my two D200 bodies, I would be pretty close to the price of a new D3. So I did it.

My experiences with the D300 up until that point had been very good - the AF system was a significant improvement over the D200, and the lower noise at high ISO was also nothing to be sneezed at. But at concerts I was still uncertain about going above 1250iso, and I still couldn't rival the results coming from even the low end Canon 350d cameras. I decided in any case that I would keep the D300 as my second body, and it still would be used.

Enter the D3.....

The D3 is my first true 'pro' camera, and it oozes quality. From the moment I removed it from the box, it felt 'right' in the hand. All the buttons are in just the right place for my hands, and, although it is a heavier body to what I have been used to, it feels very balanced together with the 24-70mm f/2.8G lens that has become my 'standard' zoom.

The charger (MH-22) and battery (EN-EL4) are a lot more serious looking than then EN-EL3e/MH-18a combo with the D300. The MH-22 will even take two batteries, although they do charge one after another, rather than concurrently. But it does take a while for the battery to charge (around 4 hours), so I was left twiddling my thumbs whilst I waited for the charger to indicate 100%. So, for once, I started to read the instruction manual ;)

So it turned out that there were a number of things that would benefit me from the D3 after all. There has been a lot of discussion on various forums about Nikon's choice to use only 13MP on the full frame sensor, rather than the 20+MP that Canon is currently pushing. However this is where the beauty of the D3 lies - because there are less pixels in the larger sensor size, the individual pixels are bigger, and thus able to gather more light. Which is why the D3 is able to deal with low light conditions so well.

To put this to the test, I took the D3 out for it's first serious work out at the London Calling concert in the Paradiso in Amsterdam. This is a twice annual festival where new bands come over from the UK to try out their sound in front of the Amsterdam music crowd. The gig is split over two rooms, and as one band finishes playing in the 'grote zaal', another band starts upstairs in the 'kleine zaal'. Over the two nights there are over 20 bands playing, so more than enough opportunity to try out my new toy.

On a whole, I was very happy with the results. On the first evening, in my humble opinion, the lighting conditions were not so good, so I was forced to shoot between 2000 and 4000 iso for the whole evening. And the D3 didn't bat an eyelid. The following shot, of the Mystery Jet's guitarist, was taken at 4000iso, and noise is barely evident.

The lighting was improved for the second evening, and I was able to shoot most of the concerts at 1600iso, so the results were understandably clearer. As an example, the first two concert shots in this review were shot at 1600iso. If a professional concert photographer, or other sort of low light photographer, was looking for a new camera, I would have no worries in recommending the D3 for this kind of work.

So the full frame sensor had definitely solved my problem of having poor low light performance, and my secret envy for Canon shooters was no more (and the D3 makes a pretty good weapon in the mosh pit, if necessary)

As you may recall from my previous blog post, with DX format I pretty much always used the 50mm f/1.8D lens at concerts, which, due to the crop factor, acted as a 75mm. So for the D3 a logical choice was to shoot with the 85mm f/1.4D - a lens which did very well for most evenings' shooting. I also had the 50mm in my bag, and switched to it for one band's performance.

Aside from low light photography, the other area where I was eager to try out the D3 was for wildlife. So I packed up my D3, 200-400mm, and tc-14e and headed off to the Oostvaardersplassen. Here I experienced my first disappointment. Although my 200-400mm had worked very well with the D200 and given sharp results, it turned out that it had front focus issues with the D3. This was something I had already suspected with the D300, although I had not done enough testing to prove that this was the case, but now I had the same issues with the D3, I knew there was a problem. One of the nice features on the D3 is the 'AF fine tune' option. This allows you to move the focus point for a particular lens slightly back or forwards, and adjust the apparent sharpness of the lens. Since I shoot wide open a fair amount, it is very important to me that my lenses are able to focus spot on, and the 200-400mm clearly wasn't doing this.

Unfortunately, it seems that the AF fine tune is only useful for very fine adjustments, as even with fine tune set at the maximum, I still wasn't able to get sharp images at f/4, so I took the lens to my local Nikon service center last Wednesday. It was ready again for collection on Friday (fast service, Nikon!) so I will pick it up on Monday and test it out.

So, that test pronounced a failure, I took advantage of the good weather last weekend, and went along to Apenheul, a large monkey park near Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. I decided to stick with one lens for the day, and chose my 200mm f/2G VR, along with the tc-14e teleconverter in case I needed more length. I concentrated on the smaller monkeys, as these would give the AF more of a test, and I am happy to say I was impressed with the sharpness of the results. All shots were taken wide open or slightly stopped down, so between f/2 and f/4, and all were sharp. Both the golden lion tamarind shots in this review was even shot at 1600iso!

I will also be shooting a couple of weddings later this summer, and this, along with portraiture, is another of the major intended uses for my D3. So I took it along to the wedding of my friends, Cynthia and Stefano. I was there as a guest, and not the official photographer, so I could try it out in a relaxed manner. One of the very usable features on the D3 is the AutoISO functionality. In fairness this function has been on Nikon digital cameras for a while, but I have always avoided using it due to their poorer performance at higher ISOs. But now I can safely set the AutoISO to 3200iso, and choose my minimum shutter speed based upon the lens I am using. I then shoot aperture priority, and if there is not enough light to shoot at my chosen aperture at or above the minimum shutter speed I have specified, the D3 will automagically change the ISO value to compensate.

This worked well for me, and I was able to shoot the whole day at the wedding without messing around with my ISO settings. The below shot was taken in available light at 1600iso

For most of the day I was shooting with the SB-800 speedlight set up to provide fill flash, and again the results were excellent. One thing that has surprised me with the D3 is that in most cases I don't need to make any major adjustments in post processing - the D3 just gets it right first time.

Battery life is also excellent, as should be expected with such a bulky battery, but I don't get anwhere close to the 3000+ shots that Nikon claim. However I think this is more to do with my use of VR lenses, and the chimping that takes place with any new camera than the camera.

Many people on the web have been knocking the D3 because of apparent vignetting (light fall off at the corners) for a number of full frame lenses when used in combination with the D3. The two main culprits here are allegedly the 24-70mm and the 70-200mm VR. Well I have both of these lenses, and have seen no major issues on this front. Maybe there is some sample variation here, but I just don't really experience any problems. Nikon has put a fix for the vignetting problem in the latest firmware update, but I have left that option turned off.

As an introductory offer, Nikon has been giving away a complimentary copy of Nikon CaptureNX with both the D3 and the D300. I have always tried to avoid using NX, as it is such a dog with regards to performance, however I have now started to use it, as it is definitely a better RAW converter for the D3 when compared with Adobe Camera RAW, especially with regards to noise reduction. So from that point, using the D3 has caused my workflow to slow down, but as I stated above, I seem to have managed to configure the D3 to get it right in camera for the most part, so my PP is cut down to a minimum anyway. Using CaptureNX also allows me to take advantage of Nikon's in-camera Active D Lighting, which, based upon my limited testing, is giving me good results.

So all in all, I am happy with the D3. Actually, after one month, I'm very, very, very happy :) It is all the camera I was hoping Nikon would come out with, and I think it will suit me well for a number of years. And with regards to the loss of the crop factor for wildlife photography? Well let's just say there is a little man in a factory in Japan building a 600mm VR with my name on it right now.....

Gear for Sale

2008-03-30T09:41:00.005+01:00

Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

I'm selling a bit of gear to make way for some new toys. I've posted it in a couple of places, and the interest is rolling in, but thought I would put it up here as well......

Nikon D200 with MB-D200 battery grip, 2x EN-EL3e batteries, boxes, and all cables, chargers, etc

I have two of them, each €750, my preference would go to a buyer in Holland or Belgium to avoid hassle of shipping

ONLY ONE REMAINING!

SOLD!!! - Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G AF-S lens, including box, soft case, lens hood, and Nikon NC 77mm filter.

€900 ono, my preference would go to a buyer in Holland or Belgium to avoid hassle of shipping, but we can discuss this.

Examples taken with this lens at www.flickr.com/photos/digitalheman/tags/1755mmf28g/

SOLD!!! - Nikon 12-24mm f/4G AF-S lens, including box, soft case, lens hood, and Rilex 77mm filter (very high quality filter).

€650 ono, my preference would go to a buyer in Holland or Belgium to avoid hassle of shipping, but we can discuss this.

This lens will go after all the other stuff is sold - I like it too much!...... just let me know if you would be interested

Examples taken with this lens at www.flickr.com/photos/digitalheman/tags/1224mmf4g/

SOLD! - Nikon 60mm f/2.8D Micro-Nikkor lens and Tiffen 62mm filter.

I bought this lens new a couple of years ago, but shot very, very few photographs with it (maybe less than 100), as I picked up a 70-180mm Micro soon after

€250, my preference would go to a buyer in Holland or Belgium to avoid hassle of shipping, but we can discuss this.

All very good condition, selling to make way for new toys :)

Gear Review: Nikon 10.5mm F/2.8G DX Fisheye lens

2008-03-15T21:20:00.002+01:00

Queen for a day
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

A fisheye lens is defined as an ultra-wide lens, giving a close to 180 degree angle of view. There are two sorts of fisheye - a circular, or a full frame fisheye.

Back in the days of film, fisheye lenses were either very cheap (and subsequently rather unsharp) or very expensive, large, and out of the reach of the average photographer.

However, with the advent of the cropped DX sensor, not so much glass was required in order to get the full 180 degree view favored by the full frame fisheye, and Nikon's answer to this was the 10.5mm fisheye, which only works on the DX range of Nikon digital SLRs. (using this on a full frame camera will lead to vignetting, and a fairly unusable image). The 10.5mm is a compact lens of similar diameter to the 50mm F/1.8, and a little bit longer. Due to a bulging front element, the lens has a built in, non removable lens hood.

When I was in the States last year, i picked up the fish for around $600, after looking at it online and wondering whether to buy it in Europe for around €600. $600 was a very good price for this lens, and in fact, having used it for the past year, I would be more than prepared to pay the full €600 for it, should I ever need to replace it.

Images that come from full frame fisheye lenses are easy to spot, due to the curvature that gets applied to straight lines within the frame. Whilst a straight line through the center of either axis will stay straight, anything away from that will be bent to varying degrees, as you can see from the image above.

If you think back to photography 101, you will remember that the wider a lens is, the greater the depth of field in the image, and the 10.5 is no exception to this. So much so, that focusing is almost unnecessary, but with it having a f2.8 maximum aperture and in spite of not having AF-S, focusing happens fast and accurately in any case. It's not a lens for everyday shooting, due to the issues with curvature, but used sparingly, it gives fun images.

I find the images to be nice and contrasty, with good colors. Due to the large angle of view, light pours into the lens, and it can be handheld at low shutter speeds without noticeable lens blur.

Obviously due to the large angle of view, if you are using the lens as a portrait lens, as I did for the first image, you need to be very close to the subject - I was probably around 50cm from his face. The way I like to shoot when I am using it for portraits is to shoot into the sun, but use a flash either on or off camera to fill in the details in the foreground of the shot.

It is possible to 'defish' the images taken with this lens using Nikon's software, but personally I don't do this. When an image is defished, it is straightened out, and the image no longer fills a rectangle, so cropping is necessary to get it back to a frame filling image, and the edges of the frame are lost. I have other lenses, such as the 12-24mm, that I will use if I want to take an ultra wide shot with limited distortion.

So in summary, this is a fun lens, ideal if you want to give an image an extra level of interest. It does distort images, but that also adds to the image in many ways. Due to it's compact size, it is easy to throw in the bag and carry all the time, just in case the opportunity arises to use it.......

Book Review: Joe McNally - The Moment It Clicks

2008-02-17T21:39:00.004+01:00

The cover of this book claims to teach you "photography secrets from one of the world's top shooter", and 256 pages later, I feel that I have definitely gotten an insight into Joe's work ethic, and understood some of the reasons why the publisher's suggest he is a "legendary magazine photographer.

The book was published in January 2008, and I received it from Amazon (click the picture to be linked through) yesterday. After a busy Saturday, I had a free Sunday, so sat down to read the book. And didn't put it down until I had finished it......

Joe McNally has been a photographer for over 30 years, and his career has been spent shooting for magazines such as Life, People, Time, Sports Illustrated, and National Geographic. In the first two thirds of the book Joe shares these experiences with the reader. In each double page spread he presents a photograph from his portfolio, and describes, in a casual manner, some of his reasoning behind the shot, and how he achieved it technically. Sometimes this is done by relating to the shot itself, and sometimes by describing a conversation he has had or a situation he has been in, and then illustrating it with a photograph. But either way, it makes entertaining reading.

One of Joe's mantras is "the only good light is available light, and by that I mean any light that is available", and he really is the master of off camera lighting. For most of the shots he describes how the scene was lit, whether it be a white sheet from the motel he stayed in the night before ("I am a bed sheet thief") to act as a diffusor on a window, or a combination of softboxes, grids, and snoots.

The final third of the book, after a short description of the gear he uses (he is a Nikon shooter, and has shot many advertisements for them, and also made an instructional Nikon lighting DVD called "The Speed of Light" - worth a watch) covers various experiences he has been in, like the time he threw up 50 times whilst shooting a weightless flight at the Russian space camp, or the time he shot 10 frames of a pro baseball player, before realizing he hadn't advanced his film a single frame. But with each story he illustrates, he always has a message to the reader.

One thing that struck me about Joe is that in almost every shot he shows, he has had to work quickly, with high pressure. Typically his subjects give him around 10 minutes to shoot them, and, although he often spends hours before a shoot setting up his concept, he needs to make sure that his shoot works first time, and if not, the reshoot must take place at the same time. You can definitely see shots where he has made mistakes, or where there are visual errors, but that isn't the point. Keep your eye to the camera at all times, or you will miss a shot, says Joe, and he has stuck true to this.

This book is a definite recommendation for anyone who wants to start out in the field of photojournalism, and wants to hear from someone who has been there, done that, but for everyone else, it is an entertaining read, and there is a lot that any photographer can learn from Joe's musings.

Gear Review: Nikon D300

2007-12-31T14:39:00.002+01:00

In September, for no other reason than a convincing salesman, I put myself on the waiting list for a D300. I was fairly high up on the list, and confident I would receive one in the first batch.

Come the release date, November 29th, my dealer, Schweitzer Foto Nivo, called me to inform me that I indeed had been lucky enough to get one on the day of release. Unfortunately, time was not on my side, and due to studying for an exam and a business trip to the US, I was unable to really use the D300 until my Christmas vacation to Japan.

The first couple of days of the trip were to be spent in Tokyo, which would give me more than enough subjects to test the D300 out on. My first stop on the trip was to electronics city in Akihabara, where I was lucky enough to pick up the new Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8 lens (more on that in a later post), so for most of the time this lens stayed on the camera.

My first impressions of the camera are probably fairly similar to those of a lot of other people - great camera, a D200 on steroids, and a D3 in a smaller package. The D300 has lower noise (maybe as much as 1.5-2 stops) which should be good for gig photography, better AF (for wildlife photography), and higher frames per second capabilities (again useful for the wildlife).

Taking a look at the 3 points above in more detail, lower noise than the D200 was what most interested me about the D300. The noise levels in the D200 had been what had most annoyed me about the camera, and I was always losing out when trying to shoot poorly lit concerts. I was unable to shoot higher than 640iso (with the occasional forage up to 800), and this wasn't really enough for the locations I shoot at.

So the advertised stop extra high iso was a welcome feature. And my first tests with higher ISO, at the Tsukiji fish market (1600iso) and on the Tokyo Metro (800iso), seem to be very positive. (NOTE: just click the image if you want to see it unclipped)

I also shot a test shot at 3200iso, just to see what the results are like. Whilst not perfect, it certainly shows promise. The shot below is uploaded as shot - no noise reduction or sharpening was applied. It looks fine at this resolution, but when viewed larger the noise becomes more noticeable. But definitely good enough for many purposes.

The new AF system, in the form of the CAM3500 module, is also a welcome improvement. With the D200 I had 11 focus points, with one cross type, which, whilst generally enough for general photography, I didn't find sufficient for photographing medium sized objects moving, for example birds. The gaps between the individual sensors meant that the AF would lose track of what it was tracking, leaving it to hunt unnecessarily, and lose the shot, even when set to AF lag long (or whatever Nikon calls it). Now, with the 51 sensors (with 15 cross) of the CAM3500, they are packed tightly together, and the 3D AF system really means that even small objects with unpredictable movement can be tracked successfully.

The D300 was also advertised as being capable of 8fps. This is true, although this comes at a cost. On it's own, with the EN-EL3e battery inserted, the camera can pump out an impressive 6fps, but in order to achieve 8fps, one needs the MB-D10 (which I have), and either AA batteries, or the EN-EL4e battery delivered with the D2X or D3 camera. If you are not an exisiting pro shooter, this means the purchase of the EN-EL4e battery (around 125 Euros) and the MH-21 charger (around 125 Euros) to go with it, as well as the BL-3 battery cover to go with it - a fairly pricey way of getting to 8fps. Granted you should also be able to get to 8 with AA batteries, but these won't last for so long.

In addition to the main 3 points above, there are a number of small improvements over the D200 worth mentioning:

- Larger LCD display on the back
- the ability to see shooting info pre shot (useful for tripod shooting)
- Live view (basically the ability to see the image on the rear view LCD, a la point and shoot camera). Live view in itself has some limitations (slow, hard to focus) but in the situation where the camera needs to be very low or very high, I can see it having some use. I have used it for a couple of shots, and it seems usable
- In built sensor cleaning. The camera can be set to clean the sensor each time the camera starts up, or on request. Will be very useful for keeping the sensor clean whilst on location
- Better battery life. Supposedly using the EN-EL3e battery it is now possible to get close to 1000 shots per charge. To be honest I haven't experienced this yet, but I was using the LCD quite extensively

So, definitely a number of pros for the D300. What about the cons? To be honest, there are very few - most of the features of the D3 (excluding the FX sensor and better high iso performance) available in a package around one third of the cost. A high speed camera with a great AF system. I have only two minor, and I mean *minor* points to complain about.

Firstly, it is no longer possible to choose the AF focus point on the LCD display on the top of the camera. I used to use this function on the D200 when the camera was mounted on a tripod to predetermine where the camera would focus. Now, instead of seeing the focus point, you see all 51 points simultaneously.

Secondly, if you want to be able to set up your image review to display highlights on the images, it is no longer possible to have a display of just the image when going through image review. With the D200 I had my image review set up to show me one full screen image with no annotations, and a second full screen image to show me the highlights. Now, if image review with highlights is enabled, it is no longer to have a clear full screen image as well. Admittedly two very small points, easily outweighed by the other great features the D300 offers, but nevertheless worth mentioning.

So, in conclusion, am I happy with the D300, based upon the limited amount of shooting I have done with it? Yes. For me, the improved auto focus system and the lower noise at high ISO were enough for me to upgrade. The D200 is still an excellent camera, and I expect both of my D200s to stay with me in the future, but progress is good, and the D300 is certainly an example of this.

Nikon in Tokyo

2007-12-31T14:28:00.001+01:00

One thing I noticed whilst in Tokyo was how readily available Nikon cameras and accessories were.

In a time where Nikon D3s are rarer than hen's teeth, pretty much every store in Tokyo had one on display, and the larger ones claimed to be able to deliver out of stock (maybe a reason why the rest of the world is having such difficulty finding them). Although some of them said they would only sell to people resident in Japan at present.

Also relatively rare (in European terms) lenses were available off the shelf - I was in store that had all the Nikon big guns (400, 500, and 600) in stock, although my temporary excitement disappeared when the shop realised they were advertising the VR version a bit too early....

I was also able to stock up on Nikon accessories, all at low prices compared to Europe. Things like Nikon NC filters, lens caps, gel filters, extension tubes, and the coveted BL-3 battery cover for the MB-D10 were available even from electrical superstores....

But what impressed me the most were two dedicated Nikon stores - one in Ginza, NikonHouse, which only stocked second hand Nikon (but had a good selection at reasonable prices - warning, the owner doesn't speak too much English), and another one in Shinjuku (whose name I forgot to write down, but you will find it if you walk down the main street in Shinjuku) which sold everything Nikon, both second hand and brand new. Also in Ginza you can find Nikon Plaza, which is one of many Nikon showrooms in the city, run by Nikon, and also housing NPS. Here you can play with new Nikon gear, although unfortunately they also were unable to show me the 600mm :(

Happy New Year!

2007-12-31T14:18:00.001+01:00

As 2007 ends, I wanted to wish a Happy New Year to all of my loyal readers - thanks for stopping by and reading from time to time.

I hope 2008 brings you success in all that you do, both in your personal and professional lives....

I'm currently in Japan, with my new D300 and 24-70mm, returning to the Netherlands in a couple of days. And I promise one of my resolutions for 2008 is to write more blog posts!

Lazy

2007-11-20T22:21:00.000+01:00

Well, I've been a bit lazy the past couple of months with regards to keeping this blog up to date. I've started a new job, and that seems to be taking up a lot of my time.

But I did have time to update my website - stop by and take a look, I've put a gallery up of a lot of the stuff I have done earlier this year.

Asides from that, I'm getting ready to take delivery of my new D300 towards the end of next week. Stay tuned for a hands on review.....

Gear Review: Nikon 85mm F/1.4D lens - the cream machine

2007-09-09T15:52:00.001+01:00

Sigal 9
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

Back in the days of 35mm film photography, 85mm was seen as the ideal focal length for a portrait lens. It was slightly longer than a 'normal' 50mm lens, and this was felt to be more flattering to models, as it compressed the background just enough to look good.

Nikon has had two 85mm AF portrait lenses for a number of years - one that has a F/1.8 maximum aperture, and the other with a F/1.4. At first, with the exception of the aperture, the main difference between these lenses is the price - the 1.8 comes in at around €400, whereas the 1.4 is three times the price, at around €1150. But there is a lot more to the 1.4 - having a wider aperture lets approx 50% more light in than with the 1.8, and this means for a brighter viewfinder image when focusing, as well as a more useful lens for low light photography. The 1.4 also has a more pro build to it - the majority of the construction is a dappled metallic finish (similar to the 105mm DC), whereas the 1.8 is primarily plastic. And the 1.4 also takes the pro standard 77mm, whereas the 1.8 takes a 62mm filter.

Since the introduction of the of the DX format digital SLR, 85mm lenses have fallen out of favor with some photographers, feeling the 85mm lens (which becomes 127mm after the DX conversion) is a little too long to be used as a portrait lens, and this is part of the reason that they can be picked up on eBay relatively cheaply (I think I paid around €550 for mine a couple of years ago.) This is likely to change shortly though, as Nikon has now announced the full frame D3, so the 85mm becomes an 85mm lens again....

Probably the main selling point for the 85mm F/1.4, and the reason for it's nickname, 'the cream machine', is the bokeh that this lens can produce. Bokeh is a Japanese term for the area of the photo which is thrown out of focus through the depth of field used in the image, or basically the blurry bit.

Bokeh depends on two things - the aperture used, and the distance between the subject and the background - the wider the aperture, the better the bokeh, and the further the distance between subject and background, the better the bokeh. The examples accompanying this blog both show good bokeh - the first one of SIgal was shot at F/3.2, whereas the second one of Natalia was shot wide open at F/1.4.

The use of bokeh in a portrait helps the viewer to focus on the subject without the distractions of the background clouding his vision, and the 85mm F/1.4 allows just this - the autofocus parts of the image just melt into one another, making the background barely recognisable.

The F/1.4 is known as a superior performer, providing images that are sharp and contrasty. It is sharp all the way to F/1.4, and should be in every portrait and wedding photographer's arsenal of tools. Although this lens focuses relatively quickly on any modern Nikon body, due to the wide aperture and the amount of light that is available to assist the camera, if I have wish for the following release of this beautiful lens, it would be to add AF-S to the list of features.

Digital Printing online - a recommendation

2007-08-16T07:43:00.001+01:00

Leopard in a tree.....
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

For reasons of space and running costs, I have never had reason to purchase a colour photo printer for home use. Although having my own printer would give me a lot more flexibility in to what I printed and when, I feel the cost per print is not much different to various online services.

So over time I have tried out a number of online photo services in the Netherlands, but have now finally found one company that, after a number of positive experiences, am going to stick with.

The company, ProFotoNet, a division of FotoSystems in Gouda, has a very simple to use website. It is possible to either download some software (for Windows) or use their online tool (for Mac users) to upload the pictures to their server.

Previously, Mac users were a bit limited to the browsers they could use to upload their pictures, but with the latest version of the online software I have successfully uploaded with both Mozilla variants (Flock) and Safari.

The quality of the images is stunning - they print everything on Kodak Endura paper, and I choose the Endura Metallica finish, which has a layer of silver in the paper to give certain colours a metallic look when held to the light. One of the reasons that the colours are so good, and can accurately represent the image as it is on the screen, is that ProFotoNet provides icc calibration profiles, to which the images can be converted before they are uploaded. But also without these profiles, providing the images are uploaded in either AdobeRGB or sRGB, they will do the conversion for you.

The best thing about the service is the price - a 10x15cm print is only 0,32€, a 20x30 print on Endura Metallic is 2,99€, and a 30x45cm print comes in at 7,50€. Admittedly this is a bit more expensive than somewhere like the Hema, but this is a pro service, and delivers pro results.

A couple of other things worth mentioning - firstly the speed: recently I placed an order at 10pm on Sunday evening, and received the order Tuesday morning by 10am. This is normal for ProFotoNet, I think they mention on their website that if images are uploaded by 3pm, they will normally be shipped out the same day. Also the payment is very easy - the prints are made on credit, and an invoice is sent along with he prints, with the request to make payment within 14 days.

As I said, I have used a number of services in the Netherlands, but this one by far gives superior quality at reasonable prices......

Bird Photography in Scotland and Northumberland

2007-08-05T19:58:00.001+01:00

Cleared for take off......
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

It's been a couple of weeks now since I came back from a camping trip to Scotland and the North of England. The aim behind the trip was to photograph the puffins on the islands along the east coast before they all flew away again for the summer. We had decided to camp primarily as a cost saving exercise, but we hadn't expected the weather to be so incredibly poor as it was.

Campsites along the route were fairly easy to find, but this probably had something to do with the frequent deluges that were making the ground almost uncampable. We started off camping near St Andrews, since the trip we had initially planned to Bass Rock was rained off. A short distance from St Andrews is the port of Anstruther, from where the pleasure cruiser May Princess starts her 8km trip to the island.

Again, due to the poor weather, two of our three planned trips were cancelled, but the third trip provided us with good enough weather to get a couple of good shots. It seems that the puffins are relatively 'tame', and don't seem to be frightened by the boat loads of tourists that are landing at regular intervals, but it is still necessary to keep a distance from them and show them respect. As for most of the remainder of the trip, the Nikon 200-400mm F/4G VR lens was invaluable here, and, when used together with my Gitzo 1348 and Markins M10/Wimberley Sidekick head was adequately supported to give me sharp images.

There are a number of spots on the island where it is possible to get a good position to shoot the birds, but I found keeping away from the crowds helped in getting better shots.

Our next trip was a couple of days later to Bass Rock. This is a trip organised for photographers by the Scottish Seabird Centre, and although rather pricey at around 80 pounds per person does give some very close up views of around 100000 pairs of Northern Gannets that inhabit this otherwise deserted island.

Landing on the island really depends on good weather and the right tides, as the 'dock' is merely a few iron rungs connected to the rock. It is a good idea to rationalise the amount of equipment taken onto the island, as everything needs to be carried to the top of the rock (and Beach Rollys are not welcome here....)

It is not necessary to have a really long telephoto on Bass Rock, as many good shots (especially flight shots) can be obtained with lenses such as the Nikon 70-200mm F/2.8G VR lens, as shown in the shot above. One thing to watch out for though is 'messages from above' as the birds don't seem to be toilet trained..... your equipment and clothing _will_ get covered in white spots however hard you try to avoid it......

The final destination for our group was the Farne and Staple Islands, back over the English border. Both of these islands belong to the National Trust, and it is worth noting that regardless of which tour operator sails you to the island, you will still need to pay a landing fee of around 4.50 pounds to enter each of the islands. Worth considering joining the National Trust if you are staying a couple of days, as this will pay for itself in the long run.

We camped just outside Seahouses, and used Billy Shiels MBE ferries to get us to and from the islands. There is a photographers trip which takes you to Staple Island in the morning, and then onto Inner Farne in the afternoon for around 25 pounds, and this is worth doing if you want to visit both islands. Note that there are no facilities on Staple, and only a basic toilet on Inner Farne, so any food to be consumed needs to be carried over from the main land.

Again, the 200-400mm comes in useful on both of these islands, but nevertheless it is possible to get close to the puffins, especially on Inner Farne where the pathway runs inbetween the puffins' burrows.

In addition to the puffins, Inner Farne is also home to a flock of arctic terns. Note that the terns will attack people as they disembark from the boat and attempt to walk up onto the island. This is because they are nesting either side of the pathway, and wish to protect their young. The peck from the tern can draw blood, so it is a good idea to wear a hat or carry an umbrella (or, as we did, carry your tripod above your head)

The three locations mentioned above definitely give the photographer a number of good opportunities for photographing puffins, terns, guillemots, and shags. With the exception of seasickness tablets and a good pair of walking shoes, there is nothing stopping anyone from taking images such as the ones displayed here.

Use of flash in wildlife photography

2007-06-19T19:58:00.001+01:00

Cobra
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

One accessory I found myself using more than I thought whilst on safari was my flash gun. I use a couple of Nikon SB-800, and love the capabilities of the Nikon CLS system, together with the intelligence of the TTL-BL mode, which provides perfect fill every time......

Now, in my opinion, there are three main things that flash can be used for in digital photography - i) providing light where there isn't enough ii) providing fill light for heavy shadows, and iii) stopping the action.

When I don't have enough light in the wild, it is generally time to call it a day and go home, as the effect you get by trying to light up the darkness (especially at dusk) is very artificial, and doesn't really work (*), but the other two situations lend themselves to flash very well.

There are a number of ways you can use flash to provide fill. Firstly, as in the case with the cobra photograph here, a small flash will take the darkness out of the shadow areas on a subject, and provide just enough light to make the subject pop. With animal photography, this light will normally have the added bonus of a catchlight in the subject's eye. In these sort of situations, I will set the camera in aperture priority mode to provide the appropriate amount of depth of field, and use a spot of negative flash exposure compensation, normally around -1 to -1 2/3 stops so that the flash doesn't overpower the shot.

A second example of using fill is shown in the king cheetah shot. Here, the subject is backlit, and a normal exposure would leave the cheetah's face in shadow, however by using fill flash, the SB-800 automatically works out the correct amount of illumination to get the exposure correct.

The third example of using flash is to stop motion. Because the duration of a typical flash is very short (anywhere from 1/1000 to 1/50000 of a second) it can be used in combination with a slower shutter speed to freeze the action in a frame. I used this method in my shot of the leopards in the tree to give the viewer the impression of movement in the frame. Here I chose a slow shutter speed (around 1/50s), together with flash. Then during the shot I panned the movement of the leopards ascending the tree. This gave the result that the background was blurred, due to my panning, but the short duration of the flash froze the action of the animals, giving a dramatic image. The ghosting behind the animals also adds to the image. Note that if you do want to have movement 'streaks' behind the subject, it is important to set the flash to rear curtain sync, so that the flash freezes the movement at the end of the exposure, as oppose to the start of the exposure (which would lead to the blur being in front of the subject)

The use of flash is a very creative tool in modern day photography, and is a skill that I am only just starting to appreciate. If you have an opinion on this, I would love to hear it......

(* there are definitely situations where the use of flash in complete darkness can be useful, but this typically requires a little more thought than simply placing the flash in the hotshoe, and is not a situation that I have had the chance to be in yet)

Gear to pack on a safari

2007-06-14T21:00:00.001+01:00

Cheetah
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan

I recently came back from a photo safari at Tshukudu Lodge in Hoedspruit, South Africa, organised by FotoCampus. In the first of a series of articles about the safari, I thought I would write about the photo gear that I took with me, what was useful, and what was not so useful.....

Due to the current luggage restrictions on airlines, it was necessary to be a little bit careful with what I carried with me. So I decided to purchase a Think Tank Airport International roller case to take my hand luggage on the plane with me. I figured that since my hand luggage would be weighing around 16-18kg, anything I could do to make it look lighter would help. And since rolling 16kg around on wheels looks a lot more effortless than carrying it on your back, that helped my decision.....

So then I was left with the decision of what to take with me on the plane, and what to have in my hold luggage. Obvioulsy my main lenses and camera bodies would stay with me, and I opted to put all chargers, cleaning equipment, batteries, monopod etc in the hold. This way I figured that if my hold luggage were to get lost or delayed, at least I would still be able to shoot, and there would be enough other people there who I could borrow chargers from if necessary.

I packed the following gear:

2x D200 bodies, both fitted with MB-D200 battery grips - I think the battery grip on the D200 makes handling so much better, and makes it a lot easier to take photos in portrait format. Definitely a worth €175 upgrade

200-400mm F/4G VR lens - this was almost permanently attached to one of the D200 bodies, and was used for around 45% of the shots

70-200mm F/2.8G VR lens - this was attached to the second D200 and was also used for around 45% of the shots

The above two lenses are, in my opinion, invaluable on a safari, since they give a good coverage of the range you will likely to be shooting at. 200-400 is especially useful for birding shots, but it is important to support the lens well. Since there was no space in the safari vehicle for a tripod (in fact I didn't take one with me) I had the choice between using a bean bag, or a monopod. I filled the beanbag with around 4kg of sugar beans, and found this to be a perfect solution. The roll bars on the vehicle made a good support, either sitting or standing, and by putting the bean bag on top, I found I could rest the 200-400 lens on the bag and get sharp shots.

The 70-200 can be used hand held, and at a stretch can be fitted with a TC-17e to give a reasonable alternative to the 200-400.

17-55mm F/2.8G lens - Used for some landscape shots, and when I had the opportunity to get closer to some of the animals (jn Tshukudu they have some animals as part of breeding programmes, and it is normally possible to get fairly close to them, albeit with a fence in between. Also good for 'atmosphere' shots of other participants, and for when the elephants charge the vehicle.....

10.5mm F/2.8G fisheye lens - Used a couple of times, but could have been left at home, not really a safari lens. However, due to it's small size, it doesn't cost any space to take it with, so it invariably finds it's way into my bag. Used for a couple of landscape shots.

12-24mm F/4G lens, 85mm F/1.4D lens - Didn't use either of these lenses, next time I will leave them at home....

TC-14e and TC-17e teleconverters - I really expected that I would use my converters, but didn't take a single shot with them. Wouldn't leave them at home, as they are always useful as a last resort.....

SB-800 flash - Used more than I expected to provide fill to darker subjects, or for freezing the movement of some subjects. I used this in conjunction with the Nikon SD-8a battery pack, which supplements the in flash battery power with 6 additional cells, and found this to provide a welcome improvement to flash recycling times.

Monopod - as mentioned earlier, good camera support is vital, and I used my Gitzo 1578L for this

Bean Bag - I took a bean bag that I had purchased for €10 locally, and then filled it with beans once I arrived. Mine is around 25x20 cm, and I found this to be just the right size. If you make your own, you will probably find using a zip to close it works considerably better than velcro or other fastners.

Cleaning kit - My sensor actually remained relatively clean, but I took my Eclipse fluid and sensor swabs with me just in case. I also took a microfiber lens cloth, and a rocket blower to clean the gear at the end of each day

Photo vest - A good photo vest with a number of pockets is useful. Each drive I carried my cameras in my hand, and put all the other accessories, lenses, and flash in the photo vest. There isn't really space to take a camera bag in the vehicle, so best to avoid taking one

Memory - I had 4x 4Gig cards with me, and this was more than enough for my two bodies. At the end of each drive I would copy the contents of the cards to two external 120Gig drives, via my MacBook Pro.

Batteries - I took seven EN-EL3e batteries with me, but found I didn't use more than four in a day shooting.....

All in all, the equipment worked fine, and I was happy with the results that I achieved. I had a couple of issues with the D200 bodies and blinking battery syndrome, but was solved by switching lenses between bodies, and the wheel fell off the Think Tank. However when I returned, Think Tank were very apologetic and are sending me a replacement wheel kit. The problem shouldn't have occurred in the first place, but at least it was rectified through good customer service.

So did I forget anything? I think the gear I took covered pretty much all of the photo opportunities that I had. However I think taking a polarising filter would have been useful, as this would allow for better saturation in some photos. A tripod would have also been useful for some long exposure/night time opportunities, however it's use would have not been possible during the day drives, and would have been a hassle to transport through the airport (and the extra weight would have definitely ended up in having to pay for excess baggage....)

Gear Review: Nikon 50mm F/1.8D lens

2007-05-19T20:42:00.001+01:00

Sigal in the studio
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan.

I've got thousands of Euros worth of camera lenses. All of them Nikon, and all of them great in one way or another. But in terms of which lens gives me the best bang for the buck, it's got to be the standard 50mm F/1.8D lens..... it's sharpness, contrast, and colour rendition is equal to many of my lenses costing ten times the price. It's great as a low light lens also, with a maximum aperture of F1.8, meaning it can still keep going in low light situations where other lenses have given up a long time ago. But probably the best thing about this lens is it's price: only 100€ to you, sir....

A 50mm lens has pretty much always been in Nikon's lens line up, and in the times of 35mm film, and before zoom lenses had become as popular as they are today, was considered a 'standard' lens to have - the reason for this was, at 50mm, it gave the closest field of view to that of the human eye, which for most people is around 55mm. This meant that in terms of perspective, what you saw through the viewfinder of a 35mm SLR fitted with a 50mm prime was pretty much as you saw it when the camera was taken away.

In the 90's, as the quality of zoom lenses became better, and their respective prices lower, the 50mm lost it's popularity, as people preferred to go for something a little more flexible, but now we are into the digital age, with a crop factor of 1.5x, the Nikon 50mm becomes a useful 75mm in 35mm terms. So right in the middle of the range considered good portrait lenses in terms of perspective.

The first picture in this blog entry, taken of Sigal using studio lighting, is an example of this. It enabled me to get a good working distance to the model, and by using selective focussing and a wide aperture (in this case f2.2), I was able to throw most of the image out of focus, keeping the eyes sharp, and making sure that is what the viewer's attention is naturally drawn to. If I recall correctly, with this image I had absolutely no need to apply any sharpening in post processing.

Due to the size of the lens, it always goes into my bag when I go out taking portraits, and invariably gets as much use as its bigger brother the 85mm f1.4D.

Another situation where I have found having the nifty 50 in my kit bag invaluable is when shooting gigs. In fact, so much so that now I typicaly go to gigs with just the 50mm attached, leaving all the other lenses at home. This has the advantage of a camera setup that is relatively compact, and no need to worry about all the other gear getting knocked or covered in beer. And again the field of view of the 50 is just right to get frame filling portraits, providing you have managed to get a good position near the front of the stage, as can be seen here in the shot of Air Traffic when they played at Paradiso in Amsterdam earlier this year. But of course the most important characteristic of shooting in low light situations such as concert halls, is this lens opens right up, giving enough light for the AF to work, and a wide enough aperture to keep the shutter speed high enough to get sharp results.

The gig shot was taken wide open, at f1.8, as was the lily above. The 50 can focus relatively close, and gives good opportunity for creative shots with limited depth of field, allowing the photographer to focus on a specific part of the image, and leave everything else to fade away to blur. The 50 is also an ideal way into macro photography, since it can be used either in combination with an extension tube, with a close up filter, or with a lens reversing ring (such as the Nikon BR-6)

So again, this is a great little lens that is small enough to take anywhere, sharp enough to cut your finger, and cheap enough to fit into anyone's budget. The only downside of the lens is that it hasn't yet been upgraded to a AF-S lens, but in the sort of photography I use this lens for, fast focussing speed isn't that important.

And for those of you shooting Canon, I've heard equally good things about their 50mm F1.8 EF lens...... :)

You can see more examples of shots taken with this lens in my flickr photostream.

Queen for a day

2007-04-30T19:24:00.001+01:00

Queen for a day
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan.

Today (30th April) was Queen's Day. This is when the Dutch spend the day outside celebrating the (former) queen's birthday. This year we were blessed with good weather, so around 500000 people gathered in Amsterdam.

The day traditionally starts with the vrijmarkt, which is where anyone can set up a stand and sell whatever they feel like getting rid of. My friends Vincent and Tamara were there too, with Vincent professionally dealing with his customers and selling all sorts of quality items. Highlights included back issues of National Geographic circa 1994, a purple elephant with a leg missing, and a toy train....

After the vrijmarkt I went for a wander in the center and in the Jordaan, in search of photos, but was suprised how empty parts of the Jordaan were (and how unphotogenic the center was), so didn't come away with any shots. However on the way back to my bike, passed by the gay QDay festival on the Amstel, which as always was a great excuse for people to dress up as Queens for a Day..... came across many people dressed as Queen Beatrix, and others clothed as Dancing Girls/Guys....

Photographically, I decided to stick with a single prime for the day, and went with the 10,5mm Fisheye. When used close up this gives powerful images, and also includes a lot of the background to add to the atmosphere of the image. The images shot here were taken using fill in flash, since I find the fisheye accentuates areas in the shade, so a nice pop of flash does wonders.....

Dust Bunnies and Sensor Cleaning

2007-04-18T21:36:00.002+01:00

Dust Bunnies
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan.

One of the negative sides of using a digital SLR for photography is the effect of dust bunnies. This is a condition that occurs when particles or specks of dust end up inside the camera body and on the sensor. Unfortunately it is very difficult to avoid getting dust on the sensor, since unless the lenses are changed in a class 10 clean station, dust is going to get inside the camera body, and ultimately on the sensor.

The effect of dust can be greatly magnified, depending on the aperture that is used to take the photo. With a very wide aperture (i.e. f/1.4 - f/4) the effects generally won't be noticable, but as soon as the aperture is changed to give greater depth of field, for example in landscape photography, the dust particles become more evident, and can often be seen in a light blue sky on a bright day.....

One area of digital photography that has a big problem with dust is macro photography. Since depth of field is greatly reduced the closer the focusing point is to the object, macro photography requires the use of a narrow aperture, often in the range of f/16 - f/22, in order to get enough of the image in focus, and then the dust bunnies start intruding into the image. This is evident in the first photo in this blog entry, which was shot at f/18, where each of the small black circles are caused by particles on the sensor (you might need to click the photo to see a larger version where the dust is more evident).

Now of course, a photo like this could be fixed in post processing (take for example the shot here, which was taken the same day, and had the same problems with the dust spots on the raw image, but was fixed by playing with levels and using the heal tool in Photoshop) but that takes time, so it is better to start off an important photo session with a clean sensor......

First to check if your sensor needs cleaning - find a white wall, set your camera to f/22, and take a photo of the wall in good light. Then look at the picture at 100% on the computer, and see if you have any dust bunnies as with the photo above. If you do, chances are cleaning the sensor will help you....

The first way to clean the sensor is to use a air blower, like the Giotto Pocket Rocket, which can get rid of many of the looser dust particles. Technique here is important though - if your camera has a mirror lock up function, use it, or otherwise use the bulb exposure setting, and make sure you hold your finger on the shutter button as you are cleaning to make sure the mirror is out of the way. Then hold the camera with the sensor pointing downwards, and squirt a few puffs of air into the chamber. It is important that your sensor is pointing down, as this will help any dust particles to fall out of the camera, as opposed to just being moved around inside the camera. ***NOTE*** Do NOT use canned air to clean the sensor - this is actually liquid air, and will cause more damage than good.....

Now take another test picture of the wall - if the dust bunny situation has improved, great, otherwise you might need to use a more intensive method to clean the sensor.

The way I do it is to use is Sensor Swabs/Pec Pads (see picture), with Eclipse optic solution, which is a methanol based solution.

(Edit 2008: Some newer cameras, for example the Nikon D300 and D3, now use Tin Oxide coatings on the sensor. You shouldn't use the standard Eclipse fluid for these cameras, instead use Eclipse E2)

If you buy the swabs, there are instructions on the packet, which I advise you to read, but in short the procedure is to put a few drops of the fluid on each side of the swab, then lift the mirror as before, and clean the sensor with a reasonable amount of pressure by moving from one side to the other of the sensor in one sweep, and then back again, using the other side of the swab. This should be enough to get the sensor clean, but remount your lens, take another test shot of the wall, and if that hasn't helped, clean the sensor again.

A note of precaution - cleaning the sensor using a liquid sounds risky, and of course it can be - a single scratch on the sensor is going to make the camera pretty much unusable, so it is important to take care when cleaning it. Only use sensor swabs once - they come in sterile packages, and should only be opened when they are about to be used. Also make sure you buy the correct size sensor swab for your model camera (for Nikon D series this is Sensor Swab size 2), as using a swab that is too large could damage other parts of the camera, and using one that is too small won't do the job properly....

But realistically the hot mirror filter that is in front of the sensor is pretty rugged, and it would take quite some effort to be able to scratch it. Give it a go - you will be impressed how easy it can be to get your sensor back in tip top clean condition.......

Spring time

2007-04-09T20:58:00.001+01:00

Muscari
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan.

So, Easter has been and gone, but in Holland the last weeks signalled a change in the weather and we are now experiencing bright spring days, just the right weather for flowers to spring into bloom. Of course the Netherlands is well known for having the right weather for cultivating flower blooms, and the world famous tourist attraction, Keukenhof, is only testament to that, attracting thousands of tourists every day.

One of our friends gave us a muscari plant recently, and it also burst into bloom this weekend. Whilst it hasn't produced the deep blue blooms that are often associated with this particular flower, it nevertheless has given me a perfect subject to play around with my camera, and some of the results can be seen in my flickr photostream.

I am lucky to have managed to obtain a good secondhand copy of the Nikon 70-180mm F/4.5-5.6 Micro zoom before they either disappear from the face of the earth, or begin to command insane prices on ebay (Nikon recently discontinued this, their only Micro zoom, leaving only fixed focal length macros in their collection) and the flexibility of the zoom makes this an ideal lens for flower photography, and allows the photographer to get in much closer than just a bloom or a petal.

There are a number of choices to make with macro photography. Firstly the light source - should it be artificial, or available light? When shooting in the great outdoors, the subject and it's surroundings often dictate this, since any subject movement close up is greatly amplified, and needs a high shutter speed in order to freeze it, which is not always possible, so flash gives a number of advantages.

When using flash for macro, a close up flash kit such as the Nikon SB-R1(C1) is ideal. The top shot accompanying this blog was taken with the SB-R1, and two SB-R200 light sources either side of the lens. Due to the size of the muscari blooms, I was also shooting with the PK-13 (27,5mm) extension tube, and the Nikon 6T close up lens, and I wanted to get the in focus blooms to stand out a bit from the background. Now one of the nice things with the SB-R1 kit is that light fall off is pretty quick, so you end up with a nice black background, but in this case it wasn't happening initially, as the ambient light was too high, so I stepped the shutter speed up to 1/250s to aid the separation. (this also works inversely - by using slow shutter sync you can also balance the ambient light to give the background detail as well)

However, such a close up flash kit isn't always necessary. Today I was at Keukenhof, where wielding the Sb-R1 around would have been impractical, so instead I worked with the SB-800, but took it off camera and used the SC-17 connecting cable so that I could control where the light was falling on the subject. Works just as well, and with Nikon's advanced TTL flash, exposures were spot on.

The second shot was taken with ambient light. This required a longer exposure to balance the exposure, and I ended up shooting at 1/3s. This gave the nice effect that the background (a white wall) was also exposed well, and I felt this gave the photo a dreamy quality. Of course outside this shot wouldn't have been possible, as even the slightest breeze would have left the picture unsharp, but there is nothing wrong with shooting specimens in a controlled environment inside (assuming of course you haven't taken the flowers from the wild with the sole intention of photographing them ;)

Another choice to be made with macro photography is the aperture to be used. This will have a dramatic effect on how much of the picture will end up being in focus, since the depth of field in macro photography is greatly reduced. Take for example the two shots accompagnying this blog - the first was shot at f/16, leaving a fair amount of the bloom in focus, whereas the second one was shot at f/5.6, leaving very few of the blooms sharp. In my experience, the more 'artistic' shots will use a lower aperture, whereas the 'documentary' shots will be shot at higher apertures.

In the age of digital SLR photography, shooting higher apertures brings its own challenges in the form of dust bunnies. It is an unfortunate fact that sensors do collect dust over time, due to their static charge, and regardless of how carefully lenses are changed, dust will end up on the sensor. You can check for dust on your sensor by shooting a white wall at f/16 or higher, and you will probably be suprised by the results. During 'normal' photography, you are less likely to notice the dust since (at least in my case) you don't use the higher apertures so often, but since macro photography means you are more likely to, this either means cleaning the sensor before a macro session, or using spot removal in Photoshop or Lightroom to try and remove the spots in post processing.

Needless to say, the use of a sturdy tripod and a cable release are imperative in order to get sharp results, but I'll leave that for another day.......

Going Retro

2007-03-04T22:37:00.001+01:00

Tim, Bromheads Jacket
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan.

Started this week off on a training course in the UK, and whilst using the frequent breaks to do a bit of browsing, realised that the price of medium format camera systems has dropped significantly since the last time I took a look. Of course this is primarily driven by the introduction of digital, not only in the consumer and pro segment, but also in the medium format/studio segment of the market. Although the cost of going digital in combination with brands such as Hasselblad or Mamiya is still way beyond the means of most photographers, it has made for a steady flow of bargain priced analog medium format kits making their way to eBay.

So I bought one.

The package arrived this Saturday, and I was amazed at what I had obtained with my meager outlay of less than 500 Euros. This got me a Mamiya 645 Pro body, an 80mm F/2.8 lens, and a 150mm F/3.5 lens, together with a waist level finder and a prism finder.

The kit can still be bought in the shops today, albeit an updated model, and would cost 6 or 7 times what I paid for it. And in it's heyday would have cost double that again.

From first inspections it seems an incredibly well made system, totally interchangeable, and pro build quality. But compared to my Nikon Digital SLR system, it requires a completely different way of thinking.

It's manual. Manual focus, manual film drive, manual exposure. And it doesn't even have an exposure meter.

It's big. Although fairly ergonomic (it fits into my left palm, and I can use the left index finger to focus the lens, which occurs oh so smoothly, and use the right hand for the shutter release and film advancement crank), it won't be winning any prizes for portability.

It's cumbersome. For example, loading a 120 film (remember that stuff?!) requires taking out the insert, manually winding a film onto the spool, putting it all back together, and then advancing to frame one by turning the crank 4 or 5 times. Then the opposite to unload the film again at the end.

Compare this to the fast focusing, fast shooting, and high picture taking rate of the digital world, and you have yourself a completely different kettle of fish. But although I have no intention of replacing any of my digital gear with this beast, I hope that it will find a place in my photography. I see the larger frame size as being an ideal camera for portraiture, studio, and landscape, and the deliberate slow down in taking pictures, and higher cost per shot, will hopefully teach me to think a lot more before I shoot.

I've shot a few test rolls, and it is a joy to use. Keep an eye out here and at Flickr for some of my first shots......

Now there are certain situations where I see no place for the Mamiya.....

The shot accompanying this blog entry was taken at a concert I visited last week by Bromheads Jacket, who were playing at Paradiso, Amsterdam. It was the second time I had seen them at this venue, the previous time being at London Calling, late last year, and this time they played in the 'small room', which benefits from, in my opinion, much better lighting than the main hall.

Bromheads are known to incite their crowds into fairly lively behaviour, and this concert was no exception. It was a pretty tough job keeping the camera steady whilst being pushed from side to side by the people in the mosh pit, but I was pleased with the results I achieved, which can be seen in the following section of my Flickr photostream.

At one point the lead singer, Tim, decided to go crowd surfing, and I was able to pop up the built in flash on the D200 (I normally never use flash at concerts, instead relying on available light) and chase him round with the rest of the fans, ending up with a shot that conveyed the mood quite well. Of course I would never have risked my camera in this situation when I only had the one, but now I have my second d200, plus a decent insurance policy, it doesn't take a second thought ;)

Imagine doing that with a medium format system.......

Software Review: Adobe Lightroom

2007-02-28T21:36:00.001+01:00

Up until now my post processing workflow has been relatively disorganised - I shoot everything in RAW to give me the most flexibility when back behind the computer, but how I process the NEFs has really depended on my mood. Typically I would use Adobe Bridge as my 'organiser', then tag the photos with red if I decide after looking at the preview that I would like to do some more work on the image. Once I have done a quick review of the images, I would open up each red tagged shot individually and use Adobe ACR to make fine adjustments to the exposure, and then open the shot in Photoshop to do the real hard work, using layers to play with hue, saturation, levels, curves, and sharpening until I have the end result I am happy with.

However, for 95% of the images, Photoshop has really been a bit of overkill, since I am only using the basic functionalities, and basically just an expensive memory hog.....

Enter Adobe Lightroom......

Lightroom has been designed from the ground up by Adobe as a photographer's workflow replacement, and has been labelled by many as being Adobe's response to Apple's Aperture tool, which has a very similar set of functionalities.

I downloaded an early beta copy of LR when it was first released and only available for the Mac, and quickly dismissed it - it didn't seem logical, and forced me to import all my photos to a separate library before I could work on them (which effectively doubled the storage space I needed for image storage). After playing with it for 30 minutes or so it found its way to my dustbin.

However, on Patrick's recommendation I took another look at the final release version, and was pleasantly suprised. In between the previous release I had tried, and this release, Adobe had acquired Pixmantec, the makers of RawShooter, a very flexible RAW workflow tool for the PC, and have integrated many of the features into Lightroom, making it a very flexible tool.

There are five main parts to the product: Library, Develop, Slideshow, Print, and Web. The idea behind this is first of all the user 'imports' his newly uploaded files into LR's Library (in this release however this is virtual - the images remain in their intial location, and information about the images is loaded into LR's database), then the user organises them, tags them, labels them, etc, and moves onto the next stage, Develop.

There are a number of ways an image can be developed - firstly, using the 'Quick Develop', LR will assign what it feels are the best automatic exposure settings to the image, and although this is still using Adobe Camera RAW, I have to say these settings are much more accurate than what I have experienced previously with ACR. You can either leave it at that (which I doubt I would do much), or you can fine tune the development stages, by altering contrast, saturation, hue, exposure, curves, and a number of other settings. The curve alterations has changed from Photoshop, and instead of working directly on the curve, you adjust the settings by using a number of slide bars below the graphical curve, and although this takes a bit of getting used to, in my opinion it is a lot easier to work with it like this.

One welcome addition to the develop stage are a number of presets, including various toning options (cyanotype, sepia), b+w conversions, and something called 'direct positive'. From what I can work out, this adds around +1.15EV to the exposure, and plays around with the contrast to give a very striking image which works especially well for fashion type images. Of course one can take this preset effect and adjust it to one's own preference. See the attached photo of Heleen for an example of how this can work

Within the Develop stage you also have the ability to do split toning, which basically gives the possibility of making toned images to your own preferences, and not just relying on the preconfigured Sepia and Cyanotype examples. Again some examples of these split tones can be seen in my Flickr photostream. Develop also supports the export of your images, and these can be automatically converted to jpg (or another format) images, assigned a colour profile, and then opened up in Photoshop or saved to disk. It is also possible to associate the export action with a Photoshop droplet, which could then, for example, add a custom frame around the edge of each image (the ability to add borders is something I feel is sadly missing from the product).

Once the developing has taken place, the next step is to display the images, and LR supports this with the Slideshow function, which allows you to show selected images as an onscreen slideshow. I really like this function, as you are not restricted to a single directory as the source for the slide show, but can instead set up a slide show based upon tags or labels, and add music (from directly within an iTunes playlist for example) and custom fade/slide progressions to the show. Ideal to show to a prospective client. The slideshow can also be exported as a pdf document, although of course the music does not get exported along with the pdf.

The Print stage allows you to set up an image for printing, and is something that I doubt I will do, since I still send away all my images to a pro lab for printing, but it seems a fairly flexible way of sending the image to a local printer.

The final stage is Web, and here Adobe has expanded the web templates from within Photoshop to give around 20 html and flash based web site designs. These can be customised to show your name, exposure details, and the colour schemes etc can be adjusted to your own personal tastes. It is definitely a very easy way to publish the images to the web, and can even upload to an ftp site automatically.

Overall, for a v1.0 Adobe has done a very good job in creating a market ready product, and I feel they have learnt from some of the weaknesses that Apple Aperture has. It uses many of the good Photographer's features from Photoshop, and expands on them to make them more friendly to the image maker. I am still discovering much of the product, but can already see that it will have a place in my workflow from now on. I will still use Photoshop from time to time, for example if I need to do cloning in an image, or play with some of the more advanced filters available, but for most of my standard stuff Lightroom will do the job.

It is available as a free 30 day trial from Adobe, and I would encourage you all to give it a go and let me know how you feel about it.....

Trip Report: Bavarian National Park (continued)

2007-02-22T21:27:00.001+01:00

Bavarian Water Landscape
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan.

One of the afternoons on the trip had been set aside for a walk to one edge of the forest to have a go at some landscapes. However this plan was quickly changed as it appeared that the recent high winds in the area had led to a number of trees falling, and blocking the pathways that we needed to use. There was a note from the forester warning of the danger, and since the fallen trees were covered with quite deep snow, we decided it wasn't worth starting the hike, especially since we were not sure how far we would be able to get.

So instead we decided to concentrate on the stream and treescapes around the car park area that we had parked in. I found it a perfect opportunity to use my recently purchased Neutral Density filters to play around with some long exposure times to get the water in the stream to blur out. The first example shown here was exposed for 30 seconds using the 12-24mm wide angle (at 24mm), and the second one for 25 seconds, using the 70-180mm Micro lens at 90mm.

I felt that using the long exposure added a bit of interest to an otherwise uninteresting subject. The ND filter allowed me to extend the exposure time for long enough to get the water to blur the right amount.

Of course, both shots required the use of a tripod and a cable release ;)

Trip Report: Bavarian National Park

2007-02-20T19:49:00.001+01:00

Lone Wolf
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan.

Spent the last five days in the Bavarian National Park with FotoCampus on an expedition to photograph the animals and landscapes around there.

The park itself, covering 200 hectares, is a "Tier-Freigelaende", meaning the animals housed there (over 45 species) are able to roam freely within their allotted enclosures, and care has been taken to simulate accurate living environments for each species.

The animals are enclosed within fenced areas, mainly to provide safety to the visitors, but also to protect the animals from the natural food chain that would otherwise be in place. Some of the animals represented include red deer, otters, wild pigs, wolves, bison, owls, lynx, beavers, wild cats, and brown bears. In terms of photographic opportunities, we concentrated on the brown bears, wolves, lynx, and wild cats.

The park is very popular with photographers, as it is one of the only places in central Europe where so many types of animals are accessible by visitors, whilst at the same time being able to roam freely. This of course creates many photographic opportunities, although this sometime is accompagnied by a long wait for some action.

We were lucky with the weather, as although there had been no recent snow fall, the temperatures were still around zero, and there had also been no rain, so there was still ample snow on the ground in many parts. This of course meant we needed to use some exposure compensation to avoid the snow influencing the scene, but the benefit of digital is that this is relatively simple to calculate by using the histogram on the back of the camera.

Since the park is spread over a large area, a lot of walking is necessary to reach the animals we were interested in. The wolf in the photo accompagnying this blog was at the top of a hill around 2km from the car park - and after pulling the beach rolly loaded with all my gear up quite steep inclines to get there, I was ready for a break before we had started.....

This shot was taken with my D200 and 200-400mm F/4G VR lens attached. Since the light forced me to use relatively long shutter speeds on occassions, the need for good technique was evident. It was difficult to get the nice sharp images one would expect from such a lens, and I really needed to work on my long lens technique in order to get good results. Still, after 4 days of trying, I think I am beginning to appreciate exactly when and how to use the lens.

More in a later blog......

Gone fishing

2007-02-14T23:32:00.001+01:00

Self Portrait
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan.

Will be away for a week or so, off to the Bavarian Forest in Germany for some wildlife photography together with Claus Brandt of FotoCampus.

But I will return soon hopefully with some good shots to share with you all..... :)

Magic Eraser

2007-02-12T19:47:00.001+01:00

Sigal 13
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan.

Sometimes a photo needs a little extra to really stand out. In 'real life' we have the advantage of being able to see things in 3d, which gives us the immediate benefit of being able to separate a person from the hustle and bustle of the background they are standing in front of, but with the photographic medium we only see in 2d, so a confusing or busy background can often do nothing other than spoil the picture.

One way I like to separate my subject from the background is by using the magic eraser and standard eraser tools in Photoshop. With Magic Eraser I am able to click on a single point in an image and remove that patch of colour from the image that I am working on, leaving a transparent layer in it's place. I can then fine tune the area that I have deleted using the standard eraser tool.

The way I like to use this with portrait photography, such as in the examples here, is to make a duplicate layer of the image, and then turn the background layer into a black and white image. Then as I erase the top layer, I am left with the black and white image showing through underneath.

It is important to have crisp, well defined edges between the black and white layer, and the colour layer, so I will normally get as close as possible with the eraser, and then zoom in on the image, and get really close, so that the only colour left in the image is the part that I wish to highlight. Toggling the background layer between visible and invisible can help to see parts that I have missed.

This can take some practice to get right, and an image created in this way will need a lot more time than a 'normal' image, but I think the results are worth the extra effort.

Jarvis Cocker

2007-02-08T22:40:00.000+01:00

Some more shots from the recent Jarvis Cocker concert that I was happy with.

I liked the b+w conversion I made on the first one, and used a new method to achieve it. Instead of using a gradient map together with the channel mixer to find the appropriate levels of each of the three RGB colors in grayscale, I used a gradient map together with individual curves for R, G, and B to adjust the impact that each channel had on the shot. This also enabled me to bring Jarvis away from the background, and stand out a bit more (compare this to the unaltered shot here. Once I had done that, I used the color balance to give the picture the silver blue tone that it has.

The next one was achieved again by adjusting the individual channels. Red was pulled up, and green pulled down until the colors were as I liked them. I think the effect works, but would welcome your opinion as to whether you think the photoshopping is overdone.....

The final shot is pretty much 'as shot', with a standard S curve for improved contrast. I liked the color of the light and the sharpness in this shot.

More photos from this concert can be seen here

Book Review: Michael Grecco - Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait: The Art of Celebrity and Editorial Photography

2007-02-06T22:11:00.001+01:00

Amazon.co.uk: Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait: The Art of Celebrity Editorial Photography: Books: Michael Grecco

New York born Michael Grecco started his career as a photojournalist for the Boston Herald, and worked his way up to become the (self proclaimed) Master of Portrait Photography. He now lives and works in Beverley Hills, on call to many of the rich and famous as their resident celebrity photographer.

When you first flick through his book, you may recognise some of the shots from the entertainment press, but although this book is a portfolio of much of his work, Michael has written it with the intention of providing portrait photographers, from beginners to advanced, with a technical resource book.

The first three chapters cover the camera, illumination, and the medium. The 'camera' chapter, and the 'medium' chapter (basically covering analog vs digital, and color palettes) don't really introduce much new, although they do set the scene quite well, but the chapter covering illumination really sets this book apart from many others on the same subject.

The book is approx 30cm square format, and each double page spread in the illumination chapter is devoted to a full page photograph, together with half a page of text explaining how the photograph was made, and half a page lighting diagram. So although the average reader is unlikely to have access to the same level of model that Michael does (the page on hard lighting is accompagnied by a photograph of Kate Winslet, and the page on high speed strobes by Jet Li....) at least he will have some ideas on how to replicate the same lighting situation with his own resources. This is something that I have found sadly lacking from many other books on lighting, and something I am sure I will refer back to in future when working in the studio.

The next chapter talks about 'Creativity and Conceptualization', and this is really where Grecco sets himself apart from Average Joe. He talks about how important it is to collaborate with the rest of the team (which is fair enough), but when you realise his team includes photo assistants, set builders, photo editors, wardrobe stylists, hairdressers, make up artists, talent scouts, location scouts, publicists, artistic directors, lighting technicians, etc etc, it makes you wonder if he has someone to press the shutter button for him as well ;)

But joking aside, he does make some very helpful suggestions about how to go about designing and visualising a picture, and in the following chapter, 'The connection' talks about the best ways to build up a relationshop between the model and the photographer.

The final third of the book is filled up with case studies, in which Grecco introduces more images from his collection, and talks about the way he made each shot.

The book is just short of 200 pages, softcover, but printed on high quality glossy paper, and written in an easy to follow language.

This is a great book for anyone interested in getting some new ideas in portrait photography, and also for those who want to see a high quality collection of celebrity images, but what really made the book for me was the presentation of and the story behind the images, combined with the technical details and set ups that he had used.

Blogged with Flock

Circle of Fear

2007-02-05T23:02:00.001+01:00

Baby Seal
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan.

When starting out in wildlife photography there are a number of things that the photographer needs to think about. Apart from the obvious stuff, such as which camera, which lens, and which exposure settings to use, it is also very important to take into consideration the animal and the environment in which it is living.

When taking the accompanying photo, it was important to maintain the correct distance from the seal, since otherwise I would be entering the animal's 'circle of fear'. This circle is really made up of 4 rings - in the outer ring, the animal is not aware of your presence, and goes about his daily business without worrying about what you are doing.

In the next ring, the animal may be aware of your presence, but at this point he is not too bothered by what you are doing.

The third ring is where the problems begin, as the animal has now become fully aware of your proximity to him, and will prepare to flee. Obviously the environmentally conscious photographer does not want to be in this ring of the circle, as he will be upsetting the animal, causing him to depart from his natural habitat, in search of safer ground.

The final ring, or core, of the circle of fear, is the most dangerous for the photographer. This is where the animal is no longer sure that he can flee, and instead (depending on the animal) will prepare to attack in order to defend himself.

Normally a wildlife will restrict himself to the outer two rings of the circle of fear.

In order to take this photo of the seal, I was using a 500mm F/4 AFS Nikkor attached to my D200, with my Gitzo tripod as support, and I had spent the previous 15 minutes crawling across the beach on my belly in order to stay unnoticed by the seal. I was probably around 10-15 meters away at the point of exposure, and would estimate I was around the boundary of the outer ring and the second ring. I was at a safe enough distance so that the seal was barely aware of my presence, and I was safe.

Now in the case of the seals here, the risk of attack was not so great, but with more vicious animals, such as the bears I will be meeting in a couple of weeks in Bavaria, or the lions in Africa, the circle of fear may determine whether or not I return home....... ;)

Thanks to Claus Brandt of FotoCampus for teaching me the basics of the circle of fear on our trip to Helgoland :)

Subscribe to my Blog!

2007-02-04T22:40:00.000+01:00

Due to the power of the Internet ;) it's now possible to receive all the updates to this blog in your inbox..... just click here or enter your email address in the box on the right hand column on this page.

Updates are sent out using the Feedblitz service, who promise not to spam......

You can also use this service to subscribe to any other blog you find on the Internet - just visit the Feedblitz web site and enter the address of the blog you would like to follow.....

Book Review: Skin, Lee Varis

2007-02-04T20:32:00.001+01:00

Amazon.com: Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies: Books: Lee Varis

Book Review:

I purchased this book on a recent trip to the US after reading recommendations from fellow photographers on the Strobist Blog. The title, "Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies" should give you an idea of what goes on between the covers, and this was the reason that I had purchased the book - I wanted to know a little bit more about using the digital medium to photograph people.

However, if this was all I was expecting, I was in for a pleasant surprise - the author, Lee Varis, has been working as a Hollywood photographer for over three decades, and in this time has seen many changes in the way photographers work. He was early in embracing the new digital medium, and used his first digital camera setup already in 1990. So with this book he has aimed to share some of the knowledge gained in 15 years as a digital people photographer with his reader.

I found his writing style easy to read and understand, and the book approached the subject in a well structured manner, starting off with chapters on 'digital imaging basics' and 'color management, workflow and calibration', before moving on to more in depth topics such as 'lighting and photographing people', introducing some new techniques that I hadn't thought about before along the way.

But chapters 4 to 8 are where the real fun starts. His approach is to go through a detailed look at many of the Photoshop features that relate to people photography, together with examples and exercises (a companion CD accompagnies the book). Although the examples he uses are specifically related to people, I found that the information I learnt has helped me in general regarding my use of Photoshop - the chapter on 'Tone and Contrast: Color and B+W' is an excellent look at different ways the individual channels play a role in both color and black and white imagery (I have already put many of these techniques into play in my b+w conversions), and the section on 'The Color of Skin', which basically explains contrast, tone, and the advanced use of curves, also provides a much needed overview of this genre.

Furthermore, Lee covers in some detail image retouching, and final print preparation, including a detailed methodology behind image sharpening.

I would recommend this book to any medium to advanced Photoshop users, especially those working with portrait and fashion photography, although as I said, all of the techniques can be applied outside of the realm of 'skin' photography.

technorati tags:book review, skin, lee varis

Blogged with Flock

Night time in Cannes

2007-02-03T20:32:00.001+01:00

Cannes at night
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan.

Spent much of the previous week at Cisco Networkers in Cannes, in the South of France. Since I was working during most of the daylight hours, my photography time was restricted to the start and the end of the day. Luckily there was room in my case for my tripod, so was able to get a couple of night time shots of the center of Cannes.

I had the 12-24mm wide angle zoom on my Nikon D200, and this was shot at 22mm, ISO100, for 15s@f16. I could have shot for a shorter exposure at a wider aperture, and due to the large depth of field of the lens, I would still have had enough of the photo in focus, but I always prefer to expose slightly longer to allow relatively fast moving objects (such as cars or people) to fail to register on the sensor, giving a cleaner final image.

Obviously these sort of images would not be possible without the use of a good tripod. But with the accessibility of cheaper compact digital cameras these days, more and more people are expecting their choice of technology to deliver good results, even in the dead of night.

A couple of tips for those people ;)

1) Don't use flash! The in built flash on the average compact camera will only reach a couple of meters. In the case of the scene photographed above, that would have left me with well exposed paving slabs, and the only part of the background image that would have registered would be the bright lights on the buildings.

2) If possible, use a night mode, manual mode, or bulb mode. The aim here is to get a reasonably long exposure time and a reasonable aperture for the depth of field....

3) USE A TRIPOD! Most cameras these days have a screw thread in the base plate, allowing a tripod to be connected. This will allow the camera to be held motionless during the period of the exposure, which is important in avoiding blur. Hand holding the camera for night photography does not work - even if the image looks reasonably sharp on the camera preview screen, when it is uploaded to the computer, you will realise that it is not.

In choosing a tripod there is no need to spend a large amount of money - for a compact camera there is plenty of choice around the 30Euro mark, and this will be good enough for what you need. It is also possible to find camera supports with extendable legs that are close to pocket size.

Shooting Gigs

2007-01-26T21:15:00.001+01:00

Jarvis Cocker
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan.

If you look at my Flickr photostream you will see that I have shot a couple of concerts over the past couple of monthes, including the one pictured here, Jarvis Cocker, at Paradiso Amsterdam on the 22nd January 2007. Jarvis has been a favourite of mine ever since his Pulp days, and when I heard he would be playing in Amsterdam, I decided to take my camera along for a few shots. Since Paradiso in Amsterdam doesn't have such a strict door policy, it is fairly easy to get my camera gear in and out without being spotted :) Using the gear I normally take with me (typically my Nikon D200 and a fast prime, such as the 85mm f1.4 or the 50mm f1.8), I generally run into one of two 'problems' that need to be dealt with once I get back into my digital lab.

The first of those problems is noise. With the D200 there is a lot of discussion on the Internet about how good or bad the D200 is at dealing with noise, especially when it is compared with some of the higher end Canon models. I find shooting with the Nikon at high ISOs can generally deliver good results right up the ISO scale, providing the exposure is as close to spot on as you can get it when taking the image. But of course since the light at concerts is generally 'variable', I tend to try to keep the ISO set to 640 or less, with the occassional forage into ISO800 if I am feeling lucky.

I find at ISO640 I can get reasonable results, and using a combination of a noise reduction plug in such as Noise Ninja, and curves to deal with noise in the shadows, I end up with something approaching acceptable.

The second issue I am generally faced with is lighting and on stage effects, such as smoke machines. And until recently I was at a loss as to how to deal with occassions such as this rather greenish yellow image, caused by strong on stage lighting and some smoke.

But after reading some chapters in Lee Varis' excellent guide to post processing people shots, Skin, I realised that my solution may be also be in the use of some more complicated curves. I managed to achieve the result at the top of the article by playing around with my curves, but this time instead of adjusting the top level RGB curve, I went down to the Red, Green, and Blue channels individually, and changed them until I had got the skin tones and back lighting exactly to my liking. And I think you will agree the rework is definitely a lot better than the original.......

More shots from this concert here

Before the Storm

2007-01-25T20:28:00.001+01:00

Before the Storm
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan.

The weather last week in the Netherlands was somewhat dramatic.... a storm raged through Noord Holland, with winds of up to 130kph, causing devastation and loss of life. Obvioulsy not really a time for photographs (unless you want your camera to get *really* wet), but by the next day we had bright skies again. This shot was taken a couple of days later, before another downpour, and I was able to take advantage of the water that had fallen before to give me some nice reflections.

Although I think the silhouettes worked quite well on this shot, it reminded me I still need to get some graduated ND filters so that I can get a better exposure match when there is a vast difference in the brightness between foreground and background.....

You're not from round here, are you?

2007-01-20T23:22:00.001+01:00

Abandoned House
Originally uploaded by DigitalHeMan.

During a recent trip to Dallas took the opportunity to venture out for a day to Fort Worth, a couple of miles down the road. The differences between the two cities were fairly stark - Dallas on the one hand is a thriving metropole, set up by the oil business, and maintained by the computer business, placing Dallas on the edge of America's second Silicon Valley. But Fort Worth still appears a fairly run down midwest place with a small town mentality. Although the center has some evidence of modernisation, the suburbs are still well and truly placed in the early 80s. Houses look like they would quiver, shake, and fall down at the slightest sign of a hurricane, and a lack of money has left many of them in a state of disrepair. Compared to Dallas, the citizens seem to be suffering from a lack of cash, and the large American vehicles they are travelling around in are definitely not this year's model.
Still, it's an interesting place for some photography, if you can escape without upsetting too many of the locals. I was with a friend, Philip, and on a number of occassions people came out to take a look at what we were doing. And the size of the dogs some people had roaming in their porches unleashed meant we didn't stay around too long in some places.
The photo here, severely warped with the help of a fisheye, was taken under the watchful eye of one of the locals. We had discovered some old derelict buildings on the edge of Fort Worth, which invited us to walk around some and take some pictures. As we arrived at the place, which was located near a factory of some sorts, the workers seemed to be leaving, and one big Ford F150 driver took an interest in us getting out of our car, stopping his truck next to ours. As we walked off, he drove down the street very slowly, and parked up adjacent to where we were taking photos (we were off road). Then as we moved along the site, so did his truck. He didn't say a word to us, but just kept gazing blankly at us. In a state where it is perfectly legal to carry a firearm around with you, it didn't make me feel particularly easy ;)
I discussed this with a friend later in the evening, and he told me that he had been out shooting in some woods a couple of years ago, also near Fort Worth, with another friend. At a certain point a couple of trucks pulled up, and a bunch of shaven headed white guys stepped out. They asked my friend if he had seen a young black boy in a white tshirt and jeans anywhere close that afternoon, as they would 'like to have a little word with him'. When half of the guys have baseball bats, it definitely makes you think.....
The Midwest, it would seem, still has a lot of steps to take to catch up with the rest of America......

Car park management is not liable for any loss or damage to yourvehicle......

2007-01-18T13:34:00.001+01:00

Was recently in the US, in Dallas, Texas, where I picked up two new lenses: the Nikkor 10,5mm Fisheye, and the Nikkor 12-24mm wide angle zoom. Spent some of my spare time playing around with them and trying new things out.

For this photo I used the fisheye, which has the ability to make a very ordinary scene look special. Here's an example of just that - this was a car I found on the top layer of a multi storey car park that I had originally had entered to try and find a good vantage point to take some night shots of Dallas. It seemed the car park was also in use as a junk yard for abandoned/stolen cars, and there were a number of cars up there in various states of disrepair.

This photo was taken at around 11pm, with only a small amount of light being provided by a couple of car park lights. The actual exposure used was 30 seconds at f7.1, and I exposed for so long to enable me to get the surreal colors, as well as the movement from the trees (it was a fairly windy night).

On a side note, one thing I learnt from the trip was always to take the right accessories along.... I had a tripod together with my Markins M10 ball head, but the camera plate on my D200 had become loose.... and of course I didn't have the allen key with me. Luckily I could fix it by jamming a few business cards between the mount and the body, and it didn't cause me too many issues.

2006 - Getting back into photography

2007-01-17T21:56:00.000+01:00

2006 really started at the end of 2005, when I met up with fellow Nikonians at a Nikonians Christmas get together in Brussels. One of the presentations was from the 2005 trip to Helgoland, and it wasn't too long before Ferd, Patrick, and Claus had convinced me to go along on the 2006 trip to Helgoland in Germany in April.

I travelled up to Helgoland together with Ferd, and on arrival realised my rather modest photo outfit paled in significance to some of the big guns that were on display there. Luckily Claus had arranged with Nikon Professional Service in Germany to borrow some of their loaners, so there was enough big glass to get me hooked (and to provide me with a long shopping list once I returned to the Netherlands.)

Once I returned, having enjoyed 10 days of early morning to shoot the seals, and fun afternoons on bird's rock, I made a visit to my dealer, Foto Konijnenberg in Den Ham, and returned home with all the goodies I would need for future trips, including a Nikon 200-400 VR, and the 70-200 :)

Some of the photos from that that trip can be seen in my Flickr account, but here's one for starters:

Welcome!

2007-01-17T21:47:00.000+01:00

Welcome to my blog, thanks for stopping by. Not sure how this is going to progress, or how regularly it is going to be updated, but my intention with this blog is to share with you some of my photography, my impressions and opinions about photography, and what I am currently up to. Let me know what you think, and please feel free to leave me a comment!