Camera equipment for sale

I have started an ebay run of some camera gear. Click on the link below to go to ebay and then have a look at the rest of the items.

A Leica IIIC Rangefinder Camera

How do you get people to relax for portraits

I have been asked this allot, and i will tell you my secret. I let them relax by starting the portrait session at 200mm and end up at 70mm by the time the session ends. Staying along way away from them makes them feel less intimidated. I also say very little, which may sound strange but the more you talk to them the more they realise their having a portrait session. I am now running courses teaching relaxed portraits, give me an email to find out more. rich@pureprints.com

rb

Portraits -Too many rules

There seem to be so many rules in photography and when your learning you are made to feel like you should follow them all. A photographer I know who is an excellent portrait photographer who see's an image and just reacts without following all the rules has just had a panel of his work rejected by the BIPP. I personally follow no rules of composition except one ' If it looks right then it is composed right' The composition is your personal choice and no critic can really tear it apart. Everyone has an opinion but it is yours that matters first.

rb

Switch to Manual Mode

I have used all the cameras i have owned in manual mode for the past 15 years or so, until i started using canon digital cameras. I then switched and started using them in aperture priority AV mode and made adjustments with exposure compensation + or - 1 stop ect. After using Adobe lightroom for all our weddings I have noticed a major advantage to going back to using manual mode for 90% of the images captured at a wedding. I now walk into the church and take a manual hand held reading using a sekonic digital meter. At 1600 ISO the reading is usually 1/30th at f4 for most churches give or take about 1 stop. Everything photographed in the church is based around this reading and i work manually. When these images are imported into lightroom later on it is much easier to consistently alter the images when the exposure was consistent at the time of exposure.

When I photograph the groups I use one manual reading and check the histogram to make sure the brides dress main highlight area is not blown out. As long as the sun has gone behind a 'kind' cloud in the sky the exposure stays the same. The cameras meter is not effected by the groups changing. Later on in lightroom the groups have had the same lighting and exposure and can all be tweaked at the same time with the help of lightrooms syc tool. If you would like to learn more about this technique we run wedding workshops throughout the autumn and winter months.

rb

Canon eos 5D MkII Video/Preview

Canon Eos 5D Mk2 / Mk11 Noise at High ISO's

I have just returned from a great wedding at LLangoed Hall Hotel in Wales and it rained all day. It was very dull all day and I used the 5D at ISO 1600/3200 most of the time. The group photographs had to be arranged inside with very little light bouncing around a large room. The largest group was 15 Guests and the ceiling was about 12 ft off ground level. I thought to myself I wish I had a new Canon eos 5D Mk II with low noise at ISO 3200. But I have got the good old Mk 1 and had to use ISO 1600 with F5.6 Shutter 1/60th and a canon 580ex Mk II with large Gary Fong Light sphere Diffuser. I use this  set up quite allot for winter indoor group shots and it works well. The 5D at Iso 1600 is good and the recycle time of the flash is reduced by the high ISO. The light sphere spreads the light all around the room and makes it look like flat natural daylight. I hope the 5D MkII noise level is cleaner at ISO 1600 than the 5D as this will make a difference to me when using this technique.

rb