First Try Of The New Studio

A little set of tests, starring my my long suffering wife and intrigued, but not entirely comfortable youngest, Daisy.

Keen to reassure myself that an all white studio would not be a mistake, I went black and Caravaggio-like. The backdrop is a 200x250 Neewer black/white soft cloth collapsible backdrop, one of the many things that may get a go now I have a studio.

All shots were taken with the Pen F and 45mm at f2 to 4, ISO 200.

Nothing in the league of Rory Lewis, but a start.

A single YN560 IV at about 1/8 into a feathered 26” double baffle soft box with grid, with a small silver fill reflector off to the side only just managing a little rim light. Meg is sitting just a foot from the black foldout background.

The 4’ Neewer, with no fill.

Again, the Neewer 4’. Very soft, very muted and a touch warm.

Lessons learned;

The Pen F struggles to ficus without its assist lamp in poor light,

Reviewing inmages on the rear screen in poor light continually tricks me into underexposing, which all of the above were to some extent.

Everything I have at hand now has a use, either as a studio, video or general stills item. I had a lot of bits accumulated over the last two or more years that ran the risk of not seeing use. Now my oversized backdrop, in fact all of my backdrops, my many reflectors and several mods including a strip box, 24” double baffle soft box (those that did not already get added to the video equation), are now going to be utilised fully.

Crossings, Action Resumed

Waiting at corners is a good method to find where people accumulate, but crossings and walkways are where they mix and animate.

Hugs

In just one short day, in a COVID savaged city, I saw so many examples of peoples need for contact.

Where there is ife……..

Corners, Where The Action Is.

Loitering on corners is an occupation for a variety of careers, street photographers included.

It’s because, this is where the action is and where it often stops for a moment or two.

Big Theatre

Along the same lines as a previous post on Mise en Scene, here a few more “cinematic” scenes.

I really love how cities shape light. The residents likely do not see it, just live it, but for a fresh eyed visitor looking for it, it is gold.

Unintentional Street Clown

Coincidence, humour or satire are often used for street imaging. I tend to avoid these as I feel good light and an interesting subject are enough, but even then, stuff happens.

Not my idea of street imaging, just a lucky (unlucky) coincidence.

More Studio Thoughts

Over on the tech page, I ahve outlined my studio aspirations.

I dont want much :).

I would like small space to feel infinately large, to have a brilliant light spac eor dark and moody one and i, knowing me, have to accomodate my many moods when it comes to colour and texture.

All in an 8x10’ space?

Wall colour has become critical (I am writing this while putting off the first strokes of white paint).

My thinking is this;

If my backdrop can be basically any colour based on a white and grey roll of paper/vinyl/cloth and C1 processing, gels or RGB LED’s, then I can create on that wall any mood. Texture is another matter, but I have other plans there involving separate panels.

If I then have a white wall on the right side and a dark (green/grey/blue?) wall on the left side, then all I have to do is modify one or the other to get a solid light or dark environment. For the right wall I have a 12’ Neewer black background cloth and for the left I have a selection of white cloth or panel reflectors.

The respective sides. The window light starts low right, moving up to the left by mid morning, so the white right wall will catch it.

If I am using both as painted, then one becomes the fill wall, the other, the negative fill wall.

Conversely, if I paint the whole room one colour (shade), then I will have problems when i want the opposite effect, needing to fill it all with white or black panels.

Ok, time to paint.

EM1x Rig Completed

The last bits of the EM1x rig are here.

They consist of a quick release adapter for the universal half cage, so I can now remove the EM1x by simply unscrewing the base plate screw and loosening the QR adapter, then just slide the camera out. This is just right.

A wonder of Camvate, Smallrig, Niceyrig and a little Neewer, it is mostly left-overs with a few needed parts.

A massive brute, but heavy like a pro camera and well balanced, especially with the weights attached.

Three leftover weights from my gimbal. They take seconds to add and make all the difference.

The camera is very secure in its housing, but it previously felt like I have to pull the whole thing apart to get it ready for stills. Basically from 5 screws to 2 and I only need a coin for a screw driver, not two sizes of hex key.

The final part, the quick release, joining the rig top plate to the hot shoe. Without this i had to unscrew two small hex nuts after taking the handle off.

Another nice touch is that the 197mm long side stem is now a perfect fit for this rig.

The Smallrig mini top handle, originally purchased as a protective side handle for the G9 has been replaced by a wooden handle (the one I bought the Camvate half cage with), but its true purpose seems to be here doing exactly what it as bought for, protection for a screen and a contact point for the AF by touch screen, hand.

The two Camvate cold shoes are just for options. They are very tight fitting, so I will have to double check anything I might want to add on using them (cannot take a Smalllrig heavy duty ball head or Neewer plastic shock mount, but fine with most else).

Even the upside down printed Camvate plate has a use. This cold shoe takes the Zoom F1-SSH6 mic combo.

The side-on profile is neat with no protrusions or left over stems.

I had mostly turned my back on Olympus for video, but recently a few things have changed my mind;

• Processing the flat files in DaVinci is very easy and pleasant.

• The stabiliser and heft of the EM1x are way better than the G9 except in static stabiliser mode, where the G9 draws even.

• The colours and look add another dimension (but needs 4k).

• The touch AF is very reliable as is the auto WB. The WB always falls within flat grading range.

• I can now match the look of the three cameras (EM1, G9, OSMO) better after acquainting myself with DaVinci’s options.

The Real Advantages Of Being A Still Photographer

Still photography and videography are obviously different forms of related media, but after a rocket six months of video adoption, I can honestly say that on the whole, the stills shooter has the easiest road to travel.

Formats;

Shooting in RAW is daunting for some photographers, but seriously, the power so easily at hand is a real gift. I almost never have to worry about miss-cued exposures or white balance in my stills work and with the quality of light meters, even on my lowliest cameras, there are few genuine stuff-ups. To be hinest the dynamic range of an MFT sensor and RAW, I can almost always retrieve something workable.

Video has the dual issues of multiple formats on several levels and for most of us, limited file flexibily. Just to add salt to the wound, different brands all have their own formats, that are actually different in processing response and processing is equally varied and more complicated than stills.

RAW to jpeg with all the quality you would want.

Delivery;

This brings us to delivery, or the end process and what it supplies you or your client (or self). Single images, often single shots taken from sequences or even entire shoot are simply a matter of open minded perseverence, adaptability and practice. Being creative is often just a matter of remembering a different lens, bending down or changing angle and the whole time you are thinking/looking/moving, you are not expected produce work, just the moments you commit.

Video delivery, like formats and processing has multiple options, so choices have to be made. Unlike an still image, not every format plays on every device. On top of that, I cannot upload the huge files, my Dropbox would hate me, so I have to hand deliver them.

Lighting;

Fast glass with fast AF in all but the most extreme circumstances will get any user of any format pu tof trouble. You also have more than enough pixels to shoot wide and stabilisers for single sots are getting better and better. Time it well and even a 1/8th of a second shot of an animate subject can work and of course that may come from a dozen or more images. Flash units are powerful for little outlay, super grunty for a little more. It is possible to overpower the sun with a $100 flash unit and modifiers are all the choices videographers have and many more. The assumption is also that these lights will be daylight balanced unless gelled or modified otherwise.

Video, being constant requires strong, continuous and colour corrected light. Strength is not an issue unless colour is, then the big, cheap flood lights builders use become an issue. Modifying these lights is also harder.

Easily balanced with a naturally lit still image, but hard work for video.

Storage;

I can chew through 5-800 images in a big project, which usually takes up the bulk of a 16gb card and maybe some of another. These cards are often base grade as I do not need more. A series of 20mp RAW images may tax the buffer, but I do not shoot that way.

After editing, I often ditch at least half of these images, storing the better original RAWS for later and putting the submitted ones into the cloud. Even with my relatively slow internet, they go up fast enough. I once lusted after a jpeg work flow, likely to be a Fuji based one as they at time produced jpegs that were close to their RAW images (sometimes better in Adobe), but I could not break the RAW habit.

Video eats up capacity and requires speed. Even 1080 with a reasonable bit rate and colour depth can be taxing. A reviewer of the new GH6 worked out that a full wedding day shoot with two cameras and backups at 900mb 6k would cost him $8500us in cards!

Quality;

20mp does all I need. I have supplied images for a billboard, several 6’ wide signs and a minibus, all from 20mp MFT files and all were cropped to some extent. Quality is not an issue these days. Too much quality can be, but no real risk of falling short in a techncal sense.

Most of us only need 720p for net use or 1080p for better, but the call of 4k and higher is getting stronger. The irony is, video needs less improvement in resolution than stills, but tends to be more obsessed by it. Ironically, we often chase the “cinematic” look, which requires sharpness reducing filters! Good video seems to walk a fine line between realism and objective quality. Too sharp and it is too digiatl video for most people. Too soft and it looks low grade.

Channelling The Early Days Of Colour Film

There is something about early (50’s to 70’s) colour that really talks to me. Reds, yellows and green-browns in particular jump out, partly for their iconic relevance and partly because Kodachrome film favoured them.

Kodachrome circa 1975? Maybe even a little William Eggleston, Harry Callahan or Harry Gruyaert.

Not sure about this one, but it screamed “film” to me.

Fuji Velvia maybe, the next wave of films that championed blues and cool greens, but struggled with skin tones.

Back to Kodak colours.

The early Olympus sensors and processors had a very Kodachrome feel.

Teal And Amber

Watch any current Hollywood or upper end TV production at the moment and you will see, more or less, a lot of ‘complimentary colour” technique. The current combination “on trend” is Teal and Amber or something close. I think one reason these two are so often used is they are commonly found in highlights with Anamorphic lenses, but it is likely more primeival, representing the sky and fire.

The clean, cool brilliance of Teal blue-green contrasted with the euphorically warm and comforting Amber, is addictive and a lot of current movie makers seem to have the addiction.

My wife is getting a little sick of my pointing out how it is used, but just in the last few weeks we have seen so many examples of theis. “The Responder” set in a night shift UK city setting is effectively shot exclusively with a tense contrast of these, the latest “Bond” movie, Star Trek, Most Marvel movies, to “Van De Valk” and even the last series of “Vera”, a show not often taken to using visual tricks, and so many more, use these two colours (or similar) to set and balance mood.

Meg in Melbourne. This is the little 17 f1.8 wide open and razor sharp in close. Love this lens.

Ticket shock.

The most common combination available to us all every sunny morning.

The New And Improved Zoom F1 Dynamic

The F1 Zoom looks to be a real game changer.

It has a few real benefits, some unrealised before purchase and some small niggles, but nothing that cannot be fixed.

• It has made the SSH-6 a fully realised shotgun on camera or hand held. The reality is, I would have struggled long term with the H5/SSH-6 shotgun setup, likely buying a whole other mic like a Diety D3 or MKE 600 Sennheisser, which to a fair extent would have negated some of the point of the SSH, which I consider to be a very good mic for the money if you have a Zoom to put it on.

• It is a better, more focussed recorder for the shotgun (or Lav), carrying less “fluff” and therefore less bulk than the H5. This means the menu is simplified, ideal for run-n-gun, as you have plenty to worry about already and some settings like the mid-side control as a one touch with clearer settings (increments of degrees rather than -25 to +6) are well thought out.

• It uses small batteries and small cards, same as the H1n, my other on the go mic. Consistency is great. I have one kit with these two in it and one with the H5 and its bigger batts and cards.

• Having it reduces dismantling and mount ware. The SSH-6 on the H5 needed to be dismantled to pack away and having no cover for the H5’s contacts, I replaced it with the XYH5 mic each and every time. These things are well enough made, but I could see this being a likely failure point sometime in the future. I will swap them out occasionally, but its nice to not have to.

• It looks cool.

• It turns on much faster. Turning off is the same 2 second hold, but on is super quick. There have been a few times, I have thought the H5 was on when it wasn’t and even a few when the delay has mixed me up a bit (it does not help that you cannot see the screen from any angle but above. The F1 has a little conformation light at the rear that helps.

• For the $400au it cost (all up), I could have an MKE 600 with 3.5 adapter, but I would not have all of the other features and benefits available like Lav recording, self contained recording, other capsule configurations etc (or the guarantee of a better pre-amp).

• It gives me a compact X/Y option. This is even smaller, cleaner and more robust than the H1n and with a dedicated shock mount.

• It allows me to have both capsules in action at the same time. Two mic options, so no tough choices to be made.

Ready for battle, the balance of the rig and mic itself is much improved and that dead critter really works.

• The buttons happen to be on the right sides (mostly the right side) for my usage. This is of course subjective, but the H5’s on/off is on the left side and hard to reach with the rig shown. The F1’s is on the right avoid the handle side.

• It recognises Lithium batts, the H5 does not.

Negatives (nothing terminal).

• The F1 is simpler and more compact than the “hub” H5, but with that comes a reduction in deeper specs, such as no -20db pad (not really needed for it’s input options), no equalising or modifiable attenuation and it records in stereo only. This makes menu navigation cleaner than even the H1n and leaves tons of room for it’s capabilities to shine.

• The shock mount is really solidly attached, but a pain to remove so I likely won’t unless I use it as a remote Lav. This makes the assembled unit too long and deep for my small travel cases, but I have been putting off buying one good hard case for all my mics anyway.

• The volume setting on the unit (not used with a capsule) is in ten steps, but rather than just setting ten numerical steps, Zoom have used Low-, Low, etc to High++. Why not just use 1 to 10 like their capsules?

The Struggle Continues

Colour or Mono?

I have fallen mostly on the side of mono for my personal work and colour for work (not much choice there).

Street tends to fall into a difficult place for me. Colour is my core process, mono becomes the fall back or change of pace, but sometimes an image forces my hand.

Not sure here. I saw mono when I shot it, colour when I processed it, then mono again when I revisited the file.

The Leaf Test

When starting out as a photographer or videographer, learning how light works is equally the biggest hurdle and the door to most advancement.

As an example, do this simple test.

Go outside on a sunny day. Photograph a leaf with the sun behind you (do one in shadow and one in full lght). Then shoot the same leaf into the sun, using the leaf to block the direct sunlight, or shoot at a slight angle if needed as you will likely also discover the full effect of “flare” on your lens.

The difference should be obvious and the effect on how you see light, just as strong.

Shooting into the light can cause you some technical issues, but there is no denying the added drama it offers.

My favourite lens for this type of shooting is the robust and versatile Olympus f1.8 17mm. It is not immune to flare and glare, but it can take a bit of pain.

The light does not have to be strong, just coming your way.

“Into the pink”. This is about the worst I will use, but is thankfully rare enough.

Mise En (Street) Scene

It struck me, coming from far too much time absorbing video and movie making terms and techniques, that my street photography process has much in common with the core of movie making, “Mise en Scene”, literally “setting the scene”.

Setting the scene and “blocking” (coordinating the angles and movements of the players within the scene) are the foundatons of film making. Still photography can often be directly linked to this, being a small slice of this taken mid-process and street photography, to me anyway is very much an exemplar of this process.

I realised this on the Melbourne trip when my basic process for street shooting seamlessly merged with my thinking and visualisation for “setting the scene” with video.

Find the space, set the light, place the subject(s) and allow the movement to happen.

Light, camera and action, except that the movement is arrested leaving your mind to play scene out.

Time and again, I found myself composing a still image, that would likely have been better employed as a stage. This also came with the realiseation that I am often composing images without people in them, capturing the stage the actors will enter.

This closes a loop for me, helping me to understand why I like to shoot spaces both empty and occupied. They are effectively the same thing, a stage, empty or “blocked”. It makes no difference to me in any real sesne. People are assumed.

There can be many ugly places in a big city, but thee are many pionts of beauty also.

“This way or that?”

Light in large cities can be very stage like. Reflections can bounce around creating both even and interesting effects. I like living in a large town/small city, but this light, reserved for bigger centres, is addictive.

Breaking the rules is part of the process with mixed results.

More light as an essential element of scene setting.

Like A Film Set

Setting the stage with street photography, becomes a matter of finding the stage, then waiting for the actors to enter.

Melbourne tends to throw up a lot of these “stages”.

Timing is all. Being there at a good time, waiting then grabbing any moments that move you. My standard operationg proceedure tends to be wander, see, grab, which misses the main point, patience. Occassionally, I get lucky, often I have to compromise.

Just Folks

My major draw for street imaging is people. Sometimes my images lack people, heroing instead the places people do or will use, but either way, people are the thing.

I have said before, that a strong street image needs three things happening before I feel it is fully developed. Any less and it needs a very strong subject and message, but ideally, it should have both.

Respect for a pair of shooters ready to go. No lens caps, camera on. The man on the left was sporting a big white lens on an SLR. Hard to hide, but what ever works for you I guess.

At least an image should have an emotional element.

None of the images above are what I would call strong, but each has one or more elements of a decent street snap, somethng that made them stand out enough to go the next step, so they deserve a little light.

A Short Trip, Big Effect

We took a short trip to Melbourne in the weekend. This is for me the first time on a plane in over two years, which is a record of some sort (but I am sure I am not alone).

The unplanned, unguided and basiclly unscripted trip, totalling a late flight in, a day wandering and an early morning out had a much stronger effect on me than the short duration would indicate.

I photographed for the first time in over two years with absolutely no pressures applied. No work requirements, no self inflicted expectations, no “theme” or “style” assumed. Just wander and shoot*.

Nice to see people out, without the tell-tale COVID requirements.

Melbourne supplied relatively exotic sights, great light and a street friendly populace.

Big cities, especially on sunny days early or late, tend to glow with reflected light.

I must admit to feeling a little unsettled the whole trip, which I put down to the novelty and relative fragility of travel these days, but once moving, it melted away, replaced by exploration and anticipation.

“Glowacious” as one of the Western boys would say.

The trip even seemed to stir something more up in me. Hot on the heels of a general malaise I have been feeling with both my photography and gaming (not video, loving that), I hatched a sceme on the plane trip home that was realised today, netting me two rooms of the house better employed for both hobbies/jobs.

I now have a nicer space for gaming, with no monster table dominating the space (switching to Matts has allowed me a “set up-pull down” table dynamic) and a small studio. Small meaning upper body portraits and tests only, but enough room to do these well (roughly 4x3m) and my growing collection of photo/video gear is well organised finally. There is also plenty of room to set up my 7x5 table in that space when needed.

*EPM-2 on a 60” cross body strap, 17mm f1.8 in aperture priority ranging from f1.8 to f5.6 and either in AF (wide central area) or zone focus MF set to 2m.

Selens Win?

I got the Selens light today.

The box is unbranded, but otherwise the same as the Neewer SL-60w (although their are two fronts pictured, one the same as the Neewer, one different and the actual light is the different one).

The casing is the same except for the red light on top (that does not seem to do anything), but is again, unbranded and the light has two names, one on the box and a different one on the instructions. I guess we all know that brands like Neewer just brand generically mass produced stuff, but is this a level below Neewer or the same thing in plain wrap?

The LCD is identical, although the dial seems smoother, watch this space as this theme keeps recurring.

The cable is the same 4m length but the plug is nicer. The light end is also a nicer fit. Both Neewers needed a good push to make contact, the Selens just went in smoothly.

The remote is light and plasticky like the Neewers, but seems nicer, more modern and has more buttons for more intuitive operation. I have not yet checked to see i fit will run the Neewers, but I bet it will.

The light output looks to be close, so as I suspected, the devil is in the (hidden) detail. Two identically exposed images below, the Selens on the right, which may have a tiny bit more grunt and is more open-less focussed. Maybe a half stop more, but not the 3x more that was advertised.

Interestingly, the model number on the box is 150, on the instructions it is called the KW-200. Maybe 100w is most accurate. I thought it may have been brighter out wide, but it looked (and read on camera) much the same. They look matched for colour balance, maybe a little warm, which is fine and expected. The slight difference in angle is me “mr lazy science experiment” moving.

It is heavier. I did not notice until I was swapping them, but it feels about 1/3 heavier, and denser inside. You can see into the Neewer thanks to some air space and internal lights, the Selens is solid, dark and mysterious.

Here is the biggie.

The Neewers have an audible, though quiet enough fan which activates pretty much immediately when the light is set to 100% or running at most other settings for a short time.

I shot an interview the other day with the subject on the other side of a brolly to the light at 2m and the mic aimed roughly straight at it at 3m. The subject had his back to an open door and I could hear vehicle noises, children playing and birds outside up to 200m away, but no fan noise.

The Selens was silent.

Still and silent.

Dead maybe?

No internal light, no fan? I really thought it was a dud even with the front end putting out too much light to look at.

Not an award winning image. The Selens (left) seems to have maybe more brilliance, just lacks the reflector plate of the Neewers. Looking directly at these two was not pleasant.

I left it running at 100% for about ten minutes and went back to check. The fan was running and the light was cool to touch, but was still barely audible (I had to touch it to make sure my ears were not making stuff up). This will now become my “A” light when using one close to the talent, the Neewers acting as secondaries, othewise I will flog the Neewers.

So, it looks like I have 180 to maybe 200w total output by Neewers measurements, which I have learned to trust, but one light that looks on the surface to be genuinely better built or at least more heavily built.

Will I get another? If I use this a bit and it proves to be what it seems, then I think I will.

The Background Matters

I have traditionally processed my images using the default black background in Lightroom or Capture 1.

I initially responded to the strong and clean look of the black surround and even use a black base for this site.

Contrasting any image against black can do that. It can make colour pop and increase depth, sometimes even intimacy, but the result can tend to be quite darkly editied images, especially when used by others in other circumstances.

I decided to switch to a ehite editing background recently and it had an immediate effect.

My images look more defined on the page, helping with cropping and composition checks (they look much like an image on a book page), and my perception of image brilliance and density has also improved. I am happier to take an image to near white, making them look “happier“, which makes sense for images of school children.

An example of an image that just jumps out on white.

It also helps with pre-visualising for printing.

Another odd thing, probably not related, is that I often miss typos when writing my blog posts on white, but spot them the second I see them on the black publish page. Probably more Freudian than that.