Category Archives: Photography

iOS, Photography

Calibrating an iPad Display!

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So, this is interesting, and while datacolor have had a Spyder option for a while, its calibration is limited to its own software (unless it’s changed since I last took a proper look at it).

This new offering from X-Rite, released in March, looks rather good, though, and it seems it has an API that allows other app developers to add support for the profiles it creates (meaning other software can show your images correctly, too – Hello? Lightroom Mobile? You listening, Adobe?).

There are, however, a couple of things that annoy me slightly about it, although one kind of negates the other (for me anyway).

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Photography

The Bluebells Are Back

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Yesterday was spent out with a friend scouting a few of the locations I discovered last year but didn’t get to properly shoot at the time of year I wanted – the time when bluebells are out.

Last year was a strange one, with the longer winter they arrived a couple of months later than expected.  This year, however, they’ve already started to come out.

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Photography

LPS Annual Projected Image Competition 2014

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So we recently held Lancaster Photographic Society‘s Annual Projected Image Competition, judged by Tillman Kleinhans.

Congratulations to Ruth and Allan for getting colour and mono Image of the Year, respectively.

My images are shown at 8:18, 15:46, 24:20 and 29:14, and linked below the video.

Continue reading LPS Annual Projected Image Competition 2014 →

Camping, Food, Photography

Campfire Cooking

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This post might seem a little bit of an odd one for a site like this, but as I often shoot on location (English weather permitting), I also go camping on location if I want to shoot particularly late, or super early in the morning – or if I want to scout out a location and see how it looks at different times of the day and night.

Friday/Saturday was an example of the latter at a location that’s absolutely gorgeous in the summer when the sun’s out and the clouds are few.

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Arranging a shoot here, however, is not a simple affair, especially when you have a lot of equipment to carry, as well as food and other supplies.  Two of us each had to make two trips between the car and the location to carry everything up.

So, an overnight test was essential to work everything out in advance of actually arranging a shoot.

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Photography, Photoshop

Lightroom Mobile – What’s the big deal?

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I’ve had a few people asking me about this, so here’s the short version.

I won’t be getting it.  Not interested in the least.  It doesn’t do anything I’d need an iPad version of Lightroom to do, and it does a whole bunch of things I don’t need.

The fact that there isn’t an Android version, too, I think is a bit short sighted.

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General, Photography

It’s getting to be that time of year again

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After 5 or 6 months of almost non-stop rain, we’ve finally started to see some breaks in the clouds the last couple of weeks and had one or two days of rather lovely sunshine.

That means it’s time to get out of the studio and back on location!

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Throughout the year, even when I’m not actively shooting on location, I’m always looking for new places to photograph clients, models and other subjects.  It’s just something I tend to naturally do when I’m out travelling somewhere.

Continue reading It’s getting to be that time of year again →

CubieTruck, iOS, Linux, Photography, TTSOL

Eye-Fi on Linux Part 2

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When the Eye-Fi works so well with the iPad, why would I want to seemingly make life more complicated for myself by adding more hardware into the mix?

Well, transferring to a Linux based machine like the CubieTruck offers me some advantages over the iPad.  Some of them I alluded to in my previous post on this topic, but at the time, my primary thought was really just on-site backup (after making the switch from SanDisk Eye-Fi cards to Eye-Fi Pro X2 cards).

No real interaction, no file serving to viewing devices, just straight up copy the images to the CubieTruck, and then copy it all onto my network when I get back home.

Continue reading Eye-Fi on Linux Part 2 →

Photography, Photoshop

Fix it in Photoshop?

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During my talk for Lancaster Photographic Society recently, I was asked a question that I’m also going to answer here.  I’m paraphrasing, but it went something along the lines of…

“Is getting the right exposure in camera really all that important?  Can’t we just nudge it in Photoshop?”

Before I start, I want to clarify a definition here, and a difference between “right” and “technically correct”.  It is perfectly possible to make an exposure that is “right”, but not “technically correct” when you shoot with your post processing in mind in order to maximise the capabilities of your camera’s sensor.

Sometimes intentionally over or underexposing slightly allows you to capture the scene and process it in a way that gives a better final result than if you’d started off with a “technically correct” exposure.  So, sometimes “technically correct” isn’t the same as “right”.

But to answer to the question, the short answer is “You can, but if you don’t have to, why would you?”.

Continue reading Fix it in Photoshop? →