Northern Light Photography & Going Digital in the East of England

Yesterday was spent in London – catching Street Photos.

Being a Street Photographer is something akin to being a shark – once you’ve spotted a likely prey, you stalk them, line them up and then catch them!

Clearly there are good and bad hunting grounds and London is possibly one of the best.  It’s difficult to imagine a day when there is no one to photograph.

For my own part, I find that Wardour Street, Gerard Street (in Soho) – Camden Market and the South Bank offer a wide range of useful and easy prey.  Look out for people dozing, eating, talking – in fact doing everything that people normally do in the street.

During my Going Digital Portraits, Family and Friends workshops, I outline the skills and techniques used in candid photography and ten . . . . in the  workshop’s practical sessions, we go out to put these skills to good use.

Some tips on equipment / techniques

I tend not to use an SLR camera, they’re large, noisy and attract too much  attention.

Leica M8

The old Masters of street photography used the early Leica rangefinder cameras and today’s M series Leicas, the M6 film, or  M8 / M9 digital rangefinders lend themselves to unobtrusive shooting, but are quite pricey to buy.  Alternatively a Compact or small bridge camera (Canon G12) make for an excellent alternative

There is always some debate on the best focal length to use for your Street Photos, I like to use a 50mm or 35mm.  The latter offers a wider angle of view and gives more chance of catching the Subject in the frame when the shot is snatched.  Plus, the added depth of field in a WA lens aids sharpness and ease of focus.

To freeze people when they walk past (depending upon their speed) you’ll need to be shooting at least 1/125^th sec.  If on the other hand you want some blur as they pass, go down to 1/30^th or 1/60^{th. .}

Some tips on catching your subjects

• Pre-focus your camera on a point you reckon to be about the same distance away from you as your Subject to give the impression that they aren’t the centre of your attention.
• Try not to look at your subject too much, they will get suspicious.  Look at the buildings or the trees above and around them and when they strike the pose that suits your needs – your pre-focused camera will capture that sharp image.

How to find Subjects . . . .

• Walk through parks and be on the look-out for people sitting on benches.  Midday is a good time to hunt and the public make great targets as they read papers, sleep or eat food
• When in a city, look out for human statues / street performers, they make for  interesting shots and it does no harm to drop some cash into their collection tins by way of a thank you
• Be a little wary of down an outs, they can be quite touchy and unless you’re willing to strike up a conversation and buy them a coffee, you may a) not get a shot or b) suffer some abuse
• Look for interesting backgrounds and just wait for the right subject to pass in front of them

Links to a few articles on Street Photography:

http://photo.net/street-documentary-photography-forum/002kze

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/apr/18/street-photography-privacy-surveillance

http://photo.net/learn/street/intro

ABOVE ALL BE PATIENT!!

For most digital users, dust on the camera sensor is one of the easiest things to acquire and probably, the most annoying to live with.   There are variety of solutions but perhaps the best starting point on this topic is . . . . . prevention.

From the moment you remove a lens from a camera body, every grain of dust in your region will be rushing toward your sensor, at least that’s how it seems.  A few simple precautions will minimise the dust problem and thwart the dust’s ambitions.

Removing lenses:

• Try to swap lenses as infrequently as possible
• Try to remove lenses with a smooth action, any grinding of the lens mount against the camera body will create small metal shavings – these will head straight for the sensor
• At the risk of stating the obvious, change lenses out of the wind and away from dusty areas
• Switch the camera off for at least 10 seconds before removing the lens.  This will turn off the sensor and allow some of its static charge to dissipate.  Remember . . . static and dust get on well together
• Point the camera at the ground when removing the lens, you’ll then have gravity on your side with regard to falling dust
• Before fitting the new lens, blow gently across (not into) its rear elements to dislodge any existing dust
• Adjust zoom lenses gently.  Any rapid pushing and pulling of the zoom mechanism turns the lens into a giant piston and in its travel from wide angle to telephoto, it can suck dust into the lens cavity
• Fit the new lens and store the original lens in your camera bag, with body and lens caps fitted and then . . . . switch on.

If you have dust spots on the sensor, they will usually show up more starkly at small apertures (e.g. f16, f22 etc.) usually along the top edge of the image and in the sky areas.  Their removal is a three step process and with luck, you may see them off at step 1.

Step 1 – The Rocket Blower

Before you begin, consult your camera manual to find out how you can lock up the mirror for sensor cleaning.  In this mode, the camera’s mirror will flip up, the shutter will open and once the lens has been removed you will see the sensor which at this stage, will be turned off.   Ensure that you have a fresh, fully charged before using the mirror lock function. If the battery power is too low, then the mirror can lock itself in the up position and the camera will need to be returned to a dealer to reset the mirror.

You will now need a acquire blower which will a) give a good blast of air and b) have a filter in its base to prevent dust being sucked in between puffs.  I would recommend the Giottos – Rocket blower (cost around £10.00), it meets both of the above requirements.

Place the camera on a tripod with the lens facing slightly downward and ideally, work in a dust free area (the bathroom – following a bath or shower is often ideal).  Select the Menu option to lock up the mirror, carefully remove the lens, place the blower’s nozzle in the mouth of the lens mount and give several fast puffs of air.   Once done, lower the mirror and replace the lens.  To test the success of your blowings, take a photograph of a section of clear blue or white sky at around f16 or f22.  You may have to use manual focus, given that most autofocus systems won’t focus on blank areas – then examine the test image on your computer to check the sensor’s surface for dust.

If the dust is still evident . . . . . . .

Step 2 – The Arctic Butterfly brush

If the above hasn’t cleared the dust, then you will need to resort to one of Visible Dust’s products – the Arctic Butterfly brush. Available from Clifton Cameras for around £70.00

The brush is statically charged and comes mounted on a battery driven spinner handle.  When the brush is spun between cleanings, any dust is spun off and the bristles become re-charged with static.  To use the brush, repeat the above steps to lock up the mirror, then very carefully wipe the brush in one direction across the sensor.  Withdraw it, spin for 30 seconds and brush once more.  Drop the mirror, replace the lens and test as above for spots in the image.

and finally . . . .

If dust still remains lodged on the sensor, then wet cleaning is the final step.

Step 3 – Wet Cleaning

This latter stage requires some nerve and yet more money!   It’s as well to approach this stage with some caution because it involves wiping a moistened pad across the surface of the camera sensor and whilst it is wise to regard the sensor as being delicate and easily damaged, it does have a protective window (called a moire screen) in front of its surface and is reasonably robust.

You will need to buy some sensor cleaning swabs and whilst there is a bewildering array offered on line, I’d be drawn once again to Visible Dust’s products.  They seem to be the  market leader in sensor cleaning.  The swabs come either dry, or ready moistened and look rather like little cocktail stirrers.  Check out Amazon or Warehouse express.

They’re packaged in what seem like surgically sterile packs and can only be used only once before being discarded.  You must repeat the steps described earlier to raise the mirror and this time (whilst carefully following the supplied instructions) wipe the swab once across the mirror, repeating the process with new swabs as needed.

In most cases, the dust will be gone and no further wipings will be needed – well . . . . not until next time.  However, if stubborn marks remain, it’s likely that the camera will need to be returned to the factory or service dept.

Have a look on You Tube, where you’ll find hours of videos (usually made by very earnest men) showing how to do all of the above:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sensor+cleaning]&aq=f

I wish you luck!!

It has been said that the three main rules for landscape photography are  - Tripods, tripods and tripods! To this, I would add my own rule – “Slow down and take your time”

I tend to use Manfrotto and Uniloc tripods for virtually all of my landscape work and recommend the Manfrotto 190XPROB, it’s reasonably light and very sturdy in use.

Manfrotto 190xPROB

To that, I would add a Giottos MH7001-652 Series 1 Ball Head, this features a quick release plate and offers easy adjustment of the camera position on the tripod.  Both of the aforementioned are available at Warehouse Express.

In line with my suggestion to slow down, the use of a tripod encourages photographers to ‘look’ at a scene before pressing the shutter release.  The camera can be left set up on the tripod whilst rubbish clearing, or other site maintenance is carried out just prior to the shot being taken. Peering at a potential image through a viewfinder has never been conducive to ‘seeing’ and often, the odd Coke can, sweet wrapper or piece of unwanted foliage lie unnoticed until after the shutter has been fired.
In the main, apertures should be set to somewhere around f11 – f16 to ensure maximum depth of field in the scene.  This can of course result in slow shutter speeds, but then this is unlikely to be a problem where a tripod is used.  The only time that very slow speeds can be problematic, is where grass, tree branches or clouds are moving noticeably and are likely to be blurred in the final image.

NOTE!!  However, do remember that if you have any dust spots on your camera’s sensor, they will show up as clearly defined bullet holes at small apertures.

For tips on landscape work and image composition , have a look at the following sites:

http://www.photoinf.com/General/Johannes_Vloothuis/landscape_composition_rules.html

http://www.naturephotographers.net/np101/gt0804-1.html