Just a few absent minded images from strolling around Edinburgh yesterday. I was in a good mood and the creativity was flowing. I like them. Hope you do too.
Tuesday 14 October 2008
round town
Just a few absent minded images from strolling around Edinburgh yesterday. I was in a good mood and the creativity was flowing. I like them. Hope you do too.
Sunday 12 October 2008
A journey through the Interior
Yesterday and last night I got a chance to do a type of photography I haven’t practiced in a long time: The often under-appreciated skill of interior photography. I say under-appreciated with confidence as I am as guilty as many other pro photographers who somewhat disregard the skill involved in this genre. You can look at a beautifully lit room and the brain will immediately settle into a comfort zone of recognition and association with all the lovely emotions tagged with “home”. This is of course exactly the point of the majority of interior photography. If you’re trying to show the beauty of a subtle arrangement in a room, you are definitely not going to be using outlandish lighting patterns and blasted colours. The aim isn’t to shock through photography but to present the product. And what an evil product the home is to try and light well.
Think about it for a minute. How many angles and relative distances are involved? How many colour temperatures, light sources and types, and then of course you have the patterns involved and textures of the furniture and walls. On top of all that you’re in a confined space more often than not forced into using a wide angle lens so you have converging lines etc to think about too while you wedge yourself into a space barely wide enough for you tripod.
Working with Conley & Co. in Edinburgh, a fantastically talented mother and daughter outfit with style way beyond anything I could do justice to, I set about trying to do just that. As soon as I started however I remembered a few of the pitfalls I would be dealing with and tried my best to get around them. Didn’t really work. The chess game going on in my head involving the many lighting issues in play got more and more complicated. I love a challenge though so this was great fun and I was eventually getting the results I wanted. Staircases are usually the centrepiece of these New Town Edinburgh flats and this was no exception. It was causing me no end of problems with shadows though. Eventually with a combo of the in house spot lights, a shoot through brolly and a couple of radio triggered speedlights I managed to get an evenly lit and exposed shot. My favourite shot of the day was the simplest however. A beautiful Greco styled mantelpiece with a pair of sculptures on top. Very simple and elegant and one for the portfolio. Even in this kind of situation is pays not to complicate things just for the sake of it. Another valuable reminder to take away with me.
All in all it was great to have the chance to do a style of photography that uses a different mentality to what I’m used to these days. I shoot quickly, capturing moments of people’s and city’s experiences. It revolves around the idea that I am in the right place at the right time to capture a instant that can convey a message. This job was the opposite. Having as much time (…ish) that I wanted to solve a lighting puzzle that really taxed my knowledge was refreshing and a real challenge. I will never blindly flick the page over an interior shot again without at least trying to reverse engineer the lighting set up and hopefully learn something from it. Appreciate the pain of the staircase. My new interior mantra.
Wednesday 1 October 2008
Nachtwey
James Nachtwey is one of the most important photographers of this century. One day we will be looking back at what he's done and appreciating him alongside the other greats of our artform. Right now we can just be happy he's still doing what he does best, making a difference through his pictures.
On Friday he is breaking a story he has been working on for a long time and if he's trying to drum up this amount of publicity for it it has to be big. Being an entirely un-self promoting man to wrangle up as many bloggers as the web can muster to focus on one thing he's done means it'll be worth tuning in.
I will be.
Monday 29 September 2008
Epson R285 review, sorry it took so long.
Epson R285
My first impressions were good. Setting the R285 up was easy and aesthetically it looks pretty neat sitting on my desk. USB and power cable are both in well thought out places within easy reach. The printer isn’t small but compared to it’s equivalents from HP and Canon it’s no larger. Installing the software on my Mac was again easy and as usual you get several programs that aren’t really relevant to my needs so I didn’t bother installing them. I did however go for Epson’s CD printing software to try which I’ll come back to later. Setting up the inks (a good six ink system of black, cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan and light magenta) and getting the paper feeder ready was a doddle so within a minute or so after installing the software I was ready to turn it on.
The power up routine on the R285 is quick but impressively loud for a small machine. The print head alignment is fast and within a minute the printer is ready to go. I started by doing a page of text. Using cheapo office paper and not altering any of the driver settings or print options it spat out a perfectly printed sheet in seconds. Bearing in mind this was the very first use, without any test pages run at all, I was really impressed. The text was full and well formed without any banding or other signs of the printer warming up. So far so good then.
The real testing began as I started doing some photos. I first used the little sample pack of Epson’s Premium Glossy included in the box. I print everything through either Photoshop CS3 or Lightroom and am used to using ICC profiles but I decided firstly to test the printer’s own driver. I used the print dialog box to select the paper type and let the printer manage the colours. I have a couple of my pictures I always use for testing and I stuck with these throughout the entire process.
I firstly did a colour test and it worked well. Using Epson’s own ink and paper should in theory allow someone to avoid ICC profiles altogether and this colour print seemed to back that up. The colours were accurate and the tonal range was reasonable. The six ink system seemed to be working well and was producing better results than I was expecting. Another point to Epson.
The black and white was the opposite however. I used the same settings and the same paper and got what I can best describe as a black smudge in 4 by 5 proportions. There were simply no midtones and most of the larger areas of black were blocked into a goopy mess. Not exactly what I was looking for. I do a lot of work in black and white and these results were nowhere near good enough.
I then moved onto the specific greyscale mode in the driver used to manage the colours. I ran the same paper and settings through except this time told the printer to use a greyscale and the results were definitely improved. There was much more detail in the blacks and the midtones came back into play. In fairness I’ve never been a fan of glossy black and white prints so I wasn’t going to rule anything out just yet.
So then I moved on to different paper types. It was here I noticed something annoying about the printer driver. Epson obviously hadn’t expected people to try a variety of their own papers with this printer as the paper options bundled within the driver are really limited. I had bought some Archival Matte paper to try and this wasn’t specifically supported in the driver. Annoying as it’s not exactly a luxury paper. After looking through the paper types I found a matte option so decided to go with that. It worked ok but nothing special. There was definitely something off about the colours and the fact that Epson didn’t support its own paper was bugging me. My natural preference for matte b+w’s was justified here as the greyscale option using this paper was by far the best so far. The tonal range was the broadest and the blocking had almost gone.
Not having any other paper types within the driver to try I moved on to some Brilliant paper. I use the glossy and lustre versions a lot normally, especially for proofing, so I was eager to see how the 285 treated them. At this stage I would usually be using my ICC profile and making sure Photoshop was managing the colours but Brilliant hasn’t made a profile for this printer. I see their point in that most people who use this printer won’t be using profiles but if anyone from Brilliant is reading this please have a go at doing it. This left me to figure out a combination within the Epson driver that would get decent results.
After fiddling around and few test prints later I managed to get some pretty passable results. The black and whites are still lacking on quality but the colour options were working well. The lustre is my stock proofing paper and it was again providing the best results. I guess it’ll will be a matter of tweaking the settings a little more and finding the best combination. Printers of this calibre aren’t really catered for by the paper companies and there will never be the range of profiles available to use. You could of course make your own specific profile but if you’re only using this for proofing work then it hardly seems worth it.
At this point the black ink had run out so a change was needed. The ink replacement system is clever: Opening the lid and pressing the ink button on the front of the printer moves the ink carriage along aligning the empty ink cartridge with an arrow built into the chassis. I really liked this system. It would have been easier of course with just a simple light above the relevant ink cartridge but this way it adds to its industrial feel. There is also less to go wrong which suits me fine.
So, onto the main reason for buying this printer; the CD printing. I’ve heard nothing but good things about it from other togs I’ve asked so I was looking forward to seeing what it can do. I’ve got a template in Photoshop for creating a CD label which I started with. Just using sRGB as the colour setting and telling the printer that it’ll be using the CD cassette I was ready to load and print. To load the CD cassette you have to take the paper guide out and put it back in a different slot just above the original one. Then the cassette slides in above and all you have to do is line up the two white arrows. All very simple and easy.
The prints were done again much quicker than I was expecting and the quality was excellent. The reputation that preceded the 285 seemed justified. The only issue I had was a slight misalignment issue because of my document size in Photoshop. This is an inevitability as every printer has a slightly different document size interpretation and when trying to do printing this precise there will always be a noticeable problem. This can be adjusted of course and my second print was spot on.
I then wanted to try Epson’s own printing software. A fairly simple type interface calibrated to a CD sized template is everything you need to get a label done in the right place. There are a few options to change the size, font etc but I couldn’t work out if there’s a way to import my logo jpeg onto it to use. This is crucial for me so any of the client based DVD’s I’ll need to print can’t be done through this which is a shame. A few more minutes of looking through the not too straightforward menu system however revealed a lot more depth to this little program. A background layering tool made superimposing text on a correctly aligned background image really simple. Quick results and the CD print quality is great. Certainly good enough for me. I have now ditched my adobe based template and am using Epson’s PrintCD every time I make a disc.
Conclusions: I have never been the biggest fan of Epson printers in general. They are thirsty machines and with the price of ink these days that is definitely not a good thing. The little R285 did endear itself to me though I have to admit. The fact that is noisier than some building sites gave a surprisingly industrial quality which for a £50 printer is not normal. The colour prints on the Epson media are good enough for proofs and the driver can manage all the in-house products well. The tonal range is decent unless you’re doing black and white work where the printer falls down a little. It’s a big ask of a printer of this grade to handle a deep b+w and despite doing it’s best the R285 can’t quite manage it. CD printing is easy and Epson provide a great program to use to do so. Quality wise it’s the best CD printer I’ve used yet.
Nice little machine which has earned a very solid place on my desk.
My first impressions were good. Setting the R285 up was easy and aesthetically it looks pretty neat sitting on my desk. USB and power cable are both in well thought out places within easy reach. The printer isn’t small but compared to it’s equivalents from HP and Canon it’s no larger. Installing the software on my Mac was again easy and as usual you get several programs that aren’t really relevant to my needs so I didn’t bother installing them. I did however go for Epson’s CD printing software to try which I’ll come back to later. Setting up the inks (a good six ink system of black, cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan and light magenta) and getting the paper feeder ready was a doddle so within a minute or so after installing the software I was ready to turn it on.
The power up routine on the R285 is quick but impressively loud for a small machine. The print head alignment is fast and within a minute the printer is ready to go. I started by doing a page of text. Using cheapo office paper and not altering any of the driver settings or print options it spat out a perfectly printed sheet in seconds. Bearing in mind this was the very first use, without any test pages run at all, I was really impressed. The text was full and well formed without any banding or other signs of the printer warming up. So far so good then.
The real testing began as I started doing some photos. I first used the little sample pack of Epson’s Premium Glossy included in the box. I print everything through either Photoshop CS3 or Lightroom and am used to using ICC profiles but I decided firstly to test the printer’s own driver. I used the print dialog box to select the paper type and let the printer manage the colours. I have a couple of my pictures I always use for testing and I stuck with these throughout the entire process.
I firstly did a colour test and it worked well. Using Epson’s own ink and paper should in theory allow someone to avoid ICC profiles altogether and this colour print seemed to back that up. The colours were accurate and the tonal range was reasonable. The six ink system seemed to be working well and was producing better results than I was expecting. Another point to Epson.
The black and white was the opposite however. I used the same settings and the same paper and got what I can best describe as a black smudge in 4 by 5 proportions. There were simply no midtones and most of the larger areas of black were blocked into a goopy mess. Not exactly what I was looking for. I do a lot of work in black and white and these results were nowhere near good enough.
I then moved onto the specific greyscale mode in the driver used to manage the colours. I ran the same paper and settings through except this time told the printer to use a greyscale and the results were definitely improved. There was much more detail in the blacks and the midtones came back into play. In fairness I’ve never been a fan of glossy black and white prints so I wasn’t going to rule anything out just yet.
So then I moved on to different paper types. It was here I noticed something annoying about the printer driver. Epson obviously hadn’t expected people to try a variety of their own papers with this printer as the paper options bundled within the driver are really limited. I had bought some Archival Matte paper to try and this wasn’t specifically supported in the driver. Annoying as it’s not exactly a luxury paper. After looking through the paper types I found a matte option so decided to go with that. It worked ok but nothing special. There was definitely something off about the colours and the fact that Epson didn’t support its own paper was bugging me. My natural preference for matte b+w’s was justified here as the greyscale option using this paper was by far the best so far. The tonal range was the broadest and the blocking had almost gone.
Not having any other paper types within the driver to try I moved on to some Brilliant paper. I use the glossy and lustre versions a lot normally, especially for proofing, so I was eager to see how the 285 treated them. At this stage I would usually be using my ICC profile and making sure Photoshop was managing the colours but Brilliant hasn’t made a profile for this printer. I see their point in that most people who use this printer won’t be using profiles but if anyone from Brilliant is reading this please have a go at doing it. This left me to figure out a combination within the Epson driver that would get decent results.
After fiddling around and few test prints later I managed to get some pretty passable results. The black and whites are still lacking on quality but the colour options were working well. The lustre is my stock proofing paper and it was again providing the best results. I guess it’ll will be a matter of tweaking the settings a little more and finding the best combination. Printers of this calibre aren’t really catered for by the paper companies and there will never be the range of profiles available to use. You could of course make your own specific profile but if you’re only using this for proofing work then it hardly seems worth it.
At this point the black ink had run out so a change was needed. The ink replacement system is clever: Opening the lid and pressing the ink button on the front of the printer moves the ink carriage along aligning the empty ink cartridge with an arrow built into the chassis. I really liked this system. It would have been easier of course with just a simple light above the relevant ink cartridge but this way it adds to its industrial feel. There is also less to go wrong which suits me fine.
So, onto the main reason for buying this printer; the CD printing. I’ve heard nothing but good things about it from other togs I’ve asked so I was looking forward to seeing what it can do. I’ve got a template in Photoshop for creating a CD label which I started with. Just using sRGB as the colour setting and telling the printer that it’ll be using the CD cassette I was ready to load and print. To load the CD cassette you have to take the paper guide out and put it back in a different slot just above the original one. Then the cassette slides in above and all you have to do is line up the two white arrows. All very simple and easy.
The prints were done again much quicker than I was expecting and the quality was excellent. The reputation that preceded the 285 seemed justified. The only issue I had was a slight misalignment issue because of my document size in Photoshop. This is an inevitability as every printer has a slightly different document size interpretation and when trying to do printing this precise there will always be a noticeable problem. This can be adjusted of course and my second print was spot on.
I then wanted to try Epson’s own printing software. A fairly simple type interface calibrated to a CD sized template is everything you need to get a label done in the right place. There are a few options to change the size, font etc but I couldn’t work out if there’s a way to import my logo jpeg onto it to use. This is crucial for me so any of the client based DVD’s I’ll need to print can’t be done through this which is a shame. A few more minutes of looking through the not too straightforward menu system however revealed a lot more depth to this little program. A background layering tool made superimposing text on a correctly aligned background image really simple. Quick results and the CD print quality is great. Certainly good enough for me. I have now ditched my adobe based template and am using Epson’s PrintCD every time I make a disc.
Conclusions: I have never been the biggest fan of Epson printers in general. They are thirsty machines and with the price of ink these days that is definitely not a good thing. The little R285 did endear itself to me though I have to admit. The fact that is noisier than some building sites gave a surprisingly industrial quality which for a £50 printer is not normal. The colour prints on the Epson media are good enough for proofs and the driver can manage all the in-house products well. The tonal range is decent unless you’re doing black and white work where the printer falls down a little. It’s a big ask of a printer of this grade to handle a deep b+w and despite doing it’s best the R285 can’t quite manage it. CD printing is easy and Epson provide a great program to use to do so. Quality wise it’s the best CD printer I’ve used yet.
Nice little machine which has earned a very solid place on my desk.
Sunday 21 September 2008
Weekend's end
So that's the weekend finished. A fantastic wedding today at Prestonfield house with one of the most well laid on weddings I've ever had the pleasure of attending. Barbara and Mike showed their guests how a wedding can be done. Starting the day at Brian Dunne's hair salon on Edinburgh and moving on to Prestonfield Barbara was living the bridal dream. Luxury and quality on tap, as well as all the champagne you could want for of course. The hotel pulled out all the stops with one of the largest marquee's I've ever seen, a beautifully organised reception area and a 5 star dining area. Couldn't recommend this place more as you can probably tell. The ceremony was full of personal meaning for Barbara and Mike and was incerdibly well handled by the reverend. The weather was perfect, the guests freindly and the families welcoming and helpful. The horse and carriage added the icing to the cake and the photos are looking fantastic. Congratulations to the newlyweds.
So thats my attempt at blogging throught he weekend. No doubt not the most interesting or knowledgebale blog ever but at leats I stuck to it. I can see how the blogsphere is influencing the business of proffessional photography and I definitely want to be a part of it. I've learnt a lot from blogs myself and hopefully I can give something back to the community. I'm going to make a point of trying to stick at it and anything interesting I can think of I will bring to the fore. I always welcome comments and opinions from anyone out there reading thius so feel free please, either on the blog or via the mail adress on the website.
Next up... it's the end of the exhibition today so I'll see how that has gone. I've been purposefully avoiding too much contact (nagging) in case I jinx anything so I'm still completely in the dark. I'll let you what I find out.
So thats my attempt at blogging throught he weekend. No doubt not the most interesting or knowledgebale blog ever but at leats I stuck to it. I can see how the blogsphere is influencing the business of proffessional photography and I definitely want to be a part of it. I've learnt a lot from blogs myself and hopefully I can give something back to the community. I'm going to make a point of trying to stick at it and anything interesting I can think of I will bring to the fore. I always welcome comments and opinions from anyone out there reading thius so feel free please, either on the blog or via the mail adress on the website.
Next up... it's the end of the exhibition today so I'll see how that has gone. I've been purposefully avoiding too much contact (nagging) in case I jinx anything so I'm still completely in the dark. I'll let you what I find out.
Saturday 20 September 2008
County Hotel
I'm blogging! I said I'd try despite the hecticness and here I am. One wedding down and it went really well. Marie and Pat are a lovely couple who were brought together by their obsession with music. Is there any better way to meet the person you're going to marry? I think not. The entire day reflected this through little details; mini stratocaster's on the cake, hand-made strats inlaid into the rings. You get the idea. Not one ounce of tackiness though and all very much a pleasure to be part of. The family was welcoming and helpful (shouting to round up the group photos is always greatly appreciated by us wedding togs) and I ended up staying longer than planned simply by getting into a really interesting conversation with one of them. The staff at the County Hotel were also extremely helpful. Free coffee is again graciously received. Congratulations to the newlyweds and thank you for a great day.
For those of you left in suspense over the bag issue last night... I went for the billingham. It took 30 seconds of my fiance Kate's time to totally reorganise the bag in such a way that it was spacious and comfortable. She's amazing like that. I didn't get a chance to play with the pocket wizards unfortunately which I was looking forward to as today's schedule was tight but I'm pretty happy witht the kit. Historically I'm a Canon shooter but have crossed over recently to the dark/light (chose one depending on your opinion) side of Nikon. Great great kit so far but there is something I miss about the 5D's images. This argument is long lived and no doubt I will write in some detail about it shortly but now isn't the time. The batteries are charging and the cards are uploading, all to be ready for the off tomorrow; Prestonfield house.
For those of you left in suspense over the bag issue last night... I went for the billingham. It took 30 seconds of my fiance Kate's time to totally reorganise the bag in such a way that it was spacious and comfortable. She's amazing like that. I didn't get a chance to play with the pocket wizards unfortunately which I was looking forward to as today's schedule was tight but I'm pretty happy witht the kit. Historically I'm a Canon shooter but have crossed over recently to the dark/light (chose one depending on your opinion) side of Nikon. Great great kit so far but there is something I miss about the 5D's images. This argument is long lived and no doubt I will write in some detail about it shortly but now isn't the time. The batteries are charging and the cards are uploading, all to be ready for the off tomorrow; Prestonfield house.
Friday 19 September 2008
The Friday before the double
So it's getting late on a Friday night and I have a big weekend ahead of me. It's been a manic week trying out new kit, keeping in touch about the exhibition and trying to follow the flow of news pre-Photokina, and I have a two wedding weekend. Tomorrow and Sunday will both be chocka with a wedding a day and I'm really getting psyched up for it. I have been very lax recently with this blog so am going to try and reverse that by overloading this weekend with it. A hectic schedule with a blog thrown in to boot ahs seemed sometimes to be my idea of hell. Why add another thing to the to-do list when it's already pushing your limits? Because it's only in these testing times that creativity and expansion can really play their part. I'm certainly not suggesting that blogging in any form is a profound exercise but if I'm ever going to be able to do what I want with it then it's through these kind of experiments that I'll achieve that.
Following blogs like Vincent Laforet's for Newsweek at the olympics has been inspiring. The photography he has produced on the timescale and intensity that came with it are enough to make me think he is some kind of robot, but to then add a well written, interesting blog amidst all of that has transformed the medium. He writes himself about 'blogging photographers' as a new breed of media personnel and I am totally in agreement with him. Journalism has always been in flux and here is the latest manifestation. In an age where visual imagery and reality tv are king what could be better than a journalst covering himself covering the biggest event in international sport? Voyeurism on speed, especially for us togs. Like every genius of their medium he is reinventing it as he goes (check out the tilt-shift work he's been doing recently for a very oblique example) and expands it. But that's enough credit for the guy. Amazing he is; nough said.
So here am I totally preoccupied by the kit I'm using for the weekend realising this is far less interesting to you out there than the olympics yet to me it is all encompassing. I have the kit list (Nikon D3, D700, Nikkor 24-70 f/2,8, 70-200 f/2.8, SB-900's and a pocket wizard set with various clamps etc) and yet I am always wondering the best way to carry it all. I want comfort, mobility, quick access and a relative smartness as to not insult the bridal couple. The impossible naturally. My Billingham is too overloaded and will kill my back over half a day with this let alone two full shoots. The mini-trekker is just, painfully microscopically, too small and the vertex is clunky, cumbersome and a whole lot obvious. If anyone out there has any suggestions for this by the way PLEASE get in touch.
So there's at least one issue to take away from the keyboard with me. I'll post something tomorrow after day one and try to make it more than a line's worth. Check out Laforet's stuff for inspiration like I do. Wish me luck. Marie and Pat, I'll see you tommorow.
Following blogs like Vincent Laforet's for Newsweek at the olympics has been inspiring. The photography he has produced on the timescale and intensity that came with it are enough to make me think he is some kind of robot, but to then add a well written, interesting blog amidst all of that has transformed the medium. He writes himself about 'blogging photographers' as a new breed of media personnel and I am totally in agreement with him. Journalism has always been in flux and here is the latest manifestation. In an age where visual imagery and reality tv are king what could be better than a journalst covering himself covering the biggest event in international sport? Voyeurism on speed, especially for us togs. Like every genius of their medium he is reinventing it as he goes (check out the tilt-shift work he's been doing recently for a very oblique example) and expands it. But that's enough credit for the guy. Amazing he is; nough said.
So here am I totally preoccupied by the kit I'm using for the weekend realising this is far less interesting to you out there than the olympics yet to me it is all encompassing. I have the kit list (Nikon D3, D700, Nikkor 24-70 f/2,8, 70-200 f/2.8, SB-900's and a pocket wizard set with various clamps etc) and yet I am always wondering the best way to carry it all. I want comfort, mobility, quick access and a relative smartness as to not insult the bridal couple. The impossible naturally. My Billingham is too overloaded and will kill my back over half a day with this let alone two full shoots. The mini-trekker is just, painfully microscopically, too small and the vertex is clunky, cumbersome and a whole lot obvious. If anyone out there has any suggestions for this by the way PLEASE get in touch.
So there's at least one issue to take away from the keyboard with me. I'll post something tomorrow after day one and try to make it more than a line's worth. Check out Laforet's stuff for inspiration like I do. Wish me luck. Marie and Pat, I'll see you tommorow.
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