I'm just home from a few days in Thurles for a friends wedding. Well, actually a friend of my wife's from college would be more accurate (though possibly not grammatically correct - where does that apostrophe go anyway?).

Regardless, both of us had a lovely time. The folks down there are very hospitable and the day was great fun.

After much debating I decided to take a stripped down camera kit to the wedding and reception. I'd been a little concerned about turning up with my toys and being pointed out as a freak. I needed of worried. I counted five different dSLR kits in the church (not including the pro photographers). Lots of Canons.

Which was nice.

Anyway, like I said, I took a stripped out kit. Just my 18-55, 50mm and new swanky 10-22mm wide angle. I also left my external flash behind.

And that was my biggest mistake. I'm uploading the photo's at the minute and filtering them into usable and crap. Sadly there is more crap than usable because of shake and suspect shadows. I'd a feeling this was going to be the case when reviewing them on the night I often found I was upping the ISO to try and reduce exposure times. I guess the little flash just isn't good enough for me when using the manual settings.

Have you had any better experiences from yours?

Still, I guess I'll see what I've got and if there are any I can share. I will.

I finally got the chance to play with my new tripod tonight.

I'd purchased the tripod based upon a few reviews I'd read and the head because I wanted an economical, easy to use, ball head.

 

Manfrotto 190XPROB

The tripod is exactly what I was told to expect from anything Manfrotto. Solid, simple to use and pretty well featured. It's not too heavy at a little under 2kg's and height ranges from 8.5cm to 146cm (according to the specs!), though that excludes the head dimensions.

Leg adjustment is managed via pressure locks on the leg, and the vertical column via a small thumb screw device. The legs themselves have a range of preset angles from 25 degrees through to just under 90. The vertical column can be extended and flipped out horizontally for shooting at 90 degrees (or if you're into weird positions).

You can find the full technical specification here.

I really like the thing. It's easy to use, it's a good weight and it offers all the little gadgets my original cheapo tripod didn't. Things like a little spirit level bubble and a hook for hanging your camera bag (useful on a windy day to as as ballast). It feels solid. I've used that word a lot. Well, it is.

I'm expecting many many nights of fun with this.

 

484RC2 Ball Head

I'd set out looking for a ball head for a number of simple reasons.

1. I didn't like the 3 bolt pan and tilt operation of my original tripo - I could never get it to quite line up and still be happy the thing was secure

2. I'm kind of lazy and liked the thought of a simple one lock operation

Whilst I'm still happy a ball head is what I want, I kind of wish I'd spent a little more on something a bit more 'user friendly'.

Don't get me wrong, it's a great head and has a really good feel to it. It's well put together and things like the locking plate are an excellent size and do feel secure. The one lock nut does exactly what you'd expect and keeps the head and camera secure (so much so that I had the thing pointing vertically downwards at full tripod elevation with my heaviest lens on and still felt happy to go make a cuppa).

But, the failing for me is the position of the lock nut. Twice now I've opened it without thinking (not accidentally by brushing it or anything, just while setting up for a shot) and the camera has fallen to one side or the another with a 'thunk'. Yep, a 'thunk'. I've been telling myself that it's just the noise as the head stops moving and not the camera getting a 'thunk'. And I'm pretty sure I'm right.  It's just a little unnerving. It's all OK if you hold said camera in one hand and release the nut with the other, then it's all just peachy. But, still, things did go 'thunk'...

Dusty Branch, that sounds like a porn star name. Not that I'd know of course, not that I'd know.

... Anyway...

I got some offline feedback on yesterdays picture of the branch. Interestingly a number of people commented that they felt it was over exposed. Whilst I'm not sure I agree with them, I thought I'd reduce the exposure a little and see if it had any effect.

So, here goes.

For reference, Version 1. The photograph from yesterday.

Version 2. Exposure reduced by 2/3 stop.

 

The problem I had with this is that whilst the branch itself is quite nice, the background is very tinted.

In an effort to fix this, I've played with the Tone Curve and increased the intensity of the light tones. This is the result. Version 3.

 

I think version 3 might be the best of the bunch. I guess version 4 would involve loading this into Gimp or Photoshop and creating some sort of mask to fix out any residual colour in the background. I'll try to find a tutorial to that effect for the weekend. (If you know of one, please tell!)

Since I read about an improvised technique for lighting in Digital Photo (I think), I'd been meaning to give it a go.

Maybe I should take a step back?

Whilst I'd dearly love to kit out a studio, I've neither the money nor the space for one in the house. And since I'm unlikely to get much of either from photography, I'm always looking for new and unique ways to provide subjects, environments and ambience (look at that. What great word use. I could have just said lighting!)...

In the past, I've used T-Shirts and a dressing gown to provide black back drops. I've even used a baking tray at one point to try out some stuff. I've also made use of little desk lights before to give some side lighting.

It keeps you thinking if nothing else.

So, anyway...

A month or so ago I read an article in Digital Photo (I still think) about using a security light and a projector screen to create some nice back lighting. It drove me to B&Q (other hardware stores are available) and I bought a cheapo security light and a plug.

...And then I did nothing with them...

...And to be honest, I still haven't.

But today I decided to try some of the lighting techniques I'd read about and I resurrected my desk lamp and his buddy. I also got a sheet of A3 white paper and tacked it to the back of a chair to provide a background. My little studio looked like this:

 

(apologies for the blurred photos. I honestly didn't think I'd ever publish these...)

 

Now, not having the magazine at hand what followed was more guess work than planned. I initially started with both lights pointing at the paper and trying to shoot the entire branch but the effects of working freehand and the low power of the back lighting left me with an uneven background and frequently blurred shots. I remember the magazine mentioning this could be a problem.

So I zoomed in on one of the branches and tried again. This worked better and  I ended up using one desk light pointing up from the ground and the other held above the branch to get the shots I was happiest with.

The branches were still quite dark, but adjusting the camera to over-expose by two stops (Not a word Dermot, not a single word...) cured that problem. A bit of clipping, cropping and sharpening left me with this.

I'm normally quite pessimistic about photos I've listed, but I actually really like this. What do you think?

(0.5secs, f/8, 55mm, ISO-100, 02/03/2008)

So, tell me what you think?

 

Oh, almost forgot. This has been flipped. I thought the branch running left to right worked better.

For those of you not in the know, The NIPA 2008 exhibition starts on Monday night 3rd March. It runs until the 20th March.

You can find out more details here.

I'm planning on attending on Monday night, all being well. Maybe I'll see some of you there?

The Sean O'Casey Bridge, Dublin

(6secs, f/8, 31mm, ISO-100, 18/2/2008)

 

 

I was sitting here, working on this photograph whilst finally getting some progress with my Unbuntu backup server. I'd finally got the thing to see my main pc, I'd even reconfigured some things to make general computer fun more, well.... fun.

...and then...

The disk in the Ubuntu box eats itself.

Yup. The backup server I'm building to backup my photographs, my documents, my saved games! It's eaten itself. Not quite smoke and a three fire engine call out, but still pretty annoying.

Come to think of it. This photograph was the last one I took before I broke my tripod. Coincidence???

 

... yeah probably.

The Custom House in Dublin, constructed in 1781, situated on the banks on the Liffey. Probably one of the nicest buildings in Dublin. And it's even on the north side...

(2.5 secs, F/8, 18mm, ISO-100, 18/2/08)

I quite like this picture. Of the half dozen or so I tried of this building, I think this is about as close as I got to a decent shot. Fitting the building in was a challenge for the 18mm end of my lens and what's not shown here is the aggressive crop to remove the railings and footpath on my side of the river (I had to stand quite far back). As with all my shots recently, there has been some white balance adjustment.

One of the problems with this building is the non-uniform light along the front. Whilst it gives it some feature, it's a git to give a level exposure as a result. In any of the shots I took where the dark areas were properly exposed, the bright areas were totally blown. I know I could have taken two shots and pasted them together, but I decided against it for now*

The other shot of the building worth showing is this one...

(15 secs, F/11, 18mm, ISO-100, 18/2/08)

But, I reckon Dermot got a cleaner sharper version.

 

 

 

*Though it may appear in the future when I get some experience with that sort of activity in Photoshop/GIMP...

 

"...best"?

"...worst"?

"...last person to read this"?

"... biggest muppet on the planet for taking this photo"?

It was all going so well.
And then there was a clunk...

I'm beginning to think Dermot is a jinx on my camera equipment. When we went out at Christmas, we were no more than 30 minutes into our shoot when my memory card ate itself. This time, we got about an hour before my tripod self destructed.

In fairness, I think it had been coming for a while. I'd noticed the centre column wasn't quite as secure as it used to be and that the adjustment pin was either too tight or too loose, but never just right.

Anyway, it all went bang. I cried (a little).

And I've bought a new one.

Manfrotto 190XPROB Tripod Legs Only - Black

It's very pretty. I'll do a full review when I get out and about with it.