I mentioned the pain I got through having to set up gear and then take it down every time I try to do something studio-esque. I think part of my frustration is that quite often the effort is wasted and I come away with nothing to show for it.

I spent a little time taking photos of Liquorice Allsorts on a white background this evening and it’s typical of the problems I seem to face. Either I end up over-exposing or the white background feels grey and not uniform in some way. Now occasionally, I can recover to a degree or I get a nice shot despite my best efforts, but often it’s just a wasted hour.

I’ve read lots of tutorials on how to set up this sort of shot and I’ve spent money buying gear to try and do it, but it’s just not sinking in to my thick skull.  It’s always hit and miss.

Well, in an effort to get better at this style of photography, I’m going to try and do at least one session a week like this. Needless to say I’ll share my results and try to explain what I was doing with lights and such.

Liquorice Allsorts

For this shot, I had two flash guns behind umbrellas. One strobe was on each side of the setup, the gun on the left being more powerful than the one on the right. Both strobes were shooting down onto the sweets, with the strobe on the right coming from slightly behind.

The above image is the cleaned up post processed version with sharpening and curves adjustments to help fix the white background. The original isn’t so pretty.

My current thinking is there are a couple of things I need to consider further.

1. White Balance – It’s probable that the white balance was wrong since it was on auto and the lighting was provided by flash (chained from cheap ebay wireless triggers)

2. Two flash guns does not a lot of light make. Maybe I need to add more light, or at least more defused sources. Maybe next time I’ll add some reflectors.

3. Lens choice. This was shot with a 100mm macro lens. Down side here is that I need it up around 1/125sec to get a shot without shake (damn my tremors). Maybe a 50mm lens would be a better choice?

If you’ve other thoughts, drop me a note.

One of the problems with being an amateur and having to fit photographer around that life thing is that I never seem to have the time for lighting shots. By the time I dig out light stands, lights, umbrellas and all the do-hickeys I want to play with, what time I had for shooting is gone.

Take today. After discovering I had 45 minutes for me. I spend 40 minutes getting the kitchen set up for some shots, took a couple then spent 10 minutes rebuilding it.

Man, looking around my play room I’m beginning to wonder if it really is time to sell all my board and role playing games…

(Yes, I am that nerd).

Anyway. Reason I had the camera out is because I have the poker chips from the shots a few weeks back and wanted to try and get a few nice pictures of them. I figured they’d make a nice colour study thing.

Maybe slightly overblown?

Honestly. How he was able to sit beside me for two days listening to my rambling madness and still keep a smile on his face is beyond me…

How exactly do you explain to people why sitting in the street watching the world pass by and dodging the occasional rain shower can leave you inspired and enthused?

Well, all I can say is when you’ve spent the time with photos on the fence at Peoples Photography, that’s just what it does.

(Sorry for the rather spongy intro. That’s just kind of how I felt about the whole weekend…)

Saturday and Sunday saw the 2009 People’s Photography in Dublin. This year I managed to attend and exhibit for both days, combining the trip with a chance to meet up with Eoin and Dermot as well as spend a bit of wedding anniversary time with the missus.

Both days ran from 9am to 6pm and each day was a completely different experience.

Saturday

I arrived about 9:30 on Saturday morning to find Dermot already there hanging his photos. I’ll never understand how he can be so efficient and effective at getting them hung neatly in such a short time. (Personally I think he has an army of invisible midgets that do it when I’m not looking.)

I got to work, only to discover that my approach to hanging was, frankly, awful and worse yet the mounting I’d done in preparation was a mess with lots of mounts separated and photos having slipped. So began 45 minutes of banging heads of the wall before I gave up and tried to relax.

I’m always a little nervous when I first show people work, especially strangers. I panic that they’ll just point and laugh.So, it took to about 11:30 before I’d actually be near my photos and get down to the serious business of people watching.

It’s always interesting to see someone walking past who slows to look, or comes back for a second time. It’s gratifying to see people comment to their friends or look round to see who might have taken it. As always I kept well back and didn’t get involved unless I was singled out. Maybe I would have got more feedback if I’d been up front, but I wasn’t really there to sell anything just to have a nice time.

Most of the rest of the day was spent catching up with Dermot and browsing.

Sunday

On Sunday I managed to get to the green for 9am and thanks to a whole new approach was set up and ready to roll by 9:30. A few little repairs later and I was settled and enjoying the calm of a Sunday morning for 10am.

The nice thing about Sundays exhibition, and something I didn’t realise last year, was that people have more time. More people stopped to look or to chat and the atmosphere was much more relaxed. So much so Dermot and I started plotting about 2010… Any rumours we’re booking extra space are totally rumours…

Overall

If you’re even half considering this, I’d recommend it. And if you’re not considering it, I’d say you should start. It’s a fantastic way to understand what’s good about your photographs and to see people of amazing calibre who are willing to share tips and tricks. It’s also a great way to relax in a decent European city.

One of my favourite hobbies these days is reviewing pictures I took a few weeks earlier to see if anything jumps out or if some new technique I learned about suddenly gives me a way to improve on something.

This photograph, taken a week or two ago at the tall ships didn’t really say much to me then, though I do quite like the fact it shows the modern shipyards through the rigging of the older boats bow.

I was just playing with some HDR stuff and suddenly it seems to get a nice life to it.

Here’s another shot of the mini’s I mentioned.

I’ve ended up with 15 pictures or differing degrees of like and dislike. Some feel over processed and some are definitely filler, but there are a few I like.

All in all, I think I’m happy with the outcome. I know in a similar situation a few months back I would have came out with a lot less than 15 images I’d show to people. So either I’m getting better at this sort of thing, or my standards are slipping.

God I hope it’s not my standards slipping…

Oh, and if rumours are true and a 7D is round the corner, I’d appreciate you all having a word with Santa for me!

I was asked to take some photographs of model cars tonight.

It seems there is a big anniversary coming up for Mini (40 years?) and since I had a camera I was asked if I would take some shots of classic model minis.

Not being one to say no to an opportunity to play with the camera, I jumped at the chance.

I took two styles of shot over the evening. A sort of typical archive approach, car at 45 degrees shot and a more adventurous shot. I’ll post a few of these over the coming weeks I guess.

Here’s one as a starter anyway.

I’m asked to do this sort of thing occasionally. Most everyone who knows me or knows me through friends or family knows I’m a bit of a photo nut. When I’m asked, I always make it clear I’m very amateur and still very much learning, but if they’re willing to loan me their toys, kids, whatever I’ll see what I can do. I make sure they understand they may get nothing out of it, but if I manage to take anything they’re welcome to it. It’s a great way to learn and to keep stimulated.

I guess what I’m saying is, make sure you’re available to improve your photography. If you’re like me, you only truly learn by taking pictures. And taking new pictures is a great way to learn…

I’ve mentioned before that I love architecture in black and white. I think the lines are much more pronounced and the resulting image crisper in mono. Certainly, any I’ve taken always seem nicer when converted that way.

(f/8, 10mm, 1/6 sec)

This is one of those shots that’s maybe too wide. The distortion due to the 10mm range of the lens really emphasises the curves present in the building* but I quite liked it, or at least everything but the colours.

It ended up taking quite a long route in its journey to black and white, firstly converted to HDR and then pushed through photoshop using the Calculations tool. A little more curves and the unsharp mask later and…

In case you’re wondering, the original looked like this:

And no, I don’t like the colour.

*Victoria Square in Belfast is quite a new complex and quickly becoming one of my favourite places to visit. It gives space freely and the resultant openness means you never feel claustrophobic.

If you’re interested in the same structure from a different angle, Nothingtobesaid shot this a year or two ago.