A nice cup of tea and a sit down…

/in ,

Over the winter months it’s not always easy to get out and shoot so it’s a great time to take advantage of all that time stuck indoors to develop your digital darkroom skills and learn some new post-processing techniques etc.

I’ve had a few training enquiries recently from people who were pretty good photographers, but really felt overwhelmed by the complexity of the latest software packages and they simply didn’t know where to start.

Maybe I can help?

I am unashamedly a digital photographer, and over the years I’ve gained a lot of experience in digital imaging and post-processing techniques.  My software training, as with all my one-to-one teaching will be tailored to your individual requirements, whether that be to learn some basic editing skills, right through to implement a full digital asset management workflow from scratch.

Typical topics might include:

  • Choosing the right software packages to suit your needs
  • Importing your photos and organising your image library
  • Working with RAW files
  • Basic techniques (Cropping / straightening / resizing)
  • Digital Darkroom techniques (Exposure / Contrast / Colour corrections)
  • Monochrome Conversions
  • Sharpening / noise reduction
  • Preparing files for professional printing

Advanced topics

  • Photo stitching / digital panoramas
  • HDR Processing
  • Portrait retouching (‘Airbrushing’)
  • Digital Photo Restoration: Bring Old Photos Back to Life

Merry Christmas!

/in , ,

christmas-8691
Project 52: Week 52 – Christmas

Just stopping by to wish you all a Merry Christmas folks!

 

 

 

Project 52: 51/52 – Music

/in , ,

WholeLottaLed-2645

Project 52 – Week 51 – Music
A shot of my friend Nick Ferris performing with the amazing  Whole Lotta Led at Gloucester Guildhall.
Friday 14th Devember 2012

 

Project52 – Week 50 – Winter

/in , ,

Frosty Morning

Project 52 – Week 50 – Winter

One better..

/in ,

I recently upgraded my main camera body, switching up from the Canon 5D Mark II to the new 5D Mark III. It was a pretty sizeable investment, with the Mark III coming in a RRP of nearly three grand so was it really that much better to warrant the investment?    Obviously for me it was as from the moment the Mark III was announced it answered a number of key points on my wish list.  In many ways the new model is closer to the 1DX in operation. In fact in pretty much every area apart from the astounding burst rate of 12FPS on the 1DX I can’t really see a lot of difference. Certainly not enough to warrant an extra 2 grand (unless you’re a paparazzi or sports ‘tog of course!)

Externally there’s little to tell the 5Ds apart (the Mk2 is still a current model, they aren’t superseding it just adding to the range). Canon have made a few subtle ergonomic changes to the body styling and button positions etc but otherwise it’s still very similar in the hand, slightly heavier I think but not enough to worry about.  Here’s my key list of improvements that helped influence my decision:

Mk3 improvements
  • Autofocus
    Incredible new system, 61 points, virtually identical to the 1Dx.
  • Improved low light, high ISO performance.
    Shooting at ISO12800 renders image quality on a par with ISO 3200 on my Mark 2, which was about equivalent of ISO 800 on my old 40D!
  • Improved auto ISO function with intelligent minimum shutter speed feature.
    This means you can actually use auto ISO now and have the camera ‘know’ when to up the ISO based on your minimum acceptable shutter speed.
  • HDR / bracketing options.
    – You can now bracket up to 7 frames for much more  subtle rendering of HDR images.
  • Rating button
    You can assign a star rating right on the camera itself, which means you can easily tag shots for priority attention/editing when you get them onto the computer.
  • Dual slots – CF and SD
    The addition of a second card slot allows you to either keep a second backup of your images while you’re shooting, or even better use something like the Eye-Fi SD cards to send a low-res image to your computer or iPad for immediate preview during a shoot. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time since Eye-Fi don’t make CF cards.
  • Eye-Fi control
    As per the above comment re cards, the Mark 3 now has specific options in the menus for controlling the Wifi options on the card. 
  • 100% viewfinder
    The 7D was the first Canon SLR to feature a 100% viewfinder coverage and I found that really handy compared to the slightly reduced view of most other cameras.
Those are just my initial thoughts, I’m sure there will be more in time