Amateur vs Professional

Amateur vs Professional

Have a read of this Daily Mail article regarding hiring a amateur wedding photographer, and the reasons why you should hire a professional.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3535498/Couple-devastated-big-day-ruined-amateur-photographer-turned-45minutes-late-spent-time-taking-photos-HERSELF.html

Would you take the chance with a family member who has a camera or an amateur on your big day?.

 

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Photo by Neil Graham  

Photo by Neil Graham  

2016 Valentines Offer

With only a few days left in January, it's time to embrace Valentines Day and propose to you're fiancee with a FREE romantic engagement shoot.

 

When you reserve your wedding with myself during January only, the £250 gift from me will include one free stunning 8x10 print to cherish and admirer.
A wedding quote to warm up January
“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” Wuthering Heights
To check availability for 2017Tel: 07584900938 Email: neil.graham0071@gmail.com Website: www.neilgrahamphotography.com
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Photo by Neil Graham

Photo by Neil Graham

Loving Wedding Quotes

A wedding quote to warm up January


"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage".

-Lao Tzu


Only a few dates left in my 2016 calendar, check availability.

Tel: 07584900938

Email: neil.graham0071@gmail.com

Website: www.neilgrahamphotography.com


(Book 2017 now)


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A great question about the use of tripods, ND filters and VR or IS for aviation photography.

Hi Neil,

I have just read with interest your comments on the Google aviation site and your various experimentation for getting prop spin etc.

Happy to share experiences, as I want to try and remove the hit & miss element when shooting aircraft in flight. Obviously jets are no problem, but try as I may with fairly good lenses etc, I can never guarantee I will get the prop spin I seek.

Knowing that in strong sunlight, with an extremely low shutter speed, the camera struggles (I do too!!). We are obviously thinking along the same lines, so just before Christmas I went out and purchased a fairly cheap graduated ND filter. I fitted it to my my Nikon f2.8 70-200mm VR lens with a 1.4 convertor to a Nikon D600. I live near Bournemouth airport so I went out to experiment, but unfortunately the early sunshine disappeared with a cloudy front coming up from the west. I therefore could not do any real photography in bright sunshine with prop driven aircraft flying around.

I normally fix the shutter speed during a particular display of an propellor driven aircraft and allow the camera to set the aperture. I normally start low 1/60th and incrementally increase the speed step by step i.e. 1/80th, 1/100th throughout its display.

Another point which seems to generate a lot of differing opinions...

The use of Vibration Reduction (VR for us 'Nikonians').
The use of a tripod as such low shutter speeds 1/60th, 1/8th etc.
Hand held,.
Or a combination of the three.?

I have read loads of articles on VR (IS for Canon?) with some being very contradictory.

I would be very interested in your views and experiences.

Best Wishes

Keith

Thank you for the question Keith. Hopefully my answer below will explain my technics for aviation photography and some changes I will make this season.

Hi Keith

Again, sorry for the delay in replying, 6 weeks on with my man flu and a bad chest infection, this has been the first week I've felt better.

I find the prop spin to be a fine line with shutter speed. Duxford last year was nearly 34c, the hard and very bright light was a nightmare and that is why I will buy a ND filter and it will give me another option.

You mentioned 1/60th for shutter speed and that is about the lowest I would go, because the prop seems to disappear below that in bright light. Myself, I stay around in manual, 1/100th - ISO 100 - f11 and above on my Canon 100-400mm lens.

This year I will also be trying shutter priority as opposed to manual, which should allow for better exposer when moving between shooting towards and away from the sun. I cannot change my setting quick enough while tracking a plane.

As for VR on Nikon or IS on Canon, I have it set on number 2 for side to side movement, but that is a good point about it producing shake at a low shutter speed, I have read about that causing a problem on a tripod. Perhaps I will do half and half with the IS, that would be an interesting experiment.

I have used monopod before and I found it was so restrictive I took if off the camera within 5 minutes and reverted back to hand held shooting. Because of that, unless I was videoing or had an expensive fluid head I wouldn't use a Mono or tripod for air shows.

Saying that, I reckon a tripod could be useful at commercial airports as the aircraft land in the same place, so you could set yourself up and repeat the same glide path every time, plus this will take the heavy weight off of your back and neck, which would make for a more comfortable day.

In summary, last year I shot hand held, IS on, in manual with no ND filter. My plan for this year is to use Shutter priority, hand held, IS off/on with an option to use an ND filter. Hopefully this will obtain better exposer and sharper photos across the day. I cannot wait for the season to begin. Are you attending any air shows this year, perhaps meeting up with you is in order?.

Regards
Neil

If you any feedback regarding the above question please add to the comments below and perhaps over on Google +.

You can contact me : +44 (0) 7584 900938

Email neil@neilgrahamphotography.com

Audi photo review - Panning

A couple of followers on Google plus ask me how I obtained a crisp photo of the winning Audi LMP 1 car at the 2013 Le Mans, I thought I'd put together a quick check list of what I do for my night time panning shot.

My Gear- Canon 60d and Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8 IS USM Mk 1. Click for technical data.

1. Try to find a length of straight with flood lights or perhaps an entrances or between corners, the main reason for this is it provides you with a consent light source and at corners you have cars bunching up which provides light from behind. In a way the flood lights becomes your key and car headlamps become your fill light at ground level.

2. I always shoot to the right of the histogram in Raw which seems to allow more information to be captured by my APC crop sensor in my Canon 60d.  By coincidence, +Martin Bailey of Martin Bailey Photography recently produced a podcast #381 about shooting to the right and Martin explains it in more technical detail and much better than I could so it's worth heading over to Martin's website or iTunes and have a listen.

3. Test shots, to set up your camera and don't rush because they will come past again and again. You also can test your panning technic, I stand with feet firmly planted to the ground and rotate my hips as smooth as I can, plus I tuck in my elbows tight to reduce my own nature shake.

4. Always aim for a correct in-camera exposure, which will give you more room in post processing to recover highlights and open shadows up. I try not to go over ISO 3200 on my Canon 60D but I'd rather have the correct exposure in camera than under expose and recover in Lightroom 4, so I will go above ISO 3200 if required. It's better to smooth the noise in Lightroom 4 with a correct exposure rather than under expose, then increase your exposure in LR4 as this only produces even more noise to deal with as you push it higher.

5. I use the centre focus point on my camera for the best sensitively during focusing and the lenses set on stabiliser 2 for side to side movement.

6. As mentioned before if you find a straight which you can access safely with subjects only moving from left to right, this will help your camera to focus quicker. If the cars are coming at you then away fast, the camera not only has to track the target towards you, then the camera has to move focus, this is one of hardest things for your camera to do, especially in dark conditions.

7. Put your camera in high continuous, Al Servo. I can guarantee that not every photo will not be in focus, as I found in a set 8/9 burst, only number 3 and number 7 would be in focus. I would set up to take 8/9 photos and only expect 2 photos to be useable. For me this is not a bad ratio of return. I also delete the others to save space on my hard drive space. Some photographers say never delete any photos, the choice is yours.

8. Normally all of my photos are hand held because as a normal paying customer at the motor racing there is not enough room for a big set up, but I if remember correctly this time my camera was mounted to a tripod, because I was making a video and this did reduce my up and down movement.

9. Finally, I use Lightroom 4 for my post processing. Generally I only adjust the exposure, highlights,shadows,charity and vibrance,then I sharpen, apply noise reduction and lenses correction and that's it. No photoshop at all. (Mainly because I don't know how to use it)

Below I have all of my camera settings and my post processing setting in Lightroom 4, plus the before and after photo.

Camera Settings 

1/100 sec at F/2.8 ISO 3200 200mm (EF70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM)

This is a 50% Jpegs of the CR2 original before processing in Lightroom 4.

This is a 50% Jpegs of the CR2 original before processing in Lightroom 4.

Lightroom 4 processing settings

Temp 3800 (Fluorescent) Tint +21 , Exposure +30, Contrast 0, Highlights -41, Shadows +62, whites 0, Blacks 0, Clarity +44, Vibrance +20 and Saturation 0.

No Curve, no HSL, no Split toning.
Sharpening- 36, Radius 1.0, Detail 2, Masking 40, Noise Reduction - Luminance 67, Detail 50, Contrast 27, Colour 49, Details 50

Normal Lens Corrections with LR4 Profiles and Colour.

The winning number 2 Audi LMP1 at Le Mans 2013.Click on the image to view more audi photographs. 

The winning number 2 Audi LMP1 at Le Mans 2013.

Click on the image to view more audi photographs. 

I hope this short summary helps you with you're panning shots at night. Again, it does show me using my prosumer camera you can still produce some very good photos.

If you have anymore questions please email neil@neilgrahamphootgraphy.com

Stephen Cotterell has a chat with me over coffee

 Last Tuesday I had a chat over coffee with Stephen Cotterell for his Photography 121 Podcast   https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/photography-121/id425877463 Also, Michael Rammell Photography join me for the trip to London. After, Stephen gave us a parking ticket, we had a hug and a shake of hands, which put me completely at ease.  It's refreshing to meet a follow photographer with a passion for talking from the heart about photography.

Coffee made and we were off, no rules, no prepared questions and the recorder set.. For someone who has not been questioned about his photography before I found it a little troubling..

Stephen's skill at asking questions put me at ease and the hour went rather quick.. After listening back to the podcast I sometimes forgot what the question was and perhaps not answering with a straight answer, but that's me all over.

Three things I will take away from the chat is that, I need to

push my blogging more (Perhaps a Book). Never lose sight of a photo over the technical quality and lastly add an invoice to my work flow..

Can I say thanks to Stephen Cotterell once again and if you have time please leave a review on iTunes after listening to the podcast..

Neil Graham Podcast https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/photography-121/id425877463

@neilgrahamphoto  on Twitter
gneil45 on Flickr  and G+

Stephen Cotterell can be found at http://stephencotterell.com/and on Twitter as @Stephensmiles  


Source: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/photog...