A tripod is a simple piece if kit. Depending on what you want it can be very cheap or extremely expensive. Like everything you get what you pay for. It used to be simple: the more you spent, the stronger and sturdier your tripod would be. With the advent of high-tech materials there is now also a third dimension to consider: weight, or rather lightness if you go for a carbon fibre tripod. Continue reading How to choose a tripod »
Category: Equipment
Equipment news and reviews
Fisheye Lens – Worth the money???
I bought a fisheye lens a few years ago on an impulse. I didn’t really have a use for it and the time and the real reason was I thought it might be fun to play with at the time. It was too. The severe distortion created an interesting effect at first before I grew tired of it quite quickly. My wife in particular hated me using it on her. Close-ups of a person’s face can be very unflattering.
When I first bought the lens I used it mainly on my 20D. With a crop sensor the distortion is a lot less noticeable than on a full frame body such as the 5D. On the 20D it behaved much more like a super wide lens. Here’s an example from one of my images made with this lens, the EF15 f/2.8 Fisheye. The horizon in the original image was virtually undistorted and so easily corrected with the warp tool in PhotoShop.
How to use Extension Tubes for Macro Photography
In the early days of my photographic career my weapon of choice for macro work was a close-up filter. Nowadays it the Extension Tube. Here’s why…
Extension Tubes – What are they…?
Extension tubes are very simple devices. They’re short tubes, usually in the region of 5mm to 25mm in length, with a lens mount at either end. One end of the extension tube fits on the camera body where the lens would attach. The other end replicates the camera interface and is where the lens mounts. The tube fits between the camera body and the lens, moving the lens further away from the film/sensor plane, effectively magnifying the image from the lens. The longer the tube, Continue reading How to use Extension Tubes for Macro Photography »
Darkness visible? Very Low Light Photography
Very Low Light Photography on the Canon 5DmkII
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of photographing a really cool jazz band at the Electric Theatre in Guildford. During the shoot I spotted (or rather almost spotted) one of the band members sitting in one of the seats in the auditorium. I say almost spotted because with only the stage lights on the auditorium was very dark, only being lit by the reflected lit from the stage. It was such a low light that I could hardly see him with the naked eye. This was a great opportunity to see what the 5DmkII could really do at it’s highest ISO setting. In most situations I photograph in I don’t normally take the ISO much above 1600. Every now and then the environment calls for something different and the extreme low light of the auditorium at the Electric Theatre was a good example.
With the camera on manual mode I metered the scene and dialed in an exposure of 1/50th, f/3.5, ISO25600. Apart from a very slight white balance tweak the image above is straight off the camera. Continue reading Darkness visible? Very Low Light Photography »
Westcott Apollo 50″ Softbox – Product Review
I bought the Westcott Apollo 50″ Softbox a couple of years ago and as modifiers go this is definitely one of my favourites. It’s a big light that’s quick to deploy, folds up small and gets amazing results. I’ve used it in the studio and out on location. I’ve taken it on the bus, the train and the tube. I’ve made some amazing images with it.
This modifier is a serious piece of kit that gets serious results. All the images on this page were made using this modifier.
Continue reading Westcott Apollo 50″ Softbox – Product Review »
