Newborn baby pictures

Following the baby pictures taken on 3rd June http://sylvainoliveira.blogspot.com/2009/06/baby-pictures.html, I had the opportunity to try newborn ones. What a disaster! Newborns are notoriously difficult to photograph and this one was no exception. I had to shoot between feeds, nappy changes and sleeps and she was finally captured on camera with her eyes open. Although this was good experience I am certainly no Anne Geddes. To take these pictures I used a Canon EOS1D Mark3 with a Canon Lens 85mm 1.2L Mark2.
The flash was Canon 580 Mark2 set in a Manfrotto lighting stand and taken through a transluscent white umbrella which was triggered by a Pocket Wizard. I used aperture of f7,1 set by my trusty flashmeter Minolta V to give more depth of field because the baby kept moving.

Advertising and marketing is not the only key to success

The current conditions are tough for any photographer. Advertising and marketing attracts new business but it is also important to retain the client base. Even weddings can have repeat business. Often, friends of the bride and groom get married around the same time and need a photographer and referrals can become secured business. Or, pregnancy provides the opportunity for maternity and child portraits. Unfortunately, not all photographers realise the importance of good service and fail to deliver prints on time or are not easily contactable. One even posts his daily life on Twitter
telling potential customers about a visit to a pizzaria or a football match but has no interest in clients beyond the secured sale. Good old fashioned service is just as important now than it ever was but changing values mean some photographers forget this.

Second Synchro Curtain

Yesterday, I shot pictures of a time trial organised by Team MK in Hanslope. I used the second curtain synchro on camera dedicated flash Canon 580EX Mark2 due to the poor weather. This makes the motion before the flash look more realistic. The second curtain synchro is when the flash fires just before the shutter closes on a long exposure. This makes moving objects sharp and the motion blurred. Here, you can see that the front of the biker is sharp but the back is slightly blurred as we are already starting to see the effect. To achieve this, I used slow shutter synchro 1/60 second. Had I used a slower speed setting, ie 1/15 second then the clothing would have left a "trail" behind him.

Excellent Service from Lexar

Everyone has different experiences with companies when it comes to dealing with problems and I would like to share mine. Back in 2005, I bought a compact flash Lexar Professional WA 2GB 80x which has now corrupted. I contacted Lexar as this has a lifetime guarantee. Trouble shooting would not fix the problem and less than a week after returning the product, Lexar sent me a new upgraded replacement, a Lexar Professional 4GB 233x .

Some companies try to weazle out of fixing any problems and their after-sales service is poor. For me, this means no repeat business. So whether you are a shop, company or a self-employed photographer, excellent service is key to a thriving business.

Baby Pictures

Lately, everyday has been busy and today is no exception. Baby portrait pictures are new to this blog but this is something I spent time doing a few years ago in France. These pictures were taken at home and, for this reason, they were challenging as I wanted to create the look of being in a studio. It’s not necessarily practical but the room is white and cream coloured with large windows which give a lot of light and brightness and helped with these shots. I used a Canon EOS1D Mark 3 with a lens Canon 85m 1.2L Mark2 setting speed 1/250s, aperture F3.5, my flash Canon 580EX Mark2 and a white translucent umbrella which directed light onto the ceiling. Babies do get tired but this one was a pleasure to work with and, as you can see, loved smiling for the camera.

Effects of using a filter

Here, I wanted to show a “before” and “after” pictures . The baby had redness on his cheeks due to teething which you can see from the colour picture. The picture was transformed into black and white using Digital Photo Professional from Canon.








The redness still shows ( see picture above ) but if a red filter effect is applied then it eliminates the redness completely as you can see on this last picture.

Time trial

Yesterday was a stunning summers day and I spent the evening shooting a time trial organised by Team MK. With narrow sloping roads which are open to normal traffic it was sometimes challenging to obtain a good shot. The positioning of the photographer is crucial. The sun was exceptionally bright which made shots with a blurred background impossible and I needed shade. This shot was taken using a Canon EOS 1 D Mark 3 with a zoom Canon 24-70 2.8L and a flash Canon 580EX Mark 2 synchronised high speed 1/1000s to light the harsh shadow on the bikers face.

Late in the evening provided the perfect opportunity and with the sun starting to set, the light changed and my much needed shadows appeared. I could then move to a shady spot to take this picture which was taken mid course. It’s the difference in light and use of the flash that enables the photographer to “freeze” the biker yet have a blurred background. Here, I used a slow synchro 1/80s and the flash was set on a light stand and triggered using a Pocket Wizard.