Last month me and my friend Dave Ford went to a local forest with some glasses lemonade and decided to take some studio style shots in the forest. Here is the stuff that I shot, We took 2 continuous LED lights to pick up details but they are mainly lit with natural light.
I shot with my 100mm F2.8 and my new 50mm sigma Art lens. we also took a couple of manfrotto tripods and my new Rhino slider.
On Monday I went out shooting again with Ethan Edwards this time we went to London. Sadly it started raining just after we arrived, So we decided to head over to Kew so that we could continue to shoot in a dry place and so that our gear didnt get too ruined.
I also Took some photos Of Ethan Shooting Which Were quite cool. I especially Like the one of him walking where I tracked him as it was shot at 100mm 1/40th of a second shutter speed.
On thursday the 5th of january I decided to go out shooting with Ryan Monshall. here are some of my photos from that day.
At the end of December I organised to go out shooting with Dave Ford and Ryan Monshall. It was a nice way to end the year, and a great way to get a jump start on this year, and since then I have shot much more than normal. So here are some of My photos from tat day out.
At the end of October I went to venice with a couple of friends. We were hoping to capture the flooding, which I will talk about in a later post, But here are some of my favourite general shots from the trip.
It was a lot of fun to shoot constantly. I took my Eos M, 550D and C100 which was what I used for this video. I used my tripod and monopod as well as my Glidecam, which is what most of the motion shots where shot with. I also shot a fair amount handheld, and was pretty surprised with the results.
So today I had the pleasure of going out and shooting some portraits with Ethan. It was a lot of fun, and nice to have Ethan as he shoots portraits more than I do.
I took My portable LED light and a light stand to light him so he would stand out more, and shot with my 24-35 F2 and 100mm F2.8 lenses.
I was pretty happy with the results and would love to shoot portraits more often, as its good to do something new as there is always more to learn when, especially when you are out of your comfort zone.
Home was the 3rd video Me and mike filmed together, and was the first video where I had more than 2 cameras. It was also one of the few pre recorded audio track videos we did.
For my main locked off shot I used my new EOS M and 100mm with my rode video mic for scratch audio as mike was pretty far away from the camera. I did one take with this camera.
I had my Glidecam with my 550d and kit lens much closer, and just to the left of the frame of the EOS M I moved around getting different angles, and used the zoom to give the effect of different cameras in this space. I did 2 takes with this camera.
With the 650D I had someone hold it and move every 30 seconds or so or change the zoom on the 75-300, again to give the effect of more cameras. It would have been better to have a second tripod or monopod for this, but at this time I had neither.
The audio was playing from a phone out of a wireless speaker so that all the cameras had scratch audio to sync to, and so Mike could sing along. no audio was recorded live.
For the Edit I cropped the video down to 4:3 aspect ratio to give an old style look, this was because it was a very grainy image and didn't look great, so I decided to make it look purposefully bad. I added static and created a colour composite in R,G&B and offset each one to give the colour fringing look from old camcorders. All in all I think it turned out quite well, considering at first look it looked like we would have to reshoot. I Learnt that we needed to shoot earlier and that I needed another tripod now I was using 3 cameras.
Over a year ago I started making music videos with Mike Brown & have finally decided to do a behind the scenes, documenting how I started out.
At this time I only had a 1 camera, my 550D, a 50mm, 100mm, and 24-35mm. For this Video I also borrowed a 650D. I also had my cheap £15 tripod and a Glidecam. I put my 550D and my 24-35 on the tripod, and the 650D with the 50mm on my Glidecam. I shot like this so I could move and get smooth shots, but always had a static to cut to if It wasn't always perfect. Both lenses were at f2 and the shutter speed was 1/30, I used this at the time as I thought the lowest was what it should be and you only changed it to change the exposure if you had to.
I knew i wanted to make it look more interesting and liked the bokeh given by out of focus sources, so put up a vertical zigzag of fairy lights being Mike, hanging from a piece of wood hung from an overhead rope. I then looped the rope back and forward to hang filament bulbs either side of Mike, again for effect.
For Audio I had a SE condenser mic, as at this time I was more interested in music tech than video, and ran it into a Presonus interface which was recorded in logic. I ran a mono line out from the keyboard into the second input in the interface. The audio sounded pretty good, and better than most people who had similar video setups. at this point I knew audio was at a good standard so focused on upgrading video equipment.
This video was a beneficial learning experience, as I was shooting properly with the Glidecam so got some practice in as I had just got it. I also found that the audio setup was pretty good as it was using 2 audio sources this time instead of one and a midi track. I enjoyed doing it live, and it was cool to setup lights to create the look I wanted.
Over a year ago I started making music videos with Mike Brown & have finally decided to do a behind the scenes, documenting how I started out.
Starting out I only had a 1 camera, my 550D kit lens and 100mm. I also had an old nikon 50mm. For this Video I also borrowed a 650D. I also had my cheap £15 tripod and a Glidecam. I put the 650D and my kit lens on the tripod. I had the 550D with the 50mm on my Glidecam I had only received the Glidecam so used it more as a monopod on a ledge. As the 50mm was a nikon lens I was holding it essentially free-lensing, giving a very blurred out background, which was good as it didn't look great.
As it was evening in winter there was no light, so we had to use 2 large fluorescent bulbs taped to an old tripod and a light stand, which didn't look great but along with the filament effect bulbs got the job done.
For audio We use My midi keyboard and my Se z3300a running into Mikes presonus interface.
the background wasn't great, so we tried to fill it with objects and lights that we could then blur out, which didn't really work with the kit lens but looked good with the 50mm.
I learnt a lot and the audio for 2 people from one mic wasn't too bad, but it would have been good to have a second mic. I also had some cheap video lights on order which would have been good for this video. It was good to do a one take multicam video, stylistic of live events or weddings.
I decided to go for a day shoot in London with Ethan Edwards before our venice trip. Here are some of my favourite shots.
So I recently went to kew gardens again. Its such a great place, and I never fail to get picture I am pleased with, it also served as a warm up for my venice trip, as it had been a couple of weeks since i shot anything. Hope You enjoy.
Also here are some images of a heron I took, really cool to capture it with a fish in its mouth, but they are not correctly exposed or perfectly focused. but here they are anyway.
A while ago I used the 50mm f1.2 lens. It is an extremely well built weighty lens, that definitely deserves to be in the L lens range. Having said that I would put it at both the low end and the high end of the L lens range.
Firstly this lens is incredibly well built and extremely sturdy, but being a lens probably would break if dropped. It also has incredible sharpness when stopped down and produces great colour with very little desaturation. also despite what has been said about its autofocus speed I think it is pretty fast considering the weight of the glass elements that it has to move.
Shooting round London was a great test for this lens as we shot in Borough market, which was quite dark so really needed the f1.2 to get a nice exposure. we also shot in Hyde park and Tate modern balcony which was quite good for landscapes and along the thames which was more street photography/ portrait style.
I tend to not like 50mm as a focal length that much, so it may have allowed me to pick up on its issues more than an average user, I just find 50mm isn't quite telephoto enough to shoot and get lens compression and not wide enough to get nice epic vistas.
My main issue with this lens is its insane price coming in at £1000-1200 it seems like they upped the price on a lens that should be more £750 just because they knew people would want the F1.2. Although this isn't really a great negative, as it would be worth it if all you shot with was this lens, rather than having it as your 4th/5th choice like me.
My next issue is the unbelievable colour fringing as you can see in the cropped image on the right, even in the non cropped version you can see the crazy green and purple of colour fringing. This is by far the worst colour fringing I have seen from a L series lens, and is one of the reasons why I consider the price high, and believe it is at the low end of the L lens range.
So recently I went to London and shot some photos with my friend, who is a photographer, Ethan Edwards, I found some cool places such as the crossrail garden, which i never knew existed! I really like some of the shots i got there including the one of Ethan, which is a nice cross of formal and informal.
I really liked the blue of the glass in contrast with the green plants and wood. its well worth a visit if you are ever in the canary warf area. We also went on the emirates sky line which was a fun experience and surprisingly cheap.
Everything was shot on my 550D with a 24-35mm F2 or 100mm F2.8.
For my main setup I use a 550D and have magic lantern installed with focus peaking turned on for more precise manual focus while filming. I shoot on the cinestyle preset on all cameras so often having exposure peaking turned on helps.
My second 550D is off to one side of the congregation about 3-5 rows back. I shoot like this so that all shots comply to the 180 rule and it's also useful to not obstruct guests view or the photographers background.
My third camera is an EOS-M in the centre of the isle at the back, again to not obstruct the photographer, and I'll tell them it's fine to obstruct of they need too, as this is more of a safety/wide, but can be nice if clear for the first kiss.
For my main 550D I have my 100mm and 24-35mm on me constantly. One is on the camera and one is in the sigma case which has a helpful belt loop.
for the main isle I have either a 50mm or the 75-300 depending on how dark and how large the church is. then depending on what I have on the main isle I will use the other for the side shot of the bride.
I tend to use either the 18-55, 22 or 24-35 for prep depending on how small or dark the space is. I Will always use the 100mm for rings and often flowers too.
Although this setup doesn't cover all focal lengths it is a great setup for a wedding due to its good balance of low light ability and focal lengths needed for almost any room, as you often don't know what places you will be shooting in.
If I was to change anything about this setup i would change the 75-300 for a 100-400mm just for the extra focal length, and the 18-55 for a 10-22mm for even tighter spaces.
This is what I use for the bulk of the wedding it has the stability like a tripod and the ability to quickly move around. i like it as it has a very small footprint so even in tight spaces you don't have to resort to handheld, this helps keep all the footage look professional.
I recently invested in this to replace my cheap tripod which I have had since I was taking photos on a little point&shoot. It is very sturdy, and with weights added it stays still even with very loud, bass heavy music. I like the solid bass with the fluid heat to get really nice pans and tilts. my only problem with it is there is no real friction control on the centre column so it is set in its position, once the height has been chosen, so often revert to my old tripod to get more vertical jib like movement. Another good thing is this tripod can support a fair bit of weight, so when shooting with more than 3 cameras i can place 2 on it. (more on this in a later post)
In my personal opinion the glidecam is perfect for a wedding! with enough practice (and a lot of time spent at the gym) you could shoot a whole wedding and get a huge range of different shots. I sold my first one when gimbals came out, but quickly regretted that as the glidecam is much easier to setup, even though its harder to use. Also the glidecam is much easier to get what i want it to do and can quickly switch directions.
I use this fluid head for video is it is lighter than the larger one, and the lager one is a bit heavier and more expensive for very little more. I have one on my tripod and one on my monopod.
I will usually take 2 EOS-M batteries, 7 550D Batteries and an assortment of SD cards amounting to 416GB 2 of the 64GB will always have magic lantern on for my main camera, and are labeled so not to mess with cameras that don't have it installed. I will usually take 3 chargers as well so when batteries run out they can be charged while I'm using the replacement. I also take a USB charger to keep my phone charger in case i need to call a cab or contact the bride or groom or any unforeseen emergency.
I also take a load of random bits and pieces such as ND filters, an old Nikon film 50mm, my old backup tripod and my on camera rode mic.
I have finnaly got round to doing an updated review of the canon 100mm This First part is more of a first impressions from when I first borrowed this lens over 4 years ago!
As you can see it keeps the water droplets sharp when on a surface with one and surface’s with many colours. also its image stabiliser and quick auto focus make it good for a beginner and someone looking for top end macro quality. The images here show that when stopped down to F2.8 its field of focus is limited to about 5 cm from the point of focus, sometimes less. This means it can be used for great bokeh and night time shots.
For this image you can see a very shallow depth of field, probably only 2 cm but it keeps that small area sharp while producing good bokeh in the background. You can also see that the colour intensity is very dramatic thanks to the lens, and before you say its the camera its not as I tried to replicate this image with the kit lens and it was no where near as intense.
Not much has changed about my opinion of the lens apart form the fact that in my first review i had said about how I didn't think it would be a good portrait lens, and its now my go to portrait lens for weddings! this lens is really one of the most versatile lenses and so much fun to shoot with.
I was on a shoot recently, and even though I had a 70-200 f2.8, therefore technically had a 100 I still opted to use the 100mm. I also use it for video, below you can see it on my EOS-M i like the focus length on it so you have much more precision and slow focus pulls when filming.
So recently I had the opportunity to shoot some musicians on a farm. Th setup was really cool, as there were a variety of instruments there, as well as recording equipment all at a great location. On the second day i went out on the lake in a kayak and took my EOS-M and managed to get some really cool shots, and amazingly I didn't break my camera! Here are some of the photos I shot there.
So in the first week of December I decided to buy theEOS M as a little camera to keep in my bag constantly. It appealed to me as it had a similar crop sensor to the one in my 550d, which I use constantly, but with a pancake lens its about the same size as a IPhone.
Upon Receiving it I was amazed by its functionality for its size, including that it records 30 minutes like the 5d instead of 11 or 12 minutes like a lot of other canon cameras. I shot half of Mike's 12 Days of christmas as a 3rd camera and used a 550d and 650 d as my main cameras.
Once It was fully setup with a mic, EF-M>EF adapter and a good lens it can quickly transform from a small pocket camera to a pretty good main camera. It has a touchscreen, which is a nice feature too. one downside to this camera is that the autofocus isn't great and as far as I'm aware there is no digital zoom to manual focus to focus before filming either. another issue with this camera is the fact that you cant attach nikon lenses with an adapter, which I frequently do with my other two.
All in all I really love this camera, its metal body and glass screen is a nice touch too, that add a quality feel, and with some L-lenses or Art series lenses it can be a really nice camera for an extremely low cost (mine cost £99 pre-owned).
On the second day we filmed 3 videos which was a significant amount more than the prior day, but we made it a bit easier for ourselves by filming it all in the same room, we just turned around, and made each video different, so it was not boring and repetitive. All the videos where shot on two cameras as my replacement EOS M had not arrived yet, so it was just my 550D and my sisters 650D.
First we needed to buy a christmas tree, but it was mid november, so no one was really selling real christmas trees as the would have died before christmas, which was fine by us but most people want their tree to be alive on christmas day. Eventually we found one, and even then we were the first people to buy one.
Recently I spent a week in London, exploring parts that I usually would photograph. During this time I walked from kingston to central London along the banks of the Thames, and came across one of the gates to kew gardens, and decided to go in. I was definitely the best decision as I got some fantastic shots inside, and probably some of the best from that week.
