Using a monopod

There are usually plenty of ways to get around a problem if you are prepared to be a little adaptable.

Some time ago I was commissioned to photograph a lovely chap called Cedric Robinson, the official Queen’s Guide to the Kent Sands. A grand title for an important job. The Kent Sands are in Morecambe Bay in the NW of England, and some of you may remember that a few years ago over twenty cockle pickers were drowned in the bay when they were caught by the inrushing tide. It is a very dangerous, but hauntingly beautiful place. Quick sands abound and the going is treacherous underfoot – unless you know what you are doing - and Cedric certainly does.

He organises walks across the sands, and these have become hugely popular, attracting hundreds of people at a time. Obviously a magazine feature would have to include a picture of Cedric leading this multitude across the sands at low water. I envisaged a shot of him at the head of a column of followers – looking just like Moses.

Only one problem – the sands are almost completely flat, so getting an elevated position from which I would be able to see this line of people was not going to be easy. I couldn’t possibly carry a set of step ladders across the sands.

I solved the problem by mounting the camera on a monopod and using a long electrically operated shutter release. I was then able shove the whole assemble into the air above the heads of the crowd. This enabled me to get a picture of the whole long line of people with Cedric striding out at the front. Of course I could not see exactly where the picture was framed so I had to use a good dose of guesswork - and I was shooting film, so there was no way I could check the images as I went along and adjust the angles. But I took lots of pictures and was surprised when they were processed to find very few with completely wonkey horizons. Using a 24mm wide angle lens was a big help.

The biggest difficulty was holding the weight of the camera at the end of the pole, and trying to walk backwards at such a fast pace without falling over. I got the feeling that there were a few of those walkers who might have been waiting keenly for the photographer to make a complete prat of himself. They were out of luck. The picture was used across two pages in The Mail on Sunday Magazine and later in Saga Magazine along with many other pictures showing Cedric at work. That's Cedric in the centre of the picture above.

Wide angle for people

This is a very different style of photograph to the one in the previous post. It was taken just a few moments after the first in a busy camel market in Cairo.

This time, though, a wide angle 24mm lens has been used. The action is far more static. It is a reflective moment while the group of camel traders sit together on the ground smoking and talking. This time I wanted to emphasise the arrangement of the four people in the group while retaining lots of information in the background. This background information tells the story of who they are and what their work is.

So I have moved right in and filled my foreground with the wide angle. This has slightly exaggerate the perspective and placed more emphasis on the men themselves.

Of course the men knew I was there and that I was taking photographs. But I had been in the market most of the morning and had build something of a rapport with these people. In the end they were quite happy to let me get on with what I was doing while they carried on working.

My normal way of working is with two camera bodies – one fitted with a wide angle lens and one with a longer lens. This completely cuts out the need to keep changing lenses. It is just a method I have got used to over many years working as a travel photographer with The Sunday Times and for other magazines. There are many conditions in which you simple would not want to change lenses especially these days with the problems of getting dirt on the sensor. The dusty conditions of this market would have played havoc with the sensor of a digital camera.

Photographing live gigs - part 2

I arrived at the theatre early, well before the start of the show so that I could check out shooting positions and angles. The stage had very limited access to the wings and as the best shots are often taken from the side of the stage, this would make things quite difficult.

The only way to get into this position would be from the front of the stage, so the band had to be happy for me to move up there between songs. Access to the back of the stage, where I could shoot from behind the band, was easy and I checked out all my routes from one position to another while all the house lights were on. I had put a small torch in my pocket so that I would not be stumbling around in the dark when I went back stage during the performance – it would be very dark there then.

I even managed to gain access to a small lighting gantry above the audience from where I could use a telephoto lens for frontal close-ups of the band. During the show, I dodged from one position to the next, and often back again.

As I was on the move and adapting to the different light conditions and positions of the performers, I left my bulky camera bag safely locked in a dressing room and operated with two camera bodies and two lenses.

With the stage lights constantly changing intensity direction and colours, you may find it useful to use the Aperture Value (AV) exposure mode. Remember, this is more correctly called the Aperture Priority (AP) mode. Just set a wide aperture and let the camera decide on the shutter speed. However, I prefer to use the basic M (Manual) mode whenever possible, so that I can change the exposure myself as the lights change. It is also more reliable if shooting directly into bright stage spots – a situation that can confuse any automatic metering mode.

ISO
I set my ISO to 800 with the certain knowledge that I would need the fastest shutter speed possible to stop any action. This would result is some loss of quality, but that was a price worth paying.

EXPOSURES
Most of the shots were taken at between 1/60sec and 1/125sec at f2.8 or f4. Of course these shutter speeds are pretty slow for stopping action, and there were some failures when I pressed the button as the subjects moved, so it was important to take lots of pictures so that these could be discarded. The camera’s LCD illuminator is invaluable when checking settings in the dark in the dark.

WHITE BALANCE
You will never win completely when the stage lights are changing from bright blue to deep red. I simply set AWB (Auto White Balance) and let it happen. Any adjustments I made later in Photoshop.

LENSES
The most useful lens proved to be the 17-35mm f2.8. With this I could get really close from the side of the stage and include the stage lighting in the shot for dramatic effect. For the long shots from the lighting gantry I used a 70-200mm f2.8 zoom. I don’t often bother with lens hoods, but in these conditions, with lights shining into the lens at an angle, I made sure I had a hood fitted to avoid flare

Top photograph
Doug Carroll may not be as famous as Mark Knopler, but he is one of the most gifted guitar players in the UK. I wanted to get a picture that really summed up his total immersion in his music when he played solo. I liked his natural pose with the spotlights shining down on him through the stage smoke. Stage lighting is mostly from front and back of the performers, so if you are photographing a band from the wings you will not be shooting directly into the light

Lower photograph
From the lighting gantry just above the audience I was able to use a telephoto lens and get reasonable close-up shots of the band. The light behind Mary was flashing on and off and changing colour so there was an element of luck involved in getting a good facial expression with the right light backlight




TIP
Earplugs are essential for photographers working directly in front of a powerful sound system. It’s LOUD. Over the years, I've covered dozens of rock bands' live gigs - from the Rolling Stone’s, Rod Stewart, Freddie Mercury. I hate to admit this, but I've covered The Beatles as well – and my hearing has never been the same.

If you want to know more about Doug, Mary and the The Mary Barclay Band - or buy their music - go to...
http://www.sensationalmarybarclayband.com/
http://www.myspace.com/sensationalmarybarclayband

Humour in photography

It is always a mistake to assume that everyone shares the same sense of humour as yourself. In fact there are lots of people who have no sense of humour at all. I try to avoid these people whenever possible... the exception being pompous people, who I find hugely amusing and funny.

I have always enjoyed injecting a gentle sense of fun into my photographs. In fact, when I was working for The Daily Express, I got a reputation for what we called affectionately the ‘Silly Jobs Department’.

Over the years I have been commissioned to photograph some profoundly silly things.

I was once sent by a highly prestigious magazine all the way to Fiji with a life-sized pot replica head of the of the captain of the England rugby team. I remember it was in a very large and heavy box. England were due to play Fiji in the Rugby World Cup, and I was told to get a photograph of the Fijian front row players sat around a cooking pot in which they were boiling the English captain’s head. No, jobs don’t come any sillier than that. All very non-pc these days. If you would like to see the results of this extraordinary trip, you will have to put your requests in the comments and say please – I don’t show these pictures to just anybody! It can be all too painful to me. Still, I got well very paid and the pictures were given a tremedous spread in the magazine.

I’m delighted to say that even quality newspaper are not immune from having a little fun and I have posted a photograph I took for The Daily Telegraph here in the UK, together with a copy of the newspaper cutting showing how they used it.

The secret to success is to be 'gentle' with your subjects. I find nothing in the least funny about about crude and obvious jibes.

Well, you’ve got to laugh, it’s better than crying.

Canon G9 vignetting - answers

Yesterday I posted a question on photo.net regarding the post about vignetting when using attachment lenses on the Canon G9. Having only had the camera a short time and not yet having used it a great deal, I felt unqualified to answer fully, however, I did express the view that ‘inexpensive’ lenses might be at the root of the problem. It turns out that this might not be the case, but that the camera needs setting up properly.

The link below should take you to the forum page where several members responded. However, you may have to join the group to gain access. I can recommend that you do. This forum is huge and very useful.

http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00OK88

Denise D from San Francisco pointed out that even with the Canon wide angle and tele adaptors can produce vignetting unless you go to the settings menu and the into the ‘converter’ option. There are two options – one for tele and one for wide angle. You must select the correct option.

In fact there are three options, the other one is 'none' for normal shooting.

So, I hope this helps our anonymous friend who posted the original question, and my sincere thanks to those who responded on Photo.net

The pictures show the menu of the G9 and the two options for the Converter.
Hope this helps.

Photographing people in the street - eye contact

This picture was taken in China – one of the few places in the world to which I have no desire to return. As you can see, the street performing sword swallower is the main subject. He has his eye glued on me and is trying to draw me into his act. Maybe he wanted me to try swallowing a sword. Whatever it was he failed. Simply because I kept my eye to the viewfinder and just kept on taking photographs. Eventually, he gave up on me and got on with trying to impress his audience by stuffing an assortment of swords and knives down his throat. I just carried on taking photographs.

One of the strengths of this photograph is a composition that gives a strong sense of depth – this is partially due to the use of a wide-angle lens, but mostly because of the differing scale of the figures from foreground to background.

Another forceful aspect of this photograph is the eye contact of the main subject, and, if you look to the left, the eye contact of the man who is watching for my reactions. Eye contact is a powerful device and can give the viewer of your photographs a feeling of involvement with the scene and the subject. It confirms that the subject is aware of the camera’s presence – in this case the subject is actually responding to the camera – there is a shared interaction.

Photographing people - inhibitions

Self-consciousness is probably the main reason for holding back the talents of so many photographers. The thought of taking out a camera in public and pointing it at another person fills most photographers with dread. Why?

Maybe I was lucky to have had every inhibition knocked out of me at a very early age when I was an apprentice on a local newspaper. Even at the age of 15 I was expected to stand in front of a crowd of people and organise them into a group photograph – all this while using a 5 x 4 glass plate press camera and a flash unit with wet cell batteries I could barely lift. The first time I did this ‘solo’ was at a Christmas Fair in a school hall. The highest vantage point was the stage, and beneath the stage was laid out a table full of cakes and goodies. My boss, the chief photographer, stood at the back of the hall watching my performance.

In a voice barely broken by puberty, I yelled for attention and got a group of people herded near to me so that I could look down on them from the stage. You must bare in mind that in those days, the mantra of a local newspaper was ‘faces sell papers’. In other words, the more people you get on the photograph, the more newspapers will sell. I had gathered together perhaps 40 faces.

The very edge of the stage had a lethal sloping edge. You guessed it – just as I got everything set I slipped down the edge and skidded onto the table below. I watched my boss cover his face in shame as I waded ankle-deep in cream cakes and blancmange. However, the results of this spectacular fete of ineptitude was that everyone laughed – and I got the happiest photograph ever used in the newspaper.

Since that day I realised that it doesn’t matter a tinker’s cuss what people think of you at the time – provided you get the picture that matters. In actual fact all the ladies in the group rushed to offer me their motherly care – once they had stopped laughing.

---

Viv asks do I think black and white works best for people photographs, or is it my newspaper background? Well, Viv, a bit of both really. I love black and white. It has a power that colour can never quite equal. I do happen to have a library of b/w negatives numbering around 150,000, so I have plenty to go at. But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy shooting colour. Just to prove it I have posted a couple of colour ‘people’ pictures.

The shot of the couple lying on the beach was taken with their consent. I saw them from some distance and took the first picture with a short telephoto lens, but I wanted to get right in close with a wide angle. The camera was glued to my eye as a walked carefully forward and spoke to them – ‘You look absolutely wonderful, please don’t move and let me take a photograph’. I was actually taking photographs as I spoke. They were a lovely, happy couple and delighted with the result when I showed them the picture.

So throw aside those inhibitions and take more photographs.

I’ve posted the photograph of the farmer to show that I’m quite happy to shoot colour for street portraits.

Photographing people in the street

I read on one of the photography forums recently a claim from a photographer who stated that true ‘street’ photography should not be done with a telephoto lens. It should only be done with a lens with an equivalent focal length of between 35-50mm. This is utter nonsense.

The correct lens for photographing people in the street is the lens that enables you to get the picture you want, and a photographer who hog-ties himself to this sort of narrow-minded work practice will miss an awful lot of worthwhile photographs.

I do not have a favourite lens for my street photography. I am just as likely to use a 24mm wide angle or a 180mm telephoto – rarely anything longer purely because of the inconvenience of carrying large lenses about. Quite apart from its effect of isolating your subject with its limited depth of field – as in the photograph above - a small telephoto sometimes enables you to remain just that little bit less conspicuous. I am perfectly happy to move in very close with my wide angle when I feel the picture needs that sort of approach.

When GlenF commented that photographing people in less-developed countries is still a delight, I have to agree. I’m not sure I agree that people in Western countries are more suspicious, though – perhaps they are just less civilised. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but when Mahatma Ghandi was asked what he thought of Western civilisation, he answered, “I think it will be good when they get it”.

Thanks to Saw Lady for her comment about paying street performers when you want to photograph them. I’d love to come over to NY to photograph you at work, and I think your blog is great. I suspect you get an awful lot of snappers photographing you already.
www.sawlady.com/blog

Wide angle lens - Part 2

It’s the wide angle’s tendency to create the impression of increased depth within your pictures that makes it such a great tool for landscapes. By tilting the camera slightly downwards, taking in more foreground and putting the horizon up towards the top third of the composition, the viewer of your picture can get the idea of almost walking into the scene. See picture at bottom of post...

Here the wide angle’s tendency to exaggerate perspective has caused converging vertical lines. You may think this unpleasant, but it has the effect of making the cathedral look even more magnificent, while making the figure look even smaller in comparison

Of course the same works the other way: tilt the camera upwards, put the horizon down the bottom third and you can create wide and fantastically dramatic skies. The wide angle lens is especially effective when including these large areas of sky. When shooting straight into the sun, or when at least including it in the frame, interesting ‘starburst’ effects can radiate from the bright light source. This can be very pleasing – who needs a starburst filter?

There are down sides to the wide angle lens and one is a tendency to exaggerate ‘converging verticals’, but even this can be used very effectively to add drama and depth to our pictures, especially when photographing tall buildings. The wide angle even has its place in portraiture, but great care is needed when photographing people unless the distortion effect is something you are aiming for. Mostly the wide angle can be used to place people in a setting. By positioning your model near, but not too near, the camera, a great deal of visual information in the background behind the person can be included. Add to this advantage the wide angle’s considerable depth of field, and everything can be kept in focus.


A 24mm wide angle lens was used for this portrait of Chris De Burgh so that I could put him in the context of his surroundings. The story was about him and where he lived on the Irish coast. The wide angle view of the lens has enabled me to include the small harbour in the background, while its tremendous depth of field capability has ensured both Chris and the background are reasonably sharp

This time a combination of beautiful sidelight and a vertical format using a wide angle lens leads the viewer’s eye into and around the picture. There is no actual focal point, but the effect of the wide angle lens holds the eye within the frame. The eye goes through the long grasses, takes in the brooding sky and the water, then does it all again. There is little temptation to look out of the composition. Notice again that the horizon has gone up towards the top third of the image

Wide angle lens - Part 1

Do you have a wide angle lens but rarely take it out of your camera bag? I reckon a wide angle is one of the most useful lenses you can own for everything from landscapes to portraits… it just needs treating with a bit of respect and understanding.

A wide angle lens is not just to get ‘more in’. There, I’ve said it again - something I bang on about to my students every time we talk about short focal length lenses. A lens with a focal length equivalent to about 24mm is perhaps the most useful because it has the effect of accentuating the perspective of your pictures without distorting things too much. Yes, I know there are people who would argue that it does nothing of the sort, but I was careful to say ‘has the effect of’. It has the effect of making the foreground appear nearer and the background further away because it captures more in the frame, and yes, I suppose it is useful for getting ‘more in’ when you are taking pictures in confined spaces.

The most obvious effect of this accentuated perspective is to add a greater illusion of depth, or the third dimension, to your two dimensional photographs.


The perspective of the bridge and the boats has been exaggerated with a 24mm lens to ensure that the eye is led right into the picture. The swans, of course, are the focal point, but the overall effect makes the viewer feel as though he could clamber out over the boats

Lenses equivalent to a focal length of less than 24mm start to have considerable distorting effect. I rarely use them for this reason. The shorter the focal length, the wider the angle of the lens, and the greater the distortion. Pictures taken purely for the effect of a super wide, or fish-eye lens have become a cliché and unless you have specific purpose for such a lens you are unlikely to get much use from it. However, a 24mm or perhaps 28mm equivalent can be extremely well employed for a great range of subjects. For landscape, townscape and interior shots in particular the 24-28mm equivalent lens is indispensable. I say ‘equivalent’ because you have to remember that unless your digital SLR has a full-frame sensor – and most digital SLRs do not – there is a magnification factor of around 1.6. So you need a lens with an actual focal length of around 15mm to get the ‘equivalent’ of a 24mm.




This time a 21mm wide angle lens has been used to gather extra information into the picture. This man is a saddler and I wanted to show what he was doing and the sort of tools he used to do it. The tools were carefully arranged in the near foreground and he was asked to stand back just a little and reach forward. This has added to the effect of extra depth by making his hands look slightly bigger so that he seems to be coming further out of the picture

Yes, a wide angle lens can be used to ‘get more in’ and it really come in handy with interior shots. I would have been unable to include the entire room in this photograph without a 24mm lens. This lens has already started to distort the settee a little. Had I used an even shorter focal length lens, I would have got ‘even more in’, but the distortion would have been unacceptable. Notice how I have been able to include the flowers in the foreground to create a pleasant atmosphere. By stopping down to a small aperture, the already considerable depth of field of the wide angle lens has been boosted even more. Those flowers are just three feet away from the camera, yet they and the background are perfectly in focus

Next, in Part 2 - wide angles and converging verticals

Photographing reflections - part 1

The ‘reflection’ theme is a regular subject for camera club competitions, and rightly so. It’s a theme that’s open to all sorts of imaginative interpretations - from abstract ideas to perfectly symmetrical mirror images.

The idea of including mirrors to reveal an part of a subject that is out of the framed picture itself is far from new – artists have been using it for hundreds of years in portraits and interior paintings. The effect can be to bring an intriguing illusion of the third dimension to a two-dimensional iamge. Done well, it can also inject a sense of mystery, compelling the viewer to look more closely – and so get drawn into your composition.


The mirror inside Lincoln Cathedral (picture above right), was positioned so that visitors could see the roof without craning their necks. I preferred to photograph the stained glass windows through it. I used a small aperture, f16, which meant I needed a slow shutter speed of 1/4sec. The camera was put on a tripod. Using the centre-weighted exposure mode, a light reading was taken from the window’s reflection, this has underexposed the interior of the cathedral – just the sort of contrast I wanted

Simple reflections can virtually double the amount of colour, form and interest within your picture. They can reveal the most amazing abstract shapes by breaking up the form into waving patterns of colour and shape.

In town, reflected images seem to be everywhere we look, even more so in our modern cities with their glass-sided office towers. There are reflections in shop windows, pools and puddles – even the polished paintwork of cars can reflect interesting images worth photographing. Intriguing contrasts can be created when new glass office blocks reflect older architecture. Perfectly still water can mirror buildings, people and landscape, but lightly rippled water can sometimes produce even more interesting photographs – back to those abstracts again.

Each pane of glass in this tower block has distorted the reflection of the building behind the camera., creating an abstract design. The window cleaners’ box has helped bring a sense of reality to the picture and added a focal point to the pattern

Next - in Part 2, water reflections

Photographing the wind

Living on the west coast of Scotland offers plenty of opportunities to photograph the effects of strong winds. Wind-bent trees make fantastic subjects, and my students often photograph them when we head off along the coast to take landscapes.

There are two basic methods of showing the wind actuality blowing – one is to use a fast shutter speed to freeze the action, and the other is to use a slow shutter speed to allow the movement to blur. Both can be highly effective when done well.

The practical difficulties of actually putting the camera on a tripod and using a long exposure in strong winds can be hard to overcome. Camera shake is the biggest problem. Yes, even when the camera is on a tripod, it can still be subject to vibrations and movement when the wind whistles around it. A good heavy tripod is one answer, but failing that you might try weighting the tripod down with a plastic bag full of stones or sand. Anything will do. The last thing you want is for the camera and tripod to get blown over. Most tripods these days have a hook onto which you can hang a weighty bag.

For the picture of the waves, I used a 200mm lens to compress the perspective and pull the waves closer together. 1/350sec was used to freeze the action.
The shot of the wind-blown grass was done with the camera on a tripod – a heavy Benbo. A slow shutter speed of two seconds was used to show the movement in the grass as the wind blew through it. A wide angle lens was used to fill the foreground – because that is where the action is.