Good deals on photographic equipment

Just spent the morning looking for new gear and thought I should share one of my findings:

Albany Kodak Express are, honestly, amazing.

http://www.albanykodakexpress.co.nz/

They seem to be the cheapest non-parallel importer in town and the manager I spoke to, Mandy, really knows her stuff. She gave me a few tips for how to improve my business and also had a casual chat about the products she likes as well as the products that sell well.

Seriously, these guys rock my socks. Check them out.

Alternatively if price is your only concern check out Expert Info Tech on the North Shore

http://www.einfo.co.nz

While photography isn't their main focus they have the lowest prices I have found. The down side is their gear is parallel imported meaning that it can take a little while to arrive and, as I have just discovered, warranty repairs can take a few weeks.

That is the cost of the savings though I suppose.

Wedding Photography Tips - Gear

A friend recently asked for some tips for photographing a wedding so I thought I would share these with anyone who happens to stumble across them. They will be identifiable by the label "Wedding Photography Tips " and I will endeavour to include links to the other "Wedding Photography Tips" posts in each  "Wedding Photography Tips" post. I will approach this as if you will only be photographing one wedding so some of the things I say may seem strange to those looking to photograph multiple weddings. This information will also be re-posted on http://www.pattenmakers.co.nz in the future.

Gear

Gear is the thing I am most often asked about when photographing a wedding. While this is probably because it's the most obvious thing it seems like a good place to start.

Memory Cards and Spare Batteries

If your camera doesn't go or has nothing to record to you don't have anything. Make sure you have an ample supply.

Pen, Paper, and a few Rubbish Bags

Take a pen and a piece of paper with you for the family shots so that you're sure not to miss anyone.

Take some rubbish bags to make a make-shift rain jacket for your camera if it rains or give the Bride, Groom, or whoever something to sit on to protect their fancy clothes.

Food, Drink, and maybe a Spare Shirt

Photographing a wedding is thirsty, hungry, sweaty work. Keep yourself fed and hydrated to keep from falling over. If you think you might get unpleasant to stand next to, take the a spare shirt too.

Cameras

You need at least 2 just in case one fails.

Borrow or rent a spare if you need to. If you do this be sure to allow yourself time to familiarise yourself with the new camera.

Ideally these will be SLRs or something with minimal shutter delay. Point and shoots are unlikely to cut it unless photography is only an added bonus (something they would be happy to go without).

Ideally these will have 10 or more megapixels. If you crop your photos a lot you will definitely want more than 10 megapixels.

Lenses

Lenses are important. If you're not looking to spend up large you can rent them.

If you can only get your hands on one lens go for a mid range zoom, something like an 18-55 (crop sensor) or a 24-70 (full frame sensor).

If you can get your hands on 2 lenses your second lens should be a telephoto (such as a 70-200) in most cases or a wide (12-24 or similar) if you will be in cramped spaces a lot. 

Ideally these lenses will have apertures of 2.8 or lower.

Beyond these, or instead of these depending on your shooting style, a set of prime (non-zoom lenses) can also be beneficial. With apertures of 1.x they can be very good in lowlight and for portraits. 

External Flash

This is exceptionally useful especially if you're going to be photographing the reception indoors.

In this scenario you will want a unit with a swivel head.

When you decide you want to use the flash turn it on, swivel the head to face the ceiling, and flash away.

This gives much nicer light than pointing the flash straight at your subjects.

Try this yourself at home and have a look at the results.

Extras

Beyond this a bag to carry your equipment, a ladder to stand on for group shots, a sewing kit for clothing related disasters, some gaffa tape for other emergencies and a watch can all come in handy.

Product Photos for Small Business

If you have a small business that sells small goods online you're probably keen for an affordable way to create photos of your products. It's also quite likely that you want to be able to create photos that look like they are floating on the page/don't have a background behind them. Something like this:

You probably think that this sort of thing is quite expensive and requires a professional photographer with a special camera.

You are wrong.

You can do this yourself for little or no expense.

I'll first detail how you can do this then, for those that are interested, I'll go through why you can do this.

The How:

Materials:
- The product(s) you want to photograph
- a digital camera of reasonable quality (i.e. probably not the one on your cellphone)
- a window or similar light source
- material that is a different colour to the product you want to photograph OR a lot of free time. Blue, birght green, white, or black material are common options. You will need enough to create a floor underneath and fabric wall behind your product(s)
- photo editing software such as photoshop (expensive) or gimp (free)
- a way to resize the photos you will take

Procedure:
1) Lay your coloured material in front of your light source and clip it to something tall to create the wall. If possible do this on a table in front of a window. Ensure that the material has as few wrinkles in it as possible. For smaller objects you could drape the fabric over a chair, eventually placing the object on the seat of the chair.
2) Place your product on the material. You may like to place it on a box to raise it off the material
- The box will need to be the same colour as the material, placed under the material, or be hidden by the object itself.
3) Take a photo using your digital camera. You will probably want to use the highest optical zoom you have available to avoid image distortion. DO NOT USE DIGITAL ZOOM. Avoid using the flash.

The no flash setting on your camera probably looks like this

4) Transfer the files to your computer and open them in your editing software
5) Using the selection tool click on the background colour. Keep selecting it until it is all selected.
6) Hit delete
7) Either save this as it is or add a plain background behind it then save.
8) Resize to fit the requirements of your website

Why don't I need professional equipment for this?
The key reason you don't need amazing equipment for this is that web images don't need to be very high resolution. As such differences in image quality between professional and non-professional equipment become less noticeable.

In fact low resolution images are ideal for web use as they load more quickly.

Why would I want a professional to do this for me?

First, it will save you time and effort. Secondly, and more importantly, what I've covered here is the very basic version of this. A professional will give greater attention to detail from shot to shot and will play with how the light falls on your object. In the example above the light source was static. Additionally if you have bigger products this sort of thing gets a bit harder.

However if all you need are the results that the above set up will deliver there is no need to layout the additional expense of hiring a professional photographer.

Cheap Wedding Challenge

Weddings are expensive things. Wedding photographers, Caterers, Celebrants, Venues, Transport, Wedding Favours, Photo Booths, Invitations. It's easy for things to get out of control.

How much is actually necessary? Is it possible to have a great wedding at low cost anymore? What do you really need? What don't you need? These are questioins that I'm interested in addressing in the year ahead.

2011 will be my year of the cheap wedding challenge. Can I create a wedding that looks more expensive that it is and can I get this wedding under a specific price point? I have a number in mind but there's a bit of research ahead of me first...

Open Source - Free Software

http://www.gimp.org/
A cheap and powerful alternative to photoshop

http://www.picturetray.com/
Resize groups of photos quickly and easily

http://filezilla-project.org/
FTP software for uploading files to your own website - you'll need the client version if you want to do this

A desire for the past

Reflecting on my Car posts this post seems all the more relevant.

I seem to have a yearning for the past. More accurately I have a yearning for things that remind me of the past.

For those who have read the Bolero and ViewT posts the above statement may clarify why I like them. It isn't the fact that they are old cars, because they're not old cars, it's more the fact that they are a very deliberate tribute to old cars. They maintain the functionality of what we have today but simply tip their cap to yesteryear.

Now, at this point, those of you who know that I'm a bit of  a photographer may be expecting me to wax lyrical on the virtues of older cameras or pre-digital styles of photography. Those of you who expect me to do this are wrong. Again, I do not wish to go back to old technology. I simply wish to acknowledge it in the things that we already have.

As an example I have recently become enamoured with retro landline telephones. The type that we had at my house when I was a kid. The ones where you twist the number up and around then wait for the ring to reset itself before you can dial again. These phones are still functional today as landline phones, albeit in need of a bit of help.

Similarly I would love ot have a typewriter sitting in my office. Again this is something that we had at my house when I was a kid and I look back on the mechanical sounds of it with fond memories.

That being said I would not write a book on an old typewriter or reach for an old phone in an emergency. I would use what we have now and that is also why I would continue to photograph digitally.

In my experience champions of older photographic technology essentially fall into 2 camps. The retro hipsters and the die-hard film purists.

The retro hipsters largely prefer film for the same reason that they prefer vinyl records: it's uncommon and uncommon is cool. While they may say that they prefer the sound of an old, crackly record or the look of an old, typically broken, film camera the truth is they enjoy the inherent crapness of each of these things. This is clearest in the case of lomography, a retro hipster style of photography based on cameras that never really got the image quite right but were easy to use.

The second group are the die-hard film purists. These people are worth listening to. Unlike the hipsters from the previous paragraph their opinions are based on actual performance and, I'm sad to say, they are right to hold film over digital in many cases. 2 of particular importance are image quality and dynamic range.

Given my bashing of the hipster set's obsession with film simply looking better it may seem odd that I accept the film purist's claim of enhanced image quality. The difference between these 2 things though is the person driving the camera and, in the hands of the film purist, film can really shine. There is something about it that digital has not yet quite matched. While your standard digital camera outstripped the resolution of your standard film camera long ago there is something else that film continue to bring to the table. An adequate desctiption is yet to be given but there is simply somehting about a film image.

Talking to a guy from Kodak a few years ago he speculated that it was becuase film is an organic medium. Unlike the sensor on a digital camera the silver and other chemicals in a strip of film are not distributed perfectly evenly. Ironically then the crapness that I railed against earlier may have a hand in making film images have that little something extra.

an alternative account could be that film images inherently have more care laid upon them. On any given roll of film you're limited to les than 30 shots whereas most digital cameras will now allow you to take 100s of photos on a single card. Perhaps it is the lack of car that creates the difference. However, if this were true, it would be an easy fix and all that would be required is a simple self-governing. Unfortunately though this does not seem to ring true.

Finally it could be that film is typically processed by someone else. Perhaps an additional pair of eyes helps to create something more beautiful.

On a deeper level though perhaps we don't understand how the chemicals pick up on the reds, greens, and blues that they're supposed to. Perhaps our sensors aren't claibrated to match the sensitvity of film. Again, this should be an easy fix in post yet it has yet to occur.

At last then we come to dynamic range. The days of this as an advantage must surely be coming to an end.

First Dance

Our first dance is up on YouTube!

Joe

Joe Humphrey - Gone but not forgotten

Amazing Wedding Videos

Every now and then something comes along that reshapes the way you think about something. Today I discovered Jared Brandon Productions and their wedding videos.

Mind. Blown.

Follow this link to see his work on facebook.

Telecom tugs at the heart strings

After a rough 2010 Telecom needed something special to win customers back to its troubled mobile network. While the response to their fishing CEO ad was mixed the response to this campaign has been somewhat better. While not associated with the XT network specifically this has almost certainly improved the public perception of the 'troubled' telco.

Beautifully subtle with the music lending a serenity that is rare in the ad break this wee beasty stands out and has had people clambering to buy a copy of the song. The song however does not exist beyond the ad itself. The desire of the masses to own something created purely for the purpose of selling something else demonstrates the mastery of this particular advertisement.

We are oars,

on the same rowboat,

floating towards the same hopes,

oh our hearts,

don't have heavy parts,

we're like balloons,

we float to new heights.

New Years Resolutions - Here come the ads

In the spirit of new year's resolutions here's a guy who has taken his life in his hands and feels great.

It's an ad from nutrigrain, presumably from the US. Most of the youtube discussion suggests it's a few years old but it feels like it could have been made today.

I may start posting about ads a bit more as, tragically, I often quite enjoy and appreciate them.

In this case while the ad itself is entertaining it doesn't feel like it would have been that successful. The key thing being that the only part that makes it an ad for nutrigrain comes right at the very end on a completely new background. In terms of dark internet arts this means it's easily hi-jacked for other purposes. Of course, this may have been intended giving it the potential to become a viral meme. This seems unlikley though.