Atlantic Lens Photography: Blog https://www.atlanticlens.com/blog en-us (C) Atlantic Lens Photography [email protected] (Atlantic Lens Photography) Mon, 16 Mar 2020 07:13:00 GMT Mon, 16 Mar 2020 07:13:00 GMT https://www.atlanticlens.com/img/s/v-12/u424976520-o170188165-50.jpg Atlantic Lens Photography: Blog https://www.atlanticlens.com/blog 120 80 Speedlights and their uses https://www.atlanticlens.com/blog/2017/11/speedlights-and-their-uses November has started  with wet dreary weather and of course with the change in the clocks the days are shorter. This perhaps limits the amount of outdoor shooting time, unless night shots is your thing. This brings me nicely to the kit I am going to talk about today Speedlights or flash guns for you camera as they are also known.

Many photographers starting out are a little scared of Speedlights and this causes them to say things like "I prefer to shoot using the natural light". Yes I agree if used incorrectly they can cause problems in a photo such as over exposure.

Night time use of the flash is self explanatory  (to light the scene) but why would I use a flash during the day. well for two reasons to eliminate Portrait Shadows or as a Fill. Let me explain harsh shadows can wreck a nice shot when shooting portraits so a flash is extremely useful in helping to eliminate facial features more evenly. I personally use a diffuser over my flash head which softens the light and helps to spread it more evenly. Alternatively the flash light can be bounced off a ceiling causing the light to appear to come from above creating a more natural look.

What do I mean by a Fill Flash well believe it or not even on a bright sunny day a flash is useful. If you are taking a portrait in bright conditions and the sun is behind your subject the background will be perfectly exposed while the subjects features are harder to make out. Use of  the flash in this scenario will brighten the subject and give you a better picture.

My main speedlight is a Pixapro 580 ITTL. This speedlight cost me £160 at the Photography Show. ITTL is a useful feature which works as follows:- Before the actual exposure one or more small flashes (preflashes) occur. The light from these returns through the lens and is measured. The software then calculates the amount of light necessary for the actual exposure. The preflashes and main flash appear to be one, as there is only a fraction of a second between them. 

Speedlights need not be overly expensive though. I have two Neewer Speedlights which do not have the ITTL function. This means the power output of the flash has to be manually set. However how I find these flash units indispensable is that they can be set to fire via infa red signal from my PixaPro. This gives me the option of a three light location system which is easily portable. The Neewer Speedlights can be bought for around £20 - £30. (please see the link below for a reasonably priced Neewer model).

 

 

 

My Portfolio on PIcfair the revolutionary new Stock Website is growing daily. Click here to view. To buy from any photographer on the site allow me to refer you click here.

 

]]> [email protected] (Atlantic Lens Photography) camera diffuser exposure flash ittl light photography portraits shadows soften speedlights https://www.atlanticlens.com/blog/2017/11/speedlights-and-their-uses Wed, 01 Nov 2017 22:25:01 GMT Another week Past https://www.atlanticlens.com/blog/2017/10/another-week-past So whats been happening. It's been a busy enough week getting caught up on paperwork that should really have been done sooner. But then running a photography business is not all Glamour. I have found a new platform for selling some of my images. Its called Picfair and offers simple easy to understand licences with the purchased pictures and no complicated subscription plans. More importantly for me more of the revenue collected for each photo goes to the photographer. If you would like to visit Picfair click here.

Of course if you would like to see the pictures in my portfolio click here.

Each post of this blog I said I would describe kit thats  in my kit bag today we will look at my camera bodies. The two most popular brand of cameras are Nikon and Cannon. The both have good and bad points but it doesn't really matter which you choose. What should be remembered however is that as you build up a collection of lenses the less likely you will be to change brands no matter which you choose initially.

My equipment is all Nikon. I have a Nikon D7000 (which is no longer produced and its replacement a Nikon D7100both are "Prosumer " cameras i.e at the top end of the Consumer range and the bottom end of the Professional range. The main difference is in sensor size my cameras are crop frame whereas the next step up is full frame i.e 35mm.

No matter what sensor size you buy no one is better than the others, they are all different, with their own strengths and weaknesses. Ideally some are better for particular types of photography. Regardless however is that all cameras are capable of taking great photos when used correctly.

As I said i use the crop sensor which can have interesting effects on things like depth of field and apparent focal length of lenses. For example if I use a full frame lens on my crop sensor camera body the focal length increases to 1.5X. i.e a focal length of 200mm becomes actually 350mm. Full frame cameras generally perform better in low light conditions as the pixels are larger and more sensitive to light.However as technology improves the Crop frame cameras are catching up with their older full frame companions.

Full frame cameras need to be bigger in size to accommodate the sensor and tend to be more expensive. 

In summary if you are interested in landscape, architecture, or shots needing a wider focal length then a full frame camera would be a good choice. On the other hand for Sports Photography or Wildlife Photography  the 1.5x factor can transform  a 300mm telephoto lens into 450mm and get you closer to the action. Ideally what you should be asking is what job do I need the camera to do. 

If you are interested in finding out a bit more about my D7000 or D7100 click below:-

 

 

If you want to know anything else please leave a question and if I can't answer right away I will research the answer for you. Please feel free to share this article.

]]> [email protected] (Atlantic Lens Photography) body camera cannon crop sensor d7000 d7100 focal length full frame nikon picfair https://www.atlanticlens.com/blog/2017/10/another-week-past Mon, 23 Oct 2017 14:14:00 GMT Summers Over https://www.atlanticlens.com/blog/2017/10/summers-over Well its actually been a few months since I published my first blog post on this my new website. The summer was full of excitement as we purchased our first Motorhome, nothing fancy just a six berth preloved Ace Firenze. I fully intend to relate all of our adventures in this our new holiday home in a travelogue which I will publish later on. 

September saw me plunged back into the photography business photographing P1 Pupils as they started their new schools and covering School Prize days all for the local press. The studio has remained steady with families having their portrait taken. All this despite so many people now taking up photography as a hobby.

Technology has moved on now so that people are able to take reasonable pictures with their phones, and compact point and shoot cameras have become so cheap.

So where does this leave us professionals.............

It might sound very doom and gloom but the thing that most people don't start to consider that Professional Photographers are Artists. Photography when taken down to its latin roots means to Paint with Light. The camera is merely a tool. A decent photographer will be able produce a stunning picture even on something as simple as an iPhone. 

A DSLR Camera simply offers the photographer greater flexibility in lenses and other attachments in order to create that masterpiece. It also doesn't matter what brand of camera that you go for there are subtle differences between each manufacturer so its really a matter of personal taste.

Over the coming weeks in this blog I will describe some of the equipment I have in my bag and how I find it useful. I will also list some kit that I bought and have never really used and also the odd home made piece which works every bit as well as a costly purpose made device.

In the meantime if you want a little further reading :-

Try  The Digital Photography Handbook. It certainly inspired me 

It includes composition, depth of field and how to photograph a variety of subjects.  How to edit and print your images and create a portfolio. Advice is also given on Copyright.

 

 

]]> [email protected] (Atlantic Lens Photography) atlantic lens photography copyright digital photography handbook dslr professionals https://www.atlanticlens.com/blog/2017/10/summers-over Sun, 15 Oct 2017 17:34:53 GMT A New Beginning https://www.atlanticlens.com/blog/2017/5/a-new-beginning Hi,

    I am writing this post with the Sun shining as I take a step in a slightly different direction. Having previously been responsible for design and updating my website and also for all order fulfilment I found that this took up an awful amount of time. Now thanks to my partners at Zenfolio I am able to leave order fulfilment to them, freeing myself up to do what I do best taking pictures.

Shortly I will have all of my previous information fully transferred over and the previous domain name will take you to the new site.

Now that I spend less time on photo printing and order fulfilment I can offer my photographs at a better rate for you the customer.

I have just finished photographing Portrush Music Society's fantastic show "9 to 5" at the Riverside Theatre in Coleraine and they are the first clients to use the new ordering system. 

I will try and post weekly with news / events and what I have been up to.

Till the next post 

 

Brian

 

 

]]> [email protected] (Atlantic Lens Photography) 9 to 5 A New Beginning Atlantic Lens Photography Blog Brian Wilkinson Portrush Music Society https://www.atlanticlens.com/blog/2017/5/a-new-beginning Mon, 08 May 2017 13:00:14 GMT