Author: rob

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Wants and Needs

So I’m still experimenting with the new camera.  It passed last week’s jobs with flying colours – no lost images, so lots to choose from.  The colours out of the camera are very good and needed a lot less adjustment to get  them to proofing stage.

Lots of image to choose from, so I’m now cropping with no concern for data shortage.

My big concern with all that extra resolution was that my older lenses wouldn’t be able to resolve to the detail of the sensor.

Indeed only one of my current lenses is on the ‘best lenses for’ list of the new camera.  Two of my main lenses are on the ‘just about OK but think about upgrading to the newer one’ list.

And there is no 50mm lens on either list.  The new Sigma will definitely cut it but not any of the older ones and none of the Nikons.

But rather than going off and splashing on new lenses as well.  I decided to try it and see.

Not withstanding this article, which makes a lot of sense (and the reason I upgraded in the first place was that my expectations of my body had supassed my old model).  Remember I shoot portraits, most of which end up on web sites, that much detail isn’t really necessary.

In fact I recently had a client asking for lower resolution images to hide all the skin detail on their staff.

So I’ll upgrade the 50mm(s) in due course (might sell some stuff first).  For now they are still much better than expected – especially stopped down a little.

The big unknown was the 85mm f1.4 AF-D.  Formerly the ‘cream machine’ of pro film glass. I have moved to the 105 for headshots these days because it’s sooo sharp and has VR.  But the 85 is handy for some circumstances and the really wide open look is stunning.

Mine is pretty beaten up cosmetically but perfect inside.  It produced beautiful images at 12MP but it’s an older body focus model and at f1.4 focus is pretty critical (in fact I generally shot it at f2).  The newer 85f1.8G would probably serve me well but before I go spring for that, how exactly would the old 85 get on at 45MP?

Nikon 85mm f1.4 AF-D at f1.4

Pretty good.  Still  lovely to use.  Still lovely and creamy in the backgrounds.

But is it sharp? Does it focus accurately?

100% crop at f1.4

Yep, pretty good.  It is possible to pick on this and certainly the 105 is a tad sharper but hang on – who wants or needs all this detail in a portrait image?

I’ll keep the 85f1.4D for now and keep saving for a new 50mm.

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New Tech

Technology posts are pretty rare on the blog.  Deep down there is a camera geek somewhere and we all love a new toy.  But having to make a living as a photographer forces you to examine every potential new purchase and decide whether a new toy is going to earn it’s crust.

And as anyone who’s been on my evening class will tell you.  The camera is just a tool to get a good image.

But after a long, faithful and very reliable service, my trusty Nikon D700 bodies are starting to show their age.

Camera technology has moved on considerably but most of the new additions, although impressive, weren’t anything my clients were going to pay for.

But the time has come to move on.  After much ummming, ahhing, googling and agonising, I am the proud owner of a Nikon D850.

What I got that I wanted:

  • Faster, more accurate autofocus (including reliable 3D tracking).  Which for me means a tangible decrease in the number of good images that need to be rejected because they are a little soft.  Which is great when shooting wobbly kids with blurry backgrounds.
  • More dynamic range.  So already it seems a lot easier to pull back very bright and very dark areas in the images.  So shooting in difficult lighting situations gets easier.  Again, more keepers in more locations.
  • More image resolution.  Which means more options for cropping in post production.  As much as you try to get it right in camera, at times a crop is stronger.  But if you want a decent print of a crop, you need more data.
  • A newer, stronger, more weather resistant camera body.  Much less chance of it failing when I need it to perform.

But as well as the cost of upgrading, there are other implications:

  • More  image = more storage required.  Realistically I don’t generally need all that extra image but that’s what I now have.  Now my workflow needs to cope with much larger files.  Putting a session of images on a single DVD for backup isn’t going to work anymore.
  • More data = slower processing.  So the camera upgrade came on the back of a PC upgrade but even then those big files need a little longer to load in all their glory.
  • Software upgrade.  OK I’m a bit lazy/stingy with my software upgrades (but at least I pay for my software).  But new RAW files need up to date software.
  • Lens upgrades.  All of my lenses are compatible.  The higher resolution sensor pushes them to the limits of their ability to resolve an image.  Now I still don’t need all that detail and most of my lenses have actually performed pretty well (despite the web telling me they wouldn’t).  But the 50mm lenses were always a little ‘weak’ (I have 4 different versions) even though they take lovely images.  I might need to upgrade here.
  • New fingers.  After 10 years of using identical cameras, I need to learn some new tricks to get the settings I need.
  • New cards & batteries – just more stuff to buy (and have spares)
  • New L-bracket.  I love the L Brackets for my tripod but each is fitted to the specific camera body so I need a new one.

And some other stuff:

  • Features I don’t (yet) need – and may or may not ever get around to using.  Like video (4K no less) and time lapse.  Very cool but no idea if I’ll ever use it.
  • Different colours.  I think I like them better.  Until I do some more printing I’m not sure.

It’ll get it’s first commercial outing this week.  My clients won’t really notice but my life will hopefully be easier.  And the D700 will be in the bag just in case…

Better tracking of active kids. Better pulling back of highlights.
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More Photography Classes

After the success of the first running of my Photography Class in Ashton, it will be running again in the spring term – commencing 28th Jan 2019.

The course is more focused on images than cameras and aims to help people take better photographs with whatever camera they have in their hand: mobile phone, compact camera or something more fancy.

We’ll cover basic techniques that will improve your photography but much of the course if aimed teaching you to look at images more critically and learning to create stronger images yourself.

Info and sign up is on the Ashton Adult Ed web site https://ashton.ie/adult-education/

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Ashton Adult Education

My new Adult Education Class has kicked off in Ashton and I think it’s going well.  It’s designed as an introduction to taking better pictures using whatever camera you have available: phone, compact, DSLR or whatever.

We’re looking at what goes into making a good photo as well as some of the technical aspects – but the course isn’t intended to get too technical and aims to stay focussed on what you need to learn next to get better photos.

I have added a reources link to the blog site to hold all the info for the course.

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GDPR and me

“Anyone know of a good GDPR consultant?”

“I do but I can’t give you her details”

Aparently GDPR is a big deal.  A significant piece of new legislation that gives us new rights over our own information.  Sounds good to me.  I also quite like the fact that I’m being automatically opted out of all those emails I don’t remember asking for and delete anyway.

As far as Rob Lamb Photography is concerned:

  • The only client information we keep is your contact details: Names, Phone Numbers, email addresses, location of the session
  • Payments are logged in our accounts system but we do not retain card or account details.
  • We use a mixture of paper and electronic storage for this information.  We maintain secure access to our email system.  All other records are not accessible via the internet.
  • We do not share this information with any third parties
  • We do not send unsolicited messages via email or otherwise
  • We retain this information for as long as you are an active client.  For most clients, they are active while we retain their images on file.  For most clients we retain their images indefinitely as part of our archival service (which allows people to contact us looking for their images indefinitely)
  • If a client wishes to be ‘forgotten’ then we will comply with this request and delete their contact details and their images from the Archive.  Please contact us via email at rob@roblambphoto.com to make such a request
  • “Client Data” does not include images.  Images are our Intelliectual Property and we retain copyright in all circumstances.

 

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First Communions 2018 – Studio Sesssions Available

We are delighted to announce that we will again be running our very popular Communion Mini Sessions on the following days:

  • Saturday 21st April 2018
  • Saturday 28th April 2018
  • Saturday 26th May 2018

This year the sessions will be held in the Scout Hall, next to Ballinlough Community Centre and the Tennis Club.

We have some bookings already but there is still availability on all these days.

The sessions will run as previous years with each family being allocated a 15 minute timeslot with sessions running from around 12:30 onwards.

Call us now on 087 683 8511 to make a booking.

More info on Communion Sessions and Packages are available at https://roblambphoto.com/?page_id=789

 

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A New Home

From today, 11th September 2017, Rob Lamb Photography has moved to

Unit G6
Enterprise House
Marina Commercial Park
Centre Park Road
Cork

We’re waiting to get the old landline number transferred so for now the best way to contact me is on the mobile

087 683 8511   or

rob@roblambphoto.com    as usual.

Still a bit to do on the new place to find homes for everything and hang a few pictures but I’ll be taking appointments and viewings here as before.

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Irish Youth Dance Festival 2017

I had the pleasure of photographing the New Moon Dance company at the Irish Youth Dance Festival in Dun Laoghaire, last weekend.  As usual Tina’s dancers were amazing.

It was the only (brief) rehearsal they got on the stage and it was during lighting setup so let’s just say there wasn’t a lot of time – or light – and what light there was got better as the lighting guy worked things out.

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Turbulance

I’m experimenting with WordPress at the moment to decide whether to move the whole website over.  I’m looking for something more responsive and a little more modern without getting too flashy and unusable.

So you may see some weird stuff going on with random template changes and it’s possible that at times the blog may be busted while I play with something in WordPress.

Generally the feedback on the website is that people like it’s simplicity – which is pretty much were the original design was aimed at.  Easy access to photo portfolio, some useful info on who I am and what I do.

But although I transferred the image galleries to be mobile friendly some time ago, the bulk of the site is unchanged for many years.  So maybe it’s time to take a look.

It’s soooo hard to choose pics for the web site.  Even harder to talk about yourself and what you do!