In The Portrait Studio No.1 - Where To Put The Hands

Newcomers to the world of photography often ask for hints and tips on how to do a really professional job. In some cases this concerns camera handling, lighting, or posing. Or billing, self promotion, and court procedures, as the case may be...

In the first of this series of helpful posts from Camera Electronic, we call upon Uncle Dick from the Hazel Leaf Studio to tell us how to deal with the hands.

" Well, the first thing to decide is whether they will be required. If the image is being taken for a passport application, you needn't concern yourself with them at all. Getting the client to keep their eyes open and their head still while you try to size the image to satisfy the Department of Bureaucracy will be difficult enough.

Secondly, if you feel that the hands will improve the portrait, ask yourself if this is because you need them to support the face, distract from it, or hide it completely.

The sitter can chuck themselves under the chin, place their finger alongside their cheek, or curl it around their upper lip. This will look lame, but at least it will be traditionally lame. They can go for the Johnny Rotten look by sticking the finger up their nose. This also works for federal politicians, but for different reasons...

If they insist on covering their eyes with their hand just go ahead and shoot. Eventually the Department of Corrections will get a clear picture.

Photographs of legal practitioners and real estate salesmen will also present the problem that their hands may not be in their own pockets.

Dancers and artist's models are really the easiest to pose in respect to their hands as they have a good body sense and know where their arms end. They can generally accept direction except when a squirrel runs through the studio, and then all hell breaks loose.

In the end, as long as the only hands appearing in the portrait belong to the sitter, things generally work out. If you add gloves, gauntlets, jewellery, or handcuffs it takes the image into a different category. "

No Gripe With This Grip

If you are going to purchase the new Sony A7 or A7r mirror-less camera, please consider purchasing it from Camera Electronic.

Why?

Because you will get a FREE VG-C1EM battery grip for your new camera, that's why. With the front and rear command dials and two control buttons as well as the shutter button, this give the Sony user all the professional handling of the larger DSLR cameras...but at a much lighter weight.

The shape is a direct fit to the camera body and exactly duplicates the body line. If the body fits your hand, this grip will too.

Yet another reason to think about getting that new Sony from us...

The Window Of Opportunity Is Open - Take A Shot At It Now!

Well, if you are quick you get two of the best deals I have seen in this shop in a long time.

This is a chance for someone who wants two-lens kits for enthusiastic photography. I mean the sort of shooting that takes in family, landscape, travel, sports, and riots.

The cameras are the Fuji X-M1 and the Fuji X-A1. The lenses are Fujinon aspherical zooms. with each two-lens kit you get:

1.  The XC 16-50 mm f:3.5-5.6 OIS lens
2.  The XC 50-230 mm f:4.5-6.7 OIS lens

The OIS means internal image stabilisation in the lenses. Steadier shots at longer focal lengths.

The X-M1 has an X-trans sensor and the X-A1 has a Bayer-array sensor. They both have tiltable rear LCD and integral flash as well as all the Fuji specialist programs. The build quality is superb and the ergonomics are perfect for most hands.

Best of all is the price:

For the month of February the X-M1 kit is $ 998 and the X-A1 kit is $ 686. All up, all going, all good.

Be warned - there are only so many of the lens kits available. Hop in for your chop and get the best bargain in the place. Now.

One Roo More Or Less

Our Australian readers will groan at that pun, but at least they will be rewarded when they come to the end of this blog post...they will get to turn off the computer and go and get some work done. The North American and European readers may puzzle at the image and the title.

Well, the farm cart that you see is a traditional one that was used in Australia since before the turn of the last century. It was also adopted for use in wartime for water supply to Australian troops. As they gathered around it to draw water for their sections, they would pass the latest gossip...or rumour...amongst each other. Thus any unconfirmed bit of  news or plan - that might very well prove to be false - was termed a furphy.

We have them here in the photographic trade as well. Of course a lot of them can be rejected out of hand as nonsense...the planned introduction of the atomic powered helicopter bubble car camera that made full chicken dinners out of a little green pill has long been exploded. Apparently that was disinformation put out by the LOMO company when it was still run by the Soviets to prevent sales of the similar product by the Flapoflex company in America. The American one did sell in small numbers in Florida and Minnesota but was never a commercial success. The organic fur-covered slime monster camera took all the sales...

And that is how it still works, but this time the manufacturers merely have to prod the enthusiasts who write for the internet and let them do the speculation and/or lying to each other. There are enough people in the " don't-know " to make it work. The people in the companies that really ARE going to introduce a new product - or delete an old one - are probably bemused by what the enthusiasts say to each other. Possibly they make notes on it and steer the R&D department into new fields.

Whatever, we can definitely say that rumours always prove to be either right or wrong or none of the above. If we predicate our purchases upon the forum wrangling we might miss out on opportunities to get real equipment right now and then to go out and use it to make images that can never be repeated.

Think about the chap who went out to Lakehurst, New Jersey one evening to take a picture of the German zeppelin HINDENBURG  as it came in to land. He probably had an old Speed Graphic and a couple of plate holders that his editor had given him. Now, he could have been at home reading the trade press predicting the next fast lens and how much better it was going to be to take pictures of airships and he might have waited...

Oh...

Xairete!

New travel photographers are always coming in here and asking for advice; which tripod to carry, what camera will capture the bears, how do you change the aperture on the new $5000 camera they have bought. We oblige by supplying the answers; the lightest one you can get away with, anything with a long lens, and don't change it...you'll never manage to get it back on the right setting...

Of course eventually they learn their own lessons:

First they get the spindly tripod and shaky pictures and then they take the heaviest tripod they can manage...and get good pictures and a a bad back.

They get a long lens and a short camera and try to take bear pictures from half a mile away. After they see the results they go out and bait a tree with a side of bacon and take pictures with a wide angle and a macro. And the bear follows them home and lives in the guest bedroom for a month.

And eventually their finger slips, the aperture dial moves, and they are launched out into the wide world of photography.

Now I can offer real-time technical advice for travellers here in Australia to ensure that their photos will be game-changing, iconic, world-beating,  judge-pleasing, classics of the visual arts. It is simple. Whenever you go anywhere foreign - Mozambique, Memphis, or Melbourne for instance, find someone whose name is Georgio, and ask him where the Greek restaurant is.

The menu may not be in English, but if you point to anything on it and ask for bread and salad as well, you will get a good meal. There will be dessert and coffee. There will be wine available. You may go deaf from the noise of other people screaming as they eat, but you will be nourished.

Note: Goat is good but composed of 92% bone.

How does this improve your photography? If you are well-fed you are content. If you are content you have a benign outlook. Your bokeh is far smoother. You do not shake with hunger, thus are able to use slower shutter speeds. The landscape is rosy, particularly after the retsina kicks in. - you do not need warming filters.

Final note: if there is no Georgio look for a Lucca. He will direct you to the Italian restaurant and you will be equally well fed and deafened, but with more of a tomato flavour.

Kalh Oreksi!

PE For Smarties

Over the years we have seen any number of yellow-covered books in the bookstore entitled " Whatever For Dummies". The range of topics seems to have ranged from religion and philosophy to storm door repairs. I bought one that dealt with my new computer system and as I progressed through I realised it was telling the absolute truth...anyone who spent money on it was a dummy.

I tried another tack - I invested in the first of my Photoshop Elements editing programs...in this case it was Photoshop Elements 3. I found it surprisingly easy to use, and as my artistic ability was on a level with a preschooler, I was rewarded with bright pop colours. On everything...

Determined to do better I bought the Photoshop Elements 10 and switched to it. A whole new world of elegant image manipulation opened up...and I discovered the layer system as well. All of a sudden I could clean up all my image files as well as making an imaginary world of my own.

Photoshop Elements has since gone to No.11 and No.12 and they have added more features. More of the power of the classic Photoshop program has been added but the difficult learning curve that you might expect with the standard program is not there. PE is really intuitive.

Now, if you'd like to equip yourself with the best introduction to Photoshop Elements, make a booking to attend the February 9th workshop with Nick Melidonis at Shoot Photography. He'll show you how to get the best from it, while creating and managing your images.

Ring Jonathan Cousins at Shoot on 9228-8232 to book a place. Beginner or enthusiast, you can place your reliance on Adobe and their Photoshop Elements program.And you won't be a dummy...

Back In the Saddle

Back from holidays and ready to write.

A plane trip these days is either heaven or hell, and it is no always a question determined by which ticket you purchased. Of course there is something to be said for the front section of the plane - the seats have leg room, you can put them back to sleep, and they give you a blankey to cuddle up into. When the champagne takes effect. Back in cattle class you at least get a free beer, so that is nice.

Note for new travellers. before you go, go. Go every time you can, because when you are up in the air, going is problematical.

 Now on to cameras. I used a Fuji X100 for the trip - you'll see some results from it in coming blogs. Perfect solution for the pictures I knew I wanted. Kudos the the Nikon people for making their SB 700 flash so easy to adjust - it was the other partner in success for this venture.

 I used a bag that worked well, but as I travelled about with it I kind of wished I had popped for a small Billingham bag from the shop here. They are so light but well built, and the top flap is easy to open and secure...it makes a deal of difference to the user when they are not fumbling through a big zipper or awkward buckles as they try to haul their camera out for use. The Billinghams are derivatives from English shooting bags, I have no doubt, and these are some of the best accessories you can get.

 Of course I did observe other photographers at the events. I felt for the ones who seemed to be carrying large back packs, though to be fair they might have been packed with sandwiches and bottles of beer, in which case I admire them for their foresight. In any event, I think the people who were getting the best experience out of the shows were either doing it with dedicated mirrorless Fujis like me ( and don't we all like to have our on judgement applauded, even by ourselves...) or the users of the lighter DSLRs with moderate wide zooms. In particular I noticed the fine results one chap was getting with a Nikon D610. He wasn't lugging a full bag of glass and consequently could go hard all day.

 One final note - there were a few people who were using tripods for some of the interior work. Good idea, as they probably got to maximise their depth of field over the shots, but I noticed that their mobility was a little compromised between shots. If they were carrying tripod bags they could stow the legs in there when they were on the trams. Good idea - protects the tripod and stops you from putting out the eyes of the other riders...

 One more final note - Perth's Multirider card system on the trains and buses far outstrips either Sydney or Melbourne for convenience of use. They may send more people on journeys, but they don't touch on or off with as much speed as we do. But I did like the airport train in Sydney. Fast, clean, and efficient.