photography monthly magazine - july 2011

EXPERIENCE LIFE - CAPTURE THE MOMENT ISSUE 123JULY 2011

WWW.PHOT

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LY.COM £3.99

5 LIES OF FOCUSWe tackle the

accepted beliefs andexplain new ways

to be creative

THE BIG DAYWe explain how tocapture a wedding dayportfolioPLUS: OUR ESSENTIALGUIDE TO LIGHTREFLECTORS& THE FUJIFILM FINEPIXHS20EXR REVIEWED

PRO ZONE

IN AT THEDEEP ENDLearn how tocreate stunningunderwaterimages fromone of theworld’s best pros

The magazine for people who love photography

OUT OF AFRICAAn exclusive interview with two ofthe world’s greatest Africanwildlife & adventure photographers

PHOTO CHALLENGE4 PROJECTS TO TEST YOUR SKILLS

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WELCOMEJULY 2011 | ISSUE 123

FROM THE EDITOR

EDITOR’S IMAGE | MATT HALSTEAD

THIS IMAGE | ANGELA FISHER / CAROL BECKWITH

COVER IMAGE | STEPHEN FRINK

THIS MONTH WE DECIDED TO SET YOU ALL SOME CHALLENGES TO KEEP YOU BUSY THROUGHOUTTHE SUMMER MONTHS. So we asked some of our regular contributors not only to set you a photographic taskbut also to give you some advice and inspiration based on their own experiences to help you explore familiarground or new territories. I know that I am going to accept Martin Middlebrook’s challenge with portraiture.If you take up any of our challenges make sure that you let us see the results by uploading your images on to ourwebsite and we will publish the best in a future issue of the magazine.

To provide you with extra inspiration this month we have managed to track down three photographers whowork in widely differing environments but who all create stunning images. The provider of this month’s cover,Stephen Frink, is happiest in the depths of the ocean, while Angela Fisher and Carol Beckwith find theirinspiration in the arid plains of Africa. I hope you agree that all three create incredible images which we are

honoured to feature in the magazine.For myself and all of the PM team, photography is a creative form which allows us not only to create images but to test ourselves,

creatively, mentally and often physically. For us the spirit of photography is about adventure and exploring the unknown. I hope thatyou agree and enjoy the adventures we take you on this month.

Grant ScottEditor, Photography Monthly

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WIN STUFF ON PAGES 23,95, 101 AND 102 & UPLOADYOUR IMAGES TO OURPRO CHALLENGEGALLERIES.

[4] PHOTOGRAPHY MONTHLY JULY 2011

CONTENTSPHOTO MONTH9-13 Each month we bring you all the essentialnews on kit, competitions and exhibitions fromthe world of photography. This month we havethe film star portraits of Cornel Lucas, thePanasonic Lumix G3, Tokina’s latest wide-anglezoom and Sigma’s SD1 DSLR camera.

PRO ZONE32-41 Photography team Angela Fisher andCarol Beckwith have spent the past 30 yearsphotographing cultural practices across Africa.Tor McIntosh spoke with them to find out howthey work together.

42-50 Steven Taylor is a 30-year veteran ofthe wedding industry. Kelly Weech caught upwith him to find out how he tells a story withhis images.

54-62 This month we asked lighting masterNeil Turner how to capture action with flash.

PROCHALLENGE64-79With the long days and warm nights ofsummer fast approaching we thought it wasthe ideal time to step outside and challengeour creativity, and perhaps even have a littlefun as well. So take a look at our fourphotographic challenges and then show uswhat you can achieve. To help you on your way,we asked our photography masters MartinMiddlebrook, Neil Turner, David Ward andPM Editor Grant Scott to offer tips and adviceon how to excel at their chosen subjects.Upload your images to our gallery forthe chance to see them in the magazine.

Every month we feature the best of our readers’ picturesthat have been posted in our online gallery.See pages 15-23.

CARAVAN CLUB24-31 Step inside this small and wonderful mobileexhibition to explore the world as seen through theeyes of the Caravan Gallery.

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IN THE JULY ISSUE

GOONLINE

For great photographerinterviews visit

www.photographymonthly.com

REGULARS7FRIENDSThose who have helped us to put thismonth’s issue together.

52-53 SUBSCRIPTIONSSubscribe to Photography Monthly today.

93 EMILY’S PEOPLEEmily Andersen describes taking portraitsfor a cancer charity.

96-97FILM SCHOOLJohn Campbell brings you the latest newsfrom the world of film making on your DSLR.

102-103 READERS’ CHALLENGEWin great prizes by uploading your images tothe gallery. This month – travel.

111 UPGRADEYour kit questions answered.

122 F STOPDavid Ward discusses ‘the rules’ in landscapephotography and what they mean.

PHOTO ZONE86-91 FIVE GREAT LIES...Martin Middlebrook looks at the rules and

myths behind focus.

98-101 REFLECTORS ROUNDUPJessica Lamb looks at the world ofreflectors to see which are best for you.

TEST ZONE105-108 FUJIFILM FINEPIX HS20EXREleanor O’Kane gets her hands on the latestbridge release to find out what it is made of.

Stephen Frink is aworld-classunderwater

photographer.On page 80

Rachael D’Cruzefinds out the way

he works andhow he creates

exciting andcolourful images.

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Angela Fisher and

Carol BeckwithPhotographersAngela and Carol have been workingtogether for the past 30 years.Their gorgeous and pioneering workon the peoples of Africa hasgarnered countless awards andcritical acclaim worldwide.In African Ceremonies on page 32,they discuss their love of thecontinent and offer tips and adviceto help you create amazingimages from traditional events.

Steven TaylorPhotographer

Steven Taylor has been in thewedding business for more than 30years, developing a photojournalist’sapproach to shooting these specialevents, having been inspired bythe greats such as W. Eugene Smith,Henri Cartier-Bresson and ElliottErwitt. In Don’t Lose the Plot on page42, he offers the very best tipsand advice on how to tell a storywith your photographs.

Stephen FrinkPhotographer

Stephen Frink is among the world’smost frequently publishedunderwater photographers. He hasbeen commissioned by Canon, Nikonand Victoria’s Secret, among manyothers. He also publishes AlertDiver magazine and teaches fromhis home town in Florida. In Way onDown on page 80, he offers his tipsand expertise on how to take greatimages underwater.

Eleanor O’KaneJournalist

Eleanor is the deputy editor ofProfessional Photographer, oursister magazine, and loves to gether hands on the latest kit, so thismonth we asked her to take a lookat the new bridge release fromFujifilm. In Let’s Go for a Little Walkon page 107, she reveals what shethinks of the HS20EXR and whetherit’s the solution for anyone needinga small, but powerful camera.

© Archant Specialist. Archant Specialist is part of Archant Ltd.

� While reasonable care is taken to ensure the accuracy of the information in Photography Monthly, that information is obtained from a variety of sources and neither the publisher,the printers nor any distributor is responsible for errors or omissions. All prices and data are accepted by us in good faith as being correct at the time of going to press.Pound conversion rates correct at the time of going to press. Advertisements are accepted for publication in Photography Monthly only upon Archant Specialist’s standard Termsof Acceptance of Advertising, copies of which are available from the advertising department. All advertisements of which the content is in whole or in part the work ofArchant Specialist remain the copyright of Archant Specialist. Reproduction in whole or in part of any matter appearing in Photography Monthly is forbidden except by expresspermission of the publisher.

Competition terms and conditions: � The closing date for competitions/giveaways is displayed alongside the competition/giveaway online.� Employees of Archant Specialist, and thoseprofessionally connected with the competition/giveaway, for example, employees of the sponsor company, are not eligible to enter.� Unless otherwise stated, competitions/giveawaysare only open to UK residents.� Prizes are as described and no alternatives can be given.� The editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.� ArchantSpecialist may wish to contact you in the future, or pass your details to selected third parties, to introduce new products and services to you. If you are sending your entry by text anddo not wish to be contacted, please add the word ‘NO’ to the end of your text message. If you are sending your entry by post, please tick the appropriate boxes on the entry form.

Photography Monthly is published by Archant Specialist, Archant House, Oriel Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 1BB www.photographymonthly.com

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FRIENDSEach month we introduce you to the people we work with to produce Photography Monthly

MEET THE TEAM

PM_JULY_FRIENDS:Layout 1 25/05/2011 15:33

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,2011

All you need to know from the world of photography

HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD� A NEW EXHIBITION FEATURING GLAMOROUS

portraits of Hollywood stars from 1920 to 1960 goes on

display at the National Portrait Gallery in London next

month. Included in the showcase are portraits of Marlon

Brando, James Dean, Marlene Dietrich and Elizabeth Taylor

by nearly40 photographers, including George Hurrell,

Clarence Sinclair Bull, Laszlo Willinger, Bob Coburn, Ruth

Harriet Louise and Davis Boulton, one of the few British

photographers working for the Hollywood studios.

The images will be shown alongside film scene stills,

including Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for Swing Time

and James Dean for Rebel without a Cause.

During this period Hollywood film studios maintained

a high level of control over the image of the stars they

represented. This was a time before paparazzi, and these

photographs distributed by the studios were the only

connection between stars and fans. Thousands of

photographs would be sent out worldwide by the studios,

both to fans and to publications.

Glamour of the Gods: Hollywood Portraits, Photographs

from the John Kobal Foundation, runs from 7July to 23

October 2011, at the Porter Gallery, National Portrait

Gallery, London, admission £6, concessions £5.50/£5.

www.npg.org.uk/glamour

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SIZE DOESMATTERLexar has releaseda 128GB memory cardwhich is capable ofa 133x transfer speed,making it a good choicefor high-speed, continuousshooting and the recording of 1,080phigh-definition video. It also includes thelatest version of the company’saward-winning image rescue software tohelp recover lost or deleted photo and videofiles. The Lexar 128GB Professional SDXCmemory card is priced £299.99.In related news Lexar has also releaseda Professional USB 3.0 Dual-Slot Readerwhich gives superfast file transfer speedsfrom card to computer of up to 500MB persecond. The reader also supportsCFUDMA, SDXC and SD UHS-I memorycards and is backwards compatible withstandard CF, SD, and SDHC memory cards.A dual-slot design means you can runconcurrent and card-to-card file transfers.When not in use the slots are protectedfrom dust and debris by a pop-upmechanism. The reader is priced £39.99.www.lexar.com

FINDING YOUR VIEWPOINTThis budget-friendly LCD ViewFinder isperfect for shooting film with your DSLR orstills outdoors when brightconditions make it

difficult to see the screen. The ViewFinder isattached to the back of your camera with anadhesive frame and it can be attached anddetached using a magnetic mount.It provides magnification of 220% and istailored to suit most 3in LCD screens, whilethe design allows the viewfinder to be turned180° to suit the left or right eye. As well asbeing splash and dustproof, it weighs just110g and is less than half the price of otherpopular viewfinders available on the market.The only minor drawback for us is that itdoes not have an eye diopter for adjustingfocus. It is priced £102.www.videogear.co.ukwww.lcdvf.com

THE CINEMATIC EYELovers of cinema will be pleased to knowpublisher Phaidon has released five new titlesin its Masters of Cinema collection, furtheradding to its profiles of the world’s greatestfilm directors. The latest releases feature thework of Ingmar Bergman, Charlie Chaplin,Federico Fellini, Orson Welles and Billy Wilder,and are priced £5.95 each. Directors featuredin books released previously include AlfredHitchcock, Martin Scorsese and David Lynch.The books tell the story of each director’swork from their early career onwards and are

written by internationally respected experts.In addition to detailed biographies and plotsummaries, each book includes critiques of thedirectors’ seminal films, interviews with thedirectors and their collaborators, and analysesof film sequences focusing on specifictechniques, themes, actors or collaborators.Each volume features more than 100 images,some of which have rarely been seen before,depicting every aspect of the movie-makingprocess, from behind-the-scenes shots of filmsets to stills and sequences to posters.www.phaidon.com CO

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Liv Ullmann in IngmarBergman’s Persona, 1966.

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…A PHOTOGRAPH TOME IS MORE IMPORTANTTHAN FILM

July sees the start of a second exhibitionfeaturing portraits of stars from years goneby (see page 9 for details of the NPG show).More than40 portraits of stars from the1940s and 1950s by British photographerCornel Lucas will be on display at the ChrisBeetles Fine Photographs gallery in London.Considered to be one of the pioneers of filmportraiture, Lucas began his career in thelate 1930s with the help of his first sitter –Marlene Dietrich. Soon afterwards, Lucasbecame the photographer of choice for theBritish film industry and in the early 1950she set up the Pool Studio at PinewoodStudios outside London. During a careerthat lasted more than40 years, Lucasphotographed some of our greatest filmstars, both at the Pool Studio and on filmlocations all over the world, from BrigitteBardot to Katharine Hepburn and DavidNiven to Alec Guinness. Lucas was alwaysin high demand. Dietrich once told him:“Mr Lucas, I’m telling you now that aphotograph to me is more important thanfilm.” This retrospective will run fromWednesday 20 July to Saturday 27Augustat Chris Beetles Fine Photographs,3-5 Swallow Street, London W1B4DE.www.chrisbeetlesfinephotographs.com

PHOTOMONTH

IT’S A WIDE WORLDThe AT-X 16.5-135 DX lens is the latestcompact, super-wide zoom from Tokina.Its optical design features three asphericalelements – one all-glass precision moulded

element and two compound elements whichoffer high contrast. In full format 35mmterms, the lens gives an equivalent angle ofview of 25-200mm, making it suitable formost photographic situations. It is availablefor either Canon EOS or Nikon DX fit and ispriced £816. www.tokinalens.comBrigitte Bardot, 1955.



Congratulations to Susan Watkins for herimage Splash of clouds which is the winner ofour June Readers’ Challenge.

WINNERREADERS’CHALLENGE

BIG ON THE INSIDESigma Imaging has announced a £6,199.99suggested retail price for its high-end SD1DSLR. The model features a lightweightmagnesium alloy body and splashproof O-Ringseals for buttons and connections, makingit an interesting proposition for use in harshconditions. The camera features a 23.5 x15.7mm APS-C X3 sensor that is capable ofrecording 46-megapixel images, a size morecommonly found with medium formatcameras. According to the company, thesensor reproduces colour more accuratelyand offers sharper resolution pixel for pixelthan other sensors thanks to threesilicon-embedded layers of photo detectors;these are stacked vertically to takeadvantage of silicon’s ability to absorb red,green and blue light at different respectivedepths. This means light and colour recordedby the camera possesses a three-dimensionalquality. The SD1 features a continuousshooting speed of fiveframes per secondand can captureup to sevenRAW imagesper sequencein continuousshootingmode; it isSigma’s firstcamera tooffersimultaneousRAW and Jpegrecording. We look forward togetting our hands on one.www.SIGMA-SD.com/sd1

ON SOLID GROUNDThe Walkstool Steady is the latest releasefrom the Swedish manufacturer of portable,folding seats. It is a simple and elegantsolution that will greatly increase thestability and strength of your Walkstoolon uneven or soft ground. Attaching thesupport to the bottom of the legs of any

Walkstool increases the amount of weightthe stool can bear. It also reduces themovement possible on slippery surfacesand prevents the legs of the stool fromsinking into very soft ground. It is small andlightweight, adjustable for all Walkstoolsizes and comes with its own carryingpouch. The Walkstool Steady is priced£15.48 and is available from selectedretailers. For more information contactFlaghead Photographic Ltd.www.flaghead.co.uk www.walkstool.com

STEADY ASYOU GOPhotographerslooking for morestability froma monopod shouldtake a look at the YuriArcurs SteadyPod fromCustom Brackets. The UScompany is an establishedmanufacturer of high-qualitycamera brackets, camera rotating mountsand flash mounting accessories.Its latest release consists of a Tilt Headand Digital Pro-SV rotation mount withPalmgrip, mounted to the Manfrotto 685Bmonopod. This setup offers ultra-fastcamera movement from horizontal tovertical orientation and tilt movement,making it suitable for shooting filmwith your DSLR. The monopod features alocking mechanism, making it fast and easyto use and more portable than a tripod.The SteadyPod is available in two versions.The SteadyPod Basic is built around theCustom Brackets style quick release andthe SteadyPod AS Basic is built aroundthe Arca-Swiss style quick release. Both arepriced at £456 and available fromwww.flaghead.co.uk

ROCKETMANThe Royal Albert Hall in London is nowstaging an exhibition of images from RIANovosti, Russia’s leading news agency, andScience Photo Library telling the story ofthe first man in space. On 12 April 1961,cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the world’sfirst space man. Three months later theman who was now a household name visitedthe UK. These rarely-seen images showGagarin’s early life, his historic flight, hisvisit to the UK and the fame that followedhim until his untimely death in an aircraftcrash in 1968. Poyekhali! [Off We Go!] YuriGagarin & the Dawn of Space Explorationruns until4 July. For more information visitwww.royalalberthall.com

GOONLINE

To keep up-to-date with all the news,announcements and camera releasesfrom the world of photography asthey happen. You’ll also find great

interviews with some of theworld’s best photographers.


Yuri Gagarin orbited about200 miles above theEarth, travelling at

17,000mph in Vostok 1.

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PHOTOMONTH

SUMMER LOVINGLondon’s HOSTGallery will stage the fourthannual Foto8 Summershow next monthfeaturing some of the best documentaryphotography from around the world.Last year’s competition attracted morethan 2,000 entries from40 countries.With no set theme, photographers submitrecent work of any subject, style or genrewith the judges on the lookout for work thatis both new and offers a creative approachto storytelling. The photographic exhibition,award and print fair will run from 8 July to12 August and launches with a street partyat the gallery’s Honduras Street location inClerkenwell, London. The exhibition, whichwill feature up to 150 images, will beinstalled from floor to ceiling in the gallery.All works in the show will be available forsale. On the opening night, one image willbe chosen as the Best in Show, with thephotographer taking home a £2,000 prize.There is also a People’s Choice award witha prize of an Olympus PEN EP-2 camera.For more details and to buy tickets visitwww.foto8.com

THE THREE MUSKETEERSPanasonic has launched the third incarnationin its compact DSLR range with the Lumix

G3. The camera is 25% smaller than itspredecessor and weighs just 336g body only,but is packed with enough technology tokeep even the most advanced photographershappy. Its 16-megapixel Live MOS Micro FourThirds Sensor is capable of recording up tofour frames per second. There is also a fastautofocus function with up to 23 focus areas,full HD movie quality at AVCHD 1,920 x1,080, 50i, a built-in electronic viewfinderwith Live View and the ability to manage theISO range from 100 up to6400. Trying tomake light work of capturing an image, touchscreen control is available. This compactlittle camera features technology that wasonce found only in large, heavy DSLRs.It is priced at £549 body only or £629 with14-42mm kit lens.www.panasonic.co.uk

HOW DOES YOURGARDEN GROW?

The winner of this year’s InternationalGarden Photographer of the Yearcompetition has been announced. UK-basedphotographer Colin Roberts takes the top

title with his image, Sea Thrift Flowers,as well as the £5,000 prize. Colin was alsoawarded third place in the wildflowerscategory for his photograph Viper’s Buglossand highly commended in the same sectionfor Sainfoin Meadow and Cow Parsley. All ofthe winning images can be viewed online atwww.igpoty.com

Totality, Bhutan,July 2009.

Viper’s Bugloss.

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Shoot wide open. So sharp it hurts.

X Z-1


GALLERYUpload your images to www.photographymonthly.com, we choose the best and publish them the following month. Simple!

YOUR IMAGES

EDITOR’S CHOICE

There is no denying the atmosphere withinthis portrait. It’s a successful portraitbecause it has that atmosphere and a stronggraphic composition that leads you throughthe image. The choice of black and whiteis also a clever way of avoiding any skintone issues which may have arisen.As always, a simple approach works best.

Grant Scott, Editor

IMAGE OF THE MONTH

Jason Mark HarrisLaura

Canon EOS 5D MkIICanon 70-200mm

PM_JULY_GALLERY V2:Layout 1 01/06/2011 10:17


J CardosoSabrinaNikon D700Nikkor 70-200mm

Mads C. ForchhammerStill hangingNikon D70sNikkor 18-70mm

Robert HoDandelion seedsOlympus E-620Zuiko 14-42mm



READERS’ GALLERY

James Robert JonesYuko-Chan in AdelaideCasio EX-Z1000

Arron GentLouvre at first sightCanon EOS 550D18-55mm



Leila MurseljevicChinese SaharaCanon PowerShot S1 IS

David RheadCeiling fanNikon D5000Nikkor 18-55mm

Jon HowardRed bricksCanon EOS 450DCanon 50mm


READERS’ GALLERY

IS

Eng Chye TohTwo sistersNikon D90Tamron 18-270mm

Adam JonesBalloon warNikon D80Nikkor 24-120mm


Sanjay GuptaNavviCanon EOS 5D MkIICanon 70-200mm

Rob ColeThe Sage, GatesheadCanon EOS 450DSigma 24-70mm

Peter KarrySmiler

Minolta 8000iMinolta 135mm



READERS’ GALLERY

David RheadFishingNikon D5000Nikkor 18-55mm

Marco van der HamMarathondam–Mvdham

Canon EOS 7DCanon 70-200mm



Tim TaylorExploring the mountainsCanon PowerShot D10

Ian Lloyd-GrahamIce creamNikon D700Nikkor 50mm


UPLOAD&WIN!IFYOU WANT TO SEE YOUR IMAGES IN THEMAGAZINE and have the opportunity to winan 8GB Lexar Professional memory card andreader, visit www.photographymonthly.com andupload your favourite images. We will choose thebest work uploaded each month for inclusionin the magazine, and the Editor’s Choice will wina card and reader. SD or CF, the choice is yours.

If you want the ultimate in memory cards, lookno further than Lexar’s Professional range.Even if you shoot at machine-gun speeds,they’ll keep up; the 133x SDHC cards cansustain write speeds of 20Mbps, while the400x CF cards are even faster, at 60Mbps —and at that rate you will need their 8GBcapacity. That’s room for more than 5,000RAW files from a 10-megapixel DSLR. So, ifyou want to shoot away unhampered,secure in the knowledge that yourpictures are being stored safely, startuploading your images towww.photographymonthly.comFor more details visit www.lexar.com

WIN!


Hugh WareYellow roseSony DSLR-A500Cosina 100mm

Paul ConroyRebel flag bearerNikon D2XSNikkor 24mm

READERS’ GALLERY



Wenlock Estate, Shoreditch.

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Getting exhibited Jan Williams and Chris TeasdalePRO ZONE

CARRYONCAMPINGPhotographers JAN WILLIAMS andCHRIS TEASDALE have created theperfect way to show off their work.The Caravan Gallery is as it sounds,so the next time you see a littleyellow caravan in your town, stepinside and take a look at the worldthrough their eyes.

he Caravan Gallery is quite literallya photography exhibition space on twowheels. A mustard-coloured unit dating

from about 1969, it even has white interior wallsand beech flooring to make it like a ‘real’ gallery,claim the founders, Jan Williams and ChrisTeasdale, whose work, featuring moments fromhidden Britain, is housed inside.

The project was launched in 2000 and hassince featured at exhibitions and festivals allover the world, but even with the wear and tear,the team are still on their first caravan. Indeed itis the caravan’s quirky appeal that is the mainreason many people find out about what theyare doing, says Jan.

“We got that particular caravan because itlooked so ridiculous; we couldn’t stop laughingwhen we saw it. It’s like a little Tardis, a littlesocial club on wheels and because it looks funnyand non-threatening it encourages people tocome in and have a chat. You might havesomeone who has just popped out to get a pintof milk talking to a top international curator.Just looking at photos tends to bring peopletogether. They have an opinion on the thing theyare looking at.”

Visitors to the gallery will see photographs ofsubjects and locations that lie beyond thenormal tourist routes and hotspots. Jan andChris used to work in tourism and felt compelledto record less well-known ways of life whichwere disappearing. They research and then visitlocations to hunt out places, characteristics andsettings that reveal more about the communitythat lives there.

“We totally immerse ourselves in thelocations, walking for hours and miles, drivingthrough and around places, all the whileattempting to capture a sense of place in thephotographs we take. Sometimes we chatto people we encounter en route and follow �JA

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“WE GOT THAT PARTICULARCARAVAN BECAUSE IT LOOKEDSO RIDICULOUS; WE COULDN’T

STOP LAUGHING WHEN WE SAWIT. IT’S LIKE A LITTLE TARDIS...”



� Primark, Liverpool.� Outside Tate Britain.�Home to Heroes and

Champions, Hull.� Edge Hill rainbow,

Liverpool.

the leads they give us, but usually it’sa case of following our noses and seeingwhere we end up. Some of our photosmight reflect characteristics unique tothe area in question while others representrandom sightings.”

As I speak to the team they arerecovering from the first day and night oftheir Pride of Place project in Portsmouth,their home town, featuring photos of thearea and video portraits of the locals.Working along the same lines as theCaravan Gallery project, this exhibition ishoused in a building, which is somethingthey would like to do more of.

“We plan to use this model elsewhere,”says Jan. “We’ve already collaborated

with film makers Pilgrim Films(www.pilgrimfilms.com) on The Other SouthBank, about the changing fortunes ofSouth Bank, Middlesbrough, and hope totake the Pride of Place project there.”

In Portsmouth the exhibition focuses onhow people relate to their environment.The duo showed their own work andencouraged people to respond by takingtheir own pictures and leaving comments.

“We’ve both travelled a lot and donevarious jobs in the tourist industry, and itstruck us that if you present a placethrough officialdom it doesn’t necessarilytally with how places really are, so wethought we’d redress the balance andgive an affectionate appraisal of how � JA

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/CHR

ISTE

ASDA

LE



JAN

WIL

LIAM

S/C

HRIS

TEAS

DALE

� Abnormal bus stop, Bristol.�Luis, king of Scotland.� Scenic photos here, Australia.

�Bags and gentleman, Bloomsbury.� Scooter and pillion,

Arlesford, Hampshire.



places really are, warts and all. Our next bookproject is going to be doing the same sort ofthing, but in Australia. We’ve travelled there fourtimes before photographing and always want totake less clichéd photographs.”

Jan and Chris have been experimenting withmoving image using Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2cameras and filming the reactions of visitors tothe exhibition in Portsmouth. “We are reallyhappy with these cameras. They are not tooobtrusive, which is great when you are doingstreet photography. You can get really goodresults without intimidating people.Hewlett-Packard is giving us a wide formatprinter, which we’ll keep at Caravan Galleryheadquarters in Portsmouth.”

Support from the photographic community isimportant to their work. Over the years theyhave had Arts Council backing, local authorityfunding and commissions by galleries andarchitecture associations, but it is tougher thesedays because funding has been cut from somany places. The team is always on the lookoutfor commissions and invitations to festivalsand talks – any venue where they can spreadthe word – so if you feel the area where youlive deserves their attention, they urge you toget in touch. �


“WE ARE REALLY HAPPY WITHTHESE CAMERAS. THEY ARENOT TOO OBTRUSIVE, WHICH ISGREAT WHEN YOU ARE DOINGSTREET PHOTOGRAPHY.”



JAN

WIL

LIAM

S/C

HRIS

TEAS

DALE

� Mr Cheap, Portsmouth.�Liverpool Wall of Fame.� Hippo, Southsea. �West Pier, Brighton.




Their work is in demand, however; just lastyear the designer Paul Smith shipped thecaravan to Japan to stand in his flagshipstore in Tokyo as part of an exhibition held inhis gallery above the shop. Their travels haveinspired a range of merchandise, includingthree books: Welcome to Britain – aCelebration of Real Life, Is Britain Great? andIs Britain Great? 2, subversive visitor guides,‘reality’ postcards and greetings cards.

“We don’t go anywhere without ourcameras so we are photographing on a dailybasis. Often we will be approached by agallery or festival organiser to go and dosomething in their town or city.”Dates in 2011 include this month’s

Guernsey Photography Festival, whereMartin Parr and Richard Billingham areamong fellow exhibitors. Jan and Chris are

showcasing a selection from their extensivearchive (around 150,000 images) whiletaking new photos capturing the character ofthe Channel island at the same time.They are also appearing at the Look11

Liverpool International Photography Festivaland spending time in Toxteth with a Prideof Place project and exhibition. The nextinternational stop is in the autumn as partof a Kunst & Zwalm artists’ residency in

the Belgian countryside, photographing thearea and meeting residents.In five years’ time, the team hope to see

their work in more permanent collectionssimilar to the project in Portsmouth.They already have a deal with the newMuseum of Liverpool to display work.“It would be great to see the work in TateModern,” laughs Jan. “Even if we are not

out and about with the caravan as much, itwould be nice to make use of this archive wehave, which is always growing because weare interested in how places are changingand will revisit areas we’ve been to.”Initiatives such as this are important to

the world of photography at the grass roots.It is a creative and enterprising way torecord life and garner attention for work.So even if the caravan is put out to pastureone day, the spirit of Jan and Chris andwhat they are trying to achieve canand should live on. Life moves at such a fastpace that we should all be thankful forphotographers who take the time to slowit down for us; who are willing to go toextreme lengths to secure forever thehidden moments that happen around usall of the time; and who are capable ofcreating thought-provoking, humorousand imaginative images.www.thecaravangallery.co.uk

PM

“IT WOULD BE GREAT TO SEE THE WORK IN TATEMODERN,” LAUGHS JAN. “EVEN IF WE ARE NOT OUT ANDABOUT WITH THE CARAVAN AS MUCH, IT WOULDBE NICE TO MAKE USE OF THIS ARCHIVE WE HAVE...”

To find more photography events in yourarea visit www.photographymonthly.com



Dinka cattle camp in smokyhaze, Southern Sudan. �

PM_JULY_DINKA:Layout 1 25/05/2011 10:42

Shooting traditional events Angela Fisher and Carol Beckwith

Working as a team for more than 30 years,photographers ANGELA FISHER and

CAROL BECKWITH have documented Africantribal rites and rituals of cultures thousandsof years old. They speak to TOR McINTOSH

about their remarkable journey.

PRO ZONE

AFRICANCEREMONIES


ANGE

LAFI

SHER

/CAR

OLBE

CKW

ITH



Woman in beaded corset.


Photo manipulation Post Production Masters


Shooting traditional events Angela Fisher and Carol Beckwith

uring a 35-year love affair with Africa,Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisherhave journeyed more than 270,000

miles through46 countries to photographmore than 150 traditional African cultures.They have spent months at a time livingamong indigenous peoples to earn their trustbefore being granted exclusive access to thesacred rites and rituals that mark the lives ofAfrica’s tribal groups. They’ve travelled byfoot, mule train, camel, canoe and4WDvehicles to the remotest corners of Africa toreach communities that have never seen, orbeen seen by, the outside world. Each journeyhas had its fair share of obstacles; they’vetravelled along roads littered with land mines,negotiated their way through war zones anddealt with death threats from tribal warriors.Over the past three decades the two women

have produced 14 coffee-table books, exhibitedtheir work in museums and galleriesthroughout the world, and been honoured withnumerous awards for their ongoing workrecording the tribal ceremonies and ancientcultures of Africa. I spoke to Australian AngelaFisher from her remote base in Kenyaoverlooking the picturesque plains aroundMount Kilimanjaro. And from the slightly lessexotic setting of New York City I caught upwith American-born Carol Beckwith during atrip back to her homeland. From these vastlydifferent locations the two women chattedpassionately to me about their enduring anddeeply respectful relationship with the people,cultures and traditional ceremonies of Africa.Drawn to Africa in the mid-1970s by the

kaleidoscope of art forms and cultures,Angela and Carol began their lives in thevast continent working on individual projects,

blissfully unaware of the other’s existence;Carol was shooting for her bookMaasai (1980),a study of the Maasai people of Kenya andTanzania, and Angela was working on her bookAfrica Adorned (1984), a seven-year study oftraditional adornment in40 African countries.While visiting his daughter in the Maasai Maranature reserve in Kenya, Carol’s father boughther a hot-air balloon ride over Maasai countryfor her birthday; the balloon pilot wascalled Simon Fisher, Angela’s brother. “He wasterribly good-looking and I was smittenby him,” recalls Carol. “At 1,000ft he lookeddeeply into my eyes and said, ‘There issomething that I really have to tell you.’My heart was beating wildly and he continuedto look deeply in my eyes and he said, ‘I would

really like you to meet my sister.’ My heartsank,” laughs Carol.Realising the similarity between the two

women – they both travelled and worked inAfrica and were interested in traditionalcultures – Simon wrote to his sister beggingher to meet Carol. Finally, a year later, the pairwere introduced at the African Heritagegallery in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, whereAngela was exhibiting jewellery and Carol wasshowing her drawings. “We took one look ateach other and didn’t think we were kindredspirits,” explains Carol. “We were dressed tothe gills in dresses, turbans and jewellery forthe gallery opening; we had imagined we wereeach going to meet an Amazonian bushwoman dressed in khaki and camera jackets!However, we met next morning and realised he[Simon] was absolutely right; within a week wewere photographing side-by-side at a Maasaiwarrior ceremony on the border of Kenya andTanzania, and we quickly discovered that weshared a passion for the traditional cultures ofAfrica as well as the nomadic way of life.”It was an informal working relationship at

the beginning, with each of them continuingtheir own projects, but while Carol wasphotographing the Wodaabe, a nomadic groupfrom the Sahel region of west Africa, for herbook Nomads of Niger (1983), the pair decidedto collaborate on their first book, African Ark(1990), a five-year study of the people andcultures of the Horn of Africa.Unlike other well-known photography duos,

who share their lives as married couples aswell as their photography credits, theBeckwith-Fisher creative partnership is anunusual one in consisting of two individualsbrought together by a shared passion.�

D

“OVER THE YEARSCAROL AND

ANGELA HAVEBEEN GRANTED

UNPRECEDENTEDACCESS TOINTIMATE

CEREMONIESTHAT HAVE

NEVERBEFORE BEEN

WITNESSED BYWESTERN EYES.

ANGE

LAFISH

ER/C

AROL

BECK

WITH

�Dinka men dancing.

� Dinka boy with long-horned bull.

PRO ZONE



Carol believes their ability to work togetherstems firstly from their different, yetcomplementary styles of photography – Angelahad learned about photography in the fieldproducing Africa Adorned, while Carol studiedthe subject at the School of the Museum ofFine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts.Secondly they both have a drive for perfection.“If we didn’t get something right and we had toget up four more mornings in a row before

sunrise in very cold or extremely hot weatherand walk a long distance to get to a specificplace as the sun rose on a certain activity, forexample Maasai warriors painting their bodiesin rock caves at sunrise, we just did it; we wereinspired by the other one wanting to do it.”Along with their huge appreciation of each

other’s photography, Angela points to theindividual experiences gained from their soloprojects during the 1970s as the basis of theirsuccessful collaboration; for Africa Adorned,her first book, Angela dealt with manydifferent cultures, landscapes and logistics,whereas for her first two books Carol wasinvolved in the cultural lives of two tribes, theMaasai and the Wodaabe, and had spent a lotof time recording each stage of their lives.

“When we put these two talents together werealised we could produce an in-depth story ofancient traditional cultures and ceremoniesacross the continent,” explains Angela.“We could take on something that had thebreadth as well as the depth and I think that’sbeen a tremendous strength of ours.”It wasn’t long before the pair started to see

the benefits of working as a team – twopairs of eyes can observe and photographtwice as much as one. “A delightful,serendipitous surprise was that even if wewere photographing the same thing we wouldtend to do it slightly differently. One personmight take a long lens for close-ups anddetails, and the other a short lens for a broadoverall picture,” explains Carol. “This meant

“WE TOOK ONE LOOK ATEACH OTHER ANDDIDN’T THINK WE WEREKINDRED SPIRITS...

Dinka cattle camp at sunset.



Shooting traditional events Angela Fisher and Carol BeckwithPRO ZONE

that our photographs of the same subjectwould complement each other.” From thisearly discovery, they realised that whenproducing books the important thing was tobuild the story using their most powerfulimages. If they shared the credit – and, assuch, lose their egos – they would be freer tochoose the best pictures for each book.Over the years Carol and Angela have been

granted unprecedented access to intimateceremonies that have never before beenwitnessed by Western eyes. I was quick tosurmise that as two female photographersthey must surely struggle to gain access tomale-only ceremonies, especially in themisogynistic cultures that exist in the remoteparts of Africa. But Angela reveals that it’s

precisely because they are two Westernwomen that they have managed to photographboth male and female traditional ceremonies.“In very remote areas traditional people havea style of life that is very welcoming tooutsiders, particularly women. They don’t seea threat in women, whereas if we were Western

men they would feel more threatened by usand more closed to accepting us; with womenthey’re curious as to why you’re there.”She explains that by going through anintroduction with the head of the communityor the chief of the village they establishthemselves as part of the male group, meaningthey are invited into male ceremonies, such asmale rites of passage and private circumcisionceremonies. “We’ve actually seen things thattraditional women haven’t.”As women they are automatically invited to

witness female ceremonies, somethinga Western male photographer would never beallowed to do. However, many of the traditionalwomen consider Carol and Angela’s Westernlook as extremely unattractive and insist onbeautifying them with traditional costumesand make-up; although a great way to bondwith the female members of a community ithas its limitations, because when dressed astribal women they can’t leap up and startphotographing the men folk. “If we wanted tobe with the men we realised we had to changeinto our genderless clothes so we were notbreaking a taboo of separation of men andwomen in social situations,” explains Carol.Taking time to build friendships is key to

developing trust within a traditionalcommunity and both photographers believeit is a vitally important element ofphotographing people in remote areas.Before a single photograph is taken, the pairtake their time to get to know a group ofpeople; this could take days, if not weeks,sitting underneath an acacia tree speaking tothe village chief or going to the well every daywith the female members of a group.“One of the things that has made us mostsuccessful is that we work very slowly; wecome into Africa and take on the pace ofAfrica,” explains Angela. On arriving in remotecommunities the pair are acutely aware that acamera is an unknown, slightly frighteningshape and photography a completely newconcept. In the early days they would use aPolaroid camera to show such communitiesthe photographic process, whereas these daysthey use digital cameras so they can easilyshow people exactly what they are doing.

Over three decades they have madehistorical recordings of the passage from birthto death within ancient African cultures, thebest example being their double-volume book,African Ceremonies (1999), a 10-year studycovering 93 ceremonies in 26 countries.But Angela and Carol feel that with their latest

book, Dinka (2010), a 30-year study of thelegendary cattle herders of Southern Sudan,they have moved away frommerely tellinga linear story and started to portray thebeauty of an ancient culture by indulging inaesthetically beautiful images. It was noaccident that they chose to adapt theirapproach during the study of the Dinkapeople, a tall ethnic group (the average heightfor men is between6ft6in and 7ft6in)

known as Africa’s ‘gentle giants’ by earlyexplorers, as the cattle herders’ way of lifeoffered the photographers visually stunningscenes. The magic hours with the Dinka wereat sunset during the dry season cattle campswhere as many as 2,000 head of cattle wouldgather with their herders; every evening theywould build fires out of cattle dung and burnthem to keep the mosquitoes and insects atbay. Carol’s description of the scene is asvividly beautiful as the resulting photographs:“… the sunlight filtering through the layers ofsmoke, thousands of long, twisted hornscatching the light and the silhouettes of cattleherders moving in an almost hypnotic waythrough the animals – neither of us had everseen anything so beautiful.” �

Dinka man leaping incourtship dance.

“I DON’T THINK WE COULD EVER DO AFRICA INBLACK AND WHITE, BECAUSE COLOUR IS SUCH ANINTEGRAL PART OF THE CULTURAL EXPERIENCEOF EACH GROUP.

ANGE

LAFI

SHER

/CAR

OLBE

CKW

ITH



Ready for marriage.



BIOGRAPHY

American-born Carol andAustralian Angela met 30 yearsago in Kenya. They have published14 books, exhibited in museumsand galleries throughout the worldand been honoured twice with theAnisfield-Wolf Book Award in race

relations. Other awards include the Royal GeographicalSociety’s Cherry Kearton Medal and WINGS WorldQuest’sLifetime Achievement Award honouring visionarywomen. Their collection includes half a million images,400 hours of video film, 200 illustrated journals andthree museum-scale exhibitions.

Angela’s reaction to their time with theDinka sums up why the people remain close totheir hearts: “In a way you’re offered imagesthat you can’t help but want to photograph andthe whole style of life just fills your body.I think living with the Dinka has provided uswith some of the most beautiful images thatwe’ve ever seen in Africa.” But runningalongside the visual beauty of the Dinkalifestyle is a familiar story of a traditionalsociety’s transition into the 21st century.“When we first visited the Dinka in the late1970s one saw a very traditional lifestyle withno influence from the outside world,” recallsAngela. “When we returned 30 years latera lot of the remains of civil war were visibleand we had to travel for a month in theswamplands of the River Nile until we founda traditional cattle camp.”Despite the relief at finding isolated pockets

of Dinka people maintaining their ancientways, the effect of civil war was visibleeverywhere: “[We photographed] Dinkaherders wearing the very beautiful andtraditional leopard-skin togas, but instead ofcarrying spears they were carryingKalashnikovs,” recalls Carol. Through theirlenses, Angela and Carol have seen first-handthe heartbreaking changes that have occurredin Africa during the past 35 years. As theyrecount to me the differences they witnessedon returning to Sudan in 2006 after thecountry’s brutal civil war their voices aretinged with sadness. But their Dinka bookpurposely only touches on the visual changesand instead focuses on the traditionalceremonies and cultures that still exist.Their deep-rooted passion for their work

is most apparent when they get lost in vividdescriptions of the tribes and ceremoniesthey’ve photographed, such as the Maasaiceremony where 900 warriors come together“all covered in the red-ochre, oily paint thatglistens in the golden sunlight… themulti-coloured flags blazing in the wind… thelone serpentine lines of hundreds of warriorscoming over the golden hills with almostflaming colour,” or the Wodaabe with their“indigo-coloured costuming… you almost feltthey were leaping out in profiled silhouetteagainst a background of sand dunes.”The constant reference to the intensity ofcolour confirms why the pair always shoot incolour. “I don’t think we could ever do Africa inblack and white, because colour is such anintegral part of the cultural experience of eachgroup,” explains Carol. “[The colours] are notonly beautiful to look at but they’re symbolic[for many cultures], therefore how could wepossibly leave that out of our story?”With an extensive body of work spanning

three decades it’s no surprise to learn thatmore than40% of what Carol and Angelahave photographed no longer exists.�

Dinka girl smoking a pipe.

ANGE

LAFI

SHER

/CAR

OLBE

CKW

ITH

LIKETHIS?Then you’ll love the work of

National Geographic photographerJim Richardson. His stunning workfrom the Hebrides in Scotland canbe seen in the March 2011 issue of

the magazine. To orderback issues go online:



www.africanceremonies.com



Man in beaded corset.


Photo manipulation Post Production Masters



• Do your research by reading as much as possible aboutthe group of people you’re going to study, or speak topeople who can advise you on where to go and how toenter sensitively into a group. It’s very easy for small,insensitive things to happen in a traditional society thatdon’t appear important to a Westerner, but areextremely critical within some cultural traditions.• Before you start taking photographs it’s important tospend time building a close relationship with the peopleyou wish to photograph, to gain trust and understanding.• Write about 25 words of the language on your hands soyou always know how to greet or thank people or how toask very simple questions.

• It’s important not to intrude on a ritual – start witha longer lens and then when people are comfortablewith that you can move in a bit closer. The subjects stillneed to feel the sacredness of the rite of passage andnot feel you’re intruding on them.• Be prepared to deal with very challenging lightingconditions, therefore work with lenses and a camerasetting that can accommodate very low light. A lot oftraditional people don’t like flash photography; some aresuperstitious about it and feel endangered by flash.• Use 35mm SLR cameras rather than medium or largeformat cameras. Due to the nature of a ceremony youneed to be able to carry all your equipment easily and

to move very quickly. With two cameras, a fill-in flash andtwo zoom lenses – 24-70mm and 70-200mm – you cancover everything.• What catches your eye to start with isn’t always thestory that needs to be told; sometimes it’s thetiny events attached to a rite of passage that are thepivotal points of the whole ceremony. To understanda ceremony it is advisable to witness it as many timesas possible.• If you have promised to send a copy of an image orthe final book, then make sure you stick to your promise– a positive experience with an outsider colours verystrongly how a group of people see the outside world.

Angela Fisher and Carol Beckwith’s top tips for photographing traditional ceremonies

Dinka cattle herder ina purple robe.

The Beckwith-Fisher collection of traditionalAfrican cultures and ceremonies includeshalf a million photographs,400 hours of videofootage and 200 illustrated field journals.This unique body of work not only helpsWestern societies understand the history andculture of the African continent, it has alsobecome an important source of information forfuture generations in Africa. Both Angela andCarol are great believers in the Africanconcept of reciprocity – the importance ofgiving back. On a smaller scale they’ve helpedto build schools, organised the digging ofwells and developed initiatives to assist peoplein the communities they’ve photographed.On a larger scale their wish is to give backtheir photographs to Africa by digitising all the

images and making them freely available foreducational purposes so that the nextgeneration of Africans can learn about theirtraditional heritage.It’s hard to believe that there are any

indigenous communities left in Africa that theBeckwith-Fisher camera lenses haven’tfocused on, but surprisingly there are.Aware that traditional cultures in Africa aredisappearing, Carol and Angela are in theprocess of producing a follow-up to AfricanCeremonies, a book called African Twilight (dueto be published in 2014) that will concentrateon the 14 countries they have yet to work indue to political upheaval, border closures orthe sheer difficulty of navigating certainremote parts of Africa. When they finally

have ticks next to all 54 African countries(they have eight left to visit) they will havecompleted the enormous task they unwittinglyset themselves as young explorers in the1970s when they decided to dedicate theirlives to visually preserving Africa’s oftenundocumented and slowly disappearingancient cultures.Dinka: Legendary Cattle Keepers of Sudan, by AngelaFisher and Carol Beckwith, is available from Rizzoli USA(www.rizzoliusa.com) and Amazon UK(www.amazon.co.uk), RRP £47.50. The book is alsoavailable in a limited edition, presented in a handmadebox and including a choice of one of five high-qualitysigned prints, suitable for framing. Proceeds from thesale of this edition go to African Ceremonies Inc, Caroland Angela’s not-for-profit charitable foundation.

PM

ANGELAFISHER/CAROLBECKWITH



A picture is worth a thousand words, so the saying goes, but wedding photographyrelies on a collection of images to give the overall narrative of the big day.Wedding photographer STEVEN TAYLOR explains how you can convey emotion,mood and narrative at any wedding where you are a guest in 2011.

Image Caption here

s a guest at a wedding, you are in the

ideal position to explore your skills as

a photographer and storyteller. When

the pressure is off you can go to town on

making a fantastic, journalistic record of the

day. The key to good storytelling photography

is to keep a sharp eye open for the details,

expressions and mini-stories that occur

throughout the day.

Black-and-white images work well for telling

a story. The first thing a viewer sees when

they look at a colour picture is the colour.

If the image is about colour that’s okay but if

other narrative is more important, it can be a

distraction. The pictures in this illustration

have been processed mostly as lightly toned

black-and-whites but I will usually make about

30% of the pictures on the day in colour.

A

...The establishing shot eases theviewer into the story. I often makean image of the façade of the venue,a detail of the front door, withappropriate decoration or an order ofservice. The sign on the arrow-shapedboard stating ‘Wedding’ was a gift.It not only introduces the viewer towhat it is we are going to be lookingat but the arrow becomes a symbol tolead us on to the rest of the story.

THE ESTABLISHING SHOT

JUST LIKE AWRITTEN ESSAYYOU WILL NEED ANINTRODUCTION

DON’T LOSETHE PLOT

1

“THE ARROW BECOMES A SYMBOL TO LEAD US ON TO THE REST OF THE STORY.”

“SOMETIMES, JUSTBY MOVING ACROSSA ROOM I SEE NEWPICTURES THATI HADN’T NOTICEDBEFORE.

STEV

ENTA

YLOR

PM_JULY_WEDDING:Layout 1 24/05/2011 11:16

Telling a story with your images Steven TaylorPRO ZONE


...As well as capturing the people, you should also make sure thedetails of the day are recorded. You should make pictures of theflowers, the bride’s shoes and the dress before the bride puts it on.At this part of the day there are usually only a handful of peoplepresent, so it is polite to make conversation. Humour (as long as it is

appropriate) helps the subject of your pictures to relax. The brideand groom and other principal players may be quite nervous at thispoint, so a little banter and, of course, some flattering commentsabout the way they look, all help to put them at their ease.Hotel rooms or bride’s bedrooms are usually quite small and thereare often more than a couple of other people around, so space istight. I move around the room as much as possible. Sometimes, justby moving across a room I see new pictures that I hadn’t noticedbefore. We never use flash and often the light from the window canbe quite a lot stronger than the rest of the room, so you do have tobe aware of how the light is behaving and how it affects the mood ofyour pictures. Mirrors make interesting frames for your subjectsand are a good indicator of the story of what is happening at thistime of the day. �

PREPARATION PICTURES

PREPARATION PICTURES ARE AGREAT WAY FOR THE SUBJECTS TOGET USED TO YOU BEING AROUND

2

“THE BRIDE AND GROOM AND OTHER PRINCIPAL PLAYERS MAY BE QUITENERVOUS AT THIS POINT, SO A LITTLE BANTER AND, OF COURSE, SOMEFLATTERING COMMENTS ABOUT THE WAY THEY LOOK, ALL HELP TOPUT THEM AT THEIR EASE.


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...There are certain points during a wedding day that you knoware going to happen before they do. The key is to focus on beingready to capture natural emotions. For example, you know thatwhen the bride’s father sees his daughter dressed and ready tobe married there is going to be emotion. Move yourself into agood position before it happens to best capture the expressions.If the light level is low you will require a fairly fast ISO, shutterspeed and wide aperture. There may be motion blur as dad liftshis hands in delight and the focus may be soft on the bride.However, all the emphasis should be on dad’s expression. In thisimage it would have been even better if the bride’s expressionhad been reflected in the mirror but taking a journalisticapproach to photography means things don’t always go to plan.

...The bride makes eye contact with her mum and her expressiongives away her excitement. I used a wide aperture to get enoughlight on to the sensor to allow me to use a sufficiently fastshutter speed to freeze the movement. The focus and exposureare on the bride’s face. Even though mum is not sharp and thehighlights on her outfit have blown because she was closer tothe light source, we do not need to see her face to know that shewas beaming back at her daughter.

...Normally I would stand on the opposite side of the roomto see the bride’s expression. On this occasion, though, Iwas confined in a very small space; there was nowhere forme to be on the other side, so the focus was going to be onthe groom. The 35mm lens I used for the majority of thewedding was essential for me to get in enough information;even a 50mm would have cropped too tightly. What madethe picture was dad’s expression; just making sure it wasall done correctly.

MOMENTS3

THE ENTRANCE 4

EXCHANGE OF RINGS

6SOME MOMENTSARE ALMOST STAGED

ALL EYES ARE ON THEBRIDE AS SHE ENTERSTHE ROOM

THIS PICTURE ISONE THAT IS EASILY

CAPTURED AT MOST WEDDINGS

5ST

EVEN

TAYL

OR


DETAILS



...Those details that set the mood for the whole look of thewedding day should be recorded with as much care as all ofthe other pictures you make. Colour is more relevant herethan in any other picture of the story. Flowers, table plan,place names, favours and decorations – not forgetting thecake – should be photographed. A slightly longer lens,like an 85mm along with a wide aperture, will throw thebackground out of focus so the attention is on the detail. �

Steven Taylor has been in the wedding business formore than 30 years. Inspired in the early days byphotojournalists Henri Cartier-Bresson, ElliottErwitt, Ian Berry and W. Eugene Smith, Steven

adopted an observational style from the beginning of his career.His wedding photography focuses on narrative, telling a story ofthe day as a whole. To view more of his work visitwww.steventaylorphotography.co.uk

BIOGRAPHY

6

AN AWFUL LOT OF TIME ANDRESEARCH GOES INTOCHOOSING THE LOOK, COLOURAND THEME OF A BRIDE ANDGROOM’S SPECIAL DAY


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THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S GUIDE TO

TURNINGPRO PHOTOGRAPHYWORLD OF

Fotos Mags Now AD 01/06/2011 11:39



...But some interesting little cutaways usually occur. Guests arean integral part of the day; without them the party would be anon-event. Try to find an interesting angle. It is obvious to pointyour camera at your friends and family, they may smile or act upto the camera in some way and in years to come that might befun to look back on, but if you move around and look for adifferent slant you can express more about the day than simplymaking a record of the participants.

...The guests reading the table plan to locate their seats is agreat way to establish that part of the day known as thewedding breakfast. It’s also a good way of getting pictures ofsome of the faces that are celebrating with the couple. Usingthe mirror as a frame provided an opportunity to make slightlymore creative images of guests. �

...This part of the day often needs a little help to make happen.The more traditional photographers would organise two lines ofguests for the couple to walk through. However, if you want tostay unobtrusive then have a chat with the best man andsuggest that he might like to delegate the ushers to make ithappen. Don’t worry if it doesn’t, there are plenty of otherthings going on at this time to photograph.

THE CONFETTI7ONE OF THE MOSTANIMATEDPARTS OF A WEDDING IS WHENTHE GUESTS THROW CONFETTI ATTHE NEWLYMARRIED COUPLE

THE GUESTS 8IT IS ESSENTIAL THATALLTHE PRINCIPAL PLAYERS OF THEWEDDING ARE PHOTOGRAPHED

RE-ESTABLISHING SHOT9 THIS IS ANOTHERESTABLISHING SHOT

For more tips and techniques from our masters visit our sitewww.photographymonthly.com

“FLOWERS,TABLE PLAN, PLACE NAMES, FAVOURS ANDDECORATIONS. – NOT FORGETTING THE CAKE – SHOULDALL BE PHOTOGRAPHED.

STEV

ENTA

YLOR


CHILDREN


Steven Taylor Telling a story with your imagesPRO ZONE

...We often see tears, laughter and embarrassment all fromone speech. Although the groom’s face cannot be seen, theexpression of the bride, along with the groom’s body language,allude to the groom’s emotion and the content of the speech.

...The first dance is symbolic of the start of their new life ashusband and wife, and the love of the couple is often very evidentin their posture during the dance. The light level is usually very lowat this point and flash would destroy the atmosphere of the image.A very fast ISO setting is essential. Most sensors struggle withspeeds of ISO6400 but even at shutter speeds of 1/30sec andapertures of f/1.4 that is the ISO you will often need to use. Digitalnoise is a problem at this sort of speed. There are some noisereduction software products that can help at the post-productionstage. Adding grain to imitate the look of fast film can help to masknoise as well. A romantic first-dance picture makes a beautifulconclusion to your wedding document. PM

...Children haven’t yetacquired the inhibitionsthat cause adults to actawkwardly in front of acamera. They also oftenhave their own little‘micro-dramas’ occurring. This little boy has managed to getmud on his wedding suit and his friend is concerned for him.

10

THE SPEECHES

SPEECHES ARE AN OPPORTUNITYTO PHOTOGRAPH SOME TELLINGEXPRESSIONS, AS ALL EMOTIONSARE ON DISPLAY

FIRST DANCE

AS PROFESSIONAL WEDDINGPHOTOGRAPHERS, MOST OF OURWORK IS FINISHED AFTER THEBRIDE AND GROOM’S FIRST DANCE

12

“THEY ALSO HAVETHEIR OWN LITTLE

‘MICRO-DRAMAS’OCCURRING.

“A ROMANTIC FIRST-DANCE PICTUREMAKES A BEAUTIFUL CONCLUSION TO

YOUR WEDDING DOCUMENT.”

11

KIDS ARE ALWAYSGREAT SUBJECTS FORPHOTOGRAPHERS

STEV

ENTA

YLOR


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Full Frame sees top travel and landscape photographer David Noton set about achieving‘the perfect shoot’. He gives invaluable photographic tips on how he captures theessence of a location, explains his creative process and reveals the secrets that make his work so widely admired.

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NEIL

TURN

ER

FREEZINGPOINTThis month we asked our lighting master NEIL TURNER to capture action using flash.Here he tells you the secrets of this successful shoot – from the preparation and findingthe right model through to the technical aspects of getting the desired shots.

t doesn’t take much to get me excited aboutshooting pictures and being there capturingthe action in my own way has to be at the top

of the list. I greatly admire specialist sports or wildlifephotographers, whose patience, technical skills andtiming give us images that convey the intensity of themoment in a seemingly simple still frame.Shooting action with flash adds a different dimensionand when I was asked to do this article I searched for anactivity which would give me the chance to get the rightangles and to put my lights exactly where I wantedthem. Keegan Walker is a very good BMX rider by anymeasure, but the great joy of using him as my ‘model’for these pictures is that he can repeat the sametrick over and over again, landing his jumps withina few centimetres of his target each time. �

I

PM_JULY_FLASH_NEIL_TURNER:Layout 1 25/05/2011 11:08


MASTERCLASSCapturing action with flash Neil Turner

This shot was made with aCanon 580EX II flash unitclamped to the railings togive the unique highlight.

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Bournemouthin 1964, Neil Turnerhas been workingprofessionally as aphotographer since1986. He spends muchof his time shootingexecutive portraits and editorial commissionsfor magazines and newspapers, and has beencommissioned by a range of PR, commercialand editorial clients. He also writes aboutphotography and teaches across the UK inuniversities and colleges. He is a vice-chairmanof the British Press Photographers’Association, and works out of London andBournemouth. www.dg28.com


[54] PHOTOGRAPHY MONTHLY JULY 2011[56] PHOTOGRAPHY MONTHLY JULY 2011

In the space of five minutes Neil wentfrom shooting at 1/200sec at f/11 to1/50sec at f/11.


NEIL

TURN

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THE PLANIt was about two hours before sunset and Iwas looking to start by shooting some actionwith flash against the deep blue sky at thebeginning of May. The weather was kind to usbut the skies were a little more watery than Ihad hoped for, which meant altering the plana little. The objective was to constantly adaptthe shooting style as the light began to fallaway with the final few frames being shotafter the sun had dipped below the horizon.

THE FIRST STEPThere was still plenty of daylight at this pointand so I needed every joule of power that Icould get from the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra

that was acting as my main light. I startedwith a 24in x 32in softbox but quicklyswapped to a 14in beauty dish which cuts outless light and I started to shoot with the mainlight about 6ft away from the point in the airwhere I was anticipating Keegan to be.The angle of the flash meant that he wasalmost jumping straight at it, which gave mesome nice ‘head-on’ light.I pre-focused my Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L

lens because there was no way that mycameras were going to be able to track thefocusing through the air from my shootingposition – I calculated that I would see therider for only 1/4 of a second before I had toshoot the picture and no AF system can

track that. We were going to be shooting witha huge depth of field, which meant thatpre-focusing was the best option.After the first couple of frames I added

a second light (Canon 580EX II Speedlite onfull power at a distance of about 12ft)directly opposite the main one. My exposurefor these frames was 1/200sec at f/22 atISO 200 and the white balance was daylightrather than flash because my beauty dishis a little colder than the Canon standardflash setting.

THE NEXT SETUPNext I decided to shoot a couple of‘portraits’. Once again, the 14in beauty dishwas my main light and I intended to use aCanon 580EX II as a second. While shootinga test shot to determine where to place thesecond flash I decided to keep it simple andstick with the one light, because I liked thesimplicity of the image.I ended up shooting at 1/200sec at f/22

at ISO 200 with the main light directly infront of the bike on a 16-35mm f/2.8L lenson a full-frame Canon EOS 5D MkII.With the quick portrait behind us I moved

the lights on to the other section of thehalf-pipe (two curved ramps opposite oneanother), with the Elinchrom and its beautydish off to my right pointing through the pipe,a Canon 580EX II off to my left and a second580EX II high and to the right. Around thetop of the half-pipe is a railing, which is veryuseful for attaching lights using ManfrottoSuper Clamps – possibly the best accessoryyou can get for this kind of work. I got myregular assistant Jonathan (Jonny)Fleetwood to stand on the lip so that I couldpre-focus and get a really good idea how Iwas going to frame the shots before shootingquite a few very similar frames.

IN THE CANThere comes a point in every shoot whereyou start to relax. You know that you have �

“WE WERE GOING TO BE SHOOTING WITHA HUGE DEPTH OF FIELD, WHICH MEANTTHAT PRE-FOCUSING WAS THE BEST OPTION.

Just one light was used forthis image to keep it simple.

The exposure for this shot was 1/200sec at f/22at ISO 200 with the white balance set for daylight.




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MASTERCLASS

some pretty good pictures ‘in the can’ andthe ideas for more interesting shots start toflow. The first one involves the rider hittingthe curved ramp at just the right angle,flying a few feet into the air, kicking his feetoff the pedals and then rotating the bikethrough 360° before putting his feet back onto the pedals and landing the bike safelyon the ramp. I had a 24-70mm f/2.8L lens ona Canon EOS 5D MkII and, again, I tried topre-focus at a point through which I washoping Keegan would fly. The longer the lensthat you use, the harder it is to pre-focusaccurately and, because this scenario meantthat I could track the focusing on the rider, Idecided pre-focusing wasn’t the best option.The lighting was still pretty simple: the

Elinchrom Ranger Quadra with the beautydish was still the main light and positionedhigh and to my left about 12ft from the pointin the air we were aiming for. There wasa 580EX II further around clamped to thetop of the railing at about 90° to Keegan’sright side and the second 580EX II tomy right, adding some fill light to Keegan’sleft side.After that we tried all sorts of angles

around the half-pipe, including a few trickson the lip. The sun was starting to droppretty quickly by this time and so wedecided to go with some less conventionallighting with the Elinchrom with a basic‘spill-kill’ reflector acting as the main lighton top of the half-pipe to my left and aCanon 580EX II in shot clamped to therailings, giving a great highlight to the frame.Both frames were shot at 1/200sec at f/13at ISO 200.

LOSING THE LIGHTKeegan was keen to get as much height ashe could from the ramp and we set up theElinchrom Ranger Quadra with a 24in x 32insoftbox off to my left, a Canon 580EX II tomy right and another 580EX II straightahead of me hidden below the lip of theramp. Keegan was jumping over the ramp ineach direction and doing turns in the air.The important thing here is to keep

checking and adjusting your exposure. In thespace of five minutes we went from shootingat 1/200sec at f/11 to 1/50sec at f/11.The flash was putting out a constant amountof power – hence keeping the aperture atf/11, but the ambient light and the sky wasgetting darker quite quickly and so we losttwo f-stops of light in just over five minutes.Two minutes later, we had completely lostthe light for any kind of action pictures.I just had time to shoot the tighter

portraits on a 24-70mm f/2.8L lens on thefull-frame camera. The object was to get thenice catch light in the model’s eyes and �

Capturing action with flash Neil Turner

Fill light was used tocreate this image bystrapping a Canon 580EXII to the top of the railingto the left of the rider.

This image was shot at1/200sec at f/13 at ISO 200.


NEIL

TURN

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get that very trendy even light look. I also hadJonny holding a 580EX II high above and slightlybehind Keegan’s head just to get a littlebacklight to finish off the shoot just as it wentfully dark and we decided to head off.

WORDS OF WISDOMThere are so many different ways to do a shoot

like this, but I went for a traditional ‘flashoverpowering daylight’ approach rather thana high-speed flash synch one. The disadvantageof my way of shooting this way is that I wasrestricted to a maximum shutter speed of1/200sec, which is as high as a Canon EOS 5DMkII goes. Some other DSLRs go to 1/250secor even higher and those extra part stops ofspeed can really help to avoid the blur that youoften get with fast-moving subjects when youare using some ambient light as well as the flash.The big disadvantage of high-speed synch isthat you are largely restricted to using hot shoetype flash units and either the manufacturer’sown triggers or some pretty expensiveafter-market ones. I actually like the hints ofblur that you get when shooting at speedsof between 1/60sec and 1/250sec but that isjust my taste in pictures.

Marrying daylight and flash often meansshooting at apertures as high as f/22 whichmeans you need a lot of flash power orto get your lights close to the subject. It alsomeans that you will show up every tiny piece ofdirt and dust on your image sensor. On thisshoot I used two different bodies and I spentquite a bit of time in post-production cleaningdust spots off of the pictures from one of �

“THE IMPORTANT THING HERE IS TO KEEP CHECKINGAND ADJUSTING YOUR EXPOSURE. IN THE SPACE OFFIVE MINUTES WE WENT FROM SHOOTING AT1/200SEC AT F/11 TO 1/50SEC AT F/11.

Neil lost two f-stops of light in justover five minutes on this shot.

Three lights were used togive this image punch and drama.

NEIL

TURN

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Neil Turner Capturing action with flash

the two cameras. Dust shows up as far moresharply defined spots the more you stop thelens down and when a big part of the sceneis a plain or out-of-focus background (thesky in this case) those dust spots will stickout a mile.When you have decided how you want to

shoot, it is important to make sure that youknow the exposure for the ambient light.Shooting against the sky is easy when youlearn to use manual exposure and to take areading off the sky. I tend to underexposethe sky where I can so that my subjectsstand out against it a little more, but thedegree by which I will underexpose variesfrom anything as little as half an f-stop to

� 2 Canon EOS 5D MkIIcamera bodies

� Canon 16-35mmf/2.8L lens

� Canon 24-70mmf/2.8L lens

� Canon 70-200mmf/2.8L IS lens

� Elinchrom RangerQuadra Flash Pack

� 2 Elinchrom RangerS heads

� 2 Elinchrom Skyporttriggers

� 2 Elinchrom Skyportreceivers

� 2 Canon 580EX IIflash units

� 4 Manfrotto lightstands

� 2 Manfrotto Lite-Titebrackets

� 2 Manfrotto

Super Clamps with

brass posts

� Chimera 24in x 32inPro II softbox

� White 14in beauty

dish adapted to fit

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Quadra flash

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KIT BAG

two or three f-stops, depending on thefeel that I am trying to achieve.Shooting in a public place like this you

need to keep your kit safe. We all know thedangers of letting valuable items out ofour sight and nothing attracts thelight-fingered as much as shiny,new-looking camera gear. Bike locks,bungee cords and good old-fashionedchains and ropes are all useful. My kitcontains a couple of climbing carabinersand a couple of cable locks, and I alwaystry to find an anchor point to attach mycases when I’m not using them.Using clamps and brackets instead oflighting stands is also a useful security

measure and I am a big fan of Manfrotto clamps– especially the 035 Super Clamp.

EQUIPMENTAnyone who regularly reads my kit lists on thesearticles will know that I tend to stick with thesame basic outfit. In fact, it really isn’t often thatI add something new to the mix but this wasmy first Photography Monthly assignment tofeature my new Think Tank Airport TakeOffrolling case which I have started using to carrymy Elinchrom kit. I wouldn’t normally mention amere camera bag but this case has changed theway that I will carry my lighting kit forever. PM

“SHOOTING IN A PUBLIC PLACE LIKE THISYOU NEED TO KEEP YOUR KIT SAFE.

Shot with a 24-70mmf/2.8L series lens.

Keegan breaks offto answer a text

– when the light isright, almost any

picture looks good.

For more masterclass tips visit our sitewww.photographymonthly.com NE

ILTU

RNER

MASTERCLASS


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TO HELP YOU WITH THIS CHALLENGE, PMEDITOR GRANT SCOTT HAS SOME TIPS ANDADVICE ON HOW FLEXIBLE A WHITE SHIRT CANBE AS A SUBJECT.

www.grantscott.com

GGRRAANNTT SSCCOOTTTTTHE CHALLENGE:CREATE A WINNING BLACK & WHITE IMAGE WITH A WHITE SHIRT

BIOGRAPHYGrant Scott began his career in photography more than25 years ago working on the launch of Elle magazinein the United Kingdom. Since then he has art-directedmagazines such as Tatler and Foto8 and worked asa portrait and interiors photographer for clients suchas Bang & Olufson, The Guardian, Vogue, Glamourand Sony Ericsson. His images have been publishedinternationally and have also been published byThames & Hudson in a book entitled At Home withthe Makers of Style.

have set the white shirt challenge fornearly 20 years now to school children,professional photographers, degree

students and MA students, and I do not think thatI have ever seen the same image twice. For meit is a simple, open-ended brief that gives thephotographer complete freedom to create anykind of image they want. It can be a still life, a portrait, a fashion image or a landscape; it can be anything you want it to be, as long as it features a white shirt. The white shirt can be any kind, male or female,

big or small, old or new, whatever you have tohand will do. The key to success in this challengeis imagination.A white shirt is the most democratic of pieces

of clothing. It can be worn with a tie and suit todemonstrate a certain seriousness of intent or itcan be worn loose with shorts and flip-flops togive the impression of a relaxed state of mind. It is a piece of fabric that allows you to give itmeaning and this is why the challenge is muchmore difficult than it first appears.Whenever a challenge is as open as this it

brings its own difficulties. It’s just like when wewere all children and were give a blank piece of paper and told to ‘do a drawing’; immediately,our minds would go blank. However, if we weregiven the same piece of paper and asked to drawa house, we would all know what to do.That’s why in this challenge I have given you

a slight lead by suggesting that it must becompleted in black and white. By doing this I amnot only setting a creative challenge of conceptand composition, but also a technical one of howto handle light, shade and shadows.

I

It’s at this point that I turn to one of theregular contributors to Photography Monthly,Martin Middlebrook, and his excellent article inour March issue on the five lies of shootingmonochrome, for some tips about how to handlethe technical aspects of this challenge.The first point that Martin raises and one in

which I have always believed fervently is that tocreate black-and-white images you do not need toshoot black and white in-camera. This is thedirect opposite of the traditional beliefs I wasbrought up with back in the days of analogue.To give an example, for me the portrait image

on the right could exist only as a black-and-whiteimage. I had been looking at the portrait work ofthe great Edward Weston shot in Mexico in theearly part of the last century. I loved the softfocus of his images, the slightly yellowish tone ofhis prints and the way in which he used foldsin fabric to create movement with images whichwere incredibly quiet and still.It was my attempt at this kind of image taken

on a Hasselblad 500C/M in the basement of myhouse at the time in Islington, north London. The location and camera could not have beenmore different from Weston’s but having readfrom his personal diaries about how he handledlight I had a go and was happy with the results.The key to the image was the simplicity of thewhite shirt, as it had been in Weston’s images ofTina Modotti, his lover and a fellow photographer.Today, however, you can shoot in colour

digitally to achieve a richer mono image than ispossible with basic mono capture. Shooting inRGB gives you three channels of information towork with, rather than shooting in mono which isonly going to give you one. Simple but true.Martin’s second point, and mine too, is the fact

that shooting in black and white is not all abouttonality, as many people believe, but is aboutstructure. The structure of the composition.Black-and-white images rely on extreme light

such as backlighting and high contrast to givethem this structure. The use of light is what leadsthe eye through the image and this, combinedwith an understanding of tonality and how colourconverts into black and white, is what creates asuccessful image.In the case of my Edward Weston inspired

portrait the light is coming from a window behindand high above the subject and above thestaircase. By ensuring that the profile picks upthis light I was able to define the shape andform of the subject without having to overlight � GR

ANT

SCOT

T

PM_JULY_PRO_GRANT:Layout 1 27/05/2011 12:16


PRO CHALLENGEShooting a white shirt Grant Scott

“BLACK-AND-WHITE IMAGES RELY ONEXTREME LIGHT SUCH AS BACKLIGHTINGAND HIGH CONTRAST TO GIVE THEM THISSTRUCTURE.”



GRAN

TSC

OTT

UPLOADYOURIMAGESTO THE:

BLACK-AND-WHITE CHALLENGEGALLERY on the Photography Monthlywebsite for the chance to be featuredin the magazine.

Go online for more information to:www.photographymonthly.com

the foreground. This light also picks up thetreads on the stairs to lead the eye towardsthe centre of the subject. I then placed asheet of paper in front of her on the table atwhich she was sitting to break up the soliddark mass that the table was creating.

The concept came from looking at EdwardWeston’s portraits and the techniqueI needed to use came from the basics oflighting a black-and-white portrait. A simplesolution to the challenge.

A similar inspiration is behind the imageson these pages. This time the inspirationcame from two different photographers, bothof whom shoot or shot fashion imagesand portraits: Bill King, who was the masterduring the 1970s and early 1980s of cleanwhite background fashion images, andHerb Ritts, who was also a master but atcreating portraits that contained a simpleauthenticity. If you are not aware of theirwork they are worth looking up forinspiration because both made gooduse of the white shirt throughout theirphotographic careers.

To me it was important to work with thesimple, abstract shapes created by thesubjects. In contrast to the Weston-inspiredimage these are all about shape, form andabstraction, humour and spontaneity.

So how do you take on this challenge?Well, my suggestion would be to look forinspiration from within the world ofphotography and see how you can adaptimages you like with the addition of the whiteshirt or based around its inclusion in yourconcept. Brush up on the basic rules ofworking with light and then have fun.Just like that blank piece of paper when youwere at school, the white shirt can be just asintimidating but equally as rewarding towork with once you have decided what youwant to do.

For further inspiration with yourblack-and-white images check outwww.herbritts.comwww.edward-weston.com

LIKETHIS?Then you’ll love our 101 tips andtechniques for shooting perfect

portraits. This feature firstappeared in our May 2010 portrait

special, which also featured thework of some of the world’s best

photographers. To orderback issues go online:




Shooting a white shirt Grant ScottPRO CHALLENGE



DAVI

DW

ARD

TO HELP YOU WITH THIS CHALLENGE, DAVIDHAS SOME TOP TIPS, FROM SHOOTING WITHCOMPACT CAMERAS TO HOW TO CAPTUREMOVING WATER USING SHORT EXPOSURES.

www.into-the-light.com

DDAAVVIIDD WWAARRDDTHE CHALLENGE:CREATE A WINNING ABSTRACT IMAGE USING WATER

BIOGRAPHYDavid has worked as a professional landscapephotographer for more than 20 years, favouring largeformat work. As well as image making, he also writesabout photography and leads photographic workshopsfor Light & Land. He is particularly drawn to makingabstract, intimate landscape images and his work isinformed and inspired by many of the great Americanlandscape photographers of the last century. The emphasis in his teaching is on the photographer’svision, rather than on what format is being used.

“SO YOUR CHALLENGE IS TO SEE WATER AS IFFOR THE FIRST TIME AND TO CONVEY SOME OF ITSWONDER IN A PHOTOGRAPH.”

want you all to stop and think for a whileabout water… That might seem a littlepointless; after all, we know what water

looks like, don’t we? In temperate climes it’severywhere; flowing in rivers, lounging in lakes,loitering in puddles, hanging from leaves indroplets. But water is an amazing substance (I’veheard it described as the Devil’s work because itis so different from all other liquids) and weshouldn’t be blinded to its charms by its ubiquity. Water is the most abundant compound on the

Earth’s surface – oceans and lakes cover about70% of the planet. In nature, water exists inliquid, solid and gaseous states, and is the onlycommon substance found in all three. At roomtemperature, water is a tasteless and odourlessliquid, nearly colourless with a merest hint ofblue. Many substances dissolve in water and it iscommonly referred to as the universal solvent.But perhaps its most amazing attribute is that itis essential to life on Earth. Perhaps this is whywe find it so beguiling and beautiful.

If we are to make amazing photographs of anysubject, we need to see that thing with fresheyes. The photographer Bill Brandt said: “We lookat a thing and believe we have seen it.And yet what we see is often only what ourprejudices tell us to expect to see, or what ourpast experiences tell us should be seen, or what our desires want to see.” So your �

I

“I WANT YOU ALL TO STOP ANDTHINK FOR A WHILE ABOUTWATER...”

Water’s reflective properties offer a huge range of possibilities for image making.

PM_JULY_PRO_DAVID_WARD:Layout 1 25/05/2011 15:58

PRO CHALLENGEPhotographing water David Ward


LIKETHIS?Then you’ll love David’s

masterclasses on composition andhis regular monthly column in which

he discusses photography and hisown experiences as a professional

photographer. To orderback issues go online:www.photographymonthly.com



DAVI

DW

ARD

challenge is to see water as if for the first timeand to convey some of its wonder in aphotograph. To make the challenge a littleless daunting I’m going to limit your entries toimages of liquid water.

This still leaves you with plenty of scope; justthink about how diverse the forms of liquidwater are, from a towering wave rolling acrossthe open ocean to a waterfall plunging overa cliff to rain bouncing high off a city street ina thunderstorm. Think now about howdifferently light plays across its surface; howclear and gemlike a single water droplet sittingon a leaf can be, or the way moonlight shimmerson the surface of a lake or the white, churningmaelstrom of rapids. Let’s look at two differentapproaches you might take – and don’t forgetthat others are available.

WATER IN MOTIONWith the rising popularity of LEE Filters’ BigStopper long exposure filter an increasingnumber of blurred water images are beingmade. I don’t wish to deter you from tryingsomething like this yourself but in the spirit ofseeing things with a fresh eye I would like you tothink a little more about water and motion.

Some people see long exposures of waterfallsas unrealistic and hackneyed. I think thatwhat’s unsettling is not the blur in itself (afterall, we perceive falling water as blurred unlesswe consciously track its path with our eyes),rather it is the accumulation of blur, thestacking up of one blurred image upon anotherin a continuous flow. In the extendedaccumulation of blur resulting from exposuresof several seconds both focus and, often,the direction of motion have been lost. If wemake an exposure of extremely long, orshort, duration the image produced stepsoutside the boundaries of how we see the world.When we make an extended exposure ofmoving water the resulting image is somethingour linear perception of time and space could

Experiment with different exposure times.Pick a stretch of moving water, or a fall,and make a number of exposures from1/8sec up to several seconds and see howthis affects the result. You might also tryvarying your depth of field to see how thischanges things.

TOP TIP

“JUST THINK ABOUT HOW DIVERSE THE FORMSOF LIQUID WATER ARE, FROM A TOWERING WAVEROLLING ACROSS THE OPEN OCEAN TO AWATERFALL PLUNGING OVER A CLIFF TO RAINBOUNCING HIGH OFF A CITY STREET...”

Experiment with different exposure times for different results.



Photographing water David Ward

never have envisaged before the inventionof photography.

But far from always being hackneyed, such arepresentation can be quite enchanting andmysterious. Personally, provided that the overallcomposition is satisfactory, I like the magicwrought by long exposures precisely becausethis vision represents a new reality, somethinguniquely photographic. Before photography therendering of a period of time was, as theAmerican writer Rebecca Solnit put it in herbook, Motion Studies, “as beyond our reach asthe surface of Jupiter.”

REFLECTIONS ON WATERWater’s reflectivity provides a huge range ofpossibilities for image making. Think howreflections change on its surface under differentconditions, eg as a large body of still water orsingle droplet, or in full sun or in shade.

You don’t need a specialist macro lens tomake images of water droplets; moderncompact cameras are great for making macroimages so you might decide to ditch the DSLR(shock, horror!). A single droplet is like ahalf-silvered curved mirror, allowing you to seethrough to what is underneath the droplet aswell as picking up the surrounding environmentreflected in its surface.

Reflections from the surface of a river or lakeare always stronger when it is in the shade sowork out when this is going to be for yourchosen location. Personally I’m not a great fanof images of a lake that include both an objectand its perfect reflection as they can look likethose ink blot tests used by psychiatrists. I thinkit’s much better to work with the reflectionalone and produce something more enigmatic.But surprise me!

Water’s moods are almost infinite and I findmyself still exploring them after 30 years as alandscape photographer. As I noted earlier, the

trick for making interesting images withdepth is to keep an open mind and constantlytry to see things anew. Here are some moresage words from Bill Brandt; “Very rarely arewe able to free our minds of thoughts andemotions, and just see for the simple

pleasure of seeing. And so long as we fail to dothis, so long will the essence of things be hiddenfrom us.”

So my final piece of advice is not to get toostressed about meeting the challenge.As always, I would advise you to play with yoursubject and enjoy the process.


WATER CHALLENGE GALLERY on thePhotography Monthly website for the chance tobe featured in the magazine.

Go online for more information to:www.photographymonthly.com

Of course, a droplet can reflect you andyour camera. A little care about choosingyour position should mean that you arelost in the curvature or in a dark area.

TOP TIP

“YOU DON’T NEED A SPECIALISTMACRO LENS TO MAKE IMAGES OFWATER DROPLETS...”

A series of images can enhance theimpact of the subject matter.

PRO CHALLENGE


Martin has travelled extensively to document issuesaround the world. He is a passionate photographer andnever puts down his pro camera. He has covered faminein Ethiopia and humanitarian issues in Afghanistan,where he recently completed an exhibition and book onbehalf of that country’s Government. He has beencommissioned by the UN in Iraq to complete a similarproject. In the UK, Martin operates the Great in Britainphotographic archive aimed at recording Britain at work.For more information visit www.greatinbritain.co.uk

ne of the mistakes we often makewhen taking photographs is to try tomake things too easy for ourselves.

We try to simplify, which is understandable,but in doing so we don’t maximise the intrinsicpossibilities within a scene.

One of the things I love to do when shootingcandid pictures is actually to make life morecomplex, because by doing so your images willhave so much more depth and dimension that youwill see the value, for ever more, of not shootingstraight, but of putting in that extra hard work.

The image on the right which I am using toillustrate my point was taken in Mumbai this April.I had been walking around a street market, thesun was getting higher in the sky, and shadowsand exposure were becoming an increasingproblem. You stand out like a sore thumb in thesesituations and the result is that you lose thatsense of prying into someone else’s world, yourimages become a studio portrait, and all honestyis lost. Well, that’s how I see it anyway.

I started my day by shooting with a 17mm andgetting into people’s faces, and soon turned to my24-105mm, but this still failed. I was too close tomy subjects, their response was unnatural, so Iturned to my 100-400mm. Now I could sit 30ft �


MAR

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TO HELP YOU WITH THIS CHALLENGE, MARTINDESCRIBES HOW YOU CAN GO AGAINST THEUSUAL ADVICE AND SHOOT CANDID STREETSHOTS FROM LONG DISTANCES.

www.martinmiddlebrook.com

MMAARRTTIINN MMIIDDDDLLEEBBRROOOOKKTHE CHALLENGE:CREATE A WINNING CANDID MOMENTWHICH UTILISES FOCAL DEPTH

O

BIOGRAPHY

“I HAD BEEN WALKING AROUND A STREET MARKET, THE SUN WASGETTING HIGHER IN THE SKY, AND SHADOWS AND EXPOSUREWERE BECOMING AN INCREASINGPROBLEM.”

Successful candid street images require the photographer to vanish into his surroundings.

PM_JULY_PRO_MARTIN_MIDDLEBROOK:Layout 1 25/05/2011 15:56

PRO CHALLENGEAdding depth to candid shots Martin Middlebrook

LIKETHIS?Then you’ll love Martin’s other

masterclasses on subjects includinghow to capture motion, aperture,

depth of field, the zone system andmuch more. To orderback issues go online:www.photographymonthly.com

“...TO ACCENTUATE THIS ASPECTI SHOT THROUGH THE BARS OF

A METAL RAILING AND USED THISTO FRAME THE LEFT AND THE

BOTTOM OF THE IMAGE.”




MAR

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away and just spy upon the everydaycomings and goings.Firstly I started shooting only straight

portraits from a distance, but these alwayslack depth and colour, so I reverted tosome old tricks, and set myself up to shootthrough a foreground, focusing on thesubject in the middle ground, and usingspecular highlights in the background toadd a third elemental depth.I know that my 100-400mm will create

a certain amount of vignetting, so this willadd another element: the sense of lookingthrough the keyhole and spying upon ahidden world. To accentuate this aspectI shot through the bars of a metal railingand used this to frame the left and thebottom of the image. Now I have a picturethat is beginning to work but it needsa final powerful element to bring all thecomponents together, so that we have animage that has a painterly quality, andtranscends pure portraiture.So I patiently waited until people slid into

and out of view, and for just the rightcoloured clothes to complement the scene,and for just the perfect positioning; then Ipressed that shutter and there you have it,a beautiful candid with so much depthand vivacity and dynamic that we now havea picture, not just a snapshot!There is much to understand when trying

for this type of execution, however, becauseit will fail as often as it works, and knowingthese pitfalls in advance is crucial.So now I’ll elaborate on these points in a

little more detail. Often I have used thistechnique in low lighting, and often indoors,when trying to add depth to very flat scenes.You get low and shoot through a tabletop orsome other piece of furniture to createa foreground blur. But you are inside and thelight is terrible and you are tempted to usea flash – well don’t, it will be a disaster.The flash will bounce powerfully off theforeground element, totally overexposingthat element of the image, and the subjectwill become woefully underexposed asthe flash rapidly drops off. Always increaseyour ISOs and accept the loss of quality inthe happy knowledge that your image willhave balanced tonality.The colour of all elements is crucial to the

success of the image for several reasons.Firstly you want a palette that complementseverything across the canvas but will also

provide balanced tonality within a recordablerange, so exposure complications areless of an issue. Avoid high contrast if youpossibly can.Your choice of lens, your distance from the

foreground and the varying distance betweenall elements will dictate the success orotherwise of the shot. This is a matter ofpractice and lens choice, but it is critical tounderstand these variables. The closer youare to the foreground, for example, thesmoother and more subtle the blur that iscreated. Get to know how your lenses workand it will guarantee success every time.Maintaining focus is the hardest part.

You may have three to four elements thatare constantly moving, rapidly changing.Each camera’s focusing mechanism isdifferent. My Canon EOS 5D MkII allows me tofocus on the element I want and then keepthe shutter depressed for as long as I wish,maintaining focus. Even when other elementsslide across the frame, if I keep the shutterdepressed it will keep perfect focus(well most of the time). Again this is all

Never use flash.

HERE IS A CHECKLIST OF THINGSTO CONSIDER, A SET OF RULES THATWILL ALLOW YOU TO BEMORE SUCCESSFUL THAN NOT.

“YOUR CHOICE OF LENS, YOUR DISTANCE FROM THEFOREGROUND AND THE VARYING DISTANCEBETWEEN ALL ELEMENTS WILL DICTATE THE SUCCESSOR OTHERWISE OF THE SHOT.”

Consider the colour andtonality of the elementsyou choose to shootthrough - it affectseverything.

Understand how close andhow far apart all elementshave to be so that theymerge seamlessly.

Understand how tomaintain absolute focuswhen every element isshifting and changing.

Understand how toguarantee exposure whenthe tonality of the sceneis constantly shifting.

about practice, but with so many shiftingplanes, failure is a given if you are unable tomanage this element.Guaranteeing exposure in a scene that is

constantly changing is also a big issue. I tendto manually expose for the tone that I needcorrectly exposed and then run with that.These types of scenes can often shift from flatto high contrast in a moment, and exposurecan fail instantly. Keep practising, butremember manual always works – you know itwon’t be affected by changing variables.

“GUARANTEEING EXPOSUREIN A SCENE THAT ISCONSTANTLY CHANGING ISALSO A BIG ISSUE.”

Be patient and allow time for your subject to accept you. It isthen that you are more likely to get a great image.



Adding depth to candid shots Martin Middlebrook

FOCAL DEPTH CHALLENGE GALLERY onthe Photography Monthly website forthe chance to be featured in themagazine.

Go online for more information at:www.photographymonthly.com

Once you understand these basics, you canbegin to consider using the dynamics of theframe in different ways, experimenting with allpossible angles. You can begin to seek out evermore interesting shapes, which can providedifferent apertures through which to spy uponyour subject. Diagonals, squares, circles, twoelements, three elements and so on, differentcolours and contrast range. You could easily builda whole portfolio simply by experimenting withthis style of photography, so get out there andgive it a try, it makes portraits look amazing.


PRO CHALLENGE



ages have been written about theimportance of eyes in portraiture.The (too) often quoted line “the eyes are

the window to the soul” is certainly true but asphotographers we cannot simply rely on havinga pair of eyes in a portrait to show the subject’spersonality, hopes, dreams, loves, regrets andpassions. The role of the portraitist is to showenough of their sitter to give big clues about themand to excite the viewer into wanting to knowmore. Getting emotion or reaction from peopleisn’t easy and conveying those emotions andreactions in a still frame is a tough job, but gettingtheir eyes right will take you a very long waytowards turning a simple picture of a person intoa portrait.You don’t have to have been taking pictures for

very long to realise that well-composedphotographs have impact. Most 11-year-olds whohave done art at school understand the rule ofthirds and the idea of the Golden Section – even if

they don’t know those phrases. Painters fromthe Renaissance and the Dutch schools also knewa lot about where to place elements within theframe to give them emphasis and for me the mostinteresting part of Johannes Vermeer’smasterwork The Girl With a Pearl Earring isn’t herjewellery or her headscarf, it is her eyes. For me,the same is true of arguably the world’s mostfamous painting, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.Much has been made of her enigmatic smile �

P

TO HELP YOU WITH THIS CHALLENGE, NEILHAS SOME TIPS AND ADVICE ON HOW TO MAKEYOUR SUBJECT’S EYES WORK HARD FOR YOUWHEN SHOOTING PORTRAITS.

www.dg28.com

NNEEIILL TTUURRNNEERRTHE CHALLENGE:CREATE A WINNING PORTRAIT IMAGE THAT USES THE EYES AS THE FOCAL POINT

BIOGRAPHYBorn in Bournemouth in 1964, Neil Turner has been working professionally as a photographer since 1986. He spends much of his time shooting executive portraits and editorial commissions for magazines andnewspapers, and has been commissioned by a rangeof PR, commercial and editorial clients. He also writesabout photography and teaches across the UK inuniversities and colleges. He is a vice-chairman of the British Press Photographers’ Association, and worksout of London and Bournemouth.

“PAGES HAVE BEEN WRITTENABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF EYESIN PORTRAITURE.”

NEIL

TUR

NER

“THE ROLE OF THE PORTRAITIST ISTO SHOW ENOUGH OF THEIRSITTER TO GIVE BIG CLUES ABOUTTHEM AND TO EXCITE THE VIEWERINTO WANTING TO KNOW MORE.”

Getting the eyes right will take you a long way towards turning a simple picture into a portrait.

PM_JULY_PRO_NEIL_TURNER:Layout 1 24/05/2011 11:39


Making the most of the eyes in portraits Neil Turner

LIKETHIS?Then you’ll love Neil’s

other masterclasses, which includehow to capture action with flash,how to give your still-life work a

painterly quality and how to get thebest results from using reflectors.

To order back issues go online:www.photographymonthly.com

PRO CHALLENGE



but the thing that lures you into the picture isher eyes.

Examples with greater relevance tophotographers are Steve McCurry’sremarkable and simple photograph of a girl ina refugee camp in Pakistan taken for NationalGeographic magazine in 1984 and AnnieLeibovitz’s portrait of mud-covered rock starSting in the Lucerne Valley in California, takenthe following year. The mark of a greatcomposition is when you see one thinginstantly and then start to notice the rest ofthe image. You see Sting’s eyes, then younotice the mud and the fact that he is naked.

Getting your sitter’s eyes to stand outrequires the light to be right. What constitutes‘right’ depends on who the subject is, whatthey are doing and what you want the portraitto say. A lot of photographers, when they getserious about taking pictures, start to look atformulas for successful lighting: main light, filllight, hair light etc. I have met people forwhom this acquires an almost Holy Grailstatus, but they are missing the point. No twoportraits should be lit in the same way andnot all portraits need to be lit – they just needthe right light.

I’m happy to talk about the shapes ofcatchlights in people’s eyes; do you gofor octagonal from an umbrella or an octabox,or square from a softbox? Do you want the

defined shape of a ring flash or are you one ofthose photographers who prefers catchlightsto have no obvious shape and source?That’s all a matter of taste but what you doneed is light in the eyes.

Where people are looking says so much andyet so little seems to be written about thesubject. As a young magazine photographer Ihad a picture editor who wanted the people

Start by placing your subject’s eyes inthe most advantageous place in theframe. If that means using theintersections in the picture that obeythe ‘rule of thirds’, so be it. If thatmeans keeping them squarely in themiddle of the frame of tightercompositions, that’s fine too.

“GETTING YOUR SITTER’S EYES TOSTAND OUT REQUIRES THE LIGHT TOBE RIGHT. WHAT CONSTITUTES ‘RIGHT’DEPENDS ON WHO THE SUBJECT IS,WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND WHATYOU WANT THE PORTRAIT TO SAY.”

SO HERE WE HAVE MY FIRST TIPFOR MAKING EYES WORK HARDFOR YOU IN A PORTRAIT:

Getting your sitter’s eyes to standout requires the light to be right.

NEIL

TURN

ER


whom I was photographing to “make eyecontact with the reader”. He wanted almosteveryone to be looking right into the lens sothat when the picture was printed they lookedright out at anyone who was reading themagazine. He saw it almost as an honesty test– his belief was that readers could tell a lotfrom the way that the subjects of my picturesheld eye contact with the camera.

For a lot of the time he was right –especially when you were photographingpeople with the confidence and even thetraining to establish and keep eye contact witha lens. Where this broke down was when youhad people whose nerves and confidencewouldn’t let them keep their focus on a bigchunk of glass. Sometimes getting people tolook away is the right thing to do. It relaxesmany people and at other times it is the bestway to get the right light into their eyes.The difficulty of having people not lookingat the camera is that the viewer will oftenfollow their eye line to see what it is they arelooking at. This can be bad news if it takesthe viewer’s attention out of the framealtogether. Photographers need to use theirskills to keep the interest in the subject.

Some of the most successful portraitphotographers know the rules and thenchoose to break them. Closed eyes, wearingsunglasses and looking well out of the framecan work but you need the safe shot too.Placing your subject’s eyes away from themore obvious parts of the frame and notgetting the light into them can be effective.Shooting professional portraits is aboutbalancing risk and reward. Invariably, theinitial reward is getting paid but beyond thatlies getting something special for yourportfolio and those pictures are often the oneswhere you have taken risks.

One of the characters in the BBC comedyseries Little Britain had a saying: “Look intomy eyes, don’t look around my eyes, look intomy eyes” and it isn’t a bad idea as a portraitphotographer to paraphrase that as:“Look into my lens, don’t look around mylens, look into my lens!” PM


Making the most of the eyes in portraits Neil Turner

Try to avoid having your main lightsource too far below or above yoursubject’s eye line. Where there is lightthere is shadow and too much shadowaround people’s eyes will almostcertainly detract from the image. If thelight is coming from a higher angle thanyou’d like, try getting your subject tolook up towards the light or shoot froma higher angle yourself.

As you are shooting the pictures keep thinking about where your subjectis looking and keep in mind the idea that if they are gazing out of theframe, that’s where the people viewing your pictures may be tempted tolook too. This isn’t an exact science and you need to shoot plenty ofvariations so when you come to edit your work you will have more options.The more times you shoot with ‘non-standard’ eye lines, the better you’llget at predicting what will and will not work.

SO MY SECOND TIP FORMAKING EYES STAND OUTIN YOUR PORTRAITS IS:

MY THIRD PIECE OF ADVICE ON MAKING EYES WORK INPORTRAITS IS:


EYES CHALLENGE GALLERYon the Photography Monthlywebsite for the chance to befeatured in the magazine.

Go online for moreinformation to:www.photographymonthly.com

Photographers need to use their skillsto keep the interest in the subject.

PRO CHALLENGE



One of the world’s leadingunderwater photographers,STEPHEN FRINK, talks toRACHAEL D’CRUZE about hisjourney from a landlockedupbringing in Illinois to theFlorida Keys, his lucky break,making a living and the secretsbehind his underwater shots.

DOWNWAY ON

Stephen Frink’s work

has appeared in Scuba

Diving magazine and

been commissioned by

Canon, Nikon, Victoria’s

Secret, Aqua Lung and

Oceanic, among others.

Stephen publishes Alert

Diver, a new quarterly

magazine for the Divers Alert Network, and is the author

of a coffee table book, Wonders of the Reef. He teaches

masters level courses at the Stephen Frink School of

Underwater Digital Imaging in the Florida Keys.

BIOGRAPHY

www.stephenfrink.com

PM_JULY_STEPHEN_FRINK:Layout 1 25/05/2011 11:43

ou might assume that underwaterphotographer Stephen Frink grew upby water and learnt to dive at an

early age. In fact Stephen was brought up inAmerica’s landlocked Mid-West, where arelationship with the ocean wasn’t possible.However, he did swim competitively for 13years, all the way through college.Graduate school saw himmove to California,where he studied psychology and had somespare time, so he took a photography classas well. “The magic of black-and-white

processing was compelling. The photographyhook came first and the diving came later,”says Stephen, who later became a certifiedscuba diver – something he had to do to geta part-time job cleaning boats at a marina.

After completing his masters degree,Stephen went to live in Kona, Hawaii. “I got acrummy job taking pictures of drunk touristsat night. It gave me enough money to live onand, more importantly, as nothing happeneduntil sunset, I had the days to practise mydiving and have fun.” Stephen’s next move

saw him drop out of diving and move to themountains, becoming a commercialphotography lab technician. While in theFlorida Keys visiting an old friend fromhis high school swimming days, Stephen sawnobody was processing there. “I ended uprenting a little bit of a dive shop, to processfilm and rent out cameras to tourists,” he says.This was in 1978 and the next two years wereall about Stephen teaching himself the art ofunderwater photography, while working inretail. “I was able to see the results of myshoots the same day, as I was processing theimages myself.”

He got his lucky break when Dive magazine’sscheduled visit to the Florida Keys to do afeature was hit by the weather. “It was cheaperfor them to send me than somebody from outof town. I’d never shot wide-angle before,although I knew that’s what I needed to do forthe dive mags,” says Stephen who borroweda lens, and found himself a willing model at thediving shop and got on with it. The next weekthe magazine sent him on assignmentsomewhere else; regular work and a columnfollowed. “If I had blown that chance I wouldn’tbe where I am today.”

Stephen has previously worked for ScubaDiving magazine as director of photography,and as a contributing photographer for SkinDiver magazine for 17years. He is nowthe publisher of Alert Diver, a new quarterlymagazine for the Divers Alert Network.“Most of what I do has an editorial nature.�


MASTERCLASSUnderwater photography Stephen Frink

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�Green turtle, The Maldives.� Dolphin, Freeport, Grand Bahama.

“I GOT A CRUMMY JOB TAKING PICTURES OF DRUNKTOURISTS AT NIGHT. IT GAVE ME ENOUGH MONEY

TO LIVE ON AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, AS NOTHINGHAPPENED UNTIL SUNSET, I HAD THE DAYS TO

PRACTISE MY DIVING AND HAVE FUN.



I get my fair share of commercial andcatalogue work too – which is good as itfeeds my stock photography business at thesame time,” he says, referring to his stockphoto agency, Stephen Frink Collection.His varied client base includes Canon, Nikon,Victoria’s Secret, Aqua Lung, Oceanic,Scubapro, Subgear, Mercury Marine, Jantzenswimwear, Alcan Aluminium, Seaquest,Henderson Aquatics, Neo Sport, AmericanExpress, Rolex, Club Med and numerousresorts and live-aboard diving boatsthroughout the world.

So, what makes all these big namescommission Stephen over other professionalunderwater photographers? “My pictures ofpeople differentiate me from other underwaterphotographers. I can shoot critters and I do,but I’m not as compelled as I am when it comesto shooting people.” He says his early stockwork, showing people having fun in the ocean –which sold well – has heavily influenced hisphotography. Indeed, few underwater

photographers specialise in underwaterportraiture, so this truly is Stephen’s niche.“I couldn’t be a street photographer,approaching strangers and getting in theirpersonal space, but when I’m working with amodel, we both know it’s our job to get thebest shot.”

He explains that shooting peopleunderwater needs completely different skillsfrom capturing marine life – the strobes,lenses and shooting distances are all differentand crucially you have to be able tocommunicate with your model and make themwant to perform for the camera. Stephen has aset of signals which he teaches models beforethey go underwater. He also makes a specificsound when he wants the model to look at thecamera, so he can tell them if he is changingpicture orientation etc, as it’s typical for him tobe shooting them interacting with underwaterlife. “Last Saturday I was working with a modelwho had a haircut that looked great on thesurface, but rubbish underwater, as it just kept

Queen angelfish, Key Largo,the Florida Keys.

Southern stingray,Grand Bahama.

STEP

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Underwater photography Stephen Frink

standing up on end. I took my hood off andthen shook my head to the left and then theright so they could see the natural flow causedby the movement and do the same,” saysStephen, illustrating how he overcomescommunication difficulties underwater.Digital photography has made life a lot easierfor him in this respect too, as he can simplyshow the models the back of the cameraunderwater, giving them an idea of how he iscompositing and lighting the photos.He has the accolade of being made

a Canon Explorer of Light – an elite group ofphotographers who are invited by themanufacturer to talk about their craft at majorconsumer shows. “It’s a reward for being botha good shooter and being willing to share yourknowledge,” says Stephen, who shoots withCanon EOS-1Ds MkIII, 1D MkIV and 5D MkIIbodies with Canon 15mm, 16-35 II, 14mm II,24-70mm, 100mmmacro, 70-200mm f/4,100-400mm and Sigma 50mmmacro lenses,Seacam underwater housings and ports, and

Ikelite underwater strobes. While his successaffords him the best gear, Stephen quiterightly points out that digital photography hasmade underwater photography much moreaccessible. “I’d say we’re in a watershedmoment for underwater photography. With anaffordable camera, such as the CanonPowerShot G12, you can go to depths, use astrobe and take serious underwater pictures.”He explains that while shutter lag on earlydigital cameras was a real problem, the lagtimes that we get now are workable.Stephen also advises against using anything

with a built-in flash, as the light produced isjust too close.Light is the most important aspect of any

genre of photography, perhaps especially inunderwater work. As water is about 800 timesdenser than air, the particles in the waterbetween the front of the lens and the subjectlook pronounced and distracting, and alsocreate a colour bias. So, as well as trying tominimise the amount of water between frontof lens and subject, you need to use artificiallight to achieve colour, unless you’re shootingat the very surface. “Colour is lost as a �

“I CAN SHOOT CRITTERS ANDI DO, BUT I’M NOT AS

COMPELLED AS I AM WHEN ITCOMES TO SHOOTING PEOPLE.

MASTERCLASS

Christ of the Abyss,Key Largo, the Florida Keys.



This shot of a springboarddiver warming up was taken atthe Orange Bowl Classic swimmeet in Key Largo.



Underwater photography Stephen Frink

function of depth in the water and artificiallight will restore this. You always need toget close to make up for the colour loss too,”says Stephen, who explains that because allunderwater photography needs to be litartificially, you can shoot at any time of day,or even night.He talks about the ‘field of light’, which is the

proximity you need to get to marine life fora quality picture and how close the marine lifewill let you approach. “It’s a fine line and it’sintuitive,” says Stephen, who explains thateach type of fish is different – whereas thosefound on coral reefs are generally skittish,others are more tolerant and allow you to getclose. Understanding the physics ofunderwater photography, becoming proficientin lighting underwater with strobes, is crucial,but more importantly you need to ensure youstay safe below the surface and don’t sacrificeyour health for the sake of a few extra frames.“I’ve been in re-compression chambers at leastfour times from the bends, related to being soenraptured with underwater photography thatI pushed the limits too aggressively.” In theend, getting the bends repeatedly gained hima few extra minutes underwater but cost himmonths in recovery.When it comes to technical matters he says:

“I teach people how to light a subjectunderwater, but I don’t think you can reallyteach composition. To compose what you see inyour mind’s eye, you need to be technicallyperfect.” He teaches masters level courses atthe Stephen Frink School of Underwater DigitalImaging, in his home waters of Key Largo, inthe Florida Keys. He also has a diving travelcompany, WaterHouse Tours and Reservations.He says running these tours challenges him,and allows him to go to places he wants to visit

GETCLOSE – Water is about 800 times denserthan air, contains distracting particles and hasa colour bias. You need to minimise the amountof water between front of lens and subject.USE ARTIFICIAL LIGHT – You need artificiallight to achieve colour, because colour is lostthe deeper you go underwater.ACQUIRE GOOD DIVING SKILLS – The mostimportant thing is to be comfortable and safe inthe water, and have buoyancy skills that avoiddamaging the coral reef.DIVE SAFELY – It’s far better to avoid injurythan to be greedy in pursuit of imagingopportunities.GET TO KNOW THE MARINE LIFE – It’simportant to understand the behaviour of themarine life you are trying to photograph. This isnot to say you must be a marine biologist buthaving keen observational skills helps inlocating the subject and having a benign,non-threatening approach.COMMUNICATE – Cultivate communication withthose you might wish to photograph underwater.Good interpersonal skills when working withmodels are very important.GO GLOBAL – Have a good working knowledge ofwhere the worldwide photo opportunities mightbe, and in what seasons.BE DILIGENTABOUTMAINTAINING EQUIPMENT– The ocean is harsh and corrosive, so regular

fresh water rinsing and proper maintenanceis imperative.RESPECTAND APPRECIATE LOCAL KNOWLEDGE– This is the gateway to the best marine lifebehaviours, so tip well.TRAVEL WITH BACKUP GEAR – Accept thatsometimes cords, batteries or chargers maybreak, and you’ll need spares. It may not bepractical to carry spares for every bit ofequipment we travel with, but be handy enoughto repair what can be fixed in the field, andbe prescient enough to carry spares foranything that may break but which you areunable to repair.EDIT EFFICIENTLY – Create an image editingworkflow that allows quick editing in the field.BACKUP – Make sure all your files are backedup on redundant drives that travel in separatebits of luggage.THINK LOGICALLY – Be diligent in terms ofcreating a post-production archive so thatimages can be retrieved on demand.SPEED MATTERS – Use the most efficientsoftware to process from RAW to high-res orweb view resolutions on demand, quickly.GETMODEL RELEASES – Make sure you havepermission to use images of people if you everintend to enter the commercial photographyrealm. Many agencies won’t consider imageswithout proper release forms.

STEPHEN’S ADVICE FOR SUCCESSFUL UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY

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but which he wouldn’t necessarily be sent to,and to build his stock library. “We go away fora week or 10 days, on a live-aboard boat anddive four times a day, away from phones andemail. I’m refreshed creatively and able to addto my stock photo files,” says Stephen, whohas just got back from a Philippines tour.“I started my tours in 1982, when I wanted togo to the Pacific, so I set it up. Since then I’veoffered the tour two or three times a year.”Knowing where to capture the best pictures

is obviously an important part of being able torun successful photography tours and Stephen

explains it’s also crucial to his business ingeneral. “We know where to go to get the bestpictures, to fulfil briefs. We find thedestinations and already know the operatorsthere.” He employs a travel coordinatoras well as a retail and studio manager, and is afan of being economical in terms of the numberof days spent on location. “I’d rather beefficient and move on,” he says. This isobviously beneficial to his clients in thesecost-conscious times. “Usually if I’m shootingsomething for a catalogue, say a wetsuit, I’lljust go ahead and travel to where I’m going toshoot, taking the product with me. This ischeaper for them and works because myclients trust me to shoot the products in thebest place.” However, when it comes to bigprojects, Stephen prefers art directors to comeon location with him, as their expertise with aparticular product is always invaluable abovewater and they know exactly what they wanthis pictures to show.With his editorial and commercial work, stock

business, photography school seminar in thesummer and tours company going out aroundthree times per year, Stephen Frink is anincredibly busy photographer. “I know myself– I need projects,” he says. And so he should;he has been a professional photographersince 1974 and he just keeps on getting betterat his craft. PM

MASTERCLASS

Caribbean reef sharks, StuartCove’s Dive Bahamas, Nassau.

STEP

HEN

FRIN

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GREAT LIES OFFOCUS

hen I began teaching myself aboutphotography, absolute focus wasmy Holy Grail, the thing I wanted

more than Kylie Minogue. It seemed sounachievable most of the time. I wascrestfallen and defeated more often thanI was successful. I never quite came to

terms with my number of failures until oneday I realised that focus was not aboutfocus at all, it was about a combination ofdecisions that you made depending onthe parameters before you. I alwaysthought focus was about brilliant fingercontrol and accurate and fast lenses, but

W

MARTIN MIDDLEBROOK understands the frustrations of tacklingfocus and the importance of getting it right. This month he turnshis attention to the common myths attached to focal points.

��Uprating the

ISO settings helpedsolve focus problemswith cropped-inportraits of safaripark animals.

PM_JULY_MIDDLEBROOK:Layout 1 24/05/2011 11:53


PHOTO ZONE5 great lies of focus Martin Middlebrook

In 2010 I undertook a project at WestMidland Safari Park, to photograph all itsmajor species for a series of limitededition prints. I had photographed thesetypes of animals before and knew exactlywhat problems would lay ahead. I wasdoing a series of cropped-in portraits, withfocus on the eye being critical for thisstyle of imagery and subject. But I knewfrom experience that when shooting withvery shallow depth of field (f/4.5 isde rigueur for wildlife portraits) thecamera would, without fail, focus on thebrow of the nose of the animal, throwingthe eyes slightly out of focus.You don’t see this when you take the

shot, you don’t see it at the time whenreviewing the images, but when you getyour star-studded selection home laterthat night, you will see that not one eyewill be in focus. And you will ask yourselfhow has this happened. Well, it happensbecause we never have enough focusingpoints on our cameras; most users rarelytoggle them anyway, so we allow thecamera to chose and it will focus on thefirst solid structure it comes across, thenose, in this instance.

Avoiding this is so simple and yet oftenoverlooked. Uprate your settingsfrom ISO 100 to ISO400 and suddenlyyou can get four times the depth offield. Suddenly you can shoot at f/7.1 andthis will make all the difference – the keyelements of your image will havefront-to-back focus, yet you will maintainthe shallow depth-of-field portrait look.The point is that focus is as much about

subject depth of field as it is about cameraskills and accurate lenses – all thesethings can be overcome simply byunderstanding the plane of focus.I have used this example before, but it

applies equally here. I was oncephotographing a dog running towards meat high speed, on a hot sunny day.I originally shot at ISO 100, but the littlemutt was always out of focus. So I upratedto ISO 1000, shot at f/16, significantlyincreased my plane of focus and got aseries of perfectly focused shots.Because I was shooting with a400mmlens, I still got perfect background andforeground blur, the subject was sharp andisolated, so you got the whole f/4.5 look,with all the risk of failure eradicated. �

FOCUS IS ABOUT LENS CONTROL – NO,IT’S ABOUT UNDERSTANDING WHY YOURCAMERA WILL FAIL!

that’s just not so. It’s about understanding yoursubject, understanding composition, and havingcontrol over aperture and speed, so thata confluence of decisions flow together at justthe right time, burning the image youenvisaged upon your sensor. So here are myFive Great Lies of Focus!

MAR

TIN

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DLEB

ROOK

“...WHEN YOU GETYOUR STAR-STUDDEDSELECTION HOMELATER THAT NIGHT,YOU WILL SEE THATNOT ONE EYE WILL BEIN FOCUS.


AUTOFOCUS IS ALWAYS QUICKER AND SAFER – NO, MANUAL IS OFTEN BETTER!

THERE ARE PLENTY OF OCCASIONS WHENAUTOFOCUS WILL FAIL YOU, REGARDLESSOF YOUR PERSISTENCE: LOW LIGHT,

SHOOTING THROUGH CONSTANTLYMOVING OBJECTS, SMALL OBJECTS SETAGAINST BRIGHT SKIES ETC.”

I can think of a number ofoccasions when autofocus, while

easier, is absolutely the wrong choice.Just two examples would be landscapeand macro photography. Focus is acreative decision, as with all the othercontrollable parameters in photography.So, of course, you should have absolutecontrol over it and autofocus will notalways give you that.There are plenty of occasions when

autofocus will fail you, regardless of yourpersistence: low light, shooting throughconstantly moving objects, small objectsset against bright skies etc. We shouldchose our method of focus against someobvious criteria, technical and creative, sothat we achieve the most efficient resultfor the image we are taking. Speed ofcapture, accuracy of capture, or likelihood

of capture are three stand-out reasonsthat determine whether we should useauto, manual, or a combination of the two(which I will come to next).This image of a dandelion (below) was

focused manually with a 90mm macro.We want absolute control over the mostprecise depth of field, which can never beachieved with autofocus.However, the antithesis to this is that

there are occasions when autofocus isyour bedfellow, when speed and accuracyare outside the gamut of manual dexterity.This image of a group of children (right)taken recently in Mumbai, India, is a goodexample. The kids were constantly movingback and forth in the frame. I set anaperture of f/13 and autofocused, whichguaranteed me front-to-back, fast andaccurate focus.

Autofocus ensuredspeed and accuracyin this image ofchildren in Mumbai.

Using manual focusprovided absolutecontrol in this shotof a dandelion.

GOONLINEFor more of Martin’s

articles visit the websitewww.photographymonthly.com



PHOTO ZONE5 great lies of focus Martin Middlebrook

FOCUS IS ALWAYS AUTO OR MANUAL – NO, IT CAN BE A PERFECT COMBINATION OF THE TWO!

I have a Canon EOS 5D MkII, and ithas nine focusing points, arranged in adiamond formation in the central 50% ofthe frame. I always toggle between focuspoints because, after all, photography isabout composition, so sticking to thecentral one is a ‘big fail’ a lot of the time.The real problem is that if I use autofocuson a 5D MkII, then all my images will alwaysbe composed around the central 50% of theframe – how very limiting, don’t you think?If I want to focus on something off centre

for compositional dynamics, then this iswhat I do. I use the central focusing point(always the most accurate) and autofocuson my subject. I then turn off autofocusand recompose my shot as required in

the frame. In doing so I can place mysubject anywhere in the remaining 50% ofthe frame that is not covered.We never think to do this, so we tend to

see most images fall within a well-acceptedcompositional formula – but it doesn’t haveto be this way. Using a combination of autoand manual focus is the most freeingexpression of compositional release I know– I use it always!Here are two illustrations (above right),

one showing how the focus points arearranged on my camera and the othershowing how limiting this is if I wish toplace a critical element in, say, the topleft-hand corner. There are plenty of solidreasons to ignore compositional

formalities, so ditch autofocus and start tothink outside of the diamond.Let’s now look at what this means in

reality. Below are images of the samelandscape, shot in two different ways.The first shot uses the central focusingpoint, giving equal weight to both land andsky. For the second image I have focusedusing autofocus, then turned to manual andrecomposed to give the sky completedominance. Exactly the same scene is givena totally different treatment by ignoringrules of composition and the restrictions offocusing points.So when you wish to ignore compositional

rules, use auto and manual in combinationand break free from technical constraints. �

MAR

TIN

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DLEB

ROOK

EXACTLY THE SAMESCENE IS GIVEN A

TOTALLY DIFFERENTTREATMENT BY

IGNORING RULES OFCOMPOSITION AND THE

RESTRICTIONS OFFOCUSING POINTS.”


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WE SHOULD ALWAYS FOCUS ON THE SUBJECT – NO, SOMETIMES THE SUBJECTSHOULD BE DELIBERATELY OUT OF FOCUS!


PHOTO ZONE

IN CONCLUSION

I wonder how often we consider what we meanwhen we discuss focus, whether we trulyconsider the implicit values. It’s something weaim for in every shot, we half-depress thatshutter and wait for the moment we thinkeverything is in order. We rarely stop tocontemplate what we are really doing, creativelyor not. We should be asking ourselves a bunchof salient questions that ultimately create theimage we aspire to, but we don’t. It’s a portrait,it must be f/4.5; a landscape, then f/16 it is.We don’t consider that depth of field providesfocus, we rarely consider how different lensescreate different depths of field at the sameaperture, and hence affect focus. We don’t oftenconsider offsetting elements within an imagewith differential focus. Focus is not about digitdexterity and fast lenses, it is completelyabout decisions that affect the ultimate lookof your photographs.

MAR

TIN

MID

DLEB

ROOK

5 great lies of focus Martin Middlebrook

We have many parameters we can control inphotography and some take precedence,depending upon creative requirements andtechnical restrictions. Sometimes, justsometimes, all of them should be thrownout the window, because getting any kind ofshot at all is more important.The newspapers of the world are filled

every day with out-of-focus, overexposed,unsharp images. Some of the greatestimages ever taken are technically flawed,but the photographer couldn’t have caredless at the time – just getting the image wasall. This is when, as photographers, we haveto understand what is most important at thetime. A couple of years ago I travelled to

Uganda to photograph lions. In the middle ofthe night we came across a pride on a kill,and the only way I could get any shots wasto shoot at ISO 16000. There was no pointdeliberating, I had travelled for thousands ofmiles and spent thousands of pounds, and Icouldn’t come back empty-handed.Something had to give and quality was it.The same is true of focus. Given a set of

circumstances it is the first thing to fail.Unlike exposure or speed, or creative depthof field, absolute focus has no tolerance –you are either in focus or not. But maybesometimes it doesn’t matter that much.I have a set of standards that define ifimages make it into my portfolio and mostly

slightly out-of-focus ones don’t pass muster.Just occasionally however, I look at animage, I consider the circumstances underwhich I took them and, though they areflawed, I pass them all the same – because agood image is a good image, regardless.So maybe we should consider the image

first and not worry about some of the lessimportant technical limits. I love this imageof the child (above) and yet ordinarily Iwould not let it through, because the focusis soft. It’s subtle but it’s there. I wasshooting at f/11 so I have a good depth offocus, but it’s a little too much on the wall,not quite enough on the child. Everythingelse works, though, so it sneaks in for me. PM

Convention tells us that the subject shouldbe in focus and furthermore it should be theessential bit that is in focus – but of coursethere is no reason why this should be so.Sometimes we may wish to show an obviousdisconnection, or indeed connection,between two elements. Sometimes, bythrowing the subject out of focus, we arehighlighting their value even more.Imagine I photograph two people, one

standing maybe 10ft in front of the other;then I can choose to have both in full focus,or to have one or other in focus, or indeedto have neither in focus. So we have fourimages of the same two people in the samerelational context, and yet each gives anentirely different message. When weconsider focus, and how and where wemight apply it, we should equally considerthe following: the subject, the composition,the narrative, the relationship between

subjects, visual subtlety or otherwise, anddoubtless many other matters. Focus is notsimply about making your subject sharp inthe frame, it’s a method of telling a storyIn this picture (right) of a diner drinking

wine, the focus is on the wine, the subjectbeing offset and out of focus. Actually themost dominant element of the image is thefigure and yet we have chosen to suppressit; we are trying to create an enticingrelationship between the two. If we hadfocused on the diner we would havecreated an image of someone having supper,but by focusing on the wine we create animage of the pleasure of dining – anemotionally different response altogether.Differential focus is a key element in

photography. It provides depth to ourimages, and creates narrative. We neverconsider that depth of field and focus arethe same thing, but of course they are.

It is our decision to express how muchinformation contained in an image is infocus or not – by doing so we control therelationship between facets of the image,setting up dynamics that add to thisstorytelling. Issues of available light, forexample, should not drive these types ofdecisions, but they are germane to theresponse to the scene you are capturing.

Focusing on thewine highlights thepleasure of dining.

The quality of theimage overcomesany flaws in focus.

EVERY IMAGE SHOULD AIM FOR FOCUS– NO, SOMETIMES JUST GETTING THEIMAGE IS MORE IMPORTANT!



�Open an account with at least one photographic

hire company. You may need extra lights,

cameras or lenses.

�Book the studio close to the hire company if

possible.

�Be prepared to set up and shoot fast.

�Check the studio has lights you can use as

extras and/or in case your lights fail.

�Work with an assistant you know, like and can

trust under pressure. On a shoot like this, if the

budget stretches, have a second assistant too.

EMILY’S TOP TIPS

EMILYANDERSEN

/JANUSZPODRAZIK

This month Emily describes how shephotographed portraits for theImperial Cancer Research Fund topromote breast cancer awareness.

� IN AUGUST 2000 I WAS CALLED BY THE PUBLICITY

DEPARTMENTOF THE IMPERIAL CANCER RESEARCH

FUND AND ASKED WHETHER I WOULD PHOTOGRAPH

ITS CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE BREASTCANCER

AWARENESS. The PR in charge had commissioned me forthe Heritage Lottery fund for many years. The concept wasto have a series of photographs of celebrities with a personor people who supported them. They would hold a puppymascot soft toy or a campaign ribbon.Leading the campaign were TV presenter Davina McCall

‘abseiling for hope’; composer Michael Nyman and hisdaughters and granddaughter; TV presenter LaurenceLlewelyn-Bowen and his daughters; actor Nickolas Graceand actress Honor Blackman; comedians Mel Giedroyc andSue Perkins (Mel and Sue); actresses Annette Crosbie anddaughter Selina Griffiths; and actress Fiona Fullerton andher friend, commissioning editor Elaine Pyke.There was a four-week deadline. The PR arranged the

shoots and as there were so many people givingtheir time we had to fit around them. Crosbie wanted tobe photographed at her house in west London andLlewelyn-Bowen at his house in south-east London.Nyman, Blackman, Mel and Sue and Fullerton wanted to bephotographed in a studio. The studio shoot was the mostdifficult to set up as there were so many people tosynchronise. A day was eventually found when they couldall make it; I booked a centrally located studio, hair andmake-up, and an assistant, Bec, whom I have used for manyyears. She is calm and personable, patient and technicallyexperienced. She knows the lighting setups I like, andworks equally well with digital and film. The studio wasbooked for the whole day so the models could choose theirpreferred slot; it was arranged that they would be droppedoff and picked up by car. I arrived with Bec at 9am and wehad a couple of hours to set up before the first shot.I brought three Bowens flashes and stands, and the studiohad Quad flash heads if we needed them.

EMILY ANDERSENEmily is a veteran portrait photographer. A selection ofher images forms part of the National Portrait Gallery’spermanent collection.

The client wanted the people photographed againsta white background. We were shooting on the ground floor,which had a white cove, so this worked well. Bec set upa 3ft softbox on the 1,500W light for the subjects, and twosilver brollies on the other two 1,000W lights for thebackground. The lights on the background were two stopsopen from the f-stop on the subjects (f/11) to keep it brightwhite. We used large white poly reflectors to bounce lighton to the subjects to keep the lighting soft, and to stop flarecoming into the lens from the lights on the background.I brought two Nikon FE2 bodies, 35mm, 50mm, 80mm and120mm lenses, and the Hasselblad 500C/M with an 80mmlens and Polaroid back. I was shooting 35mm 400 ASAFujicolor negative professional film on a Nikon FE2. We shota few Fuji instants before the arrival of the first models,Michael Nyman with his daughters and granddaughter.I already knew Nyman from photographing him for my

project on fathers and daughters, and also for a commissionfrom GQmagazine. Little children are difficult to work withunless you specialise in them and have found a knack; theattention span is short, so Bec and I worked fast for thatone. I had about 15 minutes before the child started crying.The Nikon camera had a 35mm lens and was set at 1/60secat f/22 so I could handhold with a good depth of focus.As we were shooting, Blackman and Grace arrived earlyand had their hair and make-up done while they werewaiting. It was lunchtime and sandwiches arrived to keeppeople occupied.Blackman and Grace are long-term professionals and

they were particular about the make-up, and the pose hadto be right. They looked at many Polaroids to check thedetails. This shoot took about an hour. I handheld all thenext studio shots at 1/60sec at f/16 with either the 50mmor 35mm lens.

The next people to arrive were Mel and Sue who werebouncy and relaxed about having their photograph taken;this shot took about45 minutes. The last people of the daywere Fullerton and Pyke, who were relaxed to work with,which was fortunate because by now we were quite tired.For the first two location shoots I had plenty of time to

set up and photograph. For the Crosbie shoot I went toher house with a 9ft white Colorama that I put up in hergreenhouse on portable stands and lit with the Bowensflash kit. I combined the daylight with the flash and setthe Nikon at 1/60sec at f/8 with a 50mm lens. For theLlewelyn-Bowen portrait I went to his house on the SouthCircular on a Sunday, as this was the day he could bethere with his young children. I used the Coloramabackdrop and lit with the Bowens with the 35mm lens onthe Nikon at 1/60sec at f/11.The final shot was of Davina McCall abseiling, which

took place on the roof of the Imperial Cancer ResearchFund headquarters in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. I arrived at 6amon a misty day. Abseiling experts were already there tohelp when she arrived at 7am. She was strapped into aharness and lowered over the wall, where she hung for afew minutes to be photographed. I lit the photograph witha portable Metz flash at 1/60sec at f/8. She was going toanother job afterwards so we had to work as quickly aspossible. Fortunately, working with professionals meansthat in a photograph they can almost always appear to beenjoying themselves, even when hanging off a building.www.andersenphotographic.org

PM

“LITTLE CHILDREN ARE DIFFICULT TO WORK WITHUNLESS YOU SPECIALISE IN THEM AND HAVE FOUNDA KNACK; THE ATTENTION SPAN IS SHORT, SOBEC AND I WORKED FAST FOR THAT ONE.

EMILY’S PEOPLE

To read more of Emily’s columns and formore advice from the pros visit thewebsite www.photographymonthly.com

� NickolasGrace andHonorBlackman.� DavinaMcCall.

PM_JULY_EMILY:Layout 1 24/05/2011 12:23

Our first prize is a fabulous two-night break for two people in the historic Bretontown of Saint-Malo, courtesy of Brittany Ferries. You will be travelling to Saint-Malo by ferry and staying in a lovely hotel in the pretty port which is famous for itsancient walled town and cobbled streets. Saint-Malo is also the perfect base fromwhich to visit the charming coastline of Brittany, the lovely town of Dinard and thepicture-postcard village of Dinan. The winning photograph will also appear in theFRANCE Calendar 2012, the popular calendar produced by the FRANCE Magazineteam every year, full of high-quality images.

All prizes are subject to availability. Depending on the contact details you give us, FRANCE Magazine and Photography Monthlymay mail,email, or phone you with offers products or services reflecting your preferences. If you do not wish to be contacted by us or third parties,please indicate this on your entry.

2ND PRIZEPortsmouth-Cherbourgreturn ferry tripThe second prizewinner will receivea fabulous return ferry trip for a car andup to four passengers on the popularPortsmouth to Cherbourg route, courtesyof Brittany Ferries

HOWTO ENTERPictures for this year’s competitionmust be in a landscape format, incolour and can only be submitteddigitally. You can enter up

to three pictures per person.For full terms and conditions,to register and to enter, visit:www.francemag.comand click on the link.

Follow the instructions for fillingin the contact details form anduploading your pictures.Deadline for submissions20 July 2011.

1ST PRIZE

3RD PRIZEAMade in Provence hamperworth £100The luxury gift hamper courtesy of Madein Provence contains a selection oftraditional artisan food and scented giftsfrom the south of France, includingtruffle-infused olive oil and balsamicvinegar and a Provence lavender organicgift set. www.madeinprovence.co.uk

A two-night break for two people in Saint-MaloPLUS your picture in the FRANCE Calendar 2012!

M A G A Z I N E&PHOTO COMPETITION

SPONSORED BY

Each month FRANCEMagazinebrings you hundreds of the mostbeautiful photographs of France.Now it’s your turn to capture it with your camera and be in with a chanceof winning a great prize. This year’s theme: France in the Frame

Win a break in Saint-Malo, a ferry trip ora hamper of luxuryFrench goodies

Whether you choose to simplysail with Brittany Ferries or takeone of their award-winningholidays, you can mix and matchany of the Brittany Ferriesservices from Portsmouth, Pooleor Plymouth to France or Spain,and plan a route that’s just rightfor you.

• Sail to France by day,overnight, or go high-speed andarrive in as little as 2½ hours.• Choose to arrive at Caen,Cherbourg, Saint-Malo orRoscoff.• Enjoy a relaxing overnightcruise to Spain – ideal fortouring southwest France.• Brittany Ferries’ direct routes tothe holiday regions will save youmiles of driving, plus money onfuel, tolls and overnight stops.• Holidays too! Take your pickfrom a range of award-winninggîtes, cottages, hotels andapartments – all for less thanyou’d expect.

To find out more visitbrittanyferries.com orcall 0871 244 1444

FRANCE IN THE FRAME

JULY 2011ISSUE PODCAST

The Editor of PhotographyMonthly, Grant Scott, anddeputy editor Sean Samuelsdiscuss the latest news anddevelopments from the world ofphotography. The podcast goeslive on 15 June 2011.

JUNE 2011SPECIAL PODCAST

The Editor of Photography Monthly, Grant Scott,and deputy editor of Professional PhotographerEleanor O’Kane speak to PM’s deputy editor, SeanSamuels, reporting from the New York PhotoFestival 2011.

MAY 2011ISSUE PODCAST

Grant Scott and Sean Samuels speak about theirexperiences shooting different subjects and indifferent locations 24 hours a day and discuss thework featured in the magazine.

If you have considered exploring the creative

possibilities of black and white, this book by

award-winning editorial and commercial

photographer Chris Bucher will give you

not only the necessary tools and guidance,

but also the inspiration to venture into

a new and exciting monochromatic world.

For your chance to win a copy, worth £19.99,

enter our online competition at


WE’RE ON YOUR

WIN!

In case you missed them…PODCAST

APRIL 2011ISSUE PODCAST

Grant Scott and Sean Samuelsspeak about the latest releasesand innovations from the world ofphotography and the interestingpeople and products they encountered

at the Focus on Imaging 2011 exhibitionat Birmingham NEC.

SPECIAL PODCASTNIKON MASTERMIND FINAL

The final two contestants of our Mastermind quiz,sponsored by Nikon, go head to head to see whowill win the Nikon D3s high-end DSLR worth £4,200.Find out who is the PM Mastermind.

MARCH 2011ISSUE PODCAST

Grant Scott and Sean Samuels speak toNational Geographic photographer Jim Richardsonabout his wonderful landscape work madein the Hebrides. They also discuss the latestnews from the world of photography.

Thanks to everyone who has listened to our monthly podcastsover the past two years. In case you missed any, they are availablevia the website and can be downloaded from iTunes.

WAVELENGTH


BLACK ANDWHITE DIGITALPHOTOGRAPHY

FEBRUARY 2011ISSUE PODCAST

Grant and Sean discuss their time at the CES Showin Las Vegas and reveal all their favourite things,releases and dishes from Sin City.

SPECIAL ISSUETEST ZONE AWARDS SPECIAL PODCAST

Grant and Sean discuss the winners of thisyear’s Test Zone Awards, as featured in theDecember issue of the magazine.

JANUARY 2011MASTERS SPECIAL PODCAST

In this month’s masters special podcast, Seanspeaks to Steve Bloom about his creativeapproach to photographing wildlife, his careerand the future of photography. PM

THEBACK

CATALOGUEAll of our podcasts featuringphotographer interviews and

industry news specialsare available online atwww.photographymonthly.com

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PM_JULY_PODCAST:Layout 1 24/05/2011 16:57

Workflow and post-production are essential parts of creatingfilms, so this month JOHN CAMPBELL turns his attention toworkflow solutions. As well as providing inspiration andnews from the frontline, he also looks at the accessibility anddifferent types of external record buttons for DSLRs today.

GOWITHTHE FLOW


HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WORKFLOW

FRAMESAt the forefront of the DSLR film revolution, internationalnews network Al Jazeera has promoted photojournalismand film making to produce stunning films reflecting what’sgoing on in the world. It has created a new show calledFrames which will run two-minute character-driven films.Embracing multi-platform uses, these films are not just forthe online world, but are seen on TV around the world too,and are shot predominantly on DSLRs.http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/frames

A PRIME EXAMPLECanon Australia has shot the company’s first TV commercial using its own DSLRs, amove which acknowledges that convergence is here to stay. The DSLR’s capability toshoot high-end video is something Canon will be working to improve on in a newHD-DSLR camera it is apparently testing. The advert for the EOS range appeared onTV and in cinemas in Australia. In related news Ram Shani has shot a SEATcarcommercial, the first of its kind done in Israel, made with Canon EOS 5Ds and 7Ds,and a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1. He was happy with the results; even after heavygrading it holds up well on a big screen.www.youtube.com/watch?v=XksSv1zjlv0

HDR VIDEO SOLUTIONAnyone who dabbles in colour correction inpost-production will be delighted to hear that anew picture style can be downloaded on to yourCanon DSLR that allows you to shoot with ahigh dynamic range. Technicolor CineStyle letsyou record better shadow and highlight detail,giving you greater control of the final look ofyour film. Be warned – when you first shoot withthis picture style it will look very flat. This isbecause you want the high dynamic range to enable you to control colour andcontrast in post. Don’t use this picture style unless you intend to do post-productionwork as you will be disappointed with the results. Leading DSLR film maker PhilipBloom tweeted: “The @technincolorco Canon PP is the best thing to happen to theCanons since the introduction of manual control.”www.technicolor.com/en/hi/cinema/filmmaking/digital-printer-lights/cinestyle

A lot of film makers quite often dismissthe Adobe’s powerful Creative Suite as thepretender on the market, opting to useother NLEs (non-linear editing software)such as Final Cut and Avid. But in thebackground, the Adobe elves have beenlistening to their users and creating asystem that wields unimaginable power.We have seen film makers switchingtheir allegiance to Adobe for its dynamiclink abilities which allow you to link AfterEffects, Photoshop and Premiere in afantastic way: when you make changes inone program, it will update automaticallyin the others, without the use of rendering(which refers tothe generation,via computer, ofeach individualframe, whichwhen strungtogether forms afluid video). It ismost intuitive.The mostrelevant stepthat affects youas a film makeris the way Adobe engineers designedPremiere Pro to work with video in itsnative format – unlike Final Cut and Avidwhich need you to transcode or ‘wrap’ thevideo to make it editable. Moving withthe times, the makers of Sucker (a sci-fi,comic-book film) switched from Avid andFinal Cut Pro (FCP) to Adobe CS5 to takeadvantage of a streamlined RED workflow.With FCP, they had to down-convertfootage to ProRes QuickTime.The importance of your NLE being ableto do this is self-evident. How many of youare fed up with having to make this extrastep of transcoding your footage beforeyou edit? It is the biggest bugbear ofeditors. Premiere Pro CS5 removes thisunnecessary step and allows you to scrubHD on the timeline in real time witheffects added. It has always been my firstchoice, especially now as a film makerwhen DSLRs are becoming my first choicein cameras. Although this software isexpensive (with an RRP of £810), after yourfirst purchase, all future releasesare a fraction of the cost to update.www.adobe.com/uk

PM_JULY_FILM SCHOOL:Layout 1 24/05/2011 12:33


FILMS TO WATCH

Thismonth’skit checkcolumnlooks atremotefunctionsfor you tocontrolthe record facilities on your camera – theseare extra units that you have usually boltedon to your rig but, as you may have found,there are many ways around problemswhen dealing with DSLRs. Living in theworld of apps, the company onONESoftware has designed one for your iPhone,iPod touch or iPad where you can remotelyfire off shots and control camera settings,such as shutter speed, aperture, whitebalance and more. You can, apparently,view images saved on your camera andeven look through the viewfinder remotely.www.ononesoftware.com/products/dslr-camera-remote

The first is 35mod’s DSLR Video Trigger,which works with the Shoot RC5Wireless Remote or Canon’sRC-6 Wireless RemoteController (pictured).It has a positionable7in-long optic attachmentthat works when mounted onan HD-DSLR rig. This allows theoperator to press a button from the handle to trigger thevideo start-and-stop function on most Canon DSLRsthat record HD video. It will work with the Canon EOS5D MkII, 7D, 60D, 550D and 600D. Priced at only$35 (£21) plus shipping, this is a cheap way of solvingthe record button issue and will undoubtedly make yourlife a lot easier when shooting.http://35mod.com

The FLEX RC-1 is a handle-mounted DSLRremote trigger that will controlHD video start-and-stopfunctions on the Canon EOS5D and 7D. You can eithermount it on a rig (as long as youkeep it in line of sight of theremote sensor) or have it totallyremote, up to a metre away.The arm can extend up to 12inand coils down to about 3in.The maximum clamp diameter is1.5in and it is powered by readilyavailable AAA batteries. The triggerlooks clunky but will be robust enough for any shoot.Its ability to be free from the camera rig means an assistantcan trigger the record, allowing you to focus on compositionand movement. List price $155 (£95).http://store.zacuto.com/DSLR-Remote-Trigger.html

KIT CHECKI have been asked by a fellow film makerwho is just getting started with a DSLRabout the practicalities of using one to film,since they are designed with photographersin mind. He was especially interested in thelocation and accessibility of the recordbutton, and pointed out that this could bequite fiddly to locate when you had thecamera on a rig and were shooting ‘run andgun’, as he is used to a thumb trigger andzoom control unit to operate his DigiBetacamera. This is a question that comes upoften, especially from older users who aremore familiar with purpose-built cameras.Here are two options that will help to tacklethis problem.

BIOGRAPHY

John Campbell received his MA in filmfrom the International Film School, Wales.He won the cinematography award at theBristol International Film Festival for

a short film called Blue Morning You in 1999. He nowworks as a freelance film maker for public bodies andarts organisations across the UK and mainland Europe.

TIPS

PENALTY SHOOTOUTThe last film is more of a behind-the-sceneslook at a setup for a video shoot that wasthen used in an online game to get peopleexcited about the 2010 football World Cupin South Africa. It involved a shootout whereyou could select to be the penalty taker orgoalkeeper. From there you would selectwhere you were going to kick the ball or, asthe keeper, where you were going to diveto make the save. The film was complicatedto make, taking two days to shoot with nineCanon EOS 5Ds and 158 setups. It is anamazing process to look at and, believe me,not an easy one to undertake in this shorttime frame.www.hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/2011/04/08/9-5ds-capture-the-power-of-a-shot-on-goal-for-yahoo-sports-world-cup-2010

PARIS FASHION WEEKThis film is by director Frank Suffert anddirector of photography SebastianWiegärtner, who were finally allowed topublish their work made for Wolfgang Joopand Galeria Kaufhof during Paris FashionWeek. It is stunningly shot and thecinematography is excellent. As regards thestructure of the film, each shot is more likea photograph than a piece of film, capturingmoments in time with people in thought andfocusing on what they are doing. This isa true documentary, allowing the action tounfold without interference from the filmmaker. Again, the music underscores thefilm to provide a constant flow to theimagery. It was shot on a Canon EOS 5D MkIIand a Canon 7D with Zeiss CP.2 35, 50 and85mm lenses.http://wiegaertnerfilms.com/films/short-film-paris-fashion-week

SEVERED DREAMSThis month I have an eclectic mix of filmsfor you to take a look at. The first is astory-led film, written, directed and editedby Ian Bucknole. Severed Dreams is a shortfilm about a boy’s move from boyhood tomanhood, accompanied by his magical toyrobot, who messes up our protagonist’s life.This is a beautifully shot film with nicecinematography, sharp editing and awell-balanced soundtrack that underscoresthe story – though it was in danger ofbecoming more a music video than a film.It was shot in Cornwall for less than £1,000on a Canon EOS 5D MkII and 550D.http://vimeo.com/22030283

FILM SCHOOLShooting film on your DSLR John Campbell

To read more of John’s Film School columnsvisit www.photographymonthly.com

PM_JULY_FILM SCHOOL:Layout 1 24/05/2011 12:33


The world of reflectors is vast and can feel confusing. They are available in a range ofcolours and sizes, each suitable for different shooting environments, and achievecontrasting results. So we asked JESSICA LAMB to do all the hard work for you andexplain the options to ensure you make the right choice for your work.

Regardless of the size and colour of your

reflector, it will work best when placed

directly opposite the light source.

Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible

and it will take time, practice and

patience to learn how to place and angle

reflectors effectively. However, by

positioning your model at different angles

to the light source you will quickly

learn where to put a reflector so it delivers

the results you want.

CALIFORNIA SUNBOUNCE www.sunbounce-usa.com

Sunbounce has an extensive range of products, including rectangular reflectors which come in four sizes: MicroMini, Mini, Pro and Big. The super-light collapsible frame is compatible with all of its screens, allowing you to turnthe reflector into a diffuser or just change the colour. The frames are made from aluminium and can be extended to135cm and collapsed down to just 8cm. The frame has bars and integrated clamp which allow you to attach thereflector to a tripod or simply hold it comfortably in your hand. As well as the rectangular reflectors Sunbounce hasa circular make called Sun Movers, which come in two colours. When you get a reflector from Sunbounce you arebuying a frame and the selected screen; interchangeable screens are available from the website.

130/190cm (c4ft/6ft) Pro frame and gold/white screen, €329 (£289), from www.californiasunbounceshop.com

PERFECT FOR: � Outdoor use; larger reflectors need less precision and can light larger areasor subjects. The aluminium frame makes it easier to hold and position.

THE SHINING

PM_JULY_REFLECTORS:Layout 1 24/05/2011 12:45

Reflectors Jessica LambPHOTO ZONE


WESTCOTTwww.fjwestcott.com

As well as single reflectors,Westcott produces reflector kitswhich consist of two diffusionpanels (frames) and four differentslip covers, allowing you to achievedifferent effects with just one kit.Along with reflectors Westcott alsomanufactures lighting stands andaccessories. The single reflectorscome in four colour combinations,and six sizes, and can be collapsedto a third of their open size.Reflectors from Westcott are fairlypriced and each comes with a nyloncarry case and instructional DVD.

20in (50cm) gold/white reflector(1204 style), $38.10 (£23.50)

LASTOLITEwww.lastolite.com

Reflectors come in many variations with Lastolite;alongside standard circular reflectors it producesUpLite, Skylite and TriGrip options. TriGrip is thelatest addition to the range; the triangular framefeatures a moulded handle, making it easier tohold, perfect for situations where a smallerreflector is required. The classic circular reflectorscome in six sizes and seven colour combinations.The circular reflectors are collapsible to a third oftheir original size, making them portable and easyto pop up. Lastolite gives a lifetime guarantee onits reflectors’ rims.

1.2m (47in) Lastolite large TriGrip Sunlite/soft silver,£80, available from www.calumetphoto.co.uk

—BEST FOR—DURABILITY

PERFECT FOR:� Head shots andproducts; measuring only20in at its widest the 1204style reflector is ideal forportraits or when you needto be very precise andilluminate a small area.

—BEST FOR—PORTRAIT

PHOTOGRAPHY

PERFECT FOR:� Lighting larger areas or subjects with asoft warming affect, great for both outdoorand studio use.

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Reflectors Jessica Lamb


PHOTO ZONEReflectors Jessica Lamb

WEXPRO www.warehouseexpress.com

Online retailer Warehouse Express has created its own range ofreflectors, available in six sizes. As well as single reflectors, WexProfeatures five-in-one and seven-in-one kits. All of the WexPro reflectorscan collapse to a third of their original size and come in a carry bag.

110cm (43in) silver/gold (1518795), £20

PERFECT FOR: � Group portraits; though fairly large this110cm reflector is portable and comfortable to hold.

INTERFIT www.interfitphotographic.com

Interfit produces reflectors in four different sizes, with its smallest measuring just 30cm which is idealwhen shooting products. Single reflectors from Interfit come in three colour combinations and thecompany also makes five-in-one kits, allowing you to achieve five different effects from one frame.

82cm (32in) silver/white (INT233), £31.60

WHY NOTCONSIDER A REFLECTOR BRACKET...The aluminium INT274 adjustable reflector bracket from Interfit (pictured below) is an ideal piece of kit tohave to hand for any shoot. It allows you to secure your reflector to the height and position needed, andwill support up to a42in reflector. The bracket is compatible with most lighting stands. £27.99.

Reflectors come in many sizes fordifferent uses. For example, a smallerreflector would be ideal when you need tolight a compact area or just a face, butgetting its positioning just right can bedifficult. Larger reflectors are suitable forlighting a bigger area and can be usedfarther away from the subject; they alsotake less time and precision to position.Larger reflectors can also be used todiffuse harsh reflections on the subject.

WHY ALL THESIZES?

�SILVER: Silver gives you a neutralstarting point, which is important forboth film and stills. Silver is great foraccentuating detail and gives off thebrightest reflection.�SILVER/WHITE: These reflectors areexcellent for adding contrast.�GOLD/WHITE: Gold and white reflectorsare ideal for creating a bit of warmth.�SOFT SUN/WHITE: These colours subtlywarm up skin tone and are used inwedding and portrait work because thesoft sun does not add false colour.�ZEBRA/WHITE: The zig-zag silver and goldcoated surface reflects light warmly.It creates healthy-looking skin tones inportraits, an effect which is morenoticeable in cooler, rather than warmer,ambient light.�BLACK REFLECTORS: These are useful formaking sure light isn’t reflected onshiny surfaces or areas which mightruin the shot.

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READERS’ PICTURES

Andy BarnesMarina Bay Sands resort,

Singapore

Kevin DonnellyBeach life

Ben MooreBeach boys

Chris OgdenBonavista lighthouse,Newfoundland

WIN! TAKINGPICTURES

FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN a box of Canson Infinity HighGlossPremium RC 315gsm A3 photo paper, worth £65.16, simply upload

your best ‘travel’ pictures to the Photography Monthly gallery.This extra-white photographic paper offers vivid colours and deepblacks, coupled with excellent image sharpness, with a resolutionof up to 5,760dpi. Compatible with pigmented and dye inks, this

paper uses an acid-free base to ensure your prints standthe test of time. To get you started and inspired, we have

included some of your pictures and others by the PM team,but we’re sure you can do better than us!

Zane JoyntMajestic sunset

PM_JULY_READERSCHALLENGE:Layout 1 25/05/2011 15:31

GRANT SCOTT— EDITORPHOTOGRAPHY MONTHLY

This was taken in an Arabic garden inthe north west of Mallorca. I couldn’tresist the symmetrical compositioncreated by the reflection, and the senseof promise that the light and garden atthe end of the tunnel have created.

KELLYWEECH— FEATURES ASSISTANTPHOTOGRAPHY MONTHLY

This image was taken in Siem Reap, Cambodia.One evening we went to see a show whichconsisted of traditional music and dance.Although it was low light I managed to get oneshot which I particularly liked. To capture thisimage required patience and a steady hand.I used a Canon EOS 20D with an 18-55mm lens.

I immediately fell in love with Marseillewhen I visited the city several years ago.It is a photographer’s mecca with anincredible mix of people, architecture,culture, food and seafaring life. This sceneis one of my favourite memories.

ELEANOR O’KANE — DEPUTY EDITORPROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER

READERS’ CHALLENGEUpload to our gallery to win prizes Travel


PM TEAM PICTURES

For more readers’ images and to upload to thegallery visit the website atwww.photographymonthly.com

SEAN SAMUELS — DEPUTY EDITORPHOTOGRAPHY MONTHLY

Paul SamuelsLake Tekapo, New Zealand

Glen UnsworthSnake boy

I took this picture on a weekend break toSeville, in southern Spain, which has thelargest Gothic cathedral in the world; withits lavish interior and ornate exterior,the building is a photographer’s dream.I was attracted by the elaborate detailand how the towers soar into the blue sky.

PM_JULY_READERSCHALLENGE:Layout 1 25/05/2011 15:32

creative freedom without compromise

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TESTZONE ONLYTHEVERY BEST KIT

Each month we bring you the reviews you need to make sure you buy the right equipment, for the right reasons

8 REASONS TO BUY

NIKON50MM F/1.8 LENSA 50mm primelens is a greataddition to anyphotographer’s kit.Its naturalperspective makesit ideal forportraits and agreat all-rounder.We take a look atthis affordablelens from Nikonand explain whyit is worthconsidering.

FAST AND BRIGHTThe fast maximum aperture of f/1.8 makes the AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8Glens suitable in low-light or when shallow depth of field is required. It isideal when flash is not appropriate or desired.

SMOOTH AS SILKThis lens allows you to single out subjects with smooth bokehor shoot with available light and still capture striking, sharp images.For the price we are certainly not complaining.

ALL-NEW OPTICSThe optical design comprises seven elements in six groups, including oneaspherical element for superb image quality.

QUIET AS A MOUSEThe dedicated Silent Wave Motor ensures an autofocus that isdiscreet but accurate.

COMPATIBILITYThe 50mm lens can be used with Nikon FX-format DSLRs as wellas offering a 75mm (equivalent) focal length when used with NikonDX-format DSLRs.

LIGHT TOUCHWeighing only 185g and featuring a weather-sealed metal mount, thislightweight and compact ‘take anywhere’ lens is perfect for portraitureor general photography.

GREAT VALUEWith its combination of speed and quality optics at an RRP of £199.99, itdeserves a place in the bag of every photographer on a budget.

EXTRASIt is supplied with a lens hood, HB-47, and a soft pouch, CL-1013.www.nikon.co.uk

PM

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TOPTIP!For more news andreviews on the latestkit and technologyvisit the website atwww.photography

monthly.com

FACT: For many years the definingdocumentary camera was the smallformat rangefinder combined with a50mm lens. Some of the world'sbest-known photographers, includingHenri Cartier-Bresson, built their careerson this combination.

PM_JULY_TESTZONECOVER:Layout 1 24/05/2011 12:48

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TEST ZONE


ELEANOR O’KANE tries one of the latest bridge cameras to hit the market, theFujifilm FinePix HS20EXR, to find out if it’s the answer to her countryside conundrum.

LET’S GO FOR

� On the front is a 24-720mmlens with 30x optical zoom.

�The rotating screen makeslight work of tight angles.

Camera review Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR

A LITTLEWALK…� I FREQUENTLY ROAM THE COTSWOLDS, AMID SOME

OF ENGLAND’S MOSTBEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPES

and I love to capture my walks on camera.The problem is this is not just any old walking,it’s Nordic walking, which means stridingthrough England’s countryside with poles.While this means – if the figures are to bebelieved – I burn up to 50%more calories thanregular ramblers, it makes taking pictures onmy walks rather awkward. So I have aconundrum: do I bring my DSLR, which isbetter suited for capturing the stunninglandscapes I roam or do I tuck a compact intomy pocket, which is quick and easy to use butlimited in focal range?I’ve never been sure about bridge cameras,

not quite seeing the point of them,so would the opportunity to try onemean the end of my Nordicnightmares, I wondered? To test it inthe field – and over the wolds –I brought along Fujifilm’s newFinePix HS20EXR on a half-day’swalk. This is Fujifilm’s latest bridgemodel, equipped with a 16MPsensor and a mighty-sounding24-720mmmanual lens with 30xoptical zoom. On first handling thecamera had a pleasing feel, chunkyenough to feel rugged but not toocumbersome, especially as I now had no needto cart any lenses around. The non-slip casingadded to the impression that this cameramight make an agreeable countrysidecompanion. The camera required four AAbatteries, which surprised me at first, buthaving been left without power on overnightcamping trips, I realised that as long as Icarried some batteries, this could actuallybe a good thing.Having such a long focal length on a fixed

lens camera came as something of a novelty:cue lots of unnecessary extreme close-ups onyour friends and family to test just how closeyou can get. My walking companion – whohappens to be photojournalist and is used todashing around to get her pictures – did

comment on it being something of a “lazyphotographer’s camera” due to the long lens.However, we were both quite taken by theability to zoom in close and capture the localwildlife without having to cause too muchdisturbance. This is definitely a bonus in thegreat outdoors and something I couldn’t havedone with my compact. Be prepared to losesome quality with such a wide focal range butthat’s to be expected at this price. In situationslike this, it’s a case of deciding whether to take

advantage of the full focal range of the lens ormove a little closer to the subject to maintainquality. The mechanical lens means you haveto focus manually, which can be quite awkwardif you’re going in for an extreme close-upbecause the flash casing reaches quite farover the lens, making it hard to get a good gripin order to twist it. On the plus side there’spossibly more control than you might haveover a digital lens, so again it’s swings androundabouts. Perhaps my companion’s ‘lazy’�

PM_JULY_FUJIFILM_HS20:Layout 1 24/05/2011 12:56

Camera review Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR


TECH SPEC: FUJIFILM FINEPIX HS20EXR

90.7mm

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WE HATETOO MANY PRE-SETTINGS TO WORK THROUGH

TEST ZONE

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� FACE DETECTION Yes� SHUTTER SPEED Auto mode – 1/4sec to

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� OTHER FUNCTIONS PictBridge, Exif Print,35 languages,time difference,silent mode

� TERMINAL Video output – NTSC/PAL, digital interface– USB 2.0, HDMImini connection

� LENS 30x optical zoom� IMAGE STABILIZER CMOS shift type� LCD MONITOR 3in approx,

460,000 dots, TFTcolour approx 100%coverage

� WEIGHT 636g (730g incaccessories)

� PRICE £399

comment had a ring of truth and I’m just usedto having the camera do everything for me.

The camera sees the debut of Fujifilm’sEXR CMOS technology, which promisesadvances in resolution and a higher speed

sensor. This technology is also used in the HDvideo mode, so filming in low-light conditions ispossible. This technology means that as wellas offering the usual auto setting, there’s anEXR button on the dial. On selecting this youare presented with another set of options.You can stick with the basic EXR auto function,which adjusts the settings for individualscenes, or select from the range of adjustableEXR options such as ‘resolution priority’ forshooting subjects in detail, ‘high ISO & lownoise’ for clear shots and ‘D-Range priority’ tocapture tonality in bright scenes. It’s like asuper auto setting. Where this leaves the plainold auto setting, I’m not sure, but the manualsuggests this is a simple ‘point and shoot’ forfirst-time users, which seems sensible if thepossibilities of the EXR system are liable toconfound a beginner. Personally, when I wantedto try out the auto settings or didn’t have timeto make creative decisions I put my trust inthe EXR technology and it didn’t disappoint.

Shooting in RAW and Jpeg mode, I did findthe camera a bit sluggish, but at the price it’snot something to get upset about. After all, formuch of the time I was capturing the Englishcountryside, rather than embarking on urbanstreet photography. Cows don’t move terriblyquickly, dry stone walls even less so.

In social situations, the camera also hassome nice features that make it fun to use.The 3in LDC monitor flips out and can beangled, handy when I needed to reach over theheads of the crowd at a wedding; it’s also goodfor watching back any HD video you capture.The panorama mode allows you to pan in stills

mode either 120°, 180° or 360° toautomatically create one still image.

If you want to fully embrace the variety ofautomatic creative settings on offer, there area huge number of different ‘scene’ settingsthat cope with everything from natural light tobeach photography. There are even separatesettings for photographing cats and dogsrespectively, although I didn’t quite get to thebottom of why they required separate settings.

Despite my initial doubts about using abridge camera, I came to enjoy the FujifilmFinePix HS20EXR for its versatility. For thoselooking for a creative step up from a compactbut still unsure about swapping lenses indifferent situations it would be an option.There are more than enough creative settingsto cope with most situations but there’s stillscope for learning through use of the manualsettings and in understanding why thepre-settings are set the way they are.http://fujifilm.co.uk

PM

“PERSONALLY, WHEN I WANTED TO TRY OUT THEAUTO SETTINGS OR DIDN’T HAVE TIME TO MAKECREATIVE DECISIONS I PUT MY TRUST IN THE EXRTECHNOLOGY AND IT DIDN’T DISAPPOINT.”

� The camera is a versatile optionfor many shooting occasions.

PM_JULY_FUJIFILM_HS20:Layout 1 24/05/2011 12:56

All prices include VAT @ 20% Opening times Mon-Sat 8:45-5:45pm; Thursday 8:45-7.30pm; Sunday 10:15-4.30pm. Sunday trading is for in-store only. Store address : York Road, Victoria Business Park, Burgess Hill, West Sussex RH15 9TT. We accept Visa, Mastercard, Switch/Maestro. Figures in Brackets indicates stock level held at unrepeatable prices at time of going to print. All products are UK stock. E&OE. * = Please mention “Photography Monthly” for this special price

Prices correct at time of going to press; Prices subject to change; Check website for latest prices.

Phone one of our knowledgeable sales advisors

01444 23 70 63available Monday - Saturday 8.45am - 5:45pm

Visit our website, available 7 days a week, 365 days a year

www.ParkCameras.com/PMPark Cameras 40th Anniversary Imaging Festival - Sat. 9th July 2011 - Visit www.ParkCameras.com/40 for further details

1971 - 2011

you can

As a Canon EOS Professional Centre, Park Cameras is designed to give you the very

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YOUR EOS ADVENTURE STARTS HERE.

Body Only: £599.99EOS 600D + 18-55mm IS £688.99 | EOS 600D + 18-135mm IS £853.00

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Body Only: £799.99EOS 60D + 17-85mm IS £1,049.98 | EOS 60D + 17-55mm IS £1,597.98

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This month KELLY WEECHanswers your questions

about kit to help youmake the right choices.

YOUR QUESTIONS

UPGRADEI AM LOOKING TO BUY a monopod.

Any suggestions as to which one I should

go for?

If you are looking for one which will stand the testof time then I would recommendthe Manfrotto Neotec 685B.Made from aluminium, it features theunique Manfrotto Neotec lockingmechanism found in the Neotec lineof tripods, which makes it fast andeasy to use. There are no fiddlyscrews or awkward levers – justextend, lock and use. With a minimumheight of 74.5cm and maximum of170cm, the top mount features both a1/4in and retractable 3/8in screw toensure that your equipment will fitand is capable of supporting loads upto 8kg. Other features include asafety lever that prevents accidentaluse of the locking releasemechanism, a lightweight rubber footpedal to simplify opening or closingthe 685B, a protective leg warmer onthe bottom leg section to provideprotection against the elements andsuction cup foot for extra groundsupport and increased grip. It maynot come cheap with an RRP of£149.50. However, it can be found ata more affordable price over theinternet. www.manfrotto.com

I WANT TO REPLACE my bulky old CRT

monitor for my PC with an LCD screen.

What should I look for in a good monitor

for editing photographs and which would you suggest?

The overall improvement in LCD monitors in recentyears has been massive and most photographers can nowinvest in one with confidence. The main advantage CRTmonitors used to have over LCDs was their colourreproduction, contrast ratios and depth of colour display.But with the developments made in technology overrecent years, LCDs have started to catch up and thedifference between the two isn’t so great. The majordisadvantages with CRTmonitors are their bulky size andweight and high power consumption. They also generatea lot more heat than LCD monitors, making them lessdesirable for enthusiasts wanting to edit images in thecomfort of their own homes.

LCD monitors are smaller, lighter, consume less powerand tend to cause less eye fatigue, as they don’t flickerlike CRTs. When investing in a monitor, budget may be adeciding factor, but a good screen for photography shouldoffer a minimum of 8-bit colour, preferably IPS (in-planeswitching) for best colour accuracy and reproduction aswell as giving good black depth and extended colourgamut. A widescreen may be more desirable instead of

a square one, as mostDSLR cameras

producewidescreenimages.Size willalways playa part anda large 21inmonitor with1,920 x 1,200resolution orhigher is sure

to produce goodresults. If you are

serious about yourphotography and

are happy to pay, then theDell UltraSharp 24in U2410

widescreen flat panel monitor is agreat screen for a middle-of-the-road

budget. It offers 1,920 x 1,200 maximumresolution, 16:10 widescreen aspect ratio and

80,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. Using PremierColourtechnology it delivers colour depth of 1.07billion and

I AM CONSIDERING making a time-lapse

video with my Canon EOS 7D.

Any suggestions as to how I would go

about doing this?

This cinematography technique uses photography tocapture a frame at a set time, over a set duration.When replayed at normal speed, time appearsto be moving faster, and thus lapsing.While the Nikon D300s, D700 and D3shave the time-lapse function builtin, Canon users will require alittle device known as anintervalometer.The Canon TC-80N3is ideal for theCanon EOS 5DMkII, 1D MkIVand 7D.This delay timer islike the self-timer on thecamera, but can be set up to 100hours in one-second increments.An interval timer fires the shutter at presetintervals of between one second and 100 hours.A long exposure timer allows you to extendthe exposure time for several minutes, or evenhours. The exposure count mode sets the number

Q

Q

of exposures taken in the interval timer mode: sixframes at 15-minute intervals, for example. The timerremote controller TC-80N3 can also be used asa remote switch. Remember, when you try thistechnique it will be a case of trial and error until youdiscover what works for you in different situations.RRP: £149.99. www.canon.co.uk

For further advice and inspiration check out filmmaker Philip Bloom at www.philipbloom.net

Q

110% colour gamut. The high data accuracy of 12-bitinternal processing helps to distinguish very lowgreyscale tones, allowing for a greater level of detail indark areas. This is the first Dell monitor that is colourcalibrated at the factory for accurate, consistent andprecise colours. It is compatible with industry colourspaces such as Adobe RGB (96% coverage) and sRGB(100% coverage) and offers six-axis colour control andcustom colour mode for those wanting to customise andadjust parameters for saturation, hue, gain and offset.Priced at £449 excluding VAT, it is available fromwww.dell.co.uk

If you are on a budget then you may have tocompromise on the screen size. I would suggest theSamsung SyncMaster 2232BW. Featuring a 22in screenwith a 1,680 x 1,050 resolution, this stylish alternative hasaccurate colour control with a static preset system whichoffers clean, bright whites and good reds. The onlypotential drawback is that the gamut is limited, so youwon’t get the full Adobe RGB out of this monitor.Priced £217.38. www.samsung.com/uk

I OWN A SONY A580 for which I am

looking for a flash unit. Can you help with

any thoughts on the pros and cons of

Sony HVL-F42AM versus Metz mecablitz

44 AF-1 digital?

Coming in at £279 the Sony HVL-F42AM offers a guidenumber of42 (105mm lens, ISO 100), high-speed sync atall shutter speeds, full manual control with six-step powersettings (1/1-1/32), auto and manual zoom control,wireless TTL mode, adjustable bounce 90° up, 90° leftand 180° right and built-in wide panel which covers a fieldof view up to 16mm. Meanwhile, the Metz mecablitz44AF-1 digital, priced at £179.99, offers a slightly higherguide number of44 (105mm lens, ISO 100), integratedautofocus flash metering, auto zoom control, TTL flashmode, manual flash mode with four partial lighting levelsand modelling light. If you are looking for extra power ata more affordable price I would choose the Metz, unlessyou prefer to stick with own-brand accessories, whichmany people do. www.sony.co.uk / www.metz.dePM

Q

PM_JULY_UPGRADE:Layout 1 24/05/2011 12:50

Continuous Daylight BalancedLighting Kits EZ -FLO 2 head soft box kit (shown) . . . . .£179.74Super Coolite 4 (4 x 55Watt )2 head soft box kit . . . . . . . . . . . £285.95

EX150 Mk2 Home Studio Kit

Elinchrom

Lumen8 Pro Studio Flash

LUMEN8 400w/s 2 head kit. . £430.00

Inc Stands, 2 brollies, cables & carry bag

Lastolite Lastolite Interfit SKD Muslin LEE Filters

Bowens

Sekonic

Expodisk

60cm Cubelite . . £84.5090cm Cubelite . £103.3090cm Cubelite kit . . . . . . . . . . . £329.70Ezybox Hotshoe from. . . . . . . . . £84.50

LASTOLITE TriflectorCompact and easy to use,

Triflector is three panels on one lighting stand. Hinge mechanisms

make all panels individually adjustable to get light exactly

where you need it. The Sunfire/Silver version comes

with a stand . . . £131.50Triflector without stand. . . £112.70

LASTOLITE Cubelite, Ezybox Hotshoe

Lastolite Baby poser . . . . . . . . .£98.60Lastolite Posing tubs . . . . . . . .£197.00

LASTOLITESAVAGE Background paper

1 roll (2.75m x 11m) . . . . . . . . . . . . . £41.72Triple hooks (MN045) . . . . . . . . . . . . £35.69XPan set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £73.49Interfit INT312 wall mounting kit for up to 3 rolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . £69.38

All prices are correct at time of going to press and include V.A.T at the current rate. E&OE.

Studio Kit Direct. Bridgnorth. WV16 5JB

STUDIO KIT DIRECT

D Lite2 Kit 200/200 Softbox Kit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£485.00D Lite4 Kit 400/400 Softbox Kit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£529.00BXRi 500/500 Softbox Kit . . . .£824.50BXRi 500/250 Softbox Kit . . . .£776.00BXRi 250/250 Softbox Kit . . . .£735.00

New D Lite kits come with 2 x

66cm soft boxes plus a 16cm reflector and Skyport Eco Transmitter,

stands ,cables and carry cases

Interfit

It’s what your hotshoe flash has been waiting for! NOW IN STOCK

Buy On-Line at...

www.studiokitdirect.co.uk

Gemini 200/200 studio in a bag . £485.11 Gemini 400/400 studioin a bag . . . £556.60

Gemini 250R 2 head kit . . . . .£807.84Gemini 500R 2 head kit . . . . .£875.04New Type R kits - new features include 5 stop power range in 1/10th stop, dual power control, auto power dump, optional plug-in trigger cards for Pulsar or Pocket Wizard plus lots more! See web for other kits

Gemini 200/400 shown

Gemini 250Rshown

Sekonic's highly rated, awardwinning meters are available in a wide range of models to suit allsubjects and shooting conditions.L308 S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£135.74L358 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£225.39L758D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .£394.54

If you own a digital slr or video camera, you need one of these.

Replace your grey and white cards with the

EXPODISK digital white balance filter.

Available from 58mm to 82mm, £48.50 to £79.50.

We stock a wide range of background

support systems

From a host of respected brands including.....

Lastolite 1108 £140.39 Manfrotto MN314B £209.52 All above have telescopic cross bars

Interfit COR756 £101.21Plus a range of Lighting Stands

and Auto Poles - please see our website

NEW!! Crease resistant fabric in Black or White in size 8 x 10ft only £40.84

We carry huge stocks of Lee Filters - if it’s listed on the website - it’s in stock!

Example prices...Big Stopper 10xND Glass Filter . . . . £96.00 B+W Kaseman 105 mm circ polar . £219.13

Foundation Kit at the centre of the Lee Filter holder system and is primarily designed to take 100mm filters,

although other sizes can be adapted to fit.

Once constructed, the holder clips easily onto the adaptor ring and can then be rotated to your exact requirements, This also enables optimum use of grad and special effect filters. . . . . . . . . . . . . £60.69

Starter Kit includes an assembled filter holder, a 0.6 ND grad, a cleaning cloth, and a Coral 3 grad with extended coloured portion that

can be used as both a graduate and an all over warm up. All packed in the new three filter triple pouch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £142.99Adaptor rings from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £19.40W/A adaptor rings from . . . . . . . . . . £41.72ND grad sets from . . . . . . . . . . . . . £173.62Resin sets from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £94.97Ind resins from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £44.94Multi filter pouch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £34.80105mm polariser ring . . . . . . . . . . . . £35.35Standard lens hood . . . . . . . . . . . . . £88.75

Improve your results TODAY!

Heads & Accessories arelisted on our website

Kit contains 2 Heads with Stands, Soft Box, Brolly & DVD

£203.47EX150 3 head kit £339.90

BackgroundsSuper size 10 x 16ft, also 10 x 20ft - Mill Dyed for the truest and richest colours in BLACK, WHITE, CHROMA KEY GREEN & BLUE - from £64.32 each. Mottled now in 8 colours 10 x 16ft - heavy muslin to our own design and specification - machine washable Great Value!

£66.95 each.

Collapsible, Reversible Backgrounds6701 Black/White with train. . . . . . . . .£176.691.8m x 1.5m . . . . . .£93.902.1m x 1.8m plus 1.5m train . . . . . . . .£159.69WHITE VINYL ROLLS 2.75 x 6 metre

on alloy tube £194.03

Hilite Backgrounds from £214.47 See web or ring for details

Buy On-Line... www.studiokitdirect.co.uk Tel: 01746 769 768EX300 soft box/brolly kit £395.00

Minimum £100 trade in on your digital SLR bodyD3100

Includes 18-55 Lens

JUST £699.99*

D5100 Includes 18-55 VR Lens

NOW ONLY£359.99* FREE Nikon bag

D7000 Includes 18-105 Lens

JUST £1099.99*FREE Photo Rucksack worth £79

Lenses18-55 VR ‘Split Kit’ Lens ........ ONLY £99.9918-105 VR ‘Split Kit’ Lens .... ONLY £199.99

NIKON Action Binocular SpecialsEX 10x50 SAVE £5 .........................£99.99EX 8x40 SAVE £5 ...........................£99.99Action Zoom 10-22x50 ...... ONLY £149.99

Trade up to

• 16 megapixel• Full HD movie

• 16.2 megapixel• Full HD movie• 3-inch LCD Screen

• 14.2 megapixel• 3.0” LCD monitor• HD movies

01179 291 [email protected]

3 Alliance House, Baldwin St, BristolNEXT THE HIPPODROME


13 Cheap Street, BathNEXT THE ABBEY


53 The Horsefair, Broadmead, BristolNEXT TO DEBENHAMS

Includes Nikon £40 Cash Back Offer

*These offers only apply at branches below

14-24mm f2.8 GED £1319

Find us on

** Delivery to UK mainland is FREE for orders over £100. For orders under £100, delivery from £2.50.

All prices include VAT @ 20%. Prices fluctuate so please see website for our latest low prices. E&OEVisit us at www.abc-digital-cameras.co.uk

call us on 08450 70 90 50 for the latest NEW PRODUCTS in 2011 & beyond! Open Mon-Sat

8.45am - 5.45pm

www.abc-digital-cameras.co.uk08450 70 90 50

Lines open 8:45am-5:45pm Monday - Saturday

*

Please ask / see website for our massive savings off bags

Find your own angle

Our Price from £799.99

I am your Guide


Canon EOS 600D + 18-55mm IS

Our Price£688.99

Canon EOS 5D IIBody Only

Our Price See Website

Nikon D3100+ 18-55mm VR

Our Price £439.99

Nikon D7000Body Only

Our Price £896.00

Nikon D300sBody Only


Olympus E-PL2 + 14-42mm II

Our Price£469.99

Pentax K-7Body Only

Our Price £635.00

Pentax K-5Body Only

Our Price £899.00

Digital SLRs Canon Digital IXUS 300 HS

Our Price £249.99

CanonPowerShot S95

Our Price £309.00

CanonPowerShot G12

Our Price £419.00

Nikon CoolpixS3100

Our Price £109.99

Nikon Coolpix P500

Our Price £329.99

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ20

Our Price £314.99

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5

Our Price £349.99

Compact Digital Cameras

SamsungWB1000

Our Price £149.99

SLR Lenses Accessories Adobe Photoshop

Elements 9.0

Our Price £59.99

ColourVisionSpyder 3 Express

Our Price £61.99

Epson StylusPX820FWD

Our Price £179.99

Tamrac Adventure Messenger 4

Our Price £34.99

Manfrotto 055CXV3 C/Fibre Tripod

Our Price £244.00

Giottos Super Rocket Air-Blower

Our Price £9.99

For even more lenses filters and hoods, please visit our website For 1000s more accessories, please visit our website

Stills or movies, capture your story


Nifty Fifties £94.99

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£254.00

Popular Macro Lenses £359.99

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Filters

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on mention of this advert

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Our Price £149.00

Creativity without limits

DMC-G3

Please visit our website for our latest price on this NEW camera

NEW!

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ACCESSORIES

To advertise here please contact Bianca Dufty

Tel: 01242 211099

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Hear the demos at:

j u i c e d Link.com

Your Camera • No meter?

• No headphone? • No Manual Control?

DSLR Audio Solutions

NEW DT454 • 4 Microphone Control

• Low-Noise Preamps • Headphone

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COURSES ACCESSORIES

www.farrowhousetraining.comemail: [email protected]

Tel. 01803-528663

Courses in Photoshop, Elements and Lightroom

from an Adobe Certified Instructor

Tuition in small groups. Also 1-to-1 and

tailored courses. Comprehensive course

notes and unlimited after-course support.

FARROWHOUSE

TRAINING

Improve your skills with a Photography Course in VeniceSmall Groups - visit our website for details

www.photographyandpaintingholidays.com or call:Bob Atkins - 01892 871596 [email protected]

www.photographytuition.co.uk

Improve your camera skills on location in mid Wales and the Brecon Beacons. Ideal for all abilities. 1:1 only £70.

Short Course in Photography

Visual Photography 26 – 28 AugustIntermediate

Explore ways of framing images, considering light, subject and background while

photographing on location and tackle portraits without studio lighting. Suitable

for digital SLR and compact cameras.

Tutor: Richard Cannon

West Dean Festival

you can attend for free around your course.

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eating. Camping and day ticket options.

org.uk.

West Dean College, West Dean, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 0QZ 01243 811301 [email protected] www.westdean.org.uk/college

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PRINTING AND PROCESSING

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HOLIDAYS AND COURSES

To advertise hereplease contact Bianca Dufty

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THE DARKROOM UKLTD

Estd. 1992

Placing OrdersPrices shown are postal only. Payment by CHEQUE only! ( Why cheque? Because it’s much faster for us to process and besides - NEVER send important credit card details through the post! ) Mostwork completed same day & returned 1st class post. Download a prepaid label from our website. Vat @ 20.0%

Canvas, Art & Poster

up to: Ilford Hahnemuhle DeVinci Canvasinches Galerie Cotton Rag Wrap

Ilford Galerie

Hahnemuhle

DeVinci

Quality Canvas

E6 FILM 36exp 120 220 5x4 5x7 8x10

Mounted

Sleeved

E6 SCANNING & PRINTING SERVICESCharged in addition

Scan to CD 4.5Mb 18Mb

when open

Print Set 4 x 6 5 x 71/2 6 x 9 8 x12

35mm Xpan* 4 x 12 5 x 14 - -

35mm

Extra set of prints -50%

G fNew Gift IdeasWe’ve a surprise for you! A range of photo gifts that deserve a second look

Mug £8.50T-shirt £15.00AApron £12.50Teddy £15.50Coaster £3.00Placemat £7.50Mousemat £6.50Jigsaw £13.50Keyring £3.75Fr Magnet £3.75

Sample PricesPostage extra

We saw theseproducts and were ‘wowed’by the image quality which is photographicstandard inmost cases.

AAdd text, logosimages to your design.

See our website for full details and prices - Order Online or by telephone

Bring your slide library back to life with Pro size 48Mb+ scans

20 x 35mmmounted or

sleeved (not both)

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man to set out a modern version when, in 1797, he wrote,“I have found the ratio of about two thirds to one third, orof one to two, a much better and more harmonizingproportion, than the precise formal half, [or], in short,than any other proportion whatever.” But even this earlyreference only builds upon an earlier fascination with theGolden Ratio, a proportion also known as phi, or φ.This ratio is defined by a mathematical equation thatresults in a rectangle whose sides are in the proportions1.61803:1 (or not really 2:1, the Rule of Thirds is the GoldenRatio’s bastard son). When applied to a line the ratio’sresult is called the Golden Section. Its extraordinarymathematical properties have made it the subject ofintellectual and aesthetic scrutiny since the times ofancient Greece. Many have claimed that this proportion isintrinsic to anything that we find beautiful and in somecircles, such as the Pythagorean Brotherhood, the ratiohas come close to being worshipped. In 1509, Luca Pacioliwrote On the Divine Proportion in which he claimed thatthe ratio was a message from God about the inner beautyof things. In the mid-19th century the German philosopher


DAVID WARD

� I WAS LEADING A PHOTOGRAPHIC TOUR OF

ICELAND EIGHT YEARS AGO WHEN A PARTICIPANT

DEMANDED THAT I GIVE HIM THE PARTICULAR

RULES OF COMPOSITION THATWOULD ALWAYS

RESULT IN A SUCCESSFUL IMAGE. He seemedoffended when I told him that no such rules existed.His tone of voice became quite angry as he madeit clear that he thought I was hiding the secret of greatphotography from him for commercial reasons. Well, ifonly I knew the ‘secret’ I certainly would have made afortune. Sadly, my continuing penury is ample proofof my ignorance. No amount of assurance from mewould placate my interrogator. “But what about theRule of Thirds?!” he asked. What indeed…

‘The rule’ is unfortunately a comfort blanket formany photographers. It is the approach they use whenpresented with subjects both familiar and unfamiliar.But in particular it is seen as the safe option whenpresented with something new; you can’t go wrong ifyou use ‘the rule!’ Perhaps its reassuring nature isbecause both magazine articles and camera club judgeshave, for as long as anyone can remember, noted itsuse approvingly. Or perhaps there’s a deeper reason.

Modern interpretations of the rule propose thatwhen composing or cropping any image imaginary linesshould divide it into thirds, both vertically andhorizontally. These lines create nine rectangles of equalsize. Significant positions in an image (such as thehorizon or the eye of a subject in a portrait) shouldalign with one of these ‘third’ lines. The intersections ofthese lines are claimed to be particularly powerful.Placing your subject on one of these points willallegedly imbue the image with added tension, energyor interest. The main purpose of imposing ’the rule’seems to be to discourage placing the subject along acentral vertical or horizontal axis. Within the rule’sterms it would be bad to have the horizon, for instance,bisect an image. I’m never quite sure why, as we allknow of images that break the rule yet are successful.Indeed, for me, placing the subject in the middlepresents it in a very powerful, straightforward way thatis all the more effective for being quiet.

However, ‘the rule’ has a history much older thanphotography itself. John Thomas Smith was the first

David is a professional photographer with morethan 20 years’ experience. He shoots large formatand is drawn to the abstract image.

To read more of David’s columns visit thewebsite www.photographymonthly.com

DAVI

DW

ARD

FSTOP

Adolf Zeising described it as a law “which permeates asa paramount spiritual ideal all structures, forms andproportions.” Heady stuff! But is this just an opinion?

I do think there may be something fundamentalunderpinning why we find it so appealing. The ratio cropsup surprisingly often in myriad natural forms, fromnautilus shells (is that why Edward Weston was sofascinated by them?) to the arrangement of seeds in asunflower. Interestingly, of all the different aspect ratiosfor photography, full frame 35mm is the closest toa Golden Rectangle, though it’s not quite wide enough.Perhaps the ratio’s ubiquity in nature is the reason thatwe find it so appealing. Or to put it another way, perhapsthe ratio just feels natural. But we should remindourselves that other ratios are always available – howmany can you spot in the image above?www.into-the-light.com

PM

This month David discusses‘the rules’ within landscapephotography and how they areapplied in a modern world.

Bleikoya, Iceland.

WE ALL KNOW OF IMAGES THAT BREAK THE RULE YET ARE VERYSUCCESSFUL. INDEED, FOR ME, PLACING THE SUBJECT IN THE MIDDLEPRESENTS IT IN A VERY POWERFUL, STRAIGHTFORWARD WAY...”

PM_JULY_FSTOP:Layout 1 24/05/2011 12:51

photography monthly magazine - july 2011

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