What is the best time to photograph?

Most people starting out in seaside photography with any real intent favour either the pre-dawn to sunrise period or the sunset to last light period. Certainly my most dramatic shots are from those time periods.

After a while, it all gets too easy and it is just photography by numbers and it is good to try a bit at those times generally deemed to be less suitable. Yesterday, with storm clouds moving overhead I grabbed my camera and strolled down to the beach. The accompanying photo was taken just before 3pm, almost 3 hours before sunset.

Haywards Beach, Bermagui - taken with an Olympus E-P3 with Olympus 12mm f/2 and 2-stop soft grad.

What happened to March?

I try to post something every month but seem to have missed March.

Well on the very last day of March, I did something I hadn't done before - a bit of light painting with lit steel wool.

I organised a late afternoon/night shoot at Little Bay which is a quiet beach in the Eastern Suburbs that few people seem to know about. After the sun went down, the real fun began. This is a group exercise with one or more people required for the light-works. It was fun and very effective.

Nikon D90 and 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR set to 18mm. Set to f/8 at ISO200 for 26 seconds.

Black and White or Colour?

Sometimes I take a picture and it truly amazes me. Compositionally, this image is a bit flawed as it was a grab shot but the most interesting thing of it is the colour, or lack of it.

This photo is in colour but looks like a sepia toned black and white image. The colour is essentially that out of the camera and it was just a brief moment in time after sunrise where this 'monochromatic' shot came into being...

Taken with an Olympus E-P3 and Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens.

Olympus OM-D - interesting

The Olympus OM-D certainly seems an interesting camera. I am not 100% certain that I like the faux SLR styling from a practical point but it certainly ticks a number of boxes for me. A mix of controls not unlike a film camera with more modern stuff on the back, a fold out OLED display - similar to the one on the E-P3 (which is outstandingly good), an integrated EVF, a tough alloy body and a weather sealed body to go with the lenses.

Olympus OM-D on Facebook

Pity I won't be flush with cash.

The other thing of interest would be the Olympus 75mm f/1.8 which would go nicely with my E-P3. That would give me a fast 150mm equivalent lens with autofocus which would be ideal for one of the jobs I have up my sleeve.

Guess I better start saving.

Using window light – part 1: The basics of light shaping

You can find an interesting article on using window light with portraits here...


Using window light – part 1: The basics of light shaping

Olympus E-P3 vs Nikon D90 (just for fun)

I have two main camera bodies at the moment, the Olympus E-P3 and the Nikon D90. I use the two cameras in slightly different ways with the Olympus being my light, go anywhere camera, particularly useful when I am travelling or need to be discrete. The Nikon gets first choice when shooting ultra-wide and also very long.

Then Nikon also gets the nod for really low light work although coupling the Olympus to the fabulous Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 or even the new Olympus 12mm f/2 and Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lenses, combined with the lovely OLED display and convenient manual focus controls (particularly with the Olympus 12mm lens), the Olympus is a joy to use.

Overall, the Nikon still wins on image quality and generally less work is required during post processing. The Olympus is definitely the fun camera.

Over the past week I have used both cameras in similar circumstances, and here are some of the results.

Olympus E-P3 and Olympus 12mm f/2

And now for one from the Nikon D90 and Nikkor 10-24mm zoom

Of course it is a bit unfair to compare any of these images as the lighting was quite different in each and there are evening and morning shots too.

Despite the camera and the lens, if you know the limitations of your kit, you can work to get great results. Obviously some things can be more difficult with some combinations of camera and lens but that is where your imagination can take over.

Let There Be Light

I bought a light tent on eBay, a 50cm x 50cm model for $23 including delivery. There are plenty of light tents for sale on eBay ranging from around $15 for a 30cm x 30cm size up to over 80cm so the one I got is around the middle size.

It is just the job for photographing small objects and allows you to shoot without unwanted reflections and also enables you to get more even lighting.

The light tent, four base pieces and instructions (help with folding it up), comes packed into a small bag.

Once unfolded, the light tent has a removable front with a slot that you can shoot through and it comes with 4 different coloured pieces to rest your work on, these being white, black, blue and red. These are held in place by Velcro and you can put something under the pieces to raise your subject.

I found shooting for most work, removing the front piece and shooting with a diffused bounce flash worked well. Add a slave flash to one side to minimise shadows or position it at the back when shooting through the white base to help eliminate shadows and creases.

For the very modest sum, this beats mucking around with cardboard boxes, fabric and tape.