There was much to be learned through this photo shoot. A strong conclusion which I often come to is that certain subjects require certain equipment. Not that it’s impossible to shoot with less than optimal gear, but it certainly isn’t as much fun.

The stuff I’ll probably repeat next time: an overcast day; the wireless Elinchrom Quadra; definitely the camera remote + tripod. Keeping a lower ISO opens up a lot more opportunities in post-processing while preserving the quality of the image.

What I’d like to try differently: go a bit wider – at least 17mm, but preferably 14mm; dedicated panoramic head; spend some more time on styling the interior.

That’s how Twenty Four was born. It’s a personal project still in the progress and I have decided to not make the whole of it public. I want to stay on the safe side because the trademarks of some of the products I photograph are still visible. At the same time, it’s very interesting to be photographing something knowing that very few other people will see it, yet be very serious and intentional about it. Often we as photographers measure the value of our images by how the public responds to them. I think that there’s more to the whole story. An image ought to hold a strong value independently of what others have to say about it. While inventing, detailing, preparing and photographing the scene I, the photographer have been influenced by the process and then by the results. That’s enough for me to deem the photograph valuable.

Anyway, Twenty Four – it’s a project about the unusual and the unexpected among our daily lives. My challenge was to combine things we’re used to see during the 24hours of the day in ways we’re not. So, here come a few samples and if time permits, later as I progress I might share a few more.

Meanwhile, think of the place of personal work in your own journey as a photographer. It’s much more important than you might think.

When you’re ready, you can check him out at http://joelgrimes.com

An important disclaimer: what I have described below is how to use your equipment for purposes it wasn’t designed to fulfill. Doing what is described below is entirely at your own risk and you’re responsible for any damage it may cause to your equipment, people it might hurt, etc., etc. You don’t have to do what I’ve done unless you decide so.

If you’re like me and often have to shoot within limited space and you don’t want to give up your seamless background, I have good news for you. By accident I happened to put together what is now becoming my favorite background support tool. As with the makeshift reflector holder I only used items which were already in my legal possession. Yet, if you don’t have everything, here’s a list with the ingredients…

What you’ll need

• A decent light stand (can also be small and cheap, like mine, if you only use light backgrounds).
• A clamp which can attach to the top of it.
• [optional] A Manfrotto Lite-Tite adapter and a spigot (Manfrotto 013, which I already had from the backlite stand)
• Two [metal] strips which are long enough to sandwich your background in width; mine are aluminum (check the hardware store nearby). You can use other material, but I found these to be most durable, stable and easiest to store… And I already had them.
• Two simple workshop clamps which can be had at any hardware store.

In the examples below you’ll find my PVC foil background, which is quite light. I suppose you can also use it with a large sheet of paper, but beware of increasing weight. I wouldn’t recommend this setup for outdoor use unless you buy premium clamps and have a very very sturdy light stand. For indoor use, however, it’s as stable as you’ll need it.

The assembly time is <1min:

1) Sandwich the paper/PVC foil between the two metal strips, clamp it together on the sides;

2) Extend your light stand and mount the studio clamp on top (eventually also the Lite-Tite, if you want even more flexibility in setting the background angle);

3) Clamp up the sandwiched end of the background with the studio clamp and you’re ready to shoot.

You can put your background behind a table or another surface and let it rest on it – that’s your “studio still life table” setup. Alternatively, you can also just let it hang down and shoot straight against it (with another surface below).

Here’s the whole support kit assembled:

Hit the link to see some closeups if you have problems visualizing the assembly.

Here are some photos from the first free wedding session:

Hit the link below to see the rest of the photos.

If you can’t recognize the photo on the left, you might want to start reading right here. In addition, there’s a special site (well, one of many I suppose) which celebrates the day and offers some more inspiration – that would be here.

So, how do you go about that? How do you look for a suitable location? How do you get to know that location?

1. Finding a location. Even if you are shooting completely unrestricted by time and cash – find a starting point to help you determine what you want and put some boundaries in your search. Don’t spend too long jumping from locations which are very different, such as a park and a beach. If you’re at a total loss and simply want a cool location – get out and get lost.

If you do have a general idea of what you want from your location, do some homework… By which I mean – work from home (well, or your office). Get on Google Maps, turn the satellite view on and begin your exploration. If you haven’t yet browsed for an outdoor location this way it might take a few minutes getting used to, but once you begin to feel comfortable you’ll realize the value this tool has to offer to photographers. If your area is covered by Street View – make sure you have a look at it, as well. Neither will always be up to date, but both modes are more than enough to give you a general idea.

Do keep in mind that if you’re shooting commercially or with a big setup (sometimes this means any setup) you may need to acquire an official permit to do so. Don’t leave this till the last moment. I won’t dig into this here, but you might want to have a look at Chase Jarvis’ blog article on the topic – How to Obtain Photo & Video Location Permits. It’s worth the read even if only for the fun of it.

2. Scouting the location. This is where most of your time will go, along with some monetary resources. Take your time with studying the location and most importantly – approach this with an open mind. Avoid looking at what others have shot there. Here’s a few practical tips which have helped me immensely.

a. Scout at the right day and the right time. Don’t go study a wedding location on Friday evening if you’ll be photographing the bride and the groom there on Sunday around noon. Unless you’re shooting at Death Valley or some place similar, chances are that traffic, visitors, public events, access in general, etc. etc. will all be different. Go a week earlier and at the same time of the day. This will give you a better idea of the time it takes to get around the place, the people that hang out there, the lighting conditions (presuming that the weather is somewhat constant) and so on.

b. Shoot. A lot. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you’ll remember what you saw and where you saw it. Shoot wide angle for the location, then shoot details for (re)composing your shots during the planning. If you have a modern smartphone, consider even making geo tagged images with it to serve you as markers or simply pin specific locations with a mapping application. Google’s My Tracks app is a great option for Android users (click here for the app’s homepage) but there are many others out there. The point is, ensure that you keep record of particular places in and around your location.

c. Time. Time. Time. This is especially valuable if you’re doing a lifestyle or a wedding shoot. You will want variety, so it’s important to know how long it takes to move from one setup to another, from the nice flat meadow to the old and grungy bridge. Account for this time in your plan for the shoot. It will save you a lot of headaches.

3. Putting it all together. Do this well and you’ll thank yourself in the future. Keep a nice record with sample images, perhaps even an exported GPS track or notes in your photo notebook. Chances are high that you’ll return to a good location and until you’ve become very familiar with it any information you’ve gathered in the past is worth having at an easy reach.

If you did yourself the favor of scouting at least a week in advance then you’ll have enough time to sit down and (re)plan your photo shoot. The most important point in this exercise is to always leave room for error and stay flexible.

Over the years a lot of plugins have been released for Photoshop which deal with noise removal in far greater detail than Camera Raw 6 (CR6). However, Adobe have done an amazing job with their free extension to CS5 and I personally can no longer justify the costs for an additional solution. CR6′s noise removal is simple, quick and most importantly – delivers great results.

So, let’s see our sample image – shot at ISO800 on Canon’s original EOS 5D with a Sigma 24-27 f/2.8 EX lens at f/2.8, shutter speed was 1/80sec. Originally the shot below is underexposed and I’ve bumped the exposure in CR6 to make the noise even more prominent. Here is an actual size crop of the image with no noise removal applied.

Because the crop is from the edge of the image and the far background it’s not completely sharp, but that’s not really relevant as I’m comparing the same area later on.

It’s not a particularly noisy image – even after the 1 full stop of exposure increase in CR6. Yet, there are some artifacts visible:

• a little bit of grain (luminance noise)
• a lot more color noise – the green/magenta and blue pixels (chrominance noise)

Camera RAW 6 deals with noise and sharpening through the Detail panel – the third tab from the top. Here’s a screenshot of mine with the noise removal applied:

I’ve highlighted the area of interest – the color noise removal. This is the only one we’re changing, actually (presuming you won’t be applying any sharpening for other reasons).

A lot of people nowadays, as well as a lot of the tools deal with the luminance noise – smoothing out the grain of the image beyond what is actually natural. This leads to significant loss of texture and makes the image appear plastic. It’s especially bad with portraits or other images in which the fine detail is crucial, such as architecture. In real life we see and feel the texture of the objects that surround us. If you can’t feel them in a photograph (you can’t technically touch them), why would you also want to make them invisible?

In my opinion some grain is very healthy for the look and ambiance of the image. I prefer to keep it, so in most cases I only address the chrominance noise. And Camera RAW 6 does a great job at that. Simply bump the Color slider to anywhere between 15 and 45-50, depending on the amount of chrominance noise you have and you want to remove and you’re all done. The Color Detail slider is by default at 50 and that’s where I like to keep it. Pushing this too far may introduce some of the noise you’re trying to remove or cause color bleeding. It’s not one of them sensitive sliders like the Luminance, so you can play with it in larger steps.

If you do have the occasional burned or dark pixel as a result of your high ISO – do apply the Luminance noise removal as well. Gently. Anywhere between 2-5 should be plenty and the Detail and Contrast will vary depending on your shot.

Lastly, here’s our image with the chrominance noise removal set at 35 (the settings from the screen shot above):

As you can see – there is plenty of texture still present on the wall. The image is just as sharp but it looks much better without the intrusive chrominance noise.

So, there you have it – effective noise removal in one or two simple steps. Do you have a specific technique which differs from mine and delivers better results? Feel free to share it in the comments below.

Lots of photos, actually. Photography is far from only the art of capturing photographs – it involves a lot of looking at photographs.

I recently read or heard it in an interview (if I recall the source I’ll make sure to post it) a statement which reminded me of the importance of gathering inspiration through photos already captured by others. The photographer being interviewed pointed out that throughout the years a good photographer will build up a significant collection of seen photos. Small (or large) elements of these photos will eventually become the source of inspiration for your own work. The more you’ve seen, the more you know what (not) to do.

No, I’m not talking about blindly copying other people’s work… You can do that as an exercise but don’t get stuck on it or allow it to limit your own creativity. And yes, it does mean that you also need to look at not so good photos. Especially if you’re a new photographer, be it for weddings, commercial projects, stock or whatever – you also need to know what to avoid, not only what to aim for.

How do you do that? In this day and age it’s almost shameful to ask such a question. A few minutes of searching on the Internet will deliver you a good amount of high quality blogs, forums, galleries, etc. where you can browse the work of a lot of other people. Follow the work of your favorite photographers, spend some time browsing public collections on the big photo hosting sites.

Very important – look for photos not only within your area of interest, but actively seek subjects which are outside of it. I’m not a big fan of architectural photography but browsing such photos has helped me develop better composition skills, and that’s only one example. The same is valid for landscape photographs.

Take it a step further – check some cool videos out. While the tube is plagued by a lot of crappy content, http://vimeo.com/ offers a lot of high quality work by both amateurs and professionals. A lot is to be learned from motion pictures.

Make it a leisure activity – while you’re mobile, while you’re relaxing after/during work… Whenever your location and Internet access allows you – be curious of what and how other people shoot. Five or ten minutes here and there will pay back big time in the long run.

To get you started, here’s a few links with plenty of useful material:

http://www.invitationtohang.com/  http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/pool/  http://www.thefstopmag.com/  http://www.dpreview.com/challenges/ http://fstoppers.com/

An important disclaimer: what I have described below is how to use your equipment for purposes it wasn’t designed to fulfill. Doing what is described below is entirely at your own risk and you’re responsible for any damage it may cause to your equipment, people it might hurt, etc., etc. You don’t have to do what I’ve done unless you decide so.

If you also happen to often work with reflectors and don’t always have a handy assistant around this is probably going to be useful for you. Below I’ll describe a quite decent DIY solution/substitute for a reflector holder on the field – it’s cheap, it’s stable and you most likely have (almost) all the ingredients.

What you’ll need

• A good tripod (mine is Manfrotto’s 055XPROB)
• Ball-head to go with it (Manfrotto 486RC2 here)
• A short spigot adapter (Manfrotto 119)
• A clamp which can attach to the above adapter (mine’s some no-name cheap thing, but it’s solid)

So, the basic idea is that you use your tripod as a “do it yourself” reflector holder. Thanks to its wide spread the tripod offers a lot of stability so you probably won’t need to use sand bags or other weights to keep things where you placed them. Because you’ll be “holding” your reflector vertically and not horizontally there are some limitations as to what and where you can reflect. Yet, don’t despair – if you have a tall tripod you can still get pretty decent results at eye height and retain most of the stability.

Below are some photos with brief explanations to help you understand better how the whole thing works. It’s really simple.

This is our Manfrotto tripod. It’s aluminum, doesn’t weigh much and has a lot of potential when it comes to spread, control and stability. You could probably pull this off with a cheaper tripod, too but I wouldn’t try it with one of the small entry level versions.

Then comes the ball-head. This one is quite essential as it allows you to fine-tune the position of the reflector. You don’t always have to tighten it all the way if you do a lot of small adjustments while shooting – it saves a lot of time. I’m not a fan of the 3d heads and I don’t own one to tell you how it would behave, but as long as you have the same clearance and options for adjustment – any one would do.

This is the ball-head with the spigot adapter mounted. This is necessary so you have where to mount the clamp. I’m sure that with different models you’ll be able to come up with different solutions to that, but this is what I already had so I used it. Just make sure that the spigot is tight enough into its place, so that the clamp doesn’t start moving around when the wind blows against the reflector.

And here is the whole big deal. The ball-head, the spigot on it and the clamp all fitting nicely and well tightened.

Now, a few shots showing the actual reflector being held by the clamp. Depending on the size and weight of your reflector you can manage to use it in moderately windy conditions. If you look a few shots below you’ll notice that the reflector isn’t actually held against the legs of the tripod. This means that when wind blows from the front it will stay in place nicely. If wind blows from the back, however, depending on its size and weight (again) the reflector might lift significantly. My temporary remedy for this was the photo bag – but it only works when the reflector is low enough. I suppose you could use two more smaller clamps to hold the reflector to the tripod legs. I’m still working on a quick and easily adjustable solution for myself, so if you have one in mind – let me know in the comments.

A nice option if you have a tripod with individually adjustable legs (ie. such that are not held together) is that you can tilt the entire tripod down to get a “from below” reflection – should you need such. The same tilt can also be used to bring in a reflection to a subject which is very low or on the ground.

Enough talking – here are the final few shots of the mod in action:

And the tripod tilted back for a different angle: