Photography holiday video
May 13, 2008 by Philip
Filed under Philip Dunn's PhotoActive Blog
Below is a short video I have put together of some of the photographers on my latest photography holiday in Menorca. It includes several of their photographs and also some of mine. La Mola is an extraordinary place. The old fortifications guarding the entrance to Mahon harbour. The whole place is just bursting with photo opportunities.
So enjoy the video and the photographs – The next holiday will be in September and there are still a few places available.
Photographing strangers
May 7, 2008 by Philip
Filed under Philip Dunn's PhotoActive Blog
These photography holidays I run in Menorca are always full of lovely surprises for me. I just never know which photographer in the group is going to amaze me next by producing a truly sparkling image. It’s not always the most experienced photographers who produce the most outstanding pictures from any of the locations we explore together.
We photograph people everywhere we go; in the street, indoors, anywhere. It is one of the great joys and freedoms of working in Menorca where the people are so friendly and welcoming. Unlike Britain, where less intelligent attitudes prevail, this is a place where people are proud to be photographed.
One of the places we sometimes visit is an old shop that sells everything from guns to leather saddles, wicker baskets and wooden mouse traps. It’s a marvellous place to take photographs and we are always made extremely welcome by Lorenzo, the owner, and Paca, his assistant. It’s one of those real old-fashioned shops where people come in not just to buy, but also for a chat and a sit down. Lorenzo’s beautiful dog befriends everyone and is always a favourite subject for us. But when the customers sit by the door and talk to the dog – the photographers are in heaven.
When the charming old chap, photographed above, came into the shop, I simply asked him to sit by the door in the soft sidelight and let the photographers get on with it. I believe these situations are for them, not for me, so I always step back and let them move in to get their pictures.
This lovely photograph was done by Laura, who prefers to be called Beannie for some reason. She is very inexperienced behind a camera but possesses the ‘eye’. That is she has a natural flare for a picture. Here is the evidence. I think is absolutely beautiful; full of human tenderness. It has captured a very special moment.
I suggested that everyone set their ISO to at least 400 before they went into the shop – it’s pretty dark in there and it’s impossible to set up tripods. So that extra speed enables faster shutter speeds. Here it has really paid off.
Well done, Beannie. That’s her in the centre of the picture of three of the girls on the holiday. Oh, and below is a shot of Cathy making friends with another dog outside the shop while being photographed by the other Laura on the holiday.
Wide angle lens – Part 1
December 20, 2007 by Philip
Filed under Philip Dunn's PhotoActive Blog
Do you have a wide angle lens but rarely take it out of your camera bag? I reckon a wide angle is one of the most useful lenses you can own for everything from landscapes to portraits… it just needs treating with a bit of respect and understanding.
A wide angle lens is not just to get ‘more in’. There, I’ve said it again – something I bang on about to my students every time we talk about short focal length lenses. A lens with a focal length equivalent to about 24mm is perhaps the most useful because it has the effect of accentuating the perspective of your pictures without distorting things too much. Yes, I know there are people who would argue that it does nothing of the sort, but I was careful to say ‘has the effect of’. It has the effect of making the foreground appear nearer and the background further away because it captures more in the frame, and yes, I suppose it is useful for getting ‘more in’ when you are taking pictures in confined spaces.
The most obvious effect of this accentuated perspective is to add a greater illusion of depth, or the third dimension, to your two dimensional photographs.
The perspective of the bridge and the boats has been exaggerated with a 24mm lens to ensure that the eye is led right into the picture. The swans, of course, are the focal point, but the overall effect makes the viewer feel as though he could clamber out over the boats
Lenses equivalent to a focal length of less than 24mm start to have considerable distorting effect. I rarely use them for this reason. The shorter the focal length, the wider the angle of the lens, and the greater the distortion. Pictures taken purely for the effect of a super wide, or fish-eye lens have become a cliché and unless you have specific purpose for such a lens you are unlikely to get much use from it. However, a 24mm or perhaps 28mm equivalent can be extremely well employed for a great range of subjects. For landscape, townscape and interior shots in particular the 24-28mm equivalent lens is indispensable. I say ‘equivalent’ because you have to remember that unless your digital SLR has a full-frame sensor – and most digital SLRs do not – there is a magnification factor of around 1.6. So you need a lens with an actual focal length of around 15mm to get the ‘equivalent’ of a 24mm.
This time a 21mm wide angle lens has been used to gather extra information into the picture. This man is a saddler and I wanted to show what he was doing and the sort of tools he used to do it. The tools were carefully arranged in the near foreground and he was asked to stand back just a little and reach forward. This has added to the effect of extra depth by making his hands look slightly bigger so that he seems to be coming further out of the picture
Yes, a wide angle lens can be used to ‘get more in’ and it really come in handy with interior shots. I would have been unable to include the entire room in this photograph without a 24mm lens. This lens has already started to distort the settee a little. Had I used an even shorter focal length lens, I would have got ‘even more in’, but the distortion would have been unacceptable. Notice how I have been able to include the flowers in the foreground to create a pleasant atmosphere. By stopping down to a small aperture, the already considerable depth of field of the wide angle lens has been boosted even more. Those flowers are just three feet away from the camera, yet they and the background are perfectly in focus
TIP.. a selection of top quality lenses is available from the PhotoActive Camera Shop
How to take indoor pictures without a tripod. Part 3
December 7, 2007 by Philip
Filed under Philip Dunn's PhotoActive Blog
In the third short article about how to get interior pictures indoors without using a tripod, let’s take a look at how we might use flash. A variety of techniques were used for flash in the ironmonger’s shop.
Direct flash light, either from the camera’s pop-up unit, or from a flash gun mounted on the camera, can be hard and unpleasant. Bouncing the flash off a wall or ceiling is common practice. But what do you do if there are no walls to bounce it off? Or the ceiling is far too high? All is not lost.
You can raise the quality of the light and soften it by swivelling the head of a flash mounted on the camera’s hot shoe to one side and angling the light to reflect off a piece of paper. Anything white will do. Just get your angle right. You can even aim the flash at a reflector held in one hand while holding the camera in the other hand – as in the picture above.
The stag’s head was mounted high up on a wall in dark corner of the shop. Without a flash I could not have photographed it. The flash head was turned to aim at a sheet of paper held in my left hand. The flash has reached right up into the corner with a lovely soft light. Using one of those small box-type diffusers that clip over the flash will have little effect if there are no reflective walls or objects around the flash. The light will still be from a very small light source – and that’s what gives hard shadows. If you think about it, the stag’s head is lit by a light which is the size of the magazine pages – much better.
For the picture of the plant pots and shop interior, the camera was settled on a bag of dog food. I took the flash gun off the camera. A shutter speed of 2secs was used with the self timer. I fired off a couple of low-powered flashes by hand while the shutter was open. This added a little light into the shadows. 
Shooting from behind the life-size dummy horse in the shop window and looking out into the street, the lighting contrast was very high and created only a silhouette image with little detail in the foreground. To counteract this I used the camera’s pop-up flash, but reduced its output by –2 values… just enough to add detail and colour.
How to take indoor pictures without tripods. Part 2
December 6, 2007 by Philip
Filed under Philip Dunn's PhotoActive Blog
For the pictures of the interior of the shop and the goods on the shelves, I either steadied the camera on the floor or on a piece of shop furniture. For at least one photograph, the camera was nestled onto a bag of dog food and the shooting angle adjusted by stuffing my handkerchief under the lens. Use whatever you have at hand. You may be forced to make some small compromises with composition and angles if you cannot get the camera into exactly the position you would prefer. Don’t let this prevent you gathering pictures.
For the picture of the row of pot pigs, it was easy to just rest the camera on the floor, aim roughly in the right direction and press the button. Check your image, if you don’t get it exactly right first time, try again.
For the shot of the baskets hanging from the ceiling, I simply rested the camera on its back on the floor pointing upwards. Set the self-timer, stepped back, and the picture took itself.
A variety of methods was used for flash. The camera might be steadied as above, and the flash fired by hand during the long exposure. Or the camera was held in one hand with the flash on the hot shoe with the flash head angled to reflect off a sheet of paper held in my other hand. Sounds like a conjuring trick, but it’s easy once you get the hang of it. I also used the on-camera flash for one shot.
For the picture of the rope and walking sticks in the shop doorway, I steadied the camera on the shop counter. Expoure was 1/15sec at f8
Unless your camera has ‘live-view’ facility, it can sometime be impossible to get your eye down to the viewfinder when it is resting on a table or other surface (see the picture below). In this case, frame the picture as near as possible before you set it up. Then try to aim it as near as possible for the shot you want. You will be surprised how accurate you will become with practice.
For the picture of the row of pot pigs, it was easy to just rest the camera on the floor, aim roughly in the right direction and press the button. Check your image, if you don’t get it exactly right first time, try again.
The total time spent in the shop to take some 20 very different photographs was just 45 minutes – time I thought very well spent.
In Part 3, I’ll show you how to create natural-looking light with your flash mounted on the camera.
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