Shoot for the (super) moon

Or, have a "Plan B"...


With the moon due to be at its closest approach since 1992, and therefore its biggest size in the sky, I decided I'd try to get a decent picture of it. I decided I'd do this only on the day, so the evening was spent trying to work out what I wanted and how to go about photographing what I was seeing in my mind's eye.

And then adapting it as things didn't work out...

What did I want to see? The moon on its own, big in the frame, is spectacular but (weather permitting) is generally photographable several times a year. The supermoon is bigger, but only by 14%, so it's not really noticeable. What I needed to do was to put it in context, in the sky with something recognisable below it. Moonrise means that you've more choice of things to put underneath it, but, for reasons below, I opted to try something a bit different...

More after the break.

Local Press Photographers Day: Part Five - the results.

Here is a small selection from the pictures I made on that Friday. I've left out ones with kids in, even though I could have picked out a few as personal likes. In these paranoid times, it's probably safest, although I do wonder whether the paranoia now will become something to regret in 20 years time...

"Billy Turner", the  shop assistant in the BBC's1935 

Grocers. 1/125th, f5.6, ISO1000. Nothing fancy, just 

bounced SB900 flash off a white ceiling. Higher 

ISO gives the flash some help, and 1/125th stops 

too much flouro ambient colouring the picture.

More after the break!

Local Press Photographer's Day - Part Four...

Some notes on cameras and settings...
My typical set-up:

A pair of company D300's, shooting Jpegs, Normal Quality (about 3.5Mb files), full size (12mp), Adobe RGB, Nikon's Picture Control on “Standard”, but with the contrast and saturation turned down and the sharpening up by one notch each. There was a point where I felt BigPaper’s processes weren’t putting enough unsharp mask on for the presses, hence the increased default sharpening. Both bodies have also got their default Matrix exposures increased by 0.3 stop using the fine-tuning. The D300 seems to be set slightly “dark” for my taste. I have the histogram and Highlight Warning blinkies set to On, and check these for exposure. A white collar, say, "blinking" is normally of no worry to me. A face doing it means trouble: adjustments are made...

Exposure is usually via aperture priority with compensation as needed, though I do swap modes occasionally if I want a particular shutter speed held; for example, I have been known to use Program in the summer - I use the auto-FP High Speed sync on my flashes by default, but if you need every last Watt of power (summer sun fill-flash), then Program mode won’t let the shutter speed rise over the “normal” max-sync 1/250th unless it absolutely has to, and it’s quicker to just click in and out of P than faff back and forth...

I usually try to work through the day on one body, so it keeps the downloading of the cards simple and jobs aren’t spread across multiple cards. If I need two, I’ll use two, though.

For sport, or if I know there is going to be bugger-all or very difficult lighting, I nearly always pick one of my personal pair of D3 bodies (I know, lucky ...!), set to shoot raw to one card and Normal Quality Jpeg to the other. Colour Space, file size and Picture Control are all set as the D300 bodies, though I usually use the raws so it’s really of no consequence. The D3 and D300 share the same AF hardware, but, like others have reported, I find it works better in the D3. It may have something to do with the extra processing power available to the D3, and also that the focus points don't extend so far into the darker "edges" of the frame.

Again, you might be interested to know that both D3 bodies have +0.16 stop exposure dialed in via the fine-tune. I usually don’t dial it out unless I get a lot of highlight warning blinkies, again because I normally go to the raw. This sometimes "sacrifices" the Jpeg, and I reckon I'll stop shooting those on D3 eventually. Both D3 bodies are typically on Manual for sport, with the actual exposure value being set by the excellent Auto-ISO, and usually Aperture Priority for anything else.

With Jpegs you can’t go too mad in post-processing, so the best practice of getting good basic exposure and framing in-camera still applies.  With raws there is scope to do more, which is why I will use my D3s when I know there is likely to be trouble. To be honest, I do it for practice too - I think the raw workflow will be one we all go to eventually. The advantage of raw is you can defer some of your shooting decisions until after the event, especially if you are working in a tearing hurry in difficult circumstances.  The downside of raw is bigger files that take longer to import, that all need adjusting, and then take longer to export as Jpegs.  

My normal workflow for raws is through Apple Aperture 3, so I skip the Photo Mechanic stage, doing tagging, captioning, cropping and adjusting in just the one program. I run through the images and ones I like get one star, then I look at the "one stars" and make a final selection, these getting upgraded to three stars, so they stand out. I sort out the captions, and then Adjust; I keep a set of Aperture presets that I know work for me, like curves, highlight recovery, sharpening and such, so I can hit a preset for quickness and then tweak it for the individual picture. Aperture exports the edited pics as Jpegs, again about 1.8 - 2.0 mb. Now I do go back into Photo Mechanic, but just to use its FTP facility to send the images out. I used to use Lightroom for the raws too, but I definitely believe Aperture 3 makes a much better job of rendering raw images the way I think they should look. I understand Adobe has improved its raw profiles in the latest ACR and Lightroom 3 but, for now, I haven’t coughed up for the upgrade from 2 to 3. 

Next: And finally, some of the pictures from the day...

Local Press Photographer's Day - Part Three...

Now I've shot them, time to finally do something with them...

In front of the MacBook, at home, shooting done:

My typical newspaper Jpeg workflow is: Cards out of camera, into card reader plugged into my Macbook, which automatically launches Photo Mechanic. Hit the button to ingest all the images shot.  Now, while I’ve been shooting, I’ve been taking a few seconds during and after the shoot to hit the “protect” button on the camera for images I like the look of.  When these pop up in Photo Mechanic, they are already tagged on the contact sheet, so I just hit the key to isolate them, recheck for focus, eyes open, best expression, exposure and, if I’ve got the selection right, they get a colour code (green) which gives a belt and braces selection. I will still look at the others in the shoot, in case I’ve missed any other good selects. Any that aren’t quite there I just untag and look either side on the contact sheet for an alternative.

Once I’ve made my selection, these are captioned according to BigPaper needs, job by job.  Trust me, captioning is a very nitpicky task! Once you have the blanket one in place, most images then need customising, as they will feature different people, actions, or other details - picture spreads, beloved of local newspapers, will usually need every last image customised...  I hit the key that isolates all “green” images and they are all then opened up in Lightroom, getting any small crops, exposure or tonal adjustments I think needed.  I’m not supposed to do this, but having gained a lot of digital experience over the last few years, I firmly believe there is no such thing as a print-ready image straight out of the camera. This isn’t an absolute, but I still want my images to look the best I can make them. Having seen the butchery sometimes carried out at the production stages, if it’s got my byline on it I at least want it to look its best before it then gets mullered…

Between me and the cameras, I don’t expect to change the exposure much – Once the images are in Lightroom I am disappointed if any need more than +/- 0.3 of a stop - but I will move the shadows, highlights and midtones around a little bit. I try not to crop too much, either, but it’s useful to be able to do a trim after the event. Jpegs otherwise don't get too much adjustment, nor will they put up with it. They get exported to a SEND folder as smaller file-size Jpegs, about 70 on the sliding scale, which gives between 1.4 - 2.0mb images, These are still plenty quality-wise but much easier and quicker to send.  Photo Mechanic is pointed at the SEND folder, and the FTP system built into PM used to send them over the ‘net.

If I’m in a tearing hurry to get a job away for deadline (usually a Tuesday for me) then that will be the job I edit in Photo Mechanic first, and then just that job goes over to Lightroom; crop, exposure, tone - again, with restraint - but these might get exported as even lower quality Jpegs - perhaps 60 - because they are often being sent from the car via 3G. Even these are still 1mb+ images. Just occasionally, for very quick transmission, I downsize the exports to 6 million pixel, 800kb pics.  The beauty of Lightroom (and Aperture) is that these are new versions of untouched originals. Need a bigger copy? Just export it larger next time.

------------------------------------------

With a couple of brief halts to make drinks/tea and a quick snack (remember, nothing but a Latte and water during the day), I finally finish FTP’ing the last pic at 18.30...

That’s before I start charging batteries, cleaning lenses for the same again tomorrow.

I Shot 218 images across the 8 jobs, and actually filed 48 from these. This included the requested ‘Page of Pics” from one of the Junior School jobs and what I took to be another page+ request (“Get as many pix as possible”) from the Beer Festival. I’ve recently arrived at a rough estimate, that each image takes (a conservative) two minutes to select, caption and physically send – that doesn’t include my personal extra step into Lightroom, though I don’t faff much once I’m there for obvious reasons! – so 48 images takes 100 minutes to deal with. The sending could be run in the background as soon as the Lightroom export is finished but, once exported, it really does pay to try to run your eyes over the images again to make sure the data is OK before they go. If you're sending via 3G from the car, you're committed to sitting there whilst they copy over, anyway.

Additionally, my total mileage on that Friday was 62 miles.  The trip computer in the car shows my average speed as 23mph. The distance to the first job was about 10 miles. The distance home from the last job was about 16 miles, so a total mileage “between jobs” of 36 miles. Even in a small group of towns, at the average indicated that’s 90 minutes+ of my day just driving between locations...

So in a theoretical seven- hour shift (lunch, remember – haha), well over 3 hours is used up driving and editing what’s shot. That’s without actually physically shooting, in as creative and interesting ways as I can, eight jobs involving real, ordinary people, at seven different locations…


And the next, penultimate piece: a few notes about camera settings and why, even if time-stressed, I will sometimes shoot raw...

 

Local Press Photographer's Day - Part Two...

...OR, Let's try and get this done!

OK -First, some Informal Rules, generally agreed on by photographer colleagues:

1)  Even the simplest head-and-shoulders pic will still need you to budget 15 minutes of your time.

2)  A page of Pix is usually 6/8 images, and 30 minutes work. A DPS is an hour and 12/14 images. You might get them quicker; be thankful if you do...

3)  At least one each, Upright and View, if possible, from each job.

4)  Some jobs WILL be late. Either the location isn’t ready, or the subject isn’t ready, or, TOO OFTEN, the time is wrong or a fiction seemingly invented to fit into a busy list and expecting the snapper to sort it, somehow!

5)  Town centres, especially Friday and Saturday - enough said!

I’ve already decided that I can’t do the list in the order it’s sent out to me. So I’ve e-mailed Newsdesk back to say so, warning them that there’s not much scope to add anything, no matter what they might think. Do they take any notice? Do they heck...

Drive up to patch and:

Start at Junior School at 9.30; the list actually says the Box2BFit goes on all day, so it’s PROBABLE that I will be able to get going earlier - I’m right, and there is a session just starting. Got them 14 pix from the boxercise. The rugby player arrived at 10.00 (phew!) and I grabbed a quick 2/3 pix of him with some kids on the charity rowing machines at the school. No problems with naming the kids, too.

OUT THE DOOR by 10.10 – A result, based on the list as it was!

Next stop Town Centre, for the BBC “Shop 1935” in the Mall - end up parked 5/10 minutes away, but this job was pretty good even if it took me a while to get the pics I wanted. Got my first pic at 10.45, got 6 pix, and was;

OUT THE DOOR by 11.05 - but remember it’s 5/10 minutes back to the car.

Have a think about trying the Beer Festival, the venue is just off the old road between OldTown Centre and Cathedral Town BUT can’t find anywhere to park close enough, despite two passes around OldTown Centre, AND it’s a bit tight for time (remember, the request says “get lots of pix”). Back to Plan A and drive up to Girls Grammar School - park up thinking I have the luxury of 15 minutes to myself! Just about to whip out the MacBook to do a quick few minutes initial edit of what I’ve got so far…

…It’s here that I get the call to go to the new Costa at OutofTown Mall. Newsdesk seem not to have read my reply to the PicList e-mail, (I told them the list needs timing changes and that one, maybe two, of the “anytime between:-” jobs will HAVE to be done in the afternoon after 2.00).  I’m told the Costas job is 3.00‘ish. I have a quiet but pithy swear, and a think, with the ‘phone on mute and reluctantly decide it is do-able if I can get there before 3.00. I’ll do the Beer Festival last.

12.00 - Walk into the school to get the required pix - this is one of those “Yes, and?” jobs - it really isn’t much of a pic so it’s the head, the baroness and a few pupils, upright and view.  UNFORTUNATELY, it then takes the school 25+ minutes to rustle up all the parties - Aggghhh!!! Two quick pics - upright and view!

OUT THE DOOR at 12.30, cursing, because it will take me 20 minutes to get to Old Docks.

It does.  Arrive at the venue in Old Docks at nearly 12.55. BUT this seems to have one of those “made-up times”, as it’s lunch, and even G, the helpful PR liaison at Old Docks wonders why I’ve turned up when everyone is stuffing their faces...  And there is barely any detail on the request - what do they want? HOWEVER, help is at hand, as another PR of my acquaintance is there. I know a bit about the Jervis Bay story, and with her help I put together a passable set of pics of various relatives of her crewmembers, and some copied pics of theirs. It’s just a shame that, even as I shoot them, I KNOW that this is more of a story than the paper can deal with (though I’m prepared to be pleasantly surprised). They’ve got 8 pix, then;

OUT THE DOOR at 13.40, heading for Outlying Town and Small Cafe. There’s slow traffic and again I have to make two passes before I eventually dump it in a business’s space (though I think it’s shut down - phew!) and dash in at 14.05. Wait 5 minutes for hair and makeup - women! Get my 3 pix and;

OUT THE DOOR at 14.15,

Quick dash up to OutofTown Mall, arrive (hallelujah!, there is a choice of spaces, despite it being Friday) and get my first pic at 14.35. The last pic is taken by 14.40 and, with 4 pix;

OUT THE DOOR at 14.40, AND with a free Latte - a small bonus, since you may have noticed an absence of any lunch or proper break...!

Last stop is the Beer Festival, I dive down side-road again, turn left onto the Old Road and - A SPACE! Dive into that, feed the meter, and up to the Festival at 15.15.

I’ve done this event for a few years, and sadly it always suffers from the same problem - too many people not wanting to be pictured. Some of it is because quite a few are supposed to be at work (!), some just the usual shy/embarrassed/surly, some I swear must be wanted in 10 countries... And some is just because of the negative publicity that alcohol carries.  BUT, persisting gets me 7/8 pics, a bottle of water (another freebie blag) and its;

OUT THE DOOR at 15.40, head for the car and head for home to download - I’m blowed if I’m going to Newsdesk Office as the traffic is terrible there on Friday afternoons, and there’s always someone who, if they see you, will go “Oh, could you just swing by…”, ignoring the fact that you already have cards full of images that now really need something done to them.

And the tea is better at home, too.

Hit the drive at 16.20, and after collecting the bits I need (laptop, notebooks, piclist, CF card) it’s time to settle down in front of a glowing MacBook…,

In Part Three - Workflow, Workflow... Is that the Time?!

The Local Press Photographer's Day - Part One...

And so it begins, when this little gem pops up in your in-box on a Thursday evening...

Urban Sprawl Towns, Friday, Early Winter.

9 – 5 Shift

@RagSnapper

TIME: 10am-noon

PLACE: Junior School, Back Road, Middle Town

EVENT: 1. England Commonwealth Games rugby player Danny C is coming to meet pupils and to be reunited with head teacher Mr G. Mr G coached him in rugby when they were both at Other Junior.

       2. Box2bfit running sessions at the school all day for pupils

CATEGORY: Schools

SLUG: 1) DANNY  

            2) BOXING

REQUIREMENTS: Would like a page of pictures from at least one of these

Time: 10am to 5pm

Place: Unit 67, Mall Shopping Centre, Town Centre,

Event: BBC turning empty shop into 1930s style grocers, for a programme they are making

Slug: GROCER

Category: HI

Time: 11am - 11pm

Place: Gloomy Ballroom , Small Hotel,  OldTown Centre

Details: Second day of Beer Festival (event backed by Big Paper - please get as many pix as poss - plan is to use one on Monday and two-three more on Friday)

Slug:  BEER

Category: Festivals

TIME: Noon

PLACE: Go to reception at the Grammar School, Cathedral Town

EVENT: Visit by Baroness A, who will be speaking to students and the work of the House of Lords

CATEGORY: Schools

SLUG: baroness

TIME: 12.45-1.15pm

PLACE Old Docks, near Town Centre.

JOB Commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the loss of HMS JERVIS BAY

SLUG jervis

CATEGORY hi

Time: 2pm

Location: Small Cafe, Healthy Living Centre, Outlying Town.

Job: Staff at the new look Small Cafe, which is to replace the old Replaced Cafe.

Category: Charity

Slug: SMALL

And added by ‘phone that morning:

Time: 3.00pm or near

Location: New Costas, Out of Town Mall, (Costas is near Sainsburys)

Job: New Costas coffee shop is officially opening tomorrow, but is having a “test run” this afternoon.

Requirements: Please get pic of some staff (manager is M), maybe at the soft seating in the new shop.

Category: Business

Slug: COSTAS

  

Love, The Newsdesk X

And in Part Two: How I try to make sure this all actually gets done...!