canon

Multi 2018 - Part 1

in

Hey!

A short update to my last post about Multi. 

The first week came to a close with a big event at a sportsground in Oberhause Holten. 

The visiting kids were all there, and their guest-families invited too! Bouncy castle, bucking bronco, football tournament and lots of food - no more really needs to be said!

I also had the opportunity to get the drone out again for a bit of aerial work! There'll be more coming in the next post too ;)

Week two has been a little less hectic than the first, with the program not being quite as packed as in the first week. 

As we head into the final big event, and the departure of all the visiting kids back home, it's time to start reflecting on what a great and interesting two weeks it's been. Keep an eye out for the next post!

👋🏻

 

Behind the Image

in ,

Hi, 

It's been a couple of weeks, and as i said in a previous post, i will be writing about my recent shoots with Theater Oberhausen, producing the imagery for their 2018/19 programme.

Well, here comes the first in that series.

The shoot for the theater's new programme involved photographing the permanent cast of the theater in various situations, performing 'other jobs' in the local area. We visited a hospital, funeral parlour, and a kiosk, to name just a few locations.

Most of the shoots were carried out at night, in order to take a look in to what people are doing while the rest of us sleep.

Midnight pizza

These shoots presented of course one major challenge; darkness. Something that can be overcome with knowing what you're doing, and a little trickery with lights here and there.

One of the most challenging shoots however was the team photo. All the men and women who work behind the scenes at the theater, who of course deserve their place in the programme, joined by some of the cast who were around on the day.

Photographing 50 plus people and making it look interesting isn't so easy. 

Thankfully, Franca, who i mentioned in a previous post, was on hand with some ideas and some sharp organisational skills!!

The plan was: use the main stage in the theater, bring some props in, and get everyone to lie on the floor in some kind of organised way so it looked like they were doing their usual jobs - or somewhere close!

From a technical point of view, figuring out how to photograph the stage from directly above was a bit of a sticky point.

Sending the camera up with the lighting rig was the simplest option. Then firing the camera remotely. 

Gaff tape and cable ties. A dream combo!

Instead of using cables to connect the camera to a computer to take the shot, i opted for using my reserve camera, a Canon 6D, and using it's wifi function to connect to my mac and take the shot. Easy right - wrong!

First, the proprietary software which Canon uses to tether the camera remotely is junk! The camera and computer can't see each other automatically like the camera can with Canons smartphone app.  You need to first set up an ad-hoc network on the computer, then try and force the camera to see it. 

When you are finally connected, the connection drops every few seconds. And you can't use more stable software like CaptureOne - or at least, i couldn't get it to work. 

The dropped connection of course could be due to the distance between camera and computer, around 15 meters; but once i had moved myself, and the macbook up into the rafters nearer the camera, the problem continued.

I tried my best to get as close to the camera as i could. This made communicating with the stage difficult.

Franca meanwhile continued to coordinate things down on the stage, with me having to send a screenshot from the macbook over WhatsApp every few seconds. This was of course only possible while the connection to the camera was holding and i was able to see something.

Several test shots later, we were ready to go - and of course, the connection dropped again. Wi-Fi off, Wi-Fi on, close EOS utility, open EOS utility - you get the idea of what a struggle it was!!

We did however get there in the end, and managed to pull an image out with so many things to look at! 

The image features on the inside cover of the new programme, and can be checked out online here!

There'll be more stories about the rest of the shoots coming in the coming weeks! 

Until then... :)

Photostrip - Alex Clare - Live 19.02.2017, Luxor, Cologne

in

Finally a fellow Englishman in the house again!

Sunday night took me back to the Luxor in Cologne to see Alex Clare in action! That guys voice is crazy good! Here's the pics! Thanks for looking!

Photostrip - The Naked and Famous - Live 07.02.2017, Die Kantine, Cologne

in

The Naked and Famous are currently touring Europe supporting the release of their most recent album 'Simple Forms'. 

I shot the bands Cologne performance for Coolibri Magazine, and also managed to get a backstage shoot with the groups singer Alisa.

Here's the photos from the show. Enjoy!

The one that got away!

in

Any photographer will know that feeling... You got the composition right, had your exposure all set hit the shutter, and walk away with the shot in the bag. Until... you get home, get the images off of your memory card to find the big shot of your shoot was off - you missed focus.

This, of course may not have been down to you - such cases usually are, but heres a case where one shot that i missed wasn't necessarily down to me!

The image below is Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, shot on 30.01.17 in Cologne. I knew this moment was coming. Billie was already starting to sprint along the stage runway back to the stage.

My metering was set. My focus was tracking him. Locked and loaded.

His feet leave the floor. The lighting totally changes and that's it! The camera freaks out. It has a split second to decipher the new levels of contrast it's now seeing on the subject it's tracking - and in the split second that i press the shutter, focus hasn't been totally re-aquired. The microphone stand that came into the foreground may have confused things further. Shame. But these things happen. This would have been THE shot of the night. But hey, there were a bucket load of great shots!

I've come across pro's that would still use a great shot even if the focus was missed and it wasn't quite sharp. I was torn myself, but decided against it in the end.

What would you have done? Use or lose?

Let me know in the comments! 

Photostrip - Palace - live 30.09.16 FZW Dortmund

in

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to shoot the Way Back When festival in Dortmund. The highlight act of the weekend were Augustines, who are currently on tour for the final time together - photos from their set will be coming soon.

The festival featured many other bands, including some great acts from the UK. Among them were newcomers Palace. The London four-piece have a really laid back alternative indie guitar sound. It really bought me back to some of Editors early work. 

A great band who will hopefully go on to great things! Their debut album 'So Long Forever' comes out on 04.11.16. Pre-order now at http://po.st/PALSLFP 

Check them out!

Enjoy the pictures from their set - and don't forget to share!

ALL pictures © Ant Palmer/Ape.Photos. Use ONLY with permission.

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Let light live!

in ,

Hey! 

So, last week I talked about killing ambient light in order to create a low-key portrait. Well, this week, I've been having a play around with high-key light, again using just one speedlight!

When creating a low-key scenario with one strobe, the starting point is always the shutter speed. Simply, pump it up all the way to your cameras maximum flash sync speed. This is usually in the range from 1/200 - 1/250th of a second. This gives you your starting point to be able to create a dark image from a lit scene.

When creating a high-key lighting effect, the mission is to make your camera as sensitive to light as you can, while trying to maintain a correct exposure. Over-exposing slight isn't going to kill your image, but don't forget that simply over-exposing as much as you can to create the effect will result in a serious loss of detail in your final image, and something that is as good as un-savable in post!

In the image below, my set-up couldn't have been simpler! Usually two strobes as used in this method - one to blow out the background and one to light the subject. I used just the one flash, in room flooded with daylight.

So, in my shot, I used one light, set to 1/4 power, placed on a stand behind me and bounced off the wall and ceiling behind me. That was it! Having a white background is obviously a must. In this case I simply draped a white sheet over my sofa. Depending on the size of your room, or distance to subject, you may of course need to increase or decrease the output power of your light.

Set your ISO to something a little more sensitive, but nothing thats going to cause image degradation - I used ISO 400. As I was shooting a baby, that of course won't stay still, I couldn't shoot wide open. If I did, then I probably wouldn't have got a single sharp shot! f3.5 was used in this case to give me enough depth of field to allow for slight movement. 

So - that's my base settings, then, It's just a case of bringing the shutter speed down enough to let the camera suck in plenty light!! My shot here was taken at 1/80 second at f3.5 ISO 400 with flash at 1/4 power and 24mm for a good spread of light. Some creasing in my background is still visible - so not completely blown out. This can be adjusted in Lightroom using an adjustment brush in the white, highlights or exposure channel. Easy! A word of warning though, be careful not to go to mad in Lightroom - you can end up with the image looking like the subject has been superimposed onto a white background - not good. I've left the slight shadow that was cast just to avoid this look. 

I'll definitely be having a play with this set-up again soon! May next i'll try the trusted 2 light technique and report back!!

 

Kit used: Canon 7d, Tamron 17-50mm SP DI, Yongnuo YN-560III Flash with 560TX wireless trigger, Walimex pro lightstand, old bed sheet.