Lightroom workshop with Martin Evening

Friday was a gorgeous sunny day here in London but I managed to spend most of it locked inside a blacked out studio. Why? Because I spent the day on an Adobe Lightroom workshop with none other than Mr Photoshop himself, Martin Evening.

Martin is a London-based fashion and beauty photographer who was part of the first wave to embrace digital imaging back in the late 1980s. Having cut his teeth on Photoshop 2.5 (we're now on version 12!), Martin has become one of the world's leading experts on digital imaging. His books on Photoshop and Lightroom are bestsellers and have become the "go to" books for using these complex pieces of software.


I use Lightroom 3 almost every day to manage, edit and print my images - so I like to think I know my way around the program pretty well. But I knew there was probably a lot more I could get out of it, and I wasn't wrong. Spending a day with Martin and 4 other photographers was a great experience and I learned an enormous amount about how to get the most out of my images - I took 12 pages of notes!


I'll share a few of the most useful tips on the blog over the next few months.

More on lighting interiors

Further to my post a few months ago on shooting interiors, Strobist has a great post on lighting for interiors featuring archive videos of legendary photo educator Dean Collins lecturing at the Brooks Institute of Photography.

These videos were shot in the early 1990s, and Dean is talking about shooting film in large format cameras. But the beauty of light is that the laws of physics don't change, and everything he talks about is just as relevant today as it was then.

Dean is one of those guys you wish all your school teachers had been like - he's passionate, amusing and extremely knowledgeable. Head over to Strobist and enjoy.

The importance of scouting

A lot of planning had gone into my recent Jamaica shoot. Over the course of several meetings and conference calls we had agreed an itinerary that allowed for some scouting time at each location the day before to find the best locations and viewpoints. All except one…

One afternoon we planned to shoot horses riding through the surf, but we weren’t going to have time to scout. However we had explained at length to the local producer exactly what we were looking to do over the phone.

On the day, we were late arriving at the stables after the producer had kept us waiting earlier. With about an hour to go until sunset, we had some horses and some guides, and they took us down to the beach.

Except that there was no beach.

Instead there was a stinking stretch of swamp knee deep in horse crap. It clearly wasn’t going to do. Tempers were fraying. On explaining that we wanted an wide, sandy beach there was much scratching of chins. After a couple of minutes it was agreed there was a sandy beach not too far away. The guides galloped off to check if the access road was open.

It was not.

By now I was getting pretty stressed. The sun was dropping fast and the light was gorgeous. We were then told there was another beach not too far away. It was the only available option, so we had to go and give it a try.

After a 15 minute drive following the horses, we arrived at a rocky cove surrounded by low scrub. Not exactly what I had in mind, but with only 30 mins before the sun went down I was just going to have to get on and make the most of it.

So we got the models and the guides up on the horses, and had them wading through the surf back and forth. The shoreline was so rocky that the horses had to step quite gingerly – so no galloping action shots today.

So instead I chose to shoot into the sun, to disguise the location as much as possible and give a warm feeling to the shots. I was on manual exposure and took a few test shots to get the correct amount of sun flare while still holding some shadow detail.

The WFT was transmitting files to the laptop so the art director could view them as I was shooting. He liked what he saw so we tried a few different variations. By now I was standing waist deep in the water and getting splashed a few times by the waves, but luckily the camera held out despite getting a bit of a soaking. Finally just as the sun went down we shot the other was, out to sea, to get the most of the soft light on a nearby headland.

Going over the shots back at the hotel afterwards, we agreed that we had successfully snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. And in the process I learnt a valuable lesion – no matter what others tells you, always ensure you get a chance to scout a location personally before shooting!

I'm rather liking Live View

If you've ever tried taking pictures from strange angles, or close to the ground, with an SLR, then you'll know that is a surefire way to either get a crick in your neck or end up with a badly composed photo. Just when you've spotted a great photo you find it required putting the camera in a place where you can't actually get your eye to the viewfinder.

The old fashioned way to get around this (i.e. up until about 18 months ago) was to use an angle finder. These attached to the eyepiece of the viewfinder and gave to a bit more breathing room. But they were expensive and not always very easy to use.

But angle finders can now be relegated to the dustbin of history, as the latest generation of DSLRs all have Live View. In this mode the mirror flips up and you get a live image of what the sensor is seeing on the rear LCD.

With the 5D mark II that I typically use, the screen is bright enough and has a good enough viewing angle that this has become a seriously useful feature, even for non-tripod based work. Stick the camera where you want it, compose on the rear screen, and take the picture.


There are a couple of things to bear in mind though. The first is that autofocus works rather differently in this mode. No near instant AF. Instead you either have to use painfully slow contrast detection AF that will take a few seconds to focus. Or the mirror will flip up, achieve focus with the ragular phase-detection AF sensors, before the mirror flips down again and live view resumes. So if you're hoping to catch the decisive moment this way, then be sure to have focused in advance.

But even with this limitation it allows for some cool perspectives. Both the photos in this post were taken this way on my recent assignment to Fes.

All I wish for now is an articulated screen to really open up the angles.

Interiors

I’ve had a couple of requests to post about shooting interiors, so here goes. On travel assignments it is often necessary to shoot interiors – whether it’s a hotel, restaurant, vineyard or some other interesting or beautiful building. Here are a few tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way for getting good quality shots while not having to carry the kitchen sink.



Styling
The first step in making a beautiful interior shot is to make the interior look beautiful. This might sound obvious, but sometimes is not always easy to do. Everything should be neat and tidy, with no clutter or stray items lying around.

For bigger commercial shoots for hotels and resorts, there is usually a stylist to make everything look beautiful, but for editorial assignments I usually have to do it myself.

Hotels are usually the easiest, because they keep everything spotless anyway, but it can take a bit more time in other locations. Don’t be afraid to move furniture, take pictures off the walls, restyle bedspreads and cushions etc.

Finally, always turn all the lights on, even if shooting in broad daylight. Rooms without the lights on somehow look dead and lifeless.



What to shoot
You should plan to get a good mix of wide and detail shots. Always get a wide shot of the room in question, but then look for the interesting close ups too – cushions on the sofa, a glass of wine on the table, a vase of flowers on the sideboard - whatever catches your eye. Aim for simple, graphic compositions.

Complex pictures with lots of details generally don’t suit architecture and interiors – look for clean lines and use negative space, such as blank walls or sky, to your advantage.



How to shoot it - kit
I’m a big fan of Canon’s 24mm TSE tilt/shift lens, and use it all the time when shooting architecture – inside or out. Nikon shooters now have an equivalent too.

A shift lens allows you to move the field of view up and down while keeping the camera perfectly level. This means you can keep verticals looking vertical, even if normally you would need to point the camera up or down to get the whole view in.

Yes, you can correct for converging verticals in Photoshop using the perspective crop tool, but firstly you do lose some quality and secondly it gets very time consuming if you are having to correct a lot of shots at the end of a shoot. I find it much easier to get it right in the camera. For detail shots I often use the Canon 100mm 2.8 Macro. Not that I need the macro capabilities for this type of shot, but that it doesn’t suffer from distortion.

Most zooms, even top quality L-series lenses, have barrel distortion at the wide end and pincushion distortion at the long end. Using prime lenses (such as the 24mm TSE and 100mm Macro) avoids this problem, or at least greatly reduces it. Again, it is possible to correct it later in Photoshop, but there is a cost in terms of time and quality.

Live view, found on most recent DSLRs, is a great help for focusing. Compose your shot on the tripod, then use the zoom feature to manually focus in Live View.

That way you do not need to auto-focus and then recompose if your desired point of focus doesn’t fall underneath one of the camera’s AF points. Focusing then recomposing is a pain when working on a tripod.



How to shoot it - lighting
So you’ve made the room look great, chosen your viewpoint, picked a lens and set up your camera on the tripod. Now what?

Getting some nice ‘soft yet directional’ lighting will usually guarantee a good shot. If you’re lucky, the room will have a nice large window with indirect sunlight coming though. If so, this is usually enough.

However, if all you have is strong, direct sunlight coming through, then try hanging a white bedsheet or tablecloth over the window to act as a giant diffuser (don’t forget your gaffer tape!). If you have windows in the shot, don’t worry too much about them blowing out. Get the interior exposure correct and worry about the windows later. In fact, blown out windows can often help give a light, airy feel to interiors which is very appealing.




Often, natural light alone will not be enough and you will need to break out the flash. Either because you are shooting early or late in the day when there is very little daylight coming into the room, or because what light you do have is creating deep shadows that you need to fill.

Small hot shoe flashes are fine for this kind of work, because you are usually trying to complement daylight rather than overpower it, and most interiors are not that big. Mount them on small Manfrotto stands and either trigger them using radio triggers such as Pocket Wizards or with the ETTL or iTTL built-in to modern Canon or Nikon flashes.

I often find that less is more. Start off with a single flash bounced off a wall or ceiling and see what it looks like. The rear LCD is your friend. Than add another light if you think you need to. I rarely find the need to use more than two, and often only use one. Always either bounce the flash or shoot through some sort of diffuser – an umbrella or softbox – as hard light will generally look terrible.

If shooting in the evening, when the majority or even all of the light in the room is artificial, you will need to gel your flash to match the colour temperature of the lighting in the room. Usually this will be tungsten, but more modern buildings are often using low-energy or halogen lights, which seem to vary in colour temperature a great deal. So take a range of CTO and green gels with you. Mixed colour temperatures is something that is almost impossible to correct later in Photoshop, so be sure to get this right at the time.

Finally, shooting tethered to a laptop can be a great help. Both Lightroom and Aperture can be used to show a full screen preview of your image a few seconds after you shoot it. When trying to fine-tune lighting and compositions, it can be a great help rather than squinting at the small screen on the back of the camera.

Food for thought - or thoughts on Food

A large part of what makes travelling fun is the different food you encounter along the way. So it should not be too surprising to find out that most travel assignments will require you to shoot food at some point.

Now, there are many photographers who shoot nothing but food, and have a vast experience of tips and tricks to make food look scrumptious. However, they are usually working from a studio with lots of space and lighting options, and a food stylist helping them to make every dish look gorgeous.

As a travel photographer working with lightweight gear on location, you cannot usually hope to produce these kinds of images. Often there is very little time, and space is tight as you are shooting it right off the restaurant table.

If at all possible I try to get access to the restaurant before they open for lunch or dinner, meaning I get a bit more time and space to make the shots, but other times you will be there during busy meal times, relegated to a table at the back so as not to disturb the customers. Getting appetising food shots in these conditions is not always easy!

Style If you flick through a recent cookery book or food magazine, you will see that the current fashion in food photography is for overhead shots with very soft lighting. While these look great, they are often not a realistic proposition on location.

When working off a restaurant table there is usually not much space or time to get the shot. The low-angle, shallow depth-of-field shots that were all the rage 3-4 years ago are actually much easier to shoot under these conditions. Get low down, use a macro lens to allow you to focus close, and light from the side or from behind to bring out the texture of the food. Depth of field is critical, I find shooting at f/4 on a 100mm lens about right - because the distance is so short, depth of field is very shallow. Use a wider aperture and so little is in focus that it is hard to tell what it is!

Even through the shutter speed may be high due to the wide aperture, work from a tripod as framing and focus are critical. Try and vary your shots a little between very tight close in shots, and some from further back which include some of the table setting. Placing a fork or other piece of cutlery on the plate can help provide context and something to lead your eye into the frame.



Lighting The big challenge when shooting quickly like this is lighting. If I'm lucky enough to be shooting during the day and there is a large window nearby, then I will use natural light. Indirect sunlight gives a lovely soft yet directional light that is very flattering to food and makes everything look delicious.

However often you don't get these conditions, especially if shooting in Europe during winter when it might well be dark by 5pm. When that happens then you need to provide your own sunshine, and break out your flashguns.

Given the space and time constraints of shooting in a restaurant, and the limited amount of gear you can take on an editorial travel assignment, I only use one light on a lightweight Manfrotto stand with a shoot through umbrella. This is placed to the side or even a bit behind, with a small reflector on the opposite side for fill. This produces similar soft yet directional light which, while not as beautiful as window light, is the best you are likely to get when working quickly on location.

Normally you will want to keep your shutter speed close to your synch speed (e.g. 1/250th) to prevent any ambient light influencing the exposure. The colour temperature of the restaurant lighting will be different to that of your flash, and nothing makes food lose more unappetising than mixed lighting where the highlights are lit by neutral flash while the shadows are lit by ambient that looks orange or green.

Yes, you can gel your flash to try and match the ambient light, but in practice it is hard to do this exactly, and while you would get away with it for a typical interior shot, even the slightest difference makes food look dreadful.


Mixing it Up The advantage of working this way is that it is very predictable - you know you will be able to get an acceptable shot. The disadvantage is that all your shots begin to look the same!

So always be on the lookout for food shots that provide something a bit different - ingredients, people making or holding things, whenever you get the chance. Although they are more unpredictable they will often end up your favourites.