The Holy Grail

Unbelieveable - what can I say - chuffed to bits. Having spent ages trying to get prints that match what I see on screen (often too dark or too vivid, too magenta etc) I have at last sorted it all out.

Previously I have been using a Colormunki Photo alongside my Epson R2880 and Sony Vaio Laptop. Yes I hear you shouting out there that if I had gone Mac none of this would have taken so long. I am indeed "Mac-curious", "Mac-smitten" indeed but as long as this laptop is working I struggle to justify a new OS etc. Anyhoo I was calibrating the printer to the screen with the Colormunki Photo but inevitably the laprop screen was seriously letting me down. If for example I set a brightness level when setting up the profile - the monitor could not hold that one bit.

So the solution? Just bought a Eizo CG243W from the Focus on Imaging show. Saved a few hundred quid to boot.

Lots of things changing at once however - upgraded to LR4 (with soft proofing capabilities) and have just this evening installed a Fotospeed CIS. Loving LR4 (had the beta) and cannot tell the difference (I printed some shots out with the original Epson cartidges to compare against) with Fotospeed's inks.

Have spent a while working out the workflow and in essence whether to calibrate with the Colormunki software or the ColorNavigator - have gone with Colornav in the first instance but if I need to create my own ICC profiles for papers that I cannot get one for then I will revert to Xrite's option. Good to have choices although I must admit this can be a little overwhelming at first.

Hope that might help crystallise someone else's decision making and of course if you want to know my exact settings please just ask.

Cheers

DrF

Behind the scenes

Behind the scenes, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Need to be more disciplined and take more shots of the lighting setups. This was taken by my assistant that day.

When at my best I write down settings etc and have even used an app on the ipad to recall lighting diagrams (or even to plan them in advance of a shoot). Typically however I like to be more free flowing and just "get on with it!".

I have been asked to speak to a local camera club though about these photoshoots - not because I am any good but rather because no-one else at the club really does this kind of thing. So I had the idea of doing a live shoot tethered to a laptop and projector. Should be good fun - will be good to have a few shots like this also though to show other alternative lighting setups.

Still enjoying the Hasselblad - even more since the Canon 5D III has been announced - I can understand why they went with "only" 22MP - but it makes me feel even happier to know that my Hassie has not immediately received a challenge to my desires :-) That said the AF on the H3D is fine in continuous but the delay between pressing the shutter and capture meant that on this shoot I had more accurate leaping captures from the 5DII. I did have the 7D for a short while (always let down by the IQ compared with the 5D) and liked it ergonomics. Will I sell the 5Dii therefore to make way for a 5Diii? Unlikely - I will wait for the ii to break by which time the iii will be a more sensible price.

As always enjoy :-)

DrF

Balletic grace

Balletic grace, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Lovely shoot today for a ballet dancer I have shot previously - Helena M.

The location was a converted stable owned by a friend and colleague whose Wife looked after us incredibly well - coffees and a hot prawn thai soup. Just wonderful - I do worry however that my assistant Adrian and the lovely Natalie (MUA) will get used to this. A roaring fire kept us cosy. Shot with the Hasselblad once again - today had a few gremlins with Phocus. I typically shoot tethered to Lightroom and was using the autoimport feature to grab the files from Phocus (as while Lightroom supports Hassie raw files it doesn't support tethering). Still all in all well worth using the laptop to see the shots at a far greater resolution than that of the Hassie back.

These were for Helena's dance portfolio and she was happy at the end of the day - job well done therefore!

DrF

Hasselblad H3D-II 31

Ah the joys of new toys!

Have had this for a little over a week now and have done a couple of portraits for the family but today was the first chance to see how it handled against my usual 5dII.

I was shooting in a warehouse that has no power and is very dusty so I was not able to shoot tethered. As a consequence I had to use the rear screen rather more than I would have liked. Having read lots about how poor the screens on these digital backs are I can now confirm this to be true. Ok for composition but really shonky when coming to checking focus. I was ready for the narrow depth of field but would this manage with a moving/jumping dancer?

I shot mostly over f11 and as it was pretty cold and the warehouse is very close to home we all bundled back for lunch - a posh pee and coffee! Loading the images onto the laptop I could not have been happier with the results - all in focus - the continuous AF worked very well in addition to the focus and recompose. So do I feel I should have gone with the H4D - absolutely not. I picked this camera up at an absolute bargain price and am truly happy. The extra dynamic range is very noticeable and I did not miss the 5DII/85 f1.2 combo one bit.

All in all a happy man

DrF

Enlightenment - Published!

Enlightenment, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Available from today in Digital SLR Photography Magazine. Full page no less.

Happy days

DrF

In a forest.

In a forest., originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Another shot from a prevous shoot with the lovely Fliss. HAd spent most of the time trying to recreate the Sun using a ranger only to suddenly have the real thing!

Learnt a lot about using smoke that day :-) The more foliage that the sun has to go through the more impressive the smoke then looks.

Hope you like

DrF

The Yorkshire Patient

The Yorkshire Patient, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Why are all my photoshoots on location freezing cold? I look at the likes of Drewshoots shooting models on beaches at sunset and feel there must be something Karmic afoot.

That said Fliss did a wonderfull job (as usual). This one was the last shot of the day as it started to rain and we needed to pack up quickly. Taken at Brimham Rocks (with permission! :-)) and this time sufficiently out of the wind that I could use a softbox - oh for an assisstant.

Lighting-wise this was pretty straightforward with the ranger providing key via a 100cm deep octa with both baffles and a single quadra with a full CTO cut to act as the search light.

The whole aim of the story telling to relate to the film the English Patient with Fliss playing the part of the wounded wife waiting to be rescued by Ralph Fiennes. With a little fashion edge.

Hope you like - more on my Flickr stream - http://www.flickr.com/photos/drfireball/

Nicci B silhouette

Nicci B silhouette, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Something a little different from me for your consideration. Taken in a great little (and reasonably priced) studio here in Leeds.

But really the main reason for me posting today is to celebrate my successful submission to the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers. As of today I have some new letters after my name - LSWPP - "L" standing for Licentiate.

Need to keep up the work and aim for the next level - Associate.

Other news - I am shooting at Chester Fashion Festival next week so you can expect to see some run way stuff here soon.
Cheers

DrF

Skyler

Skyler, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Haven't blogged for a while - not because I have been quiet - rather I just have not had the time :-)

Still this shoot today more than merits a mention. Had a good fortune to work with Skyler who was over from the US and able to fit in a shoot. The shoot took place in NDP studios (well worth a visit if you happen to be needing to do a shoot in Leeds....)

Skyler is a professional ballet dancer and very easy to work with. In the space of four hours we managed about six different set ups. Helping me was Natalie Greenwell doing the make up. We have worked together and today she provided two themes.

Not enough hours in the day for editing - but finshed with around 60 photos which I am very pleased with.

Lighting was using my Elinchrom stuff (largely due to familiarity) rather than the Broncolor in house stuff. I used the quadra ringflash extensively either as fill or key light. This shot was taken with the El Octabank camera right (with ranger), a qhadra in the 100cm deep octa cam left and a strip lit (quadra again) recta with egg box cam left.

All comments welcomed!

Cheers

Dr

In the garden of delight.....

In the garden of delight....., originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Used the garden at home for the first time today - funny how somewhere so close tends to get overlooked....

What can't be seen here though is the steepness of the garden :-) Fortunately I was able to use the extending legs of the manfrotto mini combi boom to good effect.

While I tried to get some help with this one - I ended up running around trying to get the smoke right - good work out. Best thing though was using the power tracking feature of the pocket wizards. I used the tt1 on camera, the st4 on the ranger and a flextt5 on the quadra. I also used 2x 590exII to light the trees and provide a little fill. Using the AC3 meant that I could then alter all the lights from the top of the camera - fantastic.

This one really benefits from being viewed as large as possible and more will be posted to my Flickr as I get around to the PP.

Enjoy

DrF