Andrew Macpherson

In preparation for the season when the club goes out and about I”m making up some sets of photo challenge cards, 5 topics per card, which I’ll make available here in due course ready to print and run through the card cutter (standard10 cards per sheet cutter when the image is centred & printed)

In the meantime I’ld very much appreciate suggestions to add as topics in the different contexts — the cards will be based on topics such as town, country, seaside, day, night, seasonal, different weather conditions etc. I’ll make up a grid where the topics apply

The final aim being to have cards prepared and to hand, as a fallback whenever we sally forth.

Please leave suggestions below, or tweet them to me. many thanks!

Ever find you have to do some work in Lightroom without adding Picks, selections, stars or other obvious Metadata?

I recently found myself tweaking a friend’s images so she could use them immediately rather than wait to get home and work on them at her desktop…  She had literally hundreds of photos on the card, but wanted to see them full screen, then wanted a few adjusted, and the issue was, at the end of the exercise, to identify quickly which had been touched to re-export them.

With the folder open in the Lightroom Library Module I went to the Filter bar press ‘\‘ if it’s not showing at the top and select ‘Metadata’ then set my selection to ‘Develop Preset’ at this point you may have a few choices particularly if you have used any presets, but everything I had touched was under custom enabling me to quickly pick them out for re-export.

Just got asked again to do a passport photo for a neighbour. As ever the problem is getting the photo cut out at the correct size, and so finally I bit the bullet and ordered a photo punch to do the job right

Konig Single Frame Passport Photo Cutting Machine

Earlier this month I had 2 days at “Focus on Imaging” and saw some great presentations, met up with suppliers, and with a few friends. The big benefit though is being able to get help from experts on the smaller things that have caused one problems…

Top of this list for me was a visit to the Pixel stand. I’ve had good results with Pixel gear in general, particularly the low cost 3 way VM/VS 801 cat5 cable hotshoe extenders, and with Pixel’s excellent external battery packs to speed up recycling (and avoid melting) speedlites. I had however bought a set of Pixel King radio triggers and just could not get them to work in E-TTL mode with my Nissin DI866mkIi speedlites. They were fine in Manual mode, and I could adjust the power levels, use HSS etc but when it came to E-TTL the level setting preflash would trigger, but the shots would be dark.

I visited with Pixel and demonstrated my problem. No immediate solution, but careful notes… camera firmware release numbers, model numbers for the speed lights, and a promise to get back to me. I also was given a bonus – one of their very nice cable releases.

And of course Pixel have come back trumps with the solution. There are 2 current sets of firmware for the Pixel King Flash Triggers, and I had the highest numbered version (1031) loaded, which turns out to be for the Canon 1DX, whereas the other release (1030) is what is needed on the 5D3. I’ve re-flashed the firmware, and it’s all working. Thank You Pixel! While a radio trigger with manual control is very useful, the automation really helps at events.

The other thing I needed help with was printing on clear or highly reflective substrates, with my big Canon printer. Thanks due to RGB-UK on the Canon stand for helping me out here. One needs a narrow strip on the edge of the sheet to help the optical sensor in the printer detect the “paper.”

A seminar arranged through the London Photographic Meetup Group, featuring the Internationally famous photographer and trainer Frank Doorhof, who I had seen earlier this week at Focus on Imaging at the NEC

Arrived early at the Tabernacle for Frank’s show.

The hallway has a fascinating wireframe sculpture of “The Pan Man” a carnival Steel drum player, under a memorial to Claudia Jones the mother of the Notting Hill Carnival. As I’m sitting enjoying a mocha I get to say say good morning to Frank and Anneweik as they go past to set up.

We are asked to wait until 10:15 before going up to the theatre, a very nice space, set up with round tables, and surprisingly comfortable folding chair.

Frank is sitting under a spotlight, on a high chair, somewhat reminiscent of Dave Allen.

The class starts with a reprise of Frank’s theme “Why fake it when you can create it?”

Here are a few notes, points or aphorisms from the talk:

• Emphasis on Knowing how to do it right, as second nature.
• Great bare bulb shots to show that expensive strobes are not required
• The seminar is “PowerPoint” but with a big emphasis on composition and audience interaction.
• Go low for a new viewpoint.
• “Find a stage and the players will come” – Jay Maisell
• Interesting examples of wide angel lens fashion
• Be careful to put in deliberate asymmetry.
• Deliver the picture you are happy with
• Tip try DxO Optics vs Lightroom for lens correction
• Lose colour, and add contrast and noise for interest
• If you have to title a photo it’s possibly not strong enough

Finished up with finally buying Frank’s “Live in Boston” instructional DVD.  Get yours here.

It was also good to meet a new people, I expect I’ll try more of these meetups.

If you’re thinking about making small changes to your photos to just save that moment that can never be repeated, but the photo didn’t quite work, I’m doing a workshop in the village to get you started. Saturday March 22^nd at Hopley’s Garden centre, in Much Hadham. This is also a good start on processing your photos to the next stage beyond what just comes out of the camera. Please note: basic computer knowledge is assumed, and I will only cover those extras relating to processing photos.

I’ll also work on any photo you bring to the class, explaining what, and why, to show you what you can do “for real,” rather than just using carefully chosen examples, the main tool will be Adobe Lightroom 4 which is currently available at a very good price from Amazon..

More details and book here