Andrew Macpherson

Lens Pro To Go, a US equipment rental company, have thrown down a challenge.

Joint them for a photo-per-week challenge on themes they set.  My photos will accumulate in this flickr set, and the  whole set of entries is in the Lens Pro To Go 52 week challenge.  The exercises are are as hard, or easy as you let them be, so it’s great fun.

Why not join in?

Three weekends ago, just before I went off for an op, we had a stand at Hatfield Heath Festival to try to raise awareness of the club, and raise some cash for the projector fund.  I havn’t quite got round to writing about it, having been slightly distracted, so it’s time to make amends

Hatfield Heath Public Photoshoot, © 2011 Paul Lambert

Photo given to sitter as 6x4 print

The Saturday session was in direct competition with Bishop’s Stortford Carnival, where we also had a stand, so each event had one of the two print stands, usually used for print competitions

We had a selection of member’s prints for sale, both ones that had been in competition, and some framed or mounted specially for this event.  Mainly though the exercise was to engage potential members, and enthuse them to come along for a trial club evening, and I think we were moderately successful in that.

We were also offering free “Hollywood Look” 4×6 portrait, retouched with “Portrait Professional”  (continue reading…)

Really good post about camera shake on Larry’s Cheap Shots which demonstrates why one should use a remote shutter release, and mirror lock-up quite graphically.

When I went to Scott Kelby’s excellent Photoshop for Digital Photographers course last year, one of his stories was of spending a day photographing a Bride, and only realising later when he sat down to edit the photographs that she had a considerable mark on her shoulder.

On Friday I was photographing a client, and feeling fairly on top of getting a reasonable Head and Shoulders portrait, even down to making sure I had whites showing either side of their irises, and not just having a black spot in the corner of the eye. (continue reading…)

Photo Recipes Live

Just picked up some excellent training. This book and DVD takes the ‘How to get this photo’ chapters from Scott Kelby’s “Digital Photography” series to the next level, and is a great resource.

Photo Recipes Live: Part 2

The format is a slim book in the standard American size for technical books (ie slightly too wide for speed reading) with a dust jacket comprising the DVD box.  The book is held in by spots of clear easily peeled sticky, which I immediately removed to avoid it setting hard over the next few years — there is no reason to suppose that the basic techniques explained are going to go out of date, even if the details of the equipment used, and the processing do change with technology.

The same remarks apply to the sequel .  Click on either image to go to Amazon in a new window.

Just spent an hour going through an excellent HDR Tutorial from the travel photography blog Stuck in Customs by Trey Ratcliff.  It merges nicely in one spot the various tips I’ve been picking up round the net, and adds in some new to me packages (Topaz Art springs to mind) to help finish the pictures.

He has discount codes for one to use on most of the software he’s promoting (Topaz, Photomatix, Nik and more), so the site is probably worth visiting just to check out his reviews if you’re considering buying one, and pick up the codes if you’re convinced to buy.