Razzle Dazzle 'Em With Canon Cameras - Part Three

Apologies to the lyricists for " Chicago "...I couldn't let that one go. Because that is what you can do with the Canon cameras and lenses at the motor racing track. Here are more thoughts from Manuel Goria for the shooter - and seller - of car images:

a. If you are taking a picture of a car, the car should fill the screen. It should be in the place on the screen that you decide upon. This decision can be based upon art aesthetics or sure knowledge of where the editor is going to put other elements of the design. If you are going to need to have a vertical image, shoot a vertical image. But shoot the car close enough and big enough.

b. If you shoot multiple car images with different backgrounds, you have a chance to sell multiple copies to the owners or editors. Variety pleases.

c. If you are shooting for a sponsor's needs and that sponsor has a logo on the car - or on the track - the logo is the thing you must show. In most instances you will want to show it very clearly.

d. Sharpness is the ultimate test of the salability of any image. It can be lost through wrong movement or technique, through overexposure, or through the heat haze and mirage that affect motor sport tracks.

Note: Barbagallo proved this to all the shooters. Even with magnificent lenses that could come to very sharp focus, too much exposure let the images waver.

e. To get sharper images, a shorter exposure time is needed. To get enough depth of field for sharpness on the contours of the car you may need to use a smaller aperture. Both of these factors may dictate a high ISO - up to 5000 ISO in some cases. The Canon 1DX can do this easily with good low noise, but it is still open to reduce the ISO as far down as you can to preserve quality. As with everything, it is a balancing act.

f. Salable images can be unusual or iconic - if there are structures like Dunlop bridges or famous locations, shoot some of these as they are expected. But also shoot location shots that show where the race is taking place. Accept the fact that some of the best shots happen in front of some of the worst backdrops and plan these shots with a shallow depth of field or a blur.

g. Compositions that do not show all the car can sometimes work, but you have to choose the right car. People who know the shape of iconic cars want to see ALL of it. It is possible to use trackside elements and colours in an artistic motif to make an interesting shot out of an ordinary one - it is all about quick design as much as capture.

Note that Manuel always likes to see the front wheel of the car in sharp focus...unless it is an occasion where he doesn't...and that is tomorrow.

The New Bike On The Block - the X-T2

The new Fujifilm X-T2 is dazzling the mirrorless crowd right now, but the last two weblog columns showing the results of a studio shoot may have given the impression that it is no better than previous models. Here's where I reveal the truth - I was only looking at a small part of the picture before. There was some wiggle room there in the writing.

You remember I showed little 1200 x 960 pixel images and they all looked about the same. Well have a look what happens when I go back to the main image and zero in on the motorcycle headlights.

Yep. The extra division of the X-T2 sensor makes more pixels available for enlargement and the image is much, much smoother. So the advice here is to get the newer camera if you intend to blow your images up past A4 or if you need to extract small portions of them.

You will also get the option of an additional film simulation setting over and above what the X-E2 or X-T1 can provide and even more compared to the X-Pro1 or the X-100. If one of them is your preferred look, you need look no further.

The computer experts will argue that there are any number of film simulations available as extra plug-ins for image editing programs - and so there are. But how much neater to have them applied as the image rolls out of the camera - in many, many cases the JPEGs that come out of the Fujifilm X-Trans sensors can be used for reproduction straight away without further managing...as a number of weblog columns and newspaper advertisements will attest. No, I won't tell you how easy it is to do, in case it affects my pay...

The lens in use on the X-T2 today was a Tokina macro 35mm f:3.5 and was totally manual in operation. Had it been an AF lens I would have steered the AF single point marker to the exact centre of the headlights using the little rubber joystick under the right thumb. It is a vast improvement on the menu wheel as a selector. You are less inclined to twist the camera about trying to get the green square on the subject...or worse, to just blaze away hoping that whatever is in focus when it beeps and fires is really what you wanted. Far better to actually command your vision rather than be commanded.

What a didn't turn on in the studio was the wide field of focus points that this camera is capable of using - the field shooter may well opt for this as the best way of operating the AF. I also did not need to instruct the camera about predictive tracking and the persistence that I might want with the AF in case something intervenes between me and the subject. It's all there in the menu.

Perhaps it is time to take a couple of the cameras out to see some real automotive action and give these features a test as well...Stay tuned.

See the full Fujifilm range at Camera Electronic here

Bending Over Sideways To Please The Client - Tilt/Shift Part One

This is not a column about business relationships. It is about optics. If you want the other sort you'll have to go to Dale Carnegie or The Better Business Bureau.

Three manufacturers that I know of currently make tilt/shift lenses that can be used on digital cameras; Nikon, Canon and Samyang/Rokinon. There have been others in the past but my researches don't turn them up readily now. The one in use in the studio today is the Samyang 24mm f:3.5 version with the Nikon mount. Of course you can get it with a Canon mont as well...

Cynics may be forgiven for looking at the design and screwing up their faces, but I'm not here to judge whether or not Samyang unbolted another maker's design and reverse engineered it. Nor any I going to make the obvious comment about the use of high-grade plastics to replicate someone else's metal part. Take it from someone who used it that it is well-built and works as it should.

You don't get AF with these lenses, nor do you want it. You get MF and ADJF...Adjustable Focus.

 And you get to adjust it in ways that are at once artistic and practical.

The subjects that people cover in the studio can sometimes be challenging in that they are longer than the depth of field of a lens will cover. Stop down as much as you like, you still can't get everything in focus -and clients demand everything in focus. If you need to use a wider aperture for artistic effect, you are in even a worse fix.

Here is where the tilt mechanism of these lenses comes in. They are the way to produce the Scheimpflug effect - the phenomenon that occurs when you rotate the lens and the sensor to intersect the plane of the subject. Sounds complex, turns out to be surprisingly visible in the viewfinder, and nails the focus along the length of the subject - in this case a 1:24 Chevrolet Fleetline. Even at a modest aperture, it's in focus.

All in focus from headlight to rear bumper.

Away from the plane that you select, it goes out of focus faster...so if you want to create a fuzzy effect that is where you do it. Again useful in the studio to diffuse the backdrop and smooth it out. The clients want to see the products, not the brick wall behind them.

Note that the focusing you do with this lens is with the broad front ring. It's well damped, and does not creep. The lens is a pleasure to use.

As always, available now in-store or on-line.