Kia ora tatou:

It’s time to talk about that photographic add-on that so many of us take for granted, that rather ugly accessory that most of us buy last, perhaps as an afterthought, maybe even with a touch of guilt, the contraption which often rattles around in the boot of the car gathering dust. Yes, you guessed it-the tripod.

I don’t know about you but tripods irritate me immensely. They are clumsy, awkward to put up, and frustrating to use. An ergonomic tripod is an oxymoron. I would frankly be happier if I never had to use one again. I bet a few of you feel the same way. I tried really hard to avoid using one.
That is until I “went digital”. However I confess to having had a bit of an epiphany on the subject. So herewith may I read from the Gospel according to St. Tripod the Microfine Resolver.

Tripods have their place. They are as the birds in the trees and the flowers in the meadow. In another words highly necessary. If you are going to shoot landscape, nature or similar, you need one.

Those who have taken the Digital Path need one even more. Here is why. Digital cameras are able to resolve such fine detail that the slightest shake will disturb your ability to capture those microfine contrasts like the texture in a bird’s feathers. Fine detail in a landscape or subtleties of texture in a subject’s hair require precision of technique and as rigid a support as possible. There are times when even the Mighty Image Stabiliser is not up to the task. Try it for yourself. Make an image with lots of detail in it. Aim for a slower shutter speed. Then make the same image, but this time, as it exposes, tap the end of the lens barrel. Enlarge both images to 100% and look at the fine detail. Note which one renders finer detail.

The sharpness of your images will be in direct proportion to the sturdiness of your tripod. As ye purchase, so shall ye reap. Those cute little things that look like a bunch of car aerials having a gossip session will not cut it, even with a point-and-shoot. Choose one that is as heavy as you need. Now choose one that is heavier again. If you are digital, you need all the tripod you can carry ( or a paid slave).

Note well that the Inverse Shutterspeed Rule does not apply with digital photography. The old rule about the slowest shutterspeed being 1/focal length does not apply for digitals 6 Mp and above. For really Big Boys Toys, you should work on 1/2x focal length. That is, if you want to shoot with a 200mm lens handheld, then aim for a shutterspeed of 1/400 or better. A rider to this; if you only make A5 prints, then disregard all of this. If you are in to A3 or larger printing, then you may want to go higher still. Again do some comparison tests.

Bridge’s First Law of Tripod Usefulness states that the value of the tripod is inversely proportional to the beauty of the scene and the prevailing weather. The more appealing the image the more likely a wind will come to shake your equipment and disturb that fine detail, restricting you to an A4-if you are lucky. Buy a tripod with the worst possible conditions in mind. Of course, if photographing arrangements of chocolates and fruit in the privacy of your boudoir is your thing, disregard all of this. No, we don’t want to hear any more!

Bridge’s Second Law of Tripod Usefulness states that the build quality of your tripod is proportional to the amount you are ready to spend and usually inversely proportional to the amount you have to spend/the balance left on your credit card. There is a truth here. You get what you pay for. Buy once, buy right. And there is a reason why so many pros buy Gitzos and Manfrottos. They last. There are plenty of people using Gitzos more than 20 years old. And not a lot using Sliks and Kamakuza brand tripods that old. Also you can get spares when things do wear out-and they do. By the way, did you know Manfrotto own Gitzo? As an aside, there is an exception to this. I have been using a Benro A357 tripod, a Chinese Knockoff of a Gitzo, for the last few months and I have to say that I am amazed. My expectations that it would fall to bits have been misplaced. Hell, it can even take the beating that US baggage handlers give it!

Bridge’s Third Law of Tripod Usefulness states that you should buy a tripod that comes up to eye height without the center column extended. You should not have to bend double to get down to the viewfinder. Choosing a tripod like this will be good for your back and bad for your chiropractor’s cashflow.
So they went forth and bought a quality tripod. And hid the actual price from their spouse/de facto/partner.
Then they sallied out into the wilderness and made photographs. And the results were pleasing, even at A3+.

Kia ora tatou:

This is an old bite from my newsletter (now this blog). I came across the image this morning and it seemed worth putting it in again, especially given there are more of you out there reading this.

This is the gadget of choice for those of us with astigmatism and/or an inability to keep our horizons straight. It’s simple and effective. You plug it into your hotshoe and use the bubble to check everything is nice and level before you take the shot. It means you don’t have to invest in an expensive tripod head with inbuilt levels. Oh yes, with a little practice you can use it while shooting handheld. Just lift your eye off the viewfinder and have a quick peep before you press the shutter

Sometimes the best ideas are the most obvious.

Oh by the way, it’s manufactured by Hama, and most good photo stores should be able to get one for you.

Ka kite ano

Kia ora tatou:

Workflow. If you read digital photography sites, you will find it mentioned often. If you are experienced, you will know what it means. Everybody has their own ideas of how to go about it, and their own way of doing it. An explanation is in order.

With digital photography, you will almost certainly end up shooting a lot of images. Keeping track of them, keeping them protected and being able to retrieve them at a later date is critical. Unlike film, digital images can get lost, corrupted or be hard to track down later on. You need to develop a system that makes sense to you and one that ensures you can get to image X quickly and efficiently. This is known as workflow, and it requires a certain amount of discipline.

So here is a suggested way of going about it. This is the method I use and it works for me. Feel free to develop your own system.

1. Let’s begin with the camera. Format your card regularly. You might be interested to know that deleting doesn’t actually get rid of the file. It only removes the header tags. Provided you haven’t written over it, you can recover an accidentally deleted file with an application like Image Rescue. Formatting means you scrub the card clean ready for new images to be added. Some people format every time they shoot. I do- but only after all the images have been safely archived!
2. Coming in from a shoot, I will download the images to my hard drive, storing them into a suitably-named folder.
3. I will then examine them in a program like Adobe Bridge or Picasa. Any obvious duds, like accidental shots of my foot get deleted.
4. I will then batch rename the files, again using Bridge. I have evolved my own system of renaming that includes location or job, shoot date and finally the sequence number. So a file like X10E6157.CR2 becomes Backlit sheep_21082006_325.CR2. Retrieval then becomes a snip-usually.
5. I then add in my Copyright and contact details to the file metadata. If you have Bridge, this is relatively easy. Other apps allow this as well.
6. The next step is to archive. Since my cameras produce big files (and I have an eager shutter finger), I burn to good-quality DVD. 2 copies. Note: I have resisted the temptation to open and fiddle with any images. This is especially important if you are shooting jpegs. You want the archived files to be as pristine as possible. I use a CD marker pen to label each of the DVD’s. Each is labelled something like this: Backlit sheep Waihora 210806 1/2 or 2/2. The 1/2 label tells me that it is disc 1 of 2.
7. I then backup the data to a removable hard drive. My PC is fitted with a removable hard drive bay. The drives come in cassettes that slot into the bay. Insert, reboot and archive.
8. Both discs and drive are then stored in a fireproof safe.

Now I can play!

Oh yes, I absolutely did NOT shoot the image at the top of this post!

Ka kite ano