'Omeco and Lewis

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Peter Street

My favorite locations for street photography in London are in the West End, south from Oxford Street. That street is often very busy and it may be hard to find a good composition in the chaotic flow of the crowd. But lose yourself in the network of the side streets and you will see many compelling scenes.

Berwick Street

In particular I like Berwick Street which has always attracted interesting people, writers, actors and musicians. It is a real paradise for fashion designers. And of course ? an amazing place for street photography.

On the streets of Soho

It is also worth visiting the ever-fashionable Carnaby Street, a symbol of the Swinging London of the 60s. It contrasts with the nearby luxurious New Bond Street. These are really cool places to photograph people and geometric forms.

New Bond Street

Another interesting place is London’s East End, especially the graffiti-decorated Brick Lane. This street is the heart of Banglatown, a home to the Bangladeshi community. Let me know if you can think of other great places for street photography in London. I love exploring the streets of this exciting city.

Ramillies Street, a few steps away from Oxford Street

I shot these images with the Fujifilm x100s, an ideal camera for street photography. It is small, quiet and inconspicuous. The x100s has a relatively large sensor (APS-C size) and a brilliant 35mm wide-angle lens (full frame equivalent). The 35mm focal length is classic for street photography (as is the “normal” 50mm). With a prime lens you’ve got to zoom with your feet.

Typically I set my x100s to automatic shutter speed and automatic ISO. In the Auto ISO settings I set a maximum ISO to 6400 and a minimum shutter speed of 1/125 s (or 1/60 s if I want that bit of motion blur). I adjust the aperture for the depth of field which I like and to the level of light, and play with the exposure compensation dial to fine tune the exposure. I also use the autofocus and occasionally set the camera to manual focus mode for zone focusing.

There is a learning curve to the Fuji x100s but after getting used to the camera street photography becomes a pure joy. Could there possibly be a better choice? And are there any better places for street photography in London?

'Street Photography in London

The post Street Photography in London first appeared on TomOnTheRoof Photography Blog.

Yes, this video is simple and short, but hey, these are my first steps in filming with a DSLR camera. I tried to achieve a cinematic look by using a shallow depth of field (which is apparent in the first capture), by setting the shutter speed to 1/50 s for a smooth flow of water, and the frame rate to 25p (I am in a PAL region).

For these shots and the video I used a 70-200mm f/4 lens with a polarizing filter to cut the glare and to saturate the colors. It was an overcast day and my shutter speed was long enough to blur the water without the need for additional filtration (about 7 s for the photos).

I shot the above image with the lens zoomed to 85mm. To get the first plan reasonably sharp I closed down the aperture to f/22 and focused manually.

It was chilly and drizzling but I certainly don’t regret going there with my camera. I am happy with the pictures and glad that I also tried shooting video. I think it worked pretty fine.

Do you shoot video with a DSLR? What are your settings?

'Waterfall (video and photos)

The post Waterfall (video and photos) first appeared on TomOnTheRoof Photography Blog.

Final image; 1/200 s, f/5.6, ISO 100, ND4, polarizer, 24 mm

I shot these images with the Canon 5D mark II using the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens at its widest zoom setting. On a full frame sensor 24 mm is about as wide as I can accept for photographing people without distorting them too much. I love this lens for it’s great contrast and color. It is tack sharp when stopped down and very sharp when wide open.

Step 1

This is how the scene actually appeared on a sunny afternoon, shot at 1/200 s, which is my sync speed, ISO 100, f/4, and with an ND4 filter. I could have shot it at f/8 but I traded two stops of aperture (f/8 ? f/5.6 ? f/4) for the ND4 filter. This gave me an identical ‘proper’ exposure but with a more shallow depth of field as an artistic decision. You can see a hard shadow at the side of the car coming from the sun and overall the image is not appealing. Notice that I am shooting with the sun behind me and slightly to my side. Had I shot straight into the sun the sky would have been less saturated.

Step 2

I stopped down the aperture to f/5.6, i.e. by a stop, to underexpose the foreground and darken the sky. I also stacked a polarizing filter to further darken the scene by approximately 2/3 of a stop and to cut down the glare and saturate the colors just a tad more. The sky looked good at this point but the side of the car was lost in the deep shadow. These images are basically straight out of the camera.

Step 3

To open up this shadow and to bring out the side of the car from the dark I added a Nikon SB-24 hot shoe flash pointed at the car, camera right and just outside of the frame, set to full power and fired with a Pocket Wizard. This added depth and dimension to the car.

Step 4

To light the scene and the subjects I used a 600 Ws strobe set to full power, with a 22″ (55 cm) white Beauty Dish as my main light. It was positioned just outside of the frame, camera left, in front of and above the car, pointed slightly down and fired with a Pocket Wizard. Notice that I pulled in the camera to exaggerate the wide angle perspective. The battery pack of my strobe run down, so I powered it from the battery of the car (hence the cable visible at the side of the car). The final image was retouched and post-processed of course.

And here is my second favorite shot from the day:

Final image; 1/125 s, f/4, ISO 100, ND8, polarizer, 24 mm

Without flash

This is a shot without flash. I deliberately underexposed the image to darken the sky and make it more dramatic. The ND8 filter allowed me to open up the aperture for a more shallow depth of field and even shoot at a slightly slower shutter speed to convey the motion of the barley in the wind. There is some darkening of the corners resulting from stacking of the filters on a wide angle lens, which I had to take care of later in post-production.

With flash

Here the scene is lit with a 600 Ws flash set to full power, with a 22″ (55 cm) white Beauty Dish, same settings as above. The Beauty Dish is my most efficient modifier, yet it gives a quality of light which I love (especially when used at a short distance, as described in my post on lighting with a Beauty Dish).

The lighting made the subject pop and also brightened the foreground. Additionally, I cross-lit the subject with a gridded off-camera hot shoe flash (the SB-24 at full power with a Honl 1/8″ grid) to give detail to the veil. In summary, by darkening the sky and lighting the foreground I compressed the broad dynamic range of the original scene. Again, the final image was retouched and post-processed.

Because of the sweeping perspective which I wanted to capture the light could not be positioned really close to the subjects. It would be difficult to pull out these shots with just small hot shoe flashes unless it was dusk or I would have to place the main light closer and clone it out in post.

Do you know of other techniques for overpowering the sun? Let me know.

'Overpowering the Sun

The post Overpowering the Sun first appeared on TomOnTheRoof Photography Blog.

The weather was rather sunny when we started so we mostly worked in the shadow. I used a small flash in a big white brolly and slightly underexposed the ambient to saturate the colors and make the model pop.

This image above may be my favorite photo of the day. I worked on the composition to create geometrical figures (triangles) and make it exciting for the eye to wander through the frame. The red-green-blue triad strengthens the composition.

Jagoda had really pretty shoes so I figured I should also make this image. No flash here but I used the brolly as a reflector for just a bit of fill, and shot wide open. Love this classy look.

Mariusz intends to become a professional powerlifter and keeps training on his pretty fiancee ;-) He is a strong guy but obviously the image had to be shot fast.

Here you can see the effect of a second flash, camera right, used for cross-lighting and giving a subtle glow and definition to the edges. I placed a Honl grid on the flash to prevent light spillage and flaring. The flashes were triggered with a PocketWizard MiniTT1 transmitter and FlexTT5 receivers.

I will be also shooting their wedding. But shooting for others always makes me very nervous. And will they like the images?

'Engagement Session

The post Engagement Session first appeared on TomOnTheRoof Photography Blog.

Kasia is a musician. I really like her pose in the above image, which I believe resembles a musical symbol. I shot these photographs with a wide angle lens, 35mm on a full frame camera. I totally love looking through this glass! When used from a low perspective it helps emphasize the height of the model.

I lit these images with a single small flash in a Lastolite Ezybox 24″ softbox. It gives a bit more punchy light than my Westcott Apollo but I really like this light’s quality and how convenient it is to set up. Just pop it open and throw it on a stand.

Shooting at my sync speed 1/200 s, at f/6.3 and ISO 100 gave me an underexposure of the ambient by 1 stop. The flash was fine tuned until I was happy with the flash and ambient balance. Keeping everything in manual mode helped achieve consistent exposures.

Racking out the lens to 200mm and shooting wide open (f/2.8) gave a shallow depth of field and strong compression of perspective resulting in a pleasing bokeh. Still using my Ezybox. You can tell where the light was by the shadows on the road and on her face.

The nuns passing by in the background were no coincidence. There is a monastery nearby and at times we could hear the beautiful singing of the sisters. At this point I knew I got the shots and could relax. But as we walked back towards the city center I continued  photographing  just to get a larger variety of the images.

For this image I used 200mm, f/2.8, 1/50 s, ISO 1600. The red shapes are car lights – I waited for them to appear in the right spot. As it was already dusk and I was basically killing the ambient (except for those car lights) I added a second flash, camera right, to bring some highlights and contrast to the shadow side of the hair.

Back to 35mm but at f/1.4. This very last shot was taken rather fast at the Cloth Hall in the center of Krakow. I think strong graphical elements like these repeated columns make a great background for a full-body portrait.

Overall I am very pleased with the results. As always I spent a lot of time analyzing what worked and what went wrong. Next time I will have a more defined idea for the location but will stay open to any unexpected opportunities.

'Kasia Photo Shoot

The post Kasia Photo Shoot first appeared on TomOnTheRoof Photography Blog.

Stradun, the main street of Dubrovnik, polished by millions of feet

I tried to capture what I considered most characteristic for this beautiful city, like this shiny pavement. Often focusing on a detail tells more than trying to show everything at once.

Big Onofrio’s Fountain

A common sight in the Old City

It was sunny and hot… One should never photograph when the sun is harsh? Na.

A beach on a rocky coast

Repeating patterns are always great to photograph. The side light helped me bring the texture out from the umbrellas and from the sea. Everything sings when bathed in the warm afternoon sun. The snorkeler was not a mere coincidence – I waited for him to come to a perfect location.

Dubrovnik roofs repaired after the war in 1991

'Dubrovnik, Pearl of the Adriatic

The post Dubrovnik, Pearl of the Adriatic first appeared on TomOnTheRoof Photography Blog.