Texture and Tone

Photographers are attracted to the strangest things. A splash of light against a wall, a patch of peeling paint resembling nothing more than an artist's palette; decay. The reminder that something passed by today will not be there forever. Stop now. Make a picture.

From a technical viewpoint, the tonal range of this picture is enormous and although the internet version inevitably compresses the shadow detail, in the original file you can see all the way into the darkest recesses. This is an ISO 800 image, hand held and without any reflectors bouncing back the light from the window. And although I carefully selected the exposure to retain the highlight detail, it's otherwise straight from the camera. No HDR tricks. This is a level of performance you only see from the high end professional cameras which retain dynamic range as ISO increases.

Nikon D3 24-70mm f2.8 lens 1/200sec F8

Japan Earthquake Update

A statement posted today on the Nikon corporate website gives an update on how the company has been affected by last week's earthquake and ensuing tsunami. The name of the city of Sendai will be familiar to Nikon users as the location of the plant manufacturing the professional camera bodies. Several other optical companies  also based in the area  are thought to be similarly affected.

The developers of the popular iOS app ShutterSnitch have announced that until 20th March 2011 100% of profits from sales will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross.

The British Red Cross is also processing donations on behalf of the Japanese Red Cross.

Out of Focus

A shoot in the midlands earlier this week meant the opportunity to visit the annual Focus on Imaging show at the National Exhibition Centre.

Attention grabbing product launches were thin on the ground this year with Nikon being between major announcements and Canon's rather dramatic last minute withdrawal.  Plenty to see on the Lastolite stand though with their demonstrations and an excellent lighting tutorial on the neighbouring Westcott stand both making the visit and the £8.00 admission price car park charge worthwhile. Westcott products tend not to receive the attention they deserve in this country and Burgess Meredith was probably the last person to be genuinely excited by a new umbrella, but their ingenious folding designs and optical white covers on the shoot through models make them the umbrella of choice here. The umbrella does seem to be undergoing a resurgence at the moment, with giant sized alternatives to the big Elinchrom Octa on show.

Meanwhile, back at the Lastolite Batcave, their designers have been busy developing a huge number of new products at least one of which I can see being useful in my work on a regular basis. US photographer, Joe McNally's name has found it's way, literally, onto several new products including a development of the light panel which holds four SB900 (or equivalent) flashes on an extension arm. That's £1340 just for the flashes, if you're counting. Not far off the cost of a two head Elinchrom Ranger Quadra kit and not as powerful. Obviously, used individually, four SB900's may well be the more versatile solution, particularly if used together with the product which really caught my eye, the new Hotrod strip softboxes. I've long been a fan of the Ezybox Hotshoe for fast moving location portraiture where huge amounts of flash power is not always necessary.

This portrait of Jaronne for a magazine feature was made at the side of a busy London street using a single SB800 with an Ezybox Hotshoe . A fast way to work without drawing too much attention to a photo shoot.

You're never more than six feet from an Orphan Works bill

Orphan Works legislation is bearing down upon us in the UK once more, less than 12 months after it was last thrown out of Parliament. This time, if it's not our own government it seems the EU is coming for us too.

So what is an Orphan Work and how does it affect photography?

Simply put, an Orphan Work is  any intellectual property for which the owner cannot easily be traced.  Following a "diligent search" in Orphan Speak, the work, or image in our case, may be copied, reproduced and distributed without the inconvenience of any money changing hands. Except that is, for a token fee deposited with a yet to be created government orphan licensing agency.

Unfortunately for photographers, it's all too easy for our work to become orphaned once it appears on the internet. Few sites upload IPTC metadata in image files and many will actively strip it out. Once an image has been downloaded it's an orphan.

If that wasn't bad enough, the global nature of the internet means the work of photographers from the US, with its system of copyright registration and punitive damages, to Germany where intellectual property is inalienable, will find their work has not only lost its protection but the UK Exchequer has benefited at their expense.