Fisheye lenses: not just for vertigo

There's a commonly held belief that fisheye lenses are only good for two things: making sickeningly cute puppies even more bucket-filling, and making the most gorgeous people look awful. The reality is that the fisheye lens is actually a powerful tool that can be used to set your landscape shots apart from the crowd.

In many ways, you have to think of it like a high-end, rear wheel drive sports car. You cover a lot of ground in a short space of time; but try giving it too much, and it will probably get you killed (Point of fact – never, ever point it in jest at the tail-end of someone you can't outrun. It always ends badly).

There are certain things that you have to remember when using fisheye lenses.

1. You can't use graduated filters with them. They would have to be bowl-shaped to fit into the frame. This would be very expensive, and completely impractical. That's why nobody makes them.

2. Only the horizontal and vertical bisectors appear to be straight, because of the extreme barrel distortion. Moving away from the centre of the lens causes lines to bend. You can get software to correct this (DXO is fantastic), but if plan to do this a lot, save yourself some effort and get a linear wide-angle lens.

3. Small movements are greatly exaggerated when looking through a fisheye lens.

4. THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT: Everything looks much further away than it really is. Think T-Rex chasing the jeep in Jurassic Park. It's like that, but the jeep would already have been swallowed whole. There are a few urban myths out there about people walking into moving air plane propellers whilst trying to use fisheye lenses. I don't know about this, but it's worth remembering if you're planning to use small rocks as foreground interest.

Obviously, there's a few things that must be considered to use these features to your advantage. The incompatibility of filters means that for landscape work, you're probably going to be working in the realms of HDRI (tricky due to exaggeration of movement, but practicable with a sturdy tripod), or at the very least, using flash to light your foregrounds. Linear (especially man-made) features can look really wrong. Fishyeyes really excel with natural features or circles. In this situation, they can give a very pleasing curve, and help boost your composition.

They aren't easy to use well, but the best stuff never is.

The Benefits of Chimping

It's been a busy few months here, and in spite of some truly awful weather, I've been taking every opportunity to practise whenever I can. It may seem obvious, but it's one of two things that really makes good photographers. The other is careful editing. By that, I don't mean post-shoot photo manipulation, but careful selection of the strongest images from a similar set. In order to do that, you have to be willing to try different settings at every opportunity. And you can make those opportunities for yourself.

Lately I've been looking at different ways to light for dramatic studio portraits. One thing I've realised is that you don't have to wait for the next studio session to try this. The chimp in this photo is only a few inches tall, so a couple of small remote flash units have the scaled effect of a pair of large soft boxes on a person. This realisation gave me ample opportunity to practise in a way that let me concentrate entirely on the technical aspects of the shoot. That way, when it comes to working with live models, I know what is possible with the lights, and can focus on the interaction with my subjects.

Transferring techniques to accessible subjects is a great way to learn, and boosts your creativity. Make small changes, and look at the differences in the results, whether projected, in print, or on the LCD of a digital camera (known as chimping - watch someone else do this, and you'll see where the name came from). This will force you to think more about what makes one photograph more interesting than another, and will help you to get more out of the important shoots when they come along. Learn from the poor shots, and share the best ones. All of the pros have duff images, but it's knowing what not to show that makes them better than the rest.

a new trick for your manfrotto XProB

Bet you didn't know it could do this! Manfrotto don't seem to. I've seen loads of reviews for the XProB series of tripods, and they've all said that a disadvantage of them is that you can't invert the central column for extreme, low-level shooting.
You can you know...

Before you do this, a quick disclaimer. If you damage your camera using it like this, it's not my fault. Be careful, and remember to lock the column in the normal manner. Otherwise you'll drop your camera on its head. And there's a slight possibility that the safety button will be dented too (I don't actually believe that part, but I have to cover my bases). If it is,then that won't be my fault either. However, mine is undamaged, and has been for the last year and a half that I've been using it like this.

The first step is to remove the central column. To do this, raise the column up to its maximum height. Push the button at the end of the column, as if you are about to swing it to the horizontal position.


Push hard enough, and the safety button will retract enough to slide through the pivoting collar.
Otherwise, use a finger to push the safety button down, while pulling the column straight up. You should be able to remove it quite easily.


Now, swing the column upside-down, and align it so the the safety button lines up with the collar notch. Make sure the collar is in the vertical position. Push and hold the safety button, and push the column into place. Release the button when it passes the collar.


You are now free to use the column in the inverted position. Simply reverse the steps to return it to the upright position. It may seem fiddly at first, but with a little practice, the process is quite quick, freeing you up to lie face down in the mud to get some really low angles.

Supplementary lighting for macro

I was recently asked about a comment I had made on using flash for my most of my macro shots, by someone wanting to know if they would have to spend lots of money. The only means of flash at their disposal was the built in flash unit. They used canon kit, but I don't. Here's how I answered:

I very rarely use my on-board flash. I try to approach my macro work as miniature portraits, which usually means low fill-flash (it can be okay for this sometimes), and side/ backlighting. I try to keep it as low as possible though, and mostly use ambient light. The flashes are really there to make things sparkle a bit, or pick out some of the textures.

I'm currently using the Nikon SB-800, and the R1C1 kit, which I think equates to the Canon 580EX II and Canon MT-24EX. I think there are couple of cheaper options, but the key is being able to get the flash unit away from the camera. Unfortunately, that's the massive benefit of using nikon: wireless is fitted as standard across the range. For yourself, you'll need TTL cables or a transmitter. Cables are a bit of a faff, because if you move, the flash comes with you, but they're definitely the cheaper option.
If you haven't got one though, get yourself a five-way diffuser/ reflector. They are amazingly useful, and I know someone who uses one almost exclusively. She's got some of the best fungi shots I've ever seen, so you don't need to go all out on complex flash set-ups. Here's some of the ways I use flash in my photos:
Two R200 flash units. One at rear right for rimlight, -3.0EV. One at front left through diffuser, -1.7EV. Note that the lower-powered flash is closer to the subject, so light looks brighter, but falls off very quickly.

No flash used. Fill-light from gold reflector

Two R200 flash units. One at left for definition, -1.3EV. One at front right through diffuser, -1.3EV.

SB-800 mounted on camera, -1.3 EV for fill. Stofen diffuser dome attached.

one R200 flash unit to the rear right, 3 stops below ambient for rimlight (-3.0 EV).

SB-800 mounted on camera, -1.3 EV to freeze movement. Note that this could be done with built-in flash, but light would be harsher because of smaller flash.













Full flash (no ambient registered). One SB-800 bounced from front right off gold reflector.














No flash used. Fill-light from gold reflector


















The tricky part will always be figuring out what lighting suits what subject. That will depend very much on the situation, and the background effects you want to produce. Trial and error is a huge part of this. So in short, it's worth spending a bit of money if you really want to improve your results, it doesn't have to be too much in the grand scheme of things, but a dedicated macro light rig will certainly open up your options.

What's it all about Alfie?

Well, actually, it's David.

I've started this blog as a means of sharing some of my experiences as a photographer. It's intended as a reference point, working on the theory that if I write things down as I learn, I might remember them. That's the plan anyway. If others can benefit from my learning curves, then it's a bonus.

I think honesty is important. We've all been to friend's weddings, or popular locations, and run into a photographer who mocks us with our inexperience and cheap equipment (it's all relative, after all). I don't want to be that guy. The only way I've developed my skills is by talking to other photographers (because most of the greats are a friendly bunch), and doing my homework. I don't mind sharing that knowledge with others, as it always seems to open doors. So feel free to look around, laugh at my mistakes, and take what you can from them.