Huge panic just broke out in the office (luckily there's only me here today because some bad language followed) as I thought I'd lost some of the RAW files from my shoot in London for BUPA Care homes yesterday. Luckily it was just Lightroom playing a hilarious trick whereby it only loaded in 70% of the pictures for no apparent reason and they were there safe and sound on the desktop.


Radha



My workflow is pretty basic but effective and it works like this :-

Download all the RAW files and back up to DVD and external drive

Convert RAW files to Tiff in either Lightroom or DXO (now Lightroom 99% of the time)

Retouch the Tiffs in Photoshop CS5 (basically straighten up vertical lines etc and remove dusk marks)

Back into Lightroom for final colour tweaking then convert to Jpeg and lastly to 72 dpi for the final CD to the client.

We always issue full size Jpegs and 72 dpi versions to make it easier for people to browse the CD when it arrives.



Callum



I also do a lot of HDR work and I use Photomatix to get a basic HDR image from between 3 and 8 differently exposed pictures and this is then worked on in Photoshop and Lightroom as pictures straight out of HDR software look very odd. I've seen pictures printed in magazines that are straight out of these HDR programs and I always think it's really lazy and bad technique for photographers to do this.

A couple of weeks ago I did a portrait shoot at Philips Electronics where I set up a small portrait kit comprising one Bowens flash head and a brolly with a white backdrop that I left unlit which means it fades to grey. I used my 24-105mm F4 L lens at the 105mm end for the portraits and shot the lens wide open at f4 to give a shallow depth of field and a softer look to the pictures. I've done a few shoots at the Philips Guildford HQ before and it's always great fun to work with the guys there and I've added a couple of the pictures in the blog. Even though digital cameras give us a preview on the LCD screen on the back I always use my Minolta light meter when I'm shooting portraits to make sure I get an accurate exposure first time around and to avoid having to post process the pictures too much afterwards.

In September I spent a day at the new crematorium in Milton Keynes shooting some stills and video for Adrian Morrow of AJM Architects who designed the building for Milton Keynes Council. The new crematorium is a beautiful piece of modern architecture and utilises some cutting edge technology such as heat recuperation and natural ventilation among many and I love the natural concrete finishes and flowing shapes of the structure. I posted some of the still images a few weeks ago in the blog and here is the finished video.




All the footage was taken on my EOS 5D MK2 with a 24-105mm F4L lens, 24mm T/S (Tilt and Shift) lens and 17-40mm F4L lens. My partner at Inverse Square Media (our video production company) edited the video footage with a program called Avid and the client was very pleased with the results!.

I'm working at the Lux Live event tomorrow and Thursday at Earls Court as the official photographer which should be fun as the show is going to be really busy and many of my clients will be there. I'm also shooting some video clips for the Lux website so if you're attending the show and want to be in the video give me a shout!. I'm hoping the show will really catch on as this is the first one and the signs are good as there's lots of talk on Twitter etc about it.

Speaking of Twitter you can find me there as redshiftphoto so give me a follow!.

All Saints Westfield Stratford

This week feels like it's been a bit more gentle although I've still been pretty busy. I did a shoot in Ipswich on Monday at the new Klick Fitness gym, a portrait shoot at Philips Electronics HQ in Guildford on Tuesday morning followed by a video interview with a landscape gardener called Tom Harfleet in the afternoon for a video we're producing for Philips Lighting. Then I headed off to Norwich on Wednesday for two retail photo shoots - one at a Jeweller's shop and another at a ski and surf shop (not what I'd expect to find in Norwich!).

Yesterday was spent in meetings with Pete my video partner at Inverse Square Media and with Jan Baldwin from VPL PR - a top lighting industry PR company (http://www.vastpublicity.com/) followed by an afternoon of post shoot processing mixed in with bouts of PC bashing as the computer is on the blink again!.

Today I'm working a half day as we're moving into our new house this afternoon so it's going to be a busy weekend!.



Gt Pulteney Street Reception



My poor car is suffering with all the travelling and it's currently in the garage being looked at because it keeps spluttering along as every few miles some orange warning light comes on - I hope it's not going to be a big bill!. We've just had to buy one new PC and I'll need one soon too (mine's heading for the window!) so I don't need a big garage bill on top.

I'm going to be the official photographer at the upcoming Lux Awards (http://www.luxawards.co.uk/) covering both days of the show and the evening event. If you're going you'll see me wondering around with my trusty EOS 5D MK2 photographing stands so give us a shout if you want a picture taking of you.



Following on from my last blog entry last month I nearly made it through a mad period of work unscathed but I ended up getting a bad chest infection which lasted three weeks and is still hanging around now. I've been so busy though that I could only take one night off and missed a job in Covent Garden but then I had to keep on going as I didn't want to let any of our clients down.


Finsbury Park Station



I'm feeling a lot better now but it's been a tough month and I've had both photography and video to shoot as well as writing a brochure for Llumarlite via my other company Inverse Square Media were we offer video and media services as well as blogging and brochure design etc.

I've had some nice work in though including a shoot at River Island HQ, one at All Saints Westfield in Stratford and another really nice shoot at Liberty in London. The video work has been fun too and I had a two day shoot down in Wales were I video'd a furniture installation for Kinnarps and also video'd some interviews with the client. Add to that two office interior shoots, a night shoot in Oxford at Queens College, a really cool shoot at the Tate Gallery and a day and night shoot at Finsbury Park Station and you can see I've been mega busy.



Tate Modern



Whilst I've been in London I've had a chance to pick up a new lens for my little Olympus ELP-1 which I use as my point and shoot camera. I bought the Olympus 20mm pancake lens which means the camera can fit into my pocket and so far it looks like a cracking lens. I'll be taking some candid shots next time I'm in London with it and I'll post some pictures in the blog once I've got some.



One of the big problems with shooting video on the EOS5D MK2 is the crap sound quality that the camera produces. I've tried putting a good microphone on it but it's still very noisy so I've invested in a Zoom H2 stand alone stereo mike and I have to say the sound quality is superb and it's really easy to use. The sound does have to be lip-synched back in to the video but it's worth the effort and I can recommend these little recorders very highly.

 

Liberty



I'm here working late tonight (Sunday) as I need to get up to date as next week I've got four days booked out with a shoot in Ipswich tomorrow and a portrait shoot in Guildford on Tuesday for Philips Electronics. Then I've got two shops to photograph in Norwich on Wednesday and a photoshoot in London for BUPA on Thursday. That's a lot of post shoot processing to take care of so I don't want to fall behind now!.



Finally I've just bought the latest Photoshop CS5 Extended and it's brilliant!. My previous version was CS3 and things have come on a lot since then. I'm not a fan of spending hundreds of pounds on software and in having the latest version of everything but I'm glad I splashed out on this and I can highly recommend it if you do a lot of retouching.



Last week was very busy but mainly with client meetings. I did one photo shoot for Willmott Dixon at a newly refurbished Travelodge in St Swithens Lane right in the City of London and also I spent a day in the studio shooting some products for Llumarlite.

Llumarlite LED based AR111





The meetings were all regarding some interesting new projects for both Redshift and my other company Inverse Square Media and this week is the week when everything is going to happen!. I must admit I'm a bit anxious about getting everything finished but a bit of pressure is good I think!.

I had a shoot yesterday at the new cafe in the Cambridge Botanical Gardens which was great fun and the cafe is a beautiful piece of modern architecture. I was commissioned by the company that had supplied the ceiling mounted heating panels and the brief was to capture both the general interior and the panels close up. I also took some shots from the outside to show the modern design.

Today I'm working in the office but tomorrow the mayhem begins!. I've got two jobs in London for different clients - one at a retail company HQ and the other at the new Westfield Shopping Centre in Stratford.



Travelodge City of London



Then on Thursday I spending the day in the studio shooting some street lighting products both for still images and also on a rotating turntable to create 360 degree rotating movie clips. Then I'm off to London for another two projects in the evening - one at Selfridges Oxford Street and another at an event. My colleague Chris is taking care of most of the event photography to enable me to focus on the Selfridges shoot.

On Friday I'm spending a day in Oxford photographing three university buildings by day and night for Hoare Lea Lighting and on Saturday I'm shooting the video at the new crematorium in Milton Keynes.

I'm hoping I can get through all that and have a nice peaceful Sunday to recover!.



I've spent the past couple of days working on some interesting stuff for my other company Inverse Square Media. We've been asked to design a brochure and video presentation for Llumarlite who specialise in the manufacture and installation of lighting products in industrial and commercial buildings. It's great to get involved in something different and I'll post the video clip here and on the Inverse Square Media blog (www.inverse-square-media.blogspot.com) once it's finished.



We've recently employed Ani Lansdown to be our office manager here at Redshift Photography and I have to say it's worked out really well!. Ani is really cheerful and full of energy and she's already an integral part of the team. Having someone come in with fresh ideas was just what we needed and Ani has already come up with some new ways of doing things.



Ani



Our new website is under development and I took a picture of Melanie a while back ready for the new site and posted her picture here in the blog. Yesterday I put a small studio lighting setup together in our office and took Ani's picture ready for the new site and I've posted it here.

I'm about to update our Flickr site with some new photographs which I've been meaning to do for ages so please click on the link to the right and take a look. Flickr is a great way to display photographs and I prefer it to our website as it's so easy to upload and delete pictures etc. Also by tagging the pictures Google Images can pick them up and we've had people contacting us over the past few months asking about purchasing pictures that they've found in this way so it obviously works.

Being a photographer I guess it's natural that I love cameras and I've just fallen in love with a big heavy old Pentax 67 camera that my camera repair tech has for sale in his workshop. Melanie isn't happy but I guess there's worse things in life than buying cameras so I'm off to pick it up tomorrow and I can't wait to shoot some medium format slide film through it. Once I've got to grips with it I'll post a couple of pictures up in the blog.

My PC has just flipped out again and spent the last 30 minutes trying to repair itself which is a pain. Last time this happened it took me all afternoon to get it working again. It might be wishful thinking but I'm sure if I could afford to upgrade to Mac's they'd be more reliable. Typically these things always seem to happen at the worst possible time and right now a new PC or Mac for that matter is out of the question as we've just had a £4.5K VAT bill and the Corporation Tax which is due at Christmas has just been calculated and we've got to find the money to pay that too!. On the plus side I've never been as busy as I have in the past 6 months and the diary is looking pretty full from now until mid October so I can't complain to be honest.

BUPA Chef

Here's a picture from the BUPA's Best shoot which I did last month. It's one of my favourite pictures from the day and I really hope the guys at BUPA put this one in the campaign. The shoot was great fun and the models were all real BUPA employees who had won an internal competition to appear in the ad's. I had to work fast on the day and be very flexible so I decided to shoot with 2-3 Canon Speedlite battery powered flashguns rather than my Bowens studio heads. I used a set of Calumet wireless pocket wizards to fire the flashguns which worked perfectly all day and they enabled me to set the flash power manually and use my hand held meter to get the right amount of light for each picture. I used a brolly, softbox and in some cases an opal flash diffuser with the lights bounced off the ceiling or walls for a soft and even light. To make sure the white balance was correct I used my Expodisc to get a neutral grey target and set the camera to custom white balance.

I've had a few fun photoshoots since I last blogged and another one was the Philips Employee Day last week at their HQ in Guildford. I photographed the events during the day and finished off with a portrait shoot where the guys from Philips could have their picture taken with Roger Black the famous 400m athlete. Once again the pocket wizards were fantastic and I used a simple stand mounted flashgun bounced off the ceiling to capture Roger and the Philips Employees in front of a Philips backdrop without any noticeable shadowing on the backdrop. We used a Canon Selphy 6x4 instant printer to run off prints as we went along and I was really impressed with the speed and quality of the prints. I had Canon 6x4 printer a few years ago and the print quality has really improved since then so my initial scepticism was proved to be wrong.

Onitsuka Tiger

Another shoot that I really enjoyed was for Illuma Lighting who commissioned me to photograph the Onitsuka Tiger store in Westfield Shopping Centre in West London. The store was quite small but very colourful and the merchandise looked very well lit under the Illuma spotlights. The spotlights themselves were black against a dark ceiling so I had to overexpose slightly and pull the main picture back a little to ensure the spotlights were visible in the pictures.