Professional Photography in Cape Town

Do lenses make a difference? You bet you last Dollar, they do! Lenses will be the focus of a few postings over the next days, if you excuse the pun. 

It's a great privilege to be invited to shoot any wedding, but I must confess a special pleasure at informal or spontaneous ones, where everybody is relaxed and themselves and no packdrill.  Debi and Anthon's wedding was just such an occasion - a 'black and white' wedding held at The Glen. The photos below were all shot digital full colour, but you can see what is easily achieved by desaturating the image to produce fine 'black and white' prints. Have a great life together, Debi, Anthon and wonderful kids.

As featured in the Peoples' Post - 27 March 2012 Hanging out of the side of a helicopter taking photos for a client, or trying to get a steady pic from the window of a car while game spotting, you need to operate your camera at higher shutter speed.  School in Cape Town taken from a helicopter at 900 feet  Most cameras have settings that allow control of exposure time or shutter speed. This is the length of time, in thousands of a second.e.g. a common speed of 125 means one 125 th of a second, or 1000 means one 1000 th of a second. Do not confuse this with sensor or ISO speed, the direct analogy of film speed. They are however complementary. Advanced cameras allow the exposure to be directly set, but even Others, including basic digicams have a ‘fast’ or sports setting to be used when you want to freeze the action. Check yours out, often denoted by a running man icon. Use the “sports” setting when you want to freeze the action or at any tim...

Last time I mentioned some of the image editing software options available to you for free download or bundled with certain digital cameras you purchase. So you’ve all installed yours on the computer, right ? Editing technique number one to know is how to crop effectively. It is the ideal fix for photos that were badly composed (shot in a hurry!) or contained unwanted distracting objects. The cropping tool in the software is normally denoted by a boxy looking icon depicting scissors. An effective photograph is like a good essay that puts across one story, or an idea. Think abou t that when you crop. Dismiss the notion that your subject needs to be at the centre of the photograph. Think about what story you are trying to tell, or what looks interesting. Consider how you would like the eye of the viewer to travel. Experiment. Remember first to save your original image from the camera, and always work on copies only. The beauty of modern high resolution cameras is that y...

Interesting pre-dawn shoot at the Southern Africa Large Telescope a the SA Astronomical Observatory near Sutherland. Photo  taken over a 10 minute exposure at 5 mins 20 secs. Shutter button was pressed at approximately 6 a.m. This was about 1 hour 45 minutes prior to sunrise, but the reflected glow from the eastern horizon bounces off the side of the SALT scope.  Later, during the exposure, a vehicle occupied by off-duty astronomers pulled up alongside and spoiled the lower half of the picture with red and orange light from their brake lights and flashers. Fortunately this did not affect the upper area of the image, where the main action is. The lens flare near dead centre however comes from that vehicle. Astronomers posted at SALT and the other SAAO scopes are not only permanent staff but also come from all over the world to do observations and research. SALT is one of only two such facilities in the world. The other unit is at Austin, Texas. Yes - and it was c...

How often do you use the timer setting on your digital camera? This useful feature is not taken advantage of enough. Two big advantages of this feature are; -           In low light or when taking close up pictures, compose the pic, select the delay, press the shutter and then remove your hand from the button. The camera will be as steady as its support base. No blur! -           Include yourself in the photograph. I’ve often done this on hikes or with friends. Snag is, you need to be quick on your feet to join the group, so make sure you don’t trip. Plus, you need a solid base to support the camera while doing the under 10-second sprint! Those who have scratched their cameras, had the wind blow them over while doing the 10-second sprint, or simply come out with skew looking pics will enjoy learning of a great portable beanbag product from Canada, which I discovered last week. Called “the Red Pod...

Two of the most important features of the digital camera - sensors & lenses. Both make the difference between expensive camera at over R 4 000 and a cheaper version costing R 1000 and above. Bear in mind, “computers with a lens” are cheap, but great lenses are very expensive. Megapixels are no replacement for good quality lenses and sensors. Think of the sensor in your camera as the direct equivalent of film. In many cases, they are even the same size – the negative of APS C-sized film is exactly the same size as the sensor of many modern digital cameras. If you want to test the quality of a sensor, upload your photo onto a computer and study the dark areas closely. Lesser quality sensors will not differentiate the contrast between of light and shade efficiently and the shade will appear as a series of 3-coloured dots under 100% view. The lens is more important – for much the same reasons as film cameras. Bear in mind that the lens of a "point and shoot" compact can nev...

Stephen and Jana - Boulders Beach Lodge & Boardwalk. Stephen, from JHB, wanted an 'intimate' photoshoot to surprise his Cape Town-based student girlfriend, Jana - with a special romantic weekend at the Boulder Beach Lodge. So I met the young couple on location and tailed them as they explored the intimate beaches and walked the Boardwalk.

Holiday Photos & Landscapes Choosing the Right Camera for your Money The Computer and Your Camera ! My latest posting - how to select a good "point and shoot" or digital compact camera. Welcome to my Digital Tips Column in the People's Post newspaper, Southern Peninsula of Cape Town. The People's Post website is at http://www.peoplespost.co.za/ (note - Tips not online) I will include a few of the more interesting tips that were published here, both as scans of the actual article, and also the text.