Accessories

This week we are looking at some of the accessories, that perhaps get overlooked. So we are not today looking at tripods, flash, or the more obvious items but some of those extra bits and pieces. We also haven't included any of the studio or portrait items as we are working on a feature week looking at studio equipment from flashes, and always on lighting through to reflectors and backgrounds in a few weeks, we also haven't included filters as we have covered this quite well before.

So lets think about accessories that will solve problems or needs. For a start when outside and its bright can you see your camera LCD screen well enough to know if its a good or bad shot. If not perhaps a shade is the answer, we take a look at the Delkin professional pop-up shade, one of the advantages of this is that the hood part clicks off so its easy to get a flip free view when you want. Another solution, or used with this, is the Hoodman Loupe,  this allows a better view of the rear screen, and when used with the above shade, with the flip hood removed, is particularly easy to use.

Next problem, horizons that are not level, buildings that slope back, using Liveview with your arm out of a train or over the battlements of a castle, how do we get the camera level.  We take a look at both a double bubble spirit level and a small electronic level in the article Spirit levels.

Getting a view when we are not able or its not convenient to be behind the camera is explained in the articles on 90 degree viewfinders, and the Zigview range.

Controlling the camera from next to it or some way away is covered also in the article on the Zigview but also articles on Remote cables  and Remote controls. 

Knowing after the event where you took the picture from we have covered before in an article on Geotagging,     but this week we have also added an article looking at Geotagger Models. 

Firing two cameras at the same time is covered in an article on Cable to parallel 2 cameras,  and supporting these two cameras in the article on the Multi camera bracket. 

Other items you can fix to a tripod include the Vertaflip, a device that allows you to change from a portrait to landscape view without loosing the point the camera was looking at, and the Novaflex Castel-mini, a special type of focusing rack that has at least three uses and justifies its place in a camera bag. You can use it instead of a panorama head it's also far cheaper, for its prime use in macro or similar work where you want to move the camera a back and forwards precisely and for taking 3D photos with a single camera.

Perhaps the need is to get colours correct or to sort out exposures, or perhaps with production jobs like weddings to be able to process the results to the proof stage in minutes, in this case you will find the article on Exposure and White Balance  targets - Ezybalance, XpoBalance and TriBalance,  of particular value. These are Lastolite products and in a few weeks we are going to look in more detail at a large part of the Lastolite range in detail. Like this weeks articles the articles will have loads of photographs so that you can see what these items do and how they work.

If you have looked at the pages above, you may have noticed that many have the items of interest only and no backgrounds.  This technique has become more popular recently with product photography, we have mixed feelings, is it better to show items in their natural setting or with no background. We produced some each way so that you could see the difference and make up your own mind.

So as to make it easier to find these and other accessories, a few we have covered before, we are expanding the photography section in the menu system, and will have an index page then, for accessories. They will also, like always, be added into our main indexes. We hope to get this done within the next week.

We also have a report on this years Focus on Imaging show, it didn't have as many good offers as we expected and some items were cheaper from other suppliers, so it was a good job we had done our research before we went. It was, as always, a good opportunity to get to look over all the offerings, and to see some of the items we had seen only in press releases and on websites before.

What photography have you been doing recently?  The last two weekends we have taken a day out in Wales photographing castles, one day in North Wales - covering 6 castles, one in far more detail, and the second day looking at one of the South Wales castles in far greater detail than we had done before. We have visited many of the other castles of Wales before, and its always interesting providing a range of challenges and some really good photos, although we had a motive to take these two days out, we have a feature week we are working on, on the castles of Wales. On the North Wales day we had mist rolling in off the sea at one castle that gave us some unusual opportunities before it all blew away.

Other News

Photo Skills, as you know just started to produce its FREE online courses when along came the depression and being unsure what was going to happen they put the projects on ice. They have now announced that they are going to re-write the first segment of the photography course and then continue this course shortly, but not for now going to run the Photoshop course. Site statistics has shown that very many people were looking at the photography course and only a small number at the Photoshop course, so this makes more sense. The other change is that they are to organise far more practical days, as well as arranging for other training providers to be able to take part also offering training days to go with the course. They are also looking at producing some exercise instructions that you could do at home using a Girlequin, and have an offer allowing you to get one to practice with at a reasonable price.  We will keep you informed of progress, and when something is available.

Photography Skills that run the Beyond the Basics Masterclasses are making a range of changes to what they offer. These courses are for those who already know how to use their cameras, and not suitable for beginners or those who have just read a few magazines or joined a club. The changes involve adding far more practical, including more exercises, in many cases using Girlequins and other advanced training methods to allow clients to learn far more and get far more hands on experience. As you cannot create time, they have also had to make other changes to allow this to happen and they are changing all courses to run to a fixed programme rather than the previous practice of modifying contents to meet the individual needs of the individual clients, in the same way that Camera Images do, and all courses will be done using Nikon cameras rather than the users using their own cameras. This will present few problems in that the clients knowing how to use their own cameras will be able to adapt the skills they learn to whatever camera they use. It does however mean that connectivity and operation within the training environment is more controlled and more rapid progress can be made. The pricing structure has also changed.

Camera Images has simplified its pricing structure and removed a large number of options that people did not generally use, and brought their website up to date. This is really a first stage as they are working on a new website structure that will have a load of linked websites, with a new 'getting started' website and many others, each looking at an area of photography, so for example there is a new website with a wider range of studio and flash courses in development. One of the criticisms of the Camera Images website is that as they can run so many courses, it is sometimes difficult to find the right course for you. The new approach they hope will overcome this, while still concentrating on meeting the needs the client has at the current time. Camera Images have also, like many others, had to revise their prices, which is the first increase they have made since 2007.

Training Vouchers are a cost effective and convenient way to arrange for training, allowing you to have a fixed budget for your training needs, particularly relevant now prices are rising everywhere and the pound has been devalued. Up to now Training Vouchers with the abbreviation TV have been tied to a fixed amount of  training time, usually 1TV = 1 hours 1 to 1 training. The current TV are now being relabelled TVH, so still worth one hours training, but a new type TV$ is being introduced to allow further development of the training voucher systems and is now being used for calculating both volume discounts when buying more training vouchers and for pricing multi-day training courses allowing larger discounts. At the moment both are in whole units only, but later the intention is that TV$ will be more like a barter currency and be available in decimal units. Training providers who, for training, use vouchers are also no longer required to use it as their main form of pricing, but can offer it as an alternative form, which they hope will encourage more training providers to participate. Training vouchers are issued and administered by TEPO standing for Training Experience and Passport Organisation,  which is a part of the non profit organisation New Atlantis.

A new company, Girlequin Ltd,  has been set up to market and promote Girlequins, the art work version of people that are life-like and used as art works, for training and other uses. Girlequins are a form of very life-like and full sized mannequins with hair, clothing and more. The name comes from the fact that they are nearly all girls, rather than men. Camera Images and Photography Skills make a lot of use of Girlequins now and have 5 in use,  one seated, one kneeling, one laying, and two standing. They are not always used instead of live models but for the practical part of training before a live model is introduced, also allowing many effects like using reflectors of different colours and lighting to be easier to understand. A new range of medical Girlequins are in development that will be used for teaching medical photography, where the Girlequins will have various conditions, poor things. The range is expanding. Currently there are 7 mannequins, including 2 children, having work done to them in the workshop. Camera Images have commissioned 4 others, that have not yet been started, one of a seated man, another of an older person with a full character face and a bride and groom pair standing. We hope shortly to have an illustrated article on Girlequins and how they can be used for photography training as well as being art works and having other uses. Girlequin Ltd have a website in development, we will tell you when its ready to see.

Eastleigh100 Open Weekend. If you are into railways then this special weekend will be of interest to you. Its from the 23-25 May 2009 at Eastleigh, Hampshire. There is a special night time photography session starting at 8.45pm (extra cost for this). If you get hold of a copy of the Railway Magazine that was published March 4th (April edition) you will find there a coupon and codeword to enable you to get cut price tickets. You can find out more about this event at http://www.eastleigh100.com/.

Spirit levels

Delkin professional pop-up shade

Hoodman Loupe 

Exposure and White Balance targets - Ezybalance, XpoBalance and TriBalance 

Remote cables 

Remote controls 

Zigview

Cable to parallel 2 cameras 

Geotagger Models 

Multi camera bracket 

Novaflex Castel-Mini

Right Angle Viewfinders

Vertaflip

Focus-On-Imaging Show 2009 Review