Coming up on this episode of Photography Online. We get the gin and the vodka out, we
show you a few new filters on the market and we explain why you probably
don't want to shoot at f/22. Welcome to part one of our August 2021 show which
is commercial free so there'll be nothing to ruin the flow for you. And so without delay let's
get things underway. All of the Photography Online team members are working professionals,
believe it or not, and occasionally we record them at work doing what they do. This time we're
following Marcus on one of his recent jobs… I've been making a living from photography for
almost 20 years now and for me the secret to ensuring that I stay enthused and inspired, both
essential ingredients in any creative process, is variety in what I do. One day I could
be shooting promotional images for one of the world's biggest airlines and the next
maybe just a local self-catering property or standing on a cliff top with a workshop
customer for example. Variety is the key and I will often turn down work if I feel it's not right
for me. Now one particular assignment came my way recently which could be considered to
be the ideal job for many photographers. Now don't worry, I haven't suddenly hit the
bottle during lockdown, these are all products from Isle of Skye Distillers who make Misty Isle
Gin and Vodka and will soon start production of single malt whiskey too. They wanted marketing
images of all their existing products taken in a variety of Isle of Skye landscapes but better
than that there was no brief. Now usually with this type of assignment the client will give the
photographer parameters within which to work in and although this can be helpful it can
also sometimes be a little restrictive, so when the boss at Isle of Skye Distillers said,
you're the expert, you just do whatever you want, I knew that this was going to be the ideal job for
me. To give you an insight into my thought process and the considerations I need to make, I thought I
would invite you along on a couple of the shoots. So this scene here is going to be ideal for
one of the product shots for Misty Isle Gin and I've got a lovely rock here in the foreground
which is perfect to place the product on. So got a few different products here. We've
got vodka, got gin but this is the one that I'm most interested in here because you
see it's got green packaging on it and obviously this environment is very green
so the two will go really well together. So just gonna position that on there roughly
at the moment. I'm using the 5D SR because the client wants the ability to print these
potentially very big so want as much detail as possible so that's why I'm using this camera. I'm
using a 50 millimetre lens well for two reasons. Number one because that's the right focal length
for the waterfall from this distance and number two this is a f/1.4 lens which is going to allow
me to control the depth of field a lot more freely than if I was going to use say an f/4 lens. This
is all about getting the balance of the product the right size in comparison to the surroundings.
So all I'm going to do is I'm going to work out my distance so that the product feels like it's
nicely balanced with the background and that is it's about there. So there the products quite quite dominant in the
frame but yet it's got plenty of room to breathe. So the camera wants to be exactly there so
I need to lower the tripod a little bit. That's looking pretty good there. So the next
thing I need to do is focus, manually of course. So that's absolutely pin sharp. The other
thing I need is a polariser because that's going to not only help with the surroundings
but also help with the shine off the bottle because obviously it's a very shiny product
so I want to reduce that as much as I can. Okay so this polariser is also a neutral density
so that's now giving me half a second which is pretty much going to give me the desired effect
on the water in the background. Obviously the product isn't moving so no need to worry about
that so everything's looking pretty good there. So now all I need to do is take the shot. So upon
reviewing the image on the back of the camera, uh it just needs a little bit of kick with
some light. Now rather than do that at the editing stage it's much easier to do it at the
capture stage. So you see the difference that that's making on the bottle. So what I'm
going to do now make sure I'm out of shot. Now it's just a case of rotating the
product and putting different bottles here and keeping everything else the same. So welcome to the world famous Quiraing and it's very, very early in the morning. It's a bad thing about summer here. It's four o'clock in the morning and this is
the ideal conditions for Misty Isle Gin because the last thing we'd want is clear blue skies and
sunshine. So got the product positioned again. Background speaks for itself so it's just
a case of focusing on the product now and then rotating a few different bottles.
So let's give this first one a go. One of the key decisions I've got here is deciding
which aperture to use. I’m obviously focusing on the product but then I want the background to
be soft but recognisable so I'm shooting this at f/2.8 because that's giving me the right
kind of image on the back of the camera but just for safety I'm going to also shoot it at f/4
and f/5.6. And f/5.6 looks way too sharp on here but when it's big, if the client wants to blow
this up really big, then that sharpness is really going to fall off because it's not sharp it just
looks sharp on the back of the camera. The bigger the image the less sharp it'll look. So just so
I've got alternatives I'm going to shoot that but I'm not going to shoot the same for every single
product. I'm just going to do it for one product and then I'll shoot all the other products f/2.8
and then if it turns out that f/5.6 is the one, I'll just replace the product in Photoshop into
the right depth of field, if that makes sense. So one thing I wanted to show you was the whole
principle of getting the product the right size. So I'm using a 50 millimetre lens
here which is giving me the right coverage on the background. If I move the
camera forwards and backwards from this point the background doesn't get any bigger or
smaller in size because I'm so far away from it but obviously the product gets much bigger
in size. So I'm just going to use this small camera here just to show you. So this is,
that’s roughly where I've got this camera here. So if I wanted the product a bit bigger in
frame without the background getting bigger I just move it closer to the product and you can
see that the product is now much bigger in frame compared to the background. So this is a wider
angle lens than the one I'm using on the camera but if I was shooting it on this lens I'd have
the product about there because back here the product's too small in the landscape there. It's
kind of, it's not getting lost but it's just not big enough. You can't read the text properly and
there's just too much breathing space around it so moving a little bit and just somewhere around
there and there we've got a nice balance of, the product is very obvious in the shot we've
got enough room around the outside to put text and everything. So that's the principle of
just getting the background and the foreground balanced correctly you can see how that's getting
bigger and smaller so lots of people think that the focal length changes perspective and as we've
seen a couple of shows ago it doesn’t, it's your distance from the subject that changes that. Okay
so that's all looking good in terms of position and everything. I like the
composition but the bottle's lacking a little bit of oomph so get
the reflector on it again and even though there's no sun the reflector will
just bring it to life a little bit more. So it's just giving it an extra
half a stop of light there. It's probably only going to make a subtle
difference but it will be a big difference let's have a look. It's not even a subtle difference
it's quite a major difference. So major I'm just going to back it off a
little bit in case it looks a bit contrived. Yeah, that's a wrap. That assignment is an open one so basically
Marcus just keeps going until they beg him to stop. And with a Christmas and a Halloween
version to shoot, clearly this is a multi-season job which is going to take him a while. If you're
interested in any Isle of Skye Distillers products then there's a link in the description below. So
if you watched last month's show you would have seen our darkroom printing special with Robin
Bell. So many of you got in touch to say how much you enjoyed it that we've now released the
full-length 30-minute interview with Robin over on our sister channel Mc2 Photography. So if you
enjoyed the edited version that you saw here then I can highly recommend watching the full version
and again there's a link down below. Now if you are a regular viewer then you've probably seen us
doing features about lens filters before. However since we did our last one there have been a
few new and exciting products to the market so we thought we'd show you some of the more
innovative ones which have caught our eye… This here is the double grad, a new innovation
from Kase filters. But what does it do and why would you want one? To put it simply the
double grad does exactly what it says on the tin. It's a single piece of glass which has
two different graduations on opposite ends. This gives three distinct advantages
over regular graduated filters. The first of these is a reduction in the amount
of physical filters or glass that you need to carry in your bag as one of these does the
task of two normal filters. This means that the double grad not only saves you half the
weight but also half the space in your bag. Secondly there's the economical benefit in that
the double grad is far more cost effective than buying two individual filters. So this means that
you can buy the same amount of filters for less money or spend the same amount of money and get
even more filters. Either way it's a bonus. And finally, and this one's my favourite, the double
grad makes it so easy to choose and compare which filter is right for your scene. With some scenes
it may be obvious as to which type of grad is needed. For example, if you're shooting a seascape
then a hard grad will often be the best choice. But sometimes in a landscape scene it's not
obvious which type of grad will give the best result. When using traditional grads you would
typically insert the first one to see how it suited the scene, maybe take a test shot. You
would then remove that and insert another one to compare which one was best suited for the
scene in front of you. Now that's a lengthy process and if the light is fleeting there's
every chance that you might miss the shot. The double grad reduces that workflow because
it allows you to compare two different grads simply by inverting the filter holder. So one side
would be soft filter, the other side would be a hard filter. And you can instantly see which
one is best suited for the scene. Easy, huh? And of course they're made from the usual
toughened glass which can pretty much handle anything you can throw at it or in this case
anything you can throw it at. Initially there'll be two variations of the double grad, the first
one being a three-stop hard with a three-stop soft on the opposite side and the second one
being a three-stop reverse with a three-stop medium on the opposite side but there may be more
variations released in the future so watch this space. You'll know if you've ever used a lens
like this or a big telephoto like this that it's quite a pain to use filters. But if
you've got a mirrorless camera like this then Kase have got a solution which is a clip-in
filter which clips in front of the sensor. Now these are available for Canon, Nikon, Sony and
Fuji but only as a neutral density filter or a nighttime astro filter. The concept is simple.
Just place the filter between the camera's sensor and the lens and bingo. They seem to be held in
place by some kind of magical force until you want to take them out in which case they just pull
out or you can use a supplied suction tool if you have big sausage fingers which don't fit well
into small places. Now they're not available as a circular polariser or as a grad because they
just clip into place and you can't adjust the position. These are a great little solution
if you do use more awkwardly sized lenses. And finally we have the new REVORING filter
system from H&Y which has a variable ND and circular polariser built in but its unique
feature is the way that attaches to the lens and you don't need any filter adapters. So all
you do is you twist the back of the filter system and it just simply attaches to the lens like
so. So with this system we have two handles, the front one controls the variable ND which goes
from one stop through to six stop and behind that we have the second handle which then controls
the polarisation. But the main advantage with this system is how easy it is to remove and then
subsequently put it onto different lenses which have different thread sizes. This eliminates
the need to carry around different adapter rings which in turn saves time and also space in
your bag. The REVORING is available now, however due to high demand you may find that there
is a backlog in trying to get your hands on one. If any of those filters are of interest to you
I've put links to all of them in the usual place. Now last month we gave you a chance, well 250
chances to be precise, to get your hands on one of these Photography Online limited edition lens
cloths made by Spudz. A big thanks to everyone that took part and shared our show and naturally
we had far more entries than we have prizes but if you entered then you definitely have a decent
chance of winning. Now obviously I'm not going to read out 250 names here so if you want to see
if you are one of the lucky ones chosen at random then there's a link in the description below for
you to see all the winners names. Alternatively you can just wait and see if one of these drops
through your letterbox in the next couple of weeks. And if you do want one but weren't lucky
enough to win then they are now available in our online shop along with Photography Online
t-shirts, hats and so much more so check that out when you have a chance. There's a link again down
below or just search for Mc2 Photography shop. So a couple of months ago we gave you our top tips on
how to take your best holiday and travel photos. Hopefully many of you will have either been or
will soon be going on your travels so if you'd like us to feature any of your travel images
on our forthcoming surgery then send them in via the relevant link below. Alright, well now
it's time to brush up on our camera skills. Whether you are shooting on a zoom lens or a prime
lens, most lenses offer the option to control the size of the aperture as well as controlling
the amount of light coming through the lens. Adjusting the size of the aperture also allows
how much of our scene will appear in focus, an area known as depth of field. The most useful
of the three influences to depth of field is aperture. Basically the smaller the aperture the
more depth of field you will appear to get. Now all lenses have their own range of aperture values
with some lenses going down to as small as f/90 but if you use a full frame or a crop sensor
camera the most common minimum value of most lenses will be f/22 or thereabouts. If the smaller
the aperture the more depth of field we get then it is understandable why many photographers
believe that if they shoot everything at f/22 they will get sharper photos because more of
the scene will appear to be in focus. Although that makes logical sense it isn't actually true
and shooting at f/22 or whatever your minimum aperture of the lens is will actually result
in less sharpness and detail in your photos. This is because of something called diffraction
where light rays which come into contact with the aperture blades get scattered in an orderly
manner. We can visualise this by doing the same with water. When water passes through the centre
of a hole it continues in an orderly manner but as soon as it comes in contact with the edge
of the hole it scatters and becomes chaotic. Now regardless of how big the aperture is,
there is some light which will always come into contact with the aperture blades. However
at larger apertures a higher percentage of the light passes through the hole unimpeded but
as you reduce the aperture size, less and less light is allowed to pass through without
coming into contact with the aperture blades. The result is that a high percentage of the light
passing through the lens gets scattered and this causes a loss of sharpness on the sensor and
therefore in the final image. This scattering of light is known as diffraction and is not
something you really want much of in your photos. If you have a lens of a minimum aperture value of
f/22 then there is a reason why the manufacturer didn't allow the scale to go smaller than this and
this is because they saw diffraction starting to affect the image. There's no physical reason why
your lens couldn't go down to f/45 or even f/64 but if the results are going to be bad then the
manufacturer would rather not allow the lens to do this, if it means getting poor reviews or
reputation from using such apertures. So if the manufacturer has seen diffraction kicking in at
f/22 and decided to limit the aperture value to this then the chances are that you don't want to
be using this aperture unless you have very good reason to do so. So although using your smallest
aperture will give you more depth of field, the areas of the scene which are in focus
will not be as sharp as they would be at say f/8 or wider. So in the unlikely event that
you are prioritising areas in front of and behind your chosen point of focus, then using your
smallest aperture will give you the best results. A far more common situation would be to want
your subject pin sharp and the areas in front of and behind this to be as sharp as possible.
In this instance using your smallest aperture would not be good as it would result in your
subject being a little fuzzy due to diffraction. Let's do a couple of tests to show
you the difference diffraction makes using a 70 to 200 millimetre f/4 lens. Let's take
this shot at f/4. If we zoom into the subject the area where the lens was focused we can see that it
is pin sharp. But the areas in front of and behind the subject are clearly out of focus. We can close
down the aperture to render these areas to appear more in focus but they will never be truly sharp.
If we now take the same shot at f/32, the smallest aperture of this lens, we can see that the areas
which were originally out of focus now appear to be sharp but if we zoom in enough we can see
that they are actually not technically sharp. This is all to do with something called circles
of confusion which was explained in our depth of field feature in our May 2020 episode, where
my colleague Marcus explains how the three influences of depth of field work. If we now
look at our subject, the area that we focused on, we can see that it is not as sharp as it was
at f/4. This is diffraction at play, with the smaller aperture hole scattering the light as
it comes into contact with the aperture blades. If we were able to close this lens down to f/45
or further the image would only get worse which is why this lens has been limited at f/32.
So although the title of this feature is why you don't want to shoot to f/22, this
only applies if your minimum aperture is f/22. If like this lens, which goes down to f/90, then
clearly f/22 is well away from the diffraction zone and therefore there’s no need to avoid it.
Basically avoid using your smallest apertures if you want maximum sharpness on your subject and you
want to prioritise this over depth of field. So an f/4 lens will probably have a sweet spot of around
f/8. An f/1.4 lens will perform best around f/2.8 and an f/5.6 lens will form best around f/11
and so on. This is only a generic rule of thumb and all lenses will perform slightly differently
so it's always worth doing some test shots to see where your particular lens works best. Going
back to the scene we shot at f/4 and f/32, both extremes of this 70 to 200 millimetre lens,
let's now take the shot at f/8 where this lens would typically be performing at its best. We can
see that the outer focus areas are still clearly out of focus as they should be but crucially our
subject is now razor sharp. So don't be one of those people who goes around shooting everything
at f/22 or whatever your smallest aperture is in the hope that this will ensure the sharpest
results. It won’t. To get the maximum sharpness on your subject try shooting around two
stops smaller than your largest aperture. If you need to increase your depth of
field, use your own judgment to work out what the best settings will be. There are
no secret formulas here as it totally depends on the scene and your focal length. Just
remember that using your smallest aperture on your lens might give you the maximum depth of
field but it won't give you your sharpest results. If you find our Essential Camera Skills series
useful then I can highly recommend this, our 68-page Series One manual which covers
everything that we featured last year plus a few bonus tips too. We're currently hard
at work creating Series 2 which will feature everything we've covered this year including the
focal length explanation which many of you said was a penny-dropping moment. Series 2 will
be available towards the end of this year so keep watching the show and we'll announce when
they're ready to ship. We also make these kind of announcements on our channel's Community area
which you can check out at any time. Okay well that's it for part one of this month's show but
do join me for part two in just a couple of weeks. We will be showing you how to use a tripod
properly - apparently many people do it wrong so you don't want to be one of those - plus we'll be
tagging along on a one-to-one photo workshop here on the Isle of Skye to give you an insight into
what this involves and we'll be seeing what three very different budgets can buy and how this may
influence the results that you get. Basically just be here in two weeks time. Please give us a thumbs
up if you've enjoyed the show and don't forget to spread the word by telling your friends or family
who are interested in photography all about us. See you soon but until then, you know the drill,
take good care but most of all take good photos.
