Working with my New IR Camera (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

After obsessively tracking it's route, my new Canon EOS 5Ds finally arrived back from infrared conversion by LifePixel; I won't be able to use it in a session with a model for a couple of days, but I did manage to spend a bit of time photographing with the camera today, just to check it out.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't ideal for infrared photography - the sky was hazy and lacked the drama of a clear blue sky with fluffy clouds. Wanting to work with a familiar subject, I headed to the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows, in the Holy Cross Cemetery. I'd included an image of this building in my exhibition The Light Beyond (2012), and was interested to see how the new camera compared to that photograph (which was a five-frame stitch from an IR converted Nikon D70).

Digital infrared original

Overall, my first impressions are really positive; the camera didn't seem as sensitive (in regard to the exposure) as the previous Canon EOS 5D MKII, but that will be easy to measure in a side-by-side comparison with the older camera. Working on the images in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, the added resolution (50mp vs 21mp) presented a wealth of detail that would have been missing from the same image on a lower resolution camera.

Digital infrared original

The real advantages of the higher resolution was revealed in the second image (with the two trees towering over the building). Made with the EF 16-35mm f/4 lens, I used manual lens correction in Lightroom to remove much of the lens distortion. This in turn required the image to be cropped some. In the past, I've been hesitant to use this technique, as it cost image resolution, but with the Canon EOS 5Ds, after cropping the image was still over 31mp in size!

Ingrid and Evening Light (Polly Cove, Nova Scotia)

After Ingrid and I finished working at the river, we began the drive back to Halifax. With some time and light still left however, we decided to take a slower route, and take a bit of time to work with the evening light on the glacial barrens.

The first setting that caught our eye a massive glacial erratic, sitting isolated below a side-lit evening sky. Seeing the sky, I immediately planned to work in infrared, using a super wide angle lens to add some drama. As the evening sun was soft and angular, I asked Ingrid to lean back against the rock, and found the best composition to blend the drama of the rock with the lovely sky above.

Digital infrared original, 3 frame stitch

After we finished working with Ingrid at the base of the erratic, she clambered up on it, and I made a series of photographs with the line of her body on the rock edge, set against the sky. Again, the infrared camera was the ideal took, adding more drama to the rock, and adding some drama to an already pleasing sky (in colour, the sky was quite delicate, where in infrared, it had significantly more kick).

Digital infrared original

The final photographs of the day were made working directly on the bedrock; after working for most of the session with infrared, I decided to work in colour, and see what I could do with the soft evening sunlight.

Digital original

Using a wide angle lens permitted me to keep the focus on Ingrid’s figure, while still including an erratic rock in the background, and showing much of the landscape around her. The colour is really pleasing in the image, making me glad I shifted to working that way for the end of the session.

At a River with Ingrid (Dorey Lake, Nova Scotia)

For this session, Ingrid and I hoped to work with a river; as my favorite place to photograph models in water is no longer an option, we had to search out a new place to work. Fortunately, I had a location in mind, and after some driving and a little walking, we found ourselves beside of a smooth flowing river, contemplating where to begin.

After a few compositions made in the verdant moss beside the river, we shifted to working with the river. The first image of Ingrid perched on a rock is a little unusual for me, as I usually work with models immersed in water, but I was drawn to how the light wrapped around her, and the break in the trees just behind her head.

Digital original

For this point onward, Ingrid posed in the river, and she and I moved through a familiar dance, with me suggesting a space, her finding a pose, and me refining it, and then finding the compositions. Often I photographed from multiple perspective, and made several successful images of the same pose (which makes it hard to select a favorite, sometimes).

Digital infrared original

After working in the river for an hour, we packed up and headed back to the car. Before we left however, we made a final set of photographs of Ingrid in the shallows of the lake that fed the river we started in. Where the earlier images focused on water motion, these portraits played more with shallow depth of field, and the soft light in the afternoon shade.

Digital original

Without a doubt, the best part of working with the same person for seventeen years is how strong a rapport this creates between the model and the photographer. With Ingrid, this comes through in how well she knows what I seek in my images, and how she can craft poses that help propel my work forward.

Delayed Canada Day Fireworks (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Digital original

After a foggy evening on Wednesday, July 1, the Canada Day fireworks were held on Friday July 3rd As I was setting up waiting for them, I tested the defocus technique on the bridge.

Digital original

In contrast to last year's Natal Day Fireworks, I felt the Canada Day display a little lack luster; most of the large explosions were white, and as such, they didn't work as well as expected with the defocus technique.

Bianca Returns! (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

This session was unplanned, and a real surprise; Bianca, who’d left for warmer places last December, texted me out of the blue to let me know she was back in town, and asking about making some new photos. After a little back and forth, we ended planning a session for the next day.

It was a real pleasure reconnecting creatively with Bianca; initially she found it a little challenging to find poses that worked, but it didn’t take her long to get back into the “zone” and begin to really enjoy the process.

Digital original

The first location we worked in was a 19th century caponier, taking advantage of the diffused lighting it offered in the middle of a brutally sunny day. I first worked in this space 23 years ago, and still find it inspiring, especially in light of how different models respond to the location in such different ways.

After we’d worked through the possibilities of the old fortification, we still had about 90 minutes left to work together, so we headed to the coast, in hopes that with the rocky shore, I’d be able to find some spaces where the harsh sunlight would work with Bianca’s poses.

Digital original

Ironically, while my expectation was to work with the rocks on the coast, the first setting that really worked was focused on an old tree stump and a glacial erratic high up on the shore (as opposed to the bedrock we’d work with at the end of the session). I was immediately drawn to the shadow of the tree upon the rock, and asked Bianca to see what poses she could find that would work with it. The final result was really pleasing, and perfectly suited for infrared (which set the stark tree against a dark sky).

Infrared digital original, two image stitch

The session ended with Bianca and I working with a small water pool near the tide-line; the light was still harsh, but it was starting to move lower in the sky, and could give some pleasing modeling to Bianca’s figure, wen arching back against the bedrock by the pool.

Digital original

All in all the session, while short, was a real pleasure. The chance to build on the images Bianca and I created last fall was more than welcome, but the best part was it was my second chance to work with the new Canon EOS 5DsR for my colour work, and the camera is proving to be a real pleasure to use. I won’t see the real benefits until I get a chance to print the work, but even on a computer screen, I can see the incredible image quality this camera produces.

2015's First Outdoor Session (Martinique Beach, Nova Scotia)

Warm weather has been slow to come to Nova Scotia this year. Previously, I have worked with models outdoors as early as late March, but this year, it took until mid-June that a day when I was available, a model was available, and the weather was warm enough occurred. Fortunately, there was a bright side to the delay – the Canon EOS 5Ds/5DsR was released on the same day, so in addition to being my first outdoor session with a model in 2015, this was also my first working with a new camera (replacing the Canon EOS 5D MKII, which I bought in 2008).

Digital infrared original

Jenn and I headed to the coast, planning to work along a beach under the evening sky. When we arrived at the beach, it was practically deserted, with several kilometers of open beach to work upon. By this time however, the temperature had dropped a little, so rather than work on the beach itself Jenn and I walked to the back side of the beach, and began the session working with a piece of driftwood.

Digital infrared original

This session marks nine years since Jenn and I first worked together in 2006; the advantages of that extended collaboration shone from the start, with Jenn and I talking through the first location’s possibilities, and Jenn finding the pose almost immediately.

Digital original

Though this session was relatively short due to the chilly weather, Jenn and I explored a handful of different locations, slowly working towards the high dunes, where we finished the session. It was the final compositions, with the setting sunlight flowing across Jenn’s torso and most of her body in the shade of the dune, where the new camera (the Canon EOS 5DsR) really shone; in the final processed image, there is beautiful rich detail throughout the image, from the sun-lit skin and breaking waves to the deep shadows on the near side of the dune.

Canon EOS 5DsR First Thoughts (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia)

I’ve assembled some of my thoughts after a handful of sessions using the Canon EOS 5DsR – a little bit of a long post with few images, but perhaps of interest to some considering the camera.

Digital original

On the camera side:

The camera demands solid technique – the discussions about the shutter speed and camera shake are totally relevant, and with shutter speeds (hand-held) between 1/125 and 1/400, I had about 1 in 3 exhibit motion blur – more than that in portraits and images of people.

With large apertures (f/1.2 to f/2 on 85mm and 135mm lenses respectively) when the focus is accurate, it is stunning, and yields tack sharp points of focus, but even with static subjects, when working hand-held, only a portion of images were tack sharp – three or four images in a row would yield only one or two images…well under 50% over a couple of hundred images. The definite take-away from the 800+ images I’ve made to date is that this is a camera that begs for a tripod!

The rear screen is fabulous, with some caveats. It has a very different “look” than the 5D MKII screen, being “softer” in colour; I would say lower contrast, but I am not sure if that is the case…it is just more delicate looking. It is significantly different from what I am used to, and was challenging to “read” without a histogram. The Histogram representation is a big improvement over the 5D MKII’s as it now has a hairline of white around it, and overall the screen is great, but it will take some getting used to the different look all the same.

The camera is slow to display the histogram – more like an Eos 10D from 2004 than anything current – it will take time to get used to not just glancing at the screen after making an image to evaluate the exposure, but having to wait for the histogram to appear. That alone is going to slow down photography for me (never a bad thing).

And the final camera comment is the file sizes – they are BIG. I’ve been working with 32gb files, and am used to getting almost 1000 21mp files per card; I got under 400 on the same card with the 5DsR; time to get 64 or more likely 128gb cards, sadly.

Digital original - 100% crop

On the processing side:

The images are incredible – sharp, detailed and everything I hoped for. When everything is lined up, the image quality is just stunning at 100% crop…and there are 50 million pixels at that quality, image-wide.

The default PS/LR RAW development seems to be REALLY off – they process with much more contrast than other Canon RAW files; I am finding I have to put a -25 to -50 contrast on images to get them closer to the “usual” Adobe development look. I will wait until I have a couple of weeks of photography before creating a custom default development for the camera.

The dynamic range is greater than the 5D MKII; I did some images last night with a sunset sky, and the model on the shade side of a sand-dune; in post I was able to pull full detail back in the sky (bright, but with colour), and open up the shadows tons, correcting the WB to remove the blue, and the result was both pleasing, and clean, in terms of image quality. With the 5D MKII I would have hit an issue with that image.

Lightroom Mobile is suddenly an integral workflow tool. The 50mp files are awesome…and slow. On my desktop (3.7 ghz Xeon, 32gb 1600 RAM) it takes several seconds for the 100% preview to load…longer if multiple images are being compared; this is crazy slow. Lightroom Mobile on the other hand is great equalizer; after importing the 5DsR files, I synced them to LR mobile, and minutes later, could breeze through the images on my tablet without delay. Cropping, composition evaluation, flagging and stars can all be done without delay…and when returning to the desktop LR, all the changes are implemented, without the delay.

Unfortunately, in LR Mobile you can’t do everything; because of the files are lower resolution, you can’t check the actual image sharpness, and as it lacks the compare mode, selection between similar/matching images isn’t possible.

I hope to have a blog entry on my site within a week posting some of the new work.

St George's Round Church (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

This spring was the first time I've offered a course in Architectural Photography, and for the course's second field trip, we visited St George's Round Church. I'd been in the church several times before, but never with photography in mind.

Digital original, 21 frame exposure blend, three frame stitch

My favorite image of the session was of the church from the second floor looking towards the altar. Assembled as a three frame stitch from exposure blended images (24 exposures in total), it was one of my first new images assembled with the new HDR tool in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. In some ways I am humbled by the potential of this tool, as it accomplished in minutes what would have taken me hours in Adobe Photoshop. Impressive to say the least.

Digital original

As there were two field trips (one for each iteration of the course), I spent the first working with the 17mm TS/E lens, focusing on the space as a whole, and then shifted to a long lens for the second. To be honest, I thought I'd be focusing on small architectural elements, but when I discovered the wonderful layers of the curved ceiling above the columns, I made more than a dozen separate white-on-white images, all of which were really pleasing.

Digital original, 8 frame exposure blend

The last image (above) makes me think of some of Walker Evan's interiors of old southern plantations (which isn't a surprise, as the building was constructed in 1800, and the Palladian style also flowed into the American South.

Double Take is on ViewPoint's Walls (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

A new exhibition by myself and Angela Creaser is now on the walls a ViewPoint Gallery. Open from Tuesday, May 5 to Sunday May 31, the exhibition's opening reception is this coming Thursday evening, May 7th, from 6-9pm!

From the show statement: Double Take features pairs of images by Angela Creaser and Eric Boutilier-Brown, photographs created during photographic trips they undertook together. As a couple who met through photography, Eric Boutilier-Brown and Angela Creaser have long been conscious of the differences between their creative vision, and Double Take focus on exploring and celebrating the best of these differences.

Dancer's at Photo East's Spring Loaded (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Digital original

At the close of the first day of Photo East's Spring Loaded weekend, there was a group photo session with three dancers (arranged by the fabulous Steve Richard). Like last year's Mod Squad, I took the long shutter speed approach.

Digital original

Also like last year, I had the chance to work with a medium format camera; this time, thanks to Henry's Rentals, I tried out the Hasselblad H5D-50 which was great to use (even upside down on a tripod). Over the hour we had to work with the dancers, I made 690 images, taking up over 38gb of space...fun stuff)

Digital original

While there would be things I'd chage if I had a chance to do it with more control (in a room with 30 other people, control is one of the few things missing), I am overally REALLY pleased with the images...and I have to say, the Hasseblad files seem to be able to be pushed around an aweful lot in processing, without any real issues, which is going to make processing them pretty easy!