Journey Archives - iJourneys

The Canon EOS R3 Is a Beast

It is no coincidence that it is the Olympics this year in Japan, and that Canon are putting out teasers about their new sports focussed camera the Canon EOS R3.

This is What Canon Say About the EOS R3

A camera designed to capture the fastest moving action in a way never thought possible. Specialised for capturing objects moving at high speed. Built to meet the demands of professional sports users with ultra-responsiveness, high sensitivity, reliability and durability.

This is What We Know About the Canon R3

Well, this is what we think we know, not much has been officially announced:

30fps

A whopping 30 fps shooting with continuous AF. That is compared to the 16fps on the flagship Canon EOS 1DX MkIII and the 20fps on Canon’s top mirrorless R mount camera, the Canon EOS R5.

BSI CMOS

A new BSI CMOS sensor. To interpret, this means that the sensor is backside illuminated. This improves low light photography. It is a technology that has been used on smartphones since the iPhone 4, but has been difficult to introduce to larger sensors.

Stacked CMOS

It is likely the new sensor will be a stacked CMOS sensor, like that announced for the Sony a9. As this video explains this allows much a faster readout from the sensor to achieve these amazing shooting rates with continually updated auto exposure and AF.

The new sensor will likely solve the stretching of images caused by rolling shutter distortion. As Canon put it, ‘minimal image distortion when using the electronic shutter’. This means that mechanical continuous shooting will become a thing of the past. It could even mean that mechanical shutters go the same way as those old fashioned mirrors.

Viewfinder Update

Another advantage could be, that the electronic viewfinder (EVF) can be updated in almost real time, and therefore begin to meet the performance of optical sensors. This is one of the reasons that pro sports photographers have been slower to move away from traditional DSLRs than other pro photographers.

Eye Controlled Focussing

Eye controlled AF makes the old joystick seem positively medieval, but Canon is promising that by looking through the EVF you can use your eye to control the focus point. Subject tracking and even eye tracking are now so advanced that it makes you wonder how this feature will work?

Plus Canon are promising that their AF algorithms will now track other subjects as well as faces and eyes. My bet would be on racing cars.

So What About the R1?

We were thinking that the next camera to be launched by Canon would be the Canon EOS R1. A replacement for the top of the range Canon EOS 1DX Mark III. However, the proposed Canon EOS R3 is intriguing because it is what we thought the R1 would be, but it has not been designated as the R1. The R5 and R6 have slotted into the lineup as replacements to their DSLR equivalents

So what will the R1 be like?

Street Photography Close Up

by John Gough

I am reinventing the way I approach street photography. I want to do more street photography close up. So this is how I have changed my street photography technique and adapted my kit to make this happen.

If you are a visitor to these pages you will be aware of my love of the photography of the great New York street photographer Joel Meyerowitz and Scottish photographer Dougie Wallace. The immediacy and spontaneity they bring to street photography is so much more refreshing than the easy urban shot taken with a long lens.

So if you are going in for street photography close up. How do you adopt an in your face attitude, without getting your face slapped?

Street Photography Advice from Dave Mason

I was watching a Zoom presentation by Dave Mason. He is the master of juxtaposition as you will see if you visit his website. He talked about how he gets in close for street photography.

This is his advice:

Walk slowly so as not to draw attention.
Stand or sit and wait to become part of the scene
There is no time to adjust a zoom lens and doing so would draw attention
Use a prime lens and zoom with your feet.
Do not lift the camera to your eye
Hold the camera in front of your chest
Frame the shot through the rear screen

Setting your Camera for Getting in Close on the Street

I use a Canon EOS R, and I have set a custom button to switch the camera into street photography mode.

I use a 35mm prime lens, a 28mm may be better. Cartier-Bresson used a 50mm lens.

These are the settings I use:

Prioritise shutter speed over aperture and depth of field. You are going to be working up close. Movement is exaggerated the closer you are. So ramp up the shutter speed to capture that action.
Set to shutter priority fast enough to capture movement without blur i.e +400th sec.
Use a high ISO 1000 – 1600 or higher depending on your camera to achieve as wide an aperture as possible.
Set to continuous shooting so that by holding down the shutter release you fire off as many shots as possible to increase your chance of that ‘decisive moment’.
Set your AF to servo and tracking, if your camera can hack this. Don’t worry if not. Cartier-Bresson’s 35mm Leica rangefinder camera was little more than point and shoot compared with today’s technology.
Set your shutter to silent release. A traditional DSLR with a noisy mirror lifting mechanism may be too much in a close environment.

Actioning Street Photography Close Up

Putting all this together I now walk slowly, without drawing attention to myself with my camera unobtrusively in my left hand, tethered to my arm with a wrist strap. When I see a picture I raise the camera to my chest, steady it with my right hand and shoot.

Try it for yourself. Street photography close up, can be thrilling, you are in with the action and could lead to some spontaneous and unique photographs.

Pete Souza: The Way I See It

by John Gough

The Way I See It, is a documentary about former Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza. Recording his personal journey as an image maker, with top secret clearance and total access to President Obama.

As a photographer, the film is interesting because it shows the way Pete Souza worked. It is accompanied by hundreds of examples of his work, which are wonderfully clear and compassionate.

Shade

On another level, the documentary is a comparison of the Obama presidency with that of his successor Donald Trump. Souza was apolitical and photographed four presidents including both the Reagans and the Obamas. What changed was what he saw as Trump’s total disregard for the Office of President.

His book Shade documents why he considered Trump unfit for office.

Pete Souza Photography

It is his however his photography that I find spellbinding. The photographs are more than just a record of the Presidency. OK, the Obama’s are undoubtedly photogenic, but the intimacy he has been allowed to capture shows a trusting and valued relationship between President and photographer.

His range is impressive, from formal group portraits with a medium format camera and studio lights. To press photography with flash and long and wide lenses. To intimate portraits indoors using just available light.

You can view his work in his book, Obama an Intimate Portrait, which contains over 300 pages of his Obama photographs

Precious historical documents . . . vividly human and often funny . . . these images tell the true story of a presidency that words have failed’ Jonathan Jones, Guardian

The Way I See It: Video

Watch, The Way I see It on Prime Video either rent for £1.99 or buy.

Scanning Old Slides

by John Gough

Scanning old slides to your computer? I had been meaning to do this for years, but the pandemic lockdown has given me the opportunity.

There are boxes of old slides in my loft. Taken well before the dawn of digital. I no longer have a projector, so the only way to bring these pictures to life is to scan them. Creating digital copies that I could access on my PC.

Scanning Old Slides: The Options

How? The options are, you can do it yourself or have your slides converted to digital files by a commercial scanning service.

Commercially Scanned Slides

There are scanning services like Digital Converters. Send them your slides and they will professionally convert your old slides to digital images. The cost is about £350 for 1000 slides.

Each slide is scanned as a high resolution image. Digitally corrected for exposure, colour and sharpness, and converted to JPEG. The files are streamed to the cloud or returned on a DVD or memory stick.

This is obviously the route to choose if you have high quality slides.

Scanning Old Slides Yourself

My slides are mostly family snaps, so based on the principle of garbage in garbage out. I decided to scan my slides myself.

On YouTube, there are several tutorials about setting up your camera to photograph slides and there are apps for your phone. However, taking an image of each slide individually seemed unnecessarily time consuming

So I decided to buy a cheap slide scanner. Researching online it seemed that they did a reasonable job quite quickly. I also thought that in the future I could use the same scanner to process old negatives.

Slide Scanners

Scanners are listed on Amazon here. I purchased this scanner.

The scanner had good reviews, the output was to a standard SD card and the display was large enough to view the images clearly.

How to Scan Slides to a PC

I used a setup with a scanner connected to the USB port on a laptop. The laptop has an SD card reader, so the transfer from scanner to PC was just one step. (N.B. The SD card is not included with the scanner)

There are various film holders included with the scanner. The slide holder fits into a slot on the side of the scanner. The slides are pushed into the holder and the holder pushed into the scanner.

I found I could process around fifteen slides in about five minutes.

The image is captured on the SD card as a JPEG. When the image is transferred to the PC I used Lightroom just to crop, adjust the colour balance, exposure and saturation.

I removed dust spots, and looked to improve the sharpness and noise level.

So what do the results look like?

This was taken on holiday in Cornwall,

and this taken at Wimbledon in the seventies. (Note that even back then I was more interested in the camera than the tennis)

The results are not too bad really. Decent exposure and detail considering these slides are over forty years old!

Post on Instagram from a PC

by John Gough

How can I post on Instagram from a PC? I like to share my work on social media, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. On Facebook and Twitter, I can log into my account on a PC and upload my photographs. That is not possible on Instagram. So how can I post my images to Instagram from a laptop or a desktop?

Instagram started as primarily a social network for mobile users. However, it is now an important platform for business, influencers, artists, writers, bloggers, and vloggers. For many of these users, it is a tedious process to upload content to Instagram from a PC. It is especially tortuous for photographers who will have images stored on computer hard drives, external drives and in the cloud. For them, it is a lengthy workflow to download images from these drives, upload to a cell phone and then post to Instagram.

Fortunately, the solution is simple, whether you use a Chrome browser or Microsoft Edge. You can easily transfer photographs from a PC directly to Instagram. No additional software is required.

If you use a Chrome browser this is how to post on Instagram from a PC in a few easy steps.

How to Upload Pictures to Instagram from a Laptop or PC Using a Chrome Browser

1 Profile …..(re How to share to Instagram from a PC)

Log into Instagram by signing in, and go to Profile (see Illustration 1)

Illustration 1 How to post to Instagram from a PC

2 Inspect …..(re How to transfer content to Instagram from a PC)

Right click the mouse anywhere on the page, and a drop down menu will appear. On the drop down menu go to Inspect. Mouse left click to reveal the HTML code for that page. (See Illustration 2)

Illustration 2 How to post to Instagram from a PC

3 Toggle …..(re How to transfer photographs to Instagram from a PC)

On the top left in the header area of the code are icons for desktop and mobile. Toggle from desktop to mobile which is the second one in. Click on Mobile. (See Illustration 2). The page will now reproduce how your mobile device shows Instagram. Do not click off the HTML code using X

Illustration 3 How to Post on Instagram from a PC

4 Refresh …..(re How to post images from a PC to Instagram)

Refresh the page. Either by clicking the Refresh icon. See illustration 4 or pressing F5. The page will now reproduce exactly how your mobile device shows Instagram with the + icon displayed.

Illustration 4 How to Post on Instagram from a PC

5 Post ……(re How to upload content from a desktop or laptop to Instagram)

Use the + to upload your photographs to Instagram just as you would on your mobile. See Illustration 5

Illustration 5 How to post on Instagram from a PC

How to Upload Pictures to Instagram from a Laptop or PC Using Microsoft Edge / Explorer

In Microsoft Edge / Explorer the process of loading content from a PC to Instagram is exactly the same as in Chrome.

Open Profile
Mouse click right to open Inspect

Illustration 6 How to post on Instagram from a PC using Microsoft Edge

Toggle & Click the mobile icon.
Refresh the page
Post the picture

This workaround has saved me so much time. I can now easily interact with 1 billion Instagram users.

Bailey Portraits

by John Gough

It is strange isn’t it that you have views on everything but you know nothing. My view of the photographer David Bailey was that he was a famous fashion photographer of the ’60s, who went on to shoot some portraits of celebrities. For example the famous photograph of Michael Caine with a cigarette.

What I had not understood was the depth of his work and his astonishing output over the years since the 1960’s.

At Christmas I was lucky enough to receive Baileys Stardust, the book that accompanied a major exhibition of his portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, London in 2014.

The portraits in this book were personally selected by Bailey from his work over fifty years. These include actors, writers, musicians, politicians, film-makers, models, and artists. As well as the people he encountered on his travels to Australia, India, Sudan and Papua New Guinea.

It is uncanny how he can bring something fresh to faces that we are all familiar with. Creating something extraordinary.

As Bailey said:

“It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary”

Resources

I have attached a documentary about the irascible but brilliant Bailey, and collated some of his portraits here

The book, Bailey’s Stardust may be about to go out of print. This version is in Spanish, but get it while you can. It is the photographs that you will want to savour.

December Image of the Month

by John Gough

Lockdown at Trinity College / John Gough / Canon EOS R

I took this image in Cambridge mid December. It all seems to have got a lot worse since then. It sums up 2020. What with Brexit and Covid it has not been a good year for the UK.

10 Reasons to Buy the Canon R5

by John Gough

Let’s face it you need some really good reasons to buy a Canon EOS R5. If you are not buying this camera for its video capability, and I am not. If you are not a professional photographer who needs the dual card slots and rugged build. How do you justify a spend of £4100 (Dec 2019) on a stills camera (body only)? I could buy a second hand car for that or at least five iPhone 12s. So let’s run through 10 reasons to buy the Canon R5.

R5 IBIS….Is it a Reason to Buy?

I know other camera makers have got there first, but fair enough Canon has caught up with in-body-stabilisation. Remarkably the 5-axis IBIS system achieves up to 8 stops. That is virtually like shooting in the dark. (Reason 1) Couple this with the remarkable ISO on this camera (Reason 2), and there is now no need to buy big glass for low light photography. The EOS R5 stabilisation and ISO can take care of it.

So How Good is the R5 IBIS?

Look at this real world example from Bluewater Photo

We took full advantage of this feature and even shot some of our photos as low as 1/13th of a second. Even at those speeds the images were as crisp as if they had been shot at the camera’s sync speed. IBIS also allows you to expand the limits of your camera by allowing you to shoot at lower shutter speeds instead of having to raise your ISO. The added detail and peace of mind that there will be no motion blur makes Canon’s IBIS system one of its top features.

So How Good is the R5 ISO?

For this, we have to cross to the pre-eminent camera reviewer Ken Rockwell. This is what he says:

As seen at normal image sizes below, the R5 pretty much makes the same images from ISO 50 (L) to ISO 25,600. ISO 50 is a “pull” ISO, and thus has more highlight contrast. This usually increases perceived highlight detail, and can lead to clipped highlights if you have too much subject contrast, as in the case of the window reflection in the glass of the clock face. ISO 51,200 starts to have some chroma mottling (colored green and magenta blobs) and ISO 102,400 (H) gets blotchier and grainier and the shadows are lighter than they should be, but still quite usable if I need it for normal-sized images.

What this means in practice is that you can shoot ISO 25,600 with little or no effect on image quality, and beyond that, up to ISO 102.400 the images are still useable. Follow the link above to see Ken’s example high ISO images.

The RF Flange…Is it a Reason Buy?

Two of my favourite lenses are the RF 35mm f1.8 macro, which has 5 stops stabilisation but has 7 stops on the R5, and the RF 24-240mm f4-6.3 which increases from 5 stops to 6.5 stops. These are both quality lenses but not wildly expensive and in my view are as sharp as any Canon EF lens. (Reason 3)

This is because of the redesigned flange on the R series cameras. This means that because these cameras do not have a mirror assembly the lens mount can be placed closer to the sensor. From 44mm on EF lenses to 20mm on RF lenses.

Why does this mean better lenses at a lower price point? Well, it allows for a large element to be placed at the rear of the lens, which reduces the scope for optical aberrations and means lenses can be designed with fewer overall elements, which means they can be made smaller and with less glass.

R5 Sensor….Is it a Reason to Buy?

The Canon EOS R5 has a 45MP CMOS full frame sensor. If you want to find out how good it is. Head off to DXOMARK where sensors from the major manufacturers are reviewed and rated. The R5 sensor is rated at 95. Is that good? Yes. How does it compare with other Canon sensors? It is the best. The 5D Mark IV scores 91 and the R6 scores 90. Is it the best sensor in its class? No the Luminex DC-S1R scores 100 and is the best. Some Nikon and Sony cameras also beat the R5. But!

Let’s dig deeper.

If you dive into the data here. Then it is apparent that in terms of dynamic range the R5 sensor is up with the best. Colour sensitivity is as good as the best at higher ISOs but there is a fraction more noise at lower ISOs. However, at higher ISOs the R5 performs as well as the Luminex.

As for sensor performance, the EOS R5 sensor represents a high water mark for Canon. Maximum dynamic range is competitive with the best in class, and the R5 sensor offers a useful advantage at some crucial ISO settings over its rivals. It also has excellent color and low noise at high ISOs, which all go toward making the Canon EOS R5 one of the most well-rounded performers in this important category. It may have taken a while to get here, but the Canon EOS R5 looks set to be the one to beat.

If you are a specialist photographer doing more studio work. Then you may want to hold off until the rumoured high megapixel R5 (96MP?) is launched next year. Otherwise, DXOMARK has proved that the R5 sensor is the best Canon yet, and a great allrounder in all lighting conditions. (Reason 4)

AF Capability… Is it a Reason to Buy?

The top line is that this camera can lock onto an animal’s eye, and hold focus as the animal moves while shooting at 20fps. That is a 45MP file being produced every 0.05 seconds. As a result the R5 is the world’s highest pixel-rate camera at 900 MP/s. (Reason 5)

This camera is capable of shifting pixels faster than any other camera, utilising the video capability of DIGIC X processor, and the new RF mount which can move data ten times faster than the older EF mount.

The autofocus will detect people, bird and mammal faces and eyes. Recognising and tracking these subjects as they move around a scene. Even if a subject turns away from the camera, their head continues to be tracked so that their face is sharp when they turn back towards the camera.

The autofocus can even do this in low light down to -6EF which is roughly the light provided by a half moon.

We are now half way through the 10 reasons to buy a Canon R5. Convinced yet?

Electronic Viewfinder

You may be wary of moving to an Electronic Viewfinder (EVF) from a traditional DSLR with a mirror. Have no fear the R5 is here.

The R5 EVF has a resolution of 5.76m dots and a 120fps refresh rate. This is getting much closer to the sort of detail you would expect from a traditional through the lens experience. (Reason 6).

There is also a flippy screen (Reason 7) which allows you to take pictures from those hard to get low and odd angles.

R5 Weather Sealing

There is weather sealing and there is weather sealing. It is not very exciting but the weather sealing on the R5 is reckoned to be as good as the Canon 5D Mark IV. (Reason 8)

Back in 2018 imaging-resource.com tested four ‘pro’ cameras for their weather sealing characteristics.

They subjected the cameras to a 15 minute rainstorm and 15 minutes of mist with fine water droplets. (That fine rain that soaks you through according to Peter Kay.)

This is the result:

Sony needs to up their environmental-sealing game if they want to compete in this high-end/professional market segment. We’d feel differently if all the cameras failed the test; we would have concluded that the test was just too harsh for the current state of the market, even though it was a reasonable representation of conditions a camera might be exposed to. That wasn’t the case, though; the D850 had a very minor problem with leakage into its viewfinder, that seems to be entirely solved by using the BS-3 hot shoe cover – and the 5DIV and E-M1II had no problems whatsoever.

It’s about the balance of risks. You probably never intend to stand in the rain in a muddy field in the Lake District shooting the landscape. Probably you will never be at the ocean edge on a beach in California photographing kiteboards. You will no doubt try and avoid the dust storms of Kuwait and Syria. However, there will come a day when you are thankful for the Canon professional level weather sealing in the R5.

R5 Voice Memo Recorder

Second lastly a small feature. There is a blue microphone button on the top left at the back of the camera which records spoken notes. (It can also be configured to rate exposures). This is a unique feature and can record voice memos up to 30 seconds. To play the memo (you will see a [♪] icon if one was recorded for an image), tap the mic button to start.

(Reason 9) This has to be a must for photojournalists, sports photographers and travel writers.

Bluetooth

The R5 has both WiFi and Bluetooth. The camera uses an always on Bluetooth low energy connection to connect to smart devices, allowing images to be browsed edited and transmitted on phones and tablets from anywhere. (Reason 10) Send images directly to a client or post immediately on social media.

This is the last of the 10 reasons to buy a Canon R5

Summary

Ten good excuses to part with a lot of money. 10 reasons to buy the Canon R5. However remember a new camera is not going to make you a better photographer, but the R5 may just give you the edge

Alice Through the Trees

by everywhereman

This is my image of the month for November. Once again it is a Pep Ventosa and figure composite.

I have been musing that this yearning for impressionism is a reaction to COVID and lockdown. We are not living full lives anymore. So many people are desperately lonely. We live our lives in a state of proxy. We want clarity but cannot see through the confusion. We are lost.

Misty Autumn Photography

by John Gough

One of my big obsessions with photography is to try to photograph how the mind interprets what we see rather than what the camera is pointing at. Misty Autumn photography is about looking at Autumn leaves, trees and landscapes through an ethereal, golden, opaque lens.

I wrote about photographing the Autumn colours before the season began. I was looking forward to the season and trying to get an impression of Autumn perhaps through multiple exposures. Due to the lockdowns, we are having here in the UK, I think we are seeing the seasons so much more vividly. Walking through nature has certainly maintained my sanity during these worrying months.

Glenys Garnett

My mentor through this time has been Glenys Garnett. I recently watched an RPS talk she gave about her photography. She talked about how she will frequently photograph the same patch of woodland behind her house in the pursuit of wonderful dreamy images.

As she says, working in a familiar space will force your creativity. Encouraging you to make images about how you feel, and embracing abstraction. She suggests looking at the muted colours of work by American painter, Andrew Wyeth.

Looking for soft light and a subdued palette has led me to the work of Jo Stephen.

Jo Stephen

I am drawn to using creative photographic techniques as they enable me to explore my connection to nature in a way that representational photography does not always allow. … Jo Stephen

I agree, that statement sums up so simply my view that seeing is believing but believing is what we see.

These are some of her Autumn images and some of her woodland images.

Processing Misty Autumn Photography

With thanks to Jo Stephen, this is a simple technique to get that wonderful soft lighting.

Lightroom

Expose as you would normally, bringing down the highlights and increasing shadows etc
Decrease the vibrance, clarity and saturation especially green and cyan.
Increase the saturation of key colours e.g. reds and oranges in Autumn
Add a slight vignette
Transfer to Photoshop: Photo>Edit in>Photoshop

Photoshop

Open in PS
Make a duplicate layer: Ctrl J
Add Gaussian blur to the duplicate layer: Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Move slider about half way. Apply.
Add a curves adjustment layer and just lift and tweak the top of the graph.
Add a clipping mask. Rt click the adjustment layer and select clipping mask
Move the opacity slider to around 15-30%
File>Save

Lightroom

Open in LR
Adjust to suit your style. you may want to try a profile

This is one I tried earlier………….

This is a beautiful effect which I am also going to experiment using with my Pep Ventosa and multiple exposure images.