October, 2017 | Fixation

Jonny Helm Feature October 31, 2017October 6, 2023 0 Comments

The people of Oaxaca | Holly Wren

As a portrait photographer, I find myself stuck enjoying extremes in people – in my commercial work; I tend to work with traditionally attractive looking folk, pretty girls and handsome men.

Then when I shoot personal work, I’m drawn to the other extreme – character faces and interesting looks. Probably because I’m less concerned with clients opinion on how perfect people look and more about the inherent imperfections of people, they fascinate me.

I also seem to have a thing for old faces, so it was no surprise to me that exactly one year ago today, I found myself in the city of Oaxaca, Mexico.

(say Wa-ha-ca… that’s right people, just like the restaurant, but guess what, they knew you wouldn’t be able to pronounce it as it’s actually spelt!).

Oaxaca is a city in the south of Mexico, relatively modern for its developing country status, you’ll find trendy art galleries, coffee shops and restaurants adorning the centre filled with pretty squares and colourful buildings. Popular with American set, heading to Mexico to celebrate Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), I used it as my base to get out into the mountains east of the city – where the indigenous communities live.

Although the City was alive with party-goers, it was the more traditional, quiet celebrations of Muertos I was after. For which I travelled outside the city to Mitla and Solaga.

As with all travel photography, it pays to have a “fixer” or someone to connect you with the people you want to photograph. In this case it was imperative, these communities don’t allow outsiders in. So lucky for me I had a friend of a friend, of a friend, that was from Solaga and had arranged with the villagers that I would visit (with her) and take photographs.

And lucky she was there, as the indigenous communities speak a language called Zapotec, which basically meant I needed double translation… Zapotec to Spanish then, Spanish to English.

And it was languages that was my biggest challenge. I felt like someone had literally stripped away my super power. For me, portrait photography is about connecting with your subject, to enable you to get something out of them other photographers haven’t. And how to create that connection – talking. I talk. A lot. In life and in my work. But that wasn’t an option here and I found that incredibly challenging. And also I suck at languages, which was not helpful. But what I realised pretty quickly was that kindness and humour in facial expressions and body language are international.

I literally had no idea what I was walking into, how the light would be, the people, the location, so I couldn’t prep to my normal standards so I was firmly out of my comfort zone! My research beforehand threw up very limited information. I was going in blind, and effectively voiceless!

But as it turned out the light was quite beautifully flat, the people lovely, and really with those locations I’d have to be a terrible photographer to screw it up! And some of those faces, just amazing. That’s my favourite thing about different cultures and places – the amazing opportunity to meet and learn about people you otherwise wouldn’t connect with.

There is a whole story about my trip, and the traditions of Dia De Los Muertos which you can download Here

Photographically I wanted to keep a consistent feel across this images, and knowing they would be shot under different light conditions, in different locations I did this by shooting consistently on my Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 .

I love that lens, I feel it gives me the ability to back up to include the environment or get in closer and still be relatively flattering, and cause minimal facial distortion. It’s fast, it’s lightweight and it’s compact. Most importantly it lets me explore my line obsession (which you may notice in this series).

I took my Profoto B2’s too, I knew that potentially some of the images may be taken inside, or as the light was fading, so these were my back up, but to use to mimic natural light, and look as natural as possible.

I went between portraiture where I interacted with my subjects, where they faced, sat, stood or looked as I directed them to pure reportage, and at times somewhere in between. Interacting and taking the time to get the right light fall, angle and framing is easier when you have permission and time, not so free flowing when you’re shooting in a busy market where people are wary. Having a local to speak to these people was therefore essential.

Below are some of my favourites with some information on each.

Rufina

Taken at her home, she wanted to take her washing down, to clear the yard for me to take her and her husbands photograph. But I loved the depth I could create using the washing, and the colours. As soon as I lifted my camera Rufina started laughing and working quicker, to get her washing out of the shots. So I started snapping a way, a throw away moment that turned out to be one of my favourites.

Aron

Waiting at his home, sat on the hard concrete Aron was enjoying the sun whilst his wife prepared their food for Muertos. Aron must have been 90, but he wouldn’t let us help him to his feet or on the steps. Fiercely independent and probably my favourite face.

Unknown

I took this portrait in the market about 5am when the sun had just risen. I spotted her and held my camera up to see if she would allow me to take her picture. She did and I bought some flowers from her. I loved her skin, and her face, she was so beautiful.

Lucia

Lucia was my guide Maria’s godmother, and I was invited to her house to dine with her family, where they treated me so kindly. I took her picture in the entrance to her home, you can see the bunting that was there for Muertos. Lucia had dressed in her finest silk outfit, to welcome back the spirit of her husband.

Unknown 2

This lady was waiting for a ride back from the market . The locals were very wary of me taking their pictures, and if I’d been American it wouldn’t have been allowed. My American friend who was with me literally was told not to talk so they couldn’t hear her accent! I found it ironic therefore that this lady had her Walgreens bag – probably a gift from a family member now living in the states.

You can see the full series of images here and hey, why not follow me on insta @holly_wren

Jonny Helm News October 26, 2017February 7, 2024 0 Comments

Sony releases the A7R III

The new Sony A7R III, announced recently, takes the high-resolution 42.4MP Exmor R CMOS image sensor and gives it a speed boost. A new front-end LSI effectively doubles the readout speed of the image sensor, while an updated Bionz X processing engine promises speeds 1.8 times as fast as the A7R II.

Given that it’s also capable of shooting at 10fps with AF tracking, carries an ISO range of 100-32,000 (expandable to 50-102,400) and offers a 15-stop dynamic range at low sensitivity settings, the A7R III should be useful in all situations and in all shooting conditions. If you’re in live view mode, the camera can still manage an impressive 8fps.

The focusing system has been overhauled from the A7R II, with 399 focal-plane phase-detection AF points covering approximately 68% of the image area, complemented by 400 contrast AF points. This advanced system is expected to deliver AF acquisition that’s twice as fast as it was on the A7R II in low-light conditions, and with tracking that’s twice as accurate.

Video hasn’t been neglected – the A7R III shoots 4K (3840×2160 pixels) video recording across the full width of the image sensor, and uses full pixel readout without pixel binning in Super 35mm format to produce oversampled 4K footage. There’s a new Hybrid Log-Gamma supporting instant HDR footage, and S-Log2 and S-Log3 have been added. The camera also records super-slow-motion at 120fps.

For more information on the A7R III, contact sales@fixationuk.com or call 020 7582 3294

Jonny Helm Tips & Tricks October 23, 2017October 6, 2023 0 Comments

Tips & Tricks | Don’t leave batteries in equipment

Pretty much everything in the photographic world runs on batteries, and they need to be cared for. Battery corrosion can cause serious damage to equipment if left unchecked. In this quick blog we’re going to give you some tips on taking care of your batteries.

Not that long ago, nearly all photographic products were powered either by AA or AAA batteries, also known as alkaline batteries. Everything from Nikon’s old MD-4 film-advancing motor drives to Canon’s T90 cameras and battery packs for the first SLR cameras in the early 1960s would be powered by common, over-the-counter batteries.

Battery leakage has caused photographers problems for years. We’ve seen the issue plenty of times in the Fixation workshop – sometimes just getting the old leaked batteries out of the battery holder or battery box is almost impossible.
Battery technology has greatly improved, and modern digital cameras now all mainly use Li-Ion batteries, which are designed to give far better performance. They’re rechargeable and more environmentally friendly. Very rarely do we see any problems with these types of batteries!

An important caveat though is that you should buy Li-Ion batteries from a reputable source. if you are buying online and the price of a third-party battery seems far too good to be true, it probably is. The battery will usually be a fake, and this can cause damage to your camera and void the warranty.

Nowadays most of us don’t buy anywhere near as many batteries as we used to. It’s easy to be shocked at how much a pack of AA or AAA batteries costs! However, most camera producers still sneak in one or two products that rely on common AA or AAA batteries, flashguns being among the most common, and therefore photographers still have to buy them.

We would always advise buying a recognised brand, like Energizer, Duracell or Panasonic. These do tend to be more expensive, but you’ll be better off in the long run. At Fixation, we have a wide selection of batteries, so give us a call if you’re going to need them in bulk, or just want to stock up.

If you’re going to buy third-party rechargeable lithium batteries, then we would recommend still using trusted brands like Ansmann and Hahnel, which rarely leak. Be aware that many third-party Li-Ion batteries have a slightly lower voltage, which can mean that they won`t last as long as conventional types and will need to be charged more often.

If you’re using hot-shoe flash units and flash triggers on a photographic shoot, then you’re going to be using AA or AAA batteries. What often happens in these cases is that when a photographer has finished, they put all their gear away in a hurry and leave the pesky batteries in the devices, sometimes forgetting about them for months on end. And what happens? Sometimes, the batteries leak.

Pulling a flash unit or trigger out of your camera bag only to find that its batteries have leaked is a photographer’s worst nightmare. If you haven’t brought a spare flash unit, you’re looking at a minimum of twenty minutes spent frantically cleaning the flash contacts up, and you’d better hope you brought some more batteries! And try doing all that with a client breathing down your neck. It can be extremely stressful!

We’re not shaming anyone – this can happen to any photographer. But it’s best to leave cleaning battery corrosion to the professionals. If your batteries have leaked, Fixation can help, either by cleaning or replacing the damaged parts and getting the flashgun or other device up and running again. In the best case scenario it’s just a matter of cleaning the contacts and battery li. Sometimes, however, due to the highly corrosive nature of the battery acid, the internal circuitry can be irreparably corroded. If so, we can provide documentation to this effect for your insurance.

All this can be costly, and the prevention is much nicer than the cure. So get in the habit of taking batteries out of your devices when you’re not using them!

Take the case of this poor Speedlite. It had been left for a couple of months, and the batteries had leaked rather badly. There was a happy ending however, as it was simply a matter of carefully cleaning the contacts to remove the salty deposits, and the flashgun was as good as new.

In many cases though, if the batteries have leaked excessively, the battery acid can cause corroded contacts and find its way into the circuitry, rendering the equipment irreparable.

So, once again, make a point of taking the batteries out and storing them in a separate pouch or a dedicated pocket in your bag. This way, if they leak, at least they won’t damage anything expensive!

Disposing of batteries

Our responsibility to recycle correctly cannot be emphasised enough. At Fixation, we have regular collections of WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) product, including batteries, from our home in London’s Vauxhall.

If your batteries have leaked and you have removed them, please do not throw in the general rubbish bin. These and all types of batteries contain some pretty nasty stuff (acid, lead, mercury, nickel) and they must be recycled correctly. We and all Wex Photo Video stores have collection bins for batteries, as do many other stores including all major supermarkets. We are always happy to recycle them for you, so just bring them in and we will deal with them in the correct way.

Jonny Helm Feature October 18, 2017October 6, 2023 0 Comments

Using Fill-In Flash | Jack Terry

Why I use flash outside?

The majority of my work is outside and generally involves people. I always want scenes to look naturally lit, but often need to capture enough detail to sell a brand or product. Although cameras are getting incredibly advanced, they are still not able to capture anywhere near the same dynamic range as the human eye. This is not only true for colours but also capturing detail in shadows and highlights. We use flash on shoots to enhance the light on a subject enough to replicate what you would see with the human eye.

Define your style

There are a huge variety of possible techniques behind lighting an image, but they must be driven by the style that you would like to achieve. The first step is to decide if you want your work to look like it has been lit artificially or not? When you light an image dramatically there is a certain amount of artistic licence, whereas lighting to mimic natural light is more a case of problem-solving to make it appear real. Everything I will discuss is relevant to my style of work, but that is by no means to say that is the only way to light a scene, it is just what works for the images I create. Regardless of style, you need to follow a few rules to ensure your work doesn’t jar the eye of the viewer and look unnatural.

Lighting Position

Before I reach for any lights, I always start by looking at the scene without a camera and working out, what the main source of ambient light is and how is it falling on the subject?

Unless we are shooting at night it is generally the sun. This means the main source of light (or key light) will almost always be the sun, even if it is diffused behind a cloud. This shapes the entire scene and the only reason to use additional lights is to enhance power and fill in the gaps where light from the sun is missing. Once the direction is decided, I will determine if the light from the sun is bright enough. Living in England the answer is usually no. If this is the case, we will place our key light so the light falls in the same direction as the sunlight. Below is a diagram of how this might look.

Fill in flash

Once you have your main light sorted it’s time to address the gaps. Here the main issue would be the model’s face. While it is tempting to place a flash facing the opposite direction to the sun, you have to remember what the human eye would see. It is natural for the face to be in shadow if the sun is behind, so that is what we need to mimic. It is common to see photos where the model appears to be cut out from the background. This is usually due to an overpowered or poorly placed fill flash.

In this scenario, I would imagine the sun wrapping around the camera right of the model’s face, so I would place the fill flash like the diagram below. Once the position of the flash is good it is a case of adjusting the power to ensure it compliments but doesn’t overpower the key light.

Quality of light

Once you have figured out the direction of your light, it is crucial to decide whether the light is hard or soft. The light quality of the sun is determined by its height in the sky and whether it covered by cloud. You can tell the quality of light best by looking at shadows. A bare, midday sun will give crisp hard shadows and as that sun sets or goes behind a cloud the shadows will get softer and the edges will be more diffused.

Modifiers

Modifiers are used to take artificial light and shape it. This can be to enhance or flatter certain aspects of your subject or to mimic a type of light as described above. The size of the modifier relative to the subject is what defines how hard or soft the light is. You can only pick a modifier once you know the type of light you are trying to create. A large softbox close to the subject will create light similar to a diffused sky, while a small source like a magnum reflector will create a crisp, hard light similar to direct sunlight. With this in mind, a 3ft softbox right next to your subjects face will give a soft flattering light, however, the same softbox 10ft away from the subject will give a hard light because the relative size is much smaller. Below is a photo showing how we used a magnum reflector up high and far back from the subject to mimic direct sunlight and fill in a few shadows that were not lit by the sun which was over the horizon to camera right.

Types of flash

There are a huge variety of options available now, but the first thing to decide is what you will be using your lighting kit for. Do you need speed, power, portability or all three?

You can either go for monoblocs where the flash is one unit or heads and packs which have a power supply with a lead to a head containing the bulb.

If you work on location I suggest lithium powered units. I use a Profoto system and the B1’s on location. For a more economical and portable solution, speedlights make really good cheap and portable lighting kits and this is how I started out. The sacrifice with traditional speedlights is recycle speed and power, however, this is improving all the time with new technology. Don’t feel like you have to buy all of your lights straight away. Renting is a great way to figure out what works best for you and monoblocs especially are very reasonable to hire for the day.

Alternatives to flash

If flash is not an option you can use one or multiple reflectors in the same way as mentioned above to give you a similar look. The main constraint here is that you can’t increase the ambient light, you can just shape it, so it works best in brighter situations.

The final option is using constant light, the same as used in video shoots. These come in a variety of options from small LED panels to huge HMIs. We often use a single large HMI to replicate the sun and then use white reflectors to add light and black ones to take light away and give the subject more shape.

I hope you found this small insight into the world of lighting helpful. It was really hard just touching the surface on such a huge topic but make sure to have a look at www.jackterry.co.uk/journal for more tips and a look behind the scenes of some of our shoots.

Jonny Helm ProFiles October 4, 2017October 6, 2023 1 Comment

ProFiles | Hugo Burnand

Hugo Burnand is an established portrait photographer with over 20 years of working continuously with Condé Nast and Tatler Magazine, as well as photographing the wedding of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles, and the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton.

Other commissions include HM The Queen, President Mickael Gorbachev, President Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson amongst many others.

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, you must be a busy man. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you discovered photography?

My artist grandmother gave me my first camera for my seventh birthday, and pretty quickly i realised (without being able to articulate it) that the grown-ups in my life were reacting very differently (in a positive way) to my photographs than they’d react to almost anything else I did (eye-rolling at pebble throwing games, stealing eggs from the hens, chasing cows just for the hell of it, and climbing on the roofs). I then took a photograph of a horse that won the first competition I’d ever entered, and I think from that moment on I knew I’d do photography throughout my life – even though I did a slew of other jobs before I was eventually booted out of a city job aged 27, when my then chairman kindly and genuinely advised me to pick up a camera professionally.

Self portrait

You photograph a lot with the Royal Family. How did that association come about?

I can trace it back a long way, through a progression of steps which all led to the next opportunity and finally to where I am now – starting with an exchange of some party-photographs for some paintings by an Artist friend of mine. The success of those party-photographs enabled me to get a position within Conde Nast Magazine as Tatler’s Bystander Photographer. With that job I naturally met a lot of people, and one of these people asked me to photograph (portraits) the 10 most important people in his life, and one of those ten people made an introduction that led to me photographing the wedding of HRH Prince Charles to Camilla Parker-Bowles. Another wedding (William and Kate) and many portraits later (both private and official), I am extremely grateful (more than I can express) to everyone involved along the route to get here.

You photographed William & Kate’s Royal wedding in 2011. Would you say that was the most high profile shoot you’ve worked on?

Absolutely – without doubt! Definitely the most high-profile, and whilst extremely important (and enormous fun), there have been other projects that are equally or more important to me personally.

You’ve photographed a fair bit in Panama. Is that part of an ongoing project?

Over the last few years I have been taking portraits of Indigenous Tribes in Panama, and had an exhibition in March 2017 at The V&A Museum, with HRH Duchess of Cornwall as our Patron, when we launched the Panamanian Wildlife Conservation Charity (PWCC), which aims to highlight the destruction of the rainforests and the loss of animals, plants and indigenous tribes as a result. Funds raised from direct donations and the sale of portraits has immediately been directed to various scientific and conservation projects, namely the protection of the previously considered extinct Harlequin Frog, a surviving community of which a team member of PWCC discovered recently beside the Santa Fé National Park in central Panama. Also sustainable eco-tourism projects were initiated with a small branch of the Emberá tribe, living deep in the Darien Gap, close to the border with Colombia. It is incredibly exciting to be able to use my photography to raise awareness and fund these conservation projects that have a world-wide impact. In the pipeline is a similar exhibition in 2019, at The Natural History Museum, with photographic portraits of rainforest tribes from all the major countries in Central and South America. (www.panamawildlife.org)

Your mother, Ursy Burnand is a photographer in her own right. Was she a big influence on you starting photography?

Ursy has always encouraged me, although to be fair, she was unsure that it was wise to have two photographers in one family – it is a notoriously difficult field to make a living in, and she didn’t want us both to be hungry – but she couldn’t stop me, especially after I had spent many childhood years helping her convert our kitchen into a darkroom after supper most evenings, blacking-out the windows and putting the enlarger on the kitchen table which the dogs were sleeping under. She is enormously talented with a fantastically sympathetic and humorous eye. Now it is my turn to encourage her to keep at it. Occasionally we do commissions together, and she assisted at both the major Royal Weddings that I have been asked to photograph. It helps keep things down-to-earth with a family-feel on both sides of the camera.

The Burnand Family

You’ve previously shot eminent world leaders such as Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev. Do you have any recollections of those shoots?

Bill Clinton was very travel weary the first time I photographed him, and I was disappointed by the lack of the oh-so-famous charisma…..but thankfully I was asked back another time, and was rewarded with the blinding dazzle of full-wattage charm. When he’s on form he is a force to be reckoned with, no doubt about it.

Meeting Mikhail Gorbachev was interesting – he has a quick and intelligent sense of humour which is strong enough to withstand every word going through a translator – and I can assure you, nothing was lost in translation!

Do you have any interesting shoots in the pipeline?

As well as the above mentioned 2019 Exhibition of Indigenous Tribes, I am working at HMP Dartmoor, doing portraits of Prisoners (who must hide their faces/identity for obvious reasons) for the Charity Peaceful Solutions who work to help prisoners properly prepare to return to society. Despite each identity being hidden, each portrait reveals the prisoners individual story.

I have four children (eldest is 22, youngest is 17) and I always take a portrait of each one on their Birthdays, no matter where they are in the world, and what state they are in – this has created an interesting catalogue, from portraits with measles and bad haircuts, to portraits taken on jungle treks in Peru or skinny dipping in the Thames, and this is the longest and probably most important photographic commission of my life!

What’s in your kit bag?

I used to be emotionally attached to my Hasselblad cameras that came everywhere with me for years – but today, with the speed at which digital equipment updates, and because my photographic needs are constantly evolving, I find myself using top of the range Canon that gives me the flexibility and robustness I need in the jungle and in London, and it gets updated in a similar fashion to the way we update our mobile phone, without emotion!

How much do you rely on Fixation for your work?

I rely on Fixation heavily, and especially Keir, who I have followed my entire career – and I still pretend I know nothing and ask his advice (which I usually take, but not always!)

I recall reading an amusing story about the time you photographed Michael Jackson. Can you tell us anything about that?

Michael Jackson’s people telephoned my staff in London, and asked whether I would be available to photograph him. I had very recently photographed the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles and this was one of the rewards, getting commissions that had previously been out of reach.

Jackson’s staff wanted me to be in the Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, and they wanted me immediately; he had just arrived at Heathrow, and the shoot must happen straight away, they said.

A few hours later I was in the Dorchester, with my dreams of a beautiful, personal and insightful portrait – but the plans changed….

Read the full story here

To see more Hugo’s work, visit his website www.hugofoto.com

Hugo was talking to Tim Stavrinou

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Monthly Archives: October 2017