Photography Tips and Techniques: Cameras, Lenses, Gear and Processing with remote mountain and desert landscapes. I specialise in Landscape Photography, much of it shot in Andalucia where I live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, near Granada.
My aim is to help you become a better photographer with tips and techniques based on my own experience. In the UK I worked as a commercial photographer and video maker for ten years and have the scars to prove it!
I post a new video every Tuesday, if this sounds like the kind of thing you'd like, then watch a couple of videos and, if you like them, subscribe to the channel!
Thank you! at 72 I some time ago decided to limit myself to one body and 2 lenses for any given outing. I think the way you explained your intent to tell a more personal story by limiting focus (no pun intended), is a little different approach. I'll be more mindful of decluttering my compositions going forward. At least I'll try. Thanks again. (new subscriber)
Thanks Tim, it seemed to me that I was assembling a large number of unconnected photographs. My own focus was on creating the best possible image. Once I had realised that in a story, not every image needs to be prize winning it opened up opportunities quite a lot. I guess in some ways it’s like writing, even Martin Amis used connecting sentences from time to time!
Two years into a new hobby, 66 yrs old, using local UK bus service and carrying the day's food and water. I soon realised carrying too many lenses/possibilities was a pain and stopped taking the tripod. Yesterday I was thinking about the flash as I trudged along. I'll get to where you are, kit wise, Chris, when it all falls into place. ( hopefully soon). PS good video and one lens approach is on the horizon.
Thanks! One lens or two at most works for me if I think about what I’m doing. Did a shoot in Granada this week two lenses, no tripod and it worked out well! Good luck, two years in you have some great times in front of you.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Chris. As it happens, I just got my COVID shot this morning, as well as a flu shot, so both arms will be a bit sore for a day or so. A thoughtful and inspiring video, thank you very much. A technical question: I have an APS-C sensor Nikon D500 camera which means that any lens that I use has an equivalent field of view 1.5X that of a full frame sensor. Thus I would need somewhere around an 8 to 16mm wide angle lens to get a similar field of view to your Canon 11 to 24mm. I'm worried about the edge distortions that this could cause. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Cheers, Alex
Thanks Alex, I have a Canon EFS 10-22mm that I use with an APS-C sensor. Quality is pretty good, anything wider I think would distort. Could be a use for ViewPoint though. I’ll try and use one as an example in the review video.
I wish you a complete recovery. I have had some serious health problem myself in the last few months and I know how it can impact the creative process. I have just returned to photography after a hiatus of a few weeks. This video has inspired me to think about doing more photography and creativity in general. Thanks very much.
A great video Chris. I can certainly agree with your approach. Like you, I shoot just about everything but people. I have just turned 75 and a couple of years ago I went on a shoot and took everything I thought I could possibly need including the kitchen sink and struggled to get it all back up the steep climb from the beach to the car. I realised this was somewhat stupid and resolved to always take less. Now, I think long and hard about the shoot I am undertaking and take the bare minimum I think I will need - sometimes just one body and lens; sometimes two bodies and lenses attached as I hate changing lenses in the field. This generally works very well and has not limited my photography, but effectively makes me think more about what I am taking and become more creative. I also have the 11-24mm F/4 lens which is a great lens, although probably a little niche. I also use DXO PhotoLab 8 and enjoy your videos.
Thank you. Like you I had a beach incident. About ten years ago I was shooting in a very steep sided cove in north wales. Until I noticed the water lapping around the feet of my tripod. Strained a ligament in my foot climbing out. Two lessons learned that day. Check the tide and carry less!
When I was your age, I could carry all the Canon gear I could want including four TS-E lenses., my 5Ds, maybe my Sigma 180mm macro lens. Eventually I sold the 5Ds, replacing it with a Lumix S1R. It's a better camera, I use my TS-E lenses with an adaptor. An I have a remarkably light 14-28 with a 67mm filter thread. Panasonic likes 67mm filter threads. 47.3 Mpx, 187 high res option. I've been using M43 cameras for most of my recent photography, all have focus bracketting, all have 80 Mpx high res modes and some other tricks your Canon cameras do not. My Olympus 60mm macro lens is tiny. I was diagnosed with AML Leukaemia last April, that's slowed me down a bit. A 6 Kg camera bag is the most I can sensibly carry. In July I bought an OM-5 and 12-45 F4. For anything lighter, you're down into compact phones. It can make photos your Canon cameras cannot, it has four stops of live ND, does focus bracketting, shoots at a decent framerate (but nothing like the OM-1 II), lots of stabilisation. I'm autistic, one of my difficulties is with loud noises such as your music. I was going to subscribe, until I heard that .Look up sensory dysfunction.
I'm sorry to hear about your diagnosis, that's tough. Sorry about the music too, I do try to choose gentle, reflective sounds to suit the photography and my delivery. I've never got on with the OM range, I know thousands love them, but I don't suit them. A camera has to feel good in my hands and I love the ergonomics of Canon cameras, for my size hands they just fit.
Hello Chris. Thank you for the ideas in the video. I have had a similar approach on occasions but you offered a perspective which is very useful. I was actually attracted to the video by the title so I thought it was about camera bags. I may have missed it in the video but I was curious about what size bag you carry your lightweight kit in. (As an experienced professional you have some goals which I, as an pure amateur, don't have. So I tend to use zooms (mostly one zoom, the Tamron 18 to 300 mm on my Fujifilm X-S10), aiming for good quality but not saleable images, not too concerned about low light situations. My main subject is landscape/seascape with a smattering of other stuff one comes across when travelling. If I think I need better quality I still use zooms to cover the same focal length range (perhaps extended down to 10mm, with my small number of primes reserved for training my eye for different perspectives.)
I use an F-Stop Guru 25L bag with a medium insert. I use the spare space for food or extra clothing when I’m hiking. I won’t get a smaller bag because this one is so comfortable! I’m intrigued by the huge range that mirrorless lenses offer but I wonder if it comes at a cost of quality. The nearest I have to that sort of multipurpose range is 24-105mm which I use mostly for video. It’s a great lens though.
@@chriswrightphotographs Yes thanks for the information about the bag. I totally understand that with your vocation image quality is a top priority. That would be what what your clients and us more casual observers would look for from an experienced professional.
I don’t get this “fragility” thing with the Ricoh. I have a GRIII and IIIx pair, and they travel in the small pouches on my backpack waist belt. In the last few months they’ve travelled in sometimes awful weather in mountainous regions of Madeira, Iceland and Switzerland and just been told to deal with it. Have they got soaked? Yes. Have they been bumped and dropped. ‘Fraid so. Have they taken fabulous photos? Yes! Are then both totally kaput? Er no. They’re as good as new. Well, maybe the odd scratch. Oh and no dust either. So many unsubstantiated myths about these cameras….
Different strokes for different folks. My decision was based on evidence in a very dusty environment. It is a great camera and very sharp but I wasn’t confident in it based on a couple of mishaps.
Question. Like you. I’m an older photographer. 70 tp be exact. Anyway, having dealt with FILM,for many many years. I’m a retired pro. So my question is can you do a short video,showing the process, beginning to end of your backup system. From camera card,to multi-copy to your RAID system. Since I don’t shoot as much anymore, i use the camera cards,as storage. But i would like to see, the SSD process through. Thanks very much.
I’m in the middle of upgrading the hardware so I’ll outline it here. Copy cards to portable drive and keep the card until you are back at base. When you are back, create the file system (on a third drive) edit the images and copy that file system to RAID where it is automatically duplicated between disks. Then, overnight copy RAID to cloud storage eg Backblaze. You can reformat the original disk once the contents are in the system. I use Lightroom to manage my libraries but you can do the same thing with DXO in a couple of extra steps. The shortcomings of this system made themselves known when I started the RU-vid channel. I want to keep a b roll library to speed up my editing and this system requires an extra disk. 4K files are huge.
Makes a lot of sense, as someone who lost 3 stone (and have kept it off) I was amazed at how much strain all that weight was putting on my body, a heavy camera bag is much the same so no more than two lenses, the laptop compartment contains a scarf, gloves and hand warmers, never a laptop.
Thank you and well done! It's true, even with good weight distribution a heavy bag is burdensome. And totally agree about laptops, I used to use a laptop on client shoots, but they have no place in the wilderness!
love the thought process, love your style of video. Referring to the weight you used to carry around, I'd like to add my personal two cents: shooting mostly Sony with half a dozen lenses I had an absolute epiphany when I bought myself additionally a used Leica M10-R with two (also used) lenses (a 35mm and 50mm for me, but would be same result with e.g. 24 and 75 or so), coming in now under 2 kg in total, including bag, extra batteries, filters and even a small table tripod - and said bag is sooo tiny. Still having full frame, high resolution and superb colors, but the difference in weight and size almost felt like switching to taking images with a phone.
Excellent video Chris. We seem to have mirrored our photographic paths. I am also 68 and have had a complete rethink and refit, selling lots of equipment and started investing in equipment similar to yourself. Just subscribed.
I think it’s an amazing lens, very sharp, minimal distortion. I will use it for architecture mainly. On the downside, it’s big and heavy so not one to take on 10 mile hikes!
Interesting. I feel much better about my 5 unused camera bags! My FOMO won't let me _not_ take a 14-400mm equivalent almost everywhere I go. It drives me crazy to stumble across something in the field having left just the right lens at home. It is probably a good exercise though!
Thank you. I walk regularly in the mountains with a wildlife photographer and while I can get horses, bulls and Ibex ok, eagles and vultures elude me. I’m thinking Canon 7d and 70-300mm lens as a starting point. But completely different task.
Very nice. Your comment about moving beyond the shots that almost every photographer would take is an especially great reminder to me. Your idea of focusing on one type of photography at a time is helpful for moving in that direction.
I'm looking forward to your architecture photography video. I particularly struggle with beautiful UK national trust buildings. Big shiny tower blocks are easy in comparison. Looking forward to what you have to show us. 😊
Me too! I’ll be able to compare 11-24mm with 16-35mm and explore the new version of ViewPoint. The plan is to use Granada Cathedral. We’ll see how that goes..
I’ve been a C1 user for the past 6 or so years I guess, but I’ve just installed the Trial version of DXO PL 8 a couple of days ago. I processed an image I recently took with it (Stag in New Forest). I didn’t spend hours on the image just got it quickly to a pleasing image to me. Tonight, I’ve processed the same raw in C1……and compared the two images. I’ve been a bit shocked on the noise reduction & detail retention in the DXO processed image, especially given that I don’t know the package that well & have not spent hours tinkering with the image. I then had C1 on half of my screen and the DXO processed image on the other (I have a large ultra wide monitor) for reference purposes, both zoomed in to equal amounts. I then played around with the noise reduction & sharpening tools in C1 trying to get close to the DXO’s combination of noise reduction AND detail retention/enhancement. After a considerable amount of faffing about in C1, I can’t get anywhere near the result that the DXO’s default settings gave me. The DXO image is both smoother (less noisy) and more detailed at the same time. I can’t even match either one of those in C1. I appreciate that there is more to a photo editing package than just noise reduction & sharpening, but even so, I’m still impressed. I think I prefer the layout in C1 which kind of guides your work flow, or, at least, it has for me, but I think some of this could just be down to familiarity. I did use DXO to cull & rate my images from a mornings shooting, it was fine for me, I just went through and used the keyboard short cut to quickly mark images red for the ones I wanted to remove from my viewer (the ones where the subject was not sharp, be that motion blur or missed focus, & the ones where the subject position was not great, & the ones where I had similar duplicates), this was quick and easy. I then went through what was left and quickly applied a star rating to my favourites and just picked the one I had marked the highest to then process. It was perfectly functional for me for initial culling and then a second pass to rate. There was a slight lag for my old PC to fully render a few images while I was quickly going through culling, not disastrous, but it was present occasionally, but this could be my PC as much as anything, and I don’t feel it was much worse than C1. It’s early days for me, and it could well be my lack of time with DXO, but the masking seemed a little limited in terms of control, or at least, was not that intuitive to me. For example, I wanted to add a slight vignette to the image, but the circular graduated mask appears to have limited control. In C1, I can manipulate this tool to make it an ellipse of any aspect ratio, I can rotate the ellipse,mi can adjust how the gradient falls off hard to soft. In contrast, in DXO I was only able to draw a circular gradient mask with no control of the gradient other than adjusting the masks opacity, which isn’t the same thing. This could just be my lack of time with DXO PL8 however, I didn’t explore the tools that much. I do like some of the other masking options like the hue mask. I did a very small amount of colour adjustment, I think I preferred C1 for this, but again, it could just be familiarity, I suspect DXO can do colour adjustment well enough for my needs. The rest was just exposure/shadow/highlight/contrast/saturation type adjustments which seems pretty similar to C1, no better or worse from what my initial trial could tell. I probably spent less than 2 hours in total in DXO so far, and than included culling & rating 300+ images & feeling my way around DXO PL 8 I’m only an amateur photographer.
Sounds good so far. With the masking remember that in control points and lines the Color and tone is sampled from the centr of the mask (in control points) and where you place the eye dropper with the control line. This makes it possible to select for example a backlit tree. As with any tool there is a learning curve, but not a steep one!
@@chriswrightphotographs thanks Chris. I’ve not extensively explored the masks yet, didn’t really need to on the image I used, other than a radial mask for slight vignetting. I do like the look of the hue & luminance masks. When C1 added luminance masks I upgraded to that version…it might have been C1 22 from memory, and I considered that a worthwhile reason to upgrade. Subsequent C1 offerings less so, for my needs at least, and the cost of the C1 upgrades got worse in recent years & the ‘customer loyalty’ bonus practically non existent. I was perfectly happy with my existing version of C1, at least until I saw the Denoise in DXO, but a new camera meant the files won’t open in my version of C1 which is a couple of years old. Seeing that there is no discount for me having a prior version of C1, it is like I am buying C1 from scratch as a new user, hence why I decided to look at alternatives (excluding Adobe).
Excellent story...thanks very much Chris....you are a gifted communicator and raconteur. Good ideas as well. I've just turned 78 and I know what you mean about having no desire to lug 20 to 30 kilos of gear around the outdoors, which is what I used to do (briefly) when I returned to photography upon retirement. I rarely used more than 2 of the 4 lenses that I had in my pack - I'm embarrassed that it took me so long to stop lugging all that stuff about. If I'm off camping in a car accessible location, I'll take 4 or 5 lenses with me, but leave most of them in a separate pack in the car, taking just 2 with me on the trail. Cheers, Alex
Thank you, that’s very kind! Yes, I think the surprise for me was that these notions are really common sense, but because we’ve been lugging three lenses about for thirty years, we don’t question it!
Lately, I've been limiting myself to what will fit into a Peak Design 6L sling bag. That's a body, 2-3 lenses, plus necessities, with a tripod strapped to the bottom. I'm also moving away from super fast lenses. I don't shoot people much, either, and I find that when I do, I don't want the background turned into a featureless blob. I only use one fast prime much, anymore (35mm), and that one mostly when I plan to shoot in low light. Since I started using DxO PhotoLab, I no longer worry much about noise, so if I have to lift shadows, it's not the end of the world. l find myself more willing to trade ISO for lighter glass, now. I recently turned 68, myself, and long hikes with heavy kit are pretty much right out. My typical kit, if I don't expect to need long telephoto, is a full frame body, 20mm f/2.8, a 35mm f/1.4, and an 85mm f/1.8. The 20mm is good for establishing shots, and weighs next to nothing. The 85mm f/1.8 (Sony) is quite light and compact, and the 35mm f/1.4 is my workhorse "normal" lens. If I expect to need more reach, I'll swap the 85mm for a 70-180mm lens, and the 35mm f/1.4 for a 35mm f/1.8. If I need even more reach, I'll swap the full-frame body for an APS-C body.
Very good Chris. Getting away from photography as some sort of competetive process (other than with oneself!) is a very liberating approach. On some days I take myself back to my roots as an archaeological site photographer in the pre-autofocus days. My shots had to be correct and publication ready first time round since the subjects were excavated away almost immediately after I’d captured them, and I had no opportunity to see the results until the films were developed. My method for replicating this is to treat my camera as though it were an old school one without the benefit of instant review and only check what I’ve captured at the end of the day, away from the location. This allows me to become more familiar with the amazing controls I have to hand in my camera and the confidence in my technique so that I can capture good (occasionally better than good) shots without the distraction of checking and reviewing after every exposure.
That’s a good thought, and requires a degree of confidence to pull off. I’m about half way there. Will check the first couple of exposures then adjust if necessary. You’re absolutely right about the sophistication of modern cameras, so much to experiment with.
I find PL is ok for small easy repairs or clones like dust spots but you were certainly a hero for attempting the work you did here. Nobody has mentioned Gimp, I like the ability to select a brush shape, adjust size, shape and angle easily, adjust force and hardness, and if you want to clone out something like the phone line you can move along the line and the selection point moves too, you can add jitter so repair is not so obvious. Hope I'm not preaching to the converted here That said I find your dxo videos very helpful, there is always something new to learn😁
Thanks, I agree, the clone/repair tool is weak. I normally go to Photoshop for complex tasks. I have no direct experience of Gimp, but I have heard good things so thanks for the input!
A clear summary but there are many difficulties with this expensive upgrade. For example I can find no luminosity mask icon in the local adjustments, only a hue mask, so luminosity is not controllable in the way you demonstrate. And DxO support is very difficult to access on such details. However your demo video is very useful in getting to know the differences, which are not always otherwise very obvious.
Thank you. I should have mentioned that Luminosity Masks are dependent on having an install of FilmPack. You can get a one month "try before buy" from the links in the description below the video. You can then decide at your own pace whether it's worth the extra investment.
@@chriswrightphotographs That seems to me a very sneaky way of extorting money on the part of DxO and makes me very wary of them even though I have been using it since v5. Luminosity masks have no special relevance to film.
Thank you! It’s worth getting to know, you can get more control over smaller ranges of tone than is possible with the sliders. Black Friday - hang on in there!
I think you answered my question at the very end: why use the tone curve when there are so many other tools available that give you more precise control? I do see value with the new Luma curve, but in general, I avoid all global edits. I look forward to similar discussions with these other approaches.
Yes, I generally share your feeling about global edits. Depends on the RAW to some degree, but where I have a precise view of what the image will look like, local edits get me there.
I'm focusing here on the new characteristics of the Tone Curve in PhotoLab 8 - there is another video in the Mastering DxO PhotoLab Collection dealing in detail with the RGB curve as found in PhotoLab 7. Noticed a much better example of the tone picker being useful in my PhotoLab 8 Review!
There is no dependency, but if you’re interested in black and white there’s a compelling reason to add Nik to the armoury. Color Efex for landscapes and Sharpener is a more powerful and flexible tool than PL sharpening. I think it’s a good investment for photographers at any level but ultimately optional.
I don’t get all these comments on the robustness of the GR’s . I’ve been using them since the GRDiv. Yes I’ve had dust but I’ve never experienced any problems with the build quality. And all my cameras have seen their fair share of inclement conditions. Including windswept beaches. I must assume I’ve been very lucky .
You have been careful! Some people are careless. I’m in the careful camp but I’m used to Canon cameras which are robust as anything. The GRIII made me anxious in the mountains!
It’s likely that DxO can’t keep up with the proliferation of lens/processor combos found in the iPhone. It’s in this area that DxO excel. A one size fits all compromise would mean lowering standards. Just a guess.
Ouch. I'm trialing DxO 8 because ON1 isn't great at repair and clone - but this seems even worse. Ridiculously clunky without being able to initially choose your own control point for selection and waiting to see where DxO chooses before being able to move the selection points.
If a new camera comes out after you buy v8, will there be a patch offered by DxO or do you have to wait until V9 comes out to be able to process the new camera's images? Or, does DxO 8 automatically adapt to a new camera?
There would be a new camera profile which you would be automatically prompted to download in the same way as when you first use the software. That is assuming the RAW files are compatible. There have been delays in supporting certain Fuji cameras as they have different sensors requiring different demosaicing routines (for example).
Thanks so much for a very useful video. I've stayed with PhotoLab 5 (for too long) and am excited about upgrading to 8. You've given a great workflow outline along with quite in-depth use cases and effects. I look forward to your additional PhotoLab 8 videos. I agree with others that it's unfortunate that DxO requires me to also upgrade FilmPack to access luminosity masking, but I do find FilmPack more interesting and useful than I had thought I would.
Very interesting video but I can't understand the logic of making adjustments before you set the colour profile? Until the colour profile tab is activated PhotoLab is using the default colour profile of Neutral Colour. As each colour profile introduces both colour and tonal adjustments, thus changing the histogram, I would have thought it logical to set this first?
Good point, thanks for raising it. This was an afterthought. I don’t always use Color profiles, it usually depends what the raw looks like. In this case it was logical to use the Canon profile as it added something to the image, but I don’t think that is always the case.
Thanks for another great instructional video Chris. The new PL8 features are great (coming from PL6) even if non-Film-Pack-users are still missing luminosity masking. What I like about the tone picker is that if you click and hold it you can drag the cursor up and down to adjust.
Depends on the error. If you're starting with PhotoLab, is the right profile being applied? Beyond this, unfortunately there are lots of candidates. if the error is intermittent, it's likely to be an error in the chain transferring the image to the drive - so either the card, the card reader, the cable attaching reader to computer, the drive you are loading the image to. I would try to isolate the error - if it's intermittent that suggests a problem with the card, so try shooting with a different card and see if it happens again. If it does, check the card reader etc.
