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Giclee printing now available to clients

06/08/2012 By Leave a Comment

I can now offer high-end in-house giclee printing up to A2+ size for my clients, offering beautiful, vibrant images on archival-quality rated to last at least 100 years.

What is ‘giclee printing’ and why does it matter?
‘Giclee printing’ is a term invented by American print maker Jack Duganne in the early 1990s to describe a process for making lasting fine art prints using a new breed of high-end inket printers, which were being used in the printing industry for proofing colour books. Until then, high quality traditional offset printing was used for creating many art reproductions, but this still required a reasonable print run to be economically viable.

High-end inks are used for giclee printing.

High-end inks are used for giclee printing.

Giclee printing offers even greater quality that offset printing and the advantage of being able to offer one off prints. Duganne chose to call the process ‘giclee’ (based on the French language word le gicleur’) to denote something different to the run-off-the-mill inkjet printing consumers are used to at home.

Giclee inkjets are professional systems with high quality inks designed to last for at least 100 years. The printers have multiple cartridges for variations of each CMYK color based on the such as light magenta and light cyan inks in addition to regular magenta and cyan. This allows far greater reslution and much smoother transitions between colours.

The process is completed through the use of archival quality papers, which again add to longevity, from simple gloss or lustre papers through to ‘watercolor paper’, cotton canvas, linen, etc.

giclee printing Bristol

Giclee printing offers beautiful prints that last a 100 years and more.

Why offer the giclee process in-house?

With in-house giclee printing I can gain even greater control of the process and save time. With carefully-controlled colour calibration there are fewer ‘nasty surprises’ when photos come back from the lab these days, but it means I can see results right away on my desktop and fix and minor issues that may have been missed right away. For larger prints there’s a modest cost saving too.

Portrait clients that have received prints from the new system so far have been blown away but the sheer quality, clarity and vibrance of the images. I can offer prints up to a size of A2+ and a tastefully framed A2 print with a deep mount makes a spectacular piece of wall art. As before, I can offer even larger prints, canvases, aluminium prints handled by print partners. My personal favourite way to display photography, however, is always in a black frame with a bright white mount – how images are generally displayed at exhibitions.

I am a photographer/artists. Can I send you my images for printing?
Generally speaking, for larger prints, I can offer pricing a little lower than most labs for Bristol-based customers. Get in touch with details of your requirements to learn more.
Additionally, if you are an artist that would like to produce limited print runs of pieces of work I can again get in touch for a quote. I can also offer photographic reproductions of artworks that are too larger to too textured/three dimensional for flatbed scanning.

Filed Under: David's blog, News, Photographic Musings, Photographic techniques, Tools of the trade Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

A trip to Focus on Imaging 2012

12/03/2012 By Leave a Comment

Like most blokes I love a bit of a geek-out about ‘gear’ and seeing the latest toys in action. The digital photography era seems to have brought ‘gear’ to the forefront of photographers’ minds like never before. To enjoy some of the latest developments up close I took a trip with another local photographer to the Focus on Imaging trade show at the Birmingham NEC.

Once cameras were cameras and computers were for spreadsheets but now crazy upgrade cycles of the typical PC have now entered the photographic realm – software, hard drives, powerful Macs, laptops, websites, new ways to control flash lights remotely, online backups, Drobo backups, calibration tools, plugins, etc. It just goes on and on. While on one level it might appear you can start a photographic business with a half-decent camera and a couple of lenses the reality is rather different in terms of gear-lists… and then there’s expenses like insurance and marketing materials on top.

As a working photographer, though, you tend to separate the hype from the reality. No one needs to upgrade their photography set-up until they have reached its limitations, something has broken or worn out, or an upgrade would allow them to take on new types of work. Professional photographic gear is generally built to last much longer than consumer-grade alternatives and, even in the digital age, a tough set of lights or professional lenses can give years of glitch-free service on shoot after shoot.

But did anything catch my eye at Focus on Imaging? Certainly! Here were the top five products that captured my imagination.

Epson printer and Fotospeed CIS Inkflow system

1. Continuous Inkflow systems from Fotospeed
Everyone that’s ever bought an inkjet printer knows that while the machines themselves are inexpensive for what you get the ink costs can be crazy. Even if you avoid the branded ink cartridges and use generic replacements the costs can be huge. Plus, if you use third party inks, who’s to say the colour reproduction will be exactly the same – this is vital if you’re a photographer producing prints for clients.
Fotospeed offers ‘Continuous Ink systems’ for Epson’s range of professional inkjet printers like the R3000 and R2880, which include ICC profiles to ensure accurate colour reproduction. While no as cheap as some ‘eBay specials’ the Fotospeed inks are aimed at serious photographers and can slash 80% of the price of using branded cartridges. While I don’t currently own a professional inkjet, a Fotospeed system will be a must-have when I do.

2. Leaf Aptus-II 10R Digital back
Okay, here’s the fantasy-land pick. I’ve always lusted after a digital back for my Hasselblad V-serious camera kit. New, these beasts can cost the same as a high-end family car and even a second-hand beater can cost more than £5,000. Still, even if you have the cash, or the client list that calls for the highest end quality imaginable, the digital backs come with certain limitations. Most are set up to shoot landscape and a Hasselbald V-series would be (even more) awkward to use on it’s side. The Leaf Aptus-II 10R allows you to rotate the sensor to portrait orientation. Oh, and it’s 56 megapixels. I can dream.

3. Various companies selling cool albums, printing and finishing services.
Clients never care what camera gear you use so long as they love the finished results. As well as your skill in taking the images and editing or retouching them presentation is the key. Books, albums, wall sized prints, are just a few ways portrait clients enjoy their images. While some of my favourite suppliers were at the show there were one or two products I’d never seen up close, like the stunning ‘aluminium’ prints. I’ll be ordering some great sample packs soon, I think.

The Canon 5Dmk III - it's gorgeous but then so is the MKII

4. The Canon 5DmkIII
Probably one of the biggest hits with the geeks at the show. The 5D mkII was a landmark camera, bringing extremely high resolution to mainstream professionals and, at a stroke, invented the entirely new field of ‘DSLR cinematography’ thanks to it’s ability to shoot stunning HD video.

The 5D mkIII is both very similar to the mkII (which will be sold alongside the new model for at least a while yet) or radically upgraded, depending on what sort of features you were hoping for.
Some mkIII standout features include full weather-sealing, which gives a little extra confidence if it starts to rain on an outdoor shoot, and stunning 61point auto-focus. The latter is more in line with the 5D’s status as Canon’s entry into the professional range and works incredibly, but studio, portrait and wedding photographers probably didn’t struggle with the mkII’s serviceable autofocus performance. The mkIII has a whole host of other tweaks, including another couple of stops of low-light performance – although sometimes this can simply mean more aggressive noise-reduction rather than a more sensitive sensor. It’s a worthy update to the 5D mkII but considering that at current street prices you can buy two of the old model for the price of the new, there’s not much reason for existing users to upgrade. Perhaps we’re moving, at last, to a world where we can keep using our favourite cameras for a few more years than before.

5. Topaz Labs InFocus

Around Focus on Imaging there were dozens of great little product demos going on. One talk I enjoyed was a demo of Topaz Labs InFocus software, which claims to restore detail to out of focus images or ones suffering from motion blur. Although the images used to demonstrate the digital magic were likely sympathetically selected there was a ‘wow factor’. Even experienced photographers will occasionally load up a stunning image into Photoshop only to discover focus wasn’t quite nailed or there was a touch of camera shake. If InFocus can resuce some of these then brilliant.

Filed Under: David's blog, Photographic Musings, Tools of the trade

A portrait photographer’s favourite bits of photographic stuff…

27/06/2011 By Leave a Comment

What bits of photographic kit do I use above all others? What if I could only have a handful of items? What would I keep? Here’s what I came up with in no particular order.

Canon EOS 5D MKII
Before obtaining this camera I’d used a Canon EOS 20D and a 30D. They were great cameras, more than good enough for serious work, but not the sort of thing you could really form a bond with – there was still that nagging doubt that 35mm film still had a special something. With its beautiful, clear images, massive resolution, and impressive low-light capabilities, the Canon EOS 5D MKII meant digital had truly come of age for me. I love this camera. It’s a workhorse. It’s a good mate.

Portaflash 5-in-1 reflector
Bought from eBay.co.uk for a tenner, this reflector offers a gold, silver, white, or black surface for bouncing or controlling light. It can even act as a diffusion panel with sunlight or flash. Careful use of reflectors can bring window-light shots to life or provide a pleasing fill light. This £10 accessory has been used to death both for studio-style shots and out on on location and has held up well after many years of use, even though I own other more fancy reflectors now.

Sigma 50mm f/1.4 lens
A pretty new addition to the kit-bag, this lens is a marvel with it’s sharpness – even used wide open – and its creamy background blur. Sitting closer in price to Canon’s 50mm f/1.4 lens than their crazy-expensive f/1.2L model, it gives Canon’s high end glass a run for its money and is a powerful tool in its own right.

Cabaret Burlesque star Keda Breeze shot with the Sigma 50mm F1.4 EX DG HSM lens and Canon EOS 5D MKII camera. I love the sharpness and creamy out of focus area the lens delivers.

There’s something very pure about a 50mm lens and a full-frame camera. A 50mm focal length more or less matches what the naked eye sees – not wider or longer. Before SLR cameras tended to come couple to a zoom lens in the 90s, the 50mm lens was what you usually to got as standard.

Hasselblad 500c/m ‘V-series’ camera
Since digital photography got great a few years back there’s perhaps less reason to use film. However, there’s still something special about a bit of 120 film loaded into a gorgeous Hasselblad camera. The modern Hasselblad H-series has established itself has a leading range for high-end commercial work but the V-series remains such a popular camera that the Swedish camera legends still include a V-series model in the current camera range.

Don't hassel the 'blad! My Hasselblad 500cm modelled by model Jess.

Of course, you don’t have to use film with a Hasselblad. Insanely high resolution ‘digital backs’ can be clipped on, bringing a deisgn little-changed since the 1950s into 2011. Sadly, these backs cost as much as a high-end family car and are usually rented as part of commercial shoots rather than owned by individual photographers. Even older second hand models of more modest resolutions are way out of the reach of most jobbing pros. My Hasselblad remains proudly analogue.

Apple iPhone 4
Before I got an Android phone over a year ago I’d been a mobile phone luddite with a £10 text and talk phone. The HTC Android phone gave me a taste of the potential of smartphones but the interface was fiddly, the email client painful and the phone, while fast as first glance, would seem bog down under load becoming a frustration. Still, it encouraged me to move from a paper diary to Google Calendar, putting everything I was up to in my pocket.

When I got the chance to upgrade it was an easy choice to get the iPhone 4. I realised that while there is a huge amount of hype surrounding Android the iPhone is just slicker, more straightforward, and the App store actually contains some very useful, polished material (but plenty of dross too). Powerful applications like Filemaker Go turn the iPhone into a decent tool, not just a cool toy.

Of course, the iPhone 4 has, for the first time on an Apple phone, a semi-decent camera. I’m not going to start doing portrait shoots with it but with apps like Camera+, Photoshop Mobile, and Hipstamatic there’s plenty of fun to be had. I’ve even made some decent prints from iPhone images.

Light, Science, Magic Book
If you have any sort of camera that allows manual control and is fault-free you can potentially make brilliant images. It’s only educating yourself, hopefully starting from a base of visual literacy and a touch of talent, that improves your images.

One vital element that separates a professional-looking photograph from a snapshot is lighting. As you take more pictures you learn by experience that certain light is inherently easy to work with. Window light and open shade always flatters the subject. Hard light, like that given by harsh midday sun or small tungsten spotlights, can be unflattering and difficult to work with. Then there’s reflection, glare, shiny surfaces, and a whole host of other issues to grapple. The Light, Science Magic book gives you a great grounding in how light actually works – it’s technical, but distills the physics of light into a readable volume.  I’ve read it several times and it’s a book I keep coming back to.

PocketWizard Plus II radio triggers
PocketWizards allow you to trigger you flash via a radio link. Want the flash outside, blasting through a window? From behind the subject? Need to trigger a flash even without worrying about line of sight? These triggers do all that and are rock solid, never failing to fire the flash on a shoot. I use them extensively with my Bowens studio lights and with smaller hotshoe flashguns.

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 lens
Canon’s mid-range primes are a mixed bag. Some are bitingly sharp with impressive contrast while others are merely so-so. The Canon EF 85mm f/1.8, however, is a stunning little prime in a classic ‘portrait’ focal length. I often use in in preference to a more cumbersome EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS, even though it’s a much cheaper lens.

Joe Demb Flip-It Jumbo bounce card
A good bounce card can really make flash photography sing, especially when there isn’t scope or time to set up elaborate off-camera lighting. The Joe Demp Flip-it is well made and easy to adjust, sending some light to your bounce surface (wall, ceiling) while giving a little kick of light forward, filling shadows. Used creatively, you can get some fine almost studioesque effects. I use it extensively on PR shoots like press launches or events and often manage to get fabulous, directional light.

Jason Mamoa AKA Conan the Barbarian

Jason Mamoa AKA Conan the Barbarian. The Joe Demb Flip-it makes it possible to get soft, directional light, even with on-camera flash.

Filed Under: David's blog, Photographic Musings Tagged With: , , , , , ,

‘Which DSLR should I buy?’

27/11/2010 By Leave a Comment

With Christmas coming someone asked me which Digital SLR camera they should buy for their other half, who had used a manual SLR back in the day, and was now keen to get into photography once more.

I blow hot and cold when it comes to discussing ‘gear’. Yes, I’ll sing the praises of my Bowens lighting kit, I have been nothing but happy with the Canon EOS system that I’ve used for years but, aside from the odd occasion I have a real need to upgrade, I don’t much think about gear. I vaguely know that the cheapest Canon DSLR is the 1000D and weighs in at a reasonable £349 with a cheap kit lens, that there are some great mid-range cameras suitable for commercial work, and a pro range beginning with the 5D MKII and ending with the £5k-ish Canon EOS 1Ds MKIV.

But I only really explore what’s available when the equipment I have doesn’t allow me to do something I need to. To read some camera forums you could be led to believe you need a top-line camera and a clutch of professional lenses to get results – the inflation of needs in modern photography to get the job done is pretty bonkers. While I’m a huge fan of digital photography, the romantic in me is sad that cameras are now more like computers – something you need to upgrade fairly frequently as they rapidly become obsolete. In the past famous professional photographers may have gone decades using the same primary camera – perhaps a Leica M-series, a Hasselblad 500, a Rollei. If you were happy to focus and meter manually a camera could truly be for life.

The only film camera is use with regularity these days is a Hasselblad 500c/m, a beautiful medium format device. I think my model dates from the early 1980s but the design is little changed from the 1950s. I have 80mm and 150mm Zeiss lenses with smooth, heavy-duty focussing rings that make focussing a pleasure. The sheer sharpness of the glass is as good as the best Canon professional lenses (probably even better) and, for portraiture, having ‘only’ two fixed focal length prime lenses is no restriction at all. The Hasselblad V system is modular – body, film cartridge, lens, choice of viewfinders. You can even buy a digital back for them, albiet for the price of a brand new mid-range family car! It’s the sort of high quality, buy once, use forever product I love, an antedote to the throwaway culture of most of today’s consumer products.

Still, you don’t always need to upgrade your digital camera just because something better’s come along either. The 8MP of a Canon EOS 30D, a camera I use as a backup to a 5D MKII on many shoots, is more than adequate for serious use in many contexts yet the sensor is the same as the 2004 Canon 20D. With a sharp image you can happily enlarge a photograph in Photoshop and produce wall-sized prints. The detail of my 21 megapixel 5D MKII is utterly astounding but it’s not always needed and the extra file-size means greater investment in computer power and harddrive space is necessary.

Many of the technological innovations on modern cameras are phenonomal but so far technology alone cannot make a stunning photograph and probably never will. No one would think buying the best knives or pots and pans would give them the same ability to make great meals as a top chef – that would be ridiculous – but there’s a perception that the more ‘professional’ your camera gear the more professional the results. The analogy isn’t quite like-for-like – if you want the insanely beautiful look of the Canon 85mm 1.2 lens you kind of need that lens, no two ways about it, but certainly a commercial-quality image can be taken with minimal kit given skill and education.

So, returning to my friend’s question… What would DLSR would I recommend? I more or less said this: All currently DSLRs can produce top-class results, even the very cheapest. If you have more money to spend invest in higher quality lenses rather than a fancier camera body. Even more importantly, perhaps buy the other half some well-recommended books on photography or perhaps sign them up for a course. It’s only by learning and education that pictures get better. I also said that you can’t go wrong with Canon.

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Annie Leibovitz shoots Gordon Gecko

19/01/2010 By Leave a Comment

One thing I love about the YouTube era is getting the kinds of insights into how various photographers work, whether they be amatuers, jobbing pros or the world famous.

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Filed Under: David's blog, Photographic Musings Tagged With: ,

Enjoying photographic simplicity, photographic minimalism

10/01/2010 By Leave a Comment

It’s strange – the finest electronic engineers Japan has to offer create evermore brilliant hitech wondercameras that would utterly blow the mind of a photographer 50 years ago and we’re still not happy. New features are hyped to heavily that we expect that spending an awful lot of dosh on the greatest camera gear will, by some magic process that barely involves us, produce award-winning images.
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Filed Under: Photographic Musings