I will be exhibiting at Bar Amalfi in Ramsgate, South Sydney from now until the end of March. If you are in the area drop by to peruse some of my best work in all its shiny print glory. The sale is still on but will also finish at the end of March so get in soon and save 30%.

I thought it was about time to show you how I roll. This is the setup I take on all shoots and has been refined over a period of time. These aren’t quite the bare essentials but the whole lot isn’t overly heavy for short trips. I tend to cut it down if I’ll be walking any distance.

1. Lowepro – Mini Trekker
This bag has served me well, very well in fact it saved all my camera equipment when it along myself got dunked in the sea at 1am whilst photographing on my own, full moon, and king tide. I bought this bag after trying several others that didn’t quite do the job. I like being able open it right up and have access to everything all at once. I can swap and change the layout as desired with the handy Velcro compartments. The only down side is that you have to put the bag down or precariously balance it on one leg to access your kit. I usually set up the camera somewhere dry before walking with the tripod and camera slung over my shoulder.

2. Canon 5D with 17-40 F4 L Series Lens
A great landscape photography combo, 17mm on a full frame camera. I use this lens for most of my shots so it just stays on the camera in the bag. I’ve also got a Really Right Stuff L bracket which allows me to change from portrait to landscape and back easily without recomposing or shifting the centre of gravity over the tripod.

3. Canon 70mm-200mm L Series F2.8, great for those long shots and portraiture as it’s a fast sharp lens with constant F2.8 over the entire focal range. It is heavier because of this but saves me buying another lens.

4. Canon TC-80N3 remote release, great for long exposures, time lapse, and other funky things, this remote release does it all.

5. Lens hood for Canon 17-40mm, not that I ever use it but may come in useful one day if I have a strong cross light…and I’m not using my filters.

6. Lee wide angle adapter ring and filter holder. I’ve test the Cokin P & Z Series filter holders and this one is by far the best. I found the Z series intrudes on the frame with the full sensor, wide angle lens at wider apertures.

7. Business cards, there is usually someone interested in what I’m shooting, might as well point them to my website. I get my cards through Moo, great way to show off your work.

8. Lens cloths x 3, if one gets wet use another one.

9. Filters carried in a Lee filter carry case. I’ve gone from Cokin P Series to HiTech (Formatt) to Lee filters which by far surpass the rest. I currently have both the 0.6 and 0.9 soft edge Lee ND grads along with various HiTech filters both ND grad (soft and hard edge) and solid ND’s all of which don’t tend to get used (not so neutral in colour as the Lee’s).

10. Camera strap, only really gets used this when I’m hand holding shots and carrying the camera round my neck. The strap tends to flap about if not being used which can cause camera shake on long exposures so if the camera is on the tripod I take it off.

11. Manfrotto Tripod 190XB – I really don’t take care of my gear, this has had everything thrown at it and has lasted several years.

12. Really Right Stuff panning clamp, this along with the Precision Plus Package (#13) is my panoramic setup. This panning clamp is great as I can get the tripod level and then pan with the panning head rather than move the tripod head potentially making it unlevel.

13. Really Right Stuff Precision Plus Package, this makes up the rest of my pano setup. Removes parallax distortion and allows for flawless stitching of panoramas.

14. LED Maglite, this has also done me well. It’s still in perfect condition even after being dunked along with me when I was hit by a rogue wave. The LED light is pretty much white so I use it to light paint long exposures in the dark. It’s also handy for setting focus in the dark.

15. Head torch, great for keeping your hands free whilst climbing or walking in the dark.

16. Spare memory cards, always keep a couple in case something goes wrong.

17. Compass, not that I ever use it but one day it may save my life. Good for remote locations and figuring out where the sunset/sunrises are going to occur.

18. B+W 10 stop (3.0) ND filter ND-110 a new bit of kit for me, great for long exposures during the day but can result in some very IR contaminated images, use with care! Read my tips on how to best use it here

19. Cokin Z164 Circular Polarising filter not something I use too often as I mostly shoot wide angles. OK when uneven polarisation is acceptable such as on water otherwise only good at semi telephoto lengths.

Welcome to my February, 2010 newsletter. January and early February have been taken up with some other projects such as writing tutorials, more tilt shift video including a ‘how to’ video (coming real soon), learning off camera flash, and shooting a corporate awards night. There are plenty more interesting bits on the blog if you have 5 minutes. A short camping trip down near Batemans Bay / Jervis Bay (a beautiful part of the world without a doubt!) is as close to landscape photography as I’ve been So the big news:

30% SALE on all 24 x 16 photo prints
With Valentine’s day almost upon us (and because I love you all so much) I’m offer a massive 30% discount on all 24 x 16 photographic prints. The price is already adjusted on the website so all you need to do is find the image you like. Postage and packaging is still free to anywhere in the world so why not have me send it directly to someone special overseas. This offer ends on Sunday 14th March so get in quick, for more information please read my blog.

The sale includes all framed images I’m currently exhibiting at Ash’s table until 22nd February pop down for a look and some lunch.

Small and Medium Prints
I have decided to permanently lower the prices of my medium and small print sizes. I hope this will make my photography accessible to everyone with prices as low as $65 and $115 for the 8×12 and 12×18 prints respectively.

Better Photography, Photographer of the Year
Well it looks like I’ve placed in the top 50 Australian Landscape photographers for 2009 as voted by Better Photography magazine. I’m continuing to grow as a photographer with each year so I hope to build on this achievement. I entered four images all of which received recognition, to read more click here.

New images
To keep up to date with all my new images subscribe to the RSS feed of the latest images section.

Little Manly Cove
Here is a long exposure shot at Little Manly Cove.

Honeymoon Bay (Jervis Bay) & Kioloa Headland
A couple more to come from this area in the coming weeks.

Thanks,

Lee

Honeymoon Bay is situated in the Northern half of Jervis Bay famous for its white sand beaches and azure water.

Kioloa is a remote town north of Batemans Bay. The following photographs were taken a short walk from the local boat ramp on the head land. I had to fight off a couple of 6ft kangaroos to get there for sunrise, I’m glad it did.

Massive 30% discount on all 16×24 prints
I’m pleased to announce a massive 30% discount on all 16×24 inch photographic prints, that’s a saving of $75! This offer is only available for the next month ending Sunday 14th March and is not to be missed. The print prices are already adjusted so all you need to do is find the images you like and add them to your shopping basket. This amazing low price is inclusive of postage and packaging regardless of the end destination. Each image is printed to the highest standard using the only the best papers and ink, and are hand signed and inspected personally.

Small/Medium Print pricing
In conjunction with the large 16×24 print sale I have decided to permanently lower the prices of my medium and small print sizes. I hope this will make my photography accessible to everyone with prices as low as $65 and $115 for the 8×12 and 12×18 prints respectively.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask!

Thanks

Lee Duguid

It’s amazing what washes up on the beach, this Aussie surfer must have drifted across the Tasman Sea from Bondi! Taken at Paekakariki Beach just North of Wellington.

Well it looks like I placed in the top 50 of the 2009 Better Photography Photographer of the Year Competition with my Great Ocean Road image. The funny thing is first place along with every other entry in the top 50 also got Silver Awards!!! I’m not that bad after all

To see the top 50 please follow the link.

Here are some photos from I recent shoot I did for a friend Heidi. Photographed locally at Fairlight rock pool a month or so back I used only available light, no flash, no bounce sheet. Enjoy!

Thanks to the model Heidi for all her hard work

I went back to Little Manly Cove the other day, a local beach in Manly with a great ocean pool. This image is the result of a one minute exposure, sufficient time to allow the fast moving clouds to streak through the sky.

So many a talented photographer is asked this, do you use Photoshop? First up if you can’t compose, expose and focus (capture) the image correctly then no amount of PS (Photoshop) is going to help. Secondly camera’s cannot capture the same dynamic range as we can see with our eye (that’s generally why in point and shoots the sky is over exposed). The camera struggles to keep detail in the shadows and highlight so often exposes correctly for either one or somewhere in between leaving the extremes with no detail and over/under exposed. Those in the know use a variety of techniques to overcome this limitation. Photographers either use filters to balance the exposure during capture, take multiple exposure and blend them in PS, or pull as much detail out of a single exposure (double processing the RAW file for shadows and highlights).

Is it still a photo or an illustration? As soon as we pick up a camera we alter perception due to the effects of focal length, focus, aperture so what’s the difference when we post process the photos…none!  We still alter perception, most of the time trying to represent the scene in a ‘true to life’ manor working around the limitations of current camera technology. These techniques have been around for a long time, and are not attributed to the Photoshop era. They are mostly from the darkroom days where photographers would dodge and burn selectively exposing areas of the image. Here is an interesting photo of the late, great, world famous Ansel Adams.

Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico

The version to the left of Ansel is straight out of the camera, the one on the right the final processed image. Note the sky is considerably darker and most of the clouds have been removed. This was intentionally done in the darkroom, not in PS but the thought process is the same. In fact in this case he has altered reality. The photo was taken in 1941, and I would have to say a great photo. I agree in a lot of cases post processing of images can cross the line and become garish especially with the increasing use of HDR software. Processing should be done sparingly, keeping things natural otherwise a photo becomes an illustration.

I use Photoshop, there I said it.

The results are in for Better Photography Magazine’s Photographer of the Year 2009. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like I’ve won it this time but it’s not all bad news. The photos I did enter have all been given either silver or bronze awards (see definitions below). The entries are judged by Peter Eastway, Philip Andrews, Nick Rains, Tony Hewitt and Christian Fletcher. These guys are at the top of their game so to be recognised in this manner is a great achievement.

Gold Award – Exhibiting excellence in all areas, with exceptional vision, creativity and innovation
Silver Award – High standard of photographic practice, craft or skill, superior in imagination.
Bronze Award – Very good photographic practice, on the road to achieving a high standard or excellence

New Years day really put on a show! I had all but packed up my camera when the clouds suddenly light up. Taken near the Spit bridge this is a panoramic shot I’ve wanted to take for a while capturing the boats in the harbour and the many mansions on the hill side. At full size the detail is immense, you can easily see each and every house along the waters edge especially on the Seaforth side.

I’ve had the B+W 10 stop 3.0 ND filter for a few months now and thought I would give it a whirl on a recent trip to NZ. In retrospect I should have played with it before I left or even researched other peoples experiences, needless to say I had mixed results. Since then I’ve studied up and thought I would share some tips that may help you get better results.

First up how I use the filter. Before you even put the ND filter on follow these steps:

• put your camera on a tripod you are going to be shooting upwards of 10s so this is a must.
• compose the shot, if you are using this filter it’s likely you want to show some sort of motion blur, include clouds, water, crowds or something that moves and juxtapose this with something static.
• set focus and switch to manual, I wouldn’t rely on auto focus through the filter.
• set the white balance (the camera has no chance once the filters on) or put a white card in the first shot to set the WB in post.
• correctly expose the scene, setting the aperture and shutter speed (for the scene without the filter at this stage).
• take a test shot and check histogram (re do previous step if unhappy).

Note: setting the white balance isn’t as important if shooting in RAW but is a must otherwise.

Put the filter on!

• stop down the exposure 10 stops (for my camera this is 30 clicks of the shutter speed wheel as each increment is a third of a stop – make sure you are going the correct way!).
• go for it, check histogram, correct accordingly.

At 17mm on a full frame camera I noticed the filter vignetted quite a bit so be mindful of this. When you get your photos into post you are likely to have to do a lot of colour correction, first correct the white balance. Colours still look way out? You’ve either got colour cast caused by your filter (I can say from experience the drop in Formatt (Hi-Tech) filters are bad for this, tisk tisk not again Formatt?) or infrared contamination (images lack contrast, appears ‘muddy’).

Here is a shot taken at Craters of the Moon, Taupo, New Zealand. Straight out of the camera you can see it looks muddy and the white balance is all off:

After some colour correction in Adobe RAW we get:

Converting to black and white and processing in Photoshop the end result is a far more contrasty shot where colour is not an issue:

IR contamination the good the bad and the ugly:

• foliage (leaves, grass etc.) come out bright, can be a good look in b&w, leaves reflect IR so they don’t burn in the sun!
• Blue sky’s appear darker, good thing
• Rocks and sand absorb IR, can look muddy and lack contrast
• the sea absorbs all IR, ok to shoot

There are a couple of options to minimise IR contamination.

• The use of an additional hot mirror filter to block IR (I’ve never tried this so can comment on its effectiveness)
• Shoot the sea to minimise IR
• Don’t shot long exposures!
• Shot long exposures as well as short ones and blend in PS

Happy New Year, hello and welcome to my first newsletter of 2010. Since we last spoke I’ve been to the North Island of NZ, dabbled in tilt shift time lapse video making, shot a models portfolio and published my first photographic guide (Manly, NSW). In between all of that I’ve been organising my exhibition at Ash’s Table, processed some new images, consumed half a turkey and celebrated New Year! Here are some points of interest:

Exhibition Ash’s Table – Reminder
Starting January 13th running for 6 week I will be exhibiting at Ash’s Table Cafe, Manly. I hope you can make it along, have a coffee and check out my images.

Ivanhoe Hotel Manly – Australia Day
On Australia Day (Tuesday 26th January), 11am-3pm I will be displaying 10 images from the Northern Beaches on the lobby bar plasma screens. A good excuse to go for a beer not that you need one on Australia day!

New Zealand – new images
To keep up to date with all my new images subscribe to the RSS feed of the latest images section.

This month I’ve got some new shots from New Zealand’s North Island. I managed to get a few in whilst dodging the rain clouds, unfortunately it was a bit of a wasted trip in that respect. I’ll be posting more in the coming weeks as I get time to process them.

Here are some of my latest shots the results of a short trip to NZ. Unfortunately most of the trip was rained off so I didn’t get out as much as I would have liked. I’ve still a few to come but here are the best. The Opononi shot were both taken in the daytime and are the result of 30 second exposures using a 10 stop ND filter (not an effect in Photoshop). A tutorial on how to get the best results to follow.

Opononi, New Zealand

Paekakariki, New Zealand

Opononi, New Zealand

Paekakariki, New Zealand

Rotorua, New Zealand

Whilst in NZ I managed to shoot some time lapse photography. This is my first attempt and I made some mistakes but you live and learn. Time wasn’t a luxury I had so the video is quite short. It’s a start, a great experience, learning curve and something I’ll be sure to do some more of around Manly.

The tilt shift effect which makes everything look tiny and toy like is achieved either using a specialised lens or as in this case in post processing via Photoshop. A process sometimes known as miniature faking. I’ve been meaning to release a tutorial on how to do this as well as the action script I used to automate this process, stay tuned.

I would love to hear your thoughts!

Port of Napier, New Zealand from Lee Duguid on Vimeo.

I’ve been taking some photos and processing them exclusively using my iPhone. There are a couple of great apps for processing which I use in combination to get the desired results, Best Camera by Chase Jarvis and PS Mobile. Here are some shots taken over the holidays, enjoy!

Hello all, I thought I would join twitter and see what it was all about. If you fancy updates on my latest photo shenanigans please add me by clicking on the twitter link below to go to my page. If anyone has suggestions on who I should be following please let me know.

I’m pleased to announce my first knol (a unit of knowledge) titled ‘A Photographer’s Guide to Manly‘. For this guide and more like it from locations around the world check out this website. It’s a great resource when researching locations for shooting, a reference I use and will be contributing to in the future.