As soon as I mention that I do 3d photography, people ask me how I take images in 3d. Well, from the start of my exploration of 3d photography up until now, I’ve used a Loreo 3d lens in a cap. This is a lens that fits onto an SLR, with prisms inside to split the image. This leads to two portrait images being created on every landscape frame; two views of the same scene, but from slightly different angles.

I have 2 Loreo lenses; one fits my Canon FD cameras, and one Nikon DX format lens. The reason that I’ve chosen this method of taking 3d images is twofold:

1. I get all of the capabilities of an SLR, save things such as manual focus. The larger sensor and the ability to use off-camera flash are two of the many advantages over using a compact 3d camera such as the Fujifilm 3d camera. With my current D700, I can manually configure the internal lightmeter so that even though it doesn’t recognise the lens, it can still help me to choose the correct shutter speed and ISO, knowing that the aperture is f11, and the focal length is approximately 70mm
2. As the two images are taken at exactly the same moment in time, I can end up with “bullet-time” 3d images with objects suspended in mid-air – anywhere. This is possible with a pair of synchronised SLRs, but it’s not really pragmatic to carry round a stereoscope rig like this; realistically they’re best in a studio situation. The “flip-flop” technique of taking one image, sliding the camera around to another position, then taking the second image can’t capture motion in 3d

So, Loreo lenses are the best choice for creating 3d photos? Not necessarily. They’re best for the kind of photography that I do (mainly situational photography; capturing moments) however there are some negatives too. I’m getting a little tired of the fact that all of my 3d photos have to be portrait orientation, when most 3d viewers (such as the Fujifilm photo frame, 3d tvs and Vuzix iWear glasses) are landscape. It’s possible to get portrait lenticular prints…but then that highlights the other negative aspect of the Loreo lens; the ghosting at the join. If you look at any of the images in my 3d photo gallery in stereoscopic view, you’ll see that between the two images is a smudged area. When combining the two images by overlaying one over the other, this shows up as ghosting around the edges, so it’s necessary to crop the image (sometimes quite dramatically) to remove that.

I’d love to be able to create higher quality 3d images whilst walking out and about. There’s high quality stereoscopic equipment available for studios, but I want to be able to carry something with me; one body with two sensors (or ability to shoot onto consecutive frames of film), with synchronised lenses. Looks like that’s just a pipe dream though.

At the weekend I had an opportunity to try out my Nikon D700 at a wedding for the first time. I was a guest at the wedding of one of my university housemates, however I couldn’t pass by the opportunity to stretch the capabilities of the D700 a bit. As a guest, I didn’t really want to take a massive camera flag, so I restricted myself to just the camera body and a 24-70 f2.8 lens.

It was great to let my hair down a bit at the wedding and meet up with all of my old uni friends again, but I also enjoyed (and was amazed at) how amazing the D700 is. I previously haven’t had any reason to properly test the low-light capabilities, whereas at the wedding I didn’t have a flash, so it was necessary. The reception venue (the Sir John Moore foundation) has a rather dark cellar bar where there was acoustic karaoke into the early hours of the morning, yet I was able to get a few quality shots, handheld, using just the ambient light. I wouldn’t have dreamed of attempting shots like this one without a flash with my D50, yet I opened the aperture to f2.8, whacked the ISO up to about 4000, and was able to get a reasonably fast shutter speed.

I also took the opportunity to take a few 3d photos (I couldn’t resist taking my 3d lens), but I didn’t focus too much on that aspect of the photography, as I wanted to focus on familiarising myself a bit more with the different locations of buttons and functions on the D700. It takes a while for it to become second nature to change a setting without looking at the buttons, and although I’m now totally happy with the D50, I’m still learning a bit with the D700.

In all, it was a fantastic day; topped off by using a fantastic camera. They say a bad workman blames his tools…I don’t think good tools always get the credit they’re due. The Nikon D700 really is a great camera.

To find more information about the wedding photography services that I offer, please visit www.srphotos.co.uk/weddings

Often I find that I want to take a sharp photo, but the light isn’t really sufficient for the job. Recently on holiday, there were several situations where I yearned for the low light capabilities of the D700, but I was only carrying my D50 (purely due to the weight of the two).

The rule that I try to follow is that the minimum handheld shutter speed that I use is 1 over the focal length of the lens, so 1/200 if I’m shooting with a 200mm lens. However, that’s not always practical, and it’s certainly not practical to carry a tripod or monopod everywhere. There are a few techniques to minimise camera shake though, without necessarily whacking up the ISO, and these are good practice in general; not just low light.

• Support your camera properly – I see a lot of photographers holding a camera a bit like a sandwich; fingers on top, and thumbs underneath. With SLRs it’s slight better, as most have a hand grip for the right hand. The left hand should be predominantly under the camera. When holding compact cameras, I create an ‘L’ shape with my left hand, with my index finger horizontal, then rest the camera on that. For SLRs, I keep the weight of the camera on the heel of my hand, leaving my fingers free to zoom and focus.
• Draw your elbows in – I generally tend to do this anyway for any photo I take. Pull your elbows right into your body to give a good stable base.
• Stand well – the photographer’s stance should be such that if someone came and gently pushed them, they wouldn’t fall. It’s all about making sure that in general, you have a stable base. It’s not always easy on rough terrain, but it’s helps to minimise general swaying.
• Breathe – it’s much the same as shooting so I’ve heard; relax the breathing, then when you’ve exhaled the whole breath, gently squeeze the trigger.
• Brace the camera – sometimes a handheld shot is just not going to work; for me it’s any photo with a shutter speed less than 1/30. In those situations, I try to find something to hold the camera against firmly; normally a vertical support or something similar. Night photos in cities that I’ve taken without a tripod have always been braced against something
• Use a beanbag – beanbags are great; they’re versatile in that they can be used as a cushion for your head, but also they can provide great stability, as they mould to the shape of the camera/lens. When bear-watching in Romania, I was lent a beanbag for use in the hide, and it was much better than bracing that I’d previously been doing.

So, there are actually quite a few things that can be done. A lot of them are just sensible in general to be honest.

Short post today. I’ve been exploring 3d communities online, and I’m hoping to get a few contacts for printing of 3d photos, so I’ve just signed up at s3ddatabase.com that’s just gone live. To be honest, there hasn’t been anything to bring different 3d suppliers together yet, so we’ll see what happens.

Yesterday I made a big, big mistake. For several months I’ve been skeptical about 3d tvs – saying that I think they are the equivalent for images of surround sound for audio. Yes; impressive, but an extra that many people just won’t be interested in for their day to day living room viewing. I happened to be walking past a Sony shop yesterday, and chose to go in to have a look at a 3d tv and experience it. Big mistake.

I haven’t seen tv quite like it. Ever. I saw it, and I wanted it. The model that I saw was the HX803, playing on loop a variety of 3d content. It was the sharpest 3d that I’ve seen, and I was blown away. On reflection, I think that Sony were quite clever with the way they demo it; they have a chair about 3 feet from the screen, and a cardboard surround around the tv. This makes it a more immersive experience than it would be in a living room; closer, and without the distractions of objects directly behind the tv.

So, I like it. Am I going to buy one? No. Well…not yet anyway. And here’s why:

• Price – The price for me is prohibitively expensive; £1800 for the TV, then an extra £200 for a 3d-ready Blu-ray player, and glasses at £100 each. They’ve got a bit of an offer on for the accessories, but you’re still talking £2000 for a tv. My last tv was £25! As for the expensive glasses; I might as well just fork out on some Vuzix Wrap glasses that allows me to view 3d content anywhere.
• Content – At the moment the range of 3d content is pretty narrow. It’s obviously a bit of a chicken and egg situation; there needs to be demand for 3d content. Things shot in 2d, and transformed to 3d just don’t work for me, and shooting in 3d is quite expensive. Not all content works in 3d; I think nature programs will be great, but I don’t think things like soaps will work. Also, I want to be able to use my existing 3d content and see it on tv – that might be enough to get me interested.
• Future promises – This is probably the main reason for me. Just around the corner is glasses-less 3d tv. Why would I splash out on this, when I know that something far superior is going to be here in a few years…by which time the problem of content will be a distant memory.

These reasons don’t stop me from loving the 3d tv. I’m a lot less skeptical and cynical about the idea…I’m almost at the stage where I think it’s a bigger shift in the way we’ll view things than normal tv to hd tv.

The second half of the holiday that I took was a walking holiday in Transylvania, Romania. This was a tour organised by Exodus, and the group of us on the tour stayed in a little village called Magura in the Carpathian mountains, hosted by the local Carpathian Tours company.

Although we were predominantly walking, there were plenty of photo opportunities, as the views were truly awesome. Walking with a camera around my neck was a little hairy at times, as mountain walking often requires two hands to scramble up boulders, or slide down muddy forest paths. We also visited a bear sanctuary, and sat in a bear hide quietly one evening, so again I was busy with the camera. Whilst I was in Magura, I got chatting to a Romanian photographer who was very eager to show me his fantastic portfolio. There was a magic to the portraits that I think only a local can capture.

I’ve created a gallery of the photos taken in the Carpathian mountains. There are a couple of photos from the few days we spent in Bucharest on either side of the holiday, but all of these were taken from our hostel room, as unfortunately it didn’t feel safe enough to take my camera with me!

I’ve just arrived back from a fantastic holiday where we spent the first week in Latvia (Riga to be more precise, staying in the amazing Naughty Squirrel Hostel). I’ll photograph pretty much anything if it interests me, but I found that I didn’t take all that many photos whilst out there. There were certain things that I couldn’t take photos of, such as “skydiving” on a vertical wind tunnel (I got a local photographer to take photos for me using my camera…and even trying out my 3d lens) and a shooting range in an old Soviet bunker, but aside from that, I found it relatively difficult to be inspired. This is despite being in a city famed for its Art Nouveau architecture!

I’ve created a gallery of all of the photos that I did take though. I especially liked the engraved padlocks that newlyweds lock to a bridge when they get hitched; similar to the Hungarian tradition that I saw last year on holiday. In all, it was a great holiday, and I definitely intend to return to Latvia; probably in the winter so I can try out the bobsleigh run in Sigulda!

I’ve been interested in night photography almost as soon as I started taking photos, and with it came a fascination about long exposures. There is the opportunity with a long exposure to capture in a single frame, things that the human eye cannot fully appreciate; especially movement, or timeliness of objects and their placements. The version of this that has become relatively cliched recently is light-writing; using a torch or a light source to “draw” or “paint” with light in the dark. I’ll confess that I’ve had a play with it myself.

There are however some fantastic examples of really long exposures that have been done to great effect. We’re not talking seconds, or even minutes; this is hours, days, weeks and even months:

• Solargraphy.com – a project that invites people to chart the movement of the sun across their landscapes around the world.
• Justin Quinell’s Slow Light – much the same as the above, but deserves a mention, as Justin is one of the first long exposure pinhole photographers that I came across
• Michael Wesely’s Open Shutter – a project that documents either the building or demolishing of architectural structures. The parts that remain in place for longest are more solid in the final image, whereas those bits that we’re added or removed are more ghostly and transient in the images

All of these are rather cool…now I wonder if there’s something different that I could do with long exposures…?