Author Archives: Michael Willems

1D Mk IV: My Hands-on Impressions

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An admission. In terms of cameras, I have an embarrassment of riches to choose from.

As an educator, photojournalist, and general purpose photographer who gets called on for all manner of shoots, I “need” (euphemism for “I rationalize my way to”) the best equipment. It’s just a cost of doing business. I have a Canon 1Ds Mark III, a 7D, and a new 1D Mark IV. I am also familiar with the 1D Mark III, which I recently sold even though it was only lightly used – this having been my favourite camera.

I have done mini reviews of the 7D on this blog – now I thought it might be good to compare the 1D Mark IV to the previous Mark III, and to my other cameras. Here is my 1D Mark IV pictured a few hours ago:

The following is not a thorough technical review.While I am of course thorough in trying all the camera’s functions, I think there is enough material on the web, including Canon USA’s excellent 123-page white paper, to outline all the functionality and changes. Also, this is not an exhaustive image comparison. There’s enough of that already, too.

Instead, this is the real-life impressions of an actual user – and one who has recently owned or used all other recent Canon cameras, as well as Nikon, Sony, Olympus, and Pentax cameras.

So, continue after the click…

Continue reading →

12800

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A quick snap from my Canon 1D Mark IV taken at 12800 ISO. I applied very slight noise reduction in Lightroom and upon export, reduced the size to 1200 pixels wide.

If I had not mentioned it, would you be able to tell that was taken at such high ISO?

For high ISO shots, it is imperative that you light the shot well. Remember Willems’s Law: “Bright Pixels are Sharp Pixels”.

I shot that with the 1D Mark IV, at 12800 ISO, with the 100mm EF [corrected!] Macro lens, and shot at 1/60th sec handheld at f/2.8. A slow shutter speed like that (lower than one divided by the lens length) needs a steady hand and a bit of luck – oh and shoot ten pictures to get a few very sharp ones.  Better still, use a tripod.

A Point about Focus

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When you auto-focus, do you use one focus point?

You should. That way you, not the camera, determines where sharpest focus is achieved. Wherever that may be.

But you may not know this:

    1. You need light, distance, and a subject (with horizontal/vertical lines) in order for your camera to focus.
    2. Focus points are sensitive to horizontal or vertical lines.
    3. Some, like the point in the middle, is sensitive to both horizontal and vertical lines.
    4. Some cameras have multiple such both0way sensitive focus points.
    5. Some cameras enable more focus points to become both-way sensitive when faster lenses (like those with apertures of f/2.8 or better) are in use.

      Yes, knowing all that technical stuff will make you a better focuser.

      Kodiak

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      A snapshot: here’s Gregory Talas, owner of The Kodiak Gallery in Toronto’s Distillery District (55 Mill Street, Building 47, tel. 416 640 0064 ), where some of my art work is exhibited:

      Gregory is a Jazz musician as well as a very experienced and artistic European photographer.

      Expose well

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      Your camera wants everything to be grey. So every time you shoot a very light subject, such as snow, the camera will make it look too dark. And when you shoot a dark subject, like this coat, it will look too bright:

      This is because your light meter labours under the engineering assumption that what you point it at is neither bright nor dark. When that is not the case, that assumption no longer holds and you need to adjust the value your meter comes up with.

      So in the case of the dark coat, you turn down exposure (use “exposure compensation”, the +/- button) by 1-2 stops and now you get this:

      Solved!

      What is Exposure Compensation actually “doing”?

      Just the same that your camera always does, except more so or less so. So of your meter is setting aperture, then exp comp means it is set to a slightly lower or higher aperture value than it would other wise have done. If your meter is setting shutter speed, ditto for shutter speed. If you are in “P” mode, your camera can set either or both.

      A few portrait pointers

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      Today, a few quick portrait pointers.

      Here’s a picture from a very recent portrait shoot:

      Why did I shoot this the way I did? What went into the decisions? I thought it might be good to share some of my thoughts.

      • I used a standard key/fill light arrangement, with the key light a small softbox aiming straight into the face, and the lower-powered fill light an umbrella-mounted flash on camera right.
      • I ensured the positioning of the key light gave me a catch light in the eyes.
      • I used a low-powered hair light in a snoot.
      • I selected a dark background (grey paper) so that I could emphasise the subject.
      • I used a background light with a Honl grid, so get that nice oval shaped light behind the girl.
      • I also used a Honl gel from the “Hollywood” and “Autumn” sets. I chose the blue-ish colour for its subtlety and for the way it so nicely contrasts with the girl’s hair and skin colour.
      • I took many pictures with the girl in many poses – mainly her own natural poses. Here, I particularly liked the S-curve in the pose and the triangular shapes in her legs. “S”-curves and triangles are good!
      • Finally, the bit of the stool that is visible and lit provided balance with the other yellow colours.

      Every shoot is different, but here you see some of the decisions that can go into a portrait.

      Tripod Tips

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      Some photographers need tripods. Like landscape photographers. Or, in fact, like almost any photographers. If you think you can consistently produce sharp work handheld, you are mistaken.

      So how do you produce good shots using a tripod?

      • When possible, use low ISO. A night shot, for example, is dark, but when using a tripod you have the luxury of being able to use long shutter speeds, so you do not need high ISO. High ISO gives noise.
      • Use the camera’s timer release. So that your finger pressing the shutter does not cause slight motion.
      • Weigh down the tripod if you can, so it is stable.
      • Put the camera as close as you can to the point where the three legs get together.
      • Use a ball head to hold the camera.

      You’ll see, a tripod makes a major difference.