Mark Baigent Photography

Photographing People: Portraits, Fashion, Glamour.
by Roger Hicks, Frances Schultz, Alex Larg, Jane Wood.

Of all the books on my shelf this is probably the one that I dip in and out of the most.

It is an inspirational book containing a wide range of photographic styles and has given me a good starting point when working in an unfamiliar style. I find browsing this book is usually followed by getting my lights out.

The book is very much a practical guide about how to light photographs. This works by showing you 100+ photographs with an accompanying 3D effect lighting diagram, these diagrams show the wide range of equipment used, flash, scrims, reflectors, even the sun and how they were used. There is even a good glossery of lighting terms for those do not know their scrim from their flats. The introductory text for each section, portraits, fashion, glamour is short and informative.

Although this book will be useful for those with a studio and lighting equipment the quality of the photographs and the modelling will inspire anyone who wants to photograph people. It is a great book for students of photography and a useful resource for those that teach it. Pro or amature is has something for us all.

Would I recommend this book?
Yes, I brought it and am happy to recommend it.

PS
Unusually, it is also worth mentioning the publisher Rotovision for the high quality of their photographic books the three that I have read, have all been well designed, informative and printed to a high quality.

Tags: Books by baggy
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Way back in the mists of time I joined the RAF as a photographer and soon found myself at the Joint School of Photography clutching a copy of Michael Langford, Basic photography. This book and Michael Langford, Advanced photography were the core of the training and started me on my 30+ year career as a photographer.

I remember the book Michael Langford, Basic photography fondly for its easy, informative style. I hated my time at school as a child and I was not looking forward to the academic side of the RAF photography training especially chemistry!. But I loved the training. Because of Langfords approach to the subject I understood what I was reading, it made sense to me and it carried across to the practical training easily. I actually read the book for fun and photography came alive for me.

Recently I spotted the 8th edition, Langfords Basic photography on a shelf (I originally studied with a 1971 edition) and decided to take a trip down memory lane.

I am pleased to say that the content and style of the book is very similar to my original, except of course for the digital section

The book is made up of sections (see below) which flow together well when reading, building on the previous sections well, although you can just read the bits that you need and it still works well. Photography for me is a fascinating mix of craft, the technical, and creativity and this book covers both aspects well. The scope of this book is very, very wide covering everything from composition, colour balance, image stabilised lenses, sensitometry, Scheimpflug, chemical formulae to megapixels and interpolation.

The book claims to be aimed at the “serious photographer” which seems fair. There is not doubt in my mind that this should be “the” book for photography students but almost all serious photographers will get a lot from this book. It is great revision and an interesting read for those of us who have studied photography, for those that haven’t it will be full of “aha” moments. Please do not be fooled by the word basic, this book is suitable for the complete, enthusiastic, beginner but you will also find lens formulae and circles of confusion if you wish dig deeper.

This is not a book that will show you how to be a glamour photographer or a landscape photographer but it will teach you the skills that all photographers need as a solid base for their photography.

I enjoyed my trip down memory lane and If I could only recommend one photography book it would be this one, and then with disregard to the “only one rule” I would pair it with Langfords advanced photography. I will certainly keep both on my book shelf.

Langford’s Basic Photography: The Guide For Serious Photographers By Michael Langford, Anna Fox And Richard Sawdon Smith

Book sections;
What is photography?
Light, how images are formed.
Lenses, controlling the image.
Cameras, using film.
Using different focal length lenses, camera kits.
Digital cameras.
Lighting, principals and equipment.
Organising the picture.
Films and filters.
Exposure measurement.
Film processing.
Black and white printing.
The digital image, post production.
Finishing and presenting work.

Tags: Books by baggy
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Understanding Depth of field and F numbers

During a telephone conversation a friend complained to me that when he was photographing people he had trouble getting them all in focus, by all he meant from the tip of their noses to the back of their heads.

I said that he did not have enough depth of field, he went unusually quiet.

The phrase “depth of field” simply refers to the part of a photograph, from the nearest to the furthermost points from the camera, that is in acceptable focus. In my friends case a whole head. The eagle eyed will have spotted the word acceptable above, I will come back to that.

Architectural photographers will often want as much of their subject as possible in focus from the foreground detail two feet away, from the camera, to the farthest visible point.

There are times that we do not want all of a subject in focus, for instance in fashion photography having your model in focus against an out of focus (blurred) background is often desirable.

The main factor controlling depth of field is the size of the aperture that the lens is set to, the aperture being the hole in the lens that the light passes through, the smaller the aperture = more depth of filed.

The size of the hole/aperture is referred to as the “F” number or “F” stop, F numbers are typically:
f32, f22, f16, f11, f8, f5.6, f4, f2.8, the smallest aperture being f32 through to the largest aperture at f2.8

My friend was working with a telephoto lens at f4 which will give a very limited depth of field at the distance he was working at.

So the solution for my friend was to work at a smaller aperture ie f5.5 or f8

To give you some examples, using my camera which is a full frame DSLR and a 70mm lens.

If I focus on a point 6ft away using an aperture of F2.8:
I will have a range of acceptable sharpness of 5ft 9ins to 6ft 2ins
a mere 5ins (12.7 centimetres)

If I focus on the same point 6ft away using an aperture of F22
I will have a range of acceptable sharpness of 4ft 10 inches to 7ft 10ins a larger 3ft (91 centimetres)

For landscape photographers, using a 24mm lens (wide angle).
If I focus on a point 2ft away using an aperture of F32
I will have a huge range of acceptable sharpness of 1 ft (30. cm) to Infinity.

For fashion photographers, using a 200mm lens (telephoto).
If I focus on a point 30ft away using an aperture of F2.8
I will have a range of acceptable sharpness of 29ft 5′ins to 30ft 7′ins,
which is only 14 inches (35cm), which would mean that a model would be in focus but almost everything else is out of focus, really making the model stand out.

I did mention above that we are discussing acceptable sharpness, if you are making small prints or only showing your images on the internet you will have a different idea of sharpness than a photographer making very large fine art prints or prints for exhibition stands. This brings us to the wonderfully named “circles of confusion and hyperfocal distance” which I will cover in a separate post.

PS

In answer to the question….
“can I get more depth of field if I use a 50mm lens instead of my 100mm lens”

Well, no..
If you are photogaraphing a person for a portrait and you want only head and shoulders using your 100mm lens,  switching to a 50mm lens will not gain you more depth of field because you will have to move the camera closer to the sitter which will actually mean that you have the same depth of field as with the 100mm lens.

Simply put, regardless of the lens focal length if the subject is the same size in your photograph and the F number is the same you will have the same depth of field.

Tags: Basic photography by baggy
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