North Wales with Canon 5D2 - revised images

In the comments on my last post Simon Hill suggested I correct the perspective on one of the images. 

I had applied the lens correction filter in Lightroom to the image which had taken with my Canon 20mm f2.8 USM lens. Obviously being a 20mm wide angle lens it was still going to render a distorted image, particularly as I shot from a low angle. I rather like this as it can add tension and I don't as a rule correct it.

However, Simon is an excellent photographer whose experience and skill I greatly admire, so as an experiment I used the Perspective Correction tool in Ps CC to correct the verticals on that image.

On this occasion I think he was correct, it does look better. Let me know what you think in the comments.

I've given this image a different treatment and added a film effect in Silver EFX Pro.

Canon 5D2 Canon 20mm f2.8 USM

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North Wales with a couple of Canon 5D2

We went for a long weekend in North Wales recently, mainly to catch up with some old friends, but with a decent weather forecast it was an opportunity to do some shooting for pleasure.

Camera-wise I only have the two 5D2 now, the Fuji having been sold end of 2016.

When I lived in North Wales in the late 70s/early 80s I was aware of many of the the locations now so popular on the internet, but lacked the wherewithal to buy a decent camera to photograph them, so I decided that this trip I would get around to capturing an image of them, even if it is 35 years too late.

The good weather obviously gave other like-minded photographers the same idea as the first two locations I visited we were queuing to get the our tripods in the right position!

While waiting I took the opportunity to see what others were shooting with. Every other shooter had a DSLR, no mirrorless in sight, and those DSLRs were either Canon or Nikon with Canon being the most prevalent by far. Almost all were APS-C. And everyone had a 10 stop ND of some description, except me. I'm not a huge fan of the "milky water" landscape; probably because like HDR its been done so much I'm sick of seeing it. However for the tree in the lake image softening the water is probably a good thing. I had to improvise so stacked three ND filters to try to blur the lake. It sort of worked.

I also took the opportunity to try out the raw editing on Lightroom Mobile connection the 5D2 to my iPhone and iPad with the Apple USB camera kit and posting images to Facebook almost immediately after taking them. This worked really well.

All images processed in Lr CC as usual.

Canon 5D2 Canon 20mm f2.8 USM

Canon 5D2 Canon 70-200mm f2.8 L USM IS

Canon 5D2 Canon 70-200mm f2.8 L USM IS

Canon 5D2 Canon 20mm f2.8 USM

Canon 5D2 Canon 70-200mm f2.8 L USM IS

Canon 5D2 Canon 20mm f2.8 USM

Canon 5D2 Canon 20mm f2.8 USM

Lr Mobile with Canon 5D2 raw files and Lr Camera HDR

Now that Lr Mobile is able to handle raw files I thought I'd see if I was able to use the Apple Camera Kit with my iPhone7 to import and edit raw files from my Canon 5D2 and Canon G10 Powershot.

This was so easy. I simply connected the camera to the iPhone with the Apple Camera Kit, opened Photos and touched Import, all the files in the camera were there to see, with options to import selected images or the whole lot.

Then in Lr Mobile I opened Camera Roll selected the image I wanted to edit and it was added to Lr and synced to my desktop as well. In Lr Mobile I edited the image and posted to social media. There are the usual options for email and Messaging as expected. 

This provides a very flexible solution for adding images when you are out and about. You could use it update you Facebook status or send images to a client. If they were OK with smallish jpgs then it enables a very fast turnaround, or they could be simply for approval with hi-res images delivered later. 

Canon 5D2 raw images accessed on iPhone7 with Apple Camera kit

However you could just use the iPhone camera via the Lr Mobile App and the recently added HDR function.
This works very well. Lr takes three images, one at correct exposure, one over and one under then blends them into a 16bit dng which is synced to your desktop for further big screen action if required, or you can edit on your iPhone.

Lr Mobile HDR with further processing in Lr Mobile on iPhone7

Leicester Comedy Festival 2017 - Canon 5DII + Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS USM L

Last weekend we took a trip to Leicester.

It was the final weekend of the Leicester Comedy Festival and my old school friend Chris was performing his stand up routine in the Leicester Brewdog venue.

I've known Chris since for over 40 yrs and it was only recently that he took up stand up comedy performing and this was his longest set to date.

Chris was performing with his writing partner Kevin, they were performing their show Punchlining above their weight.

I volunteered to take some photos at the gig. I took along one of my trusty Canon 5DII's and the more recently acquired Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS USM L lens. 

This was the first time I'd used the 70-200 f2.8 on an actual shoot and it didn't let me down, I shot wide open at ISO3200. I'm really pleased with the resulting images. 

Chris and Kevin were both very funny as well.

Processed in Lr CC as usual.

Kevin Hudson Leicester Comedy Festival
Canon 5DII, Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS USM L

Kevin Hudson Leicester Comedy Festival
Canon 5DII, Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS USM L

Kevin Hudson Leicester Comedy Festival
Canon 5DII, Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS USM L

Chris Philips Leicester Comedy Festival
Canon 5DII, Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS USM L

Chris Philips Leicester Comedy Festival
Canon 5DII, Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS USM L

Chris Philips Leicester Comedy Festival
Canon 5DII, Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS USM L

Chris Philips Leicester Comedy Festival
Canon 5DII, Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS USM L