On to image number 2.
This is a photo taken in the Dubai Mall of a promotional stand for LG back in July.
Most of my photography is done outdoors, but in the middle of the summer here in Dubai, it's practically impossible to take the kind of shots that I enjoy. It's not due to any physical discomfort due to the heat (although that can be challenging), but simply because the light quality is absolutely abysmal.
You can go weeks without seeing any blue sky at all. Not because the sky is blocked by clouds (tend not to see any of those for months), but because the heat, dust and humidity combine to produce a haze that makes landscape and architectural photography practically pointless. Visibility at best may be a couple of kilometres or so before everything disappears in the haze. The horizon between sea and sky? Forget it. Doesn't exist.
Looking back through my Lightroom catalogue, I guess it shouldn't be surprising to discover that I only took 84 photographs in June, and 203 in July. By comparison, I shot over 10,000 images in November. That was a bit of an exceptional month though due in no small part to a certain Mr Tom Cruise larking about on the outside of the Burj Khalifa.
Basically, if you're stuck here through the summer months and your main photographic interests are landscape and architecture, it can be a quiet time.
This photo, like number 10, and six more more to come, was taken with one of the Canon TS-E, or "Tilt-Shift" lenses. It's the 90mm TS-E f/2.8, this time on a 5D Mk II. People would typically, or perhaps I should say "properly", use this lens for product photography. For most outdoor wide-angle architecture shots, it's the shift feature of the TS-E lenses that probably gets most use. With this lens though, the tilt capabilities come more into play. Tilting the focal plane allows you to get a tremendous depth of field for close-up product work.
A Pierre de Fermat might say if he were still around, a full explanation as to what exactly goes on when you tilt the focal plane of a lens (with reference to the sensor plane) is too large to fit in this blog post. To be more honest, I find it very difficult to get my head around the maths of it all. There are some great explanations out there on the web that do a better job that I could ever do. Probably the best that I've come across is on Keith Cooper's excellent Northlight Images website. Here's the link to his post explaining how both Tilt and Shift work:
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/tilt_and_shift_ts-e.html. I challenge any photographer to read that article and then not want to go out and buy a complete set of these lenses :) In case you want to jump right to Keith's article on the 90mm TS-E that I used for this shot, here's the direct link:
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/ts-e90_tilt-shift.html.
Personally, I think I'd struggle to think of anything more boring than product photography (no offence intended to those who make their living out of it). Fortunately I have a day job, don't have to worry about trying to make an income from photography, and so means I can use this lens purely for fun.
This shot was the second I took after acquiring the lens. I bought it second hand from someone who'd advertised it on the Gulf Photo Plus Marketplace, and was as good as new when I bought it.
Using the lens in totally the opposite way to which it was intended, you can tilt the focal plane to severely restrict the depth of field, and in addition, place the focal plane at weird angles across the image.
Done correctly (and to be honest, I find it's often simply a case of trial and error) you can end up with an image that appears to be of a model. We're used to macro photography and close-up vision having a very narrow depth of field, so the focal plane and depth of field tricks created in these "Tilt-Shift Miniature" images can fool the brain into thinking it's looking at a model.
That's not miniature doll-house furniture in the shot, but full size chairs, table and TV.
No post-production focus tricks at all. Probably a discussion I'd best steer clear of, since I have some rather strong views on that particular subject, and it is of course the season to be merry...
I recognise these kind of images are a bit marmite, but I love them, so have included a couple in my top 10 pics for 2010. Hope you enjoy this one, and if you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to get in touch via the usual channels.
Back to full-size stuff tomorrow :)
