Canon 1Ds mkIII – On Taking Pictures

Why I shoot RAW

Bill Wadman — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:19:29 +0000

Here’s a great example of why shooting RAW is a good idea.

Yesterday a magazine requested the image on the left. It was very bright and in the middle of the afternoon with the sun to her back (this was an incidental test shot they really liked for some reason). As it was, it wasn’t up to my standards and had I shot jpeg, there would be very little that could have been done about it. Look how blown out the sky is, and how dark she is. How day-glow the grass is…

The image on the right is what I ended up with after an hour or so of fiddling. Developing the RAW into two images, one for the sky and one for her blended together in photoshop along with a bunch of curves adds up to the final image on the right. All that information is in there in that RAW file. Most of the time it’s not necessary and we or the camera throw it away. But damn if it isn’t handy in a pinch.

Cynthia

Bill Wadman — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:21:56 +0000

Charles

Bill Wadman — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:12:39 +0000

Here are a couple portraits I took of a man named Charles King for POZ magazine about two months ago. The issue came out last week, so I can share them with you. I was pretty happy with them. They’re lit by a skylight above his head and a wall of windows behind me.

Wes

Bill Wadman — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:00:30 +0000

Malcolm Gladwell in TIME

Bill Wadman — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:46:47 +0000

I shot author Malcolm Gladwell (Blink, The Tipping Point) for TIME a couple weeks ago and it’s in today’s issue if anyone wants to take a gander. Below is a scan of the magazine as well as the original version and my favorite portrait from the shoot.

Neil Gaiman

Bill Wadman — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:50:16 +0000

I had the chance to shoot author Neil Gaiman for 5 minutes last night. Here are the results.

Kathleen

Bill Wadman — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 09:59:25 +0000

Another silly self portrait 021108

Bill Wadman — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:38:12 +0000

Well, I was the only person I had to shoot tonight. Oh and make sure you go vote tomorrow morning.

The night group shots.

Bill Wadman — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:23:46 +0000

OK, so here are two examples of the group shots from last Wed. The first is what you get when I did my best to equalize the background and foreground lighting. Though Thomas in the back left is a bit soft. The other is a composite of a separate background exposure I did before everyone got there while there was still light. It’s fine to me, thought in comparison to the first I think it looks less organic and a little too pasted in.

Mary

Bill Wadman — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:40:00 +0000

My good friend Mary came by for some pictures again this afternoon. Some of the results are below. Special thanks to Colby Smith for doing an amazing job on the make-up.

Print Shop

Bill Wadman — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:52:11 +0000

There is a very old-school print shop on the ground floor of the building next to mine. I’ve heard that it’s been there for about 100 years. Well it’s closing and so I wanted to take some photographs before it was gone.

POZ – Waheedah Shabazz-El

Bill Wadman — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 12:01:36 +0000

A little while back, I mentioned how I had a couple nice assignments in a row, but I had to wait to show everyone. Well, one of them has been published, so I guess I can post them now. Plus my favorites pre-cropping/CMYK printing.

Bhairavi

Bill Wadman — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:01:55 +0000

Here are a couple of pictures that I took for one of those assignments a couple weeks ago. I had about 10 minutes before the sun was gone, but I think they’re pretty nice. I can post them, because the clients not going to end up using them.

HAC 33

Bill Wadman — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:48:52 +0000

James

Bill Wadman — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:37:18 +0000

Nathan

Bill Wadman — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:43:59 +0000

Self-Portrait 080919

Bill Wadman — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:23:14 +0000

Canon 5D Mark II – My thoughts

Bill Wadman — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:14:58 +0000

Yesterday Canon finally announced their replacement for the now 3 year old (that’s 108 digital camera years) 5D SLR. In a few ways, I miss using my 5D. It’s small, light, and has excellent image quality. So as someone who shot over 120,000 frames with a 5D and used it as my main body until very recently, I’ve been eagerly awaiting this news and have some thoughts I thought I’d share with you.

First off, the good stuff. 21MP is super, though at less than 3 grand I’m a little pissed I just bought a 1DsIII. Higher ISO speeds and better high-ISO performance, looks pretty good so far, though I’m a detail guy and find the noise reduction necessary at these levels tends to mush detail a little too much for my liking. High-res screen, super and I wish I had it on my flagship 1D. 1080P video mode, honestly couldn’t care less as I don’t shoot video, though I guess this would be useful to photo-journalists.

Now for the bad. Same or very similar AF system to the old 5D, hmm.. well I rarely use anything but the center focus point and almost all of my subjects are still, that said, I kind of wanted a pro AF system in a smaller package or at least a really substantial upgrade. The new viewfinder is slightly larger at 98%, thought we’ll see if the 5DII’s is actually an improvement on what was a very good but not incredible finder on the original. I’ve become a little addicted to the 100% finder on the 1D.

But the main thing that’s stopping me from pre-ordering one right now is the shutter. Supposedly it’s the same as the old camera. While 3 or 4 frames per second is fine for me as I never shoot in anything other than single frames, the blackout time on the 5D can simply be described as glacial. Seriously, it’s like 150ms or something. I think my 40 year old Hasselblad is faster. We’ll see I guess, maybe it’s better than I think or maybe I can get over it.

Oh, and I’m not sure why everyone is always complaining about the lack of environmental sealing in these non-pro bodies. I’ve used my Canon cameras in mild rain tons of times and had no problem. You’d think that everyone on DP Review was shooting on a sandy beach during a huricane the way they talk.

Anna

Bill Wadman — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:56:57 +0000

Getty Villa

Bill Wadman — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:51:50 +0000

I just got back from a trip to LA last night and have a few portraits to process, but in the meantime, here are some shots from the Getty Villa out in Malibu.

Never really use my flickr page, except for travel stuff, so here you go:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billwadman/sets/72157607342353999/