Jon Swainson Photography

Nicole Smith Photo Shoot #2

admin — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:11:46 +0000

Okay, I’m still excited because these are the first studio pictures I’ve taken with the D800! I’m pretty sure Nicole thought I was a total techy geek during our shoot but she was good enough not to tell me! I think she’s improving you know, 2 shoots so far and here are some of the results…

Nikon D800

admin — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:51:59 +0000

I’m soooo excited. I’m like a little kid at Christmas. Why? My D800 has arrived! I’ve had a little play with it and first impressions are…AMAZING! Until now DSLRs simply haven’t been able to record this amount of detail. It comes at a price though, each of my RAW files is 40Mb in size, and when I save them as 16bit TIFFs they weigh in at 200Mb+ per image! I’m going to be changing my workflow in the coming weeks to cope with these huge files.

The good news is that I can choose a crop factor in camera. When I’m in the studio or doing landscapes I’ll use the full 36mp resolution but, when I’m doing weddings I can set the crop factor to 1.2x, which gives me a more than adequate 25mp. Even then I’m going to have to invest in some new memory cards!

Anyway, here’s the first studio shot I took with “the beast”. It was taken while I was setting up my lights and hasn’t had any processing at all. The first image is the full frame picture and the second is a 100% crop of Nicole’s eye…

Rise Hall Wedding Fair

admin — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:20:38 +0000

I’ll be attending the wedding fair at the beautiful Rise Hall in East Yorkshire on Sunday, 22nd April. If you’re getting married any time soon it’s well worth a visit.

The fair is being organised by Brides Up North and, if you pre-register, you get a free VIP goody bag! No, I don’t know what’s in it. Goodies I guess!

Nicole Smith Photo Shoot

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:27:48 +0000

I had the pleasure of doing a photo shoot with the lovely Nicole Smith recently. She’s trying to build up a portfolio for a possible modelling career. She did really well for her first proper shoot. Here’s a selection of the photos…

About & Prices Sections Updated

admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:40:38 +0000

I’ve added some info about me. There isn’t a photo yet but one is coming (don’t get too excited about that, will you!).

I’ve also added some pricing information for weddings and studio/location portraiture. If you need more info, let me know.

There isn’t a price for composite images but I will do them. Again, just get in touch if you’d like something specific

Today’s Portrait Pictures

admin — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:23:43 +0000

I’m currently teaching photography to a talented lady called Bobbie. Today she brought her step-daughter, Martha, along to the shoot as we considered things like depth of field, how to tackle bright sunny conditions, etc. Usually I let Bobbie do all the shooting as I peer over her shoulder and ask her questions. However, today I pinched the camera off her and took a few shots myself.

This was a learning curve for me too in the end. I usually shoot Nikon. Not because I’m a die hard Nikon fan but because I’ve invested fairly heavily in Nikon gear and it makes little sense to switch to anything else right now. Bobbie uses a Canon 5D Mark II though and it was this alien feeling tool I used to create a handful of pictures of Martha. I’m quite pleased with the results, considering I was all fingers and thumbs!

Full equipment list: Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 105mm F/2.8 Lens, California Sunbounce Reflector.

(More pictures to follow as I process them)…

New Website

admin — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:04:05 +0000

Well, after a web server “incident” that resulted in me losing most of my old posts I’ve started again with this new website. It isn’t all finished yet but its getting there. I think I’m actually going to post a picture of myself on the About page so apologies for that in advance!

Hope you like the new look and feel. No doubt it will change soon when I get bored again

Jon.