Street Portrait

One of my recent street Portraits, a colourful girl in China town, London. Late September, 2020. I vary my tactics with street photography, sometimes I engage with people, sometimes I just grab the shot and carry on walking. Obviously with street portraits one has to have some kind of conversation with the subject. I find most people are happy to pose. I used a bit of flash for this one as it was getting dark, and it helped to bring out the colours more. Taken with a Canon 40D and a 24mm f2.8 prime lens, on the crop sensor of the 40D its approx 38/40mm focal length in 35mm film terms, which I like for street work. Though I use various lenses, inbetween 24mm to 80mm range, I dont have much use for long lenses and rarely go beyond 80mm

LX100/2 the upgrade that wasn’t.

Been using a compact Lumix LX100 for a while now, it’s a great solid camera, metal body, great Leica fixed zoom lens (24mm – 75mm in 35mm film terms) f1.7 and f2.8 at the long end, a nice range for street photography, 4/3rds sensor large for a compact. The only negative thing I can say about it is because it’s a fixed zoom there is a bit of delay in changing focal lengths, no big deal really. But I don’t get the upgrade? Apart from a couple of insignificant changes it’s the exact same camera! Same lens, same size sensor, maybe a few technical tweaks to the sensor but nothing thats going to make any difference to the end result! It even looks identical apart from a minor change to the grip? One of the “upgrades” is a few more pixels, but on the same size sensor so that means each individual pixel is smaller, larger pixels are able to grab more light. It’s an irrelevant “upgrade” to me? After processing raw images from the LX100 I end up with jpegs around 7 and 8mb more then big enough for large prints (how many people even make prints these days? Most simply share on various social media) I rarely print larger then A3.

My first DSLR was a 6.3mp Canon 10D a crop sensor camera, and the A3 prints from it were beautiful, not all pixels are born equal. I upgraded to a 40D only because the 10D was a bit slow in using, especially shooting in raw. I still use the 40D, it’s considered an old camera now, but it made good quality images when it was produced and still does today. "The photographer is the instrument not the camera" - Eve Arnold. An upgrade for me from the 40D would be a full frame DSLR but that would mean spending money on more lenses, and I like the lenses I have now. But its inevitable I will go full frame at some time. Anyway back to the LX100 2, the other main “upgrade” is a touch screen, another meaningless thing to me, why on earth would I want a touch screen on a compact camera, or any camera? It might cause problems accidentally changing settings? If I wanted a touch screen camera I could just use a “smart” phone camera. I think the EVF on the LX100 2 is slightly better, but on a compact it’s just as easy to use the screen for framing images. A real upgrade for me on the LX100 would have been a good dedicated lens hood, it does suffer from sun flare in the summer. 

 

 

Street Portraits Exhibition.

Street Portraits, varied and interesting characters I have captured while out and about doing my street photography on show @ my Pop up Gallery in Hull City Centre, (across the road from the Cheese Pub) Paragon Street. From the 2 July to 14 August 2018. Taken over the past few years in Hull, Leeds, London and N.Y. City

'Street Life' @ The Islington Arts Factory

Some of my prints at my exhibition. @ The Islington Arts Factory, London. People were coming in to look while I was still putting it up, it stretched round onto another wall when it was all up. On show now until the 27th May, 2016. Check it out if your in London.

 

Show of my street photography

From 10am 6th May to 7pm 27th May, 2016. An exhibition of street photography, capturing street images is my fav genre. This is a varied collection of my work, I chose 45 prints to include, it was a difficult choice as I have quite a few taken over the past few years in London, NY City, Birmingham, Sheffield, Bradford, Scarborough, Leeds and my home City of Hull

Impressive Compacts

Some time back I tried the Canon G series compact cameras the G7 and G11, both quite impressive, but for various reasons I sold them and decided to stick to DSLR’s. Last year I saw a used Lumix TZ5 for sale for $40, I bought it on impulse, mainly to try it out, and I like the idea of having a pocket camera, its not always practical to carry a DSLR about with you all the time, also these compacts can reach places a larger camera cannot, I was so impressed with the TZ5, I bought a Lumix LX3, mainly for the extra control over exposure. 

 

It’s an impressive little camera, produces lovely images. Some people don’t like the detachable lens covers, it comes attached to the camera via a piece of string, but I don’t like it dangling about, so I took it off, I don’t bother using the lens cover, I take the camera out in a little pouch, which I can attach to my belt, its unobtrusive and easily accessible if I see anything I want to grab a shot of. When the lens is retracted, its has a lip around it, the actual lens is recessed a bit, enough to protect it in the carry pouch, so aslong as your careful I don’t think you need bother with the lens cap. I was impressed with the raw files on the LX3, with the Canon G cameras I just didn’t think it was worth while processing the raw files from a small sensor compact, compared to the jpegs the camera knocks out. However, the raw files from the LX3 in my opinion are well worth using.

Raw shot from the Lumix LX3, processed in Lightroom and tweaked in photoshop 

Another thing worth pointing out is the in camera bw option, especially the dynamic bw, is very usable, more so then in camera bw options on DSLR’s iv used, but normally I would use Nik Silver efex for bw. I was considering the LX7, but after some research I don’t think the additions are worth it, the sensor on the LX3 is actually larger then the one on the LX7, both are 10mp, I wouldn’t want a compact with any more then 10mp, cramming to many pixels into a tiny sensor is pointless in my opinion, not all pixels are born equal. The LX3 is a CCD sensor and the LX7 is a CMOS, I have no idea how this impacts, I know nothing about CCD v CMOS.  I’m sure the LX7 produces lovely images too, but I compared some real world images from both cameras and I honestly couldn’t see any difference, also peoples personal processing techniques/skills will play a big part in any results. I am now having serious thoughts about getting a Lumix LX100, it has a much larger sensor then both the LX3 and the LX7, its bigger all round, more substantial, it looks like an old 35mm rangefinder, very retro style with an aperture ring on the lens barrel and a shutter speed dial, and they all have excellent Leica optics. Perfect for street photography.

Another shot from the LX3, raw shot, processed in Lightroom tweaked in photoshop, bw using Nik Silver efex. (Click on images to see larger)