Photography and life in Belgium

First full month with outsourced retouching

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:43:00 +0000

This is the first report about progress of my stock photography improvement plan.

October was the first full month when I used outsourcing for retouching. Also, I focused on production of photos specially for stock. Thus I didn't loose time processing my random family/friends pictures for stock.

I must say I am quite happy that I decided to outsource. I easily produced 100 stock photos (which was my target for this year) and I feel that I can quite easily produce even more.

A positive side effect was improved acceptance rate. My acceptance rate at istock was around 75%, but in October it went up to ~98%. I believe it happened mainly because I didn't spend time on non-stock photos; and didn't experiment with processing/filters etc, making just straightforward adjustments and editing.

In October I had 2 stock photo sessions. In November I already had 1 and 1 in scheduled for this weekend.

Sunday shoot in Leuven

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:00:00 +0000

The better plan you make, the higher are chances it will fail. So was with my last shoot - the plan was to shoot Thomas in railway station but we were kicked out by police.

Indeed they were formally right - but we were not on people's way and I wasn't photographing the station itself; and I photographed in the same station several times in the past... (I think it's clear by now that I didn't bother with the official permission). So we had to switch to plan 'B' and photograph Thomas near the station but outside.

Although I know the place I still visited it in advance to check possible spots for taking pictures (both in station and around it), and that was helpful. The session lasted only 2 hours but we didn't loose any time, so it was productive.

I was pleasantly surprised with Thomas. He is only doing modeling for 8 months but he is doing it very well. He understood pretty well what I wanted from him and he did it all nicely and quite naturally.

Just one picture so far as I didn't have time for retouche/processing:

New tripod - Slik Pro 330DX

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:54:00 +0000

I just purchased a new tripod a couple of weeks ago.

My 10 years old Manfrotto 190 is still in good order. However it is
* too heavy
* too big
* too cold in the winter (no rubber coating)

I wanted to get a replacement. I don't use tripod daily so I didn't want to spend too much. However I do use one regularly so it should be a decent tripod that could hold my DSLR with lens. Thus I was looking for a device that:
* is reasonably light (though no extreme needed);
* is small enough to put in my travel bag for air travels;
* has rubber coating;
* doesn't cost a fortune;
* is stable at full open and can hold Canon EOS 5D Mk II with lens

I found that Slik Pro 330DX seems to be a good match to the points above. It is surprisingly stable despite quite thin legs at the end; and the central column is very easy to remove.

I thought about taking Slik Pro 330 without default head and attaching a lighter and smaller ballhead, but at the end I decided that it's not worth the extra cost for my needs.

The picture is from Slik catalog, © Slik (http://www.slik.com)

Taking my stock photography to the next level

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:55:00 +0000

After doing stock photography for a few years I reached lately (yet another) plateau. Adding new photos to portfolio doesn't improve sales. This isn't an unusual situation; but in addition to that I am not satisfied with my past pace of growth. I believe I now learned enough to seriously take my stock photography to the next level.

There are few quite obvious (to me) areas that I need to address:

1) I need to take more pictures specially for stock.

So far most of pictures taken by my camera aren't made specially for stock. At the same time O noticed that pictures taken specially for stock take less time to post-process; and session organized specially for stock generates many more usable photos. Thus the conclusion is simple:

2) Don't spend time processing non-stock photos for stock.

Post-processing (selecting good photos from the shoot; RAW processing; editing in photoshop, keywording) takes several times more time than shooting. One of the main reasons I didn't organize too many shoots specially for stock was too big back-log of unprocessed photos. The previous point will address that to a big extend. Further reduction of post-processing time can be achieved with another simple step:

3) Be more selective processing photos for stock. Don't waste time trying to improve imperfect pictures.

Still, processing pictures takes a lot of time and it is still much longer than shoot even if I select pictures more carefully. So the next focus point is to reduce post-processing time. So, my next step is:

4) Outsource part of post-processing.

This one is being tested right now. I decided to try to outsource retouching work to India. Retouching is a routine procedure that takes a significant portion of my time now but isn't very expensive when done by somebody else. I will keep other, more creative parts of post-processing for myself.

This is now in test mode - I found a company to do the work (via a recommendation), tried a few pictures with them, agreed on price and send them the very first batch. I hope it will work.

As a possible next step I consider outsourcing keywording but that is yet to be decided.

So to summarize all of the above: I need to take more pictures, be more selective which ones to process and need to reduce post-processing time. Yet another step to improve my stock photography is:

5) Take better photos.

Technically my photos are already good - vast majority of my pictures are accepted by agencies without problems. However I need to take better stock photos. There are two parts in that task:

5.1) One is relatively simple and is to improve various small elements such as model's smile, clean background etc.
5.2) The other is much more difficult - to analyse what subjects sell well and make sellable photos. The word "analyse" here is related to both evaluation of the market bestsellers and evaluation of my own portfolio and my own bestsellers.

I plan to work seriously on item 5.2 later, after the previous items will be successfully implemented and will become a normal routine.

My plan for the remaining months this year is to implement items 1 to 5.1 and to produce at least 100 good photos monthly. If it will work well I will need to increase the number next year and to start seriously working on item 5.2.

Shutterstock meeting in Denmark

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 10:39:00 +0000

A few days ago a group of photographers from Shutterstock had a good time together in Aarhus (Denmark). The meeting was organized via Shutterstock forum. Starting with a group dinner on Friday night we spent the next day in photo studio of Yuri Arcurs - the world's most selling microstock photographer. Yuri very kindly organized a tour in his studio followed by shoot of a few of his models. Yuri is a very nice guy, easy to talk to; and he is sharing a lot of good advise to other photographers. We all had a great time, and here is a short video about the event:

Leuven from above

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:06:00 +0000

A few days ago I visited the bell tower of Leuven University Library (located on Ladeuze plein). The tower hosts one of the largest carillons in Europe (it even was the largest for some time). Normally the tower isn't accessible to the public, but it's possible to visit it once or twice a year, with the excursion to carillon followed by a nice concert of carillon music.

The excursion was lead by Luc Rombouts, carillionist and the official bell ringer of Leuven.

The picture above shows the University Library with the tower photographed in twilight (more than a year ago). We visited the tower under bright daylight, and almost whole Leuven can be observed from the tower.

The first picture is the view at Stella Artois and the channel to Mechelen:

The second photo is the view at Leuven station (with construction works on the other side of the railway) and new city hall:

And here is the rest of it.

Updated guide about selling photos online

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:04:00 +0000

I updated the guide about selling photos online - http://stock.miklav.com/

Part 4 of the guide needs to be extended further, it's in my "to do" list.

Updated design of my website miklav.com

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:44:00 +0000

I changed significantly the content and structure of my website. Graphic design stays the same, but I added Retouche and Wedding sections and updated photo gallery.

Come and see updated miklav.com! :)

Leuven - pictures of Oude Markt

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:14:00 +0000

To continue on previous post - a few pics from Oude Markt in Leuven. Oude Markt is a nice medieval square in the center of the city. Cobblestone surface, old buildings on all 4 sides full of cafes, bars and restaurants. You can see how it looks in a usual week day evening.

Pictures of Leuven

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:29:00 +0000

I didn't realize that I have too few pictures of my home town until I got a request from a customer a few weeks ago. Luckily the weather is nice lately so I went to the center of Leuven to take some pictures.

The City Hall of Leuven is nice, so I took some photos at the end of the day, when the lights started to turn on but the sky wasn't completely dark yet.

A few more pictures of the City Hall

I went also to Oude Markt the same day. For those who doesn't know Leuven Oude Markt is a nice old square surrounded by medieval buildings - it is full of bars and restaurants and some people call it the "largest bar in Europe". It will be the subject of my next blog post.

Some of my tools

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:21:00 +0000

Just a quick note about a couple of tools that I use in my photography process.

As part of my backup process I record my photos on DVDs. I don't like simplified consumer version of Nero software that came with my DVD writer, so I tried some free tools. I tried several of them which I didn't like - some for uncomfortable interface (e.g. many clicks needed to add a folder to a disk); some failed during recording (which I wouldn't expect to happen at all these days with mature technology). Finally I chosen imgburn that I prefer over the others: http://www.imgburn.com - reasonable interface; some advanced features, and good reliability.

The other tool that I use often is FTP client. Again I tried several options and for the last year I use Filezilla: http://filezilla-project.org, which I know also recommended by many other users.

Good time to photograph tulips

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:19:00 +0000

It's great time to photograph tulips now while they are blooming. It's a long weekend in Belgium and in neighbor countries and the weather is nice. A good place to go is Keukenhof in Netherlands, not far from Hague. Thousands of tulips of all different sorts and colors, and many other flowers.

Trying macro photography

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:05:00 +0000

I've tried macro photography with Canon EF 85mm f1.8 lens having +4 lens attached; and with old manual Russian-made Helios-44 lens + cheap Chinese extension ring.

The option with EF 85mm and +4 lens means full electronic control with autofocus.

Cheap extension ring is a piece of metal only, no electronic connection between camera and lens. This is why I used old Helios-44 - because it has manual aperture control.

The result with EF85 is in general good, but chromatic aberrations are strong on contrasty edges (depending on particular scene of course).

Helios-44 resulted much less CA however the transition between area in focus and completely unsharp part isn't very pleasant to my eye. EF85 produces a softer blur.

I must note however that the comparison isn't fair because I tried 2 lens in different conditions. Now as I noticed some interesting point I'll need to find some time to make a real comparison.

Testing CF cards transfer speed with Transcend and Hama card readers

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:39:00 +0000

A few days ago I became a happy owner of new Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera. Thus I decided to buy a larger compact flash card. I wanted 32GB with a good speed. However the price of top-range brand name cards seemed a bit too high so I decided to make a compromise - i.e. to get large capacity and reasonable speed, but not the fastest possible.

I bought Silicon Power 200x card and I got interesting results testing data transfer speed.

I did a basic test on my PC, using USB card reader. My older cards shown on the picture are rated 100x (PQI) and 133x (Transcend). They both demonstrate read speed of about 40 MB/s (reading large file from card to hard drive of my PC). However the card from Silicon Power has only shown 16 MB/s in my initial test with Transcend M5 card reader. I repeated the test few times with the same result. At first I was very disappointed, but when I repeated my tests with Hama card reader I've got the speed of ~44 MB/s from the same card!

The writing speed is approximately the same for Silicon Power and for 133x Transcend and is about 9 MB/s (100x PQI is notably slower).

I paid about 70 Eur for the Silicon Power card while the brand name 266x-300x cards are priced above 150 Eur, so I am very happy now with the saving I got :)

My main surprise is that cheap Hama reader overperformed the Transcend by so much - but only on 32GB card. The tests with 8GB and 2 GB cards didn't show a difference between 2 card readers. FYI Hama reader is a box from blue transparent plastic and called 'Cardreader 19 in 1'. It has partnumber 00055114. I've got one in Germany for 9 or 10 Euro. (The one from Transcend looks nicer - it's a square white glossy box in "Mac-style" but it failed miserably with large card.)

Finding photo models

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:38:00 +0000

There are several ways to find models. Relatives and friends might be easy to access, but they are not necessarily good models. Another possibility is to use special web sites where models and photographers find each other. Make-up artists can be found the same way.

Quite often the same model can be found on different sites at the same time. Sites provide different options and different communication channels to the users.

Probably the most popular in Belgium is http://modellennet.be. Currently it lists more than 2000 models (mostly from Belgium and some from the Netherlands). In Dutch.

Another popular site is http://www.eye-on.net (former photograaf.be). Current list is above 800 models. The site is in Dutch. It is supposed to grow beyond a basic meeting place for photographers and models, but these services are yet to be developed.

Less popular is http://models.handelsgids.be/?zoekenHome/

Speaking about Dutch model the most popular site is http://DutchHeaven.nl

Very popular international site: http://www.modelmayhem.com. It is not so popular in Belgium (only 300 models) as it is in some other countries, but is it a good resource for photographers. The site is in English.

Site popular in Germany: http://www.model-kartei.de. It lists more than 20,000 models, and on top many make-up artists, studios for hire, etc. Although the site is in German it is quite easy to search for models if you learn a few basic words.

Leuven station in twilight

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:12:00 +0000

One more photo of Leuven railway station that I made almost a year ago. This time you could see a large version if you click on picture (and then click "All sizes" above the picture).

Winter photos

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:38:00 +0000

Unusually for Belgium we've got real winter this year - lot's of snow and freezing all week. It was a nice sunny day yesterday so I went out to make a few pictures. This one is made in Heverlee bos:

It was -10 centigrade and I didn't have any issues with the camera at that temperature. However fully charged batteries died extremely quickly - it was showing "battery low" after about 15 minutes of use. Fortunately I have a good habit of always having several charged batteries with me. By the way Canon compatible battery behaved better than original Canon. It was showing "battery low" but kept working, while Canon battery quickly went down.

Data backup

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:10:00 +0000

I was keeping in mind for a long time that I need to improve my data backup strategy. This topic was recently discussed in one of the internet forums I read; and following that discussion I finally made a move :) I should have done that earlier, but luckily I am not too late because I didn't loose any data yet.

Until now I was backing up my RAW files + edited PSD files on 2 recordable DVDs, both stored at home. Personal non-photography data was occasionally copied on another hard drive on the same PC. Although my personal experience with recordable CDs and DVDs is good I've read many times about CDs/DVDs becoming unreadable after several years. Also saving the data on the same PC (even on a separate hard drive) isn't safe at all.

So my new plan is the following:
* Keep making a copy on DVD, but just one copy. That's for RAW + edited PSD files.
* Make 2 copies on 2 external hard drives (different brands). One of them stored off-site (swapped monthly). RAW + PSD + personal non-photography data.
* Keep a copy of most important data in online storage - I've chosen Amazon S3 for reasonable price and good SLA. To keep costs low this will only be used for selected most important RAW files and selected personal data.

Enjoying my new lens

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 07:10:00 +0000

I am still enjoying my new lens (Canon EF 85mm f1.8 if you don't remember) :)

Another example of a portrait. This time no studio - just sitting in a cafe, one flash bounced from the ceiling, f1.8:

Christmas markets are now opened everywhere around. I visited one in Leuven on Friday. My new lens allows to take pictures at low light handheld with reasonable ISO. This one was taken with f1.8 and ISO250 (with shutter speed of 1/160th).

First reviews of Canon 5D Mk II showing up

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 09:11:00 +0000

The first hands-on reviews of production units of Canon 5D Mark II started to appear in the internet.

There is one detailed review from Phil Holland

DXO Mark database now includes results for Canon 5D Mark II. It's interesting to see it in comparison with other models. It looks that the new 5D has capabilities very similar to 1Ds Mark III; and it's nice so see that the noise of the new camera isn't any worse comparing to both old 5D and to 1Ds Mark III.

New lens - Canon EF 85 mm f/1.8 USM

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:45:00 +0000

I just made myself a Christmas gift - Canon EF 85 mm f/1.8 USM. I am very glad I did - I tried it in a studio in the same day and I love it! It gives quite sharp picture full open (f 1.8) and it gives absolutely pin sharp one when closed just a little. Also background blur looks very nice with bright spots looking round rather than polygonal. Another nice thing is that autofocus is very fast. Well, I read all that in the reviews I found in the internet before buying this lens, I am just glad I can agree with all statements.

For studio use with my cropped EOS 40D it needs some space; but I bought it having full-frame EOS 5D Mk II in mind... If everything goes well I consider buying one next spring.

This picture was made at f3.5

Photo of my younger son

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:33:00 +0000

Just a photo of my younger son made a few months ago. I was browsing un-processed RAW files when noticed this one...

EOS Discovery days

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:19:00 +0000

Last Friday I went to Canon's "EOS Discovery Days" in Brussels. Thanks to Bert Stephani for sharing an invitation, otherwise I would have missed it.

Canon has shown a lot of their photo equipment: all SLR models, many lenses and printers. It was allowed to try everything, unfortunately only at the counter desk (where light was less than ideal). Contrary to my expectations EOS 5D Mark II was still a pre-production unit, so we were not allowed to try it with our own flash cards... Canon Belgium expects to get new 5D in the beginning of December.

I am planning to buy EF 85 mm f1.8 lens so I tried it and a few other... This is not very meaningful shot made with EF 1.8/85 (in fact I could have more testing opportunities in a specialized photo store...).

The formal part of the event consisted of a few presentations. I've got a bit controversial feeling about the whole event - on one hand it seemed to be aimed at professional photographers i.e. those already familiar with Canon cameras and lenses; on the other hand the presentations were made as if people in the room didn't know about Canon... Anyway, the presentations were nice, particularly the photographs shown :)

Presentations were followed by a workshop by Bert Stephani. I always like when professionals give their practical advice - even if I already know the subject there are always some small things that are very helpful (and that I would hardly think of by myself).

A nice addition to the even was a book EF LENS WORK III available for all guests for free. Not just a catalog of Canon lens, but a lot of detailed information and nice illustrations and use examples.

Blogger blog backup

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:40:00 +0000

I found today that one of the blogs I read regularly was completely screwed up. Hacked or failed - anyway all records and comments were lost. So it made me thinking about backing up my own blog while it isn't too late.

Quick search via google resulted few options, with a free little tool from Codeplex looking like a most complete and easy backup and restore solution.

So far I only used it once for one backup and it worked well. It was very easy to configure; it was fast to make a complete backup of all my posts and comments. I hope I'll never need a restore option but it seems to be equally easy with that tool.

One remark: I still need to make a backup of my blog template myself (manually).

Few quick notes

noreply@blogger.com (MikLav) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:11:00 +0000

Belgian photographer Bert Stephani has published in his blog an invitation to Canon Discovery Days in Anderlecht with free workshop that Bert will conduct. The event will be in Dutch and French.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II starts appearing in the shops. B&H has it listed for $2,699.95 with indication that they expect it in the beginning of December. Checking German portal idealo I found several listings for around 2,200 Euro with camera not being available; but there is one entry for 2,400 Eur and two for 2,500 Eur showing the camera is available from stock. So I hope we will soon see the hands-on reviews and tests of Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

For those living in Leuven - note that the city hall services are moving from the center of the city to the new office next to the railway station. They will be open at new address from the 2nd of December.