Cooper Studio Newsletter November 2011

→ 13/10/2011

Welcome to the Cooper Studio newsletter relaunch! We’ve been promising people a regular email newsletter for some time and we’ve finally found some time between shoots to work out how to do it! In this issue: We’ll show you some cool pet photos. Invite you to like our new improved facebook page. Tell you the top six features to look for in a new digital SLR. And put a “classified ad” out there: soon we’ll be hiring. Hope you enjoy! Craig.   All creatures, great and small… Everyone knows that we specialise in photographing people, but I think it might come as a surprise to some  that we have a ball photographing “other” animals too. I’ve always been a dog owner (although I’m between dogs at the moment) and really get along with most dogs pretty well. Here are a couple of our more memorable canine portraits: Of course it’s not just dogs: This parrot, the beloved pet of one of our clients, was a unique challenge. It flew around the studio and kept landing on my head while I was trying to photograph it! Next challenge – I’d love to photograph some horses (might have to be on location, rather than in the studio, though)! To see more of our pet photos, check out the new Pet Photographer section of our website. Visit us on Facebook! Umm. I’m not sure what more to say about this! Visit our Facebook page here! We’ll be hiring soon! Just a heads up that Cooper Studio will soon be looking to hire a new team member. The position will involve having a hand in most areas of the studio including customer service, production, admin, editing and assisting in photography shoots. We’re still formulating the detailed job description, but in general terms we’re looking for The Perfect Employee: Someone who loves life, people and photography, who is dedicated, well spoken, well presented and interested in a career in an arts based industry. I’ll stress the person needn’t be a photographer, but needs to love photography. Ongoing training, coaching and support will be provided (by me). The career path would include becoming a photographer, studio manager, or production manager. We’ll be looking to hire from mid-October. Know someone who might love working here? Drop me a line on our contact form.   Ask a photography question! Love photography but finding something baffling? Ask us a question! We’ll have a regular section in the newsletter where we answer the best photography related questions from our readers. To kick off, here’s a question from Steven, who uses a point-and-shoot camera and wants some help choosing a dSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera. This inspired our Top Six story below. Steven wrote: I’m quite a good amateur photographer, primarily interested in outdoors photography. I currently use a Canon S5 IS. I am trying to research an appropriate DSLR camera to buy, or trial. I am tech savvy, so advanced features don’t frighten me.  I don’t want to leap too far ahead too quickly. Do you have a recommendation for an advanced amateur DSLR, or point me in another direction?   The top six dSLR features to look for: Don’t sweat the camera brand. In the studio we use a range of “professional” grade Canon dSLR cameras, but we’d quite happily use Nikon or any of the other major brands. We use Canon because they were clearly the best at the moment in history when we went digital. Since then the other brands have caught up. We keep using Canon because they’ve stayed competitive, and we have invested heavily in accessories such as lenses and flash units. The dSLR market is now considered mature and the basic technologies are well established. There’s not a lot of real innovation happening, and the market is fiercely competitive. Because of that, there are virtually no bad dSLR cameras being sold. You are likely to be completely satisfied with any of the major brands such as Pentax, Sony (formerly Minolta), Olympus, Canon or Nikon. To differentiate themselves, most brands have unique camera features, but in reality most of these are pretty gimmicky, cause confusion, and are not really worthy of your attention . Some features are certainly handy, and vary a bit according to camera model and brand, so here’s our top six features: Low Noise at high ISO. Digital noise is the grainy quality of a photo that is added as a result of the limits of the camera sensor and computer processor. A camera with High ISO ability needs less light to work, so is handy in shade, or in the evening. Unfortunately as ISOs get higher, noise always gets worse. That said many of the new dSLRs have pretty amazing low light ability and they’re worth seeking out. Wide Dynamic Range. “Dynamic Range” is a camera’s ability to see light and shadow at the same time and is measured in something called “stops”. Simple rule, the more stops of Dynamic Range the better. Five stops is pretty ordinary these days, six or seven is good, and anything higher is excellent (and getting expensive, real fast). Image Stabilisation. This feature reduces blurriness caused by camera movement. It’s one of the few uber-high-tech features that is worth seeking out. Canon and Nikon cameras have unstabilised bodies and optional stabilised lenses, most of the other brands now have stabilised bodies and unstabilised lenses. If the stabiliser is in the body, you pay for it only once. If it’s in the lens, you pay for it with each lens you buy. But Nikon and Canon argue that by having stabilisers in the lenses, they are more finely tuned. Sensor Cleaning. Anyone who’s been shooting with dSLRs for a while will come to hate dust. It enters the camera body when you change lenses and sticks like glue to the statically charged digital sensor. It then shows up as a dark spot in every photo you take, and you end up spending hours removing the spots in Photoshop. A lot of modern dSLRs have a function which shakes the sensor or hits it with sound waves to remove dust. This is usually quite effective. If you ever plan on using more than one lens, don’t buy a dSLR without this feature! PS. Film SLRs don’t have this problem! High native Flash Sync speed. When you use a flash it will generally only work up to a certain camera shutter speed, called the flash sync speed. To capture action, or to use “fill flash” outdoors you need to be able to use a high (that is short) shutter speed, for example 1/200th of a second. In the past there were expensive professional cameras with a maximum sync speed as low as 1/30th of a second, but today you should demand at least 1/160th or higher. Note: don’t be fooled by claims of unbelievable flash sync speeds like 1/4000th of a second. These are generally not “native” in that they are not a function of the camera shutter, and don’t really work very well. Less megapixels! Yes, I said less megapixels. Don’t get sucked into the megapixel race. The difference between cameras with two megapixels and those with three megapixels was important. The difference between cameras with say,18 megapixels and those with 22 megapixels is not important. In fact too many megapixels often makes image quality worse, because the trade off is usually higher noise, lower effective ISOs and narrower dynamic ranges – see Top Features one and two. Incidentally, to make a great 6×4 inch print (the most common size for consumers) you need exactly one and a half megapixels . More won’t make the picture better! We hope you’ve loved this issue of the Cooper Studio newsletter. Got questions, got comments? Email us, we’d love to hear from you.

Perth Portrait Photography – a retrospective

→ 20/08/2011

Finally a (relatively) quiet day in the photography studio! I’ve had time to trawl back through the last 12 month’s body of work to revisit some of the year’s best portrait photography.

Going through my favorite images I was reminded of just what a blast it is to be a professional portrait photographer. I’ve been lucky enough to photograph people from all walks of life, in all sorts of situations. It’s almost impossible to say which are my absolute favorite images as just about every shoot has yielded something special. But here’s a few of my favorites for today anyway!

At Cooper Studio we are, fundamentally, portrait photographers. I guess a portrait to me is any photograph of a person that is a study of that person’s character – both their external appearance and also their internal life. I think a really good portrait has to say something, or at least make the viewer wonder, about who the subject is, and what makes them tick.

A portrait can be any of a number of things, including:

• photographs of a child or a baby, showing their stage of development and sense of wonder
• “skin shots” nudes or semi-nudes presenting a person as they are without the “armour” of their clothing
• A neo-classical study with props – sometimes objects help to define who a person is. Where a person has a passion, including the object of this in the photograph can be a strong motif.
• A location or home study, where the subject’s environment helps to define who they are.

This is really just the tip of the iceberg and this year so far we’ve done all this and more. Going back has gotten me quite excited about the best portraits of all – those that are yet to come!

A Perth couple’s studio portrait shoot

→ 03/08/2011

Last month we had the pleasure of photographing Julie and Stein who wanted some relaxed couples portraits in our studio.

Julie and Stein are a very romantic couple who seem very much in love, and the adult portraits here are a good example of a style which is both casual and relaxed and also artistic and classical due to the black and white treatment.

I thought this shoot would be a good opportunity to discuss clothing options for this kind of adult portrait shoot.

Here are some suggestions to help you choose clothing that is both relaxed and also looks great in classic portraits like these:

• choose contrasting tops – notice that Julie and Stein didn’t choose simple black and white, but Stein is wearing a charcoal shirt which offsets a jet black background.
• These photos wouldn’t have worked as well if they had been wearing the same hue (the classical white shirt and blue jeans) – by dressing differently we get a sense of each person’s personality.
• Block colours – I’ve noticed that most photographers recommend wearing block colours. While it’s true that block colours are usually a better option than really fussy patterns or logos, your clothing doesn’t have to be completely plain. Julie’s top has a pretty frill which is really feminine, while stein’s top is actually enhanced by a subtle logo on his shoulder and some fine details.
• More about block colours – In some ways this recommendation has to do with a problem that was present in early digital printing and digital cameras which had inadequate ultra-violet filtering. This would cause colours to “fringe” and bleed into each other. It’s not such a problem with good technique and modern equipment!
• For these kinds of portraits I recommend “smart casual” – that is, think of what you would wear out on a Friday night or to a dinner party with friends.
• Also, remember the “tuxedo” rule – a man wearing a tuxedo is never overdressed. Everyone else is instantly underdressed! Now we’re not suggesting all of our male clients wear a tux, but don’t be afraid to glam up, you really can’t be too well dressed in a portrait!
• A good technique is to look in your wardrobe for pieces that you love, but may not have had a chance to wear for a long time – those pieces for which there never seems to be the right occasion.
• Most of all, express yourself! Remember that most of these suggestions are relative, and mean something slightly different to everyone.

Part of our service at Cooper Studio is to discuss individual clothing ideas with our clients. For more information about adult portraits call us on 1300 305 410.

A recent baby Portrait Shoot

→ 15/07/2011

Last week little Charlotte came to our studio because Mum Amanda wanted a unique portrait for her wall.

A recent beauty portrait shoot.

→ 29/06/2011

A couple of weeks ago we did a shoot for the lovely Angela. Just thought it would be nice to share these portrait photos as I really like them.

These are really elegant and sophisticated portraits and Angela was a great model, although she had never had a professional photography shoot like this before. She chose an equally sophisticated leather portrait album to display her photos in! Click here to see more of our adult portrait photography.

Today’s Photo Shoot & Clothing Tips

→ 23/06/2011

Read more

Cooper Studio Photographer Profile

→ 23/06/2011

Cooper Studio Perth Photographers specialise in customised fine professional photography and unique photographic artwork for your home. Our team is lead by Craig Cooper, a multi-award winning AIPP Master of Photography, who has over 10 years of professional photography experience, including portraiture, weddings and commercial photography.

Read more

Charity Photography in Fremantle WA

→ 18/06/2011

This month we’re using our professional photography services to help a local school raise money for some much needed air conditioners.

Perth residents may be starting to forget the heat of the summer just gone, and how all of our kids sweltered through their days in school because most government schools in Western Australia do not have air conditioning. It was pretty obvious to those of us with school-aged children that our kids were losing valuable learning days due to the heat.

The Beaconsfield Primary P&C decided this wasn’t good enough and have launched an ambitious campaign to raise $90,000 to fit air conditioners throughout the school by raising parent donations. To the great credit of the school community they are half way there with $45,000 raised to date.

We thought this was a great local cause and decided to offer a great incentive to everyone who donates to the school air-con fundraiser. This is how it works:

• everyone who donates $150 or more to the air-con fundraiser will receive a Cooper Studio gift card of equal value, up to $500.
• The gift card can be redeemed for a photo shoot at our studio in Fremantle and if there is a balance left, it can be used towards any artwork ordered from the shoot.
• Most weekday shoots are $150, so a donation of say $350 will leave $200 as a starter towards artwork.
• The gift card can be used towards kids photography, family portraits or any other type of photography we do at the studio.

A flier has been sent to every family at the school, but the broader community can also take part.

We’re really proud and excited to be supporting the Beaconsfield Primary School community, and hope this helps them reach their target!

Today’s photo shoot – Kyla and Scott

→ 15/06/2011

Hot off the press here is today’s couples photo shoot with Kyla and Scott.

Scott is a chemical engineering student at Curtin Uni and Kyla describes him as quite the”gentleman”. He purchased a photo shoot with us to celebrate Kyla’s birthday  and we had a great time this afternoon getting these shots in the studio. Kyla was looking for something a bit romantic and we decided to include Scott’s guitar and didgeridoo in the shoot. We really love the photo where Scott is giving Kyla some guitar lessons, but it proved a challenge – Scott is a southpaw, and Kyla isn’t!

At Cooper Studio we don’t just photograph kids – we actually do lots of romantic and fun shoots for grown ups, too. To prepare for a portrait shoot, check out our portrait experience checklist.

Our New Perth Photography Website needs Feedback!

→ 15/06/2011

At Cooper Studio we’ve just relaunched this, our new Perth Photography website!

Although it doesn’t look too much different from our previous website it is all new “under the skin”, which means much more frequent updates, regular blogs and new articles about the Perth photography scene.

The downside is that with any major overhaul, a few things go haywire, and there’s likely to be a few bugs in the system, not to mention typos or grammatical errors. So I want your help. If you see anything amiss as you browse the site, please drop me a quick line on our Contact Page. The good news is that our new website is simplicity itself to edit, so errors can be fixed more or less straight away.

Other new features of the website include:

• improved forms, giving better feedback when you hit the submit button
• a cleaner layout
• no more flash galleries, so that all the galleries can now be viewed on an iphone or ipad.
• A new look for our galleries, making them much easier to view.

Some of our content, such as some of the detail in our product page and our vote-for-an-image page is down while the content is being overhauled, but will be back soon!

We’d love to hear what you think of the new Cooper Studio website, feel free to drop us a line with your comments!