Greetings from my bunker.

Hi folks,

Hope that everyone is staying safe, greetings from my “Bunker in Bognor” or so it feels as I’ve not left it for over a week now, AKA my Man Cave 🙂 and I’m going more than a little stir-crazy. As I can’t get a haircut I’m also starting, more and more, to resemble a Yeti. 🙂 .

I’ve been giving some thought to my passion for processing my images (still hate the word). If someone offered me some money to spend as I wished on photographic equipment, as unlikely as that ever might be, I’d choose to spend the lion’s share on software. My passion for photography really starts when I’m working on my images, Subjective as of course it is, I just couldn’t go out, take some shots and not work on them. I’m fortunate that I don’t have deadlines to meet or have to mass-produce images to a formula but even a few simple adjustments will bring one’s imagery to life. I’ve raved several times before about Viveza, part of the NIK collection of software plugins now owned by DXO with it’s selective adjustment control point technology and I think that it’s an absolutely fantastic piece of software that has been the most useful and creative software that I’ve ever purchased, I use it at some stage in every image that I work on.

Stay safe, kind regards,

Leigh

For those interested in video streaming/capture etc..

January 7, 2021 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

A while back I started experimenting with video streaming. I bought a couple of bits of kit that work very well. As some of my cameras don’t allow one to monitor the video in live view with and HDMI cable plugged in I bought a plug in HDMI to USB video capture device and also a 1 in 2 out HDMI splitter. This works very well as I can plug the HDMI output from the the camera in to the splitter with a suitable HDMI cable, plug one of the outputs to a small HDMI monitor and the other output to an HDMI cable plugged into the HDMI to USB capture device and this into the computer. The HDMI splitter device has a micro USB socket so that it can be powered by USB and includes a cable for this. This combination works great and allows me to simultaneously monitor the picture whilst streaming to the computer. So far I’ve used this setup with ZOOM and also with OBS Studio and it cost me approx. £33 UK plus a suitable HDMI cable to fit your camera’s HDMI output.

I have no affiliation with the companies that manufacture these products, as always, I share because I hope that it is of interest.

Stay safe and kind regards,

Leigh

Simple macro on a dull morning.

December 28, 2020 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment | 7 Comments

Hi everyone,

Hope you’ve all had a great Christmas. This morning to pass the time with no public transport running around here, nothing open, the weather dull, dreary and pretty uninviting and no way of getting anywhere interesting I thought I’d do a very lazy and simple macro shot of my new watch. Thing of beauty as it is it’s the only thing I can do with the watch as it needs quite a few links removed as I don’t have wrists like an Olympic weight lifter and, anyway, there’s no jewellers open in the foreseeable future until we come out of lockdown again. whenever that might be. I decided not to use my normal macro setup and just pop my Sigma ART 60mm lens, a very affordable and very sharp lens, plus Olympus M-CON macro converter on my Olympus E-PL5, stick it on a tripod with a self-timer and light it with an overhead LED light, it doesn’t get much more simple than that.

No focus stacking, just a plain and simple macro shot. Macro doesn’t have to be expensive. It’s like any other form of photography it can be (become) 🙂 as expensive and technical as you want to make it.

Kind regards

Leigh

Even thought I don’t VLOG I like this video

December 21, 2020 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

I share his thinking on size, weight and the difference between expensive, faster, and by definition, heavy, lenses and their more affordable counterparts as well as photographic philosophy. I own quite a few of the small lenses that he features in the video (Panasonic Lumix, 12-32mm and 20mm 1.7, Olympus 17mm 1.8, 25mm 1.8 and 45mm 1.8) and they’re all extremely good as is the Lumix 14mm 2.5, another great little pancake lens. Another bonus I should perhaps mention is that the 14mm, 17mm, 20mm and 25mm all have a 46mm filter thread and the 12-32 and 45mm have a 37mm filter thread so it’s economical on filters and interchangeability.

Kind regard, Leigh

Dust Doughnut

December 17, 2020 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Photography, Photography equipment | Leave a comment

Yes, you read that right. I stumbled across this, a kickstarter project currently only for Cannon lenses at the moment. Not a substitute for a proper weather sealed lens but could be interesting.

Kind regards

Leigh

For my next trip.

December 17, 2020 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

I might be able to get out today if our online shopping turns up early. It’s nice and sunny outside and I’m setting myself a bit of a challenge to only use my Olympus 9mm and 15mm body cap lenses which, given good light are capable of good results, on my diminutive EPL-5 camera. This is a very fun, compact and lightweight combination. I’ll take my TG-5 as an all weather backup in case the weather takes a turn for the worse and yes I do like red/black and silver . As my shoulder and neck are quite painful I’m not even taking a camera bag they can go in my jacket pockets.

Best wishes,

Leigh

I’m sick of all the rubbish talked about camera gear.

December 13, 2020 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Photography, Photography equipment | 3 Comments

Hi folks,

Recently I’ve watched excellent videos by Olympus visionaries Robin Wong and Jimmy Cheng and also Rob Trek and I’ve found myself in complete agreement with the points that they make. I’ve been asked quite a few times about what cameras and lenses I would recommend and “what’s the best camera” as if there is such a thing as best. I’ve never owned a camera (and I’ve owned quite a few over the years) 🙂 that has revolutionised my approach to photography. It’s an impossible question to answer as just about any modern camera and lenses are more than capable of producing technically great results, the camera doesn’t choose the subject or frame the shot!. What it is about is composition, taking time to master basic techniques, developing an eye for a shot and one’s imagination, that’s it, plain and simple. The only thing that I will say is that my preference for lightweight, portable gear has greatly increased my ability to get to where I’m going and walk around for longer and thus get more shots to work with , the bottom line is that the camera is only a tool, simply a means to an end.

Kind regards

Leigh

The year of the PEN

December 11, 2020 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in digital art, Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment | Leave a comment

My photographic highlight of the year has been using my Olympus PEN-F camera. Although I still very much enjoy using my OM-D cameras and lenses this camera has fast become my go-to favourite. I have used it throughout the year mostly coupled with my dimunative gem of a lens, the Lumix 12-32mm. This camera ticks all the boxes for me, it’s small, light and fully-featured and a delight to use. It has a very good sensor and features such as electronic shutter and good ergonomics, it feels right in ones hand. I think that if something feels right it really promotes a sense of confidence and enjoyment in using it. So I’ve taken to just carrying the PEN-F and three lenses, the Lumix 12-32mm and 20mm 1.7 and my Olympus 9-18mm. Together they cover 99.9% of my day-to-day equipment requirements. Six out of twelve of the photos in my yearly photo roundup post were taken with the PEN-F and 12-32mm

PEN-F and Olympus 9-18mm

PEN-F and Lumix 12-32mm

Kind regards

Leigh

I Leica :)

December 10, 2020 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

Novelty faux Leica M3 tin added to my eclectic collection of objets d’art. I added a surplus to requirements venting lens hood to complete things.

Best wishes,

Leigh

My quest has ended

December 8, 2020 by Leigh Kemp - UK-based "Paintographer" in Leigh Kemp, Photography, Photography equipment, Travel | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

My long-term quest for a perfect camera bag and rain cover combination to suit my requirements and, heaven knows I’ve tried quite a few, has finally ended. 🙂 A while back I bought several small lightweight Manfrotto camera bags which you might have seen in one of my previous posts and, previous to that, I bought a National Geographic Africa camera bag rain cover. I thought I’d try them out together and, because it has elasticated sides and velcro “loops/straps” to take the camera bag straps, I can leave it fitted all the time without hampering access to the bag. When I need it there’s no fumbling about in the rain fitting it and subsequently removing it, I can simply pull it over the top and, as a mate of mine from Liverpool would say “job’s a good ‘un”. 🙂 It also has the benefit that, when wet, it can stay on the bag to dry out and I have tucked a few small items like my LCD hood and variable ND filter and pouch inside between the cover and the outer of the bag. Incidentally the bag and rain cover combo cost me a very affordable £16 UK. 🙂 🙂

Takes me all of a second or two at the most and the bag is well and truly protected against the elements. 🙂

Wishing everyone a safe, peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year.

Leigh

As I sit here looking at my modern digital cameras I’m reminded of my first camera and, in particular, the first photograph that I ever took. Nowadays we take cameras and camera technology pretty much for granted but when I was a child I can’t remember many photographs. The only time our camera saw the light of day, and it had to be the light of day, as there wasn’t a flash, was on a few family occasions, the usual thing, school sports days, birthdays, etc.. My interest in photography didn’t start until my grandfather “loaned” me his camera to take with me on a week-long school trip, sleeping under canvas, in Snowdonia, North Wales. It was a somewhat battered old twin-lens reflex camera in which one looked downwards in to the viewfinder when taking a photograph.

I remember being very excited at being entrusted with the family camera, film wasn’t cheap and I had very little to no idea how to use it. The experience must have made some kind of impression on me as, after all these years, I still remember taking my first photograph. The coach stopped en-route at Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of Sir Winston Churchill and it became the subject of my first photograph. Although, sadly, like my other photographs from the trip, it has long since disappeared, however, I really don’t need the photograph to remind me as the experience is indelibly etched on my mind. I wonder if this is perhaps where my interest in landscape photography stems from but that’s probably too much of an assumption. As far as I remember I was the only kid on the trip to have a camera, that’s how different things were, nowadays, just about everyone has a camera of some sort built in to their mobile phones. It also taught me to be disciplined to the point of being frugal when taking photographs as the trip was for one week and I only had a 12 exposure black and white film in the camera.

Some years later I really got the photography bug and bought my first camera, an Olympus OM-1 35 mm film camera and I went on to own their OM-2 and OM-4ti cameras and a range of lenses. Film was still pretty expensive considering I earned about £20 a week in my first job so I got in to developing and printing my own black and white and, later, colour films to help keep the costs down and make things more affordable. Not only did this experience teach me an awful lot about image-making start to finish, many of the techniques and skills that I learned in my makeshift darkroom, a small room adorned with genuine World War 2 blackout curtains fitted to keep out the light, another hand-me-down from my grandfather, these skills would re-surface and be invaluable some years later when I started working on processing my digital images.

I put myself through University as a mature student and I badly needed the money so I had to very reluctantly part with all my photographic equipment, but needs must. After I graduated I bought my first digital camera, a small fixed lens Kodak compact camera, reduced in a sale. It had, by today’s standards, a laughably small maximum image resolution of 640×480 pixels or, to put it another way, a stunning 0.4 Megapixels!. For all of this and further equipped with screw on wide angle and telephoto lens attachments, it proved to be a fabulous little camera which I took all over the place with me. Put simply, digital photography was a revelation, to me, no requirement for film, no real running costs and a lot of image capacity on a small memory card which I found absolutely liberating.

A few years before that I had discovered some free graphics editing software on the cover disk of a computer magazine and that started off my real passion for working with graphics and, ultimately, photo processing. So I then had all the tools I required to develop, pun intended and further, my interest in digital photography. Processing is where the magic starts for me, I am totally absorbed in and fascinated by the range of options that digital processing affords me. It encourages me, if, that is, I ever need encouragement, to constantly experiment with new styles, new techniques and is such an important part of my enjoyment and interest in photography.

I went on to own several DSLRs but, as I got older I began to find that they were simply too heavy and bulky. I switched over back in 2013 to Micro Four Thirds cameras and lenses. My choice of MFT system was heavily influenced by my experiences with my Olympus film cameras, maybe it was, in truth, part based on nostalgia that I decided on their OM-D system. As a landscape/travel photographer I have to carry my gear around all day and the weight and bulk saving is highly significant. I’ve been very impressed with the image quality of my Micro Four Thirds equipment, it has traveled with me extensively, never let me down and I have never had cause to question my decision to go over to that format.

So my 50-plus year photographic adventure has led me from twin-lens reflex and single-lens reflex film cameras to digital cameras, from stumbling around in a dimly-lit darkroom to working with my images on my computer. I’ve heard it said on occasions, including a comment I read some while back by a very famous photographer, that cameras being so much an every-day item now and available in mobile phones etc. devalues photography. I feel quite the opposite, I firmly believe that it empowers everyone with affordable technology to take photographs and enjoy photography and that, in my opinion, is fantastic. Although I’ve very much enjoyed my personal photographic journey I do confess to feeling a slight tinge of regret that the technology wasn’t available when I started out but one can’t put the clock back and I intend to keep on embracing all these great technological advancements, experimenting and enjoying my work.

Cameras:

Olympus: OM-D E-M5 Mk II (titanium) & HLD-8G grip, OM-D E-M1 Mk I (black) & HDL-7 grip, OM-D EM-5 Mk I (silver) & HDL-6 grip, PEN EPL-5, PEN EP-5 (silver) +VF-4, PEN E-PL8 (Silver) +VF4, Tough TG-5 (red), PEN-F (silver), Canon Powershot G10, Nikon Coolpix A100

Lenses:

Olympus: M.Zuiko: 12 mm f/2, 17 mm f/1.8, 25 mm f/1.8, 45 mm f/1.8, 30 mm f/3.5 macro, 9 mm f/8 body cap fisheye, 15 mm f/8 body cap, 9-18 mm, 12-50 mm, 12-40 mm f/2.8 PRO, 14-150 mm II, 40-150 mm II, 12-45mm f/4 PRO, MCON-P02.

Sigma: ART 60 mm f/2.8.

Samyang: Manual focus 7.5 mm f/3.5 fisheye.

TT Artisan: Manual focus 17mm f/1.4, 23mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4.

Panasonic Lumix: 14 mm f/2.5, 20 mm f/1.7, 12-32 mm x2 (black and silver), 12-60 mm, 14-42 mm II, 35-100 mm, 45-150mm.

PEN E-P5, 9-18mm,12-32mm, 40-150mm II. A lightweight kit with virtually continuous coverage from 18mm wide angle to 300mm telephoto.

OM-D E-M1 I, 14-150mm II, 12-40mm PRO. . Heavier than my other kits but with complete weather-sealing. Coverage from 24mm wide angle to 300mm telephoto with some overlap for backup.

OM-D E-M5 II, 17mm, 35mm, 12-60mm. A balance of two fun manual focus lenses with a weather-sealed body and zoom lens.

PEN E-PL5, 9mm, 15mm, 25mm, 60mm, 12-50mm. Another lightweight fun kit with a zoom option.

TG-5, OM-D E-M5 mk1, 7.5mm, 12mm, 17mm, 45mm, 30mm macro. M-CON.

PEN-F, 14mm, 20mm, 12-32mm, 35-100mm. Probably my favourite lightweight day-to-day kit. Two fast primes and two zoom with almost continuous coverage from 24mm wide angle through to 200mm telephoto.

Software:

Corel: Paintshop Pro Elite 2020 & Video Studio 2019.

Skylum Software: Aurora HDR 2019, Luminar 4, Luminar AI and Luminar Neo.

DXO Labs: PhotoLab 5 Elite, Viewpoint 3, NIK Collection 6, Film Pack 5 and PureRAW 6.

Anthropics Technologies: Landscape Pro Studio 3 and Portrait Pro.

EyeQ: Perfectly Clear

ON1: Photo MAX RAW 2026

Topaz Labs: Studio 2, Sharpen AI, A.I Gigapixel, AI Clear, AI Adjust, DeNoise AI and Various legacy plugins.

Adobe: Lightroom.

GreenScreenWizard Studio Pro.

Serif: Affinity Photo

Microsoft: Image Composite Editor (Free).

Darktable (Free).

Olympus: Olympus Capture, Olympus Workspace and Olympus Webcam (Free to Olympus owners).

Sony: Movie Studio Platinum.

Datacolor: SpyderExpress display calibration device and DisplayCal software.

Lighting Gear:

Godox TT350o flash, Godox X1T radio flash trigger, Godox Lux Junior flash, LED ring flash, GVM RGB LED light, Olympus MAL-1 Macro Arm Light. Two Godox LED36 lights, Godox Litemons LED6R light. Three Bowen studio flash heads, barndoors, honeycombes, umbrellas and flash meter.