What’s in my camera bag? Canon photographer Nina Mace

What's in my camera bag? Canon Photographer Nina Mace

Whats in my canon photography camera bag

I work with families shooting lifestyle images in their home and then outdoors on location and my aim is to create a story of my clients day that reflects each member of the family in an authentic and real way. As I am photographing children, who most often don’t stay still, my camera bag and kit needs to be light, quick to access and fast to focus.

As I often walk into a home where I have never photographed before, I also need to ensure I have every focal length covered. I have lenses which cover between 24 and 200mm and tend to shoot at a lower aperture to create the separation I love. The next Canon lens on my wish list is the 200 2.0L which I have recently rented to use on my outdoor children’s workshops. It is nothing short of beautiful, but it is also very heavy when you are trying to photograph fast moving children.

I do carry a Canon 430 EX flash, but I mostly work with available light and make my decisions on where to shoot based on the light first. If I do use my flash it’s often as fill when I am backlighting against a window or patio doors. I shoot on SanDisk 4GB CF cards and back up to a 16GB SD card. I am currently investigating a portable hard drive which I can transfer my images to without a PC. This Summer I am heading off on my first-month long family backpack adventure to Thailand and I want to make sure I have backup copies of all the images I have. I also keep 2 spare Canon batteries in my bag at all times.

I transport all of my equipment to the shoot in a Calumet suitcase as this can hold all my bodies and lenses, and then I transfer the 2 lenses and body I plan to use into my Shootsac.

Canon 135 2.0L

Possibly my favourite lens in terms of focal length, sharpness and speed. This is my go to lens outdoors and works well for where I like to stand relative to my subjects. I can still interact with Mum, Dad and the kids, but be far enough away to create full-length family images. This lens is perfect for families with younger children where they are sitting babies or toddling.

Canon 24-70 2.8 L mark 2

My lens of choice for shooting families indoors, this rarely leaves my camera. I shoot at the lowest aperture and find it to be incredibly reliable and fast to focus. The widest focal length also allows me to take more documentary/ storytelling images in the home for example when photographing children in their rooms with their favourite toys.

Canon 5diii

I have 2 5d mark 3s and love how they create such clean, colourful images. I especially like the LCD screen which I find to be very accurate when compared to the final RAW file. It handles high ISO indoors really well and when I do shoot events or for commercial clients, the silent shutter is excellent. I have recently had the opportunity to shoot on the mark 4 on a Canon CPS experience day, and I aim to upgrade this year as I was impressed with the ISO capability indoors.

Canon GX1 Mark 2

I also carry a smaller Canon GX 1 which I use for personal projects and shooting behind the scenes on my shoots or workshops. I shoot in manual in RAW and the focal length is the equivalent to 24-120mm in 35mm terms. More impressively, that zoom range has a maximum aperture of f/2 at the wide end, rising to just f/3.9 at the telephoto end. It has a 3-inch touchscreen and a flip out LCD.

Shootsac

I had seen another lifestyle photographer using the Shootsac and was impressed by how light it was and how easy to access lenses. At the time it couldn’t be bought in Europe, so I had it delivered to the hotel where my friend was holidaying in the US to bring it home for me. The camera bag is made from wetsuit material making it very comfortable and weighs just 7oz. http://www.shootsac.com/

Rapid Strap

For both of my Mark 3s, I use a single crossbody black rapid strap. As I don’t tend to use both bodies simultaneously I find these perfect for my needs. http://blackrapid.com/

Canon 70-200 2.8L

In terms of bokeh, this is my lens preference, and I will often shoot on this alongside the 135 2.0L. With walking/ running children this offers more flexibility in term of quickly changing focal length so I use this most often with children who school aged.

Canon 200 2.8L

Not such a well-known lens vs the 70-200 2.8, I often use this 200 2.8L prime because of its focus speed and it being around 1lb light than the 70-200 2.8L. This lens has the speed/ weight advantage whereas the 70-200 has the flexibility of the children and moving around a great deal. As it has no IS again I tend to use this when the family is sitting or standing.

A car sunscreen!

When photographing children I look to shoot at their eye level so the final image looks as if I’m in the image with them, not shooting down at them from above. As I shoot outdoors in all weathers I find myself lying in often wet and muddy areas so I carry a very lightweight car sunscreen with me. I lie on this and I can also use this creatively as a reflector is needed. If it tears or gets too dirty, I can just replace it for a few pounds.

I hope you have found this an interesting read and I would love to know which is your favourite Canon lens and why. Feel free to comment below.

Nina Mace is an award winning outdoor children & family photographer whose specialises in bold, colourful portraiture using the UKs seasons as ever-changing backdrops. Alongside her family photography business, she also works on commercial projects for children’s brands & trains beginner photographers. Nina also works throughout the UK mentoring other professional family photographers in shooting editing, business and marketing. This year she was announced as Top 3 professional trainer with the SWPP.

Top tips for photographing live music & fashion

Top tips for photographing live music & fashion shows

In the last couple of weeks a number of photographers have asked for my top tips on how to deliver great images when photographing live music or catwalk and fashion shows. Alongside my children’s photography, I also love to photograph events so I thought I would share how I took the images at both a concert at the Dorchester in London and at London Fashion Weekend in the Saatchi gallery.

Catwalk Photography: London Fashion Weekend 2016

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I have always wanted to photograph a catwalk show, and this weekend I had the opportunity to photograph 2 shows at London Fashion Weekend courtesy of Canons CPS scheme (additional information about the CPS scheme is shown at the end of this blog post).

The first show was all around new seasons trends, and showcased four different styles of clothing, and the second designer was Temperley London a brand created by Alice Temperley MBE a British fashion designer based in London.

1. Light

When it comes to shooting catwalk shows the great news is they tend to be very well lit. The designers want to ensure their clothes look as good as they possibly can and that those watching the show (and us photographers in the pit) can see the detail in their clothing that they spent so many hours developing.

2. Lens choice

The catwalk at London Fashion Weekend was incredibly long and this required my longest focal length lens. All of the image below were taken on my Canon 70-200 2.8L and were mostly taken at 200mm to reach the models as they walked towards us.

3. Settings

As with all events, I shoot in RAW to ensure that I have the best opportunity to recover highlights and lift shadows if required. As the catwalk is so well lit, by default the audience is very dark, so shooting RAW gives me more opportunity when editing afterwards.

I shot most of the show with a low aperture of between 2.8 & 3.5 (as I love separation between my subject and background) with an ISO of between 800-1600 depending on how wide I was shooting and where the model was on the catwalk. I like to keep my shutter speed at a minimum of 1/500 to keep my images as sharp as possible.

Finally I set my white balance (on the advise of the Canon team) to 2800 kelvin to balance out the warmth of the very powerful lights.

4. Timing

The show itself only lasts between 10 and 15 minutes, so timing of the shots is very important. Ideally you want to photograph the models when both feet are planted on the ground, so I ended up shooting in time with the models walk, just as their front foot was being placed down.

5. Editing

When editing the images I was very conscious not to edit the overall colours too heavily as the colours must be true to the original garment. The images actually needed very little editing as the light was so good so I made some minor adjustments to the highlights and shadows and added a little more contrast.

Live Music Photography: Matt Goss at the Dorchester

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I am a huge music fan and I love photographing live music – last year I photographed Matt Goss at the Dorchester in London. I had already seen Matt’s show in Vegas so had a good idea of how the show ran and the overall style of the night. I was given access to the press pit at the front of the stage and I also could walk around the venue to take images from further back on my longer focal length lenses.

1. Light

Live music photography is very different to catwalk photography as in the first instance the lights move. Not only do they move, but they often change colour from bright magenta to green, and this can make for an interesting challenge. Overall this venue was quite dark so I was shooting at around 4000-6400 ISO.

2. Lens choice

With live music photography, you can never be certain exactly how close to the stage you are going to be, so I took a wide variety of lenses with me. When I was in the pit (literally 1 metre from the stage), I was shooting with my 24-70 and when I moved further back I alternated between my 135 2.0L and my 70-200 2.8L.

3. Settings

Shooting in RAW was even more important at this gig because of the speed the lights changed. I shoot in full manual and was changing my settings for nearly every shot I was taking.

Again I shot most of the show with a low aperture of between 2.8 & 3.5 (as I love separation between my subject and background). As it was very dark I had to slow my shutter speed down but tried not to drop below 1/200 of a second.

About 15 minutes into the show I actually made the decision to shoot in black and white as it felt as if it fitted the overall style of the event and also made the best of the high contrast lighting.

4. Timing

As with the cat walk show timing was imperative. After 10 minutes I started to get a feel for the timing of the lighting changes. You can see from the images below how important timing was.

The 2 bottom images of Matt playing guitar were taken within a millisecond of one another and it changed from being lit from the front to being lit from behind.

5. Editing

Unlike the catwalk shows these live music images required a little more editing. Due to the high ISO, I applied some noise removal in Adobe Camera RAW, and I did edit out any obvious distractions from the images.

One of the most extreme before and after edits turned out to be one of my favourite images. On the back of camera (at the time I was shooting in colour not B&W) I looked at the image and NEARLY deleted it as I thought it was past the point of recovery due to the crazy magenta lighting.

Thanks to the incredible Canon 5diii I managed to salvage the shot. The image became mine and the artist’s favourites too and it was shared across social media and featured on his website. The lesson here is NEVER DELETE any live music images until you have gotten them off your camera – you just never know what you could end up with!

I hope you have found this blog post useful and if you have any great live music or catwalk images please feel free to drop the link to them in the comments below – its good to share 🙂

Canon Professional Services (CPS)

Canon Professional Services (CPS) is a service created to help professional photographers across Europe using Canon equipment. Not all photographers qualify; there are strict criteria to become a member of this exclusive service and take advantage of its benefits. For an overview of criteria and main benefits visit www.canon-europe.com/cps. Throughout the year Canon run a number of different experience days so register today to be a CPS member and to be in with a chance of attending.

Comparing the big 4 Canon outdoor lenses

So how did the big 4 outdoor lenses compare, and which lenses would I consider investing my hard earned money in?I am often asked by other professional photographers, which is my favourite lens for shooting on location and why. I recently had an opportunity to test out the Canon 200 2.0L (thanks to Lenses for hire, one of the companies I partner with for my outdoor children’s photography workshops) against the more usual lens in most outdoor photographers kit bags – the 100 2.8L, 135 2.0L and 70-200 2.8L.

As I had the 200 2.0L for a few days, I thought I would take the opportunity to compare in the lenses by taking an identical image on all four, and also to use them to photograph (*chase*) small children to see how they would really perform on an average client session.

So how did the big 4 outdoor lenses compare, and which lenses would I consider investing my hard earned money in?

Pricing & Weight Comparison

First lets look at the pricing and weigh of each to see how they compare. Interestingly, the weight and price appear to be relative until we reach the Canon 200 2.0L which is just under double the weight of the 70-200 2.8L BUT just under triple the cost at £4399. This huge leap in price has set my expectations high – I would expect a significant difference in the images when comparing the two to make it worth investing in.

Canon EF 100mm f2.8L Macro IS USM Lens, RRP £645, Weight 625g
Canon EF 135mm f2 L USM Lens, RRP £699, Weight 750g
Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8 L IS II USM Lens, RRP £1499, Weight 1490g
Canon EF 200mm f2.0 L IS USM Lens, RRP £4399, Weight 2520 g

To give an idea of how physically the lenses compare this, below is an iPhone photo of my 135, 70-200 and the 200 sat alongside one another. The second image is of me using the 200 on my outdoor photography workshop, to show how big it is compared to my camera body.

The visual test : Taking the same image on all 4 lenses

Now to the exciting part – I took the same image on each of the 4 lenses, pushing the aperture as low as it would go, and the focal length as high as it would go (for example on the 70-200, I shot at 2.8 200mm) . These images are straight out of camera with no adjustments.

Below are the 100 and the 135 alongside one another. Immediately I much prefer the bokeh from the 135. It is has much less contrast and the hard edges of the foliage are much less visible. Also practically, the 100 (being a macro lens) is much slower to focus and I found myself missing shots. I think it is a wonderful lens for portrait work for subjects that don’t move, but not for children that are younger and wont stand and pose.

The 135 also feels so much lighter than the 70-200 and 200, and as I shoot for hours back to back this does has its advantages. Finally being a prime, I do find it that bit sharper than the 70-200.

Canon 100 2.8 L vs Canon 135 2.0 L

Next up the 70-200 vs. the 200. I can immediately see a difference between these longer focal length lenses compared to the 100 & 135, but I can also see quite a big difference between the background on the 70-200 (on the left) to the 200 on the right. Its much creamier, with less contrast, plus when viewed at 100% it is tac sharp. I used this lens for around an hour and it did not fail to grab one image – it is incredibly fast BUT incredibly heavy. I found myself having to put the lens down to rest my arms a number of times.

Canon 70-200 2.8 L vs Canon 200 2.0 L

Viewing these images side by side I can see that what I would be investing in is the creamy/ dreamy background but at nearly £3000 more for this lens, can I actually make the background appear the same in Photoshop? And it turns out that yes, I can get pretty close using 2 or 3 layers which I can turn into an action for myself.

I added a layer of lens blur, reduced the contrast and then added a dust and scratches layer and you can see the 2 images side by side below. The image on the left is the 200 2.0L and the image on the right is the 70-200 2.8L with the Photoshop adjustments.

Canon 200 2.0L vs Canon 70-200 2.8L plus Photoshop

Conclusion

So what have I concluded from this lens test?…the rational side of my brain says that no, investing £4399 in one lens is not sensible, but my heart says stop being rational and go crazy 🙂

Would a client notice the difference in images? No, I’m pretty sure they would notice no difference in the image, especially if I waved some Photoshop magic over them.

Is it worth spending £4399 on one lens? No. I would be better to invest my money in some new back up kit or training.

Do I still want one? Yes! I still find myself browsing second hand sites should a 200 comes up for sale. This lens is best described as a ‘show pony’ which you bring out for special occasions, but it would be really nice to have one in my camera bag just incase – any-one want to timeshare on one? 😉

I would love to hear your thoughts on what is your preferred outdoor lens and why in the comments below.

5diii with the Canon 200 2.0L