Everyone has old photos. And these are important photos, because they often involve family. Good news: these photos can now be professionally restored to their old glory. Whether your photo has faded, or is cracked, or is full of imperfections, or is unsharp, or whatever other deficiencies it may have: we can do a great job of restoring them. And unlike some, we don’t just “throw them into an app”. We are editing experts, and we have a wide range of different applications and expertise, and we use whatever is necessary to give you the best result for your particular photo. Furthermore, we can ..read more

What do I bring for a typical event shoot? The minimum I can. Which for yesterday’s event, a political meet-and-greet in Orléans, was: A camera (1Dx Mk2) A prime 35mm/1.5 lens a 70-200mm/2.8 lens A 580EX flash Spare batteries, spare flash Normally a spare camera too. So what is the reasoning? Bounce the flash (in TTL mode) off the ceiling behind you when using the 35mm lens. This means you can light, and you can add modelling – like here: Matt Luloff, Candidate MP, Camera Set to 1/60 sec, f/4, 200 ISO. 35mm is ideal for events. Consistent geometry, consistent photos. An wide enough to take c ..read more

Adobe has added “Generative Fill” to Photoshop. This is a game-changing function, that uses AI to fill in areas of your photos. The future is here. And I use Generative Fill widely and constantly, but I have some serious reservations. We should all be aware. First, you need to stay with it: it is “AI”, not quite “I” yet. Great as it is, it usually needs some manual intervention. It still saves time, but if you think that it will do things automatically without supervision and correction, you are in for a disappointment. The second objection is more serious. By using this and becoming dependent ..read more

We have a studio here at Michael Willems Photo that is nice and high – but it has a nine foot wide backdrop. I would not mind a wider backdrop, but they do not exist. So we shoot a large group like this: And then what? Simple – photoshop allows us to quickly and efficiently fill the background. Content aware fill was good; generative fill is even better. To do this well, ensure that the entire group (including the bench) is in front of the backdrop. And to achieve that, shoot from as far back as you can. The further back, the wider the backdrop appears to get. Come to our Ottawa studio any t ..read more

In our never ending endeavour to provide the services a community needs, we do more than just portraits and photo printing, at the studio. In particular, I mean services like: Media conversions. If you have old VHS cassettes, or smaller video, or Super8 film, or most other media formats, even reel to reel audio tape, we can convert it for you and put it on a USB key or similar. 3D Printing. A new service: come to us with an .STL file, and we’ll quickly and efficiently make your 3D print. Photo restoration: we fix your old photos, however damaged they are. 35mm film developing: of course we ta ..read more

A word about our in-house PREMIUM PRINTS at Michael Willems Photo. First of all, they are “Giclée” prints. Giclée is a French term meaning “to spray”, referring to how an inkjet printer works and how giclee prints are usually produced. These large format inkjet printers use small spraying devices that can both match color and apply ink very precisely. A Giclée print is a print that: 1: Is high resolution (300 dpi or more) 2: Uses pigment-based inks, not the more usual (and cheaper) dye-based inks. Pigment-based inks give excellent colour rendition, and pigments do not fade the way dyes do ..read more

From 24 April to 14 May, we are doing a $14.95 portrait special at Place d’Orléans: This will be a separate setup in the mall. So we needed to set up Backdrop with backdrop stands Light stands with umbrellas Studio Flashes Radio triggers Camera on Tripod Laptop 4×6 photo printer Payment mechanism Order forms Envelopes Batteries, chargers, cables, power cables, and more. There’s a lot of work involved in such a setup – and we have to take it down every evening if we want to be sure nothing is stolen. Back to setting up! The post Mother’s Day Shoot first appeared on SPEEDLIGHTER.CA ..read more

The advent of the digital age has transformed the way we take, store and share photographs. With social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook becoming increasingly popular, people now primarily click pictures on their smartphones and upload them online for the world to see. In such an era, the relevance of a brick-and-mortar photography shop might seem limited at first glance. However, upon closer inspection, it is clear that such shops still hold tremendous value in the digital age. To begin with, brick-and-mortar photography shops offer a physical space where photographers can go to ge ..read more

When we quote for product photography, the client often asks “why so much? It takes just a moment to take a photo, surely?”. But as you can probably imagine, it is not as simple as that. There is more expertise and work involved than you may think. Let me show you. First, there is the setup you require. At a minimum, this: That is, a light setup of some sort – at a minimum, a light box and a nice reflective surface, but often extra “kicker” lights, special reflectors, and more. And a high-definition camera (that is a Canon 5D-SR, a special 50 Megapixel camera), and a 100mm f/2.8L macro lens ..read more

Always the contrarian, let me explain why I argue against conventional wisdom that “long lenses compress perspective”. The reason: They don’t actually do that. They only cause blurry backgrounds. What compresses perspective is your vantage point. Before I explain: let me just show you. here’s two shots I took from the same position. Same position, same camera, and using 24mm and 200mm lens focal length, respectively. Same picture: the small Christmas tree, with the jewellery store behind. Now let’s crop the heck out of that first shot, the 24mm picture. No other changes – just a *(pretty extr ..read more