London Fashion Weekend - Canon DSLR Vs Olympus MFT

I shot at The London Fashion Weekend today.  After the positive result I got from The Redbull Soapbox Race, I was keen to test out the continues focus performance of my Olympus E-PM2 again.  This time I borrowed a Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8 lens for the fashion show.  As a comparison, I wanted to compare it to my Canon EOS 650D with the 24-105mm F4 IS.

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

By shooting with both camera setup.  I can say the continues performance of the 650D with optical viewfinder is just superior to the Olympus E-PM2 with VF3 view finder.  It is not all bad, but the the C-AF+TR (continuous + Tracking) gets it wrong about 30% of the time while the Canon 650D hardly got the focus wrong.  Also the frame rate for the E-PM2 to continue to AF is very slow.  It is suppose to 5FPS, it was significantly slower, more like 3FPS.  If this was a paid job, I will shoot with a DSLR, no question.

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

Light level was very consistent but not very bright, I had to shoot at 1/400s, F4 at ISO 800.  Colour temperature was about 4400K, very close to florescent.

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

Overall, if I was to shoot another fashion show or anything that involve moving objects, Micro Four Third cameras will not be my first choice.  It is simply not consistently enough and unpredictable.  Especially if it is a paid job.  Unless Olympus and Panasonic sort out the continuous AF it will never never compete with DSLR.  I use M43 cameras because I like the small size and weight.

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

Comparing the two cameras, photo quality are very similar, and it is hard to separate them.  Canon have not produced a new sensor for the last 4 years.  Even the new 70D 20MP sensor is not much improvement to the 4 year old sensor.

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

After this event, there is no doubt the better system for continuous AF is a DSLR.  I will not use my Olympus M43 camera for any moving object.  For static objects, image quality is right there with my Canon 650D.  Shooting with two system was difficult and does not really help with such a fast pace event.  For vacations and events that do not require continuous AF I will still use my Olympus M43 camera.

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

I would like to thank WEX Photographic and Canon UK for the chance to shoot at London Fashion Weekend.  All images copyright Yat Tang.


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Travel Time Lapse Videos

I’ve been very busy traveling for my family holiday and business.  There is no time to fit in any photo shoot.  I am hoping to rectify this very soon.  While I travel, I do try to document the places I’ve been.  In the past, I would take a lot of photos and post them online.  Now I try to shoot time lapse as it is more dynamic and with social media it is easy to share.

Three places I traveled to recently are: Hong Kong for family holiday, Porto Cesareo in Southern Italy and Granada in Spain for business.  These places are just so different in terms of people, culture and environment.  Hong Kong is hot and humid and very built up and crowded.

Hong Kong 2013 from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

Porto Cesareo is hot, dusty, dry and only crowded on the beach during the day.  It is a very popular destination for Italians to go on holiday.  In the town centre, it can be difficult to get a table for the evening meal during peak times.  The Italians just love to walk around, look at people, have an ice cream or coffee after the meal.

Porto Cesareo August 2013 from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

Granada in Spain is next to the Sierra Navada mountain which has a popular ski resort in the winter.  In the summer, car companies takes over the mountain road for high altitude testing.  The city is beautiful and it is full of history.


My Two Weeks in Granada from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoy watching these time lapse videos.  Any feedback are welcome.


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Epping Forest Shoot with Vanessa Sicre

Summer was late arriving in the UK and I am going way on holiday and various business trips over the summer.  This mean I will not be shooting much in August and September.  Before the trips, I wanted to do a shoot that reflects the hot summer.  Vanessa replied to my casting call I placed on purpleport.com.  I already have a good idea of what I wanted from this shoot, but Vanessa also came in with a lot of her ideas.  We did quite a bit of email communication before the shoot.  She arrived at the shoot with sample images printed out as reference.

It just shows you can never be sure of the final outcomes of the photo shoot.  While I planned a swimwear shoot, my favourite image from this shoot was a fashion image of Vanessa sitting on a large tree branch in the forest.  The branch is at head height and it was difficult for Vanessa to climb up there.  Once on the branch she had to be very careful not to fall off.  However, I was bitten by thousands of mosquitos in the forest.

We ended the shoot with a quirky image of Vanessa wearing a T shirt with a bow tie sewed on.  This was shot against a bright red metal door in bright sun light.  The contrast of the bright colour made the image pop.  Again a totally unexpected image from this shoot.

It was only a short photo shoot, but I enjoyed working with Vanessa and would like to plan something in the future with her.


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Belt Craft Studio Shoot with Alexandra

This was a shoot I did a little while ago, but only got round to write about it.  The inspiration for it same from a set of images I saw of Keira Knightley in Marie Claire magazine.  I kept a set of those images in my file for future shoots.  All I need was a location that resembles that of those photos.  When I saw photos of Belt Craft Studio, I just knew that was place.

I contacted Alexandra, a model I shot with before, because she would be perfect for this.  Fortunately, she was keen to do it as well.  Crystal Edwards completed the team to do makeup and hair.  On the day, it all come together and we got a great set of images.

This behind the scene time lapse video sums up the day shooting.


Photo Shoot at Belt Craft Studio - Behind the Scene from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

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Flower Theme Beauty Shoot with Donna and Jade

I did a fruit theme beauty shoot earlier this year which was inspired by images I saw of Rankin.  This was a follow on from the original theme, except this time I wanted to shoot with flowers and plants.  Before I selected the models and studio, I asked Robyn Skinner if she would like to do the hair and makeup.  She is a MUA I’ve worked with before and very happy with her work.  She was very enthusiastic came up with a number of options for the makeup and hair.  Once Robyn was on board this project, I asked Donna and Jade, a couple of models I’ve worked with before and they were also keen to do this.

I shot all the images as Dock Road Studio, in Brentford London.  With beauty shoot, lighting is so important, shooting in a studio I can precisely control the lights.  The key light was a large beauty dish, a snoot for the background and a softbox/gridded beauty dish was used for hair light from behind.  Nothing fancy but precisely controlled.  It would be difficult to do on location.

This is a short time lapse video showing the makeup and lighting set up for Donna.

Beauty Shoot with Donna Time Lapse from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

With beauty shoots, when you have models that can give you the looks you want, most of the work is actually done by the makeup artist and hair stylist.  In this case, Robyn did a great job with both hair and make for Donna and Jade.

This is a short time lapse video showing the makeup and lighting for Jade.

Beauty Shoot with Jade Time Lapse from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

Like all photo shoots, more time was spent in planning and post processing than the actual shooting the images.  It really helps when you work with professional people who can deliver during a shoot.  I really like the results I achieved with this beauty shoot and want to do more.  All I need is a little more time and a theme.

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Continuous Focus Performance of Olympus E-PM2

Personally, I always thought the continuous focus of the micro four thirds cameras to be poor and have not use it at all.  At the weekend I attended the Red Bull Soapbox Race in London.  For the first time I used the continuous focus on moving objects.  The soapboxes were travelling reasonably fast, and they were coming towards me.  I shot at Sequential Low at 3.5 FPS so the camera can focus between shots.  The focus mode I used was C-AF+TR (continuous auto focus with tracking) and to my surprise, it got more photos in focus than out of focus.  All images were shot with the Olympus 40-150mm IIR MSC lens.

Rather than talking about it, here are a few sequences.  The first sequence shows a VW camper van which is in focus through out.

This sequence was slightly less successful, but most of the images were in focus.  A couple of frames were under exposed.

Slightly out of focus

Much better but ever slightly out of focus

All good from here

Totally out of focus here

Out of focus and under exposed

Then it is good from here

Finally, here is another sequence that is in focus and well exposed.  This soapbox was travelling very fast towards me.

I was delighted to capture these sequences of images from this event.  The focus system exceeded my expectation and will be using my camera in more sports events in future.

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