P5L3 Coverdale, Yorkshire Dales, UK

Above: this is Coverdale, one of the more remote and least visited of the Yorkshire Dales. I had to drive right up on a verge to squeeze the car past the horns of a whole herd of Highland cattle that steadfastly refused to move from the middle of the road to get here. Still, it was worth it to get this shot. 
V16L1 Ashness Bridge and Barrow Beck, Keswick, Lake District, UK Ashness Bridge and Catbells, near Keswick, Lake District. Everyone needs a pretty view every now and then - and this is prettier than most. 
P5L29 Ullswater and Helvellyn Range, Lake District, UK Ullswater and Helvellyn Range. A much more normal, moody Lake District scene. 
V16L2 Honister Pass, Lake District, UK Honister Pass, Lake District. The wettest place in Britain. No sign of it here. 
V11L6 NWT Hickling Broad, Norfolk, UK NWT Hickling Broad, Norfolk - one of the lovelier and wilder parts of the Broads.

P5L16 The Lowlands From Carter Bar, Border Between England and Scotland, UK Lowlands of Scotland from Carter Bar. Probably my widest panoramic yet - 17:1 aspect ratio and 130,000 pixels wide by 7,500 pixels high. At 3m high, this would be 51m long! Who has a REALLY big wall they want a mural on?
P5L10 Kielder Forest Drive, Northumberland, UK Blakehope Nick, Kielder Forest Drive, Northumberland. The highest point of one of the highest roads in the country and a stunning viewpoint. 
V11L3 Newgale Sands, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK Newgale Sands and St Bride's Bay, Pembrokeshire, Wales. One of the wildest and most beautiful parts of Britain, especially in storms in Winter. The lone beach walker here helps portray the scale of this 4 mile wide, magnificent, Atlantic coastline. 
V11L25 Traeth Llyfn Beach, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK Traeth Llyfn Beach, Pembrokeshire, Wales. A remote and unspoilt beach - we were alone for hours here, even in Summer. 
V16L15 Whitefield Moor, New Forest, UK Whitefield Moor, New Forest. At the other end of the country but no less magical: near to this spot, I watched about 30 New Forest ponies come down to the river for their morning drink. I even had to move off a bridge for them. A very special place. 
V15L5 Wheatfen - Ted Ellis Nature Reserve, Norfolk, UK The hidden Norfolk Broads jewel that is Wheatfen Broad, aka Ted Ellis Nature Reserve. A delight at any time of year, but early on a Winter's morning, with that low sun and warm tones against the cool blue... fabulous!
P5L36 Winter Tree Silhouettes We'll round this off with one of my favourite subjects - Winter trees. This one taken back in good old Norfolk, on a beautifully crisp Winter's evening. 

P5F3 Bluebells and Young Oaks, Hill House Wood, Essex

P5F15 Rhinefield Forest Drive, New Forest, UK

P5F22 Autumn, Thetford Forest, UK

P5F25 Autumn, Thetford Forest, UK

If you are sensing a theme amongst this latest batch of images, then you'd get top marks for observation... Autumn and Spring are my two favourite times to visit woods and forests. Don't ask me to choose between them though - both have their magic!

V12F8 Bluebells, Dockey Wood, Buckinghamshire, UK

This is Dockey Wood in Buckinghamshire. One of the most magnificent bluebell spectacles in Britain, no doubt. There had been a lot of rain previous to my visit on this occasion and the mud was so deep in places, it felt like the Somme. Still, the struggle was worth it to return with such beautiful images. 
V16F3 Giant Redwoods, Rhinefield Forest Drive, New Forest, UK One of the grandest forest views in Britain is at Rhinefield Forest Drive in the New Forest. You can see the two tallest Giant Redwoods in the UK in a magnificent vista. They are just babies at 170 years old - the adults are double this height and three times the width at the base!

V15F9 Autumn, Thetford Forest, UK We'll close this blog post with another delicate Autumnal colours image from Thetford Forest. It's a joy and a privilege to be able to capture such beauty and peace - they are so much needed in the world right now.

SEE THE ARTWORKS IN THE SALE HERE: https://www.richardosbourne.com/p396572768

You can download a brochure here (49MB).

Richard Osbourne Super High Resolution Texture Images Collection

V11BG55 Chinese Red V14T13 At Full Wall Size V14T86 Concrete Smooth V7BG2 Macassar Wood V14T43 Old Red Brick Wall 1

V14T154 Forest Patterns V14T143 Water Reflections

Download this PDF brochure (16MB)

Ancora House for Gilling Dod Architects Ancora House for Gilling Dod Architects Thursford Castle for LSI Architects Thursford Castle for LSI Architects The Wherry School, Norwich for Kier Group UEA Blackdale Residences for LSI Architects UEA Blackdale Residences for LSI Architects UEA Blackdale Residences for LSI Architects Institution of Engineering & Technology, Savoy Place, London for Snelling Business Systems Institution of Engineering & Technology, Savoy Place, London for Snelling Business Systems Dove House Green and The Ivy, Chelsea for Property Developer Dove House Green and The Ivy, Chelsea for Property Developer BMI Chaucer Hospital, Canterbury for LSI Architects BMI The Hampshire Clinic Endoscopy Suite for LSI Architects Earlham Hall Courtyard, UEA for LSI Architects UEA Bus Stop Canopy for LSI

2016 Season Set Design - Sky Sports 'Sunday Supplement' with Leicester City FC and Leicester image as backdrop. Each season, the image used is from the winners of the previous season's football Premiership. 2016 was Leicester City FC, 2017 was Chelsea FC. After pounding the streets of Chelsea, poring over maps and many calls and emails to hotels, councils and other property owners, it became obvious that there are NO suitable buildings in Chelsea.

The client then suggested we could use the Sky News helicopter to get the shots. OK, well that's an interesting development! I'd been wanting to try open-door aerial shooting for a while but the opportunity hadn't arisen. I was also not convinced that the IQ260 and DF+ camera would be suitable for this work as fast shutter speeds and high ISO's were going to be necessary.

The size of the image on the set is 7m x 3.5m. That is a very large print and with 4K TV, the highest possible image quality would be needed. On a tripod, stitching multiple images, this would be no problem. I hadn't heard of many people stitching panoramas from helicopters, but single shots would not be sufficient, no matter which camera I used. 

So, big megapixels, at least 1000th/sec shutter speed, ISO400-800, wide-angle zoom lens.... only one possibility: the Phase One XF with the IQ3100 digital back and 40-80LS lens, though I had no idea if this was going to work. Using an entirely unfamiliar and untested camera for an entirely new shooting situation would normally be a recipe for disaster. The excellent guys at Teamwork and Phase One assured me that all would be well.

Picking up the XF/IQ3100 with the 40-80 zoom for the first time at Teamwork was a laugh-out-loud moment. It is huge! And heavy... at nearly 4Kg, it weighs more than a Canon 1DX with 300F2.8 lens. In the shop, it felt OTT, especially compared with the Sony A7R I use as a backup! However, this heft became a positive advantage in the air: hanging out of a helicopter, being buffeted by winds and downdraft, the camera shrank in the hand to a very manageable size and its weight greatly increased stability. It felt reassuringly solid.

V11C1 Aerial View of Houses of Parliament and The Thames, Westminster, London, UK Open door helicopter flights have some specific requirements. In the first instance we had to pay a hefty premium on our insurance for that one flight. We had to provide a full risk assessment and method statement. Then there was the weather. The level of unpredictability in forecasts has now reached a high level - it's increasingly difficult to plan with certainty. Then the news agenda went crazy. Multiple events requiring aerial coverage, day after day, meant the helicopter wasn't available and then had to go in for a service. Then I had to make sure every piece of gear - including me - can be tethered to the airframe of the aircraft. I used camera tethers for attaching to the camera neckstrap loops and tool lanyards with karabiners for attaching to the airframe, a 3-point body-harness for me, a head strap for my glasses, a bungee cord with karabiners for the camera case, and a beanie hat to keep the hair out of my eyes. Lens caps should also be removed and under no circumstances can there be any changing of lenses! So if you want a different view, keeping a second camera round your neck is essential.

I felt paranoid about items falling from the aircraft on to people below. I decided not to use the metal lens hood on the 40-80 lens after seeing an online video about them working loose and potentially falling. This was a mistake as a lot of shots were ruined by flare. Instead I could have just taped the lens hood on: one for future flights. 

In the tortuous drive out of London towards Redhill Aerodrome, the afternoon I had planned to get acquainted with the camera disappeared and I was left with 20 minutes before the flight to do LCC's, check the settings, and try to get a feel for it. It is testament to Phase One that it just worked - I set it to manual, 1/2000 sec/ISO 800/F11 and AF on and had zero problems - though many of the shots were a stop or more underexposed as clouds came across the Sun. The only things I changed were the orientation of the camera between portrait and landscape and the zoom.

 After a quick discussion with the pilot about flight plan, a safety briefing, attaching all the straps and safety checks, we finally had lift off! It's an easy 10 minute flight into central London - the envy of commuters - with the door closed. As we got to the location, I opened the door as I'd been shown in the safety briefing: wow, a 1250ft drop with no safety barrier! I was wearing both a harness that's secured to the airframe, and a seat belt so it actually felt really secure. Although we finally had perfect weather, we had to circle Stamford Bridge stadium for a few minutes to wait for my old frenemies the clouds to clear the sun.

Once we had the light, I asked the pilot to hover in the right spot so I could take a series of overlapping images for a stitched panorama. Hovering is not easy for helicopters: even a moderate wind moves them around so the panoramas were a bit all over the place. I had to compensate by taking more shots with more overlap than normal. Hence needing 1/2000 sec shutter speed. With such high resolution, even the slightest camera shake in one of the images could ruin a panorama.

I could probably have dropped to 1/1000sec and ISO400 - another lesson for next time - but even at ISO800, the files are strong and only show a bit of noise when pushed in the shadows. ISO400 - and even ISO200 at F8 - would work better as the colour and dynamic range (good at 800) would be both be improved. Just for comparison, the IQ260 isn't really useable above ISO140, so this is a remarkable performance for a medium format camera. 

I should say something about the 40-80 lens. This is equivalent to 25-50mm in 35mm format and seems just about perfect for aerial work. If you go much wider, the helicopter blades or skids start to appear at the edges of the frame. With 100MPixels, it's easy to crop to 70 or 100mm equivalent focal length and still have a high resolution shot. The claim for this lens is that it replaces prime lenses and I would have to agree with it: image quality across the frame is outstanding at all focal lengths. Low distortion, no falloff in image quality at the edges of the frame, no chromatic aberrations - these things really matter in architectural work, and especially when photographing entire cityscapes for large-scale reproduction. On the limiting side, the huge 105mm front element means that using filters is not easy - only 150mm filters will work. For aerial work this isn't an issue really - you don't want anything that might catch the wind or become detached so it's best to avoid them. A polariser might be OK for a very bright day and would improve the photos but it's one more thing to have to control - maybe in later shoots. In early research, I thought that optical image stabilisation on 35mm systems might be needed but it doesn't work above about 1/500 shutter speed so it was a non-issue.

For the Sky Sports panoramas, I took both vertical (11,219 pixels resolution vertically) and horizontal (8416 pixels) shots. This was to give the client multiple options for the framing of the stadium against the skyline and differing balance of sky and city. With a lower resolution back, the horizontal framing would not have been high enough resolution. 

We circled the stadium a few times until I was certain we had a good selection: we could have flown a bit lower - though I didn't realise this at the time - and the lower the shooting height, the less 'aerial' the images look. There are strict height restrictions for flying over London and I thought the pilot was keeping to the minimum. Another one for next time! I was then free to take some general London aerials as we had some flight time before flying back. 

V11C8 Aerial View of The City of London, UK We circled the heart of London and the City, which was jaw-dropping from above. An amazing moment came as we flew directly over the Gherkin and I just took my eye away from the camera for a moment and soaked in the view: OK, wow, that's spectacular!

V11C3 Aerial View of The City of London, UK The XF camera really came into its own at this point. I did not stop shooting until the card was full - the one and only time I have filled up a 64GB card, with 500 shots in 20 minutes! The XF didn't flinch, complain, lock-up or draw attention to itself - a big step forward from the DF+. It was also very comfortable in the hand, surprisingly even with the huge 40-80 lens.

V11C14 Aerial View of London, UK The Results
The client chose a horizontal-shot panorama for their set. The high res file is 18287 x 8093 pixels.

Processing
As you can see, the level of detail and overall quality in the images is remarkable, especially considering the ISO800 setting. Bear in mind that when looking at 100% crops, this would give a full size image of 4.1m x 3.1m at 72dpi screen resolution! At any smaller sizes, the files are super-crisp. Capture One makes the best of the files - the highlights and shadows are very controllable and well-isolated so in some shots I've put both sliders at 100 without the image looking unnatural.

Most files needed some work to bring out the best: highlight and shadow recovery, 1 stop more exposure, +20 saturation, noise reduction, horizon straightening, a good slug of clarity and a little contrast to counteract the effects of haze. Virtually every file had the horizon at a slightly different angle.

Conclusions

PROS
- Aerial shooting from a helicopter is addictive. Definitely something I'll be doing more of, especially in cities.
- The XF/IQ3100/40-80LS combination is exceptional and more or less the perfect camera for aerial work.
- The super high resolution gives great detail in the files, with a lot of room for cropping, rotation, keystone correction and options for final output.
- 15 stop dynamic range, low noise and great colour of the IQ3100 back.
- XF camera is robust, intuitive and reliable.
- Aerial panoramas can be done but need careful planning and high shutter speeds.
 

CONS
- Aerial shooting is normally very expensive and requires a lot of preparation including bureaucracy.
- Editing over 650 images is a monster task (inc. A7R files) - especially so many huge 100Mpixel files.
- Weight of the XF/IQ3100/40-80LS is fine for an hour but represents serious weight training if used for longer!
- Can't use filters or polariser easily.
- Lens flare without hood.

Final selection of London aerial shots can be seen here.

Big thanks to Teamwork Digital Ltd. for supplying the Phase One gear and technical support, and to Arena Aviation.

We have found that these types of image are perfect for artworks - especially in healthcare, where the healing presence of the natural world can help heal patients up to 20% quicker than other types of art or if there is no art on the walls. These also work very well in offices and conference centres where a welcoming and calming atmosphere helps get the best productivity out of people and environments. Contact us for further information about how we can transform and uplift your working environments. 

V10W14 NWT Wayland Wood, Norfolk, UK

V10N1 NWT Ranworth Broad, Norfolk, UK

V9N20 NWT New Buckenham Common, Norfolk, UK

V10W18 NWT Wayland Wood, Norfolk, UK

V11F6 NWT Ringstead Downs, Norfolk, UK

V11MF1 NWT Holt Lowes, Norfolk, UK

P4L13 NWT Roydon Common, Norfolk, UK

P2W2 Cley Marshes, NorfolkMidsummer Sunset

V9F42 Dawn, NWT Wayland Wood, Norfolk, UK

V4N11 Holme Dunes

V9N19 NWT New Buckenham Common, Norfolk, UKUltra Resolution
8811 x 6602 pixels
Phase One IQ260 / Cambo Wide RS / Rodenstock 28HR Lens

V4F7 Thursford Wood I, Norfolk

V9W4 Primroses and Bluebells, NWT Wayland Wood, Norfolk, UKUltra Resolution
8054 x 5904 pixels
Phase One IQ260 / Cambo Wide RS / Rodenstock 28HR Lens

V9F1 NWT Swangey Fen, Norfolk, UK

V6N55 NWT Foxley Wood, Norfolk, UK

V5F24 Upton Broad, Norfolk Broads, UK V2L11 Bluebells, Foxley Wood, Norfolk V4N48 NWT Hickling Broad, Norfolk Broads, Norfolk, UK V4W13 Greater Stitchwort, Lower Wood Ashwellthorpe V10D11 NWT Ashwellthorpe Lower Wood, Norfolk, UK

P4L20 Cul Mor, Coigach, Scotland, UK

P4S4 The Summer Isles, Coigach, Scotland, UK

V10RS21 Cul Mor, Stac Pollaidh, Cul Beag, Ben More Coigach, Coigach, Scotland, UK

P4W2 Lochan an Ais, Ben More Coigach and Cul Beag, Coigach, Scotland, UK V10RS13 Stac Pollaidh, Coigach, Scotland, UK

The brochure can be downloaded here (24MB).

V10BG19 Statuary Marble

V10BG22 Shadowlands

V10BG21 Daino Marble Natural

V10BG48 Shadow

V10BG67 Electric Universe

V10BG83 Shivakashi Granite Moonlit Night

P4C39 Thames Evening - The Shard, City Hall, City of London and Tower of London, London, UK Click on the above image to see the latest London panoramics. Click on the image below to see latest regular format London images:

V9C60 Tower Bridge, London, UK

Recent installations at UHSM Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester used a number of my images - especially Peak District panoramics and many wildflower images. You can read more about them by clicking the image below:

UHSM Wythenshawe Hospital Hybrid TheatresSurprise View, Peak District Panoramic - 7.5m x 2.5m Vinyl Prints

Another recent installation was at Salford Royal, this time in the Outpatients waiting areas and Theatre Corridor. See more by clicking the image below:

Salford Royal PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit

Our installation schedule has been such that most of last year's images haven't been processed yet! Watch this space for updates. 

You may have noticed that this website has had a bit of a Spring clean. It should make it easier to navigate around the images. I'm also now on lots of other social media platforms - Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr - with more coming. Click the links at the top right to connect with me there. And if you want to know what the large London installation was, click here.

(56MB, opens in new window. You can right click to download to a folder of your choice).

This brochure contains selected images from a unique collection of super-high resolution images, one of the first available in the UK. Taken by British photographic artist Richard Osbourne over 12 years, it contains a wide range of photographs of Britain and other countries, plus many abstract images suitable for textures and pattern backgrounds. All images have been taken on the highest quality equipment, using meticulous technique and have an integrity and quality that is immediately obvious when printed at large sizes.

Richard’s panoramic images in particular are unique: ranging from 500MB to 2GB, these are much higher resolution and often much wider than the panoramic images available on most stock libraries. High resolution images give a very satisfying sense of ‘being at the scene’ that cannot be matched by low resolution files that have been blown up to large sizes. You won’t find pixellation, ‘jaggies’, blotches, poor colour in any of these images when used at larger sizes. The panoramic images range from 3:1 up to 10:1 aspect ratios: a 3m high wall could have an image up to 30m long with no repeats!

Super High Resolution Art Images Brochure*** CLICK TO DOWNLOAD PDF IN NEW WINDOW (56MB) ***

You can also download their brochure in full here.

Southern Counties Glass, Richard Osbourne Gallery

What else? Well, I've been shooting intensively in London for upcoming projects - examples below from Royal Victoria Docks - and I currently have over 50 shoots that need processing... for reasons that will become clear soon! Let's just say that all the super-wide, super-high resolution panoramas and super-high resolution images need to be more widely-known.

V9C29 Royal Victoria Dock, Docklands, London, UKSuper High Resolution
8984 x 6732 pixels
Phase One IQ260 / DF+ Camera / 75-150mm lens

P4C57 Royal Victoria Dock, Docklands, London, UKUltra Resolution 79632 x 8695 pixels

This is the new Riverside Offices in Lowestoft for LSI Architects:

And this is the Simon Aspinall Centre at Norfolk Wildlife Trust's Cley Marshes, for LSI Architects:

Hadleigh Park for Morgan Sindall:

The new Colchester Park and Ride, also for Morgan Sindall:

And this right here... this is my bonkers new Gitzo tripod - able to get well above ground-based obstructions and give a different perspective on buildings!

V9W4 Primroses and Bluebells, NWT Wayland Wood, Norfolk, UK

V9F10 Dawn, NWT Wayland Wood, Norfolk, UK

I've finally got round to photographing some of Kent. Here's the very special Hever Castle:

V9L14 Hever Castle, Kent, UKSuper High Resolution
7360 x 4912 pixels

And finally, Southern Counties Glass had a stand at Grand Designs Live recently, and made excellent use of my images on their stand, especially the big London panorama at 4m x 0.9m (P3C37 - here):

Southern Counties Glass, Stand at Grand Designs Live, May 2015

Image V7F27 at 4m x 2.5m, Printed glass wall

BMI Alexandra Hospital RestaurantPhotoWall Wallpaper PhotoWall Wallpaper Texture, 7.5m x 1.8m, P3L45 Mam Tor Summit

BMI Alexandra Hospital, CheadlePhotoGlassworks Front Lit PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit, 1200 x 1200mm, Image: V8L21 Mam Tor Summit, Peak District

PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit, 1200 x 1200mm, V8L21 Dawn, Mam Tor Summit, Peak District

BMI Alexandra Hospital, CheadlePhotoGlassWorks Front Lit

PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit Diptych 2700 x 900mm. Image: P3L50 Surprise View, Peak District

BMI Alexandra Hospital, CheadlePhotoWall Wallpaper PhotoWall Textured 3m x 1.33m. Image: P3L62 Greenfield Reservoir, Greenfield, Peak District

And here, just for fun is a timelapse of the installation of the PhotoWall wallpaper!

PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit, 1200 x 1200mm, Image: V8L21 Mam Tor Summit, PPhotoGlassWorks Front Lit, 1200 x 1200mm, V8L21 Dawn, Mam Tor Summit, Peak District

PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit, 1200 x 1200mm, Image: V8L21 Mam Tor Summit, Peak DisPhotoGlassWorks Front Lit, 1200 x 1200mm, V8L21 Dawn, Mam Tor Summit, Peak District

Salford Royal Hospital NHS, 2014PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit

Fracture Clinic, PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit, Diptych, 1800 x 1350mm

Salford Royal Hospital NHS, 2014PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit

Fracture Clinic,PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit, Diptychs, 2700 x 900mm

Salford Royal Hospital NHS, 2014PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit

Fracture Clinic,PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit, Triptych, 4050 x 900mm

Salford Royal Hospital NHS, 2014PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit

Heart Clinic, PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit, 1350 x 900mm, with smaller pieces showing the image of the artwork inside the room - this is for dementia patients.

Salford Royal Hospital NHS, 2014PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit

Heart Clinic, PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit, 1350 x 900mm

Salford Royal Hospital NHS, 2014PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit

Irving Corridor, PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit, Hexaptych, 8100 x 900mm 

Salford Royal Hospital NHS, 2014PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit

Irving Corridor, PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit, Hexaptych, 8100 x 900mm 

Salford Royal Hospital NHS, 2014PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit

Irving Corridor, PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit, 1350 x 900mm

Salford Royal Hospital NHS, 2014PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit

Irving Corridor, PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit, Triptych, 4050 x 900mm

Salford Royal Hospital NHS, Brooke BuildingPhotoWall Textured Wallpaper, 5m x 2.5m

Brooke Building, PhotoWall Wallpaper Textured, 5m x 2.5m

Salford Royal Hospital NHS, Brooke BuildingPhotoWall Textured Wallpaper, 5m x 2.5m

Brooke Building, PhotoWall Wallpaper Textured, 5m x 2.5m

It was a crazy 20 hour day earlier in March. Fifteen miles of walking carrying 30kg of gear led to a visit to the osteopath later in the week. Here are the results: http://www.richardosbourne.com/london  and  http://www.richardosbourne.com/londonpanoramics

The City of London

Crome Court, UEA Norwich for LSI Architects

This is UTC Norfolk:

UTC Norfolk for LSI Architects

Perthshire in Scotland, many around Manchester and the Peak District, Thetford Forest and Waxham in Norfolk. 

Thetford Forest. Phase One IQ260, Cambo WR-S 1250, Rodenstock Digaron 28 Lens.

Cheapside, London - testing out the Sony A7R on a walk through the City of London. Results? Pretty good I think. Certainly my shoulders thanked me for the light weight of the system!

Blackstone Edge Moor, Peak District - Zero degrees C and got this in between the snow showers! Phase One IQ260, Cambo WR-S 1250, Rodenstock Digaron 28 Lens, doubled ND grads. 
Birks of Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland. Stunning place - and stunning weather! This dell, with the Moness Burn running through it, was as magical a place as any in Britain. Lord of the Rings territory! Sony A7R Panorama - 15 shots stitched (crop from full image).

Waxham, Norfolk - Beautiful end to a beautiful afternoon, just after Christmas 2014. Some of the seals from nearby Horsey were on the beach with us. Sony A7R. 

Strawberries

And these studio shots of flowers:
V8FL12 Red Gerbera

I'd added many new panoramas of Blackpool, Lancashire, Pembrokeshire and Suffolk:
P3S32 South Pier, Blackpool, Lancashire, UK Lots of new Details of Nature
Moness Burn, Birks of Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland

Click on this photo to view latest images:
 

V8L19 Dawn, Mam Tor Summit, Peak District, Derbyshire, UK

And click on this photo to view latest panoramics:

P3L50 Surprise View, Peak District, Derbyshire, UK

A few new shoots first of all - these are the ones uploaded so far: Wayland Wood, Alderfen Broad, Bretts Wood, all for Norfolk Wildlife Trust.
 

V8W9 Bluebells, NWT Wayland Wood, Norfolk, UK

And what of the installations? Well, here's the one that has taken most of our time: 300 artworks installed in UHSM Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester. As part of making wards more accessible and navigable for the increasing numbers of dementia patients, UHSM commissioned us to put artworks in all 28 wards of one of the North West's largest hospitals. Many new local city and nature images were required - something of a challenge in Winter, with just 1 month to plan and shoot! Many spontaneous visits to Manchester and environs were necessary, no small matter when it's a 250 mile drive each way.

Each ward has a selection of nature images, local nature images and local city images. A month was spent photographing and processing images from around Manchester. Then another month selecting images and artworking so they can be made into our PhotoPanel, PhotoWall, PhotoWindow and PhotoGlassWorks products. Finally, we spent another month - the whole of March - on site installing all 300 pieces - which included driving 700 miles per week and a lot of nights in hotels.

The responses to the work were overwhelmingly positive. The words 'calm' and 'bright' were used a lot - very much what I'm aiming for with all our installations. Patients, nurses, doctors, cleaners, porters, visitors - all appreciated the improvement in the quality of their environment. It's my sincere wish that the artworks make what is an intense and sometimes frightening place to be into somewhere a little softer and more friendly.

UHSM Wythenshawe Hospital - Panoramic Triptych PhotoPanel, 4050 x 900mm

UHSM Wythenshawe Hospital - PhotoWall Laminated Wallpaper, 5m x 2.2m

Of course, that wasn't the only installation we've worked on over the last 10 months. Salford Royal, also in Manchester, have kept us busy. One our widest panoramic glass artworks went into the refurbished Irving Corridor - a mammoth 9 to1, 8.1m x 0.9m PhotoGlassWork!

Salford Royal, Irving Corridor - PhotoGlassWorks Front Lit Hexaptych 8100 x 900mm

And Trinity Hospice in Blackpool got some interesting PhotoWall laminated wallpapers and PhotoGlassWorks as part of their refurbishment programme:

PhotoWall Laminated Wallpaper 9.5 x 2.4m

I should mention the amazing new camera(s) that arrived in January. Based on a Phase One IQ260 60Mpixel medium format digital back, I'm now using a beautiful Cambo WRS 1250 technical camera and a Mamiya 645DF+ and the results are startlingly good. It's a real pleasure to be using such high quality equipment, knowing that every shot is as good as it can be - apart from when the clown behind the camera gets it wrong of course!

It's always a bit of an ordeal getting new gear. There's the hardware side, getting to know how to use it in the field but then there's also the software side - tweaking Capture One to give the best results is a process of trial and error. Every digital back and camera is different and moving from the P45+ (which I still think is very special indeed) to the IQ260 was quite a jump as the IQ260 is more neutral out of camera. More MPixels also means all the existing lenses come under scrutiny - which takes time and can be a bit disheartening. So far though, the investment has been more than worth it, so, onward!

Cambo WRS 1250 Technical Camera, Rodenstock 28 T/S lens, Phase One IQ260 Medium Format Digital Back.User comments On Newgale Beach, Pembrokeshire with the Mamiya 645 and Phase One IQ260.

Finally, I should mention that there are a spectacular number of new images to be processed and uploaded soon - shoots in Lancashire, Manchester, Cheshire, Pembrokeshire, Norfolk, even fruit and veg shoots in the studio. Watch this space!

Yes, I've just spent the last 2 months processing 8,000 images... Last year was a crazy year and there was a huge backlog of images to process and get on the website - Iceland, Italy, Scottish cities, snow, London, Autumn trees… even wildflowers from last May. Most of these were taken with the Phase One P45+ medium format digital back which has been giving incredible results. You can see a selection of recent images here. In addition, there are now many other recent shoots on the site: bluebell woods, Birmingham, Salford, wildflowers, and the North Norfolk coast.

And I'm glad you asked about the showroom...I'm very pleased to announce that we have indeed just opened our first showroom in Woodford, London. You can see it here. My images are now available on glass as shower screens, wall cladding, wet rooms, kitchen splash backs and glass artworks. Contact us for more information.

Maternity Corridor, Salford Royal

We've recently installed more wonderful artworks at Salford Royal which now has one of the best collections of my work in the country. Big 5m+ panoramas are very cool indeed and really transform environments.

Lastly, architectural and interior photography has also been keeping me very busy with projects all over Britain. You can see the latest images here.

July 2012 saw us in Firenze to photograph an extraordinary ballet. Not my usual subject matter but it was a really special opportunity to see cutting edge artistic work - the art of my spiritual teacher Adi Da Samraj, combined with the ballet performance of the Florence Dance Company, the music of renowned Florentine composer Andrea Portera, and the music of Adi Da's daughter Naamleela Free Jones being performed by her. If that sounds extraordinary, I can tell you it definitely was! You can see a few of the images here: http://www.richardosbourne.com/ntip2012

We'll be heading back to Florence (via some interesting places) this month for another performance of Not-Two Is Peace. More info here.

September 2012 was a remarkable month. We spent a week in Iceland and managed to drive around the entire ring road in that time. It would have been better to take a month but nonetheless, I managed to capture a few of the jaw-dropping landscapes. An quick selection of images here - full processing is still awaiting my attention! http://www.richardosbourne.com/p858046894
 

On returning from Iceland, I found out that 13 of my images had received 'Honourable Mentions' in the 2012 International Photography Awards - which was pretty amazing. Images here. 

P2F3 Thursford Wood, Norfolk
October, November and December 2012, and January, February and now March 2013 have kept us hard at it producing a lot of PhotoGlassWorks for clients all over the UK, in particular Salford Royal NHS Hospital and Withybush Hospital in West Wales, backlit PhotoGlassWorks for Q Hotels, and a lot of interior photography for various clients. Installations can be seen here.

In amongst the demands of new installations, I've managed to get some pretty decent shoots in areas such as West Wales, Thetford Forest in the Autumn, and many others awaiting processing.

If you want to keep up to date with my latest images and activities, my Facebook page is the best way. 'Like' here.



 

Two-week photographic shoots are fairly major undertakings with a lot of potentially tricky issues: being far away from help if anything breaks being the main one. This is quite apart from the normal demands of fickle weather, exploring new landscapes, vehicle reliability, harmonious relations with spouse (or not) etc. So taking two completely unfamiliar pieces of equipment away with me was bordering on foolhardy. And so it proved. Sort of!

I decided to take a laptop and a calibrated 20" monitor so that I could see exactly what was going on with the files. Although this meant setting up and breaking down a whole system (including a tablet and 2 backup drives) in each of the 2 cottages we stayed in, and working on the computer each evening (not exactly a break from my usual days) it actually was the right decision as there were a few issues that I wouldn't have spotted on the laptop screen alone, such as tilt and focus accuracy, vignetting, and the chance to see the files at a decent size and with correct colours.

On the first day, my wife Alison looked over my shoulder at the files I had shot: she said, 'I don't know why those pictures look different but they do. It was worth it.'  I was amazed. I'd spent months bothering her about which gear to buy, whether to lease a load of new - and astonishingly expensive - equipment, and here she was telling me it had all been worth it!

LJ-48
The Phase back was definitely the right choice and produced some remarkable images but it had an issue with it's ability to recognise CF cards: I realised that the previous owner had used it exclusively tethered so the CF card contacts had oxidised. With a bit of use, this issue more or less went away, but not before I spent a  couple of hours running around Balleyboffey in the Republic of Ireland trying to find some new CF cards. Not an afternoon I would like to repeat.

To cut a long story short, the Hartblei wasn't the ideal field camera - it was a bit too heavy, a bit delicate and hard to handle for the kinds of wild places (and weathers) I was working in. It also had some reliability issues, which were sorted out by Stefan at Hartblei.

By that time however, I'd decided that I maybe needed to look at a more traditional technical camera and when one came up for sale on ebay - a very rare occurrence - I bought a Cambo Wide DS with Schneider 24 and 35XL lenses. The seller was an eminent landscape photographer called Tony Howell, who had got very good use out of this specialist camera. With the P45+ the 24mm lens is equivalent to a 16 or 17mm field of view on the Canons. The 35mm lens is equivalent to a 24mm lens.

And so began yet another round of extensive testing, struggle, eyes-popping-out-of-my-head-at-the-quality and the occasional disappointment at the inevitable limitations.

Here are my conclusions:

1. There is a stunning and stark quality difference between 35mm digital and medium format digital. It is particularly noticeable in the much more realistic range of colours reproduced by the P45+ compared to my Canons. Slightly less obvious, but still a major contributor to the overall image quality, is the dynamic range, the range of dark and light tones the back can reproduce, which is above 35mm digital. The as yet untested Nikon D800 may of course have2.5m HIGH PRINTOUTS - PIXEL COUNTS ARE THE VERTICAL SIZE something to say about this. The Phase One back blows out highlights more completely than the Canons however: skies are impossible to rescue if flashing highlights are showing and there's a nasty cyan drop off if you try to bring the highlights back in Capture One. Contrary to what I've read, I've found the shadows easier to bring out than the highlights on the Phase than the Canons. In addition, the extra 'space' of medium format digital means that cropping is far easier, far more natural. I would have no problem cropping a 39MP landscape Phase One file to a 22MP portrait shot - and the 4:3 aspect ratio is so much more appealing and less pinched than 3:2.

The Phase back is eminently useable. It has a pleasingly simple interface that is very reliable and stable. It's exceptionally well-built and really gives a feeling of solidity, robustness and durability, even out in the wilds.

2. The quality difference is massively enhanced by using a technical camera with its astounding lenses: the edge-to-edge 100% CROP FROM POPPIES IMAGE. This is in the bottom of the image, just to the left of centre. sharpness of the two Schneider lenses actually has to be seen to be believed. As a rough guide, from what I've seen, it requires a 100Mpixel stitched shot on the Canons to even get close to the 39Mpixel Phase One back and Cambo with Schneider lenses. That anti-alias filter on the Canon has a lot to answer for. I did one test that reflects a lot of our clients' requirements: I enlarged a panoramic image taken with the Canon 5DII and 45 TS-E to 2.5m tall, an average for wallpaper. The stitched Canon image was 9,200 pixels high. The Cambo/Phase image just 5,000 pixels high. When printed out at full size, the Cambo was significantly sharper. The forest greens were also more realistic, and there was a more accurate rendering of highlights and shadows. The whole thing had DEPTH and looked like the real thing, the Canon an approximation of the real thing.

And it isn't just about sharpness, the ability to render straight lines AS straight lines is a quantum leap better than even the Canon 24 TS-EII, which is no slouch. There's just so little distortion to these images, that going back and looking at Canon images is a bit of a shock - especially the edges.

3. Depth of Field. The Cambo lenses render a significantly deeper depth of field than either the Canons or 645 type cameras at the equivalent F-stop. I've no idea why, but it's the solution to a problem I've struggled with for a while: my images are often produced as wallpaper or very large artworks, and large out of focus areas can be really intrusive. Even using lens tilt or hyperfocal / infinity focusing on the Canons didn't come anywhere near to producing this kind of depth of field. For further away subjects, either infinity or one notch back is perfect. For close-up subjects, the Cambo isn't easy to focus and I usually take many attempts at different focal points. When focus is nailed though, wow! The depth of field is shallower when focused close-up, but even the out-of-focus areas are pleasant and not intrusive. I'll need lens tilt in the future for close-up work, but for the moment, I'm sold, despite the challenges.

4. Capture One. This is a bit of a revelation in terms of raw processing. I've been using Adobe Raw in Photoshop for a while but Capture One offers far more power, control and sheer quality to the images. Better colours, sharper images, and, best of all, using LCC calibration shots, you can get rid of vignetting and DUST on all images! Yes, massively reduced dusting! (Not gone away completely but very, very close - a huge relief).

5. Myths

Technical cameras are slow. I'm finding that setting up the Cambo is actually quicker than the Canons - just because it's a far less complicated machine. A mechanical lens and shutter is actually a pleasingly direct and simple thing to use. Knowing I'm shooting with such a high quality device is very exciting - it's brought the thrill back to getting out there.

Not being able to see through the lens - or even having a viewfinder - seemed to me a potentially impossible problem to overcome. I'd been spoilt by years of SLR use and, in particular, live view. But, the fact that you can see the results on the digital back instantly makes this far less of a problem than I expected. For hand-held nature close-ups and long shots, of course, the Canons are still needed. Filter placement - which I generally do handholding anyway - just requires a test shot and a small adjustment. Some kind of hood for the screen is going to be necessary: seeing the screen on bright days is nearly impossible, as it is with most digital cameras in the sun.

Cocking the Shutter by hand. Taking more considered shots means taking less shots - so fewer shutter releases, making it not really a problem.

Needing a £300 Kapture Group cable release. This is occasionally a pain if you depress the shutter button a little and trigger the 5 second countdown. But there's a decisiveness and speed about using this kit that means it rarely causes problems. It's only required on older backs, not the recent IQ series.

Centre-Filters. Each of these lenses has a centre filter which adds 2 stops to the required exposure time. Tricky in windy conditions. But, they do their job well and if you wait for a moment when the wind dies down, the sharpness of the lenses makes slight movement less obvious. They do make exposure times much longer. Coupled with only really being able to use up to ISO200 on the back and in some situations, this could be a problem. I'm keeping the Canons for when I need to shoot at ISO800 in failing light.

Polariser. I have used a polariser in many of my photographs for years - just trying to squeeze out every drop of colour and punch in the image that I can. With the Cambo/Phase I'm realising that I was doing that because the Canon just wasn't showing the scene as it really was. I was trying to make up for it. So, not using a polariser is taking off the 2 stops from my exposure times that the centre filters have added on! Some shots, of course, I still need polarisers for but far less than before.

Exposure. I take a light meter with me but am finding I rarely use it. I just make sure the highlights aren't blown on the image replay and that the histogram looks good. In general, exposure is somewhere between 1/125 sec and 2 seconds but it's easy to guess. A little more accuracy won't hurt but even without metering, the results are excellent. Exposure times are at 1 stop intervals, so the aperture has to change (in 1/3 stop intervals) for intermediate values.

The Screen on the Phase One Back. The P45+ is apparently a big improvement over the previous generation of backs. It's similar to using a larger version of the Canon 1DsII screen which wasn't terrible. It's not quite as good as a 1DsIII and a long way from the 5DII. And of course, there's no live view. However, get this: the 5DII screen flatters your shots - they never look that good on the computer. With the Phase, it's the other way round. On the screen: meh. On the computer: OMG, look at that! Wow! Etc. etc.

Without a ball head, I improvised a low shot on the panorama head.

6. Other Cambo Good Points

A tripod mount on the handle on the left hand side means I can fix a quick release plate to it. Which means I can quickly rotate the entire camera for portrait shots and not have to remove the back to rotate it. An unexpected bonus.

Talking of the handle, it doesn't half make the Cambo easy to get level on a tripod - even on the Gitzo levelling tripod I use (which is normally a little tricky to get perfectly level), the big handle combined with the excellent, accurate spirit levels, perfect balance and light weight of the Cambo make levelling a breeze. Oddly, it is actually more difficult to use on the Manfrotto geared head I normally use for architectural work. I don't quite understand this but I'm happy I can make do with just the one tripod.

4 x 5 Film Mount. In the very unlikely scenario that solar flares knock out all electronics in 2012, the Cambo can use a 4 x 5 film mount on the back, so I'll still be able to document the disasters as they happen on lovely old film. I might do this anyway - for fun - as it's a lot cheaper than an IQ180.

Tilt Lens Panels. As and when my finances recover, being able to swap the lenses onto tilting lens panels will give the system that bit more flexibility. *** Newsflash: Charles from Cambo UK phoned me to tell me that neither of these two lenses is available on a tilt panel. It seems to be mainly Rodenstocks and longer focal length Schneiders.

7. Problems

Calibration Shots and LCC. I'm not sure of the reason exactly but technical camera lenses produce magenta/green casts on images. The casts can be corrected in software but to do this a Lens Cast Calibration shot has to be taken at the beginning of each shoot using a piece of white acrylic. I tried to be a smart-arse and bought a piece off ebay for £1.75. Unfortunately, it's only 3mm thick - the real thing is 5mm - and I found colours in the scene were interfering with the cast correction. Duh! Once you use the real thing (which came with the camera), it basically works well at removing colour-casts but the process isn't infallible. Some images just have weird colour casts from lights at odd angles and they are very difficult to remove. Certainly this is going to take a bit of experience to work with and work around. A new LCC shot has to be taken whenever shift is used too as the cast changes. It's not such a big deal - especially as the LCC shots are used for dust deletion. Direct Digital Imaging sell LCC kits - a worthwhile investment.

Lens Flare. Possibly the biggest problem with these lenses. Like thoroughbred race horses, they are highly strung! At the first sign of direct light on the lens, they flare badly, so I find I have to make a lot of effort to shade the lens with my hands or a flare buster. When the sun is in the frame however, the only way is to take two shots one with hand in the frame one without and combine them later. It helps but doesn't get rid of the problem completely. Sometimes, the flares are in odd places and from odd sources: light that has diffracted through trees seems to cause blue ghosting all around the source of light - very tricky to remove, and particularly frustrating as trees are one of my favourite subjects. Schneider really need the new nano-technology coating that Canon have on their 24 TS-E II which has astonishing flare resistance. I think the choice of camera has an impact on the flare issue too - apparently some technical cameras are better than others.

Night Shots. Before getting carried away with the 1 hour capability of the P45+, I realised that each exposure requires a dark slide shot of the same duration. So, a 30 second night shot on the Canon (typical for night time in cities at F11), will require 2 minutes with the centre filters... then another 2 minutes dark slide. A four minute exposure? Fine if you're taking one-off shots. Not so fine if shooting a 13-shot panorama! Back to the Canons.

Focusing. I'm not sure that the focusing scales on the Cambo lens panels are very accurate. When set to infinity focus, closer subjects are better focused than those far away. It's the other way around when focused at 5m (the next mark from infinity) on the 35XL. Bit odd. And a bit difficult considering there's no other way to check focus except on the screen. For close up subjects, rotating the focusing ring on the 24 is an ordeal - it's tight and without much grip. You'd certainly struggle with gloves in Winter. One mitigating factor: because of the sharpness of the lenses and the incredible depth of field, even when focus isn't perfect, it's still so damned sharp - about the same as regular lenses when focused - that you can get away with it.

6. Mamiya 645D

I bought an old Mamiya 645D with a 55 and 80mm macro lenses. Just to see if this could replace the Canons. Uh, no is the answer! The back works OK with this camera except there's no mirror lockup - that's only available on the MkII version onwards. With such a huge mirror there is very big camera shake even on a tripod. I've found one great use for it though and that's flowers and details of nature: the colours from the P45+ are so stunning that it's a pleasure to use for this one purpose alone. The 80mm macro is a sharp, smooth lens. If I'm travelling light though, this kit will get left behind I'm sure, as it's a dinosaur that uses 6 AA batteries! Bizarre.

*** CORRECTION ***

Thanks to some very helpful forum posts, I've discovered that the mirror lockup DOES word on the AFD Mark I, but only in manual mode. Here's the relevant info (thanks Ray):

7. Panoramics

Having lugged around a heavy, brutish panorama head on my tripod for years, the prospect of not having to is appealing. By keeping the Cambo and 35XL lens in landscape orientation, it's the equivalent of using a 35mm lens in portrait orientation on 35mm format - my standard lens for panoramas. The quality of the Schneider lens means that there's so little distortion this actually works well (though in the past, with such a wide angle lens, I've had significant problems). Bracketing is tricky though and I haven't really cracked it yet: having to manually adjust the exposure time for each bracketed shot in a panorama isn't ideal. I suspect it'll be a case of using the dynamic range of the sensor more carefully along with judicious use of grad filters.

8. Research

I'm slightly appalled at the amount of time I spent researching this investment. It must have taken up most of my free time over the last 3 months and a great deal of my free time in the last 3 years. It's COMPLICATED stuff but if I could have given myself one piece of advice a year ago it would have been this: jump in, buy the best thing you can afford and get used to it. But perhaps do it one step at a time - start with Capture One as it takes quite a bit of learning, then test as much equipment as you can get hold of - Phase One and Hasselblad are aware of how serious an investment they are asking you to make and are willing to visit you with the gear in your chosen setting, as are dealers such as Chris at Direct Digital Imaging, who will bring several different types of camera, something the manufacturers can't do. This makes assessing it much easier - especially when you can directly compare the same scene shot with your existing gear. It doesn't tell you everything of course but it's certainly a lot easier than just reading about it on the net.

9. Workflow

Digital workflows are the less fun, but crucial, aspect of digital photography. Changing them is not a small matter. Like all growth, it's uncomfortable: working with unfamiliar tools is awkward and, if there are problems on mission-critical work, potentially disastrous. I'm slowly working out how to integrate Capture One with the Media Pro / Photoshop workflow I already had. I think eventually I'll use C1 more, especially once I get into layers and masks.

10. Other Systems

Just in case you are getting the idea that I only tried one or two systems before committing...

David Summerfield from Hasselblad also visited me with a full system and I spent a day testing out the H4D40 with different lens combinations. I also tried a V-series camera with a CFV 50. All pretty good - I thought the image quality from the Hasselblad backs was excellent - but I wasn't so sold on the H camera - which has some very tiny and oddly placed buttons - and lenses which, though excellent, are very heavy. The Tilt-shift adapter is ok but degrades image quality somewhat.

Previous to that, Phase One loaned me an IQ180 / DF system. This produced remarkable images. But the weight of the lenses, the age of the basic 645 design (which really isn't much different from my 645D) and the massive price tag counted against it. And in the focal length I used most - 28mm (on the IQ180 equivalent to 17mm on 35mm), the lens flare was so bad shooting into the sun it made the lens less unusable to me, despite its sharpness. And yes, I get the irony of ending up with the flare-prone Schneiders!

Previous to that, I'd spent many, many hours reading blogs, forum posts, downloading samples, going to shows and retailers and testing out many of the possible camera/lens combinations... nothing satisfied. Now we have the Nikon D800E and I'm tempted as a replacement for the 1DsIII and 5DII. Canon appear to have abandoned the high megapixel market and these days seem to take forever between announcements and delivery. Just look at the 1DX.

Is my search for the perfect camera over and done with? Yeah, right! If money was no object, I'd consider three, perhaps 4 other systems:
- Arca Swiss RM3Di
- Linhof Techno
- Sinar Artec
- Alpa

A Cambo Wide RS with a sliding back and tilt lenses would do it too - if they made a sliding back. Love the nice new wooden handles.

All with an IQ180 back, of course.

I hope the above helps you make a decision if you're contemplating medium format digital. Is it worth it? Without any doubt whatsoever. It's all about the image quality...

We've spent a lot of time in Salford putting artworks in the new hospital in the last 6 months. Hopefully uplifting both patients and staff alike. You can see the results here: http://www.richardosbourne.com/p892988570

This is a new blogging service that will be updated a little more often than the previous (complicated) system.

Here are the previous posts.