Blog posts about Technique at Permanent Tourist

Don’t you just hate it when you’ve been using the internet for a little while and you have a mass of browser windows to battle with? Where the hell did that website go, that you were looking at earlier? Both of these annoyances are entirely unnecessary, and this article explains why.

An unplanned shot, taken of volunteer Niels for the One Frame Movie set of photographs I was working on a few weeks back.

The next in my series of theatrical photographs, featuring fellow photographer Tilman Jentzsch.

A photograph from a session in Zurich, and the lessons in lighting and technique which make it one of the more successful session shots of the past few months.

Having bought a Mamiya 645 a few months ago, I wanted to make a return to the traditional chemical processing techniques which I used for many years until switching to a digital workflow in 2004. I’m interested in the difference in print quality – in terms of sharpness and colour reproduction – between traditional printing and the scanned negative printed via digital means.

A shot from the Lausanne Strobist day, using in-camera colour balance to create a special effect.

The most inspirational photographs are often those where the lighting plan doesn’t play a major role; those where the idea and aim of the picture takes the lead.

Written confirmation from the media relations team of the SBB/CFF/FFS that photography for private use in their railway stations is allowed and does not require a permit.

A new colleague joined our team at the day job this week, so as usual, I was called into service to take portrait shots for our team’s blog and website.

After seeing a few shots around the internet in a certain darkened, de-saturated style, I asked around to see if anyone was familiar with the post-processing technique which is used to create it.

The date for the next Swiss Strobist photographic meetup in Lausanne (Switzerland) has been selected.

If you want to take a photo of someone else that they’ll be happy with, or if you’re being photographed, then here are the most important non-technical tips to remember.

By whittling down pictures while you are still shooting, or when you are trying to assess their merits on a tiny little screen, you always run the risk of deleting a shot which later turns out to be one you really like.

With the arrival of warmer weather and longer, sunnier evenings, I am able to begin using a technique which works in many places with dark, deep shadows and small patches of bright sunlight. Here are a few examples and a description of how to achieve this kind of shot. The shots in this article are […]

That was the idea, anyway. I’ve been inspired by Nick Turpin’s street shots, using high, undiffused strobes, and have been experimenting on and off with the technique. This is a shot from this evening in the woods near my home, which uses a single flashgun on a 3 metre stand out of shot to the […]

I arranged to go to the bi-annual photographic market in Bern this weekend with Beat, to see what accessories we can find for our medium-format cameras. Being tired last night, at the end of a tiring day and long week, I forgot completely that the market is on Sunday, not Saturday. Unfortunately, I only realized […]

An exercise in depth of field with my new 50mm/f1.8 lens.

A work colleague, backlit by the sun coming in through the window, flash laid on keyboard and bounced from laptop screen at 1/8 power to give f 2.8 at ISO 100. Fill-in flash from camera right at 1/1 power (losing 2 stops due to diffusion). And a little bit of dark vignette added during post-processing […]

Henri Cartier-Bresson, on the topic of the photographer’s intrusion on everyday life. Poetic, apposite and worth remembering. …approach the subject on tiptoe, even if it is a still life. Let your steps be velvet but your eye keen; a good fisherman does not stir up the water before he starts to fish…refrain from snapping rapidly […]

Not a great photo, but I’m posting it in order to wind up a security guard and highlight the photographic policy in the Wellgate shopping centre in Dundee. Moments after taking this, I was accosted and asked what I was doing. This photo is dangerous material, as I could’ve been taking this shot of the […]

« Previous 1 2 3 4 Next »