“Enough!” from Sketches By Carl Frederik Waage Beck

I have been working on the upcoming limited edition prints today, setting up my favourite paintings in the studio, first photographing and then later retouching them in Photoshop.

I am comfortable taking photos and will often bring my precious Canon 7D whenever I’m out on a trip or just feel like seeing life through a lens.
I have chosen to shoot solely with prime lenses since these give me the highest sharpness and speed for the buck. At some point I hope to get my hands on Canons revered L series Zoom lenses, but for now my primes do fine. I have two primes: a 35mm and a 50 mm which in most instances works fine as long as I can sneaker zoom.

To get superb sharpness and avoid shaking I mount the 7D on a Gitzo GT3541L tripod with an Arca Swiss Monoball Z1 head. There’s just nothing that will make this combination fail it’s job.
The Gitzo lets me level the camera at just about any height and angle while the Arca has a smooth grip as tight as a vise.
Shooting with a tiny Canon shutter release remote means I can avoid even the tiniest vibrations from my hand.
I love the feel of quality equipment.

Retouching and preparing photos for prints is another matter though.
My skills in Lightroom and Photoshop are still feeble and even simple tasks take ages for me to complete. Of course none of it would be possible unless I had consulted hours of tutorials on youtube and elsewhere. Thanks to all you teen wizkids!

Still it’s frustrating and I feel like I am wasting time. Nothing pisses me off like wasting time – as it’s the only truly finite resource that I have.
I hate myself on days when, instead of painting or drawing, I spend more time trying to work out how some widget or miserable little function works in photoshop.
Today was one such day. Made me want to break free from the bonds of my Mac.
Made me want to go back to basics – and paint.

Dear friends,
I was out shooting some HDR series the other day. Helps a lot having a proper tripod like the fabulous ones made by Gitzo.

This shot is of the Palace cinema multiplex in Copenhagen. Home of many great movie experiences..ahhh.

Enjoy!

From Photography by Carl Frederik Waage Beck