Photographing the coffin of Tasheriankh for Golden Mummies of Egypt
Have you ever wondered how a photographer goes about photographing a 2m-long ancient Egyptian coffin? If so, this is for you …
5 things to consider when buying a camera for museum and heritage-site photography
So, you’ve decided it’s time to get a new camera, or – at least – to start saving up. But, good lord, there’s myriad cameras out there. All sorts of shapes and sizes, different names and models and f-numbers and sensors and megapixels and IBIS’s and lenses and this and that and … aaaargh!
It’s overwhelming!
This post will help you think through the most important things you should be taking into consideration when buying a camera to start narrowing down your choices and make your shopping easier and more enjoyable.
The different types of digital camera
The world of cameras and photography is vast and sometimes confusing. Could you tell me much about your camera beyond the brand and whether you can change the lenses on it or not? Perhaps you can, in which case you may be one use who know our cameras and lenses really well: the make, the…
What is aperture and depth-of-field?
You might have heard the terms ‘aperture’ and ‘depth of field’ floating around in the photography world, and you might kind of have an idea of what they are. But perhaps not entirely. And not enough to really know how to use them in your photography. So, if you want to start getting your head…
How to add hieroglyphs to Google Docs and Slides
Unlike many other scripts and languages, adding ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to your document is not always a straightforward task.
As well as there being a limited choice of good fonts available, hieroglyphs have the added difficulty of being a non-linear script. In other words, the ancient Egyptian’s habit of creating nice, neat, space-saving groups of hieroglyphs makes modern typesetting much more tricky than if you were typing, say, ancient Greek, or Latin, or even Coptic.
Using photography to nurture your mental health
Much like physical health, there are things mental-health services can do to help when you’re in crisis. However, there are also steps we can take ourselves to help keep our mental health as robust as it can be during times of stress and strain.
Telling a story with photos: ceramics conservation for Before Egypt
Artefact photography is just one aspect of what I do. Another, at the other end of the scale, is documentary photography.
Unlike my artefact photography, which is carefully controlled and thought out, documentary photography is about working with what you’ve got, and reacting to the moment. Your environment dictates the photography, rather than the photography dictating the environment.
What is focus stacking?
Have you ever looked at those amazing macro photos of flowers and insects by professional photographers, but when you tried it yourself, your photo was grossly out of focus?
That’s probably because the photos you saw used focus-stacking.
Focus-stacking is a technique photographers use when they can’t get all of their subject in focus in a single shot. And it’s a technique that I use almost all the time for my artefact photography.
Photographing flint tools using a lightbox
It can be all too easy to think that doing artefact photography is routine, a bit samey and perhaps … dare I say it … a tiny bit dull.
Nuh-uh! Not so. Especially if you’re able to be a bit investigative and curious.
Doing the photography for the Before Egypt exhibition, I needed to photograph some flint tools and stone palettes.
5 reasons you might be struggling with low-light photography
When I asked people what they struggle with most when taking photographs in low light, the biggest issues are shaky/blurry photos, too much noise/grain and photos that are too dark. Sometimes, this is down to your hardware; other times, it’s just not quite knowing what to do with your camera. To improve your photography, the first step is to start understanding why your photos aren’t working so well in the first place.