Keith Cooper’s Photography blog

Photography, cameras, lenses, printing, technology, reviews, articles and news

What’s new on Northlight Images
– Photography news, information and articles

Selected news and product announcements, along with the latest articles and reviews from Keith Cooper.

Keith’s book about using tilt/shift lenses is now available.

There is a search box in the top right of the page – if you’re looking for something specific or have a suggestion for the site, please contact Keith and ask… If you want a product reviewed, please see our Review Policy for more details.

Specialist index pages

• Articles and Reviews
• Camera and printer rumours
• Digital Black and White
• Colour Management
• Printing and paper
• All about using tilt and shift
• The business side of photography
• Tutorial and ‘How to’ articles
• Photography book reviews
• Keith’s ‘gear list’ for his work
• Gallery of some of Keith’s prints
• Some of Keith’s travel blogs
• Some of Keith’s link choices

Some print related reference pages:
Printer Test Images | B&W printer test image | Printer cleaning | Paper reviews

Latest photo news posts

More news posts further down the page…

• New RF Laowa 11mm f/4.5 FF RLVenus Optics have announced the Canon RF mount 11mm f/4.5 ukra wide angle lens. Only 63mm (~2.5 inches) long and weighing 254g (~8.9 oz.) The lens is available in other mounts
• Hasselblad XH Converter 0,8Hasselblad XH Converter 0,8 announced, for attaching HC/HCD lenses to X or 907X with 0.8x focal reducer. It increases lens maximum aperture by ~2/3 stop
• Laowa 15mm shift lensVenus Lens announce the Laowa 15mm f4.5 Zero-D Shift lens. The widest full frame shift lens available, part of their Zero Distortion range. Available in Canon EF and Nikon F mount
• Canon PRO-200 printer announcedCanon Pixma PRO-200 printer is announced. The A3+ 13" printer uses a dye based ink set with 8 inks, with enhanced colour and black density. It replaces the PRO-100 printer
• DxO PhotoLab 4 announcedDxO have announced PhotoLab 4 the latest version of their photo editing software, which in itself succeeded DxO Optics Pro. The new software improves many aspects of RAW file decoding and noise reduction

–More News– further down the page

Videos

• Video: tilt/shift lens basics – sideways tilt (swing)Lens tilt basics: Keith Cooper looks at sideways lens tilt (or swing) to run the plane of focus along a wall, whilst looking along the wall. Example uses the Canon TS-E24mm F3.5 tilt shift lens( 6m30s)
• Video: Get a printer or use a photo lab?Should you print your own photos on your own printer or use a commercial photo lab? Keith looks at some of the costs and benefits, both financial and for your photographic skills (9m 10s)
• Video: What matters to print buyersKeith looks at why what personally matters to you about your photography is largely irrelevant for most people who might buy your prints. Why it helps to find someone whose opinions you can trust and why different print types might appeal to potential buyers. Sometimes your prints do just need to match the curtains. (9m)
• Video: Big prints – more than larger paperKeith looks at why making larger prints needs much more attention to your photography and image editing, and why it's not just printing on bigger sheets of paper. How we see prints and their detail at different sizes and how it affects what compositions may or may not work. (9m 30s)
• Video: Why do your prints sell?Part three of Keith's look at print sales for photographers. In selling prints, do you know why you are doing it and do you know why people might want your prints? The emotions in print viewing and the need for a steady supply of customers (8m)
• Video: Getting a larger printer A3+ and A2 sizesKeith looks at some of the questions people ask when looking to get a larger (13"/17") printer for their photo prints. How often should you print and should you leave the power switched on? The use of ink for maintenance and cleaning is mentioned, along with why it is rarely 'wasted' ink. (9m 30s)
• Video: How often to use your printerKeith looks at how often you need to use your inkjet photo printer and why all printers use up some ink for maintenance. When to leave your printer powered on and regular checks (7m 20s)

Visit Keith’s YouTube Channel

Listing of all Videos.  We’re hoping to add lots more short videos accompanying our longer articles and reviews, as well as interviews and other features.

Latest articles and reviews

Article Index page –  For all of Keith Cooper’s hundreds of photography and printing articles/reviews
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• Rogeti CAP GZA-1 geared pan headRogeti CAP GZA-1 Pan head with geared Arca Swiss style locking clamp. Full 360 degree geared rotation. Matches the Rogeti RG-1 geared tripod head and accessories.
• Rogeti 360 Panoramic head reviewKeith Cooper looks a the Rogeti 360 panoramic head. The solidly built head is lightweight (~760g) and enables multi-row panoramic shots to be taken with ease
• Canon PRO-200 printer reviewDetailed Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300 printer review. Keith tests the PRO-300 pigment ink printer with a range of glossy and fine-art media, including panoramic prints up to 990mm (~39") long
• Black and white printing with the PRO-200Printing black and white on the Canon PRO-200 A3+ dye based ink printer. Addressing the problem of colour tints under different lighting. Different types of paper and optimising the reproduction of your photos.
• Canon PRO-200 setupSetting up the Canon Pixma PRO-200 13" A3+ printer. Unboxing, ink and printhead loading with initial printer software setup. How to get the PRO-200 (PRO-100 replacement) up and running.
• Review: Laowa 15mm f4.5 Zero-D Shift lensKeith Cooper reviews the Laowa 15mm f4.5 Zero-D Shift lens. Fully manual lens with ±11mm of shift in any direction. The lens is available in Nikon/Canon/Sony mounts. The Canon mount option is tested here.
• Epson SC-P900 printer reviewDetailed review of the Epson SC-P900 17" (A2) pigment ink printer with sheet feed and optional powered roll paper holder. It has 10 inks and no matte/photo black ink switching
• XTAR VN2 USB camera battery chargerXTAR VN2 USB camera battery charger comes with several optional battery mounts allowing for charging 2 batteries at a time
• Roll paper printing tipsUsing roll paper for your printing Some tips if you're new to roll media Site update: Thanks for everyone's support - work is still very sparse, but at least I've lots of videos, articles and reviews to write - if you've any suggestions or questions,...

More Articles (1000+) Main articles/reviews page

More photo news…

• EOS M50 mkIIInformation, reviews, news and firmware updates for the Canon EOS M50 Mk2 24MP mirrorless camera with EF-M lens mount. 4k (24P) video
• Nikon Z6 II and Z7 IINikon have announced Z6 II and Z7 II full frame (FX) cameras. The updates for the Z6/Z7 mirrorless cameras improve performance and add 2nd card slots.
• EOS C70 4K video camera announcedCanon have announced the EOS C70 4K video camera - The device is the first R mount Cinema EOS camera with a Super 35m format sensor giving 16+ Stops of Total Dynamic Range
• New L mount Laowa lensesLaowa have announced 'L' mount versions of six of their lenses. 3 wide angle lenses and 3 macro lenses for Panasonic S1 series , Sigma FP and Leica SL/CL. Keith has reviews of the EF mount versions of several of them.
• Nikon Z5 announcedNikon anounces the Z5, a 24MP full frame mirrorless camera. Entry level full frame camera along with the NIKKOR Z 24-50mm f/4-6.3 lens
• Four new Canon RF lensesFour new Canon RF lenses and two RF Extender are announced. 100-500 f/4.5-7.1, 600/11mm, 800/11mm, 85 f/2mm macro, RF1.4x, RF 2x
• EOS R5 and R6 announcedCanon officially announce the R6 and R5 mirrorless full frame cameras. The R6 is 20MP and the R5 45MP with 8k video capture
• Canon PRO-300 printer announcedCanon have announced the A3+ ImagePROGRAF PRO-300 13" pigment ink desktop printer. The successor to the PIXMA PRO-10S. Uses 10 inks including a colour optimising clearcoat
• Tokina ATX-i 11-20mm f2-8 CFTokina have announced the new ATX-i 11-20mm f/2.8 CF APS-C (crop sensor) ultra-wide zoom lens for Canon EF and Nikon F lens mounts
• DxO Nik Collection 3 announcedThe DxO Nik collection 3 announced - Software for image editing updated to include non-destructive editing functionality and a new geometry correction plugin is added to the existing plugins
• SD Express updates card speedsSD Cards have a new SD Express standard for faster transfers. The SD Cards are backwards compatible with existing cards, using new interface pins
• DxO PhotoLab 3.2 updateDxO PhotoLab is updated to V3.2. It expands localised adjustments when photo editing and improves photo library functionality - free update for V3 users

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All the latest articles/reviews and photo news items appear on Keith's Photo blog 

Keith explains tilt and shift lenses

Keith has written a book that looks at the many ways that tilt/shift lenses can benefit your photography from a technical and creative point of view.

ISBN 9781785007712

Book now available

There is also a specific index page on the site with links to all Keith's articles, reviews and videos about using tilt and shift.

We've a whole section of the site devoted to  Digital Black and White photography and printing. It covers all of Keith's specialist articles and reviews. Other sections include Colour management and Keith's camera hacks - there are over 1200 articles/reviews here...

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