I have added a new portfolio of architecture photography from Venice to my website. Working under the cover of darkness and the early hours of the morning to create an in depth look at both the well known tourist hot spots and the quiet back streets and canals that capture the true spirit of this amazing metropolis. View the new work in the new Venice Portfolio.

I am pleased to announce that one of my photographs ‘Over the Rooftops’ has been commended by Network Rail and has been featured in this years book and exhibition.

If you would like a copy of the book you can pick it up from Amazon

When you are taking photographs outside, especially when you are surrounded by nature, natural light can be both a positive and a negative addition to your shot. If you are smart about it, you can utilise natural light in such a way that it contributes a great deal to your photographs and becomes an integral part of their overall appearance. Here are some tips to follow if you want to use natural light to your advantage and create absolutely stunning photographs.

Choose the Right Time of Day
The beauty of natural daylight is its many, many different manifestations. It is constantly changing, moving from the subtleness of morning to the brightness of midday and moving on towards the dusk of evening. When you are deciding when to head out and take some photographs, take account of what the light will be like at that time. If you want moody, atmospheric images then it is a good idea to wait until the early evening before you start snapping. Find something else to do in the meantime, like go exploring or play some FoxyBingo. However if you want your photographs to look bright and clear, then use the sun as your marker and head outside when it is at its brightest.

Position and Shadow
Even during midday, you can play around with shadows and lighting contrasts. This is one thing that will make your photographs more interesting, so it is well worth trying out. Experiment with standing in different places and taking shots from different angles. See how the lighting affects each object and try to include some shadow in your shot. If you want something to stand out, wait until the sunlight is illuminating and you will then have your very own spotlight.

A Short Timelapse Showreel from Mark Voce on Vimeo.

A collection of 4 short timelapse clips shot I shot on a Canon 5D MkII using a Pixel intervalometer. Three of them are from Scotland including a couple of iconic locations and a forth is shot in the UNESCO World Heritage village of Saltaire.

The stills were processed in either Aperture 3 or Lightroom 4 and assembled using the Time-Lapse app before being dropped into FCPX.

In a sight transition away from my usual photography I have been meaning to start experimenting with video, last Sunday I headed out into Leeds to shoot some footage the video below was the result of my efforts. I am hoping to cover more video related themes in the in the future.

A Night in Leeds from Mark Voce on Vimeo.

An evening in Leeds, UK shooting with a Sankor 16D anamorphic lens coupled to a Canon FD 50mm f1.4 and a GH2 (44mbps hack).

Join myself and David Tarn on a unforgettable photographic workshop exploring the southern coastline of what is perhaps the most awe-inspiring country on earth… Iceland. We will spend our time exploring the finest landscape photography locations Iceland has to offer from black volcanic beaches, dramatic rock formations, iconic waterfalls, glacial lagoons, picturesque churches and if we are lucky we may catch a glimpse of the elusive Aurora Borealis.

To find out more about the workshop please visit http://techniqueandvision.com/

I am delighted to inform you that my a selection of photos from my Two Thirds project have been featured in the latest issue of Digital Photography Magazine in Australia. The six page feature talks about my process and the vision behind creating these photographs.

The Shadows of Industry portfolio in now available in book form. The paperback book measures 6×9 inches and is printed on uncoated stock that has a wonderful almost silky texture feeling somewhat similar to the original platinum prints.

Price £9.95 + shipping

Click here for preview and to order online.

I am delighted to announce that photographs from my Shadows of Industry project are going to be exhibited at the wonderful Greenwood Tree Gallery located in The Piece Hall, Halifax.

The exhibition runs from the 9th April until mid May 2012 and is open Wednesday through Sunday 10:30 to 16:00 at the Greenwood Tree Gallery, 15 The Piece Hall, Halifax, HX1 1RE

I have just come back from a couple of weeks in Assynt, a remote part of North West Scotland and returned not only with some great photos but a bit of a revelation in the form of Adobe Lightroom. For the last few years I have been using Apple Aperture 2 and then 3 to deal with the raw processing and cataloguing side of my workflow. I was always happy with the quality of the results and what Aperture could do however back in December I bumped into a problem when I purchased a Panasonic Lumix GX1 to replace my GF1.

Apple did not have raw file support for my shiny new GX1 so I couldn’t use Aperture to open the raw files, the bundled software Silkypix is without a doubt one of the most convoluted pieces of software I have seen so forget that however the kind people at Panasonic include a copy of Lightroom 3 (ok you’ve got send off for it but you can download the trial from Adobe in the mean time) so this was my first steps into Lightroom.

At the start of March when I headed up to Assynt there was still no raw support for the GX1 which was coming with me along with my trusty Canon 5D MkII so I decided I would install Lightroom on my laptop and see what it was like over the course of the trip. To cut straight to the result I am now a Lightroom convert and have started using Lightroom for all my raw processing needs.

When it comes to image quality there is little difference between what Lightroom and Aperture can produce; the amount of detail, noise levels, highlight recovery are all equal from my tests however there are a few kick ass features in Lightroom which have changed my workflow.

The Gradient Tool – This is brilliant, I often want to darken the sky or the foreground of an image and previously had to take the image across to Photoshop to do this as, now I can do it in the same application much quicker and easier while still editing raw and its increase tonality. The best bit is that you can edit any of the settings, exposure, contrast, clarity, shadows, highlights and more locally on the selected part of the image.

Brushes – These work very similar to the above and way more powerful than the brushes in Aperture and are much quicker than opening the image in Photoshop and making changes using selections and adjustment layers. The best bit on this and the gradient tool is that you can go back into your selection and tweak the settings or make additional changes such as if you changed the exposure initially you can still add contrast without needing separate adjustments like you would in Photoshop.

Lens Corrections – As I often do a fair bit of architecture photography it is great to have a library of lens corrections available for the vast majority of lenses available on the market. Even though I use Canon L lenses or primes there still can be a bit of gold fish bowl or pincushion distortion which the lens profile automatically correct. Aperture does not have this option so previously I had to either process the raw files separately in Photoshop / Adobe Camera Raw or just fix it afterwords in Photoshop, again this is another time saver.

Negatives – There are also a couple of negatives compared to Aperture, the healing / clone tool is a bit odd and is not like what you find in Aperture (or Photoshop for that matter) it takes a bit of getting used to and sometimes I have to resort to Photoshop to do a proper job. Secondly the crop tool is slightly odd too and again not the same as Aperture (or Photoshop for that matter again), you select your ratio and scale the image etc but then when you try and move the crop you are actually moving the image behind the crop which takes a bit of getting used to, bit at the end of the day it gives the same result.

So there you go, my musings on why I have switched between the Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom camps, if you are an Aperture user I would really recommend you have a look at Lightroom and see what you think of it, I know I won’t be going back.

Oh and finally last week in the middle of March Apple launched a raw update which included the GX1, I’m sorry Apple but 3 months is too long to work for you to offer raw support on a new camera. Adobe have already got raw support for the new Canon 5D MkIII and the Nikon D800 which aren’t even out yet, I dread to think how long it will take Apple to pull their finger out and catch up.