Today’s blog is all about different lenses for your camera.

I will try and help you decide what to buy to attach to the front of your camera. I am a Canon shooter. I love my 5D MKII and my old 70-200 f2.8 L lens. It is so old that it doesn’t even have IS (Image Stabilisation)! For studio shoots you don’t really need IS, but it does come in very handy if you are a wedding photographer and shoot at low light in churches, for example.

If you are new to photography, and only have your kit lens, I will happily make some recommendations for you. One of the best lenses you can buy for your new Canon camera, would be the Canon 24 – 105 f4/4 IS USM L-lens. That serves a lot of different purposes, and is very useful for portrait photography and landscape photography. Another advantage is that it’s not too heavy to travel around with.

If you need a bigger zoom lens, the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS II USM cannot come highly enough recommended.

If you are after a prime lens, there are several different options as well. The flagship, the Canon 85 mm f/1.2L II USM is a fantastic lens. It is expensive, but the sharpness is incomparable. I recently had the pleasure of Canon actually loaning me one of these for a couple of weeks, and it is an amazing piece of kit! If the £1800 cost is over your budget limit, the Canon 85mm f/1.8 USM comes at a much more affordable price, but as the L-series from Canon is made for professional photographers, the price matches the quality, as could be expected.

If you are a serious photographer (or aiming to be one), you will need proper good quality equipment. Even though lenses are expensive, they are a necessary investment as they are the piece of kit which will make the single biggest difference to how your pictures look. Many cheaper lenses lose colour and sharpness around the edges of photos which is quite obvious at hi-res and larger picture specs. Another advantage of the pricey L-lenses is that they are made for heavy-duty handling (within reason, of course). My camera and L-lens hit the floor from about a meter’s height last year, as a model stepped on the cable attaching it to the trigger. I picked it up, shook it, and took a picture- and the outcome was exactly same as normal. The only thing that broke was my trigger, and if you think about what could have happened, I was let off lightly.

Depending on what you shoot, a macro lens would also come in handy. The Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L Macro is a fantastic lens which enables you to capture details, both in landscape and portrait shots. The IS system in the above lens will counteract camera shake both in normal and in macro shooting, providing up to 2 stops of image stabilasation, thereby enabling possible slower shutter speed without camera shake.

If you want to know more about lenses, feel free to ask any questions you might have and I shall try my best to answer them.

Until next time, happy shooting!!

What inspires you to get creative? Loads of different things inspire me, but I get some of my best ideas from looking at fashion magazines from around the world.  Some of the most inspirational magazines for me are Numero, Vogue Paris and of course Vogue Italia. It would be amazing to get my work in any of these esteemed publications. There is a long way to go, but remember, everybody started somewhere!

I am also a big fan of photography/fashion books. I guess that anyone who aspires to be a great artist will have to study the work of the already great artists.  My personal favourite is my copy of the Dolce & Gabbana Fashion Album where there are photographs from Steven Meisel, Steven Klein, Patrick Demarchelier, Helmut Newton etc.

Steven Meisel is, in my humble opinion, one of the best photographers in the world. Have a look at his work with Karlie Kloss in the December issue of Vogue Italia here. You can also watch the backstage video here.

Another book that I really like is Michel Comte’s Thirty years and Five minutes. He is a very talented French photographer who has shot with all the best models in the world, and he creates some beautiful images.

Both these books are highly recommended for those looking for great ideas, and available via the links provided at Amazon.co.uk

Keep checking in for more updates on my blog, and don’t forget to have a look at www.pallehansen.com

All the best!

It has proved to be a busy beginning to the new year, and I have hardly had any time to blog. However, I have made time to do a fantastic fashion shoot with an amazing model. Her name is Chelsea Tarbox, and I’m pleased to give you a preview of the shoot.

Fashion shoot with Chelsea Tarbox

Chelsea is a lovely person, and a great intuitive model. She is fast becoming my new muse. All photographers should have one! The shoot went very well, and I will expect to see some of the pictures in magazines very soon, not least thanks to the great styling skills from Abigail Ayoola and fantastic make up by Sophia Constantine.

Next week I will shoot with another favourite of mine, Samantha Louise Hicks, and we are going do some healthy living and fitness pictures. It will be a much more commercial approach than my previous work so far. I am really excited about it as Sam is an excellent choice for both fashion and commercial work!

Samantha Louise Hicks

The week after that, I will be shooting an editorial for The Bite magazine, with dresses from the amazing Katayoon. I am pleased to announce that I am now included on the masthead for The Bite as one of their official photographers.

I shall keep you all up to date with my latest shoots and publications, but in the meanwhile, you can still see much more of my latest work on www.pallehansen.com

All the best!

Happy New Year everyone! I can’t believe it’s already the end of the first week in January.

The new year has started well for the Studio as there are still 120 budding photographers to be booked in for one of our fabulous Photography Masterclasses.

I am planning to launch the first full day photography workshops in February. I cannot wait to get that started as the masterclass students seem very keen to learn more. Yesterday’s masterclass once again received some great feedback from the students and the ever-popular Tia Magno was on hand to provide an artistic canvas for the students to work with.

In other exciting news,  PH Studio and Canon are now collaborating to offer workshop participants a chance to test out new kit! Yesterday was the first time that Canon users had the chance to test with some amazing glass. Canon has kindly provided PH Studio with an 85mm f 1.2, a 100mm macro f2, and also a Fish Eye L-lens. Paradise for Canon users! There was also a Canon representative to answer all the questions from the curious students.

Funnily enough there was only one Nikon user out of 7 attendants yesterday.

2011 was a good year for my personal photography too, with nearly 30 pages published in various fashion magazines. So the pressure is there to improve on that number for 2012.The coming week is once again busy. However, I’m making time to shoot with the amazing Chelsea Tarbox on Thursday, with a view to getting this shoot published too. I am also planning my next shoot for ‘The Bite magazine’. I shall keep you up to date with developments.

Have a look at www.pallehansen.com to see examples of the kind of work I am doing for magazines.

Enjoy the new year everyone!
Palle

Monday Dec 19th was the last workshop of the year at PH Studio. The group consisted of 8 very enthusiastic budding photographers who were very keen to learn. The 2 hours went very quickly and my colleague Tony Wellington and myself enjoyed the teaching. The photographers seemed to  enjoy the modelling skills displayed by the gorgeous Tia Magno.

Tia Magno @PHstudio

After the workshop I had time to shoot some great fashion pics with Emelie Stenman from Union models, another very good model, and also a good friend of mine.  The styling was done by Audrey Kouame from Paris. It was her debut as a stylist and she did a great job. Make up and hair was done by Sumera Munir, a very talented lady indeed.

Emelie @makeup

Hello everyone!

This is my first blog post!

As the new year is approaching,I can look back on 2011 as a very good year personally. I have managed to get 25 pages published, amongst them being 3 front covers, so I can only be pleased.

I am also celebrating the first 6 months of my beautiful studio being open. Renaissance, The Bite, L’Autre and Supersuper magazines have already shot here. Last week, footballer George Boateng was at the studio for a shoot.

As well as hiring the studio out to fellow snappers, I have started hosting workshops and photographic courses. The first workshop held  on Friday last week was a huge success. Eight budding photographers went home very happy, not least because of the beautiful Tia Magno who was the model for the day. I am looking forward to the next workshop on Monday 19th December.

I am very excited about the range of courses that PH Studio is set to offer for 2012. Check out the Course Prospectus on the website for more information.

Keep checking back for more updates- there is always something exciting happening at PH Studio.