Profiles

Sometimes things don't work out quite the way you plan. Originally I'd intended to interview Geoffrey Simpson about his work as a cinematographer, with the idea of exploring the intersection between his craft and the art of photographic composition. Although he is an extremely busy fellow, we managed to conduct the interview. Unfortunately, it turned out to be difficult to organise the high resolution images from his films we'd need for publication in the magazine. Ownership and copyright issues that arise from such a highly collaborative art form, it seems, are extremely complex.


Umbrellas 

At about the time we were wrestling with these matters, Canon's new HD video capable EOS 5D MkII made its dramatic appearance. The wheels started turning in your correspondent's head. What if we could put one of the new cameras in Simpson's hands? Wouldn't it be fun to see what a real cinematographer could do with it?

Happily, despite intense demand from numerous journalists and professional photographers wanting to get their mitts on the sensational new camera, Canon Australia managed to find a review unit to put in Simpson's hands for a few weeks.

But, the outcome wasn't quite what I'd expected. Rather than shooting lots of HD video, Simpson instead re-discovered stills photography. And, after handing the camera back, he sent me some of his pictures along with a few impressions of his reacquaintance with SLR photography, digital style.

That's when I realised I was looking at a great little story...

'I am not a stills photographer, and not particularly technical where the digital world is concerned. However I love light, colour, composition and selected focus. As a cinematographer with over 30 years' experience shooting on film stock for feature films and television commercials, I take a lot of stills pictures for location reference. I use these to check the light in interiors and on the landscape alike. But my location pictures are really more snaps than "photographs".

'The last time I consciously took stills was in 1982 when I was involved with filming some documentaries in Nicaragua and El Salvador. It was photojournalism I guess, and several images were printed in magazines. Back then I used a Nikkormat, three fixed lenses and Kodak colour transparency film. I started taking location shots about 10 years ago using Canon digital cameras from the Ixus range and then, more recently, a Leica D-Lux 3.  

'When Photo Review hooked me up with Canon Australia with the idea of testing the new 5D Mark II, I immediately jumped at the chance. Canon were kind enough to let me take it on my two-week honeymoon in Bangkok and Laos (as long as I covered the insurance!).

'Sitting on the plane and looking at the camera and the manual, I realised I would have to curtail my dislike of reading manuals and start to take this camera seriously. (The manual is 227 pages long, including the index and specs.) After acquainting myself with the controls,  I decided not to use the automatic mode but to instead start by playing around with the many other options.

'The first thing I liked about the camera was its ergonomic shape, feel and weight. The eyepiece with its own diopter was great, showing a very clear picture and digital read-out along the bottom of the frame. After so many years of looking at the small screen we use to frame shots with cine cameras, it was an absolute pleasure to use a viewfinder again. The big dislike I have with small [point-and-shoot] digital cameras is the lack of a viewfinder. Viewfinders remind me of those old photographers with the Thornton and Pickard glass plate cameras who covered their heads with black cloth so they could focus and compose on the ground glass. I felt at home and ready to try and take some photographs.

'The various exposure metering systems all worked well - whether it was an overall reflected exposure reading, a spot meter-type reading, or something in between. I worked from ISO 100  up to ISO 6400 (which was very impressive because there was so little noise at the higher ISO settings). The camera sensitivity system can go to ISO 25,600, which is almost seeing in the dark, and renders images brighter than they appear to the eye.

'At one point, I shot some women at the night market who were illuminated by small incandescent bulbs. The supplied 24mm to 105mm lens had an f4 iris, so I shot wide open at shutter speeds of 1/50 to 1/100. The image stabiliser helped, and the results were interesting. The white balance could not remove the warmth of the lights, but it was adjusted later in the computer using the Canon software and iPhoto.

'I must say coming from a film background, where for low light scenes we shoot on Kodak 5219 Vision 2 High Speed stock rated at 500 ASA or 1000 ASA, to suddenly have this much sensitivity is extraordinary. Being able to shoot at really low light levels is something that is very exciting about digital still photography.

(Like all quickly changing technology, I imagine the digital HD video cameras we use in the film industry will soon be showing such increases in sensitivity as well. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for instance, was shot on the Thompson Viper digital camera with some very low light levels. It looked wonderful with great mid range tones to rich blacks. I am sure there was a lot of image manipulation as well. We face an interesting future.)

'The autofocus worked well with its nine sensors to lock onto moving targets.  I tried using a mixture of auto and manual focus, and although the viewfinder was very good, I missed the Nikon style half-circle focusing assist or the Canon equivalent from the old days of SLR shooting.

Silk fabric weaver

'Autofocus certainly has its place and it is fantastic for things like sport. I am not suggesting that it's an option I don't like, but the physical iris control - where my hand is on the barrel - is quicker to make changes. When shooting film, we often do "iris drags" during a shot, as for instance when people move inside, to outdoors.

'The camera  has an impressive HD Video mode, with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels in 16:9. It shoots at 30 frames per second (fps), so it would be of limited value for many feature films (all the top digital cine cameras offer 24p shooting to give a more film look). Twenty four frames has been the industry standard for about a hundred years and progressive scan (the "p" in 24p) gives more of the look we have come to accept from the cinema experience. The tests I shot showed clean images with rich colour and wonderful blacks, but with the video look of 30 fps (which still could be useful for many people). I found the Live View mode (where the LCD screen shows the image when shooting HD video) a bit limiting for operating, though it could be used on a tripod, or with one of the simple steadicam rigs now available.

'It really was great to have a state-of-the-art camera to play with and to start exploring stills photography again. In order to get more shots on the 8GB card I'd purchased, I shot JPEGs rather than RAW files. Even so, the quality was impressive.

'Not having a laptop with me, I couldn't really get the feedback of a full screen review. It was therefore very interesting to review the shots that way when I returned. I fine-tuned the pictures both with Canon's Digital Photo Professional software and, in some instances, with the latest version of Mac's iPhoto.  I guess we all become very self-critical of our work during the editing process. The camera performed incredibly, but the operator is exploring photography (again) and is still finding his point of view!'

Geoffrey Simpson

About Geoffrey Simpson
'My first day as a camera assistant was with Ron Lowe, a Sydney cameraman then working in South Australia. On my first morning, Ron met me at the door to explain he had to go to Sydney for a big commercial. "See you in three days" he said with a grin. I was left with an Eclair NPR, three rolls of reversal 16mm, some lights, a list of locations and the keys to the station wagon. My introduction was memorable!'

Simpson not only managed to survive his unconventional baptism into cinematography, he soon went on to become one of Australia's most successful cinematographers. Films he has worked on include The Navigator (dir. Vincent Ward), Shine (dir. Scott Hicks), Fried Green Tomatoes (dir. John Avnet), Green Card (dir. Peter Weir), The Last Days of Chez Nous (dir. Gillian Armstrong), Romulus My Father (dir Richard Roxburgh) and most recently The Tender Hook (dir. Jonathan Ogilvie). His list of Australian Film Industry Awards includes gongs for Oscar and Lucinda (1998), Shine (1996) and The Navigator (1988). In 1985 he won the ACS Golden Tripod Award and the Milli Award as Cinematographer of the Year for Playing Beattie Bow. He picked up the National ACS Golden Tripod again in 2008 for Romulus My Father.


See Photo Review magazine Issue 40 for the print edition of this profile which includes additional images.

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