Jan 2009
Wedding: Samara & Moniel
Samara & Moniel where married in Barbosa Ferras on the 27th of December (as you will note one day before our first proper wedding). Moniel is my wife’s cousin which is why we where there. We didn’t take much gear with us (in fact just the D80 with the 50mm and the 18-55mm lenses with the SB-600) as we weren’t the photographers, but we couldn’t resist taking at least a few right? Especially after the guy they had hired left after the ceremonial cut of the cake right at the beginning of the party.
First off a few taken during the service:
His sister with his niece who was a flower girl:
Once at the part I got some shots of the cake:
Plus some shots of the family take with bounced flash. The low white ceiling was brilliant, and I just kept adjusting the angle for the distance I was trying to throw the light. This shot of my Uncle (also Uncle to the groom...) and the bride’s sister was pretty cool, his comment involving donkeys:
It turns out that my photos of the ceremonial cutting of the cake turned out nicer than the ones where they really did it. The bride had snapped something in her leg the week before, and by the end of the party had her foot up and had to limp out to throw the bouquet, but she never let it get to her despite the obvious pain she was in by the end. I think that’s why the earlier ones came out better.
His sister (the blonde one from above) took her shoes off and my Uncle (the one telling the joke above) decided to exercise his artistic side with his placement of her shoes. She didn’t find it funny, but it made a great shot nonetheless...
The bouquet went way over to the girl in black just behind the bride’s ear there, whereas it seems to be her new sister-in-law (the youngest of the brood of five) who most wanted it:
Speaking of which, she put on quite a display later on with one of her cousins (her boyfriend was around somewhere, just not a good a dancer as her cousin). A shot made possible only by the joys of that low white ceiling, and I have to say, one of my favourite shots of the day (after the shot of the girls whispering up top)... I just love the flow of the fabric and the bright colours!
Right... well that sums that up, and I believe that is the last of the Brazil photos I needed to get through unless you want to see the family photos from Christmas? Read More...
First off a few taken during the service:
His sister with his niece who was a flower girl:
Once at the part I got some shots of the cake:
Plus some shots of the family take with bounced flash. The low white ceiling was brilliant, and I just kept adjusting the angle for the distance I was trying to throw the light. This shot of my Uncle (also Uncle to the groom...) and the bride’s sister was pretty cool, his comment involving donkeys:
It turns out that my photos of the ceremonial cutting of the cake turned out nicer than the ones where they really did it. The bride had snapped something in her leg the week before, and by the end of the party had her foot up and had to limp out to throw the bouquet, but she never let it get to her despite the obvious pain she was in by the end. I think that’s why the earlier ones came out better.
His sister (the blonde one from above) took her shoes off and my Uncle (the one telling the joke above) decided to exercise his artistic side with his placement of her shoes. She didn’t find it funny, but it made a great shot nonetheless...
The bouquet went way over to the girl in black just behind the bride’s ear there, whereas it seems to be her new sister-in-law (the youngest of the brood of five) who most wanted it:
Speaking of which, she put on quite a display later on with one of her cousins (her boyfriend was around somewhere, just not a good a dancer as her cousin). A shot made possible only by the joys of that low white ceiling, and I have to say, one of my favourite shots of the day (after the shot of the girls whispering up top)... I just love the flow of the fabric and the bright colours!
Right... well that sums that up, and I believe that is the last of the Brazil photos I needed to get through unless you want to see the family photos from Christmas? Read More...
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Another day in the life of me...
23/01/09 19:56 Filed in: Photography
I wanted to chat just a little about the way I am using lighting now, and my plans for the future. I think the best examples come from the modelling shoot we did with Karol, Larissa and Joice. Firstly the use of off camera flash.
Having discovered the wonders of David Hobby’s Strobist blog which is the source of lighting tuition on the web I have moved away from built in flash to using (with my current budget) a single off camera flash in the form of my SB-600. I have the firing on a lightstand into a silver umbrella. A great example of this is this first shot of Karol. At the top of these stairs I shut the doors to the various rooms around her to keep out the rather odd coloured light coming in, and had my flash with a Sto-fen diffuser and a 1/4 CTO (a pale orange filter) to give extra warmth to the skin tones. The light in this photo is almost entirely coming from that flash which is just off frame to the left. The mirror shows off her fine frame nicely, although the frame of the mirror itself unfortunately is a bit reflective which is causing issues on the left hand edge of the image. Cropped to 4:5 I can get rid of that, and that is how I end up printing most of my photos which works out the best shape all round for the vast majority of my shots..
Not the complete lack of harsh shadows on her anywhere which means that it doesn’t look like it was lit by a single source, but rather by a general emanation of light coming from the left hand side somewhere. It’s a great look, and very simple to achieve. Fully iTTL with my D80 and the 18-55 kit lens borrowed from my D40x.
Next up is another way to use the flash. Whereas above there is only one light source, in the below photo there are actually two. My main light is a big yellow thing called the sun, coming in from the right, and I had my flash on the left as you can see to balance that a bit and bring up the shadow to stop the shot being exceptionally contrasty. Without the flash the left hand side of her face would be practically black with the brightness that we had on that day. As below, you can see the effect of the sun on her, however she looks comfortable and not in bright painful sunlight. The whole thing fits together better. Tech as above.
Once back inside and with a change of clothes, we got some more shots of Karol. Again with two lights, this time a quite diffuse light coming in through the kitchen on the right acting as a backlight having the effect of marking her body out against the wood behind her and the flash being used as the main illumination. As you can see from the photo from this scene in the portfolio of this shoot, it really works well and defines her body against the background clearly whilst also maintaining a natural look. Your mind is constantly differentiating between foreground and background, but it only manages to do that with binocular vision, with a 2D photo you need to have a much clearer distinction in terms of colour for your mind to appreciate the difference. This time with the light concentrated on her face which was the main interest in the photo (although in the one in the portfolio the roles of the two light sources are reversed). Tech as above.
Back to Larissa (a couple of wardrobe changes later) sat on the windowsill. Shots from inside looked great with and without the flash which is just to the right of her the other side of the wall I am against. Coming outside however, and being on the dark side of the house, the flash coming from inside really pulls Larissa out of the photo. The light and subsequent shadows really show off her *cough* curves, and give a true sense of depth to the photo. Without the flash, she looked drab, flat and dark against the white wall with the background in much softer shadow.
The girls did love my shiny brolly though, and my favourite shots of the day ended up being taken in natural light. This is a fairly narrow area outside between the glass on the right of the stairs and a white wall on the left. A large bamboo plant gives a lot of texture, and a lot of contrast when going to black and white. the series of three this one comes from will go on my wall at work once I get some way to hang them up. This was with the 50mm f/1.8 lens on the D80.
Final shot of the day was a sight that caught my eye: the amount of cloths and accessories the girls (well... Karol...) had brought with them! The two coloured wig never got used, but I have no idea what she was planning to do with that one!
As for the future I need at least one more flash, plus a better commander flash (either another unit or the SU-800 dedicated commander) to really get some cool shots in any ambient lighting situation. The trouble is, for weddings which will be our main work hopefully, that much equipment will just get in our way. The first things I need to buy are a pro wide/normal zoom, a pro tele-zoom and a third body before I can even think about expanding my lighting gear for a side of the business we expect to be a less important side. The art of this side though, playing with light as I read from Dave Hobby and others like Joe McNally, really intrigues me and is something I really want to push in the future. It will be really important for us in terms of engagement shoots, maternity shoots, and the occasional bit of wedding photography to, depending on the location and the pace of the day. Having a better understanding of this is also making me think much harder about the way I am taking photos even in natural light, looking at reflections and natural diffusion to make my photos better. I can’t move the sun as easy as a lightstand, but I can always ask my subject to look slightly more to the left!
Until next time, hopefully with some more interesting insights, take care and God Bless! Read More...
Having discovered the wonders of David Hobby’s Strobist blog which is the source of lighting tuition on the web I have moved away from built in flash to using (with my current budget) a single off camera flash in the form of my SB-600. I have the firing on a lightstand into a silver umbrella. A great example of this is this first shot of Karol. At the top of these stairs I shut the doors to the various rooms around her to keep out the rather odd coloured light coming in, and had my flash with a Sto-fen diffuser and a 1/4 CTO (a pale orange filter) to give extra warmth to the skin tones. The light in this photo is almost entirely coming from that flash which is just off frame to the left. The mirror shows off her fine frame nicely, although the frame of the mirror itself unfortunately is a bit reflective which is causing issues on the left hand edge of the image. Cropped to 4:5 I can get rid of that, and that is how I end up printing most of my photos which works out the best shape all round for the vast majority of my shots..
Not the complete lack of harsh shadows on her anywhere which means that it doesn’t look like it was lit by a single source, but rather by a general emanation of light coming from the left hand side somewhere. It’s a great look, and very simple to achieve. Fully iTTL with my D80 and the 18-55 kit lens borrowed from my D40x.
Next up is another way to use the flash. Whereas above there is only one light source, in the below photo there are actually two. My main light is a big yellow thing called the sun, coming in from the right, and I had my flash on the left as you can see to balance that a bit and bring up the shadow to stop the shot being exceptionally contrasty. Without the flash the left hand side of her face would be practically black with the brightness that we had on that day. As below, you can see the effect of the sun on her, however she looks comfortable and not in bright painful sunlight. The whole thing fits together better. Tech as above.
Once back inside and with a change of clothes, we got some more shots of Karol. Again with two lights, this time a quite diffuse light coming in through the kitchen on the right acting as a backlight having the effect of marking her body out against the wood behind her and the flash being used as the main illumination. As you can see from the photo from this scene in the portfolio of this shoot, it really works well and defines her body against the background clearly whilst also maintaining a natural look. Your mind is constantly differentiating between foreground and background, but it only manages to do that with binocular vision, with a 2D photo you need to have a much clearer distinction in terms of colour for your mind to appreciate the difference. This time with the light concentrated on her face which was the main interest in the photo (although in the one in the portfolio the roles of the two light sources are reversed). Tech as above.
Back to Larissa (a couple of wardrobe changes later) sat on the windowsill. Shots from inside looked great with and without the flash which is just to the right of her the other side of the wall I am against. Coming outside however, and being on the dark side of the house, the flash coming from inside really pulls Larissa out of the photo. The light and subsequent shadows really show off her *cough* curves, and give a true sense of depth to the photo. Without the flash, she looked drab, flat and dark against the white wall with the background in much softer shadow.
The girls did love my shiny brolly though, and my favourite shots of the day ended up being taken in natural light. This is a fairly narrow area outside between the glass on the right of the stairs and a white wall on the left. A large bamboo plant gives a lot of texture, and a lot of contrast when going to black and white. the series of three this one comes from will go on my wall at work once I get some way to hang them up. This was with the 50mm f/1.8 lens on the D80.
Final shot of the day was a sight that caught my eye: the amount of cloths and accessories the girls (well... Karol...) had brought with them! The two coloured wig never got used, but I have no idea what she was planning to do with that one!
As for the future I need at least one more flash, plus a better commander flash (either another unit or the SU-800 dedicated commander) to really get some cool shots in any ambient lighting situation. The trouble is, for weddings which will be our main work hopefully, that much equipment will just get in our way. The first things I need to buy are a pro wide/normal zoom, a pro tele-zoom and a third body before I can even think about expanding my lighting gear for a side of the business we expect to be a less important side. The art of this side though, playing with light as I read from Dave Hobby and others like Joe McNally, really intrigues me and is something I really want to push in the future. It will be really important for us in terms of engagement shoots, maternity shoots, and the occasional bit of wedding photography to, depending on the location and the pace of the day. Having a better understanding of this is also making me think much harder about the way I am taking photos even in natural light, looking at reflections and natural diffusion to make my photos better. I can’t move the sun as easy as a lightstand, but I can always ask my subject to look slightly more to the left!
Until next time, hopefully with some more interesting insights, take care and God Bless! Read More...
Wedding: Nathália & Cleidson
And onto to the actual wedding...
Firstly the behind the scenes of the brides preparations:
Her dress was a nice mermaid design from Centre Noivas
As you can see, once she was ready she was raring to go!
At the location, the sun was on its way down when the service started:
As the bride appeared:
Father of the Bride:
Of the photo’s they have seen so far, this is their favourite shot, and I can really see why:
They had a really cool cake too:
The girls really wanted that bouquet
But when it came to the actual throwing of the bouquet, they weren’t lined up quite so politely!!!
I didn’t hear the comment, but you can imagine it had something to do with the hotel...
Their car got seriously messed up by the girls too...
Inside the car on the way to the hotel:
At the hotel, the room had been decorated for them, and after a bit more posing, we left the two of them in peace!
On the tech side of things, most of these shots where done with the D80 and the 50mm f/1.8 lens, some of the close-up stuff was my wife using the D40x with the 55-200mm VR although in the lower light she was struggling.
That’s one of the things we are looking to remedy over the next couple of months, and thats having two respectable bodies (D80+) and some more low light lenses, specifically a wide zoom and a telephoto zoom. For the tele, the 80-200 is looking promising and is going for some good prices on eBay, for the wide end I am going to have to test the Sigma out at the local camera shop as the Nikon stuff is waaaay out of my price range; at least for the foreseeable future.
I will put these and more into my portfolio hopefully tomorrow, and then I need to have a closer look as I think I might be updating the site somewhat, including moving the blog and the RSS feed, so if you are reading this through RSS (do I have anyone doing that?) then I will make sure I put up at least one more post before I move things around.
Take care! Read More...
Firstly the behind the scenes of the brides preparations:
Her dress was a nice mermaid design from Centre Noivas
As you can see, once she was ready she was raring to go!
At the location, the sun was on its way down when the service started:
As the bride appeared:
Father of the Bride:
Of the photo’s they have seen so far, this is their favourite shot, and I can really see why:
They had a really cool cake too:
The girls really wanted that bouquet
But when it came to the actual throwing of the bouquet, they weren’t lined up quite so politely!!!
I didn’t hear the comment, but you can imagine it had something to do with the hotel...
Their car got seriously messed up by the girls too...
Inside the car on the way to the hotel:
At the hotel, the room had been decorated for them, and after a bit more posing, we left the two of them in peace!
On the tech side of things, most of these shots where done with the D80 and the 50mm f/1.8 lens, some of the close-up stuff was my wife using the D40x with the 55-200mm VR although in the lower light she was struggling.
That’s one of the things we are looking to remedy over the next couple of months, and thats having two respectable bodies (D80+) and some more low light lenses, specifically a wide zoom and a telephoto zoom. For the tele, the 80-200 is looking promising and is going for some good prices on eBay, for the wide end I am going to have to test the Sigma out at the local camera shop as the Nikon stuff is waaaay out of my price range; at least for the foreseeable future.
I will put these and more into my portfolio hopefully tomorrow, and then I need to have a closer look as I think I might be updating the site somewhat, including moving the blog and the RSS feed, so if you are reading this through RSS (do I have anyone doing that?) then I will make sure I put up at least one more post before I move things around.
Take care! Read More...
Engagement Session: Nathália & Cleidson
Right... back in Swindon and back to photography at last, looking to set up the company officially over the next couple of weeks which will let me get on with doing some serious photography here. I am going to get some more shoots in over the next few weeks as well, especially after my wife gets back to the UK in a week and a half...
Anyways, as previously mentioned on countless occasions, we had our first wedding shoot to do whilst we where in Brazil over the holiday season. For them it was the middle of summer, so they had a sunset wedding just outside of the town where my wife is from. Nath is a childhood friend of my wife’s who met Cleidson whilst away studying. I already knew her parents, her brother, a large number of uncle’s, aunts, cousins and her grandparents from my previous visits to Brazil, but I had never met her before as she was always away studying, so the first time we actually met was for the engagement session just before Christmas. 11 of these photos ended up on a nice and big in a nice frame by the entrance to the reception hall which you will see in the next post.
This was the central shot of them, and it was definitely my favourite of the day...
Read More...
Anyways, as previously mentioned on countless occasions, we had our first wedding shoot to do whilst we where in Brazil over the holiday season. For them it was the middle of summer, so they had a sunset wedding just outside of the town where my wife is from. Nath is a childhood friend of my wife’s who met Cleidson whilst away studying. I already knew her parents, her brother, a large number of uncle’s, aunts, cousins and her grandparents from my previous visits to Brazil, but I had never met her before as she was always away studying, so the first time we actually met was for the engagement session just before Christmas. 11 of these photos ended up on a nice and big in a nice frame by the entrance to the reception hall which you will see in the next post.
This was the central shot of them, and it was definitely my favourite of the day...
Read More...Creativity: 10,000 hours
08/01/09 19:43 Filed in: General
Wow... I have just watched a lecture by Malcolm Gladwell who writes for The New Yorker on the subject of creativity. I got pointed to it by a post on Chase Jarvis’ blog.
Absolutely amazing and very thought provoking lecture, a little over 30 minutes plus a short question time at the end with the host. Anybody who is the least bit interested in accomplishing anything with their lives would do well to take heart from his words of wisdom:
Malcolm Gladwell - Outliers: The Story of Success
I promise I will get around to blogging the wedding today as well
Read More...
Absolutely amazing and very thought provoking lecture, a little over 30 minutes plus a short question time at the end with the host. Anybody who is the least bit interested in accomplishing anything with their lives would do well to take heart from his words of wisdom:
Malcolm Gladwell - Outliers: The Story of Success
I promise I will get around to blogging the wedding today as well
Read More...Fashion shoot: Karol, Larissa & Joice
Last of the shoots we did there before we went wedding mad was with three friends of ours in Brazil. Three very nice young ladies who wanted to do what they call a ‘book’ which is basically a portfolio. Karol is already with a modelling agency (although not much luck yet as I understand it, that might now change!) and really quite surprised me as I had her pegged as fairly shy. Turns out she isn’t the least bit shy! Larissa is really extrovert normally, but it was Karol who seemed to be pushing the envelope in terms of what they wanted to do. Joice unfortunately had other things to do (work... work... work...) but we made the most of the short time we had with her (whilst the others where deciding on wardrobe) and got some great shots on the stairs, very dramatic.
Firstly Karol put on a prom dress and really turned up the sass with the look on her face!
Then into a one piece that really works well on her...
Larissa was posing in the window frame for quite a few and we got some great ones that really show off her body, this being just one of many:
Karol was actually above my head in this one - she had climbed up a tree!
Joice on the stairs with a CTO’d flash directly onto her face from camera left. Really turned down the ambient, which is quite impressive considering the size of the window to the left of the stairs and the brightness coming through it!
Larissa really knows how to look sexy in a photo, and she gave a cracking example of that with this one:
My favourite of the day though ended up being shot with available light next to a big bamboo plant. The girls like my shiny umbrella so much they wanted to take some photos with it, and these three of Karol worked so well together:
These a bit bigger plus many more in the Portfolio section. I will be explaining some of my technique from these in a week or so once I get finished with the rest of the photos I need to post... I’ll try and do the wedding tomorrow... well, the bridal shower first, then the engagement session and finally the wedding itself... eep! Read More...
Firstly Karol put on a prom dress and really turned up the sass with the look on her face!
Then into a one piece that really works well on her...
Larissa was posing in the window frame for quite a few and we got some great ones that really show off her body, this being just one of many:
Karol was actually above my head in this one - she had climbed up a tree!
Joice on the stairs with a CTO’d flash directly onto her face from camera left. Really turned down the ambient, which is quite impressive considering the size of the window to the left of the stairs and the brightness coming through it!
Larissa really knows how to look sexy in a photo, and she gave a cracking example of that with this one:
My favourite of the day though ended up being shot with available light next to a big bamboo plant. The girls like my shiny umbrella so much they wanted to take some photos with it, and these three of Karol worked so well together:
These a bit bigger plus many more in the Portfolio section. I will be explaining some of my technique from these in a week or so once I get finished with the rest of the photos I need to post... I’ll try and do the wedding tomorrow... well, the bridal shower first, then the engagement session and finally the wedding itself... eep! Read More...
Kids shoot: Isabela
Secondly comes Isabela. Niece of my wife’s English teacher in Brazil, this little one came to us with a warning. We where told she is very shy and wouldn’t take very good photos. I guess they switched the model at the last minute because the girl we met was great from the start and kept us busy as wherever she went or stopped or looked, there was a beautiful shot of her. The only thing we needed to do was keep up with her and be ready for that shot as there was no going back!
I was really happy with the photos from this shoot of this little gem of a girl and hope all our warnings come like that!
Hidden in the palm fronds she started bouncing in a way that gave a huge amount of life to her hair:
She brought her pet with her who
My favourite of the day however was this one, isn’t she just the prettiest?
Again, more of her in our Portfolio, and these ones are definitely worth a look! Read More...
I was really happy with the photos from this shoot of this little gem of a girl and hope all our warnings come like that!
Hidden in the palm fronds she started bouncing in a way that gave a huge amount of life to her hair:
She brought her pet with her who
My favourite of the day however was this one, isn’t she just the prettiest?
Again, more of her in our Portfolio, and these ones are definitely worth a look! Read More...
Kids shoot: Milena
Well... its been busy since I have come back to the UK, mostly playing with the photos of Nathalia and Cleidson whose wedding we did on 28th December. It has taken quite some time to sort through and treat all the photos we took and I can honestly say I have learnt a lot. I know I said on my face book I would blog the wedding today, but before I do that, I have added the rest of my albums to the portfolio and need to talk about them a bit first, then I can post the wedding stuff (which I have just burnt to disc) and then I can clean up any other random photos I have, as well as a couple of behind the scenes photos so you can see how I am doing some of this stuff.
First up then is Milena who is niece of (one of) my best mans wife if that makes sense... A delightful little girl who on this particular morning was full of energy. My wife and I as well as her Mum, Aunt and Uncle to be where hiding under a tree while she was gadavanting around in the bright sunshine. Her bright clothes and even brighter smile (even with that cute gap...) worked well for my wife and I as we got some very nice shots:
As usual whilst I was playing with the wider angles (in this case the 18-55) my wife was playing with the longer one, such as the below photo:
More examples of this shoot in our portfolio Read More...
First up then is Milena who is niece of (one of) my best mans wife if that makes sense... A delightful little girl who on this particular morning was full of energy. My wife and I as well as her Mum, Aunt and Uncle to be where hiding under a tree while she was gadavanting around in the bright sunshine. Her bright clothes and even brighter smile (even with that cute gap...) worked well for my wife and I as we got some very nice shots:
As usual whilst I was playing with the wider angles (in this case the 18-55) my wife was playing with the longer one, such as the below photo:
More examples of this shoot in our portfolio Read More...