Rumours of my death have been greatly exagerated...
11/09/09 17:20
Ladies, Gentlemen, Photographers and others...
I must apologise for the delay, life has been a bit problematic of late which may or may not be good in the long term for my photography, but I really don't want to dwell on that!
I have some great photos from a Christening we did recently which have come out beautifully and are now awaiting the clients approval before posting, so keep your eyes out for those hopefully in the middle of next week.
The day after the Christening I took part in an amazing course hosted by Callum Winton whereby he invited the larger than life Bert Stephani. I have mentioned Bert before on my Facebook page for his work with Squeeze the Lime and we spent two days with him in a portrait lighting seminar. We had a great group from all over the UK down in Richmond, London for the workshop and we all had a great time.
The first day involved Bert going through some theory and running a couple of setups picked at random by the class. The below photo is Bert with model Prabha Shiyani and Callum holding the Umbrella overhead. Bert was on a really cold White Balance, and using a lot of CTO on the flash to make it look like night. Don't ask about the horses head... You can see Bert's shot here.
Day two was much more practical with us running around Richmond Park in groups whilst Bert strolled around between the groups with his 5D and 50mm f/1.4 (for his 50/50 personal project you can read about on his blog) giving sage advice and direction as needed.
Assignment 1 was lighting a model with natural and using flash to liven up the background. After a few tips from the master I ended up with some photos of fellow photographer Graham Binns who was our model in this one. Simple setup really with a handheld flash agains the back wall. This is under a railway bridge which is why we have such a cool textured background.
Just as I was happy with this however Nick Crispini (one of the professional models we had for the day) walked over, and what could I do but have another go? Hence the below:
Assignment 2 was the other way around... a naturally lit background with a lit subject. After having seen him change his shirt for the above shot, I knew this one would just work. Light is a flash bounced into the white side of my Sunbounce Mini. The light looks great over his body... but then... how could I take a bad photo when he was looking like that?
There where another few shoots in between but I ended up being more grip or model than photographer for those... only one of any interest was of fellow photographer Matt Franklin which is only of interest because I used a fold flat soft box with my SB-600. First time I have ever used a softbox and although I really don't like this photo, I now know that I don't want to buy one yet, but can understand what I would need one for. Its just as well really having seen Joe McNally using one and thinking I needed one to become as good as him. Now I see it won't be much to use to my work until I have at least another couple of lights which I think I would need to be able to use it well:
To end up the day, Bert used the two models for a final shoot each, the most interesting of this was again with Nick who wanted something a bit darker for his portfolio. Bert used natural light on his face in the middle of a tunnel so light coming in from both sides. He used a Sunbounce (with me holding it for most of the shoot) camera right to block off some of the light coming in from that side which was a bit stronger. Add a gridded light on the back wall and some white balance playing and you get his final shot as you can see here. The photo below is after someone else took over the role of light stand holding the Sunbounce.
It was a really cool day and you can see more from the others who were there here.
A real Thank You to Callum, Bert, Nick, Prabha and Emma the make-up artist we had on the day as between you and the rest of my fellow Seminarees, I had a really great time and learned a lot!
More to come...
I must apologise for the delay, life has been a bit problematic of late which may or may not be good in the long term for my photography, but I really don't want to dwell on that!
I have some great photos from a Christening we did recently which have come out beautifully and are now awaiting the clients approval before posting, so keep your eyes out for those hopefully in the middle of next week.
The day after the Christening I took part in an amazing course hosted by Callum Winton whereby he invited the larger than life Bert Stephani. I have mentioned Bert before on my Facebook page for his work with Squeeze the Lime and we spent two days with him in a portrait lighting seminar. We had a great group from all over the UK down in Richmond, London for the workshop and we all had a great time.
The first day involved Bert going through some theory and running a couple of setups picked at random by the class. The below photo is Bert with model Prabha Shiyani and Callum holding the Umbrella overhead. Bert was on a really cold White Balance, and using a lot of CTO on the flash to make it look like night. Don't ask about the horses head... You can see Bert's shot here.
Day two was much more practical with us running around Richmond Park in groups whilst Bert strolled around between the groups with his 5D and 50mm f/1.4 (for his 50/50 personal project you can read about on his blog) giving sage advice and direction as needed.
Assignment 1 was lighting a model with natural and using flash to liven up the background. After a few tips from the master I ended up with some photos of fellow photographer Graham Binns who was our model in this one. Simple setup really with a handheld flash agains the back wall. This is under a railway bridge which is why we have such a cool textured background.
Just as I was happy with this however Nick Crispini (one of the professional models we had for the day) walked over, and what could I do but have another go? Hence the below:
Assignment 2 was the other way around... a naturally lit background with a lit subject. After having seen him change his shirt for the above shot, I knew this one would just work. Light is a flash bounced into the white side of my Sunbounce Mini. The light looks great over his body... but then... how could I take a bad photo when he was looking like that?
There where another few shoots in between but I ended up being more grip or model than photographer for those... only one of any interest was of fellow photographer Matt Franklin which is only of interest because I used a fold flat soft box with my SB-600. First time I have ever used a softbox and although I really don't like this photo, I now know that I don't want to buy one yet, but can understand what I would need one for. Its just as well really having seen Joe McNally using one and thinking I needed one to become as good as him. Now I see it won't be much to use to my work until I have at least another couple of lights which I think I would need to be able to use it well:
To end up the day, Bert used the two models for a final shoot each, the most interesting of this was again with Nick who wanted something a bit darker for his portfolio. Bert used natural light on his face in the middle of a tunnel so light coming in from both sides. He used a Sunbounce (with me holding it for most of the shoot) camera right to block off some of the light coming in from that side which was a bit stronger. Add a gridded light on the back wall and some white balance playing and you get his final shot as you can see here. The photo below is after someone else took over the role of light stand holding the Sunbounce.
It was a really cool day and you can see more from the others who were there here.
A real Thank You to Callum, Bert, Nick, Prabha and Emma the make-up artist we had on the day as between you and the rest of my fellow Seminarees, I had a really great time and learned a lot!
More to come...
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