First Shoot of the Year (Part Three)

The key part of this shot was getting the background exposure and composition right, then adding enough light from the flash in my left hand to expose Helen properly.

The photo above and the one below were both taken in the same place at the same time, the difference being the second has a flash illumination the background, while Helen is lit by natural light. The flash is laid on the ground just to the left of Helen's foot, pointing towards the wall behind her. If I had taken some gels with me I could have changes the colour of the wall to better contrast with her hair. (Maybe next time).

And that's it for this set of photos.

Thanks for reading and a big thankyou to Helen for being an excellent subject as always.

First Shoot of the Year (Part Two)

This is a shot that initially on the camera LCD didn't look to good, with the histogram pushed all the way over to the right and a lot of the frame over-exposed. But, as I were shooting in RAW, I knew I had al least a chance of getting something good with a little bit of fiddling in Aperture. So with a bit of recovery, a mono conversion and a quick contrast boost, Voila!

Now this is what I call a "Lou O'Bedlam"shot. Natural light, open shade, prime lens wide open. This was shot in the shade of the huge Xmas tree.

This was shot in direct bright sunlight, with a truck trailer as a background. Once again i had the flash in my left hand right at the limit ( high speed sync at 1/8000 of a second!) filling in the shadows and providing a catch-light in Helen's eyes..

Right, that's Part Two sorted, see you soon for Part Three.

First shoot of the year (Part One)

Well, another year rolls around and it's time to get back shooting after the Xmas excess :)
One of my favourite models, Helen was up from university for Xmas break and we managed to squeeze a quick shoot in. I often travel light, especially when I'm shooting on location or on the street and this shoot was no exception. One camera body, one lens and one flash (with no stand and no softbox, brolly or other modifier). Lens-wise I used the Canon 35mm f2 prime lens. Although I use zooms a lot, sometimes a prime lens is great for forcing you to "zoom with your feet" and maybe try some compositions you wouldn't normally think of using.

Not those two reprobates again!

At the weekend, whilst shooting the pictures for Legacy Comics' "Halloween Havoc" Costume Competition, I had a chance to take a couple of impromptu shots of Chris and Vern in their "Harcourt & Haigh" guises.

The set-up was actually very simple, with a single 60cm softbox on a boom above camera, another flash on the ground firing through a brolly for fill, and a third flash on a stand behind the subject lighting the background, which was a "borrowed" white cloth drape.

I converted the photos to mono to give them a bit of that classic David Bailey, sixties timeless portrait vibe. It's a simple, clean look that can be done with relatively little equipment (you could get away with one flash, a window and a reflector, or maybe even just using natural light).

As always, many thanks to Legacy Comics for the use of the space, and to Harcourt & Haigh for, well, just being themselves :)

Pursuit of the Cybermen

I went out to shoot some Cybermen photos over the weekend, only to be faced with a few difficulties.
First, when I got to the park where I planned to shoot, I realised that BOTH my camera batteries where very nearly dead, and secondly the high winds were causing the Cybermen to fall over (a lot).
I managed to get some good shots, but it's a little nerve wracking when the camera might shut itself off at any second, every shot has to count! :)

Star-trekkin'

The originals, and still the best.