Client Work (3 Family Shoots 1 Day part 1) - Pippa, Dave & Sky

Back in Feb this year I had 3 family shoots in studio in one day.  This is the first of those shoots with Pippa, Dave & Sky who is one of the cutest little girls you will ever meet.

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When working in a studio with lights, stands & backgrounds it can be a bit daunting for the children involved so I usually start slow and simple and make a point of arriving in studio 1-2 hours before start to prep the space and make it as safe as possible.  I also use this time to get my head in the mode of shooting.

Have to say Pippa, Dave & especially Sky were great and we all had allot of fun on the day.

We stuck to the white seamless set up for most of the shoot because it works, its simple and it’s clean.  3 Lights, white paper background and a few pieces of white board are all that’s needed.  Ok on to some images from the shoot.

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I love this image above of Sky and her Dad, she is trying to figure out the white boards and the set.  Always have your exposure roughed in ready for when the client steps on set, that way you can catch moments like this and have good or very close exposure.

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Whole family on set now and Sky looks at her shoes… Cracks me up.  The reflection is made possible by using the white board, I wont shoot full length white seamless with out it.. so much so I bought it for the local studio I use.

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As the shoot progresses everyone (including myself becomes more comfortable) and we start to get some great images and moments.  Moments.. that’s the most important thing… not the gear.

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The next few frames were not shot on the white seamless set, make sure you have some breaks now and again to change it up and keep it interesting for the child but be aware of your ambient light (windows light in this case) so you can dial in exposure and capture some candid shots.

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Back on the seamless set for a few shots of Sky and her Toys.​

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Sky the budding photographer, taking after her Mum Pippa.

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Girls got to look her best whilst photographing.​

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Yeah this is what happens when you knock you mode dial to bulb mode, Sky looks as impressed as I was.​

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Sometimes your subjects/client just fall in to something and it works.​

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Sometime I hand the camera to the child (with my help.. 5D2, grip and lens is heavy) and let them shoot some frames.  The next 3 images are courtesy of Sky,​

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Then Sky found the hats.  Let me explain.. the owner of the studio I use is a stage / theatre actor and has a few props and hats around which means it’s not uncommon for the kids to find them.

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At first the hat was a drum, makes sense I can see that.​

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Then is was time to try it on.. this is where it went a bit wrong….

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This always gets me laughing when I see it. 

Thank you Pippa, Dave & Sky for making it a fun and easy shoot.  Also thank you to Ians Studio for providing the studio space.

Thank you for reading.
Rick

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Location Shoot: Sarah Mansfield…Castlefield Manchester

This shoot is from back in July 2012.

I first met Sarah at an event at a local Studio I ended up teaching on (was planning to just shoot but ended up taking one group)  and instantly realised she had a great personality for modelling and in general.  A shoot was arranged for the following Monday in Castlefield, Manchester UK.

Castlefield is a well known part of Manchester and hold great potential for location work, I must revisit it.

With travelling in by Train I decided to travel light (for me) along side my good friend Mark Boadey, we had arranged a joint shoot.   Having not visited Castlefield for a number of years I was looking forward to seeing what I could find.

This shoot was the one I made my mind up to finally go Full Frame.  I borrowed a 5D2 from a good friend Kevin Pack and never looked back.. anyway.

The images shown below are some of my favourites from the shoot.

The first frame was a simple head shot, I start with head shots quite often to warm up to the shoot.. how ever getting up close for a head shot might not suite all subjects as a starting point. This image was taken using great open shade with a bright sunny blue sky, I love open shade almost as much as I like direct sun/hardlight… almost

#1  Canon 5D2, Canon 85 F1.8 , Natural Light – 1/250th sec, F2.8 ISO125

The next frame was a full length shot, whilst not over all a favourite.. it could of been framed tighter! I still like it because of Sarah's expression and reaction to what ever I said (can’t remember), I also like how the top echos the shape of the arms in the pose.

#2 – Canon 5D2, Canon 85 F1.8 – Natural Light - 1/320sec, F1.8, ISO125

Next was a few head and shoulder shots, I love the eye contact and the background works well with Sarah’s hair colour and of course the smile in the second one.

#3 – Canon 5D2, Canon 85 F1.8, – Natural Light - 1/160sec, F4, ISO 400

#4 - Canon 5D2, Canon 85 F1.8, – Natural Light - 1/160sec, F4, ISO 400

Now its time for something more dramatic and wide angle, I love my 35 F2 lens but so far had only use it on a APS-C DSLR.. now on the 5D2 it was a real wide angle… play time.

The rail bridge that travel over the Canal hides some great locations and bridge structures, the next series of images were made around that area.

#5  - Canon 5D2, Canon 35 F2 – Natural Light & Flash – 1/200th sec, F11, ISO100, Flash 1/4 Power ish.  Thanks to Mark Boadey VAL duties.  1:1 crop in post.


#6 - Canon 5D2, Canon 35 F2 – Natural Light & Flash – 1/200th sec, F11, ISO100, Flash 1/4 Power ish – Some of the shadow shapes in this are created by shooting through a bridge barrier.

#7 Canon 5D2, Canon 35 F2 – Natural Light & Flash – 1/200th sec, F11, ISO100, Flash 1/4 Power ish

#8 Canon 5D2, Canon 35 F2 – Natural Light & Flash – 1/80h sec, F5, ISO100

Time for something lighter and warmer.

#9 - Canon 5D2, Canon 50 F1.8 II – Natural Light & Flash – 1/200th sec, F3.5, ISO400, Flash 1/8th Power ish with CTO Gel.  Just a small tree and a man made sun.

Now a little more dramatic with Grids.  Love these things.

#10 - Canon 5D2, Canon 50 F1.8 II – Natural Light & Mostly Flash – 1/200th sec, F8, ISO200 – Flash with 1/4 Grid at 1/2 Power ish. 1:! crop in post

#11 - Canon 5D2, Canon 35 F2 – a Natural Little & Flash – 1/200th sec, F8, ISO100, Flash 1/2Power ish with 1/4 grid.  - The grid keeps the flash off the wall.

You can see a video of my edit of this image here

#12 - Canon 5D2, Canon 50 F1.8 II – Natural Light – 1/400thsec, F5.6, ISO640 – A Bit of fun during last light. Never understood people who try to get rid of shadows in any photograph, they create shape/ depth.

#13 - Canon 5D2, Canon 50 F1.8 II, – Natural Light - 1/640thsec, F1.8, ISO640

#14 - Canon 5D2, Canon 50 F1.8 II, – Natural Light - 1/500th sec, F1.8, ISO640

Always keep your camera ready incase your Model decides to go climbing.
 

We wrapped the day off with some good food and a few drinks.



Thank you Sarah for an enjoyable shoot, look forward to working with you again.

Rick

Personal Work & Models– A Studio Shoot with Model: Bex Lendon

Normally when I post these kind of post I get right in to talking about the shoot and the model/person I worked with along side images.  But for this one I want to start a little different and talk about my thoughts on personal work and working with models. May be this should be its own post..maybe but it’s this shoot that got me thinking so here it is.

Of late I have been shooting allot of models, why? well for me there are a few reasons.

1. You get to meet, collaborate with different creative people face to face (not just online)
2. It keeps you thinking creatively and working the camera and lights. Stops the rust setting in.
3. You can field test stuff for client work. Yeah I do that, test a lighting setup or two.
4. You get to work on developing your style of shooting/lighting (I'm years off this by the way) and keep moving forward, making mistakes and learning from them.
5. You can build your book / portfolio or at least (depending on what you shoot for client work or want your book to be) develop & continue your skill set & growth as a photographer.
6. You can gain great experience in dealing with many different types of people in front of your camera, yes they are models but lets not forget they are not just models. Talk you who you have in front of the camera, get to know them and find the real them, a real expression or moment.

Personal work is important not only for some of the reasons above but also to give you goals, focus and to help you not suck so much, take my #HrdLight project for example is it some amazing photography project or theme Nope in fact I have had much better project ideas since starting that, and that's the key I started a project.. set a theme or goal and am still shooting it! had not done this who knows if I would be writing this post now or working on another project.  Fact is its important and Personal to me and I WILL finish the 25 image edit for the project because I know even if I end up never really adopting hard light in to my future style I would never of know if the project were not to be completed.  Ok now that's said on to the shoot with Bex….

#1

I love #1 for a few reasons the light (3 light setup + reflector), the eye contact.. but also for Bex’s hair, it’s amazing (big & wild in a way). Many beauty shots show styled hair and are photoshopped to with in an inch of their lives, this would probably give some people fits in post production but for me it works as its a little different as I let Bex’s hair do pretty much what it wants apart from her fringe so I could keep light in her right eye. Exposure was pushed 1/3rd in camera to give the bright punchy and clean look. 

#2


#3

For #2 & #3 I added a 4th light (gridded speedlite) to the set to light the background, image 2 has the rim/hair lights turned off (handy groups feature on the Photix Strato II triggers) and image #3 has them turned back on (the right one failed to fire) but I love the smile on this one, some times no always the moment, expression or smile is more important than a perfect all lights firing image.


#4

#5

Numbers 4 & 5 are actually from the first set shot using the Westcott 7ft Silver Parabolic Umbrella.  I am really likening the 1:1 square crops lately and placing my subject centre frame on clean simple backgrounds. I would of liked the light to go a little higher but with 10ft celling height that was a no go.  


#6



#7

Numbers 6 & 7 were list using a Westcott 28” Apollo (love that thing), hair light and a gridded light on a material background. Again Bex’s hair is great and apparently it use to be longer.


#8

Number 8 is something a little bit different form the beauty lighting set up of (1,2 and 3) turning the key light off and taking the reflector out leaving the rim/hair lights only. The colour gradient is a result of flare not photoshop.

#9

Number 9 was a I have this bubble wrap so lets see what it will do as a background kind of experiment.  Yup specular highlights expected that, quite interesting and something I will come back to maybe lighting the background separately. Key light was a 28” beauty dish.

The next images were shot as a sequence with a fair amount of frames which will fill this post up so I have made them in to a collage instead, which i delivered to Bex. Also I shot these at ISO 400 on my back up camera Canon 500D, still looks great so don't be afraid to up the ISO in studio or good light as it will allow your speedlites to recycle faster due the the reduced flash power required and the flash durations will be much shorter at the lower power so action freezing is no problem.


#10 A sequence of actin and dancing. Some fun to wind down a shoot.



#11 Some back lit fun and hair flicking.

#12 & #13  - My two favourite images from the sequence in #11

To Finnish the shoot off I wanted to play with some fog in a can (thanks to @damienlovegrove for the idea shown on his Lighting Studio Portraits Videos). I only had one can so limited fog.

Big thanks to @markboadey for assisting with this one.

#14 A 3 light set up and some fog in a can. Must order some more. ISO 400 F10 with speedlites.

Thank you Bex for a great shoot, your pre shoot communications were great and you rocked the shoot. Will be working with you again soon.

Rick

PS any spelling mistakes are not real, honest.  It’s 2 am

#HrdLight–Stephanie Williams

During a windy and cold location shoot at Hale Lighthouse near Liverpool I was on the look out for #HrdLight shots but wanted something different than the others in the series , So far everything has been lit so I have been wanting some natural hard light to work with for a while and the sun came through for oh about 5 minuets and gave some awesome direct sun light through a small gap in the clouds.  You have to move quick, dial in your exposure and shoot… if you don't the light is gone before you know it.  My first exposure was a little hot by 1/3rd not bad for a quick dial in in Manual, made a quick change leaving the exposure for the series of about 10 frames I took (before the clouds spoiled the fun) was ISO 100, F2.8 1/2000th sec.

Note to self – Leave your lights at home for a whole location shoot sometime, natural light rocks!

Shot with the Canon EF 35mm F2 on a 60D and gotta say I love this lens and the field of view it gives on a crop sensor.

After being ill for a few weeks it felt good to be shooting again but have to admit I struggled on this shoot, need to get my head back in the game.  I’m happy with some of the results (love this shot) and others not so much.. that's all me and no one else, got to refocus as I'm not prepared to fall in to being a lazy mediocre photographer and I don't want to be the fix it later in post guy.  

We all have doubts and not everything can and will be perfect every shoot or for every shot I get that, I am my own worst enemy/critic a little too often but lately I have been struggling, feeling frustrated and on occasion have wanted to put the camera a way for a while.  I need to slap myself and shake it off ready for next weekends Studio shoot, get back up and carry on moving.

PS.  I am still looking for subjects to photograph for my #HrdLight project, would love to shoot some  portraits (Environmental) of people and not models for it so if your interested send me an email here and find out more about the #HrdLight project here .

Rick