#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

#HrdLight - Nataly Pourikkou

The third image in my #HrdLight project series.

Taken about 2 weeks ago on a location shoot in my home town Stockport, this project was kind of in the back of my mind… in a I will grab something If i see a shot kinda way, to be honest I just wanted to get out and shoot after a really crappy week.

Even though I used hard light a fair bit during this shoot (dam wind), I did not have any specific hard light shot ideas for this project, that was until the last location (a dark walkway) resulted in an interesting long exposure after a accidental shutter press… that started the process of making this image.  Due to the lowlight level in the walkway exposures for ambient light were pretty long, this means you can get some ghosting when mixing ambient with flash, which is the result you see above.

Exposure : F6.3, ISO 500, 4”   Light: On Camera (yes yes on camera) Straight up hard flash 1/64  power + 0.3ev  (in camera NOT photo shop)

I tried it ETTL but it sucked (nothing new) so i switched to manual as I wanted a more consistent flash exposure.  The flash exposure is the only consistency your going to get with long exposure images like this and that’s what makes them fun, to quote Forrest Gump .. You never know what your gonna get.

Also on a side note, I'm getting to like the in camera RAW processing options on the 60D quite a bit.  This was shot in RAW colour and since you can’t re shoot the same image again with long exposures I converted the RAW file in camera to a B & W JPEG and added contrast, sharpening etc to give me an in the field idea. FYI the final image has gone through Light Room.

Personal Work – In Studio – Model: Alana Elliot

This shoot took place a little while ago back in January this year.  I had the luxury of looking after and running a friends Studio (Ians Studio)whilst he was away on holiday, in-between running some events at the studio I booked a model along with Mark (newtophoto co-host) and had a day in the studio working on some personal work for my portfolio.

You can find out more about Alana on the links below.

Her blog - http://alana-j2012.tumblr.com/ 

Her Model Mayhem - http://www.modelmayhem.com/1943375 

Alana’s communications pre shoot were great, and she was amazing to work with, professional, great range of poses and expressions and was able to connect with the camera  (you could feel it) and nail the shots.  I will be working with here again soon, thank you Alana :)

Below are some more of my favourite images from the shoot, some of which are in my galleries on this site. All images shot using the Canon 500D, 50 F1.8 or 24-105 F4L, but remember the gear does not matter.. what ever you have go shoot.

#1 (By the way this was taken at ISO400, perfectly clean in good light) Don’t be afraid of increasing the ISO, it can help shoot faster with flash as a lower power is needed.

#2 , #3

#4, #5

#6,  After the softer images above I went for something harder and more dramatic using hard light.  30’ Grid

#7 , #8

Love these images, especially number 1 in fact its been printed and I am in the process of finding a frame I like.

Thank You

RIck

#HrdLight–(Rachael F)–Shut Up!

Continuing on with my #HrdLight project this is the second image.

#HrdLight - (Rachael) Shut Up !

Taken using one speedlite with a 1/4 grid and some pain in the ass suddenly unreliable wireless triggers (time to change them, gave up counting after 10 misfires). 

I took other frames but for some reason this simple frame stood out to me, pretty sure its the fact the image is lit to show the top more than her face  (different way of doing it).

Thank you Rachael for working with me.

During shooting I also talked to Rachael and another model I have worked with about a shot I have in my head for this project, its always good to talk about ideas and collaborate, get a team together. I won’t go in to any detail about this planned shot here but I will say its going to take some planning.  Can’t wait.

Rick