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

Workflow-ish & Portfolio Edit…..Hidden Images

I am just starting out a major overhaul of my workflow and along with my portfolio.  To sum it up its maddening, driving me crazy but it needs doing.  Got Lightroom 4 sat here in a box ready to be installed, bought a new storage system, about to buy some drives… I hate spending money on I.T but it has to be done. 

Still trying to figure it all out from card to import to processing to backup and delivery, when I have my workflow in place I will write a detailed blog post.  That bit is time and money consuming to plan out and rework but the hardest part hands down is the edit, currently my site galleries suck, so in a bid to sort all this out I have created a Master Portfolio Archive folder and am grabbing RAW & JPG files from shoots that I like.. I'm trying not to think too much about it and just go off gut feel, If I like it it goes in.  The edit will come later.

Whilst working through 2012 images I came across this one, I completely bypassed it during processing the images.  This is what's cool about this whole pain in the ass process, you can sometimes find hidden images.  I like the expression, simple natural pose and the textured background which by the way is one of those god awful crappy mottled blue muslin backgrounds, best way I have found to use one of those is to either burn it or less drastically don't light it and make it go dark and finally go black & white.  I think I by-passed the image because of the white t-shirt being so bright which will happen given the scene, its not blown out it just a smooth/flat t-shirt.  This image is going in the Master Folder.. no idea if t will make it in to the Galleries but for now I like it and am glad I found it.

Need to make some time to get all this sorted so over Christmas & New Year I’m going to get to work.  Wish me Luck

P.S  Changed the water mark on the suggestion of my good friend Mark Boadey , Lowered the opacity down to 10 (usually 30) and kept it small.

Rick

#HrdLight–Sevensin…Steam Punk

Another frame for my #HrdLight project.  Taken at a local studio.

2 Light used in this.  Key light is a Bowens studio head with a 30 Degree Grid boomed over head (love that position) and the background light had a bare reflector and red gel.

Jess (Sevensin) was great to work with and really suited this type of light, I asked Jess for a strong symmetrical pose.. hands on  hips (use this allot) to create shapes/symmetry in the frame.

A larger version of this image can been seen in the Gallery for this project.

Really enjoyed this shoot and will be looking in to Steam Punk some more in 2013.

Rick

Google + …. Hang

Earlier today I put out a tweet and Facebook status suggesting a Google + hangout this coming Saturday Evening (Tomorrow). This hangout is to meet and chat to some of the followers of my tutorials and is something I have been meaning to do for ages.

I will have my 60D and 5D2 to hand, the 500D however was sold a while back but feel free to join in and talk about that camera or any Canon EOS (will test my memory).  I have completed the series of tutorials on the 500D and am getting through the ones for the 60D.  I have been asked to produce a series for the Canon 5D2 also (Hi Kathryn) but so far have no plans to as I don't think an audience exists for it.

The idea of this Hang Out is to talk about the cameras, photography, images and to meet some of you guys.

Now I can’t please everyone regarding the time I run this, I'm on UK (GMT Time) so I apologise if the time is a little difficult. 

Ok the Hangout will be run at 8PM (GMT UK/London) Time tomorrow (Sat 24th Nov). You can do a simple Google search to get a converted time or use the clock of your computers operating system.

My G+ Profile can be found here http://plus.google.com/u/0/112863768320785858376/posts

I will tweet out, G+ and Facebook the hangout when it goes live.

If you don't have a Google + account (you will need one) you can sign up https://accounts.google.com/SignUpWidget

I won’t be recording or live streaming this Hangout as I have no idea if people would be cool with that or not (don't want to put people off).  If it goes well and people request a live/recorded version I will reconsider it on the next one.

I think the Hang Outs have a 10 person limit so its first come first served so to speak.

So I hope to see you in the hangout.

Crap I better go shave.

Rick