Anatomy of an Engagement / Pre Wedding Shoot

Last Sunday I was photographing Mark Fryer and his fiancée Samantha Luker in Windsor for their 'Engagment / Pre Wedding' Shoot; Mark & Samantha are to be married at the stunning Matara, Gloucestershire on the 30th of this month. We had originally booked the 'shoot' for approximately 3 weeks previous but ended up re-scheduling it for this past weekend for some reasons I'll cover in a moment.



Now I have mentioned in an earlier post that I'm moving away from photographing weddings and focusing more on my portrait and editorial work; infact Mark & Samantha's is the 2nd of the final 3 that I'm doing this year, but despite that I thought I'd write a blog entry on what I would give as my 'tips' for anyone photographing a wedding; in particular focusing on the 'engagement / pre wedding shoot'.

So why do an 'Engagement / Pre Wedding Shoot' ?

1. An engagement / pre wedding shoot I think is vital. Not only is it another opportunity for you to meet the future bride & groom before the big day, in turn helping to build that all important relationship but it gives you, the photographer a 'heads up' with regards to what you can and can't do with that particular couple. Some people are more 'tactile' than others and quite literally can't keep their hands off each other, but there are those who aren't so 'open' about showing their feelings. Knowing this before the wedding can only be a big help so you'll know in advance what kind of pictures to plan for.

2. It gives your client an insight as to how you work so they know what to expect and will know what you mean when you suggest something. Being able to say "Do you remember when we ....." will be a big time saver as your client will be on the same 'wave length' as you and know what you're looking for.

3. Seeing great photographs being made there and then gives the client even more confidence in your ability, which in turn builds yet more trust.

I guess the list of benefits is endless really but this is just to give you an idea of what I think are the main ones.


The Engagement / Pre Wedding Shoot

1. Shoot in a location you're familiar with. The idea of the shoot obviously is to produce great photos but personally speaking I don't want to be 'hunting' for locations when my main objective is to 'learn' about the couple i.e. the best way to photograph them and their limitations.

2. Arrive early to avoid surprises i.e. taking your couple to a location only to find someone's piled a load of tables and chairs in the way, the location is being used etc ...


3. Meet the clients for coffee beforehand rather than just 'cracking on'. Chatting through the wedding plans and what you'll be doing all helps to relax the client before you head out.

4. Involve your clients in the the making of the shoot by holding lights, tri-grip diffusers and so on which helps to take their mind off being photographed. However, do explain that they wont be doing this on their wedding day as you'll most likely have an assistant with you.

5. Show photos to your client on the back of the camera as you go round. This again will help them to relax and enjoy the process even more when they see the results you're getting.


6. Don't over complicate things i.e. keep your kit to a minimum cos you don't really want to be getting into 2, 3 or 4 light set ups. This is an engagement / pre wedding shoot not a commercial shoot and let's face it, stunning results can be achieved with natural light and one light; you only have to look at the work of Zack Arias to realise this.

7. Plan your route and know what photographs you intend to take where. For any of you with an iPhone, two applications that I use alot when planning a shoot are: 'Sun n Moon' and 'Focalware' ; these two little gems tell me when the sun will be around and where it will be at specific times during the day.

Again, I guess this 'tips' list could go on and on, but these 7 are the ones that immediately come to mind.

Hope that's of some use,
Enjoy ;o)

Winner: Free Photo Shoot Friday

UPDATE: Forgot to mention, the winning answer was 24th September 2007 ... oops :o)

Morning All,
Hope you all had a great weekend. Thankfully the weather forecasters were spot on as usual saying it was going to rain but instead we had glorious sunshine; now that kind of 'getting it wrong' I can live with.

Well, after receiving a surprisingly high number of entries for the first Free Photo Shoot Friday Competition, I'm pleased to announce that after pulling winning entries 'out the hat' Chris Darvil from Oxford was the winner. Chris wins a free 'on location' portrait shoot which we'll be booking up asap and will show some of the results here on the blog.

Having had a re-think, rather than running Free Photo Shoot Friday every month, I'm going to do a run of them every Friday during the month of May, so be sure to check back on Friday 15th May for the next round.

Bye for now ;o)

Video Page now added to website

Now that the new site has been up and running for a couple of days I've been thinking more and more about what 'extras' I can add in. One that I've always intended to add was a page that holds the ongoing "Exposed" video collection that shows 'behind the scenes footage' of photo shoots I've been on. I was looking to add this in a couple of weeks or so but as a few people have asked where it was in the feedback I thought I'd add it now. So, another late night later and voilà (who needs to sleep anyway :o)


As always, thanks for the feedback but keep it coming in plus any suggestions you may have; let's see how little sleep I can survive on.

Enjoy ;o)

Multiple Exposure and the 'About Glyn' Collage

Since launching my new website I've been receiving some really positive feedback and some really interesting suggestions for what I could include in the future. One message in particular came from a fellow photographer and twitter(er) Martin Saint (@SaintyM) who gave feedback regarding the original 'About Glyn' picture. In his own words (and I tended to agree) it was a little cliché; you know the one:photographer, camera in hand, kit at his feet and looking all mean and moody. Anyway, Martin's comment got me thinking and that's how I ended up with the 'About Glyn' collage:


Multiple Exposure
The collage was made in part by using the little known and little used function in the Nikon D3 called 'Multiple Exposure' found in the 'Shooting Menu'.


Basically what this allows you to do is to take a series of photos one after the other and the camera automatically blends them together to produce one final image. As always my good friend Barry Payne was there to help out so I set the camera up handed it over and then 'worked it' ... well, sat there really doing my best 'the camera loves you baby' poses.

My original idea was to use one of the multiple exposures but in the end I wound up blending' three of them together (see attached photos which are straight out of the camera) in Photoshop to make the final image using some gradient masking, contrast boost and adding a slight cyan tint.


Right that's all for now folks so have a great weekend,
Enjoy ;o)

New Website is launched ... finally!

Well after what seems like a lifetime, I'm pleased to say that my new website has finally launched. As is always the case it's a 'work in progress' as over time I'm going to be adding more and more to it. In fact, in the next couple of days I'm going to be adding a 'video' section which is where I'll be putting my new ongoing series of 'Exposed - behind the scenes' videos plus at a later stage camera & lighting tutorials, photoshop techniques etc ...


I've been receiving plenty of feedback by email and Facebook so thankyou to all of you who have sent that in, but don't stop there, keep it coming ... good or bad I want (and need) to hear it.

Thanks again.

FREE PHOTO-SHOOT FRIDAY

So ... what is FREE Photo-Shoot Friday?
Basically, on the first Friday of each month I'm gonna be running a competition here on the blog and whoever emails back with the correct answer gets the chance to win a FREE photo shoot ... it's that simple.

Now, the question I'll post up will most likely be about something here on the blog or on my main glyndewis.com site; for example, I'll post a picture up that has been previously shown and the question may be "What is the date of the blog entry where this photograph appears?" All you have to do is search through the blog, find the picture and then answer the question; and like I said, whoever answers correctly gets the chance to win themselves a Portrait Shoot.

Now as in any competition there are gonna have to be a few rules/guidelines, so here's a couple I can think of:

1. You can't enter that particular weeks competition if you're the person in the photograph...that would be cheating (shame on you :o)

2. The competition is only open to those living in the UK and will be 'on location'.

3. The Photo Shoot is FREE. (Any subsequent print orders are at the normal rate).

4. The cut off period is midnight Sunday (weekend the competition starts) and the winner will be randomly picked and announced on Monday of the following week.

... that's all I can think of for now but if I think of anymore then I'll be sure to update you. Okay so, let's kick it off with the first question:

FREE PHOTO-SHOOT FRIDAY
Below is a photograph of the famous Pegasus Bridge near Ouistreham, France which I took whilst on a holiday with Mrs D; what is the full date that this photograph was added to the blog?


Good luck ;o)

A little update & more iPhone Photos

Hi All ... just thought I'd write a little post to give you an update:

1. Free Photoshoot Friday will be starting this coming Friday (8th May) so make sure you check back here for more details at the end of the week when all will be revealed.

2. A reminder that the 18th May is when I'll be able to reveal some BIG news for all photographers out there. I'm sworn to secrecy at this stage but I promise you it'll be worth the wait ;o)

3. Last bit of news is that finally the new site is as good as complete and ready to upload. We're just in the testing phase now and the 'go live' is scheduled for Friday morning (8th May) ... honestly, no really :o)

iPhone Photos
Thought I'd post a few more photos that I've taken recently using my iPhone; all of which are straight out of the phone i.e. all editing done 'in phone' using applications (no retouching on the computer).

Enjoy ;o)

Food Photography at The Draycott Hotel

Thursday of last week I was in Chelsea, London at The Draycott Hotel photographing their new menu. (I'd been approached a couple of weeks previous by the General Manager John Hanna who had seen some of the food photography I'd done for The Cape in Beaconsfield).

The photographs I was taking are going to be used in a new 'Room Service' gadget being trialed at the hotel, where rather than just reading from a menu, guests will actually see examples of the food on a handheld electronic device and at the press of a button have it sent to their room ... all very impressive stuff.


I got to the hotel after a surprisingly stress free journey through rush hour traffic just after 8am and once I'd unloaded my kit had the obligatory coffee to start the day. John & his team were a great help and George, the Head Chef did an amazing job, cooking and preparing some beautiful food all day to be photographed.



All in all there were some 30 dishes photographed, and hand on heart I didn't pick at any of them; mind you I did devour a greek salad during a break for lunch which was delicious.

Technical Info:
To photograph the food I decided to use a table near to one of the large windows in the room because of the light coming in from outside. On the opposing side of the table I set up a Nikon SB800 Speedlight into a Lastolite Ezy Box. This way the food had light coming in from both sides and above; all I needed to do now was to soften the light coming in from outside and I did this by holding up a Lastolite 1 stop Tri Grip Diffuser. I shot using my D3 with a Nikon f/2.8 24-70mm lens on a tripod and also made use of a cable release to minimise the risk of any movement in the camera.


The SB800 (triggered using the Nikon CLS) was set to 1/16th power, so the recycle time was kept to a minimum and infact just the one flash was used for the entire day. I shot in Aperture Priority Mode throughout, varying between f/4.0 and f/5.0 so as to have a shallow (ish) depth of field.

*The photographs of George were taken using my Nikon 85mm f/1.4 lens and lit with an SB800 in close, camera left and fired into a closed reflective umbrella. The umbrella was closed to minimise 'spill' onto the back wall ;o)

iPhone Photo Gallery

I'm a big believer that photography is one of those things that you can't just pick up every now and again and expect to improve; you need to be out as often as possible taking photos and pushing yourself to keep in that 'creative zone'. Now I know it's not always convenient to carry your camera round with you when you're popping out for the day, and let's face it a Nikon D3 doesn't exactly fit in your back pocket...so this is where my iPhone comes in. Granted, the resolution of the images it produces aren't up there with most DSLR's (yet) but that's not what it's there for; it's just that having it just keeps me looking for the next shot.

Here are just a few of the photos I've taken lately using my iPhone and edited 'in phone' (no photoshop).

Phoebe & George's Photo Shoot

I've mentioned a few times in previous blog entries about our great neighbours: Steve & Edwina and their two children Phoebe (aged 12) & George (aged 10) whom both Anne and myself feel extremely blessed to have as great friends. Well this past week, wanting to make the most of the Bluebells that are around in their masses before they disappear for another year, I suggested that we all meet up for a bit of a 'social' - but also to take some photographs. I specifically wanted to take some nice shots for Steve & Edwina of Phoebe & George, not for any particular reason other than to say ... 'Thankyou'.


We headed up to Bluebell Woods with minimal kit and the photos attached are just some of the results we came up with.


The evening ended with a little drinky at the local public house (Hit or Miss, Penn Street); yet again a night of good fun and laughter in great company.


Technical Info:
Earlier in the week I photographed in Bluebell Woods using my Alien Bees R1600 Flash Head with large Octabox but this time opted for a more minimalist approach of one Nikon SB800 Flash Head and a Lastolite Reflective Umbrella. Reason being, with all the tree coverage this particular location needs a slow shutter speed to bring in some of the much needed ambient light. Consequently, to light the subject of the photograph doesn't need that much power, so the SB800 is more than capable ... especially when fired into a reflective umbrella. (See attached lighting diagram)