Scott Kelby's 2nd Worldwide Photowalk

July 18th sees Scott Kelby's 2nd Worldwide Photowalk come to a City in the World near you.

Last year I lead a walk around Windsor, Berkshire and had a blast! Everyone that came along said how much fun it was and what a great social event where lots of new friendships were made as well as some great photographs.


This year I'm going to be leading a Photowalk around Guildford, Surrey between 1pm - 3pm. The finer details such as meeting place and route are yet to be worked out but we have space for 50 people. So why not come along on July 18th and join in; it's FREE and you get the chance to win some awesome prizes; Digital SLR, Point and Shoot, Camera Phone etc ... Everyone is welcome to come along.

To sign up and join us in Guildford simply visit the site and add your details by clicking here.

To find out more about what this massive, Worldwide event is all about, visit the dedicated website by clicking on this link.

* Remember: Only 50 places available so don't delay, sign up today :o)

Winner No. 2: Free Photo-Shoot Friday

Congratulations to this weeks winner of Free Photo-Shoot Friday: Helen K (sorry I don't know your surname Helen but that's all details I have) who emailed in with the correct answer of "Orange & Black".

A return email has been sent to Helen with the news so all that needs to be done now is to organise a date for the 'shoot'.

Only 2 more weeks remaining, so remember to check back this coming Friday (22nd May) for round 3 of Free Photo-Shoot Friday and win the chance of a free portrait shoot.

More later ;o)

'Exposed' Episode 3 - Garage

Following on from the post below about yesterday's 'Herb Ritts' style tribute shoot, here is the latest episode in the 'Exposed' series of 'behind the scenes' videos.

Big thanks to my pal & all round good guy Barry for playing the part of Videographer.

Enjoy ;o)

NB ... Pressing the HQ button in the bottom right of the video player window will show a Higher Quality version.

Herb Ritts Tribute - Sort of ...

Yesterday morning I was down at a local garage photographing a male physique model by the name of Danny Bartlett. This was a shoot I'd been thinking about for a while now and was to be a sort of tribute to world famous photographer Herb Ritts and as always, I was being helped by my good friend Barry Payne who was videoing the shoot.

I'd planned to start at 10.30am but unfortunately the model, Danny was delayed and didn't manage to arrive until nearly 2 hours later. This cut down on our 'shooting' time considerably as we we'd been given permission to use a local garage which was open to the public at the time but was due to close at 12.30pm.

Once we'd had a chat about what we were looking to achieve, Danny got changed and we cracked on focusing on just a couple of lighting set ups and here are some of the results:

Shot 1: Herb Ritts Tribute


Shot 2: Profile



Technical:
I was very conscious of not over staying our welcome at the garage as the guys had been extremely generous to allow us to make us of it, so speed was the name of the game which is why I opted to use the shoot thru umbrella. For the first shot, the umbrella was positioned in such a way that it cast nice shadows across Danny to emphasise his definition but also spill onto the back wall and machinery ogherwise it would all have been way too dark behind him.


For the second shot I've put the black cover on the umbrella but only on the half nearest to the back wall. Doing so prevented any light going onto the back wall and allowed just enough light to fall onto Danny. As I wanted the area to turn completely black I've set the D3 at 200 iso and the max flash sync speed of 1/250sec. Light on Danny was then controlled by the Aperture setting which in this case was f/7.1 with the flash at 1/8th power.

Enjoy ;o)

FREE PHOTO-SHOOT FRIDAY - No.2

Well it's Friday and it's the month of May so it can only mean one thing:
FREE PHOTO-SHOOT FRIDAY.

We've now booked a date for Chris' shoot (last weeks winners) so for your chance to win this week all you have to do is answer the following question:

"Exposed" is the name I've given to my new series of 'behind the scenes' videos of photo shoots; of which there are currently two on the 'video' page of my new site. In both shoots you'll see that I'm using my Alien Bees Lighting Kit. My question is: what colour is the holdall containing the external battery pack which you'll see me connecting the flash head to?"


As before, same rules apply and send your answers via email (details on the contact page) by midnight Sunday and the winner will be randomly selected from all the correct entries and announced here on the blog Monday morning.

Good luck ;o)

Keeping it Simple.

Following on from the recent 'Engagement / Pre Wedding Shoot' with Mark & Samantha I thought I'd post a few of the shots here on the blog along with an explanation of the lighting technique and settings used on my Nikon D3, so here goes:

Samantha against Pillar


For anyone who knows Windsor, this shot was taken at the Civic Hall in Thames Street. This is at the front entrance where there is a covered area with concrete pillars and three open sides allowing in beautiful ambient light. For this portrait I set the D3 into Aperture Priority Mode at f/4.0 on my 70-200mm f/2.8 Nikon lens for a shallow depth of field with an iso of 400. This gave a decent enough shutter speed to hand hold and allow for a good quality file. To give a little more light onto Samantha's face I just added 1 stop of Exposure Compensation.


Mark on Bench


This particular shot required the use of a Voice Activated Light Stand or V.A.L. as they are commonly known, which in this case was Samantha. Mark was sat on a concrete bench against the church but unfortunately the sun was shining through the trees quite strongly giving lots of specular lighting. To soften this I gave Samantha a 1 stop Lastolite Tri Grip Diffuser which she held up between the sun and Mark. Mark was then lit with an SB800 camera right which was fired into a reflective umbrella which I had 'closed' down'. By this I mean that rather than having the umbrella completely open which would have thrown light all over the place, I let it close which then narrowed down the spill of light. Ofcourse this could have been done using a Lastolite Ezy Box but this was an Engagement / Pre Wedding Shoot so minimum kit was the order of the day.

Settings for the camera were iso 200, 80mm, f/4.0, 1/250 sec and the SB800 flash head was on 1/2 power. The SB800 was triggered using the Nikon CLS which called for a second SB800 on the camera hotshoe set to Master.


Mark's Profile Shot


This final shot of Mark was taken in a recessed part of the church wall with three walled sides and one side open. It was in quite a dark, shaded area of the grounds with light being blocked out by a thick canopy of tree branches. To light Mark I set up the remote SB800 and reflective umbrella camera left; this time with the umbrella being fully open to allow much more spill of light. I was looking to achieve a more 'moody' feel to the picture so feathered the light off Mark a little by turning the umbrella away from the camera; this reduced the spill of light onto Mark and gave a few more shadows.

Camera settings: iso 200, 35mm, f/4.0, 1/250sec with the Remote SB800 at 1/4 power, again fired using the Nikon CLS.



So, nice and simple with minimum kit: Nikon D3, 2 x SB800's, Reflective Umbrella & Stand, Lastolite Tri Grip Diffuser and a couple of Lastolite Tri Grip Reflectors.

Enjoy ;o)

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)