A thread with photos and things.

Man of Honour
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Seems to be the in thing, thought why not? :p

Some say that a photo needs no description because the subject matter should do all the talking by itself. In some ways this is true but in other ways it's nice to have a line or two about how that picture came about.

I may have posted a couple of these in other threads but 'll try starting with fresh images and go from there. I didn't want just a thread about my wedding photos (although many will feature!) as I shoot more than that so something of a mixture of things I see on my travels I guess and I'll continue to update over the coming months as there are various adventures in planning.

Let's start with a few selections from the last couple of weeks.


Animals and kids I seem to get on quite well with. I don't know what it is but I'm not complaining I guess, makes photos more interesting :cool: This cat belongs to Space Monkey of these forums. I sold him a monitor and went to deliver it. Just so happens I had my camera with me for other work:



These were shot in the wooded walkway around a venue I shot a wedding at last week. The scenery was brilliant with the weather we had that day and allowed me to shoot a few photos that I've always wanted to given the right conditions:







This one is a first, always wanted to do a silhouette shot but the opportunity never fitted in timing schedule wise but that changed this week and hopefully over the next few months further shoots will allow for it too:



Kids are always up for doing fun stuff, is jumping up and down fun? Maybe not to your and I most of the time but kids, they love jumping and their faces show it:



Chilworth Manor is pretty a pretty awesome venue in Southampton. The interior of the main lobby especially:





Yeah cats again, this one seemed to want to be a part of the morning prep. Okay, you've got your screen time buddy:
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Cakes are never lies:
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Unfortunately no bubbles came out!
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Reviewing photos taken earlier:
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Amazingly well behaved kids, seem to just click with everyone:
A26A6915.jpg


A26A6944.jpg



More to come ;)
 
Man of Honour
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Cheers it was actually curtain netting on the window itself. The surface is the windowsill of the hotel. It was shady outside so provided the perfect diffused light to make the shot work and an f2 aperture gave enough depth of field to keep things somewhat anonymous in the background :)
 
Man of Honour
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It's one of my own presets that I've built over time and have since added the bits I've been fond of from other film presets from the VSCO packs. It gets me the base I like then each photo has individual tweaks done to get the final colour :)

Only thing I'm at two minds about is the bridesmaid's face has a hint of green from the surrounding foliage due to her skin being so pale. I've minimised it as best I can without making her look like a ghost or a star from Twilight saga :p

Edit*
Scratch that, sorted it somewhat now.
 
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Man of Honour
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Hah sounds like the position I was in 18 months ago lol trying to get that retro film look that I've always been a fan of and only getting close but no cigar. Once I heard about VSCO I knew there would be a few presets in packs 01 and 04 especially that I liked the look of and incorporated some of their adjustments into my own and now have a look I'm happy with and feel in some way is unique for my style of shooting.

I'm sure it may change in 18 months time as I learn new things and evolve it but for now it's sticking around for the long run!

Wow great pictures

You must have a really good camera.

Phone camera :o
 
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Press passes are good things to acquire if you can! I still remember the Festival Of the Sea few years back in Portsmouth, got flown around in a Navy Sea King MK5 chopper, that was one of the best experiences ever!

Since then though I haven't really sought out such things as I've been kept busy with my own projects. In hindsight I could have marketed myself quite lucratively had I had the experience of today back then.

Maybe the next festival I guess :cool:

I used to do small gigs for local bands and clubs but really after a while it got very tedious and I didn't like walking around hot and stuffy venue halls full of young people pushing and shoving around. Much prefer gigs with stage side gangway just for staff and photography use so no chance of people getting in the way of work. Again, since the last one I did I haven't taken that further.

A growing trend of laziness on my part :(

I need a kick!

:DI should have known you wouldn't bite.........:D Or that you would see straight through my attempt:p

Saw it a mile off :D

Your, your own worst critic.

I've stopped posting my shots as I seemed to have broke my photographers eye
. I need to get out more and get it back

I find the more weddings I shoot the more hints of that I notice too. Weddings are a long shift and sometimes there's only so much you can do creatively and keeping the camera aimed throughout the entire day is taxing on your senses. You begin to think "wtf am I doing!" - I've found a workaround though, I don't shoot during the meals and instead take a long break myself. This gives me a couple of hours to recollect myself and review the photos I've taken, take a stroll around and scope out areas of interest or just find a quite area of the bar and just power nap, grab a meal (usually provided by b&g which is nice) or do something else other than think about the next shot because once I get back in there my mind is clearer.

I don't like to keep doing the same thing all the time either, one of the reasons I try to keep what I shoot varied from Urban Exploration to Street to Portraiture and Landscapes. Occasionally take a risk, climb a crane and whatnot, make sure I'm still alive :eek:

Am I still finding my way? Sure, I think we will always be doing that eh :)

Iris:
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^ Her mum told me she doesn't like having her photo taken and the last family shoot they had Iris kept hiding from the camera man. I find I get on well with animals and kids and hopefully their faces show their comfort levels!
 
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Man of Honour
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Cheers GTRacer your info has been helpful and appreciated! With those changes in mind I came to a similar result but edged toward a more neutral feel to keep the original colour without the greenish tint on her face. Think it works much better now!
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And a new duo:

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Man of Honour
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Here's a few potatocam teasers from yesterday's shoot for a small fashion academy startup aimed at the Asian bridal market in London. They hired 3 models 2 of who are well known and already pose for bridal magazines round here and 1 who is new and wants to see how things go.

IMG-20140605-WA0043.jpg
IMG-20140605-WA0045.jpg


I think it went well. They only want a handful of photos to promote the academy's make-up to show brides to be etc and I shot in the style of salon/fashion headshots. Single 59" parabolic umbrella + remote speedlite (YN-560 Mk1) and a solo speedlite (YN-560 Mk1) bounced to light the backdrop. I used the 85mm 1.4 between 2.8-4 depending on level of DOF I wanted with a few at 1.4 using ambient light to get some moody shots for my own gallery.

The results were surprising. I didn't expect them to look magazine out of the camera and minimal editing is needed (blemishes, stray hairs etc). Edits to follow later!

I had my camera tethered to the tablet running DSLR Controller app which allowed the owner and make-up artists to preview images as they were being shot without distracting my shooting which they (and myself) found really handy. Allowed me to check in greater detail lighting and other stuff. Could screenshot and email over test samples from it directly too which was nice.

Several hours shooting, pizzas, laughs and 3 pretty models to work with and get paid for it. What's not to like :)
 
Man of Honour
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And here they are :)

Rather different to my usual portraiture but keeping things different keeps me focused and not get bored so I guess it evens out.











#selfie!

A26A8917_Edit.jpg

So out of several hundred shots they're only going to be picking 2 to process per model for each "Look" and outfit - This is all new to me so knowing the terminology they use will likely take time. I enjoyed the shoot, the technical side of things worked out nicely and batteries lasted the entire day which I was happy with considering how much use the tablet got as well as the 5D3 being on at all times while tethered (sleep mode is disabled by DSLR Controller).
 
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Man of Honour
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Hmm I have 3 lenses, 2 primes and an uwa zoom, Sigma 35mm 1.4, Sigma 85mm 1.4 and the 17-40L. I've settled on this combination as it's the range I shoot at almost exclusively so haven't seen the need for anything else for a long time.

Having said that, a 70-200 2.8 may be on the cards over the next 12 months especially if I'm shooting stills during filming at locations as big as the above more often!

Lighting wise, for the last batch of photos no additional lighting was used. I relied on a diffused reflector to kick some fill light from the sun on to the faces and shadow areas of the people and the rest was exposing for the mids and controlling highlight contrast i post. The exclusion here is close-up shots like the dogs and the male actor, Alex, in the first pic, they were shot without any props.

For the model/fashion shots I used 2x YN-560s with the diffusers up bouncing off 59" parabolic umbrellas.

The 5D3 renders skin tones really well even after bringing out the exposure in post so I kept that in mind and shot to underexpose but not by much, just so I had control over the exposure in Lightroom later. Better to be under and bring it up than be over and lose highlight detail in this kind of setting I find.
 
Man of Honour
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Underexpose for the scene, use some experience to know by how much because the light meter in the viewfinder won't always tell the whole story, knowing the situation and the results from past experience in similar scenes will though :)

A new edit of one of the earlier sessions not yet uploaded:



 
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