Nights At The Movies...

If you are like me, you love the thrill of going to the cinema. I look forward to losing myself in a film; its a great way of stepping out of everything for a few hours and cheap therapy too!

I have always wanted to tell stories with my photography; one shot is never enough for me I have to take enough to get over the meaning. So I decided to try something a little different; Movie Posters.

This is the first one, is based on the movie Murder.com. I haven't seen the film, but I was bowled over by the poster, I just had to have a go at recreating it for a fictional film called 'A Different Kind Of Tension'.

A different Kind Of Tension,

the finished poster

There are four shots in this poster, of the models, Annie and Elan.

Annie

I originally shot this photograph of Annie with a burlesque theme in mind. I had previously played around with the shot using a technique that Corey Barker set out in his book Photoshop Down and Dirty tricks for Designers. This is a great book, do not hesitate to buy it!

 

Annie and Elan

The next shot was again a burlesque type shot in a sort of Jack Vettriano style. (Vettriano is a fantastic artist, his paintings are full of drama and often a bit risque!) This formed the main shot.

Elan and Annie

We then have the two head shots at the side. All the shots were done in studio against a white background that has come out grey because of the way the lighting was arranged. This made it easier to remove the background later. This was part of the #curryclub shoot in December last year, and while I didn't shoot it with this poster idea particularly in mind, I knew I was going to use the shots together somehow or other.

None of this would have been possible had I not been badgered, cajoled and all but threatened with grievous bodily harm by my good friends Dave Clayton, and Glyn Dewis who finally coerced into joining NAPP, the national Association of Photoshop Professionals. For $99, about £65 you get a years membership, an amazing magazine (I think its 10 a year) and access to amazing learning in the members section of the NAPP website. Click on the link below for more information. There are also lots of deals on, I chose the bonus of all the back issues of the magazine for 2010. Bargain. I haven't regretted it for a minute.

#Curryclub goes Burlesque...

well, almost! The latest meet of the #curryclub was back in December, the 19th, in Gareth Davies Studios, in Wokingham, UK. We had three great models, Bethany, Annie and Elan. The photographers were Brian, Gareth, Dave, John and myself. A few of our members could not make it so close to Christmas and were missed during the day! 

Caught!

What I love about these days is that you can experiment; let your imagination run wild. So I tried to let it do just that. My quote of the day would have to have been when setting up the Caught shot above, when I had to ask Annie if she could open her legs a bit more... The whole studio erupted in laughter and we had to set the shot up again. I didn't do it on purpose, honest.

Bethany

Annie

Tension

Annie + Elan

 A great day was had by all, and I enjoyed a curry with Gareth and Dave afterwards. A big thanks to John and Brian for inviting Annie and Bethany, to Elan, always a pleasure to shoot, to Gareth for the provision of the best studio in this spiral arm of the galaxy and to fellow #curryclub members! Here's to the next shoot!

And finally... photography may be always about pushing the boundaries and looking for the next great shot... but its important to always have a good laugh...

#curryclub shoot results...

There is a group of us that gets together every month or so for a curry. We have a beer, great food and chat about photography and anything else that takes or fancy. At the last curry night, we decided to get together for a shoot every month and then go for a curry. Last weekend saw the inaugural #curryclub photo shoot. Here are the shots I took.

I organized the first shoot and decided, with a little help from Gareth, to theme it 'film'. Us photographers could interpret that as we would, I also asked that we each shoot a roll of film, more about that later...

We had three models on the day, Elan, Rhianne and Lou.

Rhianne + Elan

Elan + Rhianne

During the morning session I shot Elan + Rhianne as a very well dressed couple. Elan is an actor, so to him 'acting' was easy and Rhianne just followed his lead. Their chemistry on set was fantastic.

 

Elan The Photographer

Keeping the 'film' theme going, in the afternoon session I got Elan to play the part of a photographer shooting Rhianne. This was great fun and again both Elan and Rhianne proved to be very natural in front of and 'nehind' the camera.

Part of the deal for Elan was that we would provide a selection of headshots for his portfolio for his interviews and auditions. This was my offering.

Elan

The shot above is more or less straight out of camera. A few tweaks in Lightroom, but thats all. I then started playing around with in it the iPad app 'Snapseed' by Nik Software. They make great software for the photographic world and their iPad app is no different. It is very, very good.
.

Elan (with a little help from Snapseed)

And in this shot you can see we had two Profoto softboxes to either side of Elan and Rhianne and Octabox on a boom and a white seamless backdrop. This was over in the great Gareth Davies Studio in Wokingham. If you get a chance to use the studio, do so, just don't ask whats in the cupboard...

The behind the scene shot of Elan + Rhianne

We also had Lou, a confirmed 'Goth' young lady. Lou is relativley new to modelling but gave us some great photos on the day. Here she is against a background of stars that I added in in post in Photoshop. I also did some minor retouching a la Scott Kelby's new book 'Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers'. I used a Wacom tablet for the first time, takes a bit of getting used to but wow, does it make a difference.
.

Lou

The behind the scene shot of Lou

This was the set up we used for shooting Lou. A pair of Profoto softboxes to either side and a beauty dish overhead. This is David shooting Lou with his 'Alas poor Horatio...' skull. Very suitable for a goth...

A big thank you to our models; Lou, Rhianne and Elan. They worked tirelessly all day for us on a TFCD basis, (we did feed and water them too). To Gareth for having a great studio. To Catherine and Katy for providing the wonderful lunch. And to the members of the #curryclub that were there on the day, Gareth, Glyn, David, Brian, Dave and me. To those that couldn't be there, you were missed and hope to see you on the next shoot.

Now there was one other thing... Shooting a roll of film. This was interpreted in many different ways. One photographer used an iPhone to shoot a roll of film! I shot a roll on an old Holga, complete with transmitter to trigger all the flash heads. And in the tradition of film, as I will have to wait a week or so for the results in the post, so will you!
.

Watch this space.

I am already looking forward to the next shoot!