The White Dress...

I was very fortunate to be invited to attend one of Glyn Dewis' 'taster workshops' last Saturday in High Wycombe and Amersham. He is developing a series of workshops to teach his unique way of portrait photography, check out his website www.glyndewis.com . We started off the morning in the studio, spent a few hours going over the versatility of only using one light and one modifier; in this case an SB800 and an umbrella. We then took that knowledge and brought it outside and shot Catherine in a white dress in Amersham on a very cold afternoon, did I say cold?, I meant absolutely freezing...
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Catherine, White Dress #1

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Catherine, White Dress #2

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I made sure Catherine had a coat to hand between the shots when Glyn was teaching, and also I should say a big thanks to Katy our invaluable VAL (voice activated lightstand) who on more than one occassion saved the SB800 from certain death! And did I mention the cold...?

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Catherine, White Dress #2

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The set up for these shots is surprisingly simple; a single shoot through umbrella with an SB800 on a lightstand to camera right at about 45 degrees to Catherine. An exposure is first taken for the sky, underexpose by about a stop or so until you like the look, then add in the flash at about half or quarter power. And there you have it. Set the camera on manual and keep shooting.

The day was a great success and a big thanks to Glyn for giving his time, knowledge and experience to the group, to Catherine for posing and bearing the cold and Katy... and I am told there was a rather good portrait taken of an older gentleman... I prefer the ones of Catherine myself!

Working the Land

It's great to get out there and work on your own projects, but it is even greater to share them with friends. Last Sunday afternoon I went to an allotment with my good friend Glyn to shoot Vince working the land. It was a perfect afternoon; not too sunny but not too cold either.
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Vince #1

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Here is the set up shot...

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Vince #1 set up

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As you can see the day was bright, so the first thing we did was kill the ambient, at least take it down to where we wanted it. Vince was then iluminated by a single SB800 shooting through a white umbnrella, the umbrella is there in the photo but has burnt out against the sky. This technique is easier to see in the following shot...

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Vince #2

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We then moved into the shed (that Vince and Glyn built) and took this shot. The first thing to do was set the ambient light level. I knew I wanted the sky to show through the window. I set the D200 to 1/250 at f5.6 at ISO 100 (this is generally my starting point).

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                                           Vince #2 (window ambient only)                                             

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I then tweak the camera setting to get the picture I want, this shot is to get the sky right. We then have to illuminate Vince. We added a single SB800 outside the shed firing through the window, set at about half power or so. The settings aren't too important; just start off at your highest camera / flash sync speed, the flash at 1/2 power and tweak from there. The single light was great on Vince's face, but the lower part of the shed needed a small burst, so we added in another SB800 to just give a little separation to the bottom of the picture and balance it up.

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Vince #2 set up

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Here is the set up shot; that's me outside the shed and the SB800 on a stand with a shoot through umbrella and triggered by pocket wizards; quick, easy, fun.

A great Sunday afternoon shoot; a big thanks to 'Vince the Hat' and Glyn too, for taking the set up shots, because I can't hold two cameras at once and take two shots from different places...quite.. You can see his pictures of the shoot here. We then retired to the warmth of a local pub for a swift pint... here's to the next shoot... 

Project 52 ... 47

This is Danny. Danny is a professional model whom I met through my good friend Glyn.
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Danny #1,

D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, SB800 camera right, gridspot

This shot was taken in Windsor in a railway underpass in the middle of the day last December. It was part of a workshop with Glyn, (check out his website here) on using one light to take great photographs. We had a gridspot on the flash to give the spotlight effect with the light edge falling away nicely. With a shot like this the first thing to do is to get rid of all the ambient light, or as much of it as you want to, and then add back the light with your flashes, where you want it and how you want to control it.
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Danny #2

We then took a series of portraits shots closer to Danny and again to get a photograph of him isolated completely from the background. The camera was set to 1/250th, the max sync speed of the D200 and the f-stop at about f5.6, ISO 100, and then I tweaked the settings from there, but that is usualy my startinf point. There is practically no manipulation needed in photoshop, just a few minor tweaks.

Here is the set up shot when Glyn was explaining the technique

As you can see from the set up shot the ambient light was quite high, it was about 3:oopm or so, but with this technique we can control this and get amazing photographs,in camera, with one light, and no photoshop tricks.
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Katy with Flute

Here is the same technique with Katy. A single umbrella, low power on the flash, max sync speed on the camera and f5.6 or so. All the lights were on in the room, but with a shutter speed of 1/250th it killed it all.

A big thank you to Danny for being such a good model and patient with all of us on the day and to Glyn for imparting his knowledge and of course to Katy for always being there when I need a model!