Formal Portrait... quick and easy

Katy, first year in Secondary College

Recently I had a conversation with my good friend Paul, He has a son coming up for First Holy Communion and he wanted something a bit different than the standard shots of the day. So it started me thinking of how to do a quick and easy set up that I could replicate almost anywhere. And this is the shot I came up with; a derivation of my favourite two light set up. This is Katy and this is her first year at a new school. She has the obligatory school photos, but we decided to only opt for the big group shot. There was simply no character in the portrait shots.

Here is the set up shot; an SB800 in an Eazybox softbox to camera left and a gridded Vivitar 285 to camera right. I can't remember the exact settings, but they were about half power or so, I didn't particularly need a quick recycling time, so I could have gone lower, but I wanted a smaller aperture to ensure all of Katy was in focus. I shot at 1/200 and that ensured that the room ambient hardly registered.

Here you can see each light shot separately; first the softbox and then the Vivitar. That's it; quick and easy, and for my money a far more lasting formal portrait...

Here Come The Girls!!!

Yes, its that time again, the time of leaving primary school and going to secondary school. It's a big deal, and a great step forward in their lives.

To mark this occasion, Katy and the girls of St. Joseph's Class of 2011, made a trip to GDS Studios in Wokingham. Great fun was had by all; we had formal young ladies, we had pyjama fights and we had St Trinians! And before you ask, yes I was shattered afterwards! A big thanks to the girls for being such fun, the mothers who stayed to help keep order and to Gareth for keeping his sanity throughout the afternoon. A special thanks goes to Catherine, my wonderful wife, and Katy for organising the logistics of the day.

So, girls, good luck in your next school, and well done for all the great things you achieved in St. Josephs.

And to all the secondary schools that the girls are going to, all I can say is;

watch out! here come the girls!

It was also an opportunity for the girls to say a heartfelt thank you and goodbye to a teacher that had been with them throughout their stay at St. Josephs; Mrs Sparrow.

Truprint Guest Blogger

Those wonderful people over at Truprint, you know the ones; they have been printing our photographs, both digital and film for the past I don't know how long! A short while ago asked me to write a guest blog for them. So I did.

The post was on how to take a studio level low key portrait with a digital compact camera...

Here is the shot I took...





To check out how I took it you'll have to visit... here

And be sure to tell them Noel sent you! And once again, a big thank you to Katy for being the beautiful model that she is!

Here comes the summer...

Its great to get a little time out at the weekends. Last Sunday, Katy, Mrs H and myself visited Grey's Court just outside Henley on Thames. A fabulous 16th century mansion set among some fantastic gardens. And the sun shone!

Daisies...

Katy and the daisies

Greys Court is part of the National Trust, these wonderful places can now be enjoyed by all of us... and its a great chance to take photos too!

A New Toy

I had the good luck to be given a Lastolite Ezybox softbox for my birthday last December and up until now I haven’t had a chance to use it. Katy and I set it up last night and had a play with it.

First impressions are that it’s a doddle to put up; a flick of the wrist and the softbox takes shape. I am not going to go into the how to set it up as it was fairly straightforward, if you use one you'll see what I mean. Putting it away was just as easy. I made one modification; I removed the cold shoe that came with the bracket and replaced it with one of the flash triggers I use. The model I got was the 60cm one.

The light from it was amazing and very controllable. It was made for the type of portrait shots I like to do; film noir. I have been getting similar results with using a closed down reflective umbrella, but the draw back of this approach is that there is the umbrella rod close to your subjects face just waiting to poke their eye out. Not recommended. And also I find it harder to reach in close to the subjects face to adjust the flash output. The softbox can be almost touching the models face and you still have easy access to the flash, because nits behind it.

the setup

I have yet to use it outside, but given the weight and shape it cannot be any worse than an umbrella in the wind. Fort these shots we killed the ambient, more or less and then added back in the softbox light.

And thanks again to Katy for being the model… and the photography in the end...

Noel and Katy

Project 52 ... 52

The End. Finally. The project has finished and what a journey it has been. I couldn't have done it without the help of my daughter, Katy. So it was only fair that she got to take the last portrait; me.
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Noel

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Here is Katy's experience of the shoot...

This was the last portrait of 52 in 'project 52' and one of my first photo shoots. Taking photos with my Dad is always fun but when he isn't behind the camera he has no control on how I take the photo  IT'S GREAT! I used one flash; an SB800, fired into a reflective umbrella which I closed down to limit the spill of light.We tried using a reflector behind Dad's head but I wasn't happy with the results. We also tried putting a flash with a grid behind his head but the light was too powerful even at the lowest setting. it took a while to get the shot I wanted, but it was worth it. I had lots of fun.   

Thanks Katy, for taking a great shot, even if it is of me. And it was a different experience to be behind the camera for a change.

A little time out in Oxford

A few weeks ago I realised that I had not had a holiday for sometime, so I booked a few days off and we all headed for the lofty spires of Oxford; Morse and Lewis country. Oxford is a little crowded; not least of all with the thousands of tourists that come to see the magnificent city, so driving in the city is difficult at best. We stayed in a hotel on the outskirts and got a bus to wherever we were going.

Katy

'Katie' Boat

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No trip to the city would be complete without gazing at some of the wonderful architecture, for me God is in the details...
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Oxford Sculpture #1

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There are also a huge number of bikes around town...

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Oxford Bikes #1

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Oxford Bikes #2 (+ Angel)

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One of the things I always enjoy when exploring a city is to really look at the details. Sometimes what you see is surprising; there are Angels everywhere...

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Oxford Angel #2

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Oxford Butterfly #1

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Oxford has been photographed to death; so if you have the chance to go there, try to show a different view of the city. I must admit to have taken all the other shots over the years, but you will have seen them already.

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!

Project 52 ... 1

There is much talk about personal projects in the photographic press and this is mine. For the 52 weeks of the year I am going / have been taking a portrait of someone. In the begining this is relatively easy - immediate family, then friends, then work coleagues and then it starts getting harder... and more interesting.

One, Katy, D200, SB 800 with gridspot to camera left

The photograph of Katy above was taken in the first week of January, outside, in the freezing cold! I did set the shot up beforehand and then asked her to join me, but she was still shivering with the cold when we finished!

I shall show a photo of the gridspot and explain how it works later.