Tag: Strobism

  • In the mood for…film noir

    In the Shadows

    I’ve been kept quite busy with wedding documentary and fashion photography recently, so it was great to be invited by Rob Heslop to something that was ‘just for fun’. He invited me to a film noir shoot where the photographers got to play with lighting and directing, the models got to act and that post processing was easy!

    We could have done with a smoke machine but this was still brilliant fun and took me back to my days as a media student, making films.

    I love that the film noir tradition uses very simple light setups to show shape, form and character from out of the shadows. Characters that we all know well – the jaded detective, the femme fatale, the mafia boss and his moll.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, but I love that these images are alive with their moodiness, atmosphere and mystery.

    With thanks to:
    Rob Heslop
    Cam
    Peter Tecks

    Models:
    Conner McKenzy (www.connermckenzy.com)
    Kate Davies (www.modelmayhem.com/1777728)
    Iain Gorrie (www.modelmayhem.com/1701420)
    Helen Drew (www.modelmayhem.com/611129)

    In the shadows

    Jaded

    Lighting Up

    Waiting Watching

    In the mood

    The Don

    Differences

    Starlet

  • Lighting Workshop with Alex Beckett, Goldbrick House

    A portrait of Jane

    Last year, Cambridge-based photographer Alex Beckett (www.alexbeckett.co.uk) asked the Twitterverse for tips for his impending trip to Mongolia. Of course I obliged. Fast forward 6 months later and he is living in Bristol, down the road from me!

    In March, his trip to Saudi was cancelled and decided to run his very first off-camera flash workshop. It was a multi-level workshop with photographers who were totally new to lighting alongside experienced professionals. I decided to go along to wrap a formal approach around my existing knowledge and to see some photographer friends!

    Alex took us through the basics of flash photography, his kit, a demonstration (posing Martin Pemberton as The Godfather!)and we all got pitched in. I’d been involved recruiting the pilot group of attendees and models so knew most people attending the day, but there were a few new faces too. We all had fun and even the attendees with more advanced knowledge learnt a few tricks. A great day all in all and in a great venue. Alex will be running future workshops so keep an eye out for more workshop goodness.

    With thanks to our models Jane (http://purestorm.com/profile.aspx?id=lady_galaxy92), Danielle (http://www.modelmayhem.com/676727) and Juliet.

    Here are my pics of the model that my group worked with, Jane and my fellow photographers.

    Lighting practice:

    Jane

    Jane portrait

    These ones are natural light:

    Jane in the Big Blue

    Jane in thought

    Jane in light

    Jane en vogue

    Britain’s next top model, James Bailey

    Britain's next top model

    Reluctant model Lizi

    Alex Beckett in action

    Ian Francis & Lizi Cosslett

    Ian Francis and Lizi Cosslett

    Martin Pemberton striking a pose as The Godfather

    The Godfather pose

    Matthew Roach strikes his own pose!

    Matthew Roach

    Neil (RattyBoots on Flickr)

    Neil

    Martin Drake

    Martin Drake

    Caroline Alexander

    Caroline Alexander

    Martin Gillman

    Martin Gillman

    James Bailey

    James Bailey

    Benjamin Edwards

    Benjamin Edwards

    Kristy Field

    Kristy Field

    Lizi & Ian

    Lizi Cosslett and Ian Francis

    Nicola Ferguson

    Nicola Ferguson

    Jane striking a pose

    Lights camera action

    Behind the scenes

    Matt and Jane

    Martin having a break

    Martin at work

    Happy hour

    Caroline Alexander and Alex Beckett