photography – Page 3 – Gavtrain.com

Make Up, Quick vs Quality

We started working with make up artists several years ago for our portrait shoots. It really opened our eyes to how much make up can change the look of your shots.

Some themes and styled shoots can benefit dramatically from the services of a good make up artist. In this video Gavin takes shots firstly with a quick make up coverage and then repeats the shoot after a more stylised make up look has been applied.

Our model, Beth Smith and make up artist, Sophie Daly help to show the difference achieved. Gavin gives hints and tips on how to get the most from working with a great make up artist.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/kVFcQ5mGgdY[/youtube]

Here’s some of the basic coverage make up shots.

A few of the shots after the more dramatic make up was applied.

Home Studio to Mini Music Venue

It’s always fun when we get IF-E in the studio and this video was no exception. Gavin likes to push the boundaries and overcome the limitations of working in the same small space and this was another cracking example.

Some great lighting and obviously the smoke machine provide the right vibe for IF-E to bang out some lyrics and attitude (he’s great at that!).

The set up started with just one light progressing through to adding further lights for a variety of looks. The addition of smoke gives a different mood to the shots, as the smoke moves and dissipates the look changes.

Check out the video to see the entire shoot.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/yTnaLcGhZhg[/youtube]

Here’s a Behind The Scenes of the final set up.

Here’s a few of my favourites from the set.

Bed Sheets As Backgrounds

When I first started shooting portraits, I made do with some very basic gear. My studio was my garage, my second light was a reflector and my backgrounds were sheets of fabric.

Fortunately I’ve added one or two more lights to my gear over the years and I have my own, permanent small home studio. My backgrounds have evolved a bit too but one of the most challenging parts of being in a studio is the limited choice of backgrounds. So in the video below I revisited my early days by buying three cheap bed sheets for use as backgrounds.

I love dark and moody studio shots, so my three bed sheets (technically they’re duvet covers) were a basic black, stripy black and damask patterned black. Each gave a very different result, as you’ll see in the video below.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pv_LX319uU[/youtube]

So what did I discover? First off, king sized duvet’s are amazing value (I limited myself to £20 max per sheet) and because they open up, adding some timber inside helps them hang well. However the creases were a real pain and took an age to steam out.

If all you want is a basic black background, a bed sheet is cheap and works perfectly. If you want a pattern, look for sheets that are advertised as crease resistant or ironing free but be aware that those terms aren’t really accurate from a photographic point of view.

As a bonus each duvet set comes with two pillow cases. So what should I do with those? Ideas below please.

F-Stop Chart

Flash meters are super helpful for lots of reasons but to really get the most from them you also need to know your f stop aperture numbers. You might already know that you need one more stop of light to move from f/5.6 to f/8 but how good are your intermediate f stops. For example you want to shoot at f/8 but your flash meter tells you f/7.1 or even f5.6.8, how close are you to your target aperture?

Learning the full stop scale is a must for any serious photographer and for me, so is learning the third stops too. Tenth stops is a bit more niche but many flash heads work in tenths. So to help you learn and as a quick reminder for me, I made an f-stop chart

Usage rules
The chart is copyright Gavin Hoey 2018. Use is limited to any personal but non-commercial purposes. Do not redistribute the original images without my permission.

Download instructions
1. Click on the correct download link below (no sign up is needed)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12H6LrCVIgkA_R0PEKCTfZtlrd8rkh61s/view?usp=sharing

Click the Download button
The download should start automatically
No support is provided with the Friday Freebies. If you need help Google or YouTube the question and you’ll almost certainly find the answer

Vintage Explorer – Plan It, Shoot It, Edit

This is the first of a new series where I take you behind the scenes on one of my shoots. You get to come along for the ride as I plan the shoot, do the shoot and edit the photos.

The theme for the first “Plan It, Shoot It, Edit” is Vintage Explorer.

Plan It
It all starts with an idea, then there’s the preparation and planning. A location has to be found, props need making and finally there’s a test shoot to do. Of course not everything goes to plan, as you’ll see.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri5f29WqWqs[/youtube]

Shoot It
Now for the fun bit… the shoot itself. The weather was cold, so I decided to get some banker shots in my studio before heading out on location. Sometimes you just get lucky and on the way home I stop off to shoot against a spectacular sunset.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dNqKYBZNus[/youtube]

Edit
Here’s where the photos come alive. Adding colour and contrast is all that most of the shots needed but if you want to shoot wide shots and light the model with a softbox, there’s bound to be a bit of Photoshop needed.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2onA5CUF2uk[/youtube]

Behind The Scenes… Coming Soon.

I often get asked how I come up with my ideas or what my creative process is. With that in mind the next video for Adorama TV will be a different format to usual. Encompassing the creative process behind one of my photo shoots.

There’s a lot of planning and organising behind the scenes, all the stuff I don’t show usually. In the next 3 videos you will be part of the journey from initial concept through organising and shooting right to the end processing results and final conclusions.

You’ll see how we work as a team, that things don’t always go as planned. The importance of a plan B (and C) and much more. I hope you’ll join me, warts and all, to get a glimpse from the other side of the camera.

https://www.facebook.com/gavtrain/videos/2173023796040948/

Olympian Photo Shoot

It’s not often you get the chance to photograph an Olympic athlete, but recently I was very fortunate to be asked to take some PR shot of the brilliant freestyle skier James ‘Woodsy’ Woods for Olympus UK.

There was a small window of opportunity, between winter Olympic competing in the slopestyle skiing and world cup practice, when he was in the UK.

It’s not often the weather plays in to your hands but I can honestly say we couldn’t have planned it any better. We were shooting on the amazing rooftop at the ME London Hotel. There had been snow elsewhere in the UK but London was boringly snow free, just cold. But then a few flakes started.

The most intense of weather phenomenon’s hit and suddenly we couldn’t see the London skyline at all for snow. We sheltered ourselves and the gear in the very cool cable car the hotel has and when the worst of the storm passed we continued shooting with the fresh covering of snow adding the perfect level of authenticity to the photo’s of a winter Olympian!

My 2018 talks at The Photography Show

There’s just one week to go until The Photography Show 2018 opens its doors at the N.E.C. in Birmingham, UK. Running from the 17th – 20th March, it’s the UK’s biggest and busiest photography show around 30,000 amateur and professional photographers attending and I’ll be there for all four days.

It’s a great mix of booths from photographic businesses big and small but this isn’t just another trade show, there’s also loads of things to see and do. There’s a constant stream of free demos and talks on various live stages and that’s on top of all the smaller demos on many of the booths dotted around the show.

I’ll be there giving various talks and demos on portrait lighting and photography, so if you’re coming along it would be great to meet you.

Saturday

10.30 am	PiXAPRO E91	Out of sight light (Demo)
1:00 pm	TPS Live Stage	Beyond beauty lighting (Demo)
2.30 pm	PiXAPRO E91	One light or two (Demo)

Sunday

10.30 am	PiXAPRO E91	Out of sight light (Demo)
12.15 pm	Olympus D91	Creative portraits from simple lighting (Talk)
1.30 pm	PiXAPRO E91	One light or two (Demo)
3.30 pm	PiXAPRO E91	Out of sight light (Demo)

Monday

11.30 am	PiXAPRO E91	Out of sight light (Demo)
2.00 pm	TPS Live Stage	Creative portraits in tight spaces (Demo)
3.30 pm	PiXAPRO E91	One light or two (Demo)

Tuesday

10.30 am	PiXAPRO E91	Out of sight light (Demo)
3.30 pm	PiXAPRO E91	One light or two (Demo)

All my demos are free and available on a first come first served basis.

Show tickets are free for professional photographers and the trade (if booked in advance) and £13.95 for enthusiasts (£18.00 on the door)

Gloucester prison group shoot

Going to prison isn’t something I’d ever want to do. But going to a decommissioned prison and having exclusive access to all areas is my sort of event.

Gloucester prison is an incredible location to visit. Its last residents left 5 years ago but luckily Brian and P-J came along to play the part of prison inmates for the day. The cold, small cells with peeling paint may have looked grim but photographically they were perfect and both models really got into character.

Being a winter workshop and with small windows in the cells, we needed extra light to create mood and atmosphere in the photos. The photographers on the workshop got to work with some excellent continuous light courtesy of Rotolight Aeos LED panels and the small but powerful Pixapro Pika200 flashes.

Of course you need more then a great location, great models and great light to take great photos and luckily we also had a great group of photographers. I loved watching them take my original idea and turn it into something unique. It’s not often you get to take part in a shoot like this, so it was wonderful to see so many photographers making the most of the opportunity.

The whole thing was organised by Olympus UK and was open to users of any camera, not just Olympus users. For details of their upcoming workshops check out the Olympus Image Space events page.

Wall of sound background

Recently I needed a wall of speakers in my studio to make an amazing background for an upcoming music shoot. But after a bit of thought I realised there were three major problems with the idea. First, my studio space is a lot smaller then my imagination. Second, I don’t have easy access to the 25 – 30 speakers I would need for a person sized wall and third, what would I do with all those speakers after the shoot? However I do own one small PA amp (I use it during my camera club talks) and of course I have Photoshop.

So here it is, a wall of sound in my studio and all it took was a couple of photos plus an hour or two in Photoshop. The only thing missing is a musician but I’ll get to that in a later post. In the meantime, I’m sharing this background as a Friday Freebie.

If you create a photo using the Friday Freebie then let me (and everyone else) know by leaving the link in the comments below.

Usage rules
The images are copyright Gavin Hoey 2018. Use is limited to any personal but non-commercial purposes. Please share the Friday Freebie by linking back to this page. Do not redistribute the original images without my permission.

Download instructions
1. Click on the correct download link below (no sign up is needed)
https://adobe.ly/2AUg8td

Click the Download button
The download should start automatically
No support is provided with the Friday Freebies. If you need help Google or YouTube the question and you’ll almost certainly find the answer