Tag: lighting

BTS Dressing Room Shoot

Gavin had an idea of creating a dressing room look, a behind the scenes glimpse at a theatre style. A real challenge in his small home studio, but he reckoned he was up to the challenge!

The main thing we felt we needed was the classic and slightly cliche mirror with lights. Surely we’d be able to get our hands on one of those without breaking the budget…..not an easy task as it turns out. Not one to be put off, Gavin decided “I can make one” (a familiar sentence uttered in our house, with varying degrees of success!).

We recycled the mirror from a previous shoot and Gavin made a surround using some of my old tongue and groove planks. I gave it a paint and gilded effect. Although a bit labour intensive, it came out really well and worked like a charm when we did a test shoot. Ten bulbs would generate a lot of heat and as we were filming on an already hot day, Gavins choice of LED bulbs proved to be a good one.

To compete the look we purchased some props and recycled others from previous shoots to give our ‘dressing room’ a vintage and slightly eclectic look.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBYPlTfE4ck[/youtube]

Sporting the outfit and accessories on the video shoot day was the fabulous Gracie Here’s some of the final photos and a behind the scenes shot of the behind the scenes shoot!

One Overhead Lighting Set Up

It’s always a challenge to keep things fresh and new in Gavin’s small home studio and sometimes that means taking it back to basics. The difference between just a small movement in the light can be really marked.

The flooring is our old recently replaced decking (up-cycling at it’s best) I think it really adds to the mood for this shoot with the awesome Sophie Daly, model and make up artist extraordinaire.

In this video Gavin changes the softbox and shows the dramatic differences. What’s the best shot? Well, that’s totally up to you.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyRWOk1_BVY[/youtube]

Secret Portrait Shoot

People often ask Gavin where he gets inspiration or how he stays motivated, a really good question. For my part, I try and come up with ideas and suggestions and this one was something that Gavin really liked the idea of.

I suggested that I could arrange a shoot that he knows nothing about, he will just turn up to shoot. No planning, no research, a real challenge as he is someone who is organised and likes to plan as much as possible beforehand.

I have wanted to arrange a shoot at the beautiful Forest Garden at Shovelstrode. Beautiful woodland, a large pond, amazing yurts and cabins, there’s a lot to love here. Lisa and Charles, the owners, were so accommodating and helpful. We were very fortunate to have amazing weather on the day of the shoot, even though it was October!

Here’s a few behind the scenes photo’s and one of my favourite images from the shoot.

Here’s a teaser, the full video will be out on AdoramaTV Thursday the 8th of November.

Hopefully this will be the first of a series of Secret Portrait Shoots.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wbi79meS5g[/youtube]

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.

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/

Limited Color Palette Portraits

Colour can really make an image pop and catch the eye and that’s something I wanted to experiment with in my small home studio. Using some colour themed props can help give the photo’s a high fashion feel and also gives your model something to use in poses. Make up can play an important part in creating the atmosphere, especially for close shots.

In this video we look at how punchy using one strong colour can be. Don’t think that you’ll need awhole rainbow of backdrops either!

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

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.