On a recent shoot with El Wood someone managed to grab a shot of me working with her so I thought it would be cool to post up that shot along with the actual shot that I took. Here they are …

I keep getting emails from people asking me how I light up my portraits and it’s really hard to reply to each request so I said I would try and post one or two “break-downs” on here when I can.

This is a shot I took of a band called Jokers Dozen in Soho to be used as part of their press and promo for their upcoming EP release.

The shot was taken in a busy alley using the street shop lights as ambient to back-light the guys and I filled in the main light with a Profoto Pro-7b pack with a single Pro Head fitted with a 4×6 foot soft box completely to the left of camera and pointed away from the band just so that they catch the spill-off … see rough diagram below after the location shot (without the band in).

I hope this helps a bit.

You can see a few more behind-the-scenes type posts HERE.

I had another photoshoot a few weeks ago with the super nice guys from Lost In The Riots and my friend, Brendan Monteiro, assisted me but also filmed a bunch of behind the scenes footage and put together a short video of it all.

I really like how it came out so thought I would share it. You can either watch it below or directly on YouTube.

You can also see a few more of the images from the shoot HERE.

I know I have been sucking at updating this blog as days go by but it’s just hard when things are really busy and I am sure that everyone can relate to that at some point.

I thought that it would be cool to post up 2 shots taken while out shooting recently down in Coventry and obviously at Tower Bridge.

These were just shot with my iPhone and posted with Instagram. Check that app out. It’s awesome.

Will post more soon when I get back to the UK.

I constantly get emails asking how I shoot and what my setup is when I work on a photo shoot and it’s impossible for me to reply to every single email especially because I am actually a photographer and not a teacher or admin guru. I thought that for this reason I would post another setup blog from a shoot I did with the super cool guys from a band called Don Broco up in Bedfordshire.

The guys were a flippen bunch of laughs but in a good way. Had a lot of fun working with them.

Anyway, the one location we shot at was next to a lake with the sun setting in the back. This is what the final photo looked like.

I used a 3 light setup for this shoot roughly placed in these positions (don’t hold me to the exact distances and angles) and the ring light is actually meant to represent my beauty dish but this app didn’t have that as an option. Haha.

All lighting is supplied by Profoto packs (Pro-7b and AcuteB to be exact). I took a photo with my iPhone of the setup in pretty much the same position as we shot. As you can see the sky actually looked like that and I never added in or edited the sky to make it look how it does in the final. Just some good lighting and a bit of tweaking on curves, levels, contrast, sharpness and colouring well importing the RAWS and obviously a few slight cosmetic clean-ups.

Not sure if this benefits anyone at all but it’s up anyway for those of you that care.

Make sure to check these guys out. They are super fun and worth supporting.

Currently listening to : Bullet For My Valentine – Fever.

This is just a random post after a video I saw yesterday sparked me to think about my work and helped me to remember how much fun I have doing what I do.

Last month I worked with We Are The Ocean for the week that they were in studio recording new tracks for an exciting release they are working on. I have worked with these guys for almost a year and a half now and I am really passionate about their music and the effort and time they put into what they are doing so spending time with them in studio (which is quite an intimate and important time for a band) was really special for me.

We worked together, listened a lot, played wii, ate rubbish cheap food, swam, jumped off bridges, walked, explored, listened a lot more, lazed around, slept, hummed, spoke rubbish, sang with the ninja and then on the last day quite early we decided to shoot a few portraits. The lighting during this time was really not the greatest just because it was SO harsh with a lot of moving clouds so it changed dramatically every 30 seconds (aperture reading changing from f7.1 to f18) but we made a plan and tried to get the best with what we had. We found this crazy dodgy location and below is one of the final photographs that I shot followed by 4 that Dan shot of us getting the set ready.

I love what I do.

I really like shooting special photographs of my close friends to keep as memories that reflect their personalities but this isn’t an easy thing to do because I don’t ever want them to feel uncomfortable or force the photo because I want to really capture them in the shots so that they are personal. I have said to Keli that I want to shoot a photo with her for ages but it has just never ever happened and I have never been happy with the ideas that I have had until today. It was Keli’s birthday and she dressed up as Alice from Alice in Wonderland which seemed fitting to how she is so I decided (assisted by Warren Zanin) to create a fantasy theme under some bushes in their back garden with some props and this is the result.

I have always been asked what my setups are and I have so little time that I never ever show them but decided that I would make the effort for this one because I have just been sent a photo of me shooting this shot and I think its funny. Basically I used 4 X Nikon SB-800′s for this shot with the main light going through a Rayhead Ring Flash and then only the fill light on camera right being shot through an umbrella to fill in the space under the bush.

I really like this shot and would love to hear what you think of it so feel free to let me know if you have the time even if its just questions regarding this shoot. Below is the final photo then a rough setup diagram and then a photo of me working on this shoot.

Currently listening to : The Postal Service – The District Sleeps Alone Tonight.