Had a major problem last month. I turned the laptop on and it came up “Internal had disk failure” and wouldn’t boot 🙁 I am soooo glad I had all my work backed up. The laptop did eventually start but after a heart sopping failure like that I lost all confidence in it and was loathe to put any revenue work on it just in case. Continue reading Turning to the dark side… »
Category: Techniques
Photographic techniques with a camera
Finest Fashion at Embassy Club
Hot on the heels (sorry for the pun :-)) of the fashion show at the Funky Buddha club came the second leg (not sorry for that on :-)) of the tour. This time at the Embassy Club and featuring two different designers, Cushh Clothing and Bianca Bast.
This time I was significantly better prepared and I was working on the assumption that come the time of the show, the club would turn off all their lights again. Sure enough, they did. One of the lessons I’d learned at the previous show was a single speedlite was definitely not going to do the job for me whether on camera or off. I’m really glad I made that assumption too because this place was like a cave. A very trendy, fashionable and up market cave, but a cave nevertheless.
This time I was determined not to be beaten and only walk away with a handful of images. The goal was at least one image, suitable for submission of each outfit.
So, what did I do differently?
The Lady and the Tramp
The Lady and the Tramp was a really fun project to do. I can’t claim credit for the idea though, that must go to the lovely Leanna, the model in this image. The brief was to shoot two images, one with her dressed as a Lady and the other with her as a Tramp, then merge the two together in PhotoShop.
With a little thought, preparation and patience it’s actually very easy to achieve although we weren’t without our difficulties on the day. Most of them environmental funnily enough. Continue reading The Lady and the Tramp »
Funky Buddha kicked my backside
Working a nightclub fashion show was always going to be a challenge. Let’s face it, they’re not the sort of place that is renowned for brightly lit runways and clean white backgrounds. Quite the opposite in fact. The three I’ve worked in recently were dark. Very, very dark. When the show started, they all turned what little lights they had on way down.
E.g. The shot at the top of this page from the Agnes Valentine set at Funky Buddha was a full three stops darker during the show than the rehearsal (second image).
Continue reading Funky Buddha kicked my backside »
Do it right, do it quick
One of the things I’ve found with digital photography is that I can spend a lot of time post processing my images if I’m not careful. Retouching is a bit like writing software for a living – no matter what one does there will always be something else that can be done to improve it. I used to believe that this was because it was easy to make a change but having read Pressfield’s book entitled “The War of Art” I’m wondering if sometimes this is also an excuse to never finish an image. Read the book and you’ll understand why I made that statement.
Getting back on topic, I find that sitting at my PC and retouching an image can be quite fun so I’m not complaining but when faced with a deadline and the necessity of getting a body of work out the door to please a client and the fun element can very soon evaporate. This is further exacerbated if there is a large number of images to sort through
So, what canbe done to speed up the workflow?
