The Castle Bride

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege or working on a bridal portfolio shoot with a fantastic model, Helene, and her fiancée, Jo. We also had a brilliant and very talented MUA, Louise of Faceinate, on hand too.

We were to be shooting at Guildford Castle, early on a Saturday morning and although is was bitterly cold, thankfully we weren’t to be plagued by the rain or snow of recent weeks. It was very overcast too with nothing but cloud cover overhead making for very soft, diffused light and although it was quite a dull day there was still plenty of light to work with. This when combined with a typical grey January day meant for a reduced colour pallette: mainly very muted greys, greens and browns to work with. Continue reading The Castle Bride »

David Hobby – aka Mr. Strobist

Yet another inspirational photographer is David Hobby, made famous by his amazing use of speedlights for off camera flash. David isn’t just a great photographer he’s also started a huge following, me included. I love the concept of taking my 580ex and setting it up on a light stand for a shoot. This has given me an ultra-lightweight lighting setup that is quick and easy to use on location.

A Little Light Debate…

All through my research and reading this year one argument keeps on coming up, time and time again: studio or available light?

The arguments go along the lines of

“Anyone who insists on only using available light does so because they don’t know how to use flash”

and

“Natural light is beautiful. I don’t need flash because I know how to see available light”

And different variations thereof. I’m not going to take sides here, personally, I don’t care which is better. I’ve created beautiful images using studio flash, daylight and a mixture of flash and daylight.One little pearl of wisdom I came across was “once the light has left the flash it doesn’t care how expensive the light was” (Adam Duckworth, Advanced Lighting Course, April 2009). Such a simple observation and so very true. It is also extendable to include sunlight and moonlight too. Continue reading A Little Light Debate… »