Ellen contacted me recently to get a set of new images for her modelling portfolio with her agency. I have worked with Ellen on several shoots now, and it is always a nice session to do. The planned environmental shoot changed to a warm studio shoot thanks to the British weather, but we managed to create a great set of images, and even had time for some fun shots at the end.
A recent shoot with the wonderful Alex (on her first ever shoot) allowed me to test a few new lighting setups within the studio. A rarely used pink paper roll has been hanging in the studio for a long time, watching me and begging to be used. I decide to see what I could do with it, so used a single gridded beauty dish to light Alex and throw a distinct shadow onto the pink backdrop.
Second setup was against the white infinity cove, using a single gridded reflector on a Bowens head and shooting through a standard set of window blinds. You can just see the shadow it creates on Alex’s shoulder and chest.
Third image is the same setup as above, but with different lighting levels to enhance the shadow effect from the blinds.
Alex is a great model and for her first time did exceptionally well. Looking forward to working together again soon.
It is great to be in the studio during the Winter season, escaping the poor and unpredictable weather. The studio allows you space and time to build a careful lighting setup that will meet your vision of the photoshoot.
Below are 3 examples from a recent photoshoot with an up and coming model to help build her portfolio to take to agencies. We did a handful of lighting setup changes throughout the shoot, along with outfit changes, to get a nice selection of images for the portfolio. A mix of Octabox, strip box, gridded beauty dish and reflectors helped create strong images showing the model’s potential.
I think I have probably completed my last urban shoot of the year now the weather is decidely more Autumnal. Cold, rain and wind are not a pleasant mix for a photoshoot. This was the first time I hve worked with Danielle, and we managed to find a small backstreet in Leicester which I had never used before. A quick bit of research on Google’s Street View helped me pick the location, as it appeared to have a few areas for possible backdrops within very short walking distance.
As it happens we were spoilt for choice and ran out of time before we ran out of street.
Here are a small selection of images from a recent model shoot in the backstreets of inner city Birmingham with the fantastic model Emily.
I love using run down inner city urban areas for fashion photoshoots. Theses areas are bursting with great colourful and textured backdrops – old walls, doorways, graffiti covered billboards and derelict buildings. And because of inner city regeneration projects, these areas are commonly now neighbours to new office blocks with modern architecture to create a great mix of old with new.
With the added advantage of these areas being relatively quiet, away from the main shopping areas of a city centre, makes a great location shoot with plenty of artistic options within a small area. It can be a challenge sometimes to see the opportunities within a rundown area, but it is great fun to get out of the studio and see what happens. These set of images were taken during a 4 hour photoshoot in just one individual street in Birmingham, just a 5 min walk from the Bullring.
The picture above was one of the first shots of the day, taken against a blue painted street wall using 2 x gridded Bowens Gemini flashes powered by Bowens TravelPaks.
Another brick wall, the other side of the street. Quick change of clothes to get a different look, adding variety to a portfolio.
A boarded up public house is an all too common scene in every town and city in the UK, but can be used as a great backdrop for street fashion images with the help of a couple of powerful lights.
I spotted this ‘Weekend Offender’ sign painted on the wall of a very large archway as I did my initial walkaround of the area before the model arrived. I made a mental note of the exact location ready to use when the time came. Another 2 x gridded Bowen light setup – one on the sign, the second positioned across the archway lighting Emily.
There is always a graffiti covered wall to be had in an inner city area, and this wall was just a few feet further on down the street.
More graffiti found in an old factory doorway with the ‘Weekend Offender’ sign making another appearance. Doorway was lit with a gridded Bowens and Emily was lit with a gridded beauty dish hand held just above Emily.
Final change of outfit, using the natural soft light in the shadow of a building on the opposite side of the street, shot with a Nikkor 70-200 f2.8.
I hope you enjoy these images as much as I enjoyed the afternoon capturing them. Contact me if you are interested in a street fashion photoshoot to build your portfolio or just for a different experience.
I did a test shoot recently in the studio with Grace, a new local model with a great look and who is very easy to work with. I used the opportunity to try out some different lighting setups with Octaboxes and gridded beauty dishes, whilst Grace was able to start building up her modelling portfolio.
We had a very successful couple of hours in the studio trying out a mixture of low and high key lighting with a variety of poses in a relaxed environment. I am looking forward to working with Grace again in the near future.
I purchased a small vintage Union Jack flag from ebay a while ago with the express intention of using it as a backdrop to some studio portraits. Really wanted a very large flag for full length portraits, but this is just about suitable for half length max. Its made from cotton and doesn’t have the horrible sheen to it that new cheap flags seem to have.
The opportunity to use it only recently came along when I did a fashion shoot with Penny in the Leicester studio. Hung from a backdrop stand with black cloth behind to soak up the light. Lit with a single EZYBox softbox with grid on a C-Stand.
The Olympics may be just about on us but I will keep hold of this flag for the studio. Will be great for dynamic child and family portraits as well as fashion and beauty photoshoots.
I did a photo shoot in the studio with Rebecca recently and we managed to create some fantastic images for our portfolios. The studio has a white cove for nice clean white backgrounds, ideal for model portfolios, family and individual portrait shoots.
Although I am not into heavy post-processing of my images, I took an opportunity to experiment a bit with background textures on the last two images shown here.