Creative and business resources for photographers – ProPhotoNut

Mono magic ~ Urban Portrait workshop pictures of Stina

3 comments September 1st, 2010 11:07pm damien

1. Minimalist natural light and a strong pose creates a striking image.

All the shots from Mondays workshop have been processed by Luke in black and white. My shots were taken using prime lenses and we shot in extreme exposure situations to challenge and educate us all. (more…)

From Canon Zooms to Primes ~ A guide

25 comments August 29th, 2010 06:35pm damien

My complete camera kit. A Canon 5D mk2 with four prime lenses

Here is the story of my switch from zooms to primes and my findings so far. (more…)

Fashion Fusion 2 ~ pictures and techniques

16 comments August 25th, 2010 08:05pm damien

After the success of my first Fashion Fusion workshop I decided to run it again. This was my second shoot with the new Lupo HMI lights and I’m delighted with the way they performed. The best light is definately the Lupo 800. It is perfect for interior portraits and is now my principal light of choice. Here are 24 of the 70 or so keepers from the shoot:

1. What can I say? The moment was fabulous. Chloe is lit with an Arri 300 as a key light and an Arri 150w kicker from the right of frame. The Lupo 800 provided the upstage kick from the left of frame.

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Inspiration for my upcoming heART of portraiture shoot

2 comments August 25th, 2010 12:26pm damien

I thought I’d share with you my planning process for my upcoming heART of portraiture event. I am shooting three consecutive workshops with the soon to be supermodel Chloe Jasmine Whichello. Here are my ideas… (more…)

Vintage Cherish The Dress 2 ~ Pictures and Techniques

17 comments August 20th, 2010 07:18pm damien

These are 60 pictures from our second vintage shoot at Bury. It rained throughout the day and was uncharacteristically dark for August. Chris and I worked extra hard to make our own sun and I hope you enjoy the fruits of our labours. 30 pictures each. Mine are first

dl1. No vintage set is complete without a monochrome beauty shot. 100mm lens at f/2.8

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Speedlight Mastery Manchester ~ pictures on the edge

21 comments August 19th, 2010 11:47pm damien

How far will you take in camera exposure? This is 'as shot' and those who know me understand why I never use a histogram or the highlight warning system in my camera. The screen on the 5D mk 2 is so good, fine exposure tweaks can be made using the picture alone.

This set of pictures was quite special to shoot. The weather was kind, Chloe Jasmine Whichello was in good spirits and some of our favourite photographers were with us as delegates. The day started at the worlds most expensive pebble… (more…)

How to get inspiration

11 comments August 11th, 2010 01:32pm damien

Inspiration for words or pictures comes from many sources but if you want to improve your ability to learn from the masters you must first understand the language they use. There are indeed rules of grammar and rules of picture composition. I don’t want to bang on about the rules, I’ll leave that for (more…)

Studio lighting workshop pictures ~ Chloe Jasmine

18 comments July 23rd, 2010 09:09pm damien

Here are a set of pictures in the nude, (with clean post production). Just the odd monochrome conversion and a bit of white balance shifting. All my photographs get edited like this and a few copies then go on to get pulled around with actions etc. I’ve been blogging a few too many of the variations lately so here are the ‘nude’ set.

1. A simple white balance shift to 4200k was all I needed to create this cool aqua look. The lighting was from one Lupo 800 HMI and a top secret reflection making process

Our house make up artist Vicky Waghorn created the looks and the fabulous hair styles too. Enjoy…

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Test shoot on location with Stina Saunders

12 comments July 21st, 2010 10:12pm damien

Here are a few of my pictures of Stina taken on a big flash test shoot with fellow photographer Nick Bunton. We pooled our lighting equipment so we had 2 Mobil A2R kits, 4 Mobil flash heads, a ringflash or 2, and 5 Speedlights at our disposal. We both chose to shoot Nikon and I used my Nikon D700, with 14-24 f/2.8, 24-70 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8 lenses.

1. This frame of Stina was shot in front of a concrete pillar supporting a link road in Bristol. The lighting design is simple but effective. Two 3/4 backlights were provided by a couple of Mobil heads and a Broncolor ringflash on camera completed the look. ISO 200, 1/200th at f/11

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Fashion Fusion Workshop ~ Pictures and Techniques

33 comments July 18th, 2010 09:08am damien

My third shoot this week was my first ever Fashion Fusion Workshop using just continuous light. No flash was used for any of these pictures, just daylight and the light from my various movie industry luminaires. Continuous light will continue on it’s way to become the dominant kit of choice for wedding and portrait photographers in the near future so here is my first dedicated workshop to get us under way.

1. Hello Boys. Remember the billboard adverts of the 90's? This shot reminds me of them with it's low angle viewpoint. Chloe looks fantastic in this baby Doll outfit by Lulu and Lush.

All the clothes were kindly supplied by Sam Merry of  www.fairygothmother.com fame.
Hair and makeup was the work of Vicki Waghorn, our house stylist. Here are 25 of the 40 or so keepers from my set…

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Shots of Stina from a 1:1 training session

8 comments July 14th, 2010 05:46pm damien

1. This simple but punchy twin Speedlight shot told the weather story of the day. Yes we got wet, but it didn't detract from what was a great shoot and learning experience. The white balance was at 3400K by accident but I liked the blue look so I kept it.

Every few weeks or so I put a 1:1 or 1:2 shoot training day into my diary. It’s an opportunity to fine tune a photographers shooting and lighting skills. Sometimes I shoot alongside and other times I just direct and light. The format is flexible and great shoots always result. Here are a few of my frames from yesterdays session…

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Links to inspirational portraits – Photographs and Paintings

15 comments July 12th, 2010 02:58pm damien

Okay here is your chance to give a bit back to the ProPhotoNut community. What pictures inspire you? I’ll start by sharing my first two sources of inspiration. They were given to me by others and I believe the best way to advance is to share the journey… (more…)

Chloe in the country, lit with big flash ~ Pictures

14 comments July 10th, 2010 12:41am damien

This weeks shooting workshop took Chloe, some delegates, and I around Somerset on a quest for images par excellence. One delegate had flown from Venezuela to attend this workshop and my Fashion Fusion event next week, wow! No pressure then.

1. A silver umbrella and my Mobil kit on 1/4 power was all that was needed for this figure in the landscape study. You can see the path of illumination as it cuts through the summer corn.

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Vintage shoots, business ideas and lighting styles

9 comments July 4th, 2010 07:00pm damien

The workings and my thoughts behind the Vintage Cherish The Dress™ portrait shoot.

I started my vintage quest online, by looking to the past for my picture style inspiration. It seems that today’s trending looks have been here before and it is always easier to get them right second time around. I found plenty of fine examples of period photographs that capture the essence of the times. The hair styles, false eyelashes, dress designs and the all important poses make up a look that is captivating and bang up to date.

The vintage image genre is about the sense of freedom and hope, evoking a feeling of fantasy far removed from the drab existence of normal everyday life back in the day. It takes a bit of time to understand the subtleties of what makes these pictures work. When you are recreating them, It’s just not enough to have your clients hands and arms in the right place. You need to work on the posture, the care free and fly away gay abandon bits too. Do it right, and do it well, was very much the order of the day then and needs to be the same now. Research and learn how to do it well and your photography will be in big demand. (more…)

Infra red studio portraits ~ Pictures

4 comments July 2nd, 2010 01:59pm damien

I wanted to end the week by sharing with you some shots I took of Sarah Beaufoy using my Canon 5D IR. I took them during a private 1:3 studio lighting training session. The session was for a newly formed studio with a forward thinking approach to portraiture.

Infra red shots have a naturally low contrast in this kind of light. A texture and tint applied in post production completes the look.

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Cherish The Dress in Somerset ~ Part 2

9 comments June 26th, 2010 12:20pm damien

1. (7). I think its important part of the client experience that you capitalise on the shoot venues features. By placing your client with the features and making the shots fun, it attaches emotional memories and makes the picture an instant buy. The old copper bath was one such feature. I asked chloe to read a book whilst her evening bath was filling. There is an Arri 300w hid behind the left hand side of the door provide the key light and a lowel ID light hid on the right hand side providing a kick/hair light.

Here are Chris Hanley’s pictures with his comments from the Cherish The Dress workshop we jointly ran at Maunsel House in Somerset. Enjoy

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New product videos now online

12 comments June 26th, 2010 11:19am damien

Here are some new product information videos that I’ve put together. The motivation for the project was to use video to answer some of my most asked questions freeing up my time and educating site visitors in the process.

I’m in the process of replacing my existing Flash online video content with Quicktime H.264. All the videos were shot in SD and are iPad or iPhone compatible. If you have any compatability issues with the videos below or you have codec settings that I could use to make the videos better, bigger, and load faster please use the comment facility below. Thanks in advance, Damien.

Here are the links to six of my latest videos:

Which lighting stand is right for the job?

The Orbis ring flash adapter in action

How easy is the EzyBox by Lastolite?

How do Arri Fresnel lights produce such beautiful light?

How can I use the LoveCube on location with a Speedlight?

How do I use the Lovegrove Studio Collection of colour gels?

Cherish The Dress in Somerset ~ Part 1

12 comments June 25th, 2010 01:28am damien

Wow, what a workshop! Chris and I teamed up in the sunshine to take 10 delegates on a creative journey at Maunsel House in Somerset. Here is a selection of my pictures together with details of the techniques I’ve used to make them. Enjoy!

1. A simple natural light shot of Chloe-Jasmine taken at f/2.8 on my 100mm lens. There is a French feel to this scene that I love. There are more shots from this field later in the set including a couple of flashed frames.

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Pushing the Boundaries ~ Pictures and techniques

8 comments June 19th, 2010 04:44pm damien

1. Every now and then an exposure needs cutting back to simplify the shot. I worked the camera three stops down to capture Natasha in the shell seat shown in the next frame.

Chris Hanley and I were in Barça, a funky venue in Manchester having coffee one day in May and we decided to run a workshop shoot there. I wanted to shoot alternative fashion away from the realms of portraiture and Chris set to work sourcing a clothing designer, make up artist an models. It was a one off event for 8 delegates and here are our pictures. The first 21 pictures were shot by me and the final 21 were taken by Chris. (more…)

Vintage Cherish The Dress ~ Part 2

8 comments June 19th, 2010 01:15pm damien

Chloe-Jasmine on the steps to fame and fortune.

Here is a selection of the pictures shot by Chris Hanley on our recent joint Vintage ‘Cherish The Dress’ workshop in Bury. There will be another of these workshops in the coming months due to it’s popularity.

Chris and Claire Hanley have worked tirelessly to launch the Cherish The Dress brand throughout the UK. Together with my guidance our joint aim is to establish the concept of the 3 shoot wedding package as the excepted norm amongst bridal couples. Back in 1998 Julie and I pushed the concept of the pre wedding shoot and within a couple of years pre wedding / engagement shoots became an industry norm. I believe the wedding photography business in the UK is on the cusp of becoming the best in the world. Let’s make it happen.

Here are Chris’s shots from the day, enjoy (more…)