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Low light interior portraits ~ Pictures and technique

2 comments February 7th, 2010 12:01am damien

With Hannah pointed into the wind

With Hannah pointed into the wind, I shot from below using a Nikon D700 and a 200mm lens. ISO 320, 1/60th at f/4 with the camera on a monopod. A fairly bright covered zone kept us out of the rain and in wonderful natural light.

My shooting workshops start in March each year for a reason. Three months from the shortest day gives me a whole day’s shooting and a bit of natural light to utilise in the covered areas and interiors on my shoot routes. If all my delegates owned a D3, D700 or 5D mk2 then I could shoot undercover all year round. It gets a bit nippy for the models at times but modern cameras come alive in the dark of winter. (more…)

Latest News

13 comments February 4th, 2010 12:12am damien

The LoveCube™ is here at last. No, it is not dodgy but it will brighten up your photographs and look great at home after the shoot too. Details

The LoveCube™ is a studio prop that will look just as cool in the woods, on the beach, up the Eifel Tower or in your home.

The LoveCube™ is a studio prop that will look just as cool in the woods, on the beach, up the Eiffel Tower or in your home. It comes complete with a light fitting (removable) so that it can be used as an illuminated coffee table.

Twitter continues to amaze me. I’ve connected with 800 or so photographers now and it seems the tipping point has been reached. (more…)

5 pictures that charted my career – Damien Lovegrove

9 comments January 30th, 2010 05:22pm damien

Five pictures that charted my career. By Damien Lovegrove 2010

Mirage in the Western Desert in Egypt. Taken in 1996 on a Nikon FA with a 300mm Tamron lens and an unbranded 2x converter. This picture was shot for stock and continues to sell well today.

Mirage in the Western Desert in Egypt. Taken by me in 1996 using a Nikon F90 with a 300mm Tamron lens and an unbranded 2x converter on Kodachrome 64. This picture was shot for stock and continues to sell well today. Sales from this shot alone total over £20,000. Every GCSE student of Physics will recognise this shot from their text books. Dorling Kindersley love it too and it often appears in their publications.

Have you ever sat down and written a title for an essay with absolutely no idea how to complete the task? I perhaps stupidly suggested to Terry Hope, the editor of PhotoPro magazine that it would be fun to write a piece about just a few pictures that became stepping stones in my life. Then perhaps he could invite other photographers to write the same essay. He wrote back and said okay get the job done. So here is the start of what might be an interesting chain of personal stories loosely strung around photographs. (more…)

Shooting Pictures with Passion ~ technique

12 comments January 20th, 2010 12:21am damien

It was right at the beginning of my career as a photographer that I realised I needed to be able to capture the emotion between people in my pictures rather than just shots of the people themselves.

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In this grid you can see how I’ve often used very tight shots to eliminate distracting elements and to add impact to the shots. The collection shows shots from, Cherish the Dress workshops, Passion on the Streets workshops and a wedding. Notice how in some of the shots I’ve directed the girl to place her hands on or around the guys head.

The easy option was to adopt a reportage style of shooting and capture what was there in front of me but I was put off this idea after having spent three years shooting news for the BBC. I was more interested in (more…)

Damien Lovegrove’s favourite pictures of 2009

23 comments January 4th, 2010 12:21am damien

I’ve been on a fabulous creative trip in 2009 teaching photography and researching my latest DVD/ Blu-Ray, Speedlight Mastery. The journey has taken me to six cities in Germany, the Meatpacking district of New York, Sienna in Tuscany, Castlefield in Manchester and my beloved Bristol Waterfront. On the way I have shared creative moments and precious times with talented photographers from around the world.

Below are my favourite 50 pictures of 2009. It is a strange notion to choose pictures over a time span. I thought about sharing the following sets: My 50 career best pictures, or my 50 favourite pictures of the last decade, or perhaps 50 favourite pictures of the past year, or 50 best shots of the past month. I went for the past year option.

I wonder how many of my pictures I would have selected for all four sets? It’s worth thinking about this. Ask yourself, Is your photography going in the right direction. This is totally subjective and only your opinion counts. Another list category I thought about was the 10 photographs that charted my photographic career. This would be more of a narrative that discussed each images significance rather than the image itself. A lot of the shots I’d choose in the key career shots set would not make any of the ‘best’ sets listed above. It’s got me thinking so I’ll write about the career milestone shots in the coming months but for now here are my 50 favourite pictures of 2009:

The season started with my big flash in the country workshops. And this frame was one that shone out of the overcast day in the dark woods.

The season started with my big flash in the country workshops. And this frame was one that shone out of the overcast day in the dark woods. Lit with two barefaced Broncolor Mobil heads powered from the same A2R pack.

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Colourful studio portraits ~ Techniques and Pictures

38 comments December 31st, 2009 04:17pm damien

gel-grid-blog
Here is my technique for creating striking studio portraits using a grey background and the Lovegrove Studio Collection of gels. Grid collections like the one above make fantastic large acrylic products or canvas prints for the home. They are easy to shoot, command high prices, and they look great in a studio shop window too. Here’s how I shot the one above. (more…)

The Lovegrove Studio Gel Collection ~ Colour chart and picture samples

19 comments December 31st, 2009 04:16pm damien

Here is the full colour chart showing picture samples taken with each of the 38 gels in the Lovegrove Studio Collection at various levels of illumination. The gels are listed in numerical order. The 38 gels each measure 12″x 12″ (305mm x 305mm). For the technical details of how these shots were taken please see my other post here. These shots are ’straight from camera’ I used a Nikon D700 with a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens set at f/11 and I used the ‘flash’ white balance preset. All the shots were batch cropped to 10×8 proportions in Adobe Lightroom before being exported.

What’s your favourite colour? Let me know in the comments box below.

LC01

LC01

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Speedlight Mastery Video production by Damien Lovegrove ~ info & comments

57 comments December 22nd, 2009 10:34pm damien

Speedlight_packaging

In this 2.5 hour production I shoot 23 set ups using single or multiple Speedlights. The simplest set up uses just one Speedlight on camera and the most complicated used 3 Speedlights off camera, a Lastolite Ezybox and a reflector. I’ve tried to show every nuance of the rig and shoot. I’ve avoided detailing some of the button pushing info that is flash model specific for brevity reasons knowing that this information is in the manual that came with the flash.

Some set ups are explained in more detail and others that repeat the same action are shot at my normal shooting pace to avoid too much repetition.

I am on hand to answer your questions here. I’ll reference and link to more resources as required or requested. So if you have (more…)

Make 2010 your best year yet for portraits with this 10 point plan

23 comments December 19th, 2009 12:37am damien

Here is my 10 point plan for creating a successful portrait business. Get the retail business basics right and reap the rewards in 2010. (more…)

Lovegrove News update

12 comments December 12th, 2009 02:10am damien

With details of new workshops ~ Focus on imaging ~ SWPP talks ~ Blog updates ~ And a call for ideas. (more…)

Studio Lighting Pictures and Techniques

25 comments December 9th, 2009 07:59pm damien

This simple shot against a white section of my studio was lit with 2 hard lights. The low angle viewpoint was inspired by the classic Holywood portraits.

This simple shot against a white section of my studio was simply lit with 2 hard lights (Bowens heads with 7" reflectors and grids). The low angle viewpoint was inspired by the classic Holywood portraits.

It was my first ever studio lighting workshop at my own studio and I absolutely loved the process of starting to unlock the bijou spaces potential. At just 6.5m x 4.6m the Lovegrove studio is very compact. The high vaulted ceiling adds to the space and lets me get the lighting rig up and out of the shots. Here are 20 of my shots from the day. (more…)

Shooting Winter Weddings ~ pictures & exif

13 comments December 8th, 2009 10:36pm damien

It was the last weddings workshop of 2009 and the weather didn’t disappoint. It rained almost constantly, it was dark and a perfect day for a ‘how to make a bright and sunny wedding album from a dull winter day’ workshop. The sun did come out for 10 minutes as it ducked under a storm cloud just before sundown. Here is one shot from the day (click the picture for the full res version). The rest of the pictures and their exif is in a Lightroom web gallery follow the link after the jump.

lovegrove_21mm_sw_small

Taken hand held with a Canon 5D Mk2, ISO 400, 1/100th second at f/5 on a 21mm Zeiss f/2.8 lens.

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News update

6 comments December 5th, 2009 02:00am damien

In this update: Nikon lenses on Canon bodies, Infra Red news, Lens test reports and more. (more…)

Canon 135mm f/2L ~ My first real world portraits

30 comments December 2nd, 2009 10:27pm damien

Along with the Zeiss glass of my previous 2 posts I bought myself a Canon 135mm f/2.0 L lens on Ebay last weekend. Here are four of my first shots taken with it. All the pictures were shot on my Pocket Wizard creative workshops earlier this week. I shot them hand held and used central zone AF with a focus and re-frame technique. Click on any of the pictures for a full size image.

Silver br

Canon 5Dmk2, Canon 135mm f2L, ISO 200, 1/1250th second at f/2.8

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Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 lens real world portraits ~ high res samples

12 comments December 2nd, 2009 08:59pm damien

Here are ten of the portraits I shot using my new Zeiss Distagon 21mm f/2.8 ZE lens over the past couple of days. They were shot on the creative day workshops I ran for Pocket Wizard TT1 and TT5 owners. Each of the pictures can be downloaded at full resolution by clicking on it’s preview image. All the shots were taken hand held and were focused using the Canon focus confirm system in my 5D mk2.

Zeiss 21mm f/2.8, ISO 100, 1/125th second at f/11

Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 on a Canon 5Dmk2, ISO 100, 1/125th second at f/11

The above shot was lit using a 580EX11 Speedlight in a Lastolite 38cm Ezybox Hotshoe with a Tilt Head bracket on a Lastolite Stand and another 580EX11 Speedlight on a Lastolite stand as a back light. Both flashes were triggered using the Pocket Wizard TTL system. (more…)

Previous Posts


Speedlight Mastery Workshop
A new training day in Manchester or Bristol.
More details.
Passion on the Streets of Amsterdam
A masterclass in capturing emotion.
More details.
Cherish the Dress™ Workshop
An opulent fashion masterclass in Manchester.
More details.
Studio Lighting Workshop
Master your lighting techniques and take control.
More details.
Shooting Weddings Workshop
Professional wedding photography training.
More details.
The Business of Weddings Seminar
Learn how to realise your potential and build a good business.
More details.
Camera Skills Workshop
Life beyond P mode starts here.
More details.
1:1 Shoot Day
Tailored training day with Damien Lovegrove.
More details.
Post Production Training
Fine tune your Lightroom & Photoshop skills.
More details.
1:1 Lightroom & Photoshop Training
Tailored training day with Marko Nurminen.
More details.
Speedlight Mastery by Damien Lovegrove
A feature length production featuring Speedlights.
More details.
The Big Day & Lighting Winter Weddings DVDs
More details.
Using Natural Light & Using Flash on Location DVDs
More details.
Lovegrove Gels
The Lovegrove Flash Bracket mkIII
Manfrotto Magic Arm & SuperClamp
Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 & Flex TT5 radio triggers
Bespoke Leather Portfolios
Broncolor Mobil Kit & accessories
Digital Pro SV Camera Rotator
Manfrotto Lite Tite Adapter
Lighting Stands
Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe
Honl Light Modifiers
Umbrellas
Drobo S - 5bay hard drive array
The LoveCube™
Ringflash
Lastolite TriGrip Reflectors
Croc clips ~ keep your gels in place
PocketWizard hotshoe/foot blocks