Birmingham urban portraits – Pictures
September 23rd, 2008
Here are today’s pictures taken in Birmingham on a masterclass for the BIPP. I’d like to thank Karl for hosting the event and his hospitality. The ten of us went on a journey of discovery and here is a small selection of the pictures I made.
A late showing of sunlight was welcome and used for this striking profile. ISO 250, 1/3200 second at f/4 using a 200mm lens.
A splash of flash from a single Speedlight mounted on a lighting stand triggered by an STE2. I set the ambient exposure on my Canon 5D to minus two stops with the camera in program mode. The flash had no compensation dialed in. The blue was added in Adobe Lightroom and enhanced in Photoshop. ISO 200, 1/200th at f/8
This picture was triggered by self timer and my camera was held aloft on my monopod. ISO 160, 1/400th second at f/8
Rebecca outside the Sea Life Centre and by a lift door. The colours have been enhanced with Lightroom and Photoshop.
Taken in a doorway outside an venue of the night. ISO 800, 1/100 second at f/4
A wonderful canal tunnel in the heart of the British waterways was the setting for this portrait. ISO 800, 1/25th second at f/4 using a 24-70mm lens.
This close up is the kind of shot that would benefit of the sensitivity of the D3, D700 or 5D Mk2. ISO 800, 1/25th second at f/4
I've used an on camera Speedlight panned to the right and zoomed into 105mm on ETTL.
Please feel free to add a comment or discuss the images.
Damien.
12 Comments Add your own
1. Stuart | September 23rd, 2008 at 11:12 pm
I think the images are great, I like the mood of number 2 very much. I just look at these images and wish…… I could get results like this. I just get very frustrated when I cannot achieve these kind of images
. I know you do courses etc. but I can’t afford them full stop! Oh yeah and I know you do DVD’s too before you say 
May be I’m being hard on myself but I want nothing more than to be able to create images and go WOW, did I really do that. You contniue to inspire and offer help which is great, anyway enough of me waffling on….. I will get there.
2. Andrew Bainbridge | September 24th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
cheers for yesterday mate, it was great – always amazes me what you can do with speed-lights.
cheers
andrew
3. Ian McGraw | September 25th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Doing any more BIPP courses? Am a member.
4. damien | September 25th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Hi Ian,
Probably not as I prefer to work with a maximum of 4 photographers when ‘on the street’. It makes the learning experience so much better especially if it rains. A herd of 10 photographers becomes a bit unwieldy. I’m sure you understand.
Cheers, Damien.
5. Ian McGraw | September 25th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Yeah imagine it gets into a scrum with everyone trying to get a shot in.
6. damien | September 26th, 2008 at 11:03 am
It’s not just the scrum factor that’s the problem at times. If I want to shoot in an alleyway or in a canal tunnel then it becomes a problem with the available light being blocked out.
7. Gav Harrison | September 26th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Hi Damien I spoke with you at the NEC this year following your talk at the Ephotozine stand (so did thousands more I expect!)
I’m trying to get the knack of using the SB800 off-camera but am struggling to get the settings right so that I can adjust the power output once it’s being operated in the ‘remote trigger’ mode..
Is there any chance of you uploading a step by step instruction on how you do it? I’ve tried using the manual, but end up more confused!
Thanks muchly… loving the work… still! Using your techniques at every wedding shoot I’ve done since the start of May (35 to press this year!)
Gav
8. Mark Pollock | October 3rd, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Hi Damien
Love your work! Have the book, DV’s and looking forward to your latest edition.
I have not used Lightroom, can you get the same effect from photoshop?
9. damien | October 3rd, 2008 at 10:27 pm
You can do nearly anything in Photoshop that you can do in Lightroom but it takes longer. Lightroom is better for sorting, renaming, bulk adjusting, exposure tweaking and colour setting. Photoshop is better for spot adjustments, layer effects, text effects and pixel level tweaking.
I hope this helps.
Damien.
10. damien | October 3rd, 2008 at 10:33 pm
SB 800 settings for remote use is worthy of a blog post of it’s own. Start by pressing on the center button of the nav control for 5 seconds then use the navigation to go down and right until you get to the remote control panel. Select it and make it active then nav down to the word ‘remote’ then select it by pressing the on / off momentarily. Adjust the settings as required before screaming.
Damien.
PS: I’ll do a video of the sequence because words can’t describe the sequence needed hence the near useless manual.
11. karl | October 7th, 2008 at 9:04 am
with reference to the nikon remote settings, if finances allow get a couple of the new sb900 they have been designed with remote work in mind therefore much easier to
understand.
Karllson….
12. Gav Harrison | October 13th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
thanks so much Damien, please let me know when this the video goes live!
Gav
Leave a Comment
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed