My thanks go again to Liam Ramsell of Irish Eyes for hosting the second shooting urban portraits seminar in Cork. The weather was more than kind with the cloud breaking up to leave a blemish free azure blue sky. It was hot hot hot and my delegates were seriously skilled photographers. Here are a few of my pictures from today straight from Lightroom.

Simple elements come together well in this portrait. A Canon Speedlite provided the foreground illumination and the sky was held back a stop for good measure. ISO 100, f16, 1/200th second.

The half landing on floor 6 of the Clarion hotel in Cork provides the backdrop for this semi abstract photograph. Taken using a mix of natural daylight from an adjacent window and the low wattage wall light.

The window and light exposed from the picture above. Inspired by the work of Edward Hopper.

I used the same settings as in the first frame but here I set the scene by adding the historic waterfront buildings of Cork.

A zoomed Speedlite on the top of my Canon 5D provided the light, while the wind provided the moment.

This was a dark dark place. ISO 800, f/2.8, and just 1/6th of a second exposure was needed to capture this natural light jem. I love the challenge of minimal light and it took 3 exposures to get a sharp one.

1/6th second exposure once again was needed for this photograph. I used a monopod to steady my Canon 5D and used a 70-200 f/2.8 lens wide open.

Simple design and 1/13th second exposure was used to capture this contre jour image.

This picture shows Liam my host lending a hand as a second light stand for my 580 EX2 flash. We were working in full sunlight at near the maximum operational exposure values available. The shutter was set to the flash sync of 1/200th, the aperture was set to f/22 and the ISO was 100. That left one option of reducing the ISO capability to L should we have needed it. The other flash is a Nikon SB 800 for the Nikon shooting delegates. Both the Canon and Nikon units performed impeccably all day.
Just stumbles across this post whilst browsing the web, some beautiful photo’s here. It’s intersting that you shot a couple of them at 1/6th of a second at 800 iso. Strange that only four years ago 800 iso seemed pretty high and anything higher usually bought in quite a bit of noise. I’m sure you would probably go for a higher iso and shutter speed if you shot these again today?
Hi Tony,
Thanks. Yes I might go to 1000 ISo but when I have a monopod there really is no need to go higher. With careful handling and subject direction 1/4 second is fine. A great deal of the best portraits ever taken were at 1/4 second in Californian studios in the 30s and 40s. It seems everyone is too eager to get hand held and then get sucked into high shutter speeds or IS as a result. I like the sound of a Compur shutter at 1/4 second and it’s a shame I don’t have one any more.
Kindest regards, Damien.
Thanks John, I’m looking at the possibility of coming to Cork again next April if there is sufficient interest. I will only be coming as a guest of Irish Eyes so please let Liam know your wishes. Thanks once again for your kind words,
Damien.
Thanks again for your time on the Urban Shoot Damien !
It certainly was hot that day ! .. and yet you still managed to answer all our questions, as well as dealing professionally with Models & Make-Up-Artists. I learned tonnes on just that one day alone ! I was also very impressed with how you were able to swap effortlessly being Nikon and Canon systems & give advice on equipment that I have owned for years, but never really mastered ! Can’t wait for the next workshop !
Cheers
John
Hi Nigel, I use Manual, Aperture Priority and Program. In any of these modes there is an analogue scale of exposure. If I say I used a plus 1 stop of compensation it means the analogue scale was registering plus 1 stop at the time of exposure irrespective of the exposure mode used. For Nikon users the exposure comp becomes the flash comp when in manual mode so there is a dual role for that function. I hope this helps. Thanks for your kind words.
Damien.
Hi Damien
Just been looking at all these images and your new blog, will be reading it from now on, Just a quick question you seem to talk about exposure compensation a lot do you shot mostly in aperture priority or do you also use manual.
Cheers Nigel