Chris Hanley’s debut workshop with me was a roller coaster of shooting moments interspersed with fun and pure indulgence. Take a look here at the first frames out of the dev.
There's no replacement for a bit of fashion lighting when you want to make an impact. I used a single striplight softbox on my Broncolor Mobil head to light this shot taken near the end of the day.
Thank you delegates for trusting Chris and I to deliver the training and thank you whoever brought such great weather to Manchester.
The first shot of the day was taken by an outside lift and Chris immediately got to work on abstract angles with this gem.
We started by using natural light on a couple of images to settle ourselves in. Coffee at Costa was a noisy affair so we got straight to it in style. Our next stop was the railway arches at Deansgate where I demonstrated how to use small pockets of natural light to great effect.
Taken by me using natural light in a tunnel. 1/25th f/4 at ISO800 on my new Canon 5D mk2
The same place with the same light as the picture above.
A glimmer of light from a street lamp provided the key light for this shot.
Chris was shooting with his Nikon D3 and I shot with my Canon 5D mk2 so together we had all the technical bases covered.
I then set up our first off camera Speedlight shot en route to the main event.
Marko, my picture editor has given this frame a cool look in Lightroom. Laura's hand placement was critical to the composition.
Then we moved on to our first big flash moment of the day.
Two Mobil heads were used for this frame. You will get to see some others from this sequence taken with three heads from two packs. I'll use them to add colour to my business posts over the next few weeks. Marko went for a blue look on this shot too.
Chris’ shot of Hannah below used Speedlights off camera. We had our duo rig set up so Canon and Nikon shooters could shoot at will. Both the 580 EX2 and the SB-800 flash guns were zoomed in to 105mm and on a single lighting stand. They got on well all day and were often triggered by SU-800’s and STE2’s up to 30ft away out in the open on a sunny day.
I love the way Chris pulled so much texture out of the walls in this shot.
I chose a horizontal composition and used Hannah's shadow to complete the picture.
I rigged my Broncolor Mobil kit with a striplight softbox and a Fresnel kicklight for the sequence of pictures below.
This shot shows the lighting set up for the pictures below. The Fresnel kick light is just out of the top of the shot in the background.
The kick light just trickles in to light Laura's hair while the softbox gets to work on her torso. With fashion it is often important to light evenly from head to foot.
With decent location lighting kit the world becomes your studio. Here’s another shot from this sequence.
Control of all the exposure elements including the ambient/ flash mix is the key to producing pictures with such luminosity. I explained my complete exposure system to the delegates.
Chris then led the delegates through a shooting texture masterclass. Here are three of his pictures from the next ten minutes.
Chris used a slash of flash to set this shot alight.
Chris then used zoomed in flash rigged on camera for this masterpiece. He also added a wonderful glow in post production to soften the look on Hannah our model.
Just a few broken bricks makes this shot a real star. You need vision to see shots like this. A big emphasis of the day was spent on learning how to 'find' a picture and use pools of scattered sunlight.
I wanted to tackle the Roman army next. The remnants of a mural made a dramatic backdrop for my next big flash picture.
Marko has instilled a certain subtlety in this picture of mine with his post production technique. I would have given it some welly. I think I like his look more. I shot this frame with my Mobil kit using a simple key and kick technique.
Chris spotted this wonderful light and it kept us all shooting for the next ten minutes or so. The variety and quality of the delegates pictures during this session really impressed me. We were on a roll and the group were all working well together.
Shoot it tight I said, shoot it wide he said. We all had great shots from this location. Chris took this frame on his D3 using just natural light.
Whats going on here? Chris was either trying to get us arrested or he was having a genius moment. Luckily it was the latter.
After that shot it was time for a beer and a review of the days pictures. I can’t remember a workshop day where I’ve had more fun. I was asked “Are you going to do this workshop again?” – “You bet!” I replied. Watch this space.
No workshop is complete without a proper debrief :-)
Please feel free to comment or ask questions below.
Wonderful Photos,great Location!
Greetings Andreas
Thanks Andreas.
Thank you for you kind words Michael and Tim. I’m delighted that you have cards full of WOW images. Plus you now have the skills needed to take your pictures to another level. I loved the buzz of a Lovegrove shoot day and feel it got amongst everyone right from the start. You might like to nip over to my blog to see some of my images that I’ve posted.
Hope we see you again soon.
Regards
Chris Hanley
Totally inspirational as usual.
I check out your site on a daily basis Damien.
I have booked on your Big Flash in The Country workshop on 5th May, and I am so looking forward to it.
We had a little shoot on Monday utilising flash with 3 models and I must admit there is a lot of your influence in there.
http://www.bettsphotography.blogspot.com/
Thanks
Mark
A fantastic day
Thanks to both Damien and Chris for a fantastic day. Both Hannah and Laura were great.
I believe my photography took a very large step forward from this workshop and I am looking forward to my next one!
Many thanks to all involved for a great day.