February 2011 - back blogging!

Its been a long time since my last blog. Family issues have taken up some time, as has work. However, its also been a busy time for photography - I just haven't had the time to write it up!

In September 2010, I enrolled on a one day studio photography course in Leamington Spa in the UK. It was designed to give novices the basics of using flash lighting and to show what effects could be achieved. Here are some examples....

We had three lighting setups, a fuly lit white setup with two lights on the back wall and a key light on the subject to one side, a blacked out room with a single light tightly focussed to give the rim lighting, and an intermediate 'hollywood' lighting setup consisting of a single light on the back wall and another on the subject.

It was an interesting experience in a number of ways. First, it taught me a little about the mechanics of setting up lights, controlling their power, light quality and direction. It was also interesting to shoot the models and to start to get experience in direction.

I've since hired some lights for use at home, shooting the kids. The lights I was able to hire were a little too powerful for the size of room, but with a little practice, we got some reaonable results....

What did I learn from it? Well....


1) To shoot a white 'Venture style' image, you need a room which is largely white in colour to avoid any unwanted colour casts from light bouncing around the room.

2) To shoot a dark moody shot, you really need a dark coloured, preferably black room, otherwise the light will bounce and so loose directionality. I experimented with black sheets and a black background I use for photography, but it was never easy to get pure back backgrounds.

3) Working with models can be easy or hard - it depends entirely on the relationship between the photographer and the model and the rappor that the two can develop during the shoot. I might have a go at shooting friends or people I know, but I won't be rushing out to shoot strangers and expect to get good results.

4) A set of 600Ws lights are great in a bigger space but really too powerful for a domestic setting - they also get rather warm in an enclosed space, and that was just the modelling lights!

Altogether a good fun experience. I considered buying a set of lights, but ultimately decided it was better to hire  some decent kit (£30/weekend courtesy of the Flash Centre in Birmingham), than to buy kit which is altogether less robust, and which takes up space in the house to store during the inevitable times when its not being used.