Woodland Shoot

I was out in the woods with my niece and nephew and as the weather was nice I thought I'd take the camera. There are quite a few problems using available light in woodland, as there is a lot less light than normal outdoor daytime conditions you have to use ISO levels similar to indoors. The light levels can also vary dramatically, confusing the hell out of your cameras light meter so in some cases you might be better finding a good exposure for your subject and dialing it in on full manual.

This can be seen in the first photo, the bright sun light coming from outside would have cause the subject and woodland interior to be under exposed and although there are some blown highlights I'd take it over a near silhouette. Another issue I find in woodland photos is a murky green colour cast from the leaves that is not the best for skin tones. Shooting in RAW you can adjust the white balance during the editing stage, I warmed these up to around 6000K as it also enhances the autumnal colours, just try not to go overboard.

Bolton Abbey Shoot

I was doing a shoot at Bolton abbey with some friends but they were busy at a service so I just got some shots of my girlfriend/assistant.

Conditions were very overcast which I don't generally like as the light is very flat and it's difficult to create any depth but on the otherhand it is very soft with no sharp shadows or 'panda eyes' you can get in harsh afternoon light. I got 5 shots I was happy with and thought I would put a couple up, they were taken around ISO200, 1/500, f/4 at about 70mm, processed first in lightroom then in photoshop, 4 out of the 5 were black and white.

Sports Portraits

I did some more outdoor lighting yesterday with my nephew playing football (a big man city fan). This was a 3 light setup with two speedlights behind and to the side of the subject, providing rimlighting, and another just off to camera right. This was quite tough as there was only a small area of space that was lit by all three lights, I could have probably made it easier by removing the one to the camera right behind the subject and increasing the spread of the remaining lights but then I wouldn't have got the rim lighting I was after. The light levels were also dropping quite quickly but I wanted a small amount of ambiant light to get the motion blur. This was taken in full manual 1/125, f11, ISO400 34mm.

Another Portrait

Hey folks, I thought I'd put this one up of one of my nieces who was over recently, I did a bunch of photos of her and her brother in the studio, both were very photogenic. I liked this image because of her eyes.
I've been experimenting with some photoshop actions as I find them a little more effective that lightroom presets, I can't quite put my finger on why. Actions, like presets, are recorded steps you can apply to several images very quickly and they are a great labour saving method. There are plenty available on the web, some are free and some are, well...not.