Garage Studios

Yes thats right lomokev, everyone’s favorite lomo photography course tutor and Brighton international flickr superstar; has made it to page 3 of todays Brighton Argus!!!!

We’re very proud to have lomokev on board, and his HotShots course, based on his sell out book, has been very popular. In fact we are in negotiations to line up a potential 4 page spread in a national photography magazine (but that’s for a later date). We have also been like a PR company with TV stations, newspapers and magazines all wanting to know more about lomokev and the HotShots course we run here.

To find out more about the HotShots course click this link, or you can always read one of the archived blog posts on the course here.

If you’d like to book a place on lomokev’s excellent course, just send us a mail.

To see the Argus article click this link.

We seem to be on a roll at the moment and for a Brighton Photography Studio, we sure are getting a lot of national media coverage.

This time, we have an amazing 4 page spread in Digital Photographer Magazine. Yep that’s right, we did say 4 page spread! They asked us to do a shortened version of one of our brilliant photography courses for one lucky reader.

So we chose the expert (that’ll be K. Mason) and Digital Photographer Mag chose the reader to do a condensed version of the Studio Lighting Course.

We supplied a model for the day as well as the expert tutorship, more studio lights that you can shake a stick at, as well as a few coloured backdrops. The reader, who only usually shoots landscapes, and had no knowledge of studio lighting; spent the best part of the day, immersed in the wonderful world of lighting and all that it offers. The reader hadn’t really shot with a model before so that came as an added bonus for him.

We were all very pleased with the final results that he got, and he demonstrated a good understanding of light, that had been picked up from knowing how light falls on landscapes.

We can’t show you the full article, until next month, but if you want to pick up a copy of the magazine have a look at their website for more info.

If you’d like to do the Studio Lighting Course., the next date is 4th & 5th July, and we are taking bookings now. Look here for more info:

http://garage-studios.co.uk/courses/lighting

This fashion editorial was shot by DD at Garage Studios last week. The final format is meant to read across the page as 8 images, but due to most computer screen formats it looks a bit odd like that so I have stacked it on top as 2 rows.

The full line up

The brilliant models are Joe, James, Louie, Martha, Saoirse, Sally, Elin and Sophie.
All styling by Stevi and Em of Ophelia Fancy

The lighting in this is very simple, a beauty dish and a snoot at slight camera left pointing straight at the models. The beauty dish was slightly higher than the snoot, but at a fairly flat angle, approx head height, this punches a nice little shadow and helps hold the model in place.

The beauty dish was metered at around f8 (on its own) and the Snoot at f11 (on its own). There is a white bounce polyboard directly at the right of the frame which just adds a little lift to the plug socket area, right of frame to increase the overall flat look of the background. . The beauty dish gives a nice fill light, its not a really hard edged shadow when compared to an open metal reflector, but has more edge to it than a softbox. We then powered through that with a snoot pointed at the models head, probably a foot below shoulder height and angled upwards as we wanted a slight ‘doubling’ of the shadows. This should draw more attention to the subjects face. Camera setting was f11. This gave extra lift to the face and a real clean look. The MUA was asked to do a very clean/nude looking make-up but flawless skin.

After going strobe crazy for a while DarkDaze is now trying to stick to some simple lighting set-ups. You can see another 2 light below…..

Sally Sheer editorial. (2 light set-up)

In this set up I had a snooted Bowens 500w head bang onto the face (overexposed by a 1/3 or so), and a little fill from above- from another snoot angled down on the models head so as to not hit the background- which the model was leaning up against- nothing tricky. Its very easy to copy this set-up (if you like them that is) with speedlights or strobes, you dont need a lot of space as the light is very direct and doesnt need to bounce, just remember that the longer the lens you shoot on, or more specifically the further you can get back from the subject the more flattering the models features will be.

If you do try something like this and it works for you then let us know at the info@garage-studios.co.uk mail

We have a few places left on our Creative Photography and Visual Theory course here at Garage Studios.

The course runs every Tuesday night 7.30pm-9.30pm, starting April 28th and is led by DarkDaze. The course costs £240, thats just £30 per 2 hr session, with a discount for NUS students (or college with ID) and a 10% discount if you have already attended one of courses. We have had some excellent feedback from students on the first course, which was a bit of a test run for us, but hey it worked a treat. We have all been really impressed by not just the standard of work that was completed but that each student appears to be pursuing a photography project of their own now, even though the course has finished.

The course itself is aimed at those who have an interest in photography and want to widen their horizons and knowledge, not just in technical areas but of photography in general. We set interesting projects throughout the course, and a lot of the discussions are very much led by the group- so you can improve at a pace that suits you but also, as happened last time be spurred on by the other students on the course.

I have a few testimonials from the last group, and hopefully a few of their favourite images will follow,

The whole course was excellent. having a set project each week was an excellent way to try out new photography and should be utilised more! I really enjoyed it though, seriously. Thanks for everything in the past 2 months Kevin, it’s been brilliant. Nick Blake

could wax lyrical all day about how great Dark Daze and the Garages Studios Creative Photography Course are, it’s easy – inspirational, compelling and insightful, it’s all stuff that springs to mind. All you really need to know though is that eight weeks on I’m a far greater photographer for attending it. If you need any evidence, one of my homework projects became number one on Flickr’s Explore with over seven thousand views. Stop reading this and sign up now. Ben Petrucci

Great course, it’s really changed the way I take photos. It’s actually forced me to start thinking about what I am trying to capture and create rather than snapping away and hoping for the best. Before the course my camera was just a machine that documented moments for me, but now I realise I can do pretty much anything I want with a bit of practice Sarah Ginn

Attending the creative photography course has been an excellent experience. It’s really made me look objectively at my photos. It’s given me a great understanding of the history of photography, helped to improve my technical understanding, and pushed me to think of new and hopefully interesing idea’s for future projects. By the end of the 8 weeks we depart as some tuned up, lean, mean, photographing machines, having gone on a great photographic journey together. Pete Repka

Image by Andy Parker as part of his Trash Flavoured Trash project

Trash Flavoured Trash Gets Taken Out

Worst Enemy by Ben Petrucci

I will post some more images from the other students in the week as I am gonna bump this course a little, we think its great value for money and will be a boon, thats right a boon, to your photography. Some come sign up.

Send me an
email

Varndean 6th Form College Brighton, came to Garage Studios for a taster session of what pupils can expect on the new vocational creative & media diploma’s.

We did a little bit of photography training with a two-hour studio lighting workshop. The pupils got a taster of some fashion photography and they brought with them some outrageous outfits made by other students as well as interesting Jewelery pieces.

The Brighton Argus came down to cover the event, took some photos and we made the local press. Adam even managed to pull his infamous ‘photo face’ and get it in the paper!

Have a look at the article here.

If you’d like your collage / institution / youth group / company, to come down to the studios and have a taster session in any aspect of photography, we’d be more than happy to help you.

Just email us on info@garage-studios.co.uk to see how we can help you.