May | 2011 | Garage Studios

Blog

Sweet Sweet Lies promo shoot

Sweet Sweet lies shoot at the bowling green. I shot sweet sweet lies at the brighton bowling green it was an early start as one of the band had a interview in london at ten in the morning so it was a 5 am start for me and assistant Zoe. They are a very much up and coming band from brighton and i had the pleasure of shooting their press shots or at least one of them, the concept of the bowling green came from the band their self and it fits well with their look. I shot at f 16 so as to bring the fresh morning sun and mottled clowds down and give the shoot some atmosphere and that almost fake quality. I always find that short neat grass always looks fake when you put flash on it and helps to create something out of the ordinary in these images. It was a simple lighting set up front light straight in with standard modifier placed out to my left and a back light at the oposite side to the front light as seen below.

sweet sweet lies shoot

Her is some of the shots from the edit im not sure which images they will use but i am sticking up an example of the type of thing i was after.

Weekend of workshops with Lou O ‘ Bedlam

It’s only a month to go until LA’s most charming portrait photographer lands on our doorstep for a weekend of workshops. If not for the stunning images he seems to so effortlessly (and regularly) produce, you really do have to admire the sheer volume of beautiful women he gets in front of his lens… So for the the shy and retiring amongst you with an aspiration to working with models in this way, or for anyone with a thirst for capturing inspiring portraits, these are the sessions for you….

For more of Lou’s work visit his site or his flickr

Talk: Friday 24th June 7.30 pm £6

With time for a question and answer session at the end, Lou’s talk will not only include some of his favourite work and influences, but will also touch on the way in which he arrived at the style of imagery that makes each photograph so uniquely his.

Portrait Workshop: Saturday 25th June 10- 2pm £60
PLACES ON THIS WORKSHOP HAVE NOW SOLD OUT

This 4 hour workshops will focus on:

Perfecting Your Vision:- How to hone in and identify your visual language, learning how to craft an individualized style.

How the Tools Shape the Shots: Looking at how different cameras lead to very different results, and how much of an influence they can have on your work.

Interacting with Models:- Investigating the ways you can interact with the people you are shooting, whether they are seasoned professionals, or complete stranger whose face you just “have” to shoot.

Advanced Portrait Masterclass: Sunday 26th June £85

The advanced course will delve deeper into the psychology of portraiture, the relationship between artist and subject, and the ideas and thoughts that help to form successful portraiture. You will also cover the finer points of achieving personal artistic goals relating to improving your photography. Moving beyond the purely technical aspects of creating imagery, there will be a focus on the motivation behind your work, and ways in which it can help to support the implementation of your artistic vision.

Both workshops will allow time for guided shooting with a model….

One to One sessions: Saturday 25th – Monday 27th June £65/hour

There are a limited amount of one to one sessions available over the weekend. They could be either portfolio based if you would like feedback on your work, concentrate on the methods Lou uses to produce his work, or focus on a specific technique you would like to master. Sessions can be booked by the hour.

For more information or to book your place call or email

Emerging Photographer’s Bursary- Judging on Friday

All the entries are in for the emerging photographer’s bursary award we’re running with Photoworks and Spectrum. With a last minute flood of entries, the judges have diverse range of work to chose from this Friday.

Thank you to every one who took the time to enter, we are looking forward to seeing all of your submissions, and excited to find out who’ll be chosen.

Julianna Heale Lookbook

A couple of weeks ago we shot for Stylist Julianna Heale in the grounds of her house in Fernhurst. As it was a really sunny day, and there were some really great areas of texture cast by the sun we decided to work with the natural daylight and just use reflectors to bounce some extra light in.

Photographer-Beth steddon, MUA- Saffron Powell, Model- Faye Walton, Stylist- Julianna Heale

Richard Nicholson

We are really liking this project by Richard Nicholson.

Here is Richard’s text about the project;

Ali Barber
Portraits from Ali’s Barber Shop, 258 Bethnal Green Road, London.

Ali’s barber shop is the most popular asian barber shop in London’s East End, with queues often running out onto the street. Ali, Mohsin, Vicky and Shehz, the four Pakistani barbers, work late into the night fashioning mohicans, shape-ups, and v-cuts for their predominantly Bengali clientele. In spring 2010 I set up a pop-up studio in the basement of Ali’s shop and spent 6 weeks documenting a cross-section of his customers.
This project was recently exhibited as a slideshow and book at Four Corners Gallery, 121 Roman Road, London.

Very simple and effective images but also a nicely considered project, follow the link to see more.

Kev

Bursary Deadline on Monday - Last chance to enter

The fantastic emerging photographer’s bursary we are running with Spectrum and Photoworks closes for applications on Monday. Entries have been flooding in, but there is still the chance to submit your proposal.

For full details visit this link to the Bursary page on the Garage Studios site.

Rizzle Kicks shoot for source. Behind the scenes

Her is some behind the scenes stills from the next June source cover shoot shot again by Kenny Mc Cracken. The images and a full lighting set up blog will follow after the publication of the source. Stills taken by Andrew Nelson. watch this space for the pre shoot build and end results.

Dark horses cover shoot

Garage Studios, recently had a shoot with Brighton band DarkHorses for the cover of Source Magazine, photographer Kenny McCracken talks you through the shoot including a guide to lighting.

This is the cover shot for the Source. It was a hard decision to stick one member of the band on the front as there is 5 other members to be accounted for but in this case the cover had to stand out from the crowd as the Great Escape was just round the corner.

Lisa has a great look and her choice of make up, by Anna Inglis-Hall was perfect to jump out of the page along with her vibrint hair by Emma Hedges, it was originally to be black and white but the colour won in the end for obvious reasons. I used a very simple lighting set up, one light source with a fairly tight grid on it coming in from the right and two reflectors, one silver at the opposite side from the light and a poly board under her chin this gives just enough light to take the sting out of the shadows. I shot on f8 so as to blow the backdrop out of focus and isolate lisa making her stand out even more. The band are a dark mob as the name suggests so a certain amount of shadow was necessary as well as an almost sinister look in her eyes this was easy as she is well versed in being snapped.

This is the inside double page shot. This was a challenge to light as there are 6 people and a motor bike, I wanted to keep the darkness and the mystery in the image so i used a lot of grids to pick out each member of the band and one 2×1 metre soft box above them all. I was getting f8 off the soft box at head level and had f 11 off the grid’ed lights so i was shooting at f11 on camera. The soft box dusted them with a coating of soft light and the grids picked bits out so as to give the image texture and depth avoiding a flat lighting situation.

Composing 6 people is not an easy task and it takes time and participation from the sitters which is not easy when you are shooting on a friday night with a band who are notorious for getting drunk and fooling around. All in all i think we got there in the end. Till the next time.

Full Day Portraiture Course: One Space Left

This Sunday (22nd May) we are running our Portraiture course as a full day workshop, and there is one space left.

The course is open to people of all abilities and aimed at those who wish to understand the principles involved in creating a captivating and absorbing portrait, from the key principles of portraiture to engaging with your subject, to lighting techniques. There is one place left and the cost is £155 which includes all models and equipment.

For more information, or to book your place email or call us on

MiniClick Talk with Allan Grainger tonight

Another little gem in the series of MiniClick photography talks held at Add the Colour is happening tonight, this time with Allan Grainger, who will be presenting his talk “A Journey from Analogue to Digital”.

With over 35 years of experience in the diverse worlds of commercial and art photography, Allans talk is set to be a really interesting evening.

The talk starts at 7pm, so get there early to grab a seat!