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Studio Lighting part 2 in July

Do you need to up your lighting game? Stuck in a rut with the same set-ups over and over again… but find yourself looking at work around you and want your shots to have the same impact.

Then maybe you should consider our Studio Lighting Part 2. This is for serious studio lighting photographers only, if you consider yourself confident in ability but lacking some technical knowledge or some ideas then have a look at this course.

It runs next on the 16th/17th July and will be taught by Kevin Mason and a lighting technician (also a full time photographer). Kevin’s work has recently appeared in a Lighting Guide alongside the work of Miles Aldridge, Rankin and Perou.

This 2 day course will be a chance to explore a new approach to lighting, working hands-on with a small number of students, if you want an intensive course to step up your lighting game then we can guarantee you won’t be disappointed in this, it will stretch your and fire your imagination.

A place on this course costs £450 (this will rise soon when we move studios) to find out more details go here.

Some examples of Kevins work…




Ophelia Fancy Promo shoot- New Collection

We are pleased to announce that we can finally show you the Ophelia Fancy promo images that we shot for their new collection. When Stevi and Emma talked about the new designs we could see that it needed a different approach- something very stripped back and less props than previous shoots. The girls had been thinking in the same area as well as it would focus more on the designs, and the ‘feel’ of being Ophelia Fancy and fit the new direction the brand is taking.

We sourced a few locations- but ultimately Kevin had his heart set on a Karaoke booth setting, with the aim of utilising the vibrant leather look booths as a simple but striking backdrop, and bringing in a vintage microphone as the only prop. The Ophelia girls changed this idea to a Disco era microphone which they spray painted gold- a much better idea, and far less cliched.

With this simple prop, a long gold cable, and a killer location we set to work. The rooms at Nine Rooms are perfect, but quite small for a lot of lighting kit, so we lit all this with at most 4 grid Bowens 500W running off of two travel paks. As all the lighting is very direct we have also gelled several of the lights to either fit in, or play off against the background of the set.

Lighting Assistants Natasha Alipour-Faridani and Markus Milcke.

We had to work quickly and managed to wrap the whole shoot including loading and unloading in less than 4 hours, which considering the space we had to work in, we were pretty happy with, the benefit of having details locked down before getting on location.

The theme for the Hair/Make-Up was a very clear nod to Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction and the wig was cut and Styled by Ricardo at Square Roots. The make-up brief was perfectly fufilled by Bebe Newson, who made brighton model Tess look sensational here.



If you need promo images, fashion editorial or lookbook shoots then please get in touch as we have a very easy rate system that can accomodate most budgets.

New campaign for Ophelia Fancy.

We have just finished shooting the new campaign for lingerie favourites Ophelia Fancy, and although we can’t show the final images until the official release we are so excited that we had to post a shot of model Tess Dimos on set.

We have worked with Ophelia Fancy for several years now- we are confident this is our best collaboration yet with a really strong set of images that represent where the brand is going. The images retain the very strong identity that Ophelia Fancy have crafted but also reflect the new commercial outlook to the collection.

We sourced the model and location for the campaign, whilst the client took charge of all aspects of styling, hair and make-up, and of course the amazing lingerie pieces. We hope to release the images very soon, but first we have to shoot their lookbook for the the website. You will be able to see new Ophelia girl, and one of our favourite models, Tess Dimos in the collection from next week.

Portrait Lighting Tutorial.

As part of our continuing series of free tutorials we have another portrait session, this time with Brighton photographer Eleni Mettyear, who was shot by Kevin Mason. Again we will break down the lighting set-ups, the final shot, and the reasons behind the decisions made- hopefully this will continue to give you ideas how to incorporate some aspects of this into your own portrait work.

(Please note we are still working on the Tess Video tutorial- just trying to figure the most accessible format to deliver it to everyone.)

Kevin- I wanted to make a considered portrait of Eleni- I think she is an amazing individual, and although very lively has a calmness and strength to her as well. I deliberated with something that was monochrome, but instead chose to sculpt her face with coloured gels, which I think helped balanced the ‘contemplative’ image I had in my head before the session started.

The lighting in this is detailed below,

The background is a light grey colorama- changed to a deep yellow by gelled heads either side. A combination of beauty dish up high and 2 gridded strobes on camera right lit the subject, whilst a white bounce camera left, filled in the shadow.

To create a firm edge to Eleni, and to stop excess spill from the background light two black polyboards were used either side.


As you can see the set-up is quite restrictive, the lights effectively help to ‘control’ the subject, and leave less down to direction. Even so though we worked a lot on small details with the hair, the direction of the face, and the tightness of the frame. Kevin doesn’t crop images so it was essential to get a frame that worked and allows enough movement through it by the viewer without either becoming too cramped or too much space isolating the subject.

You can see some of the unedited variations below. Whilst shooting we did move a light to camera left- and you can clearly see the affect of this in some of the shots below- but then Markus suggested a White Polyboard to bounce and fill the shadow instead of a further strobe. This allowed us to keep the face as the dominant side of the frame, which was complimented by sweeping all the hair over Eleni’s left shoulder, helping flow through the image.

The final shot was then edited in PS to lift the tones and contrast but push back some of the individual colours about 10%.

The key here though is not to worry overly about the technical aspect- maybe try and set the lights in advance (you can shoot this with constant lighting and a tripod) but to concentrate then on getting some connection with the subject, or guiding them towards what you feel the image needs. A quick glance over the unedited shots can show you easily which images are more just a ‘likeness’ of someone rathe than a portrait that says something about the subject or to the viewer.

More soon, any comments/questions or areas you want clarified then please let us know, and we will also post another session next week.

Free Studio Lighting Tutorials

We will be posting some free Lighting tutorials via this blog and our vimeo account- with Video, Lighting Diagrams and hints and tips.

Yesterday Kevin worked on a very constructed lighting set-up to shoot Tess. The idea behind this is to make a ‘set’ using just lighting, whilst shaping the face and gaze of the subject. One of the final images is below and hopefully over the weekend we will get the full post up with the set-up, video of the lighting used, and some helpful diagrams so you can attempt this yourself.

Many thanks to Emma Hedges at Square Roots for the great HairStyling, and to Tess Dimos for modelling.

Lighting Kevin Mason and Markus our intern from Germany.

Tess Dimos by Kevin Mason

New Date For Photographers’ Assistant Course

The next course dates for the Photographers’ Assistant course will be 16th October. Bookings are now being taken so please give us a call or email us now.

Single day course
£35

Are you a recent graduate? Or currently on a photography degree course? Do you need more studio experience or are you looking to get assisting work but don’t know how to set up a 2 point light set-up? Maybe its time you took the Garage Studios Assisting course. This course is strictly for college/university students or very recent graduates.

This is a one-day course split into two parts: Part one will focus on the role of being a photographer’s assistant and introduce you to studio equipment and everything you will find yourself needing when working on a shoot; while part two focuses on how to use studio lighting and a basic introduction to setting up lights and light metering.

The course will be taught by Kevin Mason’s lighting assistant Natasha Alipour-Faridani. Natasha graduated in 2006 with a degree in photography from Brighton University and since then has been assisting and working as a commercial photographer. She has been an assistant at Garage Studios since the studio was founded in 2008 and prior to that has assisted on a variety of photo shoots, as well as on film sets and music videos, with some of the best cinematographers and photographers in the industry.

We have aimed to keep the course low cost but informative; preparing you for everything you will need to enter the world of assisting.

Part One:

- Introduction to Natasha’s experience as an assistant
- What a photographer seeks in an assistant
- Introduction to studio equipment
- A break down on studio lights and modifiers

Part Two:

- Setting up a studio light
- Light metering
- In depth explanation of the different qualities of the lights and the modifiers used for each
- A break down of lighting jargon
- Conclude with a basic lighting set up for a portrait
- Image storage

You don’t need to have any experience of studio lights to do this course although it is for recent graduates and college leavers only.

We can have a maximum of 15 people on each session and the full cost will be £35

To book your place or to find out more information click here to get in contact with us.

Interview with Jez Eaton

We have had the pleasure of working with artist, Jez Eaton on a couple of shoots, but the most recent and most successful has been the shoot Kevin devised for Brighton Fashion Week. Jez worked on the make-up for this shoot and really nailed the brief whilst bringing here own flair and touch of magic to the shoot.

Hair and Make-Up by Jez Eaton


Hair and Make-Up by Jez Eaton

She also showcased her own incredible work during BFW with her Trashion show, which its probably fair to say became the most memorable highlight of an exciting few days. You can see the shots of her designs here , all images by Mary Pryce, backstage for Garage. As a result of watching the show, 125 Magazine have interviewed Jez and you can read it here- she has had a hugely interesting life, and its definitely well worth a look.

Well done Jez, we are looking forward to working with you again sometime,

Garage.

Garage Studios and Kevin Mason in todays Brighton Argus

Garage Studios are in todays Brighton Argus, with an interview with one of the founders, Kevin Mason, during our last swimwear shoot. This was the shoot we streamed live online- and you can see some of the screen grabs in the article below and watch the footage on the link. It was a very hectic and long day but fortunately the Argus Journalist Nione Meakin was pretty patient and stayed for a few hours to get the flavour of a Garage Shoot. The first paragraph of the article really sums up a day at Garage. Go and grab a copy when you can and read the whole thing without the eye strain that this tear sheet might induce.

Nione first got in touch as they had been watching the studio for a while, seeing what has been coming out- but more importantly for us they picked up on the strong emphasis we have on using Brighton talents and showcasing others skills, from stylist to illustrators working on set pieces…. and so decided to feature us in this Fridays Guide.

Garage is changing a lot, really beginning to find its stride after almost two years and you’ll see a lot more creative shoots coming out of the studio soon- and we are very proud and excited about some of the things with have in the pipeline.

As most people know a lot about my work, (kevin) already, we will be introducing some background to Matt (co-founder) and Natasha soon, and hopefully also highlighting personal projects of some our more regular team. The article missed out mention of ex Studio Manager Adam- who was instrumental also in the first 18 months of the business- but I guess that was purely a space issue- we did big you up man. To be fair I think Matts name only made it twice, I should really learn to draw breath during interviews, give others a chance to chat…

Anyways its a nice feature and thanks for the Argus for thinking of us.

A Fashion Editorial Film by Kevin Mason

You can download Kevin Mason’s first fashion editorial film on this link here

The film was shot in three hours on a Canon 5dMk11, the first time we have used the kit for video here at Garage. The model is the wonderful Tess Dimos, with Styling by Stevi Jelbart of Ophelia Fancy.

Somatic Dreams Part 1- Starring Tess Dimos.

The lighting was by Kevin and Natasha Alipour-Faridani, with Assistance by Nicholas Blake. Hair by Emma Hedges and Make-up by Tess and Myrtle MayLambert.

The micro site was set up by Garage Buddy and good guy, Andy Parker.

We have set up a specific page that you can download the entire film as a HD quality file, and to find it just click here the page will only be there for a limited period so make the most of the chance to download it now. Oh and there is some nudity- it is after all a lingerie editorial so it may not be entirely safe for work, depending on your boss.

GangUp Magazine: Launch Details…..

At Garage we really believe in pushing others creative photography in as many different ways as we can, whether its through our courses, 1:1 training, internships, portfolio advice etc.

We also sponsor some individuals and collectives to help them achieve their goals through free equipment hire, studio hire and scanning/printing or technical advice. and have just started to sponsor a 3rd yr Degree student at Brighton University (more details soon) and provided free technical help and studio hire to an MA Student who is doing great studio work for those with Learning Difficulties.

One of the other projects we help sponsor is GangUp Magazine, founded by one of our in -house photographers Kevin Mason. We dont have any control over editorial content- but offer full use of the studio, our cameras and free lighting hire. Issue 1 of this bespoke magazine sold out within weeks of its release and the team are busy finalising Issue 2.

We are happy to support them as the team of 5 produce, pay for and cast all the shoots themselves and are getting some great editorial images and seem to be leading the way for Fashion Photography in Brighton. The magazine this issue has a guest photographer 18 yr old student Eleni Mettyear, as well as shoots by Kevin Mason, Louie Banks and Sam Hiscox, with concepts and styling from the other 2 founders Emma SandhamKing and Stevi Jelbart of Ophelia Fancy fame.

The next issue is scheduled to Launch at the end of March, and no doubt there will be another riotous party. If you want to keep up to date with them as they shoot then you can via their blog. Please be aware we dont have any editorial control, and all links may be Not Safe For Work

If you would like to learn how to shoot Fashion Editorial with Kevin Mason we have space on our next course- details of which can be found here.

GANGUP SOURCE AD 2

Eleni Mettyear
http://blog.gangupmagazine.com/

Sam Hiscox
Phoebe and Imogen- By Sam Hiscox

Kevin Mason
Vic Lentaigne by Kevin Mason

Louie Banks
Georgie Hobday by Louie Banks