Wednesday 12 May 2010

The White Dress...

I was very fortunate to be invited to attend one of Glyn Dewis' 'taster workshops' last Saturday in High Wycombe and Amersham. He is developing a series of workshops to teach his unique way of portrait photography, check out his website www.glyndewis.com . We started off the morning in the studio, spent a few hours going over the versatility of only using one light and one modifier; in this case an SB800 and an umbrella. We then took that knowledge and brought it outside and shot Catherine in a white dress in Amersham on a very cold afternoon, did I say cold?, I meant absolutely freezing...
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Catherine, White Dress #1
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Catherine, White Dress #2
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I made sure Catherine had a coat to hand between the shots when Glyn was teaching, and also I should say a big thanks to Katy our invaluable VAL (voice activated lightstand) who on more than one occassion saved the SB800 from certain death! And did I mention the cold...?
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Catherine, White Dress #2
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The set up for these shots is surprisingly simple; a single shoot through umbrella with an SB800 on a lightstand to camera right at about 45 degrees to Catherine. An exposure is first taken for the sky, underexpose by about a stop or so until you like the look, then add in the flash at about half or quarter power. And there you have it. Set the camera on manual and keep shooting.

The day was a great success and a big thanks to Glyn for giving his time, knowledge and experience to the group, to Catherine for posing and bearing the cold and Katy... and I am told there was a rather good portrait taken of an older gentleman... I prefer the ones of Catherine myself!

9 comments:

  1. Love this shoot, and I am very inspired! Too bad California is so sunny, lacking lots of moody clouds. Shot #1 is my favorite because of the trees, tonality of the image and dress. Great texture! Again, a beautiful job!

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  2. Hi Kelley,
    thanks again for the kind words, I would not mind a bit of Californian sun right now - its cold over here! Catherine was frozen!
    Noel

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  3. Nice work Noel - particularly like the first shot in the moody shade under the tree.

    Kelly - you can swap some of your sun for our drizzle anytime!

    Dan

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  4. Thanks Daniel,
    The first shot is my favourite too. Moody and lots of emotion. Have a look on Glyn's blog for some of the other shots of the day.. there's a particularly good one of an older gentleman...

    And I am first in line for the Californian sun swap...

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  5. Hey Noel,

    Great series of shots mate! I'd agree with Kelley and say my favourite is definitely #1...the tone, lighting and complete feel of the photo is spot on!

    Cheers,
    Glyn

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  6. Morning Glyn,
    great shots, with not a little thanks to yourself for a great days shooting! So a big thanks!
    Noel

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  7. Hi Noel. Thanks for sharing some more stuff from last Saturday's tester.

    Another set of simple shots that just ooze drama & mood from the combination of controlled strobe & ambient light. I gotta go with the others and say the first shot is my fav. The lighting on Catherine's face & dress works so well. I really like how well it falls off into shadow to help give shape & depth, yet there's clearly enough of the ambient light captured to delicately show the natural environment around her.

    As for that older gentleman, I wonder how comfortable he was in front of the camera for a change....

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  8. David, thanks for commenting. A simple enough set up but a really powerful one - thats what Glyn is trying to get accross in his workshops.

    As for the older gentleman... well back when I was a model it was different...

    Noel

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  9. Sorry men, no swapping sun for drizzle here. I can't handle the cold, but it sure makes for lovely photos! Going to Glyn's blog now to check out the model action...

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