Lighting a Portrait on a Mountain

This is the other photograph that I took of Dai O’Toole in Pembrokeshire a couple of weeks back ; much simpler than the close up headshot I did ... and a lot less editing ( LINK )

With regards to the kit used …

Sony A7RIV with 70 - 200mm G lens

Lit with the Westcott FJ200 and the Westcott 45 Degree Deep Dish Reflector which ordinarily would produce a hard light , but by aiming it just past Dai the soft outer portion is what lights him up.

This outer area carries less power but was more than enough for this shot from the 200ws FJ200 , and done so as to match the soft light caused by the cloudy sky.

My mate Anthony aiming the light past Dai (camera right)

There were still some hard shadows caused by the light hitting the straps on Dai's rucksack and walking cane but these were very easily taken out using the new Remove Tool in Photoshop.

BIG thanks to my mate Anthony Crothers for holding and positioning the light

Westcott CYBER SALE 2022

The folks at Westcott where I get all my lighting and backgrounds currently have their BIGGEST EVER Cyber Sale running across LOADS of their MOST POPULAR range…

I’ve bagged myself a new FJ200 Flash as well as 2 x Quick Mount S-Brackets which are going to make it so much easier using my Speedlites and Flashes with the Rapid Box Switch Softboxes…

The BIG thing I’m going to be pusghing myself with more and more this coming year is portability; how mobile and portable can I make my kit and set up with the portraits and content I’m planning on creating.

I’ve certainly found over the past 12 months that the more portable, compact and convenient I make my kit, the more I produce, and it’s using some of this new kit that really excites me about the possibilities ahead.

Looking forward to sharing some results and behind the scenes from some of the shoots I have coming up 😃

I did a Workshop in Oxford at PhotoHubs

A couple of weeks back I was in Oxford at PhotoHubs on behalf of the Guild of Photographers who asked if I would do a workshop for some of their members.

I've not done 'in person' workshops for a few years now but this was so much fun with such a great group of folks.

I went through how I take portraits in the style of my veterans project but also other equally simple set ups that can create some great results. It was so good to see everyone active , chatting and enjoying the time we spent together. THE most important part of the time together though was showing how important 'talking / conversation' is in making your subject more comfortable and relaxed in front of the camera.

At the end I couldn't resist grabbing a quick portrait myself using just one light and one reflector ... I mean when one of the attendees has such a great look, how could I not??? 😃

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View fullsize

View fullsize

Thanks so much to everyone who came along and especially the folks at The Guild for inviting me in and for looking after me so incredibly well ❤️

KIT / SETTINGS:
Sony A7RIV (1/250 , ISO 100 , f/8.0)
Sony 85mm GM
Westcott FJ400 Strobe
Westcott Rapid Box Switch Beauty Dish
Westcott Silver Reflector
Westcott X-Drop Pro with my new material Glyn Dewis Vintage Grey Background

You can see all of this kit over on my GEAR page ( LINK )

Cheers
Glyn

The NEW X-Drop Pro Background from Westcott

VERY excited that Westcott have recently upgraded their popular X-Drop Background system to the new, X-Drop Pro …

I’ve been using the original X-Drop for years.

If you’ve seen portraits I’ve taken over the past 3 years and any of my World War 2 Veterans Portraits from my 3945 Project then you’ll definitely have seen it …

But, more recently I’m now using the new X-Drop Pro which is a whole new design; bigger, sturdier and easier to set up, pack away and with the now foldable backgrounds, way more convenient and portable …

The X-Drop Pro has a completely new design to the main collapsible support and the arms / legs with a thicker structure which still maintains its light weight …

The clips to extend and close down the legs / arms are bigger too which altogether makes this a much more, grounded, sturdy system when installed …

The X-Drop Pro also has larger backgrounds measuring 8’ x 8’ and 8’ x ‘12 but the X-Drop Pro can still be fitted with the 5’ x 7’ and 5’ x 12’ backgrounds, be they on a roll or foldable material. based.

On the topic of material backgrounds, Westcott now have their printed backgrounds, which ordinarily came on canvas or vinyl, available now on foldable, machine washable and dryer resistant.

This to me, dare I say, is a Game Changer because although the previous X-Drop Background System was portable, this new one is even more so despite being bigger when installed, because of the foldable material backgrounds.

My signature ‘Glyn Dewis Vintage Grey’ which has proven incredibly popular is available on foldable material and in all is`es: 5’ 7’ , 5’ x 12’ , 8’ x 8’ and 8’ x 12’

If you’ve used or seen the X-Drop system in the past, you will see a BIG difference with the now Pro version.

Way to go Westcott!

*Note:
For folks in the UK (and Europe) , Carmarthen Cameras are an Official Westcott Distributor based in Wales. Speak to Krish and tell him I said hi 😃

Portrait of a Biker with his Triumph on Dartmoor (Behind the Scenes)

So last week I was out in the Dartmoor National Park in the South West of the UK photographing a GREAT Guy and a GREAT Motorcycle.

With rolling hills and roads that twist and turn and disappear over the horizon line, Dartmoor is a fantastic location for photography … especially the motorbike kind, so when Matt agreed to being in front of my camera, we just had to head out …

When there, the very first thing to do was to find a composition; not an easy task with so many possibilities but so few safe areas to park up with the roads being narrow.

Finding the composition is always the hardest part, and it’s all about finding a fine balance between the background, but also where you are going to place the subject.

Now this here (below) would have been great, and maybe I'll try next time, but placing the subject (Matt and his Triumph) to the right of the frame would have meant that his head would be blocking part of the road in the distance.

So that didn't work for me.

We tried moving along a little bit and tried some different compositions, some with the camera angle, much lower down so that Matt was above the horizon line to give a bit more of a dramatic feel …

But, the one I was most happy with was the one below, which to me gives a nice balance between the scenery, the road and the biker, and although you don't see the way the road twists off to the left down and then up, you do still know it's the same road that the bike is on, that then goes off into the distance …

LENS CHOICE

Now you'll notice in this behind the scenes pictures that I'm using a telephoto lens, this was a 70 to 200mm f/4 lens, and I used that to compress the background because a telephoto lens will bring those distant areas much closer to form part of the final picture.

You can see what I mean here with this photograph taken with my iPhone from when I was looking for a composition, how the distant road just seems so well, distant …

But compare that one to the final retouched image and hopefully you can see how the road in the distance has been brought closer by the using that telephoto lens …

LIGHTING

For the lighting side of things, this was actually quite a challenge because even though the location felt like it was in the middle of nowhere, the road we were on did end up being quite busy.

We had to go back in and out of the road with the lighting (thanks Jacob) , but also the clouds in the sky … one minute they were there, the next minute they were gone. They were moving incredibly fast.

This meant one moment we had nice soft diffuse lighting and the next minute we had quite harsh lighting.

The light I used was a Wescott FJ 400; a 400ws light that has its own battery, and I used that with the Large Octa (Rapid Box Switch) which measures 48 inches; the combination of these made them very portable and easy to move around (thanks again Jacob)

Now because it was a bright day I needed as much power out of the light as possible, but I also needed a soft-ish kind of light to match the lighting in the scene. So to do that, I removed the outer diffusion material of the soft box, meaning there was only one layer of diffusion.

This gave just the right amount of balance between softness and hardness, but also didn't kill too much of the power out of the light (roughly one stop)

Because I was tethering to my laptop I was able to see, on a larger screen, what the images were looking like and check things such as sharpness, composition and so on.

This also really helped with checking out the detail in the sky and although in the out of camera shots there looks to be no detail, there was actually plenty of information there to bring back during post production. No sky replacement needed here 😃

This ultimately meant that I didn’t need to use High Speed Sync (HSS) which although great, because of how it works reduces the output of the flash / strobe so it needs to be in closer. Not using HSS meant I could have the light positioned further away out of the frame.

So there you go, a quick run through of what went on Behind the Scenes.

With the location and the conditions presenting a few challenges, keeping things simple definitely help but also the tethering came in very handy being able to not just see the images that were coming through and REALLY see what was there.

As always, if you have any questions just add them in the section below and I’ll make sure to respond.

Cheers,
Glyn

Trigga: Portrait Shoot on Location and Behind the Scenes

Here’s the result from a recent portrait shoot with Trigga whom I met at a GREAT local Bikers' Café; a completely free spirit who lives life his way embracing and respecting nature and his surroundings.

This was our first shoot together; completely relaxed and gave us time to hang out and chat, so now I simply CANNOT wait for the next one which will be out on location in the Devon Countryside with a Harley.

I get a real kick out of how, by using lighting, we can change the look and feel of a location taking especially when doing so takes just a small amount of kit…

Behind the Scenes

If you’re like me, I love to see Behind the Scenes (BTS) so I thought I’d share a grab shot that I took with my phone just before packing away, that gives you a look at what I used and where it was positioned to take the portrait of Trigger…

Lighting

• Westcott FJ400 Strobe

• Westcott Rapid Box Switch Octa (Large)

• Westcott Silver / White Reflector - to add a little bit of fill light on opposite side of main light

Background

• Westcott X-Drop Pro Background Stand

• Westcott ‘Glyn Dewis’ Vintage Grey Canvas ( 8’ x 8’ )

Tethering

• TetherTools USB-C to USB-C Cable

This was actually the first photo shoot I got to use the new X-Drop Pro Background Stand and my new Glyn Dewis Vintage Grey Canvas Background that is now a material and able to be folded making it way more convenient to transport, PLUS it comes in 8‘ x 8’ and 7‘ x 5’ sizes.

I’ll be sharing a video very soon giving a look at the new X-Drop Pro because, if you’ve seen or have the original X-Drop, this new Pro version is VERY different in a VERY good way!

You can check out the kit above and the new X-Drop Pro over on my GEAR Page.

Anyway, I really hope you like the portrait of Trigga … such a great guy, and I’ll be sure to share images when we get out in the Devon Countryside taking photographs of Bikers and their Harleys, Triumphs, Royal Enfields and so on…

Cheers,
Glyn