100 MEGA PIXEL Female Portrait PLUS Retouching in Lightroom and Photoshop (Hasselblad X2D)

This is the recording of a live broadcast on my YouTube channel where I went through a natural light female portrait shot on the 100 megapixel Hasselblad X2D, along with my likes and dislikes of the camera itself. After talking through the X2D and the things I didn't like about it, I cover the lighting for the portrait and then the retouching steps in Lightroom and Photoshop. That includes the Remove Tool, using Dust and Scratches to clean up glasses, evening out skin tones, the 20/10 technique, a dreamy glow effect and presets in Lightroom, before Di Edwards sees her portrait and I answer questions.

How I Lit and Photographed this Portrait of a Female Attendee

A couple of weeks back I was in Stoke on Trent presenting at the Guild of Photographers Event on behalf of Sony.

Kicking off first thing I hosted a workshop for a limited number of 10 people ( although 11 were there 🤣 ) and went through how I set up and light portraits but more importantly how I interact and help subjects in front of the camera to relax.

I love sharing this kind of stuff; stuff that I learned mainly from when I was full-on photographing World War 2 Veterans for my 39-45 Portraits Project. These portraits were of people who maybe weren’t so keen initially on being photographed or felt self conscious in front of the camera as opposed to me photographing models. 

No eye tracking, sharpness, dynamic range or whatever will help with this.

Anyway the reason for this was mainly to share one of the portraits I took when showing a lighting set up that is incredibly simple but so incredibly effective.

I only took one photograph but this is the result; a portrait of workshop attendee & Photographer Jo Bullas …

And here’s a Behind the Scenes photograph showing the set up I used however in this one I’m now holding the light for one of the attendees…

KIT USED

Aside from my camera ( Sony A7RIV with the 85mm G-Master Lens) , this is all the kit I used for this portrait …

• Westcott X-Drop Pro Background Support

• Westcott Vintage Grey Background by Glyn Dewis fort X-Drop Pro (5 x 7)

• Westcott FJ80 II M Speedlite

• Westcott FJ-X3 M Trigger

• Westcott Rapid Box Switch Beauty Dish

If you saw an earlier post you’ll recognise the set up as being the same as when I photographed my friends Ian Munro, Anthony Crothers, Dave Clayton, Brian Dukes and Gerwyn Williams; I even jumped in front of the camera too …

The difference this time was simply down to a camera setting using a wider aperture and a slightly slower shutter speed to allow more ambient ‘ natural light into the shot.

Anyway if you didn’t see the original video I shared on my YouTube Channel going through exactly how I do this, I’ve shared it below.

Enjoy,
Glyn

Photographing the Iconic Prince of Wales Bridge with my iPhone

A few days ago I met up with my great friend Anthony Crothers at a Café in Bristol to spend some quality time together and also to try photographing the Prince of Wales Bridge that spans 3.2 miles from the South West of England, across the River Severn, to the South East of Wales …

Having seen some photographs of it in a photography book I own, I thought it would be both interesting and a challenge to see what I could capture using just my iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Conditions following a recent storm were perfect with great light and a sky full of clouds, although it was a little on the chilly side and once under the bridge, the wind blowing around caused some initial challenges keeping the phone perfectly still on the tripod.

I’d taken along my new Joby MagSafe Phone Holder which is so incredibly well made, however ended up not being suitable because of the wind causing a little bit of movement …

Instead I resorted to my trusty SmallRig Mobile Phone Cage that locked everything down and held it rock steady …

Lately I’ve been using the Lightroom Mobile App for creating Long Exposures, however that is restricted to a maximum of 5 second long exposures, so instead opted for another App I have on my phone called Even Longer.

This is an incredibly easy app to use with a clean interface and a menu system that is simple and very intuitive.

The set up couldn’t have been easier: dial in the exposure I wanted, choose the length of the long exposure and press the shutter button which then kicked into action after a 3 second delay to ensure no movement.

There’s so many composition opportunities at this location, but my favourite was when I was directly under the bridge to capture all the structure underneath and then the view as the bridge disappears across the River Severn …

To edit the image I intentionally limited myself to using my iPad and the Lightroom Mobile and Photoshop Apps which worked an absolute treat. In fact they made the editing process a joy!

I’m loving the mobile workflow where I can take photographs with my mobile phone and without having to involve memory cards, the images I take are automatically synced to my iPad so that in the comfort of the nearby café I can look through and start editing.

Final Image edited in Lightroom Mobile on my iPad

Once back home, the photographs I’ve taken, along with any images I’ve started editing (and all of the edits) automatically appear on my desktop computer so that I can then check them over on a Colour Calibrated Screen, and then confidently print them out knowing that what I see, is what I get. Such an incredibly portable and convenient workflow … that also gives peace of mind knowing that photographs you take are instantly backed up.

My video this week on my YouTube Channel, will be going Behind the Scenes from this photo shoot, as I show all of the steps involved from taking the photographs, editing in Lightroom Mobile on my iPad, and the final print …

The 'Friends' Portrait Project

Yesterday … a great day with friends which also saw the start of our ‘Friends Portrait Project’ which, over the next couple of months is a project that will intentionally mean we get to know each other way more than we currently do.

Back Row (L to R): Ian Munro , Gerwyn ‘Gez’ Williams , Anthony Crothers

Front Row (L to R): Brian Dukes , Dave Clayton & Yours Truly

This is to be a very personal project that’s going be quite a ride with the conclusion seeing us each revealing a portrait , composite , design … whatever, that visually describes and explains who the person is, what they mean to you, and how you ‘see’ them.

What really makes that person tick? Why are they like they are? What is important to them? What is there in their past and present that makes them the person they are? Their values. Their motivations. Likes, Loves, Dislikes. Life events.

There are no rules. There’s no competition. This is a project with the sole purpose of not just knowing, but understanding each other, and an exercise that will make close friends, even closer.

Each and every part of the process is being filmed, with the final part bringing us together and revealing to each other, the pictures we’ve created.

The first part today … Who will Photograph Who?

And so it begins …

HOW I made these PORTRAITS: Complete Workflow including PHOTOGRAPHY, LIGHTROOM and PHOTOSHOP

This covers everything that went into creating these portraits, from start to finish. I begin with the kit I used and how I set it all up for the shoot. From there I move on to the retouching, working through each of the edits in Lightroom and then Photoshop to show how the final portraits came together. It's the whole process in one place, rather than just the lighting or just the editing on its own, so you can see how each stage leads into the next.

Here’s a list of all the kit I used to take the portraits, which you’ll also find on my GEAR Page …

• Westcott FJ80 II Speedlite

• Westcott FJ-X3 Remote Trigger

• Westcott Rapid Box Switch Beauty Dish

• Westcott 32” 2-in-1 Reflector

• Westcott X-Drop Poro Background Support

• Glyn Dewis Vintage Grey Canvas (for X-Drop Pro)

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

DOG PORTRAIT from START to FINISH in Lightroom and Photoshop

The dog in this portrait belongs to my friend Trigga, and I took it after I'd finished taking his portrait. Here I go through all of the editing and retouching I did from start to finish, first in Lightroom and then in Photoshop, so you can see every step that went into making the final picture. Nothing is skipped, so you can follow along with how the portrait went from the original file to the finished result.

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

Photographing The Joker

While presenting for Sony at their roadshow showcasing the Sony A7IV, I photographed my friend Graham Currey, who was dressed as The Joker. For the set-up I used just one light, positioned above Graham, slightly forward of him and angled straight down to the floor so I could bounce some light back into his face with a silver reflector. The result is a version of what's often called horror lighting or up lighting, which suited the character and gave the pictures a much more dramatic look. The video is my hands-on with the 33 megapixel A7IV, which Sony invited me to use for a couple of days taking portraits and grabbing video, along with my honest, unpaid thoughts on who it's for and whether I'd buy it.