Creative Portrait Retouching Techniques Webinar with BenQ

On Wednesday 1st March 2023 (that's next week already ) at 6pm UK I'm doing a LIVE Webinar in partnership with BenQ, going through some Portrait Retouching Techniques in Lightroom and Photoshop + Q&A

This is a FREE 1 hour long webinar also allowing time for Q&A, so if you fancy joining me just use the link below to register and get the link as spaces for the ‘virtual room’ are limited.

Plus anyone who registers, will also receive a link to the recording of the webinar the following day so that they can watch it later.

Hope to see you there 😃
Glyn

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How I Lit and Photographed this Portrait of a Female Attendee

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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 …

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

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TRY THIS 💥 The INVISIBLE BLACK BACKGROUND (Photography Technique ... UPDATED)

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Here's a SIMPLE and VERY EFFECTIVE technique for creating a Black Background behind your subject when you don't have one ... indoors or outdoors using just your camera and one flash!

This is my UPDATED Invisible Black Background Technique v2.0 😃 📷

🎬 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎

  • 00:00 - Introduction

  • 00:40 - Kit Needed

  • 00:55 - Shutter Speed Flash

  • 01:31 - High Speed Sync

  • 01:52 - Camera Settings

  • 02:50 - Aperture + Flash

  • 03:37 - Turn on HSS

  • 04:12 - Turn on the Flash

  • 04:46 - Options

  • 05:25 - Recap

  • 06:05 - The Problem with HSS

  • 06:29 - Why not use a Neutral Density (ND) Filter?

  • 07:46 - Dealing with Reflections

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The iPhone Photography Conference

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It's all GO!!! ... 😃

For the first time ever I'm one of the instructors presenting a class for the upcoming iPhone Photography Conference on the 28th and 29th March 2023.

For my class I'm heading somewhere special that I've never been before and will be going through everything I do to capture photographs on location, editing using the mobile workflow and then printing.

For more information and tickets use this LINK

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I'm hosting a Printing Workshop with Carmarthen Cameras, BenQ and Permajet

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On Friday 24th February 2023 I’m excited to be hosting a Printing Workshop in partnership with Carmarthen Cameras, BenQ and Permajet.

A 2 hour evening at the Carmarthen Cameras, Zion Chapel Store running from 7pm - 9pm, I’ll be taking folks through such topics as …

  • Display Calibration

  • Colour Space

  • Printing Software Options

  • Paper Profiles

  • Paper / Media Options

… and of course producing some final prints.

An often over-complicated process, I’ll make it not so, and show how an understanding of each part of the process can produce not just great prints, but prints that match what you see on your display again and again.

No more wasted paper, no more wasted ink … just complete confidence that when you press print, you know you will get exactly what you would want / expect.

Tickets are priced at just £20 but spaces are limited due to space.

For more information and to grab a ticket, check out the link below.

Hope to see you there,
Glyn

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💥 How LIGHTROOM can make your PHOTOS BETTER...FAST!

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Lightroom continues to get more and more powerful and yet despite what's possible, the controls and functions are incredibly easy to use once you know how to get the very best out of them.

In this video I show step by step the complete workflow taking a flat image and making it POP using Masking, Intersect and the fantastic Colour Grading Panel …

COLOUR GRADING: The Essential Finishing Touch Mini Course

In the video I mention about my NEW Mini Course … Colour Grading: The Essential Finishing Touch

For more information, check out the link / button below …

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My COLOUR GRADING: THE ESSENTIAL FINISHING TOUCH mini course is NOW AVAILABLE

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Really excited to let you know that I have a NEW course NOW AVAILABLE …

Colour Grading: The Essential FiNishing Touch

Just as with my other courses, you can stream / download all of the included video tutorials, download work files to follow along step by step, download a PDF of Class Notes ans have Life Time Access. Plus there’s a knowledge check and certificate of completion.

For more information check out the button link below

See you in class 😃

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My Mobile Phone / Smartphone Photography Kit

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With me doing more and more photography with my Smartphone (iPhone) these days, I often get asked what kit I use with it ... Phone Mount? Tripod? Trigger?

So I thought I’d share it here as well as adding it all into the GEAR Page where you’ll see ALL the kit I use for Photography and Video …

*To use the phone holders on my tripod, I purchased a few extra Arca Plates that screw into them

There’s also various apps I’m using so I’ll make sure to share details of those and any future kit I try out … especially as I intend to be doing some portrits using off-camera lighting triggered by my phone 😃

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iPhone Photography: A Misty Morning at Lyme Regis in Dorset

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The misty conditions last Wednesday were nothing short of perfect for some minimalist photography, so I popped out early morning and took the short drive to meet up with my friend Steve Healy down at my favourite of all places, Lyme Regis.

True to the weather apps, the conditions were as predicted; a wonderful misty morning, an incoming tide with the surface of the sea as flat as a sheet of glass, hardly a breeze in the air and looking out across the sea, at times it was almost impossible to see the distant horizon line.

Absolutely Perfect!

I should have sent a memo about dress code 🤣

Taking along minimal kit as I did when photographing the Prince of Wales Bridge a couple of weeks back, I stuck with using my iPhone 14 Pro Max, but this time made use of my new JOBY MagSafe Mount ( LINK )

This worked an absolute treat holding my iPhone rock steady and was so incredibly quick and easy to adjust and rotate from portrait orientation to landscape orientation …

Long Exposure Photography was definitely order of the day to enhance the calm, relaxing feeling of the light and the mist, and of course smooth out the water surface even more.

I’ve a few long exposure apps installed on my iPhone at the moment that I’m testing out to see which I prefer, but on this morning I opted again to use EvenLonger …

For the image above, I used a 60 second long exposure.

We then moved along to The Cobb, which looked incredible amongst the mist and surrounded by a glass flat high tide …

The tide was particularly high this morning, meaning the groin at the far end of The Cobb was much less visible.

In this image and the one above, you can really see how the mist made the horizon barely visible, which when combined with a long exposure worked, I feel, so incredibly well …

In each of these images you will have spotted that there were Gulls flying. To include these, once I had taken the long exposure, I then jumped back to the regular camera on my iPhone and waited for the moment when Gulls flew through the frame.

When they did I pressed the shutter a number of times using a Bluetooth Shutter Release which works a treat and only cost £3.99 off Amazon ( LINK )

99% of these images I edited in Lightroom Mobile and Photoshop on my iPad, but to add the Gulls I used Photoshop CC on my desktop as I needed to use a filter and (at the moment) that filter isn’t available in the mobile version of Photoshop.

That said though, the process was so incredibly easy editing on my iPad, and then because everything I do syncs automatically with every device I have Lightroom installed, I could then finish off on my desktop without having to export anything or import from memory cards.

Everything I do on any device be it my iPhone, iPad or Desktop, syncs across each other making it instantly available everywhere.

Oh and the text and graphics were added using Adobe Express …

So another incredibly relaxing morning out taking photographs with my iPhone.

Minimal kit. No swapping out lenses. No attaching filters. No cables.

All of this for me makes for such a wonderful experience, enabling me to relax and just enjoy being where I am and absorb the sights and sounds.

The experience of taking photographs just doesn’t get better!

© Glyn Dewis 2025