Via Flickr:
Another one from last week's shoot with Estrany for my "Soho Noir" project.
The gel on this is a little vivid perhaps. I was about to pull it back to something a little more blue/grey to match the colour of the metal paneling (camera left - glowing turquoise in this one!). It had a lovely smokey quality to it, which I'd like to have captured. Unfortunately, that wasn't to be...
We fired off three or four frames, of which this was one, before we were joined by an unexpected assistant - and a not entirely sober one. After he'd explained about his time in Wormwood Scrubs Prison, and his nuanced relationship with various ethnicity of women he borrowed my phone to leave a five minute, ranting voicemail with his probation worker.
Short story; we will come back and shoot this location properly another day...
Info for Strobist:
Canon 600EX-RT in 38" softbox camera right, 45* above model and to front, around 1m away. Triggered at ~1/64 power by RT from non-firing Canon 600EX-RT used on camera as trigger/focus assist. YN560ii triggered as optical slave, 4m behind model just off camera right, gelled "Blue/Green" at 1/16 power.
Friday, 28 February 2014
Soho Noir #2, London
Thursday, 27 February 2014
One Sided (Soho Noir Shoot With Estrany), London Soho
Via Flickr:
This is actually a test shot, taken whilst setting up lights on a shoot with Estrany for my Soho Noir series.
Whilst incomplete, the lighting is way bolder than I'd usually shoot - and I really like how the edgy light combines with Estrany's hard, almost murderous stare.
The processing is incomplete too - the full process, taking out her mole, etc. was just too porcelain to keep the edge. This version feels right to me, with the human imperfections retained, but so penetrating a stare and so intimate a frame it is amplified.
Estrany is great; she's on Purpleport, superb to work with and if you're in London you should give her a shout!
Hope everyone is having an incredible week!
Info for Strobist:
Canon 600EX-RT in 38" softbox camera left, at 1/64 power and around 1m from Estrany, slightly up. Triggered with RT from non-firing on camera Canon600EX-RT, used for focus assist only.
Wednesday, 26 February 2014
(All In Camera Tilt Shift Light Painting), Wareham
Via Flickr:
After around a year's agonising research, I've finally invested in the Canon TS-E 24mm. Whilst the 24mm end of my 24-105mm zoom was wide enough for me, it's just not sharp enough for what I want to shoot. Tempting as it was to go wider and get something like the Zeiss 21mm, the image circle of the TS-E is so vast (to accommodate all that shifting) that if you choose not to tilt or shift, you get a superbly sharp result. So far in the field, so good. It's a thing of beauty.
I'm also looking forward to deploying the tilt (or swing, as above) features to drop out elements of backgrounds in light paintings.
This is my first attempt at it - I wanted the girl and gate and blades of grass in the flood water, but didn't need the distraction of a forensically sharp set of houses and a petrol station behind her.
I'm sure I'll get even more mail about processing, which my light paintings attract anyway! I'd forgive anyone for mistaking this shot for lots of Photoshop, but all I've done is drop in the reflected street lamp from a still image - with me wading up to the gate, etc. there were just too many ripples and the reflection stretched out of the bottom of the frame.
Looking at it now I think it might still need some WB tweaks - it's a little orange, but the 5D MKiii doesn't get on with deep blue skies, and too much WB adjustment can cause banding.
Anyway - I hope people like it and can forgive my slow catch up time at the moment. Have a great week!
Monday, 24 February 2014
Clara (Stranger #32/100), London Chinatown
Via Flickr:
Clara was the third stranger brave enough to join Bomvu and I in Chinatown's back alleys to shoot an off camera flash street portrait.
This is portrait #32 of my 100 Strangers Project - check out the group page and get involved.
Meeting Clara ranks up there as one of the most surprising, serendipitous and fun moments of my 100 Strangers Project to date, because as I pitched her on the idea of a street portrait, she launched into an all out, one part enthusiastic, one part skeptical, interrogation of my street photography credentials.
I think I probably failed on multiple counts - Clara knows way more about street photography than me. I had "Humans of New York" confused with "Hunts Point", for instance. It was a fantastic education in people I was largely confused or unaware of!
Clara - thanks for the forthright approach. I hugely enjoyed being put straight on the range of topics I had back to front and have really enjoyed exploring some of the names, projects and photographers you shared. Also, thanks to Richard for his patience and juggling of lenses/bags/etc. Hopefully you guys had a great evening despite the interruption!
Info for Strobist:
Key light is a Canon 600EX-RT in a 38" softbox 45* up and left of the camera, triggered at 1/32 power by RT from a non-firing Canon 600EX-RT on camera (purely for trigger/focus-assist). There's a YN-560ii 4m right of Clara firing against the wall behind her without modifier, and catching her with the edge of the hard light. The YN560ii was zoomed to 105mm, and either 1/8 or 1/16 power.
Saturday, 22 February 2014
Carrie (Stranger #31/100), London Chinatown
Via Flickr:
Carrie was the second stranger who agreed to a street portrait on my recent night shooting off camera flash with Bomvu in Chinatown's back alleys.
Carrie's a marketing student down from Durham to visit her sister in London. They were just walking into a restaurant when I raced up and was allowed to derail their dinner plans.
Having tested lighting on Colin (who is maybe twice as tall as Carrie!), I'm hugely appreciative of her patience as I rushed back and forth changing settings on the bounced fill flash. This was the last of the series - and by far the best - so thanks for waiting it out!
Thanks again Carrie - hope you guys had a fantastic meal!
This is portrait #31 of my 100 Strangers Project - check out the group page and get involved.
Info for Strobist:
Key light is a Canon 600EX-RT in a 38" softbox 45* up and left of the camera, triggered at 1/32 power by RT from a non-firing Canon 600EX-RT on camera (purely for trigger/focus-assist). There's a YN-560ii 3m right of Carrie firing into a white wall and bouncing CTO gelled light back in. I'm ashamed to have mislayed the exact setting - 1/8 I think, but maybe a stop lower.
Re-shooting I think I'd place another strobe way behind Carrie at ground level for a tiny low power pop of separation, maybe gelled 1/2 CTO/Plus Green.
Friday, 21 February 2014
Oscar (Stranger #30/100), London Chinatown
Via Flickr:
Having set up lights with Bomvu in Chinatown's grimmest, darkest alleyway, I wasn't 100% confident anyone would agree to follow me down it. Oscar was kind/brave/crazy enough to agree!
Out in Soho with his associate Massimo, he was pretty much the friendest chap you could hope to meet. I'd asked him over Massimo simply in the hope of catching his awesome hair against the full throttle backlight.
It was a great fun encounter, with some high quality banter offered by Massimo as we shot. Some suggestions were tabled as to what the shots might be used to advertise, which Oscar rose above as we shot.
Oscar - thanks for stopping. Hopefully you like your shots - email me for a copy! Rest easy - nothing is going to be advertised with them. Unless, Massimo, you want to make an offer for the high res images? : )
All in it was a superb encounter that reminded me again why I'm doing the 100 Strangers Project, and what I've missed in the couple of months since my last street session.
This is portrait #30 of my 100 Strangers Project - check out the group page and get involved.
Info for Strobist:
Key light is a Canon 600EX-RT in a 38" softbox 45* up and left of the camera, triggered at 1/32 power by RT from a non-firing Canon 600EX-RT on camera (purely for trigger/focus-assist). There's a YN-560ii 4m behind Oscar to the right, fired bare at 1/16 power through a 1/2 CTO and a Plus Green gel.
I think I overcooked the key light - a result of not adjusting power for skin type from my test shots on Colin.
Friday, 14 February 2014
Electric Fence #2, Soho
Via Flickr:
Last week I posted the test shot for this with just the fence, so I thought I'd follow up with the version shooting with Vicky. The light is identical, yet it's interesting to how the blue/green falls so differently with a subject against the fence posts. Probably it's a little hard and weird across her face! However, since the series is neo noir in vision, I think it kind of works in a way that it wouldn't if I was trying to get this published in Vogue!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Info for Strobist:
Canon 600EX-RT at 1/128 power in Lastolite Ezybox, camera left, 2m from subject. Triggered with non-firing on camera Canon 600EX-RT used for focus assist. YN560ii gelled "Oklahoma Yellow" camera left, 4m back pointed 45* towards fence/camera at 1/16 triggered as optical slave. Second YN560ii at floor level gelled "Blue/Green" at 1/2 power, bounced onto black garage door 3m to camera right, behind fence.
Thursday, 13 February 2014
Deep Dark Wood (Girl In Flooded Forest All In Camera Light Painting), Rickmansworth
Deep Dark Wood (Girl In Flooded Forest All In Camera Light Painting), Rickmansworth, a photo by flatworldsedge on Flickr.
Via Flickr:
Light painting (all hand drawn, all in camera) in the flooded River Colne. Somewhere about two feet beneath the water is a footpath, but the whole week the local "Aquadrome" has been doing its best to live up to its name.
The orange glow is from sodium vapour light pollution. Perhaps I overly flashed the trees in this shot, but I think the central figure still has presence.
Hope everyone is having a great week!
Sunday, 9 February 2014
Cloudburst (Logarska Dolina Full Moon & Clouds), Slovenia
Via Flickr:
It was borderline as to whether I'd post this - the noise in the grass is intense, and kind of unacceptable really. It was bad out of camera, and then processing to get the colours and light levels right has exacerbated it. I'd have left it, but I like the sky in this one, and wanted to post another Logarska Dolina shot as we're back there in a couple of months.
The glow is, as you've probably determined from the title, the full moon descending through rain clouds along the mountain ridge.
HSS!
Friday, 7 February 2014
Electric Fence, Soho
Via Flickr:
Test shot from the Soho shoot with Vicky. I'll post one of the final shots later, but thought this one might make a decent HFF posting in the meantime.
Info for Strobist:
Canon 600EX-RT at 1/128 power in Lastolite Ezybox, camera left, 2m from subject. Triggered with non-firing on camera Canon 600EX-RT used for focus assist. YN560ii gelled "Oklahoma Yellow" camera left, 4m back pointed 45* towards fence/camera at 1/16 triggered as optical slave. Second YN560ii at floor level gelled "Blue/Green" at 1/2 power, bounced onto black garage door 3m to camera right, behind fence.
Wednesday, 5 February 2014
Snakeskin (Windermere Rain Long Exposure), Lake District
Via Flickr:
Another quick post from my Boxing Day photo trip up to the Lakes. This is Windermere, shot in fierce rain. It's not a perfect shot by any means - the white balance of the wooden walkway needs fixing, for instance - but I really like the menacing clouds and scattered droplets on the left side of the lens.
I did shoot some with me holding a torch above the central post - but the flare on the droplets was too distracting, and with so much other light in the scene I couldn't stay hidden. Hence this version with just the post.
Hopefully everyone is having a fantastic week so far. Catching up right now.
Tuesday, 4 February 2014
False Dawn (Bournemouth & Old Harry), Dorset
Via Flickr:
Quick shot from the weekend, and one I'm definitely going to be re-shooting in a couple of weeks. The wind was just too strong for a sharp image, and too strong to get as near the edge as I wanted in terms of composition.
Still - I'm happy enough with this test shot to post it and record for self-reference what I'm going to try to fix when I shoot again! I fired a number of much longer (300 second+) exposures following this high ISO 30 second exposure. What I found, however, was that I preferred this version for the semblance of cloud shape that it kept.
It's a little too dark across the cliffs perhaps, and the gloom is just a little cool in terms of colour temperature. Unfortunately with the outrageously strong wind, I couldn't get the cliffs quite as sharp as I wanted - with them sharp I could have messed around in Photoshop to sort that all out. With them in this slightly "smudged" format, there's not the resolution to tolerate too much digital manipulation.
Imsh'allah, when I'm next down there, I'll have my newly ordered TS-E 24mm ii. I've sold a couple of lenses I wasn't using to part fund it. Placing the focal plane along the cliffs at a diagonal, and getting their early enough to focus manually, is the plan.
All the peachy glow on the horizon is light pollution, so fingers cross for this perfect mix of cloud and clear sky to catch it without overwhelming.
Hope everyone is having a great week!
Sunday, 2 February 2014
Double Yellow (Vicky Soho Noir Shoot), London
Via Flickr:
More from my first "Soho Noir" shoot with Vicky. Although I like the interest of the blue gel in the shadows on my previous post, I think the pure yellow gel has more impact in many ways.
The Rembrandt lighting kind of came off too.
Just back from a weekend in Dorset - catching up!
Info for Strobist:
One Canon 600EX-RT in Lastolite Ezybox at 45* camera left and up from modl @ 1/16 power and ~1m distance. Triggered by RT from second Canon 600EX-RT on camera; non-firing used for focus assist. YN-560ii fired as optical slave with Rogue "Oklahoma Yellow" gel, 4m 45* behind model to left, @ 1/32 power.