Lighting masterclass, 28th July

Very big thanks to Garry for allowing us to come along and learn from him. Now I just need to persuade the wife to do some posing for me (can't see her wearing one of Toxic's dresses though)
 
Looks like I'm almost last - well I did have a little drive to do...

Had a great time - my funniest moment wasn't throwing the Water -
it was Phil & the magic remote control whilst he was setting up - lol

:yv: Owe her a pint after calling her my mum when we got the food..

Garry,
Truly had a laugh & it was educational at the same time - can't wait for the next one :D
 
Thanks a lot Garry. Was brilliant day with lots of hands on!

Gonna order my lencarta smart-flash soon..have been procrastinating it for a while :)

P.S: Has anyone opened a thread yet for the piccies from the day?
 
ShutterWork said:
Thanks a lot Garry. Was brilliant day with lots of hands on!

Gonna order my lencarta smart-flash soon..have been procrastinating it for a while :)

P.S: Has anyone opened a thread yet for the piccies from the day?
Click to expand...

Pix please, for those of us the could not go

H
 
Bassit said:
How about putting them in here.

Here's the only 1 I am happy with after my first few edits.
I know that it is blown around the hair but I thought it looked better brightened up.
Click to expand...
Wow, that great, maybe not where her eyes are set but still fine
Well done

Any chance of telling us about the set up to go with them please.

H
 
Last edited:
Thank you Helen, but its Garry that should be taking any credit here, he set the lighting up for most of the shots that you will see (except for the blown white background 1's, he didn't seem to keen for some reason :D), there will be some fantastic images to come yet, ive got a few myself, but need to do work on the post processing.
 
Last edited:
Bassit said:
Thank you Helen, but its Garry that should be taking any credit here, he set the lighting up for most of the shots that you will see (except for the blown white background 1's, he didn't seem to keen for some reason :D), there will be some fantastic images to come yet, ive got a few myself, but need to do work on the post processing.
Click to expand...

I look forward to seeing them and the setups and setting if possible.

H
 
Big thanks to Garry, great day, thoroughly enjoyable, with some excellent informative tuition, along with a big thanks to both models, who were both brilliant, and really friendly, both seemed to enjoy the day too. I will post a couple of my pics during the week (y)
 
Very nice Pete

I would like to know the set ups of the lightning and such.
I'm guessing it was a beauty dish ?

H
 
Last edited:
Yes it was a beauty dish, high up, the model is looking straight at it (see the catch lights in the eye?) and then a hair light, with honeycomb, behind to the left of model.

The beauty dish was quite high, maybe 5-6ft from the models face.
 
To add to that a bit...

70cm silver beauty dish, it was also off centre, so that it left the right side of her face in shadow. It had to be very high simply because the model's face was pointing upwards.

The hairlight was really more of a backlight, a 10 degree honeycomb at very low level, pointing upwards, striking the back of the head and passing through the hair. It's difficult to be subtle when lighting afro hair, and subtle doesn't really suit this model anyway, she's a real character, larger than life and very flamboyant, so I thought I'd go a bit mad and blast her hair with light.
 
Here is my first edit of the other model.

Lighting set up was a beauty dish to camera right, high (she's looking straight at it). There was then a large 165cm parabolic umbrella on camera axis as fill.

Not sure how good my edit is (only done in LR4 and I'm still learning). Eyes have been brightened and contrast added, slight brightening of the highlight on the lower lip and brightened the teeth. A little bit of smoothing on the skin.


2013_07_28LencartaStudio017 by Tunbridge Wells, on Flickr
 
Actually thinking about it the on camera axis fill might have just been a white shoot through umbrella on this one? Too many lighting set ups, not enough memory!

I'm sure Garry will correct me in a moment.
 
Last edited:
Great stuff

Stephen I think you may have over done the eye brightening, they look a bit doll/glassy to me

H
 
Yes, from memory the fill was a white shoot through umbrella. But it doesn't matter, an on axis fill is just any kind of light on axis with the camera. I tend to use whatever's nearest. The only advantage of an umbrella or large softbox is that it can be placed directly behind the photographer without the photographers' body blocking too much of the light.

Overall, I think it went OK. Two models meant that neither was under too much pressure and had plenty of time to change and face paint. As it happens one model arrived late, she had a French car so needed a breakdown service:) but it didn't affect us as we had the other model.

We had a mixed bag of people, some were quiet, some not... I picked on the least quiet one to throw a pint mug of water over the model for the final shot, of the water hitting her, frozen with high speed flash. It took the model by surprise just a bit, which was what I wanted, but in retrospect I could have done with wearing ear defenders, she had a very piercing scream... She took it in good part, she's a very nice girl.

I think that everyone was able to get their fair share of model time. My thanks to the two women present, Yvonne and a lady who booked through the Lencarta website, they organised everyone and did everything that I didn't.

I had to clear up when everyone had left, as I had a full day today too. Long day for me but an even longer one for the people who had 8 hours or so of driving on top of the day here - hope it was worth it.

I've had a quick look at my own shots, so far just one of those attending has PM'd me their email address. Once I've gone through the pics I will dropbox them to everyone who has supplied their email address, and over the coming weeks I will write some articles on the Lencarta blog, explaining the how and why of the various shots.
 
Hi Garry,

Have PMed my email ID. Thank you once again for a brilliant day yesterday. Was quite informative. Will post some of my takes soon.

Would love to see that water shot :)
 
Garry Edwards said:
We had a mixed bag of people, some were quiet, some not... I picked on the least quiet one to throw a pint mug of water over the model for the final shot, of the water hitting her, frozen with high speed flash. It took the model by surprise just a bit, which was what I wanted, but in retrospect I could have done with wearing ear defenders, she had a very piercing scream... She took it in good part, she's a very nice girl.
Click to expand...

From the quick pics I saw on Garry's camera screen, execution of the water throw looked really good too. Perfect in terms of aim and force of throw.

If it were me and my nerves on the day chucking that mug of water......I probably could have missed the model completely.....ha ha....what a boo boo that would have been :)
 
I'm guessing that meant I was the least quiet one then (I'd have sworn it was a tie between me & phil) ...:LOL:

I've also pm'd you ...:)
 
Last edited:
Bit late getting back on here, but have to pass my thanks to Gary for a very informative day. It being my first time in a studio there was a lot to take in but in such great company that was a fun way to learn. I will pm my email to you now Gary.
Would like to add that the models great to work with and I'll be doing this again, after spending a fortune with Lencarta that is.
Once again a big thank you Gary.
 
Diving Pete said:
I'm guessing that meant I was the least quiet one then (I'd have sworn it was a tie between me & phil) ...:LOL:

I've also pm'd you ...:)
Click to expand...

Not even close :shrug:.

I thought I was the shy retiring type on the day :D. There were definitely some proper 'characters' there.

I've selected my shots, but couldn't get near my editing PC most of last night.
 
This looked right up my street and am even more gutted I was unavailable (given who was doing it and how close it is!).

Looking forward to seeing more of these shots, especially the superfast ones!

Shaheed
 
I would have loved to attend this but arrangements which I couldn't change had already been made for the date. If Garry does another one I'd be up for that, it looks like everyone had not only a good time but also learned a lot too.
 
And the last from me other than the naked ones which i will have to link to the nude and glamour section when i put them up, this thread may need a NSFW tag already.

Again, i thought this girl looked best with the light blown.

7.

DSC_4965 by J.Garton, on Flickr

Ahh go on then, a couple more, you might have guessed by now i wasn't keen the normal style pics of this model.


8.

The Redeemer by J.Garton, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
A nice shot of my 1874 Martini Henry rifle...

The purpose of that shot was just to demonstrate that a naked woman doesn't need to look vulnerable - use a single, very harsh light at a distance to create a harsh shadow, stick it low down at an acute angle and suddenly you have a picture of someone who is very much in charge of the situation - certainly I wouldn't feel that I was in charge if someone was holding a .577/455 calibre rifle fitted with a bayonet...

This is a shot best done with a nude model, but I did it with lingerie so that it wasn't NSFW, although the other model did volunteer to do some nude ones as well.

Edit: And I used that particular rifle because, not only does it have a bayonet, it also isn't classed as a firearm because (or so the Home Office tell us) ammo isn't available for it, which means that it can legally be used as a prop by someone who doesn't have a firearms certificate.
 
Last edited:
To those who have asked me about the Company I use to cut out subjects, retouch etc, my apologies, I gave you the wrong url. The correct URL for clipping paths asia is here
 
Bassit said:
Another one from me, i know not everyone is a fan of selective colour but i think it works well.
Click to expand...

2 and 5 for me out of your set John, selective colouring doesn't work for me in 1, otherwise i would have chosen that one too.
 
TG. said:
2 and 5 for me out of your set John, selective colouring doesn't work for me in 1, otherwise i would have chosen that one too.
Click to expand...

(y)
Ah well, i know you lot are a tough crowd to please. ;)
 
I would like any "stepback" photos that people may have taken of the various lighting arrangements, plus permission to use them on the Lencarta lighting blog...

The first blog entry should be published tonight.

I'm currently organising the various photos that I took, and will email the dropbox link to everyone who has given me their email addy.
 
Hard lighting suits her better than me:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top