capuchin

capuchin_1, originally uploaded by SCrlt_pimpernel.

I've been a bit lazy with my blog recently so here is a fav ppic I took last year to get it all restarted new post to follow tommorow !!

Charity calendar / photokey 4 pro

Aneta, originally uploaded by SCrlt_pimpernel.

Over the last 4 weeks I've been shooting 12 shots for a charity calendar.
The charity calendar is in aid of the ASDA charity tickled pink.
Whilst shooting this calendar we have been experimenting with the use of greenscreen rather than multiple backgrounds.

The program we have been using is Fxhome Photokey 4 pro. All I can say about photokey 4 is , why did we never get this program sooner. Images are extracted instantly and with little tweeking perfectly.
No more hours in photoshop , now its all done in a few minutes with no green spill on the model.

Ok so it cost £185 for the pro version, but with 3 licences and batch processing this version was worth it for the business.

This image took less than 10 minutes with aperture to do the retouching , then less than 2 minutes with photokey 4 to extract and drop onto a pre prepared background.

The image was lit using a new set of bowens 500c lights and fired with the new bowens pulsar cards. The camera was the usual Nikon D700 and sigma 24-70 f2.8 at f8.
Just a thought but wihle all the gear heads aout there are waiting for the nikon d800 or whatever its going to be called, I'm happy with my D700.
Even compared to the canon 5d mark 2 , I've gota say my 12 megapix D700 is producing images that give the canon a run for its money with better ergonomics.

Charity calendar shots

Charity calendar shots, originally uploaded by SCrlt_pimpernel.

A friend of mine asked me to shoot some topless/ appearance of nude shots for a calendar to help raise funds for cancer research.
The guy in this shot is called Ahmet, He is of turkish/scottish stock and as you can see has great bone structure.
The shot was lit using just one light with barn doors to keep it tight with a lastolite held off to the left.
I wanted deep hard shadows to help sculpt his muscles and give him that very masculine look.
The shot was taken using my trusty Nikon D700 and then processed using aperture and silver efex.
I am honoured to be part of such a worthy cause and am pleased with how the shots have turned out !

Mats Jonnason Glass sculpture

Mats Jonnason Glass sculpture, originally uploaded by SCrlt_pimpernel.

This shot is of a sculpture by the swedish artist Mat Jonnason. Its a web shot for a local art dealer that I ended up buying. Its been a whie since i posted anything , I decided to down tools for a few weeks and recharge.
The recharge was needed as I've been shooting All winter on projects that pay in money terms but not in terms of soul lol.
This job is to photograph some small peices of glass and ceramic. This peice was to be left with space to the left so text could be added at a later date.
The shot its self is very simply lit. 1 light to the rear left , with a stofen to soften the light a little. The properties of the glass lent its self to this rear lighting technique. This allowed me to capture some of the texture of the peice and introduce a more 3d feel to the shot. The background is a curved peice of white card that is left unlit so as to allow it to go grey.
It was a fun peice to shoot as glass can be problematic to shoot and make look good. Its why I got the job in the 1st place to guy before made a pigs arsehole of it and gave a flat bland shot that didnt really show the peice off to its best.
My only thought on that people is if it seems to cheap then it probably is.

Portobello beach

_DSC4690, originally uploaded by SCrlt_pimpernel.

Today I decided to set myself a new project , to re look at places and areas I would normally disregard. Disregard either on the grounds of it's been shot to death or as a subject i found it disinteresting.

But today I thought bugger it and grabbed a tripod and my D700 and went out to the local beach in the city. Now me and a tripod is an interesting conundrum. I cant remember the last time I used one even to take a portrait, I normally find them a complete pain. Heavy to carry around, expensive(£200) and generally get in my way. I tend to shoot very photojourno, 2 cameras ,1 wide and 1 mid tele, with a double strap.

So needless to say I dont shoot much landscape. So I went out intending to shoot some B&W landscapes to take me away from my comfort zone. I played around with ND filters and grads, again stuff I've had for ages but never really used.

I bought most of the gear for landscapes when i went to college. All the filters/cp's all cokin P system stuff. When i took it out of the holders , dusty is being kind ! But It was fun to work in a different way than I'm used to. I was forced to slow down and look hard and got a couple of shots I quite like.

It all reminded me of what a smart man once said "life moves fast, you gota get off and look around once in a while or your going to miss it"
So my advice watch Ferris Beullers day off and then slow down and shoot something you wouldnt normally think is your kinda thing and hopefully like me be surprised and happy with what comes out.

For me It was nice to have just 1 camera the tripod and a fist full of filters. To have the time to visualize the shot and set it up , to not be whizzing in the moment and have to react like a caffinated mad man.

For those that shoot landscapes go out and shoot some street , for those that shoot the fast and furious ease down and grad your dusty tripod and slow down. Trust me even if you hate it , your mind will be grateful for the change of pace.

Simple Lighting , Dramatic results

Jennifer, originally uploaded by SCrlt_pimpernel.

When we go to photograph a person for a portrait do we ask ourselves what type of lighting suits this persons face or do we just shoe horn the face into the shot?
Do we really need 5 or 6 lights to achieve something wonderful? I've recently started going back to the 1930's and 40's for inspiration. What have I found ? Beautiful portraits done with 1 to 3 lights all tungsten lights not flash.
We are always trying to make things better and get more powerful but portable equipment. While doing this we overlook the advances in video lighting , which is portable battery powered and very very controllable.
A good bowens kit with 2 lights and a travel pack will set you back close to £1000 , were as a set of 3 video lights with a few bits and bobs abt £350. Plus the video lights are actually portable, you try taking a bowens travel pack any further than from the car to about 40 yards.
I've had the pleasure of using the bowens travel pack and yes it is pretty awesome and very flexible just not all that portable.
If I had to pick lights and had the budget it would be Lowel ID battery video lights £450 each. The Lowel is absolutley fabulous, Focusable, dimmable, built in barn doors. But most importantly portable.
I use the lowel light At weddings as my business partner Andy is lucky enough to own 1 (wish we had another 2!!) , it's less intrusive than flash and very flattering.

Will we be giving up flash? No The bowens travel 500 kit we have is amazing and great for groups and gives that professional feel to shoots thats important when youve just billed them over £1000!
For those little intimate portraits tho I do prefer tungsten.
With this shot I tried to emulate the classic Greta Garbo shot , but simplified it to just one light with a set of barn doors to keep it tight.

All lit it that classic hollywood way to give that nice butterfly shadow under the nose and shadow under the chin so as to make it more flattering. A bit of lee lux diffusing material was taped to the barn doors to soften up the light a little.

I have found that the modern dslr is crushingly unforgiving my old s2 pro used to give beautiful soft skin and was a great portrait camera. However my d700 or d300 both show up every flaw and blemish. They bring out every vain and little line even in children. I've found that since leaving my s2 behind I do more retouching just to get a nice result on the skin. I used to use portrait professional to get the result i needed but now i just use the skin softening brush in Aperture 3 , quick easy and comtrollable.

The B&W conversion is as always done using Nik softwares Silver Efex. I would catogorically say as a film nut that this software is the only way to convert to B&W. It gives that rich tonality that film printed on great fibre paper gives. It lets me add a little noise into my d700 files that looks natural and grain like and simulates the film emulsions amazingly well.

Bottom line for me is dont dismiss techniques from the past as everything they did was done in much worse conditions of technology and sizes of equipment. Dont follow Fads just shoot what you like. The high key crap that is prevalent now will be dead tommorrow, Its just a way for these massive studios to churn out the images fast as you dont need to retouch an image that has most of the detail burned out.
Yes there is a time and place for these types of shots but not everytime.

Simple , beautiful and tailord to the individual is how i prefer to shoot portraits.

iMac 27inch i7

Well I finally bit the bullet and have began my migration to mac .
So why mac , well i made the mistake of going into an apple store and trying the 27 inch bad boy and fell in love with the glorious screen.

I had a look at building a new pc and costed it at abt £1500 for a similar spec pc vs the 27 inc iMac and thought why not just bit the bullet and go mac.
I visited the apple online store and came across the refurb section and jumped at an i7 for £1399.
The main differences?
Better Screen
beautiful design and space saving
mac osx just seems to work
very very quiet compared to my core2duo desktop with 8800gt
Full review to follow in a few days.