July, 2011 | Imago Imagery

Well this was a shoot that was almost cancelled because of the weather, the forecast was pretty poor and it looked like we were not going to get any good light. On the morning of the shoot I got up early to chek out the webcam that overlooks the location and it didn’t look too bad so we decided to give it a go. I made the short trip up the A1 /A19 and through the Tyne Tunnel to Tynemouth to meet Charlene who you will probably recognise from previous shoots on the blog. Tynemouth is a popular area well known to the people of the north east because of the beach but also draws its fair share of surfers and scuba divers. The plan was to shoot a couple of outfit changes in and around the beach area, including an old outdoor swimming pool which had been thoughtfully re painted before the shoot :), before the weather closed in. As it turned out the weather was lovely, sunny and perfectly still which made for great shooting condition, this gave me the option of using my new silver lined 59″ parabolic umbrella ella ella from Hobo Lighting. The quality of the umbrella is good and it is built a little more strongly than a standard brolly making think it would be a better option for location work. Using a 500w Bowens Gemini strobe running off a Travelpak it gave out a good amount of light which was quite focused and contrasty. I have read that they are considering making a front diffuser panel for this which will be interesting to see the effect it has on softness. It needed careful setting up but when you get in the right place I really liked the effect it gave, certainly something I will be looking to use a lot more in the future. As usual Charlene looked stunning and we worked through the different sets quickly before she had to rush off home and feed her new Dalmatian pup Spot!! A thoroughly enjoyable shoot with a great model, hope you enjoy the images.

[Show slideshow]

Taylor Made

During the course of the summer I’m looking to do a few different fashion based shoots on location to freshen up my portfolio. Once I started to look for models who would suit the type of look I wanted Bex Taylor was someone who I felt had the look and style needed. I had seen some images of her on Facebook but also through some really good shots taken by local photographer John Picton which really convinced me she was right. Fortunately she was keen to be involved so we set about planning a day which would be part studio and part location based. Bex travelled down to Darlington from Sunderland and we just seemed to get on right from the start. During the morning we worked on a few different looks, including some natural light images which I was really pleased with. After a rather rushed lunch (there just never seems to be enough time!!) we drove out to the coast to do some shots on a local beach, weather was great although the light was really contrasty so a good deal of fill light was needed using the Bowens Travelpak and a 400W flash head. This was also a first try for a brolly box I had recently bought from Ebay which worked out pretty well though I’m now considering buying a suitable octobox to replace this in the near future. We had another location picked out to finish off with but unfortunately ran out of time, though that is a great excuse to work with this talented model again!! For some of the images I was trying out a new processing technique (for me) which involved the use of localised curve adjustment layers, gradient maps and some shadow / highlight work. Not sure I’m 100% there yet with this but it definitely has potential to create the look I’m trying to achieve. Great day, lovely model, hope you enjoy the images.

[Show slideshow]

ps Watch this space as a couple of these images will be appearing in the first printed edition of Elite magazine next month 🙂

Archives for July 2011

Rae of Sunshine

Taylor Made