Photoplus issue 210 - look maa, I'm on TV!
Photoplus issue 210 - OUT NOW!
You can check out myself, and more importantly, our North Wales Splash Point Photo Photography Studio in the latest issue of Photoplus magazine, which is available to buy now from all good magazine stockists.. apart from WH Smiths in Rhyl for some reason - but there were some in Llandudno if my family haven't bought them all!?
If you're not familiar with Photoplus, which may be because you're the enemy and a Nikon shooter, well, Photoplus is a photography magazine which is all about Canon cameras and any 3rd party brand in which a Canon in some guise is used in tandem to achieve various shots. In it, you will find tricks, tips, skills, reviews and the like, as well as one regular feature they do which is called the apprentice. The apprentice is basically a Canon pro who shoots professionally in a certain genre who then shares a little knowledge with an apprentice photographer who is less experienced in their world of imagery. This then extends out to our deputy editor Dan who documents it while taking notes for the magazine so hopefully those reading it get a visually interesting piece and an insight in to a genre they may fancy trying and are curious about - or I guess, who maybe just want to brush up on philosophies, ideals and ideas and such of others in the industry for a more balanced view of their own work. Somehow, someone managed to convince Dan I was the pro on this occasion..
For this shoot, alongside myself, you get our apprentice Jonathan, who isn't actually a stranger to Splash Point Photo Studio, but equally despite his years of photography experience; ultimately I knew he was a fan of how I shot and liked what I did, so I suggested him to Dan. Keeping it in the Splash Point Photo Photography family, our models are Natalia and Emma Starmore Smith who have also been here on occasion.. well in the case of Emma, several million times as she's our local model living just 10 minutes away. It was probably five before we had to slow everything down to 20mph! The article is a whopping 12 pages long, featuring mostly Jonathan's shots with a few of mine dotted in as I took several frames with the ladies when setting up and talking through lighting scenarios with the guys. During, I talk about the basics of building a multi light set up, which starts with Natalia on a black backdrop with low-key lighting while highlighting the importance of tonal merging. This is why we had Natalia wearing something darker as people are often scared to shoot black on black (dark on dark), white on white, or any number of colours on their respective backgrounds - I however, love inclusive tones! We then move it on to the infinity curve to shoot some straight down the line fashion with just two octoboxes, before Emma joins the party for some duo images, as this highlights the possible issues of depth of field and body language when posing groups of people. Staying with the DOF, we recreated a shot I knew Jonathan loved of mine, albeit a more family friendly version, that is shot super shallow and where we need to use an ND filter to tackle the sheer power of studio lighting - all this is of course covered in the magazine by Dan's transcribing of my ramblings, which is why I shall not be going into any details here if I've lost ya!
Photography studios don't have to be all about stobe lights, especially not here at Splash Point Photo when we have the awesome USP of our neon wall, so we fire up some continuous light wands for a bit of bokehlicious colour - it's important to mention that both Dan and Jonathan disapproved of my use of the word bokehlicious, and I fully blame Kai Man Wong (ex digital rev) for installing that term in me. We then break out some more strobes as we move in to our hallway location, before finishing up with some boudoir style images using just natural window light in our front room. And if you want to see all that in way more detail, well you know what to do! As mentioned, buy it at any good off the shelf magazine stockist, subscribe online to get cheaper issues (and often free gifts), or simply just buy our single issue online here. You can probably also buy a digital version too, I imagine in this day and age - what a whacky time we live in. And to whet your appetite, here are a few of my images that I shot with the ladies during set up and my usual waffling.