Sussex wedding photographer's blog » portrait photography

Portraits for the University of Brighton

DaveP — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:38:23 +0000

A quick break from wedding photography, these are a couple of examples of recent photographic commissions for the University of Brighton.
The first was a portrait of Lord Nicholas Stern, former Chief Economist of The World Bank and head of the team that produced The Stern Review Report on the Economics of Climate Change. My brief was quite specific for this one, Lord Stern in a country setting, looking away from camera. There needed to be room on the image for a magazine title and other copy. I was told I would have no more than 10 minutes to get the shot, as I normally ask for half an hour or more for portraits this was pushing it a bit.
Lord Stern lived some way from my home and I was told that he had a good location in mind for the photo. I should have known better, but took this at face value and didn’t look around the area before my appointment. This turned out to be a serious mistake, the first place we went to was completely unsuitable and cut badly into my 10 minutes. Luckily Lord Stern was a bit more generous with his time than we had arranged, and we visited another couple of spots before finding somewhere better. Even this wasn’t ideal and the light was very flat and grey, which didn’t help (Luckily Photoshop and portable lighting improved the situation!). The end result was a useable photo, but I feel I could probably have done a bit better. Next time I’ll make sure I’ve scouted for locations before I start a job with serious time restrictions.
The second commission was more straightforward. Rod Mallinder, a member of staff at the University of Brighton, was due to retire. The photo was for a feature in the University magazine. Rod works in a modern building with several areas that suited the brief. We ended up taking the main photo on the stairs in the lobby. This time I had a good look around before I started, and only needed about 15 minutes to get a series of shots that I was quite happy with.
I prefer to have some time to talk to people and walk around a location with them before I start working, but that’s not always possible. Sometimes you don’t even meet a person or know what they look like until 30 seconds before you start. In these cases the best thing you can do is get prepared; find a good location in advance, have a selection of ideas in mind, and make sure all your gear is ready to go before you start using up your allocated time.

Lord Nicholas Stern

Rod Mallinder

Please contact me for more information on press and portrait commissions.

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Retouching wedding and portrait photos

DaveP — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:18:28 +0000

A couple of posts ago I was talking about ownership of digital files and whether it was still worth ordering wedding photographs through your photographer.
(Digital files as part of a wedding photography package)

If capturing a good image on camera is the most important part of photography, then post processing comes a close second. I said I would show a few examples of the difference between the basic corrections you would get on your CD of photos, and how the same image could look after professional retouching. I’ve been having a bit of trouble finding something to show you without upsetting any former clients, so I’ve picked a portrait rather than a wedding photograph.

The two photos below show Michelle with her six month old son, Elliot. Michelle looks lovely in any photo, but was up with a teething baby for most of the previous night and is a bit tired. (Elliot, on the other hand, has had a very nice rest and is looking forward to his next daytime snooze!).

The difference between the two photos is quite subtle and I hope it shows on your computer screen. The photo on the left is how you would receive it if it was part of my wedding photography package. The basic work has been done, the colour and density are fine. This could be taken to a printers and you would get a perfectly good print. The photo on the right shows the same photo with retouching. The most obvious work is underneath Michelle’s eyes. I’ve lightened and smoothed the skin here, which makes her look as if she has had a decent nights sleep. I’ve also done some light retouching on the skin, taken off some shine, lightened the eyes and done some dodging and burning on both their faces. I’ve done a curves adjustment to increase contrast and reduced a slight yellow cast. The edges of the image have been darkened and blurred a little to bring the focus more to the faces. In preparation for printing I would also sharpen the image, depending on the final size, and put on borders and keylines as required.

Anything you can see here would be much more obvious in a decent size print or in an album. I recommend to my clients that they order their more important photos through me, rather than printing straight from their CD or DVD. This way they will cost a bit more, but you will be getting the very best from your images.

This is a very light retouch, just a little tweak can sometimes make all the difference. I like to keep portraits looking natural and not overdo the Photoshopping. There are other times when some of the more noticeable effects and adjustments can look great, I’ll try and show some of those in another post.

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Corporate photography for Bank of New York Mellon

DaveP — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:24:34 +0000

I was booked for a corporate photography shoot for The Bank of New York Mellon yesterday. The brief was for a few portraits and some group shots of staff for a Powerpoint presentation as part of International Women’s Day. As usual with this kind of job it all had to be done quite quickly. Most of the people involved were in senior management and only had a few minutes to spare for photographs. I turned up early to meet my contact, Diane, and went round the building to look at potential places to set up. Diane had booked several nice spots with plenty of space and some natural light. A good location can really lift a corporate image, so if you can avoid small windowless rooms with very large boardroom tables it helps!
By the time our people had arrived we were ready to go and managed to get everything we needed in two short sessions, allowing the staff to get back to their proper jobs.
I used a small portable lighting kit, which can be set up and dismantled in about five minutes. The combination of flash and natural light was enough to give some depth to the photos.

I’m always interested to hear your comments. There’s a comment box and link button at the bottom of the page.

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Yvonne and Steve’s wedding at the Royal Pavilion

DaveP — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:44:47 +0000

Steve and Yvonne booked me as their wedding photographer just a couple of weeks before their ceremony on Saturday. They originally thought they would ask a friend to take their photos, but decided to book a professional in the end and picked me, hooray!
They had their civil ceremony and reception in Brighton Pavilion. It’s the first wedding I’ve done in the Pavilion and it’s a lovely venue. Being in the middle of February it was quite overcast and cold in the afternoon, and there was a lot of scaffolding on the outside of the building, so we took most of the photographs inside. Taking pictures of the couple in the Music Room, with the general public strolling around at the same time was slightly odd, but I was too busy to pay much attention and I think Yvonne and Steve were so thrilled to be married they didn’t really notice.
After the guests had finished a tour of the building everybody went up to the William IV suite for drinks and a buffet. This room is decorated with a fantastic hand painted wallpaper, with motifs of birds and trees. Somehow it seems to survive the visits of small children with pudding encrusted fingers and still look immaculate.
During the speeches both bride and groom were reduced to hiding their heads in their hands while their Dad and Mum respectively dished the dirt (I have to say I’d like to see that Orangina bottle and crisp packet collection, Steve). After that it was a couple of photos of the couple cutting the cake, then I left them to their evening party at CircusCircus. Hope it was a good one.

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You’ll find more information here about weddings at The Royal Pavilion