Weddings – Photographer Kevin Wilson – Website www.kevinwilson.co.uk

LOCATION: Larmer Tree gardens, Wiltshire

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3 24-70 lens. I selected this particular combination to ensure I would not lose the perspective in the background.  200 sec 2.8 800 iso

LIGHTING: Just available light, no addition.

CREATIVE PROCESS: The couple were rehearsing the first dance, I gave them instructions on what I was trying to achieve, they responded with aplomb.

POST PRODUCTION: Adobe Photoshop CS3 with tone only.

Portraits – Photographer Andres Reynaga -Website www.reynaga.co.uk

LOCATION: Chalet Aurore, Meribel

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D mark II, Canon EF Zoom lens - 24 mm - 70 mm - F/2.8 - Canon EF

LIGHTING: Elinchrom Ranger Quadra 2 heads

CREATIVE PROCESS: Shot for a luxury magazine, added water drops in the foreground to add flares to cover up the caracteless chatlet.

POST PRODUCTION: Added a bit of contrast as the image came out a bit soft because of the back light, soften skin and thats pretty much it.

Portraits – Photographer Andres Reynaga -Website www.reynaga.co.uk

LOCATION: London Studio

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D mark II, Canon 85mm f/1.2 LII lens

LIGHTING: Elinchrom Digital 1200 RX pack, 2 A300N head, silver umbrella, honeycomb grids

CREATIVE PROCESS: This is one of a series of images done for a rock bar in London McQueen that host live gigs. They required full life size prints that would suit the bar so I looked for a tattooed model and got music props.

POST PRODUCTION: Desaturated the colours, soften the skin, rotated the image to portrait format to gives a floating feel.

Portraits – Photographer Luc Coiffait -Website www.luccoiffait.com

LOCATION: Hopkinson Building, Nottingham

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark II and 85mm 1.2 L II

LIGHTING: Natural light only.

CREATIVE PROCESS: Andrea is a friend with a creative spirit and together we create and inspire each other to make still and moving images.

POST PRODUCTION: Photoshop CS4 – added a cross processed action I made and lowered the opacity. Then finished it off with a curves adjustment layer to boost the contrast.

Portraits – Photographer Crash Taylor -Website www.photographsbycrashtaylor.com

LOCATION: Cafe, Nottingham

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark II and 200mm 2.8 L IS

LIGHTING: Natural light only.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I wanted to create a sort of mannequin/ghost feel while people go along with their normal everyday lives. Not noticing whats going on within their surroundings.

POST PRODUCTION: Photoshop CS4 – added a cross processed action I made and lowered the opacity. Then finished it off with a curves adjustment layer to boost the contrast.

Portraits – Photographer Joel Grimes – Website www.joelgrimes.com

LOCATION: The background image was shot in Denver Colorado and the subject was shot in my LA studio.

CAMERA AND LENS: I am currently using a Canon 5D Mark II.  The background image was shot using a Canon 16-35 2.8 set at 16mm, and the basketball player Ryan William was shot using a Canon 24mm TS f/4 lens.

LIGHTING: Here I am using three Paul C. Puff Einstein’s, set at the high speed flash duration.  The two side lights are run through two Photoflex large soft boxes with grids and my main overhead light is run through a medium Photoflex Octodome.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This image came from a project for the Ball Up team, which is part of the Pro Streetball Basketball league.  The concept was to have them photographed in urban street scenes.  I shot a total of 11 players on a white sweep in my studio and knocking them out in Photoshop CS5.

POST PRODUCTION: All the final images were composites and the biggest challenge for this project was coming up with 11 different backgrounds.  The original backgrounds were shot in HDR and processed through Photomatix, and then all the post edgy techniques were done in Photoshop CS5.

Joel has been a huge inspiration to me throughout my career. He is an awesome photographer who is willing to share his knowledge to help you take your photography and business to the next level. I highly recommend his video tutorials, which you can purchase on his blog.

Weddings – Photographer David Murray – Website www.davidmurrayweddings.com

LOCATION: Andover Massachusetts (Boston suburb)

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3 and Nikkor 17-35mm 2.8

LIGHTING: Available light only

CREATIVE PROCESS: It was my first Hindu wedding and was just getting my bearings at the beginning of the ceremony.  I noticed several boys, being the curious kittens that they can be, trying to see what was on the other side of the silk cloth that had been set up as a barrier between the bride and groom. This is the part where they see one another for the first time.   I got down on my knees, and took the camera down closer to the floor and away from my eye.  I set the camera so that the red focus square would be on the right side of the frame.  After that,  I just kept pushing the focus button as the action unfolded, hoping that I was framing the subject correctly.  The frame shown was the result of what happens when boys will be boys!

POST PRODUCTION: There was little done in Photoshop.  The image is a raw file.  I had exposed for the groom and his parents (left side of frame), which meant that the boys were almost two stops under.   Pulling them out of the darkness is just a normal event for a former newspaper and wire photographer, because it is, for them, about the moment.

Film Still – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website - www.photographsbycrashtaylor.com

LOCATION: Lonesome village road.

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5d Mark II and Canon 85mm 1.2 L II.

LIGHTING: Natural light

CREATIVE PROCESS: I was scouting some locations and taken some stills of the lead actress for an upcoming short called Subconscious. I asked her to cover her face with hair leaving one eye visible and walk towards me. I asked her to raise her hand as she approached the camera. This was the first frame and it worked. It was a very overcast rainy day, which added to the atmosphere and made the models hair wet.

POST PRODUCTION: Photoshop CS4 – Silver Efex Pro 2 was used for a contrasty black and white image. I then added a texture, which is a shot of my car window covered in rain and dirt. I also played around with the eye to give it a more sinister effect.

Weddings – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website - www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: Stubton, Nottinghamshire, UK

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5d Mark II and Canon 16-35mm 2.8L

LIGHTING: Two off camera Canon speedlites placed on the bands speakers. Canon ST-E2 transmitter on the camera.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I always try to create an image that is completely different to the norm on the first dance. I love to include family, friends and the band within the frame to add dimension and also to create an image the bride and groom will cherish forever. I was taking a photo of the bride and groom when I saw the bride’s father’s hand pop into my frame. I pulled back to include his face and pressed the shutter. The expressions are wonderful and Dad seems so interested in what he is capturing on the screen.

The lighting from the off camera speedlites is perfect and rims all three of them. I use this setup on all my first dances when I can.

POST PRODUCTION: Photoshop CS4 – Silver Efex Pro 2 was used for a contrasty black and white image.

Portraits – Photographer Richy P. Walton – Website www.photograffiti.tv

LOCATION: The break dancer was shot in my studio and the background was a local car park in my home city. The car park had not long been finished which helped as it was pretty much empty when I went to shoot there.

CAMERA AND LENS: For the break dancer in the studio I used the Canon 50mm 1.8 (cheapestone) I use this lens for most things in the studio, it is fantastic for the small price of £80. The lens that I used to shoot the background was the Canon 20mm 2.8, I just just love the effect that this lens gives, it’s also a reasonably cheap lens that is great for the price. Both of these lens are used for pretty much all of my work. The portrait and car park were both shot with a Canon 5D.

LIGHTING: The Portrait had two six foot soft boxes lighting him from behind, a smaller soft box was used camera right and left and then an Orbis ring flash was used for fill. All soft boxes had Bowens 500s on them and the Orbis had an old Canon EZ speedlite through it. The car park was shoot with the natural light available and was made up of five different exposures which where then run through HDR software.

CREATIVE PROCESS: The break dancer was great, he had so many cool moves that he could pull off first time every time. I had the car park in my head and wanted a pose that was just totally impossible on a normal portrait session. This one for me was the most impressive.

POST PRODUCTION: The car park was HDR, I then took it into Photo Shop where I grunged it up a bit and took it from that horrible HDR look to something more believable. I used curves and blending modes with duplicated layers to achieve the final look. The portrait looked pretty cool off camera, I just had to match the colours with the background really. I again used curves to match the contrast with the background.

Portraits – Photographer  Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION – A farm in the English countryside

CAMERA AND LENS - Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 24-105mm f4 IS L

LIGHTING – Lowell ID video light

CREATIVE PROCESS - This is a film still from a HDSLR short film using the Canon 5D Mark II. It was my first time using the camera in a video capacity and the results were stunning. The film took us 4 hours and was handheld as we didn’t have any other equipment, not even a tripod. We start production on the next one in April, this time we will be experimenting with camera dollies, jibs etc… If you want to check out the film here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh2CKvKp89U

POST PRODUCTION – This is how it looked straight from camera. I added a curves adjustment layer and the shadow on the wall to give the effect the younger vampire is looking at this figure. It adds a lot more mystery to the image.

Wedding – Photographer Jonathan Dear – Website www.vibrantphotography.com.au

LOCATION: In the middle of Lake Illawara, about 2 hours South of Sydney, Australia.

CAMERA AND LENS: 5D Mk II + 70-200 f/2.8L IS – I started wide, but the sky wasn’t that interesting, so I found an area I liked and isolated it with a longer lens. Usually my 17-40L lives on my lens for environmental strobing action.

LIGHTING: Elinchrom Ranger Speed RX AS pack firing an Elinchrom A head into a Mola 28″ Setti Silver Beauty Dish with white diffusion sock. Unit was triggered by the Skyport RX triggers, supported by an avenger C-stand. The c-stand was pushed down into the wet sand until the legs disappeared and it didn’t move. The pack was sitting on a tarp we brought to keep it from getting wet. The pack was powered right down to its minimum of 1.5 (approx 17ws)

CREATIVE PROCESS: Another photographer / friend of mine took his rubby-ducky (inflatablemotorboat) out on our local lake and found a nice looking sandbar. We shot there for a while using the models own wardrobe but weren’t really feeling it. The model was kinda awkward and she wasn’t what we expected when we cast for her. It wasn’t until we popped her into the wedding dress nearthe end of the shoot, I started to get into the shoot.

POST PRODUCTION: Not too much, some cleaning up (pelican poo etc), the typical huge amount of dust I get on my images from my dirty sensor and some selective dodging and burning. The lighting really did most of the work for us.

Fashion – Photographer Jay Mawson – Website www.jaymawson.co.uk

LOCATION: Apartement, Leeds, UK

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm 1.8

LIGHTING: Natural Light

CREATIVE PROCESS: The shot was for my book; the model is predominantly an art nude model – I wanted to bring some fashion into her portfolio. I also wanted to capture some of Leeds in the images, I feel a strong attachment to my home town!

POST PRODUCTION: Lightroom export – contrast and colour adjustments only

Portrait – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: Beautiful old house in Nottingham, England. This location was stunning as most of the rooms had old wallpaper and hand painted walls.

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 70-200 2.8 IS L

LIGHTING: Natural Light coming though a huge bay window camera right and I was shooting into a mirror.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This was an image taken for a personal project I’m working on. It’s a series of portraits over two years with my favourite model and friend Ava. She is awesome and between us we come up with great ideas for shoots. The end result will be a limited edition book entitled Ava which will consist of 40 portraits over the two years.

POST PRODUCTION: Photoshop was used to give it that vintage colour effect which I achieved through some of my actions. I also added a border.

Fashion – Photographer Jay Mawson – Website www.jaymawson.co.uk

LOCATION: My studio in Yorkshire, England

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm 1.8

LIGHTING: Natural Light

CREATIVE PROCESS: Shot as part of an editorial set for a makeup artist focusing on Indian influence in fashion

POST PRODUCTION: Lightroom export – B&W treatment only

Portrait – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com | www.crashtaylorphotographer.com

LOCATION: Grade II listed building in the centre of Nottinghamshire, UK

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon EOS 3 film camera and Canon 50mm 1.4

LIGHTING: Natural light and a Lastolite Gold reflector

CREATIVE PROCESS: This is part of a personal project I am working on which is based on films like The Sixth Sense, The Others, The Ring, Poltergeist etc… The project will consist of approx 20 cinematic stills from ideas I get from watching these films. The models are brilliant and really enjoy acting out the scenes.

POST PRODUCTION: I started with a yellow film effect filter which complimented the ISO 800 film I was using. I added a texture which I overlayed several times over the image and finished with curves and dodge and burn.

Fashion – Photographer RC Riveria – Website www.rcriveria.com

LOCATION: My studio in SF

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5d Mark II & Canon 24-70mm L.  Shot at 50mm, f/11 to keep the sharpness. Shutter speed sync to 1/160 to prevent any natural light from coming in to the shot and freeze any movements by the model.

LIGHTING: Profoto D4 Pack, Acute Heads, Profoto Softlight Diffuser.  Grids for the back light to limit the light spill on the background.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This image is part of a personal series project entitled “mask”.  A black and white still life and fashion/portrait shoot with warrior/urban/hip inspired wardrobe.  It is a collaboration between myself and stylists I work with.

POST PRODUCTION: Processed via Adobe Camera Raw in color then converted to black and white in Photoshop.  There are a bunch of ways I do black and white but this was a black and white adjustment layer with the blue’s punched in a bit more to give it more contrast and deep blacks

Portraits – Photographer Crash Taylor Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: A very old house in England.

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 1D Mark IV and Canon 85mm 1.2 L II.

LIGHTING: Daylight and Lastolite reflector. There was a huge bay window behind me and to camera left. My assistant was holding a Lastolite sunlite reflector just below the model, out of frame.

CREATIVE PROCESS : I was taking a series of photographs of the model for a personal project I’m working on. As we were leaving the location, I saw her talking to her friend in front of the wall and loved the light hitting her face. I said give me some attitude and the photo was taken. I love the background wallpaper, the colours and the natural light rocks.

POST PRODUCTION: I played around in curves with the colour and added some contrast.

Fashion – Photographer RC Riveria – Website www.rcrivera.com

LOCATION: Old San Francisco Naval Shipyard

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5d mark II with canon 50mm 1.4.   ISO 100 -and 1/60 shutter speed with

LIGHTING: Profoto BPro-B2 Battery pack with 1 Head.  Used mostly for fill light since it was bright and sunny that day.  Also used a simple pop-up reflector on occasion (for fill light also).

CREATIVE PROCESS: This shoot was originally shot for a local magazine as a fashion editorial story entitled ” Running on Empty”.  It never went to print due to some creative power struggle.  I didn’t want it to get buried in the archives and since the images were not going to be in the magazine anymore I had complete control over what I wanted to do with them.  So I collaborated with ADAPT Digital ( http://www.adaptdigital.com )  here in San Francisco to give it a few (more) tweaks.  It ended up winning this years Photo District News PIX Imaging Contest (2nd Place for Fashion).

POST PRODUCTION: *see above

Portrait – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylorphotographer.com

LOCATION: Los Angeles alley

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 85mm 1.2 L II

LIGHTING: Natural light

CREATIVE PROCESS: This image is pure luck. I was taking a portrait of my brother when all of a sudden my son appeared in the frame. He sat down holding his biscuit and started stirring at his uncle. It’s the first photo I have taken of both of them together. It’s now framed in my studio.

POST PRODUCTION: I converted the image to black and white and pumped up the contrast. I then added a solid colour fill layer and changed the blend mode to soft light.

Weddings – Photographer Jaco Fourie – Website www.jdphotography.co.za

LOCATION: Science fiction museum Seattle USA

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3s with 14 – 24 F2.8

LIGHTING: Sun and 2 SB-800 speed lights.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I created this image at my workshop that I hosted in Seattle USA.  I love working at that building and can shoot there for days. This image is one of my all time favourites even thought it may not appeal to everybody. It is always difficult shooting into the sun working with just small light sources.  I used 2 SB-800’s. One is in front of the bride creating a bit of a rim around her face and the other was on a boom lighting up her head and back.  I like all the lines and even though the bride was standing still I posed her in such a way that it looks like she is walking up the stairs.

POST PRODUCTION: I cloned out all the light stands. Added a bit of defuse glow .

Sports – Photographer Mike Stokes – Website – www.tracksideimages.uk.com

LOCATION: Santapod Raceway

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 1D MkIII and Canon 300mm f2.8 IS.

LIGHTING: Natural daylight.

CREATIVE PROCESS: The use of this lens provides a really good level of compression between the car and the “Santapod” banner.  The “banner” is over the finish line of the drag strip which is a quarter of a mile away from the car.   Putting the image into black and white enhances the “retro” feel of the image and the angle of tilt provides an additional dimension.

POST PRODUCTION: The image was shot in RAW and final processing used Photoshop CS2 together with Corel Paint Shop Pro to increase the tonal contrast and clarify levels.

Fashion – Photographer – Titus Powell – Website www.tituspowell.com

LOCATION: My studio in Ealing, West London

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D200 with Nikon 18-200mm VR lens, which is a great all-purpose lens because of its enormous range. The image was taken a few years ago, hence the old camera.

LIGHTING: Two Bowens Esprit Gemini 500s. One main softbox in front and above, and one small low snoot to pick out detail at the bottom of the dress. The ‘halo’ effect was created in post production.

CREATIVE PROCESS: There’s a full step-by-step explanation of how I created this on my website (www.TitusPowell.com), with all the test and intermediary images. Briefly, though, I went for a ‘religious’ pose and lighting and then the doves were added in post.

POST PRODUCTION: There’s a lot of post in this image: the doves, the halo effect, and also stretching the model’s dress to be about 50% longer/taller.

Fashion – Photographer Sean Shimmel – Website www.lifeascinema.blogspot.com

Weddings – Photographer Matthias Richter – Website www.hochzeitsfotograf-matthias-richter.de

LOCATION: Paris, the Louvre. Around 8pm August 2010. It’s very hard to take a picture without tourists at the Louvre, but we had the advantage of a white wedding dress, so the crowd was very kind and gave us some time.

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D MII with 45mm TSE Lens. I used the TSE Lens because I wanted a surreal effect for this image. It should look like a dream, somehow unreal.

LIGHTING: Available light, just a few minutes before sunset.

CREATIVE PROCESS: Usually I try to take pictures at familiar places that are different to what people have taken before. This was my target with this shoot.

POST PRODUCTION: I burned the highlights and did some toning, thats all. The rest was done with the 45mm TSE.

Fashion – Photographer Hugh O’Malley – Website www.hughomalley.com

LOCATION: London

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3x – my main studio camera and Nikkor 50mm 1.2

LIGHTING: One 500w Bowens head with one large softbox.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This was supposed to be a simple beauty shoot – a head and shoulders shot – but on the day we improvised using the makeup artist’s fur coat and a few other props (the fur coat is in other shots on the series which you can see on my site) and I sent my assistant out to get some lingerie. We even took an impromptu shot while her hair was in curlers.  Our model, Whitney, is with Leni’s model Management and was only in town from the US for a few days and was up for a laugh.  She was great fun to work with and happy to improvise.

POST PRODUCTION: I did a basic retouch on the skin hair and background and then I overlaid the image with a texture which is a distorted shot of some smoke.  I used a layer mask to reveal the areas of importance yet deliberately left some bits slightly obscured to create an element of intrigue.

The final series of images was published in Labb Magazine Vol. 2, which came out in Summer 2010.

Portrait – Photographer Richard Tatham – Website www.richardtatham.co.uk

LOCATION - Studio shot

CAMERA AND LENS - Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, shutter speed 1/100, F-Stop f/13, ISO 100,Canon 85mm L  1.2, I use this lens all the time for model shoots fantastic quality

LIGHTING – Just Two lights used bowens 1000dx to the front fitted with  a octa box and a 500 dx with a box strip on the background to one side, we used a huge fan to blow the hair and flag but had to cheat a bit by holding the corner of the flag with tape.

CREATIVE PROCESS - This was shot for the World Cup for Sports Direct , We wanted someing striking but simple and this fits the bill.

POST PRODUCTION -Was done by Natalia Ivchenko who

1. cleaned the background using stamp and heeling tool

2. removed the person holding the flag and made some changes to the flag itself so it looks more natural

3. cleaned the models skin with the same tools, airbrushed so skin looks smooth and even

4. applied the soft light effect

Portraits – Photographer Matt Dewitt – Website www.mattdewitt.com

LOCATION: An unused office building/warehouse in St. Louis, Missouri. Several photographers and fitness models got together for an afternoon of shooting and we used this building as one of the models knew the person who owned the building.

CAMERA: Nikon D90 with a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens at 42mm. 1/200 @ f/11 at ISO 400. I bumped to ISO so I could use a smaller aperture to maintain more detail and focus.

Portraits – Photographer Jason Beet – Website www.eileenmason.co.uk

LOCATION: Eileen Mason Photography where I am the head of the Creative Team. I encourage all of our Photographers to produce exciting images that motivate them to take better photographs for our Clients. I had seen Jason on a website and approached him to pose for me.

CAMERA: We used was Hasselblad H2 80mm lens P21 Phase digital back.

LIGHTING: Bowens with ‘Beauty Dish’ (this is great for showing softness with a hard edge) plus a large 8ft reflector about 5 feet to the left.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I was looking for a gritty hard image, showing character. I choose a dark backdrop and strong lighting; I wanted to make the shot moody and manly. Expression is everything on this image I knew it was a great look from the model when I took the shot and I remember being excited to get it into Photoshop and work on it.

POST PRODUCTION: I changed the image to sepia because I loved the tone of this subject’s skin. I increased the Contrast slightly in Photoshop; eyes were slightly highlighted using the dodge tool. I darkened the edges of the image to bring more focus into the middle. NO softening was used on this image to keep it looking gritty!

Portraits – Photographer Jason Beet – Website www.eileenmason.co.uk

LOCATION: This portrait was created as of a range of images taken of a family group with Mum and Dad. The venue was Eileen Mason Photography where we have a very talented creative team. I concentrated on producing some really great group shots and the individuals of Ruby that hopefully Mum and Dad couldn’t resist. Ruby a 4year old live wire responded wonderfully to a full range of different poses we tried and she loved dressing up.

CAMERA: We used was Hasselblad H2 80mm lens P21 Phase digital back.

LIGHTING: Bowens Esprit with 50’’ soft box close to subject, fill was an Esprit bounced from the back walls. Fill also came from a gold reflector placed under the girls face bouncing light upwards.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This little girl had such an intense inquisitive look throughout the shoot, I knew after about 5 minutes of shooting the family groups she would photography beautifully. I wanted to create a slightly haunting image; I wanted the image to reflect her personality and show off eyes. I always insist on the studio being a quiet and tranquil environment so I can talk and connect with the model. I feel children respond well to this. I took mainly close up images to show off her features and choose the gold material to compliment Ruby’s pale complexion and golden hair.

POST PRODUCTION: Using Adobe Photoshop the image was tweaked in curves to lighten, it was then high passed through filters to heighten the intensity in the eyes. I then softened the image with Gaussian blur on 30% opacity brought back the eyes and darkened the edges.

Fashion – Photographer Ross James – Website www.RossJamesPhotography.com

LOCATION:  Korean Pagoda in Seattle, WA USA

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D300 with Nikkor 28mm f/2.8. Settings were 3 seconds, f2.8, ISO 200. Since I wanted to add an abstract element of ambient lights from the surroundings I needed a long shutter to paint the light shapes. I also wanted these lights to have a soft, blurred edge so I choose the lens’ largest aperture.

LIGHTING: Camera right I had two Nikon SB800′s in one 54″ Wescott Halo and far back camera left an Alienbees AB800 as a backlight.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I like this shot a lot. It shows the kind of dark mood that I was shooting for. But I also like this image because of all of the technicalities involved in creating it. The shot had to happen in near darkness so that the pagoda and the model jumping in mid air were capture sharply by the flash. I wanted an f-stop of 2.8 so the focus was very crucial and with the model taking a few steps and jumping in the dark there was some guess-work on both our parts to maintain the focus distance. Then immediately after the flash fired I had less than 3 seconds to turn the camera to my side towards the ambient street lights more than 50 yards away and blindly shake and move the camera around hoping to paint shapes on the frame without covering up too much of the model. All of this at 3:30am at 36 degrees Fahrenheit.

POST PRODUCTION: In post I touched up the hair. The hair stylist, Heather Nichols, had very limited time to make the concept happen and we knew we would be relying on photoshop to polish up the “hair cones”. Then I cleaned up some bird poop on the railing, selectively adjusted the color of the fog at the top created by ambient light from green/yellow to red, and applied some lens correction.

Fashion – Photographer Brett Harkness – Website www.brettharknessphotography.com

LOCATION: This image was taken during our overnight workshop on the woods in York. It was the last shot at around 9.30pm just as we were losing the light. We found this small clearing in the woods and thought it would be a great final scene to end the first day. With our model draped in “vintage chique” petticoats from a great company called Love Miss Daisy we set up the shot. The whole group was standing knee deep in water to get this shot. The reflection was very important to the success of the shot and I love the way that Natasha, our very hardy model is staring directly at the camera. We shot some images without the stick but I found that this prop gave her a ” swamp witch” like appearance. I mean that in a nice way!

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon EOS 1DS Mark III, 70-200mm 2.8 IS USM II, 400ISO 100th sec @f8

LIGHTING: Elinchrom Ranger packs x2, 1 135 OCTA box ( main light on 1/2 power) 1 naked light to the rear to light the tree. We also used a handful of small smoke bombs to give us a little mystery in the shot.

CREATIVE PROCESS: We started off shooting facing to the right, as the shoot developed I spotted this fallen tree over in the corner. The shot immediately came to mind and within 5 mins we had it nailed!!

POST PRODUCTION: I was shooting jpg here so try and get the shot right in camera as near as I can. A little colour tweak and contrast and that was about it!

Weddings – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: Leicestershire, United Kingdom

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 16-35 2.8 L II

LIGHTING: Three Canon Speedlites. One on-camera as a master unit and two on the band’s speakers as slaves. The room was full of daylight coming through a huge floor to ceiling window on camera right. I wanted the photo to look like it was night time so I used a small aperture of F22 to overpower the ambient. The speedlites did a great job though they were screaming at me!

CREATIVE PROCESS: I loved the lines in the ceiling and wanted to show this off with a low angle and a wide angle lens set at 16mm. I also love the expression on the bride’s face and how everybody else in the photo is so concentrated on this once in a life time moment. The flash just adds awesome rim lighting to the bride and groom and also highlights the guests.

POST PRODUCTION: I used a Crash-Art black and white action and added some tonal contrast to make it pop in Photoshop CS4.

Fine Art – Photographer Trevor Yerbury – Website www.yerburystudio.com

LOCATION: This image was created on one of our Art Nude workshops. The venue was very near to our studio just outside of Edinburgh, a deserted wood with plenty of opportunities to create some exciting images. We were working with Christiane, our model for the day, and I decided to venture further into the wood so left Faye and our delegates and went looking for other options. I eventually came across this fallen tree which I immediately visualised with a nude either lying on her back or preferably, if she was willing, on her front. I walked back to the group and told them of my discovery the only problem once we arrived at the tree was persuading Christiane to lie, on her stomach on the branch of a rotting decaying tree infested with goodness knows what. Of course Christiane being Christiane needed no persuading though we knew this would be the last shot of the day as the tree would mark her body quite badly. Once into the pre discussed position the image was fairly easy to capture and required only minimal body adjustment.

CAMERA & LENS: D700 + 85mm, only digital camera and lens that I own. Exposure 125th 4.5 manual.

LIGHTING: God’s own assisted by Faye reflecting some light back in from the left side of the image.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I can always pre visualise the final image and this was no exception. The human figure when set is such natural surroundings will always create an interesting image it is just a question of how you place the figure within that environment.

POST PRODUCTION: Very little as always. Converted the file to black and white and simply added a bit of tone to replicate the effect I used to get when I printed onto Kodak Ektalure paper.

Fashion – Photographer Jay McLaughlin – Website www.jmphotographer.com

LOCATION: My Studio, Buckinghamshire, UK

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon EOS 1D Mark III, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L

LIGHTING: 400w Elinchrom D-Lite-4 head with silver beauty dish above on camera left

CREATIVE PROCESS: Rock chick themed set. High contrast lighting to give strong lights and darks and then sat against the back of the backdrop to create shadows behind her.

POST PRODUCTION: Black & White conversion in Lightroom, skin retouching in Photoshop CS3…. I should really get rid of the white mark on her shoe… it bugs me!

Fashion – Photographer Jay McLaughlin – Website www.jmphotographer.com

LOCATION: My Studio, Buckinghamshire, UK

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon EOS 1D Mark III, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L

LIGHTING: 400w Elinchrom D-Lite-4 head with large softbox above on camera left

CREATIVE PROCESS: Retro look inspired by flower hair piece on her head. Soft lighting to help with the 60s/70s feel.

POST PRODUCTION: Retro colour treatment in Lightroom, with skin retouching in Photoshop.

Fashion – Photographer Karl Taylor – Website www.karltaylor.co.uk

LOCATION: Karl Taylor Studio

CAMERA AND LENS: Hasselblad H2, 80mm Lens.

LIGHTING: 1 Elinchrom 1200RX with Beauty Dish, 1 Elinchrom 1200RX with background reflector dish.

CREATIVE PROCESS: For this image I wanted to capture a beautiful model in an unconventional way. I had been toying with the idea in my mind for a shot of a girl slipping on a banana skin whilst carrying drinks, however I ditched the idea of the banana in favour of a more explosive looking image. The shot was achieved with just two studio lights and some large white polyboards and a crash mat. It took several attempts to get the jump right and capture the expression. The model Emma did a fantastic job and was very professional, repeating the jump over and over until I was happy with the pose. The silky dress was chosen for it’s “ripple in the wind” quality and the drinks were shot separately under the same lighting set up. It was all filmed for my Fashion & Beauty DVD and you can see the trailer on my website for more info. I love the feel of the shot and the subtlety of tonal range in the background and shadow.

POST PRODUCTION: The models image is pretty much as is, I then removed the crash mat from the scene and photographed the empty scene for the background. I then photographed two separate flying drink shots which my assistant threw in the air several times until I got the right spread of liquid. I comped the drinks into the main shot and defocused the foreground drink to add some depth to the image. and also added the shadow on the floor by drawing in an outline in Photoshop and filling with grey and building up several blurred and reduced opacity layers.

Note from Crash – Karl’s DVD’s are excellent and highly recommended. Check them out here: Fashion and Beauty DVD

Fashion – Photographer Karl Taylor – Website www.karltaylor.co.uk

LOCATION: Karl Taylor Studio

CAMERA AND LENS: Hasselblad H2, 80mm Lens.

LIGHTING: 4 Elinchrom lights, 1 with a Recta Softbox top back left and 3 other lights with honeycomb grids in various thicknesses to pinpoint  the light to where I  needed it.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This image was for a regular client of mine who manufacture bespoke furniture. The basically told me to make this chair look sexy! The trick here was to not let the model overpower the product shot so I placed her further back to give the chair more promenance at the front. Using the honeycomb grids I highlighted several areas of the chair to add mood and show off the richness of the wood. I tried to keep the lighting on the model more subtle and mysterious to help enhance the sexy feel to the shot. It took a little bit of time to identify the best pose but this was my favourite as the model is looking towards where the client logo and copy were to be placed in the final ad.

POST PRODUCTION: Post Production was limted to a little bit of cleaning up on the floor and extending the background out the left a little. Other than that there was only a little bit of Photoshop dodging and burning on the model and chair.

Portraits – Photographer Julia Boggio – Website www.juliaboggiophotography.com

LOCATION: Julia Boggio Studios, Wimbledon, UK

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon EOS 5D Mk II with 24-70mm lens set to ISO 100 f/
13 at 1/160th.

LIGHTING: Broncolor Para 170 FB and Broncolor Pulso G 1600J head with
Pulsoflex C soft box attached

CREATIVE PROCESS: I was working on the portfolio for my new photography studio and was playing with the idea of shooting children as famous icons. My make-up artist’s son had long brown hair and I thought he’d make a great little Elvis. His parents even subjected him to Elvis videos on You Tube to help him perfect the King’s lip curl. I liked the idea of putting our little Elvis in front of the Union Jack, even though Elvis is an American icon. I’m an American in the UK, too, after all!

POST PRODUCTION: We removed a door from the flag because the flag is actually a bit of wallpaper in our studio and there is a big door that leads into our post-production area on the left side. I also added in some blur to bring focus to Elvis and then added grain to the whole image.

Portraits – Photographer Frank Doorhof – Website www.frankdoorhof.com

LOCATION: My studio in Emmeloord.

CAMERA AND LENS: Phase One DF with Leaf AptusII7 digital back

LIGHTING: One Elinchrom RX600 with reflector and grid and one strip light as fill in light to open up the shadows just a bit. The lamp was a gift from my parents for use in the studio and contains high wattage tungsten bulbs so we have lots of light when mixing it with strobes.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This one had some planning, we were planning for some time to do a session with clowns and a circus look in the studio, as you can see the session went another direction. I think that’s the good thing from free work, although you have a plan you can always expand on that plan and continue to build. In this case we build to something much more extreme than planned simply because our model could carry the expressions I wanted, in cases like this I can be very picky in what I choose, the shot has to be just the way I want, and to be honest two days later I will always see something I would have changed

POST PRODUCTION: Was mainly changing the colors and adding a sharpening layer, as mentioned with the other shots I see Photoshop as icing on the cake and use it mostly to finish what I couldn’t do with light or in camera, in this case the more sharpening and the color tone. All shots are always minor in Photoshop; my rule of thumb is often that one should not need more than 5-10 minutes in Photoshop.

Street – Photographer Crash Taylor - Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 24-105 f4 L IS

LIGHTING: Natural light

CREATIVE PROCESS: I was walking back to the car after shopping with my family and saw this awesome ruined hotel. I loved the textures and colours but it was missing something. It definitely needed something else to finish it off. I had a problem because it was an extremely busy road and it was probably 10 mins before there was a break in the traffic. Just as I was about to pack up, I got a 30 second traffic break and miraculously these 3 people walked right into the my frame and snap, job done.

POST PRODUCTION: I processed the image in Photoshop CS4 using my HDR techniques to give it that high contrast detailed surreal look. It really brings out the textures in the building etc… I muted the colours using curves and added a lens flare. I also added my cinematic yellow film filter action to warm it up a little and finished it off with some 800 ISO film grain.

Fashion – Photographer Frank Doorhof - Website www.frankdoorhof.com

LOCATION: Studio Emmeloord

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D with 70-200 f2.8 IS L

LIGHTING: Elinchrom – I used a beauty dish and two accents plus one strobe on the background.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I love the more “fantasy” side of photography; I’m always looking for something that is more than a posed model with jeans and a top. In this case the cup and saucer looked liked a fantastic addition to her red hair and almost white face. So from this, the idea was born and made to fit thanks to an amazing MUA and model of course.

POST PRODUCTION: As always was rather limited, I strongly believe that a shot should be 100% there when you press the shutter, if not you shouldn’t shoot but change things until it’s perfect. In this image, most of the work was done on the skin to even it out and give it that porcelain look. Most of the look was achieved by the MUA although Photoshop was needed to achieve the final result.

Fashion – Photographer Sarah Johnson  – Website www.sarahlouisephotography.com

LOCATION: Studio

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5d and 24-70mm lens

LIGHTING: I used a large reflector on the background and also one on the model, quite far away from her so the light was nice and soft.

CREATIVE PROCESS: The images were for a story about eco fashion, so I wanted to keep them light and fresh and natural, I did this with lots of light and a nice big amount of light on the background to keep it very bright.

POST PRODUCTION: I played around with the tones on this image to give the denim a slightly weathered hue; I wanted to keep the images soft and clean.

Editorial – Photographer Michael Greenberg – Website www.phototerra.com

LOCATION: Train museum.

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3, 24-70 /2.8 set at about 50mm at f4, ISO 800, WB is set to flash.

LIGHTING: The lighting is a bit complex with total of 4 flashes (sb800) connected with each other wirelessly with TTL mode off. One fill light is coming from the window; the other one is gelled and set to maximum zoom while pointing at the sit next to the model. The third light is bouncing behind my back that creates overall fill. The forth light is also gelled and zoomed to 85mm while pointing at the ceiling where the male model is sitting.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This shot is one from the 6-spread fashion editorial for high-end wedding magazine that is distributed in Montreal and Toronto. The whole idea of the photo shoot was about a girl who travels around the globe to find her prince. One of the beginning shots was her boarding the train an accidentally dropping her suitcase. The suitcase, which we filled with lots of plush toys, opens on impact and the entire rail track is filled with toys. I thought this was a beautiful opening to the story. So, this shot is a continuation of the concept. I put the male model and asked him to observe the bride. I asked the bride to look into the window anxiously to make the whole moment natural and believable. No one is striking a pose and this is what makes this image work in my opinion.

POST PRODUCTION: The postproduction is simple and it is not. In terms of cropping and lighting it was there and I didn’t have to change anything. However I had to retouch her skin and shape her arms just a bit. Saturation boost of +15 was applied. WB was adjusted to cool off the image a bit. I always strive to have my photography as natural as possible. I believe in my photography skills rather than my Photoshop skills.

Portraits – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: Crash-Art studio, Nottingham, UK

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D and Canon 70-200mm 2.8 IS L

LIGHTING: Natural light coming from a huge window camera right and two small Jessops VL35 video lights set up camera left – to the side and behind the model.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I took this portrait approx 4 years ago when I just started getting back into photography. It’s a simple portrait of a friend and model. It was the last image of the day before packing up. I asked Kaylee to sit on the stairs and give me some attitude which she did perfectly. I love the lines and the colours in the image.

POST PRODUCTION: I saturated the colours in PS and smoothed her skin. That’s it, nice and easy and the whole image including shoot time and retouching took 15 mins.

Sports – Photographer Steve Bonini – Website www.stevebonini.com

LOCATION: This was shot on location in Arizona at a real life, but make shift gym where the hard core go to train.

CAMERA AND LENS: Camera was Canon 1 DS Mark 3 and the lens was the Canon 24-70 2.8. The 24-70 is a lens I use a lot because it can shoot wide as well as portrait perspectives. This was most likely shot at around the 40 mm mark so that the front weight enlarged a little bit, but not so much that the weight lifter shrank away because of the distance from the camera.

LIGHTING: Lighting was simple, and assembled quickly. One Profoto beauty dish with a grid camera right, and for the background, I used a medium soft box off to the left. As always, it’s a balancing act when adjusting light levels, but it came together fast because we knew we were on a schedule.

CREATIVE PROCESS: For me, the ” process ” is a result of many years of shooting as well as just knowing how you want it to end up. In the days of Ansel Adams, it was called pre-visualizing, and I suppose that’s still valid. The great thing today is that you can check your results on a monitor instantaneously to see if you chose a direction that works.

POST PRODUCTION: The post production was handed over to master retouch artist Scott Dorman at Smalldog Image Works based in Atlanta. Scott has worked on a few of these for me, and for the same client, and I love his style. Pretty much, the image was as you see it now, with the exception of adding the words on the weight plus some general beauty moves, which bring the show to life. Scott jokingly calls it his ” kick-ass filter ” and I’d agree a hundred percent!

Portrait – Photographer Rick Wenner – Website www.rickwenner.com

LOCATION: In studio @ Brooklyn Studios – Brooklyn, NY

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 85mm 1.8 set at f/13 ISO 100.

LIGHTING: Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS 1100 in an Elinchrom 39″ Deep Octa, high camera left.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This photo was created during a test shoot with Rachel. I gave the stylists full creative control over one look and here’s what they came up with. I love this image because it almost has an old Hollywood feel to it. My only direction to Rachel for this photo was to keep her eyes to the light and she took care of the rest.

POST PRODUCTION: Adjustments in Lightroom of lowering the saturation rather than greyscale conversion, slight increase in clarity and contrast. Imported into Photoshop CS3 for basic skin retouching and stray hair removal. Little bit of dodging and burning for more contrast.

Fashion – Photographer Rachel Hanel – Website www.rhanelphotography.com

LOCATION: Michigan

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D700 with a 50mm nikor lens

LIGHTING: 1 Travelite 750 watt head with a medium soft box

CREATIVE PROCESS: I love the rawness of this image, and the model’s expression (Maddison Quinn with Ford Chicago), somehow it just all worked together perfectly. We were shooting an editorial out in the woods and we were using a house (generally used during the summer) and it had this awesome velvet couch that I just had to shoot somehow. The suit is a velvet Cavalli piece that just looked great with the couch. Stylist is Beckett McMahan, Hair/makeup by Morgan Blaul.

POST PRODUCTION: I used a color tone on this image (curves layers in Photoshop) and I added a lot of contrast. I love to bring some blue into the shadows and yellow into the highlights, and then add a little cyan for fun. There were a lot of layer masks and a lot of curves layers for this image. I love to manipulate the color manually instead of using a program or plug-in to do it for me. I really love to give each image a unique finish, since no 2 images are the same in tonal range.

Weddings – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: Fawsley Hall, Northampton

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark II and the awesome Canon 16-35mm 2.8 II L

LIGHTING: Natural light

CREATIVE PROCESS: This is a image I try to capture at every wedding. It’s definitely not an easy shot and it did take some time to perfect. The bride and groom have no clue. We are walking back to the reception venue after taking some portraits. I’m walking with the camera holding it at ground level and firing away at 16mm. This is one of two exposures out of 10 that captured the moment. I love the angles, the movement in the dress and hair and how their feet are in sync as they walk. It’s different and the bride loved it.

POST PRODUCTION: I ran my cinematic film action which includes a hue/sat layer, a detail enhancer, a blending mode and an advanced blending option as well as some grain to give it that film tone look.

Fashion – Photographer Rachel Hanel – Website www.rhanelphotography.com

LOCATION: Chicago apartment

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D700 with a 50mm nikor lens

LIGHTING: 2 Travelite 750 watt heads, with medium soft boxes, one behind the model and down the hallway, the other behind me and slightly to my right.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This is a great example of an image that just happened by accident. The model (Heather Kuzmich) was in love with the wardrobe stylist’s cat and I decided to humor her and let her do a few images at the end with the cat. They ended up being my favorites from the set. You always have to be ready to go with the flow and capture things as they happen. Stylist is Beckett McMahan, Hair/makeup by Morgan Blaul.

POST PRODUCTION: I didn’t do too much to this image, just basic skin retouching and a bit of a color tone in Photoshop CS3. I love to give my images colorcasts because I feel that it brings a certain separation from reality. It becomes more surreal. I always use multiple layers (I love layer masks) of curves/levels in all of my work.

Weddings – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: London

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 16-35mm 2.8 L II – Camera was in manual and speedlite on ETTL

LIGHTING: Canon 580 EX II bounced behind me into the roof of Rolls Royce

CREATIVE PROCESS: We were driving through London in the most beautiful vintage cream Rolls Royce, on our way to the reception. I turned around to ask a question when I saw them both looking out the window at the famous Oxford Street. I snapped off a frame and caught this wonderful loving moment between the two of them. It makes me wonder what they are both thinking as they sit holding hands enjoying this magnificent ride through central London.

POST PRODUCTION: I enhanced the details using curves, surface blur and unsharp mask. I added my film effect action to give it that cinematic film look, which I love.  I also added some film grain to the image using a layer filled with grey and then added grain and some Gaussian blur.

Weddings – Photographer Simon Mark Whitton – Website www.smwphotography.co.uk

LOCATION: Leeds, UK

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3s @ F2.8, 1/100 sec, 800 ISO Canon 24-70mm f2.8

LIGHTING: Window light

CREATIVE PROCESS: The makeup artist was late due to the weather (heavy snow) so the Bride got dressed first and then had her makeup done after. There were two mirrors in the room so after shooting the obvious; I started looking for a new ‘angle’ on the scene and the ‘reverse’ shot in the mirror worked for me.

POST PRODUCTION: The original image is a little ‘blown’, but I thought it was worth rescuing it with a little Photoshop work and a bit (OK, extensive) toning etc to give it a more ‘artistic’ feel in keeping with my signature style.

Fashion – Photographer Richard Redleaf – Website www.redleafstudios.ca

LOCATION: Abandoned Farm House. Rural Saskatchewan, Canada.

CAMERA AND LENS: 5D, 50mm f1.2 Lens.  Settings: f1.2 | 1/1600 | ISO 1250

LIGHTING: Available light only

CREATIVE PROCESS: Amy and I shoot with prime lenses, which force us to move around our shooting space. Every image always has multiple angles, and sometime you just need to move around your subject, and you will be surprised at the different looks you can create. This image was again captured using only the available light from a single window in the room. It was shot from a ladder, and we made sure we had her face turned into the light.  We wanted the image to have feeling, and tell a story.

POST PRODUCTION: We capture everything in RAW, and crop in camera.  Tone was created using Red Leaf Actions.

I just wanted to say Richard that I use and love your actions and textures. If you’re looking for a great set of actions to enhance your work these are brilliant. Check them out here www.redleafboutique.com

Portraits – Photographer Stuart Wood – Website www.stuart-wood.com

LOCATION: Dronfield in Derbyshire 22nd February this year in the late afternoon when the light was dying.

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3 30mm lens @ f9

LIGHTING: One Ranger location light to one side

CREATIVE PROCESS: This was a commission for Sunday Express Magazine about people who rely on dogs. Evie has hearing problems and Gem is a trained hearing dog. I wanted to show the deep empathy that the two have for each other. I thought I would use the cold weather to my advantage and isolate the pair together surrounded by the dramatic but hostile environment. For me it worked better than all my expectations when Evie closed her eyes and the dog did too! This only happened for a fleeting moment but it shows perfectly the indomitable bond between them that I was trying to capture. Forming the perfect pyramid shape they look so safe together, like nothing could ever hurt them.

Even though I planned the shot and added to the drama with my location light by making their surroundings darker than the subjects, it still needed that extra input from the pair that for me lifted it from being a simple likeness to saying something so special about what they have together. I am very grateful to the both of them for giving me that. The picture editor later rang me to say that the shot had reduced the magazine editor to tears.

POST PRODUCTION: included darkening the sky and foreground snow slightly

Pictorial – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: 3am under the Arctic sun in Finland

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D, Canon 16-35mm

LIGHTING: Natural light

CREATIVE PROCESS: This photograph was taken at 3am under the majestic Arctic sun a few days after my wedding in Finland. I was out fishing with some friends enjoying a beer when this frame appeared in front of my lens. It just summed up the relaxing time I had that night and a moment I will never forget.

A few days ago I was thinking about how important photography is to me. I have a terrible memory, so if I don’t take photos I don’t really remember much. So for me to have my camera with me at all times helps me to remember my daily life.

This image is going to be available as a limited edition print of 20. If you are interested please let me know.

POST PRODUCTION: Only a curves adjustment layer. That is pretty much what the sky and lake looks like under the Arctic sun. Absolutely beautiful.

Fashion – Photographer Amy Redleaf – Website www.redleafstudios.ca

LOCATION: Abandoned Farm House. Rural Saskatchewan, Canada

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D MII, 24mm f1.4 Lens.  Settings: f1.6 | 1/1600 | ISO 1600

LIGHTING: Available light only

CREATIVE PROCESS: This series of images was taken in an old empty house in rural Saskatchewan. We had planned this shoot for a couple weeks, and arranged a model, makeup, a real flower hair piece, various outfits and props. Once all our items came in we planned out the various shots that we wanted to achieve during the shoot. It was a session to stretch our talent and creative abilities. We shoot only with available light and the images from this session really highlight the beauty of natural light. As a husband and wife team we both shoot and often we are taking images at the same moment just different angles. In this case Richard was shooting from above and I was shooting across the record player to the model. The model was amazing to work with, we told her to close her eyes and pretend she was enjoying listening to the music from the old record player.

POST PRODUCTION: We capture everything in RAW, and crop in camera.  Tone was created using Red Leaf Actions.

Fashion – Photographer Hugh O’Malley – Website www.hughomalley.com

LOCATION: The model shots were shot in my studio in Hackney in London and the background components were shot in a car wrecking yard in North London

CAMERA AND LENS: The car parts were shot on film.  The settings for an iso 200 speed film were 1/60 at F5.6.  The best images were then scanned to high res digital. The studio shots were taken on my Nikon D3x with a 105mm lens and a 50mm lens at a speed of 1/125 and F8.0 at iso 100.  The tighter head shots with the 105mm and the wider body shot with the 50mm

LIGHTING: The car parts were shot using natural light and on film. The studio shots were shot with a beauty dish on a 500w head almost directly above the model looking down and another couple of lights (500w flash heads with barn doors) used as rim lights to pull her out of the dark background.  With her head tilted back she got a good amount of light on her eyes but with her head in a normal position you can see we got these very deliberate dark shadows under the eyes which add to the air of mystique.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This project was very much collaboration between me and the hair stylist – Andrew Thomas-Corbett.  We met a couple of times before the shoot to discuss the concept and inspiration.  He was very much inspired by Aleister Crowley’s Thoth book of the Tarot and I have always had a fascination with the Occult so I was very familiar with them.  The drawings on them are very beautiful.  We also liked HR Geiger’s artwork (the artist who did most of the art direction for the Alien movies).  We also looked at Tibetan Mandalas and a few other sources.  We wanted to have an industrial feel, a sort of robotic feel but still maintain something of the organic and we wanted them to be sensual and seductive. We explained the concept clearly to the Model so she would be able to interpret our brief with as much information as possible.  Our makeup was done by Angela Deviatova.

POST PRODUCTION: For the background I took parts of one of the crashed car images and mirrored it 4 ways.  Thus creating a symmetrical mandala effect.  The model and the hair required some basic skin cleaning and cleaning up of frizzy bits but Magda (a lovely Polish girl from Leni’s Model Management)  had great skin to start with so this didn’t require much work except that it had to be done in triplicate.  I normally do final skin work with a dodge and burn on a 50% gray fill layer with blend mode set to ‘Soft Light’.  Then I brush with a white or black brush on a low opacity.

The next part is where it got a bit creative and required lots of masks to reveal and hide certain parts of each figure.  The patterns on the skin were done with a combination of layers with a multiply blend mode and masks revealing the underlying patterns. To burn in the edges and other areas I didn’t want the viewer to be distracted by, I used a channel mixer layer set to ‘Black and White with Red Filter’, set the blending mode to ‘Multiply’, invert the mask and brush back in the areas you want with a white brush on the opacity you require.  A bit complex but it gives you a great degree of control.

Finally when I’m happy, I’ll output the .jpeg and run a sharpen filter on it.  I don’t like to have merged layers in my .psd file while I’m working.  Non-destructive editing is the order of the day. The final series of images were exhibited in a Gallery in Bethnal Green just before Christmas 2009.

Fashion – Photographer Claire Pepper – Website www.clairepepper.co.uk

LOCATION: A location house called “The Perch” In Camberwell, London.

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Lens Canon 50mm f1.8

LIGHTING: Natural light – window is behind her and the light is being bounced back in with a silver reflector held quite close. Camera on a tripod on f1.8 and 1/80th iso 400.

CREATIVE PROCESS: The theme of the shoot was based around the location - a dusty old house full of vintage props. Generally just wanted a nostalgic wistful feel as if the girl was stuck in this house and time had moved on…. (Most of the other shots from the story were wider shots but I wanted to do a close up as she had such a great face. We really wanted the light to reflect off the feathers and make them glimmer.

POST PRODUCTION: I slightly desaturated the image, put a bit of lens vignetting on, and boosted the contrast slightly. In the original image her hair was reflecting quite blue, so I made a duplicate layer, took the blue out of the bottom layer and erased through just on the hair so as to keep the blue in the rest of the image. (A bit of a lazy method to be honest probably not to be encouraged…!)

Styling by Louisa Daniel

Make up and Hair by Ellie Tobin

Model is Nadia @ Select

Portraits – Photographer Elizabeth Sawdon – Website www.lizzysawdonphotography.com.au

LOCATION: Our family room, in front of our piano.  Port Douglas, Far North Queensland.

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon EOS 5D Mark II – Lens 50mm f/1.2L -  ISO 400, f11, 1/160 I chose the standard focal length because I wanted the portrait to reflect my vision, we were inside and with the 50mm I can be close enough yet leave space around the subject.  There was little room to move, our kitchen bench was right behind me. ISO 400 – good iso for working with off camera flash indoors. I played around with the aperture and the shutter speed when working with the flash; keeping in mind I didn’t want excessive shallow depth of field in the image.

LIGHTING: off camera Canon speedlight 580 EX, triggered with pocket wizards, 1/16 power.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This was quite simply, the first time I had tested out my pocket wizards.  I set the flash up on the light stand; the piano stool was placed conveniently so I invited my children to come sit for a picture.  This portrait of my son Izaak [11] was taken in the minute or so he decided to cooperate with me. While waiting for me to adjust the camera he blew a beautiful bubble and I caught it just in time.  I got him to blow a few more bubbles but the first one was the best.  I love the deadpan expression.  It is vintage Izaak, complete disregard for authority!

POST PRODUCTION: I cloned out the background on the right of frame; the piano keyboard with a magazine resting above it was very distracting.  I preferred the shadow. I then applied a subtle reduced colour action and unsharp mask.

Weddings – Photographer Martha Ramirez – Website www.udsphoto.com

LOCATION: Downtown Miami at a quaint cupcake shop called “Two Girls and a Cupcake”.

CAMERA AND LENS: The equipment I used was my baby, the Nikon D3 with a 24-70mm .My Settings were 1/200s iso: 400 Focal length:  32.0mm     and f-stop f/13.0

LIGHTING: Alien Bee Pro Photoflash B1600 with a 4ft. Paul Buff Soft Box from high above.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This image was conceived mentally a few weeks prior, along with my Art Director. The idea was to go back to an era that was fun and careless. Not knowing what the model would look like, or if the idea would even work, we scouted locations, shopped and borrowed props, in hopes that it would all come together.  It turns out the model could not have been more perfect! The skates fit just right and the make up and hair were exactly what I had envisioned. The end result was the “Retro Chick”. This one is true to my heart, as I spent most of the 80″s on skates.

POST PRODUCTION: Little was done to this image in post. A little vibrancy added to the colors and Viola!

Auto – Photographer James Russell – Website www.russell-photo.com

LOCATION: Cheadle, Cheshire. Just in a garage, not a glamorous studio.

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D 24-105mm lens at 45mm. f16, 1/180 ISO 200. I needed to maximise depth of field and as I wanted the front to dominate, I chose not to use too long a focal length. Max shutter sync speed used to avoid any ambient light from registering.

LIGHTING: 4 Elinchrom monoblocs with soft boxes and black umbrellas, 2 positioned on each side of the car and one with a grid at the front.

CREATIVE PROCESS: My client had given me an open brief and simply wanted me to create a dynamic image. I like simplicity in a photograph and set out to create a minimalist image with a rim lighting effect. The front end is very aggressive with an interesting structure so I decided to concentrate attention on this plus those great headlights. I was originally told I would have as much time as I needed to take the shot, but when I got there I was promptly told I only had one and a half hours! Hardly enough time to light a car but I set to work straight away and managed to complete the assignment. The lights with umbrellas were positioned halfway along the car to light the interior and mirrors. The two lights with soft boxes were placed at the front to give side illumination and pick up all the detail at the front, in particular the area under the headlights. A light with a honeycomb grid placed at the front added a touch of sparkle to the rings. A separate exposure was also taken with the headlights switched on to be blended later.

I love the image and it has just won me the Advertising category of the Professional Photographer Awards, so I am very proud of it. At the time I took it, it was a big deal being one of the first cars in the country and has received much press adulation since, so I felt privileged to be able to take the shot. The image relies on symmetry and of course the reflection for its impact. I chose a straight on composition to emphasise the aggressive nature of the vehicle.

POST PRODUCTION: Since I was shooting this in a garage as opposed to a purpose built studio, it was necessary to retouch the bonnet to remove reflections and this also allows the famous Audi rings to dominate this part of the picture. The mirror image is also added in Photoshop, by a simple inversion of the image, reducing its size slightly, adding a gentle ripple effect and darkening down to make a convincing reflection. It has created debate as to whether the reflection is real or ‘Photoshopped’ so I must have got something right! As it was a black car anyway the final thing to do was to convert to black and white to enhance the graphic feel.

Sports – Photographer – Christian Aslund – Website www.christian.se

LOCATION: Ramundberget, Sweden

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70 mm f/2.8. 1//250 Sec. f/18

LIGHTING: The sun is slightly behind the cottage creating hard shadows that I wanted to eliminate. I used two Hensel Porty battery powered generator with three heads to freeze the skier and the same time lighten the cottage. The Lynx is illuminated by two Nikon SB-800 flashes from each side.

CREATIVE PROCESS: We wanted the lynx and the skier being in focus in one shot so I had to shoot on a high aperture for the depth of field. Therefore we had to crank up the power on the flashes, and also for compensating the hard shadows. Skier Jesper Bjornlund, did a couple of jumps before I got him in the position I wanted. The landing was really flat and shitty but Jesper is one of the best mogul skiers in the world right now so he is used to that.

POST PRODUCTION: The image was exposed like a slide so the only post production in Photoshop was adjusting the contrast and colors a bit.

Weddings – Photographer Ryan Browne – Website www.ryan-browne.co.uk

LOCATION: All Saints Church South Yorkshire

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3 Camera with a 70-200mm @ f 2.8 1/160 3200 ISO

LIGHTING: No additional lighting was used.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This shot was taken just after the signing of the register, I had moved to the back of the church to give the guests a bit of room to get a shot of the couple. In my mind this is the time when you can get some really relaxed shots of the couple as they pose for friends and family. Totally unaware that I am also covering the moment.

POST PRODUCTION: The shot was processed in Nikons NX2, This bit of software is the best there is for processing NEF files. Once opened in Photoshop a conversion was done to black and white and the contrast and brightness was then tweaked. Once I had finished this I selectively burned in a few areas of the image to draw the eye towards the couple.

Portraits – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION: At a friends studio in the center of Nottingham in 2007.

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D Mark 1, Canon 70-200 2.8 IS L Settings – 1/200 at f8

LIGHTING: 3 foot Bowens soft box camera left.

CREATIVE PROCESS: Pretty simple really. I just love the black and white lines in her clothes against the background and the attitude in her pose.

POST PRODUCTION: I desaturated the image using Photoshop’s channel mixer and masked out the blue shoes on a layer mask. I also slightly saturated the shoes.

Sports – Photographer Christian Aslund – Website www.christian.se

LOCATION: Fernie, BC, Canada. Skier: Adam Falk

CAMERA AND LENS: Nikon D3, Nikkor 14-24 mm f/2.8. 1/250 Sec. f/3.5

LIGHTING: Hensel Porty 12 Lithium; a compact, weather resistant, light and not too expensive Battery powered flash generator that is well suited for action photography.

CREATIVE PROCESS: We found this location in Fernie and decided to wait until after sunset so we could use a flash. The weather was bad; flat light and grey so by using a flash we could control the scene. The snow covered rocks looked like a moonscape so we tried to emphasize that when lightening the scene.

POST PRODUCTION: I never do any image manipulation on my editorial stuff. It’s basic development from raw file in Camera Raw to Photoshop, where I mainly work with curves for color and contrast.

Weddings – Photographer Brett Butterstein – Website www.brettbuttersteinphotography.com

LOCATION: Dunton Hot Springs, Colorado, January 17, 2010

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon EOS 5D, Canon 35mm F/1.4, ISO 1600, F/1.4, shutter 320th of a second.

LIGHTING: Video light

CREATIVE PROCESS: This couple was married in a ghost town in winter in Colorado where there is nothing but log cabins. I placed them outside of a window to the big dining room where they and their families would later have dinner. I’m inside shooting out. The groom’s brother is holding my video light on the couple. The blue is the snow outside. The darkness of the room was perfect because it hid any potential distracting elements. This picture could not have been made during the day. It took me a while to see this composition. I originally wanted them small in the window surrounded by complete darkness. Then I began including the lights on the ceiling and chose to tilt the camera to get a more interesting composition.

POST PRODUCTION: I use Adobe Lightroom to tone my images. I saturated the color and darkened the couple with the burn brush since I don’t like really bright, artificial light in my photographs.

Fashion – Photographer Stuart McIntyre – Website www.photonottingham.com

LOCATION: Photo Nottingham Studio, Nottingham City Centre

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5D MK11- 17mm to 40mm f4 lens (set at 28mm) Iso 100, f 9.0, 160th of a second

LIGHTING: I used a large soft box high and to the right, and a smaller Courtney honeycomb on the colourama to create the highlight on the background.

CREATIVE PROCESS: Gore Couture commissioned the project; a small design company based in Nottingham who create hand-made, gothic, couture corsets. The title of the assignment was “Absinthe Fairy” for their “Essence of Absinthe” corset and was the culmination of a two-month project involving a team of creative specialists lead by Photo Nottingham.

We were inspired by gothic imagery, dark fairytales and the bohemian movement in Paris surrounding the drink of Absinthe. It was decided that the classic “green fairy” representation of the Absinthe Fairy would be combined with an alternative edge of gothic horror to produce an innovative and extraordinary set of images that represented both the garment itself, the image designer and the concept of the drink that inspired their creation.

I feel the strength of this shot is drawn from the impact of the image and the attitude it conveys. It is certainly “on message” for Gore Couture and their brand; outrageous, stylish and sometimes a little cheeky. The lighting and composition have combined to make the “fairy” stand off the page, and the wide-angle lens emphasises this also.

POST PRODUCTION: The post-production was undertaken in-house, and included textural embellishments and tonal adjustments to create the final unique images.

Weddings – Photographer Jasmine Star – Website www.jasminestarphotography.com

LOCATION: Christchurch, New Zealand

CAMERA AND LENS: Canon 5DMII, 85mm, 1.2, iso 125, 1/2000sec, f/1.2

LIGHTING: Natural light.  The bride was in the shade of a trailer as we were shooting midday and it was quite bright.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I was teaching a photography workshop in New Zealand last month and it was incredibly hot and incredibly bright. Towards the end of the shoot, I asked the bride to sit in the shade and the only spot available was adjacent to a hot dog trailer.  She sat on a cooler (or what Kiwis call a “chilly bin”) and snapped a few photos.  Shooting in an area with limited environmental accoutrements can be difficult, but embracing the situation can help change your perspective.  And shooting at a f/1.2 always helps because it blurs out the background!  ;)

POST PRODUCTION: I try to use very limited Photoshop.  The picture was very cool due to the shade and the aluminum trailer reflecting light, so I warmed it up just a tad, added a bit of contrast, and a curves bump.  Then I burned the edges a bit to draw the focus to the bride.

Portraits – Photographer Christian Aslund – Website www.christian.se

LOCATION: Red Mountain, Rossland, BC, Canada

CAMERA: Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70 mm f/2.8. 1/160 Sec. f/6.3

LIGHTING: Handheld Nikon SB-800 with a Lastolite softbox attached fired with a Pocket Wizard.

CREATIVE PROCESS: I wanted a portrait of the local ski legend Brian and his characteristic face for reportage from BC. We only had a couple of minutes so the set-up was quick and easy with one handheld flash and five exposures later we were done.

POST PRODUCTION: Pulling the curves in Photoshop a bit for color and contrast.

Kids – Photographer Eric Doggett – Website www.doggettstudios.com

LOCATION: This image was shot in my backyard. We were setting up a trampoline and took a moment to get this shot before we installed all of the safety netting.

CAMERA: Canon 5D, 50mm lens, shot at f/18 at 1/250th of a second on a tripod. I was trying to get the image as dark as possible, as it was almost exactly noon when we took the shot (in the middle of August, in the middle of Texas).

LIGHTING: The scene was lit with a total of 4 strobes (3 of which were Zeus 2500 w/s lights, and the other was a White Lightning 1600). A large octabox is high and serving as the main light. There’s an edge light on each side of the frame. Finally, the White Lightning was used underneath the trampoline to light up the back fence. Most of the lights were set at or near full power, because they were far away from the subjects.

CREATIVE PROCESS: This image was really the start of my interest in humorous photography. In some ways it’s a ‘conversation starter’ image, because people look at it and try to figure out if what they are seeing is really happening. Usually they will ask how I did the shot (good question), or they will ask if the kid on the left hurt his head (bad question). It was also one of the first images I created with a strobe system, and it has defined my style of shooting and post-processing since then.

POST PRODUCTION: This shot is a composite of two images. Brandon (on the right) is in the original frame, which we took several shots of to catch him at the height of his jump. Separately, I took Trevor (on the left) and held him on the trampoline so that he would be lit with the same lighting set-up. Then, in Photoshop I took Trevor and put him in the scene with Brandon. Some skin/clothing work was required to remove my hands, which were holding him. Once the composition was complete, I did some contrast adjustments in Photoshop, along with some selective use of the Lucis Art plug-in to get the look. Finally, a little bit of motion blur was added to both boys as well as some edge vignetting.

add space

Portraits – Photographer Paul Mobley – Website www.paulmobleystudio.com

LOCATION - Picture was taken in Mount Ayr, Iowa

CAMERA AND LENS - Camera was Canon 1ds Mark III, Lens was 35mm 1.4, Setting was 1/60 at 5.6

LIGHTING - Lighting was a custom made fill card with a mirror in the center to “open up the eyes”. A large black fill card on the left side to sculpt the faces.

CREATIVE PROCESS - I knew I was photographing “twins” for my American Farmer series. The shoot was planned for sunrise. As I drove to their dairy farm, I noticed the bright moon in the sky and hoped it would stay for a few minutes after the sun rose (which is rare). Fortunately it did. This picture was taken literally 30 seconds after the sun rose. Within 2 minutes, the moon was gone. The fact that the twins were identical and BALD made it even better. The moon, the baldhead, etc… perfect! Sometimes the photography gods really do smile down on us.

I love these kinds of images because they’re “real”. Real people tend to give you their hearts. Where models and actors tend give the “standard poses” out of habit. I have to work much harder with professionals (to get a great shot) than real people. These guys were funny. Telling jokes between every take. Getting a serious expression was the key.  They are serious dairy farmer’s you know!

POST PRODUCTION – I did very little post production on this. I have some custom setting on my camera that boost the saturation a bit. That’s about it. Pretty straight shot.

Fashion – Photographer Gordon McGowan – Website www.gordonmcgowan.co.uk

LOCATION – Location for the shoot was my studio

CAMERA AND LENS – I used a Canon 5d mark2 with my favourite lens 24-105 set at f11 with a shutter speed of 125th sec

LIGHTING – I used my trusted ELINCHROM 500 HEAD with a metre square softbox flagged off with 4 black strips to cut down the light and also to shape the light and inside the softbox was another diffuser to soften the light even more, also the model was holding a small reflector so I could bring a little bit of light back into the area under the chin.

CREATIVE PROCESS – I just love dark moody images and for this shoot I also wanted to create a few images from the session with only two strong colours in the final image.   I also like the fact that with my lighting setup coming from above the model and spilling onto her face gives the final image a bit of an edgy mysterious look to it

POST PRODUCTION – There is really not a lot done to this image but what I did was I opened my image in Photoshop 5.5 then duplicated the layer and filled the layer with blue and then brought the opacity back to about 40% and then rubbed away the layer to reveal the strong colour of the dress and lips and that is all to be honest and  the total time  working  on the image about 3 minutes

Aviation – Photographer Chris Rose – Website None

LOCATION – In the skies above south central Pennsylvania

CAMERA AND LENS – Canon 5D Mk II with a EF 70-200 2.8 IS, shot at 95mm, F5.6, 1/100sec @ ISO 100

LIGHTING – Natural light about 30 min. before sunset

CREATIVE PROCESS – This Embraer Phenom 100 was photographed for the cover of AOPA Pilot magazine in the spring of 2009.  Our aerial formation crew of 5 departed northern Maryland about an hour and a half before sunset and headed north over central PA.  This, like most photo missions consisted of two aircraft, each flown by experienced and highly trained formation pilots. In this case the photo plane was a Beechcraft Bonanza flown by AOPA Pilot’s Editor in Chief, Tom Haines.  The Bonanza, a single-engine propeller-driven aircraft is a fantastic platform and is highly regarded by many aviation photographers. Its speed (and thus ability to keep pace with a wide range of subject aircraft), as well as the fact that it has two large rear doors that can be easily removed for shooting, make it an obvious choice for this kind of work.  Within 20 min. after departure, we arrive at the pre-determined shooting area with me facing aft and harnessed into the back of the Bonanza at the edge of the (now missing) doors.  The subject aircraft then joined us in formation, and we began a series of shallow and steep 360-degree turns, taking advantage of the how the light changed and moved across the aircraft’s exterior.  The in/out and up/down movements of the jet were controlled by commands given either over the cockpit radios or by hand signals between myself and the subject aircraft.  As the sun began to reach the horizon, we decided to make one more orbit, and as the Phenom rolled out of its turn to begin the course for home, I captured a series of shots – including this one.

POST PRODUCTION – I often get asked, “how many of your images do you enhance in Photoshop?” – my answer, all of them.  I never feel guilty about taking advantage of the flexibility that digital photography provides.  In the case of this particular shot, the wonderful evening sunlight did most of the work, but in my RAW workflow, every image gets at the very least a boost in vibrance and sharpened.

Chris Rose is a staff photographer for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association based in Frederick, MD, www.aopa.org.

Weddings – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION – Seville, Spain 2007

CAMERA AND LENS – Canon 40D – Canon 70-200 2.8 L IS

LIGHTING – The soaring Spanish sun.

CREATIVE PROCESS - I took this image while second shooting for a good friend in Seville, Spain. He was setting up some portraits of the bride in the doorway when all of a sudden her dress got caught in her shoe. Her bridesmaid came over to fix the problem and I knew that was the shot. I love the colours and the stance of the bride. Blue and yellow are opposite colours and always look awesome when together. I also love the moment the two of them are sharing.

POST PRODUCTION - I saturated the colours in curves and added some contrast and applied a border.

Portraits – Photographer Brett Harkness – Website www.brettharknessphotography.com

LOCATION - This shoot took place in our studio against a white wall.

CAMERA & LENS - I use a Canon EOS 1DS mark III. This shot was taken with a 70-200 2.8L IS lens. Shot on 200 ISO, 200th sec @ f5. I used the lens around the 100mm focal length, sitting on the floor 10 ft away from the couch.

LIGHTING - This shot is lit with one Canon speedlight 580EXII. Used with a Lastolite Ezy box. Flash power was 1/4 power on manual. Using the Ezy box up close, just out of shot top left means you can get a nice crisp light on the subject. Making sure the light flood was just enough to cover the babies face.

CREATIVE PROCESS - Having shot this family twice before I decided that a more stylish approach was necessary on this shoot. We also shot outside mixing it up a bit with prime lenses but I wanted a really stylized look for the baby. Thinking about the scene as well not just the subject. Sometimes you can make shoots like this too complicated, waiting for the perfect moment meant that the baby did all the hard work.

POST PRODUCTION - Not a great deal has been done to this shot. I shoot jpg and try and get it right when shooting. I have added a little hard light in PS. Creative dodging and burning. You can see more of how I work on my images by clicking here, DISCOVER BHP <http://www.brettharknessphotography.com/brett-harkness-photography-blog.aspx?filterbycategory=discover>

Landscape – Photographer Lisa Forman – Website www.lisaforman.com

LOCATION - Somewhere under a canal in Venice

CAMERA AND LENS - Leica M6 settings: Ilford Delta 400 speed BW film, probably 1/60 @ f8 (but I am really not sure, I stopped writing all that down a long time ago)

LIGHTING - Available Light

CREATIVE PROCESS - It was July in Venice, not a great time to make photographs the way I like (empty streets). I was so happy to have met this beautiful blond gondolier.  I told him I was a photographer and I wanted to go where there are few tourists.  I asked him to just wander around the canals.  It was early morning. I was completely enthralled with the reflective light all over the city.  We started to go underneath a bridge, and I was so fascinated with the light bouncing off the ancient stones, the sunlight streaming down into the water, I framed the shot and focused my camera.  I don’t think I even noticed the ghostly images of humans on the bridge in front of me. Later on the gondolier let me stand up and take the oar (remo). That was a blast!

POST PRODUCTION - This photograph has not been “produced” in any way.  It was developed and printed.  When I shoot film, my goal is to create an image in the camera the way I want it to be when it is printed.  Occasionally, there have been some darkroom dodges or burns, but very little.  I do use digital cameras for other types of work and will use Silver Efex Pro, or other P’Shop enhancements. I have sold several large prints of Venice Light, my editions are usually 11.

Fashion – Photographer Rebecca Parker – Website www.rebecca-parker.co.uk

LOCATION - is Llansaint near Kidwelly Carmarthenshire.

CAMERA AND LENS – Nikon D70 with an 18-70 lens.

LIGHTING - reflector held by an assistant.

CREATIVE PROCESS –. I love this image as I feel it conveys everything my work is about and also symbolizes the type of art I love. It is full of colour and the image oozes with sumptuousness. The model is filled with emotion and her pose is classical dramatic but delicate. Also the location is near to where I lived so even though it is pretty, it was one of my special places I used to walk my dogs. I love this image as the model and MUA bring so much to it and she looks part of the landscape.

POST PRODUCTION - I added two textures and popped the colours in Photoshop. I also added a vignette. This process is like a signature to all my work. It adds atmosphere and also creates a recognizable style to my work.

Weddings – Photographer Crash Taylor – Website www.crashtaylor.com

LOCATION - Sandon Hall, Stafford, United Kingdom

CAMERA AND LENS - Canon 5D Mark I with Canon 70-200mm 2.8 L IS

LIGHTING - Indoor tungsten lighting from ceiling

CREATIVE PROCESS - I love this image as my assistant and I were outside in the freezing cold taking a break when all of a sudden, I see the bride and groom out the corner of my eye. I pick up my camera and fired off about 6 images as they walked through the Hall’s corridor. Holding hands, unaware and alone – the perfect moment. I particularly love the framing within the window, the overall composition, the lines, and the colours how they reflect how cold it was outside and how warm inside.

POST PRODUCTION - I cooled down the blues and warmed up the yellows using colour balance in Photoshop CS4.

Portraits – Photographer Tamara Lackey – Website www.tamaralackey.com

LOCATION - Bald Head Island, North Carolina

CAMERA AND LENS - Canon 5D Mark II, 24mm-70mm 2.8 lens, f 4.0, 1/800 sec, ISO 100

LIGHTING - natural light, shot at sunset

CREATIVE PROCESS - Playing along with a high-energy shoot, I ran after my 8 year-old subject, meeting her mom down at the water’s edge.  As we jumped out of the rapidly larger oncoming waves, mom scooped up her daughter to whisk her away.  I love the authenticity of the moment, the flush in their cheeks and even the squeals that didn’t make it to the still image but kind of travel along with it anyway.

I shot this image at close range to my subjects, the entire frame cropped in-camera.  I usually shoot pretty wide open but dialed out to an f4 so as to keep both of my subjects’ faces in focus at such close range.  I composed this image so as to emphasize their playful, so-alive expressions, as well as the movement between them and the wind and water, filling up my ‘negative space’ with that gorgeous expanse of ocean (which is hard to see as a negative  In addition, I utilized a healthy camera tilt to further convey the sense of movement.  I normally like my horizons to be pretty straight, but every so often I’ll go for this look and just love it.

POST PRODUCTION - This image was shot in color and converted to black and white, with an additional warm toning in Photoshop.  I boosted the contrast but was sure to manage the highlights in the white clothing.  I softened the overall image to compensate for the contrast boost, as I liked the softness of their windblown hair and their sweet expressions – finally, I added a soft vignette via the sloppy lasso tool.

Portraits – Photographer Grant Scott – Website www.grantscott.com

LOCATION – The Dome Brighton, England

CAMERA AND LENS - Canon 5D with a Canon 50mm prime L series lens at 800 ISO. I know this because that’s what I always shoot at.

LIGHTING - Natural light

CREATIVE PROCESS - My pictures are not about big or grand gestures they are about conversations.  This shot of Paolo Nutini was shot on a backstage staircase at The Dome Brighton as part of a project I was shooting titled The Dome Sessions in which I spent a year –photographing the people who performed at the venue who interested me. Paolo had just had his first hit and was easy going and relaxed after a sound check. We chatted about what he’d been doing, becoming famous and a recent holiday he’d been on and the pictures happened. I always work like this.

POST PRODUCTION - Colour correction in Photoshop

Portraits – Photographer Naya Politis – Website www.studiopolitis.gr

LOCATION - Monastery of Panagia Panton Hara, Kalentzi, Kiato, Corinthia, Greece

CAMERA AND LENS - Canon EOS 5D, 24-105 mm f4 Canon Lenses shot at 40 mm f5.6, ISO 1600

LIGHTING - The only available light, was the little one in front of the monk

CREATIVE PROCESS - As the monk of this picture is considered to be a wise and nearly holly man in Greece, my insight was to take a picture of him in his cell, keeping the original atmosphere and trying to capture the spiritual energy that surrounds him. In order to achieve this, I decided not to use any artificial lighting and, as an equipment, nothing more than my camera. I believe that the best way to make people look natural, is to photograph them in their own place and keep everything simple. You have to do it naturally. When it comes to a portrait, the only way to make emotions emerge, is spend time with the person you are about to shoot before you raise your camera.

POST PRODUCTION - Having a raw material as powerful as this original photo, the only thing left to be done was to remove everything not necessary from the background and the desk. I avoided face retouching to keep his acetic figure and only worked in layers trying to make the image as low key as possible. Color Efex Pro filters where used to achieve a pretty dark result, allowing his face to shine and fill everyone looking at the picture with an unearthly glow.