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.