Diane Spencer-Comedian

I recently got together with the fantastic and very funny Diane Spencer (www.dianespencer.tv/) to produce some promo images for her and some images for my forthcoming female portrait business 'GLORIOUS'

As you can see below, i've put the original images with the final uses on Diane's site here for comparison.

Now the technical bit...

To achieve the black background, I had a black backdrop but light does spill from the one flash onto the background so the 'Inverse Square Law' comes into action (you can Google that!)

basically the nearer the light to the subject at a given exposure has more light 'fall off'', so the light doesn't reach the background, thus making it black (to match the background on Diane's site and channel)

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The following image of Diane was for some marketing images for my forthcoming female portrait
business, the aptly named- 'GLORIOUS'
Diane changed into a glamorous sparkly top and we took some images in different poses, this one was in front a of a black backdrop so her red hair and golden top jumped out from the background.
I have edited the image to some degree, but you can see Diane's natural beauty with cheekbones to die for........

Michael Fabbri:Comedian

I recently photographed Comedian Michael Fabbri to create some promo images, some to be used on the BBC website for a forthcoming piece about Dyslexia, and others for general use.
He came to the studio with some changes of clothes and we shot a images with different looks and expressions, below is a standard headshot...

As I was taking all my equipment upstairs to the studio, I noticed the lights in the corridor were very stylish, completely round with no wires attached- I thought it would make a great background element in an images so as we were wrapping up the shoot I mentioned doing some shots in the corridor in front of the lights, this was for a totally different look, black and white with stark lighting from a flash on a stand, see below.
It's always a good idea to look round and take notice of items that can be incorporated into a shoot, weather it's a great background or an interesting light........

Advert

I designed a small advert that I can send to various agencies to advertise my photography, bit difficult to choose images to put on it but I think I did a good job.....

Dan Evans:Comedian

When shooting Comedians at work I always try to get the audiences reactions to the punch lines, a bit tricky when the audience is facing away from me, but in this particular case the blond lady at the front was turning round to share her laughter with her friends-and Dan Evans really made them laugh....

Steve Morano shoot at RYND

I recently met up with Musician Steve Morano at RYND bar in Reading to do a promo shoot to create some images that he could use for promo purposes.
The RYND bar in Reading has a fantastic interior, lots of old brickwork and old neon lettering with some wooden planks as wall panelling-ideal for a shoot.
We started off in front of a wooden pillar with just one light to add a bit of drama, then progressed to the brick wall with some great neon lettering on it which I included in the image.
For more info on Steve, please click here
Below are some images from the day, along with a set up shot showing the lighting position......

Stefano Paolini: Renaissance Man

I have had the pleasure of photographing Stefano a couple of times at a local comedy club, he recently asked for some headshots for his forthcoming book about the internment of Italians during the Second World War, now available on Amazon here, as well as a few promo images for his comedy side of things.

We met up at Charborough Studios for a few hours and took a range of images that can be used in different situations.

I opted for a light grey background for the more serious images and a white background for the comedy images. I also mocked up an advert to show how the images can be used on a poster etc (see bottom)

As for the title of this blog piece -'Renaissance Man' because Stefano is a cracking Comedian, a published Author, and a mean Beatboxer!

The lighting set up was fairly simple, big umbrella as the main light, a hair light from the rear, and a light on the background when required

You can read more about Stefano here

On location with Bright Shadows....

I first photographed Bright Shadows at Jagz last year and they recently got in touch to produce some images for their forthcoming CD and general promo use.
The top images are from our session in Reading town centre on a Sunday morning, i had spotted these brightly coloured door a while ago and had made a mental note to use them in the future ( i always have some locations tucked away in my brain for future use)

We had started at 8am on a Sunday morning at the very top of a very empty Oracle car park, after unloading all the gear and setting a light up i managed to take one test image before a security guard came over and asked us not to take any more pictures as we had no permission-fair enough, so thats how we ended up in front of some very colourful doors.....

The monochrome image below was taken a few hundred yards from my house, it is a large grey wall that lead into a tunnel, Helen was wearing white, Raji was wearing black so the mid grey wall was ideal-no point in making this a colour image!

To hear more about Bright Shadows, click here,
Their CD Launch Party is on the 22nd August @ Marilyn's Loft Bar, Monroe's, St Mary's Butts, Reading

Brian Gittins

I recently photographed Brian Gittins at the Firestation in Windsor, he was very funny in a strange type of way and took to wearing an animals head throughout the show which made things a bit tricky to get his face in shot without some deep shadows on it

Made me laugh though....

Graham Steel Showcase

I recently attended a showcase evening run by Graham Steele (www.grahamsteelmusiccompany.com/)
Among the acts were, Matt Merry, Kira, Gun Hill Riffs and The Room, all really great and all very different, below are some images from the night....

Bruce Foxton: From the Jam with The Sha La La's at GLive

I had the pleasure of photographing one of my favourite current bands alongside one of my favourite old bands at GLive recently.

The formers is The Sha La La's who were supporting 'From the Jam' featuring Bruce Foxton who was the original Jam member (top image)

I got plenty of images of 'From the Jam' but the one i really like is the top image of Bruce Foxton with the 'From the Jam' logo behind him- he has a very proud look on his face which seems to echo his longevity.

But, before they came on The Sha La La's gave a blistering support set, with many songs from their new EP (which i shot the cover for), a great night, thank God for earplugs!

Shooting for publications: Be more negative!

A slightly misleading heading i know, but when shooting for a publication it's always a good idea to have some negative space where text can be placed, preferably on a fairly plain background to make the text readable.
In the image above i purposely left some negative space for that reason.

The subject above is the great Alexander McKay, a fantastic musician who i have photographed a couple of times and helped film at www.charboroughmedia.com.
Technical info: one flash through a white umbrella, camera right.
Location: a small booth at the Troubadour Club on the Old Brompton Road, London straight after a gig.

BBC Introducing: Saltwater Sun and The Parades

I recently photographed Saltwater Sun and The Parades at the Purple Turtle in Reading for the BBC Introducing spot, a couple of great bands that had their own styles.
The lighting was a bit tricky, as in not a lot of it and the fact that the BBC Introducing logo was being projected over the bands which gave them a real sickly green/blue colour cast-yuk! So I ended up with noisy green images....oh well...not a lot you can do about that apart from, add more clean light, don't project anything onto the performers etc, I suppose the colour lends a certain charm maybe? maybe not........ Great music though!

Babyhowl at Charborough Studios

Berkshire's Baby Howl came into the studio at Charborough a few days ago to film a small part of their forthcoming video, I was helping out with the filming and getting some behind the scenes shots.

After all the recording was done I got the lads to give me 5 minutes to get a quick portrait of each of them. It was a very simple set up, one flash in a very small softbox at 90 degrees from the camera with a black 'flat' behind them image converted to mono with some high pass sharpening and a bit of contrast, all together it makes for a moody shot which suites their music I think.

I have shot them before in a few different locations for their promo images when they were a 4 piece, you can see that blogpost here


Check them out here, along with a recent interview and music on BBC Radio Berkshire
for BBC Introducing

The Comedians....

Whenever i'm photographing Comedians during they're act I'm always struck by two things-how quickly they move on the (very small) stage bearing in mind they are just 'talking' to an audience and how much they use they're free hand.

Below are some of the comedians i have photographed recently-each one using they're hands to emphasise a joke, top downwards is Ninia Benjamin, Jen Brister, Edd Hedges, and Matt Richardson

As for the photos.... very red tungsten light colour balance, a high iso, wide aperture and a high shutter speed to capture the movement.

Live at Charborough: Andy Morritt

We recently had the pleasure of filming and recording the great Andy Morritt at Live@Charborough.
He sang a very soulful song called 'Lost in Oblivion' whilst playing piano, after a few takes we did a small shoot in the studio against some black 'flats' with him sitting on a monitor and one flash in an umbrella to camera left pointed down at a steep angle.

I also took some behind the scenes images, this is the view from my camera during filming...

Pete Heat

I recently had the pleasure of photographing Magician Pete Heat at the Cellar Bar comedy night.
He took the cellar by storm, his act included of a card trick with a loaf of bread (top image), a mind reading part that involved stripping off to his under ware (bottom image for the ladies!) and some great magic jokes in between, and he came across as a nice guy, i had to stop taking pictures for a while due to laughing....
If you want to read and see more about him, check out www.peteheat.co.uk

Pre planning a shoot

Ok, i know what you're thinking, why is David showing us an image of a dark cellar instead of a new Band or Singer he has just shot for promo purposes as usual?

Well, i do a lot of work for the National Trust, photographing events, places and people, and i was asked to go to Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire to photograph the Christmas decorations in the main house and also to shoot some editorial portraits of the Director General - Dame Helen Ghosh DCB.

As her time was limited, i got there early to scout the different locations i had been asked to shoot her in. The first location was the 'Cellarium' a very dark and cold cellar that was used to keep the wine cold back in the day, it has very low ceilings and some beautiful stone arches with hardly any ambient light apart from this one window seen in the above image.

So, what can i do?

I got an exposure for the ambient light coming through the window (not a lot!) and then set up a flash pointing towards the spot where Dame Helen would be standing, when she was ready i asked her to stand in the exact spot so the flash lit her and and the room correctly while the window showed up in the exposure.

I took some more pictures of her in the same area but without any window light, using two flashes, one to light her and one to light up the rest of the room, we shot in there for about 15 minutes then went into relative warmth of the Abbey house to continue shooting in the other locations on the list, an hour later we had covered 6 locations and Dame Helen went off for a well deserved hot drink.
It's very important to have your shots planned out and the lighting ready in place to go as many people are time constrained and it's best to make the whole shoot as quick and as painless as possible.

I would love to be able to show you the final image but it technically belongs to the National Trust so i'm afraid i can only show the set up shot, but no doubt it will appear in a National Trust publication some time this year.

Anyway, back to shooting bands......

Will Franken

Will Franken is a character comedian satirist mimic and actor based in London, he came to the studio to create some images for his promotional items for the Edinburgh Festival.

Each of the images were to be cut out and placed on a design so I put a sheet up in the background so the designer would have a grey background to show the edge of the character.
I set up a key light and a fill light on Will so he was lit fairly equally.
We spent about 15 minutes on each character with Will doing a quick change between each one.
As you can see the second image down was used as the main image for the flyer.

You can read/see more about Will here

Ian Todd: Live at Charborough

The great Ian Todd came to Charborough today to record a live video.

He recorded two live tracks to video and we did a few images in the studio

The set was dressed quite simply with some Ikea lights but Ian was lit from behind with a light with the barn doors nearly closed, and then from the front with the same lighting setup to create a dark vignette which allowed the Ikea lights to be seen.

He brought a beautiful old Eko guitar with him to dress the set, see bottom image