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

Candy Gigi at the Cellar Bar

As a regular at the Cellar Bar for the weekly comedy run by the Comedy Company, I have seen and photographed many stand up Comedians-all very funny, some hilarious, and the odd one or two acts that are, well, odd!

One of those was Candy Gigi Markham-delightfully nuts but funny with it.
She came on and immediately started to plaster her face with lipstick then spray cream, then nursed a large clump of celery before eating it and spitting it over the front row (note: do not sit in front row)

I managed to capture most of the act as she was moving about very quickly, she mentioned to me that I could get some great images of her due to the nature of the act and she managed to look over to me a few times to make an image with eye contact (top image)

Hopefully you can see the Candy Gigi experience somewhere soon.....or read more about her here

Beware This Boy:Live at Charborough

'Beware this Boy' came down to Charborough studios to record a live video a few weeks ago, they have a very earthy english sound-a bit folk rock maybe?
I took plenty of images during filming, a black and white montage is below.....

Off the Radar: Jagz open mike

I recently photographed 'Off the Radar' live at Jagz, they were appearing at the Platform open mike evening.
They had a quirky very individual sound and were a great bunch of musicians

Richmond and the Groovalution Live at Charborough

Below is Richmond and the Groovalution, they came to Charborough Studios to record a live track and video with some behind the scenes images as well.....



I arrived at the studio as the band and some helpers were just finishing dressing the set, after my retinas calmed down due to colour overload we arranged the band and did the first take.

Here are some more images from the day....

Odette, walls and lights

A videographer friend of mine wanted to film me doing a shoot with a musician for his portfolio, so we decided to approach the fantastic Odette who has graced this blog a few times before.

We all met up one Sunday afternoon in a local business park-not the most glamorous location on first viewing, but when you learn how to use a location suddenly the most mundane wall or stairs can become interesting with the right angle and some lighting.....

Our first image is a wooden wall that houses the bins for all the local businesses, I had great slanted beams that drew your attention to Odette, especially when I used a grid on a portable flash aimed at her face witch left the light to fall off  from the centre.

Second image down is a staircase that is just behind the wooden wall in the first image, I changed the lighting to a flash with an umbrella box to camera right pointing down to Odette who was sitting on the steps, I used the lead in lines of the hand rail to guide your eye into the image.

Third image down is a metal wall that is to the right of the stairs, I liked the juxtaposition of the smooth wall and the grasses with Odette slightly to the right of the image.

Fourth image is the same location but with Odette over to the edge of the frame so it could be used as a flyer as it has some empty space for text to go over if required.

Fifth image is in the studio against a white background, it's a simple portrait of Odette with her guitar, lit with an umbrella box directly in front of her and angled down to get some shadows under the chin.
Many thanks to Odette for the shoot as it was a cold November day and she dressed for summer for the images!

Charlotte Campbell

I had a chance of photographing the lovely Charlotte Campbell last week-she was on as support for Paul Carella and his band at the Kingston College Theatre.
She has a great voice and a charming personality and really interacted with the audience, she is currently recording her album, certainly someone to look out for....read more about her here

Ian Todd

Below is Ian Todd, captured here mid song at Jagz open mike, he sings some great melancholy blues songs and has a fantastic image.
To hear more brilliant artists performing for free! nip down to Jagz on Tuesday evening, grab a beer and relax, come and say hello to me-i'm the one at the front with the camera....

Instruments at peace....

Occasionally during breaks in filming or photographing in the studio, i like to look at the instruments laying about.
I saw the cymbals on this drum kit catching the reflections from our video lights, so with a long lens to compress the image i took a few shots and turned them to black and white.

In this image, one of the guitarist had laid his guitar down on an amp to go to listen to the latest take, i liked the composition of the two crossed guitars against the black backdrop so i took a couple of images.....

Paul Carella

Paul Carella and his band came down to Charborough Studios recently to shoot a video with us.
They recorded a brilliant new song called 'Electric to Touch' and the team was there to film it
They are a great bunch of blokes-all very talented and professional, i took some behind the scenes images as you can see below...

A few weeks later Paul had his EP Launch at The Kingston Theatre, the Charborough team went along for a night out..... Paul was supported by the lovely Charlotte Campbell and the the fantastic Caddy Cooper