I’m not normally one to brag. If you’ve followed me for a while you probably already know that I have a masters in photography but if you don’t I’m gonna shout about it. But here’s something you might not know as we were all sat bored during lockdown figuring out what to do, I did lots of creative challenges but I also got magazine published for the first time in 2020. So I’m going to shout about that loudly and proudly. #mibmarathonday15
A couple of weeks ago it was International Women’s day so here’s a selection of women I’ve photographed in the last year:
Today I’m going to talk about the concept of capturing emotion in photography.
Emotion is a difficult concept to capture in any art form, but particularly in photography. Images are two-dimensional and can often seem flat and lifeless. Yet, a good photographer knows how to use light, composition and timing to create images that evoke feelings in the viewer.
One way to capture emotion in photography is through the use of light. Bright, natural light can create a feeling of happiness and vitality, while shadow and darkness can convey a sense of mystery or foreboding. The way light falls on a subject can also create a sense of drama or enhance the feeling of a particular moment.
Composition is another important tool for evoke emotion in photography. A well-composed image can create a sense of balance and calm, while a more chaotic image can convey a feeling of energy and excitement. Framing a subject in a particular way can also help to emphasize certain emotions – for example, isolating a subject can create a feeling of loneliness or desperation, while including a lot of negative space can convey a sense of peace and solitude.
Timing is also crucial when trying to capture emotion in photography. Capturing a moment just before or just after a key event can help to convey the feeling of that event, for example, a photograph of a child just before they blow out their birthday candles can convey anticipation and excitement, while a photograph of a couple just after they kiss can convey love and tenderness.
Help us capture emotion in photography! Like and comment if you think light, composition and timing are key!
Let’s Talk About Collaboration
Why would anyone want to collaborate.
To start with you need to find those collaborations that you feel will benefit you. Don’t collaborate with someone who appears on the surface to just be looking for a freebie. As one point of collaboration is that you hope to get some future work out of this person.
I also like to do collaboration when I want to learn a new style of photography that I’ve never done before. This is offering a free shoot or a couple of free shoots to learn about and understand that photography style.
Collaboration can be a chance for creativity you can collaborate with makeup artists and stylists to make something extraordinary.
Additionally, it can lead to new and innovative ideas, as each person brings their own perspective to the table.
-Furthermore, it can build relationships and foster a sense of community.
Sometimes it helps to get a fresh perspective on the projects you’re working on so somebody can help you out.
In short, collaborating can be very beneficial. It can make projects run more smoothly, lead to new and innovative ideas, and build relationships. So next time you’re working on something, consider collaborating with someone else.
Here are a few of my photos from collaborations I’ve done with muas, models and actresses.
I think the first step to learn things you didn’t already know about photography is to join a society to meet other photographers like mine. It’s my fifth year at Preston Photographic society and I’d like to talk about one of the aspects of the society that I really enjoy which is the Portrait Nights.
Originally you had to sign up to this and the coordinator booked a model for the evenings which is hosted once a month and invited 5 or 6 people on the list to join him or her on a rota system. Now you buy the £10 ticket in advance which is a system I much prefer, and these are allocated on a first come first served basis.
Each evening starts with setting up the studio lights in a makeshift studio setting. Initially on the portrait nights I used them mostly to learn about how to light a subject as this wasn’t something, I knew much about until I started going to these evenings. In a later post I will discuss my tips on this. Since then I’ve done a master’s in photography, set up as a Freelance photographer and spent hours on end in the studio by myself with models and my own lighting set-ups.
So, for me a lot has changed from my early natural light only portraits up until now with my studio and location work, but I think today could be very different if I didn’t step into these portrait nights.
Portrait nights for me now are about meeting and interacting with brand new models that I haven’t previously encountered. Yes, I do have repeat work with models, but I feel that working with new models gives you challenges because its like starting all over again. What I mean by this is that every person reacts differently to the camera.
I’ve been to early nights where the host did a 10 minute masterclass on shooting models and then we all shoot the models by ourselves in 10 minute slots in there first and second outfits, with our own ideas of poses and directions, based on what you want to get out of the shoot. Then the final setup was to create headshots in short 3-5-minute slots.
Now instead of a master class you take your portraits where if needed you can have input from the other more experienced photographers than you, and the host. I think this is great because I believe that you learn by doing sometimes rather than watching.
I then go home and spend time editing my images in lightroom and some of these have gone fantastically in the internal portrait competitions that we have at Preston photographic society. Try and guess which images below are from my first ever portrait evening and which ones are from the newer ones and you should see a difference in the images. If you enjoy this post, please comment below.
What Is Halloween/ Day Of The Dead?
A lot of people think that Day Of Dead and Halloween are interrelated. However they are two different festivals that appear to unintentionally connect in a number of ways. As stated on the National Geographic website Halloween is a dark night of terror whereas day of the dead or Dia De Los Muertos celebrates our love for those we have lost. The people who celebrate this believe in spirits and use literary Cavaveras which are short poems like a satire that make fun of the living. They also have official flowers called Cempazuchiti which are believed to attract ghosts.
According to www.metro.co.uk website it states that Halloween came from the Celtic Samhain which marked the night where spirits could pass through and the distinctions between the living and dead were blurred. it is combined with the Roman Feralia which commemorates the passing of the dead and honours Pomona the goddess of fruit, which is why we have apple bobbing.
Day Of The Dead Shoot
For as long as i can remember i have been a fan of using skulls in art pieces and for decoration so a couple of weeks ago I organised a Day Of The Dead shoot with Mentally Fit Sam and Aara Beauty. I planned to shoot the doing the makeup shots with a flash in my bedroom and then go to Avenham and Miller Park. However instead I ended up working with another photographer in his studio in Preston called Open Air Studio North West. This was my first collab using a makeup artist as well as a model and I chose to do a Day Of The Dead themed shoot due to my strange love of skulls.
For The Day Of The Dead Shoot we used a red gel on a flash behind the subject which created a more halloweeny feel and made the makeup stand out more. I used my Nikon d3200 with 55-200mm telephoto zoom lens for the majority of the shoot to obtain close ups of the makeup look. However for the aerial hoop shots I decided to add more depth to my image by using my Nikon 18-55 mm lens so more of the body was visible as Sam performed aerialist manoeuvres.
Halloween Shoot
On the 13/10/2018 i went to a photography session days event at Atlas Studios where there was a mystery set which was zombies. This fits perfectly with the Halloween theme. There were also some bloody knives over a door which enhanced this. I framed her under these to add to the terror of Halloween. I also enjoyed using the strobe under the stairs as it added a dark and moody feel to the zombies. The zombies caged and trying to break out adds a conventional, zombie movie-esque horror to the images and creates a sense of escape from reality.
Here is a selection of my images from both of the shoots:
I hope you enjoyed this post and for more stay tuned and check out my Instagram @lucyandthelens.
“An artists vision creates the image; the camera simply captures it.” This is the opening line of the book and also the most important. Before you even pick up the camera you must have an idea of what you want to create as the camera doesn’t do the work for you, you have to do that yourself.
Lenses
Lara’s description of lenses opened up a whole new world to portraiture for me. I usually tend to use my Nikon 70-200 mm telephoto zoom lens for portraiture, but Lara suggested that instead a wide angle lens can introduce a dynamic angle of view and distort an image excitingly. She also recommends using a macro lens for extreme close –up beauty work which is something Id like to try.
Photographing with movement
Photographing your subject mid-movement creates a dynamic shot and adds interest to the image. Lens baby creates creative lenses.A fast shutter speed freezes motion, and a slow shutter speed blurs movement. Manual focus works better for fashion shots as it allows you to focus on an eye or a strand of hair.
Preparing
To prepare to decide beforehand what you want out of the shoot and create mood boards or Pinterest boards before every shoot. Look on websites to find models and If you can’t afford a stylist choose or source the clothes yourself. Have a plan for whether you want a location shoot or a studio shoot. Decide which will work best.
Shooting
Location shoots are better for new models or clients, and studio shoots are better for experienced models. High key lighting creates a comfortable dynamic to an image, and low key lighting adds a dramatic mood to an image. The best time to shoot in natural light is the first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset referred to as the golden hour by landscapers. The light during these hours is soft and diffused, the angle low, and the colour warm. Don’t be afraid to experiment with over and under exposure to natural light. Use one softbox to provide soft and flattering light to your subject. Use a white reflector to highlight your subject and a black reflector on the right side of your subject to add contrast and for more variation use a black backdrop. Experiment with different coloured lights. Use a silver umbrella with a white backdrop for clear, detailed high key images. To enhance makeup use a beauty dish as your light source. Backlight create beautifully And visually dramatic photos. Add a second light for a simple backlit portrait. Use a softbox to flatter the subject and a second light behind to illuminate them. Try using natural light in the studio and enhancing it with reflectors. Use two white reflectors on either side to bounce the light back and a gold reflector to add warmth to the shot.
Personal Assignments
Setting yourself assignments is also vital as it helps you to find your style. Then Lara Jade sets us tasks to be open to our interpretation which I will discuss at a later stage as I’m going to give them a go. I’ve made several assignments personal to me; I’m planning a childhood memories project which I am accepting ideas of things to recreate. My crystal ball project is continuously ongoing and also the subject of my latest blog. I also like to showcase my hobbies in my work, and I’m planning a few special projects using models. The working photographer You need to be able to work closely with people, stick to a brief and create your own. Charge what you believe is a fair price for your time but never lose your integrity.
Retouching
To make your images pop this is something that is typically done after a shoot. I used to use photoshop files with many layers so I can always go back and adjust. Now I have changed my editing process using Lightroom to batch edit and then using photoshop to fine-tune whichever images I feel need more work. Lara states that she applies layer masks to create composites which is something I haven’t tried but id like to give a go. You can use curves to change the tone of an image by using it on the RGB channel. Use a hard healing brush to correct skin blemishes or use the spot healing brush or a clone stamp tool. Use textures to add a vintage film feel to your image. In Photoshop You can turn an image into black and white by creating a channel mixer adjustment layer by going to layer>new adjustment layer>channel mixer. Click the monochrome box. Move the RGB sliders. Then form a selective colour adjustment layer and select neutrals and move blacks slider to +30. For more contrast then select blacks and mover the slider to +10 or +20.
Marketing
Think about who your intended market is. Use push marketing to showcase your photography to potential clients, art buyers and directors. Also, pull marketing uses social media and word of mouth to create your brand. Think about your brand and how it appears to clients. Prepare both a physical and an online portfolio.
I hope you enjoyed this post and you stay tuned for more of what I’ve been reading and shoots I’ve done recently.
So after reading Henry Carroll’s other book discussing how to take great photographs in general which I posted on this blog and absolutely loving it, a couple of months later I walked into Waterstones and found that he had written another one but this time it was only to do with people, my favourite subject to photograph.
The Question
The first thing Carroll tells us to do before reading this book is close the book and ask yourself who am I and why do I want to take photographs of people. I think what he is trying to do here is telling us as a reader that no one is born ready to do something and until you know what your purpose is then you are not ready. In my opinion the question he asks when rephrased would work for any subject so think about what job you want to do and ask yourself that very same question who am I and why do I want to do the job or hobby I want to do and until you know then you are not ready.
The Answer
The Answer is also personal because everyone will have a different answer to the question and the way I’m looking at it on a deeper level is that not everyone will be asking himself or herself the same question. My Answer is to the exact question Carroll poses who am I and why do I want to take photographs of people. My name is Lucy and I am a media graduate with a passion for taking photographs. Yes I love taking photographs but why people in particular, you ask? I love the way that you can tell a lot about a person by the way that they express themselves and I want to capture that in my photography. Photographing people for me tells a story and every person has a different story to tell and I want to convey that message in the photographs that I take.
Composition
Carroll states that when you are composing a shot of a human subject you need to trust your instincts and think about whom you are photographing. What is their mood? What is your mood? Where is the shoot taking place and what’s going on around you?
In photographing people the rule of thirds is the most important aspect of composition because placing your subject in the centre of the frame or in the far right third of the frame creates an essentially perfect composition.
Carroll depicts that linking layers is a brilliant idea as you keep one eye on the subject and the other on the background. In my eyes this means that you need to let the background compliment the subject and not the other way round.
Think about who you are shooting and where and play around with different camera angles to change the perception of a subject.
Lens Choices
My favourite idea Carroll has is that nothing impacts your composition more than your choice of lens. I have three lenses now and for my first studio shoot since university I only had the lens that the camera came with (18-55mm) so this was restrictive as you could see too much of the background which was distracting. Now I use a Nikkor Telephoto Zoom lens (70-200mm), which is a lot better for portraits, and you can see more of the subject. A couple of months ago I bought a brand new Petzval (85mm) Lomography art lens, which so far I have only had the opportunity to test once. This lens is made for portraits but on a recent shoot to Crosby I used this lens to get a different perspective of Anthony Gormley’s Another Place because I had already shot it a year before. The Petzval lens comes with fixed aperture plates that allow me to change the aperture according to the setting. It is also manual focus, which means the lens pushes me to find my own clarity to the extent that I want it to be. The best thing about this lens is that it allows me to obtain different shaped apertures where the light hits the out of focus areas of an image or reflects off a subject.
Breaking the Rules
It is important in photography to create your own rulebook by thinking outside the box or recreating interesting images. In life I always go with my instincts and I feel that these rarely fail me. Carroll illustrates that the same rules apply with photography: “Shoot what your comfortable with, step outside of the comfort zone but don’t shoot anything that makes you feel uncomfortable to be shooting.” In my opinion if you abide by this then you will develop your own style and others will be able to know your images by sight.
Context
The subject has to blend into the environment and you can also use a plain backdrop to isolate your subject so nothing distracts you from them. When taking an image of a person always be on the lookout for juxtaposition because in photography opposites attract. You can reveal a lot about a subject by the traces they leave behind. So don’t always photograph a person photograph things that belong to them in order to obtain a different dimension to their story.
The Gaze
One of the hardest things that you aim to do when photographing people, is to achieve a natural look because in order to do that you have to appear unobtrusive. This statement is one of the most accurate descriptions of my beliefs about photographing people that Carroll expresses: “ A smile is a mask that a person wears, you can see a lot more by breaking your subject out of their shell to see another side of them.” This means a lot to me because only when your subject gets comfortable with you do you start to notice what they are trying to tell you through their body language and their attire.
Control
There are many different techniques you can use in order to photograph a subject. You can make them feel a little bit uncomfortable for a different dynamic to a shot or you can give them something playful in order to expose their subconscious.
Nobody is perfect so looking for flaws in a subject is what makes them unique and interesting. But always remember the only subject you have complete control over is yourself. This last statement has stuck with me and I am planning an exciting new self portraiture project that so far until I complete it, only one person other than me knows what I’m planning which makes it all the more intriguing.
Black and white or colour
I tend to shoot in colour and when I envision the shot as black and white I use a Silver Efex Pro filter taken from the Google Nik collection on my photoshop and typically choose the high structure black and white effect as it is usually images where I want to add depth to the background that I add these too.
Conclusion
To conclude in referring back to Carroll’s original question who are you and why do you want to take photographs of people? This post is my answer so yes I love taking photographs but why people in particular, you ask? I love the way that you can tell a lot about a person by the way that they express themselves and I want to capture that in my photography. Photographing people for me tells a story and every person has a different story to tell and I want to convey that message in the photographs that I take.
Last Sunday I went on a Charity photo walk organised by Terry Donnelly in Liverpool to raise money for a little girl with eye cancer. You can find the go fund me page here:Go Fund Hayden
It was a dreadful dreary day for a photo walk but we didn’t let that dampen our spirits. We started of in St James’ Gardens at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and then explored the inside. In the gardens we found the perfect spot to shoot the three models that Terry had organised and it’s always nice to have the opportunity to shoot a variety of models.
One of the highlights of the time spent in St James’ Garden was when I asked one of the photographers if the lens he was shooting on was the new lomography lens and he said yes would you like to try it, and gave me a master class for a couple of minutes. I never would have known what it was if I hadn’t seen fashion photographer Emily Soto shooting with it on her Facebook page and Instagram. That’s the best thing about going out with other photographers they are generally open to letting you try out their lenses as they know that photographers have a sense of pride looking after their own lenses so they will be careful with yours.
Inside the Anglican Cathedral my main fascination was with the stained glass windows I was amazed at the intricate and beautiful detailing when I used the zoom on my lens for a couple of shots.
The next part of the walk consisted of some street photography and finding some stunning textured walls to shoot the tattooed model Rhi against and it was hard to take a bad shot of her. As we were in a big group it became increasingly difficult to get any one on one time but the model Rhi had this great red hood and some interesting tattoos and I had got some shots earlier in the day but I had this particular shot in mind. What I wanted was a shot of Rhi with the hood up, where she was holding it in her hands and I wanted to add the feature of the finger tattoo while looking for the perfect background to compliment her. With a little help from my photography friends I found this sign that looked like a magazine style poster that was perfect for my idea.
Photography is all about seeing something in everything, in every wall, in every sign, in every building that is worth shooting. You must use your eyes to see what other people don’t see. Photography is a similar medium to film in that every person watching the film sees something different, every photographer sees something different in an image. You may submit your image to one photography competition and the judges will love it but submit it to another and the outcome may be quite the opposite.
After the street photography we looked around Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral but having been there twice previously I found less to shoot. Finally we ended the walk back at the Anglican cathedral and then I spent the rest of the day editing a few of my images and then looked at them again to do some more editing on Thursday.
All in all it was a great day and each photographer contributed £10 for the little girl with eye cancer and some giving even more money and its always rewarding to raise money to help someone or to help out a charity. Photography isn’t always about taking photographs for yourself or a client it can also be about coming together and doing something you love to put a smile on someone’s face.
So I hope you were inspired by this post to not only photograph for yourself or a client but to raise money for someone else.
So for my first blog post I wanted to go back to my roots, where I started to discover that my favourite subject to photograph is people. Why people in particular you ask. I believe that everyone has a story to tell, you can tell a lot about a person by the way they express themselves and I want to capture that in my photography.
If I’m going to talk about photographing people as a subject then I think it’s important to discuss my approach to photographing them and how it has changed over time.
Yes I’ve been taking photographs for as long as I can remember, but I still believe your always learning with photography because there’s always something new and exciting to try.
So I’m in college and it’s my first shoot with a model, and the nerves start to sink in, but I have my accessories and my magazines open at a wide variety of different poses for my model to try and I absolutely loved doing it.
So I’m a final university student and I’m doing my final year project on fashion photography and my model has a broken leg. This shoot was probably one of the most eye opening shoots I’ve ever had to do, how do I shoot my model without her legs. As I always say photography is about working with what you’ve got and using your imagination to think outside the box. If a model is still willing to pose for you while in a cast you work with that, put her in maxi dresses or long flowing skirts to hide it and take more close up shots cause the chances are you will still get something your happy with.
So what portraits have I done recently? The models are more studio based and organised as part of Preston Photographic Society, this is more up close and personal with the model, I have no magazines and no props just me, the model and a few other photographers. Your one on one with the model interacting with the model, directing the model and moving around to shoot her/him from different angles and the more of these shoots you do the more comfortable you become with talking to the model.
Now as well as doing more of these studio shoots I’m trying to branch out, looking for new and exciting people to model for me, I’m open to portraits, fashion, fitness and themed photography so if you would like something a bit out of the ordinary then ask me as I’m always happy to do something different.
Below is a gallery detailing my progression the first two shots are from when I was in college, the next two are from university and the final three are from recent studio shoots with Preston Photographic Society.
I hope you enjoyed my first post, be sure to follow me here or on my Facebook page Lucy And The Lens or on my Instagram @lucyandthelens to discover more.