Kiera Gould: Lighting Experiment 01

Straight in -

For a while, I've been wanting to play around with some different lighting and lighting effects a bit more to get me out of my comfort zone.

Last year as my photography 'New Years' Resolution' I decided that I was going to do more 'uncomfortable' stuff, such as more difficult location and more interesting lighting and then I broke my hand and got very involved in some of my other work projects (photography, for those who do not know, is not my full-time job). Whilst I still did a bit last year, I didn't do enough and what I did do, I was mostly unhappy with it due to it always being rushed or ridiculously late in the evening...

So to start of this year, I've decided to give this a more committed go. And not break anymore bones.

Also, at the time of writing, I have 6 published posts on my blog for 2013 despite having mostly written another 4 that have been left as drafts. I will endeavour to get those completed also. Because I know everyone in the world is dying to read my unpublished works... *raised eyebrow*

Commence not blathering -

Thursday 23rd January

I posted this link on my Facebook Photography Page

Friday 24th January

My boss brought in his 24-70mm f/2.8 lens and said that I could use it over the weekend in return for masses and masses of chocolate-y cakes

Saturday 25th January

I arrived at Kiera Gould's house with my everything.

On this day, I arrived in the late afternoon and we had tea and then I had a go at setting up some sweet lighting.

I started off with my Elinchrom fitted with barn doors and a red filter and set this so that it was constant and did not trigger when I took the picture. I then stuck my flashgun on and set this so that it was not constant and only triggered once when I took the image:

I then set my shutter speed to about a 1 second exposure and then I took some pictures of Kiera slowly moving out of pose after the initial picture.

That came out something like this:

... which just both looked really over-photoshopped I initially thought, though they're growing on me because I really like the suggestion of movement, not to mention that Kiera looks beautiful  in them as per.

The other thing I tried was setting up the other Elinchrom behind me with a little softbox and fired that off instead of the flashgun.

The soft-box was brighter and so the images look a bit more crisp and white in places and the red looks a bit more fiery as opposed to pink. The clarity of the bottom two images was what I was looking for and with the movement of the first couple.

Despite my thoughts that the first two look as though I've just gone a bit effect-happy on Photoshop, they appear to have been well received on my Facebook page and so I suppose that there is a possibility that I'm just over-thinking it. I'd say I don't do that sort of thing but I over-think everything. Everything. I even over-thought that last sentence. And that one...

I think I know what bits I would change if I could have another go at this shoot and have learned from it - so that's good. Still not 100% about the final images themselves but luckily, Kiera is lovely to look at and so people are hopefully distracted enough by that until I get a bit better at achieving the effect I was after!

Just to make sure they last until then - here are some more pictures of Kiera for your enjoyment!:

My Favourite Photographers 03: Rankin

Right then. Lara Jade and Kirsty Mitchell done, that's two down and one to go. I hope you enjoyed looking at their material as much as I do.

Part three of "My Favourite Photographers" is a man who most will potentially know of as you will probably have seen his images even if you don't know he was the man who took them.

He is a very popular portrait and fashion photographer by the name of Rankin and he has taken some of my favourite images ever...

Rankin
I first came across Rankin properly only a few years ago.

I store up pages from magazines sometimes if I find images I love or a technique I'd like to try working with, etc. as you might expect.

What happened was, I came across Rankin's website, when kind of just browsing through miscellaneous photographer sites one day and I found loads of my favourite images in his portfolio. These included this one of Florence Welch (of Florence + the Machine) which was my favourite image in my stack of magazine pages at the time:

I then got mad-obsessed and trawled though the whole website looking at all his images and with a child-like admiration for all the pretty. So much pretty.

You can see his work here (and in most magazines!):

www.rankin.co.uk

He's done some wicked work over the years and is a really likeable character as well which helps!

If you watch his videos, he's always laughing and joking around with everybody and is just, basically, a right geezer. XD

This is Rankin:

See! Top bloke.

All the celebrities seem to love him and get on with him on both a professional AND a personal level. They often raving on about how fun he is to work with and I find he always seems to have images of celebrities, including ones that are typically nervous characters, looking so relaxed and happy in his portraits...

You can see a load of his portraits here if you're interested in seeing what I mean.

One of my favourite images of Emma Watson is a prime example:

I love his use of light and contrast in a lot of his work. This is the kind of thing that I find particularly striking and is probably why I like his images so much, who knows:

His 'Beauty' portfolio on the whole is wicked...

Beauty

Speaking of beauty, he once did a wicked project called 'Ten Times Rosie' in which he photographed Rosie Huntington-Whiteley who is a STUNNING model and you may know her from her role as the new, less orange Megan Fox in the latest Transformers movie.
(missed a trick there though, Rankin. Could have called it Whole Lotta Rosie... Tsk.)

I love this collection anyway so I'm going to make you look at it...

... I might like Rosie Huntington-Whiteley a bit but don't tell anyone...

...

...

Anyway, finally, he's also got a magazine out now called 'HUNGER' which is a mammoth!

www.hungertv.com

Rankin seems a little bit fond of magazines. He actually sort of started out in fashion by launching a magazine called 'Dazed and Confused' with a chap named Jefferson Hack in the early 90's. They covered fashion, music and other media.

... And HUNGER is basically a monster-magazine. A bi-annual fashion/music/photography explosion.

It's currently in it's 3rd release...:

So that's kind of Rankin, really!

You can 'like' his Facebook page if you want to and you can browse his website for pictures of Dave Grohl, Scarlett Johansson, Kate Moss and Emma Watson...

Last little bit...:
Something that I find particularly inspirational, or perhaps re-assuring though... is that Rankin, is a fantastic photographer who has taken many fantastic images in his life... didn't pick up photography until he was 21!

This is a really great thing to learn when you're a bit of a late-starter like me and you're trawling through pictures that you can't even imagine taking. It makes you (it made me) realise that as long as the ideas and the passion is there, there's nothing stopping me becoming this good? Right?

I find myself thinking sometimes that I picked up my first camera pretty late, don't have a lot of cash to spend on the kit, don't have a lot of time to spend on the photography... but none of that matters because I love it. I love doing it. I would spend all my time taking pictures of people if it wouldn't get me arrested. Possibly even if it would.

Rankin has shown me that you don't have to pick up a camera from an early age and study photography through college and university to become good, you just need to find the passion.

Kirsty Mitchell has shown me that you don't need a lot of money to spend on kit to take breath-taking images, you just need to have some inspiration.

... and Lara Jade has shown me that you don't need to have a lot of time to do what you love... you just need to love doing it and you will make the time for what is important to you. You get the drive from wanting to do it.

Besides, I don't necessarily want to become world-famous...

... I just want to take fucking great images. ;D

Kiera Gould: A Firefly-Inspired Shoot

The idea of a 'Firefly' themed shoot had come up a couple of times with Kiera Gould (Stunt Extraordinnaire) and we ended up finally fitting this in on the 15th July, the day after shopping for Kiera's wedding dress.

Kiera, Matt (Matt "Reluctant Photography Assistant" Evans) and I met up and Matt's house and then left for the location early in the morning.

The location (be warned) is fantastic, beautiful and pretty darn unique but I am afraid I can not tell you it's location for various reasons. Some of you may recognise it but I'd like to ask that you keep it to yourselves and not mention it in any comments you may leave. Thanks.

Right then. Moving on, let me explain that the majority of these images have been post-processed with the 'Overlay' blending option (previously described in Yvonne Gumbere's shoot) as I love the dirty feel that it gives these images.

For example:

<- Here it is without the 'overlay' effect... 














... and here it is with the 'overlay' effect -> 



I just think it makes this series 'pop' nicely...

So these were the images in the first 'area' which I was hoping might look somewhat like a Firefly-esque engine...

... along with Kiera and her 'engineering' get-up.

This next room/area is my absolute favourite with literally the sexiest damn door I've ever seen in my life. I could quite possibly live here.

(All but one taken using natural light.)

Here's Kiera sat in the 'sexy door'. It was actually once in an episode of Red Dwarf, this door.

Like... made a cameo appearance...

... It's not crazy to be in love with a door, you know. Especially when it's so damn fantastic.

Plus if you think I'm crazy, you should meet Kiera...

She's proper mental...

Right, this next bit's pretty damn cool as well. Get a load of this sci-fi scene. All shot with natural light again but without the overlay effect...

Pretty cool.

Silhouette?

And finally, this last one was taken in a pitch black tunnel with 6 tiny holes of light peering in (not that you could tell whilst in there) so to achieve this, I popped the camera on the tripod and set the shutter speed to 30 seconds...

Fit.

So that was our awesome trip to "miscellaneous location" with the Kierabeast!

Or "Kierannosaurus 6" if we go by her new Roller Derby name...

Interesting fact: Kiera is a member of the Surrey Roller Girls roller derby team along with "Kerosene"... also known as Ceri "Diva" Williams (who also has her own blog now too. So you can read all about her opinions on life, skating and other humans. Figures). Small world!