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 Because I know everyone in the world is dying to read my unpublished works...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!:

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!

Kiera Gould: Less Angus, More Kiera

Ok, so following on from my previous post...

Kiera (killing soon in a town near you) came for a longer studio shoot on Saturday 22nd October.


We'd planned to work with each other again once I had obtained my own studio kit, which of course I have.

Kiera turned up with lots of bits and bobs to use, such as some really nice maroon velvet drapes, peacock feathers, most cleverly obtained for a shocking price of 15 'bob' by Bill (Billiam) Thomas.

We started out soft and simple and got a range of beautiful, yet natural, Kieraful headshots such as this:

And this (Ooh! Peacock Feathers!? Thanks Bill!):

And these!:

These last two achieved using a very bright but softened backlight, and a soft main light.

Next up we went for a rocky look. Kiera donned some very pink eyeshadow and we accessorised the bejesus out of her using all the chains, gloves, netted clothing and cuffs, etc, that I could find in the time it took her to get made up. Kiera's hair was sprayed forward into a stylish, yet relaxed quiff and off we went.

I like this one. It's not a typical composition but I like it anyway. So 'ner, ner'. :p

I am aware that these two are incredibly similar but I am yet to decide on my favourite of the two...

... I think it's that right one.

...Maybe.

Anyway, moving on. Next we stuck up a maroon velvet backdrop (as provided by Kiera) and got into a classy ladylike outfit. The top being a really lovely pink corset top that I had failed to take a good picture of when I was first starting out in my very early photography testing days. Every picture blurry, damn it! But I have since learned a lot about shutter speed. *pat pat* Well done Chloe.

Besides, I got another go at it. :D

Right, next I wanted to have a go with a blue gel filter. Kiera changed into a pair of teeny tiny shorts and wrapped her front with a teeny tiny piece of grey fabric.

So Robin, you'll be pleased to know, your sister was not completely naked. Sorry to everyone else for that information. I did try really hard.

I struggled around a bit with this next one having never used a gel filter before. I seemed to think when setting this up that I wanted the blue light to hit Kiera's face. Whilst I fumbled around with this for a bit trying it at different angles, and with the other light on and off, and facing the other light away but pinging it back with a reflector, and facing the same way as the filtered light, etc etc (seriously, everything but!) I eventually brought the blue light up from the back and had the main light hitting Kiera from the front.

And it looked SO much better and less like I'd turned Kiera into a Smurf.

Tempted to Photoshop Kiera as a smurf anyway for comic effect... hmm... I'd probably die horribly. Will try that on a less deadly subject some other time. *notes down*

Right then. Last set. I loved it.

Like with Marlyn's corsetted shoot, I switched to the Tungsten setting for my white balance and we just got so many awesome shots!

So, lucky you! You get to look at a few of these. :D

That cheekbone is a killer. :o

 

This outfit in fact was so awesome, I wore it that night to Martin's halloween work do'. I hitched the front of the skirt right up and put on some fishnet stockings & suspenders, some fake blood and pasty white make-up and went as a bride of Count Dracula. One! Two! Ah ah ahhh!!!

Speaking of which, I 'forgot' to give that outfit back...

Moving swiftly on... Kiera's coming for some extreme beauty shots* next time, possibly in January? So watch this space.

* Extreme beauty shots are unfortunately not beauty shots taken whilst doing something extreme, such as bungee jumping, hang-gliding, parachuting, etc but it's certainly worth thinking about and Kiera's certainly the girl for the job...



Kiera Gould: Ass-Kicking Stunt Goddess

This is Kiera:

(not my picture :( )

You may or may not know (depends how long you’ve been stalking ;) ) that I’ve worked with Kiera on several occasions.

We’ve had about 6 photo shoots over the past 3 years, including my ‘signature’ photo, the Masquerade shot, taken on my very first shoot, and then of course she’s been in all of the films I’ve done some stills for, often being shot at, being the sh*t out of somebody or being set on fire. Kiera, you see, is a stunt performer. And she’s hard as nails.

Bearing all this in mind, she is also absolutely beautiful.

Here’s her website:

www.kieragould.com

Go ahead, take a look, I’ll wait...

*whistle*

<_<

... tum ti tum...

>_>

Good, isn’t she?

Anyway, she came out to see me on Sunday the 9^th October as I was doing a very specific shoot involving some vintage wear, and someone riding my Harley Davidson.

Now then, nobody rides my babe-magnet, Angus but me but if I wanted the shot I was after that badly I was going to have to make an exception. I contacted Kiera to see if she wanted to undertake this quest of bikery, because if I’m going to let anybody ride my precious two-wheeled tractor, it has to be her, and she happily accepted.

Now I had to let her ride it. Eek!

She turned up at my place in Farnborough and Rachel Nicholson did some AWESOME makeup that I love love love and we (Myself, Angus, Kiera, Rachel and Simon (motor photographer)) set out to the Wellington Statue in Aldershot.

I rode the Harley there and parked up on the side.

Image courtesy of Simon Amphlett

Kiera sat on the bike (*wince*ohmygodamIreallylettingthishappen!?) and I pointed out the ignition, gears, etc which of course she knew already but it made me feel better. Well, not really.

It’s not that I didn’t trust Kiera, don’t get me wrong. But she likes explosions and I wasn’t really for my Steel Horse to be put to death just yet.

I told Kiera to ride up the road slowly-ish and turn ‘round so she was comfortable and off she rode on my beloved ride.

AhhhI’vechangedmymindcomebackhelpohpleasebegentle

It came back! She brought it back and it wasn’t on fire or anything! *BREATHE!*

And so, feeling a bit better, I set up my camera on Simon’s tripod (oi oi!) and made her ride up and down the road until I got the shot I was looking for.

This shot, to be precise:

The image was insipred by an image taken by Ronald Traeger in 1967 of Twiggy. See original below:

It wasn't quite right as mine looks a bit dark in comparison as there wasn't so much sun unfortunately... but we did get this one:

And I'm pretty darn chuffed with that one. So all is not lost! :)

So my darling baby came back in one piece AND I got a shot with my beautiful Angus looking shiny to put in my portfolio. Eeee! Happy noises!

Next post from shoot with Kiera on Saturday 22nd October up next...

The Beginning

OK, so... I've finally decided to start blogging about my photography. I'm not sure whether this will be interesting for anyone but at the very least, I might find it interesting to read back one day!

 I'm going to start it off by briefly summing up how I got started and what I've been up to so far so that I can blog from the present.

I became interested in photography quite late. I  picked up a camera for the first time in 2009 at the fresh young age of 20 years.

Starting out as a freelance part-time model, I spent a lot of time with photographers, building up portfolios and the like. I had a lot of ideas for photoshoots but I found that the photographs themselves rarely came out as I had envisioned them. I realised that I wanted more than anything to create. To be the creator. As a model, your creativity can be limited as, whether your photographer is easygoing and flexible or not, you never truly have the control you need to create the image you are hoping for. You are always relying heavily on the photographer.

After getting to know a couple of photographers quite well, one in particular, (still a very good friend) Pete Baldrey effectively changed my life, I suppose. I mentioned that I would like to 'have a go' at photography and so he loaned me his Canon 350D and off I went!

My first 'photoshoot' with a wonderful girl, Kiera Gould (Masquerade shoot, note the pictures!), was amazing. We drove to Pete's studio and he showed me how to work the lighting and then told me to give him a shout if I needed anything. I was so excited! We were shooting late into the evening, throwing more and more ideas and potential images around. It is still to this day one of my favourite shoots just for the sheer amount of fulfillment it left me with.

After that shoot I was sincerely hooked and I am still bouncing around with excitement before every shoot to this day and I can be buzzing for days and days afterwards.

So there it is. That is how it began...