Kent Photographer in Bromley

We met up with friends in Bromley last weekend, and since I knew there would be lots of photogenic children there, I took my camera with me!

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Kent Portrait Photographer in Gillingham

I had the pleasure of conducting a portrait photoshoot with Mia and her parents on Sunday - check out her gallery. Mia was an absolute pleasure to work with and behaved perfectly for over an hour - it made my life very easy.

All of the above shots were taken with the Canon 35mm f/1.4 L prime lens - a superb piece of glass - and used just window light. There wasn't much light, as it was overcast outside (ISOs ranged from 500-1250), but the quality of light was excellent. I shot at apertures ranging from f/1.4 to f/4.0 with exposure compensation for backlit scenes.

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Kent Wedding Photographer in Action

I wasn't the only photographer at work on the jetty at Broadstairs on Saturday. Another couple of fellow enthusiasts were out, and one of them, Theodore, sent on the shot above of me 'in action' - see more of his work at Fyodor Wed Fotografi.

Take note of my braced action stance!

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Kent portrait photographer - published work

I made the front cover of RSC  News this week, the hard-hitting news journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry - a highly sought after accolade amongst the UK photographic community. Well, perhaps not, but it's always nice to see one's work in print.

I also had a photo published in The Scientist magazine this week. Not all the subjects could make the same photoshoot, so Elna, on the left, had to be photoshopped in! Unfortunately, the dimensions of the final photo differed from that in the brief, which scuppered my composition, but they paid well so I'm not complaining.

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Alex Hughes Photoshoot, Margate

I had a great time photographing up-and-coming singer Alex Hughes yesterday at Arlington House in Margate. Gritty would be a polite way of describing the location but it was the perfect setting for the shoot I had in mind. His producer Ted Carfrae came along and very kindly held my wireless flash unit and reflector for some of the shots!

Alex and Ted were a real pleasure to work with and I wish them all possible success with Alex's new album. I think Alex could have a future in modelling too - he was wonderfully relaxed and confident in front of the camera. Virtually all the shots were keepers.

The photoshoot took place at midday which meant that no direct sunlight reached us in the covered ground floor car park that we used. The quantity of light was low (ISO 1600 for some of the shots) but the quality was very high. Most of the shots used natural light but I also shot a few with a 580EX II Speedlite triggered with an ST-E2 Speedlite transmitter.

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Portrait photography at Pfizer in Sandwich, Kent

I was hired by the American science magazine 'The Scientist' last week to take a portrait shot of some of the people involved with Celsentri (maraviroc), Pfizer's new anti-HIV medicine, that was discovered and developed at Sandwich. I only had a 5 minute session for photography so I did a very quick location scout before meeting up with them. It was then primarily a question of getting them looking relaxed and in pin-sharp focus. The ambient light was underexposed by -2/3 stops and the subjects were flash-lit with flash exposure compensation of -2/3 stops.

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Family portraits at Deal beach

I had the pleasure of photographing Julie and her family at Deal beach on Saturday morning - see their family portraits. The sun was so strong we had to take shelter under the shade of the pier, which limited our freedom to move, but we had a productive shoot nonetheless. Posing people just besides the sea does have its risks though - particularly when large waves come in!

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Family portraits at Westgate Gardens, Canterbury

I had the pleasure of photographing Christine and her parents at Westgate Gardens in Canterbury on Sunday - see their portrait gallery. It was extremely gusty, so we had a few pauses to let the wind die down, and light levels varied constantly as clouds passed in front of the sun. I took the opportunity to put my 70-200m f/2.8 L IS lens to good use.

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Photoshoot at St Crispin Inn, Worth

I did a photoshoot for the St Crispin Inn in the lovely village of Worth, near Sandwich, on Saturday morning. The sun was incredibly strong by 9:30am and streaming in through the windows - time for some high dynamic range (HDR) shots! I used a tripod and auto-exposure bracketing to record shots at -2, 0 and +2 stops relative to the metered exposure and then Photomatix Pro to combine them.

I often use the HDR technique when hand-holding the camera if the shutter speed is so fast that I can just leave my finger on the shutter to take the 3 shots. The photo of Whitstable Castle posted on Monday was done this way.

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Photoshoot at Kearnsey Abbey, Dover

I did a very relaxed photoshoot with Jennie and her family on Sunday at Kearnsey Abbey, near Dover. There were a few nerves initially, but it didn't take them long to warm up (about one minute!). Several of the group explained to me that they don't 'photograph well'. I hear this at most wedding and portrait sessions. In these cases I take a few shots and then show them the pictures using the LCD screen on the camera - this always builds their confidence. As you can see from the shots above they were quite a photogenic bunch!

The sun was very strong so we found some open shade under trees. I used exposure compensation from +2/3 to +2 stops depending upon the brightness of the background.

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Garden Party in Canterbury

I photographed the 100 Years Celebration of Steven James Hairdressing on Sunday in Canterbury - event gallery. A very entertaining garden party - hairdressers are a lively bunch!

From a photographic perspective there were a couple of challenges to deal with. 100 people in a back garden means you have to relax your normal standards of composition - it's not possible to remove all background distractions. Also, I took a series of large group shots for which I needed people at different levels in order to be able to see them all. There were some suitable steps for this but, unfortunately, the front row was in shade and the back row in direct sunlight. I therefore decided to blast (flash exposure compensation +1) the front row with softened flash to try and balance the two areas - it worked reasonably well.

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Photoshoot at Pfizer, Sandwich, Kent

I did a photoshoot at the pharmaceutical company Pfizer in Sandwich, Kent yesterday for the Royal Society of Chemistry. The day was set-up to encourage young people to pursue a career in science - a noble aim. Light levels were low so I opted for ISO 1600 or 3200, with post-processing in Neat Image to remove noise. I decided not to use a flash as I wanted scenes lit evenly.

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The Bell Hotel, Sandwich, Kent

A selection of images from this afternoon's photoshoot at The Bell Hotel in Sandwich, Kent. I used the high dynamic range technique, in order to capture interior details without blowing out the windows and surroundings, and Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 L & 15mm f/2.8 fisheye lenses.

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A simple way to add zing to your portraits

I took this shot of Emily at the weekend using window light and a collapsible background - an impromptu shot with no fussing over set-up. She's got a lovely expression and the skin tones are natural - perfectly acceptable. However, as I didn't bother to light the background separately it is rather muted.

A couple of minutes in Lightroom and Photoshop though and you can make the shot a lot more vibrant. I used the brightness control in Lightroom (this protects highlights unlike the exposure control) to give a modern high-key look to Emily and then split-toned the image, introducing a gold hue into the highlights. I then exported to Photoshop and made a crude selection of the face which I then inverted. I used the 'replace color' command to select only the background and then lightened this (if I hadn't deselected Emily's face, areas here would have lightened as well). I then added a white stroke and black border (a process I have stored as an action). Very simple but gives the portrait a very different feel.

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Photoshoot at The Guildhall, Sandwich

I shot a wedding at the Guildhall, Sandwich recently and returned yesterday to do a photoshoot of the venue. A great opportunity for high dynamic range (HDR) photography. I bracketed exposures at -2, 0, +2 stops, which was only just sufficient to cover the huge tonal range in the rooms. Very tricky lighting conditions with lots of reflective dark wood panelling but a terrific location.

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One last HDR shot

One last HDR shot from the Burlington Hotel, Folkestone - their magnificent staircase. I hope I've inspired you to have a go at the HDR technique over the last three posts - it's very easy.

Please check out my revamped wedding photography galleries page - I've featured a shot from each wedding and indicated the number of photos people received for the time I spent with them. Invaluable information for the discerning client!

Band photoshoot in Kent

I photographed my chums in EK1 last night at Acol village hall. For the individual portrait shots I used my own lighting system but for the full group shots we had to improvise using their stage lights (without coloured filters). It took a bit of juggling to reduce the effects of hotspots but the results are surprisingly good for such a Heath Robinson set-up - necessity is the mother of invention as they say. I've done a very crude cut-out using Photoshop in the shot above to remove the background.

Portrait photography when travelling

I love taking pictures of the locals when I travel. I always check that they're happy having their photo taken by waiting for a smile or nod and am happy to grease a palm if they're particularly photogenic. The above shot was taken at the magical Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I have a selection of travel photos on my website but there's no direct link - go to my Kent wedding photographer homepage and then type travel after the backslash.