#HrdLight–Stephanie Williams

During a windy and cold location shoot at Hale Lighthouse near Liverpool I was on the look out for #HrdLight shots but wanted something different than the others in the series , So far everything has been lit so I have been wanting some natural hard light to work with for a while and the sun came through for oh about 5 minuets and gave some awesome direct sun light through a small gap in the clouds.  You have to move quick, dial in your exposure and shoot… if you don't the light is gone before you know it.  My first exposure was a little hot by 1/3rd not bad for a quick dial in in Manual, made a quick change leaving the exposure for the series of about 10 frames I took (before the clouds spoiled the fun) was ISO 100, F2.8 1/2000th sec.

Note to self – Leave your lights at home for a whole location shoot sometime, natural light rocks!

Shot with the Canon EF 35mm F2 on a 60D and gotta say I love this lens and the field of view it gives on a crop sensor.

After being ill for a few weeks it felt good to be shooting again but have to admit I struggled on this shoot, need to get my head back in the game.  I’m happy with some of the results (love this shot) and others not so much.. that's all me and no one else, got to refocus as I'm not prepared to fall in to being a lazy mediocre photographer and I don't want to be the fix it later in post guy.  

We all have doubts and not everything can and will be perfect every shoot or for every shot I get that, I am my own worst enemy/critic a little too often but lately I have been struggling, feeling frustrated and on occasion have wanted to put the camera a way for a while.  I need to slap myself and shake it off ready for next weekends Studio shoot, get back up and carry on moving.

PS.  I am still looking for subjects to photograph for my #HrdLight project, would love to shoot some  portraits (Environmental) of people and not models for it so if your interested send me an email here and find out more about the #HrdLight project here .

Rick

#HrdLight - Nataly Pourikkou

The third image in my #HrdLight project series.

Taken about 2 weeks ago on a location shoot in my home town Stockport, this project was kind of in the back of my mind… in a I will grab something If i see a shot kinda way, to be honest I just wanted to get out and shoot after a really crappy week.

Even though I used hard light a fair bit during this shoot (dam wind), I did not have any specific hard light shot ideas for this project, that was until the last location (a dark walkway) resulted in an interesting long exposure after a accidental shutter press… that started the process of making this image.  Due to the lowlight level in the walkway exposures for ambient light were pretty long, this means you can get some ghosting when mixing ambient with flash, which is the result you see above.

Exposure : F6.3, ISO 500, 4”   Light: On Camera (yes yes on camera) Straight up hard flash 1/64  power + 0.3ev  (in camera NOT photo shop)

I tried it ETTL but it sucked (nothing new) so i switched to manual as I wanted a more consistent flash exposure.  The flash exposure is the only consistency your going to get with long exposure images like this and that’s what makes them fun, to quote Forrest Gump .. You never know what your gonna get.

Also on a side note, I'm getting to like the in camera RAW processing options on the 60D quite a bit.  This was shot in RAW colour and since you can’t re shoot the same image again with long exposures I converted the RAW file in camera to a B & W JPEG and added contrast, sharpening etc to give me an in the field idea. FYI the final image has gone through Light Room.

#HrdLight–(Rachael F)–Shut Up!

Continuing on with my #HrdLight project this is the second image.

#HrdLight - (Rachael) Shut Up !

Taken using one speedlite with a 1/4 grid and some pain in the ass suddenly unreliable wireless triggers (time to change them, gave up counting after 10 misfires). 

I took other frames but for some reason this simple frame stood out to me, pretty sure its the fact the image is lit to show the top more than her face  (different way of doing it).

Thank you Rachael for working with me.

During shooting I also talked to Rachael and another model I have worked with about a shot I have in my head for this project, its always good to talk about ideas and collaborate, get a team together. I won’t go in to any detail about this planned shot here but I will say its going to take some planning.  Can’t wait.

Rick

#HrdLight – Karina

You may have read my previous post about starting a new project #HrdLight well I wanted to hit the ground running with this.  I had a shoot on location yesterday in Liverpool (More on this shoot later) and while I was keeping the project in mind I wanted to get the shots the subject wanted in the bag first.. remember when working with a subject on location (model, client, what ever) its a collaboration always.. your working as a team.

As it turns out the conditions (25mph winds) kind of dictated the type of light that could be used, that type of light was unmodified bare.. #HrdLight   .. If I had tried to used a softbox or umbrella it would of been game over (Wind 1 , Modifier 0).  So to kick start this project off here is my first #Hrdlight frame and incidentally one of the first real frames from my new Camera.

One more thing to say… Karina you were an absolute star and coped with the difficult conditions amazingly.. Thank You. 

FYI - If you or you known somebody would like to be photographed (18 Years or older) as part of this project then you can email me here  Please use "#HrdLight" in the email subject. I am only looking for people in and around  Stockport, Manchester and Liverpool (Basically local).

If you have any questions about this project if you are considering contacting me about being photographed for it let me know. 

Thank You

Rick