New Blog...

Decided to move onto a new blog today for several reasons... I seemed to eb experiencing many issues with this blog especially when it came down to customising the layout. I also had an old url and so decided to change to a new clean fresh blog. The new one will be far more active than this previous attempt with daily updates about anything i find interesting...

NEW BLOG!!!

Yuri Arcurs' New studio...

If you had all the money in world, what would your studio look like?

Yuri Arcurs' had this exact situation and boy did he go all out. I've always been fascinated with talented photographer who seem to be incredibly business smart too. Yuri is quite possibly the finest example of this. Specialising in micro stock photography, Yuri has become possibly the most respected photographer in his field, covering a large amount of stock sites. The most amazing aspect of all is how quickly he's managed to achieve this. I've never been one for stock photography, the concept of it just doesn't appeal to me, but anyone who manages to produce a seven figure bank balance doing what they love always gains the respect of me...

His new studio is a must see, a space anybody would be jealous of. Full of equipment most dream about, with around £100,000 of Profoto equipment alone...

There is no other word to describe it... Insane!

An interesting portrait shoot...

Commercial photographer Clay Enos demonstrates just how easy it can be to create interesting portraits without having to spend thousands on equipment... Stripping back to the basics with just an slr and natural light, Clay manages to create an interesting body of work for Wired.com. Really easy 5 minutes watch...

Veritas Recruitment...

Image Five...

Instalment number 5 of this years project moves into the life of Chris Tinson. Some of you may recognise him from some of my work before. I shot his wedding in the summer and really wanted to do something with him. Really quite an inspiration character. Not so long ago, he gave up everything to start up his own recruitment agency, Verities Recruitment'. I've really taken an interest into other people starting a journey similar to mine. This time i focused on someone doing it on a slightly larger scale as Chris has an office, employees and investors to keep happy.

veritasrecruitment.com/

Something a little different on a technical front today (Focusing on the first image). A very natural looking images on all fronts. Tried something portrait for once as i seemed to fit the subject at hand in a much cleaner way. When i shot in landscape the negative space didn't compliment Chris. Went for a very shallow depth of field. Wanted him to be the centre of attention and dominate the image. Also still really love this new 50mm f/1.2 and can't take it off my camera. Very simple lighting set-up also. Shoot through umbrella to the right with a CTO attached as chris is kind of pale and warm the shot up. Had to use the hyper sync the pocket wizard offered to get the shallow depth of field. The office is all glass and lets in a hell of a lot of light and the only way i could fill flash was this way...

Camera set-up:

Camera info...
Canon 5D mkII - Canon 50mm L f/1.2 : iso 50 - f/2.2 - 1/320 secs
Stobist Info...
Canon 580 exII : Right of Subject - 1/2 - Shoot through umbrella & 1/4 CTO

Twitter : twitter.com/BenBrownPhoto
Site : www.benbrownphoto.com/

Chris Chart...

Image number four...

This week i took the time to shoot someone i've been meaning to shoot for a while. His names Chris Chart and he's the founder of a media company "Spark Engine Media". I decided to shoot him in his home office, the location he spends most of his time working. It's a pretty awesome location to shoot, really like the open brick work, and really liked the contrast with brick and technology.  Chris is a big tech fan and uses technology everyday for work, so i thought it was kind of crucial to include something into the shot (role in the iPad and Macpro).

On the tech front this wasn't the easiest shoot i've ever done. Due to most of my shoots being outside the umbrellas work well to control the light. However when shooting in a small room they give off a lot of unwanted light, constantly bouncing around the room. Think i'm going to have to look into getting an octobox i think. Simple light set-up, umbrella to the right and bare flash to the left.

Twitter : twitter.com/BenBrownPhoto
Site : www.benbrownphoto.com/

Camera set-up:

Camera info...
Canon 5D mkII - Canon 50mm L f/1.2 : iso 160 - f/1.4 - 1/60 secs
Stobist Info...
Canon 580 exII : Right of Subject - 1/32 - Shoot through umbrella
Canon 580 exII : Left of Subject - 1/64 - Full CTO gel

Outtake I kind of liked... Something a little different!

Portrait_003

Third image from the latest project...

Slightly late uploading, but had a mad busy schedule lately. This is the third image from the new portrait project. A little different to whats been so far, but i wanted to try something a little different. The image is from a set of three, the image before and the image after also belong to the set. The image is of one of my friends Sophie. We've spoken many times in the past about shooting, but never managed to get round to it. There isn't really much to these images, more a trial and error of where my photography may be going. The style is a little different to my usual work. I shot the images a few days ago now and i'm still unsure as to whether i'm liking the change. I went for very shallow depth of field and predominately used natural lighting, although i did throw the strobes into a couple, but only subtly.

Sophie is roughly the same age as me working as an accountant. The main reason i've wanted to shoot her is she's a very interesting character. Usually i'm able to tell a bit about a person instantly, but with Sophie it's a very different matter. She's a big fan of music, fashion and traditional 70's photography like the work of Richard Avedon, but this only really touches the surface of her character. I wanted to see if i could produce images with a more modern style and see if she would take a liking to them...

Blog : benbrownphotography.blogspot.com/
Twitter : twitter.com/BenBrownPhoto
Site : www.benbrownphoto.com/

Not much on the technical front, very simple camera set-up:

Camera info...
Canon 5D mkII - Canon 50mm L f/1.2 : iso 1600 - f/2 - 1/100 secs
Stobist Info...
Canon 580 exII : Right of Subject - 1/32 - 1/2 CTO Gel - Shoot through umbrella

Portrait_002

Second image from the new project...

This weeks image is of student musician Craig Shardlow. I've shot his band a couple of times in the past. His life revolves around music, generating the inspiration for the image. I decided to tie in his love for music and his need to travel due to university. The train station always gives good results for a location shoot and pretty happy with the results again.

I was going for a very natural looking image, a little similar to a film still and he's waiting for a train. At the time it seemed to work well and i'm happy with the end results, but when in post it looks far more powerful as a set with an additional two image (I'll post at a later date). The headphones and guitar where incorporated as the only real props to enforce music is his passion.

Tied in the artificial lighting in a much more natural way with this image. Didn't want anything too dramatic, just something that helped punch the subject out of the background. Worked exactly as planned when combined with the shallow depth of field. Blue gelled strobe bare to the left and a shoot through umbrella strobe to the right with a CTO gel attached.

Blog : benbrownphotography.blogspot.com/
Twitter : twitter.com/BenBrownPhoto
Site : www.benbrownphoto.com/

Tech Info :

Camera info...
Canon 5D mkII - Canon 50mm L f/1.2 : iso 800 - f/1.4 - 1/100 secs
Stobist Info...
Canon 580 exII : Right of Subject - 1/32 - CTO Gel - Shoot through umbrella
Canon 580 exII : Left of Subject - 1/16 - 1/2 CTB