Here are some technical aspects of my shoots which I’d like to share with you
Off-Camera flash is a quick and easy way of controlling your lighting using a speedlight. It’s great to experiment with different angles and distances in the position of your speedlight and you can get more control over your lighting that you would achieve with on-camera flash. When combined with a reflector to balance out the light and smooth the transition of shadows you can get some striking results in portraiture
At the Titanic Centre in Belfast I used the Canon 5D MK2 with my trusty 24-105mm f.4 lens. Over the last couple of years this has been my go-to lens which is on my camera at least 50% of the time. It’s a great telephoto lens and it’s focal distances accommodate nicely for both landscape work and portraiture. However it does have it’s limitations and is not so good in low light nor does it provide satisfactory bokeh with it’s relatively small aperture. The term ‘Bokeh’ is used to describe the soft blurring effect of the parts of the image which are not in focus and the effect varies considerably with each lens. Nonetheless I do enjoy using the 24-105mm as it is so versatile and that day I intentionally left my other lenses at home for a change
For my videos I use my Sony HD Handycam which is light to carry around and easy to set up. It’s often good to document your photo shoots and this quick little video shows some of the highlights from our shoot. I did struggle with the audio even though the wind at the time was nowhere near as bad as it sounds on the video. I’ll be getting a new microphone very soon which will greatly improve the quality of my videos both at the studio and on location
Rachel is one of my favourite models to work with. She needs little direction, is easy to work with posing and she always looks great. I brought along my red umbrella as a prop although it also came in useful with the wet February weather. As a Belfast wedding photographer I’m well used to our temperamental climate
For post processing I used Adobe Lightroom with some minor touch ups and editing in Photoshop
