The past couple of weeks have been occupied by editing a DVD of the MMA cage fighting event held at Coronation hall earlier last month. This was a break from the norm for me but a very enlightening and fun experience. I think everyone who is interested in sports should pop along to the next event at the same venue on the 26th June. If you don’t know the sport then your perception may be of thugs just bashing each other silly. Quite the contrary. This is a well regulated event with a team of referee’s whose prime concern is the safety of the fighters. The fighters are only permitted certain types of contact depending on their level. Amateurs for instance can’t employ head shots, and even semi pro’s are only allowed shots to the head if the opponent is stood. Its only after the fighters have had the discipline that comes with fighting at the lower levels, and become pro do the gloves come off (metaphorically speaking of course). The savage reputation that sport attained in its infancy is all but gone, as the aim is fighting, but in a skillfull and safe manner. But above all, its VERY entertaining. If you like boxing then you will surely love this.

Back To Photography

So whilst the video was occupying the processing power of my workstation, i thought a little dalliance in the studio was in order. Step up to the plate Jade. Unlike most the attractive ladies that have graced the studio, Jade is a serious sports person being as she is a 100mt sprinter. She has been training and competing for several years now. She wanted shots with a surfboard which unfortunately wouldn’t fit atop her car, so she had to make do with a smaller belly board. Other than that she wanted a shot that showed off what all the hours of training she has endured had done to her abs.

Girls In Bands

The Girlband finalists have been announced and it is we at Love It Studio’s that will be getting happy snapping creating photo’s to showcase their individual personalities. 1st through the door i had was Ashleigh. Her idols are the likes of Beyonce Jay Z and Kanye West. A self proclaimed gangsta, she doesn’t just go for the typically girly, instead she also tends towards  a look with a little more attitude. She definitely has the personality and dance moves to back that up. The shoot was a lot of fun and we got some good snaps out of it.

Towel Dried

Now the shoot just before Ashleighs was Cora. She is, to put it mildly, a force to be reckoned with. If you can get a word in edge ways, a conversation with her is best described as blurry. She does tend to feed you with the undigested thoughts that are going on in her head at any particular moment. One thing you can’t say is thats she’s boring. Another thing you can’t say is that she doesn’t know what she wants. Certainly not a shy and retiring type, she always has mad ideas for shoots most of which i say no to. But we settled on having her in a towel, with some soft warm lighting to give a classic image. Most of her previous photo’s with other photographers has been more towards the glamour end of the spectrum. This i think shows her stripped down to her bare naturalness (plus a towel) to show that a no frills approach works wonders.

Grey Is The New Black

But the main thing I’ve enjoyed is working in the new Studio No2. It truly is a wonderful room, and the particular shade of grey that we painted the room is a specific one to get the lighting results we want. Obviously we’re not going to tell you the shade, or the lighting setups to acheive the whole array of effects we can now do. No that would be no fun. It also opens up a chance for me to improve my processing skills too. As i’ve become better at lighting, i’ve started to also work with different looks in post too. From warm natural skin tones to gritty cooler colours. Much of what i do ends up in the recycle bin, but a few experiments end up with me pleased. Hopefully in the coming weeks i will share some more of these images with you too.

Earlier this year just after completing my 1st ever studio based shoot,  i started jotting down my extensive shopping list. I had gotten some rather good results from that shoot, and was confident that in a few months i could be calling myself a professional photographer. But 1st I needed gear, A LOT of gear. At that time i was still very much a Canon boy and had settled on the 5D mkII, and was thinking about a Bowens 3/5 light set up complete with all the bits and bobs required to get the best out them. Now back then i was convinced i NEEDED all this to stand any chance of becoming the type of photographer i was aspiring to be. Obviously all this equipment was going to cost a small fortune, so i got to the task of practicing lighting techniques in the studio with the aid of some friends who volunteered to model for me, so that i could get good and start offering my services for a fee, so as to have enough money to put a down payment for my uber studio setup.

Do I Need More ..Or Less

This was the month of January, outside was cold and inside i had 2 fan heaters on max slowly warming up the cold studio. I had 3X 300 watt lights, a high light box, an octobox, a large reflector and a Nikon D80 (which i was reluctantly using). So i got to work setting up the lights in all manner of configurations and familiarising myself with the manual controls of the D80. I had 5 shoots with varying results, but on the whole nicely lit. But i still was not achieving the kind of light i was after. I wanted bright sharp images with the right amount of shadows to create a modelled look.

And thats when i thought about going back to basics. So 2 weeks ago i decided to turn off all the lights but one. Study how that hits the model. Then turn that off and turn on the fill light, and do the same, see where it hits the model. It soon became clear that all i needed was just the one light and a reflector to create the kind of lighting i was after. Happy with these results i now needed an exceptional model to try out this new found knowledge on- step up to the plate: Valentina!

Success At Last!

NOW i felt i was starting down the right road. Before this i was pretty much just making it up as i went along. But now i started employing a more methodical approach to lighting spending more and more time getting it right, attempting to position the lights and the model so that it was inch perfect. Leave nothing to chance and you will get close to the photo you have in your mind.

Long Road Ahead.

So the place i find myself at now is by no means the end. I’d say its more like the beginning of my journey. Only now im equipped with the  basic knowledge i need and so at a point from which i can develop my skills. The lesson i’ve learnt is that an expensive top of the range camera and a 5 light set up with an array of soft boxes and umbrella’s is not what i need. What i need is what i have at my disposal already: a nikon D80 and a couple of 300 watt lamps with barn doors and diffusers. A simple setup which takes away the frills and makes me concentrate on that which matters: my creativity and skills. Only when i have developed those should i think i need more equipment.

Having gotten quite good results on our 1st days shooting for our project, Kayleigh and I decided on pushing the boundaries of edginess even further. The location would remain the same – The Basement – but the air would now be a lot more sinister and bleak. The good old fashion thematic device of opposites would be used to create powerful images. Such as light with dark, beauty with unpleasing surrounds  to name a few.

Darkness and Danger.

Kayleigh would be wearing a beautiful dress but look like she has been some what roughed up by an unknown assailant for unknown reasons. She now finds herself in dark and dangerous place tied up trying to escape.

All Tied Up.

For these pictures to work Kayleigh needed there to be an understated emotional power emanating from her. Understated because although from her situation you may deduce that she is portraying a victim, i wanted there to also along side that be a hint of strength. So just giving the possibility that maybe SHE is the aggressor, and that she deserves to be tied up by someone protecting themselves.

Soothing Jacuzzi Bath.

So this days shooting brought to an end the project. Mine and Kayleigh’s first. She now heads back to university at Newcastle, and i get back to doing the usual type of photography in a warmer cleaner studio above ground. I’d say my first foray into the realms of creative photography went quite well and have also planned our next project for when Kayleigh returns in a few weeks. Stay tuned.

Oh, and the answer was of course YES! You can fit a whole person in there.

My Comfort Zone.

Well yesterday saw me, in some ways, go full circle. I had begun my journey into the world of studio photography just over a month ago. If you read my previous blog you will be up to date. Anyways, this week saw the return home from uni of Kayleigh Johnson, and her 1st stop, after saying her hi’s to family and the like, was the studio. We had been chatting at length over the past few weeks about our next shoot, and as usual she had no end of idea’s. Kayleigh being a young fashionable sort has certain insights and ideas that i, as a man and older, simply can’t grasp.  Although i know a good shot when i see it, and know when  a model is dressed well and made up correctly, i have absolutely no idea at all how she may have gotten to that point. Put in front of me all the constituent parts of an outfits amongst a pile of other clothing, and i’ll just randomly guess what goes with what. This is where the eye and skill of the fashionable female comes in. She takes away the confusion from the task of styling, and leaves me having to just turn on the lights and click the shutter button on the camera – my comfort zone.

The Basement.

One of the ideas we were playing with for Kayleigh was a punky rocky photo. She had suggested some form of derelict place where perhaps there was brick work or a building in disrepair to use as a backdrop and juxtapose for a high attitude model pose from her. But last week i had an epiphany when me and Nick journeyed down to the basement of the studio building to knock off the electrics of what was becoming our viewing suite, when Nick suggested that there is a lot of room down there and would make for an interesting studio space. I agreed, this place at the very least would make for an excellent shooting spot. So i decided that then would be the location of the rock chick photo’s. Kayleigh had already decided on her outfits, including accessories (gotta have those it would seem) and her make up too. All was left to do was to wait for the day of the shoot and see what came of it.

Doing Things By Halves

The Shoot began with Kayleigh arriving at the studio at half eleven in the morning. I knew it was going to be a long day as i also had a half five booking for a model shoot that very evening too. Knowing Kayleigh, and knowing me, i knew we’d make the day stretch out til that time. I wasn’t wrong! I didn’t finish shooting til half seven that evening, and editing til midnight.  Yup i don’t do things by halves i can tell you.

The Shoot.

A shoot with Kayleigh is always going to be fun as she is a mad hat character. More than that though, she has a strong creative energy about her too. She has a vision, i have a vision, and through the process of throwing idea’s around we’ll have me doing certain lighting set ups and her doing mad funky poses. We started off doing the “rock chick” look in Nick’s studio upstairs. Mainly just playing around with a mic stand and a speaker. The picture at the top is one of the shots from that. I like it because of the way Kayleigh has gotten her body to create so many angular lines as well as curves. That together with the muted tones and rich contrast makes quite a cool picture in my mind. After some messing about and warming up it was time for the main event. The shoot in the basement! This was the one Kayleigh had been planning for. She wanted some totally different looking photo’s from the ones she’d had taken to date.

Dusty Pants And Dead Flys

The basement  is quite a vast area covering obviously the floor space of the building. There are many little rooms, but these are rooms with out doors. The walls are mainly brick and one stood out because of it’s breeze block construction and the fact that it had pipes running up and down it, lending a very industrial feel to the area. So we got to work. Kayleigh was already climbing walls and posing away whilst i was yet to take the lens cap off. And she was still messing about when i went to get the studio lights to set up downstairs having found an adequate number of power points. Once the ligts were set, shooting commenced and Kayleigh pretty much did her own thing. It’s always so much easier when you don’t need to give direction to a model! I didn’t feel the need to suggest anything as she had her image under control. I wasn’t after any specific shot at all. This, and other shoots of late, have all been about me learning how to light a subject in an interesting and stylised way. I wanted to create a look but didn’t yet know what that look was. I knew i’d know it once i saw it though. She on the other hand had very specific pictures in mind, and worked her magic to create them.

Photoshop And Raw.

The main thing i had done different yesterday was to go and shoot in RAW. Normally high quality jpeg sufficed for what i needed. But with recent shoots i had run in to the same issue with lighting – there wasn’t enough of it once i had dumped the frames on to the edit. The problem was that i was relying too much on the back screen of the D8O. Now a fantastic camera as it is, the display does not give an accurate representation of the final image. Either that or im looking at it wrong. But regardless of the how, the issue i had was then in post. To rescue the image and bring it from dark to light meant that i lost some image quality and i felt limited in what i could creatively do with it. The images were softer coloured and lacked sharpness and clarity. So with that in mind i decided RAW atleast would give me control over such things as exposure in post. I was not disappointed! The quality of the well lit shots was clear to see. And shots that were too dark i was able to lighten up whilst maintaining clarity and sharpness. The shot of the breeze block wall and Kayleigh 2nd from top of this page is one such shot. The image came off camera quite dark but with a nice lighting over the edge of Kayleighs body. I played around with it and pretty much processed the image in RAW. A couple of tweaks here and there in CS$ to get the look right, cropping, and i was done. 5mins and my all time favorite picture of mine was born. From now on RAW is def the way forward for me.

A Model Citizen.

Several things were learnt this day. The 1st was that RAW definitely is worth all that extra space on your memory card and hard drives! The second was the realisation that my main talent wasn’t for creativity but recognising creative idea’s and running with them. On my own i may every now and then come up with an ok idea, but put me in a room with a creative sort spouting idea after idea, i’ll be able to see the best one and develop it it into something good. For me collaboration is the way forward and brings the best out of me. Thirdly, when you find yourself a collaborative partner – stick with them! If you are able to work with someone, and can form an understanding based on respect as well as idea’s then lets not be going else where looking to form one with some one new. Many things in this world and in this life require time to develop and artistic collaboration is one of them. Given time, the  quality of work improves, relationships improve and idea’s improve. I say the grass is always greener where im stood right now.

Until next time my friends, peace.

]]> http://haroonmalik.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/kayleigh-returns/feed/ 1 haroonmalik Kaylz-02 Kaylz-01 Kaylz-05 Kaylz-03 Kaylz-04 http://haroonmalik.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/blogging-begins/ http://haroonmalik.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/blogging-begins/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:57:29 +0000 haroonmalik http://haroonmalik.wordpress.com/?p=4 ]]> Well after a few years of considering whether to blog, i finally thought i may now have something to blog about: Photography!

Well more precisely my growth and development as a photographer. Although i have been enthusiastically photographing on and off for several years now, i have never took the dedicated approach to learning this craft as i am doin now.

I set up a studio based in the heart of the town centre of Barrow in Furness back in 2009 towards the end of summer. But it was my colleague Nick Collinge through whom i offered our photographic services. He has in effect become the sole resident photographer at the studio’s. That was until 29th December 2009! That was the day that i picked up his spare Nikon and began the steep learning curve of what is known as studio photography. My first muse was a young and very attractive individual who goes by the name of Kayleigh Louise Johnson. If i am to photograph people, i want to make it as easy as possible for me to get results so good looking people almost always guarantee a good looking photo. You could say it’s cheating as it’s less challenging, but hey.

This is one of the two photo’s from that shoot i really liked, and it neatly set me off  down the road of studio photography. Lighting has always been a scary and mysterious aspect of  photography to me, even though it may well be the most important area of the craft.  So i decided on taking a slightly scientific approach to learning it, and have since progressed one shoot at a time. I’d say im mostly happy  with the way the shots have turned out but there have obviously  been the odd dud  shoot. Lets just say that this is when the recycle bin in Windows comes in very handy.

The next shoot was another friend of mine who also leant a hand. Now Karen isn’t really one for doing photo shoots, but as you can see from the photo above she is pretty natural. At this point i was getting more familiar with the lights, and being able to use other functions not only the power on switch.

Up to this point at Love It Studio’s, we had been offering services ranging from fun portraits, to party shoots and kids parties, to weddings. But because we were already planning the up coming re-launch of Love It Models in early spring, it was decided that i would start offering model portfolio and beauty shoots.

My lighting skills were progressing, but i still needed to double up my efforts to get to the minimum standard i wanted before offering my service to paying customers. And although people seemed to like the work i was producing, i was still not happy with the look. I wanted my photo’s to be different and to a certain degree stand out and be identifiable from other photographers works. I’d say that there are 3 photographers in this area i consider to be my competitors. Not only in the business side of things, but creatively speaking too. They give me not only a standard to aspire too, but also to exceed. I say why do something and be as good as someone, when you can put in that little extra effort and become better than them!

The above photo is of Rebecca Charnley, one of the many friends who have had offered their time to help me create a striking image. This mainly consists of me constantly moving lights and reflectors around them whilst they have been stood stationary showing a lot of patience. That patience did pay off on this shoot when something just clicked and the type of lighting i was trying to achieve started to take shape. The next shoot was Emily when i nearly got it right. The day after that  i asked a new face to pop along to the studio, one Valentina, to lend me an afternoon of her time. That was this Saturday gone and have to say the best hours shooting i’ve had since i 1st started a month and few days ago.

So with the above photo we are now up to speed on this year, the progress of my studio photography, and my 1st blog entry too. My aim now and for the rest of the year is to become the best creative photographer in the area. Such a claim may bite me in the ass come December, but then im not the kind of person who shys away from such a challenge. I’ll keep you posted on my development and hopefully there will be many months of happy clicking ahead of me.

Thank you for reading this and i hope you keep your eye’s  on my blog for regular updates. Please feel free to leave what ever comments you wish  regarding my photo’s. All critical criticism is welcome.

Peace and happiness to you all.