Canons to the left of them, Canons to the right...

Canons to the left of them, Canons to the right...

Into the ADAPS Studio rode the three models and two photographers. Sunday was the day. neilwigan's renovations of the ADAPS building had reached a point where the studio space, enlarged and modernised, was ready for use. All that remained was to test it out before starting to book out times for the members who want to use it. It is very much a space, with some backdrops and features of interest left in, plus an infinity curve. No built in lighting, as communal lighting kit doesn't really last too well. So we can all bring in whatever lighting we have, as required. Personally, I favour continual lighting over flash, although studio flash is OK if that's what there is. Continual light offers a different experience, slower shutter speeds, larger light sources that result in fewer harsh shadows.

I brought in a large Paterson daylight lamp with a huge low energy bulb that has to be used carefully as it is quite bright. There was already a tungsten beauty light, so we added that to give a warm glow to the images. Finally, fill in was provided by a hand held LED panel. These new panels are really useful for splashing a bit of light where needed and they don't need to be expensive either.

The models were Charlotte, who we've been photographing for several years now, Phoebe and Neil's wife Joan. We even got Neil in on the act as a model. The cameras were Canon this time, with a couple of Canon lenses. The 5D SR had the TS-E 50mm f/2.8 Tilt and Shift Macro and the 6D Mark II had the 24-105mm STM. It all worked very well. I decided to go for the lighting on the model, but was happy to let the backgrounds retain any creasing they might have. I was thinking of all the classic black and white images that actually show makeshift backdrops, warts and all so to speak, and it does give a feel of reality to something that's plainly artificial. It's a style choice on some of the shots, but not all of them.

So on to some samples.