I am probably about to make sweeping generalisations here…. Many of the men whose photography I admire use lots of lights to create fantastic dramatic images and to make the very best of their models. On the whole, the women whose pictures I love use natural light where ever possible and a flash gun if necessary.
On the forums the men are usually into the gadgets. They know about all the latest cameras on the market, they have a wish list of models they want, they know the benefits and disadvantages of all the software packages and keep up to date with new developments. The girls say they need something and the men always come back with a list of options for them to try.
I am not afraid of all the gadgetry, although it can be very intimidating and wildly expensive, but I hate the complexity of it all. You can’t just put on a light, it has to have a stand, a trigger lead or a wireless trigger system. It needs to link to another light, as one is rarely enough and three is even better. The lights have to be pointing in the right direction, the shadows just so (that is what makes a photograph after all!!) and to know just how much light is required you need a light meter. Diffusers, soft boxes, umbrellas, snoots, barn doors and reflectors… Come to think of it, using a simple flash gun gets equally as complicated when you use it properly!
Anyway, the point of this ramble is to tell you that I dusted off my lights (which I share with my good friend, Mandy)and found some willing volunteers to let me play with them in my portable studio. Helping another photographer, who I work for occasionally, set up his lights seems to have helped me overcome my dislike of wires, cables and triggers and I was set up in five minutes… and here is the result!
For this picture of Emily I used one light with a soft box. She has the most amazing skin so I made the image very ‘contrasty’ when I converted it to black and white so that it was black and white, not shades of grey. The pictures of me that I took however are in shades of grey because my poor old sun damaged skin can’t handle all its faults being exaggerated in any way! I may share them in a later post…












