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Rolling with the BIG Dog - Learning - part 2 of 1 2 3

by Damian McGillicuddy Published 01/12/2015

LEARNING LIVE IN THE FIELD
One of the best ways to develop any skill is to practise it in the real world under real circumstances. That's why I think the Olympus BIG Shoot Experience is some of the best photography training you can possibly get, because not only do you learn how a genuine commercial level shoot works - you get to learn and take pictures in the field, in a 'live fire' shooting environment, in a brilliant venue with great models and top end kit.

The most recent BIG Shoot was one that I was hugely excited about, as I was finally getting the chance to shoot in the magnificent Victoria Baths in Manchester. As you may have seen when it won the BBC series Restoration, or when it was used as a location on shows such as Life on Mars, it really is a jaw-dropping place. So to be able to work there, as well as host photography training for a handful of delegates, was truly a privilege. And one of my favourite shots from the day is this one, which to me represents the sort of faded decadence and eroded elegance of a Great Gatsby party.

We started by measuring the ambient light, as always, and decided that there was enough to play the role of fill, which was great because it meant we didn't need to set up another light. I wanted to make the location we were shooting in as much the star of the show as anything else in the picture. And the stairwell, with its highly glossed ceramic tiles, really has to be seen to be believed, so my job was to make it look as magnificent as possible, in a faded way ;0).

Having added balloons, it's sensible to make them semi-translucent. In order to achieve that, as well as to light the stairs, we've popped a light up on the landing and aimed it down through the balloons - it just had a metal reflector on it and we gelled it with a CTB (colour temperature blue) to add the cold, weary feel. To balance that, further round the landing to camera left, we've got another barefaced flash with a red gel. And this just adds a little bit of warmth back into the mid-tones of the girls. through it. It gives that little added extra 'something' to make the light shimmer and create a bit of spectacle. The final piece of the puzzle is our key light, which is a medium-sized parabolic umbrella to camera left. It's a silver dish for all intents and purpose, so it creates a nice touch of contrast and specularity, and we've pushed the head into the brolly a little bit to narrow the field of light that's being thrown out. I shot the image on the OM-D E-M5 Mark II using my trusty 12mm lens, at a 1/20 of a second at f2.8 hand held, the OM-D ibis is a very useful tool for me. It was the ideal lens both because of the space we had to work in and because the dynamic distortion is pretty cool!

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1st Published 01/12/2015
last update 09/12/2022 14:51:43

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