The Scott Church Workshop
Last Saturday I had the pleasure of going to one of Scott Church's workshops in the lovely, if rather eclectic location of 'The Roost' in London.
The Roost is an interesting location with multiple mixed up rooms, peculiar decor and mismatched furniture that reminded me more of student digs than of a location studio. Its large windows gave each room as much light as was available on what was a very overcast and cold day. Unfortunately the basement area, which was very reminiscent of an Austin Powers Set and would have produced the most interesting images, was not well lit and without a flash or tripod shooting there was out of the question.
So the basic premise of the day was to shoot using natural light and see what we could come up with. In many ways it felt more like a group shoot with minor supervision from Scott, who was always willing to lend a hand with posing of the models and general guidance.
My main reason for going was to gain some supervised experience at shooting a location with natural light. Thanks to Scott this is exactly what I got!
However, working at ASA400 (oops ISO400) f2.8 and 1/60-1/80 was pretty limiting for me and I found myself thinking too much about the camera, depth of field problems and camera shake rather than posing of the models. Having worked pretty much constantly in the studio for the last few years I did find myself wishing for some flash equipment, even if was only a simple off-camera strobe.
It was an interesting day and the models and Scott were lovely. I think though, that if I decide to start location work, I may invest in some small portable flash heads and light-weight stands. I guess it just appeals to the control freak in me.
Anyway after subsequently looking at all the images, I suddenly realised that all the photographs I shot were portraits and I prefer them all in black and white. I guess it's just how I see things nowadays.
This is Jen.
The Roost is an interesting location with multiple mixed up rooms, peculiar decor and mismatched furniture that reminded me more of student digs than of a location studio. Its large windows gave each room as much light as was available on what was a very overcast and cold day. Unfortunately the basement area, which was very reminiscent of an Austin Powers Set and would have produced the most interesting images, was not well lit and without a flash or tripod shooting there was out of the question.
So the basic premise of the day was to shoot using natural light and see what we could come up with. In many ways it felt more like a group shoot with minor supervision from Scott, who was always willing to lend a hand with posing of the models and general guidance.
My main reason for going was to gain some supervised experience at shooting a location with natural light. Thanks to Scott this is exactly what I got!
However, working at ASA400 (oops ISO400) f2.8 and 1/60-1/80 was pretty limiting for me and I found myself thinking too much about the camera, depth of field problems and camera shake rather than posing of the models. Having worked pretty much constantly in the studio for the last few years I did find myself wishing for some flash equipment, even if was only a simple off-camera strobe.
It was an interesting day and the models and Scott were lovely. I think though, that if I decide to start location work, I may invest in some small portable flash heads and light-weight stands. I guess it just appeals to the control freak in me.
Anyway after subsequently looking at all the images, I suddenly realised that all the photographs I shot were portraits and I prefer them all in black and white. I guess it's just how I see things nowadays.
This is Jen.
posted by Richard at 8:08 AM
3 comments
links to this post
