LewisBrownPhotography: #light

EVER WANTED TO BUY STUDIO LIGHTING?

THOUGHT TO YOURSELF, I CAN DO THAT - EASY!

THINK AGAIN!!!

I have just purchased a second hand Bowens Esprit 500 kit, It cost £500 so not back pocket change, it took a while to gather the money together,

Around a year ago I started watching videos on #YouTube of professionals tutorials on lighting and creative portraits. I WATCHED A LOT! and it was every day. The more I watched the more I thought to myself, I want to do this- This is something I could see myself doing as a side job and with the hopes of making a little bit of money as well.

I only got this kit yesterday-Friday 19.06.15. It is much harder than I thought, REALLY HARD! somehow I thought I would pick it up straight away and I would be advertising my services on my Facebook page in no time. THINK AGAIN LEWIS.

I set the kit up in my living room and sat my son down for a quick test shoot. All photos were blown out. or totally black, After messing with settings and power output on the lights I managed to get a couple of shots I was after....

I have included a mono conversion and colour image.

There far from great, very NOISY for a start and maybe over edited as I couldnt get the LOW KEY look to work as good.

Today I had another half and hour to try ad capture some images.....came up with these

BETTER/WORSE???? YOU DECIDE.

I CAN ONLY KEEP TRYING AND HOPEFULLY GET BETTER.

MAKE SURE YOU ARE MAKING THE RIGHT DECISION BEFORE SPENDING A LOT OF MONEY ON KIT. IT IS HARDER THAN IT LOOKS IN THE VIDEOS ECT.

BELIEVE ME!!!!

KEEP A LOOK OUT FOR MY IMAGES https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lewis-Brown-Photography/490331894349799?ref=hl

What a great night out I have last night. I was quite surprised to get an invite with some local enthusiasts. Light-painting is something I've always been interested in but never really gone out and done it. I have always been a lone shooter and personally, Light-painting is something that requires a few people. So when I got the invite to go I couldn't decline the offer.

Photography is more fun when you go as group in this case there were 4 of us including myself.

The original plan was to go to the local river and wool spin inside the old concrete boat (visit here to find out more) http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/local/all-news/concrete-boat-is-part-of-shipbuilding-heritage-1-1153177.

But as the tide wasn't right we had to think of a new location. I knew of a place in Sunderland that would be perfect for this type of photography. There is an old abandoned farm and on the farm is a old barn, I had been up there before to take photos but never to Light-paint or in this case Wool spin.

We arrived just before sunset as it was light enough to check the place out and decide and prepare for what we were about to do!

I was advised to go to the local DIY store to get wire wool. I bought medium grade and it was rubbish. It was a good job that everyone else had fine grade-the fine grade worked really well, it lit up straight away and we were ready to rock and roll.

This was shot by myself and spun by another person, We tried a double wool spin, hence the 2 rings going. [shot at 30"- F8 - iso 250 @ 10mm using the Sigma 10-20]

We started the the night off by lighting up the wool first, we needed a test shot before it got really dark. I shot in bulb mode at F10 iso 200, and these settings worked well for me, so I stuck to them most of the evening.

For the people that have never done this before, just stuff the wool into the whisk, light it and spin it, or create an orb, and even a helicopter, BE CREATIVE

We tried a few other shots with light rather than doing spinning all night,

Not my best orb, its a bit all over the pace but still, I'm no expert in painting with light. heres the settings I used.

[shot at 28"- F10 - iso 200 @ 18mm using the Sigma 10-20]

If you have never done this type of photography before, I would recommend you to go out and give it a go. It is all trial and error and don't get down hearted if it doesn't work first time. EVERYONE HAS TO START SOMEWHERE! WHY NOT NOW?

Ive uploaded some of my images to my Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/lewisbrownphotography/with/16228550523/

Feel free to check them out, Alternatively visit my Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lewis-Brown-Photography/490331894349799?ref=hl

Here are a few shot of the night, ENJOY!