I need 1/1600th Flash sync ! Why ? because I like to have choice when I’m shooting. The 3x images above are actually a screen grab from Capture One. So this is before any retouching, honestly.  We always strive to get it right in camera.

This was a shoot last summer for Davidoff. We had a super bright, hot and sunny day in London. (Yes they do Happen)  I wanted to show the muscularity of the model, obviously  the best way to do this is with lighting. The sun was so bright though, that I needed to shoot at a high shutter speed to bring the ambient light down, so I could then light into this shadow to create some form on the muscles.

Here’s the behind the scenes for the pull up image, look at how bright the daylight is. I still get very enthusiastic about lighting as the difference it makes is HUGE !

Now it’s the Pushup set up.  The Technical stuff: I’m using Elinchrom Lights with a Phase One DF camera with the P65+ Digital Back iso50,  Schneider Kreuznach lenses.  The high-speed wireless  sync is achieved using the Profoto Air Sync Transceivers on the lights. I’m using a Phase One V Grip Air to send the signal, I laughed when Phase One sent me an early prototype of the V Grip. I did end up buying one though and I use it all the time, so they had the last laugh.

Here’s the final setup, the rowing image. Once again you can see my whole lighting setup. I’m pretty relaxed about sharing setups, as it’s one thing to see how someone works, but it’s another thing altogether to work out lighting and setup for each scenario you’re faced with.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Unbelievably, the images have very little retouching (just blemishes, dust and stuff like that) I’ll follow up shortly with a few behind the scenes images so you can see how everything was done, in the meantime please enjoy the video above.

One last thing, if you’d like  to purchase the Calendar, click here.

A couple of months ago I was having lunch with a great friend of mine, the excellent photographer Jim Marks. During lunch he asked the question: “Do you want to see what I’ve been shooting that glasses campaign with?”

“Sure why not?” I replied. (It’s always interesting to see what Jim’s using, as he changes cameras more frequently then some people change their underpants)

Then he pulls out of his small bag, a teeny weeny tiny camera. “You must be joking ?” I say.

“Nope, I just shot for 3x days last week with this object of beauty” Earlier this year Jim had sold his Leica M9 so he’s very familiar with excellent small cameras.

Jim showed me the resulting images and I was very impressed. So much so, that I went out and bought one the following week.

At last  I had a camera that is small enough to be with me most of the time, yet capable of  excellent results. This will become our official behind the scenes stills camera.  I haven’t tested if fully yet but it seems to be pretty much on par with my Nikon D700 up to 800iso.

The ergonomics are the best of any point and shoot camera I’ve used and I strongly suggest that all camera makers check it out.

Lastly, it also looks super cool.  It’s a totally un-intimidating camera,

No, Fuji are not paying me to say this stuff, I’ve been looking for years for something like this. I’ve added a polarizing filter, spare battery and funky Fuji brown leather case to complete the kit.

Fuji’s official X100 website is here.

Final Note: The only downside for some people might be the fact that the lens is a fixed focal length (slightly wide) so no zooming. However the benefit of this is beautiful optics.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve been using a calibrated workspace since around 2000 when I first started seriously working with Photoshop.

Whilst the whole subject is a bit boring, it’s ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL for professional work. For those of you that grew up shooting film, it’s exactly the same thing as finding a daylight balanced light-box to view transparencies on.

This video looks at calibration, monitors and provides my suggested colour settings.

Around 2 years ago I replaced one of my Apple LCD monitors with an NEC Spectraview Reference 2690.

The first thing I noticed about the Spectraview was that all the monitor colours were displayed in ways I’d never seen before, they were deeper, richer but most importantly more accurate. Green grass suddenly looked real, reds were beautiful, I’m sure there were other improvements but this is where I really really noticed.

I was so pleased that this year I purchased my second one, the NEC Spectraview Reference 271. The 271 has a very useful USB hub built in and various other improvements over the 2690.

Earlier this year at Focus in Birmingham, (Which is held at the NEC, National Exhibition Centre, nothing to do with NEC) I was speaking to  NEC rep Steve Cotton and praising the products I’d purchased, he suggested a video review about the Spectraviews would be great.

Click here for more details from NEC’s website.

A few years ago I had the pleasure of photographing TV presenter Jasmine Harman for a magazine cover. She is a delight in every possible sense, we got along very well and have remained in contact ever since.

So it was only natural to give Jasmine a call when I  wanted to test my new PhaseOne DF camera, fortunately for me she jumped at the chance of working together again.

I always test my gear (if possible) before a commission  shoot, this applies to cameras, lighting, computers, assistants etc.

As per the magazine cover we originally shot, none of the images shown here have been retouched. She really is that beautiful!

I’ve also included a number of behind the scenes images, as I personally love to see how other people work.

You’ll find the behind the scenes images below the actual hero image(s).

Please feel free to ask any questions.

Thank you

Adrian

PS: Thank you to Miranda for the Fabulous Make-Up !

I have always had a tilt/shift camera or lens in my arsenal of equipment. This started with portraits on 5×4″ film then I had a Hasselblad Flexbody, now it’s the Schneider Kreuznach lens TS 120mm  for my Phase System.

Phase One kindly sent me a prototype of this lens late last year, just in time for a shoot in northern Italy. There really is nothing like testing gear in real world situations! I had backup ideas in place, but I really wanted to play with this new lens.

One of my shoots was to do a portrait of the great Italian Architect Massimo Vago I felt this lens would be perfect for this.  At this stage the lens didn’t have a tripod mount on it so shooting with it wasn’t easy, Phase are very responsive to considered feedback, so I’m delighted they’ve added a tripod mount to the lens. This now makes the lens much easier to use.

If you’re a still life shooter, I’d strongly recommend this lens to you, if you’re like me and shoot mostly people, then be warned the results are awesome but it’s not the fastest tool to use.

Have a quick look below at the short video I made about the advantages of tilt shift-tilt shift, I also speak a little about a funny sounding thing called Scheimpflug.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks

Adrian

Here’s a quick behind the scenes look at a recent Mens Fashion shoot test, I was also testing the new Capture One plugin that lets me control my lights from the C1 software.

Click here to view the embedded video.

One of my clients Hardy Amies of Saville Row, asked  me  to light a fashion show for London Fashion Week. This isn’t the sort of thing I normally do, but it was great fun. The brief was to give the set a ‘Daylight’ feeling. I think we achieved this.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.