I must admit I am a fan of both, though they each have their pros and cons.

Outdoor Headshot Photography:

Shooting outdoors has the advantage of making photos, particularly headshots, look more natural than their studio counterparts. This is largely because a studio backdrop is a contrived space, so no matter how natural an actor’s expression might be, we are instantly aware they have deliberately posed for a camera. A good photographer knows how to put an actor at their ease to achieve a great result no matter what the space however there’s just something instantly more natural about seeing a shot taken in the great outdoors.

Outdoor Headshot Photography: The Pros

• A world of backdrops to choose from…
  • Whether you’re a fan of the brick wall, leafy haze or sky; there are so many different locations you can use as a backdrop to your headshot.

• Bring the photographer to you…
  • Are you an actor living in London but absolutely love the work of a Birmingham headshot photographer? By having your headshot photography session outdoors, the photographer can come to you without having to worry about additional studio hire charges.

• Flattering light…
  • If you’ve got yourself an overcast sky, you’ve got yourself some instantly soft and flattering light to work with without having to spend ages working out a complex lighting setup – giving you more time to work on your perfect headshot look.

• Save money…
  • A lot of headshot photographers will charge less for outdoor photoshoots as there are no studio costs to take care off. It’s also a great way for photographers without studio access to create great images.

• Bokeh
  • You know that nice out of focus haze you get on headshots taken outside? Gorgeous isn’t it? Good luck matching it in the studio.

Outdoor Headshot Photography: The Cons

• Rain!
  • Arranging a headshot photoshoot outdoors leaves you to the mercy of the unpredictable British weather. Even in summer you never know when it might rain: that’s why all of my outdoor headshot photoshoots have a backup plan so that you’re shoot can go ahead uninterrupted and without your images suffering in quality!

• Lack of privacy…
  • Most outdoor locations are often public spaces so there’s never a guarantee that you won’t have an audience or find that the area you wanted to shoot in isn’t occupied by happy picnic-ers. Again, always have a back-up plan! A good location is one that has many opportunities for a range of backgrounds should one not be ideal or available.
  • Want to have a change of outfits? Need a full length mirror to check your hair or touch up your make-up? This is another consideration to be aware of when booking your headshot photography outdoors. Make sure your photographer has an area where you can make all your necessary adjustments!

• Background Distractions…
  • If you’re lucky enough to not be distracted by others during an outdoor photoshoot, you need to make sure your image has no visual distractions. A good actor headshot is all about showcasing the actor and not letting the viewer be distracted by a rogue leaf, conflicting colours or that annoying strand of hair the wind blew across your face. To help prevent these problems, I always recommend what clothing options to consider so that a cut or colour doesn’t prove distracting as well as reviewing each image as I shoot to check for other tiny distractions.

• Fewer lighting options…
  • Though I have my own flash lighting I can take out on location, most photographers’ kits don’t have anything powerful enough to overpower the sun. So if you want something dark and dramatic and are only free to shoot around midday, you’re probably best having a studio headshot photography session.

• Limited working hours…
  • Once the sun goes down, unless you want a dramatic night shoot (probably not the most ideal for a Spotlight-ready actors headshot) you’re pretty stuffed. Especially if you need your headshot session to fit around your crazy schedule during the Autumn/Winter months!

Studio Headshot Photography:

Many headshot photographers favour the studio over using an outdoor location as it provides them with a secure, tried and tested space that is within their full control. Though this is the case, a good studio headshot requires much more technical understanding by the photographer in order to achieve a great look as they are responsible for moulding the light from scratch for every set-up.

Studio Headshot Photography: The Pros:

• Privacy…
  • Unlike shooting outdoors, a headshot session within a photography studio provides full privacy; great for the more camera shy subject!

• Make-up and changing areas…
  • Following on from the privacy point, by having you headshot taken in a studio, you also have access to changing areas and make-up rooms to make preparing for your session nice and easy.

• Lighting control…
  • Based in a fully equipped photography studio, I have access to all the lighting equipment I could need to create a vast range of looks. From dark and dramatic to bright and cheery, no matter what your preferences, chances are I can create the right look for you.

• Review your images on a big screen…
  • It’s all well and good checking out your headshots on the back of a camera, but why do that when you can take a seat with a cup of tea and have a proper look at your photos on a big screen?

• Full Control…
  • Once you book a studio headshot photography session, it’s booked. No having to worry about the weather or if the area you want to shoot in is available – by shooting in the studio you are guaranteed a fully professional working space without any distractions (including freezing temperatures)!

• Any time…
  • Do you have a busy schedule to fit your headshot session within? Though we may not have much sunlight in the wee hours of the morning or late at night, the studio can provide all the light you need any time; day or night.

• Background choices…
  • Though most headshot photographers only offer one or two (usually just black and white) coloramas to have your headshot against, book your headshot session with me and you’ll have access to a studio containing almost every colour backdrop you can think of as well as wallpapered room sets should you want to mix up your headshots with some more contemporary portraits.

Studio Headshot Photography: the Cons

• Price…
  • Studio photography sessions are often more expensive than their outdoors counterparts due to studio rental costs. If you want the best of both worlds however, I offer up to 90 minutes of photography both in a fully equipped photography studio as well as outdoors for just £175. This includes your 5 favourite images fully edited and supplied as full res JPGS in colour as well as black and white.

To be honest, I’m struggling to find more cons about studio headshot photography. Of course a lot of it comes down to your choice of photographer – I have seen many studio headshots over the years shot by photographers who just don’t know how to use lights creatively. They often shoot completely flat images against a plain black or white background or go for a completely blown-out high key shot usually used for catalogue or product photography.

A good studio photographer knows how to craft their lighting to create an intimate looking headshot that makes the actor stand out. But in this regard, it’s not just about the lighting. You know that sharp-eyed focused look you find in some actors headshots that just make them jump out from the page? I have several tricks, tips and exercises I often get actors and models to try in order to make their headshot appear much more striking than their competitors and make their eyes really speak out.

Since I’m deviating slightly from the original topic of outdoor photography vs studio headshot photography, I will call it a day on this blog entry and look forward to your thoughts on your own preferences.

So, let me know – do you prefer your headshots taken outside in natural light or done in a photography studio?

The post Actor Headshots: Studio Photography vs. Natural Light appeared first on Aimee Spinks Photography.

It was a fairly quiet turnout both from exhibitors and visitors but then again I did go along on the final day (hoping to see what last day deals were on offer)!

First of all, I paid a visit to the guys at SmugMug. Smug Mug is a company I have recently started working with as they enable me to create an interactive client area that allows clients to view all the photos taken during a particular session as well as managing the order process.

The staff at SmugMug were extremely helpful and gave me a one to one tutorial on how to custom design my client area so that it fit with my current branding. I would highly recommend SmugMug to anyone in the photographic industry looking for an easy way to manage client galleries as it’s a fully customisable service that manages every aspect of post-shoot image delivery including; providing thumbnails and proof images; as well as handling printing, delivery and sales; complete with trackable statistics.

After chatting with the SmugMug team, it wasn’t long before I found my favourite camera manufacturer: Nikon

As usual, Nikon had arranged for a whole host of presentations from discussions on their latest kit to demonstrating the ‘Matrix Effect’ as achieved by the 50 D800s hanging from a crescent of scaffolding above the main stage.

I had a bit of a play with the hardware on the stands but my main loves were the Nikon D4 and D800 cameras. The D800 is an unbelievable studio camera that I have since gone on to purchase, which, coupled with my favourite piece of glass; Nikon’s 70-200mm f/2.8 lens makes for some mind blowing studio work. With a bigger budget though I would love to get my hands on the D4. For shooting in low light conditions with the power of 10fps it’s perfect for unit stills photography and is at the top of my wish list!

Also at the expo were rental houses, Calumet and The Flash Centre. Though I have dealt with both in the past, The Flash Centre has the edge over Calumet price wise and has come out top previously when I have needed to get my hands on a large range of kit for an advertising shoot with British actor, Ralph Fiennes.

The only let down for The Flash Centre is the location of its Birmingham branch, as it’s not as easy to reach as the more central Calumet branch. However they make up for this with their excellent customer service and it’s here we need to give a shout out to Brian – thanks for putting up with all my calls and providing me with all the help and advice you have imparted!

Like Nikon , The Flash Centre were also putting on a range of demonstrations, mainly focusing on showcasing the latest Elinchrom lighting and accessories as well as some creative studio lighting techniques. After watching these, I wouldn’t mind playing around with some gels and a smoke machine!

It’s probably worth noting at this point that alongside collecting my fair share of catalogues, brochures and freebies, I was armed with a substantial amount of kit in order to take photos of my tour of the show. After spending a while looking both online and at various exhibitors, I decided to purchase Lowepro’s Flipside 400AW camera bag. The main motivator for this is that I realised that with my ever expanding kit, I just couldn’t fit everything I needed into my current camera bags and had found myself taking assignments on location armed with several smaller bags – which is never a practical solution! The other consideration is my recent purchase of an Aquatech Sound Blimp – a mammoth camera housing designed to act as a silencer so that my shutter clicks don’t interfere with the sound department on TV and film productions. The Flipside 400AW not only provided me with all the space I needed, but my favourite feature is the flipside access – perfect for securing my valuable equipment in a crowded tradeshow! By the time I had finished touring the Focus on Imaging show, laden as I was, the bag provided great comfort for the entire duration and I went home without any of my typical back complaints!

Finally, my last shout out goes to the guys at Hasselblad and Broncolor, who recently held a hands on open day at Birmingham’s White Room Studios for visitors to check out their latest gear. Since the event, our close friends at the studio have gone on to invest in some of the best lighting a photographer can hope for. The studio now boasts:

1x Broncolor Scoro 3200W Power Pack with INSANE recycle times!
1x Broncolor 3200W Ringflash
2x Broncolor 3200W Unilites
1x Broncolor 220 Parabolic Reflector

Unfortunately the Hasselblad cameras were out of my price range but it was a great opportunity to give them a test drive! Any photographers out there looking to shoot with some of the best lighting available can hire the White Room Studios 2500sqft photography studio for just £35p/hour, a half day for just £120 or a full day for just £220. Photography studio hire rates include full use of their cutting edge kit with enough studio space to shoot almost anything. The White Room Studio also boasts a range of equipment to support video including continuous lighting and mics should your shoot not be restricted to stills alone!

Remember when I said our final shout out was to Hasselblad and Broncolor? Well, I lied. I couldn’t promote all these big brands without one look at one of the photographers exhibiting at this years’ Focus on Imaging show: George F Williams.

Automotive photography isn’t something I claim to know anything about. What I do know about however is what makes a great image and George’s photos on display absolutely blew me away. Based in Surrey, Williams has provided creative photography for a range of clients, most recently shooting McClaren’s exquisite P1 Prototype. In closing, I thought I’d share some of his images with you. The first image below is one of my favourite from the exhibition:

Check out more of Williams’s amazing work on his website or follow him on Twitter @GFWilliams!

So there you have it – my experience of Focus on Imaging’s 2013 tradeshow and my favourite exhibitors. See you there next year?

The post Birmingham Event Photography – Focus on Imaging 2013 appeared first on Aimee Spinks Photography.

The first thing I liked about the T2D set was its “straight out of the box” setup. The box itself is fairly sleek with little wasteful packaging and includes everything you need to set-up and shoot within 5 minutes. Inside you will find:

• T2D 16-channel transmitter
• T2D 16-channel receiver
• Transmitter batteries (3x AAA)
• Receiver batteries (2x CR2032)
• Mains power supply for receiver
• Tripod/magnetic mount adapter for receiver
• Adhesive metal plate for mounting receiver magnetically on non-metallic surfaces
• Adhesive hotshoe adapter for transmitter remote fitting
• Flash sync to transmitter cable
• Receiver to studio flash 3.5mm jack connector
• 3.5mm jack input to 7.5mm jack adapter

The obvious pros you can see from the above list includes the 16 channel settings on both units, the common batteries used to power them and one of my favourite details: the magnetic mount for the receiver that I can just slap on the side of my Bowens flash heads. Another feature of the T2D set is that they use IF triggering along with the RF and direct connections though I can’t say I’ve so far had a need for it. The antennae for the units are removable so be careful not to lose them! Otherwise the units are lightweight and the build quality seems pretty decent.

Something you may wish to consider however is the 2.4 GHz radio frequency at which the T2D’s operate. Other users have reported slight interference of the units from baby monitors and even wireless internet however I have yet to encounter such problems. The only other bug bear experienced by myself and other togs is the fact that you can’t turn the transmitter off like you can the receiver. The transmitter has a sleep mode which you can set for different durations, the minimum being of 5 minutes. Though the advantage of this is that if you forget to turn it off it will do so automatically after the set period of time, it also means that every time you don’t want to trigger the remote flash, you need to take the unit off the camera’s hotshoe.

The first road test I took the T2Ds on was to an industrial estate to shoot stuntman, Andy Lister. The units worked perfectly, even around corners and with objects blocking the line of sight. There was an occasional mis-fire and a couple of spontaneous flashes however I’d say the triggers did what they were told 9/10 times. In terms of range, though they fired perfectly for my needs, the furthest I ever took the transmitter from the receiver was about 5/6m (this was the distance at which I was shooting around corners).

Though it’s early days yet, my experience with Seculine’s Twinlink T2Ds has so far been positive. Sure, it doesn’t have all the nifty features of a Pocketwizard, but I’d definitely recommend it to togs looking for a middle-of-the-road, reliable remote trigger at a fraction of the cost of a PW.

The post Review: Seculine Twinlink T2D Wireless Flash Triggers appeared first on Aimee Spinks Photography.

Crewdson, though credited as the photographer to his images, acts in a way more analogous to a film director. Leading a production crew including a DOP, lighting and special effects teams as well as casting directors and actors, Crewdson commandeers little-heard-of Amercian towns in which he stages photographic images often described as, ‘Micro-Epics.’

His images are tableaux of malcontent, suspense and characters that seem so resigned to their circumstances that their vacancy leaves them appearing more like props. The unnatural static positioning of the subjects and their disconnection with the dark and often surreal environments they are captured in, creates an atmosphere of unease and air of the uncanny. The images echo of the works of David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock in their layering of surreal dread over suspense-filled narratives but in a way that successfully compacts an entire film into one frame.

Crewdson’s attention to detail is overwhelming and it is not just the finished piece that captures me, but also an appreciation for the intense amount of production that has gone into producing it. It is perhaps for this reason Crewdson’s work seems to be less appealing to more fine art and conceptually orientated photographers who often judge the work by its purpose alone.

It is often argued that Crewdson’s work is too descriptive and lacks purpose or meaning. Crewdson doesn’t claim to want to change the world through his work as is often the naive intent of more philanthropic artists, but why should that give lesser value to it? Just because the focus may be more on the meticulous and highly skilled technical processes in the creation of the work doesn’t make it any less the work of an artist.

It seems that in today’s era of post-modernism, art cannot be appreciated for art’s sake; it must be accompanied by an artist’s statement of philanthropic intent in order to give the work a legitimate reason to exist, followed by a pretentious deconstruction that could find meaning and metaphor in an ant’s arse.

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