Sunday 25 December 2011

Kit Review - Collapsible Beauty Dish

Christmas Day saw the arrival of Speedlight Pro Kit's collapsible beauty dish.

Here is an overview and summary of its capabilities compared to a solid beauty dish:

The kits comes in a flat bag about the same size as an LP cover.

The dish is a bit fiddly to construct and the instructions are not much help, but once it's assembled, it seems quite logical how it goes together.

The first thing to note is that it is a cone NOT a parabola and this is evident in the spread of light when shooting (see later).

The first shot was taken with the diffusing screen off and the translucent cup reflector attached:


Note the spread of light only hits about half the cone.

For the second shot I added the diffusion screen:



For the third shot, I used the silver cup reflector and no diffusion screen:


And for the fourth shot I added the diffusion screen:



I then used the solid beauty dish without and then with the diffusion screen:

      

For me the nearest 2 comparables are silver cup and diffusion screen on:


You decide which you like the best but, in terms of beauty dishes:

The one on the left cost £77.50 and flattens to a little larger than A3;
The one on the right cost £85.00 and doesnt!

Happy Christmas!



Background paper

At photographyworkshops, we dont advertise for traders.  BUT, when we find a supplier offering quality, a keen price and good service, we'll pass their information on to you.

Being Scottish and frugal (Terry is just frugal), money is not there to be wasted so, we are very happy with some rolls of background paper recently supplied to us by:

http://www.studiodecor.co.uk/products/backgrounds/colorama.htm

We can recommend them!

Thursday 22 December 2011

Our best of the year - 2011 (warning - nudity!)

Terry and I have been sifting through our archive for 2011 to choose our individual favourite efforts in the last year:

Terrys:


Andy's:



May we take this opportunity to wish all our delegates from 2011, and those who will join us in 2012, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Snappy New Year.

Sunday 11 December 2011

Sophie

Whilst shooting for our posing guide, I grabbed this close up of Sophie...



For those of you coming on LIAD in January - you have this to look forward to!..

Thursday 8 December 2011

The posing guide takes shape!!

Sophie, Terry and Andy have started work on the PW Posing Guide which will help all photographers with posing their models and clients. 

There are several weeks of shooting to do, but here is a tiny taster:


Side notations to help and space to write down your own ideas and lighting - more to follow soon.

Saturday 3 December 2011

The Posing Guide - production begins

We are continually being asked by photographers about posing.  It is probably the biggest hurdle to overcome when running a shoot.

Our new model at PW, Sophie, will be our star as we begin shooting the "PW Posing Guide", showing not only a multitude of poses, but also how they flow naturally into one another.


The studio work begins this week - look out for a couple of tasters!!

We are anticipating having the guide available in the early Spring.

Thursday 1 December 2011

Terry has gone mad!...

Having reached his glorious bus pass age, some of his marbles have started to leak out. 

Absolutely against his grain (and mine) he is giving stuff away!!:offering
Photography Workshops are giving away a free space on the next Speedlight Course to be held on 17th March 2012.
This is worth £95!!
This is a FREE draw and all you have to do is contact us and include the competition code: 
sp1703.  Simple as that. 
The winner will be chosen at random from all the email entries containing the correct code.  Good luck!!