Kris Bentham Photography

Sam and Steve's Pre Wedding shoot

Steve and Sam are getting married in may, we arrange a pre wedding shoot to allow them to get used to being in front of the camera. we went to the wedding venue Consell hall as they have a huge garden with lots of different features to walk around.

The day went very well we had a chilled out walk around the grounds looking for interesting features and lighting, Steve and sam were naturally calm in front of the camera which helped to keep the shot candid and natural. one problem I found was the high sunlight at noon, I decided to make a feature of this and blow out the skies giving a dreamy feeling.

I will look to using a polarising filter for the wedding day to reduce the brightness of the light and fill flash when necessary.

Bansko

Bansko Bulgaria

On a recent trip to Bansko I noticed the erratic nature of the weather it was forever changing with vibrant sunrises and clouds roll around the hills. I decided to created a series of time-lapse clip catching this passing of the weather

I didn't create a time lapse of this as the alternation exposure of sun rises are tricky to set the exposure for, you can not used auto setting as you need to ensure there is no sudden jumps between the exposures. one technique that requires a external device bulb ramping, this lets you set a starting shutter speed and ending speed and duration. it will the change the shutter speed in increments.

This was the first time-lapse I made the dramatic clouds where perfect for the project

I was setting my camera up and leaving it taking pictures with the same exposure, this was one of the more challenging to get to work, the lighting conditions changed so much thought out i had to drop the exposure of the clouds where blowing out.

I ended up with a 3 second clip of this sun rise so i decided to use it for the title page to add some colour.

Birmingham airpot time-lapse

Birmingham airpot

I wanted to replicate the motorway time-lapse with aeroplanes I found this location around 10:30 at night just in time to see the last plane land as I was setting the camera up and the last departure of the day. on a clear night this could be an interesting location.

The blinking aperture ring has effected the quality with the video, there some nice detail when viewed full screen with the right editing software this could be brought out the make a interesting movie.

Time-lapse Malvern

Time-laspe

I recently went towards Malvern to create some time-lapse of stars. this was a test run to see how the D610 would work with the feature

My first stop was a view point of the Malvern with the hills in the backdrop, the view point was looking the river, it was hard to get the hight required to get the a good composition of both he town and the sky. Ideally i would want to remove the close bushes

Time-lapse straight form camera

As I started the time-lapse you could see through the clouds but the clouds quickly rolled in. you still get a nice effect wight he detail in the clouds but i decided to stop the recording as it was clear the stars weren't coming back. I used the D610s Time-laspe feature which automatically creates a movie, previously I have been using the D5100s built in interval timer. The movie has some flickering occurring on the sides of the image, I originally put this down to headlights from the near by road but i have since learnt its coming form the aperture rings movement between shots.

If i was to continue this feature i would need to invest in some movie editing software to be able to alter the white balance and do minor adjustments. using filters could also help to tone down the strong glow of the town

On the way back I stopped off at a motorway bridge to create a urban time-lapse, i noticed the cross in the lamps and bridge so used that as a focal point deciding the scene. i think although i got think in the centre i didn't have my camera square wight the bridge so the framing is slightly off.

This video have worked better than that of the Malvern, there is less no blinking and the white balance is better due to there being less of a mixture of lighting types.

Solihull College Cricket

I joined the Solihull College cricket team for an indoor tournament as the photographer, I tried to take images that not only tell a story by freeze the action. Within this shoot there were a few challegece to over come

Within this shoot there were a few challegece to overcome: The poor tungsten lighting and need for fast shutter speeds required me to use quite hight ISO with shutter speeds around 1/300th of a second.

The other challenge was to read the game, to get to know how the players react in order to be ready for the action, its such a fast paced game that you really need to be on the ball.

LONDON FASHION WEEKEND

I had the change to shoot at the LFWE in the Canon student photo Competition in February. This was my first time in a photography pit its quite exciting being in that environment, knowing that you are all set up with very similar perspective it pushes you to think creatively.

I was positioned at the back centre of the pit so i tried to frame my models with in the doorway to lead the eye to the model.

This outfit was in a set called precious metals I purposely under exposed this image to get more detail with in the highlights on the skirt helping the skirt stand out.

By including the second model in this image i created more depth and interest, the whites are slightly bright on the lace loosing the a little detail

Being positioned in the centre it was tricky getting a shot with a couple of the models in.

This shot required me to hold the camera as hight as i could, using live view to face and position the focal point, due to having over photographers in front on me in the pit. It worked in my favour giving me a clean and unique angle. having the raised angle gives me a more flattering angle.

once we finished the catwalk we had 45 minuets to upload the images, I resorted to a coffee shop and started editing as quick as possible. one issue I had was the lack of memory on my mac this slowed the upload process up. Selecting and editing images in such a fast pace environment is hard you have seconds per image in order to meet your deadline and it did lead to me rushing my final edits out. i think it was a good stipulation thought and prepares yourself for the real world.

5x4 print

Iv collected my 5x4 transparency from palm labs the exposure has come out well but I have lost light due to the long bellows needed to get the focus on the screwdriver resulting in non of the back light being caught on the transparency.

The side lighting has done well to create depth with in the image but the focus plane is slightly off due to the angle the pen was hanging at. I did try and alter the focus plain but found this difficult under the lighting i had set up.

Photography of transparency

if i was to reshoot the image alterations i would make are:

Have a stronger back light, either by moving it closer or giving it more power
Get the focus plane to match the screwdriver, this can be achieved by using the movements on the camera or hanging the screwdriver straight.
Use a fill light instead of the reflector so i have more control over the light
is a larger ƒ. to get a larger depth of field.

I did find the 5x4 camera hard to set up but the quality of this image is worth the effort, i would like reshoot this to try and achieve the look I had with my digital test shots allowing me to compare the two.

Screwdriver product shoot with the 5X4 camera

As part of my assignment I planed a product shoot and use the 5X4 camera. I choose to use a Rolson multi-screwdriver as my product, I used product shots of pens as my inspiration as screwdrivers tend to have basic pack shots.

My plan was to shoot the tool suspend, side lit with a soft box and to use a reflector to fill in the over side of the product to give some depth and interest to the product.

Test shoot on white background

My first intention was to get a grey use a unlit white background. after a couple of test shots I found this wasn't working due to too much light spilling on to the backdrop. so moved to the black backdrop and faced the soft box away from the background, I also positioned it front eh right instead of left as the highlights where distracting form the Rolson logo

After moving on to the black background i decided to mover the key light to the right to make the logo clearer (image unedited)

To add some interest to this added a snoot on to the background, I was limited by the hight of the light stand and would have liked to have a steeper angle, I did later adjust the angle and position of this light, if i was to reshoot this i would consider using a flashgun to get lower or use different accessories to achieve a different spread on the backdrop. I purposely tried to used this to highlight the bit of the screwdriver so its not mistaken for a pen

The addition of the fill light on the backdrop makes the tool pop of the page. (image unedited)

The studio setup

ISO:100 SS:1/125 Aperture:ƒ8 lighting ration 1:4

As the tool was so reflective I feathered the key light by poisoning it toward the camera, I used a reflector to bounce some fill light on to the logo side of the object.

The 5x4 Camera

Once i was happy with the lighting I setup the 5X4 camera, this was new to me having such a small object didn't help with the framing as I had to get close to the tool after a long time altering and adjusting the focus, I didn't find the flipped perspective a problem it was the dull image on the back of the camera due to me using flash I only had the modelling lights to try and focus the image with.

Focusing the 5X4 camera

I sent the transparency off to palm labs to get developed and will see the result on friday.

overall I am happy with this shoot, I thought about what i wanted and how to achieve it which is why it went well. when my plan wasn't working i was ready to try new things and alter the out come. things i would improve are:

Uses the space I've got, the setup was fairly cramped when it came to setting up the tripod for the 5X4 i found myself knocking the tool stands.
Experiment with the background lighting, had i spent more time with this i could have used to the really pull the tool form the page.
Reduce the lighting ration at 1:4 the back light is really subtle.
Practice with the 5x4, this is a complicated tool to use so the more practice I get with it the more I will feel at home and get the most out of it.

I edited one of the Images to remove the cotton and see how i could improve on the lighting.

Burn tool, this was used to brighten the fill light off the reflector
Crop tool and Ruler, I used these to correct the composition and straighten the tool
Lens correction, to remove a slight amount of chromatic aberration found in the highlights.
Curves, to add contrast and blacken the blacks.
I duplicated the layer, desaturated it and inverted the colours them blended it using the overlay to brighten the background.
unsharpen mask to make sure everything is clear.

Screwdriver product shoot with 5X4

My plan was to shoot the tool suspend, side lit with a soft box and to use a reflector to fill in the over side of the product to give some depth and interest to the product.

Test shot on white background

After moving on to the black background i decided to mover the key light to the right to make the logo clearer (image unedited)

The lighting was starting to give the pen depth (image unedited)

The addition of the fill light on the backdrop makes the tool pop of the page. (image unedited)

The setup used

ISO:100 SS:1/125 Aperture:ƒ8 lighting ration 1:4

As the tool was so reflective I feathered the key light by poisoning it toward the camera, I used a reflector to bounce some fill light on to the logo side of the object.

The 5x4 Camera

Focusing the 5X4 camera

I sent the transparency off to palm labs to get developed and will see the result on friday.

Uses the space I've got, the setup was fairly cramped when it came to setting up the tripod for the 5X4 i found myself knocking the tool stands.
Experiment with the background lighting, had i spent more time with this i could have used to the really pull the tool form the page.
Reduce the lighting ration at 1:4 the back light is really subtle.
Practice with the 5x4, this is a complicated tool to use so the more practice I get with it the more I will feel at home and get the most out of it.

I edited one of the Images to remove the cotton and see how i could improve on the lighting.

Burn tool, this was used to brighten the fill light off the reflector
Crop tool and Ruler, I used these to correct the composition and straighten the tool
Lens correction, to remove a slight amount of chromatic aberration found in the highlights.
Curves, to add contrast and blacken the blacks.
I duplicated the layer, desaturated it and inverted the colours them blended it using the overlay to brighten the background.
unsharpen mask to make sure everything is clear.

The image Edited.

Sam and Steve's Pre Wedding shoot

Bansko

Bansko Bulgaria

Birmingham airpot time-lapse

Birmingham airpot

Time-lapse Malvern

Time-laspe

Solihull College Cricket

Solihull College Cricket

LONDON FASHION WEEKEND

LONDON FASHION WEEKEND

5x4 print

Screwdriver product shoot with the 5X4 camera

Screwdriver product shoot with 5X4

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