Neil Danton

I’ve photographed some famous people, some unknown people, some Very Important People, both those who really are VIP and a few who are only legends in their own minds. I’ve photographed royalty, presidents, Taoisigh (Prime Ministers of Ireland) and lots and lots of common-or-garden people just like me.

Recently was the first time I can ever remember that I was nervous about photographing my subject.

It didn’t help that I only had half an hour notice as he just happened to be in Cork City at a meeting regarding his up-coming exhibition and I had to squeeze in this shoot before the other two I had that day. Then the classic three drops of rain and the traffic comes to a standstill in the city factor, meant I was 20 minutes late for the appointment before I even started, and I’m NEVER late usually.

Whether he was actually in the slightest bit bothered I’ll never know, but he certainly didn’t seem at all concerned and after an all too short chat (about 4 hours too short as far as I was concerned) I knocked-out a couple of quick portraits in the (very short) time I had available.

My subject was music photographer Fin Costello.

You might not know the name, but I’m sure you’d know some of his images. He’s been a photographer since the late 60s and shot The Stones, Kiss, Pete Townsend, Cat Stevens, Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, Phil Lynott and many others. His portfolio is like a who’s who of the music industry.

The shoot was for a magazine supplement in a Sunday newspaper but it was much too early to have his exhibition images at the shoot, so much as I’d have liked him with some of his work, it wasn’t to be:

A brilliant photographer but just as importantly (maybe more so), a true gentleman.

His Pictures in Rock exhibition will be at the Cork Vision Centre from 2nd June – 28th July. I haven’t seen the exhibits but it’s highly recommended anyway!

TTFN

…and other light modifiers.

This post is pretty long as it seemed to grow legs of it’s own and get bigger and bigger as I wrote it, so grab yourself a coffee or your preferred choice of alcoholic beverage and sit down and relax for a while…

I’ve been getting quite a lot of hits on this-here blog from search terms that refer to umbrellas or white umbrellas or shoot-through umbrellas or combinations of the above.

So, if the whole idea of using umbrellas is confusing you, I’ll try and give you the idiot’s guide to using them (the idiot being the person giving the guide, not you) and in the process try and cover as many of the queries as I can.

Our cousins across the water may need to substitute “flash” for “strobe” from here-on as that’s the term they generally use for a hot-shoe flash.

First up I need to explain that if your camera has one of those green-spot settings – otherwise known as “use this setting and let’s all hope the camera will work out WTF I’m shooting and give me incredible images” – then I probably can’t help you, because you need to start taking control.

Similarly if you are using flash in ETTL mode (that’s the Canon term, not sure about Nikon or others) or automatic flash control, some of this stuff won’t work either. From what I can gather, the Nikon auto-flash seems better than the Canon, but I’m not changing brands now, and I rarely use auto-flash anyway. That’s just me, old fashioned. OK just old.

Using flash, whether it’s the hot-shoe type or the bigger studio type, is all about you controlling the light you want for your subject, rather than letting the light control you. When I use lights everything is in manual mode. The camera’s exposure, and the flash output, but not usually the camera focus, although I do revert to that on occasion.

An umbrella is just a light modifier and the circumstances in which you use light modifiers are so varied and diverse that it’s more than I can cover in a single post, I’d need to write a book *ding – lightbulb moment*.

There are however some generalisations. Mostly there’s hard light and soft light (and you use modifiers to get the “soft” bit). Then there’s directional modifiers, basically converging or concentrating, and the opposite of diverging or spreading.

Umbrellas generally fall into the spreading and softening category, although it’s not always as simple as that. There are shoot-through umbrellas (usually white), and reflective umbrellas (usually white, silver or gold). My preference is white shoot-through, for a couple of reasons:

Haven’t written so much for a long time without throwing in some images, so here goes:

This is a reflective silver umbrella. It’s a very small one, for head-shots or half-length portraits:

and with the flash firing:

Same thing, but the gold version:

and with the flash firing:

White shoot-through umbrella opened ready for action:

and with the flash firing:

There are also many other light modifiers of course. The ones I use are a couple of different soft-boxes, one a tiny Lumiquest mini soft-box that fits on a 580EX flash, and a 60cm (2ft) Ezybox soft-box that fits into the front pocket of my gear roller-bag. Bigger is nearly always better, but not when you always work on location and are 99% of the time on your own without an assistant. I also (occasionally) use a snoot, which is a cone-like device to really concentrate the light into a small area, often used by glamour or fashion photographers behind and to the side of a subject, just to light the hair. Not what I use it for!

Here’s a few examples of different light modifying…

First up, outside, no light modifier:

Outside with a 60cm soft-box:

and outside with 2 white shoot-through umbrellas:

Moving inside, shot with a mini beauty dish (hard light):

Inside with a softbox (soft but quite concentrated light):

and inside with 2 white shoot-through umbrellas (softened light and sprayed everywhere!):

and again:

No I haven’t suddenly started doing family portraits, that was shot for the Money section of a Sunday newspaper!

I mentioned a snoot earlier, this is one that’s designed for small flash instead of studio lights:

and can be fitted with a grid to concentrate light even more:

Here’s an example of an image shot with a snoot:

and one shot with a snoot fitted with a grid:

So back to the original “hit list” of search terms by which people came to my blog, and some answers:

TTFN

and they’re off..

Launch of a Mascot Race at the greyhound stadium, in aid of the Irish Wheelchair Association.

TTFN

Those CEO portraits don’t always have to be from the man-with-folded-arms school.

TTFN

…Don’t They?

Apologies if you’ve just used a search-engine and are looking for the 1969 Sydney Pollack directed film about a dance marathon, but this is nothing to do with it.

This is about me shooting horses, actually more about shooting a horse-trainer, and only shooting with a camera.

I was assigned last week by one of the “Sundays” to head out into the countryside early on a very cold morning to shoot a feature on former jockey, now trainer, Jim Culloty. Jim won many races as a jockey, including the Cheltenham Gold Cup three times in succession aboard Best Mate.

I met up with the journalist and we arrived together, so while the interview was taking place, I was off scouting locations and setting up lights.

By the time the interview was finished, I had my shot-list sorted out in my head, and lights set-up in two locations.

First up was a shot in the Yard, one-light with a mini softbox:

Then there was an archway that led from the Yard to the Gallops and I wanted something there. This was going to be quite difficult to balance the daylight coming into the arch from the Yard, with the darkness underneath the arch itself. I had set-up two lights on stands behind the conveniently located doors that hid them, both firing out towards the entrance at about 45deg. As best I could guess I had the power about right, at least that’s what the images of the back of my hand were telling me!

I had my subject lead a horse through the archway, and believe it or believe it not, I’d nailed the flash-power with the 1st image:

I made another couple in different locations, here’s one:

The one that was used was actually taken in one of the stables, no lights, just subject interacting with one of the horses. Out of about 6 frames I chose this one to transmit and it was used pretty-near full page width:

That was it. 15 minutes to set-up lights, 20 minutes shooting, 5 minutes to pack-up lights and 30 minutes & 20 miles down the road before I could feel my fingertips again.

TTFN

…including completely flooding the basement of the prestigious Lewis Glucksman Gallery in University College Cork. Kind-of created a bit of a problem, as that’s where artworks are stored when an exhibition finishes, before being returned to their source.

It rains a lot in Cork of course, but this was ever so slightly over-the-top rain. It was like India in monsoon season this past winter, and so when an already just-about-breaking-it’s-banks river had a gazillion tons of water released into it from the dam up-river, the city ended up like Venice on a bad day (and I know Venice on a bad day, I lived near it for some time).

A couple of months later and I was assigned by one of the “Sundays” to create some images for one of their magazine supplements. This was to be a “How is it now?” type feature after most of the art that was damaged has undergone a conservation process. Not much to be done on images showing the actual conservation, but some of the work was back on display, and that would do me. Of course I’d need to add a yooman-been into the images as well, as that’s what I mostly do, make images with yoomans in them (well apart from wedding images of course, I’d rather eat a bucket of s…..).

So, luckily for me the Director of the gallery was available to be photographed. Pause for a moment now, while you imagine some kind of mad-professor type (like astronomer Patrick Moore) wearing a tweed jacket with elbow patches.

Fortunately, SHE is nothing like that. There is one problem with her though (it’s OK F, don’t panic), she wears glasses (eyeglasses for U.S. readers). Very nice they look too, BUT, glasses as with anything reflective, can create a problem when using flash lighting. I want to see my subjects eyes, not a big flare from the glass, so particular care is needed when making images with a subject wearing glasses.

So here’s a little look at how I lit this assignment. For once I kept quite a few of the setting-up and testing shots to give me enough ammunition for this post.

So here’s one of the images (the one that was used in the magazine btw):

Looks simple enough right?

Except, this was the starting point at the aperture & shutter speed I wanted to work at:

I started off with half an idea that I was going to try and get away with the one-light approach, but in reducing the flare on the painting, I was starting to get too much of a side-lit portrait. That’s not too bad if the subject is a man and you want dramatic lighting, but for a lady? I don’t think so. There was too much “fall-off” to the right side of the painting as well:

I really needed to get some separation as well. No, not as in “Six Degrees of Separation”, I just needed one degree, subject – separation – painting. The separation is basically just getting some light behind the subject in order to “lift” them away from the backdrop, so they don’t merge into too much of a “flat” image.

So, I was going to keep the one-light (Ezybox softbox) as the key from left, but add a second light as the fill from the right. Hmm, small problem, there’s a wall in the way.

Time I think for the famous napkin lighting-diagram, except I can’t find a white paper napkin, so it’ll have to be kitchen roll:

As is customary with extremely accurate and highly complex Technical Plans & Drawings, I offer the following warnings:
Not to scale.
Double-check all measurements.
If in doubt ask.

That gave me just about what I wanted:

And the final image again:

The umbrella just put some nice soft light between subject and painting. If you want to see it larger it’s on my website in the Editorial section. Can’t put a permalink to the specific image as I move things around in the portfolio, but it won’t be far from the start. I think the image really “pops”.

I then went for something slightly different, and put subject and a part-restored piece on the floor, softbox on subject, and umbrella into ceiling bouncing back for art-piece. Shame it still needed to be covered as part of the conservation, but we rotated it until there was enough clarity to see what it was:

In between those two images, I made another one, but I saved it until last, as it’s my favourite.

There was a wall where there was some descriptive text regarding the conservation. This was the ambient light that I had to work with:

Similar lighting problem to image-one there though. Too much direct flash and the writing would disappear. Not enough and it would be too dark to see that any writing was there at all. Solution was similar to the first image, except softbox and umbrella reversed like this:

And the resultant image:

So there it is.

The Glucksman Gallery is a fabulous place to visit if you happen to have some time when in Cork. Wonderful location, fabulous (award winning) building, great exhibitions and ADMISSION IS FREE!! (make a donation though, it’ll cost you less than a couple of cappuccini). Open every day except Mondays. No-one gets in on Mondays, unless you happen to be a photographer on assignment .

TTFN

…metaphorically and literally.

When on a commission I normally try and get the “safe” shots first, and then go for something more interesting. In this instance though, because of the timing being rapidly approaching dusk, I went the other way around.

This commission was to create some images for the launch of the Ashbourne & Purcell cup-finals week-end. These are competitions for 3rd level institutions (University age) in the sport of Camogie. Camogie is the ladies form of the men’s game of hurling with a few subtle rule changes. It looks a bit vicious with lumps of wood being flailed around, but has less injuries caused than Gaelic Football.

As always I was trying to think up something that would be a little bit different and when they sky started turning nice I knew I had the shot in mind.

So in reverse order of timing, the standard shot:

Two-light, no modifiers.

The slightly more interesting shot:

One light, white shoot through.

The nice sky (and the “oops missed shot”):

and the, well you decide:

Two-light, no modifiers.

TTFN

…or is that artefacts?

I love it when a plan comes together (where have I heard that before?).

Was commissioned last week to cover the launch of the UCC Library online guide to the archive of Murphy’s Brewery*. Worrying thing about PR Photography and anything that mentions “online” is you can end up with “Man in Suit with Laptop” images, and as they are sometimes the only thing available as a very very very last resort for a business portrait, I didn’t want to use up any of my very’s on this occasion.

*Murphy’s is a beer, actually it’s a porter (stout). There are 3 made in Ireland, the most well know worldwide is probably Guinness, made in Dublin, so we won’t talk about that any more (they do great tv ads though). The other 2 are made in Cork, Murphy’s and Beamish, both now owned by Heineken, makers of the yellow stuff. Murphy’s started producing the famous black stuff in 1856 when James J, and his 4 brothers built a purpose designed brewery. Photography and now history lessons, I’m starting to spoil you.

So I could have done the launch, and it would probably have been OK, but this is where I get that “go the extra mile” itch that I’ve mentioned before. Fortunately the client knows me well, and it didn’t take much pitching from me before we decided that creating some images featuring some of the artefacts beforehand would be a nice addition to the actual launch.

My client arranged access for me to the Library and the Brewery and I’m glad we did it, because it was fascinating stuff. Lots and lots of records as you might imagine (no, not LP’s and singles, written recorded information).

Note for younger readers: LP’s and singles were what the old folks used to listen to before you listened to your music by sticking those plastic bits in your ears, and annoying everyone around you by cranking up the volume so that everyone around you on the same bus / train was plagued by two hours of listening to Chnnk Chnnk Chnnk Chnnk Chnnk Chnnk.

Made a few images of the Librarian and Library Archivist with Tenant Agreements and a Register of Workmen from 1913 – 1914:

I then did some detail on some of the register entries. In the image below, entry 129 shows a man employed as a Watchman, earning 3s/5d and 74 years old! It’s not entirely clear whether the 3s/5d is per day / per week etc., but I did some digging around on the interwebthingy and as best as I can figure out, it’s per day. Could be wildly wrong there of course, so if you’re a historian (get real Neil, why would a historian be reading your blog), or know a historian and can enlighten me I’d be interested to find out.

3s/5d is old pound (Sterling) currency of course and equates to about 19 pence / 21 Euro cents (29c U.S. ish). I could find out by digging around (isn’t the interwebthingy wonderful – sometimes) that that would be around £60 nowadays, that’s about €68 / $90, so it wouldn’t seem wildly inaccurate (as if I’d know about accurate, I’m a photographer not an actuary).

I just love the flowery writing.

Note for younger readers: Writing is how the old folks used to communicate with each other b4 evry1 sttd txtng n twtrng.

The next two images show another man aged 41 employed in the Tun Room (entry 102).

The interesting part is the entry from the right-hand page of the register, where it says “Volunteered. To be re-instated if returns” and “Volunteered for active service 18/8/14″:

It’s the “to be re-instated if returns” part that intrigues me. Did he manage to return from volunteering to fight in the first world war? Or did he end up, as so many did, dying in a field in France somewhere? I have an urge to find out more now. I might make it a bit of a project to try and find out.

That’s it then. Client was delighted with the media coverage we received. Anything else I need to tell you? Oh yes, the lighting. The images with the humans were all one-light, using an Ezybox softbox, and the detail images were with 2 flashes (strobes), no light-modifiers but just pulling out the wide-angle diffuser on the 580EX to soften the light a touch. No the paper doesn’t look white (I could have made it white by adjusting the colour correction) but that’s because it’s not white. It’s from 1914 after all. You’ll probably look a bit faded when you’re 96 years old as well.

TTFN

…Mummy depending on which version of English you speak.

This assignment was nearly 2 weeks ago, but I had to wait until post-publication before I blogged about it. Didn’t have to I suppose, but it’s the normal etiquette (and sometimes a contractual requirement).

This is the tale of Mortified-Mommy, Snot Queen, Small One (The Artist formerly known as Princess of Puke) and Soon-To-Be. Not my terminology, but that of my subject that I was assigned to shoot, for one of the “Sundays”.

Actually Mortified-Mommy is my phrase, but was inspired by her own comments after the shoot. How do I know? She blogged about The Photo Shoot and I even got a mention! I think it’s the first time I’ve ever been mentioned in print. Well, if you discount the writs, the lawsuits and the banning orders….

My subject(s) of the day were a stay-at-home mother/blogger/author and family. Family in this case are 2 gorgeous little girls and a soon-to-be husband (poor soul, 3 women in one house, he’ll be driven demented in a few years time). The story was related to post-budget financial implications on families.

I arranged the shoot for early evening and was under instruction to get a couple of pics of mummy with girls, and a couple of both parents with girls, and a specific requirement for a “letter-box”. (See, occasionally I do listen to what a picture editor says. Not often I’ll admit, but just occasionally..).

A “letter-box” is a very wide but not very high image. It usually means it’s going be used in a page banner.

Snot Queen was just adorable and I fell for Small One immediately. How could I not? The instant I met her she smiled at me. I have that effect on females. Oh OK OK so the grown-up ones normally laugh at me, still….

So here we go with the images that we started before soon-to-be husband arrived:

I think most of the images were shot with 2 white shoot-through umbrellas. That option gave me plenty of light at various distances from the camera, as they tend to spray light everywhere. Mommy might have sat still if I’d asked, but I couldn’t guarantee the little ones working under instruction from me! I didn’t want anything too staged or formal, this was not an family portrait session in a studio, so I needed some lighting flexibility to allow a little freedom of movement.

“Soon-to-be” then arrived home, and was commissioned into action immediately (he hardly had a chance to get his coat off):

And then the “letter-box” image:

That doesn’t look much like a letter-box, because I only cropped it a little bit from the bottom, but by arranging the family in that way allows (if needed) the image to be cropped like this, to fit into a banner:

Now that is what I mean by a “letter-box” image.

In the end the “letter-box” wasn’t used. The top image posted above was slightly cropped up from the bottom and was used 6-column (full-page width), above the fold as a supplement Splash (page 1). Niiiice. It’s gives you a warm fuzzy feeling when your images are used nice and large, as opposed to the times when you bust your arse to get an image, and it’s used the size of a postage stamp!

So finally, for Mortified-Mommy:

Could you send me a biscuit? I didn’t have one while I was there as I don’t normally eat them, how do you think I keep my Adonis-like figure? (That’s Adonis if he’d lived to be 95).

After all the effort you went to though, I feel guilty now.

TTFN

…that’s played by men with odd-shaped balls?

Rugby of course!

OK OK, look don’t start getting picky-picky. I know women play rugby as well but then the pun doesn’t work does it? Jeez, some people!

This was a promo for an upcoming U/19 rugby international between Ireland and Australia and I was working alongside my friend Dan who was shooting on behalf of the IRFU. We were each doing our own set-ups and alternating our shots and time with the subjects, which worked well.

Once we’d both finished all the images we needed where we kept the lads in their nice white shirts clean, we had them leaping on a ball, and boy, did they get dirty. They must have been frozen as well, it was cold, windy and the pitch was very, very muddy.

They were just wearing shirts on top. I was wearing a ski-top, a fleece and a waterproof windproof jacket!

The lads all play for the Forwards on the U/19 team and also for schools and colleges in Cork.

TTFN