Final Photo Shoot (Part 2)

Venue
Grace Dieu Priory, Thringstone

Equipment
Sony Alpha 200
Jessops 360 AD Flashgun
Tripods x2
Remote Flash Trigger and receiver
Off camera flash cable
Reflector (5 in 1)

Models
Kelly
Terry
Becky

Lighting Setup
Please see separate blog

Comments
Following on from the morning session at Bradgate Park we arrived at Grace Dieu Priory in the early evening ready to take photos around the ruins with my models as the sun was setting hoping to get some shots during the golden hour.

As we were early it enabled me to fully explore the site selecting the aspects that I hoped would produce the best results. It helped that I had my sample sheet which made matching up the areas easier. I would also be using the sample sheet to show my models what I was hoping to achieve.

As the sun was setting it was still producing a bright light that still gave me concern about blowing out the models skin. I decided to use a flashgun in some of the locations as a fill in light to even out the skin colours but in the others I decided to use the golden colour from the sun (it was getting better as it was setting) to light my models.

The first part of the shoot went really well with my models being as supportive as always making my job easier, that is if trying to get that creative shot on your camera that you're visualising in your head can be classed as being easy.

The challenging and time consuming part of the shoot came as the sun hit the horizon. I had to try and balance the output from both my flashguns to give me the even lighting on my model but not too strong on the historical building. This took longer than I expected as the light from the waning sun was changing constantly. I managed it, eventually, by having the output from the model's flashgun set at half power, whilst the flashgun for the buildings was set at a quarter power. These settings gave me the best results, or so I feel.

I have to admit that this was my favourite shoot to date as it was matching two of my favourite things - football and ruins. I will be looking for other local historical spots to due further shoots. I also loved shooting as the sun was disappearing over the horizon, the colours in the sky were beautiful.

To see the photos from this shoot please click here.