'Best experience'
I cannot recommend Hannah and her team enough! We had the best experience at our shoot with our newborn and the photos (which I wanted to capture our little one as naturally as we could) are just unreal. Hannah captured...
Workshop Wednesdays Vol.IV
Workshop Wednesdays vol.IV
Black and white photography is classic, timeless and visually stunning. There are certain lighting techniques that can dramatically improve the mood and effect of a black and white photograph and we will look at this in detail below. As well as admiring one of the most iconic photographers of all time and their signature style involving a white background with strobe lighting. This is what we love capturing in our studio also – we find it removes all distraction and focuses solely on the subject, expression and relationships. We hope you enjoy this black and white inspired edition and that it encourages you to experiment at home!
Tip 1
Find a white wall in your home or a white sheet and fix it to a stand (even two chairs – kind of like a cubby you may have made as a kid!)… Make sure it is near a window for natural light. Place your subject (still life? friend? family member?) in the “studio” and watch how the light changes as you move around. For flat, even, flattering lighting, it’s best to have the most amount of light hitting your subject. This is achieved with your back to the window and all window light covering the subject.
Random Fact
The first photograph ever taken was by a French scientist named Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. He captured the image with a camera obscura in 1826. The famous image took eight hours to capture because of the long exposure needed for the camera. The image was actually lost for nearly 50 years before historians rediscovered it. SOURCE
In The News
Dozens of communities on the southern slopes of Fuego were buried under a searing mix of mud, ash and rocks when the volcano erupted.
Photograph: Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images
Photo For Thought
The Terror Of War, Nick Ut, 1972
“The faces of collateral damage and friendly fire are generally not seen. This was not the case with 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc. On June 8, 1972, Associated Press photographer Nick Ut was outside Trang Bang, about 25 miles northwest of Saigon, when the South Vietnamese air force mistakenly dropped a load of napalm on the village. As the Vietnamese photographer took pictures of the carnage, he saw a group of children and soldiers along with a screaming naked girl running up the highway toward him. Ut wondered, Why doesn’t she have clothes? He then realized that she had been hit by napalm. “I took a lot of water and poured it on her body. She was screaming, ‘Too hot! Too hot!’” Ut took Kim Phuc to a hospital, where he learned that she might not survive the third-degree burns covering 30 percent of her body. So with the help of colleagues he got her transferred to an American facility for treatment that saved her life. Ut’s photo of the raw impact of conflict underscored that the war was doing more harm than good. It also sparked newsroom debates about running a photo with nudity, pushing many publications, including the New York Times, to override their policies. The photo quickly became a cultural shorthand for the atrocities of the Vietnam War and joined Malcolm Browne’s Burning Monk and Eddie Adams’ Saigon Execution as defining images of that brutal conflict. When President Richard Nixon wondered if the photo was fake, Ut commented, “The horror of the Vietnam War recorded by me did not have to be fixed.” In 1973 the Pulitzer committee agreed and awarded him its prize. That same year, America’s involvement in the war ended.”
SOURCE
Iconic Photographers
Richard Avedon American 1923-2004
“Avedon was the epitome of the modern photographer – a charming, sophisticated man-about-town and a photographer who was able to cross photographic genres. It did not matter where he was, which format he chose to work with or who his subject was, the image would be an Avedon image. It would have that unmistakeable elegance and confidence that marked him out, not just as a great photographer but as a highly successful commercial photographer, who was able to create instantly iconic and memorable images. So what’s his influence? His large-format portrait style with the stark white background, his use of two images to tell one portrait story, his use of strobe lights in fashion, the book In The American West? Of course it’s all this and more. Avedon is a photographer whom every photographer should get to know via his books. They cover his whole career and not only chart his own photographic and personal development but also, that of commercial photography over the last half of the twentieth century.”
Tip 2
Black and white images look best with a greater tonal range – a mix of shadows and highlights.
Still in your studio as created above, now try and have your shoulder to the window light so you are at 90 degree angle to the light source. Keep your subject in the same place and see how the shadows become more dramatic. Keep moving even further around so only a small section of light is hitting the subject and the majority falls into shadow. Ensure you are exposing the image correctly for the highlights and just have a play around with the effects.
Most cameras, even phone cameras, have black and white filter functions. We prefer to shoot in colour and convert to black and white in post production (see below for tips). Also look at contrast and colour temperature to vary the effect.
Your Opinion?
Notting Hill carnival
Matt Stuart/Magnum Photos
27 August “This was taken during J’ouvert, which really gets going at about 7am. It’s basically a huge paint, chocolate, flour – anything – fight. It’s like a friendly riot. I bought a full-body paint suit, a plastic camera protector and goggles, wore my worst trainers, and really got involved. I kept bumping into this woman and she kept chucking stuff at me! On the way back, she walked past this amazing wall. The paint behind her was almost the same as the paint covering her – but the wall was actually untouched by the carnival celebrations. I love when two completely different things collide like that.”
SOURCE
YOUR OPINION! Colour or black and white? What is your personal preference? Do you have any particular styling forming in your home?
Our Story of the Week
We met the beautiful Hannah and her dashing fiancé Peter in 2015 before their wedding in July 2016 at The Summit Restaurant on what happened to be the rainiest day of the year (see photo below). In spite of the rain, it was still the most beautiful day. A direct result, I believe, of their amazing positivity, energy and bright bubbly personalities, bursting with smiles! Even their little dog Louis was full of smiles! When we met Hannah and Peter’s families at the wedding, it was easy to see where their sunny temperaments were indeed created.
Two years later, we were incredibly excited to welcome Hannah’s parents and brother (and of course now husband Peter and their adorable dog Louis) into the studio for family portraits. Here is just a snippet of what was a warm, funny and very unique photo shoot. Thank you Hannah, Peter and family for being so wonderful to photograph!! X
Tip 3
Black and white in post production:
Also, check out this very helpful tutorial about creating the perfect black and white image in Photoshop: HERE
Richard Avedon also loved to fill his frame with the subject and create interesting and often harsh crops. Have a play with your own cropping and composition. The subject doesn’t have to be centred and evenly cropped. Try cropping in nice and close to draw attention to eyes or other elements that you want to feature.
Thank you for getting this far! We hope it’s been a worthwhile read for you and we’ll look forward to checking in next week.
Please call or email anytime if we can help.
Best Wishes,
The Hannah Photography Team:
Hannah, Olivia, Nic (and Charlie the Cat)
