Mark Anderson photography has a contemporary approach to black and white and colour photography which has gained us a reputation for delivering distinctive and highly imaginative photography.

We have developed a unique studio providing a highly personalised service offering commercial architectural and landscape photography, portrait and wedding photography, children and baby photography, and party and special event photography.

Please enjoy our blog site which provides regular updates on what we are doing - or look over our main website www.photoarte.co.uk for our full range.

What’s a Histogram?

A histogram is a graph that displays how light is distributed in your picture. The left side of the graph represents the shadows, while the highlights are on the right. This means that if the histogram has a high peak on the left, you can tell that a lot of pixels in the picture are dark, or in shadow. A peak on the right of the graph means that a lot of pixels are bright, or in highlights. Peaks in the middle of the graph represent pixels in the midtones of your exposure. Often it’s difficult to tell if your photograph is correctly exposed by looking at the image on the back of the camera particularly in bright light. I set my camera display so that I can see an image thumbnail as well as the histogram.
 

The Histogram of a Good Photo.
Let’s look at some examples of histograms. Refer to the picture below. On both the left side and the right side of the graph, you can see that there are no high peaks. This kind of histogram tells you that no part of the scene is over or underexposed. Ideally the graph information should fit within the left and the right hand side. 

The Histogram of an Underexposed Photo.
Below is a the histogram of an underexposed photo. You can see a spike in the shadows that starts with a peak on the left of the graph. That means that the picture has lost data in the shadows. There’s also just a few pixels trailing off the right side of the graph, so a tiny bit of data might have been lost there as well. Skin tones suffer particularly when an image is underexposed. To move the histogram over to the right and get a better exposure use the camera’s exposure compensation, and overexpose the photo until the graph fits within the left and right sides.
 

The Histogram of an Overexposed Photo.
Here you can see a pronounced spike on the right side of the graph. You’ll note that the height of the peaks is somewhat low in this picture; that’s not an indication of under or overexposure, it’s a measure of the spead of tones from absolute black on the left to absolute white on the right. All you need to worry about is whether they breach the left or right edges of the histogram.
 

 When composing your photo always try to avoid the histogram from spiking at either extreme end of the graph, where you’ll lose data and have under or overexposed parts of your picture. It’s important to make sure your image is correctly exposed at the time you take the photo as although you can fix minor over and underexposure problems by shooting in RAW, it’s often impossible to correct overexposed highlights.

We’ll give you a Free wall print worth £565.00 if you book a £250.00 photography session by Sunday 8th May 9pm. This is a great deal and only 5 are available.

More about the £250.00 photography session:
I can come to your home or you can come to my studio in Battersea. I find that children are always much more relaxed in their own environment and we can mix up a session to include some fun photographs outside as well as the studio style photographs we take inside.

You’ll get a mix of colour and black and white photographs on a DVD, the high resolution photos are all yours to keep and you don’t have to come back to me and pay for extra prints. I will of course be delighted to print any you want me to.
Three prints up to 12”x8” are also included in the package.

We have teamed up with a local company who are going to produce our large wall prints, and they are offering us 5 wall prints free as part of our ongoing deal with them. The wall prints measure 900mm x 700mm and are stand alone contemporary pieces. You choose which photograph from the portrait session you would like to print and we’ll do the rest. We normally sell these large prints for £565.00.

Read more about the family portrait photography session here.

Portrait Photography London

Photographer London.

Spring and Autumn are my favourite seasons for taking photographs, in spring I feel more invigorated after the winter and more inclined to get out and take new photos.
Here are a few of my tips for taking photographs in spring.

Landscapes:
Spring landscapes are colourful and the new spring growth looks great against against a blue sky. To make the colours more saturated, particularly the blue sky, fit a polarising filter. Look out symetrical shapes and unusual views such as rows of strong green vegetation or views through tree blossom. Try and frame your landscapes with tree branches, doorways, arches window frames etc etc. If you have a wide angled lens take it out of hibernation and use it to incorporate a foreground view as well as the landscape in the distance. Don’t forget about your depth of field to get everything in focus, use a higher f number such as 11 or 22.

Sunrise and Sunset
Take advantage of the sunrise now the days are getting longer. The air is cleaner at sunrise and at this time of year where day and night temperatures vary a lot the colours will photograph very differently early in the morning than they will late in the afternoon. Fog and mist can also be an extra bonus. Try getting up high, the tops of hills or mountains are a perfect as they give you great views over valleys which may hold early morning mist and fog like a bowl. A polariser can also help here, and also remember that fog acts like a soft box and can lower the contrast of your surroundings which can leave you with rather long exposure times so take a tripod if you have one. Your camera may also have a few exposure problems and as a result, you’ll have to use + exposure compensation to rectify this. If your skies end up looking a little washed out try fitting a neutral density grey graduated filter.

People
Although the days are getting longer the sun is still low in the sky and this can create problems with heavily backlit scenes. Rather than photographing your subject with their back to the sun try photographing them with the sun to one side but still slightly behind them, or photograph them in the shade under a tree and use your flash to fill in. Try using a low f number on your lens to throw the background out of focus, this will also help to bring the shutter speed up to prevent camera shake if the light is too low.

Flowers and Blossom
Try and look for patterns and look for the abstract when photographing flowers and blossom. Get down low and zoom right into the subject or use a wider angle lens and very little depth of field around 5.6. Try and break the rules also, flowers look great with the sun behind them. Be very wary of underexposing if you’re looking into the sun, you make have to use your exposure compensation +1 or +2

London Photographer Home

Wedding Photographer London.

Last Weekend on the 5th and 6th of February was the UK Wedding show at the Excel Exhibition Centre in Docklands and I took charge of stand no 200 next to the stage and the Champagne bar.

Before the show began on the Saturday I met up with a number of the 13 other photographers and also had a chance to put faces to the names of the various suppliers we’ve been networking with online for the last year.

The show was great and the large wall prints I had produced reflected my style of wedding photography very well which meant that brides and grooms didn’t have to trawl through lots of albums to understand what sort of photographs I would produce at their wedding.

I ran a competition at the show for a pre wedding shoot, congratulations to the winners, all have been notified this morning.

Wedding Photography London Home

Party Photography London

On Friday night we photographed the Novotel Christmas party which historically has always been held in January. Because the hotel is so busy during Christmas and the yearly figures are published in January it means that they can combine an awards and bonuses party with a Christmas party.

‘Wild West’ was the theme and the hotel supplied the fancy dress costumes. The cast of Toy story, various wild west villains and damsels in distress attended, and the manager of the hotel was dressed as a sheriff. We set up our ‘real time slideshow and our photo booth to take studio photographs of the guests in a wild west saloon studio set.

Supplying prints on the night is an excellent way of giving guests something to take away from the evening. We can add a corporate logo to the photograph and present it in a sleeve or mount and the guests can choose which photographs they’d like us to print.

Our ‘real time slideshows’ are also really popular at corporate parties and events. We bring a huge screen along to the event and project the photographs as they happen. We also include this service in our wedding photography packages along with the photo booth and green screen photo booth, you can find out more about this service here.

Event and Party Photographer Home

Wedding Photographer London.

Over the last six months we have been very busy with weddings but I have never been that happy with the look of the wedding website. Most of the wedding bookings come by way of referal but new wedding clients looking at dozens of websites in search of a photographer were unlikely to call me because my previous wedding website looked a bit dull and homemade. It contained tons of information but didn’t leap out and grab anyone enough to want to make an enquiry.

With the help of my web designer Solly in New Zealand it now looks sleek, clear, informative, and most of all sexy!

The blogs are now divided up into two categories; recent weddings, and blog and news. The previous blog included all this but the recent weddings were cluttered up with all sorts of other wedding related information. You can read about the origins of confetti, why men wear wedding rings, photography trends, what to do if it rains on your wedding day, and even what does ‘Something old something new something borrowed something blue’ mean?

The Portfolio is now full of great photographs much more representative of my style. Take a look at it here.

The Packages page has been reworked and it is now much easier to see what is included within each one. I’ve also included half day packages for shorter weddings and those on a tight budget, this means I can still offer a high end service without the full day price tag. Take a look at the packages page here.

There’s also a new Albums and Wedding Books Page, and I’m really pleased with the way this now looks. Again it is much more representative of the albums I actually produce for couples. Take a look at the Albums page here.

There’s now a page about me and lots of testimonials around the site, there’s also much more detail on some of the fun things we can also provide at a wedding, take a look at the Creative Extras page here.

To accompany the website there is also a newly designed flyer which you can pick up the stall on Northcote Road. Please let me know what you think of the new site.

Event Photographer London, Justin Bieber

On Sunday afternoon I photographed Justin Bieber with 800 fans who had bought tickets for his book signing at The Garage at Highbury Corner in North London. Harper Collins and HMV ran the event.

The fans, mostly girls, had their photograph taken with Justin amid much hysteria and screaming and were able to download a high res 6″x4″ prints as part of their package from my website. I set up a studio in the venue and the people from Harper Collins and the huge security team helped assemble the groups of girls as the photographs were taken.

Justin Bieber and his entourage left as quickly as they had arrived back to the airport for the US. He is due to perform in the Uk early next year.

Event Photography London Home

Event Photographer London, Fun Stuff at Events.

There are lots of other fun photography related things that we can do at your event.

Mobile Photo Booth: During the evening at your event we can set up our small mobile photographers studio with background and studio lighting. We’ll provide some silly props, hats, and some crazy stuff to wear. Your guests can come in and we’ll take some creative fun shots, it’s just a bit of fun and your guests will love it.

Real time slideshows: At your reception we can set up our big screen and run a selection of the photographs we’ve taken so far at your event, we update it regularly so guests can see the most recent photographs we’ve taken. Of course we only show the best photos and we make sure everyone included in the slideshow looks their best!

Our Green Screen Mobile Studio: This is the same as our mobile studio above but we use a green background which means we can superimpose your portrait onto an exotic background. The most popular backgrounds are a beach with Palm trees, the surface of the moon, Venice complete with gondolas, New York skyline, fireworks, and the most popular is the dinosaur scene. This is something we have just started doing and it is becoming a big hit.

Event Photographer London

Are you thinking of booking one of our world famous portrait photography sessions for Christmas?

Do you want to give your relatives and friends some fun natural photos of you and your family?

If the answer is Yes then you need to be booking your session now.  We get so busy in the run up to Christmas with the various things that we do that we not only run out of time but run out of availability.

THERE ARE ONLY FOUR WEEKENDS LEFT BEFORE WE CLOSE BOOKINGS IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS!

Call us today on 020 8333 0151

More about Portrait Photography Here.