We had a busy weekend. We photographed three corporate events in London, a christening, four portrait sessions, and ran our stall on Northcote Road.

The corporate events were good fun. Novotel, the hotel group, hosted a fancy dress party for its staff. It was actually their Christmas party. They are so busy during December that there isn’t time to throw a party for the staff so they all dress up and have their end of year blow out in January.
My assistant, Jimmy and I set up a portrait studio in the ballroom where the party was held to photograph the guests in their fancy dress. While Jimmy photographed the guests I produced 7″x5″ prints for them which they were able to pick up shortly after the photographs were taken. This was a huge hit and is always very popular. So much so that they asked us to stay for another hour.

Producing prints on the night and staging ‘real time’ slideshows is great for the guests as they don’t have to wait to see the results. Also from the host’s point of view, particularly if is is a staff or corporate event it is a great opportuninty to give something fun away. There is also an opportunity to associate your brand or corporate image with the fun event by printing your logo discretely somewhere on the photo, all good stuff for you, your staff, and your clients.

We also photographed Stacy Solomon, the X factor contestant at an event this weekend. I have to admit I didn’t know who she was as I’ve only watched X factor a few times but my eight year old daughter thinks she’s the greatest and I managed to get an autograph for her.

We can generally produce finished photographs from an event between 24 and 48hrs which means that you can use the images to your advantage while the event is still fresh in everyone’s minds. We generally produce two sets of images supplied on DVD; a high res set for prints, and a low res set for web and email use. Go to our events and party photography page for more details.

It’s difficult enough buying presents for people you know well, let alone entire families and people whose tastes you haven’t yet pinned down or don’t share in their taste in art or photography.

At my stall in Northcote Road we see the agonising over ‘what to get you know who’ first hand. It might have been decided that a framed or mounted photograph is the ideal present for ‘you know who’ but will ‘you know who’ like the image you’ve chosen.
The relief is palpable sometimes when a gift voucher may be the answer. OK, its not the ideal solution as you would much prefer to give ‘you know who’ something to unwrap rather than a voucher but ultimately ‘you know who’ will get exactly what they want rather than a near miss.

We can send you your gift voucher through the mail or by email. You can see the selection by going to the following page;
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/vouchers.php

You can use the voucher to purchase or put towards any of the framed and mounted prints we have on offer as well as any of the services we offer.
Below is a list of links to the relevant pages. To buy a voucher just go back to the voucher link above.

Portrait photography;
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/porgallery.php

Event photography;
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/eapgallery.php

Wedding photography;
http://www.weddingphotographerslondon.uk.com/portfolio/

London photographs, Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

London Photographs, Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

London Panoramic photographs
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New York photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New York photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Paris Photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Paris photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Prague Photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Prague photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Sydney Photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Sydney photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New Zealand Photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New Zealand Photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Professional studio photographers rarely use direct flash to illuminate a subject, because the results are harsh, unnatural and unattractive. Most SLRS and compact cameras have a built-in flash which blasts light directly at the subject, creating the “rabbit in the headlights” effect.

With the addition of an inexpensive flash unit for bouncing flash, this harshness can be greatly reduced and will give your pictures a professional look. Another solution for cheaper compact cameras is a stick a doubled up piece of tape across the flash which will help diffuse the light, this may be an alternative to buying another piece of electronic equipment and learning to use it.
I take portrait photographs in my stall every weekend (Fridays, Saturdays, and Sunday,) and the flash is bounced off the white ceiling and the white background. It’s so effective that I don’t require the lighting rig I would normally use in the studio.

This technique is something you can easily set up in your own home. They key to bouncing a flash is a reasonably low the ceiling, and to set the flash, if you can, to fire two or three stops above the camera exposure. You can find this setting on the camera (not the flash). The icon on the button will be a plus and minus sign next to a flash symbol. Push the button and ask the flash to overexpose by +2 or +3, the lower the ceiling the less you’ll have to overexpose. Bouncing a flash eats through the batteries due to the higher output required, so make sure you load up with batteries before your sessions.

Try and use your flash with your outdoor portrait photography. This is known as ‘fill in flash’ and is particularly useful when the subject has their back to the sun, or for example under some trees on a sunny day. On a compact camera just turn the flash on, on a SLR you have more control. Push the flash button again on your camera and ask the flash to underexpose slightly (-1, -1.5), by underexposing slightly the lighting will be more subtle and less “rabbit” (in the headlights).

At night most cameras on auto setting with default to flash. You have very little control on a compact camera but on an SLR you can manage how bright the background is relative to the subject. If the light is low set your camera to AV, and set the aperture to the lowest number it will go to, 4.0, 5.0, 5.6 . Then without any over or under exposure set the flash to fire direct at the subject. You’ll have to keep the camera steady as the shutter speed may drop to below 60 (60th of a second) If it’s too dark and there’s a risk of camera shake change the mode to program or P and see how low you can set that aperture.

Please do bring your camera and flash to me at Northcote Road in the weekend and I’ll give you a free 10 minute lesson.