Ok, i know what you're thinking, why is David showing us an image of a dark cellar instead of a new Band or Singer he has just shot for promo purposes as usual?
Well, i do a lot of work for the National Trust, photographing events, places and people, and i was asked to go to Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire to photograph the Christmas decorations in the main house and also to shoot some editorial portraits of the Director General - Dame Helen Ghosh DCB.
As her time was limited, i got there early to scout the different locations i had been asked to shoot her in. The first location was the 'Cellarium' a very dark and cold cellar that was used to keep the wine cold back in the day, it has very low ceilings and some beautiful stone arches with hardly any ambient light apart from this one window seen in the above image.
So, what can i do?
I got an exposure for the ambient light coming through the window (not a lot!) and then set up a flash pointing towards the spot where Dame Helen would be standing, when she was ready i asked her to stand in the exact spot so the flash lit her and and the room correctly while the window showed up in the exposure.
I took some more pictures of her in the same area but without any window light, using two flashes, one to light her and one to light up the rest of the room, we shot in there for about 15 minutes then went into relative warmth of the Abbey house to continue shooting in the other locations on the list, an hour later we had covered 6 locations and Dame Helen went off for a well deserved hot drink.
It's very important to have your shots planned out and the lighting ready in place to go as many people are time constrained and it's best to make the whole shoot as quick and as painless as possible.
I would love to be able to show you the final image but it technically belongs to the National Trust so i'm afraid i can only show the set up shot, but no doubt it will appear in a National Trust publication some time this year.
Anyway, back to shooting bands......
