Phoenix Group of Photographers

ADVANCED lighting in composition and portraiture by Damien Lovegrove was the title of his presentation.

With a varied and comprehensive background as a lighting engineer, professional wedding photographer and portrait photographer, Damien imparted a wealth of knowledge and tips to members.

For example, using one single light source at 90° to the subject created a dramatic image. Concentrating on the face and focusing on the eye nearest to camera is important. Shooting portraits and figures from waist height using the adjustable LCD screen as found on modern digital cameras, so emulating the older Hasselblad and twin lens reflex cameras that had their viewing screen on the top, so as not to produce photos of subjects being looked down on.

When shooting glamour shots in a bedroom situation, Damien advocates leaving on any wall lights and all bedside lamps and lighting the model with a focused flash shoot, creating a nice warm atmosphere to the background and eliminating any colour cast on the model’s face, by using a concentrated flash focused on the subject’s face.

Using a focused flash Damien accentuates the jawline and the curve of the neck with a hard shadow.

Damien also looks for shapes within pictures as well as texture and colour.

A very entertaining and informative evening. Damien was given a vote of thanks by chairman Tony and a warm round of applause by the members.

Meanwhile, Peter Trigg was a welcome return visitor to the Phoenix Group of photographers at last week’s meeting.

The title of his talk was Our Living Landscape. Members saw shots covering most of the United Kingdom including pretty villages in the Cotswolds, capturing the essence of the English landscape and the depth of pattern and colour.

The beauty of the different seasons was also promoted through pictures as varied as ones of otters, bright red apples, canal boats, icicles, power stations and trains.

When Peter takes shots of landscapes he tries to incorporate something of a bright red nature as a focal point, he will wait until someone wearing a red jacket appears, if that fails he will send his wife into the shot wearing something red.

One particular shot stood out, whilst waiting to take pictures of moving traffic on the motorway he managed to capture the point when there are five red cars within the shot.

As the presentation was given using a slide projector there is no chance that Peter could have cheated and coloured the cars in Photoshop. Slide film is the favourite medium of Peter’s. Some of the pictures were not Peter’s, they were as donated to him, with Peter passing out his usual sweets when somebody could correctly identify the location of a picture or come up with a witty remark.

As usual Peter’s presentation was very entertaining interspersed with banter and also the charm and depth of projected slides. Peter was thanked warmly by chairman Tony.

The club meets on Monday evenings at 7.30pm at West Monkton Village Hall. The website is PGOP.org.uk