Tag Archives: sunset

Kayleigh Pearson – Sunset Shoot

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Here’s a glamour shoot from a while ago with Kayleigh Pearson out in Gran Canaria. Sunset is a magical time to shoot, but the window of opportunity to get the very best light is pretty small, so you have to work fast. The sun seems to set with alarming speed over there, & some days a little bit of cloud in the wrong place can leave you with no good light at all.

Also, there are a lot of environmental factors getting in the way. For a start, it’s really not at all warm, especially if, like here, you’re naked & wet throughout the shoot. Sand gets everywhere (this type of shoot is not kind to your camera!), hair & make-up get messed up,  the current can be really strong which makes it hard to hold a pose, & occasional bigger waves can soak your model (or knock her over).

It’s also not the easiest thing to balance the right amount of flash with the rapidly-changing ambient light, so there’s quite a bit of fiddling involved.

All that said, it’s totally worth it & I love the photos we get. It’s great going for something to eat afterwards (we finished around 9.30) knowing you’ve done a good day’s work, then off to bed as you have to be up at 4am to get make-up done before the sunrise…

Wapping Skies

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I’m reading a book at the moment that rightly recommends that you should always go outdoors at dawn or dusk for the best shots, but it pointed out that it’s also a good idea to get out in the daytime in between storms, as the skies can be pretty impressive. Literally as I was reading this, the rain outside briefly stopped, so I took that as a sign & grabbed a camera & a Boris Bike & headed out. (to be fair, I’d left my hat in the pub the day before so was going out anyway, but the book make me take the camera!)

I don’t have too much to say technically about the shots, I was just looking for interesting clouds, & then trying to find something underneath them to make a more interesting photo. I think that no matter how great the sky, there still has to be a foreground to the shot or else it’s a bit dull. The problem is, clouds move, there’s not always a foreground where you want one, & it’s likely to bucket down any minute, so you have to make the best of what you’ve got.

The photos are all one shot, not HDR, & the colours, shadows & highlights have been brought out using photoshop CS6′s amazing capabilities.

Shoot – Rachel Cole

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One of the photos from this shoot was my first ever published photo, so I guess it’ll always stay in my mind because of that. Rachel came out as part of an intense fortnight of shooting for publication; 12 girls in 2 weeks, out at sunrise & shooting till sunset, so long long days.

There’s nothing complicated about the lighting in these shots, where possible I’ll use shade & natural light, out on the beach I used a ring flash attachment that fits over the speedlite & gives a more even glow to the model. Most importantly, I used a polarising filter over the lens, which makes a huge difference in achieving a blue sky. Without it everything tends to bleach out (as you might find from your holiday snaps), but using a combination of the filter & a strong flash means you can let as little background light as possible into the camera, enabling the colours to stay saturated.

How I Got Started

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This is something that I get asked quite a bit. Although I was always the guy with a camera on a night out, it hadn’t occurred to me that it’d be possible to do anything else with it, so it’s all been a bit of a serendipitous whirlwind. Anyway, here’s what happened…

GC Blues Brothers

In 2005 I was working as Elwood in a Blues Brothers tribute show in Gran Canaria (if you can find another photographer who can say that, you get a free shoot). We used to do two 45-minute shows per night, & I was only out of the house for three hours, so my days were completely free. That’s me on the right, being out-posed by a seal.

I’d taken up web design the year before to fill up my daytimes (I’ve never been a sunbather), & as an indirect result of this, I ended up translating (porque hablo Español tambien) for a TV company that came over to shoot Holiday Showdown. I bought a camera with the money from that just so I could take photos of the bars & restaurants I was designing websites for, I had no plan at this stage to become a photographer, or even any reason to think it was an option. Incidentally, the translating led to a couple of other interesting jobs, including appearing on 10 Years Younger in front of 8 million people at one point).

Katja, the first girl I ever shot, from 2006I’ve always been someone who learns well from books, so I bought a book on photography, & it was full of pictures of girls on beaches in bikinis (the girls were in bikinis, not the beaches). At this point a small light bulb appeared over my head, as I was working in bars full of girls, & living in a beach resort. I asked a couple of friends to pose for me, with no plan other than to get used to the buttons on the camera. (The photo on the left is of Katja, the first girl I ever shot, who was a barmaid in Covent Garden Disco Pub. Ah, lovely Katja *sigh*) The photos came out really well, I shot some more, word got around, & by  September I decided it was worth upgrading to a better camera (Canon 20D), thinking I could earn a small amount of extra pocket money shooting local portraits, families & weddings.

Katja at sunset at Maspalomas Beach, Gran Canaria, 2006I joined a UK forum online for technical advice, & in early 2006 a model came on asking if anyone wanted to help her with her portfolio. I jokingly said I’d do it, as I hardly thought anyone would travel 1800 miles just to have me take their photo, & she pointed out that shooting on the beaches of Gran Canaria would make anyone look like an international supermodel, even if they’d paid for it themselves, & I should advertise in the UK. She helped point me at some sites where I could find models (most came from Starnow) & around 10 girls came out that summer, some paid & some as a test.

I still had no thoughts of being published, or even shooting full-time, but in early 2007 I received an email out of the blue from a picture sales agency offering to sell my work, & asking if I’d be interested in having them send models over to Gran Canaria, as it’d be cheaper than flying a photographer out. This unsurprisingly made a huge difference to me, in their first trip out I Claire Evans in 2007met the likes of Elle Liberachi & Lauren Pope, and shot my first Page Three Girl (Ruth Reynolds) & a Miss Great Britain runner-up (Claire Evans, who now does make-up for me). My first published photo also came from that trip (Rachel Cole in Zoo Australia)

By the end of that summer I was getting published fairly regularly, & I’d noticed that I was getting a few emails from myspace, which I’d joined but not really used. I beefed up my account & it all went a bit crazy. I’d had a couple of previous shooting trips to London, & shot maybe 4 girls each time, but the first trip I mentioned on myspace got me over 20 bookings, followed by another 20 two months later. Myspace gave way to Facebook over the next 12 months, but it was clear that, largely thanks to The Social Network (not the film), there was an awful lot more work for me in London than in Gran Canaria.

My plan for 2008 was to spend one week each month in London shooting, & the rest of my time in Gran Canaria retouching the London shoots & shooting anyone who could afford the trip overseas. This meant giving up the day (well, night) job, which was a bit of a leap as I’d be relying solely on photography for my income (wow, have I really only been pro for four years?!) but I figured the extra bookings from the UK trips would cover it. The London trips sold out, & were extended to two weeks each, whereas only three or four models were making the trip to GC each month, so it slowly began to dawn on me it might be time to move permanently to London.

Rachel Cole, Anfi Beach, 2007A chance meeting over an Itsu with an old school friend who’d just got divorced & bought a place in Notting Hill meant I had an offer of a place to live & shoot in Central London at an affordable rate (“So, you want to bring a succession of models into the house, in their underwear, & you want to give me money as well? Is there a downside I don’t see?”), & it really felt like London was calling me, so six weeks after that Itsu I moved back.

Since then it’s been a bit of a blur… clearly there’s been a huge element of luck throughout, but I should point out that I’ve mostly worked 7 long days a week, shot over 1000 girls & taken 200,000 photos in that time so it’s not been entirely random. A big factor in getting to a decent standard quickly was that with me working at night, my days were free to practise practise practise, but it meant doing 12 hours a day of photography, then going to perform in the evenings. Still, I’m not complaining, it beats working for a living :)

Matt x

Five Go Mad in Gran Canaria

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I only had multiple girls out to Gran Canaria a couple of times, but they were two of the most entertaining shoots I’ve ever done. It’s very hard work shooting from sunrise (in make-up at 4.30am!) till after sunset, around 9.30pm so it’s more important than ever to have models you can get on with. Fortunately these three are particularly lovely & lots of fun, as you can see from the photos :) These are Behind The Scenes shots, I’ll put some finished ones in a future blog. Click on the photos to see a slideshow with captions.

Featuring Lisa Maffia, Donatella Panayiotou & Jakki Degg. Hair & Make-up by Frederick

Beach Photography Tips

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As a companion piece to my favourite beach shots the other day, I thought I’d share some things I’ve found about shooting on beaches. I was living in Gran Canaria when I took up photography & for the first three years pretty much every shoot involved a beach at some point.

1) Shoot at sunrise & sunset. This is the single most important thing. The quality of light is amazingly different at the beginning & end of the day. It’s much softer, so more flattering for the model, & the sky will have much deeper colours. I also found that the sky is a pretty blue till around 10am, but late afternoon before sunset it’s hazy & bleached out. Finally, there are far fewer people to get in the way of your shots!

2) Use a polarizing filter. Makes no difference to the model’s skin tone but it makes the sky & sea much more saturated. Money very well spent.

3) Use a flash. I always found that a reflector would just bounce the sunlight straight into the model’s eyes, making her all squinty. I used a ring flash that fits on to the speed light, they only cost around £150.

4) Avoid wonky horizons. I seem to have an inability to shoot from a horizontal position & keep the horizon straight in photos (indoors & out). It’s better to get it right in camera, as straightening in photoshop means cropping parts of the photo, & you might lose something important.

5) Get in the water. In my early shoots I’d have jeans on & just let the model get wet, but there are great shots to be had if you get in the sea as well, especially with the camera just above the water level. NB salt water is not good for cameras.

6) Look for interesting backgrounds. The sea & the sky are great, but if you can add some palm trees, a rocky outcrop or some herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the Serengeti it’ll provide more variety in your photos.

7) Choose your model carefully. Shooting at the beach is, other than literally, no day at the beach. You’re in make-up at 4.30am to hit the beach for sunrise, it’s really not warm at all in the sea at that time, making fierce expressions in fierce sunlight is painful on the eyes, sand gets everywhere & sunburn’s no fun, so someone with a positive outlook & a high pain threshold would be ideal.

8) Wear a hat! I’ve learned from painful experience that the Canarian sun takes no prisoners, even at first light. High factor sunblock is compulsory.

9) Camera settings. I’m not the most technical of photographers & generally find things by experimentation, but on the beach I used to use Tv at the highest possible setting to sync with the flash during the day, with the flash up full & a polarising filter. At sunrise/sunset I’d switch to Av, use a lower f stop & increase the ISO to make the most of the low light. I’d probably shoot everything manual now though for greater control.

10) Use shade. Even when the sun is too high in the sky to get a decent photo, there are some great shots to be had if you find some shade. Under trees, under bridges & the shaded side of a wall can be particularly good. If you have the budget, an assistant holding a giant reflector/diffuser between sun & model can also extend the time you can usefully shoot in sunlight.

11) Bad weather. I’ve not found a way to make the sky, or the sea look good when the sun’s not shining, so I try to keep them out of shot where possible. Shooting from a higher angle to show more sand, & focussing on other backgrounds such as trees, rocks & cliffs will help, but there’s really no substitute for a sunny day.

Hope that helps

Matt

x

Ps you can also see more beach shots on my site here

Favourite Beach Shots

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First in a series of posts showcasing my favourite shots from my own work. I’m starting with some oldies from my Gran Canaria days….these were all shot between 2006 & 2008, so my style has evolved quite a bit since then!

Sooo many people asked me if we used a trampoline for this shot! Abigail’s on top of a sand dune, & I’m slightly downhill from her so she looks higher than she is. A lot of girls wanted to copy this shot, but you really need a dancer’s poise to pull it off. & it took a *lot* of attempts to get this one shot!

 

Possibly my favourite beach shot. The sky behind Rachel is such an amazing shade of blue (a polarising filter helped with that), the sea looks gorgeous, & the palm trees in silhouette really finish it off. Oh & Rachel looks pretty awesome too!

 

Susan Gossage was one of the first fashion models I shot, & it was great to have someone posing in a different way from what I was used to, it gave a very different vibe to the shots. Taken around sunset to get those fabulous shadows & ripples across the dunes.

 

 

 

 

 

Another very early shot from 2006 of Kayliegh Page. She’s a dancer, which meant she could hold this great body shape for just long enough to get this shot. It’s another one that the next 20 girls who came out all wanted their own version of, which led to much hilarity & falling over #neveraseasyasitlooks.

 

 

This shot of Kayleigh Pearson was taken at sunrise. It’s really only worth trying the beach shots at sunrise & sunset, certainly Gran Canaria. You can get away with the light till around 10am, then it’s just too fierce (& the beach is full of tourists). In the afternoon there’s a heat haze which makes the colours feel washed out, so I used to go out an hour or so before sunset & find a nice shady spot, & then hit the beach for the spectacular sunset…

 

 

…& Gran Canaria does have some spectacular sunsets. Love the reflection in the water here & the palm trees against the orange sky. It’s actually pretty cold at 9.30pm when you’re wet & mostly naked, Carrie Spencer did a grand job fighting off the goosebumps!

Another shot of Carrie, on the same beach much earlier in the day. There were tourists all around us, I’ve had to retouch a few background swimmers out, plus a breakwater that took up the whole right side of the photo.

This may have been the day I realised that black & white arty nude shots were what really inspired me. This one’s still on my living room wall today.

 

 

This shot of Gemma was taken near sunset on top of a sand dune. Tricky but important things to get right in this type of shot are the hair, which really needs someone adjusting it every time she moves, & the arching. All photos need a bit of arching, it makes for great curves & is really flattering.

 

A shot of a boy to finish, everything seemed to work about this picture, the bronzed skin, the blue sky, the turquoise sea & I love the glint of sunlight on his breast bone.

 

 

Which is your favourite?

More beach shots here

That’s it for the beach, more favourites categories coming soon x