The GrowlersWorld Interviews are an ongoing quest, bringing you closer to successful and creative people in all walks of life. I've been lucky enough to meet and talk to some amazing, positive and aspirational people. This is where I share their inspirational journeys.

An interesting break with standard procedure now follows. Rawle Austin brings you, something a little different.

Barrie Armstrong presents...

Charting a Steady Course of Photographic Lighting

In a follow up to an earlier interview, photographer and sculptor Barrie Armstrong gives an insight into photographing subjects for his sculptures.

When Rawle asked me to do an interview for him about three years ago (see Barrie Armstrong – Carving a Photographic Legacy) I was a little surprised to see he had called me a “master of photography and sculpting” as I claim to be neither.

Towards the end of the interview Rawle asked me where I would like my sculpting and photography to take me in the near future. I said I wanted to improve my (then negligible) knowledge of the use of photographic studio lighting setups by attending professionally run courses.

This I have now done and agreed with Rawle to set down some of my experiences. Several years ago my interest in photography took me to the “Focus on Imaging” photographic exhibition at Birmingham which I had been intending to visit for some time.

While walking around the busy exhibition halls my attention was attracted by the large crowd around the Flash Centre stand where there was a demonstration in progress.

When I could get close enough, I heard that there was a talk in progress about the use of studio lighting and my ears pricked up! As it was almost over, I waited for the crowd to disperse and made a note of the times of the talks listed on a nearby board and decided to come back in time to get a good position for the next one.

Laura

After another walk around and much needed food and drink, I made my way back to the stand where I looked over all the fascinating equipment on display.

During the next 30 minutes or so of the demonstration that followed much of the mystery of using studio lighting to take good portraits was explained in such simple terms that I found no difficulty in following. My appetite for further knowledge was really whetted - here was something to help me produce pictures I could use as references for my sculptures.

There were leaflets on the stand listing the courses run by the speaker, who I discovered was Chris Burfoot who also lectures for the Royal Photographic Society, and I was determined to book up for the portrait course being run early in the Summer.

I also noted from the leaflets that the course was being held in the Wiltshire village of Lacock which is almost completely owned by the National Trust.

The village has been used as a location for several films and television programmes such as Pride and Prejudice, Cranford, The Other Boleyn Girl and the Harry Potter series (the Abbey cloisters also appear in several of these films as Hogwarts School).

The Abbey at Lacock was once the home of William Henry Fox Talbot, a wealthy man with an insatiable appetite for knowledge and the rare ability to retain it. Interestingly, Talbot, or Fox Talbot as he became known, had a very wide range of interests including a fascination for Photography and discovered the method of “fixing” a photographic image by the application of various chemical salts and washing with water to enable him to produce a negative which could in turn be used to make positive prints - something not previously possible.

This differed from the process used by Frenchman Louis Dageurre who was making images on glass which although permanent, could not be reproduced.

Keira (Aged 2)

I received detailed information about the course and area including a map of Lacock and a list of good bed and breakfasts from Chris’ Wife Pam who dealt with all the administration.

I immediately booked a room at the 18th century “Old Rectory”, one of the few buildings in the village which is privately owned.

On the morning of Saturday 2nd June 2007, having enjoyed a comfortable night and excellent breakfast at the picturesque Old Rectory, I walked the 200 yards or so with my camera kit to the old “Manger Barn” where the course was being held.

I was greeted by Chris himself and invited to sign in and help myself to tea, coffee and biscuits (which were available throughout the day). There followed a really fascinating day of information and demonstrations on ways of setting up studio lighting to produce different effects in portraits.

The Elinchrom equipment we were using (distributed by the Flash Centre) was easy to set up with simple buttons to press rather than the uncertain knobs to turn used on most other makes of lighting.

Kathy

There were plenty of opportunities to take pictures too allowing the delegates on the course to put into practice what they had learned with the help of Laura, the lovely amateur model.

Half way through the day we were treated to a “light” buffet lunch at the Red Lion pub across the road and one of the highlights of the afternoon was sampling Pam’s scrumptious cake!

The second day was just as interesting but we met two new models, Kathy and Helen. It started with the delegates putting into practice what we had learned by setting up our own lighting, plus in the afternoon the opportunity of photographing Chris’ lovely two year old granddaughter on an all white background - not an easy task as little Keira wanted to play games rather than sit still!

Having enjoyed the course and hopefully retaining much of my new knowledge, I immediately resolved to attend further courses when I retired.

I kept to that resolution two years ago and in that June attended Chris’ Glamour/Figure course which was held at Studio Decor’s premises at Stoke Abbot bear Beaminster in Dorset.

The Old Rectory

I decided to do this course because although I had already worked with nude models for my sculptures I wanted to learn more about the kind of “glamour” photography and poses used in calendars and increasingly these days in advertising. I was sure this would help me with producing more varied and imaginative figure and portrait poses for my sculptures.

This was another 2 day weekend course and this time I booked a room at a comfortable (but rather expensive) hotel in Beaminster.

On this course Chris was assisted by Terry Hewlett who has his own wedding photography business and also runs courses on wedding photography. Also on hand was Jon Eaves who owns Studio Decor and provided all the studio equipment and locations and whose wife and daughter supplied the food (and more cake!).

The drive to Beaminster, courtesy of my sat-nav used a lot of “B” roads which were akin to a rally driver’s proving ground, so somewhat frazzled I arrived at the hotel on the Friday afternoon before the course. Luckily I met no 4x4’s or army vehicles going the other way on the twisty roads!

Dorset must be one of the hilliest counties in the UK! This should have come as no surprise as Shaftesbury in Wiltshire where the “Real butter for tea” advert was filmed is not very far away!

The Old Rectory (from the garden)

The course again used the excellent Elinchrom equipment but many of the set-ups were outdoors and used a combination of daylight augmented by reflectors and artificial light provided by the new Elinchrom Ranger portable equipment.

During the weekend there were two lovely experienced professional models posing in scenes which included a very attractive gun toting “hill-billy”, a beach scene complete with Dune Buggy and scuba gear (miles from the sea!), precariously posing on on a log pile in full view of the surrounding countryside (the models, not the delegates!), two “ladies of the night” and a boudoir scene of the type much used to advertise everything from expensive watches to perfumes and lingerie and more recently chocolate!

Everything in this scene was artificial (except for the beautiful model) being props supplied by Studio Decor in their business. There was also a tree branch balancing act and the familiar “figure in the meadow” which Chris said should have included a chocolate bar.

This last scenario used a combination of sunshine (yes it did shine and very hot it was too requiring factor 50 sun block provided by Jon) and a very large reflector made by California Sunbounce (a German company!). This could have doubled as a hang glider especially as we were on a very steep hillside, however it was ably controlled by Chis’ son Simon who was experienced and sturdy enough to keep his feet on the ground!

The Beach Scene

This had proved to be another excellent though physically demanding course and I took about 500 shots over the two days - which as it turned out was about half the number taken by some of the other delegates but then I hope I went for quality rather than quantity because I was very pleased with the results!

One delegate from Canada who was on holiday (I kid you not!) took 10 rolls of 36 exposure film (the only one using film) on the first day and his camera decided it had had enough and refused to wind on the film on the Sunday!

Luckily for him another delegate had a spare digital SLR and loaned it to the Canadian for the day!

My own Canon 10D also decided to pack up late on the Sunday afternoon and I switched to my 400D which did an excellent job on the last (boudoir) set up.

There were 14 delegates on the course and besides the Canadian, they included a married couple from Poland, who have lived in the UK for several years and a man from Sweden who had travelled over specially for the course!

At the end of the course, Chris said he would like to see some samples of the shots people had taken so I sent some of mine a few days later. Some of those are shown here.

Imagine my delight when he e-mailed me to say he liked them so much that they were appearing on his course blog!

Beauty in the Branches

I was even more encouraged when the model I had also sent some pictures to told me she wanted to use them on her web-hosted portfolio!

Before the course Chris had asked me to take a sample of my sculptures with me to show the other delegates. The general reaction to these was very satisfying and during the weekend I told Chris I was thinking of doing his third course which was Art Nude, perhaps the most challenging type of photography but fitting in very well with my artistic sculptures.

He said there were some places still available on his next course which was only three weeks later in Lacock and he put my name down.

The day before the course and with the Canon 10D serviced and back in good order I packed myself off to Lacock (mindful to take my trusty 400D too) and this time the Old Rectory was fully booked so I stayed at the extremely reasonable Spa B&B just down the road in Melksham. As I was back on a more familiar road the journey was a lot less stressful - even the M25 was not too bad!

The B&B was very comfortable and it took me less than 10 minutes to drive into Lacock which I did that afternoon, taking the opportunity to visit the Fox Talbot Museum and Abbey which are both owned by the National Trust, before visiting the Red Lion pub again for my evening meal.

The Boudoir Scene

Next morning after an excellent breakfast I headed back to the Manger Barn in Lacock to see what the day had in store. This time there were only 7 delegates including one married couple and two other women. The course used the services of a lovely professional model experienced in figure photography who proved to be an excelled choice.

She worked patiently through the studio set-ups, which again used the Elinchrom lighting and included low and high key lighting and silhouettes using a combination of studio flash and reflectors to show the human body off to it’s best advantage. In many cases this resulted in a beautiful bodyscape of abstract curves. Once again I was delighted with the results I managed to get in my photographs.

I now have a full set of certificates for completing the courses and a lot of practical experience and the confidence to put the knowledge into practice when photographing subjects for my sculptures (and also portraits if anyone asks me)!

With all this newfound knowledge I still consider myself to be a long way from being a “master of photography” to use Rawle’s description but possibly have more of an idea now how far I am from deserving of that accolade!

Author’s note: this is an updated version of the article I wrote for Rawle about 6 years ago. Since then Chris Burfoot has become the UK Sales Manager for Broncolor Swiss lighting and the series of courses now available at Lacock consists of the Portrait Course and the Art Nude Course which are run under the auspices of the Royal Photographic Society although it is still Chris providing the expertise and doing all the talking and demonstrating. The Glamour/Figure Course is discontinued.

All photographs © Barrie Armstrong (With thanks to the models and the family of Keira who have all permitted their images to be used)

You can contact Barrie at barriesportraits@tiscali.co.uk

Links:

Royal Photographic Society(RPS)

RPS Workshops/Courses

The Old Rectory

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