The GrowlersWorld Interviews

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The GrowlersWorld Interviews are an ongoing quest, bringing you closer to successful and creative people in all walks of life.

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 goes into more depth about his love for photography. 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 and I said I wanted to improve my (then negligible) knowledge of using 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 National Exhibition Centre which I had been wanting to see for some time. While walking around the busy exhibition halls my attention was attracted by the large crowd of people around the Flash Centre stand where there was a demonstration in progress. When I could get close enough - not an easy thing to do - I could hear that it was a talk about using studio lighting and my ears pricked up! As the talk was almost over, I waited for the crowd to disperse and made a note of the time of the talks listed on the nearby board and decided to come back in time to get a good position.

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

During the 30 minutes or so of the demonstration that followed I had so much of the mystery of taking good studio portraits explained to me in simple terms that even I could understand that my appetite for more was really whetted!

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. I was delighted to find that this was exactly the kind of course I had been looking to attend and determined to book up for the portrait course being run early in the summer.

When I studied the leaflet I saw that the course was being held at Lacock in Wiltshire, a small village almost completely owned by the National Trust, the Abbey of which 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.

Talbot, or as he is more usually known, Fox Talbot 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 to the process used by Frenchman Louis Dageurre who was producing images on glass which although permanent, could not be reproduced.

The village has also been seen in 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 information that I received from Chris and his wife Pam who deals with all the administration on the courses was very detailed and included a map of Lacock and a list of good bed and breakfasts. I immediately booked a room at the 18th century “Old Rectory” which is one of the few buildings in the village that is privately owned. On the morning of Saturday 2nd June 2007 having enjoyed a comfortable night and terrific breakfast at the Rectory I walked the 200 yards or so to the old “Manger Barn” where the course was being held. I was greeted by Chris himself, 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 dissolving the mystique of setting up lighting equipment and learning various techniques to produce different effects in portraiture. The Elinchrom equipment we were using (distributed by the Flash Centre) was so easy to set up with simple buttons to press rather than the uncertain knobs used on other makes of lighting. 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 a 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 had two other models, Kathy and Helen and started with the delegates again putting into practice what they had learned and setting up their 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!

Having enjoyed the course and managing to retain much of the knowledge that had been imparted to me, I immediately resolved to attend further courses when I retired.

I kept to that resolution this year and in June attended Chris’ Figure/Glamour course which was held at Studio Décor’s premises at Stoke Abbott near Beaminster in Dorset.

I decided to do this course as although I had worked with nude models before for my sculptures I wanted to be taken out of my comfort zone and learn about the kind of “glamour” photography used in calendars and increasingly these days in advertising.

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

On this course Chris was nobly assisted by Terry Hewlett who has his own wedding photography business and also runs wedding photography courses and Jon Eaves of Studio Décor who provided all the studio equipment and locations for the photography 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.

Dorset has to be one of the hilliest counties in the UK!

This should have come as no surprise as Shaftesbury where the “Real butter for tea” advert was filmed is not very far away!

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.

The Boudoir Scene

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

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

This scenario used a combination of sunshine (yes it did shine and very hot it was too requiring factor 50 sun block supplied by Jon of Studio Décor) and a very large reflector made by California Sunbounce (a German company!) which could have doubled as a hang-glider especially as we were on a steep hillside!

This reflector was ably controlled by Chris’ son Simon who was experienced and sturdy enough to keep his feet on the ground!

This was 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!)

One delegate who was over here on holiday from Canada (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 same 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, included a married couple from Poland (but they have lived in the UK for several years) and a man from Sweden (who had travelled here specially!).

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. Imagine my delight when he e-mailed me to say he liked them so much that they were appearing on his course blog! 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! During the weekend I had told Chris I was thinking of doing his third course which was Art Nude, perhaps the most challenging type of photography but fitting in well with my sculptures. He said there were some places still available on his next course which was three weeks later in Lacock again 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 stayed at an extremely reasonable B&B called The Spa B&B just down the road in Melksham, the journey this time being quite a bit less stressful (except for the M25 part and even that wasn’t too bad)! The B&B was very comfortable and it took me less than 10 minutes to drive to 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 pub across the road for my evening meal.

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.

This course used the services of one of the lovely models who had been on the Glamour/Figure course and she patiently worked through the studio set-ups (again using the Elinchrom lighting) which included low-key lighting, silhouettes, and high-key lighting using a combination of studio flash and reflectors. 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 three courses together with a lot more practical experience and I would urge anyone looking to expand their photographic knowledge to consider attending them as they are so worthwhile that they attract professional photographers as well as amateurs like myself (and the ones in between).

My confidence in my photographic ability has increased considerably given the results I am now achieving but I still do not consider myself “a master of photography” to use Rawle’s description, although I do feel I have moved a little closer in that direction.

All photographs © Barrie Armstrong

Photo No.1 - The Beach Scene

Photo No.2 - Beauty in the Branches

Photo No.3 - The Boudoir Scene

Photo No.4 - Low-key Lighting Shot

You can contact Barrie at barriesart.portraitsculptor@choicemail1.com

Links:

http://www.tfccourses.com/
http://tfccoursesartnude.blogspot.com
http://www.theflashcentre.com/
http://www.studiodecor.co.uk
http://www.oldrectorylacock.co.uk/

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