I have a new website that will be up and running soon specifically aimed at boudoir and maternity photography. Boudoir photography can make you feel so special and provide you with a gift never to be forgotten or bettered. Maternity photography records that very special period at a time when you are growing a new life inside you, nothing can beat that feeling, so it really should be recorded in the most amazing, fun and relaxing way possible. I can now offer a service which includes a day in a gym with a suana, swimming pool and spa all included in the cost of your photographic session, so why not pamper yourself for the whole day and then receive an album of beautiful photographs of you as you have never been seen before, beautiful, sexy and stunning. The new website is at www.desirephoto.co.uk please take a look shortly it should be operational by the end of this week (6/1/09).

boudoir photograph

Dummer church is a lovely ancient church in the centre of Dummer village, it is small but perfectly formed, with a balcony from which to get a birds eye view of the proceedings.

photograph taken inside Dummer Church from the balcony

Almost since the discovery of photography and certainly since the early 20th century filters have been used to make changes to the look of photographs. There are hundreds of filters you can use. Some are for use with black and white only some for use with colour only and some can be used with both. Each filter has a number and in the case of warmup filters they range from 81a, 81b, 81c, 81d, to 81EF. These are generally used with colour photography when the sky is very grey and overcast and gives everything that dull grey look. Things look cold and uninviting. In the days of film a warmup filter was essential, this was put on the front of the lens, either screwed onto the front or a generic system can be used where a ring is screwed to the front of the lens and an adapter put on the ring and the filter fits in the adapter. With the adapter method several filters can be used together. In these days of digital photography it can all be done with photoshop, simply click on image->adjustments->photo filter (in CS3). This brings up a window which asks you to name the layer and choose your filter colour. You can vary the strength of the filter by adjusting the density, changing the filter itself or even picking your own colour, it’s all so versatile and done in the comfort of your own home. Below are 2 photographs one without any filters and the other has a warmup filter added to show the effect. In the second image you could almost imagine the sun had come out (it hadn’t).

photograph taken in grey overcast conditions

same photograph with warmup filter added (in photoshop)

There is a little known phenomena about red and blue colours that effect the way we see things. Things that are close to us generally have stronger colours than things that are further away, in fact in landscapes things in the far distance often look very blue. So when we see two things together and one is coloured red and the other blue we tend to think that the blue item it further away than the red item. So you can give a feeling of distance or depth by putting red things closer to you and blue things further away. Take a look at the next 2 photographs. In the 1st one the 2 people are side by side, but it looks like the girl in red is closer. In the 2nd photograph the girl is actually about 3 paces behind but looks like she is level with the man. The further you are away from the photographs the more pronounced is the effect.

photograph of 2 people girl in red behind the man in blue

photograph of 2 people standing side by side

When it comes to landscapes generally the best light to take such photographs in is either during the one to 1.5 hours before sunset or during the one to 1.5 hours after sun rise. At this time of day the light turns from being very bright and white to a softer light with a hint of orange or pink and it is not so contrasty. Compare the 2 shots taken below, one was at 3.00pm in July the other was about 8.00am in October. In the midday(ish) photo St Paul’s is very bright and white and the contrast between that and the shadows under the bridge is great. In the photograph taken early in the morning St Paul’s is much less bright and the sun is still low enough to almost be under the bridge so the shadows are not so dark, so the contrast is much less and therefore easier on the eye. The early morning shot is much warmer, the midday shot looks a little cold even though the sun was out.

photograph of the Millennium Bridge about 2 hours after midday

photograph of the Millennium Bridge about 1 hour after sun rise

One of the major problems with taking photographs inside is that you usually need a flash to illuminate the subject and if that subject is a person wearing glasses and you use an on board (the camera) flash then you often end up with reflections of the flash in the glasses which can obliterate the eyes of the subject. There are a couple of things you can do to reduce the affect:

1/ get the person to lift the arms of their glasses so that the lens are no longer parrallel to the camera, so reflected light goes in another direction rather than directly back to the camera.

2/ take the picture from a slightly different angle so that you are not firing the flash directly at the lens.

3/ tweak it in photoshop afterwards (last resort)

Number 3 really is the last resort but if you are careful and have a little bit of eye that you can clone from you can clone out the flash and then smooth it over with the healing brush. The 2 pictures below show the sort of nasty reflection you can get and how some of it can be removed in photoshop afterwards.

photograph of 2 people with flash reflections in their glasses

Then after a little work in photoshop they look like this:

photograph of people with glare on glasses reduced.