Photography Lessons - Simon D

[puretotty]

I want to know how much you are going to charge me to take more natural looking pictures... help

[Dave Wells]

I keep getting asked to give lessons maybe I should. How much to charge though ?

[andytaylor]

I'm happy to provide advice, and I'm closer to you than Simon.

[puretotty]

LOo offence Andy but there are about 3 photographers I would take lessons off... I actually think I do a pretty decent job as it is... I just like the more natural colours of Simon D... who knows maybe he does them all in photoshop but it kicks ass...

Now your all wondering who the other 2 are lol...

[Cenobitez]

My guess is Simon shoots in Raw with proper lighting which when teamed with photoshop produces stunning work.

[SimonD]

Hiya Steve, appreciate the compliment !drink!

I can assure you photoshop has no part in my pics, I insist on no retouching and get it right in camera.

The only photoshop I do is resize, sharpen & add a logo, end of.

I have been asked to do lessons a few times, it's a hard one to get my head around as I am still nowhere near where i want to be and won't stop learning myself, so how can you teach when your not happy yourself?

But as it happens I can still pass on advice to my current level so I have been working on my new studio in Shrewsbury and sorting out details for photography tutorials, but to be honest they are aimed at less advanced than yourself so you might find most of it teaching you to suck eggs, but I'm sure certain things you will find valuable.

I am going to see how the first lessons go and if succesful I may offer advanced lessons which you should find more up your street.

You may need to loose bad habbits though, I had plenty to shake off in my first years and still shaking some off now! !doh!

[puretotty]

Hey Simon

Believe it or not what I really want to do is to get a photographer in and see things like how he sets the lights up... I think one of the things I do is have too much light in a small room... but never had anyone to compare with...

My camera settings are something I am forever playing with... I am sure there are ones I should be using as standard... I can never get the rich natural colours you do Simon... I would kill (or at least pay very well to be able to)

I use Elinchrome 600S lighting, 2 heads to be exact... usually bounce them off the ceiling... use a Canon Eos 30D set on the flash setting... I never bother with white balance, when I tried the colours were not great...

I take pics like I cook, just throw a whole bunch of things in the bowl, stir it up and hope it comes out ok

[Cenobitez]

PT buy some shoot thru brollys or better still some Soft Boxes, you will be AMAZED by what a difference something like that changes.

Bouncing raw flash off the ceiling will work like a flood light and wash out the colours, as well as producing a flat look.

I think it was John Mason, I saw shooting and fuck me that man is fast, superman would be like what the hell, where did he go.

I can't remember if you camera has the saturation, contrast, sharpness etc settings, but they are a nightmare to set right. I keep forgetting to change my settings between 'studio', 'location' and 'shows'

[puretotty]

Hey Cenbonitez I have soft boxs on the lights... one full length box and one square box... It was a dutch photogrtapher mate of myn who started me shooting like that... he did it and got some amazing results... I just never get anything remotely close lol

[andytaylor]

Charming. No offence taken, but the offer is there if you want some free advice