Olympic Champion - Kurt Angle

Got the chance to meet Kurt Angle the Olympic Champion wreslter from Impact Wrestling.  Kurt was over here in the UK promoting an up coming event here in the UK in January 2012.  It was a pleasure to meet him a very polite and humble man was so chuffed been mad on wrestling since I was knee high.  I managed to get a couple of quick shots before he had to go.  I put together a concept shot to replicate the current Impact Wrestling brand see below.

HTC Wild Fire S

Been doing some concept work for HTC around their new HTC Wildfire S.  A lot of post production work on this and conceptual drawing work to put the shot together see below for a 90% finished draft.

Fellow Photographer Lighting Help!

I posted some new work on my flicker today only to be asked by one of my friends and contacts for some help regarding how this shot was done? I send a help email to help him out.

I thought I would post this email below firstly there is a link to the shot in question on my flicker which is http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitaldennis/5930618648/

My reply is below hope this helps you all?



Now then hope you well?

Ok phone shot I did of the HTC was shot on a green background so I could knock the background out quicker but to keep simple see below tips.

Reflections - have cards availble in black and also white these are excellent for controlling and blocking out reflections. If say with a phone you want to shoot the screen donthis separate I'll come back to this.

You can shoot a phone against a black background cut down on outfit spill if shot with a White background you can get a brighter image.

Phone screen shot is easy black background low light with camera over and above screen with phone laid flat take a low light shot no flash with a 2 - 3 second exposure with iso at your lowest camera setting. This is always the best way to get these kind of shots and easiest. Then during post work you can copy the screen details across onto the subject shot and combine the two.

The above gets rid of unwanted reflections on glass and subjects like your iPhone screen.

Lighting ? - ok the shot I did was done with a single sb800 you can use either a soft box or diffuser or you can shoot through a sheet of thin paper this diffuses the light so soft this will light the phone evenly or you can point the flash up to the ceiling and step power down to get similar lighting.

Another option you can try is stand the phone upright blue tack is a god send for this with a black background lighting wise you can put a flash on each side of the camera st power lw to start with so your lighting the left and right of the camera the light will soften in the middle.

Some times you can shoot the camera, then you might shoot the phone details differently then combine the best bits again during post in photoshop.

The above will help you massively shots like these will be often made up of several shots to get the combined parts when put together right.

So to recap - using phone as example

Light and shoot the body edges first, then the phone front, move camera around whilst using White / black cards to see and capture the lighting or reflections you want then you will have all the parts of the image finally the screen display in low light then combine together to create the finished shot.

Another final note you can get the above with out reflections on the screen sometimes by using a longer lens say 70 - 100 mm so your further away from the camera hence less chance of creating unwanted reflections.


Commercial shots like the magazines are never straight from the camera this is just not the case.




Posted From IPad On Location - Digital Dennis / GrimLight / Strobistonline

Lara Ooooh Lara

Being busy with some portfolio work for a local model who is a Lara Croft look alike. The shot was done with a Chroma Screen then during post production all the background and additional lighting was hand drawn in. I will posting the finished shot shortly so watch this space.

Posted From IPad On Location - Digital Dennis / GrimLight

Spooky No.2

The supernatural project continues over this next week this one will be based around the vampire.

I will be posting some of this set when I have a few more done I am looking at between 10 - 12 images to complete the set.

Posted From IPad On Location - Digital Dennis / GrimLight

Consultant Dreams

Been busy over the last couple of months putting together a skeleton to create a new business venture and another side to Digital Dennis and GrimLight.

This new venture is still some time off as I will not launch this till it's write and all the components are in place. But i will be putting together a consultancy side together that will offer specialist training based around wireless lighting techniques (strobist) across all photography disciplines.

I will also be offering marketing support and solutions based both online and offline.

I am busy putting the courses together and also getting them certified with the end goal of offering a recognised certificate upon completion. Possibly the first of it's kind here in the UK.

I will be bringing you more on this over the coming months so watch this space.


Posted From IPad On Location - Digital Dennis / GrimLight

2011 World Kite Championships

Great time this weekend got time to chill a little this Sunday by covering the 2011 World Kite Championships held at Redcar. This guys are truly amazing when you see just high these guys are in the air.

I will be posting some highlight shot over the coming days so watch this space.


Posted From IPad On Location - Digital Dennis / GrimLight

It's Getting Spooky

Been doing some work today as part of a personal project will be doing some work based around the supernatural. The idea is to put several pieces of work together show casing both lighting techniques and art work combined to create some thing both unique and original. So watch this space putting finishing touches to today's image will be post when done.

Posted From IPad On Location - Digital Dennis / GrimLight