Exciting times over the next month it seems, with weddings galore (currently in the process of editing a wedding from saturday... with blog to come) and to top it off, my studio is up and running!! Its been a big dream of mine for a while to get one set up, and now finally I have been able to make this a reality with a bit of moving around, and at the expense of a table ( who needs tables anyway).

So with this in mind, I am on the lookout now for anyone to be my very own test subject/muse. No experience required, just an open mind, and comfortable to sit and be made to look good (hopefully)....Easy! Oh and happy to travel to mine as well.

So how about it? email me at admin@jonathanmoffatphotography.com to apply (hey its free and you will get professional, studio shots and professionally edited images to keep!!) its a no brainer. Click the link below to see normal pricing:

anyway...

I have lots of ideas that I would like to test out, but to begin with I needed to get myself up to speed on how to use all this new equipment properly and effectively.  

I love Low and High Key images so this is where I am starting out. I have drafted in my wonderful friends to help me test it out, so the images below are what came out of this shoot.

Kicking things off then, it's a shameless one of me (sorry). I used this one as bait to get the other guys to help me out, taken just after setting the equipment up. Now I promise it's the only one of me on this blog post (on my own), so moving on we have my first test subject, Toby...

With him, the aim was to bring out the blue in his eyes. As discussed on previous blog posts, I used manual focus, through live view to get tack sharp focus on him. There are 3 lights being used one (main) to his left (our right), one filler light to his right (our left) on half power, plus one overhead light, on full power. These lights minimise harsh shadows when the flash fires on the camera. Post processing in lightroom was used to intensify and bring out the blue in his eyes.

My next subject is Mr Andy (wolfman to me) Brunskill. Who channelled his inner Nazi sympathiser for his first shots - who knew a drama degree was useful.....

My next subject is Kavi who has featured on my blog before (check Lemonade for more). The key with him with Low key photography, is to bring him out of the background. This is achieved with focus on his eyes which helps the image to pop!

The space I do have is limited however, so group shots are a real challenge. I used the 35mm 1.4 lens on this shoot, which captures a lot of the surrounding area, so means moving back is not an option. I will possibly look at using the 50mm next time to compare.

I had to go with vertical to get us all in, using remote trigger myself to get the shots.

After taking portraits of the guys I ended with more images of them together as you can see above and below. Shooting multiple subjects in this style becomes more challenging as a lower F Stop is required to get everyone in focus. this is not always achieved or the flash does not fire.

So If anyone is interested please let me know and you will get shots like these, FREE for a limited time!!!