Paul Cox Photography » Photoshoot

Out and about with Chrissie

paulcoxphotography — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:48:17 +0000

Last Sunday I met up with Chrissie for a quick shoot in Dunham Massey. I’d hoped for a glorious sunset but ended up with a rather overcast evening, I’ve not done a lot of work outside recently so this gave me an opportunity to try out a few ideas with the aid of Chrissie’s partner who was an excellent flash / reflector holder! Anyway here are a few samples from the shoot, please let me know what you think.

One to One training

paulcoxphotography — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:28:42 +0000

I’ve recently started doing one to one training, now that I have more time in Manchester and easy access to Hallam Mill Studio. Yesterday Dan came to see me for some help with lighting. He had many years of natural light experience but wanted a little help with flash. We were lucky enough to have Carole model for us, we’ve worked together before and you can see more of our images on my Flickr Stream

We started out with a basic headshot and built up the lighting to include key, rim and fill until we ended up with this

I took the iPad with me and we found the ability to see the images on there, transmitted from the camera by the eye-fi card, really useful. You can read more about this set-up on my earlier blog post here

We then applied the skills learned in the headshot set-up to other settings such as full length and 3/4 shots such as this one.

All our lighting was done with Strobist style kit, using small ebay softboxes, Manfrotto Nano stands, Nikon SB800s and Alien Bees PLM brollies.

One to one training can be tailored to your particular needs so any photographers that are interested in something similar please drop me a line. The training and studio time is only £45 an hour and you can either supply your own model or I can find one for you with no mark up.

Diane at Hallam Mill

paulcoxphotography — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:19:24 +0000

I’ve photographed Diane several times over the last 3 years while she was studying at Manchester University. This weekend was our last shoot though as she’s now finished her degree and is off back to Hong Kong before continuing her studies in Shanghai. Most of the images are taken in natural light as it was a lovely day.

We briefly went to the lift though and managed to get a few shots there too

Catwoman

paulcoxphotography — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 08:02:24 +0000

As I’ve mentioned previously I’m in the process of moving out of Islington Mill, the new studio I’m using is in Stockport and called Hallam Mill, click here for a handy link to Google Streetview. It’s a great space of just under 4000 sq ft. It’s wonderful to shoot there using natural light, especially towards dusk and so far I’ve done a client shoot and taken a workshop there. This week though I wanted to do a fun shoot with my friend Ella who was just about to pick up here degree results (yay for a 2:1!) and head back to Essex. As it was an evening on a ‘school night’ we had a limited amount of time so I decided to do just 2 main sets, one using natural light and the other a darker, low key theme. It’s the later that’s the subject of this post and Ella brought with her a fabulous catwoman outfit which was perfect for the theme.

Technically shooting black against black can be a little tricky so I used plenty of rim lighting to separate her from the background by varying degrees. In the first shot this was done very subtly to try and emphasise the cat like pose and the other images gradually separate her further from the background. Rim lighting is one of the techniques I teach on my strobist lighting workshop, click the menu above to read more about these workshops. Hope you like the images and please feel free to leave comments below.

(Almost) BOGOF

paulcoxphotography — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:10:15 +0000

We’ve all seen them in supermarkets, buy one tin of soup get another free, well now I’m bringing something similar to my portfolio work. If you can find yourself a mate who also wants images taken at the same time then I’m offering £60 off each of your full shoot costs (you pay £100 instead of £160 each for the shoot). Even better, if you commit to buy more than 10 images from the shoot then you can have them at half price (£10 each instead of £20). This offer will last all summer. How long will summer last? I’ve no idea

Please drop me a message using the contact link above if you would like any further information.

Strobist fun at Hallam Mill photography workshop

paulcoxphotography — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:51:02 +0000

Last Sunday was my first workshop in my new studio location of Hallam Mill in Stockport. It was quite a change from my old space which is a 6 sq m studio to nearly 400 sq m with huge windows and the potential for great natural light, weather permitting of course.

This workshop was the best attended to date with 9 enthusiastic photographers and 2 lovely models. After introductions we worked our way through various headshot lighting set-ups from purely natural light to 4 speedlights plus natural light. We were able to see how the rim, key and fill lighting all affected the results as I was shooting tethered to a computer. Here are a couple of samples, firstly using 2 speedlights and a natural rim light.

Secondly a cool look for all 5 lights (4 speedlights and daylight)

We moved on from here to apply the lighting to full length fashion images and then, after lunch, it was the students turn to apply what we learnt in the morning. By working in 2 groups everyone had a chance to work with both models and get some individual images for their portfolios.

It was a fun day for me and hopefully everyone who came and I look forward to the next one. Please let me know if you’re interested in attending and also any themes for future workshops. In addition I’m also offering individual tuition for only £40 an hour including studio and flash equipment. Simple bring your camera and a model! Please contact me for further information.

Do you shoot men? Yes I do!

paulcoxphotography — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 20:34:09 +0000

I’m often asked whether I photograph men as well as women, so here is proof that I do. Paul came to me looking for some images and I was happy to help. Any other guys out there needing images similar to this check my rates here and get in touch!

Back to the mill

paulcoxphotography — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:36:25 +0000

After the fun on Formby sands I had here Saturday saw another shoot in Islington Mill where my studio is based. After the lovely sun on Friday the weather was a real disappointment being both cold and dull. Sarah came to see me as she wanted some flashdance ones similar to the ones you can see here and I couldn’t let the opportunity pass by without doing some other looks as well. In the end we tried to make it look a bit warmer and hopefully that comes across in the images.

Incidentally both the flashdance and this lighting technique are taught in my forthcoming workshop on the 28th March which you can read about here. There are a couple of places left if any photographers are interested.

Fun in the sun

paulcoxphotography — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:46:36 +0000

Yesterday was the first sunny day of the year that I’ve been available to shoot. Happily both Fran and Emma could make it to the shoot as well, and we had great fun shooting in natural light on the beach. Initially I tried using a flash but I actually got better results using natural light and a reflector. Here is a sample of the results.

2nd lighting workshop – 28th March

paulcoxphotography — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:51:00 +0000

I held my first lighting workshop on the 28th February in Islington Mill. Despite the cold weather myself and 5 other photographers had a great time working with Emma and trying out some of my lighting ideas. The above is a sample of one of the shots I took while setting up the lighting. I’ll try and add some links to the other photographers work also and as a start here’s a link to Mark Byrne’s blog with some images he managed to get from the day. Great effort Mark!

I’m planning on holding a second workshop on the 28th March following the same format and again using Emma as the model. There are 6 places available. Any photographers who would like to take part please drop me a message and your place is confirmed on payment of the £40 deposit (which is returnable up to 7 days prior to the workshop). Total cost is only £90 including a light luncheon. My previous post here outlines what will be covered during the day.