I've mentioned the camera club I've joined a few times now. (And every time I've forgotten to link to their site- so here's the CPA Website). It's roughly week five of the season and to date we've had one round of the annual competition, two talks by visiting photographers and the opening night talks by some members.

Last nights talk was from Jim Crone, a professional fashion and beauty photographer. He spent the first half of the night talking about his work and his experiences, being candid and helpful in the face of questions and sharing some fantastic lighting and framing tips.

Then, while we drank tea, he set lights and with the aid of a local model gave us a practical demonstration of how to take pictures in a studio environment. After showing us how the professionals worked, we were able to take some photos ourselves.

It's quite a surreal experience taking photographs of a model. You see the professionals on TV having a dialogue with them but when it's your turn you just freeze. Fortunately for me, Lisa, the girl modelling was brilliant. As a result I managed to get a couple of shots I'm really pleased with.

(f/3.2, 1/160sec, 50mm, ISO-200, 30/09/08)

The setup was pretty simple. It consisted of a plain roll in the background with two tungsten lights. The main light was sitting directly in front of Lisa at about 2 metres off the ground and contained in a soft box. Directly under it was a silver reflector to provide some reflection. The second light was off to the right, just behind her shoulder. It was shining onto a piece of the roll which had a few cuts in it to give that pattern of light and shadow on the background.

(f/3.2, 1/160sec, 50mm, ISO-200, 30/09/08)

One interesting tip Jim provided which you can (hopefully) see in these images, is the use of white balance. In the first image, the camera is set to tungsten and as a result the picture is a nice natural set of colours. In the second picture, the camera is set to Daylight. As a result, the colours are much more creamy and warm.