Leaving on a jet plane
On Thursday evening, July 17th, 2008, I boarded an airplane. My camera bag was filled with a Nikon D300 and a cheap Sigma zoom lens but my heart and mind were filled with priceless excitement. I was out of a job but not unhappy to be so because I had grown tired of my old job anyway. Even way back then, I was already heavily into digital photography and Photoshop. In fact, I was the kind of guy who faked a shallow depth of field using the lens blur filter instead of simply using a fast lens - rest assured, that has changed! I wanted to brush up on my photography skills and I was following a five year photography evening course in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts where I lived. Although I'm all-digital again, now, I'm glad I still got to work with analog cameras and print in a darkroom.
Secretly, like so many of the enthusiasts I know, I had a hope of turning my hobby into a job, maybe teaching post processing. But for that, I obviously needed some great looking pictures to work on. Evening school is all fine, but sometimes the pace can be a bit slow. So I decided to speed things up a bit by taking a workshop. As the one I had set my eye on, involved flying to the UK, I decided to add an extra day. Having written a book about Lightroom, I already knew a thing or two about postprocessing and I had already played around with off-camera flash. All these cool flash gizmo's and triggers really appealed to the gearhead in me but I knew little to nothing about working with models, posing and so on.
I used one of the pictures from the workshop as the cover of the second edition of my Lightroom 3 book, published by Pearson back in 2011. In the mean time, the Lightroom 6/CC edition is available in Dutch (print and eBook) as well as in English (eBook).
The flight was to Bristol, a UK city close to Nailsea, where Damien Lovegrove has his studio. Back in the day, Damien still shot a lot of weddings and he had a resident picture editor working for him. I had booked a workshop with Damien on the 18th and a second day with Marko Nurminen, the picture editor, on the next day.
I don't use the words 'career defining' easily, but this workshop really was. I already knew Damien's enthusiasm from his videos but to see the man in real life was a treat. Back then, his workshops were 4:1 and he showed us around Bristol all day with a professional model. I had a blast. He taught us how to use virtually any background as a cool portrait background, how to make use of existing light when possible and how to add flash when necessary. My D300 was doing overtime. The next day, I had a one-to-one Lightroom session with Marko. I knew Lightroom by heart but I was still struggling to find a professional workflow. I still remember Marco say:
“Your problem is you know Lightroom too well!”
Portraits, an eBook by Damien Lovegrove
Fast forward to now. Damien and I run into each other quite often, as we are both Fujifilm X-photographers and Ambassadors and I consider him as a friend. Every once in a while, he comes to Belgium for some fun shoots, which underlines the importance of doing personal shoots and not only client shoots. We recently did an urbex shoot in Belgium with lovely model Cato. Damien was testing the X-T2 at the time. He then told me he was working on what would be his (and maybe even 'the') ultimate book on portrait photography.
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 17 mm | 1-160 sec at f - 8,0 | ISO 200
I know very few professional photographers who manage to photograph at this pace all while still sharing so much of their knowledge through live workshops, lectures and videos. Take a look at Damien's excellent lighting videos, I can recommend all of them, especially his Illumination ones. In fact, I think if you'd go look up the word 'prolific' in a dictionary, chances are that after the description, you'll read 'see also: Damien Lovegrove'. I once jokingly asked Damien which pills he was on because I wanted to see the same pharmacist.
Shot during a recent urbex shoot with Damien and fellow X-Ambassador Ioannis Tsouloulis in Belgium. FUJIFILM X-Pro2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 17 mm | 1-160 sec at f - 8,0 | ISO 200
The master himself in action in this set-up shot: we used two Cactus RF60 speedlights and a Cactus V6 trigger. Modifier was an SMDV 70 Speedbox with a grid. Here's my review of the V6 and the RF60 and that of the V6 Mk II.
“I don’t know what vitamins Damien Lovegrove is on, but I want the same!”
The eBook is available in two different covers. This is one from Damien's 'Figure in the landscape' series which he shot in the USA.
After being two years in the making, Damien’s Portraits eBook is finally there. As he says himself, everything he knows about portrait photography is in this book.
In Portraits, Damien takes you through his complete portrait making process. He starts at the planning stages and obviously covers capture in great detail, both using natural light and flash, but he also talks about how he delivers files to clients and how he archives them.
Portraits has 356 pages with 384 high-resolution photographs that have all the exposure and lighting details that were used to create them. Because it's so high-res, you actually get two download sizes to choose from: a high-res one (e.g. for on your computer or tablet) and a lower res one (e.g. for on your phone).
“Everything I know about portrait photography is in this book. I hope it helps you to achieve a lifetime of enjoyment from your photography.”
Imagine Damien sitting next to you in a bar, giving you 50,000 words worth of lighting and career advice. Believe me, that would cost you a lot more in beers than the 36 € / $40 (+ tax) Portraits is currently selling for. And better still, if you use code GENT€ (if you pay in €) or GENT$ (if you pay in $) upon checkout, you can get 20% extra off. On the eBook, not on beers! But hurry, because that code is only valid through the end of June 2018.
Although Damien is currently using Fuji gear, this book really is useable regardless of your camera brand. For example, it will show you that you can use overexposure to achieve a particular high-key effect, but it won't tell you how to do overexposure on your specific camera (it would have become a very boring book, otherwise!) That's what your manual is for, after all. However, if you'd like to hear Damien's more camera-specific thoughts on the Fujifilm X-system, read on:
A second eBook: The Fujifilm X System Guide
I told you Damien's prolific, didn't I? If you go to checkout, you will see that you can also purchase a second eBook, The Fujifilm X System Guide. This one is obviously of particular interest if you're a Fujifilm user. Think of it as Damien joining you on a trip to a camera store to help you make an informed decision on what to buy, based on your shooting style and interests. I like to think that I know my X cameras pretty well, but I still picked up a couple of valuable gems from the eBook. If you're new to the Fujifilm system, it will really help you in deciding which lenses and body types are the ones you should go for. It's 20 GBP when purchased separately, but if you buy it along with Portraits, it's only 10 GBP extra (actually 8 GBP thanks to the discount). And, thanks to Brexit, a pound sterling is not what it used to be, anyway. So spending 10 GBP might save you a couple of hundred choosing the wrong lens our camera.
So, that's all for this review. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to slaving away at my own upcoming eBook, which will be a more technical and gear guide about on- and off-camera flash (so it will be a perfect complement to Damien's Portraits). More on that later!