Parkanaur Manor Location Workshop - Nigel Fleming Photography

Last weekend saw a great group of photographers coming together for a location workshop at Parkanaur Manor House.

Our aim on the day was simply to create great pictures using a mix of natural light, on and off-camera flash.

We had two models, Laura and Patrice, and one of the main focuses of the day was on bridal looks. Laura was our bride for the day, and we had a very talented team in Victoria, who did a skilful and professional bridal makeup look, and Jessica who did likewise with hair styling.

Thanks to all the photographer who attended, and to Victoria McNamee for makeup, Jessica Cummings for hair styling, models, Laura and Patrice, and Janice Watt of The Flower Studio in Dungannon for bridal bouquet.

Here’s some photos captured on the day and some discussion around them.

D3S_3569 — This was one of our setups early in the day. This was simply careful exposure of the natural light to create a low-key image, with a little of the window light being reflected back on our bride, Laura.

D3S_3574 — Another natural light one, this time in a large bay window in another room within Parkanaur Manor.

D3S_3603 — On our way outdoors we stopped in the porch way entrance to Parkanaur. This was almost all natural light, with a little amount of flash added to lift the shadows slightly.

D3S_3646 — We got a bit more creative here with an off-camera flash. I noticed on a previous visit when there was bright sunlight, how the sun created a shadow pattern from a wrought iron gate onto the wall. Unfortunately we had cloud cover with no sun on this occasion. However, I closed over the gate to be perpendicular to the wall and placed a bare unmodified speed light directly outside the gate, pointed through the gate and at our bride, Laura. An exposure and subsequent flash power was set so as to render the shadow of the gate on the wall, and create a good exposure on our bride.

D3S_3688 — This is an external wall down at the main carpark in Parkanaur. The small louvre windows and stonework remind me of something French in style.
Here we deliberately underexposed and made our own directional light from an off-camera flash in a soft box on camera right. (Please see the image below for the before flash version).

D3S_3685 — This is the before flash version of the above image, showing our chosen exposure settings before flash was added.

D3S_3703 — This was still in the carpark area. I deliberately wanted to, and encouraged the attending photographers to capture this on a 70-200 lens at the 200mm end, so as to be able to isolate this row of doors in what was an otherwise quite random and not very picturesque area.
Again, as above, the overall scene was underexposed intentionally and an off-camera flash added on camera right to expose properly for Laura.

D3S_3607 — Back up to the Manor House again, and I always like to do something from this side of the house.
An off-camera flash was used here from camera right.

D3S_3605 — This is just preceding the above image, before flash was added. Thanks to Jessica and Laura who not only did a great job on hair styling and makeup, but also stayed all day and were happy to be on dress fixing duty 🙂

D3S_3740 — This is Patrice who also modelled on the day.
This is natural light and a favourite spot on mine at Parkanaur to use a 70-200 lens at the 200mm end and at f2.8.

D3S_3704 — This is near the carpark again in Parkanaur, and a pile of ground fill material. This was also a natural light 200mm – f2.8 picture, though here an off-camera flash was added from behind Patrice from camera right to subtly light her hair and separate it from a darkish background.

D3S_3723 — This is a corrugated tin shed opposite the location of the image above.
Here a suitable underexposure was set and quite dramatically modified off-camera flash was added from camera right.

D3S_3783 — While the group of photographers were photographing Patrice, Jessica on hair styling and Victoria on makeup had taken Laura off to change her look from bridal to fashion, complete with striking red lips to work with Laura’s red coat.

D3S_3820 — This was our final setup of the day, and the idea was to place Laura in her bright red coat next to the vibrant green of the ivy. This was then deliberately underexposed and an off-camera flash added. (See below for no flash version).

D3S_3819 — Here is the image above, before flash was added.

D3S_3774 — This guy seems very happy to pose for pictures in a nearby bush! 🙂

D3S_3554 — Thanks to Victoria for bridal makeup, and Jessica for bridal hair styling.

I hold studio lighting and location off-camera flash workshop courses on a regular basis. Everyone is welcome to attend, from beginner to the more advanced, and bring your own DSLR camera for full participation in all lighting setups.

If you would like to enquire or book just get in touch with me using the contact link on the top menu on this page.

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