Guest blog Simon Revill

In our series of guestbloggers it’s today time for Simon Revill.
Simon is a great wedding photographer from the Uk and I asked him to do a guestblog because I absolutely love what he does with his images. So here he is : Simon take it away.

Well … first a bit of background – My name is Simon Revill and I’m a wedding photographer based in Derbyshire in the UK.

When I set out on this journey years ago I knew I wanted to combine art and weddings … especially the bride and groom portrait side of things …. I wanted to create dramatic, timeless images that the couple would be proud to have as wall portraits or album prints. So I have developed my photography to use lighting to create portraits that are both dramatic and different …. And I can now do them during normal daylight or dusk / dark

I work alone most of the time so my equipment needs to be portable … I use three different lighting methods:

• Speedlight usually zoomed to 200mm with or without 28” Octabox
• Kacey Beauty Dish with double speedlight bracket and fitted with a 20 degree grid
• Elinchrom Quadras with 7” reflector and 20 or 30 degree grids

I tend to use the bare speedlight / beauty dish when the weather is overcast or they are twilight images – and the quadras when I need more power to drop the ambient down during daylight sun … or when I need two gridded light sources. Once you have the confidence to get stuck in and use lighting creatively you start to see endless possibilities. My method also allows me to shoot the standard daylight portraits at the same time as these dramatic ones … great for when time is short and great for giving the client ultimate choice. The BIG thing I try to do – is get the effect correct in camera – natural light falloff means minimum post processing – nothing more than a simple contrast boost and very light vignette. I have to keep it simple as I’m colourblind !

So some examples …..

Here is a shot done during the mid day sun using a single quadra head with 7” reflector and 20 degree grid …. It was so bright that I found a nice area of indirect shade under a large tree.

These setups need to be easy and VERY quick as time is always at a premium – you can’t be spending even 5 minutes on one shot … not when you usually only have 30 minutes to get ALL your portrait material.

This next shot is one I get asked for by couples …. Where we go back into church for a portrait infront of the alter. I employ two very quick methods … either a single speedlight in a 28” octa OR the Kacey BD with twin speedlights … there isn’t any set reason – just depends how I feel .. So the first shot is with the softbox – the one after that with the Beauty Dish

Sometimes you can make a dramatic portrait from a rather bland location …. Interiors can be made to look better than they would be under normal lighting. These next two show that to good effect … on the first a simple chair in a room devoid of furniture and simply lit by a quadra and grid … on the second a sofa that was in a reception area of a hotel with less than ideal surroundings – lit with the beauty dish and grid.

So far we have been looking at overpowering the ambient and making the artificial light the main source …. But you can also use the artificial light to enhance an image and keep some of that ambient. This next image was shot on a cold winter evening – but one of the few times in the UK we get a dramatic sunset …. So metering for the sky and then lighting the couple with a single speedlight in TTL mode – mounted in the 28” octabox

These have all so far been one light source … the next challenge is to add 2 or more lights to give another different twist on the dramatic. These do take a few minutes longer to think about and set up … but the rewards are there if you take the chances.

The first example was a shot done at night … winter weddings don’t allow much daylight so you have to work with what is available. Here we had a small fountain and I decided to light the back of the water with a single bare speedlight. The couple would be lit using the beauty dish. This was setup whilst the couple were eating as it was freezing outside. In this fashion – I could get rough settings and keep the time to a minimum that the bride and groom had to be outside.

Next up was one that the bride and groom asked for ….. the guitar player of the band was a very close family friend and they asked for a picture together. I could have just gone for a simple portrait but wanted to just be a little different …. So two quadras with reflector and grids set to light up the couple and guitar player. The hardest thing was getting the angle of the lights correct as I’m always forgetting to use the modelling lights.

I haven’t touched on trigger systems and feel that there are so many on the market that the choices become very individual. I use Radio Popper PX’s for the speedlights as they give me the ability to remotely alter power AND shoot using TTL when I’m really rushing. For the quadras I use the skyports which are great – and again I can adjust power remotely which at my age becomes a bonus.

So hopefully this may inspire a few of you to go out and do something a little different ….. if you aren’t bored by now you can see more examples of this type of lighting on my website http://www.simonrevill.com.