Featherstone Castle

We had the opportunity to spend a few nights in Featherstone Castle in Northumberland Castle as part of the course. Whilst being there we were given a brief to create a series of portraits using fill in flash and reflectors. It was a really good chance for me to use equiptment that I was unfamiliar with and experiment with portraiture; a style of photography I don't try my hand at often. Below are a few of the images I captured.

For this image I had Jessie modeling and George holding a reflector. We all took turns to model and holding equiptment. It was a great shoot for me, Jessie was a very natural model and made the rather alien process very smooth. George provided great assistance also giving me useful advice. I think this is strong image. In terms of location I think it was spot on, the contrast in the smooth textures of the river and the harsh rocks and pebbles works well. The autumn riddled tree, with its golden colours provides vibrance.

Tom modeled here. He was positioned alongside a window. I then used a reflector on the right hand side to bounce a soft light back onto Tom. I think the lack of saturation helps emphasis the lighting and tones.

Adam was the subject in this photo. I think the backlighting helps to exaggerate the figure and the colours of the curtain. I had a reflector again to bounce the light from the window back onto Adam. Looking back I wish I had made a better effort to straighten the window frame alongside the photo frame.

One task we had was to build a camera obscurer. Be blacked out the window with card. Then made a small hole in the card and this projected an image onto the wall upside down. Replicating a proper camera. I was suprised how easy it was to create. We also experimented with long exsposure shots with us moving round the room. Great expreience.