New Heart Weddings Website now Live

For those of you who are regular visitors and for those of you who are new, the Just Hearts blog will remain live for another year or so, this will enable people to see what we have been doing over the past year or so. However it will not be updated due to it being replaced by a completely new blog on the new Heart Weddings site.; The blog is now and integral part of the Heart site and will be much more friendly to goole ( I hope, fingers crossed)

Please visit the new Blog here  Also our New Heart Weddings site here. 

Thank you to all for your kind comments and look for ward to seeing new ones on our New Heart Weddings Web site

Jane's family shoot on location in Worcestershire

December has been quite busy for us at Heart photography, mostly family shoots which are quite traditional with Christmas just around the corner. Many clients find the idea of the standard white background photographs quite boring. This year several of our clients have enjoyed on location shoots. What about the cold wet weather... well shooting families outside when its cold wet and windy does not make for a great client experience. This is just a sample of photographs taken last weekend. One of our regular clients wanted a selection of photographs of her family. Our clients wonderful home is in the beautiful village of Ombersley in Worcestershire, here is a collection from the shoot.  

Family shoots on location, by Jon Allen Photography

www.Heartweddings.co.uk

Studio Multi Coloured Background set up

Hi all several other togs have asked me how we get those lovely colored studio backgrounds great for all kinds of fun photography. The technique is simple really all you need is a selection of colored gels to achieve colorful backgrounds.

The background we currently use is a medium grey paper roll purchased from Calumet not white, you really don’t need a white background to produce these gorgeous colored backgrounds, or for that matter a white or black background.

For white background, the meter needs to show + 3/4 to 1stop over the key,  

No more!! what they say in the books is wrong. (White Background)

If using a grey background +1.3 stops. to create RGB 255,255,255. (White) if you use two or three stops it basicaly becomes the key light, hence why you get the white background light bleeding on the subject. 

All people see the colour white differently, for a bench mark open photo shop great a canvas and fill with RGB colour 255,255,255 this will be pure white. other variables are screen calibration, temp. WB, Paper, printer. 

Example with the background light set at key + 1 stop place a colored gel on the front of the light clipping the gel to the spill reflector. if your getting a hot spot behind the subject your light maybe too close to the background. 

To saturate the colour further either lower your power on the strobe or reduce your shutter speed.

Set up, Elinchrom Ranger RX power pack on a boom, Rotorlux 70cm Octobox soft box with front removed shooting into a Lastolite tri-flector. One Elinchrom Ranger Quadra  for background light 2 x Calumet 6 x 4 black reflectors 1 x Calumet medium grey paper background, Model with no hair :-(  Dorothy from ebay. 

Settings used 200 sec  f6.3  100 iso   (lens 105mm 2.8)

Have Fun!

Lighting the Bride & Groom in poor conditions

We are repeatedly asked how we light this kind of shot. please see below, a bride & groom outside a venue that is already illuminated with those high pressure sodium lamps that illuminate and blast orange light everywhere.

Firstly lets set the scene, Mid September, dark by 8pm fine drizzle the stuff thats soon saturates your cloths, wet and boggy grass

The weather in this case was certainly not ideal effects the way you take the shot. Firstly client experience, I need to be able to asked the B&G to come out into poor conditions, looking their best, come into position for a few seconds then back inside. Job done.

Position, If possible the preferred position of the subjects needs to be outside the Sodium light catchment area, this will enable you to light the B&G with flash, Speedlight or other portable kit, in our case Elinchrom Quadra. If you have any Sodium light spilling on to the B&G (Especially the dress) you will have to try and remove the colour cast in post production, not ideal. Due to the weather I always keep large clear polythene bags to cover to power packs and the strobes, these can be held in position with elastic bands. 

Once you have decided where  the subjects need to stand, you set out your lights in this case one Quadra pack in front at 10 meters and one directly behind at the same distance. The Quadra’s were modified with a reflector with a  40 degree grids to give a fairly tight beam of light. Set camera for the ambient to how you would like it to be seen. In this case I had to work very quick which meant a hand held shot settings 1/60th F2.8 3200 iso Quadra metered at +1/4 to 1/2stop over the ambient, the rear was same, this enabled me to retain detail in the dress. With Elinchroms skyport system you change the power very quickly from camera! brillient. Alternatively if you have a little more time and no precipitation,  I would employ the use of a tripod to drop down to 1/15th and iso 800, this will also improve overall sharpness.

You can achieve the same with speedlights, no stoffens, zoomed  in to 105m ( Canon 580ex) or 200m Nikon SB910 set to manuel power start at 1/8th. You can use TTL ( iTTL Canon) however in my experience the TTL can misbehave and give inconsistent results due to the illuminated building. 

Post production, Raw file, sharpen, slight hue change to calm the orange down a little, contrast to taste.  A great shot that always makes the Album.

If you would like any further information regarding the above please feel free to drop me a mail or simply call.

Jon Allen  www.heartweddings.co.uk

Amanda and Summer go to the beach.

When Amanda and Jonathan asked me about a wedding post-shoot with a difference we where quite intrigued. Amanda’s idea initially want to have her Gorgeous Horse (Summer) to the wedding venue and have some shots her and Summer in front of the venue, however the management did not want large hoof prints on the lawn. Understandable.

The weather as you know has been very challenging this year. So a new idea was born, Amanda wanted to ride her horse on a beach, so we look at some locations that was closest to home, we found a perfect beach in North wales, long wide and quiet. So at last the day came we arrived at the beach to be greeting with quite heavy clouds a cold easterly wind and the odd shower, so perhaps not the best of days.  Amanda said that Summer had never been on a beach before and was not quite sure of her reaction to the sand and sea, but that was all in vein, as Summer started to warm up she loved every minute of it.

Amanda although quite cold loved it too, it was just up to me to try and capture the excitement. When we did some galloping shots, you cannot but feel the sense of awe when a fully grown horse comes thundering past you, Truly an amazing experience. Here are just a small selection from the day, we are really looking forward to seeing them printed.  Enjoy! 

Thank you Amanda and Jonathan and of course Summer for a fantastic shoot, you are all truly wonderful. 

www.heartweddings.co.uk   Jon Allen Photographer.

Jessica & Chris at Brockencote Hall {Mr & Mrs Hough}

Heart Weddings returns to the elegant victorian house, Brockencote Hall. This is our first time back since the facelift of the interior and it does not disappoint. One the main features that has changed is the new bar in the conservatory area, the main dining room has received a complete makeover and is just gorgeous, visit the website and see photographs of the newly designed luxury rooms. Jessica and Chris decided to book this venue some 18 months ago, after visiting many other venues Jessica set her heart on Brockencote Hall Country side Hotel,  Brockencote Hall Hotel offers some of the finest country side views in worcester and set in over 70 acres of parkland. The service as you would expect from such a prestigious victorian country house is simply 1st class. Jessica runs her own business in kidderminster, besides her husband Chris, Jessica's life revolves around dogs and cats and animals in general. The day started  at Jessica’s parents home with all the girls in kidderminster. Jessica also decided that diamonds are truly a girls best friend, she chose a unique collect from Adam Bourne, the engagement and wedding ring was stunning and with  diamond necklace, bracelet and earrings to complete the collection. Jimmy Choo and Pandora also made an appearance. The ceremony was held at St Cassians church in Chaddesley Corbett, after the service its just a short drive the venue the sun was out in full glory. Jessica and Chris will be honeymooning in Las Vagas, LA, then on to Hawaii. Here is a collection of images from the day, thank you all for dropping by, trust we will see you all again soon.

Weddings at Brockencote Hall Hotel.  www.heartweddings.co.uk  Photography by Jon Allen  Just Hearts Blog 

Make up Artist  Chloe McCall Mua
Elegant Wedding Cars
Candy Girls of Kidderminster ( Sweet table)
Video by John Hackney