Damien Lovegrove is considered by many to be one of the world’s most influential contemporary photographers. He is best known for creating portraits that make women look fabulous. Having had a glittering career at the BBC as a cameraman and lighting director spanning 14 years he left it all behind him in 1998 to become a full-time photographer.
For the past 20 years, Lovegrove has travelled the world as a wedding and portrait photographer and now loves to share his knowledge, skills and experience with passionate photographers. His radiant energy makes him an ideal workshop tutor and leader of adventures. You are in expert hands on a Lovegrove workshop.
To see available training and adventures worldwide visit: lovegroveadventures.com/
You have any recommendations on affordable Arri lights with fresnel lens or led lights with fresnel lens like in your video to create the Hollywood portraits look? Also great video i just subscribed to your channel.
Hi, The LED fresnel spotlights I use are made by Lupo and come up on Ebay from time to time. Look for Lupo 1000 or 650. Aliexpress have many Fresnel spotlights too at remarkably low prices. Thanks for the compliments.
Do you use back button focus with gfx 100 ii or half press shutter focus? I’m wondering does the focus system hunt for focus if using half press shutter? (Portraits while model might make tiny movements) and do you use af-c or af-s mode for portraits? With Sony you can trust for af-c and it will keep on the eyes, I’m about to move for gfx and trying to find best settings for portraits. Great video!
Hi Mika, Thank you for the compliments. With the GFX100ll I use AFC. It's worth noting that I only shoot portraits. If I shot landscapes, street, or architecture it would be different. With all other GFX cameras, I shoot Single-point AF, keep the focus square really small and move it to the exact point that I want to focus on. I then use the half press of the shutter method. Only the GFX 100ll is fast enough to track the kind of portraits that I shoot using AFC and eye detection. This camera has allowed me to be more dynamic and fluid in my shooting and that is the sole reason that I 'upgraded'. It's rare that a new camera can change the way I shoot and this camera is one of them. I hope this helps, Damien
Perfection-when you showed the 1/30th ambient and then went to 125th and then brought in the flash means you’ll always be able to balance the ambient and the flash. Always struggled indoors getting this balance. No more. Cheers Captain, my Captain. Seamless
I have a GFX 100S but your knowledge of the Fuji menu caused me to revisit my settings and review the menu options. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. As others said, best GFX tutorial so far.
This master is just brilliant. He knows so much about making art and images that last. Images that resonate with the soul. I strongly recommend others to join a workshop with Damien.
I assume the lens support F2.8. Why were you mostly Used F4.0 ? Is that your preferred spot or is that the sharper point? ive never noticed anything bellow F3.5. Much appreciate if you can biref this. Thaks
The zooms are a bit soggy at f2.8 and more importantly f4 gets both eyes and the tip of the nose sharp whilst maintaining focus separation. We shot f4 for 10 years (400 weddings) and it gave the finished work a consistent look. Just like feature films are shot at one aperture we did the same ;) I hope this helps.
Thanks again for prompt reply sir. Yes ive watch all your videos on youtube and i belive this is my third time re watching them. I do learn something new each and everytime whathing your videos. Really appriciate your work and God bless both of you.. ❤❤
Hi, Thank you for your kind comments. All the videos that I'm currently producing are exclusively for this portrait lighting course: school.lovegroveadventures.com/p/portrait-lighting-masterclass I added this one here because it is in the public preview zone of my course and I thought it would be useful to a wider audience. :)
Hi, RU-vid used to be a good platform to earn a bit of a second income but the amount of money they pay per view has dropped massively. They forced us creators to have more and more adverts to make the process worthwhile and now the user experience is awful for any monetised content. I have published all the videos that I have here advert free and uninterrupted on my blog at Prophotonut.com All my new content is going into my lighting course where at least I can earn enough money to pay the bills. There are some tough decisions to make being a content creator these days. :(
You were my inspiration, when I started, and for some reason I couldn't have your results in my work. But you told me, that someday, magic would appear, and it did. Today I know what I want in my photography. Hugs
Great shots, but using these low light settings on the xt1 inevitably the motion blur warning appears, the manual says to use a tripod or increase your shutter speed. I see you use a tripod but It persists when shooting. How did you get around this irritating warning?
Hi, Thanks for your message. I've updated the code for you because it ran out in 2018. It is FULGEO and is valid for Lumen. I've increased it to 25% discount. Happy Christmas.
Using a light meter would save a lot of guess work and speed up the whole process.. the problem is that not many people this days know how to use it properly 🤷🏼
Unfortunately a light meter would be useless in the majority of these shots. I used light meters for the first 20 years of my professional work and they were invaluable in the days of film, but since the digital age light meters have been less and less valuable as LCD and EVFs have improved. Luckily we have eyes and feedback on screen. Measuring the quantity of blue back light needed to give a desired effect would be a challenge to say the least.
Hi Don, I’ve not switched it off yet but I’ve been mainly using a monopod. I used a tripod for some video work and I left it on without issue. I’m not expecting to change IBIS or OIS settings when using a tripod.
Amazing what you can do with a 16Mb X-Pro1 and a kit lens. It shows that we can get too carried away with camera gear. Knowledge and experience of photography and lighting makes more of a difference than the camera and lens.
That's a really good point, Stuart. I still use my X-Pro2 from time to time as it is less intimidating for the person in front of the camera. As far as technical quality is concerned 16mp is enough for most people and print sizes.
Amazing! This is a photographer whom I understand as myself . I've learned a lot. And please tell me how to darken the background on a photo in the studio ? As far as I understand, this is done by the exposure difference, where the contour takes the brightness on itself?
Hi Jay, Thank you :) Hotels, SUV's, model fees and fuel were all included so it worked out to be great value. I had to book 118 hotel rooms for the tour and I recced all the shooting locations to ensure they were suitable and right for our adventure. I didn't want to cut any corners ;) Best regards, Damien
Fantastic! What an amazing group of people. Loved every minute of it. A wondrous adventure with the absolute best teachers! New friends, new techniques, new ideas! It was perfect.
Absolutely amazing, Damien! It's always inspiration that comes out of your video. And of course I'll save that great quote: 'Because makes everything look great when you've got glasses' ( 2:29 ) I wear glasses too and absolutely agree with you, Damien :) Great thanks!
