Blog
Sooooo… With the madness of March and April calming down somewhat, I can hopefully get some blog updates on, starting with a few headshots… From left to right – Amanda Dawson, Matt Kennedy, Carly Miles, Brett Shiels, James Austen Murray and Bonnie Hurst
We had the return of one of our first clients Mandy in the studio and we were very excited to have her back. We experimented with new sets and designs in the studio and Mandy was more than happy to test them out. She moves so well and creates fierce poses in such an effortless manner. Some of designs included making a swing from rope and a plank, using the ropes so she acted like a puppet and squirting her with white paint! Thanks for being part of our extreme art Mandy!
DJ Freddie Smith was in the studio last week for some new promo shots. It was a great shoot, and watch this space for more photos of Freddie and a separate project we are working on. Follow him on Twitter – www.twitter.com/freddiesmithdj
Its been a mix month of weather, there hopes of spring breaking through. Here’s a few clients who have braved the bitter weather this month, some shooting outside, some staying in the warm comfy surroundings of the studio! Thanks Guys 
We had Actor Richard for a Headshot and Portfolio session. He was alot of fun and couldn’t help but think that Richard reminded me of a younger, more handsome version of Roger Lloyd Pack (Owen from The Vicar of Dibley)!
We went out on location and created a rock and roll vibe in some obscure settings with thrown out chairs, brick walls and harsh lighting (you never know what you may find on the street!). A great range of characters to choose from.
Westbourne Studios where I am based is a thriving hub of businesses in the creative industries. One of those business is a branding and design firm called Grain, who recently commissioned me to do some new portraits for the launch of their newly developed website. For more information, visit their website www.graincreative.com
January has been manic. Great fun, with superb clients, but manic nevertheless! A great start to 2011 and what is going to be a very exciting year for Nicholas Dawkes Photography. Thought I would share some of the shots from this month with you, thanks guys!
We had pro sax player Justin Swadling in the studio this week. Ironically, Justin used to work for my family business, Dawkes Music, but is now a freelance musician and teaches privately as well as playing a busy schedule of gigs and events. We wanted to make the shoot as creative as possible in order to not have a cliche musician shoot, experimenting with light and shadows and giving Justin a wide spectrum of shots to use for promoting himself. For more information, check out his website justinswadling.com
In the summer, I did a shoot for the poster of William Shakespeare’s A comedy of Errors for the Changling Theatre. The previos year, I had done another shoot for them on The Merry Wives of Windsor so it wonderful to be asked back again! The poster features Jake Hendriks, late of Hollyoaks where he played the priest Kieron Hobbs, sporting a rather fetching fez, as the show will be set in sunny Morocco. Kieron was hilarious to work with and the shoot was really enjoyable. For more information on the tour, visit http://www.changeling-theatre.com/
Whatever photo you chose to use from a photo session will need enhancing slightly, this could be anything from removing blemishes and loose fly-away hairs to colour and contrast balancing, and even more drastic edits – but beware…
The power of digital photo editing is immense, whatever you can imagine is possible, just look at the dove beauty commercial that was released to show how advertisers manipulate images, but is manipulation a positive thing or not?
Headshots must be natural, you need to look like yourself when you walk in the audition, if you want a thinner nose, there is no good making it thinner on a photo if you don’t look like that normally (same goes for ears, eyes, foreheads, lips, cheeks and double chins I’m afraid!)
Some photographers re-touch photos more than others, when people were solely shooting on film and working with prints, any touch-ups needed to be done very scientifically in the development stages, now, with the use of digital computer technology, all photographers have access to some kind of photo software, but it’s how they use it that’s important.
Probably the most important aspect of post-production is colour and contrast balancing (that, and zit removal, no one wants to stare at those) just by adjusting the contrast slightly on your photo, you can enhance the whole feel of it.
Try to avoid ‘the washed out look’, a lot of photographers, especially working in black and White can over expose photos slightly to blow out the skin and therefore make it look smoother.
I very rarely ‘airbrush’ anyone’s skin on headshots, as on the right hand photo below, with the quality of digital being such high definition, you can tell instantly and it looks plastic, great for beauty product advertising, but not so much when people want to see your real skin tone.
Be specific. When selecting your photos to be edited, let your photographer know any issues that you may have, you may end up having to spend more money getting them done again of you don’t.
Be realistic. You need to accept your image for what it is, refining, tweaking and beautifying photos is fine, but if you are using your images for self promotion, keep it real.
