Photographing Leah & Louis in the Derby Studio

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of capturing some photographs for young Leah and her partner, Louis, in my home studio in Derby.

It worked out well for me because it gave me a chance to try out a new fresnel light whilst at the same time adding to my library of portrait photographs. A fresnel light enables that very dramatic old-Hollywood style of lighting that became very popular in the 1920's and 1930s during the golden age of cinema, where, these lights were often used and subsequently adopted by mainstream photographers of the day. They are, however, very bright! And need some careful handling.

Leah was, like many people these days, somewhat unsure and a little self-conscious at first but I put her at ease with some carefully chosen words and my usual fun style of direction. After not long at all, she was vogue'ing like a pro and we got some really nice photographs of each of them individually, and a few of them together as well. We also got her partner, Louis, to go first "in the seat" which helped her see how easy it was to simply move forward an inch, or lift the chin an inch, or direct the eyes up to the right.

After the session I quickly got the films developed, dried, and scanned and they got their photographs in digital form just 36 hours later.

Below are a handful of my favourites from the session.