Clic La Mode | Blog

Taken with instagram

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:35:31 +0100

A behind the scenes video from a shoot with Mario Sorrenti for...

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:28:33 +0100

A behind the scenes video from a shoot with Mario Sorrenti for Italian Vogue. Take a look at Mario Sorrenti’s work on his website www.mariosorrenti.com

Any Two From Three!

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:32:35 +0100

Learn the following sentence!

“You can have things good, quick and cheap but only ever two of the three”

Think about it…

Good and Quick? Then the client MUST pay your full price. If a client wants you to work to your fullest potential, giving a project your undivided attention and work to a deadline then they should pay the premium.

Good and Cheap? - Then the job is going to have to fit in around your existing work and clients that are paying full price. Premium paying customers are a priority. Finish the job when you’re quiet.

Quick and Cheap? - Then you’re not going to be able to give it your full attention, it’s likely to be a rush job and will fit in around something else. Quality will suffer… sorry.

A word of warning though… if you are going to throw it out there remember it’s not likely to go down very well! I’ve said it to a prospective client maybe twice in ten years and no, it didn’t go down very well but it served it’s purpose.

What’s far more important is to commit it to memory and take it onboard for yourself!

It gives you strength to understand your clients and what you should expect from them!

James Lightbown

Vogue Russia behind the scenes

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 10:56:05 +0100

Vogue Russia behind the scenes

Nick Knight and Kate Moss

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 23:10:31 +0100

Nick Knight and Kate Moss

Behind the scenes with Ellen Von Unwerth

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:12:38 +0100

Behind the scenes with Ellen Von Unwerth

Motion graphics studio TO-FU produced this animated video,...

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 19:06:00 +0100

Motion graphics studio TO-FU produced this animated video, giving viewers 29 bullet points on how they can stay creative:

Sean Armenta’s fantastic behind the scenes video tutorial...

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 13:19:00 +0100

Sean Armenta’s fantastic behind the scenes video tutorial for a one light beauty set-up that he shot for F-Stoppers

See more of Sean’s work on his website and be sure to check out F-Stoppers where there’s some more interesting tutorials.

Follow up to the studio open weekend & pics

Sun, 30 May 2010 22:32:00 +0100

Thanks to everyone who came down to the studio open weekend and exhibition. It was a great success with loads of visitors through the door including people who had come down specifically to see us and the studio for the first time.

The next open studio weekend is scheduled for November when the number of studios involved in weekend should have doubled to 140 so there will be lots to see!

Thanks also to Diego Indraccolo, Keith Clouston and Sarah Jones for sorting out their files and agreeing to being involved! Their prints looked amazing large scale… magnificent 90 inch prints that just looked stunning when you were up close to them!

Diego by the side of his two pieces.

Keith by the side of his two pieces

15% off your Moo.com order

Wed, 26 May 2010 16:30:00 +0100

By clicking on the advert to the left of this page or by clicking on the image below to get through to the Moo site you can get an extra 15% off Moo’s already fantastic prices on your entire order on all products at moo simply by entering the code 2TP2XN

We heartily recommend Moo!

They offer the best value for money business cards and mini cards on the market and are our top recommendation for all creatives!

Happy shopping!

*Orders must be placed before Monday 31st May at midnight (PDT). (Tuesday 1st June at 8am London)

*One use per customer only.

*Shipping isn’t included.

How to shoot strobe/daylight mix on a bright location by Sean Armenta

Tue, 25 May 2010 10:54:00 +0100

At least once a year, I try to produce a fashion shoot at The Joshua Tree National Park. An immense and varied desert location and it is one of those places where you simply point your camera at any direction and it looks amazing.

I put together a small team of one model, one artist providing both makeup and hair, a fashion stylist, and a photo assistant. I wanted to produce images that were classic, not overly trendy, and would remain relevant for longer than a season. I also planned on using two lenses for the shoot - a 50mm and a 180mm. Using a 50 would allow me to get just enough environment in the shot without being overly wide, and the 180 would be great for beauty shots and full length shots which would show depth and I really wanted to make it different from the previous outing to Joshua Tree where I had shot everything with a 35. The shots you see here were taken in April 2009, a bit off season to avoid all the usual tourist traffic to the park.

All these images were lit using a profoto B2 battery powered power pack and a beauty dish. It’s not quite the commonly seen “overpowering the sun” technique, but rather I wanted a nice balance between the ambient and strobe exposures. It does however, share the same process: work with the elements you cannot physically control, then add in the elements you have full control over.

The approach I use when using strobe outdoors during the daytime is to first ascertain the “correct” ambient exposure. From here I make a creative decision of how I want the environment around the model to be exposed and deviate from the “correct” exposure accordingly. For these shots, I wanted to underexpose just slightly to retain a lot of background detail and to avoid blown out skies and highlights. Since I know I am shooting with strobe, I want to be conscious about my shutter speed so that I don’t use too fast a shutter speed resulting in my cutting off the flash exposure.
Shooting with a Canon 5D, using power packs, the fastest sync speed you can use wis 1/160th. Most of these shots were taken in full sun, between 1pm and 3pm with sunset being around 6pm; that’s a lot of ambient light to deal with! I decided to set my camera at 50 ISO to lower the sensitivity of my sensor so I could further bring my exposure down to compensate for my set shutter speed.

Target aperture was between 5.6 - 8 because I wanted to achieve some separation between the model and the background with a somewhat shallower depth of field. I knew I didn’t want to shoot it completely wide open because I still wanted to retain a sense of a recognizable environment. On some of these images I resorted to using a 2-stop ND filter on my lens to further underexpose the ambient exposure to my liking and to achieve my desired depth of field.
All that was left to do was to set up the strobe to light the model separately from the ambient exposure. I prefer to light on the opposite side of the sun when possible to maximize three-dimensionality. Once positioned, I measured and adjusted the flash exposure to match my desired aperture.
Even though we were in a rough and remote location, I was still able to shoot by my preferred method of tethered via Capture One to my Macbook Pro.

shot by the LA based team of

Photographer: Sean Armenta - www.seanarmenta.com
Stylist: Leilani Lacson - www.leilanilacson.com
Make-Up & Hair: Sharon Tabb - www.sharontabb.com
Photographer’s Assistant: Chip Morton

Photoshop ABC's

Wed, 19 May 2010 15:22:00 +0100

So over the weekend what started as an idle tweet by Mark Jobson turned into a 3 ways tweetfest with Mark, Sean Armenta and myself working our way through a Photoshop ABC and I thought it might be quite good fun to put it up here to show that we actually managed it! And I don’t think we cheated too much!

Below is an edited version of the transcript, (though it hasn’t been altered too much)

Feel free to disagree with us, this isn’t supposed to be a definitive list or even the best list, this was the list we came up with whilst bantering over twitter… if we’d been in the pub then I’m sure it would have been heated!

Mark Jobson:
Seriously considering teaching my 5yr old how to retouch…

James Lightbown:
Keith Clouston is looking for retouchers if you get your 5 yr old up to speed quick enough! ;-)

Mark Jobson:
Scary thing is though… she seems to be genuinely interested. Right. A is for… Adjustment Layer lol

James Lightbown:
haha We’ve got to do a #photoshopabc … B is for Brushes

Mark Jobson:
C is for Curves

James Lightbown:
C is also for Content Aware Fill!

James Lightbown:
D is for Duplicate and Distortion

Mark Jobson:
E is for Eraser tool… which is never to be used!

Sean Armenta:
F is for the many wonderful Filters you can use but probably shouldn’t.

James Lightbown:
G is for Gradient Tool

Mark Jobson:
H is for HDR. Please, please, please let this be the last time it’s mentioned ANYWHERE!

James Lightbown:
J is the keyboard shortcut for the Healing Brush

James Lightbown:
which leads nicely into K is for keyboard shortcuts

Mark Jobson:
K is for knackered… which is what my back and my eyesight is after the invention of photoshop.

James Lightbown:
L has to be for Liquify!

Sean Armenta:
M is for Masking - the most important thing you can learn

Mark Jobson:
N is for Noise. Either your best friend or your worst enemy.

James Lightbown:
O is for Opacity

Sean Armenta:
P is for the Pen Tool

Mark Jobson:
Oh great i get Q… for shortcut for mask mode… apparently (google is my friend)

James Lightbown:
R is for Rulers - never have them at the side of the image & it always looks wierd to me…

Sean Armenta:
S is for Sharpen to make your image extra crispy

James Lightbown:
T is for Transform - a powerful tool if used correctly

Mark Jobson:
T is for Trim… something that I used to be before all this sitting around at a screen all day!

James Lightbown:
U is for Unsharp Mask - a dangerous tool in the wrong hands!

Mark Jobson:
V is for Vector Mask never used, but impresses clients no end.

James Lightbown:
Go on I’ll take it on! X is for the short cut to toggle brush colours - Invaluable when masking!

James Lightbown:
I’ll also give you! X is for Xtreme retouching the horrors of which are well documented!

Mark Jobson:
Y is for History Brush Tools shortcut… which leaves our American Friend with…

Sean Armenta:
I’m Canadian. Does that change the ending? Cause I don’t know how this ends LOL

James Lightbown:
I’ll give the ending… Z is for Z & CTRL for undo - probably the most used shortcut there is!

Sean Armenta:
LOL I’m so lame. I fail.

Mark Jobson:
Gentlemen it’s been a pleasure… *runs off to patent office before either of you two try it.*

Mark is a Newcastle based photographer (with perhaps the best blurb I’ve ever read!)
http://markjobson.com

Sean is an LA based photographer
http://seanarmenta.com

and I am a London based photographer
http://www.jameslightbown.co.uk

If you would like to follow us on twitter (maybe not after reading this!) the links are
http://twitter.com/MarkJobson
http://twitter.com/sean_armenta
http://twitter.com/jameslightbown

Open studio weekend and exhibition

Wed, 12 May 2010 22:54:00 +0100

Clic La Mode and the Clic La Mode studio is a proud to be a part of the following Second Floor Studios & Arts Project and this weekend every artist and the entire complex is throwing it’s doors open for an exciting open studios weekend.

We are hosting an exhibition in the gallery and featuring a large selection of work by photographers from our showcase gallery.

This is an open event to anyone who would like to see both the studio and some beautiful large format photography. There are a selection of stories being displayed in wonderful 24” x 90” photographs… (that’s over seven and a half foot tall!)

The Clic La Mode team look forward to seeing you there!

PRIVATE VIEW - THURSDAY 13TH MAY 5-9pm

VIEWING DAYS - SATURDAY 15TH & SUNDAY 16TH MAY 11am – 6pm

• More than 65 fine artists, photographers, designers & craft makers

• Works on display (include) paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photography, digital art, animation and motion graphics, illustration, textiles, mosaics and furniture design

You are all very welcome to attend the Private View evening or visit over the weekend.

SFSA Website www.secondfloor.co.uk

Second Floor Studios and Arts Ltd
Mellish Industrial Estate
Warspite Road
Woolwich
London
SE18 5NR

The SFSA project is located immediately off the A206 dual carriageway near Woolwich. There is access from the A2/M2, M20 & M25.

Charlton and Woolwich Dockyard Main Line stations and The Docklands Light Railway are in close proximity.

Regular bus routes (180, 177, 161, and 472) serve the local area.

Location on Google Maps www.tinyurl.com/yhfc5gf

Plan your journey at www.tfl.gov.uk

For further information contact: Matthew Wood, Project Director, SFSA:

tel: 0208 316 6554

mob: 0794655474

email: studios@secondfloor.co.uk

SFSA is a London-based social enterprise company and ‘not-for-profit’ project that supports the development of visual and fine art practice, and craft and designer making by providing affordable studio space to artists. The company is currently working with one of its strategic property partners on a 2-year initiative to develop over 100,000 SqFt of vacant space in 5 large industrial units overlooking the Thames near Woolwich. The new development will deliver over 200 self-contained studio units, workshop spaces and gallery, creating one of Europe’s largest centres of affordable studio space for artists.

Second Floor Studios & Arts Ltd is a member of the National Federation of Artists Studio Providers www.nfasp.org.uk

Photoshop Tips & Tricks: Adding Noise

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:14:00 +0100

Noise.

What is Noise? And why is Noise important to you?

Well it’s not as abstract a question as it may seem, for a start to clarify; I’m referring to Noise in the Adobe Photoshop sense. While I’m sure there is an Adobe approved definition of noise out there on the internets somewhere, for our target audience of beginners and novices, it may be useful to think of noise as the digital equivalent of film grain.

In a world in which pixel counts are getting bigger and bigger, producing smoother images and wider tonal ranges you may think that something like film grain is redundant, and that the ability to shoot at 400IS0 on your shiny new DSLR without getting much in the way of noise is actually a blessing.

But what about when you want that grainy feel, when everything is just a bit too smooth? That’s when you’ll be grateful for a bit of Noise.

But, before you go reaching for that handy noise filter the Adobe have so kindly provided for you (or even the film grain filter) give this handy, non-destructive way of adding noise a go first:

Step 1:

Make yourself a new layer.

Step 2:

Go to EDIT > FILL (Shift+ F5 by default)

Step 3:

Select 50% Grey from the drop down menu in the ‘CONTENTS’ section. Click OK

Step 4:

Go to FILTERS > NOISE > ADD NOISE

Step 5:

When the filter dialogue pops up, make sure you’ve selected GAUSSIAN and you’ve ticked the box marked MONOCHROMATIC.

Where it says AMOUNT drag the slider somewhere between 1 and 6. You can go higher if you want, but we’re trying to subtle here, but this is subjective and as it is NON-DESTRUCTIVE we can always make changes at a later point, even after you’ve saved your file.

Click OK.

Step 6:

Almost done, from the drop down menu on your Layers Palette making sure your new layer is highlighted, select SOFTLIGHT from the BLENDING MODES drop down menu. Your Layer will now be ‘see-through’ and you’ll be able to see the image underneath.

Step 7:

Again, checking that you’re still working on the ‘Noise Layer’ go to

FILTER > BLUR > GAUSSIAN BLUR.

When the dialogue box pops up, drag the slider anywhere from 0.2 to 0.6, again this is subjective and dependant on how subtle you’d like your ‘grain’ to be.

Click OK.

You’re Done!

Feel free to experiment with different BLENDING MODES and OPACITIES to achieve different results, but you’ve got the basics down! Want to maximize your grain? Try TRANSFORMING your noise layer and stretching the layer out to give bigger grain.

Remember Adobe Photoshop isn’t an overnight learn, you pick up techniques and refine your workflow all the time like anything else worth doing. So experiment and when you think you’ve hit the jackpot remember your friends… ;)

Added Monday 26th April 2010…

Alan Bremner tweeted us with the following tip to add to the post.

“If you convert the 50% grey layer to a smart object first you can keep tweaking the noise, blur and transform until its perfect.”

Alan is a portrait photographer based in the West Midlands. Follow him on twitter - @alanbremner or you can see his website on this link - Alan’s website.

Nathen S. Atia.

CLIC here for Adobe Special Offers

There’s a really interesting post today on The F Stop...

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:04:22 +0100

There’s a really interesting post today on The F Stop discussing the potential of the iPad as a portfolio tool for photographers.

Check out the article by clicking on the link above and make sure you have a good look around the site as it’s a great professional photographers blog run by photographer Zack Seckler.

A full-length behind-the-scenes look at Brandon Voges’...

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:48:00 +0100

A full-length behind-the-scenes look at Brandon Voges’ Upside Downy Face series. A brilliant portrait series!

Shows that sometimes it’s all about a simple thing done very very well!

Checkout Brandon’s Flickr feed here

Yet more from Nathen of the Clic La Mode team sometimes hard at...

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:59:33 +0100

Yet more from Nathen of the Clic La Mode team sometimes hard at work… sometimes not!

If you're a creative then watch this!

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 01:52:00 +0100

This might seem like it’s a little at odds with the fashion orientated content that we put up on Clic La Mode however this video of Harlan Ellison, a science fiction writer is something that we should all watch and watch often!

As a creative please watch this and everytime Harlan says “writer” please insert your job title and think of the impact that this has when applied to your industry and come back to it and listen to what he’s saying again and again and again.

1:35 - “There’s no publicity value. The only value for me is if you put money in my hand.”

2.30 - “I don’t take a piss without getting paid for it!”

Hey it might be swearing but it’s our livelihoods: Know the value of your craft!

Just genius…

Part One of Nathen Atia’s Picture story from back stage at...

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:06:00 +0100

Part One of Nathen Atia’s Picture story from back stage at the Shane & Falguni Peacock show.

www.nathenatia.com

Part Two of Nathen’s Picture story from back stage at the...

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:06:00 +0100

Part Two of Nathen’s Picture story from back stage at the Shane & Falguni Peacock show.