Finishing off my image of an Arnold & Son watch

I took the photos for this image nearly 6 months ago, luckily it was only a personal project, so there was no rush for a deadline. I edited it at the time but I felt like something was missing in it so I left it for a while and didn't upload it anywhere until I found the thing that was missing.

The original edited image - it’s nice and clean but just felt a bit empty

Last week I gave an online lecture to the students on my old course at Birmingham City University. While looking through my hard drives for images to show during my presentation, I found an image of stars that I took when I was on a job in Italy back in 2017 and I knew that it would work perfectly as a subtle background for this image.

As soon as I added it in I knew it had finished off the image. I then found a light leak that I had put aside when my camera mechanism went wrong (also in 2017) and used that for some colour in the image - I felt it looked a little like the colours of a nebula.

It's turned out to be one of my favourite watch photos I have made, I'm glad a didn't rush it - and it has made a perfect background for my computer!

The stars image (they are there)

The light leak

The finished image

My favourite B&W photo I have taken and the story behind taking it

A while ago I was asked what my favourite black and white photo that I had taken was and I knew instantly what my answer was. Black and white images aren’t that common for me - my images use colour to compliment the product I am shooting. Also, products are usually designed with colours in mind - so it's not right for me to then remove them by making an image black and white. So, with this in mind, the image is inevitably one that is out of my usual genre of photography. It is this image below:

I saw this corridor while I was in New York which was the entrance to a restaurant - the glass on the left is the wine cellar - and I saw this host stood at the end of it. I had my Leica M6 with me (with HP5 film for those who are interested) and I went to set up the shot and just as I was about to shoot it, she walked off. I stood there for about 3-5 minutes just waiting with it all composed, leaning up against a wall to stay out of the way, with other people coming in and out of the frame. The scene then all cleared perfectly in time for her to come back from the left hand side behind the glass. She spun around to the little podium she was working at and this made her dress flick out slightly adding a subtle amount of movement to the image, and there is a tiny gap between her arm and body which gives her body shape to the viewer.

Something that I hadn’t seen at the time of shooting is how her reflection is then distorted in 3 different ways - a very clean but broken reflection in the glass on the left, a wavy slightly lighter reflection in the floor and then one that combines these two.

As soon as I clicked the shutter I knew I had captured something and I spent the rest of the trip excited to get back and develop the rolls of film so that I could see the image. I remember developing the film and just pulling out the film from the spool and just looking for this image and being so happy when I could see it had come out. I then printed it in the dark room the following week and the print was stunning, it now hangs proudly in my dad’s house. This Christmas, I gave another print of this as a gift which is what prompted me to write this.

Making my own Canvas Backdrop

I saw textured backdrops being used by some photographers that I loved - Jan C Schlegel, Dayron Vera, Clay Cook and the most famous user of a backdrop like this of course, Irving Penn (his was used for over 50 years). I felt that they looked so much more raw and interesting than a normal paper backdrops that are available to buy. There is a character to them that adds to the photo in such a subtle way, but it is insanely effective. I had found some amazing companies making these kind of backdrops, one of my favourites is Unique Backdrops - however, as I am just starting out, they were a little out of my budget, so I decided to try and make my own! I have linked all photographers/companies I have just mentioned down below.

Now I totally understand that the use of this will be completely different from what I usually do, but I just wanted to try my hand at it. I follow some absolutely amazing and inspiring portrait photographers who produce some stunning work - I wanted to see what I could do myself. There’s definitely nothing wrong with trying out areas of photography that you aren’t usually working in, it is all learning at the end of the day.

Check out the images down below to see how I made one of these backdrops. I bought a 3m x 2m piece of canvas, white & black paint, a paint roller with a long handle (so I don’t walk on the canvas), and a sponge. My girlfriend, Ellie, who is a graphic designer suggested the sponge and it what the piece of kit that made the look of it so much better than if I had just tried to used a roller or a paintbrush. This suggestion along with some others of hers really made all the difference to making an amazing looking backdrop.

This is how it started out, just a 3m x 2m piece of primed canvas - really glad it fitted in my studio, I didn’t think of that before I bought it!

1 - First, I applied the darker tones and blended them together, there wasn’t much need to be ‘neat’ at this stage.

2 - I then painted a lighter layer on top and this was blended in too, evening out the tones a little.

3 - The next day, a much lighter after the other layers had dried properly - this was the exact look I was after, but it did take me over 2 hours for this one layer.

4 - I then darkened the edges do give it a natural vignette look.

5 - When it had dried the next day, I hung it up! It looks so good in my opinion and it is going to look amazing for any work with people in front of it.

This backdrop turned out so much better than I was expecting - it will look amazing with some people in front of it. I will definitely be trying it out over the next week to see what I can do. I’ll probably post some results here!

View Unique Backdrops here: http://unique-backdrops.com/

View Jan Schlegel’s work here: http://www.janschlegel.photography/

View Dayron Vera’s work here: http://www.dayronveraphotography.com/

View Clay Cook’s work here: https://www.claycookphoto.com/

View Irving Penn’s work here: https://irvingpenn.org/