It's been a busy few months here, and in spite of some truly awful weather, I've been taking every opportunity to practise whenever I can. It may seem obvious, but it's one of two things that really makes good photographers. The other is careful editing. By that, I don't mean post-shoot photo manipulation, but careful selection of the strongest images from a similar set. In order to do that, you have to be willing to try different settings at every opportunity. And you can make those opportunities for yourself.
Lately I've been looking at different ways to light for dramatic studio portraits. One thing I've realised is that you don't have to wait for the next studio session to try this. The chimp in this photo is only a few inches tall, so a couple of small remote flash units have the scaled effect of a pair of large soft boxes on a person. This realisation gave me ample opportunity to practise in a way that let me concentrate entirely on the technical aspects of the shoot. That way, when it comes to working with live models, I know what is possible with the lights, and can focus on the interaction with my subjects.
Transferring techniques to accessible subjects is a great way to learn, and boosts your creativity. Make small changes, and look at the differences in the results, whether projected, in print, or on the LCD of a digital camera (known as chimping - watch someone else do this, and you'll see where the name came from). This will force you to think more about what makes one photograph more interesting than another, and will help you to get more out of the important shoots when they come along. Learn from the poor shots, and share the best ones. All of the pros have duff images, but it's knowing what not to show that makes them better than the rest.
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