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Ricky Powell talk

The one and only Ricky Powell came to Brighton the other week to give a talk on his photography.

This amazing night was organised by long time Garage Studios collaborator Janeen and a big hats off to her for the very memorable night.

Ricky was around in New York from the mid 80s onwards, and showed us his images of the time, capturing the likes of Andy Warhol, Run DMC, Public Enemy, LL cool J, The Beastie Boys etc. In fact anyone who was anyone then was shot by Ricky, be it the kings of Hip Hop, Legends of the Art world or just New York street life.

It was an engaging and entertaining talk, with Ricky being somewhat of a character. If you were there you know what he’s like.

So here are a few shots from the night taken on a little point and shoot film camera.

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Tear Sheets and Covers

We are pretty good at blogging about our courses, student work etc, but always seem to forget to post our published work here. Thankfully Misako, our current intern, who has been busy scanning all the old DarkDaze Polaroids, also found time to scan just some of our Source Covers, so thought you might like to see some of them below.

We have some great plans for what we are going to shoot for Source in 2010- in fact it feels a bit like this year was just a case of us testing the water, in 2010, we aim to be powering through the commissions, adding more exhibitions and more publications, but as for now, just enjoy the covers that we shot. All images (except Heels Catch Fire) by DarkDaze and M.Halls, with assistance from a range of people but mainly A.Bronkhorst or N. Alipour-Faridani.

Garage-Studios Source Covers

Garage-Studios Source Covers


Garage-Studios Source Covers

Garage-Studios Source Covers

Courses for 2010- Improve Your Photography

If you are stuck for last minute presents then why not grab a voucher towards anyone of our courses.

Photography Gift Vouchers

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Is someone you know fanatical about photography, expecting a new digital camera for Christmas or are you looking to inspire a creative person and give them a present that is an experience. Our courses are aimed at developing skills in an enjoyable and fun way.

At Garage Studios we offer gift vouchers that can be put towards any of our photography courses or any other of our services. They are available in denominations of £25 so you can either choose to help someone save for their course or give them the gift of a full course. We have courses and training to suit beginners and professionals, as well as tailor made one to one training and we are busy developing and lining up courses for the New Year.

If you wish to give one of our courses as a present please give us a call at the studio or send us a message about our gift vouchers.

You can see some of our work in the blog posts below this one, and if you want to see what the students get out of the courses then just take a look at the editorials achieved on the Fashion Editorial Course in these posts….

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Fashion 2

This is a very popular course and we have just announced the date of the next course will be the weekend 27/28th Feb. Dont forget you can use vouchers as part payment towards a course.

Courses include

You and Your DSLR Aimed at those wanting to get to grips with the functionality of their camera.

Holga and Diana Camera Workshop The aim of this short workshop is to help people understand their Holga & Diana Cameras, and to get them to shoot better shots with the cameras.

FLASH: An introduction to DIY flash techniques Understanding how your flash works and how to get the correct exposure. Also covering taking your flash off camera and improving your lighting.

Hot Shots with Lomo Kev Highlighting and explaining various photographic techniques, qualities, and effects, using practical exercises and simple technical information.

Creative Photography An 8 week evening course looking at developing a personal approach to photography.

Studio Lighting parts 1 and 2 Practical course designed at explaining the various equipment and techniques used in studio lighting through to advanced studio lighting set ups and shooting to a brief and directing models.

Promo shoot for Doyobi

We were contacted this week to shoot a promo/advert for a Doyobi, a Brighton based store specialising in both clothing and designer toys, brands such as Denim Is Everything, MHI, Aemkei, Ontour, Insight, Franklin&Marshall Black Label, Onitsuka Tiger, Girls From Omsk, Foursquare Gold Label, and Medicom Toy. The shop is a bit of a work of art, they even have a bespoke poured red vinyl floor, so we needed to come up with some striking imagery that really fits the brand and embraces the eclectic range of the shop.

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We worked with the owner of the brand closely on these images, its really great for us when a client has a very strong idea of what they want, but even better when they are willing to indulge us a little as well. This was one of those dream shoots that all of us hope for when all the ideas seem to be working in the same direction, and there is room for input on all sides.

This was all shot by in house photographer Kevin Mason, with set work, and very on point Art Direction from M.Halls, all based around ideas from Brand owner Nick of Doyobi.

We have tried to get a feeling of both Japanese Horror films and a cartoon aesthetic into these images, and reflect the clean design of the store and products they sell.

Garage Studios shoot for Doyobi.co.uk

Garage Studios shoot for Doyobi.co.uk

Matt worked over the oversize SofBoy with an anglegrinder and performed some fairly rustic backroom surgery on his torso, and worked on some very slick cartoon blood, we could have done this in post but you know by now we like to get our hands dirty here… (and red paint on everything we then touched for the next half hour….)

The wonderful model is of course Elin, who I tried to shoot in a very different way to usual, she really is great to work with, cant recommend here enough. MakeUp for this shoot was by Ciara McCarthy, and all of the shoot was produced in-house.

Plus we even managed to turn the final files with 24hours, so if you have the need for a complete bespoke photography service then please get in touch with us.

Here for those that are interested here are some wide shots, I cant put notes on the image, but I’ll try and describe it a bit.

Garage Studios shoot for Doyobi.co.uk

Garage Studios shoot for Doyobi.co.uk

We used a 80cm Softbox, up high right of camera for the overall set. A big black flag was to the left of the SofBoy, to provide a nice hard edge to his body, and we then hit that shadow with a snoot to give a highlight on the right shoulder/arm. We used a beauty dish to add lift to Elin, and kick out a nice shine to her hair, with a snooted head coming from the other side to push light into her face, and a white bounce on the outside of the model, a second snooted hair light was up high behind the model to add more lift/shine to the hair. The background was put together by Matt using our flats and he mixed up a background paint that referenced the colours in the dress, this was then lit from below with two straw gelled heads, with a black flag above.

Garage Studios shoot for Doyobi.co.uk

Garage Studios shoot for Doyobi.co.uk

All styling/hair/MUA brief by Kevin Mason, dress and toys stocked at Doyobi.
Set Work/Art Direction M.Halls, from a brief and Concept by Nick@Doyobi.
Model Elin Amos (bookable through Garage Studios).
MUA Ciara McCarthy (bookable through Garage Studios).

Garage Studios shoot for Doyobi.co.uk

Garage Studios shoot for Doyobi.co.uk

The final shot was a very quick set-up but Nick wanted a completely different look and feel to the shot, this was lit by a beauty dish aimed straight at model, a red gelled light at back of the Black Toy, and a bounce light of the ceiling for a real clean look.

Post Production and Print Service

We now offer a fully managed Print Process service here at the studio. We have recently worked on a series of C-Type Prints for an exhibition by Brighton based photographer Alex Bamford. Alex works on very long exposures at night and shoots digital (for this series) and needed someone to manage the process of obtaining colour matched prints, and ensure that his final files and prints were colour perfect and free from any digital noise, artefacts etc. Long exposure digital files tend to suffer from excessive noise and very dense reds, this was an issue in particular with the images where Alex uses several mixed light sources- as he wanted to avoid unnecessary colour casts in the prints.

Kevin worked with Alex from both the Raw Files and some of the final Tiffs on our colour matched displays and with just three or four evening meetings we had a complete batch of exhibition files for Printing. We recommend a number of different labs depending on the print, finish and mount etc- but the benefit of our service is that we work closely with any end printer to obtain the results that you are happy with. In this instance Alex decided we would print with Spectrum, an excellent pro lab based in Hove. All final prints were approved by Alex after test strips and samples had been made.

At the end of the job, Alex received all his print ready Master files on DVD. If you’d like to see the prints in person then they are on display in The Eagle pub Brighton.

We charge all post work on your files at £45 pr hr, with a free initial consultation to discuss your print needs. Kevin is a very experienced Printer/Retoucher having run North Laine Photography Studio for over 18 months and has printed exhibitions for Roger Bamber, Miss Aniela and DarkDaze amongst others. There is no minimum on work we will undertake, even if you only have 1 file that you just cant get right, then we’ll be happy to help.

We have included some of Alexs work below as we love what he is doing and it really is an excellent series and we recommend you go and see it soon.

alex bamford at garage studios

alex bamford at garage studios

alex bamford at garage studios

alex bamford at garage studios


alex bamford at garage studios

alex bamford at garage studios


alex bamford at garage studios

alex bamford at garage studios


alex bamford at garage studios

alex bamford at garage studios

Glorious Freaks - The Holga Sessions

If you’ve ever wondered what using a cheap plastic camera in a professional photography studio with a few thousand pounds worth of lighting equipment looks like, wonder no further…..

A little while ago we did a photo shoot with The Glorious Freaks you can see the digital results from the Canon 5D Mk II at this blog post.

With the first Holga & Diana Camera workshops taking place on Sunday 7th February, we are trying lots of different techniques with the cameras.

We were actually quite surprised by the quality of the images from the Holga camera, (a cheap plastic camera first made in the early 80s and with a plastic lens) under studio lights. We expected them to be a lot more lo-fi. In fact we got so many good shots from the two rolls of film that it was difficult to narrow the edit down.

So would you believe here are a load of shots taken on the Holga camera with film that expired in 1998.

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Ricky Powell Talk and Slideshow….

Coming to Brighton, next Tuesday, 15th Dec at The Old Music Library Church St.

Ricky Powell

The legendary photographer Ricky Powell is giving a talk on his work, with a slideshow of images in a great venue in the centre of Brighton. Ricky originally made his name shooting the Beastie Boys, and is often referred to as the fourth Beastie Boy, he has since gone on to document some of the most infamous and influential HipHop superstars of all time, as well as shooting Street Portraits and Celebrities.

Although we arent organising this night, (its being promoted by someone we work with on a lot of our shoots- and friend of Rickys) we thought we just had to tell you to come down to this, a real chance to see and listen to the work of a genuine legend who must surely be filled with as many great stories as he has great shots.

There will also be some Old School HipHop from DJ Format for those of you who are old enough to remember when the Beasties first hit our shores, and the front of all the tabloids.

The Event starts at 7pm, but is likely to be packed out with only a £5 entrance fee.

The Glorious Freaks take over Garage Studios

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Part 1 - Canon 5D Mk II

Last week the studio was graced by The Glorious Freaks. Who can be described many ways, but the best may be as a collective of photographers from the Brighton Flickr community. Three of the five are also past Garage Studios students having all done our Flash course. The five comprise of Lisa, Alex, Erin, Lee and Rob.

Now at Garage Studios we have been long time admires of what The Glorious Freaks have been doing, and when the opportunity presented itself for us to lend them the studio for a few hours on a Wednesday night we were happy to accommodate them.

We wanted to show you a few of the shots from the session as well as some outtakes, (although only a few have made it to the final cut) so you can see how many great shots we got from the night, and what is possible from a few hours in the studio and a bit of planning beforehand.

This is the fist blog of two, as we took some shots on a Holga camera to see what they would come out like under studio lights, so watch this space to see the shots on film.

So many thanks to the Glorious Freaks for bringing a sense of the unusual to the studio.

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Harrison & Co Christmas Card Shoot

A few weeks ago we did a Christmas shoot for a Brighton Graphic Design company called Harrison & Co. They commissioned us to do a shoot for their Christmas card that they send out every year.We worked with the company after being supplied with an initial sketch idea, to refine and deliver the shots they needed. As well as going on a hunt for all of the bad Christmas jumpers in Brighton. After looking in all of the charity shops for them, we discovered that if you want really bad taste Christmas Jumpers, you need to look in the very coolest trendy retro and vintage clothing shops.

The shoot was great fun to do and the atmosphere in the studio was like a Christmas party, the clients got into character and we shot some portraits of the staff while the others were getting ready. See the portraits below.

Chris Harrison had his little point and shoot film camera and took some photos on the day, so we thought we’d show you those as well.



New Portfolio Website

One of our in-house photographers, Kevin Mason, has launched his new portfolio website, if you go and take a look now you’ll see the ten weeks of the Vanity Project, (an hour a week with the same model, Georgie Hobday) and his Fashion Editorial sets. Its a simplified version of his previous site with full fashion stories and a fresh edit of images.

The link Kevin Mason’s Photography

Kevin Mason Photography for Garage Studios.

Kevin Mason Photography for Garage Studios.

Kevin has an excellent client list, and has shot numerous covers, promos, album artwork and fashion campaigns and will be updating further sets in the next week, including Band Promos and Portrait, as well as personal work. Please contact/commission through us here at Garage Studios.

Once again thanks to Delarge for the website construction and design.