The Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast

An Amateur Photographer (I Just Earn My Living This Way) It's 5am. The birds woke me, the sun was already up, and I couldn't get back to sleep — so this one's recorded on a laptop in the lounge with a cup of tea that went stone cold while I was talking. There's also some big news: after twenty years and two Defenders, the Land Rover has gone. We've leant firmly into the future with a very quiet, very electric VW ID.Buzz Cargo. Some call it a van. I call it a lifestyle choice — cheaper per mile, exempt from Oxford's congestion charge, fits in a normal car park, and my feet stay dry in the rain. Which turns out to be the whole point of this episode. Stand near a group of photographers for five minutes and you'll hear two things: the (humble) brag, and the war story — the blown sync, the client from hell, the lens that died mid-wedding. We are, as a tribe, absolutely magnificent at misery. And yet we do a job we genuinely love. So why does it never sound like it? This one's about negativity bias — the ancient wiring that has us scanning for the tiger and ignoring the sunshine — and why photographers have it worse than most. We're professionally trained to find fault: judging teaches you to spot the one soft eye, retouching is hours of hunting flaws, self-critique is how we improve. The very skill that makes us good is the skill that makes us miserable when we turn it on ourselves. A few things I'm going to try — and you might too: End every shoot by naming three good frames before you're allowed to mention what went wrong Retell your war stories as the win stories they usually are Drop the fake "so humbled" and just be honestly proud Keep a note of the day's good things Celebrate someone else's work, out loud Ask your clients what they loved Because we chose this. Nobody makes you a portrait photographer — it's a tough, precarious, extraordinary way to spend a life, making people look at themselves and feel better. The war stories aren't the truth of the job; they're just the loudest bit. The critical eye that makes you a great photographer isn't going anywhere — just don't let it edit the whole of your life. I'm an amateur photographer. I just earn my living this way. Come and shoot with me. I run small, hands-on Mastering Portrait Photography workshops - strictly limited to five people so there's plenty of time with each of you - as well as one-to-one masterclass days and a 12-month bespoke mentoring programme. If this episode struck a chord, come and spend a day chasing the light with me: https://masteringportraitphotography.com/academy-portrait-workshops-mentoring And if you've enjoyed the episode, please do subscribe wherever it is that you get your podcasts — a review on Apple Podcasts genuinely helps others find the show. Transcript: ----more---- Paul [00:00:00] As an industry, have you ever wondered why really there are only two broad modes of conversation? There's the bragging, of course there's the bragging. Sometimes humble bragging, but nearly always bragging. Somebody quietly telling you how well they've done, and they didn't even know th- they were in for a prize. "I didn't even do any editing on that image." And then someone telling you it all went horribly wrong. If you've ever stood near a group of photographers for more than a few minutes, I promise you'll hear a couple of things. You'll hear someone quietly telling you how well they've done, and someone telling you in equal detail exactly how it all went wrong. The blown sync, the client from hell, the lens that died mid-wedding. We all have these war stories, and I guess right now, AI is firmly in the mix, how AI is robbing us of [00:01:00] our work. We are, I think, as a tribe, absolutely magnificent at misery. And the funny thing is, when you think about it, we all do a job we genuinely love. We all came into this industry for our love of people and our love of photography. So why, why does it never really seem to sound like it? I'm Paul, and this is the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast So let's do the big news first. I know it's gonna bring tears to your eyes, The Land Rover Defender has gone. After all these years, two Defenders, and [00:02:00] it's come to an end. So if you're used to the sound of a clattering Land Rover, that is no more. If you liked it, I'm really sorry. If you didn't, well, congratulations. Uh, we now have a very quiet, very, very electric Volkswagen ID.Buzz Cargo. Now, some might call it a van. Others, myself included, a lifestyle choice. Sarah and I decided if we're gonna get rid of the Land Rover, it was one project too many in this very busy life of ours. It needed a load of work. It has had a load of work. It has more or less been, um, rebuilt from the ground up, uh, but it was just too much. So we've leant firmly and squarely into the future. Now, I've mixed views about electric cars in as much as very big battery packs and the support systems around them, I'm not sure [00:03:00] are the long-term solution. What I do know is electric cars, electric vans, electric vehicles are the future. The combustion engine is gonna come to an end, except in the world of specialisms, the world of remote areas where you can't charge things. I'm sure there is probably many, many decades, if not a century more, of combustion engines left out there. But If you look down that telescope to the future, I think electric is the way to go. And if I'm honest, I love it. Don't tell other Defender owners that, but I do. It's quiet, it's clever, it is comfortable, it's quick. Blimey, does it go. I like the gadgets. And I did a gig down in Southampton the other day, which is a round trip of a couple of hundred miles from us up here, um, which meant I knew I had to stop and charge it, not [00:04:00] because it didn't have the range, but because the next morning I had to go straight out and do another gig, which I needed the miles on the battery for. So instead of in the old days, I'd just say, "Oh, I'll just fill up on my way to the job," now I have to think ahead. So on the way back from Southampton, I stopped at a service station, plugged it into a rapid charger, went and had a coffee, did some work which I needed to do on my laptop anyway. It had to be done at some point that evening, 'cause all the images had to be backed up and managed. Got a text message when it said the car was charged about 20 minutes later, climbed back in, and off I went. It's as simple as that. And truth be told, I kind of relished the idea that I knew I had to stop. Now, I know that's not gonna be ideal all the time, I understand that, but when you bake the simplicity of it in with the fact that it's a good idea to stop, have a stretch, do some work, maybe drink an iced coffee, life isn't bad. And of course, with everything [00:05:00] going on with fuel prices at the moment, uh, the thing runs at about a quarter of the price of the Land Rover Defender per mile. So there we go. It's gone. The Defender's gone. Welcome the future, uh, VW ID Buzz. And those of you on social media, you will have seen us asking for ideas for how to brand the thing up, 'cause it's a whole new body shape. And having had Land Rovers for about 20 years, uh, it's a, a whole new style of logoing. So, um, I'm relishing it. It's quiet, it's comfortable, it's cheaper, it bypasses Oxford's congestion charges, I can park it in a normal car park, and for once, when it rains, I won't be driving with wet feet. So there we go. That's the big news. On to the topic, really, of this subject. By the way, I hope you're well. It's been a while since I've recorded one of these. Um, I'm sitting, it's 5:00 o'clock in the morning. I have a cup of tea. I have a laptop in front [00:06:00] of me. I haven't got the right microphone, so I'm hoping that the AI cleanup does a decent job of it. Uh, but I woke up, the sun was up already. The birds were singing. It's the middle of the summer, and I just could not get back to sleep, so I thought I'd take the opportunity- Of sitting and recording a, a podcast, something I love doing and haven't found time to do for, well, it seems like ages. So let's talk about the natural ability of... I mean, to be fair, it's a human trait, but photographers seem to land on it, which is to focus on the negative. You do hear photographers... I, I'm always a bit cautious 'cause I ... Here's the thing I know I do. I humblebrag. I don't mean to, I try not to, but I do it. I do that thing where, really I'm trying to talk myself up, but I make it sound like I'm not. But I can't help it. Um, I try not to do it. Um, my kids are really good at [00:07:00] spotting it and laughing at me, and I try to keep an eye on it, but it's not the easiest thing. And the other thing I do, as all photographers do, is I dwell on the negative. Now, why does it happen in this industry so much? I'm not sure I understand why. The thing is, it's called a negativity bias, right? It has a proper name. It's designed, I think, evolutionarily speaking, to help protect us from things that might kill us. We look for the bad, we ignore the good. Unfortunately, in the photography industry, I think we're hyper-focused, to use the to use the, um, word, uh, in a very particular way. I think we're hyper-focused on it. I think we look for things. I think, I think as creatives, I think as creatives, we are so used to looking for fault in the images. Partic- I think judges do this, and I think [00:08:00] because judges do this, as the photography industry, we look for it, too. We look for the little things. We spend our time analyzing our own work in a, in a way that probably someone who, I don't know, does spreadsheets maybe, or... I, I don't know. I don't... I... Maybe, does a driver at the end of the day look at how well they stopped at red lights and things? Does it... I don't know. I honestly don't know, because I'm none of those things. But it does feel that our industry, our industry in particular, is focused and almost trained to find fault. You know, judges, or judging rather, teaches you to spot one soft eye. Retouching essentially is a couple of hours of hunting down flaws. Self-critique, I guess, is how we get better. The exact skill that makes us good photographers, I think, the relentless fault finding is the skill that quietly or loudly makes us miserable when we point, point it at our own lives and work [00:09:00] I mean, a good example for me, actually, we-- I'm luck-- I'm really lucky, and I acknowledge that I'm really lucky, and I try really hard to focus on the positives. So, uh, give you an example. We ran a workshop, uh, last week. It was our on location in Oxford workshop, and I love it. It's one of my favorite, uh, workshops. And of course, at the end of that, we send out, uh, a, um, a form for people to give us some feedback, and feedback is where the problems start. I won't read it out of the gate: sarah has to sort of code it to me because I find it really hard to translate people's very constructive words into something positive away from the negative. And it's been brilliant. The, the, the, the comments have been lovely. The reviews, this is a straightforward brag, [00:10:00] uh, five stars across the board. But one of the attendees commented on something that was actually nothing to do with us, but it... and it was a fair point. And one of the reasons I'm awake at five o'clock in the morning is that I'm dwelling on it. I know exactly what they're saying, and they're right, by the way, the comment they made. It was out of our control. It wasn't us. Like I said, everyone gave us five-star reviews, which is wonderful. But- That one comment, and this has happened before where someone gives us a really good review but says, "But if there's one thing I might like to change, it might be this." And I try really hard, and I coach people to try really hard to take it in context and only see it as a positive way forward, but it's really hard when it's about something you pour your heart into. And maybe that's the puzzle. Maybe as portrait photographers, we are tuned to give everything we [00:11:00] have, to be present, to be relevant, to be all of these words that we use all of the time. So of course, when someone says simple things like, "Listen, for the future, maybe you wanna think about doing this," and that, for us, becomes a focal point of all of our insecurities, um, and becomes a real energy and emotion suck. And I think that's the thing. We are taught to be critical, but the critical eye is just a tool, and tools in your downtime should be put down. Uh, stop, stop thinking of all the negative things. That's easier to say, of course, uh, than to do because in the end, when you're... And I speak from personal experience here. When I dwell on the negative, I miss all of the good stuff. I miss the laughter, the successful pictures. I miss the friendships we build. I miss, I don't know, I miss [00:12:00] so much when I'm dwelling on one negative comment or one thing that isn't running right. Even, even when we made the decision to sell the Land Rover, I s- I focused so much on how sad I was gonna be to get rid of it, I forgot or didn't pay attention to the fact that actually life is a load better now I own a car that is bang up-to-date and for the future. We lease it. I know that's not financially, when you do the calculations, it's not financially particularly savvy, but I love the fact I don't need to worry about it. It's not my car. It's Volkswagen Finance own it, which is great. So I don't need to worry about all the things I used to worry about, and trust me, if you own a Defender, you spend a lot of time, um, worrying about it So right now I'm doing all of the things I dreamt of and so much more. So I need to stop, [00:13:00] I need to stop dwelling on the negatives. If you're new to the industry and you're listening to us swapping war stories, just be aware that it's just a way of venting, and I think we all do it. Do not think that the, the industry is entirely negative, because it can put you off this brilliant job that is genuinely a privilege. So if you're new to photography and you're new to the podcast, let me just reiterate, this is a job I adore and I take a huge amount of, um, joy from it, and there's nothing I'd rather be doing. But even in, in the position we're in, where after all of these years, I still love it. I was asked the other day, maybe this is a podcast all in and of itself, I was asked the other day if I was a professional photographer. One of my clients, one of the kids said, "Are you a professional?" And I'm laughing because no, not really, I'm an amateur photographer. I just earn [00:14:00] my living this way. I get that as a line. I've be- I've been thinking on this line for a while, but it's true. I am an amateur photographer. I just make my living this way. Why do I phrase it like that? Why do I think of it like that? Because it reminds me, I do it because I adore it. I do it because every day when I get up in the morning, all I want to do is create pictures. I don't... I've never lost that wonderful sense of excitement when I peer through a viewfinder, or when I spot a patch of light, or when I see... You know, I'm forever in the street just watching people and think, "Oh, that'd make a great photograph," or, you know, "I'd love to photograph those people," or whatever. I've never lost that. I've always had the same, the same excitement for it. Now capturing that in social media posts and in podcasts and in, on our website is really, really hard to do, but that's the truth of it. [00:15:00] I'm an amateur photographer. I just earn my living this way. And for our clients, of course, that's important. They only want to hear the positives. They don't wanna hear you grumbling about things that have gone wrong, or, you know, they haven't got the ideal clothing, or the light isn't running well for you today. They don't wanna hear all that. They wanna hear that you're pouring all of this positivity into, into your work. So try really hard not to let that leak out into your client interaction. I'm really lucky that way, I have to be honest, is it's really unusual, really, really unusual for me to be negative around my clients. It happens, of course it happens. But I'm pretty hardwired in the short time that I have with a client to be energetic and upbeat. And that, going back to being an amateur photographer, [00:16:00] imagine, right, before you start out, before I started out, if I imagine me before I became p- a professional photographer, someone said to me, "Here's a family. Here's a studio full of thousands of pounds worth of kit. Here's a world-class camera, and here's some great light. Go play." What on earth would you think? You'd be like, "Oh my God, this is amazing. I can't believe I'm here." And yet somehow when it becomes your living, it can grind you down So I try really hard not to let it beat me when I am feeling it. Here's some ideas. For trying to keep a balance and try to, try to offset the natural imbalance of the human brain. We are naturally biased. I love, I love the idea of biases, human biases, natural biases, um, [00:17:00] because once you understand them, you can see them in your everyday life. So the negativity bias is quite a big one. It's designed to keep you alive. It's designed that if you see a tiger, you run because you naturally assume the worst. It's not a big puddy cat. Um, so here are some ideas. Here is just some ideas that I shall try, and maybe they'll be useful to you, too. Uh, three good frames. At the end of every shoot, it's not a bad shout to sit and write down all of the good things that happened in that shoot. By the way, it's pretty good, um, CRM, um, customer relationship management practice to sit at the end of a shoot and capture the detail that you went through, capture the stories, capture the laughter, capture the things your client mentioned. It's never a bad idea to do that. And of course, these days with dictating straight into text fields on your phone, um, we use Lightblue here, big shout out to those guys. Just open up the [00:18:00] text field, jab the microphone on your phone and talk. You can tell the stories. Tell three good frames, three good things, um, that, uh, went right before you mention anything at all that might have gone wrong. Uh, when it comes to war stories, turn them into something where it's a win. I nearly, I nearly said the line turn the war story into a win story. That sounds so cheesy. Uh, but it is what I've written. Uh, I've luckily caught myself before saying it. Um- Ultimately, ultimately, we nearly always survive these things. We nearly always survive these things. I have a handful of war stories where they really did go wrong. They really did mean the end of a client. Of course I have them. We all have them. That's normal. I don't talk about them because I don't really want to dwell on them, but I'm still here, I'm still shooting, I'm still laughing, I'm still loving [00:19:00] it, so surely that's got to be a win. My energy for this, my positivity for this vastly outrode anything that came from those stories. But lights die, cameras die, lenses collapse, stuff goes wrong. Try really hard not to let it get the best of you Like I said, I was gutted when I lost the Land Rover. I thought that was absolutely the end of my enjoyment of driving. Couldn't have been further from the truth. Turn that negativity to find the, the good outside of the bad. Uh, humble brags. This is one for me more than you. Um, if you're gonna be pleased with something, just be pleased with it. Um, can I let you into a secret? And this is, I, this is not something I do. Um, I see posts, I don't see them so much anymore, maybe because I don't read the social media so much anymore, [00:20:00] and it's something like, "Oh my goodness, I've won an award. I'm so humbled." Well, no you're not, are you? I mean, no, no, no, no, n

I recorded this episode in my second favourite place on earth - the local pub - with a pint in hand and a genuinely fascinating guest across the table. David Finch spent most of his career in marketing and creative agencies, most recently selling Purple Frog, a marketing consultancy. He now runs Thinking In Fields, which focuses on decision architectures - helping businesses bring AI into their operations in a coherent, orchestrated way rather than a scatter-gun approach. David introduced me to two ideas I hadn't heard before, and I was quietly furious about that. The first is the Book of Remarkability - a framework for understanding what makes your business distinctive. The spine of the book is your emotional hook, the cover unpacks it, and the bulk of the content is 24 short stories from clients describing the value you created for them, in their words. Only six pages are yours to explain how you do it. It's based on the Canterbury Tales, and it's a genius analogy. The second is the swimming pool with five lanes - customers in lane one, your people in lane five, your processes in lane three. AI sits in lane two (improving the customer journey) and lane four (improving internal efficiency). Most businesses focus on lane four and quietly destroy the customer experience. Some nail lane two but then drown their team with demand they can't fulfil. The whole point is keeping the business moving coherently through all five lanes at once. We talked about AI as a team member rather than a tool - the most intelligent five-year-old you've ever met! Knows everything, but doesn't know what to do with it. David's view is you want to train it to be a teenager and never let it become an adult, because a teenager still has a bit of creative spark and a spiky opinion. Train it to full adulthood and it homogenises everything - it's a probability engine, and probability gives you 80% of the answer, perfectly averaged. The conversation moved into what AI genuinely can't do - and that comes down to human experience. It has never had a first kiss, lost someone it loved, or stood in a field at a beer festival. Any task that depends on that kind of felt, embodied knowledge is still ours. The challenge is that a lot of what we thought required that - writing, design, commercial photography, music composition - turns out not to need it as much as we assumed. For photographers specifically, David's view is that weddings and portraits are relatively safe for now, because the human interface is the whole point. Commercial photography is more exposed - brands are bringing production in-house, and that overcapacity will push talented commercial photographers into our market. The answer isn't to chase efficiency. It's to charge for value, not hours. Ask clients what they genuinely value, attach a price to that, and let the production tasks flow through the tools that do them best. David ended with a metaphor I loved - the future of creative business isn't a pyramid or even an obelisk. It's going to be full of jazz bands. Highly talented people jamming together, creating something that no algorithm could have predicted. I hope he's right. ----more----If you have enjoyed the episode, please do subscribe wherever it is that you get your podcasts! Transcript Paul: [00:00:00] Let's hit record both channels. Recording. At which point I put my podcast voice on. You've gotta forgive me. Alright. David: Okay. Paul: Uh, alright, well cheers David. David: Cheers. Paul: Um, well today instead of being in the Land Rover, I thought I'd come and frequent my second favorite place on earth. Uh, the local pub. So I'm sitting here with a really interesting guy I've known for years, um, who will introduce himself in a moment. But if you can hear background noises, that's because there ARE background noises. David and I are sitting in a corner with two pints of beer , and we are gonna chat all things to do with the direction of travel in creative industries. I'm Paul and this is a very pub bound Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast. Uh, So David, thank you [00:01:00] for agreeing to come in and chatting with me. Um, this has been a conversation a long time in the making ever since the thought occurred to me. I think we crashed into each other at the end of a wedding. I think, I mean, I've known you for a long time, but I think it occurred to me at a wedding where you were in the back garden of the pub and it's like, yeah, you are the guy I want to talk to. So, before we get any further, could you to the people who don't know you, introduce yourself and give a little bit of background? David: Sure. Yeah. I'm So David Finch, my current, uh, incarnation in business is Thinking In Fields, which is, um, all about decision architecture. So. Having spent most of my life in the, in the marketing and creative sector, they recently sold Purple Frog. Yeah. Which was a, a marketing consultancy and prior to that, owned various other sales promotion companies and [00:02:00] quite, seems quite a long time ago now, but 20 years ago, a print group of all things. Yeah, I remember. Yeah. That was, uh, quite frightening. So, so yeah, so I, I sold that and I've sort of, I can't retire so the brain won't stop. So I've moved into "Thinking In Fields", which came, came about based initially on the fact that, as you well know, I walk a lot now. Paul: Yep. David: Um. I do a lot of thinking and talk to my phone on frequent basis to, to, to write things or di dictate things, which I then, which I then, I used to write from the actual listening to it. Now I give it to this strange thing called chat, GPT, and it, it transcribes it for me and, and it helps me assimilate thoughts. So, so that's what I do. But it is about decision architecture. So it's about actually helping, helping businesses understand how they, how they bring things like AI in, into a business.[00:03:00] And if you think about intelligence, humans are got intelligence, AI's got intelligence. So how do you bring them together coherently, Paul: right? David: So that's what the, that's what the business does and helps, helps CFOs and leadership teams understand how they bring in ai. In an orchestrated manner. Paul: Right. And was, is that when you set up Thinking And Fields, did you think it was going to be about ai or did, because you, you've stepped out of the agency world for a while now, and AI really has only erupted properly in the past 18 months. I'm gonna guess, you know, the latest ChatGPT and Claude and some of these big LLMs and processing models slightly more complex. I always see the word thinking, but they're not thinking. But David: they don't, they don't think No, they'll tend, Paul: they don't David: think, they don't think, yeah. No. Paul: But you can force 'em into a pseudo analytical mode. David: Yeah. Paul: Um, prompting, but was it AI that drew you to create Thinking In Fields or [00:04:00] has that come about since going into Thinking In Fields? David: Since, since So when I, so when, so when I started Thinking In Fields, it was, it was related quite a lot to. To what Purple Frog did. Paul: Yeah. David: It wasn't exactly the same. It was associated to it. So it was, it was about remarkability and how'd you create a decent value proposition and a value statement, which interestingly is, is focused on aligning your customer value proposition with your employee value proposition. Paul: Right. David: So that's what I've been working on with, with, with some clients. But what I found was that in order to be able to, for them to be able to own, own, the thinking themselves is either they can spend a lot of time with me and I'll board them to tears, or what we did is we've created, I've got the mortar creator, a chat, GPT, and a project where we stored all the information we were talking about, which enabled them and I, and I'm sure I must have mentioned this before, the Booker[00:05:00] Remarkability, have I ever mentioned the Booker Remarkability to you? You shake your head with disappointment. Paul: So, sorry, I should be more open to the things you mentioned to me. I, yeah. I don't think you've ever meant it to me. David: No, it's, so, the book of Remarkability is, it's really, it's really a concept of how you dis distinguish your yourself from, from other people. So it's really interesting in the photography field is how, what, what is you looking at, what value you bring to those you serve and, and what value you bring. Is, is, is really by asking them how you make them feel. Paul: Yeah. David: What the, what emotional resonances you have with people. But the idea of the book of Remarkability very simply is that you create a spine which is compelling, which is emotion based. Yeah. And imagine people walk into the British library Paul: Yeah. David: And they're gonna find a photographer wedding, or for photographer for portraits or commercial photographer, they're gonna go to the section and there's 200 books. Paul: Yeah. [00:06:00] David: You're gonna be one of three. They pick out. Paul: Yeah. David: You better have a good spine. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the concept of the spine. Paul: Yeah. David: You unpack that with the cover. Paul: Yeah. David: And it's compelling enough to get people to want to read further. And then your standard Harvard Business Review, um, value proposition is your prologue. So we do this for these people by doing this. Right. That's your, your prologue, so it gets people in. Paul: Yeah. David: But the real answer of the book of Remarkability is it's, Paul: how have I never heard of this? David: Yeah, there you go. You don't remember these years. But the art of the book of Remarkability is, it's based on the concept of the Canterbury Tales. So, so there's 30 short stories. 24, Paul: yeah. David: Are your customers and clients speaking about speaking about the value you created? Paul: Yeah. David: In their eyes. Well, the value you think you created. Paul: Yeah. David: The value you truly [00:07:00] created as they describe it. Paul: Right. David: Then you get six pages to do or six short stories to describe how you do it. So, so basically the whole construct is that you are, the value proposition is based around what people are talking about. Paul: Right. David: And that's what makes you remarkable. Paul: Right. David: Just like you are, Paul, Paul: I dunno about remarkable, slightly surprised have, have I not heard of that? It's a genius analogy. It's really clever. Yeah. Because this wasn't meant to be that podcast. It's not meant to be me discovering new stuff. It's meant to be me digging into a particular topic. However, I'm loving that. Um, but the, I mean, I've dunno where you've kind of thrown me sideways a little bit and that wasn't what I was expecting, but, so this style of thinking, that's what Thinking In Fields was due to be. Yes. No. David: Yes. So, so, so it was about, so it, it was taking. Small business owners through a process [00:08:00] that they could own the thinking themselves. Yeah. So imagine, you know, bigger businesses go out. They, they employ an agency, creative agency, they give them a brand, they tell them the brand voice. Sadly, it never really gets properly used. 'cause master marketing team might understand it. The sales team don't, the production team certainly don't. Paul: Yeah. David: And there's that disconnect in the business. Paul: Yeah. David: So it was this disconnect in the business that then got me thinking, well how do you, how'd you get this to work properly? Right. So that's where I brought, brought in using AI and chat GPT to create. Um, and I hate to say it 'cause if any of my clients listening, they'll go, no, surely not, but a mini me. Paul: Right. Okay. Excellent. That's just what you need in your computer is David Finch. David: Yes. Tapping Paul: on the screen. David: So basically what it did that is, is it, it unpacks much more detail. The, like in a project where you give it all instructions and files, it has all that information, plus all the conversations we've had. When I've been helping 'em go through it, plus all the calls that I would make to their clients to [00:09:00] under, to get the, the understanding of the value they're creating. Paul: Yeah. ' David: cause it's easier if I do the calls because they never want to tell you yourself, if that makes sense. Yeah, Paul: yeah, yeah. David: But then actually work with them so they build their own voice, their own brand, their own value proposition without it being done by an agency. So that, and the value of that is, it's what I call ownership. So it's, it becomes owned in the business by the people in the business, and that's just not imposed on them. Okay. So the thinking in fields morphed from that into, um, decision architecture because one of the things that I, I found with, with lots of businesses is it doesn't matter whether they're large or small in your, in honesty, they don't. A lot of people are playing with ai. A lot of people are doing a lot of things. Do you mind if I share another. Paul: Okay. No, if, if you're gonna blow my mind, you might as well just do it over and over . David: So I would like you to [00:10:00] imagine a swimming pool with five lanes. So in lane one, are your customers, your clients? Paul: Yeah. David: In lane five are your people, if you're just a photographer on your own, it's just you. But if you've got assistants and you've got production teams and whatever, sure. People are in lane five. In lane three are the processes, the systems and processes you use. So how you go about delivering perfect wedding shots. Yeah. The, yeah, the Photoshop, the whatever, all the stuff that you've got and the process you go through to deliver to a client. When I, with AI coming in, what you've got is the, the challenge of Lane four being AI you put in to make your business more efficient. And Lane two is the AI you put in to improve the customer journey or continue to add extra value to the customer, Paul: right? David: Yeah. Paul: Yeah. David: Now what most businesses do is they focus a lot on lane four [00:11:00] and destroy the customer journey. And then some have very successfully focused on lane two, and this is where it gets a bit bit dark, sorry. But That's right. They then drown the people in lane five because they haven't got, they've got too much work coming in and not enough ability to in capacity to deliver it. The concept of that is, is basically keeping the business in motion. So it's been a coherent business as you go through. And then the decision architecture is how do you build the decision processes in order to be able to make sure you put AI in, in a coherent manner. . And not scatter gun approach. Paul: That I completely appreciate. Um, never heard it called a swimming pool before, but I totally understand. David: Yeah. Paul: Where we are. What's curious is, well, it's curious. Obviously I'm in the creative industry, so for me, there are two distinct tranches of excitement, sadly for me in ai. One is the fact that it can do, um, [00:12:00] knowledge based tasks really pretty well if you're good with prompts and putting in background information. And the other is, it's actually pretty good at what I would've called day-to-day creative if you know prompts and can get it, get the data into it. So we have a, an, we are in an interesting space right now, which is broadly speaking my industry. And I'm gonna guess by extension, agency side, designers, songwriters, lyricists, you know, all these people of. Built their skillset on being able to do something that up until now was unique and a unique ability to the people with that mindset has now suddenly become something that if you're good at prompting, which is a very technical thing, actually, you can get AI to do remarkably well provided, and there's a, there's a proviso to it provided it's not dependent on the human experience. And by that I simply mean [00:13:00] AI cannot have ever felt anything. It, it, it's, it's just simply not possible. It didn't have children. It hasn't lost a loved one. It hasn't had the excitement of standing on a field at the very first Haddenham beer festival. You know, these are not things that AI could have done. So provided the tasks you are asking are not prefaced on human emotion. AI is not only remarkably good at it in a lot of instances, it's a damsight better than humans. Which leaves us with this, what do we do conundrum. And what I originally wanted this conversation to be, these, I mean, the two things you told me already, I could wrap the podcast up now and go make a note of these and I will see you in a, in six months. Thanks for the free consulting. but where, what I wanted to explore, um, and I had no idea actually I didn't know about all of this stuff in detail. I knew you'd said in passing that you were looking at these things, which is heads of the podcast is I get where we are here and now I [00:14:00] understand, you know, I love chat. DPT, chat d we put stuff in. It says, oh my God, oh my God, Paul, you are amazing. That wasn't just, that wasn't just a workshop he ran. That was an experience. 'cause ache, BT is like that. And I can put the same thing into Claude and Claude simply goes, p he just, ah, there so many things you could do better. You know, it's like these two worlds love them both, by the way. Um, I use them both all the time. Um. But we are basically dealing with a toddler of an industry, a toddler of a technology. You know, my PhD's in it 30 years ago, we were essentially looking at, I guess, the embryos and 30 years before that, they were looking at the seeds of it. Yeah. Um, now we are with this tiny child and this is precocious, so look how good it's, it's gonna grow up and it's gonna grow up fast. How do you see that progressing? Where do you see the whole of these economies, all of these economies that have built[00:15:00] around, um, either creativity and or knowledge? How do you see them progressing? David: I think it's, I think it's a really, gosh, if I had to had that crystal ball, I'd be, Paul: well, yeah. David: Welling with this now, wouldn't I? But I think the, I think there's loads of, there's loads of parallels in, in the past. There's a difference with ai, it's just going at quantum speed. Paul: Yeah. David: Compared to everything else we've ever come across. So the change is happening really, really quick. Paul: Yeah. David: The, the challenge I think is, is that people treat it, we always talk about AI as a tool or most people talk about AI as a tool. When did you come across a plumber whose spanner could think a little bit when you do Yeah. Could reason with you. The builder's drill could actually do that. They're tools, they're inanimate objects that we use in order to improve something[00:16:00] we're doing. This isn't a blunt edge tool. This is something which can almost reason with you. And actually, you know, and I love the way you described the, the difference between chat g, Tim, and Claude. And you can get 'em to argue with each other perfectly. Yeah, I do. 'cause spend the whole day just having the leg, the, and I actually do it. Yeah. So, but, but to me this is about people sitting and thinking. And you also use the, the thing about it being a toddler. So I always talk about don't think if it is a tool, this is a team member. Doesn't matter how big your business is, how small your business is, you've now got a team member and it comes without the national insurance surcharge. So it's probably quite cool. Um, but you've got a team member and what you're gonna do with the team member is, and I always say treat it like a 5-year-old, like the most intelligent 5-year-old you've ever, ever come across. It knows everything. Paul: Yeah. [00:17:00] David: But it knows nothing. Paul: Yeah. David: So a 5-year-old child is really inquisitive, curious, has lots of knowledge, but doesn't know what to do with it.

Embracing Positivity on a Challenging Day: Insights from the Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast It's Friday the 13th, a day often associated with superstition, but instead of dwelling on the negatives, let's focus on the positives that have brought joy over the past week. In this episode, I share my experiences, from the challenges of a busy schedule to the joy of working with families in the studio. Join me as I reflect on the importance of community and giving back to the photography industry. Getting stuff off my chest: - The significance of staying positive amidst challenges - Insights from recent judging experiences at photography competitions - The importance of community support and paying it forward in the photography industry - Tips for preparing your prints for competitions and avoiding common mistakes - Updates on upcoming workshops and events in portrait photography Join me as I delve into these topics and more, encouraging you to embrace the joy of photography and the connections we build along the way. Read on or listen to the episode for a dose of inspiration! Transcript Friday the 13th Reflections It's Friday the 13th of February, and while I might be tempted to think twice about recording a podcast today, I choose to focus on the positives. It has been one of those weeks where many little things have driven me to distraction. Sarah's car needed a new wheel bearing, and I had a video recorder malfunction. You know how it is—those little annoyances can really pile up. However, I want to concentrate on everything that has made me smile this week and the joy we've experienced over the past couple of weeks. I'm Paul, and this is the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast. Please bear with me; I have a cough that lingers from a cold. The team in the office thinks it started back in November. I rarely get colds, but this season has been different. Even after receiving the flu jab, I've caught colds just far enough apart that I think I'm getting better, yet close enough that the cough remains. But in a few weeks, Sarah and I will be off on our travels again, working around the world with Crystal Cruises, so I know this will sort itself out. Recent Updates As usual, I want to share a little update on where we are. I often wonder why I do this, but perhaps it's cathartic. You'll notice there's no video this time. I tried recording a video for the last episode, but Katie only watched a couple of minutes before suggesting that unless I tidied my desk and did it properly, it probably wouldn't look right. The podcast is something I enjoy doing whenever I find a moment. It provides a chance to share information and reflect on the business we run, the photography we create, and the clients we celebrate. Each time I do this, I feel better about my work. I've had to admit defeat, at least for now, on the video podcast front. Most of the feedback I receive is from people who listen while editing or commuting, so I've decided to return to audio. It was a one-time trial, and I didn't try very hard. I recorded one video, and it didn't turn out well, so I've chosen to stick with what I love most: simply chatting. Busy Diary The past couple of weeks have been busy, but not necessarily with fee-paying work. For those just starting out, I remember looking forward to all the opportunities I now have, such as judging, mentoring, and creating content. I love it all, but ultimately, the core of our business is with our clients. Tomorrow, I have a full day scheduled with families in the studio, and I'm really excited about that. It has rained incessantly, but the weather forecast for tomorrow predicts a clear and cold Valentine's Day. I hope we can take some photographs outside, which would be wonderful. We've had many headshot shoots recently, which are less affected by the weather since we can find shelter when photographing one person. Most clients looking for personal branding prefer studio-based sessions, so that's manageable. However, with families, we want to get outside, even if it's cold. Judging Experience In the past week, Sarah and I chaired the UK PPA print competition at the Guild's photo hub, which was an incredible experience. Thank you to everyone who participated; it was truly amazing. While we don't get paid for judging, it is a wonderful opportunity. Sarah organized everything and ensured it ran smoothly, while I served as the voice of the judging panel. The judging process was fantastic. I want to express my gratitude to the judges who participated. It was an honor to sit among such talented photographers. The audience was the most engaged I've ever experienced, asking questions and quizzing us. This interaction made the judging process more enjoyable and valuable for everyone involved. Typically, judging is done in silence to maintain focus, but this can sometimes feel isolating. We need to concentrate, but we also want to engage with the audience. If we can make the process interesting and entertaining, more photographers will stay until the end, which benefits everyone. A good judging team is essential. If judges feel comfortable with one another, they can cooperate, challenge each other, and support one another. This camaraderie leads to better outcomes and more considered scores. Each judge brings their unique perspective, whether it’s technical details, emotional connections, or composition. This diversity enriches the judging process. Print Quality Insights During the judging, I noticed some common issues with print quality. For instance, we saw several prints with color banding. While we couldn't determine if the banding originated in the file, it was evident in the prints. If you're overlaying textures, ensure they only cover the intended areas. Some images had overlays that unintentionally covered the subjects, which detracted from the overall effect. When entering print competitions, pay attention to the mount size and ensure your prints meet the minimum requirements. The combination of your mount and print is what we judge, so it's crucial to have a cohesive look. If you're using an inset mount, make sure the paper and mount colors match to avoid any jarring contrasts. We also discussed the terminology we use, such as referring to creators as "authors" rather than just photographers. This term encompasses a broader range of creators, including illustrators and fine artists, and acknowledges their contributions. Paying It Forward An email I received recently from a student sparked a reflection on the importance of paying it forward in our industry. He reached out with several questions about our business, and while I took a while to respond, his reply highlighted a concerning trend. He mentioned that many photographers either didn't respond or were rude in their replies. This saddened me. We often speak about the camaraderie and relationships in our industry, but it seems that the spirit of helping one another may be waning. Many of us have benefited from the kindness of others, and it's essential that we continue this tradition. I believe it's our responsibility to give back, whether through mentoring, judging, or sharing knowledge. The joy of watching someone else flourish because you've offered a helping hand can be incredibly rewarding. Upcoming Workshops As we wrap up, I want to mention a couple of upcoming workshops. Our Bootcamp on the 11th and 12th of May has one space left. It was a fantastic experience last year, and we’re excited to run it again. We also have one space left for our Advanced Studio Lighting workshop on the 16th of March, which is one of my favorite workshops to run. If you're interested in either of these, please visit masteringportraitphotography.com for more details. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe on your preferred platform and consider leaving a review on iTunes. Your support helps others find the podcast and grow our community. As we head into Valentine's weekend, remember to be kind to yourself and to those you love. Take care.

I’m back after a bit of a stop-start spell with the podcast, and I’m talking honestly about headspace, mojo, and how hard it can be to create when you’re just not feeling it. The main point I wanted to cover is this: there’s more than one way to do things in photography, and the “that’s wrong” comments (especially online) completely miss the point. I’m sharing why I try to frame everything as my way, not the way, and how clients, time, kit, and real-world constraints always shape what works. I also give you a quick update on upcoming workshops, where to find the new short-form video content, and what I’ll be covering next after a couple of judging days. Key links Mastering Portrait Photography Our Reels & Shorts Mastering Portrait Photography on YouTube Workshops mentioned Mastering Dogs With Their Owners workshop (9 Feb 2026) Mastering Advanced Studio Lighting (16 Mar 2026) Mastering Portrait Photography Bootcamp (11–12 May 2026) Transcript [00:00:00] So hello one and all. This is the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast, which hasn't, hasn't been the most frequent in the past few months, one reason or another. Um, I just haven't managed to find either the time or if I'm more honest, I guess the headspace, the difficulty with doing anything creative is that if you don't feel it, if you're not right into it, and you know this as photographers, it's really hard to do it. And every time I've sat down, it's just been incredibly difficult to find, I suppose the words, I'm not sure that last year was the greatest year on earth. We got there, we grafted, but we got there, um, massively busy year, but I don't know if the positivity that we've had over the past years was quite, quite the same. And so in that context, it's been quite hard, I think. To, uh, be a photographer, to be a portrait [00:01:00] photographer, and also to record this podcast. So when I talk to people and they say they're not feeling it, I totally understand. Somebody in a workshop the other day, we always, at the beginning of every workshop we run here, we ask the people on it what they'd like to get out of it. And I think on every single one last year, and certainly the one we ran a couple of weeks ago, there is someone who will simply say. I've lost my mojo. What an interesting line given I think I've been feeling the same way about the podcast. Not that I haven't wanted to do it. I love doing it. I love sitting here and chatting. It's sort of like having my own personal counselor, you, but I just haven't really found the energy and the headspace, um, to do it. And for a million reasons, some of it to do with just the mood, the news. Politics, the weather. Um, and then just to compound everything over Christmas, I completely lost my voice [00:02:00] and I do mean, completely caused a lot of hilarity amongst my family and my team. But I had to do a couple of workshops at the convention. And they were quite squeaky. I literally sounded like squeaky from the toy story. Anyway, you'd be pleased to hear it's all back. It's all firing on all cylinders. 2026 is a new year. I'd like to say it's the start of a new year, but given it's February, I'm not even certain. I can say Happy New Year to all of you, but here we are. I'm Paul, and this is the return of the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast. So, hello one and all. I hope you're well. I hope the weather, I dunno what the weather's like all around the world. Of course I don't. But right here, right now in this bit of the world, it is miserable. We had to drive a Land Rover over to get, um, to. I think it's called an eyebrow repaired an odd, an odd phrase, but it's the bit of the wing that pro [00:03:00] protrudes over the wheel on the front, front driver's side. Because the other day as I was about to head out and do a job for the hearing dogs and with my client, my client's climbing into the car next to me and somebody decided the gap between my front driver's side wing and the wall next to him was sufficient to get a very big Mercedes-Benz through it. It turns out it wasn't. And the only damage, sadly for me was that it put a, put a hole in the, uh, wheel arch. It's called an eyebrow, this thing. So anyway, today we must have, find someone to get it repaired. The guy's paid, it's fine. It'll all get fixed. Um, so, uh, drove over, but the weather. The weather was horrific, and it's cold and it's gray and there's just water everywhere. It's a miserable state of affairs and trying to, trying to be a portrait photographer in this. I'm glad we have a warm studio that I will say. Uh, so here we are. [00:04:00] Here we are. It is, what time is it? It's, uh, 10 past eight on a Tuesday evening. I'm still in the studio and this time. I am recording video for it Now. I don't know whether you'll see the video. This is the first time I've tried to do, what do they call it, A visualized podcast? I'm not sure. It's a video podcast. That would be, um, over egging it a little bit. It's me staring at one very small camera that I dug outta a drawer. To see if I can get this to work. If it works, then we'll throw something a little bit more sophisticated at it. But in our team at the moment, in the mastering portrait photography team, we have Katie, I've introduced you to Katie before. That's not news. But one of the things we have been doing is recording more and more and more and more content, mostly short reels, short videos of one sort or another. And it's, I mean, it's a huge amount of fun. I'm having a blast. I come in on a Monday and Katie will tell me the topics we're going to cover, uh, and we get on with it and we film small [00:05:00] videos of one form or another. Um, and it's, I'll be honest, I'm loving it because it gets, it gives us a chance to talk about this business die love. Um, however, some of the things that have popped up through that are that really the podcast also now needs to be on video. Here I am and if you take a look around me, if you are looking at this on the video and take a look around me, you can see that it's the first foray. 'cause even if, as I look around the screen here that I'm, I've got feeding information back to me, it does look like my desk has been burgled. It is pretty bad at the moment. There is stuff everywhere. Uh, which isn't great, but I will get that fixed and get it sorted. So it looks a little bit prettier. I'm not sure this is the right camera, uh, for this particular job, but, uh, if it works, like I said, we might just upgrade. Um, but off the back of these videos, this is the topic I wanted to talk about today. This is only gonna be a short podcast, uh, partly 'cause I am starving. I've been here all [00:06:00] day. I've had one banana, one sandwich, one pair. Um, and I really, really, really want to go and do a little bit of exercise, um, and maybe have some food. So this is gonna be a shorter podcast than perhaps you're used to. However, this is what I wanted to cover. I wanted to sort of cover a point that has arisen through doing these little reels and videos with Katie that there is definitely more than one way of doing things. Now I'm doing this unscripted. I've got my pen to make some notes in case I kind of lose track. Um, so forgive me if I ramble, but. There's more than one way of doing things in. When we do a workshop or I do a presentation, I will always, or nearly always put up a slide that simply has two words, opinion overload, and I put it up there to remind me, to remind the people watching me that just because I say this is a way of doing [00:07:00] it doesn't mean it's the. Way of doing it. It's just the way that I found works for me on the whole, sometimes it'll be two or three different ways I've discovered will work and I'll point out which one seems to give me the most consistent results, or is the least expensive in time and materials, or is just simply the, you know, the one I enjoy the most. Because if you, if you are attending workshops, if you are going through the process of learning, and we all do this every time the person in front of you says, this is how to do it, there's a tendency for us to believe them. There's a tendency for us to, in our head say, right, that's what we're gonna do. Their photography is what I like. That's how we're gonna do it. And that can't possibly. Be the case. There are too many different styles, too many different photographers for that to be the case, and so I try to remind people, this is just my opinion at this [00:08:00] moment in time. This is how I do it, or this is how I have done it tomorrow. It may well be different next year. It's highly likely to be different changes in technology. In equipment, in approaches in clients, your client drives an awful lot of this too. Remember, you know, if your client's demanding that you travel light, then you travel light. And so some of the techniques for lighting, for instance, won't be, uh, quite the same as if you have all the time in the world and a studio. There's always a way of doing something that works for you, and there are plenty of other ways that maybe don't work so well. And the point is, we've learned this through the reels and videos that we've been posting, but all too often I'll put something up and somebody will tell me quite, quite vigorously, that's not right. Whether it's clamshell, just use a reflector. You don't need two lights, whether it's white balance adjustments, differential white balance. I'll just do it all in night room in post, whether it's, and my favorite comment was, [00:09:00] you are three times my age. Maybe that's right for you, which I thought was entertaining, if nothing else, and these are all valid by the way, I'm not worried about it. It just struck me that people seem to think that there is just one way of doing something. And of course there isn't, there's not one technique, there's not one aesthetic. If, if we all liked the same thing, if we all liked the same output, if we all liked the same processes, life would be, frankly, frigging dull because there'd be nothing interesting every, and I use the musician, I know I use the musician musician's analogy a lot, but if you think about the number of different ways that you've heard a composer or different composers say they write music, some will sit at a piano, some will write the lyrics, some will hum it, some will record it. Some people just have their phone to their bed and record a quick snippet of vocal or whatever it might [00:10:00] be. Everyone has a different way of doing it, and yet no one seemingly anyway, no one in that world criticizes another songwriter and tells them that that's how they should do it. They should do it differently, but somehow in photography, that's okay. Or maybe it's not that it's in photography. Maybe it's just that the medium of imagery, the medium video, lends itself to social media, in which case it lends itself to people writing comments. And so I just thought I'd explain whenever I go through something. I mean, I'd love you to have a look at some of the reels and things we're posting. I'll, I'll give you the details of where they can be found at the end, um, and see what you think. But I try really hard. To make it an open conversation. It's about, here's a way of doing it. Here's an explanation of what's going on. Here's why I like it. I mean, I think that's fair. It doesn't mean I don't have things that I like, but I do try really hard not to say this is a defacto [00:11:00] thing. Technique, method route. You shouldn't, you don't have to have this equipment, you don't have to have, um, this way of doing things, you know, light meters. Another one, people are very enthusiastic about light meters, tripods, gotta have a tripod, gotta have a light meter. Um, two things that actually, I, I own plenty of them. Um, just doesn't work particularly, or it does work for me. Of course it works and that's wrong. Saying it doesn't work for me, that's not true. It's just that not using a tripod and not using a light light meter works better for me in most circumstances. There are days when actually a tripod is really useful. Long exposures stop frames when I just want that pin sharp thing you can get when your camera is bolted to a good sturdy tripod or a light meter. When I'm running lots of different light sources and I just need to run around the room, checking that everything's balanced. Yeah, line meter is brilliant for that.[00:12:00] But most of the time I just like the freedom. I like the pace, I like the fluidity of working without either of those things. Am I wrong? Well, to some people, clearly, but it doesn't feel wrong to me. It feels totally right to me. Do I think that people that use a tripod or like me are wrong? No, not at all. Um, I can give you my reasons why. I find it easier without, I find the speed of it without, I find the availability and the fact that I can just drag a camera out and get on with it. I find that appealing, and so my point is that as fast as I'm trying really hard to provide information, provide insight into one photographer's way of doing things. I think it's important to note that there's always more ways, um, of achieving an end result. Um, and I will try in the videos, actually, I'm gonna try in the coming months to do things in different ways. Things that I maybe I wouldn't normally do to illustrate my own point. Maybe [00:13:00] I will use a tripod to nail the sharpness. Maybe I will use a light meter. Um, to show how that works. Maybe I will just do, I'll listen to the comments coming back and I will try some of these routes. Maybe I'll do differential white balance in Lightroom and Photoshop rather than using actual lights. And all of these things are doable and it'll be a huge amount of fun, actually. 'cause I love, I love the idea that there's a million ways of, um, creating things because the more ways you learn, the more holes you can get out of. And we've all been there, right? We've all been in a shoot. Where chaos ensues or there's no time, or the weather doesn't play ball or the client or the location, or it doesn't matter, whatever it is, that just is causing you a headache. And so the more techniques you have at your fingertips, the better. And that's if there is one way of doing things. If there is a case where there's one way of doing it, there's the one thing I would say you should definitely do is learn lots of different ways [00:14:00] to do things. So I will try. Um, on that note, I said this is gonna be a short podcast. It just occurred to me today that I would have a quick, um, chat about that and also test whether doing this straight to video is gonna work, in which case we can move to some, uh, maybe some longer topics and some interviews. Uh, so some updates on where we are with everything else. It has been a busy start to the year. Lots of different things going on. Uh, workshops. Sarah's asked me to mention the workshops that we have, uh, in the diary at the moment. So I've got one next Monday actually, where we have a space left. It's dogs and their owners, I should say, photographing dogs and their owners. Uh, which is all about it's dog photography, but because I'm a portrait photographer, it's as important to me that we photograph the dogs with the people that bring them, their owners, their loved ones, all those kinds of things. Um, and so it's a day's workshop, uh, February the ninth, um, here at our studio, uh, on March the [00:15:00] 16th. And this might. Be my favorite single workshop to run. It's Advanced Studio Lighting and I love it because people just rock up with ideas and we play, we play all day. Uh, the one we did a couple weeks ago was off-camera flash, and that was a huge amount of fun too because people just ask us to try things. And I love that. I love the idea that, um, we have a maximum of five delegates on these workshops, and that's deliberate. It gives us a chance to chat. It, it gives us a chance to talk our way through things. Uh, so the off-camera flash, uh, day was just brilliant. And the advanced Studio lighting, which is on March the 16th, um, is fun. Uh, for the same kinds of reasons, five people and me and a model or two just playing, just trying stuff and seeing what happens based on experience. And for me as a, um, as the person running the workshop. I love it when people come with ideas too, because. Quite often it pushes what we do here [00:16:00] at the studio a little bit further. We try new things and it's great. And I mean, the other thing of course is I'm an crom ambassador, so I get to play with all of this kit, um, that I so love using. So that's March the 16th. Now, may the 11th and May the 12th. This is a two day bootcamp. Uh, there's a space, I think there's one space left. Um, we didn't know last year when we ran the first one quite what this would be like. Um, we had to change tack a little bit, so we had a hall booked. Um, rather than do it here at our studio, uh, we had a hall booked at, um, a local hall. Um, and for one reason or another on the day before the bootcamp workshop, it just wasn't gonna happen for a million reasons at their end, not ours. And, and it just. We decided in the end to sidestep it and run everything here. We reworked the studio, we changed the way we were gonna do things literally overnight. We're not, I'm not joking now, that's overnight. [00:17:00] Um, and it worked really well because everything's to hand. So anything that someone asks, we can try again. Very limited number of people. Um, so it's not too busy. And that's a two day bootcamp. Um, and the other thing we did is at the end of the first day, we said if anyone fan sticking around in the evening and having a pizza and, and a beer, then you're very welcome to. It wasn't really part of the planned workshop as such. It was just rather than everyone scattering to their bread and breakfasts and hotels and things. Why don't, if you want to, why didn't stick around? Everybody stuck around. Um, and so actually we dragged lights out into the garden. We did different things. We tried different things. We had really nice food and a beer and laughed away, uh, into the we hours. It was brilliant and picked up the next day. So March, uh, sorry, may the 11th, may the 12th, two day boot camp. If you fancy it. Um, so those are the things. What have I got left for this week? Oh, right. I said, I'd say where the reels and things are. So we are publishing reels at the moment. Lots of short snippets alongside our long form stuff on, uh, you can head to [00:18:00] YouTube. Instagram is mastering portrait photography. That's um. Our ID for that. Um, and TikTok as well. Um, TikTok is a whole new thing, uh, for us. I feel about four times the age of the people on there. Uh, but Katie, who's in charge of all the seeing, who's, uh, much younger than us, um, assures us it's a good idea. So we're also putting content up onto there and get some really interesting conversations. Um, we're also putting all of those reels up on our mastering portrait photography.com website in a reel section. Um, still uploading those, still tuning them. So if you want to go to a single place. Uh, if you are not a social media freak, um, you can go up there and all of the little short reels will be on there with various links out to long form, uh, content that you have to be a member for, for the long form. But the reels, the short form, uh, will be on there. Uh, what else, latest? Oh, this week is judging. Um, I do, I think I'm due to give a quick update [00:19:00] on the judging I did at The Convention in London. As ever, when I do a judging. Um, a whole process of judging or a couple of days of judging. I normally come back with some things I've learned, but this time, because I'm going into The Guild judging, I'm chairing the guild judging, I thought I'd combine the two and go through my notes from. Both sessions. Uh, to be honest, I'm beginning to sound like a br

If you’ve ever stared at a “competition worthy” image and thought, “Is this actually any good, or am I just emotionally attached and mildly delusional?” then this episode is for you. In this one, I’m lifting the lid on what really happens inside a judge’s head when your prints hit the panel: the mindset you need, the mistakes we see over and over again, and the tiny details that can quietly kill an otherwise beautiful image. We’ll talk blown highlights, grubby greys, over sharpening, dodgy mounts, vignettes turned up to eleven, and why blindly following the latest photo trend might actually sink your chances. We’ll also get into mentors, titles, paper choice, time pressure (my personal kryptonite), and why the only real failure in competitions is not to enter at all. If you’re thinking about qualifications, print comps or you just want to finish your images to a higher standard, grab a drink, have a listen, and then go and do something brave with your work. Links from this episode Workshops & mentoring: Come and spend a day (or more) with us at the studio, learning lighting, posing, dogs, families, workflow and everything in between. 👉 View upcoming workshops One year mentoring programme: If you want ongoing support with competition entries, qualifications panels and growing your portrait business, this is where we dig in properly. 👉 Find out about one to one mentoring Mastering Portrait Photography – the book (new edition): The fully updated edition of the book, packed with new images, new sections and new stories. 👉 Buy the book on Amazon Signed copies from the studio: If you would like a signed copy straight from our studio (possibly with a bit of dog hair in the packaging courtesy of Rufus), order here. 👉 Order a signed copy Leave a review for the podcast: Reviews genuinely help more photographers find the show and it means the world to us when you leave one. 👉 Review the podcast on Apple Podcasts The Societies’ image competition: If this episode has nudged you towards entering, this is a great place to start. 👉 Enter The Societies’ image competition Transcript [00:00:00] it's Thursday, late afternoon, early evening. It's gone dark. It's November. I've got what's left of a mug of coffee next to me. And I just thought I'd sit and record this podcast. It's been, it has to be said a really good day. We've had a lovely client in seeing their wedding pictures, which is always lovely when it goes the way it did. Lots of tears. Their's, not mine. Um, they love them. They've picked well for their album, cannot wait to produce that for them. It's been a really good week. Lots of nice clients, but over the next few days, Sarah and I are really hoping we get to step away from it just for a bit. We were hoping to get abroad, but it looks like with scheduling issues, that isn't gonna quite happen. But we live in an area stuck between London and Oxford, so at the very least we have a huge proportion of interesting things to go and have a look at. And that's my hope is we get away from this beautiful business that I love, but it really is all encompassing. So just for a day or [00:01:00] two time to take a bit of a break, I'm Paul and this is the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast. So, hello one and all. I hope you're all well in this particular podcast, um, because I'm hoping to get out the door and go for a drink tonight with some friends. Um, a little less waffle and a , slightly more to the point podcast. Probably some of you will prefer that some of you might miss the randomness. Um, however, if you listen to the last podcast, it was a little bit about what it's like to be a judge when you are assessing qualifications, panels, and print judging in general. Today what I wanted to do was go through some of the things that [00:02:00] occur to me that may be applicants either don't know or quietly ignore, which might be the truth. But basically the things that as judges we see, and I thought I just stepped through it from that point of view. Slightly less about the judges, slightly more about what to look for if you are entering a competition. Now, I've done this style of podcast. I think this might be my fourth, fifth, maybe sixth version of it over the years, can you believe it's been nearly 10 years I've been recording this. Um, either way, what I wanted to do was just update it, go through some of the things that are fresh in my mind from judging qualifications a few weeks ago, and then judging the Print Master's competition, um, just, uh, a couple of weeks ago. Both of those, you learn different things. You see different things, but I thought I'd just relay, if I can, the stuff that maybe you should consider if you are thinking about entering, in particular, print competitions, [00:03:00] but this extends out to really any image competition you can, you can think of. So with that, if that's not your shtick, then this isn't the episode for you. But if you fancy just having a listen and seeing if this echoes with you, that would be great. So. Listen up. Now. Firstly, I have to admit that from my point of view, entering competitions, I recognize as being both terrifying and slightly addictive. There really is something wonderful about finishing your images to a level that maybe you don't normally do. Maybe that, that tiny amount of perfection, those stray hairs, those eyebrows, lips, I mean, of course my portrait photographer, so I'm talking primarily people here, but that level of detail that maybe your regular, everyday Good Professional Practice, we call it, maybe your everyday work doesn't warrant because, in the end, every hour you spend on an image is cost. We [00:04:00] don't normally regard it as cost, 'cause we enjoy our job and it's time. You know what? It's like time. Who cares about time? Well, you should because it's your business. And so there's something really addictive about spending that time with a purpose on an image that you think you believe maybe, maybe just maybe will do well in a competition. Now that said, of course, every time you enter to, you don't know what the judges are gonna say. And let's get that right out in the open at the beginning, at the top of this podcast, a different day, a different judge, a different result. And that is just the way of it. So you cannot ever really totally predict what you're gonna do, how your images are gonna perform. You can't. You can have a guess, and you can predict within a boundary or two. But in the end, it is totally down to what the judges see on the day and you have to get used to that no matter how much effort you've [00:05:00] poured into an image. And I've had images where I was certain, certain it was going to do well and did nothing. And I've had other images where I was like, well, it's all right, but if I'm lucky in the right judges are on the panel, it might do okay and they've gone on to win. You really dunno. So just be aware of that because those disappointments shouldn't deter you. Yeah, they should just really drive you to do more of it. But that's very hard and I will admit that I too suffer from that sense of disappointment. The inferiority complex that comes with it. A degree of resentment, I suppose. What do the judges know when, when you win something? The judges amazing. I love them. They were brilliant. You could see how sharp their eyes were when the judges don't award you something or your images don't do well, of course, the judges were idiots. They didn't know what they were talking about. And as a judge, I'm completely aware of it. So in this podcast, we're gonna go through what you should look out for, the mindset, the, uh, technical side of it, [00:06:00] some of the presentation stuff, and some of the silly things really, that as a judge, we sit collectively and just groan. Um, there's sometimes you hear in the room that if only, if only. The, uh, image had this, if only the author had done that, those kinds of conversations. So let's work my way through the list. I put together a little bit of a list of things, um, and let's hope that some of this chimes with you. So first section is all about, uh, mindset. And at the end of the day, nearly everything about photography is what goes on in your head. So let's talk a little bit about your preparation and your mindset. First things first, you cannot, you cannot. Be objective about your own work. Alright? It's just not possible. And to be fair, no one can be truly objective about something that's creative. You can be subjective and you can be experienced, but you cannot ever be objective when it's your own work. The memory of the shoot, the memory of the [00:07:00] client, the memory of the moment will totally cloud your judgment. You cannot do it. You are, you are emotionally invested in your work. So be aware of that because you need to get a mentor now by a mentor. Ideally, it's someone who's been around a little bit, who's done a few things, knows their way around, competitions, the structures, the rules at the very least, um, hopefully, um, produces images that are of the standard you are hoping to produce, and preferably in a style that you wish to attain in a style that you wish to deliver. Because if you are in tune with that person, in tune with their work, you'll listen to them more. It doesn't necessarily mean they have more or less skill than another mentor, but if you like their work and respect what they do, you're more likely to pay attention to what they see and what they say to you. Now, if you can't get a mentor, at the very least, just pass it around some friends and see what people think and see [00:08:00] what they see. Be aware that your mom, or at least, my mom will always tell me my work is beautiful. Um, my mates are a little bit more brutal than that, but my mom will always tell me, but if you can find another photographer to give you a hand, it's the best thing you can do. Next thing, the only true failure about competitions in the sense of failure is to not enter. Entering isn't a failure. Entering and winning is obviously the success we will wish for entering and not winning is simply just another level of success. It's not quite what you wanted, and it's certainly not recognizing your success the way you'd like, but not entering is the only true failure. And of course with most competitions, they're anonymous. So who cares whether you enter and don't and your images aren't successful? Who cares whether your qualifications panel, um, doesn't get across the line? The only person who will tell the world is you. So if you are nervous, if you are concerned, if you're insecure, then [00:09:00] simply keep it under your hat until you need to. So enter the competitions. Go watch judging sessions. Not all judging sessions are public. The Societies they are, and of course, that's coming up in January as I record this. It's November 13th when I'm recording this. Um, but go and watch maybe The Society's judging. Um, go listen to the judges, particularly in the new Vogue category because every image will get a critique from a judge. Um, maybe think about the click conference, which has been on the past couple of years, because again, each image has a short critique from at least one judge. So you get to learn. A lot of judging is anonymous and quiet, and it's just score panels, and that's not as useful as it could be, I guess, uh, but do go and listen because it's a free masterclass in, uh, critiquing and in standards. Now you must, you must, and I'll come back to this later, read the rules. Um, so many images get [00:10:00] in the end either disqualified or have so many marks knocked off them that they might as well have been disqualified simply because the applicant did not pay attention to the rules. Whether it's about using ai, whether it's about composites, the wrong composites, whether it's about wrong print and presentation sizes, whether it's the wrong category and category definitions are sacred. As judges, we cannot move the images from one category to another. Even if we could see what the category should be, it's down to the applicant to move or to put the image rather into the correct category because if we move them, who knows, we might not just be helping you, um, win something. We might be helping somebody else lose something and we may still be getting it wrong. And also there's a bigger challenge, I think in the, the order of categories in which we judge means what if we wanted to move an image into a category that we've already finished and signed off? What do we [00:11:00] do? How do we do that? There's no way of doing that, not fairly. So judges cannot move images between categories. It's absolutely fundamental. So the category definitions are sacred. Read them, pay attention to them. Understand the nuance when it says domesticated animals. What does that mean when it says studio portrait? What does that mean? Don't just assume you know it because every association will have slightly different rules. Every association will interpret them slightly differently. Go and read them. Pay attention, make notes on them. If you are at all, um, confused or don't understand them, go and ask someone. Email the people running the competition. They will nearly always get straight back to you. Uh, give yourself time. Please give yourself time. There's always shipping delays, print issues, customs, nightmares these days are also part of the puzzle. Um, even recently we had stuff coming in, uh, from one of our supplies in Italy [00:12:00] and it just got stuck in customs in Italy coming outta the country rather than coming in. I don't know why it got stuck, but it got stuck. Um, and it wasn't for print competition, but it highlighted just how easy it is for you to miss a deadline, and this is one that's really close to me is that, um, I'm the last minute kind of guy last minute.com, and so I'm forever up against a deadline and I'm forever aware that I'm taking a huge risk. Um, unfortunately it's just the way my mind works and so I am truly qualified in making sure you do not make that mistake. Give yourself plenty of time. Uh, another one here, I dunno why I've put this in this particular section, but if I don't mention it now, I dunno whether I will, um, which is that, be careful of following trends blindly, being fashionable, creating images that are right now, the current trend is great. Of course, it's great. [00:13:00] But if you're gonna win a competition, you better be exceptional at it because everybody else is highly likely to be entering the same style of image. Image. And if you do that, if you are picking images that are similar to other people's, then the impact scores that the judges are looking for, the impact. And listen to my previous podcast about that, the impact is diminished because if we've seen 10 of the same style of image. Guess what? The winner will be the one that gave us the greatest impact. So it's highly likely to be one of the first couple, and it will certainly be the one that's probably the highest standard, because that's where the impact score is. So be very careful of doing that. I mean, I'm not saying strive always to be completely different because you think that's what you have to do to be good. You don't have to be different to be good. Being good is in and in and of itself different enough. But in competitions that stand out, that impact of seeing something you've [00:14:00] never seen before well, that does truly count. And on that, let's go on to section two, which is technical execution. Okay. So in the end, the execution is everything. Now for this, I recorded this thinking. This is mostly about print competitions and in a print, absolutely everything shows, and that's why we do it. We use print as a medium for assessing the creativity and the control of the photographer, and it exposes things that screens simply don't, or at least most screens don't. If you have the most expensive, truly calibrated monitor in a studio, that is the right light, um, levels. Um, and your, your monitor's been on for two hours, but you haven't been at the screen, um, for hours. And you can sit down with fresh eyes and look [00:15:00] at the screen. Yes, of course it will expose details, but there is something about print that seems to just surface both high points and low points in a photographer's process, which is why we do it. It's a really good way of assessing an image. So here are a few things. That we have seen on the technical side of it over sharpening, I cannot overstate about over sharpening. Over sharpening is a bit of a killer. Judges hate it and we always see it. In all the years I've done this, all the years I've done this, I've never heard a judge say This image is under sharpened. Now, I've heard judges say this image is blurred. I've heard this. Judges say This image has been blown up from a file that's too small. But I've never heard a judge say This image has been under sharpened. But I would state with a degree of confidence that in every [00:16:00] single session I've been a judge, one of the judges or myself have said, this image is over sharpened. And of course you see it in halos, you see these little lines around edges, and they're very easy to spot. If you are worried, if you, you are on the edge and you're thinking, have I sharpened it enough? Turn the sharpening down. Or indeed, with modern sensors, just turn it off. You don't need it. Print. Well control your exposure. Well control your colors. Well control your tones, well control your printing well, and you don't really need to sharpen very much, if at all. Uh, always do it last in the process. Once you've got your file to the size you want it to, the print size, you want it. Apply your sharpening right at the end of that chain. If you do it at the beginning. Um, I know there are pre- raw sharpeners and things out there. If you do your sharpening at the beginning, of course every edit you make runs the risk of exaggerating the effects of the sharpening. So always sharpen at the end if you need to at all. You must get your [00:17:00] exposure right. And by that I simply mean don't blow your highlights, don't block your blacks. Um, blown highlights, on the whole, are a nightmare. If there are blown highlights in a print, it is highly likely that the judges are gonna firstly spot it, and then secondly penalize for it. And I speak from experience here. There was an image that came up in the last round of judging where to me as a judge, everything about the image was essentially everything I would've liked to have created. The shape, the form, the moment, the emotion, the printing, the mounting, everything about it was on point. But some sunlight had coming through the ceiling in the, through the skylight, I think had clipped the edges of some shiny stone work had blown the highlights. And that became the sticking point with most of the judges. Um, I was willing to give some leeway on it, on this particular image, um, because the emotion of it was so powerful, but quite rightly, the other [00:18:00] judges challenged that. Um, and in the end I had to, of course, see their point of view because blown highlights, are blown highlights. Similarly with blocked shadows, and this is a little bit more subtle blown highlights are blown highlights, unless they're just a specular point on a shiny surface. Um, they are what they are. But blocked shadows are a little bit more nuanced because you have to ask yourself, would you see detail in that area of the print? And if the answer to that is yes, we would or would expect to then block shadows are a bit of a headache and you can't have them. If on the other hand you wanna put an image on a black background, then that's a slightly different conversation. You can have black areas, big blocked black areas, if that's your style, if it's a stylistic choice. Um, similarly, you can have big blocks of white as long

Husky voice, Friday night whiskey, and a mountain of cheese from the book launch. In this episode I lift the lid on what really happens inside a print judging room. The rotation of five from a pool of seven. Silent scoring so no one nudges anyone else. How a challenge works, what the chair actually does, and why we start with impact, dive through craft, then finish on impact again to see what survives. Layout over composition, light as the whole game, and a final re-rank that flattens time drift so the right image actually wins. If you enjoy a peek behind the curtain, you will like this one. You can grab a signed copy of the new Mastering Portrait Photography at masteringportraitphotography.com and yes, I will scribble in it. If you already have the book, a quick Amazon review helps more than you know. Fancy sharpening your craft in person? Check the workshops page for new dates and come play with light at the studio. The book: https://masteringportraitphotography.com/resource/signed-copy-mastering-portrait-photography-new-edition/ Workshops: https://masteringportraitphotography.com/workshops-and-mentoring/ Transcript [00:00:00] Hey, one and all. How are you doing? Now? I'll be honest, I still have the remnants of a cold, and if you can hear that in my voice, I do apologize, I suppose you could call it slightly bluesy, but you can definitely hear that I'm ever so slightly husky. It's Friday night, it's eight 30, and I was, I've been waiting a week to record this podcast, hoping my voice would clear it hasn't, and so I've taken the opportunity having a glass of whiskey and just cracking on. So if you like the sound of a slightly bluesy voice, that's great. If you don't, I'm really sorry, but whichever, which way I'm Paul. And this is the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast. So it's been a busy month or two. You can always tell when it's busy [00:01:00] 'cause the podcasts. Get, don't really get delivered in quite the pace I would like. However, it really has been a busy couple of weeks the past few. Let me, I'm gonna draw your attention to it. The past couple of weeks, we've, there's a ton of stuff going on around us for a moment. I was up in Preston. I've been up in Preston twice over the past couple of weeks. The first one was working as a qualifications judge for the BIPP, the British Institute Professional photographers. Um. Which I love judging. I love judging. It's exhausting, but I love it. And that was qualifications, panels. Then last week was the launch. Of the updated edition of Mastering Portrait Photography, the book, which is where it all started, where Sarah Plata and I published this book that seems to have been incredibly popular. 50,000 copies translated from English into four other languages. Chinese, Korean, German. And Italian, do not ask me, do not ask me the logic on why the book is in those [00:02:00] particular languages. To be fair, we only found out about the Chinese and Korean when we were trying to get some marketing material together to talk about the new book Nobody had told us. I'm not even sure the publisher knew, to be honest. Uh, but we have found copies. We have a Chinese copy here in the studio. I'm still trying to get a Korean version. So if you are listening to this. Podcast in Korea. Please tell me how to get hold of a version in Korean because we'd love to complete the set. There's, in fact, there's two Italian versions. We knew about that. There's a German version we knew about that hardback version. It's great. It's really beautiful. Very I, like I, I don't live in Germany and I don't like to stereotyping entire nation, but the quality of the book is incredible. It's absolutely rock solid, properly engineered. Love it. We have a Chinese version here but the Korean version still alludes us. However, this week the new version, mastering portrait photography is out. And as you know, I, Sarah interviewed me for the podcast last week to talk about it. Well, it's out. We've had our launch party, uh, we invited everybody who [00:03:00] has featured in the book who, everybody, every picture in the book that we asked the person in it to come to the studio for a soiree. And it was brilliant. I've never seen so much cheese in all my life, and by I don't mean my speech, I mean actual cheese. We had a pile of it, still eating it. So it's been a week and I'm still eating the cheese. I dunno quite how, well, quite by how much we vacated, but probably by several kilos. Which I'm enjoying thoroughly. I've put on so much weight this week, it's unreal, but I'm enjoying the cheese. And then on Sunday we had an open day where we had set the studio out with some pictures from the book and some notes of the different people. Who featured and what I might do, actually, I'd, I wonder if I can do a visual podcast. I might do a visual podcast where I talk about those images, at some point on the website, on masteringportraitportraitphotography.com. I will do the story and the BTS and the production of every single image that's in the book, but it's gonna take me some [00:04:00] time. There's nearly 200 images in there. Um, and every one of them, bar one is a new image or is, is. It is, it is a new image in the book, and it has been taken in the 10 years or the decades subsequent to the first book, all bar one. Feel free to email me. Email me the image you think it might be. You'll probably guess it, but it's it's definitely in there. Um, and so it's been really busy. And then at the beginning of this week, I spent two days up in Preston again, judging again, but this time it was for the British Institute of Professional Photographers print Masters competition. Ah, what, what a joy. Six other judges and me, a chair of judges. Print handlers, the organizers. Ah, I mean, I've seen so many incredible images over those 48 hours, and in this podcast I want to talk a bit about how we do it, why we do it, what it feels like to do it, [00:05:00] because I'm not sure everybody understands that it's it, it's not stressful, but we do as judges, feel the pressure. We know that we are representing, on the one hand, the association as the arbiters of the quality of the curators of these competitions, but also we feel the pressure of the authors because we are there too. We also enter competitions and we really, really hope the judges pay attention, really investigate and interrogate the images that we've entered. And when, when you enter competitions, that heightens the pressure to do a good job for the authors who you are judging. So in this podcast, I'm gonna talk through some of the aspects of that. Forgive me if it sounds like I'm answering questions. It's because I wrote myself some questions. I wrote some [00:06:00] questions down to, how I structures the podcast usually, uh, the podcast rambles along, but this one I actually set out with a structure to it, so forgive me if it sounds like I'm answering questions. It's 'cause I'm answering my own questions. What does it feel like? How do you do it? Et cetera, et cetera. Anyway, I hope it's useful. Enjoy. And it gives you an insight into what it's like to be a competition judge. Okay. As you walk into the judging room. For me at least, it's mostly a sense of excitement. There's a degree of apprehension. There's a degree of tension, but mostly there's an adrenaline rush. Knowing that we're about to sit and view, assess, score these incredible images from photographers all over the world, and let's remember that every photographer when they enter a print competition, which is what I'm talking about primarily here. Every photographer [00:07:00] believes that print that category that year, could win. Nobody enters an image thinking that it doesn't stand a chance. Now you might do that modest thing of, I don't know, you know? Oh no, I don't. I I just chance my arm. No one enters a print they don't think has a chance of doing well. That just doesn't happen. It's too expensive. It takes too much time. And as judges. We are acutely aware of that. So when you walk into the room, lots of things are going in your on, in your heads. Primarily, you know, you are there to do a job. You are there to perform a task. You are going to put your analytical head on and assess a few hundred images over the next 48 hours. But as you walk in, there's a whole series of things. You, you are gonna assess the room. You see that your fellow judges, you're gonna see the print handlers. You're going to see the chair, you're gonna see the people [00:08:00] from whichever association it is who are organizing it, who or who have organized it. You'll see stacks of prints ready to be assessed. There's a whole series of things that happen. A lot of hugging. It's really lovely. This year the panel of judges, uh, had some people in it I haven't seen for quite a few years, and it was beyond lovely to see them. So there's all of that, but you, there's this underlying tension you are about to do. One of the things you love doing more than anything else in as part of your job. So there's the excitement of it and the joy of it, but there's always this gentle underlying tone of gravitas of just how serious it is. What we are doing. So there will be plenty of laughter, plenty of joy, but you never really take your eye off the task in hand. And that's how it feels as you go to take your seats on the judging [00:09:00] panel. So the most important thing, I think, anyway, and I was chair of qualifications and awards for the BIPP for a number of years, is that the whole room, everybody there is acting as a team. If you are not gonna pull as a team, it doesn't work. So there has to be safety, there has to be structure. There has to be a process and all of these things come together to provide a framework in which you assess and create the necessary scores and results for the association, for the photographers, for the contestants. So you take your seats, and typically in a room, there are gonna be five judges at any one time assessing an image. It's typically five. I've seen it done other ways, but a panel of judges is typically five. The reason we have five is at no point do all of the judges agree. [00:10:00] We'll go through this later in more detail, but the idea is that you have enough judges that you can have contention, you can have. Disagreements, but as a panel of judges, you'll come up with a score. So you'll have five judges sitting assessing an image at any one time. To the side of the room, there'll be two more judges typically. Usually we have a pool of seven, five judges working, two judges sitting out every 10 prints or 10 minutes or whatever the chair decides. They'll we'll rotate along one, so we'll all move along one seat and one of the spare judges will come in and sit on the end and one of the existing judges will step off. And we do that all day, just rotating along so that everybody judges, broadly speaking, the same number of images. Now, of course there is a degree of specialism in the room. If a panel has been well selected, there'll be specialists in each of the categories, but you can't have, let's say there's 15 categories. You [00:11:00] can't have five specialist judges per category. That's simply impractical. Um, you know, having, what's that, 75 judges in a room, just so that you can get through the 15 categories is. A logistics task, a cost. Even just having a room that big, full of judges doesn't work. So every judge is expected to be reasonably multi-talented, even if you don't shoot, for instance, landscapes. You have to have a working knowledge of what's required of a great landscape. Because our job as a panel isn't that each of us will spot all of the same characteristics in an image, all of the same defects, all of the same qualities. Each judge has been picked to bring their own. Sort of viewpoint, if you like, to the image. Some judges are super technical, some judges, it's all about the atmosphere. Some judges, it's all about the printing and there's every bit of image production is [00:12:00] covered by each of the individual specialisms of the judges. And so while there is a degree of specialism, there will be a landscape. Specialist in the room or someone who works in landscape, there will be plenty of portrait photographers, wedding photographers, commercial photographers. The idea is from those seven, we can cover all of those bases. So we have seven judges all at fellowship level, all highly skilled, all experienced. And then there's the chair. Now the chair's role is not to affect the actual score. The chair's role is to make sure the judges have considered everything that they should be considering. That's the Chair's job, is to make sure the judges stay fresh, keep an eye on the scores, keep an eye on the throughput. Make sure that every image and every author are given a. The time and consideration that they are due. What do I mean by that? Well, I just mean the photographers spent a lot of time and effort and [00:13:00] finance putting this print in front of us, and so it's really important that we as judges give it due consideration. The chair, that's their role is to make sure that's what really happens. So the process is pretty simple, really. We will take our seats as a panel of judges and when we are settled. The chair will ask for the print, one of the print handlers. There's normally a couple of print handlers in the room, one to put the image on, one to take the image off. The print handler will take the first image or the next image off the pile and place it in front of us on the light box. They will then check the print to make sure there's no visible or obvious dust marks, um, or anything, and give with an air blower or with the back of a a handling glove, or very gently take any dust spots away. They will then step back. Now, the way the judges are set, there are five seats in a gentle arc, usually around the light [00:14:00] box. The outer two judges, judges one and five will step into the light box and examine or interrogate the print carefully. They will take as much time as they need to ascertain what they believe the score for that image should be. They will then take their seats. The next two judges in, so let's say Judge two and four, they will step in to interrogate the print and do exactly the same thing. When they're ready, they'll step back and sit down. And then the middle judge, the final judge in seat three, they will step up and interrogate the print. And the reason we do it that way is that everybody gets to see the print thoroughly. Everybody gets to spend enough time. Examining the print. And at that point, when we all sit down, we all enter our scores onto whatever the system is we're using either using iPads or keypads. There's all sorts of ways of doing it, but what's really important is we do all of this in total silence and we don't really do it because we need to be able to [00:15:00] concentrate. Though that has happened, sort of distracting noises can play havoc. Um, we really do it so that we are not influencing any other judge. So there's no, oh, this is rubbish, or, oh, this is amazing. Or any of this stuff, because the idea is that each judge will come to their own independent score. We enter them, and then there's a process as to what happens next. So that's the process. If at some point a single judge when the image appears, says, I can't judge this for whatever reason, usually it's because they've seen the image before. I mean, there's one this week where I hadn't directly influenced the image. But the author had shown me how they'd done it, so they'd stepped me through the Photoshopping, the construction, the shooting, everything about the image. I knew the image really well, and so when the image appeared on the light box, I knew while I could judge it, it wasn't fair to the author or to the other [00:16:00] competitors that I should. So I raised my hand, checked in with the chair, chair, asked me what I wanted. I said, I need to step off this. I'm too familiar with the work for me to give this a cold read, an objective read. So I if, if possible, if there's another judge, could they just step in and score this one image for me? And that means it's fair for all of the contestants. So that's that bit of process when we come to our score. Let's assume the score's fine. Let's assume, I dunno, it gets an 82, which is usually a merit or a bronze, whatever the system is. The chair will log that, she'll say that image scored 82, which is the average of all five of us. She'll then check in with the scores and the panel of judges. He or she rather, uh, they, so they will look at us and go, are you all happy with that result? That's really important. Are you all happy? Would that result? Because that's the opportunity as judges for one of us, if we're not comfortable that the image is scored where we think it probably should. And [00:17:00] remember with five of you, if the score isn't what you think, you could be the one who's not got your eye in or you haven't spotted something, it might well be you, but it's your job as a judge to make sure if there's any doubt in your mind about the scoring of an image that. You ask for it to be assessed again, for there to be discussion for the team to do its job because it might be that the other members of the panel haven't seen something that you have or you haven't seen something that they have, that both of those can be true. So it's really important that you have a process and you have a strict process. And this is how it works. So the chair will say you are happy. One of the judges may say. No, I'm not happy or may say I would like to challenge that or may simply say, I think this warrants a discussion. I'm gonna start it off. And then there's a process for doing that. [00:18:00] So the judge who raises the challenge will start the dialogue and they'll start in whichever direction it is that they think the scoring is not quite right. They will start the dialogue that way. So let's say the score, the judge who's raising a challenge says the score feels a little low. What happens then is raise a challenge and that judge will discuss the image or talk to the image in a way that is positive and trying to raise the score. And they're gonna do that by drawing attention to the qualities that they feel the image has, that maybe they're worried the other judges haven't seen when they're done, the next judge depends, depending on the chair and how you do it. The next judge will take their turn and he goes all the way around with every judge having their say. And then it comes back to the originating judge who has the right of a rebuttal, which simply means to answer back. So depending on how the [00:19:00] dialogue has gone it may be that you say thank you to all of the judges. I'm glad you saw my point. It would be great if we could give this the score that I think this deserves. Similarly, you occasionally, and I did do one of these where I raised a challenge, um, where I felt an image hadn't scored, or the judges hadn't seen something that maybe I had seen in the image, and then very quickly realized that four judges had seen a defect that I hadn't. And so my challenge, it was not, it's never a waste of a challenge. It's never ever a waste because it's really important that every image is given the consideration it deserves. But at the end of the challenge that I raised, the scoring stayed exactly the same. I stayed, I said thank you to all of the judges for showing me some stuff that I hadn't noticed. And then we moved on. More often than not, the scores move as the judges say, oh, do you know what, you're right, there is something in this. Or, no, you're right. We've overinflated this because we saw things, but we missed these technical defects. It's those kinds of conversations. So that's a, a chair, that's a, a judge's [00:20:00] challenge. Yeah, this process also kicks in

Ten years, 50,000+ copies, four languages, and about a million stories later… the second edition of Mastering Portrait Photography is here. Sarah flips the mic and grills me about why we did a new edition, what changed (spoiler: basically everything but one image), how mirrorless and AI have shifted the craft, and why a tiny chapter on staying creative might be the most important two pages I’ve ever written. There’s a Westie called Dodi, a cover star called Dory, and a street scene in La Boca that still makes me grin. Enjoy! Links: Signed Copy of Mastering Portrait Photography, New Edition - https://masteringportraitphotography.com/resource/signed-copy-mastering-portrait-photography-new-edition/ Transcript: Sarah: So welcome back to the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast and today's a special one. Hi, I'm Sarah, and I'm the business partner of Paul at Paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk and also his wife too. Now, you might already know him as the voice behind this podcast, but today I'm gonna get the rare pleasure of turning the microphone around and asking him the questions. So Paul, it's been 10 years since the first edition of mastering portrait photography hit the shelves, and with selling over 50,000 copies, multiple reprints and translation into four languages, it's safe to say it's had a bit of an impact, but as we all know, photography doesn't stand still and neither do you. So today we're diving into the brand new second edition. So Hello Paul. Paul: Hello. It feels weird saying hello to my wife in a way that makes it sound like we've only just met. Sarah: Mm. Maybe, maybe. Paul: The ships that pass in the night. Sarah: Yes. So I thought we'd start with talking about the, the first version. You know, how did it come about? A bit of the origin story about it. Um, and I'll leave that with you. Paul: Well, of course Confusingly, it's co-authored with another Sarah, um, another photographer. And the photographer and brilliant writer called Sarah Plater, and she approached us actually, it wasn't my instigation, it was Sarah's, and she had written another book with another photographer on the Foundations of Photography. Very popular book. But she wanted to progress and had been approached by the publisher to create Mastering Portrait Photography. This thing that we now have become used to didn't exist 10 years ago, and when she approached us, it was because she needed someone who could demonstrate photographic techniques that would live up to the title, mastering portrait photography. And we were lucky enough to be that photographer. And so that first book was really a, a sort of trial and error process of Sarah sitting and interviewing me over and over and over and over and over, and talking about the techniques that photographers use in portraiture. Some of it very sort of over the sort of cursory look, some of it in depth, deep dives, but all of it focusing on how to get the very best out of your camera, your techniques, and the people in front of you. And that's how it came about. I mean, little did I know 10 years ago we'd be sitting here where we are with Mastering Portrait Photography as a brand in and of itself.This is the Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast Yes, because the book sold so well. Sarah: And did you expect it to do as well as it Paul : Oh, I'm a typical photographer, so, no, of course I didn't, you know, I kind of shrugged and thought it'd be all right. Um, and, and in some ways, because you have to boil it down into, I think there's a 176 pictures or there, there were in the first book or somewhere around there, a couple of hundred pages. There's this sense that there's no way you can describe everything you do in that short amount of space. And so instead of, and I think this is true of all creatives, instead of looking what we achieve. We look at the things we haven't done. And I talk about this on the podcast regularly, the insecurity, you know, how to, how to think like a scientist. That's something that will come up later when we talk about the new version of the book. But no, I, I thought it would be reasonably well accepted. I thought it was a beautiful book. I thought Sarah's words were brilliant. I thought she'd captured the, the processes that I was talking about in a way that clarified them because I'm not known for my clarity of thought. You know, you know, I am who I am, I'm a creative, um, and actually what happened was the minute it was launched, the feedback we got has been amazing. And of course then it's gone on to be translated into Italian. A couple of different Italian versions for National Geographic. It's been translated into Korean, it's been translated into German, it's been translated into Chinese. Um, and of course, technically it's been translated into American English. And, and one of the reviews that made me laugh, we've got amazing reviews on Amazon, but there is one that kind of made me laugh, but also upset me slightly, is that both Sarah and myself are British authors. Using English uk, UK English, but for the international market right from the get go the book was using American spellings, Sarah: right? Paul : We didn't know that was what was gonna happen. We provided everything in UK English and of course it went out in with American English as its base language. Its originating language. Um, and that's one of the biggest criticisms we Sarah: got. Paul - Studio Rode Broadcaster V4 (new AI): And when that's the criticism you're getting that people are a bit fed up that it's in American English and apologies to my US friends, of which I have many. Um, it was the only one that really. I don't like that. So I thought, well, it must be all right. And so for 10 years it's been selling really well. book. I never knew it'd be in different languages. Um, it was in the original contract that if the publisher wanted to do that, they could. And really, I only found out it was an Italian when I started getting messages in Italian from people who'd bought the book in Italy. And then of course, we found out. So it's been a remarkable journey and. I don't think I've been as proud of something we've done as I have of the book. I mean, me and you spent hours pouring over pictures and talking about stories. Sarah had to then listen to me. Sarah: Yes. Paul: Mono, sort of giving these sort of diatribes on techniques and things we do. Um, you know, and I think, I think it's a remark. I, well, I still think it's a remarkable achievement. I'm really proud of it. Sarah: Yes. Did, did you think the second edition would, would happen or, um, or how did it come about? Paul: No, not really. Because if you remember, we did a sort of interim update, which was just off the ISBN, so the same ISBN, same book number, but we'd been asked if there was anything that needed tweaking minor word changes, those kinds of things. And I assumed not really being, you know, that time experienced with this stuff is that was. Was a second edition, it was basically a reprint. So I sort of assumed that was the end of it. And then, um, we were contacted the end of last year, um, to say that with the success of the book over the past decade, would we consider, uh, refreshing it properly refreshing it, a new updated edition because of course there's lots of things that change over time. Um. And it's, it was worth having another look at it. So no, I didn't expect it, but it was an absolute joy when the email came in It must have been. It's, it's one of those things that's so lovely when other people appreciate it and know that, um, it would be really good to have a, have another go at it and, uh, see what's changed. Sarah: So it kind of brings me onto what, what have you changed in it? What's, what are the new, the new bits that are in the second edition? Or was it even that from the first edition? You, you knew that there were things you'd love to include? Paul: Well, in a decade, so much changes. I. The equipment is the most obvious. You know, there's a chapter at the beginning on Kit, so you know, one of these dilemmas with books. I think again, we took advice from the publisher as to what do you include in a book? And the publisher were really keen and have stayed really keen that there's a chapter on the kit at the beginning. Um, and apparently that just helps a very particular part of the market sell. So that's fair enough. No problem with that. It's quite fun talking about technology. I don't mind it. Um, but of course that technology's evolved, so we had to update all of that to reflect the fact that 10 years ago we were just beginning to talk about the advent of mirrorless cameras, but they were nowhere near the quality of a digital SLR, for instance. Well, now mirrorless is the professional choice. Everything has gone mirrorless because it's got fewer moving parts. The sensors have increased in, um, sensitivity to focusing, you know, there's a million reasons why that's happened. So of course we've updated all of the technology. I think more importantly, certainly from my point of view is in those 10 intervening years, I've changed every picture. Our clients, the techniques, the. Post-production, the thought processes, um, even down to the fact that with mirrorless cameras, you can actually shoot in a slightly different way. I mean, I'm a traditionalist in many ways. I grew up with a film camera. Yes. So, you know, metering either using a meter or very careful control. Because your dynamic range is pretty limited. Um, maybe the fact that you would focus on a point and then wait for whatever it is that's moving through it, to move through it and take your, take your picture. Um, these were the kind of techniques, you know, lock your focus repose when I started, even even A-D-S-L-R, you know, I'll give you a really good example on how the technology has helped, though. It's not actually part of this book, but it's a, it's a really good illustrative point. Um, technology isn't the be all and end all of photography. What goes on in your head is what matters, but the technology is the enabler. And I work with the hearing dogs every week. We photograph running dogs all the time and with the DSLRs I was using, it would just take four goes, maybe five goes to get that perfect moment where the dog is spot perfect in focus. It's airborne, its paws are off the floor. Everything about it is absolutely right. Four or five goes, you know, because I'm shooting at maybe 10 frames a second. The focusing is more or less keeping up because of course, every time you take a picture, the mirror slaps up and the focusing then has to predict where the dog might have ended up. It's not doing, it's not tracking it at that point, and then you move to mirrorless. Um, and the Z9 that I use now, the Nikon is an unbelievable piece of kit. It locks onto the dog. I can shoot at 20 frames a second. Um, and one of those shots is invariably the shot I'm looking for. And, and that sounds like I'm cheating in some ways, but when you are a professional photographer, your job is to do the very best for your client. And so instead of spending an inordinate, inordinate amount, it's not easy for me to say a very long time. Um. You know, trying to get the right shot. Now I can do it very quickly and move on to another shot so we can provide a wider variety to our clients. And that's true with running children too. Yes. So the technology has changed and the techniques have changed with it. Um, now you're seeing on the back of your camera or through the viewfinder exactly the image. Not a facsimile of it, not a mirror. Prism view of it, you're seeing precisely what you're gonna capture. Um, and that gives you a huge amount of confidence in the shot and a huge amount of control too. You can really fine tune exactly how you want the exposure to be. For instance, you know, you don't have to worry about, is that right? Let's must check the histogram afterwards. You can check the histogram, live in the viewfinder and all these little bits, just make your job different. They, you connect with the shot in a different way. You connect with a client in a different way, and that's the tech side. But I've also, you know, I, in 10 years, I'm 10 years older. You know, in some ways I'm 10 years faster. In other ways, I'm 10 years slower. You know, the cameras are quicker, my shots are quicker, my knees are slower. Um, and it's a different perspective on life. I also teach a lot. The podcast, the book itself, the first edition of the book, led us to the podcast and the website where we run workshops and everything else. So all of this cumulative knowledge, when you look back at the old book, and while I'm still massively proud of it, the new edition was a wonderful opportunity to sit down and say, what would I like, how would I like to be represented this time? Yes, and it's a much more grown up approach, I think. I mean, I, I wasn't a kid back then, but this time around because the book was successful, instead of providing 10 pictures for every slot, I provided the picture I want, in that slot. Right? And so the book is much closer to how I would like it to be as a photographer. Every picture. Now, I could tell you a story about every single picture, every single client, and having the luxury of success on the first version gave me the luxury of being able to do more of what I wanted in this version. This is much more reflective, I think. Of me personally. Yes. And so I've, I've loved it. It's absolutely, it's such a, a lovely process to go through. Sarah: So how many pictures have been changed between the two versions? Paul: All bar one. Sarah: bar one. How intriguing. So will you tell us what the one is, or is that Paul: can, you can go and find that out for yourself. Yeah, so there's one single image that hasn't been changed. There's single image that hasn't been but every other image has has changed from the first edition. Uh, just a caveat to that, of course, some of the kit pictures, uh, 'cause they were generic, they've stayed the same. But every portrait, Wow. every single portrait except for one, has been changed. Sarah: And how did you go about choosing those pictures? 'cause I can imagine, you know, if you're starting effectively with a blank canvas for where the images have gotta go, uh, how on earth did you do that Paul: Um, slowly the publisher will tell you, uh. The thing to you have to remember though, is that this is an updated edition. Yes. And that was the contract. It was not a complete start again. So, although I had the opportunity to change every picture, every picture had to fit into an almost identical space because they weren't gonna redesign it. Right. It's updated edition and we have to be clear about that. So part of the puzzle was not just, which pictures do I want to illustrate, which point. It was, which pictures in the same shape previous do I want to illustrate? I mean, there's some wiggle room in there, but the designers did not want to do a full redesign. That was not what we were contracted for. Um, obviously the words were being updated too. And both Sarah and myself, um, I mean, since the first book I now write for magazines and online articles and things all the time, I write for all sorts of photography stuff. Um, and so actually both Sarah and myself wrote words this time round. Um, but nonetheless, we couldn't change too much. We could bring it up to date, but there, there were still bits that, you know, if I was being truly honest, there are things that I think in the past 10 years have become less relevant. And things, it would've been nice to have put some different stuff in, but that again, this is an updated edition, um, not a complete from the ground up rewrite. So actually I sat down and I looked at all of the, um, chapters and the words that we'd written in the first edition and thought about what we were trying to illustrate and went back to sort of basics really, and where I already had pictures in the portfolio. Um, we used pictures of great clients, interesting light, interesting locations, interesting techniques where there are certain things where, I'm not sure, the first time round, um, the illustrations of them were as good as I, as strong as I would've liked. I shot them again here in the studio, so things like the lighting pattern. You know, I have, I've talked about them for 10 years, these lighting patterns. So it was a really nice chance to sit Katie, who works for us in the studio, uh, to sit Katie in front of the camera and say, right, this is what we're gonna do. And I worked every lighting pattern and redrew every diagram to make that absolutely on point, which I think the first time round, while they are very, very good. They're not what I would've liked them to be this time round. So there was that side of it too. And then of course, and I'm sure you're gonna come onto it, there's a couple of, well, there's a new chapter in there which did give us a chance to explore something a little bit different. Um, so yeah, it was just a long process of finding pictures that if I'm gonna put my name to it, are the ones that I would like. Yes. And it's not always the best picture. It's not always the competition winners. they're in there. They are in there. Of course they're in there. Um, but I think this time round, um, I really enjoyed reminiscing. I think some of the pictures in there, they're all beautiful pictures, don't get me wrong. But some of the people I picked to be in them are people because actually that was a moment that I will remember for the rest of my life for all sorts of reasons. And I think the, the strongest example of that is our cover shot is Dory now. The story of Dory. That sounds really weird. The story of Dory? photo. Dory. Story of photograph. Oh yeah, my you met Dory? Or should we go with I dunno if the story of Dory that's like, sounds like a children's book. That'd be a great chance to write a children's book. So Sarah and I were having dinner. Dory was working in the restaurant that, uh, we are having dinner in. Um, I laughed to Sarah and said, I think, um, Dory would photograph beautifully. Sarah said, we'll, go and ask her. And I asked her and she said, no. She absolutely said no, categorically. And I said, okay. Then I wrote our email address, sorry, I wrote our web address. Uh, on the back of a, of a napkin and handed it to her. I said, look, you know, if you're not interested, that's fine, but have a look at my work. Um, and this was after the first edition of mastering portrait photography, and my idea was for Dorie to come to the studio and we'd film some stuff where we photographed her and use it for information, stuff for people who read the book and maybe create some YouTube videos and things. Um, anyway, at four o'clock in the morning, got an email back from Dory saying, actually, I've just looked at your work. Yes, please. And Dory has gone on to be someone we've worked with fairly regularly. Um, mostly, um, because she's just the nicest person in the world, but also she's supremely photogenic and you bring those two things together and they're the kind of people I love to work with. I love to celebrate. Photography with, so her picture, one of those pictures I shot in that session is the cover shot in the book and she features later on as well. 'cause she's come back with her husband and her kids and it's just a delight. And then there, you know, there are people from all over the world. Um, and so there's a lot of memories in there for both me and for you I Yes, Um, and it was, uh, just a pleasure to go through it. Oh, and the other thing is every single shot is shot since we published the first edition. So I did limit us to the past 10 everything is limited to what, what you've captured in the last 10 years? Yeah. Yes. Because figured that, um, if you're gonna do an updated edition, then, although there were pictures in the first version of the book

EP166 Interview With Mark & Simon From Elinchrom UK I sit down with Mark Cheatham and Simon Burfoot from Elinchrom UK to talk about the two words that matter most when you work with light: accuracy and consistency. We dig into flash vs. continuous, shaping light (not just adding it), why reliable gear shortens your workflow, and Elinchrom’s new LED 100 C—including evenly filling big softboxes and that handy internal battery. We also wander into AI: threats, tools, and why authenticity still carries the highest value. Links: Elinchrom UK store/info: https://elinchrom.co.uk/ LED 100 C product page: https://elinchrom.co.uk/elinchrom-led-100-c Rotalux Deep Octa / strips: https://elinchrom.co.uk/elinchrom-rotalux-deep-octabox-100cm-softbox/ My workshop dates: https://masteringportraitphotography.com/workshops-and-mentoring/ Transcript: Paul: as quite a lot of, you know, I've had a love affair with Elinchrom Lighting for the past 20 something years. In fact, I'm sitting with one of the original secondhand lights I bought from the Flash Center 21 years ago in London. And on top of that, you couldn't ask for a nicer set of guys in the UK to deal with. So I'm sitting here about to talk to Simon and Mark from Elinchrom uk. I'm Paul and this is the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast. Paul: So before we get any further, tell me a little bit about who you are, each of you and the team from Elinchrom UK Mark: After you, Simon. Simon: Thank you very much, mark. Mark: That's fine. Simon: I'm, Simon Burfoot. I have, been in the industry now for longer than I care to think. 35 years almost to the, to the day. Always been in the industry even before I left school because my father was a photographer and a lighting tutor, working for various manufacturers I was always into photography, and when he started the whole lighting journey. I got on it with him, and was learning from a very young age. Did my first wedding at 16 years old. Had a Saturday job which turned into a full-time job in a retail camera shop. By the time I was 18, I was managing my own camera shop, in a little town in the Cotswolds called Cirencester. My dad always told me that to be a photographic rep in the industry, you needed to see it from all angles, to get the experience. So I ended up, working in retail, moving over to a framing company. Finishing off in a prolab, hand printing, wedding photographers pictures, processing E6 and C41, hand correcting big prints for framing for, for customers, which was really interesting and I really enjoyed it. And then ended up working for a company called Leeds Photo Visual, I was a Southwest sales guy for them. Then I moved to KJP before it became, what we know now as Wex, and got all of the customers back that I'd stolen for them for Leeds. And then really sort of started my career progressing through, and then started to work with Elinchrom, on the lighting side. Used Elinchrom way before I started working with them. I like you a bit of a love affair. I'd used lots of different lights and, just loved the quality of the light that the Elinchrom system produced. And that's down to a number of factors that I could bore you with, but it's the quality of the gear, the consistency in terms of color, and exposure. Shooting film was very important to have that consistency because we didn't have Photoshop to help us out afterwards. It was a learning journey, but I, I hit my goal after being a wedding photographer and a portrait photographer in my spare time, working towards getting out on the road, meeting people and being involved in the industry, which I love. And I think it's something that I'm scared of leaving 'cause I dunno anything else. It's a wonderful industry. It has its quirks, its, downfalls at points, but actually it's a really good group of people and everyone kind of, gets on and we all love working with each other. So we're friends rather than colleagues. Paul: I hesitate to ask, given the length of that answer, to cut Simon: You did ask. Mark: I know. Paul: a short story Mark: was wondering if I was gonna get a go. Paul: I was waiting to get to end into the podcast and I was about to sign off. Mark: So, hi Mark Cheatham, sales director for Elinchrom uk this is where it gets a little bit scary because me and Simon have probably known each other for 10 years, yet our journeys in the industry are remarkably similar. I went to college, did photography, left college, went to work at commercial photographers and hand printers. I was a hand printer, mainly black and white, anything from six by four to eight foot by four foot panels, which are horrible when you're deving in a dish. But we did it. Paul: To the generation now, deving in a dish doesn't mean anything. Simon: No, it doesn't. Mark: And, and when you're doing a eight foot by four foot print and you've got it, you're wearing most of the chemistry. You went home stinking every night. I was working in retail. As a Saturday lad and then got promoted from the Saturday lad to the manager and went to run a camera shop in a little town in the Lake District called Kendall. I stayed there for nine years. I left there, went on the road working for a brand called Olympus, where I did 10 years, I moved to Pentax, which became Rico Pentax. I did 10 years there. I've been in the industry all my life. Like Simon, I love the industry. I did go out the industry for 18 months where I went into the wonderful world of high end commercial vr, selling to blue light military, that sort of thing. And then came back. One of the, original members of Elinchrom uk. I don't do as much photography as Simon I take photos every day, probably too many looking at my Apple storage. I do shoot and I like shooting now and again, but I'm not a constant shooter like you guys i'm not a professional shooter, but when you spent 30 odd years in the industry, and part of that, I basically run the, the medium format business for Pentax. So 645D, 645Z. Yeah, it was a great time. I love the industry and, everything about it. So, yeah, that's it Paul: Obviously both of you at some point put your heads together and decided Elinchrom UK was the future. What triggered that and why do you think gimme your sales pitch for Elinchrom for a moment and then we can discuss the various merits. Simon: The sales pitch for Elinchrom is fairly straightforward. It's a nice, affordable system that does exactly what most photographers would like. We sell a lot of our modifiers, so soft boxes and things like that to other users, of Prophoto, Broncolor. Anybody else? Because actually the quality of the light that comes out the front of our diffusion material and our specular surfaces on the soft boxes is, is a lot, lot more superior than, than most. A lot more superior. A lot more Mark: A lot more superior. Paul: more superior. Simon: I'm trying to Paul: Superior. Simon: It's superior. And I think Paul, you'll agree, Paul: it's a lot more, Simon: You've used different manufacturers over the years and, I think the quality of light speaks for itself. As a photographer I want consistency. Beautiful light and the effects that the Elinchrom system gives me, I've tried other soft boxes. If you want a big contrasty, not so kind light, then use a cheaper soft box. If I've got a big tattoo guy full of piercings you're gonna put some contrasty light to create some ambience. Maybe the system for that isn't good enough, but for your standard portrait photographer in a studio, I don't think you can beat the light. Mark: I think the two key words for Elinchrom products are accuracy and consistency. And that's what, as a portrait photographer, you should be striving for, you don't want your equipment to lengthen your workflow or make your job harder in post-production. If you're using Elinchrom lights with Elinchrom soft boxes or Elinchrom modifiers, you know that you're gonna get accuracy and consistency. Which generally makes your job easier. Paul: I think there's a bit that neither of you, I don't think you've quite covered, and it's the bit of the puzzle that makes you want to use whatever is the tool of your trade. I mean, I worked with musicians, I grew up around orchestras. Watching people who utterly adore the instrument that's in their hand. It makes 'em wanna play it. If you own the instrument that you love to play, whether it's a drum kit a trumpet a violin or a piano, you will play it and get the very best out of your talent with it. It's just a joy to pick it up and use it for all the little tiny things I think it's the bit you've missed in your descriptions of it is the utter passion that people that use it have for it. Mark: I think one of the things I learned from my time in retail, which was obviously going back, a long way, even before digital cameras One of the things I learned from retail, I was in retail long before digital cameras, retail was a busier time. People would come and genuinely ask for advice. So yes, someone would come in and what's the best camera for this? Or what's the best camera for that? Honestly there is still no answer to that. All the kit was good then all the kit is good now. You might get four or five different SLRs out. And the one they'd pick at the end was the one that they felt most comfortable with and had the best connection with. When you are using something every day, every other day, however it might be, it becomes part of you. I'm a F1 fan, if you love the world of F1, you know that an F1 car, the driver doesn't sit in an F1 car, they become part of the F1 car. When you are using the same equipment day in, day out, you don't have to think about what button to press, what dial to to turn. You do it. And that, I think that's the difference between using something you genuinely love and get on with and using something because that's what you've got. And maybe that's a difference you genuinely love and get on with Elinchrom lights. So yes, they're given amazing output and I know there's, little things that you'd love to see improved on them, but that's not the light output. Paul: But the thing is, I mean, I've never, I've never heard the F1 analogy, but it's not a bad one. When you talk about these drivers and their cars and you are right, they're sort of symbiotic, so let's talk a little bit about why we use flash. So from the photographers listening who are just setting out, and that's an awful lot of our audience. I think broadly speaking, there are two roads or three roads, if you include available light if you're a portrait photographer. So there's available light. There's continuous light, and then there's strobes flash or whatever you wanna call it. Of course, there's, hybrid modeling and all sorts of things, but those are broadly the three ways that you're gonna light your scene or your subject. Why flash? What is it about that instantaneous pulse of light from a xenon tube that so appealing to photographers? Simon: I think there's a few reasons. The available light is lovely if you can control it, and by that I mean knowing how to use your camera, and control the ambient light. My experience of using available light, if you do it wrong, it can be quite flat and uninteresting. If you've got a bright, hot, sunny day, it can be harder to control than if it's a nice overcast day. But then the overcast day will provide you with some nice soft, flat lighting. Continuous light is obviously got its uses and there's a lot of people out there using it because what they see is what they get. The way I look at continuous light is you are adding to the ambient light, adding more daylight to the daylight you've already got, which isn't a problem, but you need to control that light onto the subject to make the subject look more interesting. So a no shadow, a chin shadow to show that that subject is three dimensional. There are very big limitations with LED because generally it's very unshapable. By that I mean the light is a very linear light. Light travels in straight lines anyway, but with a flash, we can shape the light, and that's why there's different shapes and sizes of modifiers, but it's very difficult to shape correctly -an LED array, the flash for me, gives me creativity. So with my flash, I get a sharper image to start with. I can put the shadows and the light exactly where I want and use the edge of a massive soft box, rather than the center if I'm using a flash gun or a constant light. It allows me to choose how much or how little contrast I put through that light, to create different dynamics in the image. It allows me to be more creative. I can kill the ambient light with flash rather than adding to it. I can change how much ambient I bring into my flash exposure. I've got a lot more control, and I'm not talking about TTL, I'm talking about full manual control of using the modifier, the flash, and me telling the camera what I want it to do, rather than the camera telling me what it thinks is right. Which generally 99% of the time is wrong. It's given me a beautiful, average exposure, but if I wanted to kill the sun behind the subject, well it's not gonna do that. It's gonna give me an average of everything. Whereas Flash will just give me that extra opportunity to be a lot more creative and have a lot more control over my picture. I've got quite a big saying in my workshops. I think a decent flash image is an image where it looks like flash wasn't used. As a flash photographer, Paul, I expect you probably agree with me, anyone can take a flash image. The control of light is important because anybody can light an image, but to light the subject within the image and control the environmental constraints, is the key to it and the most technical part of it. Mark: You've got to take your camera off P for professional to do that. You've got to turn it off p for professional and get it in manual mode. And that gives you the control Paul: Well, you say that, We have to at some point. Address the fact that AI is not just coming, it's sitting here in our studios all the time, and we are only a heartbeat away from P for professional, meaning AI analyzed and creating magic. I don't doubt for a minute. I mean, right now you're right, but not Mark: Well, at some point it will be integrated into the camera Paul: Of course it will. Mark: If you use an iPhone or any other phone, you know, we are using AI as phone photographers, your snapshots. You take your kids, your dogs, whatever they are highly modified images. Paul: Yeah. But in a lot of the modern cameras, there's AI behind the scenes, for instance, on the focusing Mark: Yeah. Paul: While we've, we are on that, we were on that thread. Let's put us back on that thread for a second. What's coming down the line with, all lighting and camera craft with ai. What are you guys seeing that maybe we're not Simon: in terms of flash technology or light technology? Paul: Alright. I mean, so I mean there's, I guess there's two angles, isn't there? What are the lights gonna do that use ai? What are the controllers gonna do, that uses ai, but more importantly, how will it hold its own in a world where I can hit a button and say, I want rebrand lighting on that face. I can do that today. Mark: Yeah. Simon: I'm not sure the lighting industry is anywhere near producing anything that is gonna give what a piece of software can give, because there's a lot more factors involved. There's what size light it is, what position that light is in, how high that light is, how low that light is. And I think the software we've all heard and played with Evoto we were talking about earlier, I was very skeptical and dubious about it to start with as everybody would be. I'm a Photoshop Lightroom user, have been for, many years. And I did some editing, in EEvoto with my five free credits to start with, three edits in, I bought some credits because I thought, actually this is very, very good. I'll never use it for lighting i'd like to think I can get that right myself. However, if somebody gives you a, a very flat image of a family outside and say, well, could you make this better for me? Well, guess what? I can do whatever you like to it. Is it gonna attack the photographer that's trying to earn a living? I think there's always a need for people to take real photographs and family photographs. I think as photographers, we need to embrace it as an aid to speed up our workflow. I don't think it will fully take over the art of photography because it's a different thing. It's not your work. It's a computer generated AI piece of work in my head. Therefore, who's responsible for that image? Who owns the copyright to that image? We deal with photographers all the time who literally point a camera, take a picture and spend three hours editing it and tell everyone that, look at this. The software's really good and it's made you look good. I think AI is capable of doing that to an extent. In five years time, we'll look back at Evoto today and what it's producing and we'll think cracky. That was awful. It's like when you watch a high definition movie from the late 1990s, you look at it and it was amazing at the time, but you look at it now and you think, crikey, look at the quality of it. I dunno if we're that far ahead where we won't get to that point. The quality is there. I mean, how much better can you go than 4K, eight K minus, all that kind of stuff. I'm unsure, but I don't think the AI side of it. Is applicable to flash at this moment in time? I don't know. Mark: I think you're right. To look at the whole, photography in general. If you are a social photographer, family photographer, whatever it might be, you are genuinely capturing that moment in time that can't be replaced. If you are a product photographer, that's a different matter. I think there's more of a threat. I think I might be right in saying. I was looking, I think I saw it on, LinkedIn. There is a fashion brand in the UK at the moment that their entire catalog of clothing has been shot without models. When you look at it on the website, there's models in it. They shoot the clothing on mannequins and then everything else is AI generated they've been developing their own AI platform now for a number of years. Does the person care Who's buying a dress for 30 quid? Probably not, but if you are photographing somebody's wedding, graduation, some, you know, a genuine moment in someone's life, I think it'd be really wrong to use any sort of AI other than a little bit of post-production, which we know is now quite standard for many people in the industry. Paul: Yeah, the curiosity for me is I suspect as an industry, Guess just released a full AI model advert in, Vogue. Declared as AI generated an ai agency created it. Everything about it is ai. There's no real photography involved except in the learning side of it. And that's a logical extension of the fact we've been Photoshopping to such a degree that the end product no longer related to the input. And we've been doing that 25 years. I started on Photoshop version one, whatever that was, 30 years More than 33. So we've kind of worked our way into a corner where the only way out of it is to continue. There's no backtracking now. Mark: Yeah. Paul: I think the damage to the industry though, or the worry for the industry, I think you're both right. I think if you can feel it, touch it, be there, there will always be that importance. In fact, the provenance of authenticity. Is the high value ticket item now, Simon: Mm-hmm. Paul: because you, everything else is synthetic, you can trust nothing. We are literally probably months away from 90% of social media being generated by ai. AI is both the consumer and the generator of almost everything online Mark: Absolutely. Paul: Goodness knows where we go. You certainly can't trust anything you read. You can't trust anything you see, so authenticity, face-to-face will become, I think a high value item. Yeah. Mark: Yeah. Paul: I think one p

This one starts with a dodgy lane choice, a Starbucks coffee, and a misjudged underpass. As always. I’m back in the Land Rover — which might be its final podcast outing before it finds a new home — and today’s episode is a rambling, reflective road trip through customer service, creative resilience, and the rapidly growing presence of AI in our industry. The day started badly. Cold shower (thanks British Gas), broken editing software, and a head full of terabytes. But it ended with a reminder of why kindness, craftsmanship, and conversation still matter. A haircut from someone I’ve known for 18 years. A deep chat with the owner of Michel Engineering while he lovingly took apart my ancient-but-beautiful record deck — the very same design featured in A Clockwork Orange and owned by Steve Jobs, no less. And then... a disappointing interaction with a distracted barista and a headset-wearing drive-thru operator. Same building, worlds apart. Customer service, it turns out, is alive and well — just not always where you'd expect it. But the main theme of this episode is AI. Not the doom-and-gloom kind, but the real stuff: the tools I’m already using, how they’re reshaping our workflows, and how they might be reshaping entire economies. It’s not AI that’s coming for your job — it’s the photographer who learns to harness it. We talk about: AI tools I already use (like EVOTO, Imagine AI, ChatGPT, and XCi) Using AI as a teaching assistant, sub-editor, and productivity coach The real-world implications of AI-generated ads, coding layoffs, and what it means for creatives Plans for a new AI section on masteringportraitphotography.com And if you hang in there until the end, I’ll tell you about a girl named Dory, a gutsy 12-year-old contortionist, and the new edition of Mastering Portrait Photography — complete with fresh images, a decade of stories, and a very special launch offer. So pop on your headphones, admire the wheat fields if you’ve got them, and come along for the ride. Spoiler: there’s C3PO’s eye in here too. Yes, really. 🛠️ Mentioned in this episode: Michel Engineering (Turntables) – evoto.ai Imagine AI – Smart colour-matching editing masteringportraitphotography.com/workshops-and-mentoring Transcript Introduction and Setting the Scene Well, as you can probably gather from the noise going on in the background I'm back out in the Land Rover, uh, for one more podcast out on my travels. Um, you'll have to bear with me as I navigate the carpark away from Starbucks. Uh, it's been an interesting day in so many, so many ways, and I will talk about all of that. Uh, where do I, where do I start? Right? Well, I'm back out on the road. Maybe one of the last ones. Memorable Cars and the Land Rover The Land Rover is, as many of you know, now up for sale and not because I don't absolutely love this vehicle. It is by far, by far and away my favorite car that I've ever owned, and I've owned some cars that I have truly loved. Of course, my first car, an Austin Allegro affectionately named nicknamed Benny, as in Benny from Top Cat. Um, because it's small, bubbly, and round. Um, I owned a Mark two Ford Escort with a steering wheel so small you could touch your thumbs across it, but an engine so small that it really wasn't a sports car, but that was just a beautiful thing. I've owned a Lexus IS 200, which. From a speed freak point of view is a lot more lively than even this Land Rover is, but in the end. This four wheel drive farmer's vehicle has traveled with me all over the uk from job to job, from client to client. And even today as I was visiting, uh, a place to get my record deck repaired, which I will tell you about, the guy that owns the company came out and all he could do, in spite of the fact we're looking at one of the rarest record decks around. In spite of that, all he could do was talk about the Land Rover. I'm Paul, and this is the Mastering Portrait Photography 📍 podcast. Oh, do you know what I've just done? You know, when you get in a lane, because there's a roundabout coming that I have to turn right at. So I got in a lane and now I'm in an underpass going underneath the roundabout. That I needed to turn right at. How that's really frustrating. I hate it when that happens. However, I'm up in Hichin, uh, Stevenage way, um, in the southeastern ish corner of the uk. Weirdly enough, I've been here before. I thought I recognized it. This is where I photographed Kevin Fong in the, um, British Aerospace. It looks like it's now Airbus here. I've just driven past the lab where we photograph Kevin Fong on the moon, on the Mars Lander. A test area. So they've built, it's like the size of a football pitch or two. It's huge. This huge great expanse of sand and rocks, and they've lit it like the light would be on Mars. I don't know. Why that would be important if you are testing Moon Lands or Mars lands. I haven't a clue. Uh, but it's where they tested, uh, or at least the British scientists tested their parts of the Mars rover and things. I've been here before. I photographed here. Uh, that's not why I here this particular moment. Uh, but I wanna start. Oh, there it is. Look at that. How cool. Sorry. This is way Yeah. Home of the exo Mars rover. I've been in there. Wow. Some days, some days ev well, every day is an adventure. Some days more than others. Right? Now, let's see me, let's see if I can get into the underpass the right way around this time, having turned around to head back home, mop it. Navigating the Day and Customer Service Um, I wanted to talk about a few things today, but one of the things that came up, which wasn't meant to really, so this is now gonna be a two part podcast. Let me talk about customer service first. And it starts yesterday. Really, let me tell you a bit of my day yesterday. Not if I'm honest, my best day and we all have them. So the upshot is, everything worked out and I have the photographs I needed or I need, but getting there proved trickier than it does normal. And that's in spite of the fact that I talk in. Very good story ab about being present and giving it your all. So the day started fairly badly with a cold shower. The boiler broke, well, it broke the night before. Actually it broke on Sunday night. So I got on the bike, did some exercise, sweated a lot, went to have a nice, warm, refreshing shower and had, well, it was a refreshing shower, but a cold one. It was, I mean, I know they say a cold shower is meant to be good for you, not for me. Alright. It left me in a crappy mood and knowing I had to get in touch with British gas, um, the week before British acid service, the boiler, now it's broken. So you can imagine, as much as I'm trying to be stoic and sensible about these things, I'm really quite cross. Uh, I try my best not to take it out on those around me. I took it out on those around me, uh, and to all those people around me, I do apologize. And by that I mean predominantly Sarah, who takes the, the brunt of all of my crappy moods when they happen. Uh, thankfully it doesn't happen too often, uh, but when they happen, it is always Sarah that's in the firing line. So, um, after trolling through the website and trying to get an engineer booked, that was no good. They couldn't bring, couldn't send anyone out till. Tuesday or they said they couldn't send anyone out to Tuesday. Let me just navigate this Range Rover that's creeping on my inside. Thank you. Um, so, uh, yesterday morning, Monday morning, um, I got on the phone to talk to someone. I thought, do you know what I'll do instead of trying to use computer systems, I'll talk to someone. Well, uh, I talked to a computer. I said, yes, no, no, yes. And, uh, punched in my credit card details because in spite of the fact the engineer probably broke the boiler. Um, we still have to have a credit card ready for any excess. Now, the upshot is quite a good one, is that by calling in, I did mostly get a, an appointment far earlier than I could do on their website, which doesn't really make any sense given that on the website, I'm assuming it is plugged into exactly the same. Booking system that the automated voice was in case you in any doubt? No. I didn't get to speak to a human. I got to speak to a very, very poor AI or automated something or other. Anyway, so that was the start of the day. Then in the office, Katie's machine running Da Vinci stopped talking to Frame io. Now for those of you into it, da Vinci is our editing suite, any videos and Frame io is where we store our assets. Now this isn't ideal if the editing suite can't talk to the asset store. That's the end of a day's work, really. So that put me in a fairly bad mood. And then we're gonna be photographing three amazing kids. So we're doing a video on siblings. Why you photograph them, how you photograph them, the laughter involved in photographing them. And we've got this amazing family, three teenagers and uh, they were due in and sure enough, they arrived and I still had my head inside. What do I do if Da Vinci no longer talks to Frame io? We're gonna have to re-license a load of stuff. I'm gonna have to move a couple of terabytes of assets around, which as anyone who's done it knows it's. Probably, you know, a week's worth of work for me. Um, everything was just piling up and I was struggling to get my head into it. And of course they're teenagers and they're excited about coming into the studio, and I wanted to give them the best. Experience. I can, even though they're not here as a client, they have been as a client before, but they're not here as a client. They're here because I would like to create a video about photographing siblings. So I owe it to them in so many ways to give the very best of me. And I was struggling. And I think in reality, probably for about an hour, I struggled to get myself into that zone where you are creating. Beautiful pictures. The light wasn't light, I didn't feel great. My head is spinning because I think I've got days of work ahead of me to fix something else. Um, got there Eventually we did get both the photographs and the video ready to create, uh, another one of our mastering portrait photography videos this time on photographing siblings, how to approach it, what to look for, things you can do. And then on top of that, some top tips for top Tip Tuesday on our socials. But it's really important when it comes to the service levels. At the end of the day, their customers and I offer our customer service, and that has an interesting run on into today. So today, so far, what time is it? It is quarter to one. I've been on the road since about quarter past eight this morning, so I went for a haircut first. Our reg, my regular hairstylist, who I've been going to for 18 years, we worked out this morning. I photographed her wedding 18 years ago, and I'd known her a little bit before then when I pitched for the work and did a prew wedding shoot. So 18, 19 years, I've been going to cap for a haircut and we chat shit. I mean, we just. Laugh and talk nonsense sometimes. Sometimes really serious stuff. 'cause she's got kids. I've got kids different ages, but you know, we've lived through similar things. I've watched her business grow and change over the years. She's worked with me, I've worked with her. And I would say that her customer service is some of the best I've ever met. There's only her now. She did run a multi, a multi station, um, uh, salon for ages, but in the end decided that she would rather just work on her own, have a nice, steady, um, client base, um, who she knew and does very well, that which has a client at home. But in spite of that, or maybe because of that, her customer service is absolutely brilliant as long as you don't try to text her late in the evening. We might get quite a short answer. The Record Deck Repair Adventure And then today I've been over to get my record deck serviced. Now the kids have been on at me for about, about this for a few years now. It's been broken. Um, and it came to a head this Father's Day when they said, what would I like? And I thought, well, find me a record or something. And they both went, no. And I'm like, sorry, what? They said, we're not buying you anymore records until you fix your flipping record deck because it's been broken for so long. And you'd said you're gonna get it fixed and you haven't. So we're no longer buying your records. Now that's not to say I didn't get some really cool gifts from them, but it did sort of, okay, I take your point. Let me go get this sorted. So I rang in to the company that originally made it so a bit of history. The record deck is a transcripter hydraulic reference turntable. The company was called Transcripter. Um, it's the same age as I am. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. It's glass and aluminum and big brass weights, soft belt drive. You can still get from the same company. A record deck that is derived from it called the Gyro. It's worth thousands and thousands of pounds. Um, their decks. This deck isn't worth anything until it works. And then. Probably is worth a thousand pounds. If anyone has watched Stanley Kubrick's Clockwork Orange, then he will recognize the deck because it's that record deck. He won a design award in about 1967, I think, and he's still got the little British Design Award sticker on the lid, on the, the plastic, sorry, the Perspex cover. It's all original. It was built by the company. I've just visited Michel Engineering and they make these most incredible, beautiful record decks. Now, I rang in a couple of weeks ago and they said, look, we haven't got any slots for service for a few weeks. Um, ringing again on the 24th of July, which I did. So I rang on the 24th. Um, as it happened, it was Steven who owns Michel Engineering now, um, who picked up, I chatted to him and he's. When can you bring it in? So I said today, um, I'm on the road. Um, so why not bring it in on today, Tuesday? So, um, I brought it in, um, the most incredible service. Uh, I obviously, I didn't carry it to the door 'cause I didn't really know which one of the industrial units I was headed to. So I buzzed it as it happened. It was Steven, um, opened the door and I told him who I was and he said, oh, put you in. And I said, oh great. And he said, no, no, I'll come with you. So we went over to the Land Rover where I parked up. First thing he does, I admire the Land Rover, which always makes you feel good. Um, which followed up quite quickly with me by saying, it's you, it's up for sale. Um, and a chat there about pricing. Who knows? You never know, do you? Anyway, he admired the Land Rover, so I'm feeling better already. So I opened up the boot and there's obviously my record deck, this transcript, uh, hydraulic reference to the table. And he's obviously seen a few of these, but he said, oh, that's a, that's an old one, that's an original. And I went to pick it up and he said, no, no, I'll carry it. Don't worry. So he picked it up outta the Land Rover and I locked it up. We took it into the service lab where it sits now amongst a few similar ones, some newer ones, well all newer ones. Um, we took it apart or he took it apart and had a look at the different components. Um, puffed his cheeks out a little bit, which is always good when you're talking to an engineer. It's a bit like when you take your car into a garage and they go, oh mate, ah, your rings. But he was very affectionate, very respectful of the record deck, and it was built pre 1972. And the way he knows that is there's no serial number on it because before 19. 72. They didn't put serial numbers on him, so he's got this very old turntable that my dad bought in. I think it was about 19 81, 82. He paid 15 pounds worth 15 of your British pounds at a jumble sale. Well, this deck is worth anywhere between 1500 quid and two and half thousand pounds of today's money secondhand. Um, so my dad actually did pretty well. Uh, I dunno if he realized what he'd bought. It didn't work, which is why it was only 15 quid. But my dad attacked it with a soldier line. Probably the same things I've now got to have repaired this time. But he took all the bits off and he showed me how it worked and he explains it in detail. And we just got chatting. We got chatting to the point where when I come back to pick up the record deck, Steven has very kindly agreed to come on the podcast because we talked about quality, we talked about the love of vinyl, which to an extent, I, I have a nostalgia for vinyl, but I don't have a particularly sophisticated, um, sense of hearing. So I can't pick out the details that probably their guys can. But I appreciate the engineering and of course it was my dad. So now somebody who cares about it probably as much as I. Who is looking after it is gonna fix the bits that are not right. And given it was a gift from my dad to me for my 40th birthday, it was built around about the same year that I was born. My dad bought it for 15 quid and absolutely loved it. And now it's in the hands of the company who built it. The very first company though, is his father who set up the company. There's this whole set of layers to the story that are gonna add even more love to it, even more passion for listening to records that the kids have bought me on it, and the service that they offer is so personable and so knowledgeable. I couldn't help but just get excited. I got excited just walking in. By the time I left, he showed me this room. They've got a room downstairs with some of their legacy, Michelle. It's called M-I-C-H-E-L-L, Michelle Turntables and Michelle. And they've done all sorts of things over the years, not least of which is to create C3 PO's eyes. No kid, you not, uh, my joy hit the floor when he was telling me he said, yeah, you know, it's based on some stuff we already had in some odd bins. And because it was all made round here where I'm driving the original Star Wars was actually filmed all around this area, Borum Wood, um, and Stevenage in West London. And so the guys who were doing the special effects used to just hunt round OddBins around all the industrial states. They found some off cuts of something that was, I dunno what it was, a bit of a record deck I think. And hoed them out and modified them and they became C3 PO's eyes. I've literally just been eye to eye with one of C3 PO's eyes. Um, also lots of stuff for Stanley Kubrick. Um, uh, Steven was telling me that his dad built, uh. Spaceship from Space Odyssey, the model of it. Um, you just, I dunno, you just get this sense of history and passion and just a love of engineering. Beautiful old school British engineering and. As part of that conversation, we talked about so many things. I cannot wait to get him on the podcast. I think you'll find him hopefully as fascinating as I did, at least those of you that enter a little bit of media, his history, a little bit of film history. Also, if you're into your record decks, the record deck that these guys make, the the Michelle M-I-C-H-E-L-L, I will put a link in the, in the show notes so you can go and have a look at the things they they made because they are stunningly beautiful. And if I was in the market for that kind of high fire, I'd have one. There's nothing like it. You've seen it in a million films. Steve Jobs owned one. This is how good it is. And I've just been chatting to the guys who made it off the back of that. I ended up talking about ai, which I'm gonna come back to, but let me take the story of customer service forwards just a little bit. So I've left there. We've talked about all sorts of things. We've talked about his love of Laua, for instance, where I work regularly and I'm forever telling people they are the exemplar of customer service. They are the epitome of it. They are the very best of the very best. And I've been lucky enough to work all over the world with all sorts of companies and all sorts of places. Um, LA Manu is the benchmark for how, in my opinion, customer

Join me in the foothills of the Dolomites for a warm, funny, and surprisingly philosophical conversation with Mauricio Arias — Graphistudio’s strategist, storyteller, and, as I’ve dubbed him, their “Product Philosopher.” We dig deep into why printed work still matters in a digital world, how to make your images sing in print (and what that print will brutally reveal), and what photographers need to believe if they want clients to invest in heirlooms, not hard drives. There’s laughter, there’s wine (not during the recording, I promise), and there’s a lot of heart. This one’s for anyone who’s ever asked: does my work really need to exist on paper? (Spoiler: yes. Yes it does.) Links: Graphistudio: graphistudio.com Mauricio Arias: mauricioarias.art What Graphistudio Can Teach Us About Craft, Confidence, And Creating Heirlooms Featuring Mauricio Arias – from Episode 165 of the Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast This summer, I found myself at the foot of the Dolomites, tucked inside a sun-drenched meeting room at Graphistudio HQ, chatting with the wonderfully philosophical Mauricio Arias. He’s part strategist, part designer, part storyteller—now officially dubbed (by me) the Product Philosopher of Graphistudio. We’ve used Graphistudio products for over 15 years. Our clients love their albums and wall art. We love their consistency, their craftsmanship, and their beautifully obsessive attention to detail. So when Mauricio and I sat down for a conversation, I had one question in mind: Why does print still matter in a digital world? Mauricio’s answer was simple and heartfelt: because photographs are meant to be held. He spoke about growing up with albums on the coffee table and family portraits on the wall—how physical images root our memories in something real. But what stuck with me most was this: "Printing reveals both the beauty and the flaws." A great print will elevate your best work, but it also exposes any cracks in your post-production. It’s humbling. And it’s powerful motivation to keep improving. We talked about calibration (yes, you need it), about photography as an emotional craft, and about the importance of believing in what you offer. Because if you don’t believe your work belongs in an album or on a wall, how will your clients ever believe it? We also touched on the future—on AI, on trust, and on the rising value of human, handmade, tangible things. Heirloom prints are becoming more important, not less. 🎧 Listen to the Full Conversation Listen to this episode to hear the full interview with Mauricio Arias. There’s laughter, insight, and plenty of inspiration—especially if you’re in the business of turning moments into memories. 📬 Want More Like This? Subscribe to Mastering Portrait Photography for access to videos, articles, and behind-the-scenes tips to grow your photography business. Whether you're just starting or refining your craft, there's something for everyone. Explore Membership Written by Paul Wilkinson · Photographer, Educator, and Portrait Philosopher-in-Chief

This week, I’m recording late in the lounge with a glass of Irish whiskey, reflecting on the usual mix of chaos and joy in a photographer’s life. Some good news first: the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast has landed in the https://podcast.feedspot.com/photography_podcasts/ https://podcast.feedspot.com/portrait_photography_podcasts/ https://podcast.feedspot.com/uk_photography_podcasts/ I share stories from a beautiful small wedding at Le Manoir, talk about how AI is both transforming and disrupting our industry (and how I’m using it to write useful code for the studio), and confess to completely changing my Instagram strategy so it actually makes me smile—feel free to check it out @paulwilkinsonphotography . The highlight? Racing through three days of corporate headshots in London, where the CEO arrives and my flash promptly refuses to fire—just classic timing. A reminder: knowing your kit inside-out and keeping calm is what clients are really paying for. If you fancy joining me in Oxford for a day of portraits, stories, and good company, there’s still a spot on our next Location Portraits Workshop . https://masteringportraitphotography.com/resource/mastering-portrait-photography-on-location-in-oxford-9th-june-2025/ As ever: trust yourself, enjoy the process, and be kind to yourself. Cheers! Transcript Introduction and Setting the Scene Well, it's been a while since I've recorded a podcast quite like this, but I'm sitting in our lounge. It's late. I've got a glass of Irish whiskey for a change, which is just beautiful. All of my whiskeys have been bought by someone and I love that. I love sitting and thinking of someone, a family member or a friend. 'cause I enjoy, well, the smell and the taste. There's some, I dunno why I like whiskey so much. Um, I just do, there's something, I think it's 'cause my mom and dad liked it. And possibly because of that, I find there's something really magical about the smell and the taste and the color and just, I don't know, something that sat in a barrel for a decade or more just appeals to me, and it has been another busy week. It's Wednesday as I record this, and yet it feels like it's been the end of a week. Um, it's just, it always feels like I'm playing catch up, but I think that's just the nature of the job. When I worked at Accenture all of those years ago, I quite liked the project mentality. Although we were busy, we ramped up and up and up and up until eventually we got to the delivery date. And then of course, once it was delivered, you've got a week or two off all of that pressure built and built and built. It was to an end point. And I don't think, as a photographer, I felt like that since I left that world now it's just a constant churn of to-do lists, retouching shoots, being energized, even things like recording this podcast. You have to be really in the mood to do it, and I'm not always. There have been plenty of times when I've sat down to record something and even a large glass of 15-year-old single molt doesn't do it. However, I am here, it is late. So forgive me if I sort of tumble over some of my words, but I really wanted to get, um, an episode out. I'm Paul and this is the Mastering Portrait Photography 📍 podcast. Podcast Achievements and Listener Appreciation So before I get into the main body of, uh, the podcast this week or this episode, I wanted to give a little bit of good news. We have been voted by we, I mean the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast has been judged or voted, or I don't know. I don't exactly know how it's assessed, but we have been given three really cool things by the guys at Feed Spot who list and assess, uh, podcasts from all around the world. I. So we are in, uh, for photographers, we're in the top 100 podcasts for photographers globally. We're in the top 10 portrait photography podcasts globally, and we're in the top 35 UK photography podcasts on the web. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much to everybody who listens and everybody who's made this thing possible. We are ranking right up there with some really big commercial podcasts and at the end of the day, it's just me, a microphone and I suppose 20 years of experience of being a photographer. But nonetheless, it's an absolute thrill that we are getting recognized. Um, so thank you to all of you who listen. Every one of you sends in emails. Everyone who, uh, stops us at the conventions and the shows to say that they like listening to it. Uh, so what have we been up to other than celebrating, uh, a major success. By the way, you can head over to Feed Spot. I'll put the links in the show notes if you're gonna go see the lists of everybody else Tell I listen to, there are some great podcasts on there. And of course my target is to be higher up the list, not just one of the top 100 we wanna be. The one, but yeah, I dunno whether we'll ever get to that given it really is just me and a microphone. Uh, but I'll do my best, uh, last week. Recent Photography Projects and AI Innovations Over the past week or so shot the most beautiful tiny wedding at Le Manoir. I lo I love these little weddings. 35 people, the nicest bride and crew who were so excited. Uh, they had family from all over the world, from India, from Austria, Switzerland, the uk. Why Europe? Brilliant. Brilliant, brilliant. The weather. Stunning. We had loads of time. We relaxed, we had, oh, it was just the best day possible. Uh, what else? What else? Uh oh, yeah. Um, one of the things, um, sorry, that's, that's another subject jump. Um, I've got notes. Obviously. I sit here with a screen of notes and these are the things I wanted to cover. One of the things I wanted to cover is some other focus of what I'm doing at the moment and what we are doing in the studio. And one of the things that's right front of mind at the moment has been ai, and I'm guessing from everything I'm reading and everything I'm studying is that AI is gonna stay at the front. And it might just be the last thing standing if I've understood it all correctly. So I've, I mean, those of you who know me know my PhD is in neural networks, which is the backbone. Um, of AI 30 years ago, so of course I'm well outta date, but that hasn't stopped me being really quite curious and I guess I've got a natural, uh, sort of a natural aptitude for it in spite of the fact that it's advanced so far on the whole, I'm getting my head round. Most of it. Some of it's really daunting, some of it is frankly terrifying, but some of it is exhilarating. So I'll give you an example of some ways we're using AI here at the moment. Um, one of the things I'm doing is I'm using it to help me code some really useful add-ons, scripts and plugins for things like Lightroom, Photoshop. And some general stuff behind the scenes, um, which we will be able to release as commercialized product. Um, I'm not a terrible coder. I'm not a great coder, but I have enough knowledge to be able to know how to specify what I want, understand the problems I'm trying to describe. And now that I have all of these AI tools beside me is it's just opened up a huge wealth of opportunity to make our life in the studio simpler and faster. And more productive. And while that, you know, all of that's really good, of course the downside of AI is it is gonna tear through the job market in every single industry. And of course our industry is particularly susceptible to it. If you think about any photograph you can imagine, um, where the subject is irrelevant, it as in, it doesn't have to be a named face. It could just be. A nameless detective, um, a doctor, a medic, a firefighter, a parachutist, a pilot, a family, a child, a dog. As long as it doesn't have to be that dog, that person, that pilot, that firefighter. AI does it today. And this is just an early version chat. GPTs photo generator is off the top of the scale. Good. Um, I've actually written. Some stuff where it's taking, so, you know, automated some scripts that are taking my pictures, generating the prompts to generate those pictures, and then generating more pictures. And I'm doing it as an experiment just to test where we are and honestly. Yes. Not perfect, but we are right at the beginning of where we're headed. So, you know, if I was gonna be slightly gloomy, I suppose if, if you are a stock photographer, well, you know, that's gotta have limited legs unless you do wildlife or landscape where it's really important. That the location is key. I'm looking at um, I've got an Amazon fire stick in our TV here in the lounge. Um, obviously it's gone onto a screensaver 'cause I'm recording this and it's showing pictures of real places in the world that's never gonna go anywhere. You are always gonna need that. But if it's just generic photographs, generic imagery than AI is already eating into those markets. But I'm still throwing myself into it. Social Media Strategy and Personal Reflections One thing I have done, um, on our Instagram account is I took a long hard look at social media. And again, for those of you who know me, you'll know I'm not the biggest fan. I know we have to use it. It's a necessary evil, but I am one of those doom scrollers. I spend my life scrolling down thinking everyone else is having a better time. Everyone else is a better photographer. Everyone else has got a better business. You name it, I think it, I'm just wired that way. I'm also wired. I can't resist it 'cause it's there. And so the longer I spend on on social media, the less inspired and the less energized I am. I really do have to stay away from it. But one of the things I've done in our studio is my screens, in particular on my laptop and on my workstation. Whenever the screensaver kicks in, it's pointing at a portfolio of our images, our clients, our friends, the people, the photographs, the moments, the memories from our life. And so whenever I pause, I go make a cup of tea or something, and I come back. All of these screens are showing. My favorite pictures from 20 years, sorry, I stumbled over the word 20, getting emotional, uh, of 20 years of working as a professional photographer, and I decided what might be nice is to use Instagram like that. So I've changed the way I'm working on Instagram. Stopped trying to show just current work and trying to do the whole kind of, you know, social sort of networking side of it. And I've decided I just want it to make me smile. That's it. That's all I'm gonna do. So I've hauled together, I've written some code. It's got a little bit of an AI in there to help me. I. And it just goes back and picks out images from different parts of our portfolio and tells me what to post. I then just post it. Simple as that, because if I sit for hours looking at my portfolios, I spent ages. Becoming really paranoid that my work's no good. Oh no, I can't post that. I posted something similar to that. Oh, no. Will people like it? And I've stopped that. It's just a hard list. Here's what you're gonna do today. Here's what you're gonna do tomorrow. And I'm just posting these pictures exactly the same pictures that my screensaver connects to. So it has, it's giving me now the same joy seeing these pictures come up. Some are recent, some are from quite a long way away, a long way ago, rather. Some are landscapes. There's some stuff in there from some landscapes where we've been traveling, not many. And of course, all my landscape friends, all my, you know, friends in the industry can happily laugh at me. I'm not a landscape photographer. But I am loving every single second of it, and it's really given me some of the joy I think I used to have with social media. It's become a portfolio of people, of memories, of moments, of my history. You know, some of the pictures come up and I cringe. It's like, really? Did I really do that? But some of the old pictures come up and I can really see. The foundations of where I came from. Yeah, right. I shoot things differently now. Of course, we all do. I've learned techniques, new techniques, new post-production, new finishing grading. The resolutions on the cameras are different. The lenses are different. Even for me, you know, one weakness I was talking to with the videographer the other day is that. On the older cameras, I didn't dare shoot below about F four because if I focused on the eyes focus, recompose in the recomposing, I had to move. And in moving the eyes would go out of focus. But now of course with eye tracking, I could shoot at F1 0.8 and every time the eyes are pinned, sharp, and. It's weird that technology can fundamentally change my aesthetic because I always wanted to shoot at 2.8 or 1.8. I just never had the technique for it. One of the things I'm very good at is working quickly. I work fast and I catch those moments, but unfortunately the trade off is I don't slow down and really concentrate on things like the focusing and that's problematic. But now the technology's helping me. And here similarly, you know, I'm using a little bit of AI to identify pictures, written some bits of code to do it, and it pulls the pictures from the catalog to make sure that there's a nice variety, that it's across all of our clients, all of our work. It's not just one style, which is what tends to happen if, um. I do it on my own. So it's just lovely. And there's, you know, I've written here, it's a bit like a treasure hunt with a robot sidekick. The robot being the ai, I hope the robot's not me. I don't think it's me. Maybe it his, maybe that's the way around the AI is having the treasure hunt and I'm the robot. But if it's me, I'd only pick things like pictures that I thought might do well in awards or pictures that other photographers would like. Whereas I've stopped that by doing this. The code tells me what I'm gonna. Post. I post it and then I can just smile and enjoy the memory. And I've long since stopped worrying about whether the algorithm rewards me, it ain't going to. So if you've answer having a look, you can see what we're doing. Um, at some point, if anyone comes to the studio, I'll happily show you how I've done it, um, and what we're doing. Uh, what else do we do over the weekend? Oh, Sarah and I, um, we had to record our own a roll, uh, Katie. 'cause I was, I've been working Friday, Monday, Tuesday. I. Out in London. Um, I knew we had to get the, a roll for video ready for Katie to be able to do something with it on Monday. Unfortunately, that meant Sarah and I doing it on our own, which is great. I mean, Sarah and I, we have all of the kit, the kit's, hours, um, I. It took a little bit longer than the setup. It took me two hours to rig the studio for the video, which is way too long. Um, it was also quite a lot more disciplined when it was just Sarah and myself much less messing around. Mostly I think because I'm slightly scared of her. There's no getting around it. Sarah wanted to crack on, so we cracked on. Um, I dunno if the video's gonna be any good, but it's certainly. Succinct and to the point. Um, so, uh, I'll let you know when that one comes out and see if you can tell the difference when, uh, it's Katie directing or whether it's Sarah, but it was a lot of fun and you will get to see it. Corporate Headshots and Technical Challenges So, uh, moving on to the boardroom and this episode's point. So over the past three days or so, Sarah and I have been ensconced in a room in an office in London and one of the world's biggest companies, and we were brought in to create headshots of senior execs, board members, CEO, CFOs, C-C-O-C-M-O, all of these people, C-level execs. And they'd approached us to do it as part of a bigger package. There's some marketing going on. I can't talk about what the company is and I can't talk about what the product is. But the broad brush of it is there's some new product coming out. It's being sponsored by the entire board. Each of them was gonna record a video, and they also needed some stills to go out and posters and social media and things like that at the same time. We were gonna create additional headshots, uh, just for general purpose. So right up my street. I love headshot. I love corporate work, smart people. Being smart is never a bad thing to photograph. I really enjoy it. But slight, slight challenge with this particular gig is that the predominant job was for them to record video. Each slot was about 30 minutes, and these execs really had no time. They're close to a launch. There's a lot going on. It's a huge company, and half an hour in an exec's diary to record a video, as you can imagine, although they wanted to do it because they know it's important, they were also thinking about the next meeting and the meeting after that. So. They'd come in, they'd spend half an hour in front of the video cameras and the green screen. And do their job brilliantly with a teleprompter and the scripting and everything. And then just as they thought they were gonna leave, um, the head of marketing would say to them, no, no, we just need to get a few headshots of you. And I was given about 30 seconds to create these shots. It will have a lifespan of probably like five years, because you know what it's like with headshot? No one ever refreshes them. So we go from sitting around doing very little. To a hundred miles an hour. There's no warmup, there's no tea, there's no small talk. It really was literally the head of marketing said, wait, uh, here's Paul. He's here to take some headshot. Go. And I would say hello, trying to get energy into a shoot like that. And of course the first person up was the CEO. And he walks over. Everything's set. Sarah and I have rigged, and we've, luckily it's a secure building. Um, so we can leave all of the kit rigged overnight. Anyway, so we've decided, right, we've got, we've taken as much kit as we can spare 'cause I'm also working in the gaps back here at the studio. So we've got the lights, got the backdrop. Nice small. You've seen the videos we've created on doing this kind of stuff. It's, there's, it's enough kit to do the job, but it's still small enough that Sarah and I can lu it in on the train. So a backdrop, a couple of rom threes with some soft boxes, and actually everything's pretty good to go. But the kit has been sitting here now for about four hours. And what I would normally do if I was about to meet someone and do studio style shots with a studio lighting is I would fire the lights a few times and make sure everything's perfect. Slight wrinkle, we're in the same room as the video filming. So we can't do any of that. All I can do is check that nothing's gone to sleep. I can't, I didn't do anything because of the noise of the, um, beeps on the lights 'cause I use those to make sure everything's fired. And the flashes, of course, are gonna bleed into the video recording, so I can't do anything. So of course the first person is the CEO, the most important person in the entire process. He's my subject. He does his video, it's very good. He comes off, but he's clearly tired, um, and has a lot on his mind. He walks in front of over to me, head of marketing. This is Paul. Really nice to meet you. Um, you know, normal kind of stuff. Please stand there in front of the lights. How do you normally stand? And I'd watch him. And the great thing about watching people filming is you get to see how they naturally sit, how they naturally stand. And these were all to be standing portraits. And I kind of started, got chatting, going where I wanted it. We'd mark the tape, mark the floor where I wanted him, got the lights, the same height. 'cause of course, everybody's a different height. We could do most of the work, but I can't set the height of the lights until I meet the subject. Pick up my camera, I focus it, I hit the button. Nothing. I mean silence. So I kind of talk my way through it. Sarah knows what's happening, but because of course, the Z nine doesn't make any noise at all. I don't think anyone realized it hadn't fired. Sarah k

In this episode, I dig into a question that’s always lurking in the back of a portrait photographer’s mind – what really makes light flattering? It’s a term we all use, but what does it actually mean? Is it just about soft shadows and low contrast, or is it more about the connection between the subject and the photographer? I talk through this while reflecting on a busy week – from a stunning wedding at Head Saw House to a corporate shoot for Barclays, and a spontaneous portrait session that reminded me why I love this job. I also share some thoughts on the updated Mastering Portrait Photography book, which hits shelves in September, complete with fresh images and a whole new chapter on AI post-production. If you’ve ever wondered what makes a light truly flattering – and why it’s about more than just the gear – this episode is for you. And as always, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, be kind to yourself. Cheers P. If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography , for more articles and videos about this beautiful industry. You can also read a full transcript of this episode. PLEASE also subscribe and leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think! If there are any topics, you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk . Transcript ​ Well, as I sit here in the studio, the sun is shining in through the windows and it's been a beautiful, beautiful week. I started it with a trip down to Devon with the in-laws. One great thing about being married to Sarah, whose family are from Plymouth, there are many great things about being married to Sarah. But one of the ones, in terms of geography, at least, is her family still lived down in Plymouth, in Devon, by the sea. So it was absolutely glorious to spend a couple of days down there walking the dog, drinking a beer, enjoying the sunshine, and the sun is still shining here right now. And on that happy note, I'm Paul. I'm very much looking forward to a barbecue, and this is the Mastering Portrait 📍 Photography podcast. 📍 📍 So what did we do over the past week or so since I recorded the last episode? Well, Sarah and I went off and photographed the most beautiful wedding at a location called Hedger House, which is sort of in between us and London, give or take a bit. Um, and you'll have seen many, many Hollywood films, uh, that were shot there. None of which I can remember. There's a couple of James Bond films, a couple of Dustin h Dustin Hoffman films. I don't know, I should have paid more attention, but it is the kind of venue that you can imagine. Downton Abbey, uh, being filmed in. As it turned out, it was Abby and Rob's wedding. Um, beautiful. I've worked with the family for many years, photographed her brother's wedding, uh, a couple of years ago, and so we've been looking forward to this day enormously. And when Sarah and I work together, it is a great privilege. It's not just that Sarah, uh, Sarah's family are from the sea, but she's a fantastic photographer. Um, not that we've ever really used that talent, but if you think about it, it makes sense given that she must see. Well, I dunno how many hundreds of thousands of images every single year go past her screen. 'cause she does all the selections, but also she knows exactly, exactly what's required to design a great album. Because at the end of the day, I. It's Sarah designs them. So it was a real beautiful thing to be able to do. Sarah has created some wonderful imagery. We've also had a couple of portrait shoots, three or four this week, which I've really enjoyed today actually. We've had one came in for a reveal and one came in for a shoot. Two lovely families, and at the end of the day, that is still what this business is about. There is so much going on out there in the news about ai, about technology, about the economy. But in the end, the bit of the industry that I sit in, this bit here is all about families. It's about memories, it's about real people doing real things. So it's been absolutely brilliant to be. Uh, photographing families, uh, and also selling, uh, a beautiful frame. This morning. It was absolutely lovely, big layup of multiple images, uh, to go on the wall. Uh, also this week, um, I took a trip into London to photograph the Barclays bank. A GM set up quite specifically the setup. The brief actually said, do not include people where it's possible. So that's fine. I was there to photograph, um, for the, um. The production company that do all of the work behind the scenes. They create all the staging, they create all of the film work. My job was quite literally, quite literally, to be there and make sure that was really well documented, which I did. But of course, because it was such an early start, I had my, um, original call in time at the venue in the security on this. As you can imagine, this is Barclay's, the A GM. Um, I've never seen security like it, and I've actually photographed this event probably 10 years or so now. I never seen security quite like this one. And with a seven o'clock start, I had to, uh, stay over in a hotel the night before, which was great. I mean, it's no problem. There's plenty of hotels in London, but it did mean I got to go out for the evening with Harriet, our daughter. So the two of us met up the night before, um, had pizza, margaritas, a beer, a glass of wine or two and more or less. Gassed just gossiped, um, all the way through until it was time for both of us to part our ways, me to go to the hotel and for her to head home. And there was really something really special about getting to spend time with your kids as a dad. It is the greatest pleasure. As you watch your kids grow up, you watch their confidence increase, you just, well, I do anyway. Absolutely love spending time, uh, with both of 'em. So that was really, really nice. Then of course, the next day, um, I went and photographed all of the bits and pieces for the A GM. And then at the end of that took the opportunity to go and meet a prospective client that we are planning a shoot for a big client. Um, and they want to create over two days, sort of 50 unique portraits of different people with different backgrounds, but all looking like their shot in their place of work. But they're coming from all over the uk so we're gonna do it in one location, a mix of the street, a mix of different offices, almost like, um, filming really, it's a bit like putting together, um, a film or a documentary where you use different backgrounds to tell different stories. So I met up with a client, um, a marketer and a graphic designer, and it was. It was actually quite a laugh because I didn't think I was only really there to help them shape the job, help them figure out how we're going to do it. But of course, I had all my cameras with me from the job I was doing in the morning, and so I dragged one out, dragged a lens out, um, and we sort of barreled around the building, taking portraits of them, um, having a look at how the different backgrounds might work, discussing lots of little details, you know, the things that people miss when you're working on location. You can't, for instance, assume that you're going to be able to use strobes because much of this building is an open plan, and us firing strobes while we're doing portraiture probably isn't gonna work because it's distracting for everybody. Now, if we're in a closed room, that's fine, but if we're out in an open plan or in the atrium, or in the restaurant, or in the library. I'm gonna guess that's gonna be majorly distracting. So things like allowing for the fact that we are probably gonna be using continuous lighting, probably gonna be using LEDs, which is fine. There's no problem with that. But that has other knock-on effects because it's slightly different equipment and it will work when the light levels are reasonably low. But you can't overcome things like direct sunlight or you can balance to a degree, but it gets very bright very quickly. And we are not a film studio. I'm not gonna go and set huge great shadow boxes and things over the windows. I'm not gonna have a tunnel lighting. I'm gonna have a very simple portrait photographers lighting set up. But it was a huge amount of fun, and the pictures have actually come out pretty well. I'm quite pleased with them. Even though we were working off brief, we were just sketching. But of course, as a portrait photographer, that's your job. And when you do this at weddings, people expect that of you. But when you're working on the commercial side, I think it surprised everyone that it was well, that easy. I don't mean I'm not playing this industry down, but taking a portrait is mostly about understanding how light works and then understanding how to read. And manipulate characters, how to be a people person with great light. Actually, that could be the topic of a podcast. All and of its all, all in and of itself is, you know, portrait photography is understanding light. I. And how to manipulate people. And once you're there, there's not an awful lot left, uh, to do. So that was, that was a real blast. Um, I'm looking forward to doing the actual gig. We sort of got our heads around the scope of it now and that couple of hours we spent really did illustrate the best way to plan the shoot book people in, and generally approach him. Uh, also this week we spent a day, uh, Sarah, Katie, myself and, uh, Abby, one of our regular models. Um, the video we're recording for the mastering portrait photography website. This time round is going to be all about those lighting patterns that have names, the eight or so. Um, lighting patterns, uh, single light lighting patterns. Lighting patterns with one light, maybe that sounds better, where, um, they're sort of lighting patterns for me. I, I didn't really understand or didn't know, rather, the lighting, the names of lighting patterns until I started to teach. And still, in fact, we wrote the original mastering portrait photography book because although I knew them. I didn't even know they had names. I'm not in that regard, a formal photographer, but it's really useful to know them because you can jump straight to that starting point. It's a little bit like learning your scales on the piano or maybe learning your rudiments as a drummer. To me, certainly. I mean, I've done both of those things and to me they were the est, most boring, mundane things that you had to do, but you had to do them as a piano player. You had to get your fingers to have muscle memory so that if you needed to move around certain notes, you could get there. You needed to know in certain keys what notes went together. Similarly, as a drummer, you had to get your wrists loose and your fingers loose. And be able to move around the drum kit fluently, fluidly, and fluently, and the only way of doing that is repe repetitive practice. It's repetition, doing it over and over and over again. Much as I didn't enjoy it, it paid dividends when I found myself on stage or in a recording studio. Then all of those hours spent at a practice pad or. As a piano player learning my scales suddenly came to fruition. And just for clarity here, I was an awful piano player. I hated the scales and I had very little talent. I, I could play a bit, I could play enough to, you know, Russell Une, if I really thought about it, um, was not a great piano player. However, as a photographer, the value in learning these named lighting patterns isn't about the names and the lighting patterns themselves. It's learning why they're called what they are and how to do them and be able to recall them if you need to, and certainly when, for instance, as a mentor and as a trainer. It's so much easier if we can talk about lighting patterns by name. You know, I can, we can talk about this shot would've been better lit short or lit narrow. I think this face shape might have looked better lit. Broad maybe. Um, you know, Rembrandt lighting is very theatrical actually. Rembrandt light is one of those really obscure lighting patterns that everybody knows about. Every photographer, loves and can name and can create the triangle on the cheek. But that's usually done with a hard light source. But if you really want to use it, you've gotta use a soft light source. But knowing where the light goes so that you can create that beautiful, gentle roll off across the top of a cheekbone is a practice thing. So anyway, we spent the day. Recording all of these different lighting patterns, and they're gonna look really beautiful. I mean, Abby's a beautiful model. Um, we shot it really clean, so every picture you'll be able to see precisely what we're talking about. So we shot each one with a hard light so you can see exactly where the light lands, where it falls, and then we shot them with a soft light. So you can see how might, how you might use exactly the same positioning of the light to create great portraits. So I'm looking forward to finishing that video up, which we'll do, uh, I'm gonna guess Wednesday next week. Um, and that will go out onto MPP. That'll be this month's, uh, video. Uh, a lot of fun. Um, today, uh, like I said, a reveal. All the cookies have gone. The kids needed chocolate. Um, so I'm sitting in the studio thinking like, quite fancy a cookie and nope, they're all gone. Um, but the sun has been beautiful and so what a lovely, a lovely thing to do. Uh, some big news. Now, this has actually been rumbling on since, uh, January, I think. Um, but it's now, um, out of embargo is that we've, Sarah Platon and myself have been asked to revise the mastering portrait photography book. Um, the reason the website is called Mastering Portrait Photography is 'cause we produce the book. The publisher have asked us to rework it. And so I've actually just spent a few months, um, reworking every single portrait. Except for the one of me, you can't really see that it's me. I dunno when it was shot. I look like, um, I've been dragged through a hedge backwards, and I've left it well alone because it makes me laugh. So there's still a shot of me holding a camera in there that hasn't been revised. But every other portrait in there has been, they're my clients. Every single one of the people in that book is a client of ours, or it's from a job where we're doing a workshop or a masterclass or something. I can tell you a story about every single picture, and it's been such a pleasure. It's 10 years old this year. The book, it came out around about, I think it came out in May. Well, I could look the dates up in, um. 2015 and it's gonna come out is, I think the launch date is the 9th of September this year, 10 years. 10 years ago we first created it, but we've reworked all of it bit by bit by bit, picture by picture, by picture, um, so that it's still the same book. Um, it's definitely a second revision. We haven't changed all of the wording. We've revised some of it. And the post-production chapter, I've reworked to be mostly about. As it happens, ai, so the mix of Lightroom, Photoshop, and then uh, tools like Voto. I should, again, for clarity. Uh, I'm not sponsored by any of these companies. These are tools and apps that I pay for. I wish I didn't. If, if a Voto are listening, feel free to b me a sponsorship. But no, I pay for it. Um, I pay for it because it's useful, makes my life easier. Um, it polishes images at a rate that I could not have kept up with. Photoshop, not. In this market. Now, if you are a high-end fashion house doing fashion photography, maybe you could beauty shots on the covers of magazines. Yeah, maybe you could. But to, we can produce, you know, to a level of about 18, maybe even 90% of that level of detail. And you can do it in a heartbeat. So things like a Voto, the last chapter in the book, the post-production, uh, chapter, has been completely rewritten to include. How we now use things like ai because if this book, let's say this book has another 10 years on a shelf before it needs revising or taking off ai, I think would've completely changed. Not just this industry, but every industry and the most valuable things will no longer be how good you are with a computer or how good you are as a coder, or even how good you are as a writer. All of that will become. Commoditized. You can simply tell a machine how to do it. The value will be, I think, in your intellectual capacity to imagine things. Now, I know you can go into Mid Journey and type a bunch of keywords in, or you know, Firefly or Dali or whatever, but in a very real sense. That's not art or creativity, it's just the computer spitting stuff back at you. And the same is true when you're doing creative writing, but if you truly have interesting and original ideas and configure out how to articulate those, AI is gonna be sitting alongside you every step of the way. And what's left? What's left when. Those kinds of tools become just the heartbeat of your work. Whatever's left is the personal contact. It's the people to people, the human to human, the character to character, the very physicality of being in the same room as someone, hence the. Why I get so excited about doing portrait shoots. I've done that all my life, and I still feel that way, that when I'm face to face with a client, yeah. All right. I mean, I know I'm an idiot and I am loud and I laugh a lot and you know, every time I have a a, an adrenaline rush, when I'm working with a client or I meet new people afterwards, I will forever beat myself up for being. I guess embarrassing, but that's the joy of being human. Um, the tooling, the behind the scenes stuff, the management, even social media. You don't have to go onto social media for very long before you start to see AI generated videos, AI generated images. Um, and the truth of it is, I'm not sure I can tell the difference anymore, but the, the days of six fingers to three hands funny necks, they're gone. These, the AI tools that are appearing now are super realistic. Um, and if you can do that with words, imagine what you can do with a photograph as your reference point. So anyway, the book will be out. Sorry, I've digressed slightly. The book will be out on the 9th of September. It's called Mastering Portrait Photography. Um. Um, it's already available for pre-order on Amazon, which means I can now, um, share details of it. We've been under embargo up until this point, but, um, the rework has been done. Now looking forward to, um. Seeing the actual printed, but I've got some proofs sitting here beside me that arrived this morning. Uh, that, uh, I just wanted to confirm some of the colors were are spot on because one of the great things I think about Amini to produce this book is their color work. That printed work is just beautiful. The prints look like competition prints in the book. It's a proper, it's, I mean, for us it's a training book. It's a kind of a walkthrough. Things you should think about as a portrait photographer, but actually. As the photographer. It's a coffee table book of some of my favorite work, so that'll be out 9th of September. You can google mastering portrait photography. The book is available on Amazon, and of course we'll announce details of, uh, signed copies. Uh, we're gonna have some kind of launch bash, I'm sure of it. Uh, I cannot, absolutely cannot wait. Uh, and then onto, I think what I intended to talk about today, which is linked to the lighting patterns I talked about. But it is simply this question, what makes flattering light? And I see titles of videos, how to use flattering light, how to use this light, how to use that light, and nobody really explains. What do you mean by flattering? You know, Rembrandt pioneered. Well, did he pioneer? That's, no, he didn't. He put his name to an observed lighting pattern that created a triangle of light on his cheek. Um, is that flattering?

It’s a late Sunday afternoon, the sun is shining, and the smell of freshly cut grass (and the inevitable hay fever) is drifting through the studio as I sit down to record this episode. After a whirlwind few months — including seven incredible weeks photographing on Crystal Cruises — it feels good to be back behind the mic, even if I’m a little sniffly. In this episode, I’m reflecting on the magic of authentic portrait photography, the rapid rise of AI in our world (and our inboxes!), and why the human touch still matters more than ever. Plus, there’s news about upcoming workshops, a few tech tips for cleaner files and faster edits, and a good-natured rant about AI-generated podcast pitches. As always, it's a mix of stories, laughter, tech, and a reminder to stay creative — and stay human. Cheers P. If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography , for more articles and videos about this beautiful industry. You can also read a full transcript of this episode. PLEASE also subscribe and leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think! If there are any topics, you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk . Transcript Introduction and Podcast Setup So it's Sunday afternoon, the sun is shining, and here I am late on Sunday recording this podcast and I'm recording it with the smell of freshly cut grass, uh, wafting in through the windows, which is gonna trigger my hay fever one way or another. Um and also the reason I'm recording it quite so late at this stage of the day. It's 'cause my neighbors have been cutting their grass and they do have the loudest petrol mower in the world. I'm Paul, and assuming I can get through this without sneezing, this is the Mastering Portrait Photography 📍 podcast. Now, there is a lot going on at the moment. It is really good to be back. And of course, those of you who have been over the years, regular listeners will know this has been quite a long gap. Recent Adventures on Crystal Cruises And the reason for that, as I may or may not have alluded to before we went away was Sarah and I spent seven weeks working for Crystal Cruises, working on onboard ship as a portrait, uh, photographer. It is one of the best gigs in the world. I get to travel all over and this time around we were traveling around South America from Valparaiso in Chile all the way around the southern tip through re, which is just stunning. In Argentina over to the Falkland Islands, and then up through Brazil, across the Cape Verde and then finishing up in of all places, uh, grand Canaria. It has been an incredible experience from start to finish, photographing the most amazing people I photographed. Interesting, funny, erudite professionals, creatives, musicians, authors. Oh, you name it, we did it. It was. An absolute, uh, blast. But of course that seven week gap has meant we've come back and life is incredibly busy here now two, and there's an awful lot going on at the moment. Upcoming Workshops and Studio Updates Tomorrow I'm doing one of my favorite things, which is to run a one-on-one workshop, which is part of an annual mentoring, uh, program. We run this program, um, for photographers, for portrait photographers. I should be clear, I dunno very much about landscaping at all. Uh, but certainly for portrait photographers. And over the ki the course of a year, we set some targets, uh, and then work steadily towards 'em, and I absolutely love it. Honestly. I always come across, I always come outta these, uh, sessions buzzing with energy and ideas. Probably as many as our delegates do as well. So I'm really, really looking forward to that. The studio is all clean and tidy, Sarah and myself. Painted it. We donned our overalls, um, and spent an entire day cleaning it all out and painting the white wall white. Again. It hasn't been done for a little bit. It. And for some reason this time round I've managed to pick the right white. I know that sounds kind of ob obtuse, um, but there are lots of different tones of white and this particular one is almost exactly, uh, the same as the ISO standard for a reference white, which is really nice. So all of the images now have this really lovely clean look. I dunno what I picked last time, it clearly wasn't quite the right white or I didn't note at the time, but this white is perfect. So I have the reference numbers, if anyone's curious. I can tell you what it is and it seems to work really, uh, really well. And if that wasn't enough of all the things that are going on, we've also released a whole stack of new dates and a couple of brand new titles for our workshops, which I will share with you at the. End of this podcast, if you fancy, uh, joining one of those. Uh, and alongside everything else we've been photographing with the hearing dogs. We've been photographing with all sorts of commercial clients. Um, the diary is absolutely solid and somehow today I've had to squeeze in and find the time to sit and clear my head and figure out the planning for our upcoming bootcamp, which has been on the diary for a little bit. Now, it isn't a new workshop though. This is the first time we've run it, so I'm having to figure out exactly. What that's gonna look like. Two days of intensive portrait chat, technique and practice. Um, all about portrait photography. But we have over two days the time to spend really exploring different ideas. And of course we have the evening in between the two days when if people wanna put some of what we've gone through into practice or start to shape what we'll do the next day, we have the opportunity to do it. It's absolutely packed. We've got people coming from all over, all over Europe for that one. Uh, which I'm really excited about. I think there might be one place available. Gome, I should have gone and looked, uh, to see if that've gone, but I think there's a place available if anyone fancies it. It's on the 12th and 13th. 12th, can't even say it. 12th and 13th of May, and it's going to be a blast. So if you fancy that, I think there's, uh, a date available. Again, I'll give you, uh, details of where to find those things at the end. Anyway. Here's a question for you. AI in Photography: Tools and Trends Has anyone else noticed a steady stream of emails lately that sound human, but simply because you get so many, you just know they can't be. There's something about not just the email, but the number of them that I get that all have a very similar wording. I mean, maybe it's just me. Maybe it's because of this very podcast. Um, and I get a lot of emails, a lot of agencies and things offering me the opportunity. Here's the opportunity to have a guest that I'd never heard of, um, on the podcast. And there's something about the way that these emails feel that a suspiciously well. Polished. So the question is this the future now? I mean, AI is brilliant for certain things. Evoto, for instance, is mind blowing. I love this application. Um, it's a retouching suite. It's from Singapore, a team in Singapore, and it's as close as I've seen yet to having. Real craft finished retouched portraits. It is getting that good. It's not quite there. There's still a lot to be said for the hand finishing the final touches, the little bits and pieces, tune in the colors and the little things that I. Probably AI will never get because it's all down to you and you alone. So AI will do the bulk of it, but when it comes to your personal little taste, your little tweaks, maybe it won't get there, but it certainly gets you 90% of the way there. I'm playing right now with the beta version five, and it is impressive to put it mildly. It is really, really, really good. Um, similar vein, you know, uh, in terms of. Uh, prepping files. I love PureRAW5 from DXO optics. Um, it's just this plugin in Lightroom. I don't use an awful lot of its power, I suspect, but it's great when I have a slightly dirty file, something where maybe the noise has come up a little bit or I'm having trouble, maybe it's just, I dunno. There's something where it isn't quite right. It's very, very good for giving you beautifully clean files with no pin cushioning, no aberrations. Really nice, really nice if you like, a lovely clean file. So that's worth checking it out. I don't know, actually if, uh, PureRAW5 is yet in its public release. Um. Uh, I'm a, I'm on the beta list, so I get to see it a little bit early, but as soon as it comes out, I suggest you get a hold of a, of a trial copy and have a play. And then of course, on top of that, if there wasn't enough AI floating around with, um, competitors. Adobe themselves, the king of the crop, the, the, the big, the biggest, uh, I guess the biggest name. In photography, retouching and post-production. Um, Adobe have their own AI magic from generative fill to those ridiculously good subject and sky selection tools, which are probably the best thing about all of the ai as far as I'm concerned. The ability to hit select subject and there is, and of course, the remove tool for getting rid of people that you don't want in the background. All of these things are saving hours on editing, and it's a joy, particularly if you keep a control of it. And you get it to do what you want it to do, but, and this is a big, but it's there to assist, but it doesn't create without me steering it. These emails though. Now you can tell they are AI generated. Let me read you one. Let me just fix my email. Here it goes. Hey, Paul. It's always a good start. Hey, Paul, listening to your latest episodes really struck a chord, especially as you reflected on judging for the British Institute of Professional Photographers. Your thoughtful musings on stepping down from your role as chair were both insightful and inspiring. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. A visionary storyteller and celebrated director of photography would resonate with your audience's. Love for artistic narratives with an impressive track record working with global brands like Coca-Cola and Microsoft. He brings a wealth of experience in visual storytelling worthy of your podcast, and blah, blah, blah, blah, is not only a celebrated photographer, but also an accomplished musician and digital media artist. His vibrant Tales from behind the lens, combined with his academic honors from Harvard and the Global Cinema Cinematography Institute would add depth and intrigue to your conversations. What makes blah, blah, blah, blah, an ideal guest. This content connects with a thriving community of 15,000 entrepreneurs, photographers and marketers, eager to explore the captivating world of photograph of photography and digital media. Let's create something memorable together. Best, blah, blah, blah, blah's team. Now, in and of itself, I think I'd spot that as an um, ai, um, as an AI email. But I've had quite a few of those from different people, different photographers, different teams, different everything. But somehow your classic tale of the Land Rover, your classic tale of photographing on a beach, your classic tale of. They all have a tone about them that clearly AI can now understand, or at least I say understand. Of course, we're delving into the definitions of intelligence here, but clearly understands what it's saying. It clearly understands it's, it's either listen to the podcast or it's read the transcript or both. It's come up with some set of lines that make it sound like it's a human writing it, but it's not a human writing it. That's ai. So I've now got AI emails being sent to me to ask me to feature. I'm hoping a real human, though. I'm not going to feature him because he's using AI on my podcast. So should I set up an AI bot? To respond to the AI bot, and then maybe the AI bot at the other end could schedule the guest. Or maybe an AI guest. And an AI guest. Maybe they could record, script record and publish a podcast that yet more AI will listen to. The Future of AI and Human Interaction So the question is, at what point do we stop being involved? Maybe the AI should just talk to itself. Are we gonna end up in a world where AI is talking to ai? And I suspect the reality is that yes, that is exactly what's going to happen because I today, I could download a chat bot that will respond to all of my emails. So would the email then be responded to by another chat bot responding to the ai? Maybe the only thing that's gonna listen to the podcast will be ai, and maybe the podcast will all be about having a human context inside ai. But the only things listening to it. Are the AI bots curious? Huh? I wonder where we're gonna end up now. I'm a huge, huge fan of ai. I just, I love what it can do. I love what the future holds. I have a PhD in it, so you kind of expect that from me. But my thought was always that it would make life easier. Not that it would remove life from the equation, but I'm not quite as certain as I was. Evoto, Imagen, Adobe and a plethora of incredible tools out there are gonna help us as photographers. They're gonna enable us to do things that actually were not accessible unless you had a cast of thousands, you had models, you had assistants, you had venues. It's gonna allow image creation to a degree. That probably wasn't possible, but having just done three incredibly beautiful portrait shoots with lovely families over this weekend where the emphasis is on the authentic, not the synthetic, on creating reality and documenting it, not creating a fantasy and getting something else to write about it. I think there's still space for humanity in all of this, but I do think we have to be careful. I do think we have to retain and hold onto the reality and let AI do what AI can do, where it helps us, where it makes things faster, where it makes things more efficient. But let's keep an eye out for these crazy emails and the different things that are just so clearly not real. Anyway, that's enough of my rant. Sorry. A quick footnote. I mention all sorts of companies while I'm recording these podcasts, but I always make it clear if a company is sponsoring me. None of the companies I've mentioned today are. Uh, I'm not sponsored by DXO. I'm not sponsored, uh, by Imagen I'm not sponsored by Adobe. They're just the tools that I use. In fact, I pay for the use of all of those tools. Um, but they happen to be incredibly useful. And if any of that has inspired you to pick up your camera and, uh, I always hope. You know, maybe it has, let's go and do something that isn't based around artificial intelligence. Workshop Announcements and Closing Remarks Here are the dates I promised you for our up and coming workshop. So there's, uh, five or six of these. Uh, number one, mastering ordinary to ordinary workshop. This is that one where we take a very standard small space and just create some beautiful images in it, to be honest. Uh, whether it's, uh, using strobes, using continuous light that's on the 27th of June. Uh, this year. Uh, so actually if you're listening to this in a year's time, these are all in 2025. Uh, then there's mastering environment, uh, sorry, mastering Environmental Portraits Workshop, which is on the 18th of July, which is everything you need to tell stories through and using the location. Um, still planning that one out. I had a brilliant one-on-one recently where we went out into location to a sculptor and to someone on their allotment and just created. Pictures. It was magical. It was beautiful, it was a great experience. But we're just trying to work out how five people, which is the theoretical maximum of the workshop, uh, would be able to do the same. So, uh, I'll have a plan for that. So that's on the 18th of July. It's gonna be amazing. Then we've got mastering family photography, workshop one we've worked before. That's a maximum of four delegates in this one because obviously we have families and kids around, so we reduce the numbers. Uh, usually it's five. This one's four. Uh, that's on the 1st of August, 2025. Uh, a load of chaos, basically kids chaos. What a hoot. Uh, exactly what family photography should be. Uh, then there's mastering dog photography. This is the from shutter to print version, uh, which is on the 12th of September, where we photograph dogs in the morning and then go through the techniques for prepping those files for great prints in the afternoon. That's one of our most loved it. Always books it really quick. Uh, and then finally of this tranche is the mastering high-key and low key Studio lighting workshop, where this is an extension of one. We've run at the societies very successfully. Um, the society, we've done over a couple of hours. This is for a whole day. Where we push to the extremes. We go as bright and as high key as we can, and then we swing it the other way and go as dark and as moody as we can. Um, just lighting, talking about lighting composition, talking about the mood, all that kind of thing. That's on the 26th of September, which will take us. To the end of the summer. Uh, and then we'll have another set, uh, available. So just a quick footnote. Uh, all of the podcasts up until this one have said, go across to paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk to find details. Those details are on there, but all of the workshops now have moved to masteringportraitphotography.com, along with our mentoring and our workshops and any of the education side. That's all over on masteringportraitphotography.com, under the Academy section. Uh, so that's, uh, masteringportraitphotography.com. Um, it's all over there. We always said we'd move the education and all of the trainings, mastering portrait photography. Um, and one of the many things I've been doing over the past couple of months is precisely that is shifting all of the workshops and all the bookings across to MPP. And so there we have it. We have a little bit of sunshine, an awful lot of portraits, some AI musings, and a few workshop announcements thrown in for good measure. It's funny, really, we live this, we live in this incredible time where technology can do and does do so much for us, but I still think the real magic happens when we stay human in the middle of it all. Now, whether that's crafting an image, having a conversation, or just sneezing, you can hear I've got a blocked up nose or just sneezing away through a freshly cut lawn. It's the human bit that matters most. So if you're interested in joining us for an upcoming bootcamp, as I said, or any of the other workshops, there's still time and we would love to see you there. And that is it for me or from me for today. I. It's time to go and have a glass of wine in the sunshine and pretend that the smell of, of fresh cut glass is actually a fresh cut grass, rather is actually 📍 romantic rather than just mildly annoying. So thanks as always for being part of this little community. Wherever you are, whatever you're up to, take care, stay creative, and as ever, be kind to yourself. Goodnight.

Well, it's the day after The Socieities Of Photographers Convention in London. What a blast! Judging, laughing, making friends, presenting workshops, representing Elinchrom Lighting and Evoto Ai, learning, exploring, creating and very little sleeping! The Convention is quite something to be a part of! In this episode, I try and explain what it feels like to be a small part of it whether judging the print competition, presenting or mixing with the trade - the various stages I pretty much always go through from fear to elation and everything in between. Enjoy! Cheers P. If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography , for more articles and videos about this beautiful industry. You can also read a full transcript of this episode. PLEASE also subscribe and leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think! If there are any topics, you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk . Transcript Introduction and Post-Convention Exhaustion So late last night, we returned from the societies of photographers convention in London, and you can hear him. My voice. I'm exhausted. The convention is such an incredible thing. 3 4, 5 days. Of mixing with the trade running workshops, attending workshops. And one of the most important print competitions in the industry, and that is anywhere. In the world, it's been a blast. You can hear just how tired I am. But in this episode I thought I'd battled through the fatigue and talk to what it's like to be a judge, a presenter, and a delegate. At this incredible convention firsthand. I'm Paul, and this is a slightly weary. Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast. Well, hello, one and all. I hope you're all. Well, it's been a busy store to January. If I'm honest. Uh, we were hectic all the way up to the convention. And even today, the day after it's all over, I've just been photographing a family. Roles and Responsibilities at the Convention Uh, this year at the convention, um, I was a print judge, a presenter, and an ambassador for Elinchrom Lighting. Uh, the company that I just adore using their products. And so to everybody who I've met, everybody, I've talked to everybody who I've laughed with, shared a drink with shared an idea with. Maybe argued over print score with thank you. Thank you for making the Convention such a pleasure. However, as I was sitting on the train coming home, it struck me. That there are definitely stages stages to how you feel. When, at least in the role I have. Uh, your attending. The convention. The Nine Stages of Convention Experience Um, sort of like the five stages of grief, I suppose these are the nine stages that I go through each and every time I attend the convention. It's the thought processes, it's the things that make me tick. Uh, it's how I feel. It's how I feel before is how I feel through it, doing it in this, how I feel afterwards. So let me step through them. Um, as usually when I come to the end of a judging process, I'll talk to all of the things I heard during the judging and give tips on producing. Uh, competition level prints, but I've done that so many times, this year, I just thought I go through the emotions, the various stages. Did I feel every time. Um, I attend the convention. Stage 1: Excitement So let's start with the obvious stage one. Excitement. This kicks in the minute that, uh, the convention confirm. That you're going to be attending. They confirm that you're going to be running some talks. They confirm that you're going to be a judge. Um, there's a real kick, a real thrill when that comes in. And then you start to think about what you'll do you start to, you've already had to put some ideas in, so those are going to be the titles of the talks, but you start to really plan out what that might look like, and that's six months out. We will start to put in, um, our applications for the 2026 convention in the next few months. So you have big ideas. You clear the diary. Of course, you make sure that those dates are available. And at that stage, there is nothing more than excitement. Obviously a little bit of pressure to get some social media out and tell the world you're going, but it's all about the excitement. And then you roll up closer and closer and closer to the day. And you're sitting on the train, heading into London, stage two. Stage 2: Nerves Nerves. I don't know if everybody goes through this. But I do. I start to worry that I've got all of the kit. I need that. I've got enough of a plan of what the workshops and presentations are going to be. I start to worry about that moment you walk into a room full of people that for some reason, in my mind, I assume I'm not going to know. Of course it's never like that, but that's how it feels. Um, also there's a really important to this year. It was a three o'clock deadline, you have to be in the judges room by three o'clock. Don't turn up. You're not judging and that's an Intuit. You have to be at the judges. Briefing. Meeting. And Terry Jones from the societies, she will talk through all of us as judges as to what she's expecting, how are we going to be. Uh, scheduled, what the runtimes are, what sort of language it's, uh, just an update and refresh on a language we're going to use how it's going to work. And if we're not in that room, You're not judging. And of course, the bit where I get the most nervous is as I walk in now I'm an extrovert. I love being in a crowd of people, but I've always had this fear of walking into a crowded room and not knowing anyone and having to sit in a corner. Uh, sort of minding my own business, finding people to talk to not being certain of myself. Now, luckily for me these days, I've been in the industry for so long that I know probably two thirds of the people in the room. Um, so it's not as bad as it used to be, but I used to be terrified and I'm still nervous. I'm still trepidatious. I'm still uncertain of myself. Um, but I walked in this year and of course it was just brilliant. And that brings me on to, I think, Uh, stage number three. Stage 3: Sense of Belonging A sense of belonging, a sense of being part of the family. There were so many hellos and handshakes and hugs and laughter and faces. I recognize some, I don't. I was introduced to new people. There's just this wonderful sense of coming back home. I love the convention for that. Of all the things that it brings, I think to all photographers. There's a sense of being part of something bigger. I think there are about 50, maybe 60 judges in the room, plus the print and handlers and all of the teams around us. And it is the most incredible feeling of belonging and for the next sort of 12 hours or so, um, after the briefing, there'll be socializing some food, um, maybe have a drink with a few people. It's a real sense of family. But then we come on to stage four. Stage 4: Pressure of Judging We're walking in to begin the process of judging the next morning. So this is the premier print competition in the world. So stage four is pressure. And even though I've been doing this a long time, I've been a judge. I can't remember how many years it is now. Probably 15 years. Um, there's still this sense. Of responsibility. Because each and every print, we will see hundreds of prints. But every single print is unique to the author. Every author has put everything they have into it. And trust me, you do not enter a print unless you think it stands a chance of winning? You might not say that to people you might say, oh, I don't know. I just thought he might try my arm, but you haven't entered a print. You haven't paid for it to be printed mounted and then the entry fees. For you not to think it stands a chance of winning. And as a judge, you really do feel that sort of pressure. You feel the responsibility as you sit there, the print comes up and you have to go through all of the elements, the 10 elements that were giving us, given us judges. Um, Um, on which to base our assessment and ultimately a score. And there are five judges on every panel. And these are some of the best. Photographers in the world. So if you put in a score and it comes on the screen, And you're wildly different to the other judges. Of course you feel that moment? Have I got that wrong? And there's a process for this as the challenge process. Um, and each of us know how to do it. Each of us have our own particular way of doing it. Uh, I had to run a few challenges this year. Um, and you're looking at the scores and there was one in particular where it was quite a long way out of line with the other judges, my school was higher and I'd seen things in that image that at least based on my assessment of it, my experience warranted a higher score. And every judge by the way has had exactly this happened to them. This is not just me. But I'm sitting there looking at the scores and I'm thinking. How hard have I got to work to try and get the other judges to see what I see, to feel what I feel, to evaluate the image in a similar way to me, or at least come closer to where I am. And these are photographers that some of them I've never met before. Some of whom I have met before everyone has their own style and their own way, but you then have to talk to the image and talk to the other judges. And see if you can convince them. That possibly there are things in the image that this time round, they may have missed that you, um, have seen. It goes the other way as well, by the way. So if somebody else puts in a score and minds lower. The same process will happen. But now it's me trying to listen, trying to understand where maybe I've missed some key factors in an image and that's particularly important when images come up, that aren't in your wheelhouse things that you don't specialize in when it comes to portraiture and weddings, or maybe photographing dogs. I of course know what I'm looking at. I understand that process really well. That doesn't mean I will always have seen everything, but it does mean that probably I'm in the right ballpark, but sometimes you get an image that challenges you tries, you tests you, it forces you to think in a different way. And while I might understand the print process, I'll understand the creation process, I'll understand the presentation, there may be things about that moment or about that imagery or about that style of photography that I might have missed. And so I'm eagerly listening to the other judges to see if it's something where I've just mostly get my score a little bit out and I need to be. Um, come a little bit closer to the overall score that's been, uh, the first round score that's been calculated or maybe just maybe I'll hold my ground and say no. I hear you. I understand what you're saying completely, I just feel for these reasons I've got my score about, right. So can you imagine the pressure when you raise a challenge or you're involved in a challenge with really well-known photographers from all corners of the world, um, the pressure is immense. It really is at that moment, the most important job in the world. And on top of that, we've got a live audience. So it's not even just that you're having to do. Um, or having to think on your feet and figure out your scoring, but you also then have to articulate that in a way that is clear. It's polite. It's respectful to the print, new author and the rest of your judges, but it's also educational, interesting entertaining, maybe because to hold an audience in the room, as judges we have, not just the responsibility. Of creating the right scores or appropriate scores for the images and bear in mind. Bear in mind, if you have a different judge on a different day, the chances are you going to get a slightly different score? So don't think that these are absolute objective. We feel all the time, the pressure of that. But during that process, we are also for the people in the room, entertainment. With air to be interesting, as well as educational we're there to help them understand, but also for them not to be asleep. In the room, the rooms are pretty dark because of course we've got the prince lit at the front. Um, We have a microphone, but our backs are to the audience. And somehow we have to be not only knowledgeable and skilled and respectful, but also to a degree entertaining. There's a lot of pressure on it. And it's not just the pressure of judging the prints because of course. Um, for me and most of the judges. I was also running two workshops or two masterclasses, and doing presentations on the Ellen Crum lighting stage. So during the rest of the convention, even once the judging is done. I'm still feeling a huge amount of pressure to be the very best I can be to represent Elinchrom and the brand, to the best of my ability. And again, that's part education, but mostly entertainment. If you're stood on the stage, creating pictures, it's not really about the technicals, that techniques, that care moonlighting modifies. It's really about being interesting and entertaining and giving people things. To go home and try themselves. And the workshops are almost exactly the same, just on a much longer format. So you really do feel the pressure to make sure everything's working, and when the audience are in there, that you give the very, very best of yourself. Even yesterday, I had what we euphamistically called the graveyard shift, which is the last set of presentations, not just of the day, but of the whole convention. The trade show by now is closed. There's nowhere else for delegates to go, except home. And nearly everybody you speak to is like, right. It shows done. I'm going to go catch my train. So you rock up to a room and I had, for the final session, I had the biggest workshop room. There is, um, I don't know how many people it can hold. But I was expecting two or three people to stay behind, maybe. Uh, we've got the last, uh, workshop I ran. This year was on high-key and low-key, uh, studio lighting, um, and going through the process of how you think about these things, how you evaluate. Um, the person in front of you, how you react to them, how you decide what you're going to shoot and how you then go through the stages of shooting it. I'd put together. A pretty good idea. And I assumed I'd be presenting it to two or three people who are going to brave the last trains home and stick around, even though there's a gap after the trade show, closing and the workshop starting. Well, the room was packed. It was an absolute thrill to be there. And the last few. Minutes or hour the hour and a half of the day, with a full room and incredible model. Uh, Eloise Hare was our model and playing with these beautiful Elinchrom lights and just showing different ideas and not just with a full room, but it's a room full of people who really interactive, really engaged. And so thankfully all that pressure I'd felt throughout the five days. Uh, dissipated in the last workshop. Stage 5: Elation And of course at the end of that, you get to stage five, which is elation. And that for me, at least a sort of celebration, um, uh, almost a euphoria. Um, I've been meeting people and I'm an extrovert, so being around people really recharges me. I've been talking sharp. I've been talking photography. I've been talking lighting. I've been catching up with people's businesses. And we've been creating images and I've just been feeling like I'm at home. These are my people. Every minute of every day, it's just a sense of recharging. It's a sense of, um, joy and conversation. It has been absolutely brilliant. And that's that sense of elation and you close everything down. You finished your last presentation, you put everything into its bags and then you get to stage six, which for me. Stage 6: Regret and Insecurity Is sort of, I've called it regret. It's a sort of insecurity, a paranoia. That's always been with me. I've never got rid of it, which is where I panic about all the things I've said that possibly I shouldn't have. The people I wished I'd had a chance to say hello to, but I only waived. Waved over a room. Um, You know, there are always people at the convention. I just would, I went there thinking I'm definitely going to see them. And the closest I got was to wave at them across a bar maybe. And I regret not having had enough time to see everybody, but that isn't enough time to see everything or everybody. I regret that maybe. I didn't give the best to me. I've given everything I can every single moment, but there's still that slight insecurity that maybe I didn't quite get to everyone. And maybe of course my scores of the images were off. Now, of course, when you're judging. You have a panel of five people, um, and that's there deliberately. That's there. To stop it, any outliers, really railroading and the show. And that's really, really good. It means that even if I'm one image, I scored it. S off slightly too high, a slightly too low. Maybe there are four other judges to make sure that that doesn't really matter, but you still worry about it. You worry about whether when, um, the chair of judges is looking at you. Uh, whether the person who created the images, looking at you, or whether the people that run the competition are looking at you, they're thinking. Oh, Wilkinson's a bit off this year. Isn't it? You worry. And that's always part of this. Sort of coming down from the, all of the energy and the adrenaline. Um, and then the fatigue and the grief regret, start to really kick in. And that leads us on to state seven. Stage 7: Fatigue The fatigue, the utter tiredness. And you can hear that. in my voice. I can hear that in my voice and it kind of speaks for itself. Um, I got home, I think at about 10 o'clock last night, I was in bed by 11 I was asleep by five past. And Sarah myself. Woke up at about 11 o'clock this morning. I don't remember being quite so tired. I was so tired. I am still so tired. And of course today I've had a family in the studio and I've had to go back to giving a hundred percent and all that meant is now I'm even more tired. The fatigue is part of it. And yet that's not the whole story because there's also now beginning to, to kick in a sense of stage eight, which is opportunity. Stage 8: Opportunity I've made new friends, some incredible friends. Um, Chris and mark in particular. Uh, really made me laugh. If they're listening, they'll know exactly who they are. Two monumental photographers from Australia, monumental creators, monumental. Um, intellects and I've loved sitting on the panel with them and listening and learning from them. It's refreshed existing friendships. It's refreshed all old friendships. Um, we've had new ideas, new thoughts. Um, new challenges, new things to think about new ideas for creativity. And of course, being a judge, I get a double pronged chance at that. I get to not only mix with the most knowledgeable and in pressive photographers in the world, but also to see images, competition images up close and personal from some of the greatest. Um, talent's there to the people that have entered in. Not necessarily people I never get to meet by get to see their images. And that in itself gives you new ideas and new things to test you. Today, in my family shoot, one of the four people, it turned out through chatting with them that they heavily into steam punk. I did not know this what a brilliant idea. And she's quite keen to come and do some photography she's into cosplay, um, and steam punk. And she would like me to create some pictures for her too. But that really is it a development of some of the images I've seen over the past four days. And that leads me on to what I think is the final stage. Stage 9: Energy and Optimism And that's a sense of energy. Now for me. I'm an extrovert. So being in this huge crowd energizes me on its own, but being in the judging, seein

Imagine that every person had exactly the same fashion taste. Imagine if each of us had the same clothing or the same hairstyle. Imagine that everyone was the same height and build. Imagine that everyone had identical makeup. Just imagine. Of course, it's a nonsense - different styling suits different people. Short, tall, thin, round, dark-skinned, fair-skinned, red-heads, blondes, straight haired, curly haired: everyone looks for something different to bring out their best. So why do so many photographers light their subjects using the exact same lighting pattern without adjusting for the variety of life? Why? I can't answer that but I do have a view! Cheers P. If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography , for more articles and videos about this beautiful industry. You can also read a full transcript of this episode. PLEASE also subscribe and leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think! If there are any topics, you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk . Transcript Well, it's the end of an incredibly busy week and an incredibly busy day. And today the temperature hasn't. Risen above freezing. It's so cold that our shower at home has frozen. The Landrover won't start. And the two clients, the two families I've had in today who desperately wanted to go out. And take pictures in the wintery Wonderland were sadly disappointed when even they couldn't last more than about 10 minutes at a go. So we've been based in the studio, which is where I am right now. I'm Paul. And this is the mastering portrait photography 📍 podcast. So hello. how are you all doing? I must apologize. I spent quite a lot of the year with this ambition. I'm going to record. A podcast every week or every other week. And in fact, I haven't looked, but I think. Apple. Uh, quotes, the masteringportraitphotography.com podcast is being monthly. It shouldn't be monthly. It should really be weekly, but it's been such a busy year. It's been a kind of a year that I'm glad if I'm honest. That we're at the end of it, where it's a new, fresh, shiny new year. 2024 has been reasonably successful on many fronts has been incredibly successful, but it has also been brutal a grueling year, I think, by any measure with not an awful lot of good news around. Um, You know, Uh, various things happening. But we survived it. We hit our numbers, but we've had to work so, so hard to do it. And I think I careened into Christmas. Like one of those videos of cars on icy Hills, much as I fought it. There was nothing I could do. To stop it. So. We're here. It's 20, 25 it's January. And once more, I'm sitting. At the microphone, today's been a busy day. We've had a couple of family shoots and yes, they wanted desperately to go out. Into the frost, but when we stepped out there, they didn't last any more than 10 minutes. Uh, piece and that's not that much of a surprise. So we already had the studio nice and warm. And we've been working in there. But one of the things that's happening at the end of this month is Sarah and myself are heading off working with crystal cruises for seven weeks. That's a long stint of working, but it does also mean that we've had to clear a hole in the diary and all of the work that it would normally done normally be done in those seven weeks. Has had to be done either prior or after we get back. Which has meant that we have been running at a hundred. Miles an hour with back-to-back shoots even yesterday. Um, one of my favorite gigs of the year, as , I know, you know, because I've talked about it. Incessantly is the Royal institution. Uh, Christmas lectures. Now at the end of last year, I photograph the three lectures. And for those of you who are in the UK, you can watch those on the BBC I play. They will with Chris fan, Dr. Chris van Uh, talking about big food, talking about ultra processed foods. How it works and how it affects, uh, in particular. Our kids. A really, really interesting and exciting set of lectures. And we usually shoot the PR. For these, the BBC lectures sometime around July or August. Um, but this year, this year we've had to do it slightly differently. So we were in London yesterday. I can't tell you who the lecturer is or what the topic is. But I can tell you that we were in London yesterday with the Royal institution photographing this year's publicity photos they'd been brought forward incredibly early. Uh, for not just because of our diary, but because of the presenter's diary to. And so instead of doing it in July, we've done it in the first couple of weeks of January, but that's been on top of everything else. We're doing so it's been a hell of a week. And then today, if I'm honest, I'm quite tired. It's not also been the best. Start to the end that we've had a few bits fail. I've just had a monitor fail. If anyone has a great alternative to my Ben Q my trustee, Ben Q 27 inch. Something or other. Um, it just stopped working. Uh, it flickers on and off, and it doesn't seem to be anything. I can do to stop it. I have tried. Every test I can think of, but no, it looks like. It looks like the monitor has died. So I've had to replace it with a monitor that our son left lying around. Uh, which is to be fair to Dell. It's not an awful monitor. Um, I calibrated it and it's reaching about 90% of Adobe RGB, which isn't half bad. Uh, but I'd quite like to get back to my hundred percent. Uh, Adobe RGB coverage, because when you're doing color correction, you really do want to know that your images are a color-correct. I could do with it. My second monitor. I love my iMac. Uh, but I don't trust the iMac display to give me accurate colors. So I've got a second monitor. That's always calibrated with it alongside. Um, to show me exactly how the colors will be in that one has suddenly died. But anyway, how are things with all of you? How was your year? How have you been. Uh, I hope it was a good year. I hope you had a really good break. Over Christmas. And I hope you've started the new year full of ideas, full of inspiration. Um, and full of energy. Um, next week is the society's convention in London. Which historically has been such an incredible start to the year. I always love it. It's back in its slot in January. Uh, and that is for me, at least the perfect place for it because you get to do a few days judging. You get to do a lot of socializing and I get to present masterclasses. And all of these other things. And so the whole thing is just the best. Energizer for the year. And spending time with so many incredible photographers and friends of ours across the industry, whether it's on the photography side. Or whether it's on the trade side. so many amazing, amazing people cannot wait. So if you're around in about next week, please do come and say hello. I'll be there all days. I'll be there Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Uh, I'm on stage on Friday and Saturday, I'm doing a couple of stints, um, at the convention this time round. Uh, I'm onstage on Friday and Saturday. Uh, I'm doing a masterclass. Uh, called, uh, creating the coolest composites on Friday from four 30, till six. And that's all about bringing multiple images together, whether it's, um, family groups, whether it's corporate, where you photographing individual headshots at different times, or they're doing something cooler. Where, uh, your taking multiple images or acceptive images and place them onto new backgrounds. All of these are composites and there are techniques and ideas. For shooting that make all of that seamless, whether you're using. Um, playing backgrounds, whether you're using hand-drawn backgrounds or whether you're using, um, AI of course. And so this will be. Uh, that's on Friday at four 30, till six. I think that's the last slot people, the drinks. So, uh, I might be doing it at a pace to make sure everyone can get out of the room, get into their posh togs and go down to the awards. So many and then on the 18th, Uh, on the Saturday. We're doing high key, low key, which is a variant of some videos we've done before, but it's all about pushing to the extremes. Um, using very simple lighting to create incredible high key, bright white, uh, images, and equally going to the other end of the spectrum. Um, and shooting those dark moody sumptuous, um, low key images. That's on the Saturday from four 30 to six. I'm also going to be presenting on the Ellen. From stage. Um, throughout the convention. I can't remember exactly what times. Uh, I'm there, but if you look it up on the schedules, Uh, Alan Crum schedules, you'll be able to find me and we're just doing mastering portrait photography. So we're just going to create incredible images with what I consider to be the best lighting in the business. So that's next week. That's the convention in London. So please do come and say hello, whether it's to one of the two master classes. And if you have a convention pass, they're both free. Um, or if you want to come in. Uh, have a play or what you're saying, having a play, I suppose, on the Ellyn Crump state, then please do come and say hello. So I'll have to be honest. Um, this podcast is one of my unscripted. Sit down at a microphone and see what happens, sort of podcasts. I do apologize. It's just been a very long week, a very busy week. Um, and. Sometimes it just Wells that way. And I just ended up sitting here thinking, oh, w w what should we talk about? Well, let me talk about a workshop. We ran this week because some points came up during it that I think. Are quite, uh, interesting now the master class or workshop this week. Was, um, booked as a one to one. And one of the things we are in a lovely position to do at our studio is we can run our scheduled workshops and they're an absolute blast. And people love having a fixed date. They can book in, turn up one of a crowd. Um, and those are hugely popular, but equally we have people come to us to do one-on-one. So you get to pick your topic, we've sourced the models. Um, you can spend the entire day dedicated to whatever it is. That you feel you need. And so this week, um, a few guys came down. Uh, from a camera club in the Midlands. And instead of it being one of our pre scheduled. Workshops. It was a masterclass, a one-on-one, but they booked. Extra places. So the three of them. Could come now, this works really, really well. If all three of you or all three of the delegates or 10 DS. Ah, of broadly the same standard and have the same interest and have the same goals. Because if you all do then. Even though it's a, um, a group think style workshop. It can be done in the style of a one on one, because we are showing it, going to teach the topic and everyone. Gets to S two. Explore it and play with it. And everyone, no one feels left out and no one feels like someone else is taking too much time because they're all doing the same thing or wishing to learn the same thing. Um, and this particular one-on-one was all about. Getting the most out of lighting. Now, when we hear that, when we read the brief, we get the emails, people contact us. Whenever entirely certain. What it is that they really mean, and also what it is that they don't know because of course, people don't know. I mean, this is the Rumsfeld paradox is that people don't know what they don't know. And so as a trainer, as a, as someone running a workshop, Um, part of the role is to try and figure out what would be useful. And so when they leave, it feels like you've answered that question. And I think from the feedback we got, we did do this, but it's always a bit of a puzzle. Um, and it, it was really interesting and. I think this was one of my favorite one-on-one workshops that we run this week in the morning, we had Abby who came so that we could just do simple portraits, simple light setups. Um, And talk through how you develop the lighting and then in the afternoon, Uh, Jess and other one of our regular models came. And Jess is a gymnast and a dancer. Um, and so, uh, they wanted to learn, the guys wanted to learn how to light. And, uh, uh, capture dance and movement. So those are the two sort of ends of the spectrum and they're actually quite different things. To do. And I'll post some of the images up with some lighting diagrams. Uh, onto the masteringportraitphotography.com. Uh, website at some point. Um, but it's been, it was an absolute through, but what surprised me? I think juring the masterclass and it didn't just surprise me. It saddened me. Was that the guys had been regularly going to a studio where everything is pre-set. So the lights are at the powers. They are they're in the positions. They are, you can do what you like in the middle, but you not to change. The lighting and I don't think I've ever taken three pictures of the same person without changing the lighting each time. So to hear this from the guys broke my heart a little bit. I think. Now I can take. Take you back to 2008 when, um, I first joined the MPA, the master photographers association, which is now sadly. Uh, disbanded, but back then in 2008, when you joined, um, you had to, or you didn't have to, but you went to an induction day. You, I had no idea what to expect. I had not long turned full-time as a pro. And so I rocked up to a conference in the middle of, in the Midlands, in, in England. And sat and went and listened through a whole series of seminars on different things, different aspects of, I dunno, portrait, photography, wedding, photography, studio, photography, lifestyle, all sorts of things. It was actually a very, very, very productive day. It was the day that I first met the person that was going to become, uh, my incredible mentor, Kevin Wilson. And it was also the day that I nearly threw the towel in and left the MPA. And it was because one of the presenters stood up. And he started talking about lighting and he talked about lighting studio lighting. In a way that was so dry was so technical. So mathematical. That I couldn't believe that something is creative as taking a photograph, particularly when you have control over the lights had been boiled down. To a whole series of numbers. One stop on this half a stop later on that two stops later on those two. And you've got your picture. And that was literally the process. Now I do understand. And in fact, not just understand, but love the fact that studio lighting can be technical. I absolutely adore the fact that this technical I'm a geek. I love all of that stuff. Um, it's one of the reasons I've gone back to Allen Chrome is because I love what they're doing with the technology. I adore it. But it's not, that's not creative. That's not how you. Produce beautiful art. That's not how you engage a client. That's not how you capture the mood of a moment. You don't do that with numbers. You can't do that with numbers now, I suppose. You could argue that if your lighting is secured and you're not worrying about that, then you can concentrate on your subjects. Okay. I'll take that as an argument. I do understand that might be. Where people are. But let me put it a different way. What if we said, I don't know. Jeans and a t-shirt or a suit and a tie. Our perfect uniform for everybody you photograph, let's do it that way around. Let's just assume that clothing. Is exactly the same for everybody. Now, the minute I say it, you can hear how stupid that sounds. So why would light. Be the same for every subject clothes, the same clothes don't suit everybody. Nor does the same lighting. If you have around figure around face, then you use the lighting, maybe. Two. Change that into something that the client would prefer. Now, obviously you have to tread a very gentle game and not so clients. One thing, different clients want different things. So maybe you have to shoot narrow. Maybe you have to shoot broad, maybe have to shoot with the softest light you've ever shot. Maybe you have to shoot with the hardest light. You've ever shot. But not changing the light for every single subject. And in my case for every single image. Doesn't make any sense? Why would you not change it? So when a guy said that, It really? It did surprise me. I'm honest. I wasn't expecting that. Um, and it saddened me because it was such an opportunity. Last, I think, um, that they're going into a studio and not able to change everything. So we spent an entire day, an entire day. Moving the lights we set in the lights. Changing staff. Uh, we use some color lights. We did RC in the end. One of the things one of the guys wanted to learn. With how to combine movement. So dragging the shutter. How to combine movement along with the studio strobes. So you get that. Sort of, um, it's a really beautiful effect. It's not one that I go to very often. Where you have a blurred image and at the end you have pop of the flash and it freezes just the end of the movement. Um, so Jess very patiently. She danced. She swerved. She spun. She did all of these things so that we could practice or they could practice with, uh, dragging the shutter. And it was. A really liberating day, just going through the principles of lighting, because with all of this stuff, if you understand. Why things work? Why you do certain things? Why, why you have a wide open? Sorry, why you have a long shutter speed too, to capture movement, but why the pulse of the light then freezes that movement at the last second. If you have rear curtains sink, if you understand all the bits of the puzzle. Um, you can piece it together for almost anything. Um, and so we spent the morning creating beautiful portraits of Abby and we spent the afternoon creating well havoc, basically lots of movement. Lots of color, um, with Jess. And I think there's the rub is that. When you're working in the studio. Every time you press that shutter button. Every single time you press that shutter button. It really should be not just a unique experience between you and the setter. Not just a unique moment in time. But you should have lit it. Like it's a unique moment. It's not just same old, same old. Don't just stick the lights on the wall. Or in a high glider on their tripods. I love them at their regular settings. Take a look at your client is their skin shiny. In which case will you put the lights in the same place system on who's got very matte skin, um, are their clothes, clothes absorbing light? Because white. Tee shirts and white blouses. I create kicker light under the chin. Whereas black clouds don't. Would you like them? The same? Is that the effect you're looking for? Um, Do you have a client with blonde hair or dark hair, because that will give you slightly different lighting patterns in the hair. Um, do they have a wide face or a narrow face or more importantly? How do they want their features to look. Because if you've got someone wearing contoured makeup and deep foundation, the chances are that person would quite like their skin to look smooth and their cheekbones and her jawline. To have shape. Whereas, if someone's just wearing, let's say the minimal amount of foundation. Um, they may just want their face to look exactly the way. Um, it does naturally, without any shadows on it, you need to talk, you need to listen and you need to observe. And when you do that. Then, if you have the knowledge of why you like things in certain ways to do certain things, You can then piece that together, but you certainly never leave the lights. The way they are for every single image. And if I've one pet peeve and I'll finish this slight runs, it's not meant to be. And I don't know how I got here. Um, I was just thought I'd sit down and record a podcast. Cause it's been way too long. And to Paul from Chester. Um, I do apologize it. Nice comment on Instagram. We have something along the lines of, when will I find a moment to sit and record? Anothe

So after three days of judging images for the British Institute Of Professional Photographers, it's time for me to step down from my role as Chair Of Awards And Qualifications. I have been in the role for three years and it is time for someone else to pick up the reins and run with it (if that isn't a mixed metaphor.) I have loved doing this and if it weren't for a million things I have to go on and do, I think I would do it forever! So as I drive home from my last round of qualifications - possibly the best one I've ever been involved in - here are a few musings of things I have spotted. This is a 'Tales From The Land Rover' edition so please forgive the audio quality and any mild road rage! Enjoy! Cheers P. If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography , for more articles and videos about this beautiful industry. You can also read a full transcript of this episode. PLEASE also subscribe and leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think! If there are any topics, you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk . Transcript EP158 Heading Home From The Awards Introduction and Event Recap [00:00:00] Paul In The Defender: So for those of you who love the Land Rover episodes, you'll be thrilled to hear that I'm just leaving the BIPP, the British Institute of Professional Photography Awards, uh, event 2024 25. Uh, why do we call it 2024 and 2025 is because if you get an award at the end of a year, it's a real pain from a marketing point of view if you can only say you have an award for 2024. So we call it 2024 slash 25, uh, just to extend the marketing value. So you're, you hold the titles for a year, , so why wouldn't we? Anyway, that's where I've been. I've just spent an absolute fortune on some fuel, uh, because I hadn't got a lot of choice but to fill up at a service station. [00:00:47] And I am just pulling in to traffic. He says, concentrating on driving. Driving and Multitasking [00:00:52] Paul In The Defender: I had a lovely, uh, lovely email from someone this week. , sorry I'm driving so I can't, uh, look up your name. I'm so, I think it was John McCarthy. I'm gonna go with John McCarthy. , who said, amongst many other things, uh, he doesn't know how I drive and record a podcast at the same time. [00:01:09] Well, the answer to that is I drive. And chat. Uh, there's not a lot of structure to it, , and a few people have said this week they like the podcast like that, uh, because, uh, they find it interesting to hear me ad libbing. I don't know whether that's, I don't know whether there's merit in that, but yeah, I am ad libbing because driving is the priority. [00:01:30] They also said, uh, John said, I'm sure it's John McCarthy. I hope it is, if not, uh, I'm crediting somebody who's a fictional character. , he also said that uh, he can hear in everything we're talking about just how busy we are here at the studio. And it must be hard to find the time to fit in to do the podcast, and it is, which is why, uh, I am recording while driving. [00:01:52] , but he did also go on to say, he loves it when we do them. Uh, they are really valuable. They don't just disappear out there into the ether. There are lots of you out there in the photographic community listening to, uh, hopefully enjoying, uh, at least to a, a greater or lesser degree, the podcast. [00:02:10] So here we are. I'm Paul, and this is the Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast. Well, hello one and all. Uh, I am in relatively. Reasonably slow, fast ish, medium paced traffic, which is not good for me getting home quickly. I've got about an hour and a half of driving, but it is good from a road noise point of view 'cause at this speed, the road noise in my Land Rover isn't quite as, uh, intrusive as it would be. I see. It's not so much the road noise as the wind noise in this thing. I'm just looking at the other side of the motorway and thinking, I'm glad I'm not going that way 'cause it's must have been an accident. [00:03:01] It's absolutely log jammed. Reflections on a Photography Career [00:03:04] Paul In The Defender: Uh, so what have I been up to? Well, it was the awards. It was the British Institute of Professional Photography International Awards yesterday in, uh, Bromsgrove, which is in Birmingham, in the Midlands, in the heart, in the heart of the country. Uh, an absolutely wonderful event. [00:03:20] Lots of our friends and lots of colleagues, lots of photographers, uh, having a drink, having a laugh, and celebrating some of the very best images. That you can, uh, possibly imagine is absolutely brilliant. Uh, I have to say it's my last formal event as chair, uh, of qualifications and awards of the BIPP and I. [00:03:41] I guess I have to just say a quick thank you, uh, to Martin Bains and the guys at the British Institute for asking me to take on the role. It has been the honor of a lifetime. You know, when you start out in photography, I, I was just a kid with a camera. Actually, to be fair, I still probably am, uh, just a kid with a camera. [00:04:02] I've just grown quite a lot older and now earn my living from it. But the enthusiasm and the awe and wonder of what you can do with this gadget hasn't diminished at all in the time since I first picked one up at age, sort of, seven or eight or whatever age I was when my grandfather's, uh, Kodak Brownie. [00:04:21] So to be. Chair of Quals And Awards for the oldest photographic association in the world has truly been the honor of a lifetime and when Martin asked me if I'd take that on three years ago, I think I might have been a bit reticent because I wasn't quite sure whether I could deliver what he needed, but hopefully we've gone on to answer the question. [00:04:42] That was an emphatic yes and he, he and the board let me create a program and methods and standards That I think we can be really proud of. , and at the end of the, uh, sorry, at the beginning of the awards yesterday, so it's the end of my tenure. It's my last one as chair. So it is a, it is a sort of a bittersweet moment for me 'cause I've loved it. [00:05:01] Uh, I'm only stepping down because I desperately need to find time to do a load of other things. And now is the time after three years, all the work we've done, uh, you know, on the, on the judging side for me, but particularly on Sarah. Putting in processes and making sure you can get judges when you need them. [00:05:18] , so I'm gonna say thank you to Martin, thank you to the B-I-P-P-A huge thank you to Sarah. And thank you to all the judges who've judged with me, , who've been part of the team. , hopefully over the coming years I'll be able to stand back on the other side of the line and judge alongside the judges that for the past few years I've been sitting in front of while chairing. Honorary Fellowship Award [00:05:38] Paul In The Defender: , the other thing that happened last night, , so forgive me, this is a very personal. It's one of those things where I don't know quite how to do it, but I'm so chuffed I'm going to tell you anyway. I was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the BIPP. So, if you're not in the industry, I guess it's hard to articulate just how rare these things are and what an honor they are. [00:06:04] There's only 26 or 27 Honorary Fellows in the industry. And as of now, I am also one. I already had my Fellowship. I got that in 2011. , Uh, but I now have an Honorary Fellowship, which is, it's been given to me. It's engraved on the thing is for services to the BIPP, which I rather like it. Uh, so it's just a real privilege to be given that, , I never, you know, just being chair of quals was to be honest, gratitude enough but it is still a lovely thing to be presented with. And that will carry with me for the rest of my life, you know. You keep that title, , and I'm so proud. I was so surprised and pleased last night and so proud now. [00:06:50] But I must also just put out there that, although it is me because I'm the photographer, it's my letters. , actually, this particular one has to be 50 percent Sarah. It's Sarah that coordinated the judges. It's Sarah that managed things and runs me. It's Sarah that manages my time. It's Sarah, and even last night, several of the judges were telling me they were sad to see me step down, but actually, , it's Sarah they're really gonna miss. [00:07:16] So, uh, this goes to Sarah more than anybody else. Uh, so that's a huge, huge thank you. Right, traffic's all braking. Good job I've left lots of gaps, that's nice. Right, so, what was today's topic? Key Ingredient for Great Portraits [00:07:31] Paul In The Defender: Today's topic is, , based on a question that a client asked me the other day. So I was photographing a beautiful family, mother, father, nine month old baby, [00:07:42] The weather? Horribly unkind. It was cold and raining. Your perfect blend of the two types of weather that you don't really want to photograph a baby in. However, we did some studio work and the little girl possibly got a little warm and a little bit grouchy, and so we stepped outside just to see if we could get anything and it turned out, actually, just going out into the cool air, uh, sort of, she, completely cheered up so i think she might just have been a little bit warm or she just didn't like being in the environment of the studio i don't know which but out in the cool air so her mom's holding a huge umbrella over her she sat on one of my our doormats from the studio and scattered the front edge edge with leaves so it looks like the little girl is sitting in this beautiful sort of array of leaves but she's actually sitting on a dry mat in the middle of our lawn and beautiful light and of course when you have water around and Those sort of gloomy bluish tones from a cloudy sky actually the colors pop, you get these oranges and greens that are really interesting. [00:08:45] So we got these incredible pictures and, and afterwards we're sitting chatting and it was the, it was my client, it was the dad said, so what is it? He said, what is it that makes, what's the, the one thing you have to have to make a great portrait? Ah, well, you know, you don't ask someone like me to talk about stuff like that, or at least you don't if you want a short answer. [00:09:05] Uh, so of course the obvious answer, , I'm a lighting specialist. , I love portraiture, but I've always been fascinated by light, its qualities, its colour, the, the shadows that it creates, and I think light obviously is a key ingredient, and I think if you were being Purely pragmatic, you'd have to say the one thing you need to create a great photograph is light. [00:09:31] There has to be light because without it, it's dark, and if it's dark, you've not got a picture. So, that's a really pragmatic answer, but it's a bit dull and a bit obvious. And as I'm a portrait photographer, and during that day, I was taking his baby's portrait, and I've taken their portraits before now. It got me on to think, what is it? [00:09:48] What is that primal? Thing that absolutely makes a portrait. And I think it's a relationship. That is my answer. , it's the relationship you form. Oh man, we're in a rolling roadblock. , that's what's going on. , so there's a slow moving, uh, police car or two. [00:10:06] At the front of, , this particular traffic jam, so we're now travelling at 10 miles an hour. Uh, if we, if we carry on travelling at 10 miles an hour, I'm assuming we won't, but if we do, uh, I'll still be travelling home tomorrow. It's going to take us a while. I'm going to assume up, up ahead, somewhere, they're having to clear an accident, and so all of the traffic, we're sitting straight behind, , a police vehicle. [00:10:28] Anywho, uh, let's talk about the relationship. If you're creating portraits, the one ingredient that you cannot get away without to create a great portrait is a connection with your client. [00:10:43] When you connect with your client, when you create that magic between you, , then something happens and yes, you need beautiful light, of course you do, but in that moment, that split second when they look down the lens and you, uh, fire the shutter, if you have some kind of connection with your client, people who see that picture later will feel it. [00:11:08] It's a really subtle thing, but it's all about what happens when somebody else sees the picture. Because remember when you're holding a camera and you grab that shot. The ultimate consumer of the image isn't you. Yes, all right, you've got the camera, there's that moment, you can show the client if that's your particular workflow, , all of these things, but what you're doing is , you're going to show that image or the image is going to be shown by your client to somebody else. [00:11:34] Normally, that's how it works. [00:11:36] And if you've got that magical connection between you and the person in front of the camera, that connection seems to flow out to someone who views the image later. That's where the magic happens, and you really have to do it fast too. , when people come into our studio, we have an entire workflow that is based around getting our client to relax, getting them to feel comfortable. [00:12:03] And we are starting to create a very temporary but very powerful relationship. It's not, it's not a love affair, but it is that sort of some kind of rapport. Where. You can have a conversation, you can laugh, you can maybe learn a little bit about someone, which is always lovely. And when you do that, when you pick up the camera, you, that sort of momentum of that relationship carries through. [00:12:28] So if you tell 'em to look down the lens, it has a, a magic to it if you're tell, even if you're telling them to look slightly to the side or down, that still has a body language to it that feels comfortable. So for me and the kind of portraiture that I love, it's that. relationship that you build, that connection in the moment you hit the button, and that is the most important thing about a portrait, and it's beautiful. [00:12:53] And I said this to my client, and I really hope he sort of thought, oh, okay, that's a, that's a, you know, useful answer. I don't know whether, , I think he might just be making chit chat, same, because it was, he's the client, and so that's the rapport, right? So instead of me asking the questions of it, he was asking questions, , of me. [00:13:11] Anyway, there you go. Key ingredient other than light is a relationship, the connection with your sitter. Masteringportraitphotography.com Launch [00:13:19] Paul In The Defender: I know this is a short one as I'm pottling along, but I also wanted to take the opportunity in this podcast to formally, as much as, you know, anything is formal with me, to formally launch masteringportraitphotography. [00:13:33] com. Now of course the website has been there for an eternity. It's been there pretty much ever since we launched the book. Actually on the book there might be some news coming, but I'll keep you posted if and when contracts get signed. , But the website's been there, it's had sort of content, but we've really only used it primarily for the podcast as its spiritual home. [00:13:58] Yes, there's lots of articles, there've been tons of articles, , but we've never really used it as our first and foremost focus. [00:14:14] Mastering Portrait Photography is now very much in our viewfinder, if you like, if you like the metaphor, and we are pushing a huge amount of energy and content into it. So every month there will be a long form video. By long form I mean half an hour. Video, uh, talking about something, uh, I think the ones that are up there at the moment, like I said, I'm in the Land Rover, and while I did make some notes, uh, prior to clipping on the microphone, I didn't make all of them, so I think there is how to structure a shoot is on there, uh, I think there is how to work in harsh sunlight in there, , I know the one that's on the editing screens at the moment is five ideas for off camera flash, oh, we're all speeding up again now. [00:14:57] We're So it's about to get a little bit more background noise. They must have rescued whatever vehicle it was. , and so, uh, you get one long form video a month. There will also be an article a month, or every couple of weeks, with a lighting diagram. On top of that, there are the frame, room, whatever you want to call them, mock ups, where they are photorealistic Photoshop files that you can drop your own image into, and it just looks like that's how the image was put on a wall. Why do we do those? Well, originally it was to help sell, , wall art to our clients. Because obviously as a business, I need ways of getting them to visualize the, uh, the wall art that I'd like them to have. And the closer I can get it to photorealistic, the better it is. [00:15:50] Because they'll, they can't touch it. Because. That we haven't made it yet. And the old adage in sales, if they can touch it, they'll buy it. , we can't quite get there, but we can certainly visualize it. So that's really good. , and that's why we built them. I built them for my own team and everything about the website, Mastering Portrait Photography.com is of and for us, I built it or we built it to support us as a business. [00:16:17] The articles, some of it came out of the book, but then much of the rest of it. It's been to help train people, it's been to help train my own team when we've got assistants in, , the room mock ups or the art mock ups are entirely built for us. They were built for us to be able to improve our sales, and that works. [00:16:38] Make no bones about it, they work. You can see them, there's hundreds of them, we're building more all the time, , Oh, this bit's bumpy. The thing about recording in a Land Rover is if the road, the M40, as it is, has a rubbish road surface, which it does at this particular bit, , then it gets a little bit shaky. [00:16:56] You can hear everything rattling around. And so we built them to be photorealistic. We built them for us. There's tons of them, but there's actually a by product which I didn't necessarily anticipate. So while I'm building these things, I drop images into them all the time. I go back to my sort of stock of portfolio images, some of my favorite images, my favorite clients over the years. [00:17:17] And I drop them in, , to create, , thumbnails that when you browse the site you can have a look at. , but actually what I've learned, or I'm learning as I go, is how different styles of image work in different types of frame. So certain images work great big on a wall. You know, I think as photographers We're drawn towards the idea of the Mona Lisa type portrait photograph, or at least I am. [00:17:43] I love a headshot. I love a clean, big, bold, you know, almost as if it was an LP album cover. Uh, I think, you know, Bruce Springsteen or Peter Gabriel, that's I'm sure my age, I suppose, , on an album cover, something like that, I think would be just brilliant. But would my client really put that huge on their wall? [00:18:04] Well, they might if it's Bruce Springsteen or Peter Gabriel. They're unlikely to if it's them. Now, they might if they have an only child and they might if it's a picture of a dog. There's some amazing photographers out there doing pet photography and I can, and certainly when we do it too, you know, I can visualize how one of our dog photographs, for instance, might appear in a big frame on a wall. [00:18:28] I was with a client and an old friend of mine the other day and they had a A picture on the wall. It's one of Randall Ford's pictures. , and I know the family and their dogs and, and, uh, the dad. And I just think I could do exactly that with, uh, his dogs and his family. , something big and bold. A couple of frames lined up across the wall, but on the whole, if you are gonna

So after three days of judging images for the British Institute Of Professional Photographers, it's time for me to step down from my role as Chair Of Awards And Qualifications. I have been in the role for three years and it is time for someone else to pick up the reins and run with it (if that isn't a mixed metaphor.) I have loved doing this and if it weren't for a million things I have to go on and do, I think I would do it forever! So as I drive home from my last round of qualifications - possibly the best one I've ever been involved in - here are a few musings of things I have spotted. This is a 'Tales From The Land Rover' edition so please forgive the audio quality and any mild road rage! Enjoy! Cheers P. If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography , for more articles and videos about this beautiful industry. You can also read a full transcript of this episode. PLEASE also subscribe and leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think! If there are any topics, you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk . Transcript EP157 - After The Judging The Exhausting Journey Home So I'm driving home from Birmingham, just in a service station, having bought the most expensive cup of coffee in the world, um, but I need one. It's been a long few days, um, and I am beyond exhausted. Reflecting on Judging and Achievements I've just been judging for the British Institute of Professional Photographers. I was there as chair of judges and quals for the last time, maybe not for the last time ever, but certainly for the last time, uh, in this current guise., it's been three years, I've done it for three years, and I need some time to be able to do some other things, it's nothing more than that, that's all I need, it's just to be able to do some other stuff, because we're building up Mastering Portrait Photography, which, by the way, we actually got another royalty statement through this week, um, for the book, ten years later, and the book is still .selling, I cannot believe it, uh, selling all over the world, and it's such an honor to have something out there that is still ticking over, you know, a few hundred copies, I'd say it might be more than that, but it's hundreds of copies, every year, around the world, it's still in print, after ten years, and while much of the book I would update now, it's still reasonably, uh, current, the pictures certainly stand up for themselves, as do the Uh, all of the notes. I think the one thing I would change is the opening chapter, which is all about current cameras. And of course that's changed in 10 years. They're not at all like that. And that's kind of what we're doing. We're building this incredible website called Mastering Portrait Photography. That is what I always loved, which is images and explanations and diagrams and ideas. And I have a bookshelf from floor to ceiling full of those kinds of books. So, it's time to stop judging for a moment, and I've just spent the past few days doing it. I'm on the M40 heading south. I'm Paul, and this, this is the Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast. Well, wow, what a few days it has been, and what an honour and a privilege it's been to have the role of Chair of Qualifications and Awards for the world's oldest. Photographic society or association, um, just beyond belief that I was asked to step into that role and it saddens me to leave, particularly after these couple of days because it's been just the most exciting thing. It's been absolutely wonderful, but I have to do it. We have to find a way of getting a little bit more time to do the other things that I need to get to. So. Stepping Down from Chair of Judges I've stepped down, I stepped down a few months ago and said I'd run it to the end of the year, so I've just finished the last set of qualifications that I'll be chairing, for now anyway, and the last annual printmasters competition. I've got one more round of monthly images to, uh, chair the judging for, and then I am done for a little bit. So I'm not done judging, I'll still be judging both for the, sorry, for the BAPP, I'm sure. And for the Societies where I'm going to be in January, we're presenting again in January at the Societies Convention in London. Um, I'm doing a couple of workshops, a couple of masterclasses, but I'm also going to be judging. I'm also leading the judging for the Click, uh, Click Light event, uh, sort of towards the end of next year. I already know that's in the diary. So it isn't that I'm stepping away from judging, it's just I'm stepping away from the role that I currently have at the moment. Um, because it's just too time consuming, it's all I can do. Um, so what have the last few days, uh, been? The Joy and Challenges of Judging Well, we've judged hundreds of images, and I, it is, it's hundreds and hundreds of images. We've judged eleven panels, there are six judges. I chair a team, there's myself and six incredible photographers across all genres, um, of our art form. commercialphotography, portraitphotography, weddingphotography, landscape, wildlife, you name it. Uh, this broad skillset in the judges, um, was in the room. Six just wonderful people, um, and it's that I think I'm gonna miss if I stop judging, of course. It's being in a room with these massive talents who make me laugh and inspire me every time we do it. So we have judged 11 panels. of which five, uh, came out as a fellowship standard. That's the highest grade we can offer is fellowship. Fellowship at the British Institute of Professional Photography. I got my fellowship, uh, 2011, I think. I should know the dates to my own life, but I don't. Um, and I remember then wondering what, where that would take me. What did it mean? And where it's taken me is to where I am right now. We've written a book. I've chaired all sorts of associations, I've chaired, I've been the Chair of Quals and Awards for the, um, for the British Institute of Professional Photographers. Um, I've travelled the world, I've worked on cruise ships, I, just, so much stuff has happened, and it's all thanks, or at least it was triggered, by me doing my quals. Uh, so five fellowships, uh, three licentiates, um, three of the panels we saw of the eleven sadly were unsuccessful, um, but of the others, eight were successful, and a couple of those were uplifts, which means they came in at one grade, and they didn't just get the grade they came in for, um, they were deemed to be so good, they were uplifted to the next level, the next qualification, and they both came out at fellowships. And I've had the chance to see and talk to the most wonderful photographers and their images. One panel in particular really just blew me away. And it's rare that I look at a panel and I wish I'd taken those images. There are panels where I love the images, but they're not really my field or it's just, you know, a different thing to what I do. But this was a panel of portraits of artists and creatives and artisans, famous artisans, some of them unknown artists, others, and the way the work was presented, the way the author was so down to earth and humble about what he did, the way he'd captured characters in a moment in time, the way he'd styled each image in each studio, everything about these images just made me wish. I had captured them and that's how it's left me. But what a way to leave, right? What a way to finish my tenure, um, after three years in the role. What a way to decide it's time, um, and although I'd taken the decision a few months ago that it was time for me to step away, I couldn't have foreseen that the last round of judging that I would chair like this would be simply the best couple of days of my time in the seat. Absolutely. uh, amazing. So as I said, we've just judged the printmasters 2020. I don't know if I did say it or not. Obviously when I'm driving in the car, I'm on the motorway, uh, concentrating on the driving is my priority. Speaking into a microphone is very, very low down the list. Um, so of course I'm making it all up as I go along and trying to remember what I've said. I have no idea. Did I tell you that, um, we've just been judging the printmasters as well as some qualifications? I've no idea. So that's what we've been doing two days, one day printmasters, another day. Quals, the print masters, hundreds of prints, hundreds and hundreds of prints. Insights on Photography Competitions So what have I learned over the two days? Uh, well, let's sort of think of, uh, some things. Firstly, and this sounds obvious, but I'm in the same way that McDonald's print caution is coffee might be hot on the side of their coffee. It's such an obvious thing, yet people don't. So I'm telling some of the obvious things and yet people don't read the rules. Start there. Whatever else you do, read them. Don't ignore them, because we will find out. We have had one image confirmed as being generated by AI. I doubt it's the last. We're gonna see more. The judges spotted there was something not quite right about it, so we dug in. Sure enough, AI. That's not to say there isn't AI we've missed. AI now is so good that if it's presented to us, Unless we forensically check every file, I don't know what else we're supposed to do. Um, we spotted it, we got it checked, that's disqualified. There are others maybe in there, um, that have more than a smattering, um, of artificial intelligence involvement. But, you know, uh, the tools will get better and better and better at spotting it. Um, and maybe it'll get to the point where in all competitions we have to ask to see The original RAW file, but even that, you know, you can fake a RAW file. So, what do you do? Uh, either way, absolutely brilliant. Um, also if it says it has to be a commissioned image, that does mean you can't use images from workshops. Um, commissioned means you had a client who paid you to take the picture, that's what a commissioned image is. And of course, when images of models start popping up, this In a room with six of the most experienced photographers in the UK, there's always going to be one of them that's like, I know that model, I've seen those pictures, I know where that was taken, I know who took that. Um, and so yeah, sure enough, we had to ring around a little bit and find out, um, whether some images were, um, within the rules, um, and the confirmation, uh, came through one way or the other. And of course, just read the rules. Uh, I say this every time I do one of these mop ups. Paper and mounts. Paper and mounts. Paper and mounts. If you have any white paper showing of the printing paper, it's a good idea that the matte is either significantly different in colour to that paper, or is exactly the same as that paper. Um, one of my favourite, um, ways to mount an image, and there were quite a few we've seen over the past few days, The idea behind this was to have a white paper border around the print that sits then inside the mount. So there's a gap between the edge of the actual ink on the paper and then the cut of the mount. It creates a really beautiful sense of space as it sits into the opening. But the paper needs to be the same colour as the mount. Otherwise it looks really weird. I suppose you could have a black mount and white paper. Yeah, that would be fine. But a slightly off white mount and a pure blue white paper probably are not going to sit that comfortably, uh, together. So think about that. Think about how the whole image appears. So what else? The Importance of Mentorship Well, good mentors matter. I might write a title. I might, might, maybe I should write a podcast on that and that alone. Good. Mentors matter. They really do. We can see the work coming through from great mentors. Um, because the panel is considered, the way it's laid out is considered, the image selection is considered, um, having somebody else's eyes on to help you step outside of yourself. The problem is when you're looking at your own images is you are by definition attached to them. You can't get around it. That's the way it should be. You are attached to your own images, which means you're not looking at them objectively, or at least most of us can't look at them objectively. I'm sure there are photographers out there who profess that they can. I can't. I need another pair of eyes on. I have a mentor, and having a mentor is utterly, utterly crucial. Um, someone who can not just cast their eye over what you're doing, but help and shape and guide, give you ideas, bounce stuff off of you. Someone, ideally, who you respect, that you think what they've created and maybe what they can drag out of you will just make you a better photographer. That's your mentor's role. They don't have to necessarily be a better photographer, they have to be someone you respect. Um, so have a good mentor and talk to them. Being meant, I've said this, there's a podcast on this somewhere in my history. That being mentored, being a mentee is a skill in and of itself. It's not just a case of a mentor telling you how to get better. It's you driving that, you asking for the right help. You listening to what a mentor tells, tells you, you deciding what from what they're advising, what to do with it. You won't do everything a mentor suggests because your mentor is them and you are you. You know, unless your mentor is your twin or something, they're always going to tell you things that, well, I can see how that might work for you, but it probably isn't what I want to do for me. That's fine. That's completely fine. As long as it's a rational decision that you're going to do something slightly different. It's not just, nah, can't be bothered because can't be bothered, got no one nowhere. So have a good mentor, listen to them, use them, drive it, uh, and, you know, It just, you can see it in the panels that came through where the mentor, the relationship with the mentor, uh, was incredibly, incredibly good. Staying Current in Photography The next thing I'm thinking of is be current. And what do I mean by be current? Well, the trick, I think, is to love the world in which you work. Look at the art, look at the Tele, films, listen to the radio, be influenced by the world in which you work. Don't just, you know, it's the temptation always, I think, when you do things like fellowships, is to say, well, that's defined me, that's who I am. And we see it sometimes in the work, and frankly, we see it sometimes in the judging, where, um, just because it's always been, So that's the way it always will be. And that's, that's, that's not a great way to be. I don't think, you know, mix with new photographers, new generations of photographers. If you're like I am just that little bit more experienced in the industry, you know, my influences now have to broaden into the younger market because that's not my natural fit. So I've got to get out there and explore what's being created. On channels that maybe just maybe I wouldn't normally gravitate towards. You know, I can't say I am a TikTok king, um, but I do go on there. I do keep an eye on what's going on. I try to learn from it. Um, Insta, I have a big account on Insta, um, which right now is still reasonably current, but it won't be in the same way that Facebook probably isn't anymore. So, be current, be aware of what's on magazine covers or the latest and greatest websites. Have a. I don't know, have a link on your browser that gives you the top ten designed websites in the world at any one time. You can do these searches. In which case, have a look at what they're using as the imagery. As a photographer, that's our job. You can have a style, of course you can. But, you should all, always be absorbing and assimilating. And, some of what we've seen over the past few days, It felt a little bit like it was looking backwards rather than looking forwards and we should represent the future as photographers, not just what's gone on before. Again, I'm not saying throw away the classical techniques, of course I'm not, because they're there for a reason. Cliches are cliches for a reason and rules are essentially just cliches. So don't ignore it, but interpret it in new and exciting ways. Style images. Finish images, use post production, try different things that it would never have occurred to you to do. Just be exciting and be current. Capturing Genuine Connections Uh, for you wedding photographers or frankly anybody who photographs people who are in love, uh, or people I suppose because there's an extension to this, um, one of the things that came up a little bit was a disc or various discussions around whether A couple had been photographed and it looked like they were genuinely and authentically in love. The connection between the couple, um, there needs to be movement in that. It's like choreographing a dance when you have a couple sort of, um, in each other's arms or really close to each other. Don't think like a photographer, what do you want the end, what do you want the shape of them to be? Think like a choreographer and think, what would I like the movement to be? And then as a, as a photographer, think, okay, now I've got the movement and the shape and the emotion and the rhythm of this, what moment do I want to hit the button? Now of course you can pose it statically, that's not a problem, but it should feel alive. It should feel like they're moving, that they are in harmony with each other. There needs to be a connection between them. And then ultimately, there needs to be a connection with you, the photographer. Or more importantly. The viewer who sees the image in the end and to do that they must connect with your camera now You're holding the camera So they have to connect with you and then you have to guide them towards the lens if it's eye contact that you want But there has to be they have to like you and you have to genuinely like them It shows in the images when there's a relationship between the subject and the photographer You can feel it. It's, it's sort of there in the picture. It's there in their eyes and their muscles. It's there in the timing of the shot that you take. It's there in the way their shoulders rise or fall or the way he's not just holding her or she's holding him or she's holding her. Building Connections Through Photography It's the way that they bring each other closer together with laughter or emotion of some sort. So have a connection with your with your subject and get them to have a connection with each other. Um, one of the biggest things I've thought of, I've lost track of where I am, of course, because I'm in the car and it's, the road's busy. The Importance of Entering Competitions Um, but one of the things that occurs to me, it's the most important thing you can do with, um, competitions and qualifications is do them. Actually get off your hands and do them. I know some very good photographers who think that they won't win something or they won't qualify. And they certainly won't if they don't enter, that's certainly true, but if they do enter, who knows? I know some of the categories that came through for the print competition this year were eminently winnable. There are great images in those categories, but I know photographers producing equally good images Who had they simply entered, stood as good a chances as anybody else? Why not? I obviously can't enter because I'm, uh, judging. But with another association I enter all the time quietly behind the scenes. I don't really make a fuss about it because if I'm not entering, if I'm not pushing my style and my techniques, how can I consider that I'm qualified to either mentor or judge others? So I do it too, and yes, it's heartbreaking when your images don't. Well, of course it is. It can be expensive and soul destroying. You know, it's a real problem. But, equally, it can be hug

Well, this hasn't been the easiest of years with inflation, geographical tensions and all-out confrontations, terrible weather and political transitions. And last night the trusty Land Rover Defender broke down one more time. Possibly one LAST time. But through all of that, we have to look for the possibles - the light at the end of the tunnel. But maybe it's us that has to create, rather than simply walk toward, the light. Enjoy! Cheers P. If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography , for more articles and videos about this beautiful industry. You can also read a full transcript of this episode. PLEASE also subscribe and leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think! If there are any topics, you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk . Transcript EP156 - Creating Light At The End Of The Tunnel [00:00:00] Paul - Studio Rode Broadcaster V3: It's Sunday afternoon. It's late. It's getting dark. It's getting dark so early now. Um, Sarah finds it really depressing, but I love this time of year. I love the colors. I love the cool of the air. Though that said this has been well, a weekend of ups and downs. Uh, yesterday we photographed a beautiful wedding. Uh, Hannah and Tom, one of our clients, just the most stunning. Stunning day. [00:00:25] Sarah came with me because it was a bit of a handful. It was a lot of photography to get through far more far, far more. In fact, Then I would have liked to have agreed to. But in the end, it was one of those very complicated weddings where there was family from all over the world. And they wanted lots of different combinations of groups to be photographed in a very small space of time. [00:00:46] But they were the. The most incredible couple, the weather was beautiful. The venue were fantastic. The people there were amazing. And it was just, well, it was just a thrill to have Sarah at working alongside me, which made everything. Okay. Uh, the day before we'd spent with Jake, where. So we've gone up to Nottingham, stayed there for the night, had a wonderful night out and discovered amongst many other things, the magic of a wine bar that has vending machines, kid you not. So you put your card in. Uh, you can get a glass from any bottle of wine you like. And it was all just really, really lovely bit expensive, but really lovely. I also discovered the magic. Now I've not experienced these before I am 55 years old. And have never needed to use them. [00:01:29] Blister plasters. Yep. Blister plasters. So I bought a pair of Converse, uh, decided for a change to have a different style. And it turns out to be a style that cuts the hell out of the back of my feet. Uh, but didn't discover that until two hours into walking around Nottingham. So Sarah, obviously, a bit more used to these things than me having worn heels, um, showed me the glory that is a blister plastic. I'm still wearing them. They're great. [00:01:54] Anyway, an amazing day, a beautiful wedding, the following day. And then driving home. Last night, congratulating ourselves on having done a really good day's work, beautiful photographs, uh, into, uh, on the memory cards. Land Rover all packed up, um, and then proceeded to have a whole series of really irritating road closures, motorway closures queues, culminating in one [00:02:21] that turned out to be well, possibly the end of the Land Rover we're queuing and have been queuing for about half an hour. But by queuing. I mean, we're essentially stationary, just stop starting. And then I went to put it into first gear. Nothing. Absolutely no way of getting it into first gear. I've got my foot on the clutch, lift the clutch, nothing. Put my foot down, the pedal is staying stuck to the floor. [00:02:47] So I've got a couple of tons of land Rover in a single lane queue that no one can get round me. And it's not moving. [00:02:55] Now. I remember an old trick. My dad taught me. And I don't know why. Why this was a tricky taught me because we don't have, or didn't have at that time. Anywhere near where I lived level crossings with no gates, but he said, if you ever get stuck on a level crossing and you can't for some reason, get your car to start, or it's just stalled, put it into first gear. Turn over the starter motor and it will give you just enough power to get yourself out of that situation. [00:03:24] So I just very quickly thought, well, I'm blocking an already irate queue, cause we've all been stuck there for, for hours. Um, I can maybe get it over to the side of the road where I can call recovery. So I turned the engine off, wedged the gear stick into first where the engine, uh, stationary turned it over on the starter motor, which of course with the clutch being permanently engaged now. Uh, rolled the wheels and got me just enough movement to get out of the way of the barely moving traffic and onto the hard shoulder, up to the embankment, where Sarah and I proceeded to look like for the next five hours. [00:04:04] I kid you not it's cold. It's dark. Thankfully, this time. I'm like the last time I broke down like this. It isn't snowing. Uh, but we lay with as many layers on as we could and a high vis vest over the top with our feet. Um, strapped into boots, but also now in polythene bags to try and keep the cold at bay, because it was absolutely freezing. [00:04:23] We're laying on the embankment, up to the rear and above the Land Rover. And anyone who must have seen us and they all must have seen us. Cause we're wearing, high-vis looked like a pair of corpses. Just lying there in the Moonlight. It must've been a strain site, but given the RAC who came to recover us, took five hours and they took five hours, because all of the recovery vehicles were involved in re in, sorting out the crash that caused the motorway to close, which is the reason I was in a queue. So it's one of those very complicated things. But in the end. It culminated in Sarah and I lying side by side, like two corpses in a crime drama. Uh, it must've been a dump site, you know, the kind of thing the police say, wow, this isn't where they died, this must be the dumpsite. Um, and they've left them laying here on the embankment in homage to the Land Rover. I've no idea. I was very glad Sarah was there. Um, so in fits and starts, we slept eventually we got picked up at about, uh, I think it was about four o'clock in the morning, maybe half past four in the morning, um, and then, uh, took the recovery vehicle. The Landrover is right now sitting outside the garage that did the work on the engine earlier in the year. They're going to know the minute they turn up that something is wrong. My suspicion and I hope I'm wrong. Is that the slave cylinder on the clutch has failed because if it has, it means the whole transmission and gearbox has got to come out. And that's a proper, yet another expensive job. [00:05:52] And. I think maybe, maybe this will be the one that says the end of the Land Rover. I'm Paul. And this is the masteringportraitphotography.com podcast. [00:06:03] Well, hello again. We are back recording the podcast. And once again, it's a tale of woe and drama. Sarah said to me, as I left, she said, you need to record a podcast because you haven't done it for ages. She said, it's all right. It's all right. To feel a little less upbeat than you do normally. And that's just as well this year. I think this year is a year that I'll be happy to get to the end of, we started this year with such energy and enthusiasm. [00:06:50] We thought that. You know, we're getting to the end of the backwash from COVID, everything would pick up, but of course, inflation hit the roof. We've had in terms of weather, just awful weather, which always deflates the mood. We've had a general election In this country, as well as in the states that you're about to have yours and we've already had ours. Which I thought would , would Herald in good news and optimism. Um, you know, I think it was time we had to change. There's no question about that. And no matter which side of the politic line, uh, you prefer, there's no question at all that we needed to change, but that changed that the good news side of that hasn't lasted particularly long. Um, Inflation is still high. [00:07:28] The weather is still crappy. Seriously, we've had nothing but rain. I was so blessed with the wedding on Saturday. Um, the sun shone, and it was glorious. It was dry. It was warm enough. Um, it was just beautiful light. But that has not been the story of this year. The amount of water around us, just at the moment. [00:07:48] And nobody's thinking when they wake up and read the news about the terrible weather, the terrible economy. They're politicians causing just all, just doing stupid things. You know, inflation, um, the stuff going on in the middle east or stuff going on in, on the Russian borders. You know, very few people are gonna wake up and think, oh, with all of that news do you know what I need what I need is a photographer. It's uh, there's work around, but it's just not the year we thought it would be, this is not been. A vintage year for photographers. [00:08:18] And he really don't have to ask very far to find that out. Now we've done. All right. If I'm honest we're probably bucking the trend, but we have had to work, ah, back-breaking hours to do it far harder then we've had to work any of the year. It won't be a record breaking year, that's for that's for sure. But it will be good enough somewhere in the middle of our regular numbers, but we have worked tirelessly to do it. Backbreakingly tirelessly. [00:08:47] I cannot remember feeling this tired though, having said that. I've just spent the night laying on an embankment in the freezing cold, trying to get some sleep. Maybe that's why I'm feeling. I quite so tired, but even talking to the videographer. Uh, on at the wedding on Saturday, he was talking about the bits of the industry in his region because we were working out of region and he was saying the same thing. [00:09:10] There's just. It's just been a tough year. There. Aren't the number of weddings. For instance, if you're a wedding photographer. Um, and there isn't the money sloshing around at the has been, um, Sort of in the industry with our clients because our clients are under the same pressure as we are. I was trying to work out our operating costs. Um, on things like, you know, albums and frames. [00:09:32] And I think on average, somewhere in the region of 15 to 25% increase, over two years. And if you put that into the context of running a business, And, and also assume that your clients are having exactly the same problems with their day-to-day expenditure. It means that we're running a business that's less profitable than it would be if we don't change our prices, but at a time when people have less money to spend. If we did increase all of our prices and of course we're all juggling that particular set of requirements. [00:10:04] Uh, and on top of that, of course, one of the reasons we're also feeling tired. Is we're still running workshops. Uh, I'm still at the moment, the, uh, Chair of awards and qualifications for the British Institute of Professional Photography. [00:10:17] But. Um, I mean, big news on that one is I am stepping down from that role at the end of this year. Now I've loved every single second of the past three or so years I've been in this seat. [00:10:29] Uh, I've done everything that I wanted to do. We've organized it. We've got the standards where I wanted them to be, so that they're rock solid. You can trust if somebody got the letters after their name from. The BIPP then they've earned them. Um, and that means that we have real cute OSS in the industry. It means it's something that people really want to attain. [00:10:49] And that's, I guess what I wanted to be able to do. But I also loved being a mentor. And while I was chair of one of the qualifications bodies, it's very hard. To be a mentor because it can be really easily accused that I might be, um, swaying results or influencing the outcome of judging. [00:11:08] So I took the decision when I accepted . The chair of judge's role that I would not to do any mentoring towards qualifications or anything involved with people wanting to enter the competitions and things, because it just, it didn't look great, [00:11:21] But it's something I've always. Really enjoyed doing so it's something I can return to. I'll get a chance now to actually enjoy looking at other people's work, um, guiding, nurturing, you know, also spending some time developing our own work because you need at the same time, I need the time to dedicate to our own businesses for a little bit. [00:11:41] So I'm stepping back. At least, you know, in a frontline role. Uh, from, um, the chairing side of the BIPP. Hopefully I'll still get to judge, but I certainly won't be chairing it. Uh, we're still running the workshops, of course, on that note, uh, I think we have just two left this year. . [00:11:58] So the thing without podcast is our podcasts have a very long lifespan. [00:12:03] People are listening to podcasts from sort of six or seven years ago. Uh, but as of right now, which is the 28th of September, I think. Hang on a minute. Which I can't believe I had to go look that up on my screen, the 29th of September. Uh, 2024, we have two remaining workshops in our diary. I think there's one space left on each off the top of my head. [00:12:26] Uh, on the 4th of November, we have Mastering Advanced Studio Lighting, which is, I might actually have become my favorite workshop to run because we just play: we play with lights. [00:12:40] We play with ideas with form. Uh, we play with shape and color. We play with the smoke machines that people want to, we play with continuous light if people want to. Um, of course, as an Elinchrom Ambassador, that nearly all of it is geared around strobes. You name it? If it's in the studio, we can do it. And I absolutely adore this workshop. [00:12:59] I think there's a space left on that last, the 4th of November. It's an all day course. Uh, all day workshop, sorry. Uh, and then the second one we have, which is a brand new workshop. We've never tried this before and we'll see how this goes. Having spent the night lying on an embankment last night, I'm not so certain. I want to be outside at night for a while. However, it's at the end of November 25th. Of November. We have a mastering day and night workshop. Now this workshop. Is one, uh, I think it might've been Sarah's idea. Uh, If it's successful. It was my idea. If it doesn't work, definitely Sarah's idea. [00:13:36] No, I think it was Sarah's idea and I think it's a great idea. Uh, Mastering Day and Night. So we start unlike most of our workshops where we start at sort of 9, 9 30 in the morning. That this one. We're going to start straight after lunch. We're going to spend the afternoon working with daylight and then as dusk falls. We're going to work with a nighttime scene. [00:13:55] So it's not really a, it's not studio lighting, but we might use some lighting. Depending on what the delegates want. So we're going to mix it up a little bit. We're going to spend a half the workshop working with available daylight and half the workshop working with a combination. Um, of available light, which of course won't be daylight, but it might be street lighting. Um, or light coming from people's porches and those kinds of things working around the village. [00:14:21] We'll also have some lights with us. Just as I did at the wedding yesterday, I see. In this slide. Here's an aside. Uh, yesterday working with the videographer I had in the land Rover. Uh, I had to Elinchrom threes, which I thought we would work with. Cause I love them. Absolutely amazing lights. And I thought we'd do some stroke work. Um, but I also had a pair of aperture. Uh, continuous focusing, uh, spots, focusing spotlights led spotlights. [00:14:47] They really quite chunky. Um, and they throw off who wrote the most beautiful light as well. Um, and so I said to the videographer, um, we might do some nighttime photography and he looked a little bit glum and he said, yeah, you mean with strobes? Don't you? And I said, well, do you want to do anything with it? [00:15:02] So, yeah, I'd really, I'd really like to be able to capture some of that. So I'll tell you what, why don't we run the two spotlights were run continuous lighting for this one. Because working with a videographer, it makes it a little bit easier for you. Um, and while I'd still prefer to be using my Elinchrom Threes, there's no reason why we can't do something at least similar. Um, with continuous light, so threw a spotlight and had a play at night. [00:15:23] And the reaction from Richard, the videographer. It was just brilliant. He took one for, oh, it's not a photo who's doing. Slow-mo. High-speed video. And he just went. Wow. [00:15:36] And then everything I set up, he wanted. Like sort of five seconds of slow motion video of it. Um, moving around cause you get lens flan, all of those things. So we were creating very similar vibes that you can do with stills and a strobe, uh, with continuous light and uh, in his case with video. So it was quite exciting to do that. Um, anyway, back to Mastering Day Night, we will be using a mix of different lighting, maybe a bit of off-camera flash, depending on what people ask for. [00:16:00] Um, Now. On the topic of workshops next year, we're looking at. Um, some new ideas and that if there's anything you'd like to, uh, like us to host, so you think would be fun, then please do drop us a line. You can always get ahold of me on paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk dot code at UK. That's paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk . [00:16:22] If there's something you can think of that, do you know what it'd be great. If you could run a day on whatever it is. As long as it's photographic people, not animals. And not buildings, not landscapes. I'm not good at all of those things, but it's photographing people. Uh, understanding light then of course, why not drop us a line? [00:16:41] Um, one of the ones we're already looking at, and this I'd be curious if anyone's interested. Um, we haven't got dates for these yet, but we are looking to do. A two day workshop. That's a back-to-back workshop. Um, Now I don't yet. So we haven't quite worked out yet. What will go into those two days, but we know, we know it's just going to be. Uh, blast. And of course, with it being over two days in the interim evening, we get to sit. Have a meal, maybe have a few drinks. And chat about photography and not quite sure. Um, what the format will be. [00:17:16] My guess at this stage is, uh, the very least. A day and a half of photography and then half a day may be. On workflow or maybe on Photoshop or maybe on Lightroom. Uh, maybe the use of AI tools, which of course are now a considerable part of all of our workflow. I don't know. I honestly don't know. We're still working it out um, for those of you who are part of our workshop community people who've been on our workshops. We've sent you a quick survey. Um, which we'd love to hear your thoughts on for those of you who listened to podcast, but never been on one of our workshops. Again, if you have an idea, and you think that might be fun to come along to, uh, please do drop me a line.paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk . Uh, of course alongside all of this. And another reason why you might hear the fatigue in my voice. I think today I can be excused. All right. I think today. I'm allowed to sound a little bit weary because having laid for five hours on an embankment next to a slow moving motorway. Um, until like four or five in the morning. I think I'm all right to feel to, to justifiably sound a little bit fatigued, but we're also running a couple of diff

Ah, so it's the 4th July as I record this so Happy Independence Day to all my US friends and colleagues! In this episode, I do my regular round-up of things I've heard during judging - I was chairing the Click Expo Print Competition (the standard was incredible!) and I made a few notes from this and a few other things I've been involved in. I mention a couple of products and here are the links: EVOTO AI - https://go.evoto.ai/PaulWilkinson (if you use this link, you'll get 30 free credits!) ACDSee https://www.acdsee.com/en/index/ DXO - https://www.dxo.com/ Enjoy! Cheers P. If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography , for more articles and videos about this beautiful industry. You can also read a full transcript of this episode. PLEASE also subscribe and leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think! If there are any topics, you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk . Transcript EP154 - A Bit More Different (And Other Thoughts On Judging) [00:00:00] Introduction and Warm (Water) Review [00:00:00] So, let me read this out to you. I'm loving this podcast. It's like sitting in a bath of warm water in that the subject matter is gently flowing over you in a warm, friendly, soothing way. When I get to the end of the series, I'm going to start again. I think Sarah sends it to me, so I'm assuming it's on iTunes. So thank you to Skinny Latte via Apple Podcasts. Yes, it is. It's Apple Podcast. Who left that review. It made me laugh. I've never, ever. I don't think been compared to a bath of warm water, but Hey. It certainly, it certainly made me smile. And I will take a review worded like that. Poetry in its finest, in its finest watery form. [00:00:43] Podcasting Challenges and Episode 154 [00:00:43] I'm Paul, and this is the Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast. [00:00:49] Well, I blew that ambition out of the water. Didn't I, the let's do one podcast every week for the rest of the year. Uh, I've barely managed three or four, I think. It has been just one of those. years, this is episode 154. And really it's just been busy. [00:01:23] As I record this, it's the 4th of July. So, happy 4th of July, to all of our American. Listen is in so many ways. The 4th of July might be something of an independence day for us too certainly with a little luck, a day of change. [00:01:37] Busy Year and Listener Feedback [00:01:37] Um, it's just been really busy in a year like this everything's working really well, but we're having to work that little bit harder to get there. Everything's a little bit more expensive. Clients have a little less to spend and somebody wrote in the other day. And said that they were waiting for episode 154. And partly because having the podcast, this podcast out there, from someone who is living and breathing the same industry that you are. It's feeling the same things that you are going through the same processes, the same client experiences that you are is comforting. [00:02:11] And just knowing that they're not alone. So here is episode 154. In that sense, I think we really are. Um, a market, we're a collective of individuals. We're all going through the same thing, but on our own. It's useful to know. Uh, that there's other people out there going through the same thing. So I don't sleep very much. Uh, we're working flat-out I love every second of it. [00:02:35] Don't get me wrong. Having having a camera in my hands is just the most natural thing in the world. So, and taking pictures for a living. Well, I couldn't ask for a better way to put food on the table, but that's not to say it isn't really hard work. And in fitting in all of the other things that seem to have crept up into my world. Um, it just takes a little bit of time. [00:02:58] So apologies that the podcast has been a little bit more sporadic then I would have liked. Uh, before I get any further, I would just like to say thank you to everybody that filled in the questionnaire that Sarah has sent out. Um, It's really, really, really interesting. The data in it is incredibly insightful. [00:03:18] And what we're trying to understand is what do we do with Mastering Portrait Photography? How do I push it and prod it and coax it forward? Um, we're due to give a really big kick this year? That's what we're trying to do, but at this stage we weren't entirely certain where to focus. So we now have an awful lot of really insightful, useful data. And the biggest thing that's come up is that it's well-worth. I know that sounds really bizarre. You know, I know people read our articles. [00:03:48] I know people like the diagrams, our stuff is out there in Professional Photo Magazine. And this month also, In Digital Photography Magazine, you want to pick up a copy of that. On the news stand of a Professional Photo. Uh, it has gone all Digital, but Digital Photographer. Is there a paradox there that professional photo magazine is now all digital, but Digital Photography magazine, you can pick that up on it. I can't. I think there must be a paradox in there somewhere or an irony. Maybe it's an irony. I never entirely certain. The difference between an irony and a paradox. Anyway, anyway. Um, thank you to everybody who filled that in. Uh, I was due to record his podcast. This podcast was meant to be. It was meant to be a podcast from the land Rover. Uh, but it's been a very hot day. [00:04:33] I was working. A two hour drive away. So two hour drive, half hour shoot, two hour drive back, and I was going to record one, maybe two podcasts. Um, weirdly the Landrover was more rattling than usual because, and I don't know why there is a toaster in the foot well. You know, when you get into a car and you, you, you drive away and you can either clanking rattling. There's a little Chrome toaster in my foot. [00:04:56] Well, I need to pick that up with my son. Uh, anyway. [00:04:59] Family Pride and Personal Updates [00:04:59] On the topic of kids. Both my kids. I know. It's got nothing to do with photography, right. But I'm a dad and you can't help, but be proud of your children and this couple of weeks. I am beyond proud. Uh, today. Jake got his degree. Uh, Sport Technology from Loughborough University. [00:05:18] So you got a two, one. Uh, degree in BEng. In it's literally engineering with balls, there's no other way to describe it. That's what it is. They study balls and things with which to hit balls. Cricket bats, baseball, bats, golf clubs, football boots. And then they also, uh, research things like, uh, helmets. [00:05:37] So when the ball hits you, it stops you being an unconscious cricket player or backstop or whatever. Uh, so truly, truly a magnificent result for him really, really proud of him. [00:05:49] And just as proud of our daughter who has for the past few weeks just started her new job, working in London for one of the biggest creative agencies, creative marketing agencies. In the UK. Um, as a creative account manager. Uh, she's just going to tear the world apart. She's super organized, super creative, super lovely to work with. [00:06:10] She's a grafter and I could not be prouder of both of them. So forgive me for saying that and giving a shout out to my children, but Hey, my podcast. You don't have to listen to it. Uh, so where are we? Right, it has been a very busy. Uh, I think it's about six weeks since I've done an episode. [00:06:28] Workshops and Masterclasses [00:06:28] Um, so I cannot I've lost count. I usually I'll give you a quick count up of everything we've done. Numerous hearing dogs shoots a load of workshops and one-on-one master classes them. I just. Do you know what? I never thought. I honestly never thought I'd enjoy running workshops and masterclasses as much as I do. There's something. And I don't know why, but there's something really thrilling about being in a room with a few people who genuinely want to, uh, take ideas and create ideas and push boundaries and try things and discuss things. Um, and that's turning into actually a really, really, for me, a really rewarding part of our business. [00:07:10] And I never, I don't know if I ever really expected that. It's, I'm certainly not one of those people. That I want, you know what, I really love doing training because it's giving something back. It's none of that. It's not that at all. There's just an incredible buzz. Of a group of people working towards creating an image and explaining. And understanding and learning how things work and why more importantly, why we do things, why it's always, everyone tells you what. You know, when you look at things online, everything's about the what and the how, but why, why do we do things? [00:07:42] Why do we approach. Light the way we do why'd we approach the camera settings the way we do. Why, why, why, why, why? I just find the Y. So much more interesting than the what and the, how. And I think probably more valuable because if I understand why then I'll do it. If I understand the what I won't necessarily do it, it might be a useful tool or it might be a useful technique. But if I don't really get why I'm doing something, I will bin that off as just not useful. [00:08:12] But if I understand why there's a rationale to why. And so all of our workshops and masterclasses now are premised on why. Anyway, that's a slight aside we'd last week we had a couple of students work placement students that are. Uh, 15 year old and a 17 year old. Two brilliant. Uh, young students who had approached us to come and spend. A few days with us in the studio. [00:08:36] Military Photoshoot and Student Experiences [00:08:36] Uh, they came with us to the hearing dogs for shoot. And then we did, um, a shoot here, uh, with, um, a guy in military uniform. Um, it's one of those, the shots. Uh, this was the perfect sheet for me. Um, a guy said, I want to do something. Really sort of vintage modern cameras, modern lighting, all the rest of it. But he sent me a couple of pictures that must've been taken. [00:08:57] I'm going to guess in the 1940s at, I don't know the exact date, but I'm guessing around there from the style, my grandfather. Both my grandfathers had pictures like these in their military uniform. There's something about the way it's lit. Something about the way it's styled something about the way it's posed and finished. [00:09:13] And of course it's on film, black, white film. And he said, I want to, we create these, but you know, he's a, he's a soldier. He's at the very top of what you can be if you're a noncommissioned officer. Um, and he wanted to celebrate that moment. And so we photographed these incredible images and there was a moment in the shoot, where literally the hair stood up on the back of my neck and I realized what I was looking at with the same pictures that I would have seen of my grandfather's the same styling, the same vibe, same feel. [00:09:47] And it's a sort of, it's an almost indescribable styling that makes all of that hang together. Anyway, it was absolutely wonderful. And I would love to share them. But I can't because he works for one of the top secret, um, units in the military. So I've got these beautiful pictures. It's of a guy that I can never tell you about and never show the pictures. I can tell you I did the shoot because it's of course nobody knows. Uh, but it's a real shame, but I really, really, really enjoyed it. [00:10:14] So now looking around for anyone with a military uniform of the similar style, That we could do something that we could do something with I can share. So if there's any of you out there who have, uh, retired from the military, but still have your number two uniform. I'd love to. Uh, love to take some pictures just for the sheer joy of doing exactly the same thing, but then I can share them. Uh, I think the students really enjoyed it too. [00:10:38] And then the day after that, a brilliant magician . I've worked with Sam strange. Probably for 12 years, I think now. Um, incredible magician. Part of the Champions Of Magic him. Uh, Young and Strange, he works as part of a duo with Richard Young. Uh, but this was a shoot just for him. Sam Strange, wonderful guy just playing. I'm so lucky in the studio that the human beings that come in here. Uh, I think some of the nicest people in the world, I mean, I have only met a tiny proportion of the people in the world. [00:11:08] I'm sure there are other nice people. But my client base is genuinely. Uh, just a never ending stream of people who I love to spend time with a, Sam Strange. Is right up there. So he spent ages taking pictures of him. And as, as a kind of, we wanted to get some shots where he was genuine, genuinely performing. [00:11:25] So the two work placement students became instantaneously his audience, uh, some card tricks. He did these card tricks. One of the students looked quite confused. I'm not entirely certain that she understood what had just happened while she was holding the card with her name on it and a knife hole in it. Anyway. [00:11:43] It was very funny and absolutely. Uh, wonderful. We've done a load of portrait shoots. The weather has been kind for a couple of weeks. Which is a pleasure. Uh, so we've been out in the sunshine, um, And just. It's just, it's. What I came into photography to do was to laugh in the sunshine, taking beautiful pictures. Uh, so that's really, really, really lovely. Um, we've been judging the monthly's the BIPP. The BIPP the British Institute of Professional Photography. [00:12:11] Monthly's over the past couple of months. I think we've done two. Monthly since I last spoke with you, sorry. That's my bad, just busy. That's all it is. We're just busy. Um, I love doing, I love chairing the judging. [00:12:23] And then on top of that, Um, I was asked to chair the print judging for the click expo. [00:12:28] Judging Competitions and Photography Tips [00:12:28] That was up in the Midlands a couple of weeks ago, some big names there, Lindsay Adler, and a few others. Uh, with some of the photographers presenting, it was. Um, it wasn't the biggest expo in the world, but we had a really good entry into the foot print competition. And the standard is out of this. World. [00:12:45] And when you see a panel of judges, we had judges on rotation. So five judges at any one time and me chairing it. And when you see the excitement, you see the judge's eyes just light up. When they are appreciating the very best of the craft of photography, I think, you know, there's, I don't know how to explain some of this stuff. [00:13:05] Why that, you know, that feeling when you take a picture right. And you hit the button and you just know, you just know you can feel it. That's the same sensation that I think we still get when we're assessing images at the highest standard, there's something really exhilarating about it in explicable. Uh, but exhilarating. [00:13:26] I see on the flip side of that, I was laughing with our two work placement students of the other side of the line, which is when you see somebody else take a beautiful photo and they're in the same session as you. Sometimes when I'm training people, this happens to me. And, you know, with talking through staff were doing ideas and then somebody hit the button and they'll create a picture. That I wish. I'd taken and then I have to suppress. I have to suppress that kind of. I'm really jealous about that. [00:13:54] Why didn't I take that picture? I cause you call and of course you have to celebrate. The absolute, the excitement. I still get the same excitement from the picture. I just wish I'd taken it. Um, Which is quite a weird sensation. I'm getting used to that sensation because if I'm doing my job well in a workshop, I won't do. My job well in a masterclass, if I'm genuinely. Um, passing on ideas and information, then. Really people in those workshops should be creating beautiful images that I'm jealous of. It is still quite hard though. [00:14:26] Anyway, we were judging it. Click. Um, and I'm going to come back, uh, to, to that in a moment as the topic of this particular podcast. Uh, but a few bits and pieces. Uh, one of the things that occurred to me this morning, and I'm going to drop this into this podcast because it's a useful thing to remember. Um, is always remember to pack your bag so that at a single glance, you know, what's. In it. And will more importantly, what isn't. I was driving along and I do this thing. [00:14:56] If you. I don't know if you're the same as me. I'll get halfway down the road and I'll be like, did I pack my passport? And I literally, I don't know how many times I've done it. I've pulled into a lay-by and gone and checked. I still do the same with my camera kit. But this morning I was driving away and I did that thing. Have I, I packed everything I need. [00:15:14] And then actually I remembered I'd looked over the top of my bag. Um, while it was open and I know everything was there because I pack it in a way that if something is missing, I can see the gap. And it's like, oh, okay. So, um, you could do it with checklists. Of course you can be much more methodical than that, but just as a simple trick, pack your bag in a way where you can visibly see if something is missing. Right. [00:15:39] So where are we in our warm bath water? I still think that's a great review. Thank you, skinny latte. That's just like the skinny lattes. They use it named by the way. That's not just me being random. Uh, that is like the best review. I'm going to put that on a, if I ever have a poster. You know, Paul Wilkinson appearing somewhere. , it's like sitting in a bath of warm water. I don't know what to do with it, but it's, uh, please feel free everybody. To write us poetic reviews like this, and I promise you they will get read out because it's absolute genius. [00:16:10] Um, I just love that I'm going to have that printed as a poster. I'm loving this podcast is like sitting in a bath of warm water. Anyway. Um, I thought I do these regularly, um, quick updates on things that I heard or saw during um, the judging. Um, So, let me just go over some incidentally as an aside one of the reasons we use, sorry, there's lots of asides with me. You get used to that or you don't. That was funny. The night I met someone for the first time and she laughed at me and said, you're always after the punchline aren't you. And I was like, yeah, that was really. Is very astute, but it did somewhat stop me in my tracks. Um, I don't mean to be like that. I just am a. [00:16:54] One of the reasons we use a panel of judges are more than one judge. Is so that we get a more reliable score, but I was judging in the monthly's this month round. I. So I wouldn't say who the judge was, but they were very worried that their score was out of kilter with the other judge. And they had no reason to be. [00:17:14] I, I can export the judges scores and I can see exactly what's going on. Um, I'm a big data, nut, I love data. I love the data behind scoring. So I've had a look at the data and their scoring is exactly where I would hope it would be, but you don't always agree. And that's really important. If every judge for every image gave the same score, we'd only ever need one judge. That's not how it works. That is so not how it works. [00:17:43] It's not supposed to work like that. A panel of judges are all supposed to bring different experiences. Different backgrounds, different hotspots that they look for different passions, different prejudices, different biases by using a panel of judges. You will always get a different score or you should always get a different score from every judge or you haven't picked your panel of judges very well. [00:18:09] And we pick up panels of judges incredibly carefully so that they are different. They bring different ideas to the table. We pick the panel of judges so that they're go

There are many factors to success and I have listed many in these podcasts, but the brutal reality is that it takes hard work. Lots of it. There isn't a silver bullet, no matter what every influencer, marketer, salesman, advertorial or Facebook campaign might try to convince you - and AI ain't gonna fix it either. All I wish is that I could stop seeing the ads that tell me otherwise! Before all that, though, I head up the episode with a quick chat with Colin Jones, CEO of The Societies Of Photographers . This is one more in my series of interviews-from-the-photography-show (I need a snappier title) and it's interesting that once more, training and education are at the forefront of his thoughts. Also, I mention a brilliant app called EVOTO.AI in this episode. At some point I'll do a deep-dive into it but rest-assured, this is well worth exploring if, like me, you create portraits for a living. The guys have kindly given me a link you can use that gives you thirty free credits when you register: https://go.evoto.ai/PaulWilkinson One great thing about this app is that you only burn a credit up when export a finished image - you can test it out on as many as you like. This means those thirty credits could be enough for you to play around with as many images as you want until you're happy and then go ahead and run an entire portrait session through! Let me know what you think! Cheers P. If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography , for more articles and videos about this beautiful industry. You can also read a full transcript of this episode. PLEASE also subscribe and leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think! If there are any topics, you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk . Transcript EP153 It Takes Work And Life Would Be Boring Without Sarah Introduction to Colin Jones [00:00:00] I'm Colin Jones. I'm the CEO for the Society of Photographers. Excellent. It's lovely to see you as always, Colin. The Photography Show Experience [00:00:06] Tell me why you come to the photography show. Oh, the photography show is a great show. It's great to meet up with all the trade, seeing all the latest products and services in the industry and getting to network with other photographers. [00:00:17] It's a great show to come to. Passion for Photography [00:00:18] So, tell me why you love this industry so much. [00:00:21] Oh, I love the industry. I've always been part of the photography industry. It's been part of my family since my granddad and my dad, and it's an industry full of amazing people, creative people, uh, and, you know, so much passion for, for, for photography and for the craft of it. [00:00:35] And I love seeing people excel in the industry as well. [00:00:37] So that's all of the positives. Industry Improvements [00:00:38] But if, like everything, there was always things we could do better as an industry. If there's one thing, just one thing that you could change in this glorious passion of ours, what would it be? [00:00:48] I think I'd like to see photographers get more training, invest more time in training and more, more money in training. Uh, you know, I see, when we see people take that step and really invest in training to push not only their photography but their business, we see so much success. Uh, so I'd love to see training be more, , forefront of the industry. Importance of Training [00:01:04] When you're talking about training, what aspects do you think, photographers in the industry, certainly the industry we spend most of our time with, which is the UK industry, what do you think is the weak spot? Which direction do you think the development would be most applicable. [00:01:19] I think, uh, quite a lot of photographers, if they're in business, uh, that's where we see a lot of photographers really struggle getting clients through the door, marketing their services, uh, so that's, that's always been a big passion of mine, is getting photographers more training in the business side, but, you know, I, I genuinely think training of any kind, whether it's lighting and posing, or even just networking with your peers, uh, and getting training that way, just by talking to other photographers, uh, is a, is a real bonus. [00:01:43] Excellent. Interview Conclusion [00:01:43] Perfect answers, as always, from one of the nicest guys in the industry. Thank you, Colin. [00:01:47] Paul - Studio Rode Broadcaster V3: Uh, so that is one more of those little interviews I did at the photography show earlier this year. That was Colin Jones, the CEO of the Societies Of, Photographers. It's always interesting talking to people like Colin. I mean, not just because he's a really lovely guy. But he hears from hundreds, possibly thousands of photographers, uh, on a scale that most of us can only imagine. [00:02:11] And yet the themes still seem to be consistent. [00:02:15] It's all about education. Podcast Introduction [00:02:17] Paul - Studio Rode Broadcaster V3: And learning I'm Paul and this is the masteringportraitphotography.com podcast. [00:02:22] [00:02:36] Paul - Studio Rode Broadcaster V3: Well, it's been three weeks since the last episode and yesterday, yesterday. Wedding Anniversary Anecdote [00:02:45] Paul - Studio Rode Broadcaster V3: It was mine and Sarah's 21st wedding anniversary. She sent me a card and it simply said, imagine how boring life would be without me. Literally in quotes. Imagine how boring life would be without me. Well, this morning, She bit my toe, I was fast asleep. She bit my toe now I sleep with my feet. Out of the bottom of the duvet. [00:03:09] I've always done it. And I've no idea why, but I do. This morning. She bit my toe. And this isn't really a unique event. I think she probably does it a few times. A year I am asleep, then rudely I'm awakened. With pain. There is nothing in between those two moments except a searing sensation that someone has sunk their teeth. Into my big toe. I don't really know which bit hurts the most, the initial bite or the moments I react and pull away leaving tooth marks. This morning. She bit my toe. [00:03:46] It's true. Sarah is right. Imagine how life would be without her. Imagine how boring. It would be, frankly, I can't imagine it. I can't picture. How things would be without every morning. They're being the risk that she's going to sink her teeth into my toe. But Sarah is the person who makes me laugh the most. [00:04:07] She is the person who allows the extrovert in me out. She's the person who props me up when I'm down. And she's the person who keeps a lid on me. When I'm up. That sounds really weird, but you get the gist of it. Um, you know, I can be quite full on, I think, and it, Sarah, that just keeps things nice and steady. [00:04:28] And so thank you Sarah, for 21 years of marriage, 33 years of hilarity between the two of us. So, yes, life would be really boring without her. [00:04:41] Anyway, in the past three weeks, what has happened in our diary. Recent Portrait Sessions [00:04:46] Paul - Studio Rode Broadcaster V3: Well there have been 22 different portrait sessions, which is lovely, including one, uh, just this morning, beautiful family. Uh, so a mom with her two children and her two grandchildren. Um, just lovely out in the sunshine, a quick drive over to their house. Shot in the garden. [00:05:05] What was funny about it was every single shot. She wanted her front door in the images. Which, uh, I've had sort of, you know, big Manor houses and different things about to be part of a shoot, but I've never had one where the front door has to be prominent, but it was a joyous shoot, beautiful people. [00:05:23] They made me very welcome. [00:05:24] Cannot wait to show them their pictures. And one of the two little girls -she's three years old -was wearing a Liverpool FC football strip. Now on two levels that just filled my heart, with joy. On the one level. It's Liverpool, which happens to be the team that I also have always supported all my life I've supported. [00:05:46] And when I say supported, what I mean is occasionally I've looked at their headlines and seen the score. Or occasionally, you know, a key match comes up and I might watch the first 20 minutes of it, before it gets way too stressful for me, and I leave the room. I'm not really a supporter in the supporter sense of the word. But if I'm ever, if ever I'm asked, and this is since I've been about five years old, it's been Liverpool. And she was wearing a kit this morning and the kit was almost identical to a kit I was bought for Christmas when I think I was about eight. There's something about the styling of the current, the current kit, the red with the white collar. The cut of it, the styling of it, that's almost exactly the same as it was all of those years ago when it was Kevin Keegan and the boys playing. And so that made me happy. [00:06:36] The main reason, it made me really happy. Is isn't it amazing. Oh, is it amazing or isn't it about time? [00:06:43] Maybe it's about time. Maybe we're just getting there. That a girl turned up at the door. She's three years old and she's a football fanatic. And I know now the way it will be for her is so very different, than for instance, if my sister, when she was that age wanted to play football. Now my, my sister, cause I was a drummer, my sister wanted to play drums, but the girl's school, she went to said that wasn't lady like. How heartbreaking is that? I know we're going back quite a long time, but how heartbreaking. Is that, that you can't do something. Because it's not lady like. You can't do something because because of your gender, it doesn't fit in. It's just ridiculous. [00:07:25] And so it is so heartwarming this morning. To see this little girl in bright red, bright red Liverpool football strip, kicking a ball around the garden and loving every single second of it. And unlike my sister, where I think life in that particular time. In the late eighties, early nineties. You know, Society's, it was sort of prevented things like that. I know this little kid that won't be the case. For her, at least. I trust it won't be the case for her. Hearing Dogs Shoots [00:07:57] Paul - Studio Rode Broadcaster V3: So wonderful shoot this morning, 22 portraits shoots over the past three weeks, we'd done five Hearing Dogs shoots. Uh, two of those have been out on a location and they've been so joyous, so profoundly joyous. Um, the one yesterday was of one of our recipients whose Hearing Dog has essentially. Been a lifesaver. [00:08:18] I mean, I, I hear this quite a lot, but I really do think, uh, the lady I photographed with her dog yesterday, she's in her mid twenties. Um, Is just, was just an inspiration, really the relationship with the dog, the way they were, the joy that dog has brought, um, And it was just a magical shoot. And one of the things about these all, I mean, all portrait shoots, I think, but in particular with shoots like the Hearing Dogs is as much as I'm providing a service, as much as I'm providing images that they can use for fundraising and publicity and PR and marketing and all of these things. Is, they provide me with a sense of, what's the right word, they energize me. They give me energy and positivity. I come away from these shoots so much more full of life than I do when I arrive at them. I just think. It's just incredible. The joy that a photography can bring, not just to the people I'm photographing, but also, uh, to me. [00:09:22] Uh, we've had five cleanse that was a bit abrupt, sorry about that. I don't know. I maybe I just couldn't think of a good point to wind up on, but being a portrait photographer is a thing of joy. [00:09:33] It is a thing of life is a thing of positivity and energy. Um, and I suppose that's what I'm trying to get to. It really is something, but it's not a one way street. I get as much energy and joy out of these shoots as my client's do. Client Reveals and Workshops [00:09:48] Paul - Studio Rode Broadcaster V3: Uh, we've also had five client reveals. Uh, just wonderful. I love it when the clients come to see that images, we never quite certain what we're going to sell. But, uh, it's just a lovely thing to see the reaction to people when they see their pictures sometimes surprise. In fact, nearly, always surprise at how beautiful the pictures can be, I don't know why they're surprised they've come to us. They've come to us because they've seen what I can do for others. Um, and yet still the surprise very often it's clients who've been to us before, and they're still surprised. Maybe I should work harder at explaining what we, what we do, but that element of surprise. It's a lovely thing when it's done in the, in the reveal room and tomorrow we've got a little wedding, it was just a two person wedding uh, who are coming to see their pictures. And again, massively looking forward to that. Uh, we've run one one-on-one masterclass. [00:10:37] I love the one-on-one masterclasses. Because of course, every topic, every topic can be on the table. We don't need to worry about. Uh, suiting or fulfilling the requirements of four or five people. It's just one person and we can play, we can talk, uh, we can jump between different topics. We can try different things out depending on their needs. [00:10:57] Anything from business all the way through to how to prep your files for Photoshop. It doesn't really make any difference to us. And so for that, it's just a wonderful thing to do. [00:11:07] We've also done a, an off-camera flash workshop. Now the off-camera flash workshops are by far the hardest. Even this morning, a little shoot. Um, when I met bumped into the little girl, Uh, in her Liverpool outfit, Liverpool kit. I decided one of the shots we would do would be, uh, like a FIFA or UEFA. Uh, footballer's pose because all footballers are contracted to do these things so that when, uh, the, the, the TV companies roll out or, or show the team list or whatever, or feature a player, there's footage of every player walking into shot and standing a very particular way, they lit a very particular way. Um, and you can do that quite happily out in the garden with some off-camera flash. [00:11:50] So even this morning I was using. Off camera flash, and you have to sort of pause a little bit and think, okay. And you, you have to build the shot setting by setting. Then it's not as straightforward as it is just using TTL. You could just use TTL on your flash guns. Uh, but you get sort of slightly erratic results if you do that. You have to understand how, uh, the shutter speed, the aperture, the ISO, they all interact to give you the output you're looking for. And this morning absolutely nailed it. But when you're trying to teach it, trying to get those principles across in a way that is clear, a way that is concise and a way that is repeatable so that you will delegates can leave. And use that, those techniques themselves. Isn't trivial. [00:12:41] It's the, of all the things we teach here at the studio, I think. It's the hardest. And I know it's the hardest because when I'm suddenly faced with having to get the settings right for myself on a shoot, invariably I'll change the wrong thing at the wrong moment. And it's like, oh, bugger. bugger Having to go back. And figure it out. Uh, so it was, it was lovely to do a brilliant day, lots of laughter and one that Sarah was away for. [00:13:07] So thank you to Katie and James who stepped in. And Katie stepped into the role of, of Sarah, because she had to go and look after my in-laws new puppy for eight days, honestly, she's come back exhausted that, that Sarah, that is not the puppy. Uh, she's come back. Absolutely exhausted. The puppy goes to sleep at midnight. The puppy wakes up at six and there's very little in between. It's on and off. Uh, and it's on from 6:00 AM to midnight and it's off from midnight til six. She was absolutely shattered. So, uh, she was away the week when we running the workshop, unfortunately. And it couldn't be helped, not a lot of sidestepping, but Katie, thank you very much for stepping in. And being sort of a surrogate, Sarah and helping me make sure that everything ran. Uh, smoothly. BIPP Qualifications Judging [00:13:53] Paul - Studio Rode Broadcaster V3: Uh, also this last week we have done a full day of qualifications judging for the BIPP, the British Institute of Professional Photography. Um, It's a wonderful thing. Qualifications are such an amazing thing to be a part of. And I mean, that from both sides of the line. [00:14:12] I kind of draw inspiration from the candidates, the people putting their images in for assessment and I draw inspiration from the judges, but in very different ways. [00:14:24] The candidates, of course. It takes quite a lot of bravery, I think, to submit your images. I mean, we've all been through it, but it still is quite a thing to do. To submit your images in for assessment as qualification, because you don't know, you don't truly know, even the mentors don't truly know, whether a panel is going to be successful or not. [00:14:45] , we did eight panels in a day. I'm chairing it. [00:14:48] So I'm not really a judge in that sense anymore. I chair it and make sure it's run smoothly And the process is meticulous in the way we do it, so that it's fair and equitable for every single candidate. [00:15:03] Firstly, the candidate sets up their panel and the judges, get to assess the images. At the end of that first assessment , we take a vote. Then have a discussion and then we take a second vote. And the reason we do it like that is so that the judges get to make up their minds independently with no influence. They're just assessing the images on their own. And on an individual basis. Then we vote. And then as a discussion and in that discussion, It's about the judging team, the panel of judges arriving at a decision that is, a combination of their own independent view and the views of the other four judges. And it's important that it's done like that because every judge has a different experience, different influences and skills for how they assess the images. [00:15:53] And so when the judges talk, each judge gets the opportunity to address the panel, and talk about why they think their decision is the right one. But they're also listening to the other four judges and taking into account, maybe things they haven't noticed or maybe things that they just don't prioritize quite the same way. [00:16:17] And listening to these six judges or five at a time, but the six judges in discourse, listening, giving their views, knowing when to be brave and when to stand their ground, but also know when to flex, and acknowledge that may be another photographer, another judge has more experience in an area or a spotted, something that they haven't, that that was exhilarating in the extreme, because the panel of judges each time there was a discussion , they came to decision and the whole panel doesn't have to be unanimous, but the whole panel of judges respects and understands the outcome of the process. [00:16:56] Now, of course the delegate might not. That is other candidate rather than might not. That is true. And it wasn't a hundred percent pass, uh, in terms of each of the panels. And it's always heartbreaking. I wish the candidates could see behind the curtain while we come to the decision. That's not part of the process that we've opened up just yet. Um, that may come in the future as we get our arms around a way of doing that, that is. Uh, fair. But genuinely when a panel was unsuccessful, you could almost hear everybody in the room, you can almost hear their hearts. Breaking. [00:17:37] When we say, we're sorry. We mean it. Because we would love every single panel to be a successful panel. We would love that. But in the end. It's a, it's a balancing