Taking Control of Flash Photography » Ronan Palliser Photography

New date for my one-day flash photography workshop – FULL

Mar 172013

UPDATE: The course is now fully booked.

I’m pleased to be able to announce the next date for my one-day workshop on flash photography. I’ll be running in at the RUA RED South Dublin Arts Centre in Tallaght, Dublin on Saturday 27th April, 2013. RUA RED is a great location for lots of reasons, not least because of how accessible it is by public transport with a good bus service and the Luas (red line) stopping literally outside the door. There is free all-day parking available nearby too, and the venue has a cafe which means that I can include lunch for all participants on the day in the cost.

(null)

A super cute flowergirl-to-be

Portrait No Responses »

Mar 122013

Caoimhe, above, aged 18 months, will be walking up the aisle for her Mummy and Daddy’s wedding in May and when I called out to chat to them about their wedding at the weekend I brought along my camera, a softbox and a 4 foot roll of black paper to capture a few photos of her. It’s not necessarily easy to photograph children at this age, so I thought I’d post a little bit about the process of lighting and taking images such as these.

Read the rest of this post »

T is for… TTL flash

A to Z of Photography No Responses »

Jan 162013

And so, as we roll steadily through the early days of 2013, we come to T, much later than originally planned, but we’re here all the same. There were contenders for the topic that T would represent in this A to Z of Photography – timing, tonal range, telephoto lenses, tripods – but I think it’s most useful to give you an overview of one aspect of photography that is as misunderstood as it is used, that is as frustrating as it is useful, and that is as complicated as it simple. I’m talking about TTL flash. Or, to many of you, simply flash. So grab your camera, pop up (or pop on) your flash, and let’s work our way through this surprisingly complicated area of photography.

Read the rest of this post »

Update: Flash Photography workshops SOLD OUT

Events No Responses »

Sep 102012

The Dublin dates of the Taking Control of Flash Photography workshop in November have now sold out.

Thank you to those who’ve booked a place. It’s flattering to see so much interest in the workshops and I look forward to meeting all 30 of you in a few weeks time.

I don’t yet have any further courses arranged, but I hope to run another workshop in January or February. If you want to register your interest for that just drop me a mail and I’ll keep you posted when it’s organised.

Five years of flashing

Gear, Ramblings 1 Response »

Aug 302012

I gave a 90 minute presentation to Dublin Camera Club on Tuesday night about Flash Photography, and the first third or so of the talk covered my own history with flash photography, from not too illustrious beginnings (on-camera direct flash, harsh light, unflattering images and inconsistent results) to where I am now (namely, I hope, a competent user of flash who can get good quality results in environments that require or benefit from its use). I wrote before about being seen as “the flash guy” in the camera club, and I think that reputation arises out of the fact that I am confident enough in my understanding of flash to show others how to use it – the one day workshops I run being a good example of this. But in preparation for my talk on Tuesday night I did a quick assessment of what percentage of the images I take are lit by flash, and the figure (roughly) is about 14% over the last couple of years. That might be lower than some people who know me expected, but it’s actually higher than I expected. Still, it’s a minority of my photography. What’s key, though, is that for 80% of that 14% I can confidently say that my use of flash improved the image I would otherwise have got, and in many cases made an impossible image possible. It’s worth mentioning too that I can, literally, count on one hand the number of on-camera direct flash photographs I’ve taken in the last 5 years, since I started out on my journey to learn how to properly (and appropriately) use flash in my photography because the first place that journey took me was to get the flash off the camera. It all starts with a photograph I took in Feburary 2007.

Read the rest of this post »

Lawlor family portrait

Portrait No Responses »

Jan 102012

In December I travelled to Wicklow to photograph three generations of the Lawlor family in a beautiful house just outside Wicklow town. The photoshoot was a present from siblings Susan, Alan and Conor to their parents to mark their 40th anniversary, and all we needed to proceed with it was a date when everyone would be able to be in the same room (me included). That day arrived just before Christmas.

Read the rest of this post »

Staff portraits in the office

Portrait No Responses »

Jan 082012

Last summer I had two photographic projects which I wrote about but couldn’t really share photos from. One was the Dublin Simon project which made it to print at the very end of the year. The second was a series of staff portraits which I ended up shooting in two pretty short sessions in the company’s boardroom. At the time I wrote a behind-the-scenes post about the taking of the images, sharing only a set-up shot showing the lighting. I promised to refer you to the images when they went live. Well, that time has come.

Read the rest of this post »

Is black the new white?

Portrait, Ramblings 3 Responses »

Dec 222011

Up to now, whenever I’ve done studio portraits – or, to be more correct, ‘portable studio’ portraits, I’ve tended to do high key images on a white background. I really like that look, and it works especially well, I think, for child portraits, which I like shooting. But it’s not without it’s disadvantages. In fact, three issues with it come to mind immediately, best summarised as follows: it can be a big hard mess. Last night I started playing with an alternative approach to portraits, and five minutes in I could feel myself being converted. It’s quite possible that for my portraiture at least, black might be the new white.

Read the rest of this post »

First rule of portraiture

Portrait 1 Response »

Dec 122011

I’m sure there are lots of rules about portraiture that you could find if you go digging and one of the more important ones might well be: “Don’t forget your subject’s name”. ”Don’t forget to include your subject in the frame” might be higher up the list, but remembering his or her name is important. This is especially the case during the shoot, but also holds true afterwards. Which is why I’m embarrassed to say that I think the subject in the photograph above is called Pat. I think, but I’m not certain. But let’s pretend it is. Anyway, Pat (or whatever his real name is), won’t mind me telling you that the image above wasn’t really about him at all. It was more a vehicle to illustrate of a particular concept of lighting an environmental portrait with flash, and one that I had to fight with in Newbridge a few weeks back as I reached the end of another outing of my Taking Control of Flash Photography course, and as I raced against the clock and the setting sun. And as often happens when time is tight, not everything worked as it was supposed to. But while I might remember that day for all the wrong reasons – not least the technical hiccups with getting this photo, but also the loss of my voice – the people of Newbridge may possibly remember it as the day that the town was blitzed with speed cameras for about 5 minutes. Or so it must have seemed to the passing motorists as we sought to get the photo above.

Read the rest of this post »

The One Foundation Scholars 2011

Portrait No Responses »

Nov 292011

The whole purpose of my photoshoot in Grand Canal Dock last week was to photograph a group of international students all studying and living in Ireland. Not just any group of international students, though. These students are all able to pursue their studies here thanks to The One Foundation, a private philanthropic fund based in Dublin whose stated aim is “to significantly improve the life chances of disadvantaged children and young people” in Ireland and abroad. To this end, the foundation have a scholarship programme for students who have become separated from their families, and which allows those students to stay in Ireland and continue their education into third level. Attending third level college in Ireland, particularly for those from outside the EU, is an expensive prospect, with fees often running to five figures per annum, and accomodation and living costs on top of that. So for the foundation to sponsor these scholars to the extent that it does is a particularly admirable thing. Last week the foundation brought all its scholars for 2011 together for a meal at Milano in Grand Canal Dock, and it was outside the restaurant that I was to take a group photo. I was glad to see that it was dry, especially when I saw the alternative location for the photo inside the restaurant – a location which was, literally, a black box.

Read the rest of this post »