Does anyone know of any photography studios open to the public, the Site Gallery has now closed and had great facilities. I don't mind travelling just outside Sheffield. Ta.

I'm in need of studio/darkroom facilities as well (especially places with medium format enlargers!) so if anyone *does* know, that'd be fantastic!

I suggest you contact roger on here. He has a photographic studio.

I'm shortly opening up a photo/film studio, coffee shop and gallery - I need a Sheffield base as my Bradford studio is too far to travel now due to my workload.

I'm in talks with architects and estate agents as we speak - and hopefully will be up and running this year.

Anyone needing information on this or who have any interest in maybe looking at joining us as photographers please email or PM me

Similarly any models or wanna be models that fancy a shoot at no cost please get in touch also ( I have full references and checkable portfolios for you to see)



Thanks

Neil

Sorry for butting in, this is a bit off topic but..

I've enjoyed taking 'snap shot' type pictures for years but wanted a bit more so I've splashed out on a digital SLR and I'm loving it.

But I'm still getting to grips with the extra features I'v now got and seem to keep getting my exposure wrong.

I've read and re read the books about f stops/ shutter speed /I.S.O but at the mo its still a bit of trial and error.

Can anyone give me a few pointers please?

Do I need a light meter to help me in choosing the right settings or is it something my camera should be doing and I'm over looking it.

When I get it set right the pictures are fantastic but it seems Im spending too much time looking at the histogram thingy and not enough time taking nice pictures.

thanks....hj

Not a plug but Digital Camera magazine is exactly the kind of publication it sounds like you could do with !

It's excellent for folk such as yourself and comes with tutorials and guides !

I got that mag a week or two ago a learnt how to sort my white blanace out.

It set me off though, wanting to buy more equipment!! :hihi:

I’ve been struggling to achieve correct exposure for several years but am finally starting to get somewhere. I’m no expert and any criticisms by anybody that could help me are welcome. This is basically what I do:
Decide on your composition, take note of the focal length if using a zoom lens and find within the composition a midtone. This for me is the hard bit. A midtone is an area of middle brightness within an image. If we saw in black and white all midtones would be roughly middle grey as we see in colour they’re a bit harder to spot. I’ve found success by using flesh, concrete or grey clouds as a midtone. Lets say you choose a persons arm as a midtone for examples sake. Set your cameras metering system onto spot mode and zoom in as close as possible on the arm, Now meter the area to determine the correct exposure. All cameras are different but I do this by selecting shutter speed priority mode and half pressing the shutter release button, then adjusting the shutter speed until it is equal to or quicker than 1 / the focal length noted above to prevent camera shake.
Lets say the composition of you’re image requires you to zoom to a focal length of 50mm. You then zoom in and expose on the arm and your camera suggests shutter speed and aperture values of 1 / 25 seconds and f / 8.0 you have a problem. 1 / the focal length is 1 / 50 seconds but our exposure is 1 / 25 seconds, which is slower. We need to decrease the exposure by one stop and increase the aperture by one stop to retain correct exposure. Our settings are now 1 / 50 seconds and f / 4.0 as our shutter speed is now quicker than or in this case equal to the 1 / focal length rule these settings will do. I use the shutter priority mode because as I turn the wheel it does all that thinking for me. Just turn it until the number for shutter speed is bigger than the focal length of the lens used for the composition. Note these values, set the camera in manual exposure mode enter in the settings You found and recompose you’re original picture. Make everybody say cheese and you should be onto a winner!
In my experience the keys to this technique are to get a notebook and write down exactly what you did for each photo and lots of experiment. Take note of stuff like shutter / aperture settings, what you metered as the midtone, what focal length you used, time, date, location, what the weather (ie light) was like. And use it to see what works and what doesn’t.

Just keep trying it’s worth it in the long run.

photography is a lot of trial and error, but it's like any art form - you end up with a system that's best for you.

I find myself re-reading all my old practical photography magazines and learning new things - things I might have overlooked as I didn't know what they meant I can understand. The thing is to just keep trying!

Still, try light metering on a medium format camera using prime lenses (fixed focal length - no zoom) and with no multi spot averaging in its meter and with a shutter that only works in full stops, and only shoots in aperture priority mode.

Now that's a lot of fun....

thanks for the info, I would think anyone interested in setting up a photography studio would do well, there seems to be demand for it as there isn't anywhere!