Retro fashion portrait shoots are gaining major popularity as women everywhere look for their inner vintage vixen. Finding the perfect sixties mini skirt, wartime tea dress or drop-waisted twenties frock has never been easier. The internet has revolutionised the concept of the vintage wardrobe. But what are the important things to consider when you’re on the look out for that perfect photo shoot outfit?

One of the reasons for choosing the vintage concept is to make your shoot individual, memorable and highly original. You are creating a strong look which will instantly take you back to a former time so it’s a good idea to check out photos of the era you’re interested in.

If you want the classic fifties American prom look, search for pictures of those teenagers of the past in their party outfits, watch films like Grease for that exaggerated representation of fifties fashion or take a look at what celebrities from that time were wearing on the red carpet.

Fancy travelling further back in time? Silent Ladies and Gents is a website full of photos from the silent film era – everything from headdresses and fur coats to flapper dresses and costume jewellery covers the most famous stars of the time before ‘talkies’. Try to imagine which era you’d like to have lived in – that’s often a great starting point.

How do you get the look?

• Authentic and respected vintage outlets like Rokit and Beyond Retro now have a huge online range with easy search options to pinpoint the items you’re looking for. They list everything with measurements so you can be sure you’re getting a good fit and they will let you know which era each garment comes from.
• Plenty of ‘off the rack’ outlets are tapping into retro trends which span all of their collections. Pin-up Girl Clothing is one of many online resources for that incredible fifties poster girl look. The high street haven’t failed to notice that we love to tap into vintage trends so a quick visit may secure some valuable items.
• Charity shops and boot sales are ‘hit and miss’ when it comes to sourcing distinctive vintage items but if you have the time to visit them, you should! They often hold hidden treasures for very few pennies but remember to keep your concept in mind. When you’re surrounded by lots of quirky, second-hand items at cheap prices it can be easy to lose your sense of what’s relevant and start buying everything you see! Maintain a distinct idea of what you’re looking to find.
• Vintage fairs are becoming increasingly popular. Your nearest large town or city will be hosting one fairly regularly. Look for details online and remember to set your budget. You want to be fabulous without being flat broke. A retro fashion portrait shoot is an incredible souvenir to remember how you were at a certain time in your life and if you’re going for the vintage vibe it is going to be one hell of a beautiful result so set a price for your outfit which will allow you to get the most from the Portrait session itself but will let you follow dreams a little.
• Dress hire is a good route to go down if you’re not the kind of girl who fancies owning vintage pieces but you’re looking for that perfect photo shoot outfit. Violet’s Box offers an amazing collection of vintage threads for hire and extra services to help you find your way into the right garment.

Complete the look

There are so many incredible hair and make-up tutorials on Youtube to help you achieve the vintage look you’re going for. Get the perfect Bettie Page fringe, learn how to do victory curls or create the biggest sixties beehive imaginable through watching free videos made by those with a passion for retro fashion.  Don’t fancy doing it yourself, photographers often have a wealth of industry contacts – ask them if they know of anyone who can take your face and hair back to the past.

About the Author

Kelly-Ann Maddox is a Fashion blogger who has recently restarted her Tea for Two  fashion blog and is an extraordinary copy writer.  I have known Kelly for a few years now and first found her as a stray retro fashion victim in Moscow, Russia and took her in. Before you know it she was reusing ancient Babushka clothes bought from a flea market.  This will be the first of a number of guest posts by Kelly.

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Brain Tumour Research represents the united campaign voice of the Brain Tumour Research group of charities. Established in 2008, the charity was launched specifically to raise substantial funds for brain tumour research and operates as a separate entity to the member charities. Its mission is to raise at least £7 million per annum in order to accelerate progress significantly in UK brain tumour research, to make a clinical  difference and to improve the outcomes for brain tumour patients.

Whilst continuing their separate work and remaining true to their own objectives, member charities are committed to work together to achieve a common goal to raise funds for research into discovering the causes, advancing treatments and ultimately finding a cure.

In the UK, 16,000 people are diagnosed with a brain tumour each year with more children and people under the age of 40 dying of a brain tumour than any other cancer. Tragically five year survival remains at 14% – yet brain tumour research is woefully under-funded!

Funds raised will be allocated to existing UK centres where brain tumour research is already carried out. Subject to peer review, funds will be granted following an invitation for applications.

We are pleased to announce our partnership with Brain Tumour Research, we have made them our charity of the year.  All of us have been touched by cancer in some form so we wanted to work with a charity focussed on research.  Their annual target is achievable and we would like to help in whatever way we can to achieve it.

So how are we going to help?  We will start by running special portrait days where people can make a donation of a reduced booking fee to the charity, the first of these will be in May, more about that coming soon!

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Dance photography is usually broke down into three types, beautiful dance portraits, event dance photography, and technical dance photography.  The brief was strictly technical dance and instruction, simply lit, with the dancers and instructors being the focus.

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The Purity Range is a reinvention of fine art portraiture, the images are beautiful, simple, and timeless. The portraits are classically posed with simple clothing selected to match the background to keep the focus on you and your family. We have carefully selected a special range of product that perfectly complement the images resulting in personal piece artwork that you will keep for a lifetime.

A selection of the style of images can be found in this video:-

Why Purity?

Remember when portrait photography was about art? About capturing a moment in time?

Purity fine art portraiture is about capturing that point in time for you and your family to treasure for a lifetime! Purity keeps the portraits simple, simply and artistically lit, using clothing to match the clean Black or white background without the distractions of brightly coloured clothes.

The finished results are stunning and we know you will love them, we have carefully selected a small range of stunning products for you to choose from at your preview show. The finished portrait you select for your wall, or album is going to be the portrait you keep for the rest of your life!

Purity has two different styles, Purity Noir and Purity Blanc. Your Purity Fine Art portrait session will be based on one of these.

Purity Noir

Purity Noir is a stunning black and white range, your family all dressed in black (or dark) clothing in front of a stark black background, if you love black and but want the images to have that wow factor for years to come Purity Noir is for you.

Purity Blanc

Purity Blanc is what true high key looks like, all dressed in white or very pale clothing, once again this eliminates distractions and the faces of your family in stunning colour really stand out, so if you do prefer a splash of natural colour, but nothing else Purity Blanc is your style.

Booking and consultation

If you are interested in these styles of fine art portraiture and would like to have a consultation, make a booking, or simply to find out more information you can call us on 07900 401893 or email to phil@phpositivestudio.com

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Before Christmas I went over the Barracks’ gym in Ambrosden to photograph Kate and Sophie from Kaso Studios leading a zumba charity event with 23 Pioneer regiment.

It had been a difficult time for 23 Pioneer in the months preceding the zumba charity event in December with losses that understandably had an effect on the soldiers.  With this in mind it was great to see them get involved with raising some money for the Army Benevolent fund by making a donation to the class instead of a long run! despite the sun shining through the upper windows it was a pleasure to photograph the zumba charity event and to see the guys relax (not quite relax!) and have some fun!

“The Soldiers’ Charity are for soldiers, for life. We provide financial assistance to all soldiers and their families when in need. Even when a soldier leaves the Army they are still part of our family and eligible for our help. The scope of our work is huge. Half of our money is given direct to individuals to help in areas such as debt relief, mobility assistance, education bursaries, carehome fees and respite breaks. The other half is given as grants to other charities.” – taken from the ABF website

Here a couple of short videos from the Zumba charity event:-

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So when you are out taking photographs you have to make a judgement call about how bright it is and judge what ISO to use. If for example you are on the beach on a bright sunny day you will probably be using ISO 100.  But if you are photographing family on an overcast day in an the sun was dropping you might want to increase this to 400 or higher to compensate.

So why not just use a higher ISO all the time? Well higher ISO, particularly in compact cameras produces a higher grain (noise) image and this can reduce quality, particularly in dark areas of the image. The ISO has a direct effect on the shutter speed you need to use to expose correctly (which in turn effects the aperture you need to use).  This is actually why you use the higher ISO, so you can use a faster shutter speed to freeze movement in lower light.

As a photographer looking into moving beyond automatic mode a great deal of care needs to be taken to understand how the ISO affects the shutter speed you can use. From there you can begin to capture movement by lowering the ISO a little and therefore lowering the shutter speed giving you a little movement blur in the final image such as the traffic light trails in the image below.

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Boudoir Portraits

So what is Boudoir photography? Boudoir Photography is all about ladies, gents, and couples capturing their private moments with sensual, romantic, and tasteful images. Care must be taken to make the most of each individuals best features and downplay the one’s they are not so happy with. Boudoir photography is becoming an increasingly popular way for people to express their inner and outer beauty. It isn’t just for women either, more and more men like to capture themselves looking their best as a gift for their partners. Ladies should be sure your boudoir session is preceded by professional hair styling and make-up and gents come with styled hair, clean shaven or neatly trimmed facial hair to enhance the finished result. For inspirational Boudoir Photography ideas see this Boudoir Pinterest Board

Couple’s Boudoir Photography

Couples boudoir typically has a very artistic look to it with the couple wishing to decorate their home with striking artwork featuring both of them. For inspirational Coules Boudoir Photography ideas see this Couples Boudoir Pinterest board.

Makeover Portraits

This is great for the lady or gentleman who needs a special treat and has always wondered what it would be like to be a model. Like the Boudoir Photography sessions ladies should ensure the session is preceded by professional hair styling and make-up and gents come with styled hair, clean shaven or neatly trimmed facial hair to enhance the finished result. These sessions should be a mixture of funky fashion, fun, and classic portraits using a number of different outfits and props meaningful to you.

All of these sessions should result in gorgeous uplifting artwork based on you and deserves to be presented as such in a stunning album or amazing wall art so be sure your photographer offers these.

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This is the first in a series of tips to help you with your own camera to take better photographs.  The first few posts will be an introduction to how gain greater creative control of the camera.

Beyond Auto Mode – Camera modes

Whether you are shooting family, landscapes or architecture it is necessary to move away from letting your camera guess what you meant to capture to take back some creative control.  The main Camera modes you will see on an SLR or bridge camera will be:-

Auto – Camera makes all the decisions

Manual – You make all the decisions

Other modes (Aperture and Shutter Priority Modes)

Auto Mode

Your camera has several options to determine how much control you will have. When shooting in Automatic mode, your camera makes all of the decisions. This is often the fastest way to shoot but it allows the least amount of creativity.

Manual Mode

When you use the camera in Manual mode, you will make all of the decisions.  Understanding how to use this mode effectively and quickly this takes a good deal of experience as there are many settings you can change to affect the final image.

Other Modes – Shutter and Aperture priority modes

Most cameras have options that allow you to choose one creative element to control while the camera only has one element to estimate.  Settings, like Aperture and Shutter priority are great when you know how to use them.

Aperture Mode

The camera aperture is how wide the shutter opens when you take the photograph, the smaller the number, the wider the opening and therefore the more light reaches you camera’s sensor.  This is great for lower light situations so that you don’t have to use flash.  The other effect the aperture controls is the Depth of Field or simply, how much of the picture is in focus.  For landscape shots where you want more of the picture in focus you might want a higher aperture, for portraits you might want the background to be out of focus, and less distracting, so you use a lower (wider aperture) setting.  In this mode, the camera takes a reading of the subject based on the aperture you set and approximates the required shutter speed.

Shutter Priority Mode

This mode is great for moving subjects such as in wildlife or sports photography where you want to either freeze the action, or show some blurring of the subject to give the impression of movement.  You set the shutter speed and the camera approximates the required aperture.

In Conclusion

Manual mode gives you the most creative control but it does require that you have the most understanding of your camera and what you are trying to achieve. Aperture Priority is a great start for landscape and portrait photography as a start point. So go ahead and give it a try!

If you want to know more why not email us and come on one of our photography course – phil@phpositivestudio.com

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Here are a few tips for the perfect engagement session whichever photographer you use.

1 – Be Yourself

Don’t try to transform yourselves for this session, with a wild idea that you saw in some  WAG/Footballers engagement photos. Be honest about who you are and take this moment to celebrate that as a couple.  To one extreme if you both like Elvis, it’s time for the guy to to break out the rhinestones and get that quiff/DA firmly gelled into place! And for the lady to get into their 50s Rockabilly dress and that Bettie Page hair cut!  On the other hand if you are the ultimate power couple go sleek and sophisticated in evening wear. Take some time to think about what makes your relationship tick and that is something that you can weave into the session for a truly unique memory.

2 – Make the effort

This is one occasion where professional hair and makeup can really pay off. Similar to your wedding day, these memories will last a lifetime. It’s also a great way to test out the hair and makeup artist you want to use for the big day, not necessarily the same style, but it’s a great way to make sure they are the person you want working for you on your big day. People do sometimes make the comment that they might be too pale, don’t overdo the fake tan, less is more. You want a little colour, go for it, if not, don’t stress.

Guys, we all know that we like to let our ladies give a little guidance with  fashion choice (or a lot) whether we like it or not!  So let her help, it will be less stressful for all concerned!!  Also guys get a haircut a week before your session date, come cleanly shaven or have neatly trimmed facial hair for a polished, romantic look.

3 – Location, Location, Location

Where? That special spot. Where did you meet? That first meal out together? Think of the place he proposed or other romantic, meaningful locations. Maybe not everyone will understand the full meaning of the location, but it’s a poignant reminder of your bond, and it will make those portraits all the more beautiful.  TELL your photographer about these locations, they should be able to accommodate your requests!

4 – Dress to Impress

As I already mentioned your wardrobe of course should match your personalities. That said, this session probably warrants a shopping trip to get outfits that complement each other as well as you and your fiancé do. Look at a colour wheel for good colour combinations (opposite colours on the wheel are great). If it’s a colder month, just find darker tones. For warmer months, lighter ones. Play around with colour and textures, using designs like stripes or polka dots sparingly, large logos are pretty much a no-no on these sessions!
While you want to make a personal statement in these portraits, the underlying purpose is to showcase your love. So your clothes shouldn’t be the star of the show, but compliment your personalities and the look you are going for. Keep things looking natural and understated, whether you’re leaning towards a casual look or ultra sophisticated one (or somewhere in between).
Ladies it is time to bring out your feminine nature in these portraits, and guys, time to be extremely masculine, however you interpret that, bring it out.

5 – You romantic devils you!

This might be a silly reminder, but some couples freeze up in front of the camera and forget to enjoy the session.  Remember why you are there, this is the love of your life right?  So act like it! Smile, laugh, hug and kiss! If you are both nervous one of you needs to lighten the mood, or trust me your photographer will do it with cheesy lines, and no one needs to here those!!

Once you have selected the perfect date for your big day, you’re ready to order your Save the Dates cards! Which we will happily supply for you

Call the studio today and we can arrange a complimentary consultation! 07900 401893 or email – phil@phpositivestudio.com

Engagement Portrait showing the engagement ring being put on

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We did manage to all get into the studio for some portraits, some great noir black and white shots like this one of my lovely niece:-

You can see the rest of them in this video:-

When it came to a day before New Year’s Eve and my brother’s family had gone to to visit his in-law’s we headed south to my mother-in-law’s place, along with my mother.  I took a portable studio with me and did family portraits for my wife’s family too although these were a little more formal apart from this one of her Nan:-

Have a look at the video of the rest of the session below, there are some more great portraits of her Nan in there!

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