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  • Writer's pictureMatthew Brooks

Lights of the Funfair


Back tracking in time a bit on this blog to look back on a photo session I did just before Christmas. Christmas bring lots of fun and festivities. Another thing it brings to Swansea is the Waterfront Wonderland Funfair. That brings with it lots and lots of bright lights which create an amazing background with loads of bokeh light orbs. So doing a shoot with someone modelling was definitely on the cards. Thankfully I knew the perfect person to step in and Amanda was willing to help me out. Also it gave a fantastic opportunity to really play around with colour and get colour casts hitting Amanda's face.

I did not take any flash or my own lighting and decided to rely solely on the ambient lighting that was there. This was slightly risky in case there just wasn't enough light to take any decent photos. Thankfully it was just as bright as I had hoped and at points all the different coloured lights converged to create white light. So thank you science. Lol.

It was a big task modelling in a public place but I was incredibly impressed with the way Amanda stepped up, which in turn gave me confidence shooting as I personally am not a big fan of shooting in front of big crowds. I got some fantastic shots from the evening and we had a great laugh doing the shoot as well time went so quick and before i knew it we had been there a couple of hours.

This bokeh look is something that can be done at home quite easily with fairy lights placed some way behind whoever your photographing with your lens as wide open as possible. f1.8 or f1.4 ideally if you have a lens that fast.

I do have one or two ideas which I got from my recent trip to the Photography Show in Birmingham using different colours again which may well be studio shots so keep a look out for that.

Also will be doing a blog about my most recent shoot in Penllegear woods. So until next time I'll leave you with a few of the photos from the funfair. Thanks.

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