Photography News Issue 43

Photography News | Issue 43 | absolutephoto.com

18 Interview

Pro focus

Richard Bradbury specialises in tweaking reality until it looks too good to be true, but his shots still have the essence of real life even though they might be made up of six or more captures

Words by Terry Hope Pictures by Richard Bradbury

As a photographer it’s all too easy to follow the crowd and to produce work that’s a carbon copy of what everyone else is doing. Not so straightforward is to develop a dynamic new style that’s all your own – but pull off this trick in the commercial world and you’ll have clients beating a path to your door. For Richard Bradbury there was no single defining moment when his signature look was born. Rather, he realised the potential of a combined lighting and HDR technique he was working on, slowly but surely perfecting it and drawing together strands that finally gave him the hyperreal – but still perfectly believable – feel he was after. “Most photographic techniques develop over a period of time,” he asserts. “They come about usually because you have an assignment that works particularly well, so you then take the essential elements from that shoot and incorporate them into other jobs. I’m a great one for thinking things through before they happen, both technically and creatively, and for some time I had been taking a shot of the background of a scene after finishing a modelling shoot in case I wanted to move or adjust anything in post. From here it was a natural development to start to use that technique as a regular creative tool to produce a distinctive new look.” The technique turned into a project, and now Richard is the master of a stylish and distinctive approach that lends itself to any number of different editorial and advertising assignments. “Basically they’re storytelling images,” he says. “I’m not recording a moment in time; rather I’m creating the fantasy of one.”

As the secret behind the look is twofold, a combination of high-speed sync and an HDR background. The latter can be made up of anything up to five separately aligned exposures to create a hugely detailed dynamic range, and this is then married with a subtly lit model subject, usually shot within the scene to mimic a perfect lighting effect. Everything won’t necessarily happen at the same time however: the background might be shot later or the model might even come back on a different day to be photographed. It all gives Richard the flexibility to play with the elements, and the action part of the scene might be the result of an exposure that’s anything up to 1/8000sec, while still utilising a regular focal plane shutter. Speed king So, how does Richard achieve these extraordinarily fast exposures, while still using the kind of camera – in this case a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV – that most professionals would have access to? “In recent times high-speed sync has become a lot easier to work with,” he says, “and several lighting manufacturers have now produced dedicated systems to release this capability. Previously this area was very much the preserve of complicated Pocket Wizard reprogramming, and it required laptop preparation before going on set to shoot. Now that’s not necessary, and the Elinchrom kit that I’m using features an on- camera mounted transceiver unit, the Skyport Plus HS, and it’s so simple. You just need to calibrate the unit to your camera – it will work mentioned already,

with Canon, Nikon or Sony models – and then fundamentally it’s ready to go.” It’s one thing having hardware that will do the job, but Richard also needed to get his head around the fundamentals of high-speed sync and what it could offer him. Essentially it’s a flash, but it needs to be considered more as a continuous light source, because its role is to light a scene in the short period of time that the camera’s shutter curtain is open. “It’s ironic,” says Richard, “but to achieve the best high-speed sync results you need to be working with a slow duration flash. In this way it’s the speed of the shutter curtain that becomes the means by which the action is captured. “It has nothing to dowith the flash capturing the event with its super- fast duration… quite the opposite. It works best when combined with ambient light, but you’ll still need powerful flash units.” Agood example of this high-speed technique in action is Richard’s shot of the young TeamGB 800m runner Georgia Bell leaping from the starting blocks. This is a moment of intense action and Richard wanted Georgia to be frozen at the instant she powered up and started to run. It was essential she held nothing back, and yet, from a side-on position it needed to be a high-speed capture to ensure no blur in the arms or legs. “It was the moment of truth,” says Richard, “and I wanted to capture the full power of that instant.” You can read more about Richard’s inspiring work in the latest issue of Professional Photo magazine where he goes into more detail about the gear and technique involved. Issue 131 is out now.

©RichardBradbury

Images Richard Bradbury’s pictures combine high dynamic range (HDR) and high-speed sync (HSS) flash techniques, to create a look that’s fresh and exciting – something that makes clients sit up and take notice.

Professional Photo

This article first appeared in issue 131 of Professional Photo , on sale now. It’s packed with inspiring images and tips for aspiring pros and those already making a living. absolutephoto.com

You’ll findmore insight in the latest Professional Photo – the UK’s best magazine for full-time and aspiring pro photographers