From the studio
Tips, techniques, and a look behind the scenes.
Practical advice for photographers at every level - plus images and stories from our model days and teaching sessions.
Latest Post - Tips & Techniques
Why Your Skin Tones are Fundamentally Wrong – And How to Fix It in Two Minutes
Skin tones are one of those things that look almost right - until you know what to look for. A grey card and one click in Lightroom will sort an entire set, and you'll never unsee the difference.
6th July 2026
Why Your Skin Tones are Fundamentally Wrong – And How to Fix It in Two Minutes
Skin tones are one of those things that look almost right – until you know what to look for. A grey card and one click in Lightroom will sort an entire set, and you’ll never unsee the difference.
Understanding JPEG file sizes
Why JPEG file sizes vary so much – and what actually drives them. Quality settings, image content, pixel dimensions, and EXIF data explained for photographers.
Online/cloud backup services – a great solution, but not for everyone yet
Cloud backup is the future, but not not for everyone - yet The biggest problem we face with cloud services is upload bandwidth. Most internet services are extremely asymmetric with the model being that we download much more data than we upload - that model really...
The open day – some teaching/ sample shots of Hayley Lewis
This is my selection of shots from the various setups during the day. With Johnny and Nathan visiting with a heap of Fujifilm X-series demo kit it would probably have been a bit mean of me to shoot with my Canon gear, so these were all shot with Fiona's XT-1 and a...
Don’t use a polariser in the studio (at least not unintentionally!)
Many of us, especially landscape photographers, will live with a polarising filter permanently fitted to a lens - which is generally fine if that fits your usual photography, but in the studio it's more likely to act as a variable ND filter affecting your exposure...
Backups scare me (or copies do not a backup make)
Backups scare me. They always have. They should scare you too. Backups are important day-to-day, but when you need them they are critical. Bad things will happen to the files that are important to us and potentially critical to our business. For the duration of my...
1:1 art nude photography tuition with Tillie Feather
Tillie Feather was with us for two sell out model days. These are some art nude images from a teaching session as part of one of the model day sessions. All but the last are a single light (a large rectangular gridded softbox) - the last image uses two strip boxes....
Ivory Flame from the art nude workshop
These are some of my teaching/setup images from the nude photography workshop with Ivory Flame. These are a mixture of studio lighting and natural light (and there are a couple that are more fairly categorised as portraits, but the light was lovely and these were too...
Retouching tips: Don’t make the eyes flat (or glow)
When retouching, lightening the sclera (the white of the eye) is a common adjustment. Just don’t overdo it (our eyes aren’t meant to glow … unless we’re in a sci-fi movie). What might look good at 1:1 in Photoshop or Lightroom can still be over baked when rendered as...
Camilla Rose Helley model day setup shots – Nudes (NSFW) – Sat 2nd Feb 2013
Camilla Rose Helley had a 2 day model weekend at Pavilion Photographic Studio on the 2nd and 3rd February 2013. Some of the photographers availed themselves of Barrie's extra tuition during their booked session with Camilla and here are some of the shots Barrie...
Images from last year’s classes
We don't shoot lots during the classes - just enough to test the setup and illustrate the point that we're teaching. Of course we need some good shots to advertise the classes too. You'll find sets from most of the classes starting in late 2011 through to the last...
Ben Shaw – from last night’s studio lighting class (by Barrie)
These are some of Ben from last night's studio lighting class. Ben was good enough to stand in when the model we had booked was unavailable. Ben is back again on Saturday for the afternoon class.