Recently, I have been playing around in Photoshop using a magazine-style page layout template.

I put together the following advert using a photo from a recent shoot in the studio with model Rebecca Tun. Look out for some more similar ads that I will be posting soon.

Advert for Luxembourg Portrait Photographer, Stephen Roberts Photography

New Year … firstly, best wishes to my clients, partners and friends for 2013 and thank you all for your support during 2012.

New Post … well, this one, as I have not added anything new to my Blog for a very, very  long time. Most of my updates during the second half of 2012 were made via Facebook and Twitter, so a reminder that you can find me at http://www.facebook.com/stephenrobertsphotography.

New Year’s Resolution … to update this blog on a more regular basis during 2013 (as if you hadn’t guessed that already !).

To get things off to a good start, here are a couple of very old photos that I recently rediscovered that I took in India and Nepal in the mid-1990s. This was back in the days of film (if you are too young to remember, look it up on Wikipedia !) and these 2 photos were originally shot as slide transparencies (Wikipedia again).

I have owned a high resolution slide and film scanner for a while now, but the software has come on leaps and bounds since I first acquired it. So, I rescanned the slides, touched them up a bit in Photoshop and here are the resulting images. Pretty good for almost 20 years old.

I have been quite inspired by discovering these old slides and with the quality that I can now get from my scanner, I am considering putting together a series of photos from my trip to Nepal and India and maybe exhibiting them somewhere. Keep visiting the blog for updates once I get the project off the ground.

In the meantime, keep a look out for new blog posts on a regular basis (promised) and thanks for visiting … Stephen

Girl standing next to a temple in India by Stephen Roberts Photography, wedding and portrait photographer in Luxembourg

Monks dressed in orange robes washing their feet at a lake in Nepal by Stephen Roberts Photography, wedding and portrait photographer in Luxembourg

With the brighter spring weather here, I decided to try out some natural light portraits in the studio in Luxembourg with model Malu. Just window light, a couple of reflectors and a beautiful model – simple and natural.

It was quite liberating not having to worry about the settings on the studio flash lights and the quality of the light in the finished pictures is simply gorgeous. I will be dispensing with my flashes a lot more often during the summer months, so more to come …

If you would like to book a natural light portrait session in the studio, contact me for details.

Stephen

During the open weekend at the studio in March, Tammy and Olivier brought daughter Léa into the studio for another photo session. Now 10 weeks old, Léa is not showing any more signs of becoming professional model and was rather reluctant to have her picture taken

But, we ended up with some nice photos all the same and some that will probably be brought out again on Léa’s wedding day to embarrass her to the maximum!

Special promotional offer to Friends and Fans of Stephen Roberts Photography, Artrooms and Relax Max - photo session including one free 15 x 20 cm print for only 85 euros (normal price: 135 euros)

I am throwing open the doors of my studio at Artrooms (48, avenue de la Liberté, Luxembourg) over the weekend of 24th and 25th March 2012, offering a photo session for only 85 euros, including one free 15 x 20 cm print. *

* The offer is subject to the following terms and conditions:

- Sessions must be booked in advance and payment received in full prior to the session date.
- The session fee constitutes a non-refundable deposit to secure the session time.
- In the case of cancellation by the client, no refund of the session fee will be given.
- In the case of late arrival, the session will be shortened to the remaining time available.
- Terms of the special offer will not be available on any other day than the dates specified above.
- The fee is EUR 85 for a photo session lasting up to 1 hour (approx. 30 to 40 minutes shooting time).
- The fee covers a photo shoot of up to 2 adults and 2 children photographed during the same session.
- Additional adults or children may join the session with prior agreement only.
- An additional fee of EUR 30 will be charged for each additional person joining a session.
- Further prints (framed or unframed) are available but there is no obligation to purchase.

How to book a session:

Send an e-mail to offer@stephenroberts.net giving:
- Your name and telephone number;
- The number of people to be photographed and relationship (e.g. Mother, Son, Sisters, friends, etc.)
- Your availability on either 24th or 25th March 2012;
- N.B. – the more flexible you are the more chance there is of finding a free slot.

You will be sent a confirmation of your session with details of how to pay (by bank transfer or credit card via Paypal).

You will be sent a few suggestions to make the most of your session, such as the type of clothing to bring/wear.

Stephen Roberts reserves the right to use any photographs taken during the session for the purposes of marketing or advertising the photography services of Stephen Roberts Photography (including on the Internet).

Book now to avoid disappointment!

I was thrilled to be given a Gold award by the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP) in their monthly competition for January 2012. I have been a member of the the SWPP for a few years, but this was the first time that I had entered the monthly competitions.

In the monthly competition, each photograph entered into one of the 25 categories is judged on its own merits alone and is not judged against the other entries. The judges award each photo a rating of either Gold, Highly Commended or No Award Given.

My photograph below was one of only 2 golds awarded in the Events category in January 2012 and one of only 44 golds awarded across all of the categories for the month. My photo is now in the running to be entered into the annual awards for 2012 that will be judged in January 2013.

A few details about the photograph:

The picture was taken at the Viking Moot Festival that takes place in Aarhus, Denmark each year. I have been going for the last 3 or 4 years and I knew that at the end of the mock battle, the vikings line up and charge towards the audience with weapons raised. I positioned myself in a strategic place and focused my 70 to 200 mm zoom lens on a small group of participants.

I was fortunate that the front viking has a real look of anger in his face with his eyes bulging, and all but one have their mouths open as they charge forwards.

Taken on my Canon 5D with 70-200mm zoom lens and 1.4x converter, the technical details are f5.6, 1/800 sec at ISO 400.

I carried out a little post-processing work in Photoshop, slightly cropping the original image and cleaning up a bit of the grass on the front right. I then added a light vignette around the edges and altered the colors to give more earthy tones.

Result

Older blog posts from 2011 can be found here:

http://stephenrobertsphotography.com/blog/