This photograph was used for the second Winter in Eden album "Echoes of Betrayal". It was shot on a beautiful autumn morning in the Northumberland countryside at Belsay Hall, owned and run by English Heritage.
This is the main hallway of the Georgian main building. It leads to some wonderfully large and open family rooms, a library and bedrooms. All of which are empty but in the condition that the family left them in upon bequeathing the property to English Heritage - a photographers dream and more of those rooms later...
The hallway is lit by a huge skylight three stories above the entrance but more light was needed. The album cover had a blue theme throughout the artwork and I wanted to run that through into the photographs. I gelled a couple of portable flash units and placed them on the floor behind the pillars that you can see in the picture. I lit the band using a 42" softbox just in front of the band. It's always great fun when setting up these shots not to tell anyone about the coloured flashes placed behind them - when I show them the photos on the back of the camera they are always amazed to see brightly lit backgrounds completely out of thin air. Of course, the secret to this is to arrive early and well before the band to get a relaxed setup. Here's a photograph to test out the lighting and various colours before the band arrived:
You can see the flashes on the floor behind the pillars.
I then utilised the rest of the hallway from various angles to give the band more options for what to include on the album package. Blue gelled backlighting was the common theme, the walls looked great and the colour suited the band brilliantly.
The band also brought multiple outfit changes, well prepared and very professional.
Time to change rooms (and outfits) and the library was next. No books but terrific wood panelling and hardwood floors. I'd like to say it was planned but the truth is that I got very lucky with the sunlight streaming through the south facade. The early morning sun was truly spectacular and no extra lighting was needed. Just the shadows to control.
Does my shadow look big in this?
Moving on to the rooms upstairs the light was good and only small fill-light or reflector was needed. Again, the rooms were from a forgotten era but not derelict, English Heritage have done a great job keeping the building in the condition it's in. If dereliction is your thing, there's also a castle ruins in the gardens of the main hall! Here is the master bedroom again taken before the band arrived as a lighting test.
And here is the resulting photo with the band:
Outfit No. 3....
The light and images we were capturing really fired us up and we spent quite some time in the various rooms doing single shots and close-ups.
This was my first time meeting the band face-to-face and it was very productive. Everyone was very professional and a pleasure to work with. The band were so happy with the photos (and there were many more) that they invited me to their forthcoming Town Hall gig to do some behind-the-scenes shots and to cover their live show. I remember being in the rafters above the audience at one point but I'll save that one for later...
Prior to the shoot I obtained permission from English Heritage. Although they have a policy of no commercial photography they were very pragmatic when they learned that this was a low-budget shoot. In fact, they waived our entrance fees on the day and treat us like a Hollywood production. They were very cool and my thanks goes out to them once again. I love this place, take a look for yourself:
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/belsay-hall-castle-and-gardens