Steve Proctor joined us from Lancashire to give his talk 'Talk to Me'. He spoke about studio work and working with models and 're-enactors' such as the Ragged Victorians and the Goths at Whitby.

During the first part, he spoke in detail about the planning of a studio shoot and the importance of including the model in the planning. He thought about what look he was hoping to achieve and what props would be needed, researching on the internet for inspiration!

Next he spoke about the actual shoot. How to get the best out of the model - by talking to them - which obviously was a major point of the talk. Also positioning the lights 'the less light the more tone, shape and definition'.

He then spoke about his workflow in processing the image, and how to get the look that he is after, the addition of textures and backgrounds. He gave a brief explanation of how he did this, using blend modes and varying opacities of layers. He mentioned his website, https://stproc.net, the tutorial of the example he talked through with us is there.

He then showed us some of his images and talked about how he got them, mainly - yup, you've got it - by talking to the models - to get the shot that he was after.

The talk was full of useful tips on many aspects of photography and processing and I'm sure that everyone picked up some new tips, even those who do not 'do portraits'!