I recently had the opportunity photograph Flat Stanley in studio,recording their 3^rd album. For those of you you dont know who they are, you need to check out their previous two albums, Of Secrets and Wine and Between Two Worlds. Follow them on Facebook  to find out more.

Shooting in the studio environment is rather challenging. Low light, lots of clutter, super sensitive microphones that can "hear" your flash recycling, to name but a few!

The guys at Digital Forest Studios were great and completely accomodating, allowing me free range around the studio and recording booths.

I decided upfront that i wanted try capture the vibe of the studio with the band recording. The amount of work, creative effort and sheer perseverence that goes into writing and recording an album is astounding, not to mention the technical brilliance of the guys at the recording studio.

I spent the morning shooting with my Canon 7D with a 17-40 f4 and a 70-200 2.8 lens. Fill flash was provided by a 430EX flash, used in both ETTL and manual mode. I tried shooting with the end result in mind, including how i wanted to process and present the images. Often pushing the exposure to the right, to slighlty over expose the images (required for my PP ideas).

Bouncing the flash in the studio was really tricky with all the windows and reflective surfaces creating havoc. It really boiled down to exprerimentation and tilting/twisting the flash head until it no longer appeared as a blinding light in the frame.

It was a great morning, with  really cool music to boot! The final images are great and i hope they convey a little of the studio vibe. Check out the complete sequence here.