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David Marsh
By: Alexandre Clappier
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ABOUT
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TOOLKIT
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MORE
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David Marsh
53 year old
Professional photographer
and Managing Director
at Wallgo Creative
Born in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, England,
and currently lives in Sevenoaks, Kent, England.
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Nikon D810, Nikon D750,
Canon 5D MkIII.
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 and 16-35 mm f/2.8, Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8, 70-300 mm f3.5 and 70-200 mm f/2.8 lenses.
Manfrotto 457 tripods and heads, Nikon 910 flash units.
Photoshop CS6/3, Fireworks CS4/6 and Oloneo PhotoEngine.
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www.wallgo.co.uk
HDR galleries:
Cityscapes
Commercial property/construction
Landscapes
Commercial automotive
All images © David Marsh
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HDR photographer of automobiles
When it comes to photographing exotic and vintage cars for serious customers such as the main Ferrari dealers in the United Kingdom, David Marsh relies on HDR photography and PhotoEngine to deliver high quality imaging.
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In the beginning
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When and how did you start in photography?
"I am a self-taught photographer, although coming from a family of photographers, both my father and his father being press photographers."
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First gears
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What was your first camera?
"I was brought up using the early 35mm film cameras, starting with a Zenith EM, then the full range of the Olympus OM bodies from the OM1, OM2, and OM10. Then Minolta's, Fujica's, Canon 35mm film etc. I did not start with car photography but rather with property and events images."
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From illustrator to HDR photographer
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What is your professional and photographer background?
"As a young man I joined a PR and marketing company and soon became their head illustrator and camera man. I then went on to be trained by the Ford Motor Company on sales and marketing. This experience won me a position as European Sales manager for a unique color proofing system that took me across Europe promoting their products. As a color proofing company, I gained a great insight to using color correctly that would benefit me in time to come when using HDR software that really needs careful color balancing.
My previous business specialized in the supply and design of IT systems and we supplied many 'blue-chip 'companies with their IT infrastructure. Part of this was to also design and build their website applications.
Clearly my experience with both software and color proofing had proved invaluable when editing HDR images."
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Photography for a living, and more
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Are you a full-time professional photographer?
"I am both the Managing Director and HDR photographer of Wallgo Creative Ltd. Our main services are website design and photography, and our primary objective is now working for both automotive companies and leading property developers."
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Commercial use of HDR photography
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Is HDR photography central to your business?
"The benefits to using HDR are huge as you can see from our website images. We use PhotoEngine now as it makes far greater use of the PCs processing power plus its ability to use saved styles for each of our clients. It allows us to create a more realistic image. For example, Inchcape PLC uses our HDR services to photograph their new automotive developments from the initial construction shots through to the completed showroom/workshop images."
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Style
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Do you consider yourself as an artist or rather a technician -or both-?
"The artistic streak is vital but without a technological understanding you cannot use today's digital equipment."
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What makes a great photo
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What do you consider the most important in a photo: composition, colors, light, etc.?
"They all go hand in glove really but composition is key to a good photograph. However, without the right light any image will die!"
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Inspirations
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What are your influences in terms of graphic design and photography?
"I am always looking at publications from say automotive manufacturers like the Audi or Bentley members magazines that are utilizing modern design. I also constantly look at many comparative websites to see what they are doing and take the best ideas from them."
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Discovering HDR photography
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When and why did you start making HDR photography?
"I discovered it over 8 years ago when Photoshop was the only way to make HDR using layers. I do HDR simply as it wins us a lot of website and photographic work due to the impact it has on new clients. I love it anyway which helps sell it!"
Was HDR photography influential in terms of style?
"No, but I am always looking for new ideas and HDR offered me a way of making the traditional image look much better."
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David's take on PhotoEngine
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What do you like the most about PhotoEngine?
"Where do you start, it's faster than our previous software, much better control over saving your own pre-sets, much better set of controls, very intuitive layout."
How often do you use it?
"Almost everyday."
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PhotoEngine in David's workflow
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How does PhotoEngine fit in your workflow?
"PhotoEngine plays a major part as the key editing software for HDR followed up with final cleaning and editing in Photoshop. I started using PhotoEngine a year and a half ago I think."
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Tips and tricks
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Can you share some 'tips and tricks'?
"The key is having a good IPS standard monitor first. I always use JPG images, not RAW."
"The key to good HDR is getting the right blend of colors and avoiding that 'overcooked' look. My advice is to take the correctly exposed image from your five shots and open it in a separate window to your PhotoEngine window. Then place them side by side."
"When creating your HDR try and keep the original colors in the standard shot. Yes, the HDR will be enhanced but you need to try and not allow the HDR colors to move away from the basic colors in the standard image."
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HDR techniques
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Do you have a specific technique for HDR?
"Yes, I use only 5 images for each shot as this helps balance both the day or night time sky against the landscape resulting in great looking sky's and clear and detailed landscape images."
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One picture to remember?
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Do you have a particular shot that you like to remember because it was unique?
"Yes , this picture... It was a great night in Central London and I was being followed by people wanting to know what we were doing. Believe it or not when we took these HDR images along the Southbank in London it was 1AM in the morning. You could not see the beach due to such low light and to the human eye; the night sky was almost black.
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Future projects
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Any particular projects you are currently working on?
“We are working on the new Vintage & Prestige Classic Car website using our HDR and we just completed the new Foskers Ferrari website that has many of our HDR images within their galleries...”
Do you have a dream in photography?
“Yes, I would love to be invited to shoot a palace or huge residence for someone famous to help promote our HDR.”
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