HOW IT’S DONE: Photography masterclass

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Significant technical advances in digital cameras and lens quality has made possible the creation of images previously thought impossible. The editor meets professional and commercial photographer Jack Boskett, whose portfolio includes The Royal Family and celebrities. He explains the techniques used to create thought-provoking and dramatic railway photographs.

Jack Boskett had his first picture published in The Railway Magazine in November 2006, aged 16, but before that he won his first photographic competition in the under 18 category at just       seven with a photograph taken on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway.

Jack is self-taught and developed his skills and photography knowledge throughout the years without the help of college or university courses, instead being guided by father Ian from an early age, to learn the basics on how a film camera worked.

Jack says he now teaches his dad how to use a digital camera!

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Didcot Railway Centre is a photographer’s dream when it comes to re-creating the steam era. Here Jack has captured long-time Didcot volunteer Grahame Dryden, who looks the part during the re-enacting of this 1950s scene. Lit with one spotlight, the atmosphere was created by a smoke machine placed in the pit, as the locomotives are all static. It could almost be mistaken as a Cuneo painting. The camera was mounted on a tripod, the shutter speed was 0.3 seconds, aperture f/5, ISO 400, 26mm focal length.

In 2010, Jack started a photography business in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire that now specialises in commercial, wedding and PR, building up a wide client base. However, his first love is railway photography, and as well as his own creative images, he works for the Rail Delivery Group and Great Western Railway on a regular basis.

One of the greatest accolades, together with the acceptance of a very high quality of his work, is that Jack has worked among royalty as the sole photographer at various engagements, capturing images of HM Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, as well as other members of the Royal Family.

Read more and view more images in February’s issue of The RM – on sale now!

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