Portraits of Photographers - Part 2

Aim of the shoot

For this shoot I wanted to capture some of the other photographers from the course. Unfortunately, there were a few problems so it was a case of improvisation. But this did give me an opportunity to try some portraits in a very different lighting scenario to my previous portrait shoot.

Set Ups

For the two portraits I used ambient lighting. Although I did vary the set up for the two portraits, which included the direction of the light.

For Rebecca I shot her against natural backlighting. The set up diagram is shown below:

For Steve, we went for a more formal pose, where Steve stood with his back to a whiteboard. This set up shown below:

Steve stood near to a whiteboard, this gave a clean, uncluttered background. Eric kindly held a reflector which helped with the lighting.

Choice Of Equipment

As this was a more improvised shoot, I was very limited with the equipment available.

I used a DSLR with a 18-200mm lens, without flash, using the available light in the room. Eric kindly held a reflector to even out the light on Steve. This lens is very handy as it has a variable focal length and can be used to zoom in on someone, reducing the amount of cropping required, without standing on their toes. The lens has a wide aperture of f 4.5 which allows me to isolate the subject from their surroundings, in particular the backdrop.

Health and Safety

Because I am working with people who are modelling for this photo shoot I must make sure that at all times their safety is of prime concern. Fortunately, all my subjects are photographers themselves and are aware of the safety measures in place. Working in a classroom instead of the studio, where there is seating, although out of the way, any dangers that can arise from these can be reduced by having an assistant present, who in my case was Eric.

The usual health and safety precautions must be followed:

Environment

Fortunately, working in a college classroom which is kept clear of any obstructions, we had a clear and safe working environment.

Electricity

Because we were not using studio lighting the only danger which could affect any of us was from the Apple Mac computers in the classroom.

Heat

Because we were not using any studio lighting there was no danger from these. The only heat in the classroom was from the sun.

Flash Photography

As I chose to use the existing light, there was no flash used.

Chemicals

Because we were not in the studio, and the classrooms are kept clean and tidy, there were no chemicals in the area.

Image Selection

Because this had been a more improvised shoot than my last one I had less images to choose from, but again I wanted to capture the personality of the person, not just their portrait.

Below is a contact sheet of the portraits that I took during this session:

With such a limited selection of images to choose from, particularly in the case of Steve Bright.

Post Production of the images

As with the other portraits, I used the Black and White film filter to convert the images to monochrome, whilst maintaining control over the finished image.

These were then cropped. Although with Rebecca I could not achieve a square finished image, I was very happy with the end result. Thanks Rebecca and Steve !

From this photo shoot I came away with the following images:

Many thanks to Rebecca and Steve for their participation in these portraits, and for Eric’s assistance.

Burton Photographic Society Awards 2010

Just a short blog to say congratulations to my friends from this course:

• Steve Bright
• James Woodings
• Suzy Billings
• Ruth Hill

Who very well deserved their awards.

Also Steve Krneta and Alan Dawes, two friends from the previous course, who also won awards.

Congratulations 

 

Martin Wonnacott

When Martin was young he started photographing and experimenting with bottles and liquids, trying to capture splashes of liquids on film.

Martin got his first job as an assistant working in a studio when he was 17.  Whilst working in the studio Martin watched how drinks were photographed, and became intrigued how technical everything was.

Martin’s speciality is liquids, alcoholic beverages to be precise with bottles, glasses pouring and splashing for some of the most prolific advertisers in the world.  They call on Martin to create striking and colourful compositions that the views can almost taste.

In an interview for Digital Photo Pro magazine (an American photographic magazine) Martin’s advice to other photographers who are striving to create striking images like his own Martin’s advice was simply “Keep it simple. Over lighting is the biggest problem, I think people throw too much light at a subject.  Less is more, but many people are afraid of that”

Coming from an Englishman who divides his time between his two New York and London studios, this advice comes from somebody who has proven that he knows what he is taking about.  In fact, when I was shooting products in the college photographic studio, Steve Davies was always advising the use of subtle lighting of the products and not to over light them.

With one of Martin’s projects, for the Baileys drink, Martin explained, in the Digital Photo Pro interview, “the Baileys shoot was very complex, it had to look like Baileys; there couldn’t be any question.  The texture had to be right.  There were suggestions of using all sorts of other liquids, and there were a few other photographers in the pitch who were testing other ways you could get other liquids to look similar to Baileys.  But it worked out that we just used Baileys at room temperature.  There you go.  Stop messing around and let’s just use the real thing”. 

And looking at the picture below, as someone who occasionally has a glass of Baileys, I can say that it does look the part;

   Baileys: The perfect pour

Although Martin’s speciality is alcoholic beverages, his portfolio contains a wide range of other products.

Martin’s gear includes:

• Sinar P3 and Sinar eVolution 75H digital back

• Sinaron Digital 55mm and 90mm lenses (although Martin does carry his 28mm, 45mm, 120mm and 150mm lenses at all times).

• Profoto Pro-8a Air pack and Pro heads with reflectors and grids.

• Roll of Rosco Heavy Frost

Below is some more of Martin’s work:

 

Evaluation if Images

Martin has used strong colours in his work, in some cases against a white background.  In some of his work Martin has also used texture in varying forms from condensation on glasses to the effects on the yogurt adverts.

For me it is Martin's use of the splashing liquids that has caught my eye, in particular the classic Baileys pour (above the selection of images) and the Dove splash (column 2 row 1 of the images above) and in today's world something like that can make the difference over how long a viewer might look at an image before looking to the next.

Martin has varied his photographic angle, if you compare the image of the bottle and glass (column1 row 2), you will see he has used a high angle, looking down on the items from about 75 degrees, whereas on the Jamesons photograph, again with a bottle and glass (column 1 row 3) the camera looks from a lower angle, until we reach the classic Guinness shot (column 2 row 8) where the camera is looking up towards the top of the glass.

It is interesting on the play on the please drink responsibly theme adopted by alcohol drink manufacturers, possible to avoid a ban on advertising their goods, with the Herradura Tequila advert where the please drink responsibly, has been changed in line with the theme of the advert to read 'Fortune favours the responsible drinker'.

Martin's images are generally evenly lit.

Richard Izui

Richard has been taking product photography for over 30 years, and has been very impressed with the transition from film photography to digital photography, although his early days with digital were a little temperamental.

Today Richard uses his Canon Hasselblad H2 camera with a Imacon 22 megapixel digital back and his EOS 1D Mark II, but for a number of years, Richard used his Deardorff 8 x 10 view camera, which in an interview in Digital Photo Pro (an American photographic magazine), he admitted that “he missed the view camera days”, he went on to say “I shot 8 x 10 so extensively that my Deardorff (camera) just became like an extension of my arm”.  Richard told how the transition to digital was difficult at first.  “I started with a Dicomed BigShot in 1998.  Just to get the thing to operate took an hour and a half.  There were so many cables that would have to be set just right otherwise it would not work”.  After shooting both digital and film Richard eventually convinced his clients to accept digital. 

I know from my own personal experience how the change can worry someone.  After buying my Fujifilm Finepix S7000 bridge camera, I still carried my trusty Canon T70 SLR with my collection of lenses to air shows, until I became comfortable with the new format.  Now my Canon T70 stays at home.

Early in Richard career he had a tremendous fear of directing people, just like me, Richard said “I had to overcome this because assignments kept coming my way.  In 1982, Playboy asked me to shoot the ‘Pigskin Preview’ feature for the first time.  I never dreamed of having a chance to shoot this huge spread for Playboy – especially with my fear of shooting people.  The shoot traditionally involved a two page spread of about 24 of the best college football players and a chosen coach.  I was motivated to do a good job because the majority of the shoots that I had been doing for Playboy were products and cars.  This was a chance to prove to them, and to myself, that I could do this”.

Today, Richard is travelling a lot, by road in their small motor home (he does not like flying because of all the hassles with security), spending at least half his time away from his suburban Chicago studio on assignments for Playboy and his many advertising  and commercial clients.  But this form of transport, for Richard, has a number of advantages, in an interview Richard said “We set up a computer in the back of the motor home and I retouch as we are travelling.  I don’t lose much time.  In fact, I probably get more work done in the van than in the studio.  When I am sitting in the studio I have all this studio business bombarding me, so I find that when I am  travelling my concentration level is better, because your mindset is set on the job and set on travel”.

Richard’s equipment that he uses includes:

• Hasselblad H2 camera

• Imacon 22 megapixel digital back

• Phase One H20

• Canon EOS 1D Mark II

• Apple laptops (17” and 12”)

• Apple Power Mac G5 Dual Core 2.5 GHz with 4.5 Gb of RAM

• Photoshop and Lightwave

Below are some of Richard’s work:

 

Evaluation of images

Richard, like all the other product photographers has used strong colours in his work, but to me some of his backgrounds are a little to busy, for example the Playboy sets (column 2 row 1 of the images above) and the drinks (column 1 row 10) where the product could be overshadowed by the background.  This is completely the opposite to two of the photographs of the watches (column 1 row 1 and column 1 row 3) where the only element of the photographs are the watches themselves.

Richard has added a little humour to his photographs with the yellow speakers in one image (column 1 row 5) where the speakers almost look like the eyes with the timer looking like a mouth.

Richard has also used a variety of angles from which he has photographed the products.

Richard has not used texture as much as some of the other photographers, with the only photograph where he has used texture is the third watch photograph (column 2 row 6).

Richard's photographs are evenly lit.

Mounting for the College exhibition

Spent most of today cutting down the mount boards that I got from the student shop at the college for £0.75 each.  These were cut down to 500 x 400 mm and then using Pippa’s Mount cutter, I cut the mounts to suit the three prints that I had done, courtesy of Ruth, via DS Colour labs.  The printed images were then secured to the back of the mounts, to be sandwiched between another mount board which was to be fixed as a backing for the image.

Presentation of  Final Images for the Course Work

Although it will be good to see some of my work in an exhibition, complete with mounts, it is also a reminder of another option that I have for the course for the presentation of the final twenty images (ten for the product photography, and ten for the portrait photography).

The presentation method that I use for this course will be digital with a copy of the final image and a copy of the original image of DVD, rather than the finished prints being used for the exhibition.  The reasons behind this decision are:

1. Cost -  the cost of producing twenty final images for this course would be at least £23.00 (if all the images are printed in one batch.   Where as if I use digital files the cost would be less than £1.00.  These prices are if the images are printed though a company like DS Colour Labs.  If the images are to be printed at home, at A3, this price would be much higher and this option would only be available to those who could afford an A3+ printer.  Printing the images at the College would cost about £3.50 per image (£70.00 for the twenty final images).   There would also be the cost of the portfolio to hold the final images.

2. Storage  -  I have very little space for storage at home so the amount of space required for storing these images, both prior submission and post course would not be available.  I have a very large image catalogue at the moment, all stored digitally, so printing out a number of images, which are to be stored would simply take up much more space than there is currently available.

3. Portability  -  DVDs are much more portable than a 500 x 400 mm mount containing an image, which really need to be carried in a size A2 carrier.

4. Life Span  -  A DVD would survive much longer than a printed image, which can easily be damaged or may fade.  Also duplicate copies can be made much easier than a copy of a printed image.

5. Colour Management  -  When we take a photograph, a digital camera will only have the capability to capture a fraction of the colours that we can see with our eyes.  This Gamut (or colour space) is then reduced further when the images are displayed on a colour monitor.  These reduced colours are then reduced again for the printer which cannot duplicate every colour and shade there is in the world.  Matching the output from the computer screen to what is printed out involves colour management.  This means that all the devices would interpret each colour and shade in exactly the same way, bearing in mind that my printer is over ten years old (when digital cameras offering 6 megapixel output were still only in someone’s wildest dreams), the chances of colour matching all the devices is very slim, without more cost in colour calibration equipment.

6. Audience Viewing  -  An A3 sized print can be viewed well up to twenty feet away, and is always in a vulnerable position, where it can be damaged (accidentally or not), where as a digital image, projected from a digital image can be viewed at a much larger distance, and can have sound effects or music added to a slide show.  This can present the image in a completely different way to a static image mounted on a wall.

Having given a great consideration to the above points, having checked the prices of printing the images from different companies and costs of a  portfolio, I am happy to continue to present my images as digital files on a DVD, which will contain both the original files (for proof of capture, etc) as well as the final processed images.

 

Orange Storm

Looking at another of Chris Collins work I tried to duplicate another piece of work, which I have called Orange Storm:

Here is Chris's work:

Here is my version: