Collaboration

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a two day photo shoot with a client & friend of mine, David Smoler of Studio Paris. The brief for the shoot was to provide images of professional hair designs for a client of David's, which were to be submissions for a national competition. There was also a lot of very specific fashion involved, which was provided by another client, as well as killer makeup on all the models - again provided by another professional who had a keen interest in the project.

Essentially my job in all this was to assist David in creating the 'look' that he had envisioned for each series of images (as well as getting some much needed exercise lugging lots of heavy equipment around). I supplemented David's lighting gear with my own so he had more options to choose from. I'm into gels and all sorts of lighting modifiers, some of which David hadn't used before, so it was a great way for him to play & experiment, and a great challenge for me to create the lighting effects that another photographer was seeing in their mind's eye.

It was a great experience for me in a number of ways. It's not the sort of shoot I have been involved with in the past, so the different style of photography was great to experience. It was also really valuable seeing how all the elements are co-ordinated for a shoot of this scale such as separate hair, fashion & makeup artists all doing their thing. The client sitting in on the shoot and having a voice in the process as we worked was also a new experience too (all good). David was great in letting me have a fairly free hand in setting up the lighting - we would have a chat about what he wanted to achieve, what sort of mood was required, and away I went. Soft boxes, grids, beauty dish, gels, reflectors - even mixing studio strobes with Nikon SB900s - they all had their place, and all were important tools in the process. I even ended up doing some DJ work with the music on day 2.

It was a long two days for sure, but that it how it goes, and what the job required. The results were well worth it. Over the two days there were 6 different models and about a dozen themes / sets that were shot... culminating in a ton of images to sort through (around 1500 I think) which have to be whittled down to just six finals for the submission. Both David & myself were really happy with the results, as was the main client and all others involved. We were also able to shoot some personal work in amongst everything else which was a huge plus too.

Unfortunately the submission process will not be over until early next year so I am unable to post any final images at this point (except for a lighting setup shot that I really like that doesn't give anything away).

Thanks again to David for giving me the opportunity to jump onboard - the collaboration was a great one, and won't be the last I'm sure.

The Power Of The Print

The other day I was reminded of the 'power of the print' when a customer picked up a couple of 16x20 inch prints. She very rarely prints any of her work, and has never had any prints made above an 8x10. I was a little worried at first thinking we had made a mistake with her order - she was quite silent, and tears looked like they mightn't be too far away. Then she exclaimed "Wow! I took these pictures!" She experienced for the first time the joy of seeing your own photography in print form, and big.

These days it can be far too easy to forget about the impact a big print can make, about the pride & satisfaction it can bring. The process often tends to be you shoot your images, you download them, edit them and then file them. The end. I'm not saying there is no satisfaction seeing your images on screen, there definitely is, but when you make a big print of that same image and hold it in your hands, it is something else - the process tends to feel complete, at least it does for me. I'm lucky, and owning a photo lab allows me to print my images whenever I like, but even before that was the case I was making prints of my favourites from both my personal and professional work - I have a ton of unframed prints in big flat boxes at home that I pull out from time to time, and rotate through various frames.

Do yourself a favour and make a print or two of some of your favourite images - and I don't mean a 4x6 or an 8x10 - make a 12x18 inch print at the very least. And don't forget there are all sorts of options these days too in regards to paper types - I've just been experimenting with some textured fine art papers and man does it bring on a whole new dimension to the completed image. There are so many options when it comes to what you make your print on - high gloss, metallic gloss, lustre, matte, canvas, textured fine art... and they all just add to your creative toolbox and vision.

My final bit of advice is to get your prints done properly. If you don't have the facilities to make them yourself, have your prints made by someone who cares as much as you do about the final result - not a mass merchant who lured you in with cheap prices so you could browse in their furniture and carpet section whilst waiting for your prints.

RAW Vs JPEG

and yes this was shot RAW...

Recently my business partner and I have been wearing a T-shirt in the shop on occasion with the slogan "I Shoot RAW" proudly displayed on the front (this is courtesy of another interesting personality & talent I follow online, Jared Polin, who is more commonly known as "Fro Knows Photo"). It has been an entertaining experience gauging what sort of response we get from our customers, and other people in our shopping centre we meet whilst wearing these... needless to say, we have received many a strange look as well as some clever comments which generally have nothing to do with photography, but hey, as long as it brings a smile it's all good.

The RAW versus JPEG argument has to be one of the most widely discussed topics in photography these days, with countless opinions on what is best. Most, unfortunately are based on misinformation or just plain old ignorance, and surprisingly it's more often the professionals rather than the hobbyists that I have spoken to over the last few years that are the ones falling into the second category.

Here's my two cents:

This will mean more to those who have shot film...  I liken shooting RAW format images to using the best possible film for the job along with having it processed at the best lab available.

Does this mean it will make a great image out of a crappy one? No - the photographer is still the most important cog in the whole process by a long shot, but it does mean that you are allowing your camera to capture an image with the maximum quality it possibly can. The biggest difference, is that a JPEG captures 255 tone steps from absolute white through to absolute black, whereas a RAW file captures between approximately 4000 & 16000 tone steps depending on whether your camera can capture a 12 or 14 bit image. This is the reason why you are able to recover many an off exposure if required, as well as produce much better tone gradations - especially noticeable in big enlargements. Essentially, unless there is a damn good reason, why would you choose to capture sub-standard images on the gear you have invested a lot of dollars in?

I have been able to save many an image for the pro clients I process work for when they have shot RAW. Again, I am not advocating that you should shoot RAW to make up for bad or sloppy photography, but it definitely can get you out of a jam... and life can choose to throw tests at the best of us whenever it chooses.

As well as the significant tone range difference, there are a few other components of digital photography that can benefit from shooting RAW. In camera sharpening and white balance are two things that can be set on your digital camera. If you shot RAW, you have the ability to change both those things if required, in your post processing software. Ideally, you should have set those things correctly when taking the shot - that's what good photographers generally do - but white balance can be a doozy sometimes, and if you are on the run jumping from daylight to tungsten to fluro... well, you can see how it could be an enormous advantage to be able to fine tune later if needed. Again, this ability has allowed me to save a number of photographers who have say, accidentally shot the good part of a wedding that was outside (daylight) with a tungsten white balance - you would not know once I had finished with the images. The same scenario in JPEG - find a good lawyer.

Now to be fair, shooting JPEG sometimes has it's advantages over RAW. JPEG's, having a smaller file size. They take up less memory, and can be captured and written faster - enabling faster frame rates for sports etc. Often sports shooters will do this as getting "the" shot with super fast frame rates is more important than RAW tone range. A job may require quick, easy and instant view-ability - which JPEG will provide (in many cases photographers shooting under these circumstances will shoot a RAW+JPEG to give them the best of both worlds). Other than those two situations though, in my opinion RAW wins every time.

So if you haven't delved into shooting RAW because you didn't understand the why's or wherefores, or because you've been told it's only for Pro's, give it a try. Most current computers should allow you to view your RAW files in their native viewing applications, and software like Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture and iPhoto to name a few, will allow you to get the most out of your camera and out of your images.

Reputations on the line

In my main line of work - running a photographic lab - I am often dealing with other photographers, but more and more these days, with the changing times, I am dealing with their clients too. These days it seems a lot of photographers are choosing to hand over a digital version only of the images they have shot for their client (there are many debates on this line of thinking too). When this happens, more often than not no form of print is included - not even a set of proof sheets. I'm not here to debate whether that is a smart way to do things but what I can say from my experiences over the years as a printer and a photographer, is that without something showing your client what sort of quality they should expect from the images you have made for them, they can potentially end up with anything - despite all your hard work.

What I mean by this is that many of them are being lured to the mass merchants to have their "professional" prints made - you know, the images you made with your professional gear, post processed on your high-end computer & software and expertly finessed all the way with your experience and passion...  These mass merchants are destroying the retail photographic printing industry whilst they play out their pricing war on 6x4 prints (and most of the other common photographic services). They are only interested in running a lab as a loss-leader to the merchandise they sell (TVs, BBQ's, underwear etc), and have absolutely no expertise, and generally place little to no care in their photographic services. Granted, that potentially on the right day, with the wind blowing from the right direction and all the planets being in alignment, it is possible to get a reasonable looking print from a good file from one of these guys. But the rest of the time what your client will receive from them is not what you would want your client seeing.

I know this because I have lost track of the number of people I have dealt with now, who after having taken the CD of images they purchased from their photographer down to one of the TV selling / photo printing stores, and then after having been sorely disappointed, have come into my store and asked for my opinion on what they should do... generally they are angry at the photographer for producing such awful looking images and want to know if I can fix them. In the vast majority of cases the images are fine, they have just been printed badly (what can you expect for  nine cents I guess). After I make new prints and explain to them what's going on (and repair the photographers damaged reputation) they are generally OK. I do know of cases where the client never learned the truth and assumed the photographer was to blame, and then did their best to not recommend that photographer... food for thought.

Personally, I don't like providing a client with only a digital version of my work. Where possible, even if that was all that was required for the job specs, I try to include something printed to go with the digital versions such as proof sheets. That way they see what I want them to see - they have an example of what  the images should look like. Should they choose to print them somewhere unreliable or to view them on something that isn't going to render them favourably such as an old dodgy computer screen, new dodgy computer screen, television etc. you have something to uphold your vision. They may even choose to make their own prints at home (read colour profiling minefields) .There is so much potential for your images to not look the way you intended them to, the more you can give your client to protect your reputation - and keep them satisfied and happy - the better.

Mischievous Technology

I was just reading an older blog post over at Strobist which reminded me just how much 'other' fun you can have with some of the technology we have in our hands these days.

I must admit, on a number of occasions I have travelled down a similar path to the story David Hobby describes in his post, using technology for a bit of self indulgent fun at someone else's expense (only ever in a way that causes minimal stress/carnage ie. I wouldn't mess with an actual shoot in progress or damage someone's reputation). Other than fooling with the wireless technology to randomly trigger someone else's strobes, you can also have some awesome fun hiding flash units in concealed areas and then popping of a burst of light with a wireless trigger at an appropriate moment... works great when combined with recordings of storm audio played just loud enough to get people wondering what's going on outside - especially when it's blue sky & cloudless. Hey, who ever said immature behaviour and photography didn't go hand-in-hand?

One thing to bear in mind with all this fun is that the universe will balance the ledger at some point...  what goes around comes around. So have fun, be mindful of the situation you are about to mess with, and keep your sense of humour on hand for the day the tables may be turned.

Fresh Eyes & New Ideas

Recently I was going through a lot of my old images -  primarily to update my filing system, or rather to bring the older stuff in line with the way I have settled on doing things now.

I didn't get very far. As often seems to happen, I go for a trip down memory lane instead of getting on with the sorting and filing. And inevitably, I end up 'playing' with a number of the images too, as I've found that with the time that's passed between the shooting of a lot of these older images, my post processing skills & tastes have changed, and I often end up getting different or better results. Sometimes I find images that I had completely forgotten about or overlooked initially too, which now suddenly grab my attention and ask to be given another chance. New software, improved skills, better understanding of my 'style' - all these things keep me from the initial job at hand - but for the better.

Coincidentally, another great photographer and trainer I follow, Scott Kelby, has posted similar thoughts on a recent blog of his here which you may want to have a read of.

Getting personal at the beach

For too long now I have been neglecting my own personal photography. There always seems to be something that gets in the way or an excuse to be made. Having said all that, at the end of the day it is you and you alone who can make the decision to just get out there and do it...

After work the other day I headed down to a local beach with my wife. We drove along and found a good spot to watch was left of the day. We took some dinner, a few beers and of course my camera gear. I decided to keep things simple and the gear to a minimum, so I only brought along two lenses, both primes - a 24mm and an 85mm - plus a tripod.  While she read a book and watched the waves, I went hunting for images. I had all but forgotten the simple joy of just shooting for the hell of it. Within a 100 metre radius I found an abundance of visual gold, not to mention some much needed sunshine and fresh sea air. I need to do this far more regularly.

My parting comment is that if this sounds a bit like you at the moment, just grab your camera (any camera) and just go and shoot for an hour or so - even in your own backyard. Keep it simple, get back to the basics, and above all enjoy yourself. Reenergize your photography and get your creative juices flowing again.

spectators

got out waist/chest deep for this

30 second exposure to smooth out the waves

self portrait (single exposure/no Photoshop) to finish off