Developing a Concept

There are many  photographers and AD's with much more developed and creative concepts that I, but here are some thoughts on concept that I'd like to share. When I first got started shooting and looking for models I would see models write something like this: "I may consider a TFP if you have a great concept". Heck, to me a great concept was getting a model in front of my camera, but I knew that isn't what they were thinking. But as it turned out, often if I just had a simple and vague "concept" that would be enough to get a model interested. I found out that I could just say something like "I want to shoot you in an old torn dress in the middle of a wheat field" was enough to get a model to show up.

Taking a break while shooting.

I've done plenty of that kind of "concept". It is nice, it works, but I think it is limited. As I've grown, my desire to do things differently and to get photos others don't have has gotten stronger. I now want to tell a story. The thing is, to tell a story in a photo, you really need to know what that story is and have a strong idea of how you want to tell the story before you even look for a model.

In the photos with this post, the story is that of the model's imagination, combined with collaborative thinking between the two of us. She is an addict. Currently clean, but I believe that she still counts herself as a addict with a long road ahead of her to stay sober.

We had to devise a location and costume and props, etc. While some of the details did not unfold until we met to shoot, the basics of the concept were in place. There is a shot I would have loved to have done, but because I stopped the thinking process to early, a shot showing the road between addiction and sobriety was not done. I have that shot in my minds eye now, but it is to late. The lesson there is to keep thinking and pushing for more and don't get complacent with yourself to early.

We shot the cleaned up (after) first and the addicted girl (the before) second because that is the way both light and make up would work best.

Good luck to all the addicts in finding the road to sobriety. I am on such a road myself and it is a long hard road sometimes.  A funny thing about addiction and the way people perceive it, including the addicts. If you are not an addict, it is hard to imagine how or why a person would be addicted. I don't smoke, I never have. It is hard for me to see why anyone would ever put a cigarette in their mouth the first time, so it is hard for me to see why anyone would be addicted to smoking. But the truth is, many people are addicted to things. Sometimes it is shopping for sales, or gambling, or drugs, or porn, or eating disorders. The fact is that addicts need help, love, and support. I think it is easier for an addict to clean up if they find out that others accept them as they are and are willing to help them out of the addiction. Many of my friends are LDS. The LDS church, like many other churches, has a well established addiction recovery program. It is a 12 step program, patterned after the AA 12 step program, with their blessings. It is an anonymous program.  Find the LDS (Mormon) program here.

How do you find your own style?

Part of arriving as a photographer is having a style of your own.

The photographers whose work I admire, have a definite style, their work speaks with a voice that lets you know it is their work.

Part of my style today is humor.

If I listen to a minuet by Haydn or Mozart or Beethoven, I can usually tell who the composer was. If you listen to Beethoven’s early work you see that it is less emotional and not so much like Beethoven as his later work. You might also notice that Beethoven’s early work sounds a little like Haydn. Well, that makes sense; Beethoven studied under Haydn and he knew his work well.

Each of us develops our style under the influence of those around us and we tend to make art that is like our contemporaries. At least at in the beginning, we are destined to emulate other people. To emerge with a style of your own, you have to learn the existing rules, master them and then figure out which ones matter to you and which ones can be bent or changed.

Style happens and evolves over time, both historically and personally. Be patient. You won’t go from a shutter bug who just figured out how to frame a subject to a highly polished artist over night. It will take years, maybe longer. I am sure the great masters like David of the Neo-classic era or Fragonard of the Rococo era would have been shocked by the evolution of style if they saw the work of Picaso. Just like that shift in style took a century or so, your personal style will take time to emerge and evolve.

Another aspect of my style is drama.

Each of the masters Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven have a distinct style and sound even though they are all prime examples of the classic period (a short and specific artistic era), they each sound unique.  If I were to listen to a piano trio or an opera aria, or a string quartet of Mozart, they would all sound like Mozart.  Even when the mood of each piece would also be radically different, they would each sound like Mozart.

Why?

Well, this is not my graduate music history class so we won’t get to in depth about the why on Mozart. But, he started performing music for dukes and queens at age 3 and composing at age 5. He traveled the world of Europe extensively and listened to the music of many cultures. The more he wrote, and listened, the more his personality was able to grab on to the bits and pieces of musical expression and put them on paper.

I am still trying to find my style.

Developing a style in any art, such as photography takes time, it takes experimentation, it takes revision and practice. It takes mistake after mistake. For a photographer that means looking carefully at the work of many other great masters. Copying the great work, emulating others and then keeping the parts that speak to you. It means taking many many photographs and finding what you like best. If you care about it, seeing what your audience likes, or which audience wants to see your art.

You may need to develop your style many times. Take a look at the music of Beethoven. He was a great example of learning a style over and over. He did not start out each genre of music composition at the same time in his life. Each genre that he worked in shows a learning period, a developmental period, and a mastery period. Even when he was already very accomplished in one area, when he started a new way genre of expression, he would go through the same steps of learning artistic expression. Even when his composing toolbox was the toolbox of a grand master.

Photographers can learn a lot about style from artists of many disciplines. We can learn from the painter, the dancer, the actor, the poet, the musician and many others. Part of developing style is getting your head full of ideas and playing with them. Those ideas can come from a grand array of sources.

The end of it is you need to play with life and shoot, and then do it again and again. Play, shoot, play, shoot.

Lighting on the Cheap. Under $100

I shot this set with Deanna Marie Hill with a lighting set up that is not a DIY for under $100.

I used a used Quantaray hotshoe flash that I bought used at a camera repair shop for $20. I used a cheap, very basic lightstand that you can get for under $19. An umbrella adaptor that was less than $17, an white shoot through umbrella for $7 and a wireless trigger that you can get for under $19. I'll show a short video of the rig on Wednesday. Here is Deanna...

This is the lighting rig. Deanna is getting ready.

With lighting.

Natural light only.

With added light.

Creature Comforts For Your Models

One of the things that you can do to elevate how models feel about you is to pay attention to their needs. I don't mean that you need to go out and get all the creature comforts like a Hollywood movie set, but you can remove some of the things that cause discomfort.

One of my favorite accessories for location photo shoots is a porta-potty. I bought this one at my local outdoor retailer, it folds up in about a minute and it is about the size of a large reflector. I can have the thing set up in a minute too. This provides a sheltered place where your models, or perhaps a bride on a location bridal set, can change in privacy. It is one of the best $89 I ever spent.

Okay, now for some other things to consider. I always provide bottled water, paper towels, hair ties ( you would be amazed how many times you need these), band-aids, towels (especially if we are going to get the model wet), a chair to sit and relax in or for when they are doing make up. I will bring other things too, based on what the shoot is. I try to think of things that I think the model might need or might forget to bring that would be useful.

From a location set, Kari had multiple changes. The tent came in very handy.

Working With Teen's and Swimsuit

I advocate being a decent human being. There are to many creepers for models to have to deal with, we should be the good guys/gals and make modeling fun and safe for our models.


I have always advocated allowing escorts to shoots of any kind. With minors, it is important to be safe for our own sake and for the safety of the people we work with. I tell the minors that I work with that I require an escort and a parent signed model release. I describe the type of shoot on the release as well. I prefer that the escort is one of the models parents.


When you set up a shoot, make sure the model understands what she needs to bring, swimsuits, oil, towels, etc. Do you want heels, other beach wear? How do you want them to do their hair and make up? Are you providing a MUA or a hair stylist?


When it comes to poses with minors, keep the poses from being suggestive. Sure, a young, pretty girl in a bikini is going to look cute, pretty or even sexy. But you do not have to sexualize the models with the poses you choose or the body parts you focus on.

Stay away from crotch shots, or too much focus on the chest, etc. You can keep shots focused on the face, the over all person, full body, upper body, etc. You can also keep the shots innocent by having the models do something, give them a prop that distracts the viewer from thinking about the body.


Yesterday someone asked me about the "danger" of photographing minors. I do not see it that way and here is my response: 


With all due respect to your views, may I point out that models much younger than this young lady are found in fashion magazines, catalogs, department store signs etc. Modeling is work and takes effort.

Also, (this part may see inflammatory, I just say it to make a point, not to be a jerk) I don't go jonesing for my models so I guess I don't see them as sexual objects, so it doesn't bother me. I could shoot models in more suggestive poses, and I do with older models, but not teens.

I see this photo as a demonstration of her ability to strike a pose, show her form or possible clients, and to create a mood, in this case a bit of mystery. No body parts are highlighted or made the focus of the image.

Further, this models parents drove her to the shoot and were not far away and there were 4 people at the shoot.

If a person does not wish to shoot minors, that is their prerogative and I respect that. 

I see no trap. In fact, I am in the process of writing a short ebook on doing appropriate swimsuit photography for under 18 people. (these remarks refer to the top photo.)

Shadows Define - Maternity

Getting light on your subject is easy. All you have to do is get some kind of light, hotshoe flash, studio monolights, garage shop flood lights, the sun, etc, etc. Light lets us see the subject, but it is the shadows that define the thing we are looking at.

Suzi here is about 8 months pregnant. Her belly sticks right out. There is no sag to her mommy belly. In this photo, I have the light even with her to camera left, and a second softbox camera right and a little in front of her. I wanted the light to wrap around her to give definition to her curves. Unfortunately, this also made a deep shadow at the bottom of the right side of her belly, making it seem as if the tummy sagged.

















I adjusted the two 36"x36" softboxes to wrap around her a bit more from the front to throw a little more light onto her right side. It helped a little. But the shadow there still seemed to say "sag" which is not what we wanted for this mom.

So, I had my assistant hold a piece of white foam core board just above her knee. That bounced enough light up into the shadow area to reveal just how firm her maternal belly was. That is all it took. Two softboxes and a piece of foam core board.

One other thing we did to hide the shadow, was to place her hand just above her pocket. This gives a sense of place and distracts us from the shadow because now something is there.

We did not take all the shadow away. If we had done that, then her belly would just seem like a big round flesh colored blob with no form or tone. So make sure you pay attention to your shadows. Where are they? How heavy are they? Would you change the shadows and why?

Photographing Catwoman Part 2

Catwoman Charly Aguirre with Hula Hoop

We set up in the street, using the porch lighting from one of the businesses, I used the other strobes, with the softbox and the silver bowl reflector, set to either side of her and later both of them to her right. I had to use a tripod and set the shutter do 1/40 and 1/30^th speed so I could catch a little ambient light. I also set focus in manual mode so that the camera would fire rapidly as she worked with the hula hoop. 


Thinking back on this, if I were to shoot this again, I would add one or two more strobes to push light into the background or raise my iso, because I still did not get the level of ambient light I wanted.

On the train platform

After the ally, we walked back to the street and another half block onto a Trax (the local commuter train) platform. I set lights on either side of her and Steve had to watch the light at the edge of the platform as trains and passengers came by.


 Again, I used the softbox to camera right and the silver reflector bowl to camera left, both roughly in the same plane as the model. I used a tripod to help keep the shutter speed slow. Steve shined a flashlight into Charly's eyes to help the auto focus function more quickly.


I used a small flashlight to put enough light on Charly's face for the auto-focus to be able to see. I will be making some changes to my gear set for night work to make this aspect work better for me. I'll post on that later.

Downtown SLC, Utah at Trax Station

Again, I used the softbox to camera right and the silver reflector bowl to camera left, both roughly in the same plane as the model. I used a tripod to help keep the shutter speed slow. Steve shined a flashlight into Charlys eyes to help the auto focus function more quickly.

By moving the one light in front to a few different positions, we quickly found several looks that I liked. Experimenting with the possibilities is one of the fun aspects of playing with light.

Catwoman among the Christmas lights in Salt Lake City

For the next location we moved about 100 feet and used a large tower/sculpture. I set one strobe behind the model and to camera right, hiding the light with the leg of the tower. Steven manned the other light, standing to my right, and we decided that we liked a couple of looks. One with the light high to the right and in front of the model and the other with the light low and to camera left as Steven held the light stand across me, shinning up at Charly. Both of these setups gave a nice specular highlight along the edge of the catsuit and showed of our model’s shape.

I will have an interview with Charly on my post tomorrow at SparkyModels.