Neil Danton

Darina.

I did a launch shoot recently with top celebrity chef/TV personality/author/cookery teacher/business woman Ms D Allen who is easy to work with as she knows “the drill”. She’s a very busy lady and is nearly always under pressure to be somewhere else, right about now.

The shoot happened to be in the railway station and I was early as is my wont, so I was all set up and ready to rock and roll when she arrived. Co-incidentally, as we were in a railway station, there was a sound like the roar of an approaching train, and there she was, charging through the entrance at what seemed to be 90mph, small children being sucked into the vortex behind her, and small boats in the harbour nearby capsizing from the wake she left behind.

“Sorry I’m a bit late. I’m in a bit of a rush”. Situation normal then.

“No problem Darina. I’ve got a couple of ideas…”

Another 2 images later, and there she was – gone.

TTFN

It’s yet another in the “not another executive with folded-arms series”.

I was on my way back from a lovely magazine shoot recently, complete with home-grown garden goodies for my belly – more on that story after publication – when my fave “Sunday” called and asked me to shoot an executive for the business pages.

An image had been supplied, and this is where the post title comes into play, but it wasn’t suitable. There was nothing wrong with it per se. It was correctly exposed, in focus, and not an arms-folded shot! Everything you’d expect really as it was taken by a pro (a pro I actually know, and whose work I like), but it hadn’t been taken for editorial use. I’m assuming it was a “filer”, an image kept on file for when a image needs to be sent out quickly to a publication, or it could have been for a corporate website or brochure. Not quite right for editorial use in a quality broadsheet though. The background was too dark background, and was a studio or cloth backdrop and so was too plain.

Suits me quite nicely then, thank you very much, I’ll do something more in keeping with the publication’s style:

Generally if it’s at all possible, I like to shoot and supply a left, a right, and a vertical (maybe even a left and a right of those too), each with a different background. A left and a right refer to which side of the image the subject is on, or which side the are facing. Some publications always like to have images of people facing “towards the fold”. On occasion it’s possible for them to flip the image if it doesn’t face the right way, but care needs to be taken then if there is any text or branding in the image. I’ve seen images that have writing in the background that is reversed, like looking in a mirror. Not very professional looking and something that should be picked up by a sub-editor, but sometimes they slip through!

TTFN

Had an editorial shoot recently where I was asked to photograph a music student, at a piano. Nothing remarkable in the shoot, except it took me 3 lights to get the effect I wanted, and I’m not sure what I wanted was what the publication wanted, because the article didn’t run in the end! Oh well, my vision for portraits doesn’t always coincide with the poorly-lit cheesy-grin portraits that seem to be used in abundance.

We had access to the CIT Cork School of Music, where they have a large quantity of Steinway pianos (so many in fact, they have a Steinway engineer permanently on site to ensure they are tuned to perfection). A Steinway is a work of art in itself and I wanted to capture some of the beauty of it in the portrait.

Here is my first test shot with a one-light set-up. I was quite surprised at the result, mainly as I had forgotten that the previous day I was shooting in Monochrome mode!

In all honesty, if it was my publication I would probably have used that image. However, it’s not my publication, so…

Here’s the same thing when I switched back to colour:

It’s alright, but because of the position of the one-light and the obstruction of the piano lid, the light is too much from one side. I added a second fill light from the left (didn’t keep a copy of that test, DUH) and that was better, but the inside workings of the piano weren’t visible, so added a third with a snoot, just to light up the inside.

Here’s one of the resultant images, which I like because of the subject’s reflection on the piano lid:

and here’s a second that shows more of the lit piano interior, but less reflection:

Can’t make up my mind which I prefer. What’s your preference?

Either way, I got to listen to some fabulous piano solos while I was working

TTFN

Fortunately, we both managed to avoid a soaking, although I came pretty close to it.

A second look at the back-story to creating a fairly simple editorial image. Nothing remarkable in the image as such, pretty standard fare for an editorial feature in a sunday newspaper. Fairly shallow depth of field to focus on the “widget” (yep did the reverse image as well, with the subject in focus and the “widget” out of focus).

It’s the setting-up that I’m detailing…

The subject is an engineer and the “widget” is part of a system that assists visually impaired people with swimming. Anyway, the sunday newspaper in question really wanted a image taken in a swimming pool environment and a local leisure centre were happy to oblige us – but we could only have access before they opened for the day (no cameras or phones allowed in swimming pool areas nowadays).

OK fine then. “What time are you open to the public?”

“7am”

“and what time do the staff open-up?”

“06:30/06:40″

Now that in itself wouldn’t be a problem, nice early start, get shoot done, off for breakfast.

One small fly in the ointment – having experienced shooting swimming competitions, I know that generally it takes AT LEAST an hour, sometimes longer, for all the metal, glass and electronics in a camera to adjust to the very high humidity in an indoor pool area.

So three conditions then. Opening time (fixed), kicking us out time (fixed), camera equipment fogging up (hmmm, maybe a variable there).

I had to make a choice on equipment at 6am and stick to that choice. The gear was put into the passenger foot-well of the vehicle and I drove to the pool with the vehicle heater on full blast. Happened to be in a period of fairly warm & humid weather which rarely happens here. Brilliant, I’m wearing shorts & a t-shirt and the heater thinks it’s mid-winter.

Arrived at the pool, almost fell out of the vehicle which, even with the windows open, was like being in a greenhouse by then, left the heater on until the moment we gained access at 06:40, and then carried the gear inside wrapped in a fleece!

The pool area was fairly hot, but the actual pool is covered with a canvas overnight so the humidity wasn’t over-bearing. By the time the canvas had been reeled in we were set to go, 5 or 6 images and we were done, just as I could feel the humidity starting to rise from the water.

No fogging on camera or lens, and exited the leisure centre at 06:59

Above is my preferred image, but the paper used this one:

Think that’s the earliest I’ve done a shoot, done post-processing, transmitted to picture desk, had breakfast, and all by 8am!

TTFN

A couple of editorial portraits coming up on the blog this week, just to show a little of the back-story behind a seemingly simple portrait.

Some of the requests you get have your brain going around in circles. This portrait for a sunday newspaper was of a lady writing a thesis on mental health and the differences in how it relates to men & women.

Them: “We need something that depicts that ideally”

Me: “Oh OK (WTF?). Sure (WTF?). I’ll see what I can figure out (what the, what the, WTF?)”

Simple then. An image of something that’s not solid, or tangible or quantifiable.

I arranged with my subject that the best time for me to do the shoot was during the coffee-break at the conference she was at.

I had an hour to get there, set-up and dream up an image.

I took a couple of straight portraits as back-up (the safety shots) and then commissioned a couple of conference delegates for the background of just about the only thing I could dream up:

Not too sure what else I could have done! What do you think?

TTFN

Shot the launch pics for the Midleton Food Festival recently at the local Farmer’s Market.

Always trying to think up something different. Just sayin’.

TTFN

A lot of business people don’t have much time available for a portrait session. More time might be allocated if it was for their own corporate or commercial use, but when it’s an editorial shoot for a Sunday newspaper you have to work fast.

This was for the Business section of a Sunday newspaper and the feature usually calls for an upright (portrait) image so that’s what I shot, but I also shot each image horizontal (landscape) as well. Requirements have a habit of changing.

Subject was the Chairman of a company that produces bed-side medical gizmo thingamajigs and fortunately the company have a mock-up hospital room with the device.

Slightly tricky lighting for this, as the “monitor” didn’t show up very well in the very bright ambient light level in the room, so for once too much light was the problem.

The solution was to kill-off all the room lights and set the exposure so that some detail was visible on the display. The rest of the scene is completely lit by a small amount of light coming through the blinds-fitted window, and an Ezybox softbox.

Total time from walking my gear in the door was 20 minutes to set-up, shoot and dismantle. That gave me 7 different images in 3 different locations. If I go any faster I’ll have the job done before I get there – and I can just sit at home all day drinking coffee.

TTFN

I’ve photographed some famous people, some unknown people, some Very Important People, both those who really are VIP and a few who are only legends in their own minds. I’ve photographed royalty, presidents, Taoisigh (Prime Ministers of Ireland) and lots and lots of common-or-garden people just like me.

Recently was the first time I can ever remember that I was nervous about photographing my subject.

It didn’t help that I only had half an hour notice as he just happened to be in Cork City at a meeting regarding his up-coming exhibition and I had to squeeze in this shoot before the other two I had that day. Then the classic three drops of rain and the traffic comes to a standstill in the city factor, meant I was 20 minutes late for the appointment before I even started, and I’m NEVER late usually.

Whether he was actually in the slightest bit bothered I’ll never know, but he certainly didn’t seem at all concerned and after an all too short chat (about 4 hours too short as far as I was concerned) I knocked-out a couple of quick portraits in the (very short) time I had available.

My subject was music photographer Fin Costello.

You might not know the name, but I’m sure you’d know some of his images. He’s been a photographer since the late 60s and shot The Stones, Kiss, Pete Townsend, Cat Stevens, Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, Phil Lynott and many others. His portfolio is like a who’s who of the music industry.

The shoot was for a magazine supplement in a Sunday newspaper but it was much too early to have his exhibition images at the shoot, so much as I’d have liked him with some of his work, it wasn’t to be:

A brilliant photographer but just as importantly (maybe more so), a true gentleman.

His Pictures in Rock exhibition will be at the Cork Vision Centre from 2nd June – 28th July. I haven’t seen the exhibits but it’s highly recommended anyway!

TTFN

You won’t find me, because I’m not there anymore.

I was in a wood (well a copse really) recently for a commercial shoot for a client and just thought I’d post one image as it was interesting to set-up.

The client works with forestry authorities and the timber industry to maximise the production from trees, using lasers to forecast the best yield and cutting method.

The set-up was to create an image with living trees, cut wood and a laser and the tricky bit was to light up a small area of wood which was pretty gloomy.

I used an Elinchrom Ranger Quadra as the main light (nice and handy, as the nearest power supply was about 3km away), which lit up the front part of the image nicely, but the trees in the background were in deep shadow. Hidden behind the two outside trees in the image then are 2 580EX flashes fired with Pocket Wizards. The flashes are laying on the ground, with highly sophisticated direction pointing aids (sometimes known as twigs) and lighting up the trees at the back:

TTFN

Had an assignment recently for one of the Sunday newspaper magazines to feature some images of an art exhibition.

It was in the Crawford Art Gallery in the city, which has 2 main gallery sections, the light bright section, and the dark moody section and on the way there I was wondering which one the exhibition would be in, obviously from the point of view that more light = less work for me. Which section was it in? Yep, you got it, it had to be the dimly lit section.

Apart from some exhibits of paintings & drawings which might be interesting but are very err, flat, one of the pieces I had to get was a sculpture. At least there’s some form to that.

Two minor problems: very low light levels and the colour-balance of the lighting. This was the result of my first test shot on daylight white-balance:

Nice huh?

I tried tungsten white balance but that wasn’t exactly correct either:

so I ended up setting a custom white-balance and throwing up a flash with a white-shoot through umbrella and just giving the scene a little “pop” of flash to give some shape to the exhibit:

TTFN