Neil Danton

and the winner is…

Oh, before I tell you that, this is how it was done. One essential item I always try to have around is my faithful assistant Tonto**

The problem with letting go a pile of stir-fry ingredients from a tray or bag is that the contents will spread out and not look like a column. It was Tonto** who originally suggested the idea of cutting the end off a 2 litre empty mineral (soda) bottle and filling with the veg.

We had tried actually tossing the contents from the wok, but the column wasn’t anywhere near high enough, and nowhere near enough of it for my liking either

While my subject was trying though, I’d made a mental note of roughly what position the wok was in at the top of the action, so just asking her to put it back in the same place, and a call for “action” and Tonto** released the veg. That’s it.

Still not sure how he got his hand from underneath the bottle, to on top of it, in the 1/250s that it took to get this frame. That’s the thing about Tonto**, he’s a mystery. A bit like a zen master combined with a ninja.

So the winner is Carla from CACM Accountants, and thanks Carla for your guess. I’ll be in touch to arrange to shoot your Facebook landing-page image. I already have an evil plan (or two) for you to consider *mwahaha*

TTFN

Tonto** is Margaret’s husband Alec

Alternate post titles:

a) How to shoot to a tight spec
b) How to shoot something creative with the same amount of frames as a roll of film
c) How to shoot something the old-fashioned way, without resorting to Photoshop to help you out

This is Margaret Smith who runs a small cookery school under her business name – Umnumnum (take it slow: Um num num). Margaret talked to me about shooting some images for her website (more tc on that later maybe) but specifically something eye-catching for the Umnumnum Facebook landing-page.

This is where a) above: “How to shoot to a tight spec” comes in. Margaret wanted some type of image where “something” was lined-up with the “Like” button on the FB page. It might have taken all of ten minutes before I suggested maybe using a wok and throwing the contents up in the air towards the Like button. Not just a normal amount of content though (hey it is me, you expect normal? You’re in the wrong place). I wanted a RIDICULOUS amount of content that couldn’t possibly really fit in the wok and be cooked, just to add to the fun of the image.

Even though she is a friend, Margaret in this case was also the client, and *sigh* if only I had more clients that were as game-for-a-laugh as she is. There was no hesitation in agreeing to my dastardly plan, so we arranged the shoot day.

This is where b) above: “How to shoot something creative with the same amount of frames as a roll of film” comes in (can you see a theme developing here?)

The whole shoot took just 37 frames (I counted them when I did the post-production). 30 of those frames were light-tests. OK, so that’s a little dig about photographers who use a camera like a digital-Uzi and can’t seem to lift the finger-pressure off the shutter button. The “spray and pray” merchants, or the “shotgun principle”. Dig over

Here’s the lighting set-up:

Four lights: two Elinchrom d-lites with softboxes on the background, one 580EX into an Ezybox softbox for the subject, and another 580EX with a snoot behind the subject, similar principle to a hair light, but just to darken the chef’s hat the tiniest fraction by putting it into shadow, so as to allow it stand out a little from the background (a lot of white floating around).

The image was shot against white-seamless, one because I just l-u-r-v-e white-seamless and two because the landing-page is white. Oh yes, and three, because there’s a little trick you can pull-off when using white, or black, or indeed any solid colour as a backdrop – you can add space around the image afterwards using Photoshop (or as I do, using Pixelmator), so SHOOT TIGHT. Pointless adding the white around the image as you shoot and wasting all that space. I can do a run-through on that if anyone would like to find out how, but you’ll have to let me know via the comments section here on the blog, or on my facebook page, or on The Twitter of course.

Lastly, this is where c) above: “How to shoot something the old-fashioned way, without resorting to Photoshop to help you out” comes in. The food is really there for the shot. ALL the food. None has been added or cloned in. I’m old-school enough to believe that I should be able to create something “in-camera”. I’m not a graphic designer and that’s who Photoshop is for. Either that, or it’s used to get-out-of-jail by being lazy, or shooting crap, and hoping to fix the problem afterwards.

I’m not saying there was no post-production on the image. There was. The white had to be tweaked from around 240 to 255 (the white point). A small amount of white had to be added to the left of the image as I shot a little too tight to the left margin to line up with the Like button.

I won’t go into the half-dozen variations of the image that I had to produce in post-production, including flipping the image from left-facing to right-facing before flipping back, just because the frigging Like button moves, depending on whether or not you’re already a fan of a page. That would make another blog all on its own.

Finally then, a little fun:

If you have a Facebook business/fan page and would like your own personalised custom image, here’s your opportunity.

I’ll shoot an image for you for free, anything within reason, and licence it to you for use on your FB landing page. The catch? It’s a competition. The restrictions? You have to be in the Republic of Ireland (unless you’re willing to pay travel expenses. Then I’d be delighted to come to the Bahamas).

Here it is then: the first person to tell me EXACTLY how I shot the food detail of the image wins. Answers in the comments here, or on my Facebook page (the link’s over there on the right). No twitter entries, only because I might miss the winning answer in the stream. Final decision on the winner will be decided by Margaret, myself and one other person. There are a few people who know how it was done, but we know who they are, and naturally they’re excluded.

Competition is open until another blog post appears here, which should be next Thursday, 21st April.

Best of luck. Get guessing!

TTFN

In the portion of my life where I still shoot as an Editorial Photographer, I’m often shooting business people, mostly for a couple of sunday newspapers.

It’s always a challenge to avoid the man-in-suit-with-laptop, or man-with-folded-arms type portraits, which need to be saved up for emergencies, as sometimes they really are just about the only thing it’s possible to do! However, I try my damnedest to avoid them.

So here’s a quick business portrait shoot where I managed to create a couple of images without using the “last resort”.

This CEO has a business, which although based in deepest, wildest West Cork is a global operation and there are clocks on the wall showing the various time-zones with some of the countries where they operate, so the first image I wanted to create was going to include those.

This was the starting point light-wise at the aperture, ISO & shutter speed combo I wanted to shoot at:

First thing to fix is the light on the background. Nothing too directional, just a 580EX flash firing into a white shoot-through umbrella, camera right (probably around 1/4 to 1/2 power, sorry, I’m a bit like a chef that cooks “by taste”, there’s not too many rules!).

That takes the background from this:

To this:

Next is to light the subject. This would be a 60cm (2ft) Ezybox soft-box, again with a 580EX fired through it, camera left:

In order to get the right perspective I used an 85mm lens, which meant I was pretty much jammed up against a wall, on my knees, but using any wider-angle lens would have “lost” the clocks.

Here’s a very approximate lighting diagram:

Still trying to avoid the “last resort” we managed to find another location for a 2nd image. Just the soft-box for this one. Get it back far enough and it’s going to light plenty of the general area as well:

Nice and relaxed. Nothing worse than business portraits that are too stuffy, or where the subject looks wooden (usually because they’re scared stiff of having their portrait taken!).

Oh, I didn’t leave the CEO sitting there all the time while I set up lights. The first image wasn’t actually shot first. It was a misfire from the Pocket Wizard on-camera when I started shooting for real.

*That’s because you hadn’t switched it on Neil*

Sshhhh

TTFN

Thought I’d post something different today, and shock horror, there are no people in today’s images. Instead, laydees n gennulmen, I bring you CAKES!:

Black Forest and Madarin gateaux to be precise.

Not just big cakes though, you could also have something more bite-size. Chocolate or fruit?:

Maybe a slice of Apple & Cinnamon?:

Or a piece of Madeira perhaps?:

All these cakes are handmade and the fresh cream ones are unbelievable. Have a slice of one of these Swiss Rolls?:

All these images were produced for a bakery who make them all in-house, by hand, for wholesale and retail customers. One of the nice advantages of shooting commercial photography in Cork is that sometimes you get to shoot something you can eat!

Fresh Cream Slice anyone?:

My tastes would be more towards savoury things in all honestly and so I’m not a huge fan of sweet things, at least regarding food

I saved my favourite until last though, as I could definitely go for one of these at any time!

Fresh Cream Eclairs, wonderful!

TTFN

..Ladies. Or Gentlemen I suppose. *Not wishing to appear judgemental*

Here’s something that’s a bit different, and I only use it to point out a couple of things (well three actually having thought about it).

This was an editorial shoot for a beauty/female supplement and the focus was on the make-up:

Point 1: Use a custom white-balance. Don’t want the different skin tones as the make-up is applied to affect the white-balance and the camera try to compensate.

Point 2: Use a 2-light set-up. In this case I used one of the classics for ladies, the over-under. Your subject will love you for it. If the focus was on the hair, I would have added a 3rd as a hair-light to err, highlight the hair.

Point 3: I’ve only thrown this composite together very quickly, so the images don’t line-up 100% but that’s the 3rd point to note. Use a fixed focal length lens instead of a zoom. You are more likely to stand in the same place then and get the same aspect ratio of the subject. You need to either use a tripod to maintain the camera position (I don’t like using a tripod) or put some kind of mark on the floor to maintain the same position for each shot.

I find it easiest to take a hammer with me, and use a couple of 6 inch nails to secure my feet to the floor. Maintaining the same position is pretty easy after that.

TTFN

..a huge softbox.

Of course, the courgettes and runner beans (oh, and cherry tomatoes) have absolutely nothing to do with the shoot, they were just a bonus that I received as a gift from my subject. The softbox wasn’t a softbox either, I just made that bit up. Read on..

I’ve posted Corporate & Commercial Photography posts recently, so it’s time for Editorial Photography again..

You never know what might come along next as an Editorial Photographer. As a nice change to shooting business features & portraits I had an assignment recently for a woman’s magazine in the UK.

My subject was a lady that was diagnosed with AMD (Age-Related Macular Degeneration) which is a disease associated with aging that gradually destroys sharp, central vision. Sounds like I know what I’m talking about right? Wrong, absolutely no idea until I looked it up on the interwebthingy. Anyway, this lady lived out in the country in a charming cottage with a rambling garden and part of her professional work involved proof-reading. If the AMD were to get worse, she would probably have to give up both and move into the city.

Well along came a vitamin supplement that seems to have halted or even reversed the change in eyesight, and it contains some kind of extract from Marigolds. Yes, the flowers. I have no idea how or why, but of course, the picture editor would ideally like some of said flowers in a few shots. So I, knowing as much about gardening as you could write on the sharp end of a matchstick, thought OK, no problem. There’s a florist just down the road from me, I’ll collect some on the way on the day of the shoot.

Wrong. “Sorry, we don’t sell them”. Bugger. OK, I know that there is a huge garden-centre on the way, I’ll stop there. “Sorry, they’re out of season”. Double-bugger.

Fortunately my subject had some in the garden that were just about still alive enough to use in a few shots. Not only that, but she owned a huge softbox. Slightly unusual thing to find in a garden, but don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it. OK OK so it wasn’t a softbox at all, it was a soft plastic greenhouse, and rather than using it to light up my subject, photographer and subject actually got inside it. I think that’s a first for me. Nice soft reflected light bouncing around inside it though:

Of course the other half of the story involved the proof-reading, so that involved an indoor set-up:

This is where the runner beans part of the story comes in:

I liked this one too:

One of my favourites was this though:

As for the gifts: the runners went with a shepherd’s pie, the courgettes went with cajun chicken and the cherry tomatoes just… went in my mouth.

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

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

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