Neil Danton

..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

Another in the “not a man with folded arms corporate announcement image” series (which isn’t really a series, but an occasional musing).

Could also be filed under the WTF am I going to do in this instance category, where nobody (including me) has any real ideas initially on how to portray someone when there is no physical “thing” for them to hold, stand next to / in front of etc.

My subject has been appointed to a 3rd-level (college) institution as an Entrepreneur in Residence. He’s more than qualified to do so with a very impressive CV (resumé) in founding some extremely successful companies.

Anyway, for my part, it’s once again trying to figure out how to create an image that isn’t man-with-folded-arms (please, no), or man-with-laptop (please please, no) or man-at-desk (please, shoot me now).

The location, which I’m very familiar with, didn’t used to have a real focal point that identifies it to a viewer (unlike the other 3rd-level institution in the city) but not too long ago a new area was constructed and it is a definite identifier, but unfortunately, it’s too big. There’s still no way of using the whole area as a backdrop, so I just chose to use part of it as the weather was good (OK, it wasn’t raining, that’s counts as good here).

No, I wasn’t laying on the ground to get the image, he’s on an elevated area, which brought into play a rather unique piece of equipment (this is the techie bit) a WTL.

As you may or may not have realised by now, shooting with on-camera flash is a no no for me 99% of the time. In this case I was using a Ranger Quadra rather than a Canon flash, which fits nicely onto a lightweight stand, but the stand was never going to be high enough to get above my subject. That’s where I sometimes have to use a WTL, which come in all shapes and sizes. A WTL is a Walking Talking Lightstand, sometimes referred to as a human being. “Would you mind lifting this thing up and pointing it towards that gentleman? A little higher. Perfect, thanks a mill.”

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 a charity cycle a while back. It’s always a bit of brain-strain trying to think up something different for those. We’ve all seen the “people looking through the wheel shot”, I’ve done it myself, so I thought up something different this time:

Expect to see a rake of copies of that idea appearing in local media over the next few months.

Big-ups to Cork Hurling & Gaelic Football dual-player Eoin Cadogan for generously giving up his time to help out (and go along with a few mad ideas); and to Audrey & Katharine for helping out.

TTFN

Had a (very) quick shoot recently with these two mad-uns who were heading off to Finland to take part in the Wife Carrying Championships.

It was very quick because they were going to be travelling from Ireland to Finland BY ROAD and had just collected their camper van and were running a bit behind schedule, and I was under pressure to get to another assignment.

Literally a 5 minute shoot then, but I love the quality of light that the Ranger Quadra kicks out.

TTFN

Recently shot the launch images for the Carrigtwohill Medieval Festival & Country Fair which takes place next week-end, the 3rd & 4th July.

The event takes place in the surroundings of the historic 15th century Barryscourt Castle just off the main Cork to Midleton road with Medieval jousting, falconry, WW2 battle re-enactments, archers, dancers, FOOD (lots of food) including pig on a spit, and lots of other things going on.

This is falcon handler & trainer Vincent Cashman who will be giving falconry demonstrations, photographed with a Lanner Falcon.

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

Ladies, save money on those expensive mud-pack beauty treatments and just come out with me for a photo-shoot.

This was the launch of the Munster Mud Run which takes place in the Ballyhoura Mountains near Doneraile in North County Cork.

TTFN