Steal like an Artist

I'm an avid blog reader.

I never studied photography, but fortunately we live in a day and age where it's possible to teach yourself anything, if you're willing to put in the time to find credible sources online, and follow along for those nuggets of info which will take you to the next level.

I recently did a photography day with a group of friends here in London. We hired a studio for the day between the four of us and then set about trying to fill slots with potential clients.

It promised to be an interesting mix of people coming through.

At one point I was shooting a local band named "Shawn Sanderson and the Charm Offensive". With four people standing in front of me waiting for me to tell them what to do I found myself immediately accessing countless shots and tutorials from Zack Arias, who is a Photographer based out of Atlanta, and has a ton of experience with Band Photography. It was then that I realised that his blogs (and many other besides) are slowly providing me an arsenal of solutions for different situations. It's very hard come up with a brand new shot from scratch so it often helps to have a catalogue of set ups in your head so you at least have a starting point. I threw up two lights to blow the background white, trying to remember my exposure numbers as I was dialing it in. I then used a 1m Octa as my key light; something I have seen Zack do on a tutorial before. I didn't have a nice reflective polyboard for the floor, but swapping a drop shadow for his nice reflective touch, I found I was pretty close to something I liked and could just tweak from there.

Here is one of my shots of Shawn Sanderson and co:

...and this is one of Zack's shots which I had in mind while shooting:

Later on in the day I had booked an up and coming Lawyer who was looking for some corporate headshots. This time my mind went into 'Peter Hurley' mode. I tried to mimmick the clean look of his white background lighting. I remembered that he lights his female subjects with flat even light, but uses side light for his male headshots to accentuate shape. I also remembered his 'kicker' light on the jawline to give a bit of separation.

I tried to coach the subject through different expressions leading him to something which would be flattering but natural. I had Peter's voice in my head reminding me about "eyes, eye brows, mouth". I used his 'suction cup' technique to move the head, and even spoke about 'the squint'; all things you'd be familiar with if you follow his work. The only thing I lacked was his bullet prood self confidence, but I think that takes more time to master.

Here is one of mine from the day:

...and here is one of Peter's shot which I had in mind:

I posted the image on Twitter and tagged Peter, who was kind enough to respond with:

I'll take the compliment, and he's absolutely right about the expression (unsurprisingly), so I'll have to work on it more next time.

My point is: don't feel bad about using techinques you learn from others as a spring board. It sounds strange but I had a moment that day where I wondered if I was cheating by using all this knowledge I had learned from others so blatantly, but then I realised that you're never going to begin your career in photography with a fully formed identity and style. You have to start by imitating those you admire and learning skills from them which you can apply to your own work and create your own voice over time.

Obviously it's important to develop your own voice, but there is nothing wrong with 'transcending and including' as you go along. Start by building an RSS feed of voices you trust and people you want to learn from, and then read regularly, and build in time to experiment with the techniques so they are hidden in your mental bag of tricks when you need them most. If you want to track what I'm reading follow me on Twitter (@seantuck) because I make a point of sharing links which I have found interesting.

Good luck with your own learning.

Stick with it.

Follow the gurus.

Steal like an artist.

...and remember to be generous to those who have just started their own journey. Give them all the info you can. If they become a better photographer than you, it was likely always going to happen, and at least your will be credited as a generous contributor, rather than an insecure competitor.

Personal Attention

I was recently contacted by a local up-and-coming actress named Brooke Burfitt.

She was interested in getting some headshots done for her portfolio. I didn't realise it, but actors and actresses need headshots done at least every two years, even more if their look changes regularly, because casting agents are looking for a bang-up-to-date representation when trying to fit potentials into a role. I suppose this is obvious, but it hadn't occurred to me that there may actually be a big market here.

Anyway, as we were setting up on the day Brooke was talking about her experiences with headshot photographers in the past, and how they made her feel like 'just another piece in a production line'. She would arrive at a studio and be given an hour, sandwiched between a slew of other performers. She told me how it didn't feel special, and that after hair and make up she only had about 20 minutes with the photographer, who then smashed out a few shot options in record time, charged her £200 for the hour, and only provided one final shot for the pleasure. Every additional shot she wanted needed to be purchased at a per-shot rate.

As I was fighting to open my old reflector with the broken zip, I made a mental note to ensure that this would be a good experience for her.

The location was a challenge. We were shooting in her friend's small bedroom, which had little natural light, but I had to work with what I had. Time to be resourceful. Whilst ordinarily I would have traded the locational difficulties for a professional studio and gear, I did like the fact that I could give her some dedicated time, and make her feel special, and not just like another item on a conveyor belt of would-be stars.

We had spoken briefly online before hand and she had told me she was looking for something feminine, sweet and virginal. I already had pastel tones in mind, and when I looked around the room I noticed it had an interesting green wall paper, which I thought may make a nice headshot background, and some nice pink bedding on the double bed.

The techy stuff:

Headshots: I ended up using my 50mm prime, shooting fairly close (not that I had an option). I used a speedlight in a softbox, on a monopod, held overhead by an assistant. I added a small handheld reflector just under her chest to give a nice catch light in the eyes. Pretty traditional clamshell setup.

Bedshots: I ended up exposing for the window light and then using a speedlight to fill from the other side by bouncing it off the ceiling from off camera. Even though I knew I would be fighting 3 colours of light in post I decided to turn the bedside lamps on to warm up the scene. I think it worked out quite nicely in the end.

The most important part of the shoot for me was that she had fun. We were there for a few hours (more outdoor shots from this shoot to follow) and we were able to take out real time and make her feel like this was 'her' shoot. I hope that even if I become a big shot I will always be able to build in real time with clients and make them feel valued. I never want people to feel like they are being pushed through Sean Tucker's Production Line.

Personal attention needs to become a value.

Shooting Models

I have been trying to build a portrait portfolio.

If you want to make a real go of a career in photography, you have to pick a lane at some point. You have to decide what sort of photography you want to specialise in long term. It's all very well broadening your skill base and being able to shoot many subjects and in varying contexts, but at some point you want to specialise because it's how you 'get known'.

So to this end I have decided that I would like to work hard at becoming a good portrait photographer. Being a bit of a humanist at heart this seems to be the area I am most happy shooting in, and one I could see myself doing into the distant future.

In order to start building up a portfolio of work I decided to contact a friend of a friend who I knew was keen to dip her toe into modelling. I offered her a shoot with images we could both use for our respective portfolios, an old TFP (Time for Photos) model arrangement (something I will get into in another post).

I was really lucky with this shoot. Lauren was a star. In fact she lulled me into a false sense of security because I think I thought that it would be this easy all the time. She just knew what to do. Every time she heard the shutter click she would alter her pose to give me something different to shoot. As I clicked away I would wait until something she did looked interesting, at which point I would tell her 'stay there, and make smaller moves'. I would give fine tuning directions more than anything.

I have no doubt it won't be this easy with every model shoot, and some will need more direction, which I am going to have to learn how to give, but I got a glimpse into what makes a professional model so good at their job. They really have to be fearless and give you poses which look ridiculous when you're standing there watching them, but which translate into something beautiful on camera. It's a strange dynamic. It takes a huge amount of personal security, and body knowledge, on their part as well, and I instantly acquired a respect for their craft.

Another really helpful aspect of this shoot was that Lauren's room mate is working with Vogue and offered to act as stylist for the day! She had prepared a number of outfit options which we cycled through as the day went on. Some I didn't use. Some I did. But what a pleasure having both the poses and styles constantly changing. If I had just stood in one spot and clicked the shutter, I would have had a wide variety of stuff.

So what was my role, apart from camera monkey?

The challenge for me was to chose the set ups. When we arrived at their flat I walked around and looked at the space, then took a tour around the little garden. I picked backgrounds which I thought would work for different looks, and quickly summed up the light to see where we could get the best looking shots, and at what time of the day. I also began to plan where to create an indoor backdrop (what turned out to be just a white wall, or a patterned sheet over a door frame) so that when we began to lose light outside we could move indoors and carry on.

I learnt a few things on this shoot:

1. Come up with a short list of shot ideas while you're doing your initial location tour.

2. A good model is a joy to shoot. Let him/her move and watch for what works. Then 'fine tune' when something she/he does catches your eye.

3. Having a number of changes of clothes and make up options helps to vary your shots, and inspire ideas. It also gives you time to come up with a new set up and test the light while your subject is getting ready. From now on I will always ask a model if they could bring at least four changes of clothes, and see if they would like to bring a friend who can help them with changes. I will likely get a lot more options and the model will be more relaxed with a close friend around.

I shot all day on my 5DmkII and switched between my 50mm f1.4 and my 85mm f1.8. I had recently bought a softbox for my speedlight, which I mounted on a monopod and had a friend hold for me, so most of the shots I took are just using the ambient light and filling with a softbox, or using the softbox as a one light source when shooting indoors.

I think we got some good stuff between us.

Some thanks:

Lauren Franklin for Modelling: http://laurenfranklinmodel.wordpress.com/

Frith Carlisle for Styling.

Sarah Howse for retouching on shots 1, 3, 4 and 5: http://sarahjhowse.wix.com/sarah-howse-editing