NewPhotoDigest » fashion & advertising

5 Stages of a commercial photo shoot

NewPhotoDigest — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:36:43 +0000

Chase Jarvis’ five stages of a commercial photo shoot outlined on video in 180 seconds http://bit.ly/YXYnZ

Five stages of a commercial photo shoot:

concepts, contracts and pre-production
travel
scouting
shooting
post-production
delivery

Evolution of a Stylist: an interview with Toyo Tsuchiya

NewPhotoDigest — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 07:12:47 +0000

String Magazine: Evolution of a Stylist: an interview with Toyo Tsuchiya http://bit.ly/Qg9Ss

How to estimate an advertising shoot

NewPhotoDigest — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:06:09 +0000

How to estimate an advertising shoot. APhotoEditor interviews an estimator http://bit.ly/4xcCEY Really good stuff

Man Ray

NewPhotoDigest — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:44:02 +0000

“Man Ray developed a few simple rules. He set the lighting before the clients arrived, to reduce session times to a minimum. He recommended that clients shouldn’t smile. He asked them to close their eyes, and then open them suddenly. Sometimes, to relax his ‘patients’ — as he called them — he would give them a prop to hold, so that their expression became serene and profound. The background was usually sober: hessian, chequer-board designs, plain white or grey background paper, on which he played with shadows. Sometimes he featured an object too. He took only a few shots, never more than twelve. He set up his camera at least three metres from the subject, to avoid distorting the face. He cropped his prints carefully. If necessary, he retouched the photos to correct any defects, adding a few pencil strokes to refine a face, or a hip. He didn’t like taking his equipment out of the studio, but he did so sometimes. He knew how to capture in the setting for his subjects some significant details of their personality. Even in his early New York portraits Man Ray understood that what makes a good photograph is the play of contrasts. It could be two faces, or even three; a silhouette and it’s shadow; the light and dark of an outfit; a face and a mask. It’s a lesson drawn from chess. As he put it, ‘The opposition between a white and a black square is fundamentally beautiful’. There are always two, almost equal, parts in a Man Ray portrait. Hands and faces are distributed symettrically. His fashion photos demonstrate his mastery of such contrasts.

Another type of contrast is called ‘solarization’. Man Ray said he discovered this technique by chance, accidentally switching on a light while developing a film. Maybe. In any case, it’s an effect that fitted wonderfully with the development of his aesthetic. Solarization accentuates the contours and intensifies the whites by inverting the values between the whites and the blacks. With this method photography becomes like drawing. The bodies appear to be outlined with a pencil, a sublime pencil which transforms matter, while a mysterious inner light radiates from the subjects. ‘The Primacy of Matter Over Thought’: this title is a manifesto proclaiming solarization as a sort of photo-chemical miracle.” –Jean-Paul Fargier

Documentary on Man Ray by Jean-Paul Fargier. YouTube video in seven parts. This documentary includes treatment of Man Ray’s commercial and editorial portraits, and fashion photography, and the techniques he brought to these.

“Man Ray’s commercial success was due to the fact that he put as much care and research into commissioned work as he did into his so-called art photography. Whatever the objective of a commission he took the opportunity to explore his effects. In fact, he used fashion to further his art. Every material has its own lighting; each model is modeled in her own shadow. Although most of the sumptuous decors were dictated by clients, he took great liberties in how he used them. Every line has its own staging. The sophistication of the lighting emphasises the opulence of the clothes. He understood how one shape rhymes with another. He used friend’s artwork — here a Brancusi, here a Giacometti — or his own work, to introduce subtle harmonics. The decor amplifies the sophistication of the poses, which flatter the gowns: straight lines against curves; Chinese ink on rough paper. The painter’s hand guides the hand of the photographer: these touch-ups are the touch of Man Ray. Thanks to income from his fashion work, his portraits of rich Americans and his photos for advertising, Man Ray was never short of money.” –Jean-Paul Fargier

Richard Avedon

NewPhotoDigest — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:35:36 +0000

“I am so grateful that I have the capacity and the ability to make a living, support my family — which is the definition of being a man for my generation — support my studios, support my special projects, by doing advertising.” –Richard Avedon ( http://www.richardavedon.com/ )

“Avedon was the first person to come into photography as a fashion photographer, as a commercial photographer, and then, in a sense, declare himself an artist. And that was not well received. And he declared himself an artist quite vociferously. He didn’t get all shy about it and say ‘O please accept me’. He said ‘Here I am, get out of the way!’. And it goes on till this day. People excoriate him for his ego and for his own self-agrandizement or self-selling. And if he hadn’t done that we might still not know about him. He wouldn’t be getting the museum shows, because that isn’t something people would have come to him to ask him to do. The nature of the photographic world was just simply too tense and too boundaried for that sort of thing.” –Owen Edwards, critic

Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light. On YouTube in nine parts:

Rankin

NewPhotoDigest — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:16:50 +0000

“Rankin Exposed” a documentary profiling British fashion, advertising and editorial photographer Rankin. YouTube video in four parts.

Mario Testino

NewPhotoDigest — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:12:35 +0000

“I guess the editors noticed that I had a sense for clothes and it’s very hard to find professional photographers that are into clothes. A lot of them are photographers, and the editor will come and create a style and the photographer will shoot it.” – Mario Testino

Mario Testino Revealed: a CNN Revealed profile of London-based international fashion photographer, Mario Testino (http://www.mariotestino.com/). YouTube video in three parts:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Helmut Newton by June

NewPhotoDigest — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:44:37 +0000

Helmut by June

“This film is about my husband, Helmut Newton. A few years ago I offered Helmut a video camera for Christmas. But he refused it. So I started using it myself. I looked through the lens and I knew exactly what I was going to do with it: film Helmut at work. This film represents extracts of certain assignments he worked on during this time.” – June Newton (writer and director of “Helmut by June”)

YouTube video in five parts: