Natasha Denis Beauty Shots

Natasha Denis is one of the makeup artists we've been using and she's absolutely fantastic! She's incredibly easy to work with and she's been vital in getting a lot of our shots to that next level. Here are some photos we took from a recent shoot with her. The models are Amanda Lensink and Meghan Elizabeth. -C

Test Shoot of Catherine Schmetter's Line at Maven Design

We're working with Catherine Schmetter, a fashion designer with her own line called Maven Design. We're collaborating with her to put together her new look book and a press kit. We've been doing a few test shoots and playing around with some ideas.

Makeup by Natasha Denis.  Check out her website!

Models Maika Nakaoka (check out her blog bestylicious!), Luisa Gautreaux, and Natalia Sharucci. -C

Modeling Tips for Actors and Dancers

In working with actors and dancers who haven't done much modeling before, I find that there's a bit of a learning curve involved when trying to transfer their skills to modeling.

Essentially the biggest differences concern duration and tempo.

First, in talking about duration, what I mean here is how long you hold a particular pose. Usually in dancing and in acting, there's a certain flow that goes on from one movement into another. This transition, however, cannot be captured by a camera, or at least, not captured well. I think back to Annie Leibovitz who said, "dance cannot be photographed...and there is something beautiful about that." The camera records and perceives time differently than video cameras and the human eye. It basically strips away the flow of time and replaces it with an implied sense of it, a sort of proxy. Timing to a model, or at least to me as a photographer, works differently than in a typical dance performance or scene.

When a model who is an actor or dancer goes into a specific pose, or explores an idea, there's a tendency to continue flowing through the movement, as if they are being observed by something that understands and can witness the concept of time. But this just simply isn't the case with a camera. It has enough problems trying to imply a sense of depth, let alone time.

The issue arises when the photographer isn't quick enough to capture a shot, or wants to capture the shot in multiple ways, but the model has already blown through it to the next thing. If the pose can't be recreated, then an idea, a moment, is essentially lost and effort has to be made to try and recreate it again. There's nothing wrong with that in itself, as it's going to happen through out the shoot anyway, but it eats up time. It's just less efficient.

So one thing actors and dancers can use as a guideline is the sound of the shutter clicking or the pop of the flash. If you go into a pose, try not to change it until you hear the shutter click, or even click a few times. The click becomes your metronome for duration. It gives you a base to work off of to get a feeling for how long you should be holding any particular pose or exploring a particular idea.

The next thing to look out for is tempo, or the speed with which you move from one pose to the next. In general, it's best to slow down, at least as a warm up. Pose, hold, click. Pose, hold, click. Depending on the energy of the shoot, the intent, and the speed of the clicks you hear coming from the camera, you're going to move faster or slower.

Now this doesn't mean you're never going to do a fast movement that has to be flowed through, like jumping into the air or committing to some movement that just cannot be stopped. It's going to happen all the time. Those kind of shots, however, have a different dynamic and tend to work better with performers than people who do only modeling. The perfect shot of a model jumping into the air will more than likely involve the model jumping up and down multiple times. It has a different pacing than just moving from pose to pose exploring looks. Just remember though, the faster you move into a pose, the more effort it will take to freeze it, and the more effort you use, the more tension will show in your photo (which might be good if that's what you're going for). An example of this is if the model is looking in one direction and then snaps their head at the camera, the natural tendency is for the eyes open wide as your body assumes it's doing that because something dangerous is happening. It's practically an involuntary action. But slow that down, and you bypass the whole eyes widening reflex.

So in summary, slow down first and then speed up the tempo as necessary. Hold your poses until you hear the shutter click and then move into the next pose if you have one. Think of the shutter as a changing beat that you move to; form a relationship with it. If you can't hear the shutter, then error on the side of slowing down and holding longer, unless the photographer instructs you differently.

As you get used to this, you can start playing around with duration and tempo on the fly and start exploring uncharted or more experimental territory, assuming the photographer you're working with is even interested in such things.

In conclusion, just remember, if you have a photographer who's quick enough to capture everything you do, then that's great! But why make their job any more difficult than it has to be? Give the photographer opportunity to capture what you're doing with an imperfect tool. When you're on set, it's in the best interest of the photographer and model to make eachother's lives easier, and if they communicate and work well together, it ultimately means better pictures and a much more efficient use of time.

Make it easier to capture good photos, not harder. -C

Shooting Theater: Know Your Manual Settings

I recently photographed a theater performance by Students Live: Dream Camp 2009, a summer camp for South Korean children aged nine to thirteen interested in learning more about musical theater. They worked for three weeks on forty songs and tons of choreography which culminated in a short musical entitled "Journey to America."

Photographing a theatrical performance can be an extremely challenging experience, but I think it's important for a photographer to occasionally put themselves into fast-paced photojournalism situations without flash to keep their skills sharp. It's my belief that the faster you can adapt your camera settings to get the right exposure, the more efficient of a photographer you'll be. You won't necessarily be a better photographer, whatever your definition of that is, but if you can learn to modify your exposures on the fly without having to think about it too much, you'll have that much more brain power available to compose your shots, come up with ideas, and solve whatever other problems are coming your way.

Photographing theater is not for the faint-hearted. You need to understand how your camera works.

Theater has some pretty extreme lighting conditions. All the characters on stage will be moving quickly, coming in and out of focus, with different colored lights hitting them from every conceivable angle, the whole stage is more or less shrouded in darkness, and you can't use flash. Depending on the situation, you probably can't obnoxiously take twenty frames in a row on continuous. If you're shooting with a DSLR, it's going to be way too loud and distracting. The last thing you need is to get kicked in the head by an angry director or parent.

The whole thing is practically an obstacle course for photography, and if you're going to get some decent frames out of the whole situation, you're going to need to learn how to constantly change your manual settings.

First, know your display.

The display is going to be a key part of your navigating the darkness. Literally, it's going to be too dark for you to see your settings. Depending on what camera you're using, your options are going to be different. I shoot with a Canon 5D MK II, so I can read the settings directly in the viewfinder, on the LCD screen, and on the LCD panel. Not all of these display the same settings though, and in a panic I can't always remember what is where, so I tend to go between all three of them. I make sure that I set my camera to display the manual settings in the LCD screen (as the default is to not show them), and I make sure to know where the lightbulb button is so I can illuminate the dedicated LCD panel.

Next, know your settings.

We can break this down in terms of the exposure triangle.

ISO

Changing your ISO settings is probably the safest way to change your overall exposure, as the only real downside to going too high with it is graininess.

While the stage lighting is pretty decent, if the lights aren't white or yellow, the darker colors will force you to push up the ISO.

And don't forget that these are spotlights we're talking about. So while the spotlight might be great on whoever it's focused on at the moment, you're consistently dealing with the falloff (inverse square law), so just because the light is aimed at the stage, that doesn't mean everything in its path is going to be lit equally. Don't forget that spotlights are brightest at their centers and that the cone of light they project quickly recedes into darkness. This means you're going to have to choose ahead of time what you're trying to photograph. If it's one main actor, you probably won't have much issue. But if it's the stage in general or a large group, then you're probably going to have to make some hard decisions.

But we do have to address the issue of grain. Because the stage is so dark, even with the spotlights, you're going to need to use higher than normal ISO. If you're using one of the newer DSLRs with high ISO capability (3,200-25,600 ISO) then you're more than likely going to have to stay in a range between 1,600 and 6,400 ISO. 1600 ISO will give you relatively little grain, and 6,400 ISO will be at the edge of what's acceptable. At 6,400 you'll probably need a third-party denoising program to make the color photos acceptable (I STRONLY reccomend, Imagenomic Noiseware), or you'll need to convert the image to black and white and play off the photojournalism feeling the texture gives. If you don't have high ISO capabilities, you're going to have a really hard time photographing theater without speedlights.

I try to stay at 1600 ISO as often as possible. I raise the ISO when it's too dark in general (determined by the lighting at the moment), when things are fast moving and I need to make the shutter speed faster, or when I need a larger depth of field (for instance when I need to get a group in focus) and I have to close down my aperture.

Shutter Speed

If it were possible to stay at your camera's highest shutter-speed at all times, I would pretty much recommend it. You'd get the sharpest photos and freeze the motion of everyone on stage. You probably don't need everything at 1/8000th of a second, but the point is, considering how dark the stage is, you'll be lucky if you can squeeze out a 1/125th of a second.

If you're interested in capturing a freeze frame of choreography, you really have to push your shutter speed. This is going to push down your exposure by one or two stops. To compensate, you're going to have to alter one of the other points in your exposure triangle, either the ISO or the aperture by an equivalent number of stops. On my 5D, the stops are usually measured in thirds, so to go up or down two stops in ISO or aperture, I just need to do six clicks left or right, and I'm there. I suggest you adjust the ISO first, and then if you have to, adjust your aperture. The reason is, if you're trying to catch movement, you probably want the largest depth of field you can get, or in other words, the highest F-stop. If you shoot wide open, at say F/2.8, your depth of field is going to be extremely narrow, and yes, you'll freeze the movement, but it will be out of focus. If you want a narrow DOF for artistic reasons, know that practically speaking, it will be very difficult for you to freeze the movement AND be focused properly on the right subject AND get the right exposure.

If the stage is extremely dark, I'll occasionally risk a shot at something like 1/15th of a second. Considering how quickly people move on stage, however, it's a big risk. If it seems like people are going to be standing still for awhile, and you need more light, go ahead and slow down your shutter speed.

Aperture

In my experience, your aperture is rarely going to go above F/4.0. Maybe F/5.6 if you're lucky. I try to keep my aperture at the highest F-stop I can get away with so I can get the largest depth of field. I only go down when the lighting demands it and I have no other choice, or if my ISO is maxed out at 6,400 and I need to raise my shutter speed to capture movement. I lose DOF and risk getting movement frozen out of focus so I apply a kind of focus bracketing technique I use.

Essentially I just go to manual focus and I take a lot of consecutive shots, maybe a burst of five. With each shot I move the focus ring just a little bit. (This means you'll have to fire your camera, adjust the focus ring, and then fire again. You won't be able to do this with your camera's continuous shooting mode.) Basically, I increase the chance that I'll get something in focus, but nothing is guaranteed.

Another thing to keep in mind is the current lighting. If there are a lot of spotlights pouring on to the stage, you're in luck. You'll be able to get larger groups of people in focus. In fact, you could plan to get all your group shots during the brightest parts of the performance.

You're going to need a large depth of field to capture everyone on stage in focus, especially if you're using a 200mm lens.

Also, there will be times you want a narrow depth of field on purpose, but if it's something you try to do during a fast moving part of the show, you're going to miss out. It's something you want to try when things are a little steadier and less chaotic on stage.

Putting It All Together

Hopefully it becomes clear what the value in doing projects like this every once and awhile can be. Juggling several variables at once while observing a constantly changing dynamic on stage is something that takes time to master.

Ultimately, I try to spend most of my time thinking about what I'm trying to capture in a particular image. Who am I focusing on? How am I composing the shot? Maybe something like 10% to 20% of that is trying to figure out what my manual settings should be, and the more you work projects like this, the lower the percentage will be. The rest of the time you'll be observing your environment. Are you annoying anyone by taking photos? Is your shutter being too loud? When are they going to play music to mask the sound of my camera? I've already taken a hundred shots of the lead singer. I need to focus on the other performers. Have I taken enough shots from different angles? Do I have enough group shots, individual shots, small groups? Have I taken any shots that include the audience or the outer sides of the stage? How do I want to capture the choreography? How should I compose in my camera the formations the performers make on stage?

And of course the big question--What am I missing?

If you're stuck on the technical issues, you're going to have a hard time finding the answer.

-C