Composite Genius - Joel Grimes

By ELLIOT TONKS on May 9th 2013





This will be a short post about my new commercial photographic idol of whom I'm attempting to make a folio to his work. Face it, the guy is a genius.

In my previous post about Elance and finding your niche, I mentioned Joel Grimes as an example for someone who created their niche and has build a massive name for himself and aspiring thriving photographers every day for that definite commercial appeal.

Joel dominates in composite work by merging a photoshop cut out image of a model onto a previously taken HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo. He spends hours injecting his photoshop mastery into each piece of his work and has recently been shooting for Red bull and Porche.


His work can be found at www.joelgrimes.com 
A video of the man and his talent http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VrVhnIlHZ8

Do you know anyone who shoots like joel?

One site to help you get more clients

By ELLIOT TONKS on May 9th 2013

Finding work as a photographer is becoming more difficult in our ever so growing economy with a constant rise of competing fellow photographers. Finding your USP (unique selling point) can take years to perfect, whilst finding a market for your niche of work. There are two main options one can take to try get some work.

-To fit into the primary demanding market of standard traditional domestic portraiture and rely on advertising  and your work flow to ensure a constant supply or clients

-Make a niche market that none of a very small handful of photographers are currently doing.  This will drastically reduce your competition but in return you will have a limited amount of clients who will have needs for your work. This form is how photographic trends originate and can ultimately have a mass demand in the long run after awareness has been made of your product/service.

Take Joel Grimes for example (www.joelgrimes.com) who uses composite photography to add drama to his portraits. This technique is nothing new but the concentration put into the photos leave the end result nothing but amazing. I will be posting more of his work in my next blog.

Elance is a site that works just like an online matchmaking site but for photographers and clients.
It's easy to make a free account where you can setup all of your online folios, hourly rate, contact details and the best part of it is, you even get emailed a list of 4-6 jobs each day that Elance has matched with your work description.
Many larger clients in the commercial realm are using this form of communication between not only photographers but any type of designer as it's easy for both parties to virtually meet and discuss the work to take place. Elance will charge the client on average  an extra 10% your specified hourly rate/total cost. for example if you're working for $100 an hour, Elance will bill the client for a $110 hourly rate which is more than fine will a majority of designers out there. If the client won't pay you for your work then Elance will give you your hard earned cash after a specified period and they will deal with getting debt from the client.

Elance is a new customer to provider platform enabling easy and efficient communication throughout the world.

Have you got an Elance Account?

Kate Moss - Versace Spring/Summer 2013 Campaign

I was recently browsing through some Images for a little bit of inspiration when I came across Kate Moss’ photo shoot for Versace’s 2013 Spring/Summer campaign shot by Mert & Marcus, at first glance I was really unsure as to whether or not I liked these images, and sat and stared at them trying to force myself to decide. 

It wasn’t until I came back a good twenty minutes later for a second glance that I realized what was throwing me off, it was her skin! What the daily mail described as “tanned but incandescent” just looked sweaty to me.

Another thing, which seemed to cement my opinion were the men! Fair enough some women may find this appealing but they just made me cringe!  For example the below image, The first thing my eyes were drawn to was the shininess (The BLINDING shininess) of all their skin, the second thing I noticed was the men…and the way they were posed, and yes I had a right good giggle to myself. Probably NOT the reaction Versace (Mert & Marcus) were hoping for with these images.  

As I continued to scroll through, my reaction was pretty much the same, although I will admit that I do actually quite like one image (Kate in the Aqua dress with Mr ‘Blue Steel’) and feel that the lighting works quite well, it’s not distracting and the image just seems to flow, but over all, I think the lighting just makes her look…well gross…and sweaty.

The article, which I stumbled upon, contained two more images featuring two other faces (Daria Werbowy and Joan Smalls) of the Versace campaign. The same lighting technique had been used and I felt that it worked MUCH better with these other two girls especially with Joan Smalls who looks absolutely stunning. The ‘shine’ just appeared a lot more natural and complimented the other girls well, whereas it didn’t seem to be doing much of anything for Kate.

Follow the link below and have a look for yourself.

http://www.ohlalamag.com/en/2013/01/more-from-versace-spring-summer-2013-campaign.html

Better Business Bible for Photographers

By ELLIOT TONKS on May 9th 2013

Found on the ACMP website the Better Business Bible really speaks for itself in delivering the best business practice for commercial photographers.

BBB content include topics such as image licensing, quoting & negotiating, terms & conditions, templates for estimates & licenses plus much more.

'The printed BBB is available free for full and emerging members of the ACMP and can also be purchased online here: http://acmp.com.au/better-business-bible/'

I've heard only positive comments on this bad boy and I will post a full review when I receive mine within the week.

Have you read the BBB?

Lens Whacking

Just the other day, I discovered the new trend of “lens whacking”. On reading the name, I was a bit startled. “Who in their right mind would WHACK their LENS on something?”. It just didn't seem right, so I looked further and found that it is in fact a reasonably simple way to create interesting depth of field in your images, as well as creative light leaks. It can also be used as a tilt shift alternative, as tilt shift lenses can be so expensive.

This is the video I watched to learn what lens whacking actually is, and how to do it:

http://photo.tutsplus.com/tutorials/shooting/a-beginners-guide-to-lens-whacking/

I am yet to try this cool trick out myself, but here are some examples of the kind of images that can be created in this way:

As cool as this may look, there are some cons to go with the pros, as there always are:

Pros:

•           Reasonably easy to do

•          Only requires a 50mm or smaller lens

•          Can be used in the place of a tilt shift lens

•          Creates interesting depth of field

•          Can produce cool light leaks

•          Allows you to be more creative with blur, in camera

Cons:

•          Sensor is exposed

•          Should have sensor cleaned after each lens whacking shoot ($$$)

•          Risk of dropping either lens or camera body ($$$$)

•          Would require a fair amount of practice to perfect

Although there are more pros than cons listed, if the more damaging cons were to occur, you’d be looking at a lot of money for repairs, regardless of saving on a tilt shift lens.

Overall, lens whacking looks like a cool and interesting technique to spruce up your images, as risky as it may be.  I will definitely be (carefully) trying it myself!

15 ways to improve you live music photos

  

                       By ELLIOT TONKS on May 9th 2013

This post is about giving some tips and useful advice to our thriving base of young and aspiring live music photographers. Many will see this as a very niche area of work , though the amount of blooming photographers wanting to shoot the stage is on the rise. Our ever so growing base of artistic youth love their music and photography just to name a couple. They're incorporating both of these art forms to their life and work and essentially, killing two birds with one stone.

I've also included in this post a quick 'what's in the bag' photo and breakdown of all the gear which I use to get the work done.

What's in the bag?

As a live music photographer I often get asked what camera/lens setups I take and to worry about weight and do I even carry my bag during the whole show. Many photographers think it can be a bit over kill. Why? because I never know what's going to happen upon arrival.

The above image is what I take to a gig when a big named artist is playing because, I'm not going to be caught under equipped and unprepared.


-You're going to want a bag that you can fit in all your needed gear and make it all accessible 

- At least one camera (Preferably full frame to handle low light situations well with high ISO). My other camera was used to take this photo. I use 2 Canon 5d MK II's

- A mono pod can be extremely helpful to get that steady shot when you're shooting at least 200m away from the action with a Tele lens. A monopod is preferred over a tripod because of space and setup time.

- Have a flash in your back pocket or even on the camera (If you want to make friends, don't let it fire during the show. The flash is vital for some quick backstage photos.


- Tamron Shoulder Bag
- 2x Canon 5d MK II's
- 70-200mm f/2.8 IS
- 50mm f/1.4
- 24-70mm f/2.8
- 17-40mm f/4
- Canon Teleconverter x2 MK III. This comes in extremely helpful when the photo pass permits me only to the sound desk
- Canon 580ex II Speedlite
- Manfrotto Monopod
- SPARE memory cards, camera and flash batteries.
- A pen, (sadly not every box office will have a pen for you to sign the contract).

15 tips

1  - Pack your bag long before the gig, check everything works and is full battery.

2  -You’ll probably want to set your ISO level to 800 or 1600 (for a cropped frame camera). At 1600 the images will be getting grainy with digital noise, but that’s sometimes unavoidable. If you’re in a venue with plenty of light set your ISO lower, you’ll get less noise

3  - Have everything at your side and know what pocket it is in

4  - If your camera allows you to change the type of light metering you should set it to spot mode. Always try and focus on the face or sometimes the hair of the artist is backlit and you can get a good focus on that (only use this technique when atleast 10m away from the subject as focusing on the hair while using a wide aperture will soften the sharpness of the face).

5  - You’ll want a lens that has a wide aperture, f2.8 or lower. There are 50mm f1.8 lenses that are quite good and cheap these days.

6  - In a low light situation you’re going to need to shoot at reasonably low shutterspeeds in order to get enough light in the camera. But remember the slower your shutterspeed the more likely your shots won’t be sharp, either because the subject moves or your hands move. (I try and keep above 1/200 at all times and 1/400 if I'm using the 70-200mm with the teleconverter.

7  - You can be technically adept but still take crap photos, the trick is knowing when to click the shutter. Watch the performance for a moment, where is the light on stage? You may have to wait for the performer to move into the light.
My favourite shots are ones that show emotion and energy. Go for a shot when the singer steps away from the mic, you don’t want it obscuring your shot. Try and get one when the singer is “in the moment”, reaching for a high note.

8  - After you’ve taken hundreds of shots at a show, cull them down to the best 20 or 30. Then cull that down to the best 3. If you’re going to show other people your photos don’t show them everything, just the very best. They’ll assume all your shots are that good.

9  -Be nice to those around you. Don’t shove your way to the front, if you want to get closer tap someone on the shoulder, smile and ask if they mind you moving forward to take some photos. If you need to stand right in front of someone ask them if they mind and promise you’ll only be there for a minute. Keep that promise and move on.
Don’t use flash, or if you have to, use it very sparingly. It’s distracting to others and will probably make your photos look crap anyway.

10 - I use one shot focusing for my work because I can get my focus and then reframe the image so 40% of the photo isn't black nothing-ness above the artists head. Sometimes the lighting can have a very eye pleasing effect through the settled smoke so that unwanted 40% could become a whole framed filled and colour saturated photo.

11 - Get creative and try and think of the readers perspective of where the photos will be displayed. If you didn't go to an event but want to read and see the review, would you just want to see a few headshot photos? No, you want to see the atmosphere of the event. The lighting, full stage shot, silhouettes, photos of the backdrop and the set. Capture everything that's there and what had effort put in to be there. Avoid getting up nose shots of the lead singer, get atleast 50 degrees side on.

12 - Try get as much experience at lower level events where it's even darker but you will probably be allowed to shoot for the whole set.

13 - Bring backups of your backups, ALWAYS BE PREPARED FOR THE WORSE.  (Only two weeks ago I went to shoot a big named act only to find out my camera didn't work even though I was using it that same afternoon)

14 - The drummer is well lit 1% of the time, Work with it.

15 -  ENJOY IT, Many times i've been able to stay for the free show, been given drink vouchers and even given extra passes for friends to come along for free. Don't see it as an office.

Conclusion

Some of the above tactics may not work for you but this is my experience in my field of work and how I get by. be prepared to fail in some circumstances. Last week when my camera failed I was only able to get about 8 photos of a 5 piece band in thick green lighting with my battery grip parts between the fold back monitors on the stage. The editor was more worried about my camera being okay compared to giving them about 3 crappy photos in the end.



What other ways do you have to help you shoot live?



Wedding Drama.

Recently I was asked by a friend to photograph her wedding. Since I had never done anything like this before my initial reaction was to say no and run as far away as possible.  The idea put me into a panic. What if I messed up? What If I missed a crucial moment? It was somebody’s big day and I was in charge of capturing all of their special memories and the idea terrified me. If I got something wrong it wasn’t as easy as getting them back into the studio and doing it all over again. This was completely out of my comfort zone.

But she was adamant that she wanted me to take her photographs so I did some heavy research into equipment and spent hours flicking through wedding photographs. I contacted her and asked her if she had any specific ideas in mind and her reply was ridiculously vague and she told me she trusted me and I could do whatever I wanted. She also told me that I had 45-60 minutes to take all of her photographs after the ceremony before she had to head back for the reception. Which was good…but also really, really bad, what If I did something that she absolutely hated? I had no room for error with only 45-60 minutes to photograph her and her wedding party. So again…panic stations.

I decided pretty early on that my best bet would be to rent equipment. I rented EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM and the 50mm f/1.8. I won’t lie when I first picked up the 70-200 I was a little overwhelmed by the sheer weight of the thing, and a little bit fascinated by the fact the lens had to be mounted on the tripod as opposed to the camera body. So far so good, I was organized had my bags packed rearing to go….Only problem, The wedding was tomorrow and I still hadn’t received the address from the bride, She had already paid me in full, but had failed to let me know where she was getting married despite my numerous e-mails and texts (AND Lack of invitation) I eventually had to phone one of her bridesmaids and she told me the location and times etc. 

I felt sick to my stomach on the way to her hotel, but as soon as I got in there and started to take the photographs I felt completely fine, I made a conscious effort to blend and not intrude too much and got some really great candid shots that I was really happy with, considering that candid photography is really my least favorite style of photographing. I even managed to chat to the bride a little bit about some photographs she wanted….She told me she would like photographs of her and her bridesmaids together in their dresses before they headed off to the ceremony….only problem was she also wanted me to head down and get the boys getting ready and waiting for them. So I suggested that she would have to be in her dress before I left (Her hotel was a good twenty minute drive to the location where her ceremony was being held) this was something she just did not want to do. (So she wanted me to be in two places at once) Her bridesmaids soon convinced her otherwise and I managed to snap some photographs of her in her dress before heading off towards the boys. 

I’m just going to say it, the Groom was MUCH easier to photograph, less stressed and really at ease around the camera, I found it much easier to get candid photographs of the boys than I did of the girls, Mostly because the girls seemed so ridiculously aware of where the camera was AT ALL TIMES. I was finally beginning to feel confident again when…they had to change locations because the wind was far too strong near the water, so we re-located…to a tiny area (Which I’m going to say on a regular basis is more than likely the smokers area for the tavern) The light was horrendously harsh and all the guests were made to stand, so I set up my tripod to ensure I had enough room. Again things were going smoothly UNTIL the groom’s uncle took it upon himself to literally STAND INFRONT of me with his camera EVERYTIME I tried to take a photograph (He even sat in the middle of the aisle directly in front of the couple at one point during the ceremony, Bride looked less than impressed to say the least)  I eventually managed to completely sidestep him and found a perfect spot to take my photographs. I was pleasantly surprised at how at ease I was taking the photographs and soon felt pretty confident in my abilities. 

Once the ceremony was over all my stress seemed to disappear, I was super excited about the posed photographs, I knew what I was doing and I enjoyed it, yet this seemed to be the most difficult part of the whole day. It took me a good ten minutes to try and peel the bride and groom away (Time was ticking…) the only spot that I could visibly see that would even be remotely suitable for photographs was the jetty…. which everybody BUT the bride seemed excited about. We got down there and began to take the photographs, I had no worries whatsoever, Things were going exactly how I had planned and everybody seemed to be having fun, until about ten minutes later the bride decided she had had enough and was no longer going to stand down there, I had plenty of the wedding party but barely any of just her and her husband, which I told her, and she said she didn’t care and that she just wanted to go inside and sit down. The groom looked how I felt; gutted. I had been so excited about this part of the day, of being able to get creative and take photographs of her beautiful dress and that wasn’t going to happen, I tried my best to persuade her otherwise but she was having none of it.

 

Overall I’m glad that I agreed to do it. It was a fantastic experience, and I’m really proud of how well I handled myself and proud of my images. It was fun to be apart of it all and watch everything happening around me, Although in saying that I don’t know how quickly I would agree to photograph another wedding haha!