Light& shoot CHRIS GATCUM
50 FASHION PHOTOS
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Introduction
Lighting Essentials Lighting kits Location and studio Continuous versus flash Camera connections Models and makeup
Catalog Handbag pose Lingerie carousel Blue swimsuits Jeans kids Stag chic Collection cover Evening dress Red bikini Soft seduction Track kit
20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52
Maternity Bridal glamor Pink petites The red coat Knitwear women Bad girl look
54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74
EDITORIAL Black and white circus Princess Classic Hollywood All dressed up... Only accessories Throne Queen of the world March of the babes Sportsman’s roar Look to the future
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School rules!
78 80 82 84 86 88 90
Super powers The shape issue Harsh winter Country chic Grunge princess Bodytalk Ensemble
92 ADVERTISING 94 Dior dress 96 Project perfume 98 By the glass 100 Blue swim cap 102 104 106 108 110 112 114 116 118 120 122 124 126
Taste Armani man CK Lauren Arnult Gucci dress Aubade sensation Dangerous Diesel YSL Chanel time Bench mark Nike plus Wimbledon
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lighting essentials
Getting equipped Sometimes that old adage “less is more” rings true, and a simple ring flash and softbox setup—or even a single light—can prove more effective and practical than throwing everything but the kitchen sink at an image. On other occasions you might want to consider being more sculptural with your lighting, so not just a flat light and one head pointing at someone, but back lights as well as front or side lights to get good definition on the model and what he or she is wearing. Should you get more ambitious still and use a trampoline in your shoot to get a greater degree of vitality—if shooting a range of sportswear, perhaps—then an equally ambitious array of lighting is called for, perhaps one big Octa and a very large 12-foot square screen to act as a huge softbox, with five heads set up behind it. You might then like to use a 3-foot square beauty dish to add highlights. Of course, if you’re shooting images for the lifestyle market then daylight is still very much in vogue. Photographers constantly mix daylight and flash, and use flash to control the contrast rather than just relying on reflectors. And best of all, daylight is free!
Studio or location Making light work within the controlled confines of a studio might seem easy compared to contending with multiple light sources out in the open, but to make your work stand out as exceptional requires, well, a lightness of touch. If using high key and fill in flash in the studio as your main lights, you might also need to light the background occasionally and, for a beauty portrait, maybe the hair on top.
Hire or buy? While there’s nothing wrong with owning your own lighting kit, apart from the initial expense you’ll need space for storage, plus you may be 8 lighting essentials
ProLine 300 300 Kit 1 (right) & Elinchrom D-Lite Umbrella set (below) Two-head lighting kits aimed at the enthusiast and semi-pro are reasonably priced and a great way to get started. Choose well and even budget offerings can be surprisingly durable, and portable too, often folding away into a shoulder bag.
tips n When shopping for equipment, keep in mind the projects you’ll actually be working on in the near future, you can always add more later. n Make sure that you’ll be able to safely transport your new equipment should you need to; get a good quality kit bag if there isn’t one included. n Committing yourself to a lighting brand can be a little like committing yourself to a camera brand like Nikon or Canon.
committing yourself to a particular system (Elinchrom, Bowens, and ProFoto being three popular choices). It’s therefore often significantly more sensible for the aspiring pro to rent their choice of equipment than invest in a bunch of gear that might only occasionally get utilized. But economies aside, going the hire route also means that when the budget is available, creativity isn’t constrained by an existing set up. The key is to stay flexible, rather than being pigeonholed by one lighting style or look, so in this respect hiring lights as and when necessary seems the smarter option—especially as not many of us have the ability to stash specialist lights such as spotlights or an HMI, as used on film sets, behind the sofa. Another advantage of the hire route is that specialist rental companies are often happy for you to trial and test new lights and, as such, offer a means of trying out equipment firsthand before you commit yourself. It’s also worth bearing in mind that with clients and art directors often coming in with tear sheets and ideas on the look they want themselves, no two shoots may be the same. Therefore investing in a set of lights that might not then be adaptable for their purposes can prove a false economy. Whatever your requirements, when it comes to lighting it’s always better to have too many options than too few.
Sometimes less is more. Here a Bowens ring flash has been utilized to stunning effect. Again, you can often achieve high end performance at a mid range price.
Lighting the way to the future Most believe the future of photographic lighting is wireless—and complex set ups will give way to something a lot simpler. Five years ago everybody was shooting flash with a high sync speed. Then you made the background a bit darker, then used five flashes for one subject and lit everything. Of course, almost anything is now possible with digital retouching, but most would agree it’s far better to get it right in
camera first, and there remain plenty of things that simply can’t be fixed afterwards. When lighting for fashion and beauty the most important thing is that you achieve what you’re visualizing, and that hopefully the results end up with looking even better than you imagined. the making of 50 fashion photographs 9
the breakdowns
Lingerie carousel South African photographer Sean Knott’s commissions include fashion, documentary, still life, portraiture, and advertising. Traveling worldwide for both personal and client-originated projects, Sean works closely with advertising agencies and designers alike. This was taken on location in Cape Town, South Africa, as part of a spring/summer lingerie shoot, specifically for in-store point of sale. It formed part of a window display 80 × 60 cm (approximately 31 × 24 inches) in size, and appeared on posters. Most of my work for fashion clients is shot on location. What I like to do is mix flash and daylight, especially in places where the sunshine is quite strong. I’ve increased the contrast because I quite like moody images. I didn’t want it to be soft and romantic looking, which is the typical scenario for lingerie. I wanted it to be edgier, with more of a “fashion” feel. Sunlight is falling onto the carousel behind the girl but I wanted to get that element as dark as I could so it wasn’t apparent that it was shot in daylight. I’ve used ring flash and darkened the back of the shot in post-production so more mood is created and I’m not getting too much sunlight coming through. I’m completely happy with the result. As well as using ring flash to steer the look away from a typical catalog shoot, I used it because we had quite a few set ups to get through. In those situations I try and keep the lighting simple because time is of the essence. On-camera ring flash works very well for that, as does one light and sunlight. I don’t have a signature lighting style; I light according to the situation. My inspiration is endless when it comes to lighting and I’m constantly trying to improve and tweak it. Inspiration for exaggerating the saturation a little bit would have come from David LaChapelle. I don’t like it to look too soft and pretty. Ring flash is an even light and you don’t get harsh shadows. You can also get into smaller spaces. If I was shooting in a studio I’d bring more lights into it and try and get a similar effect with a beauty dish and softbox. I would generally try to use two or three lights rather than seven or eight, which is rarely necessary.
Side view
Perspective view
Plan view
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Carousel Sunlight from left 3 Profoto ring flash plus B2 battery pack 1 2
Behind camera view Camera Canon EOS-1DS MkIII Lens EF 24-70mm ƒ/2.8 USM Aperture ƒ/6.3 Shutter 1/125 sec ISO 100 Focal length 59mm
24 the breakdowns: Lingerie carousel
the breakdowns
Black and white circus Shooting fashion, beauty, and portraiture for editorial and advertising, Mark Cant’s work can be found in international publications including Elle, Nylon, Notion, Noi.se, and French newspaper La Liberté. This image was originally shot with a stylist in a studio in the East End of London for the New York magazine Flaunt. The idea involved clowns, but we were going for a monochrome Marcel Marceau look. I keep a huge stockpile of reference images. There was an old Patrick Demarchelier shoot from Italian Vogue we looked at. It was originally in black and white but it had a bit of movement and quirkiness about it. We saw what angles make the clothes look good and then looked at what other angles we could get. I usually spend half an hour to an hour with the girls in front of the lens. You might put a girl in a pose and the clothes might ruffle up and it needs sorting by the stylist, or perhaps the hair will need moving. This model was lit by an umbrella off to the left on a boom arm. It was quite tight to her, because I find the closer the umbrella, the quicker the light falls off and it enables a white background to go gray very, very quickly. Additionally we had a cross beam set up pretty much above her on a scaffold pole with another head with a grid that gave a kind of spotlight effect on the background and that stayed constant throughout. There was also a light head bouncing into the ceiling to fill the blacks out, so areas without direct light were not plunged completely into shadow. I was very pleased with the results—it’s still in my portfolio now and I get really positive comments. There wasn’t much post-production involved, just a little light retouching on the skin. I don’t have a signature style but I tend to use the same equipment—mainly ProFoto, because the quality of light is very consistent—and have a play around with it from there. My heart lies in editorial photography because there’s more chance to experiment. My main lighting inspirations come from French and Italian Vogue; Paolo Roversi, Craig McDean, Nick Knight, Glen Luchford. You’ve got to know the rules before you can break them, and I think I’m getting near enough to achieving what I want.
Side view
Perspective view
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White Colorama with scoop Polyboards lining set, black sides facing in 3 Head with grid to create spot on background 4 Cross beam on double wind ups 5 Head with small umbrella to light model 1 2
Behind camera view
Camera Canon 1DS MkII Aperture ƒ/22 Shutter 1/200 sec ISO 160 Focal length 62mm 56 the breakdowns: black and white circus
the breakdowns
Blue swim cap Dynamic duo Ollie Porter and Mario Capaldi take their visual inspiration from American comic books and graphic novels, together making up creative team Ollie&Capaldi. Aiming to avoid the formulaic, they approach each fashion, beauty, and portrait commission with the goal of creating beautiful images. This was originally a test shot taken in studio for our portfolio; the model is wearing a cap by Dior. It was about trying to create our own style for fashion and beauty photography to do things a little differently. A lot of our shots incorporate the color blue and a blue fill light. We were going for an idea of perfection here; it’s beauty made almost too perfect. That’s another element of our style. We’re not really grungey and like everything to look film like, although we shoot digitally. Post production for this shot merely involved cleaning the skin up—cosmetic retouching we’d call it. So the bulk of the look is achieved in camera. In terms of inspiration we look to the past—Bill Brandt, Cartier-Bresson, Guy Bourdin— rather than current people’s work, as what’s the point of doing something that someone else has done recently? We strive to be unique. We’re also both very influenced by American comic book art, DC/Marvel Comics and graphic novels going back to the 1960s, and artists like Jack Kirby who drew The Hulk and Fantastic Four. We use ProFoto lights. The main light here was a beauty dish with a grid on it, which was lighting her face. Then we had another beauty dish, which was used as a fill light, two stops under the main light and with a blue gel on it. That’s providing the blue hue in her eyes and creating the cooler flesh tones. Then we have two pink clips that are just hitting the side of her swimming cap and her shoulders, and a further light on the background that has a blue gel on it. Where it’s hitting the hot spot on the wall it’s white and bleeds off to blue. So that’s five lights in all. Blue is our signature color, although it started off as turquoise. We like color in general, but find that the blue in particular gives us nicer flesh tones. And also, instead of having dark, muddy shadows, it fills them with a nice blue hue.
Side view
perspective view
Plan view
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Head with pink gel, 3 stops under main light Head with blue gel & grid facing background, equal stop to main light 3 Above subject: Main head with beauty dish and grid above subject 4 Below subject: Head with dish and blue gel below subject, 2 stops below main light 1 2
Behind camera view
Camera Phase One P30 Aperture ƒ/16 Shutter 1/500 sec ISO 100 100 the breakdowns: blue swim cap
Light & Shoot 50 Fashion Photos
Chris Gatcum
Learn how to shoot fashion & portrait masterpieces Photography is all about light, but with all the technological equipment tied up in the art—especially in the digital age—it can be easy to forget how to make the light work for you. In this unique volume, fifty great fashion shots are analysed. Specially selected to reflect a range of styles, subject matter and circumstance, they together form a survey of the state of the art. Each photographer explains the thinking behind the shot, the equipment, the camera settings, and – critically – the lighting set up. 200 specially-commissioned lighting diagrams show you exactly how to achieve the stunning effects on show with the minimum of fuss. Whether you’re shooting on location with limited kit, or in a fully-equipped studio with lights,
reflectors and multiple flashes, you’ll find lighting setups that are easy to replicate and which produce gorgeous results. The photographers explain how each shot was used, whether in print or display advertising, multiple media, or as part of a portfolio, and touch on their preferred post-processing technique, and how this relates to the lighting of the image.
Chris Gatcum has many years’ experience as a photographer, journalist, book editor and author: his first book for Ilex was Creative Digital Photography: 52 Weekend Projects, which is currently on its third UK printing and has been published in six foreign languages. As a photographer, he has a keen interest in traditional processing, macro photography, alternative techniques, and still life. Location: E.Sussex, UK
Packed with the unambiguous information that student and professional photographers need, and full of stunning shots from some of the most respected names in the business, Light & Shoot 50 Fashion Photos will prove invaluable as a sourcebook and practical reference.
■ Specially commissioned diagrams demystify the art of lighting and are easily understood and replicated ■ An introduction to equipment will help you decide when to buy lights or hire them, and make the most of what you already have ■ Features the work of some of the biggest names in international fashion photography, like Perou, Rankin, Raul Higuera, Ollie & Capaldi, and Catlin Bellah.
SPECIFICATION
The Ilex Press Ltd
Publication date May 2011 Trim size h 255mm x w 235mm Extent 144pp Approx 25,000 words Illustrations 60 pictures and 200 diagrams Color 4x4 Binding Paperback with flaps ISBN 978-1-907579-14-1 Price £17.99
210 High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 2NS, England phone +44 (0) 1273 403124 fax +44 (0) 1273 487441 e-mail sales@ilex-press.com www.ilex-press.com