Theron theory

22/08/08 23:11 Filed in: Technique

Theron Shaw, photography by Mark Lyndersay.

Ace jazz guitarist Theron Shaw visited the studio to consult on his new CD. Like every artist with a product on the shelf, he wanted an album cover that would make people stop, look and purchase. Given the nature of the jazz market, which focuses on appreciation of an individual's talents, we agreed that putting him on the cover was our best bet.

I wanted to capture some of the introspection and passion he brings to his playing, the delicate symbiosis between performer and instrument that inspires non-players to the adventures of air guitar.
Theron is the real thing, and he's too busy working his frets to engage in antics onstage.
We shot a few variations on the theme of musician making music, but the image on the cover was always the one I envisioned for the cover.

Today's CD covers have to embrace the reality that the physical media will be short-lived. Even legal owners of a CD will normally rip the file to MP3 format and the serious digital music aficionado will embed the CD cover image into the digital file.

I'm hoping that Theron goes to electronic distribution with this album, which makes a simple, easy to read image particularly crucial, since album images have now effectively shrunk from 12 inches to five inches and now down to just about an inch square in software that previews album art on a computer or MP3 player.
Since the pose was going to be relatively passive, the image had to pop though light. I opted for a dramatic, controlled staging of the scene.

The lighting plan is keyed with a large softbox just a few angles wider than 90 degrees to the camera position at right. This offered broad illumination to the subject but threw much of his left side into deep shadow.

To pop his left side off the black background, I added a second light with no modifiers to his left. This hard light source gives the left of his body a defining line of light to separate it from the background.

To bring the focus subtly in on the business at hand, I used a single light with a 20 degree grid almost directly over the camera position to brighten his left hand as he plays.
In the final image, which will have to be readable at the size of this thumbnail, artist Richie Joseph, an old school friend and fine designer, has replaced the black background with a nice blue glow that lifts the final art nicely.

Tags: Studio

Why I hate shooting tethered

12/08/08 20:29 Filed in: Opinion

Just so we're on the same page, shooting tethered is the practice of connecting a digital camera to your computer system and establishing utility links between the computer and camera.

This is pretty easy to do, since today's digital cameras are as much computing devices as they are light tight optical boxes. You camera is very much a peripheral of your computer system, so being able to control it from the desktop shouldn't be surprising.
My own experience with tethered shooting comes out of two projects, one a copy job that tethering the computer made a bit easier and the other was a commercial project that proved to be an appalling distraction.

It's one thing, I've found, to confirm that an inanimate object has been recorded correctly and quite another to work in a situation that creates a maddening dynamic that invites input from everyone in the room. This group think distracts attention from what I like to think of as the magic zone, the space that I work to create in an environment of light and human focus to draw the best from a subject.

I don't have too many pretensions of art when it comes to my photography. I work hard at it and try to make every photo a bit better than the ones that I've done before. If I happen to make something that's considered artistic, or at the very least attractive along the way, then great.

But what I do believe, is that once I have a brief and a subject, I'm in control and the idea of somebody looking at a screen and hollering "wait, wait" for some nitpicking reason isn't particularly alluring to me.
I do review my work with clients in studio and sometimes on location. I'll occasionally zoom in using the preview LCD on a particularly good expression or pose and show the subject what they look like on the back of the camera. That's sometimes a pivotal part of building trust and confidence in a session. On most studio shoots, I try to review a full take with clients before they leave to get a sense of what they like.

I really like PhotoMechanic for this. The software generates previews of 2GB folder of RAW files fast, which is what you need when a client is looking over your shoulder.
I know that some clients really prefer to work this way with photographers, viewing the shoot as it progresses, but at some level, it just feels like a lack of trust and I'm used to working with film and the occasional Polaroid as the sum total of pre-development confirmation.

After three decades of working in this business, it just feels like a step backward in the process of photography and while there are environments in which shooting tethered represents a great advance on the axis of Polaroids and prayer, my working methods aren't usually enhanced by bit for bit border inspection.

Tags: Technique