Are You a Thermostat or a Thermometer
Are you a thermostat or a thermometer?
These two objects may seem to be very closely related, but they so radically different in their function. It is important to understand that you are one of the two. Everyone is.
The function of a thermometer is to gauge the temperature in a room. As the temperature goes up or down the thermometer reflects that. It accurately displays the atmosphere around it.
A thermostat sets the temperature in a room. This is the device that sets the atmosphere.
Which are you?
As a photographer you will run into all kinds of situations where melodrama and emotion can run rampant and destroy the shoot environment. The question is whether or not your actions and mindset reflect the chaos or control it. Do you set the tone or are you an accurate gauge of it?
Being a thermostat has its responsibilities. You may be the actual cause of the chaos. If you are melodramatic or unprofessional you can drag the thermometers along with you. They will reflect the mood that you set. When things get crazy ask yourself why. Are you the cause or the solution? Are you a part of the chaos or a part of setting a new and more productive tone?
During one of the TV series that I produced one of the cast members was causing all kinds of trouble from the start. She was always ready to bring new drama and trouble to the set. She constantly complained about small problems that she could easily overcome and manage. On one occasion she showed up in the makeup room and the makeup artists were running a little behind. She turned a minor issue into an explosion. All she needed to do was wait a few minutes for her turn. Instead he turn her minor inconvenience into a mess where she was more interested in placing blame and exposing the fact that things were running a little behind than working things out. She was setting the tone. She was being a thermostat. She was making the atmosphere too hot. A few others immediately jumped into the fray and reflected the temperature in the room until someone stepped in and cooled the situation down.
There are four possibilities with the option of being a thermostat or thermometer – two as a thermostat and two more options as a thermometer.
Thermometer
• Reflect a negative atmosphere
• Reflect a positive atmosphere
Thermostat
• Set a negative atmosphere
• Set a positive atmosphere
It is a fantastic thing to be a thermometer in a positive atmosphere. As you reflect that positivity the room temperature stays positive. You have no effect on the room, but you are a part of the positive environment. Being a thermometer in a positive atmosphere is not a bad thing at all. The negative flip side is pretty obvious.
Thermostats set the tone. It is fine to not always be actively setting the temperature though. When the temperature is right a thermostat does nothing. If the environment starts to change it kicks on and regulates the environment. It is there waiting to kick into action when needed.
An honest self assessment may not be comfortable. Think about the environment where you spend most of your time operating. Is it full of drama? Is it chaotic? If so then you are not setting a better tone. So many times I hear people that say “I hate drama, but it surrounds me.” Does it really? What is the single constant in all of those situations? You. It is somewhat funny how people will melodramatically express that they hate drama or angrily speak of a negative relationship. Set the tone.
What if you have two thermostats in one room? If they do not work together they will battle each other until they wear out and break. What happens to a broken thermostat? It is replaced. It is best to try to work in conjunction with other leaders in a situation. Try cooperating and if that won’t work understand that the situation may be beyond control. If you try to control an uncontrollable environment you will wear yourself out for no gain. It is best to remove yourself from some situations all together.
Keep in mind that “it’s not my fault” and “it was out of my control” are the battle cries of the melodramatic. If those words are exiting your lips often you are not a thermostat. You are a thermometer.
As a photographer it is your job to control your set. It is your responsibility to keep things under control on your set. If you aren’t the thermostat you are at the mercies of too many outside influences. Those on your shoot need to understand that you are ultimately responsible for a successful outcome. Set the tone before the day of the shoot. Let everyone know what the temperature will be in the room and that you won’t be working in an environment that isn’t positive. You won’t regret it. Set a positive but professional tone and your final images will reflect the environment that you set.
Putting Together a Great Photography Website
Tips on putting together a powerful website.
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Not A”muse”d
Since the first drop of paint dripped from a brush or the first spot of clay dried on a sculptor’s hand, the muse has been a part of our world. I am sure that some cave drawings can be found where the artist tended to use the same subject repeatedly because that subject provided inspiration.
What is a muse? A muse is the source of an artist’s inspiration. An artist often falls in love with their muse because they are so deeply moved by that subject. What I want to discuss is what part of the artist is deeply moved by a muse.
I have come across many photographers that seemingly fall head over heels for so many of the models that they work with. They gush about how the latest model is just so stunning and unbelievable. They are perfect in so many ways. “You just won’t believe how perfect.”
Really?
Most of the time that model is deeply moving a part of that photographer, but it is rarely the seat of creativity that is stimulated. A muse is not merely a source of physical arousal. A muse stirs within an artist something new and something far deeper than anything found in their trousers. A new world of images and visions flood the photographer’s creative heart when a muse is encountered. Muses are not something you run into often. I think THAT is the ultimate judge of whether you have found a muse. Do your images of that model make both you and others reevaluate your talent?
I can only name a few models that have honestly truly moved me to new heights of creativity. I can think of many models that had truly stunning beauty, but only a few that changed my talent simply by working with them. It isn’t easy to find a true muse. You tend to stumble into one and might not even recognize how special that subject is immediately. You might think, “Wow!” but you might not understand how your photography has changed right off the bat. It may take a second shoot where again you and others all see a marked, clear and obvious difference in your images. Your muse won’t just move you. Your muse will move others through your creativity.
I have been shooting for around twenty two years. If I were to count on my fingers the number of true muses that I have had in my life I would be left with one hand uncounted and a good part of the other hand also unused.
Long for a muse. They are special and they change your creative life. If you are familiar with my portfolio and can picture certain images, think about why those images come to mind. How many different models are there in those images?
It is clear to me that the most powerful creative tool you will ever have at your disposal is not a camera, a location or lighting. These things are all critical to great images. A true muse has no equal. When you do find that special muse you have found the reason that you shoot. You have come across inspiration and something that moves you into a new visual world. It can’t be faked, planned, manufactured or purchased. You can spend your life trying to emulate what you found in a particular muse and that is a wonderful part of photography, but when all is said and done value the special gift of a muse. Enjoy the new creative world where you can adventure. Nurture that relationship and glean from it every drop of creativity that you can.
Don’t think that falling for every model is the same thing. Aim higher. A muse is so much more.
Studio Lighting and Your Wallet
I have been a professional photographer for 22 years and one thing that I learned many years ago is to not be cheap when it comes to lenses. Go ahead and pay more, it’s worth it. Camera bodies are usually a little more flexible. A good quality DSLR can be found in the mid-range area. Lighting is something entirely different.
I have had the opportunity to work with top of the line lighting and also with lighting that is much (MUCH) less costly. What I have found is that price has little effect on your final image.
Pretend for a moment that you mortgage the house and shell out for some really expensive German gear. It recycles a little faster and the consistency is a (very) little better from one flash to another. You can drive a truck over the equipment and it will still work.
Now take that same photographer only this time they don’t mortgage house. Instead they stock up on less expensive lighting. We aren’t talking cheap. We are talking less expensive.
If you look at the final images from that photographer I doubt you will find much if any difference at all no matter which lights they used. This photographer may have to wait a second longer to shoot, which in most caes makes no difference at all. He will have to avoid running the truck over the lights, but now he has no mortgage on the house. He can acquire more lighting, spend less and still get the same images.
Some lights are poor quality. A little bit of research can help you weave through this maze of lighting.
I shoot exclusively with Westcott Lighting. I used to shoot with a very expensive brand of lighting and the truth is that I really just can’t see a difference other than in price. I also used to work with Alien Bees. I am not going to sit here and tell you that they are bad lighting. They aren’t. I just found that the quality and price of Westcott is more appealing. They are better quality. They are relatively inexpensive and still have the feel of higher end lighting and function fantastically.
The appeal of expensive lighting is the same appeal in owning a super expensive car. A Bentley will get you from point A to point B just like a Ford Focus. That Bentley sure makes ya feel good though doesn’t it? Same goes with lighting. The one argument to be made is that there are definitely marked differences in comfort and amenities with the Bentley. The differences are far less noticeable with less expensive lighting.
A tech guru and gear geek can certainly wax eloquent about how great the differences are between the lighting companies. I had a buddy once go on for a long time about the differences between his expensive Nike golf ball and a less expensive Titelist. Which golf ball does a pro choose to play with? The one that endorses them – as long as they can perform at the top of their game with it. The same goes as a photographer.
Westcott has chosen me as one their Top Endorsed Pros. I work with them because they endorse me and I can shoot at the top of my game with them. The results of my shoots are no worse between them and the uber expensive lighting I used to work with. I could be endorsed elsewhere, but I chose Westcott. The customer service is so much better than that expensive company that I used to work with and that matters to me a lot more than the recycle time.
I was speaking with a rep from a high end lighting company and he relayed a story about a day at his company’s factory. He explained how he passed a room where there was a bank of lighting from an inexpensive company that was firing over and over and how all of the engineers were trying to figure out how the quality could be so good at such an inexpensive price. You won’t find that story on that company’s marketing materials.
No matter what company you choose to go with ask yourself if the cost/benefit is really worth it. Drive the Bentley if ya can, but don’t get confused. It won’t change the destination, but it will make you feel more important. Just get ready to be saddled by the bill.
Sample After Metting Letter
Photographing Celebrities
In the 20 years I have been a photographer I have had the opportunity to work with several celebrities from the music and sports world. Whether it is a magazine cover or spread, an ad or promotional shot for the celebrity themselves, the experience is usually one that requires a great deal of patience.
Rule #1: Celebrities Are Just Normal People – Don’t be in awe and don’t be so star struck that you forget how to be a good photographer. Light falls on the face of a celebrity just like it does on anyone else. Shadows don’t dance differently based on number of Oscars, Emmys or Grammys. You still have a person in front of your camera and you need to capture a fantastic image for them.
Rule #2: Celebrities Are Not Just Normal People – Once you have a firm grasp on how must think about the person in front of your lens remember that they are actually a famous person. They are coddled and taken care of most of the day and will expect to be thought of and treated as royalty. They will probably show up late, give you mere minutes to capture an image that they expect to dazzle everyone that sees it.
Take your ego out of the equation when you shoot celebrities. Unless you are one of the top celebrity photographers in L.A. or New York you will need to check your pride at the door and just do the job at hand and reap the rewards later. You will not be treated as a great photographer. You will be treated as though you are lucky to be there, and the truth is that they may be right.
Sports stars are intriguing to shoot. They can be so confident and commanding in their sport, dominating other powerful athletes with consistency, but they are amazingly vulnerable on camera. This is not a comfortable situation for them. They may be able to tear down a backboard or throw an amazingly precise pass with a 300 lb. lineman bearing down on them, but they are not comfortable on camera many times. The studio is usually not their ideal field of play and photography is not their arena. If you put any powerful creature in a vulnerable position their actions can be unpredictable.
Some may be surprisingly gracious, but that is rare. Shaquille O’Neil was actually fun to photograph. Julius Irving was hilarious and teased my makeup artist while we shot a magazine cover. These are exceptions, not the rule. Most celebrities just want out of there as quickly as possible. My shoot with Grammy winner Nelly lasted just a few minutes. The preparation for the shoot took all day. I can honestly say the he spent more time getting a haircut in my studio than he did in front of the camera, and I couldn’t even see any difference before or after the haircut.
Celebrity photography is entertaining and the rewards are certainly worth the challenges and headaches that come to pass.
Developing Your Personal Style
Have you ever looked at a photograph and immediately known who shot it? That photographer has a style so clear that it is unmistakable. Herb Ritts had a style so identifiable that it launched him from his still fashion work into music videos for artists as renowned as Michael Jackson at the peak of his career. David LaChapelle has a style like that.
There is no real way to define what a photographer’s style is. You can identify characteristics of an individual style, but I don’t think that I have ever heard any style completely defined. A style is as unique as a snowflake. Can you tell me how one snowflake is so radically different from another? It isn’t…yet it is.
The ultimate question is what is YOUR individual style? How do you develop it and refine it?
When I started shooting 20 years ago I used to look at my work and think it had no style. Sometimes black and white, sometimes color, sSometimes higher contrast and other times flat. No discernable style. At least that is what I thought. A few clients came to me and made comments that opened my eyes to what my style actually was. I like to shoot very clean images. I gravitate towards beauty crossed with both fashion and glamour.
While I struggled trying to decide what style I would settle on, one emerged on it’s own. Others could see it before me and the same will go for you. Your style will emerge. You DO have a style. You don’t need to adopt one. Just shoot and it will emerge. Don’t make the usual mistake of trying so hard to adopt a style that your lose what is uniquely you.
Look at photography books and magazines that show the kind of photography you like. Shoot images similar to what you like. Don’t be afraid to fill a folder with pages that you have torn out of magazines and keep it in your camera bag for inspiration when you shoot. You are not copying a shot that inspires you unless you are truly copying absolutely every element in the shot. Take a shot that you like and tweak it. Make it your own. Your style reveals itself.
Some people like black and white and shoot it almost exclusively. Some people have embraced the whole tattooed pinup model genre. Even within those types of shooting there are subtle, but clear differences from one photographer to another. Look at your images. What do you see that you genuinely like? What do you want to improve?
If you spend the bulk of the time looking deeply into your images and the images of others you will find elements that you like. There are poses, lighting techniques, colors, tones and shades, expressions that ring true to you. Experiment with those things and your style will emerge. You already have a style just allow it to come out by not giving up. Pick up that camera and fire away!
Replacing Colors in Photoshop
So You Want To Be A Fashion Photographer
You want to be a fashion photographer? Fashion shooting can offer a rewarding career full of exciting opportunities and experiences. The truth is that it does not come easily. There are countless more opportunities in glamour and wedding photography. Most fashion magazines and modeling agencies prefer working with photographers that are experienced or have a reputation that is already established. Many times the quality of the photography is not as important as the star power of the person behind or in front of the camera.
This is not meant to discourage anyone from choosing this path. Hanging a lantern on the truth makes it easier to face, or at least more difficult to ignore.
The first key to success is to honestly assess your talent. I am not talking about your photographic talent. I am talking about something far more important. Your marketing talent. Is marketing something that you do well? Do you have a natural sense of what is marketable and how to best achieve marketing success? If your answer is not an unquestioned “Yes!” than you are going to struggle in the fashion arena.
Fashion is about what? Art? No. Looking great? No, believe it or not. Fashion is about sales. Sales to who? Young people. What do young people buy? They buy “cool”. Catalog Photography is about sales to the masses. Have you ever seen clothes that come into style that really are ugly, but they are an accepted trend and people wear them for a season anyway. It isn’t about beauty, or style or looking good. It is about sales. The same goes for fashion photography. The truth is that fashion is generally about the “cool” factor. Is the photographer as trendy as the clothes? Are you ready to be, or even able to be what is “cool” in the moment?
These are uncomfortable facts. Any photographer that has worked in the fashion industry has seen it. Someone with no talent becomes all the rage for a short period of time. That photographer comes and goes very quickly. The trick is staying power. There are an extremely small few photographers that last in the fashion world. How do they do it? They learn how to adapt and market themselves differently as time goes by. The know that the “new kid” is gonna be cooler by nature, so they have to find ways to make their age become part of what is cool about them.
“Huh?”
Think about it. Sean Connery won People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” tag at age 59. How? He understood how to market himself. His age was not something he hid. He embraced it, and used it. He became that experienced man, with character and strength. The average age of the other winners is over 20 years younger. So much for character and experience. Fashion is about youth , and more importantly “cool”. Selling the clothes that the average 50 year old wears is NOT fashion. The catalog industry is radically different and offers many more opportunities.
So, back to marketing for fashion. Like with any marketing you identify your target market. Is it modeling agencies? Fashion magazines? Who is running these companies? What are they like? Do you fit what they are buying?
I learned this lesson the hard way in South Beach many years ago. I walked into a modeling agency and they were not interested in working with me even though they said they liked y work. In a horribly refreshing moment the booker let the truth slip out of their mouth. “Your work is great, but you don’t look like a photographer. You look like a guy from Colorado.” The next day I put a bandana over my head and changed my nice clothes for jeans and an old t-shirt and returned to that same agency. “Much better! Let me send you some models to test.”
This is an extreme example, but make no mistake that when you choose fashion you are choosing an industry that thrives on being trendy. Are you prepared to enter that field and ride the trends? Be honest with yourself. It is an amazingly fun and exciting field to operate in. You meet celebrities and go to fantastic parties and see some wonderful things. Just understand the facts when you enter the arena and be ready for the ride. It is rewarding, and uncomfortable.
Now, stop reading and get your marketing plan together.
Taking Control of Your Set
It’s never easy doing something new. It’s never easy feeling confident when you aren’t completely positive about what you are doing. Such a situation has become a huge stumbling block to far too many good up-and-coming shooters; and, honestly, it highlights a skill that every photographer needs to master as much as any photographic technique. What’s the skill?–The ability to control your set.
On a typical photo shoot, there are a lot of different elements that come into play. Lighting, styling the set, posing the model, crew, staff clients and–oh, by the way–your equipment are only the tip of the iceberg. Personalities can often be the greatest obstacle to achieving a great results.
How many times has it happened? A model walks in the door looking pretty rough and immediately begins sharing her drama about her horrible boyfriend or how late she was up last night partying. How many times has a makeup artist slowed the process of a shoot by chatting away about the latest unrelated melodrama?
The most common mistake I see with many photographers is inaction. The fear of controlling your set is crippling. Photographers must understand this simple principle: the images created are your responsibility. You are accountable, and ultimately it is you who needs to control the outcome of a shoot.
Keeping a reasonably professional environment does not make you a jerk. You are not the makeup artist’s therapist. You are not the model’s counselor. The MUA and model may want you to play a violin while they cry about life’s troubles; but you are a photographer, not a violinist. You are there to capture images with impact. Ultimately everyone is relying on you for those images. No client will say, “Oh, these images aren’t very good, but it’s ok. The model broke up with her boyfriend the night before. It’s not your fault.”
Furthermore, you are not on a set to entertain a model’s boyfriend or even her parents. I have personally run into several circumstances where a meddling mother was interjecting her own opinions while she watched a shoot. She started directing her daughter while on set. Because of this distraction, I had to ask the mother to leave the set. I was not being a jerk but, rather, was taking responsibility for doing my job. The mother’s intrusion was affecting the shoot.
The key to everything is not WHAT you do, but rather HOW you do it. First, I casually warned the mother in a light-hearted way. “All right, Mom! I can do a shoot with you later, but right now let me do my job.” That caution said with a smile and laugh is a great beginning. Next you say, “All right. I know this is fun, but I need you to let me do my job. I am the one looking through the camera. “ Then comes the final, more serious warning–“Mom, I’m going to have to ask you to leave if you get involved again.”
The same goes for boyfriends or whoever. Have you ever had a makeup artist become too opinionated on set? Just say, “Hey! You can always buy a camera and do this yourself, you know. You did a great job with the makeup. Let me do the same with the photography.” Said with a smile, these comments can solve a lot of problems.
Now, back to the model with the boyfriend drama…Just say to her, “I’ll be happy to listen after the shoot, but right now I need you to focus on what we are doing here.”
Taking immediate control of a set in a nice way does not mean that you are being harsh. It doesn’t mean that you don’t care or aren’t a nice person. It does mean that you are concerned about the images you are responsible for creating.
There is time for the personal stuff when the lights are shut down. Until then, focus on the task at hand.