Rigo and Pascal

Is it just me, or guys are less self conscious in front of the camera ? 

Two very different men, two fun shoots with very different styles !

You can click on the collages to see them a lil' bit bigger.

Colour or Black and White ?

Black and white is really used for specific purposes, often to give the landscape or portrait a timeless feel, or to really stylise a picture that otherwise can lack dimension.

I don't use black and white frequently. I normally desaturate and add more contrast to my pictures or just leave the true colours in. 

But as I was working on a selection of shots that I took during a recording session, i realised that I do use black and white when colours and their variety are too distracting and take away the actual content of the picture. For instance I shot with no flash since I had a video light on my hotshoe and I just took a few snapshots every now and again, I didn't want to switch from the video light to the flash. So the colour balance is less than perfect and I tend to look at that flaw more than I look at the actual picture. Turned into black and white and your eyes aren't distracted by the colours, their richness and clashes. You can only see the shapes, the range between light and shadow, and in this picture, the face and the scene. 

Also when talking about a series of pictures, if the colour balance is very varied from shots to shots because they were taken at different times / conditions, then black and white would be a quick fix option too, though it is sometimes worth spending an extra time neutralising all the pictures.

 Here's another example of a picture that I'm not crazy about in colour, but when turned into black and white, the colour imbalance is removed and in a way it is about revealing the true nature of the picture, what it is about, just like when you shoot you remove so many elements of the reality in front of you to reveal just what matters to you at the moment.

Sometimes I am torn between the love for colours and the flawlessness that black and white bring to a picture. A while back I took a series of portraits of a Russian poet, Mary D. A brave woman who fought strong all her life and she asked me to take a flattering portrait for a funding application of some sorts . 

One of the pictures that she chose was this one because we both loved her eyes, very innocently blue and lighting her whole face, and the touch of red from her top. 

As you can see on the unworked picture on the top, there's also an awful lot of red cast and red on her cheeks that compete with the beauty of her eyes. 

I had worked on that (quite brutally I think now that I have a second look) but despite the fact that I love the colours on the picture, I still think a contrasty black and white does her more justice and the colour one because suddently we just see the intensity of the eyes first.

On the importance of a model release form

Not happy to give up my idea of videoing my daily cycling pilgrimage, I just found a little toy that could do the job while also being a very versatile companion that could do more than just bike vids...since the weather is convincing me that the comfort of the bus is better than the freedom of the bike these days, that will be for later.

Moving on to a more serious subject : model release...when, what, how, why...

I met 2 lovely ladies who run their studio not far from where I live and I was telling them about the project I did on Grafton St, over 2 years ago, where I stopped random people on street and asked them to pose for me.

At that time all I wanted was a fun challenge that would hopefully lead to an exhibition and a bit of publicity for myself - and the outcome was great, I got 3 very good friends, 1 wedding, 3 of my best boudoir shoots ever, my favorite baby shoot, an interesting collaboration with a colourful Russian Poet and indeed a sucessful exhibition out of it. 

But when I set up the white backdrop on Grafton for the first time, I had no idea where it was going to bring me, it was all about the synergy of me and the people of Dublin :-D So I also wasn't sure what I was or would be using these pictures for and thus I realised it was vital that I get people to sign a model release. 

It can be quite a tricky exercice : how to word the document so that it covers all uses you may have in the future, in a clear straightforward way, while avoiding giving the impression that you intend to abuse of their image. It really has to be a very fair contract that no party feel misled or offered an imbalanced deal. Similarly convincing strangers that you are trustworthy enough to be given the permission to use one's image, and that the project is really worth overcoming natural suspicious or shyness about the whole thing.

I really found a mad connection between how I felt myself (since I was working for a few hours during 4 afternoons) and the responses I got from people, no matter how I pushed myself to be as friendly as a Concern fundraising chap - wait, that's not a good analogy...anyway, I REALLY always gave my most convincing self and if my head said "it's raining anyway, he should say no, I ll get a miserable look on his face" or "I wouldn't say yes if I were him, I mean, his picture might end up in an exhibition and I'd hate that idea!!" - that's a personal problem I have with my own image. I'm a Gemini and this shows my biggest duplicity - then 9 times out of 10 the person in front of me would say"no thanks"... Considering the small fall rate (I have an eye for the exhibitionnists and the good people I guess !), this really meant that how much I thought I wasn't showing it on the outside, what was going on, self doubt, slight guilt, dismotivation or disbelief, was leaking out !

Anyway, I mostly asked for the form to be signed after the snaps because by that time the rapport is there, we had a laugh and the stranger have a vague idea of what I've done and knows me a bit more.

Having the model release forms helps me going forward with this project in the directions I wanted with the confidence that I was not going to upset anyone or give anyone who participated the idea that I misled or abused their trust.

Here's the document that I tailor made for the project. It is quite a simple release form but it covered all I wanted and didn't include jargons that even I could struggle understanding, never mind explaining.  Why would you use complicated words if your intentions are quite simple ?

Portrait studios like Venture have their own way to get a legal consent from their clients for potential future use of any picture in an advertising or marketing use, in the form of small prints at the bottom of the order form which certainly most clients sign without paying attention ! I'm sure they do try to get in touch with the client prior to the release of the picture.

For several reasons, and maybe this is specific to Ireland, I'm not sure, release forms (as well as written permissions for the location etc) and letting the public know when a shooting is on is more crucial when videographing than photography in order to stay away from troubles.

Last year I shot a short documentary about how a great guy called John gradually lost his sight when he was a teenager and how his experience of nature changed since (by the way, check MyTube in a week or so, I am working on the new edit of this short !). Although there was a 200% trust between us since he also participated in my "Vision" project, I still asked him to sign a document (which I read to him), especially because his relatives could have been overly protective and misjudge a genuine interest in his experience of senses for something not as ...

A South African instructor from the NCBI once told me he had been reported to the police by a visually impaired's neighbour who was overly concerned about the presence of this stranger !

So here's the much thorough document I used for the video. It was given to me by Deirdre Kerins who works on documentaries that are broadcasted on TV.

A final note to say that getting release forms signed is worthless if you don't reference them (who's who), file them and back them up properly ! Plan ahead how you are going to organise your data, whether it is your footage or the paperwork, and be consistent so you know all is where it should be at all time. 

 Share your own ideas and experience on this, I'd love to know !

Portrait photographer, Dublin,    event video, boudoir photography, portraiture, studio photographer,   baby photoshoot,  creative photography,   Ireland, advanced photoshop retouching,  irish portrait photographer, romantic photoshoot, female photographer,family portraits, HD DSLR video, corporate headshots, baby pictures, videography,

Pre-baby pictures

Babies grow up SO fast, it's overwhelming ! 

There's so many reasons to photograph their progress as months go by. Parents often only wants pictures of their baby, and being in the frame is more optional for them...well, their lifes are run by these little princes and princesses after all.

Having a pregnancy photo session is even more important because that's the first picture of your baby where YOU are completely in the frame. It's such a special moment, so short (well, in terms of calendar months, not in emotional time obviously !)

I particularly love these sessions because there is so many emotions in the air and for the mum, it's a bit of a break and a time to really visualise life after the birth, when the family will open the album and look at mummy with a big belly. 

I offer an all-in voucher with the shoot, a cool slideshow / video and a framed pic or a selection of digital pictures, which a great treat or a nice gift for mothers to be !

Why not trying a different style for your baby pic ? :-D

:-D Get a baby session gift voucher here

Getting a decent studio equipment

I created my blog account probably 1 1/2 year ago, never got motivated enough to prioritise my time on writing anything until now. What triggered it was to finally put the pieces of the jigsaw together without cheating too much on the corners : I bought a studio set for about 1K € (from Barker Photographic which were fantastic customer service-wise and price-wise) and so far it seems like I made the right decisions for what I had in mind !

3 years ago, as I was a student looking to get more experience of studio lighting, I bought a very cheap kit on Ebay...one of those with 3 lights and full set of accessories from Hong Kong for ...300€ if I remember well...postage included. Needless to say it only lasted a year but a year of good service, very handy to play around and learn despite its unreliance. I kept the stands, the gels and the umbrellas from it.

At work and while in college, I've used different kits, mostly Bowens (500, quite powerful) and Elinchrom ranger Q (very handy to travel but too light and tiny to my taste to summarise my feelings) and so I knew what I wanted to myself...trustworthy lights fit right in between the power and speed of an expensive pro kits and the value for money of cheap starters kits. I don't work under time pressure or in large studios so a decent power (400Ws) and recycling time (1.3s -0.4s) is fair enough for me.

I bought the Elinchrom Dlite 4 "it" kit that comes with 2 X 66cm softboxes, stands, modeling lights and the skyport transmitter. Regarding the kit itself, comes in a handy tube bag, not as neat as the Ranger's case but that will do. The softboxes are really easy to assemble. It's actually the first time I really consider that accessory as portable. There is room for improvement in the quality of the diffusion of the light though, with the fabric that is used. Having the comfort of the cable free system with the skyport transmitter is great. I used to have my own transmitter receiver but that wasn't always working and I ended up using a cable (and kept stumbling on it or having to reconnect it every 5 shots)

Light accessories, particularly anything that isn't a standard softbox or an umbrella, can be quite expensive if your budget focuses on another part of your business, so I was delighted to find these guys  EOC Camera Accessories on ebay (yes I am a slight ebay freak !) and I got a couple more cool light attachements.