Chromasia Training: Blog

The GPP Shoot-out, 2012

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:40:39 +0200

Every year Gulf Photo Plus – the premier photography training company in Dubai and the Middle East – runs two major international events: one in March, the other in November. I've been lucky enough to be an instructor at every one since 2007 and have run workshops on various aspects of post-production (e.g. Creating Dramatic Images, Understanding the Curves tool, and Enhancing Portraits), a Landscape Photography workshop on the shooting and post-production of desert and urban landscapes, how to shoot the architecture of Dubai, a crash course in HDR photography, and a whole range of other workshops and seminars. The November 'FotoWeekend' events are relatively small scale – around four of five instructors – but the March event brings together a much bigger group. This year there were 13 of us – me, Zack Arias, David Burnett, Greg Heisler, David Hobby, Chris Hurtt, Bobbi Lane, Joe McNally, Louis Pang, Martin Prihoda, Claire Rosen, Steve Simon and David Tejada – and, as always, it was a delight to meet up with those I know well and a pleasure to meet those who were attending GPP for the first time. I could spend a long time writing nice things about GPP, including how well it's run by Mohamed and Hala and the rest of the GPP team, and could spend an equal amount of time writing about how much I enjoy taking part, how great it is to work with capable and enthusiastic students, and how much I enjoy taking photographs in and around Dubai ... but I won't, at least not now, because what I want to talk about in this post is one specific aspect of the March event: the shoot-out.The shoot-out – a competition between two or three of the instructors – takes place during the closing ceremony and is structured around two key points. First, each photographer only gets 20 minutes to plan, shoot and edit their shot. Add to this that they're shooting in a relatively dark auditorium, in front of hundreds of people and their fellow instructors, and you can begin to see why this isn't a task for the faint-hearted. But it gets worse. Right up until the start of their 20 minute slot they don't know what or who they're going to be asked to shoot. In 2010, for example, Zack Arias, David Hobby and Joey L were asked to photograph two models, both of which had to be incorporated into the shot, while in 2011 Zack, David and Greg Heisler were asked to photograph a Tanoura dancer. Oh, and throughout the 20 minutes, in addition to being expected to keep the audience informed about what they're thinking and what they're trying to achieve, they all get a running and less than complimentary commentary, provided in 2012 by Joe McNally, David Burnett and Zack Arias. So, no pressure at all :) If you're interested the GPP video for the 2010 shoot-out is here (including the infamous Joey L polaroid), and the one for 2011 is here. If you watch them both I'm sure you'll agree that they all did a great job. 2012 followed the same format as previous shoot-outs, but with an interesting twist; the photographers were asked to produce a self-portrait, depicting both their essence and how they like to be portrayed. If you want to see how each of the photographers reacted to the news, just watch the GPP 2012 shoot-out video here. David Hobby was first up. Here's how he described the shot in a recent blog post: "Being a nonstop blogger and hopeless iDevice addict, I photographed myself using (and lit by) my iPhone. Zack Arias did the honors on shutter after I set it up. Fill and separation light was courtesy a pair of iPads which were VAL'd just out of the frame. (One separating my shoulder and one splashing my foot.) I thought it would be cool to mix things up and do the photo in the dim auditorium without using strobes. I was happy with the result and thought it was a departure from the previous shootout images." David shot 53 images (he chose the 39th as his final shot), educated and entertained us, and produced an awesome shot at the end of his 20 minute slot.

Click the image to enlarge		Click the image to enlarge

David Hobby		Martin Prihoda

Next up was Martin Prihoda. When Martin came into the auditorium he wheeled in a trolley of props: a small tree and some cushions. This seemed like a rather random collection of stuff but it turned out that he thought they might be asked to photograph a faloncer and his falcon. No such luck. Instead, after a minute or so of pondering, Martin chose to light-paint himself, sitting on the cushions beneath the tree. He painted the tree and surrounding area and Bobbi Lane painted him. Given a few hours or so this still wouldn't have been easy, but it would have been manageable, but with only 20 minutes to set up, shoot and edit Martin set himself a serious challenge. He shot 20 frames (a phenomenal amount given the amount of effort involved with each one), and chose the last frame as his final shot. He definitely pulled it off. Which brings us to Greg Heisler. If you're not familiar with Greg, check out his website. His portraits and essays have featured in Life, Esquire, Gentlemen's Quarterly, Geo, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and the New York Times Magazine. He has also produced over 70 cover portraits for Time. In short, he's a legend. Greg started out by saying that he didn't want to photograph himself, and then spent the next five minutes or so wandering around. He chatted to the audience, and to David Burnett and Zack Arias, but didn't take a shot, and didn't seem anywhere close to even knowing what shot he was going to take, … or so I thought. Ten minutes in and he started to set things up. He placed David Burnett's 4x5 camera under a soft box in front of some white seamless and balanced his hat on top. It fell off a few times, so he put it back on and adjusted the camera lens to support it. He checked his composition through his viewfinder and metered the lighting – "f/13. Hmmm. Can we go higher than that? No? OK." – but still didn't shoot a single frame. At this point, with well over half his time gone, people were starting to get a little bit nervous. He wandered around some more then sent his assistant back to the staff room to fetch his glasses. He taped them to a light stand and placed them between his camera and the camera and hat so he could shoot through them. But still no shot. He then spent another minute or so checking his composition, moving the glasses, and shifting the hat slightly (which fell off a few more times). By this point, with just a few minutes left, a lot of the audience, including me, could hardly bear to watch. Surely he wasn't going to blow it? With just two minutes left he finally pressed the shutter. As the image popped up on the screen (he was shooting tethered) a huge cheer went up from the crowd. He'd nailed it in one: an iconic shot, instantly recognisable as a representation of him. He did take a couple of extra frames, more for our benefit than his, but we knew he'd got the shot with his first frame.

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Greg Heisler

I wish I had the words to convey exactly how it felt to watch Greg work, but I don't. Suffice to say that we all knew we had witnessed a genius at work: 18 minutes, one frame, and a utterly perfect shot. Without a shadow of a doubt it was the most extraordinary, spine-tingling and awe-inspiring piece of photography I have ever witnessed. If you'd like to watch an abridged version of the 2012 GPP shoot-out you can do so here.

Critique Slot Screencast #7

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:23:35 +0200

If you're a subscriber to our photography and post-production tutorials you'll be familiar with our Critique Slot Screencasts. These are critiques of our subscribers' images, normally about an hour long, and split into two sections. In the first part I work through and critique the edit supplied by one of our subscribers – explaining the changes that were made, offering alternative solutions, and so on – while in the second I re-edit the image from the original RAW file. For this image, supplied by Doug Stroud, the processing centred around Doug's creative aims. Specifically, whether it was possible to create an increased tension between the foreground and background: the happy/innocent children at play, offset against a moody and ominous background. If you'd be interested in taking a look at a low-res version (730px wide rather than 1280px), and finding out how I would process this image, read on …After watching the screencast, If you have any thoughts, comments or questions, just add them below. I'd be particularly interested to hear if a) you found it useful, and b) would like me to post more content like this in the future. Let me know.

Critique Slot Screencast #7 from David Nightingale on Vimeo.

For further information on our Critique Slot Screencasts and other photography and post-production tutorials take a look at the following links: http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/ http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/critique_slot_screencasts.php

Welcome to our new blog!

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 10:41:35 +0200

Does the world need another photography blog? Probably not, but I'm going to create one anyway. Read on to find out why …

My first blog image

Back in 2003, while working as a psychology lecturer in a UK university, I created a photoblog. Since then a lot has changed: I became a part-time pro in 2005 and then a full-time photographer in 2007. Shortly afterwards I combined my teaching and photography experience by providing online tutorials and workshops around the world. I've also written three books on photography that have been translated into several languages. Over that time my photoblog hasn't changed much: there are a few more social media buttons (Facebook was created the year after I started blogging), the comment system has been updated, and there have been a few other tweaks along the way, but essentially it has remained much as it was when I created it in 2003. I post an image, I talk about it, people leave comments, and so it goes on. All of which is great for focussing on individual images, less good when I want to talk about other things. I do cover a range of other topics – concerned with photography in general, specific bits of gear, the events I attend and organise, and so on – but it's not very systematic, there's no easy way to find the information, and its focus remains very firmly on the image of the day. What I want to do with this new blog is provide a platform for me to write about all the other aspects of photography that interest me, geared towards providing you with a range of coherent, practical and useful resources. I'll be writing about kit and software and asking for your reviews; discussing how to improve your creative skills (e.g. composition); covering a range of technical topics (exposure, depth of field, etc) and working through a range of post-production techniques you need to really make the most of your images. I'll also be including quite a few behind-the-scenes posts, from both my own shoots and the events and workshops I run and attend; previewing some of our tutorials and other teaching resources; interviewing a range of people who I think you would be interested in hearing from; and inviting a range of people to contribute guest posts. If there's anything else you think it would be useful for me to include, let me know in the comments below. Also, tell me what you'd like me to prioritise over the coming months. There's loads of stuff I plan on covering, and I think you'll find most of it useful and interesting, but let me know what you'd like to hear about first. I'd also be extremely grateful if you could help me spread the word about this new blog. I'll be shouting about it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and my photoblog, but it would be great if you could mention it too.