One of the primary guidelines when shooting commercial fashion is to stick with a long lens due to getting a desired lens perspective. I was therefore surprised to hear that my friend was being told otherwise by other photographers, and that one photographer even advised her to get the 24-70 mm lens for fashion photography. My answer was “that’s a great lens for weddings but not for fashion”.

My general understanding of fashion photography is that the models should look as tall as possible; therefore, shooting wide is the last thing you’d wanna do as that would make the models look shorter and stockier. Even an 85 mm, which is considered by many portrait photographers to be the shortest acceptable focal length, is not quite long enough for fashion in my opinion (works pretty well for beauty though). I speak from my own experience after seeing the difference between using an 85 and a 135.

I’m not sure if this next point is true, but I’ve been told that photographers who shoot for fashion magazines such as vogue commonly use focal lengths as high as the 200 mm range. But before you go thinking “the longer the focal length the better”, shooting too long, (beyond 200) image compression will start biting you in the butt, resulting in a dimensionally flat image.

All that being said, there is no “best” lens for fashion photography, simply because there are other factors to consider aside from lens perspective alone. As good as shooting at 200 mm is, unless you’ve the luxury of a costly full-frame sensor and space is never an issue (yea right), it’s not exactly convenient to use. Alternatively the 70-200 mm is a very good lens as you have the convenience of zooming plus being able to go up to 200, the problem of course is that it’s costly (the 2.8 version anyway) and weighs you down after a while. I myself prefer to stick with primes and I personally favor the Canon 100 and 135 mm for my full-frame body.

Of course there are some situations in which shooting long is virtually impossible, such as when you’re trying to shoot from a top-down perspective or when you’re working in tight corners.

If anyone feels otherwise feel free to leave a comment as I’m interested in hearing differing opinions.

Retouching by Gabriele Monte

If you’re one of those professional photographers who are lucky enough to have more work you can handle, there’s at least two things you can do:

1. Turn down extra work because of your swamped schedule.
2. Hire someone to take care of certain tasks so you’ll have more time to either do the things you want or tasks that generate more revenue

All business components of being a professional photographer aside , two things that will invariably demand our time is taking pictures and the retouching that comes afterwards. While I do enjoy retouching images, if I had the choice to either shoot or retouch, I’d always choose the former, and I’d wager that most photographers would feel the same. If you make more money from shooting than retouching, then financially it’s a no-brainer providing you have clients coming in through the roof.

Though I haven’t arrived at the point in my business where I can justify hiring someone to handle all my retouching needs, recently I have been looking around for a retoucher to process photos that I myself would either find too challenging or far too long to touch up. I came across Gabriele Monte’s work on Model Mayhem and I was impressed to say the least. For the record my “before” images don’t usually require this much salvaging, but the makeup artist/hairstylist had to leave early so yea

I have to admit I was a bit hesitant at first about paying someone I didn’t know to retouch my photo, but I was quickly assured that I was dealing with someone who knew what the needs of photographers were, and I was more than happy with the end result.

I know that some of you have considered having someone retouch your photos too, and I just want to say, if you’re able to rationalize the costs, go for it; because if you can find someone whom you can work well with, you won’t have any regrets.

So what are you going to do in the upcoming month to build your portfolio?  Unless you’re a professional photographer who’s fully booked with gigs, you have no excuse not to, not if you want photography to be a means of livelihood. There’s obviously no need to plan as many as ten photo shoots. Whatever you do, just make sure you don’t get too comfortable.

This is the unretouched image

I realized I’ve never made a post about photo retouching so for this entry I thought I’d share a few of my own tried and true methods for beauty retouching.

*Note that I don’t apply all of the following techniques for retouching actor headshots since the industry standard for beauty retouching tends to give the subject a porcelain doll kind of look. Actors on the other hand need to look real.

Some of these steps you’ll be familiar with and some might be new I won’t spend time focusing on what each tool does since there are countless instructional videos for each one. This isn’t so much a tutorial, rather I’m simply sharing what I do.

• The first thing I typically do is remove all the blemishes. This I perform with either the spot healing brush, healing brush, or patch tool. If you’re used to just using one, give the other two a shot and see what results you get.

• The hair is usually the next thing I retouch is hair. Stray hairs are the bane of many a photographer’s existence and I HATE RETOUCHING THEM WITH A PASSION. Okay I’m exaggerating a bit, but it can definitely be a challenge depending on your model’s hair. To retouch hair, I switch between CS5′s spot healing brush with the “content aware” filter on and the cloning tool, depending on what I’m trying to achieve. I also alternate between the opacity, flow, and hardness of the brush. With all that being said, do your absolute best to correct it on camera. This is something for more your hairstylist or assistant to watch out for.

• The next thing I do is create a three-point S-Curve for BOTH the highlights and the shadows so I can control each separately. I achieve this by creating two duplicate layers of my image, set the blending mode of one to “lighten” and the other to “darken” and plant the points in each. If you don’t know what an S-Curve is it’s the single most effective way you can make your image “pop” in an instant. Click here for a tutorial and read the first part.

• Step number four is SKIN SKIN SKIN! Oh there are just so many ways to do this. You might have come across the technique of applying a gaussian filter to a new layer, applying a black layer mask to that layer, and painting back the blurry skin. If you’re taking your photography to a more professional level, I suggest you stay away from that technique as the results you get are quite amateurish. The first thing I do is to select just the model’s skin. There’s many ways of doing this so find out what works best for you. After that, select it and make two duplicate layers. Use the surface blur tool found under the filter -> blur -> surface blur on one to create the smooth skin that you want, and on the other layer apply the High Pass filter tool by selecting filter -> other -> high pass, choose a value under 10, and set it on either soft light or overlay–this will bring back detail into the skin.

• Sharpen just the eyes, lips, and nails with the Unsharp Mask tool: filter -> sharpen -> unmask. I keep my amount low and radius high for most images.

So that in a nutshell are five key steps I apply to every beauty image. I did do some further retouching with the image above, but hey even I need to keep a few secrets.

Final Result

I thought I’d do something similar and quote an email I received in the past and how I responded in the end. Changes, in order to hide the sender’s identity, are indicated in italics.

Dear Raymond,

My name is Jane Doe and I represent company abc. I am in charge of an event known as Event ABC, which is presented by Organization ABC, a (Insert description of how company started off).

We are in need of a photographer who can take some portraits of some models for our website which will be used for promotional material. Unfortunately, we are a non-profit organization so the work would be done on a pro bono basis, but what we can do is present your company logo on the event website and offer you free advertising in our program on the day of.

(There’s more to it but the rest is irrelevant.)

Here’s my response.

Hi Jane,

Thank you for finding me online. I’m glad that you like my work. Unfortunately, I’m currently not in a position to accept any pro bono assignments. You might be able to find a photographer on Craigslist if you haven’t tried already.

Best Regards,

Raymond Chou

I’m willing to bet that in the past many of you have received a request that’s very similar to this.

While it’s true that non-profit organizations generally don’t have big budgets to work with, the fact is that unless the company in question is one which consists almost entirely of volunteers, it’s not fair of them to ask photographers to give their time away freely. Okay, well, maybe not exactly free because you’d be getting advertisement, but a word of warning: in all the assignments I’ve done over the past few years in which I received advertisement as compensation, I’ve never gotten any work as a result, and I guarantee that other working photographers will tell you the same.

Generally the only circumstances in which I would accept pro bono work is if the organization/event consists mainly of volunteers and if it’s for a cause I strongly believe in: fighting against mental health or the elimination of homelessness/poverty. Help Portrait is one of the them.

I believe that saying no to all forms of pro bono work period is not a good thing and can lead to a calloused soul where vanity takes over. Whatever your choices are, don’t let that happen to you.

A month ago before the 2010 Celebration of Light started, I was going through photos of previous fireworks shows and I found what really amazed me were the vibrant colours. As I was flipping through photos, it was one thing to see an amazing design or volley, but another to see the sun setting against the background, which I felt gave the photo a beautiful touch. Usually we relate fireworks against a pitch black canvas; black canvases are nice sometimes, but art has no boundaries. So after nourishing my muse, I went out on a journey to find the perfect spot to take photos.

After having shot fireworks for several of the performances, here are some tips I offer for taking amazing fireworks photos:

1. Composition is everything. Instead of taking the easy approach and shooting against the sky, find a nice background canvas and paint with all the colors and light available.
2. Always use a tripod (You are taking long exposures and your images will be blurry if you don’t use a one. If you don’t have one find a flat surface for your camera)
3. Invest in a cable release or a wireless remote (This will add towards keeping your camera from shaking when you press the shutter. Again if you don’t have any of those options use a self timer mode.)
4. Use the lowest ISO (You will be taking long exposures and you don’t want to be overexposed)
5. Experiment with your aperture. Since your taking long exposure you don’t need a lot of light to come in.
6. Experiment shooting with Bulb mode. Cover your Lens with a black card, when a sudden burst occurs uncover your lens to capture it.
7. Pre-Focus if possible that way you can your picture can look its sharpest
8. This may be obvious, but shoot in RAW
9. On the day of the shoot I like to go to check the weather forecast to determine the wind direction. You want to shoot up wind otherwise they’ll come out really hazy.

Here’s are some of my favorite photos from this year’s shows:

One of my pet peeves when shooting a wedding is when I’m trying to take a decent shot of the bride and what not but can’t because a bunch of other people with their cameras are constantly creeping into my frame. Obviously these people are coming from a good place, and whether or not the newlywed couples actually get to see those photos is not the issue. Unfortunately this kind of thing prevents us producing our best work and it happens quite often with wedding photographers. And if you try and ask anyone who’s in your frame to move aside, you’re more than likely to get ignored and sometimes scoffed at.

They say, however, that prevention is the best solution, and the same applies in this case. Talk to the bride and groom before the wedding and ask if they would tell their guests to keep a distance as to not get in the photographer’s way. An experienced wedding photographer will know the best angles to capture the moments from, so the courteous thing for guests to do really would be to keep an appropriate distance (or stand right beside the photographer) and let the hired professionals do their job. The same principle applies to videographers. If the guests want photos, they can always ask the bride and groom for them afterwards.

Recently one of my best friends got married, and being the enthusiast I am, I brought along my camera. In total, I might have shot about 30 frames max, and it’s because every time I wanted to take a photo the hired professional was doing his thing and I wasn’t about to interfere. If you, like me, are one of those photographers that brings your honking SLR to your friend’s wedding, remember that it’s okay to take pictures, but be courteous to the hired professionals by making their job easy. I believe in the saying “you get back what you send out”, so be sure to do yourself this favor

Back to the course I enrolled in, one of the lessons that was constantly being hammered into my being was the acronym JFDI: Just Fricking Do It. How many times have we looked at the images of a photographer who’s “made it”, be it from a magazine or website, looked at their work and said to ourselves: “I could have done that.” (I know I’ve caught myself doing that many times) To quote David duChemin’s in this regard, “Well, you didn’t did you?”. Another response we often hear or read about is that “I’d go out and do that if only I had some fancier equipment”, or “If only I had the right connections” and so on and so forth.

I’d say for the vast majority of us this is a bullshit excuse.

Let me illustrate by talking about a photographer I know. She’s actually a photographer who was featured in my blog two posts ago. If you go back and read that post or have read it, you will see that she’s been shooting for less than half a year and has already been featured in several magazines. What that article did not mention is that she shoots with a Canon Rebel XSi, and she uses shoots with the most basic of lenses including her kit. She has basic knowledge of lighting and has up to this point relied entirely on an umbrella and one simple speedlight. Yet in spite of that, at the rate she’s growing she’ll be the next Karolina Turek (another model turned photographer) in only a matter of time.

In complete contrast, I know another photographer who started shooting over a year ago and who is now a wizard when it comes to gear and lighting. He hasn’t had formal training either, but has been mentored by some of Vancouver’s top photographers and religiously follows the Strobist, Joe McNally, Zack Arias, etc, plus he has all the gear he needs to make something happen.

You guessed it. He’s not out creating images.

I don’t need to explain why that’s the case because we’ve all been there at some point and will continue to be sucked back in, the question is will you continue to let resistance mangle your creative soul, or will you fucking kick resistance in the ass and show the world what you’re capable of. If a total amateur with the most basic of equipment and no proper training can go out and become a rising star, then so can you. JUST FRICKING DO IT.

Back in the Day: The $40 Roll of Kodachrome

One of the things that arose when the bean counters at the media conglomerates began to try to cut the costs and increase profitibability of their companies (and thus justify their jobs) was that they began to look at photographers’ invoices. The bean counters’ personal familiarity with purchasing consumer-grade film at $5 or so a roll did not jibe with seemingly exorbitant prices for rolls of film on the invoices.

What these accountants did not consider was that in order to best have film ready for a client, it had to be ordered and either shipped to you or picked up via courier and brought to you. This incurred an expense. Then, professionals didn’t take the film out of the shipping box and shoot an important assignment–they shot a test roll (or two) under controlled conditions and had it processed. This incurred an expense. Then the film came back from the lab–another expense. Then there was time involved to determine the best settings for the use of that film This was an expense. Then there was the cost of storing the film in a refrigerator. Another expense. Then there was the waste when you were required to have your film x-rayed twice during your trip, and you had to attribute 20-plus rolls of film to “waste” and trash it. This was an expense. All these expenses contributed to a cost per roll of film that was higher than the accountant’s $5 roll of film he dropped into his happy-snap camera for family photos . . .

While film is a relic of the ancient past for most photographers, the issue remains the same: how often have we all been turned down by clients because they’ve assumed we’re greedy swindlers who charge an arm and a leg just to click a shutter.

This is never the case of course, at least not for those who take their craft seriously. For example, when you take a client out for a $200 headshot session outdoors at a location that’s say 30 minutes from your studio, some clients will automatically assume you get paid $200 an hour.

BUT, once you factor in the time that was needed to travel back and forth from your studio, gas expense, upload and retouch images, laboriously haul around lighting equipment, write emails (which can last several hours depending on who you’re dealing with), location scouting, and meeting the client face to face before the shoot (this can be optional), your job is a hell of a lot longer than just one hour. As an aside, photographers who are regularly charging ridiculously low rates like $50 a session have no idea what they’re charging for and in almost all cases lack the experience to take photos that are even worth the money.

Instead of taking the copious amounts of time to dive into the nitty-gritty of your Costs for Doing Business, here’s what I usually say to clients in the past who’ve tried to negotiate down my rates because of their perception of how “little” time I spend on an assignment. “You’re not just hiring me to receive an hour of my time, you’re also hiring me for all the years I’ve spend perfecting my craft as a professional photographer along with the thousands that I’ve invested in education and equipment.” This has worked for me every time thus far. If need be, I do take the time to explain the reasoning behind why retouching costs extra, travel expenses, admin, etc, but I keep my explanations as simple as possible.

Regardless of how we choose to educate our clients, the important thing is that we do it period. And not just with regards to pricing, but with every process of the shoot itself. With the copious number of consumers out there pretending to be professionals, photography is not as respected a profession as it used to be. So instead of relying on what you own to win over your clients, do it with what you know because that’s how you’ll stand out.

To be a part of the Help Portrait initiative in your community, visit the Help Portrait Community website. If you’re local to Vancouver and are interested in hearing about how it went last year, check out Ian’s blog Help Portrait blog post and to see a couple of short documentaries. And lastly, here’s a link about my own experience from being a part of Help Portrait last year.