Inspiring Photographer - Marc Lagrange

A link to Marc’s website – http://lagrange.be/ (beware, there are naked people on the other side of that link)

I really like Marc’s work. His tones, his processing, his framing and his overall aesthetic. I thought it would be an interesting exercise to pull up a few of his pictures and deconstruct them a bit, point out what I personally like about them and explore that a little.

CopyRight Marc Lagrange

This one is one of my favorites from his site. the tones are really great, and the coloring is spot on. I like the blue-purple of the walls, and the tungsten-ish orange of the chandelier up there. The lighting is mysterious and subtle… the model is well lit, but then the rest of the image has these encroaching shadows everywhere. This is obviously a built set, since no one would put a chandelier in the corner like that. There’s also something weird going on with the lens of the camera…. there’s a very shallow depth of field here, the lights up at the top are getting a little bit bokeh’d, which implies a long-ish lens, which wouldn’t be possible with this field of view. So something is happening there. It could be a bellows type camera, doing a bit of tilt-shift, or (and this is more likely) he could have his camera on a tripod, and he shot a frame of the top half of the picture by itself and then stitched the two together using photomerge or something similar. That could also explain the lighting a bit, since the model looks like there should be a light really close to her, but there isn’t.

CopyRight Marc Lagrange

Really nice tones and colors again. Notice that the contrast levels are a bit manipulated… the model has the most contrast in the image, even though that bottom right corner should technically be darker than she is. Again we have a pretty wide field of view to take in a lot of the scene. And again it feels like there should be a light source in there somewhere, but there isn’t one visible.

CopyRight Marc Lagrange

The best thing about this shot is that orange colored light on the wall at the top of the scene. I think it really makes the shot, since the rest of the image is very green and brown, that warm tight spot is picking out the detail there in such a cool way, creating a color twist for the image that might have been a little boring otherwise.

CopyRight Marc Lagrange

Really nice image here. Super shallow depth of field, a really big light source above and behind the camera (could be the open sky at sunset or a really large silk sheet diffusing the light), her skin is just drinking up the light and collecting these great big pools of reflection. A really beautiful image.

CopyRight Marc Lagrange

For me the towel makes this shot. It’s a clean graphic element, and it wraps around the subject and defines her form really well. Again we have a really large light source, in this case it looks like it’s mostly high up and camera right, sort of on the other side of the model’s face, which is giving us some nice shadow areas under her cheekbones and under her eyebrows. There’s a subtle color thing happening in the background, looks like a bit of green tinted yellow washing across the frame. Notice also that her face and hair have the greatest amount of contrast in the shot. Everything else has lower contrast compared to that.

So that’s it for me. Those are the big things that I notice in these images, and what they say to me. Doing these kinds of decontructions can be very educational, because you learn a bit more about yourself and what you like. These images are so subtle and sophisticated, the processing so beautiful and clean, I’m really in awe of them. But that’s just what I value, and what I like in a photo. What do you look for in an image?

Inspiring Photographer - Marc Lagrange

Jenni's Chains

Jenni’s Chains * Copyright Tim Lewis Photography 2014 All rights reserved

This picture was created using a mixture of hard and soft light, each at a different color temperature. The hard light that is illuminating the front of Jenni’s face is warmed with a CTO gel so it would play nicely with the rim/fill light, which was a tungsten bulb in a silver reflector. The uplight was a T-8 fluorescent daylight balanced tube, covered with some very thin light tan diffusion material, which was softening and warming the light very slightly. So three lights, two very warm and one cool to provide the image with that color twist that you can see.

Processing the image was a bit of a challenge for me. My usual approach to processing is to immediately desaturate the image a bit and start pulling colors out of it. But for this shot, the colors were what made the shot interesting, so I had to go in the opposite direction and boost the colors in a subtle way that wouldn’t overwhelm the image.

The chain headpiece was something else I’d never tried, and after explaining the idea to my lovely wife she gathered up all her jewelry and assembled the headdress you see here. It really makes the shot; without all that gold in the image it wouldn’t look nearly as interesting with the slight blue background and greenish fill light.

So, I’m calling this one a success. Tried several new things, and they all worked out really well. Having a great model didn’t hurt, either.

Jenni's Chains

Adding atmospheric depth to images

I just watched this great tutorial over at digital tutors on creating atmospheric depth in images. The tutorial is centered around digital paintings, but the same information and ideas apply very well to modern photography.

I’ve talked before about using reduced contrast to control the viewer’s eye in an image, and to make things look like they are further away, but this tutorial is one step further. It explores adding color to evoke realistic Rayleigh scattering effects and goes through different types of atmospheric elements (fog, mist, sunsets…) and what elements are necessary to convincingly incorporate them into your image.

Once again, this is an example of learning something that is somewhat outside of the realm of traditional photography which can be used to improve your work and make your images that much better.

Adding atmospheric depth to images

Jenni Concrete

Jenni Concrete * Copyright Tim Lewis Photography 2014 All rights reserved

For this image I had the idea to play with textures. I wanted some really rough, raw concrete as a background, the model as the middleground, and then some kind of wispy fabric as a foreground element. I have never really worked with fabric as a picture element before, but I liked how it added a sense of movement to an otherwise static shot. The lighting was kept super simple, just a gridded stripbox above the camera and a white posterboard reflector below the model’s face (just out of frame, but you can see it reflected in the glasses and her eyes).

For my post processing, I wanted an almost monochromatic feel to it, so I toned most of the picture a golden brown. This really ties everything together and makes the image look really cohesive. I have another shot from this series that I took in a different direction in post, worked more of a color twist to it instead, and when I post that one you’ll see the difference in how it affects the image and the viewer.

I’m really happy with this image. I tried several new things that I hadn’t tried before, and they really came together well to make an image that I like a lot.

Jenni Concrete

On a Roll

from “Steal like an Artist” by Austin Kleon

I’m not sure why, but it seems like I’ve been in a bit of a creative whirlwind here lately. Ideas have been coming quick and easily, and I’ve been slow to reject or judge them. That seems to be a big part of it, my not instantly rejecting ideas as I come up with them. Taking the time to explore them a bit and see where they go has been very rewarding, and knowing that even if they wind up not being very good or interesting there’ll be more coming down the road shortly has seemingly liberated me in some way.

This blog might have something to do with it. I get on here and share my process, share some of the stuff I’ve been thinking, or stuff I’ve been influenced by. I think that’s greasing up the idea machine in some way. It’s like my whole life I’ve been standing in my own way, preventing myself from trying because I’d rather sit back and judge myself and others.

Another part of it might be that I keep giving away ideas, so I have to come up with new ones. I keep explaining my most prized techniques, so now I need to figure out new ways of doing things. It’s kind of obvious, in hindsight. It’s such a trap to have secret prized techniques that you file away and protect and never say a word about to anyone. By starting over you’re able to go in new directions, instead of just traveling down the road you’ve always been down. I’m just annoyed that it’s taken me this long to figure this stuff out.

On a Roll

The only constant is change

Wow. This article is pretty amazing. It’s like a drop kick to the head of the idea that “good enough” is the goal. Seems like twenty years ago making a correctly exposed image was the the goal, now any cameraphone can do that for you. Nowadays you have to ask yourself, what do I have as a photographer that is unique? What can I do that no one else can do? Everyone has a good camera these days. Everyone can take a properly exposed, in focus shot. What makes my work different? What can I do that can’t be done with stock photography and a copy of Photoshop?

So many of the questions asked by Dane Sanders are questions I’ve been asking myself lately. What can I do differently that will make my work look different from someone who just bought a camera at best buy earlier today? Some of my answers:

• I can get better at Photoshop, and use it to make my images look different instead of perfect.


• I can get better at public speaking, and use those skills to sell myself and my vision to others.


• I can start with why, and use concepts and stated goals to guide my choices instead of doing the same thing I’ve always  done.


• I can draw inspiration from artists in other fields, instead of just watching and copying the hot photographers of the moment.


• I can try and stay a student, stay learning and focus on my own growth instead of comparing myself to others.


• I can ask what can photography be, instead of what has it been? Can it be illustration? Can it be more visceral, more subjective, more point of view? Where can it go, and how can I push it there?

I don’t have it all figured out yet. But there’s a lot to think about here, and Dane points out a lot of trends that are only going to become more insistent as time goes on. It’s an exciting time to be a photographer. There’s a lot of change in the air, and I’m excited to see what we create from the bones of “traditional photography”.

 

The only constant is change

Jenni - Natural Look

Jenni * Copyright all Rights Reserved 2014 Tim Lewis Photography

New work from a shoot on Saturday. I tried to go with a natural look for this one, just the one light source for more of an airy feel to it. I’m a bit out of my comfort zone with the processing, since I usually will just desaturate everything and deal with color that way. But for this shoot the color was a big part of what I liked about it, so I tried my best to keep it. This was the first setup of a three look shoot, so we started clean and simple before things got too crazy.

Jenni - Natural Look

Von Wong Brenizer method at 400mm

Leave it to Benjamin Von Wong to shoot a Brenizer method portrait at 400mm with 18 thousand dollars worth of equipment. The brenizer method emphasizes your out of focus elements and gives you beautiful background bokeh while at the same time allowing you to have a wider angle than most extreme telephoto lenses can show. Shooting one at 400mm with that level of giant bokeh highlights is pretty crazy, and Von Wong does it well. He’s all about the special effects, and while this one isn’t as in-your-face as the usual Von Wong fire look, it’s very impressive nonetheless. Be sure to check out the rest of Von Wong’s portfolio. You won’t be disappointed.

 

Von Wong shoots a Brenizer portrait at 400mm

Von Wong Brenizer method at 400mm