Jan 31 2018. PHOTOGRAPHY WORK EXPERIENCE

A three day experience working with and shadowing the Photographer and Designer, Andrew Butler.

Via GIPHY

As a part of my Visual Journalism module at City University I set out to gain work experience with a professional based in Exeter, Devon.

I modeled for a studio head shot photo shoot, took part in a picture selection/editing session and an on-location 2018 motorbike calendar photo shoot. Andrew discussed his work of corporate portraits, motorbike and vehicle calendars, engineering and architectural photography.

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‘Head Shot Model...' 

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Day 1 Jan 10th: (14:15-16:30)

I was asked to sit and pose as a head shot model. This was a great chance to see how photos are framed, lighting is set up and learn about studio equipment. I saw first-hand how Andrew works with clients and deals with issues with portraiture photography.

Using a Nikon camera connected to a MAC, images taken are automatically transferred to ‘Adobe Lightroom’. The camera was placed on a Dolly tripod to reduce tiredness and increase the stability. ‘Dropbox’ is used as a backup hard drive and he used a 85ml lens, usually with a depth of field to f5.6 aperture to focus on the eyes and a shutter speed of around 250 of a sec.

We experimented with ‘Butterfly lighting’ and a ‘Beauty dish’ held near my face, which allowed light to bounce back and come out as a straight line creating a soft light. This meant photos wouldn’t have any light ‘hot spots’. Andrew looks for catch light and sharpness in the eyes. Beauty dishes work well because the closer the light the bigger the catch light. A ‘Hair Light’ (rim light) was added, and other fill lights to increase the detail on my shoulders. I held a reflector and black cloths acted as negative fills in the background. I learned about how ‘feathering light’ can work well around the edges to compose a balanced photograph, ‘Rembrandt’ lighting and the ‘Inverse Square Law’.

'Frequency Separation...' 

Day 2 Jan 12th: (9:30-13:30)

I was briefed about the restrictions with photography in the South West including commercial photography on Dartmoor and limitations in Exeter town centres, like 'Princesshay'. I learned about the ‘Construction Site Visitor Pass’ and the training required to work in areas such as National Rail and Exeter Airports. 

Andrew uses a 'Lightroom' starring system to select pictures. 2-star images are worth looking at and 4-star are ready to publish. He presents images to the client and they both select images together. He edits in RAW but shoots in ‘JPEG + RAW’ mode. JPEG’s look slightly different due to the image not being in its purest form and clients sometimes choose these which is an issue.

To edit, he sets up a profile for the lens to distribute the light evenly and a colour profile. ‘Frequency Separation’, is used to retouch and enhance the images rather than manipulate the content. However, if a client asks for something to be removed like a spot Andrew uses this method to take tones of colour from other areas to mask it.  

In Lightroom he crops, alters highlights, lifts shadows, sharpens the clarity of the eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes and hair. In Photoshop if there are problems like ‘hot spots’ he’ll edit them. For my photoshoot he used ‘Bezier Curve’ to remove part of my earlobe that was showing when I was shot from one side.

'Motorbike Photoshoot...'  

Day 3 Jan 15th:(8:00-17:00)

The final day of experience involved travelling around three hours to the motorbike shop ‘Motocorsa’. The objective was to photograph four motorbikes including the new ‘MV Agusta' (MVF4) that has recently come to the UK. The shots were for two calendars, one a rectangular and another in square format. Each bike had to be styled from a different perspective.

The ‘Hesketh’ was shot for a square format and framed as a portrait to help with cropping/avoid stretching afterwards. The significance of details when trying to achieve a high-quality image is really important which I learned after a cleaning cloth was left on the bike and not realising until after the photos had been taken! Similarly, the tyre was flat and needed to be retouched.

Andrew used a 70ml lens with a lens hood to give the light precision, f8 aperture and a shutter speed of 200th with a 3 second delay to blur the image. Leveling the camera with the bike helps to ‘describe’ the motorbikes rather than ‘sell’ them.

The camera shot for the rectangular calendar and ‘MV’ was positioned higher and the bike was shot from the rear to show the mechanical elements instead of the aesthetic qualities.The Hesketh and MV were shot with a 6’ strip soft box hanging over above which enhanced the detailing.

The ‘Brough Superior’ was on a stand and couldn’t be moved so we placed a white cloth behind and in front of the bike to manage the light. Modifiers were used to take away the cloth texture but the high exposure caused the bike details to fade. Soft boxes were on both sides to balance this.

The ‘Silk 700’ bike was shot in square format. The colour had silver with a dark backdrop. To emphasise the blue tones, Andrew held a light close to the ground with a blue colour filter.

I now have a greater knowledge of how photographers work in and outside of the studio, the challenges professionals face and restrictions that limit their work. It was a great opportunity to see how photographers work under pressure and deal with the issues when shooting for clients.

Link to Andrew's work:

http://andrewbutler.net/contact-exeter-photographer/ http://andrewbutler.net/contact-exeter-photographer/