WE'VE MOVED

Please visit us at our new address:
www.briansmith.com/blog



And our new website:
www.briansmith.com

Photographing Art & Soul for The Creative Coalition

I’ve just wrapped up my latest project with the Sony a900 photographing over 80 celebrities for The Creative Coalition’s book “Art & Soul” which will be distributed to President Obama and Congress this May.

Assignments this good are really rare. Even though I’ve been l blessed with more than my share of unbelievable assignments in my career, shooting portraits of so many Oscar winners, Tony winners, Grammy winners and Emmy winners was about as cool gig as I can imagine.


Brian Smith Photographs "Art & Soul" for The Creative Coalition - Images by Brian Smith

Our shoot began in during Oscar Week at Haven House in Beverly Hills. Thanks to thanks to generous support from Sony and Hachette Filipacchi Media we photographed 68 celebrities over a three-day period in Los Angeles where we shot 5,370 exposures with over 200 gigs of raw images using Sony’s a900 camera. That’s a great test of the durability and quality of a camera. The a900 never missed a beat.

The lenses are quite simply the sharpest lenses I’ve ever used. I love all of Sony’s Zeiss glass, but I’m becoming particularly fond of Sony’s Zeiss 24-70/2.8. I was able to shoot very quickly on this project using that lens to shoot 90% of the images for the book. This lens is sharper than prime lenses in that range and it absolutely blows away the competition. The remaining images for the book were shot with Sony’s Zeiss 85/1.4 that I kept mounted on second a900 body.

Our crew included my wife Fazia who always makes certain everyone looked fabulous on our shoots, Kayla Lindquist, Director of Sony's Artisan's of Imagery program, produced the shoot and made certain even the smallest detail was under control, Matthew Schulert, our fabulous digital tech from Splashlight, Joel Warren and Eddie Tricomi and over a dozen hair and make-up artists from Warren-Tricomi.

When you imagine shooting in a Beverly Hills mansion, you can only envision big massive rooms. Yet our shoot was relegated to a less than opulent 9x14’ maid’s quarters. Since the biggest part of photography is problem solving, we had to find a way to make it work. I decided to make our small pace even cozier by wrapping the entire set in black. Normally, the idea of using a DSLR to shoot celebrities dressed in black against a black background is a recipe for disaster. Other DSLR tend to block up in the shadows, but one of the things I love about the a900 is that it holds unbelievable detail in the shadows, so I was confident we could pull it off.

The highlights of our shoots included Kerry Washington and Tichina Arnold fighting it out for bragging rights in a pose-off. For the record, in situations like that, it's actually the photographer who wins. Speaking of posing, celebrity stylist Philip Bloch might very well still be posing in front of the camera if they hadn't threatened to turn the power off on us.

We then headed to New York to photograph the rest of the artists in this book. Tony Bennett welcomed us into his Central Park apartment where we talked about what the arts has meant to him, which is the sort of experience that can hardly be topped - except possibly earlier that day when Anne Hathaway showed up with a box of her favorite cupcakes for our crew. Thanks Annie, for being even sweeter than I'd imagined.

In the end we shot over 9,000 images and 350 gigs of RAW data without a single slowdown or problem. During the shoots, the artists in this book and I rarely spoke of fame, fortune or fabulous performances. We spoke about their childhoods and what led them to where they are today. Regardless of whether they grew up in small towns and large cities, rich or poor, their lives were all shaped and influenced by the arts and the artists who influenced their careers.

My thanks go out to Ted Okada, Steve Sommers, Phil Lubell, Kristen Elder and Mark Weir of Sony for their support of this project, Kayla Lindquist, director of Sony Artisan’s of Imagery program, Jeffrey Roberts of American PHOTO, Al Silvestri, Alissa Reynolds and Anna Martin of Hachette Filipacchi Media, Eileen Gittins of Blurb, and special thanks to Robin Bronk and Barbara Horvath of The Creative Coalition.

Creative Coalition

I've just wrapped a three-day shoot at Haven House in Beverly Hills photographing 68 celebrities over a three day period for The Creative Coalition with generous sponsorship from Sony and Hachette Filipacchi Media. We had 12 Hair and Make-up Artists from Warren-Tricomi and shot 5,370 exposures with digital tech support by Matthew Shuler of Splashlight



My thanks to all of the celebrities who took part...Alfre Woodard, Alyssa Milano, Amy Collins, Barry Bostwick, Benji Schwimmer, Chris Mann, Damian Bichir, Dana Delany, Daniel Stern, David Hyde Pierce, DeRay Davis, Oscar-winning writer/producer Dustin Lance Black, Fisher Stevens, Frances Fisher, Gilles Marini, Gina Gershon, Harry Hamlin, James Denton, Jamie Kennedy, Jason Ritter, Jeannine Kaspar, Jeffrey Ross, Kerry Washington, Kim Kardashian, Kyson Lee, Mary Murphy, Paula Abdul, Paul Hipp, Robert Davi, Sharon Lawrence, Stephen Collins, Syd Butler, Tamala Jones, Taraji P. Henson, Tichina Arnold, Tim Daly, Wendie Malick, Vik Sahay, Zoey Deschanel, Celebrity Stylists Philip Bloch, Joel Warren, Edward Tricomi, Producer Tom Molloy, Gay-rights activist Cleve Jones, WWE Wrestlers Cody Rhodes, John Morrison, Kofi Kingston, Ted DiBiase, Jr., The Miz and WWE Divas Kelly Kelly, Maria Kanellis, Maryse Ouellet and Melina Perez.

Quincy Jones has suggested that it might be an opportune time to lobby President Barak Obama to appoint a Secretary of the Arts. While many other countries have had Ministers of Art or Culture for centuries, The United States has never created such a position. We in the arts need this and the country needs the arts--now more than ever. If you agree, you can sign onto this petition http://www.petitiononline.com/esnyc/petition.html and then pass it on to your friends and colleagues.

EQUIPMENT:
Sony a900 Cameras
Zeiss 24-70/2.8 Zoom
Zeiss 85/1.4 Zoom
Zeiss 16-35/2.8 Zoom
Profoto 7A 2400 Packs
Profoto 7 Heads

BrianSmithMiami.com wins AltPick Awards for Website Design

BrianSmithMiami.com has received third place in Website Design from the 2008 AltPick Awards. The AltPick Awards jury included:

Laurie Kratochvil, Freelance Photo Editor, New York, NY
Evan Kriss, Photo Editor, The Washington Post, Washington D.C.
Carolyn Rausch, Photo Editor, WIRED, San Francisco, CA
Rob Beckon, Art Buyer, 72andSunny, El Segundo, CA
Cindy Rowe, Manager/Art Production, Saatchi & Saatchi, Torrance CA
Jimmy Collins, Associate Creative Director, Hills Holiday Advertising, Inc, New York, NY
Jason Cochrane, Creative Director, Keltie+Cochrane, Newcastle, England
Matthew Richmond, Web Designer, The Chopping Block, New York, NY

"Find Us Here" a Fine Art Photo Celebration by ASMP SFL

Opening: 7 PM Wednesday December 3, 2008
Luna Star Cafe and Art Gallery
775 NE 125 St. North Miami 33161
The show runs to December 10th 2008



The South Florida Chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers invites you to attend a gala celebration for the opening of the "Find Us Here" Fine Art Photo Show at 7 PM on Wednesday December 3, 2008 at The Luna Star Gallery located at 775 NE 125 St. North Miami 33161 across from MOCA. The jurors for the show were Sara Rytteke of Barry University, Tom Lopez of the University of Miami and Darryl Strawser of the Miami Ad School who selected the 40 images for this show out of hundreds submitted. For more information please visit the ASMP South Florida Blog.

Sony Launches Pro Photographer Program"The Artisans of Imagery" at PhotoPlus Expo

Brian Smith has been named as one of five photographers to launch Sony’s new professional photographer program, The Artisans of Imagery, which showcases five top professional photographers who have been using their Alpha A900 DSLRs and lenses from Sony. Smith joins Andy Katz, David McLain, Christina Mittermeier and Matthew Jordan Smith. Their photographic works were on display at the PhotoPlus Expo held in New York October 22-24.

Leica Comes Out Blazing

Just six days after a Wall Street Journal article that basically boiled down to "What the Hell happened to Leica and how did they become so irrelevant in the digital age?"

Well today, Leica answered that question.

Leica came out blazing with the announcement of the 37.5 mp Leica S2 with a mid-size sensor (co-designed by Phase One) that falls between 35mm and medium format sensors. Anyone who has uses a medium format digital back can tell you it's not just the megapixels but the sensor size that counts and this is a GIANT step in the right direction.

You can read more from Leica, Professional Photographer, DP Review and British Journal of Photography.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Launch - September 23rd

Adobe will be officially launching Photoshop CS4, along with the rest of Creative Suite CS4, on September 23rd.

Any of you sitting on the edge of your seats for the details about nextest version can sign up to view the live webcast at: www.adobe.com/go/somethingbrilliant

Missouri School of Journalism Centennial Celebration

The nation's oldest School of Journalism celebrates it's 100th year and I'll be speaking as part of the Futures Forum as part of the Centennial Celebration at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Carrying Photojournalism's Practices to the Marketplace

• Time: 3:45-5:00 p.m.
• Date: Thursday, Sept. 11
• Place: 110 Lee Hills Hall

A photojournalist's approach brings a spirit of vitality, spontaneity and creativity to advertising, public relations, nonprofit and corporate projects. In this presentation, award-winning photojournalists will lead a discussion about how to approach marketing-oriented assignments. The conversation promises to be valuable for both photojournalists and those who employ them.

Now in Our New Location...

Today marks the debut of our new homepage. Please come visit us at our new location: BrianSmithMiami.com



Over the years I've resisted tying myself with my zipcode because it sounds so very...regional. I never have wanted to market myself as someone to call when you're shooting in the 305 area code.

My latest American Airlines statement showed up on Saturday showing 63,000 air miles to date this year and there's proabably another 10k or so on other airlines, so I'm actually shooting on the road more than I'm in Florida.

I also figured that, hell I might one day pick up and move back to LA and then what am I going to do with a name that included my old city. But I've decided to deal with that if and when the time comes.

All this comes because another photographer grabbed briansmith.com before I was bright enough to think to do it, so I'm constantly running into people looking for me but finding him. I'm becoming convinced that as a photographer, the word "Photo" becomes invisible and no matter how many times you say "BrianSmithPhoto.com" or "briansmithP-H-O-T-O.com" a lot of people simply blur out the ending. The final straw came this month when PDN ran an advertorial about me pimping out Moab Paper's killer line of inkjet papers. At the end of the article they included a bio of me that they pulled down from my website and then a link the the other guy! Gee, thanks guys...

I'm hoping that BrianSmithMiami.com will prove more memorable...

Dr. Brown's Process 1-2-3

Adobe evangelist Russell Brown has brought out a lot of cool scripts - but none as sweet as his new Dr. Brown's Process 1-2-3. Available as a free download as part of Dr. Brown's Services 1.9.2 that can be found here.

Consider it an update of his very useful Image Processor on STEROIDS!

Dr. Brown's Process 1-2-3 allows you to save up to three sets of images out of Bridge as PSDs, TIFFs or JPEGs selecting color spaces for each and in any compression settings independently for each set of images. You can also run a batch action at the end of the process if for instance you wish to change from 16bit to 8bit after the converting to the final color space.

Here's where it comes in handy. My working layered files are full-Rez 16bit ProPhoto PSDs generally from a Leaf Aptus 75S. So I need to downrez and convert the color profile before delivering the files to my clients and my photo agency. But the file specs are different for each.

When submitting to magazines, I submit 8bit Tiffs in Colormatch RGB - 18 inches (5400 pixels) in the longest dimension - and I use Lossless LZW compression to make upload quicker.

My agency requests Uncompressed 8bit Tiffs in Adobe 98 - no larger than 80mb (which translates to roughly 6000 pixels in the longest dimension when shooting 4x3 format.)

Before now it was a pain to downrez two sets of files at different resolutions, different color spaces and different resolutions. Dr Brown's Process 1-2-3 makes it easy. I save both as presets that save the files in subfolders marked "Corbis" and "Magazine" in the same folder as the layered full-rez 16bit files.

Sony Alpha 700 and Zeiss Lenses

I recently had a chance to put the Sony Alpha 700 to the test on a few jobs. I can tell you that I like the lenses a LOT. The Zeiss glass reminds me of the medium format lenses that I've used for years. Sony definitely has the right idea. It's ALL about the glass. The Zeiss 24-70mm/2.8, 85mm/1.4 and 135mm/1.8 are all razor sharp, but what's hard to quantify is that not only are they sharp, but they have a great "look" that I've only seen from medium format glass.

I shot Hideki Matsui the with the Sony Alpha 700 a couple days after I got my hands on the camera. We were set up for a portrait shoot and waiting for Hideki when the Yankees PR came up to say he was doing the interview "now" and we might not get him later. Rather than tearing down one of the lights from our big set-up and dragging lighting across the stadium, I simply grabbed the Sony Alpha 700 and the Zeiss 85mm/1.4 and 135mm/1.8 lenses. These were shot in open shade under the stadium with the 135mm/1.8 wide open at 1/60 handheld at ASA 100. For the best quality, I always try to shoot at ASA 100 yet with the camera's image stabilization it was easy to keep every shot razor sharp.

What Every Photographer Needs to Know About Orphan Works Legislation

"Orphan Works" Legislation is currently floating around Congress and this legislation essentially gives pirates a free pass to S-T-E-A-L photographs if they can't locate the creator. Simply put, my good friend former ASMP President Clem Spalding describes "Orphan Works" as "Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers."

Orphan Works will essentially strip the guts out of Copyright protection taking away punitive damages in the event your images are stolen if the thieves can prove that they tried but were unable to to locate the creator. Editorial Photographers is one of over 20 photo associations around the globe opposing Orphan Works.

To put the impact of Orphan Works in simple terms - it would be akin to enacting a law that makes it ok to steal from the local convenience store as long as no one was behind the register and then if the cops actually catch you with the goods, the thief would only be liable to pay for the goods that the stole without any penalty for the theft.

It is absolutely essential that you embed your copyright and contact information in the metadata of every single image that leaves your computer. You can locate this while in Photoshop or Bridge by selecting File>File Info. Every photographer should fill in the following fields:

Description: Copyright Status, Copyright Notice & Copyright Info URL
















IPTC Contact: Creator, E-Mail, URL, Address & Phone
















IPTC Status: Copyright Notice
















Using "Save for Web" certainly optimizes images for quick web loading, however it generally also strips out all the metadata that helps safeguard your images from piracy. In the latest version of Photoshop CS3 (version 10.0.1), the “Save for Web” feature now gives your the option to “Include XMP” in the Save for Web dialog. When this option is enabled, all XMP data — including the creator copyright and contact info — is included in the optimized file.

In addition to embedding Metadata to your files, I'd also suggest a visible copyright on the images. I've never really liked the look of slapping watermarks all over images, so I decided to follow my friend Seth Resnick's suggestion of creating a border around the image an placing the copyright notice in the border area. As part of the Photoshop batch actions I run to create web images, I add an extra 10-15 pixels to the bottom where I place the copyright notice. The idea is to treat this as a design element - not a distraction.

Most importantly, if anyone were to steal an image (and hopefully that won't happen) cropping out the copyright automatically elevates the theft a willful copyright infringement which is subject to the harshest penalties. More about copyright can be found on the Editorial Photographers website.

Leaf User Profile

Leaf Digital rolled out their new website last week with a brand new look and they pimp me out with a profile on their Testimonial Page where I talk about the color and look of Leaf Digital files and the advantages of true 16-bit digital capture. I'm a big fan of Leaf backs and their Aptus 75S is like having a handheld scanner that cranks out a 200mb scan every 1.2 seconds...


from Leaf User Profile:
Brian Smith Celebrity and Star Athlete Portrait Photographer
Brian Smith’s 25-year career definitely hasn’t been dull. His broad range of work was honed during his 10 years as a news photographer, culminating in being awarded the Pulitzer Prize. “That was my training ground,” he reflects, “Newspaper photography lets you shoot a lot - a lot of times that means three assignments a day. It was almost like grad school. But I realized during these years that I wanted to spend more time with the people I photographed.”

Converting to Digital
He made the move into magazine shooting and advertising, which gave Smith more time to put into his assignments, while also offering him more resources. He was shooting medium format film with a Mamiya RZ, Mamiya 7 and Fuji 680. He recently made the switch to digital, and has been using a Leaf Aptus 75 for about a year. “I was a tough sell on digital because I wasn’t a convert to digital until I could get the look I was used to from medium format film,” he says, “It wasn’t until I started shooting with Leaf that I felt the same results. You’re back to a shallower depth of field. The sensor size plays a big part in this.” Smith finds that Leaf’s full 16-bit capture more accurately matches the subtle gradations of film. Plus, compared to even high-end 35mm digital, there’s no anti-aliasing filter so the raw captures don’t start out as mush. “I actually dial down sharpening to next to nothing because the sharpness is amazing.”

Speed and Quality
The two biggest things Smith was looking at in considering a medium-format digital back were speed and quality. When working with busy people every second counts. When it comes to capture rate fractions of a second can make the difference between catching and missing a shot. “I tried everything side by side,” Smith says, “and the skin tones were much more realistic with Leaf than with anything else. Other backs had a much more ‘digital’ look. Leaf images were more film-like, which matched the look I wanted to achieve without having to fight the files every time.” He adds that, in terms of bit depth, he can take the file and do amazing color adjustments and that the file integrity holds up well under re-touching. “I’m able to get a lot of
the look I was used to in fi lm without degrading the image.” He uses a Leaf digital back because of the quality it delivers. “It’s a case of when it’s even more important to me than to some of the clients,” he confides. “In general, photographers can see a huge difference even if clients can’t. I use my Aptus to get the quality I want.”

Perfect Partner for Realizing Your Vision
Smith is almost always called for bold, dynamic, and colorful images. When doing a celebrity or an athlete, they’ll dictate the time of the shoot, so he’s found ways to light up his shots, often adding a strobe light. “A lot of what I’m trying to do is somewhat more humorous and playful. Depending on what I’m shooting.” For this he relies on his Leaf back to get the results he needs, even under extreme conditions. Take for example last year’s shoot in the British
Virgin Islands for Time Magazine to photograph flamboyant Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin brand empire and who’s now expanding into commercial sub-orbital space travel with Virgin Galactic. “With Branson dressed in a spacesuit, we were able to shoot really quickly just as the sun came up,” Smith describes. With rapidly changing light, the Leaf Aptus 75 kept the rhythm going, adding a lot to the speed and the amount of material they were able to shoot. Smith experienced the same when photographing professional athletes, where just as in sports, fractions of a second make the difference between success and failure. When Smith was assigned by ESPN the Magazine to shoot last year’s Home-Run King, Ryan Howard, before a game against the Florida Marlins, he was told that he had only 10 minutes to shoot before batting practice, and had to be packed up and out of there before any other players took the field. “Shooting with a Profoto 7B strobe, the Leaf Aptus 75 outpaced the recycle of the strobes, and I never had to slow down to wait for the back to catch up,” he explains, “so, when my 10 minutes were up, I had everything I needed and more - tight, medium and loose shots of Howard holding his bat and action shots of his home-run swing and follow-through. The quality was incredible. The 33MP back captures even the finest detail - every thread in his uniform. The gloss of the lacquer on his bat looked like glass. Everything the magazine could ask for - priceless.”

Download PDF

October Magazine Covers

October started off where September left off...with another cover. Ken Lewis of Bank of America for the cover of Forbes and Reverend Ruddy Garcia for the cover of Outreach Magazine.

Q&A with ASMP Washington DC

Q&A with Brian Smith President of Editorial Photographers
Excerpted from "The Art and Commerce of Magazine Photography"
Presented to ASMP Washington DC on September 11, 2007

Q: Years ago Greg Heisler was quoted in PDN as saying "I think you will find that most of the magazine assignments are given to friends of the photo editors." Is this still true? How important are those relationships?

A: I suppose that must mean that Gregory has friends in higher places than I do…but seriously…I think it’s less a case of being buddies with your editors and more important that you’re someone they know they can count on to produce a great photo without fail no matter what forces conspire against you.

Q: Does the magazine work lead to other more lucrative work?

A: Getting published in hipper well-art-directed publications can definitely lead to ad work, but sometimes being in the “wrong” magazines can actually hurt you. I try not to worry that much about it as long as the shoots interest me.

Q: How do we determine what the good magazines are and who we want to avoid, as far as contracts and art direction. How flexible do we need to be on the contract end of it?

A: Well, good art direction should be pretty obvious from just looking at it. Unfortunately there tends to often be an inverse relationship between trendy art direction and money. Many of the really cool hip magazines will pay, like, a dollar (provided they don’t go bankrupt first.) So there are always trade-offs. Contracts are another issue. Contracts that I’ve seen generally fall into the categories of “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.” But even some “ugly” contracts are very negotiable, so the best thing to do is discuss the points you need to change. Editorial Photographers has a many of the major magazine contracts posted on the member side of the website.

Q: What are magazines paying these days? Is it flexible?

A: There’s more flexibility than you’d think. Editorial dayrates range from $500-1,000, full-page space usage rates range from $500-1,250 and covers range from $1,500-$5,000.Even magazines that seem to have “Thou Shalt Not Pay More Than Five Hundred Dollars” carved in stone tablets, are often willing to offer larger guarantees based on usage on bigger stories.

Q: Is there money in the budgets for production?

A: Magazines are generally more willing to spend money on production than for creative fees. How much depends on the magazine and the shoot. Production budgets can range from a few hundred bucks to tens of thousands. Generally speaking, small front of the book assignments are generally tighter budgets, though that’s a relative term. I have some editorial clients that consider $3,000 in production bare bones, but that isn’t the norm.

Q: We have all seen the Annie Leibovitz. movie so we know what that end of the business is doing as far as scouting, production and makeup. What is "real world" for the good size magazines like Time, Newsweek, SI, ESPN?

A: Most of the time they want Annie Light...they want the same great taste, but with less filling of your pockets. Production budgets are often dependent on what the shoot requires. Budgets tend to escalate when they involve travel or if you need hair, make-up and styling. Is one assistant enough or will two or three make it go more smoothly? Does the shoot require location scouting, a production van, catering, permits and insurance? I think one of the biggest mistakes some photographers make is skimping on production when there’s money in the budget for it. Good hair, make-up and styling can make all the difference in the world. I find it ironic that the fashion rags wouldn't dream of shooting 14-year-old girls with flawless skin without hair and make-up (and of course retouching) - yet it's an afterthought at business magazines filled with pictures of 70-year-old-bald-white-guys-with-liver-spots? The quickest way to add value to what you do is to work with people who can make the shoot look better by spending money on a good crew.

Q: What kind of luck are you having licensing magazine shoots as stock?

A: Some shoots do phenomenally well and others do nothing. I’d say that the top 10% of assignments generate 90% of my licensing and the top 1% probably accounts for 50% of that. In terms of celebrity stock, the more they’re in the news and the less they agree to be photographed - the better.

Q: How are you handling model releases for your magazine work?

A: Ideally you’d get model releases of everyone you shoot, but since I shoot a lot of celebrities, athletes and CEOs, that’s just not going to happen, so I try to get releases whenever I can. Even without releases, it’s still possible to syndicate them for editorial use and with celebrities even editorial can be licensed for decent money, I’ve also had a number of instances where celebrities have approved photos for commercial use just so they wouldn’t have to sit for another shoot.

Q: Should we expect any of our magazine work to be used in video or TV shows when shooting for the big corporate type magazines?

A: It’s fairly common on celebrity shoots for the magazine to send a video crew to shoot behind-the-scenes B-roll of shoot, so I suppose you can take it as a sign of success. Just make sure you dress nice if your backside is going to end up on “Entertainment Tonight.”

Q: How are you marketing yourself to your clients and potential clients?

A: A lot of new clients find me through web portals, but “old school” still works. I still get good results from direct mail and drop-bys to show my book.

Q: How much art direction are you given on a normal magazine shoot?

A: It really varies. Most of the time it revolves around the layout like “we need a cover and a double-page spread” or “we need a full-bleed-right-hand-single-page opener.” On covers there are always issues like leaving room for logos and cover lines. Since I shoot lots of celebrities, athletes and CEOs who I’ve photographed a number of times, often the direction revolves around giving me an idea what the story is about. Of course my favorite thing to hear is, “we thought this shoot would be perfect for you, so just go out and do your thing.”

Q: What do we need to accept and what should we push back on as far as fees, art direction, contracts?

A: I think you need to feel comfortable with everything or else not do it. I never simply assume art direction is a bad thing. I’m not too proud to admit it when an art director, photo editor or even the subject comes up with a better idea than me.

Q: So, is it still possible to make a small fortune as a magazine photographer?

A: Absolutely. It’s actually easy to do. Just start with a large fortune...

--Brian Smith

Getting Noticed by ASMP

The American Society of Media Photographers is running one of my Nudist Golf photos in ads in the Spring 07 issue of the ASMP Bulletin and the May 07 issue of Photo District News.

Turns out that Nudist Golfers can get you noticed...

Who knew...

Richard Branson goes into Space for Time

"Richard Branson...on Necker Island...in a Spacesuit..."

That was the pitch from Time Magazine deputy photo editor Dietmar Liz-Lepiorz. As pitches go, that was as good of a pitch as I've heard. But to be honest, he had me at Branson...

Richard Branson is the type of subject every photographer simply loves. He gets a good concept when he hears one.

So when Time Magazine suggested putting him in a spacesuit for a story about his new Virgin Galactic space flights, he was immediately onboard. While Dietmar and Los Angeles photo editor Martha Bardach were arranging for the suit to be shipped to the Caribbean, we were off to Branson's private island Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands.

We were up before the sun on the Christmas eve taking a boat out to a little spit of sand in the Caribbean just off Necker Island. Branson donned the spacesuit right as the sun began to break the horizon. There is something very heroic about the dawn's first light...well at least if you happen to be photographing a guy is a spacesuit....

Advice to Photographers Starting Out

FIRST: Most importantly...Shoot what you love to shoot. Work that's from the heart will always be your strongest work. NEVER FORGET TO HAVE FUN!

SECOND: The next most important thing you can learn is how to relate to people. Even if you are a still life, architectural or landscape photographer who never shoots people you still must relate to people like clients, architects, designers and of course accounts payable. So go out and find 50 strangers, introduce yourself to them and shoot a portrait that says something about who they are - not just what they do.

THIRD: If you are trying to move on to better clients, treat every assignment you get as though you are shooting for your dream client. If you are at a small weekly newspaper and your dream is to shoot for a large metro, approach every assignment as though it was your first week at that dream job. The same is true if you are at a large metro newspaper and dream of shooting for Rolling Stone. Start shooting every job that way. Too many photographers just slide by with the idea that they can raise their quality when they get the 'right' clients and then wonder why they never get where they want to be. The truth is that as you advance up the ladder, the assignments don't necessarily get any better but expectations certainly get higher. Raise your game ... now!

FOURTH: INVEST! Stock, bonds, mutual funds, real estate ... Even if you are one of those lucky bastards with a staff job and a retirement plan, let a portion of your earnings start working for you. Most photographers starting out don't feel they can afford to put money away. The truth is you can't afford NOT to!

For more suggestions like this, take a look at advice that I collected from my fellow members of Editorial Photographers in piece called "Starting Out."

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is flat out the best RAW Processor I've ever used. I've been using Lightroom since the first beta and it's been promising since the start. I'm using Lightroom to process files from both Leaf Aptus 75 digital back and Canon 1Ds MarkII raws and Lightroom absolutely rocks. Lightroom offers so much control. It's like a Ferrari - Sleek and Elegant on the outside - but if you pop the hood, the engine will blow the doors off the competition!

I absolutely love the raw conversions from Lightroom. There is so much control that you can get most of the adjustments you want in RAW which means you can batch apply the look to every image in the shoot. It’s gotten faster and more robust with each beta, and now that release version 1.0 is out, I really love this Lightroom, because there are a lot of things to love:

HUE/SATURATION/LUMINANCE: You can control the HSL of each of the 8 colors: the standard RGB + CYM (though cyan is called aqua) plus orange and purple. While you can expect this same control in CS3, this alone is worth the price of Lightroom. These panels take care of a lot of the layered adjustments I used to do in Photoshop to fine-tune individual colors and they can be batch applied saving a lot of time. The luminance adjustment is particularly useful if you wish to darken a blue sky. Rather than bumping up the blue saturation and risking pushing the file out of gamut, instead try lowering the luminance of the blue channel.

VIBRANCE: The vibrance adjustments allow you to boost saturation without pushing highly saturated colors off the cliff. It's particularly good at holding skintones from going brassy (well unless that is your aim...)

BATCH HEALING/CLONING: The coolest thing that’s been added to the final release version of Lightroom is the RAW Cloning/Healing Tool. Adobe Lightroom Beta Testers will notice this addition that Adobe engineers were able to squeeze in after Beta 4.1 into the release version. If you've ever had 1,000 images with sensor dust in exactly the same spot on a white background you're going to love this. This means it can be batch applied to all those sensor dust spots that pop in exactly the same spot and it auto-rotates between horizontal and vertical images to find the dust on the same spot of the sensor every if you rotate the camera, so if you've ever shot a job on seamless only to discover a dust spot in exactly the same spot on every frame, you'll love how east it is to clone out the spot and then sync that to all frames. The Spot Healing/Cloning Tool is also improved so that you now can now see the source point that it's sampling and manually adjust that it you don't like the point that is being sampled. This is also coming to Photoshop CS3. Even better news is that with the release of Camera Raw 4.0 ACR will add all of the same added adjustments contained in Lightroom, allowing RAW files can be moved back and forth between the two applications.

WEB GALLERIES: If you want to create really good looking web galleries really fast, Lightroom will save you a lot of time. I've always wanted web galleries to be as close as possible to final color and Lightroom allows you to create Web Galleries incredibly quick as directly from the raws - no wasting time processing jpegs - so no need to waste time on a step you can now skip. This can cut an hour or two of time it takes to post a gallery from many jobs.

You can order Photoshop Lightroom here.

Profoto AcuteB 600

On location, we use lots of Profoto 7B 1200 w/s battery strobe packs. At times we rent as many as ten of them on our bigger shoots. It's a great pack and practically bulletproof, the only drawback is that one of the thing that makes it bulletproof is that it's powered by a sealed lead-acid motorcycle battery.

I just bought a Profoto AcuteB 600R pack for those times I didn't need or want to lug a Profoto 7B on the road but a little shoe-mounted flash like a Vivitar 283 just won't do. Late last December, just a day after picking up one of the first production AcuteB 600R from Foto Care in New York, I was flying down to the Caribbean for exactly the type of shoot I that was perfect for this tiny pack.

I wanted to be able to use an Elinchrom Octabank but I didn't need to pump 1200 w/s through it. Most of my shoot was going to be available light but I shot one or two portraits each day without every running low on output or power.

COST: Profoto is always on the upper end of pricing (unless you're a Broncolor user) and this is no exception. The list price is $1,950 for the AcuteB 600 pack and $2,185 for the AcuteB 600R with built-in Pocket Wizard receiver. I bought the R version. I don't know if Profoto does the same thing in other countries, but MAC group in the US holds about 40 "One-Day Sales" a year where you can buy the stuff for 10% off (that's what I did) so just ask them when the next event is coming up and have it shipped.

WEIGHT: The biggest advantage to the AcuteB 600 over the 7B is size & weight. While the 7B weighs in at a whopping 26 lbs, the AcuteB 600 weighs in at just over 10 lbs so it's light enough that the shoulder stap it comes with won't rip your shoulder off... The only disadvantage to this is as Peter suggested, you get a 2-fer with the 7B as it also becomes a 26 lb sandbag if you hang it from the stand. At 10 lbs, the AcuteB is pretty light in that regard.

SIZE: Same size as the original 600 Acute Packs 7.5 x 7.5 x 5" (19x19x13 cm.) You can easily fit a pack, head and reflector into a Tenba 300/2.8 long lens bag which makes it easy to carry and small enough to even fit into the overhead compartment of many small planes.

HEADS: While the AcuteB head is made specifically for this pack and at the moment is the only head that allows you to use its 85 watt modeling light, Acute 2, Acute 2 twin heads, old-school Acute heads and will all work with this pack sans modeling light. There is an adapter called a "Profoto Adapter 85 W" that will be released at some future date that will allow you to replace Acute 250w modeling lights with a 85w, so you won't have to buy a AcuteB head unless you really must need the modeling light.

TWIN HEAD: I also purchased an Acute Twin head for times that I'd want to combine two packs for 1200 w/s. Each pack has just a single flash socket, so a twin head makes the most sense when you plan to split it between two packs - however even just using one leg of the split flash cord will provide higher flash duration than the regular heads just not as much of a benefit as splitting power between two packs. Because of their shorter u-shaped flashtubes the Profoto bi-tubes have faster flash durations even when each leg is on full power. How much quicker that actually is I'd want to test. This isn't not much of an issue in terms of flash syncs of 1/250 and below, but with a leaf-shutter on the Hasselblad H-series offering a 1/800 flash sync it may come in handy.

MODIFIERS: Though I'd much prefer that Profoto not have separate Pro and Acute series heads (this is because the Acute flash trigger voltage is 450w -vs- 900w on Pro-series) but at least they both use all the same modifiers, so any reflectors or banks you have for Pro 6 or Pro 7 will work with Acute.

FLASH DURATION: I did these tests with both Acute 2 and old-school Acute heads and got similar results. I doubt the duration is different in the AcuteB heads. Profoto lists the full power 600w/s flash duration as 1/1000th of a second, but they have always measured "peak-to-peak" duration which is much shorter than actual. Using a flash meter, the actual duration when using either an Acute 2 or older Acute head both appear to produce a flash duration of 1/350th of a second. This means that shooting at full power at 1/500th will clip about 1/2 stop of output and at 1/1000 you'll clip a full stop of output, so if you need to shoot at 1/500 or higher, you might as well trim the pack to 1/2 power. There are two ways to cut the output of the heads. The first is a 3-position switch for Max, -4 (1/4 power) and -2 (1/2 power) this trims power without lowering the voltage, so going down to 1/2 power this way cuts flash duration to somewhere around 1/800th of a second and even going to 1/1000 of a second only clips 2/10ths of a stop. The second way is a click-stop dial that allows you to trim up to 2 stops in 1/8th stop increments. This is more accurate, but it appears this also trims the voltage so the flash duration doesn't get cut back as much, so just remember if you want the fastest flash duration, trim the power as much as possible using the 3-position switch - not the dial.

BATTERIES: Listed by Profoto as good for 160 full power flashes. While extra 7B batteries weigh the same as the AcuteB Pack, extra Acute 600 batteries are just 4 pounds meaning you can throw in a few extras without adding a ton. Extra batteries with cassettes list for $225, but you can buy the batteries alone for $40 when the old ones wear down. I have two extra batteries on order, but they hadn't shown up in time for the trip. Even so the one battery I took never dropped below 1/2 power. The battery slides in very smoothly from the side which is good. On most battery packs the battery is in the bottom of the pack, which I find always puts too much stress on the clips that hold it in place.

CHARGERS: Comes with a Profoto Charger 1A that charges the pack in 5 hours, but can also be used with a Profoto 7B Charger that will top off the pack in less than half the time. For best battery life, keep batteries on a charger all the time when you aren't shooting.

CASES: At 26 lbs, 7B packs put a lot of stress on cases so I find myself repairing my Tenbas on a fairly regular basis. The same was true when I used Hensel Portys. But these packs are so light that you can probably get by with a lighter case for even more weight savings.

OVERVIEW: The AcuteB 600 isn't as much a replacement for the 7B, but rather an option to it. If most of you gear is Acute and you work at lower power it may be the perfect pack to throw in with your A/C Acutes in case there's no juice. I'll probably keep using the 7B as a main light but take a pair of AcuteB 600Rs for back lights. It's also perfect for little jobs where you hate to drag the big packs or for backlights if you typically use 600 w/s or less on those anyway. If you regularly push 1200 w/s through a bank, then a 7B is probably be more cost-effective.