NEW Photographers, where do you start.

A few days ago I blogged about meet 40 new photographers from one of Manchester's Uni's.

Below were my key points, notes made in my phone before we met. On the day day we discussed more but in advance my first thoughts were as follows

Be a business from day 1
Get into the camera, know it inside out, master it
Follow international talent, trends that are in and coming
Get to print
Get your website up, .co.uk .com, get a blog, link facebook Linkedin
Get a following
Get a proper email address
Get a part time job
Master working on low light
Don't be a geek
Work with good in THE places
Aim for the top three, others will come
Your work should have a feel, don't copy styles, but copy the best 8:)
Train you eye to good taste
Allow five years
Develop yourself like a fashion brand, be consistent, consistently good
What's your rate/ fee whats your added value?
What sort of photographer do you want to be, whats the market?
Do what you do, make time for visual pushups

Well that was most of my thoughts before we met, not in any kind of order of importance.

Have a plan, be knowledgeable and good push push push

Add or take from this what you want, good luck.

Calumet 7" LCD HDMI Monitor.

Today I took delivery of a Calumet 7" LCD HDMI Monitor, saw Calumet demo one on a Canon 5d MK3 last week when we were together meeting some of Manchester's newest photography students.

Why did I get this? I have a couple of interior shoots coming up where I know the working space is going to be tight, with this device attached I can get the camera right in, setup and review test images out of camera while I get to the perfect shot.

This device is also great to ensure critical focus, working with the lens on full zoom and the camera's x 10 zoom tack sharp images are guaranteed.

The HDMI cable slots into the side of 5dMK3 the other end into the monitor, the monitor runs from its own battery supply.

Reason two for getting this device, having clients review shots in camera is not always the best, this compact device will easy fit into a day to day kit bag. It will be easier for the clients to view images out of camera and me to control the viewing side it. 

Clients often review images but then they want to check the image in more detail means passing the camera back to me, this way we review together with the larger view... all good.

I know this will be a great addition for my video work too.

Compatible Input Formats: Composite - NTSC/PAL; HDMI - 480i/p, 576i/p, 720i/p, 1080i/p
Color Depth: 24-bit (16,777,216 colors)

The full technical spec of this item can be viewed here

Will post an on the job video... some time soon.

LONDON Fashion Week - Shooting the show.

The most critical part for me is positioning, ensuring a good clean angle.

If there is a video team they will have a great spot, central and probably slightly elevated, so working close to them or on ladders slightly behind and above will increase your chance of bagging equally good images.

There really isn't much time for reviewing past the first test shots, once all the exposure settings are set run with it, Manual is the way to go in this environment, maybe worth locking the camera up by switching the power button to ON if your a Canon shooter. With the power switch set to ON the speed dial functionality is turned off, stops you accidentally changing the f-stop and the look of your images mid shoot 8:)

Now that you have bagged a great spot and done some damage limitation, the camera focusing and shooting needs to primed to shoot when you want to shoot, select a focus mode to work as fast as possible, take as many shots as possible with as little fuss as possible.

The fastest shoot mode will be burst, take care of over use, shooting RAW will soon fill up the camera's buffer. Filling up the buffer is one sure way to loose shots while the camera dumps the files to the memory card, so some caution there.

Make sure you have large memory cards, you really don't want to be switching mid shoot if possible.

There's an overview without being too technical, work smart, work fast.

Shooting the Video Part 1 - Bodyshop with CGI

Shooting the Video Bodyshop, using CGI, to create the final look.

It is worth noting that between 1995 and 2005 the average effects budget for a wide-release feature film skyrocketed from $5 million to $40 million, so CGI is increasingly popular.

Not having the budget to create the set we wanted for Bodyshop we used instead a high end motor body shop.

The image below is from the final look, this is what was in mind when shooting.

The video was shot as below, when cropped in there was still some of the doors in view, so a skin was created at both sides to complete the final look.

Model Industry Icons - Caroline Trentini

With at least 8+ years at blue chip level under their belts, and still currently working, the industry icons bring experience and professionalism to every job and never fail to elevate the image into the realm of art. These are the true model's models and their endless stream of power bookings reflects that.

8 years ago Caroline Trentini leaped into the pages of American Vogue and the magazine hasn't been the same since. A perennial favorite of Anna Wintour, Steven Meisel, Craig McDean, David Sims, Patrick Demarchelier and every designer under the sun; Caroline has made her mark and is in it for the long haul. 

 Ph: Steven Meisel for American Vogue

Caroline Trentini's most recent campaigns: [view all]

H&M F/W 2012 Online and in store (H&M)

Paule Ka F/W 12 (Paule Ka)

Bally F/W 12 (Bally)

GAP HELLO Campaign S/S 12 (Gap)

Coco Rocha for Senhoa Fall 2011 (Various Campaigns)

Ports International F/W 11 (Ports 1961)

Bally F/W 11 (Bally)

Source  http://models.com/rankings/ui/IndustryIcons

Charlotte Church video made using canon 5Dmk2 and 7D DSLR's.

Charlotte Church’s creative rebirth with an innovative video for the single ‘Back to made using the Canon 5Dmk2 and 7D DSLR's.

Producer Ben Sullivan , eight Canon EOS DSLR cameras and a finished video achievable in a one-day shoot and within the £60,000 budget.



Kevin Godley reveals: “We created a 360° white environment and shot from eight different camera positions using Canon EOS 5D Mark II and EOS 7D cameras. So, we ended up with eight views of Charlotte at the same time. And we shot those eight views from three different angles; so we started low, moved to the middle and then the top.”

Asked to reveal a little bit more about the setup,“I looked at the zoom lenses that were compatible with the cameras and worked out the focal lengths and coverage we would need."

Today I met 40 of Manchester's newest photographers

Today I met with 40 of Manchester's newest photographers, all year one Degree students. We talked about "the business."

Statistically only 0.5% will continue long term into a professional career, only 1 in 200 is a low success rate, so being honest with what's in front of them was order of the day.

My advise was to be a business from day one, don't get to year three and start looking for work, be active and put in a lot of hours both in study and in the business. 

Being a photographer now is not what is was 30, 20 or even ten years ago. Joe McNally told me when he started his job title was photographer but more recently he is a freelance image provider, now with video being more linked to our task list image technician is a title being banded about.

The students we all keen and I hope our conversation will help them be very driven between now and year three... hopefully they can buck the trend and make their dream a reality.

Joe McNally website http://www.joemcnally.com

Good luck to all of them.