Headshot Heaven

It’s that time again when we are graced with an infection of politician’s headshots all over our streets.  Increasingly the general public see this as an invasion. Litter. They make a mess of our streets, obstruct our view of traffic and then have to be disposed of after just three weeks.

But they endure for one very good reason: people engage with images of other people.  We look, we familiarise and the candidates hope that we start to like them.

It’s a powerful process (and one that’s pretty unique to Irish Political Campaigning).

So are you harnessing this power for your business?  You are the most unique part of your business. Your business will thrive or fail based on your ability to give your customer what they want and they need to be able to trust you on that.

You need a good profile image.  Whether it’s on your website, your LinkedIn or Facebook or whatever, people engage with a face on a screen and they will make decisions about you and your business based on that.

I can help you with that.

Update Complete

After nearly 12 months, my equipment update cycle is pretty much complete.

My old D700 bodies were still going strong but they were reaching end of life and I decided to go for a controlled upgrade in advance, rather than facing failure in the field (even though I have backups for everything) and having to do everything at once in a hurry.

I also decided to go largely second-hand.  With Nikon on a major upgrade cycle itself right now, there is an opportunity to get well looked after second hand gear – from reliable sources – from the previous generation of cameras.  That’s plenty for me and the savings are significant.  The risks are minimal if you’re careful about who you buy from.  Worst case it goes back to the seller or needs to go to repair (so some contingency is set aside for that ).

The best second hand buys need patience: waiting for the right one to come up at the right price.  So having time to shop around is also good.

Finally I decided to upgrade and not switch.  There’s a lot of talk amongst photographers about switching camera brands – especially to Sony mirrorless.

There’s a lot of good tech there but nothing really I need that I can’t get from the current (and previous) iterations of Nikon DSLRs.

The biggest reason not to switch is the cost of replacing the supporting equipment: I have a lot invested in lenses, flashes etc.  The new ones and ones from different manufacturers may be marginally better in specific circumstances but again, is it really worth spending a considerable amount of money to change everything?

Remember this is a business that fundamentally needs to feed my kids.  A lot of camera gear is bought on a ‘want’ basis.  Much is bought on a ‘might be useful’ or ‘if X happens then I’ll need this’.  These days I look at everything from a Return on Investment basis.  If I spend €1000 on an upgrade which makes no tangible difference to my client or my workflow, then that’s money I can’t spend on my family.

In the next post I’ll go through the full itemised list of what the upgrade took.

Detail

I’ve just been updating the slides for the last week of the Photography Classes and I thought I’d share.  Last night’s class covered digital images and the whole mega-pixel-mega-shmixel thing: does a larger image mean more detail?

Well no.  Having a higher resolution sensor gives the opportunity to capture more detail but only:

  • If the sensor sites are independent of each other
  • Your lens can resolve an image to the precision of the size of each sensor site
  • There is detail in the image you are trying to resolve.

And then  you have to ask yourself if you need that much detail.  Does it help tell your story?  Is it, in fact, distracting?

Anyway, with some data we generated on the course last week, an interesting comparison is now available:

Camera on the Motorola G5 Phone: 13.1MP
Nikon One J5 10-30mm Kit Lens. 20 MP
Nikon D850, 85f1.4. 45 MP

So there are a number of variables at work here: the sensor resolution, the lens (and settings) and even the crop – these are all 300×300 100% crops but the variation in size of sensor makes the crop different in each case.  And I would expect the phone in particular to do a little better in brighter lighting.

But the trend is clear and the point is just that putting a 13MP sensor on my phone doesn’t make it a great camera.

I particular in this case compare these to the 12MP of the D700:

D700 105f2.8, 12MP

This last example has least actual resolution of any of the examples here but much more actual detail compared to the smaller sensors and the crappier lenses.

But also remember that having a great camera doesn’t automatically make you a great photographer.

New Tech

Technology posts are pretty rare on the blog.  Deep down there is a camera geek somewhere and we all love a new toy.  But having to make a living as a photographer forces you to examine every potential new purchase and decide whether a new toy is going to earn it’s crust.

And as anyone who’s been on my evening class will tell you.  The camera is just a tool to get a good image.

But after a long, faithful and very reliable service, my trusty Nikon D700 bodies are starting to show their age.

Camera technology has moved on considerably but most of the new additions, although impressive, weren’t anything my clients were going to pay for.

But the time has come to move on.  After much ummming, ahhing, googling and agonising, I am the proud owner of a Nikon D850.

What I got that I wanted:

  • Faster, more accurate autofocus (including reliable 3D tracking).  Which for me means a tangible decrease in the number of good images that need to be rejected because they are a little soft.  Which is great when shooting wobbly kids with blurry backgrounds.
  • More dynamic range.  So already it seems a lot easier to pull back very bright and very dark areas in the images.  So shooting in difficult lighting situations gets easier.  Again, more keepers in more locations.
  • More image resolution.  Which means more options for cropping in post production.  As much as you try to get it right in camera, at times a crop is stronger.  But if you want a decent print of a crop, you need more data.
  • A newer, stronger, more weather resistant camera body.  Much less chance of it failing when I need it to perform.

But as well as the cost of upgrading, there are other implications:

  • More  image = more storage required.  Realistically I don’t generally need all that extra image but that’s what I now have.  Now my workflow needs to cope with much larger files.  Putting a session of images on a single DVD for backup isn’t going to work anymore.
  • More data = slower processing.  So the camera upgrade came on the back of a PC upgrade but even then those big files need a little longer to load in all their glory.
  • Software upgrade.  OK I’m a bit lazy/stingy with my software upgrades (but at least I pay for my software).  But new RAW files need up to date software.
  • Lens upgrades.  All of my lenses are compatible.  The higher resolution sensor pushes them to the limits of their ability to resolve an image.  Now I still don’t need all that detail and most of my lenses have actually performed pretty well (despite the web telling me they wouldn’t).  But the 50mm lenses were always a little ‘weak’ (I have 4 different versions) even though they take lovely images.  I might need to upgrade here.
  • New fingers.  After 10 years of using identical cameras, I need to learn some new tricks to get the settings I need.
  • New cards & batteries – just more stuff to buy (and have spares)
  • New L-bracket.  I love the L Brackets for my tripod but each is fitted to the specific camera body so I need a new one.

And some other stuff:

  • Features I don’t (yet) need – and may or may not ever get around to using.  Like video (4K no less) and time lapse.  Very cool but no idea if I’ll ever use it.
  • Different colours.  I think I like them better.  Until I do some more printing I’m not sure.

It’ll get it’s first commercial outing this week.  My clients won’t really notice but my life will hopefully be easier.  And the D700 will be in the bag just in case…

Better tracking of active kids. Better pulling back of highlights.

What does your profile photo say about you?

My favourite part of LinkedIn is the ‘People You May Know’ page: a gallery of mug shots of everyone and anyone who has a connection to someone you’re already connected to.

A picture tells a thousand words.  So what do you see when you look at all these faces?

Who looks professional?  Who’s presenting themselves in a way consistent with the core values of their business.

Who do you trust?

Ultimately engaging with potential clients on-line is all about creating trust.  Whether we like it or not, people form judgements about you when they look at your profile picture.  It’s a skill we learn in early life and an important part of human relationships: ‘sussing someone out’; ‘reading a face’.

A good profile image can do that for you.  It’s more than ‘just a headshot’, it’s your opportunity to make a good first impression – and you never get a second chance.

So next time you’re perusing the ‘People You May Know’, look at your own profile image and ask yourself if it’s serving you as well as it should.

I shoot professional profile images on location and in the Studio.  We can discuss whether a formal or informal portrait would work best for your business and we’ll shoot a range of images so you can choose the best expression and presentation to camera.

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Special Selfie

A few strands came together yesterday:

After ripping my oldest white paper background in half on-site on Wednesday, I needed to check out a couple of studio paper backgrounds that I’d been given by another photographer.

So I hoisted the stand and unrolled them to see what they were like.

First off, after you got through the inevitable dirty bit at the bottom, the white one was actually in better shape than my old one (and much more there).  Result.

Then there was a black one.  Never used black.  It’s a little bent but most of it is good.

I wanted to see how the black would look.  There’s no one around to model it.  We’ll do a self portrait then.

Cue the second thread: I’ve been thinking about a self-portrait for a while.  Wondering how I’d like to photograph myself.  It is a very challenging task for a number of reasons:

  1. No one really likes pictures of themselves.  No one normal anyway
  2. I do this a lot for other people.  I know too much.
  3. I know lots of ways to take a portrait and have considered the whys and wherefores of each option.
  4. I know how small things change the way we read a face in a still image.  I know the work I put in to get that right in other people.
  5. I think way too much about this kind of thing.
  6. With all of the above, I expect to be judged by my own self-portrait (maybe I’m actually judging myself)

So all in all, it’s just not happening.

I’ve had a few ideas but not really progressed them.

Moreover I’ve enjoyed looking (and secretly mocking) other photographers’ attempts to do their own job on themselves.  Mysteriously, the majority seem to involve hiding behind a camera: “I’m a photographer, I must have a camera in my image”.  It seems to be some kind of rule.  And some photographers love rules.

Buy Why?  Does the camera define you?  Why do you hide?  When you look at the profile images on LinkedIn, why so only the photographers include their tools?  You don’t see dentists holding drills.  It’s rare even to see musicians holding instruments – and those that do don’t hide behind them.  So what’s the story?  Is it a secret code?  Some even hold them like they are some kind of weapon!

To me it demonstrates a woeful lack of comprehension of exactly what it is a profile image does.  From the people who should know the most – but maybe it’s just me that thinks about this stuff.  Maybe the other guys just take the photo.

But the arrival of the black background and 15 minutes spare finally started me off.

Perhaps it’s the complete randomness that got me started:  I never shoot on black; I hardly ever use studio light.  I’d imagined my self-portrait to be completely typical of my best work (soft natural light, shallow focus, blurred contextual background, engaged expression) and this was the exact opposite.

Of course the wasn’t much time and the wireless remote release wouldn’t work (again) so it’s just a very simple start with a plan for future iterations (which is very me): black background, one light, prime lens, self timer.   I only took a couple and some were out of focus (because of the self-timer thing).

And I need a hair cut.

But it’s not bad – considering the subject matter.

rjc_1307-edit-1000px

Analogue Love/Hate

There’s been a resurgence of Arty/Retro/Hipster Love of film recently.  Starting I guess with the Lomo guys and I most recently found a more and more of this kind of stuff around the place.  I got the tour of Sample Studios recently and they even have a dark room (remember those?).

Now, I still own far more film cameras then I’m ever likely to use and every now and then hanker to pick them up, fire the shutter and even tempted to fire off some of my few remaining film rolls.

If only I had the time.

But recently the reality of my film days was brought back to me with a bump.

I recently started leafing through my archive of neagtives looking for a nostagic picture of Mrs Lamb in order to make her Birthday card.  Lots of really lovely old stuff in there and I took more time than I had available to look through those photos.

Amongst them I found a couple of images from my Student Days that I’d had half a mind to scan up so having dusted off the film scanner I ran them through.

Lovely shots (OK I might do more with the location now) but holy cow just how much crap is on that negative!!!

We’re talking, scratches, damaged emulation, dust, drying marks – plus substaintial grain issues.  All that nostaglia about the details of the baths: the signage, the tiling, the scoreboards is now masked with crap.   Now this was probably a home-cooked negative so much of the responsibility is mine.  But I had no better luck with most labs.

Going digital was the first time I got full control over my end-to-end workflow.  Aside from the ability to chimp, the flexibility and speed of digital.  I finally got the quality of finish I was looking for.

Here’s the final, cleaned up image (there’s probably more that could be done with this).   For anyone interested in the original scan it’s available here.

The Loughborough Colleges 25yd Pool, circa 1991
The Loughborough Colleges 25yd Pool, circa 1991

Incentives (Draft 2)

I knew this would be a difficult subject to address.  Draft 1 kinda turned into a rant so it’s consigned to the WordPress ‘permanent draft’ folder.

So let’s start again.

My objective for all my family photo sessions is that everyone enjoys it.  It’s simple really: if we can make sure that the whole experience is a very positive one then the photos will reflect that.  As much as possible is done to make that happen – choosing a good location, timing etc – and from the moment we meet it should be obvious that this isn’t something that anyone needs to get stressed about: we’re just going to go out into the Park and take some photos.

I find that kids react to their environment.  If everyone is cool and easy-going they’ll relax and be themselves.  They’ll start playing and I’ll be able to watch them, encourage them, they’ll start to trust me and take some really lovely pictures of them.

It’s easy to go in to a photo session with expectations of how it’ll be.  In reality you might not have done this before. I think some parents worry that they might not get the images they expect.  Remember that all my work is shot with ‘normal’ people.  The pics on the web site are kids just like yours.

I’ve done this before.  You’re in good hands. I understand that kids need some time to get used to me, the camera and having their photos taken.  They need time to feel comfortable, reassurance that they’re not going to get into trouble for doing or not doing something so they can relax and play.

So don’t panic.  Relax and enjoy your kids and let me handle the photos. Don’t ask the kids to ‘smile’ or ‘be good’ because those terms mean nothing in the context of the photo session.

It’s not uncommon before or during a session for some parents to get so worried that their kids won’t ‘smile’ or ‘be good’ that they offer a reward for doing just that.  I have found that overall that’s not helpful – mostly because it’s too easy to get wrong.  Kids can become so focussed on the reward that it upsets the session.

Equally they can be so unmoved by the reward that they are impervious to it’s charms and parents are tempted to escalate the incentive (or even turn to punishments).  In this case we’re now fighting and the chance of pictures of a relaxed kid smiling are reduced.

I’ll try to illustrate:

Dad: Now you be good for the man
Kid: ????
Dad: Smile now
Kid pulls weird grin
Dad: Not that smile, your real smile
Kids weird grin just gets weirder
Dad: If you give me a big, real smile I’ll give you a treat
Kid just tries harder at the really big weird grin
Dad: No, that’s not it
Kid is now upset because they failed and won’t get the treat
Dad: Just smile for Daddy
A cycle of weird grins, Dad gets frusrated, Kids gets sadder cos Dad’s not happy. Eventually Dad notices Kid is sad and gives the treat to make it better.  Kid thinks he did good and it’s all over.  Until:

Dad: so where’s my smile?
Round we go again – Kid not sure what he did last time for the treat so goes through grinning-crying routine again.

But we still don’t have a photo.

Now these are hypothetical.  In reality, most Dads are Messers at heart (for their own kids at least) and when they realise they you’re giving them the best excuse ever to just kick back and enjoy their family we get what we came for.

So, in summary:

  1. Relax
  2. Treat the session as just a normal thing to do
  3. Don’t offer incentives or negative repercussions for behaviour
  4. You can reward once we’re done but don’t mention it during the session
  5. If your kids aren’t smiling then say or do something that will make them smile or laugh (just make sure I’m ready to photograph the reaction)
  6. Follow my lead for helping me get a good reaction from them

Preparing for your Family Photo Session

So we’ve booked the session, decided where to go and now you’re wondering what you need to do before we meet for the photo session.

I’ll contact you shortly before the session to confirm the booking.  I’d normally leave that until a day or so before the actual session so we can get a more reliable look at the weather forecast in case there’s anything nasty definitely headed our way.  All being well you’ll get a text or a call from me to confirm time and place (but if at anytime you want to check, just give me a buzz).

Similarly if someone’s sick or something else comes up just call me and we can re-schedule the session.  I want to get the best images and that’s not going to happen if someone – especially a young child – is suffering with something.

Clothing

RLR_4524
Lots of girls want to choose their own clothes – it’s part of who they are

The most common question I get asked about is clothing.  There’s no absolute rules here but there are a few things to bare in mind:

  • Everyone needs to be comfortable and free to play.  So warm but not too snugged up, layers they can take off if they’re hot and something handy to put on if it gets cold.
  • Cute hats are generally good – especially if they’re used to them – but try to avoid anything that will hide their faces in the pictures: hats with a brim, scalves, body warmers with high necks etc.
  • Nothing too precious.  They need to be able to play freely without you or them worrying about getting a bit dirty.
  • While the ‘white shirt / t-shirt’ image is popular in the US, it can be quite hard on most Irish kids’ complexions – especially at this time of year.  It’s also going to be the first thing to show dirt (and it may be too cool in Autumn as well).
  • In general remember that we’re here to get pictures of you all and your faces are what we’re most interested in.  So avoid anything that’s going to compete with your expressions visually: heavily branded clothes, tops with characters on them (especially faces), very distracting patterns etc.
  • Brightly coloured clothing can work well in the forest but make sure it’s not too much (or clashing).  Again, the problem comes when the colours take away from the kids expressions.

 

Body warmer are handy but watch out for high necks that will hide their chins
Body warmers are handy but watch out for high necks that will hide their chins

For most people the session is about the whole family but there are parents who don’t want to come into the photos.  That’s a bit of shame but it’s OK.  Even so you might be asked to support your children getting up onto a tree or something or just holding their hand at some point so even if you don’t want to do a full family photo, make sure that you’re wearing something you don’t mind being photographed in (even if it’s your back or your arm).

RLQ_5506
Mom and Dad need to get in on the act too!

Incentives

This is generally not something you think about before the session but getting this wrong in the middle of the day can make things harder than perhaps they need to be.  It’s often occurred to me that I should have talked to parents about incentives before the session because they have an significant impact on childrens’ behaviour (for good or for bad).

There’s actually quite a lot of psycology in taking pictures.  Offering a reward for ‘good behaviour’ with small kids can be hard to get right (and easy to get wrong).  It tends to work once or twice for a short period and you never quite plan for what happens next.

In fact, this is a big subject and I’m going to need a separate post but suffice it to say here that you should think more about positive re-enforcements (“how nice this is going to be”) and distractions (“what’s over there?”) than offering a reward for ‘being good’.  I’ll be doing my best to make the whole session fun and hopefully they’ll be happy and playful without the promise of a reward.

Food

You know your own kids.  If they don’t eat between meals, they’ll be fine.  If they snack then yes, bring food. Something small, clean, easy / quick to eat and not too sugary.  Bite-sized snacks that aren’t rewards are ideal.

Where to do your family session

In the first part of this series of posts, I wrote about booking your session.  But where would you go?

Well, the simple answer is ‘anywhere’.

I’ve done sessions in many locations across the city and county and there’s never been a location that didn’t work out well.

There are however a few ingredients that make things easier for everyone.  The objective is to get a really good range of pictures of everyone having fun.  Choosing the right location gives us the a better chance of getting as many pictures as possible.

So here’s my guide to choosing a location:RLC_2445-1000px

Somewhere personal.  Do you have somewhere that your family visit regularly, somewhere you’ll look back on and identify strongly with this time in your lives?  These places are definitely the place to start.  Using a location which is part of your family history to create memories is very precious.

Feeling free.  RLD_7503Taking the photo session outdoors serves a number of purposes – it takes the pressure out of a studio session and everyone finds it easier to forget they’re being photographed.  Not many people have their private copse but many of the local parks and forests are quiet enough for us all to feel inhibited.

Backgrounds.  But the location will also for a background to RLJ_0400your photos – even though it may be deliberately out of focus in many of the pictures.  One of the reasons Autumn forest pictures work so well is that the trees are alive with colour and can be used to create stunning backgrounds.   Don’t assume your favourite location is deciduous though – many local forests are evergreen.  That still works but may not be what you expect.

Levels.  If you were to ask me what the hardest place to photograph is I’d say ‘in the middle of a fRLE_3094ield’.  It’s much easier to work with a range of terrain, benches, logs, trees, bridges, walls, summer houses etc to provide options for people to sit, stand and lean on.  It gives them something more natural to do (posing standing still is very unnatural) and it provides the opportunity for Small People to get more height and be closer to their parents (and Big People to hide a bit if they want).  The more things to climb and sit on the better.

Something to do. “Stand there now and look relaxed and happy”.  No better way to make somone tense and uncertain looking.  It’s all about providing a distraction and at it’s simplest it’s just walking, exploring, climbing trees or choosing colourful leaves.  But if you can think of other things that the kids love to do (without turning it into a competition) then we can work it in.  Most of the time they find something to do themselves and we photograph that.  Playgrounds sometimes work but they can be busy (and we don’t want other families coming in) and brightly coloured stuff can be distracting in the final pics.RLJ_6615

Cover.  The obvious concern about an Autumn session is the rain, but full sun is a problem too.  Either way it’s handy to have a bit of cover available to give options for shade as well as to keep out of cold winds.

Distances.  You’re probably going to have to drive to the location so just keep it to a managable journey.  If you’re all tired and cranky after the journey then it’s going to take longer to distract everyone out of it and we’ll get less opportunities for what we’re looking for.  Also consider how far we need to walk from the car park to the nicest spot and how old the kids are (bring the buggy if you need to but we don’t want anyone dozing off before we get some pictures).

In the next post, I’ll look at a few good locations around Cork that you might consider.