Getting The Shot: “Indonesian Beauty II” by Douglas Dubler 3

Indonesian Beauty II

This image was captured with a Sony A7II  at f/4 @ 1/30 sec using ISO 400 with a Zeiss Otus 85mm (using a Novoflex adapter).
Retouching by Irfan Yonac

Here’s the story behind this image in Douglas Dubler’s own words (edited by Richard Hood):

As an art form based in “the actual,” photography has always provided a meeting-ground for both beauty and truth. In over forty years shooting fashion and beauty portraits, I have consistently sought to explore this intersection, looking for moments that define a visual tapestry, woven out of  the “why,” as well as the “who.” My photography depends upon finding the right tools, creating the right environment, and establishing the right rapport with a subject, to display something of the truth within the beauty I'm capturing.  My recent creation of a portrait entitled, “Indonesian Beauty” demonstrated the process of combining technique, technology, and timing in order to capture a compelling, and transcendent image.

In the 1990s, I visited seven Asian countries in four weeks, lecturing to photographers on behalf of Fuji film. After such an intense working experience, I decided to take a rest-and-recovery stop in Bali. There, I established a routine that involved catching the sunrise each morning from a different location,  working for an hour or so until the light got too high, then retiring for some sleep and food. I'd then go out for the sunset in a new location. I had planned to spend a week in Bali, but was so captivated by colors and culture, I remained for three weeks.

When I returned to New York I was introduced to Gde Arsa Artha, who has since become a good friend, and who has, over the years, continued to teach me about Balinese art and culture.  Just last month, Gde was responsible for my visit to the Indonesian Consulate, where we were invited to attend a fashion show  they were hosting for four Indonesian couture designers, who were in New York for the Couture Show.  Always wanting to put my best foot forward and following Pasteur’s mantra “Chance favors always the prepared mind,” I organized a mini entourage consisting of a digital tech/1st assistant, 2nd assistant, hair and make-up artist, and several others to help with the equipment. Out of this visit would come my  portrait of Chitra, the “Indonesian Beauty,” featured here in an earlier blog, and the current portrait of Sarah Azca, shown here.

Figuring on just a simple main light and one light for a background if necessary, I packed one of my Broncolor Grafit 3200 wt./sec packs with one of my “signature” Lightbar 120s and a regular Pulso head.  (over $18,000 worth of lighting equipment at retail).  When we arrived at the Indonesian Consulate, they were in the process of dressing the models and doing their walk-throughs in preparation for the show.  I took a few minutes to survey the three floors looking for the best place to set up, where I could at least take advantage of some of the wonderful available light that was entering through a beautiful domed skylight, similar to a mini-Guggenheim.

I decided that the second floor would be more central as that was where the dressing rooms were and I could capture the models both coming and going.  I had the Lightbar 120 set up and proceeded to do a few captures to check the light.

I didn’t like what I saw.

But more of an issue was the fact that no matter where I positioned the light, someone was always walking in front of it and almost tripping on the power cord or head extension.  I quickly realized that, even if I got the light worked out to my liking, the logistics were such that the decision to  light the shoot had been wrong.  In the past, this would probably have been the end of my day.  Here is where the importance of having the best tools comes to the fore:  after a few readings with my Sekonic Litemaster Pro light meter, I decided that with the super fast Zeiss lenses I had and the image stabilized Sony A7II camera, I could work with the available light, filling when and where necessary with my Roscopak silver/white reflector. 

My next objective was to find one or two models with whom I thought I would be able to work well. Initially, I had assumed  that the majority of the girls were from Indonesia. But after speaking to several of them, I learned that, in fact, most were from New York City.   My hair and make-up artist, Sylvia Pichler, while touching-up the make-up,  was alerting me to interesting looks on the girls.  One of the first models she brought to my attention was Sarah Azka, an Indonesian  who had been flown to New York by one of the designers.  Instantly, I thought she had a great look and the dress and headpiece she was wearing were a beauty photographer’s dream.  We took a few photographs on the lower floor,, where the light wasn’t to my liking so I told her that when she was done with the show I would like to take some more photographs.

I continued to work basically filing time waiting for her to be finished.  When she appeared, I immediately had my friend Gde tell her to follow me upstairs and I found a spot where the light had a beautiful bounce quality, though because it was after 3:00 P.M. my f-stop was starting to drop quickly.  I knew I had to work quickly. I changed my ISO to 400 and put the incomparable Zeiss Otus 85mm f1.4 on the A7II with the Novoflex adapter.  At f 4 I was at 1/30 sec. which was about as slow as I wanted to go, hand-holding this heavy piece of glass.  With my “previous” camera, I would have had to be at 1/320 sec. which would have increased my ISO to over 3200. A definite “quality” deal breaker.

I shot 230 images that day.  This photograph was number 227.  When I shot it I knew there was no need to continue. I had the shot!

So it all came together. I had the right tools in the right place at the right time. I had the right model, and, though there was a definite language barrier, I was able to establish that few precious moments of rapport with her, so necessary to capturing the intangible magic that makes up a great beauty or portrait shot.

Follow Douglas on Social Media

Want to follow Douglas on social media? Click on the following links and start to follow him:

• Facebook
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Want to do a fashion photography workshop with Douglas and Ron in New York City?

Douglas is an iconic fashion and beauty photographer with hundreds of magazine covers to his credit. If you are interested in joining him in Manhattan for a workshop, please contact me and I’ll add you to the list for future workshop announcements. Exact details will be included when space for the next workshop opens up.

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Getting The Shot: “Indonesian Beauty” by Douglas Dubler 3
• Printing Series: Douglas Dubler – Fashion Photographer & Epson Stylus Pro Master Printer
• Getting the Shot: Bill Gates by Gary Parker
• Getting the Shot: Steve Jobs by Gary Parker
• Printing Series
• Sony a3000
• Sony a6000 (includes 16-70mm lens)
• Sony a7 (includes Samyang lens)
• Sony a7R
• Sony DSC-RX1 (Full Frame Compact Camera)
• Sony DSC-RX10
• Sony RX100 III (Sony DSC-RX100 II vs RX100 I)
• Sony NEX-7
• X-Rite ColorMunki Photo Color Management Solution
• X-Rite ColorChecker Passport
• X-Rite i1Display Pro and ColorMunki Display Colorimeters
• Zeiss Otus 55m f/1.4
• Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

Getting The Shot: “Indonesian Beauty” by Douglas Dubler 3

Indonesian Beauty

This image was captured with a Sony A7II  at f/4 @ 1/60 sec using ISO 100 with a Zeiss Makro-Planar T* f/2 100mm (using a Novoflex adapter). 
Retouching by Irfan Yonac

Introduction

Douglas is a good friend of mine who was the driving force behind my successful Printing Series and eBook. Click here to see my printing series article about him, and you can read his latest bio at the end of this article.

In Douglas’ Own Words

The most successful photographs have at least three things in common. They are, and not necessarily in order of importance; concept, technique, and execution.

Last week I attended an Indonesian festival celebration in New York City with my Balinese friend, Tjokorda Gde Arsa Artha. The Indonesian Consulate General on 68th Street between Madison and 5th Avenue had the block closed to traffic and had food and craft vendors selling their wares to the public.

With my friend Gde’s guidance and contacts we were able to enter the Indonesian embassy where they were about to begin a “fashion” show with exotic Indonesian beauties dressed in their colorful ethnic costumes.

The first thing that caught my eye was the bright 3 P.M. sun backlighting these large pieces of red fabric that were serving as curtains for the fashion show. I quickly had my friend’s son Dalem Arsa Artha stand in front of the curtain and I did a portrait of him. The red background was like a large backlit transparency which reminded me of a technique I used in the studio years ago creating backgrounds using front and rear projection screens which gave me saturation and color palette impossible to achieve with the standard choice of seamless papers. It quickly became one of my trademarks.

Fast forward to last week. Being a beauty photographer, I immediately began looking at the 20 or so girls and women for a beautiful and interesting subject. One woman in particular, Chitra Irawan, caught my attention with the combination of her colorful costume, elaborate beaded veil and beautifully reserved demeanor. I had my Friend Gde approach her and ask her if she would pose for me. She agreed and quickly told me she had no experience as a model. I knew I would only have a few minutes to try and get a good shot. Her connection with the camera would make or break the shot. Somewhat of a tall order to expect from a non-professional.

I had her stand directly in front of the red curtain which was still backlit by full sunlight. On my Sony A7II 24MP camera I attached my superb Zeiss 100mm f2 lens via the Novoflex adapter. I set the aperture to f4 to give me about one inch or so of depth of field at the distance I was at. I used the “focus peaking” feature on the camera to ascertain that just the beads were sharp and let her face and eyes go slightly soft. I gave her a minimum of direction but she understood perfectly and in this shot gave me just the “right” look. Instinctively I knew I had the shot.

The whole process took about 15 minutes at most. I took exactly 23 exposures and every one was focused precisely where the yellow “marching ants” indicated. Remember I was doing this with a manual focus lens. With the IBIS camera stabilization and a shutter speed of 1/60 sec., I still had no problem capturing razor sharp images. Something I have never been able to do with a DSLR. Within 5 minutes the sun had gone behind some clouds and the”red” background was no more.

As an aside comment to photographers who are complaining about Sony’s compressed raw file I say get a life and take some pictures! I pushed this file .17 of a stop, not the 5 or 6 stops that apparently produces the digital artifacts that the “pixel peepers” are seeing. I come from an analog background where my typical film push was +1/8 stop. So slight that only one lab in New York City could do it.  So to me +5 or whatever is incomprehensible.

To conclude, the success of this photo is tied to my many past experiences over forty years as a photographer. When I find myself in a new situation, I usually use as a point of reference/departure one of those experiences or a combination of them. I generally make creative decisions very quickly and for the most part edit in the camera.

The lighting for me is always number one. I can’t make it in Photoshop. Next, the right choice of lens and aperture. The Zeiss 100mm f2 has that holy grail of sharpness and beautiful bokeh that you can’t get from any other lens (except my favorite Zeiss 135mm f2 APO Sonnar). Next, the perfect composition.

And last and most important, the connection with your model/subject. Without that all of the above is for naught. Of the 23 captures this is the only one with this feeling. Some people might say that I was lucky…

Color managed by X-Rite Photo software.

About Douglas Dubler

Douglas Dubler is a fashion and beauty photographer who seamlessly joins craft and creativity to produce some of the most memorable images in editorial, advertising and fine art photography. Dubler has been able to achieve this union by synthesizing right and left brain thinking. His early training in Fine and Liberal Arts at Boston University enriched him with an articulate sense of form, color, and composition. Initial experiences as a plastic sculptor and silk screen artist instilled in him a great respect for the craft and workmanship necessary to create fine art, and produced the dedication to detail that appears in his work as a photographer. Early mentors in his creative life were Ansel Adams and Isamu Noguchi.

Dublerʼs professional photographic career began in the late ʻ60ʼs in California and the Virgin Islands where he photographed underwater life. Seeking dry ground, he made the transition to studio photography in the early ʻ70ʼs. In 1976 his desire for commercial success drew him to Los Angeles where he began to specialize in fashion and beauty photography. During this period Douglas was mentored by renowned fashion photographer Neal Barr with whom he has maintained a decades long friendship. Working primarily with major motion picture studios, Douglas photographed celebrities and subsequently obtained cosmetic assignments from Max Factor and Redken Laboratories. In addition he also began working as a photographic consultant and special photographer on feature films.

Access to European editorial markets and major cosmetic accounts lured Douglas to New York in 1982. His editorial assignments brought him primarily to Italy where he spent extensive amounts of time working for Amica, Lei, and Italian Vogue. His celebrity editorial clients include Jacqueline Bisset, Jane Fonda, Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, Brooke Shields, Andie MacDowell and Sharon Stone.

Dublerʼs innovative techniques and his consistent ability to reproduce accurate, pleasing skin tones with minimal retouching has produced a client list of major cosmetic companies including Max Factor, Revlon, Clairol, Coty, Redken, Avon, Charles of the Ritz, Sally Hansen, and Alexandra de Markoff. His commercial successes have been recognized by the industry with awards from the Starch Report, Communication Arts, Art Directors Club and Clio.

For the past decade, Douglas has been working as a creative director/ photographer for the majority of his clients. Prompted by his desire to be involved at the conceptual phase of a project, he finds the challenge more fulfilling and is a vocal advocate of this holistic approach to the type of images he creates. Recent clients in this phase of his career are LVMH, Paspalley Pearls, CNN, Epson, Broncolor, Nikon and Nik Software.

His personal work, unlike his commercial work, is eclectic and runs the gamut from surreal abstract to still life to architectural. His digital fine art prints are represented by Mertens Fine Art in Montecito, California and Throckmorton Fine Art in New York City. Teaching venues include The School of Visual Arts where he is a graduate instructor, Brooks Institute, International Center of Photography, Hallmark Institute of Photography, the University of Miami and Palm Beach Photographic Center.

The ability to meld technology with creative imagery has firmly established Douglas Dubler as an innovator and artist and will continue to create a constant demand for his iconographic beauty and fine art images.

Want to do a fashion photography workshop with Douglas and Ron in New York City?

Douglas is an iconic fashion and beauty photographer with hundreds of magazine covers to his credit. If you are interested in joining him in Manhattan for a workshop, please contact me and I’ll add you to the list for future workshop announcements. Exact details will be included when space for the next workshop opens up.

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Printing Series: Douglas Dubler – Fashion Photographer & Epson Stylus Pro Master Printer
• Getting the Shot: Bill Gates by Gary Parker
• Getting the Shot: Steve Jobs by Gary Parker
• Printing Series
• Sony a3000
• Sony a6000 (includes 16-70mm lens)
• Sony a7 (includes Samyang lens)
• Sony a7R
• Sony DSC-RX1 (Full Frame Compact Camera)
• Sony DSC-RX10
• Sony RX100 III (Sony DSC-RX100 II vs RX100 I)
• Sony NEX-7
• X-Rite ColorMunki Photo Color Management Solution
• X-Rite ColorChecker Passport
• X-Rite i1Display Pro and ColorMunki Display Colorimeters
• Zeiss Otus 55m f/1.4
• Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

Get Lighting Tips from Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographer for FREE

My good friend and Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist, Gary Parker, has a cool new blog that I love and I think you will too! 

In the spirit of a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s an authorized screen grab so you can see at a glance what his articles look like:

Image Intentionally Blurred

This is a well respected pro and 2x photographer of the year sharing his lighting tricks with diagrams. Gary Parker is basically the Joe McNally of the Canon world, so its fun to see how he pulls off some of these shots he does. This particular one was done in film 9 years ago with some technology that sure looks a lot like the Google Glasses of today!

Gary has photographed the who’s who of high tech from Steve Jobs to Bill Gates and everyone in between, yet he’s not a one trick pony. He’s also done some of the most amazing pet photography and national ad campaigns that will make you do a double-take and say – hey, I just saw that at the store today! 

The fact that he’s sharing his knowledge on a free platform like this blog is friggin awesome, so go check it out – you might learn a thing or two and it won’t cost you a penny!

Here’s Gary’s sites which I’m sure you’ll enjoy:

• http://blog.garyparker.com/ – Check this out first!
• http://www.catdogphotography.com
• http://www.garyparker.com

Here’s a few guest blogs he has done for me too:

• Getting The Shot: Steve Jobs and Laurene Powell Jobs In Love by Gary Parker
• Getting The Shot– 73 Seconds to Photograph Bill Gates by Gary Parker
• Getting The Shot: Blue Bulldog by Gary Parker
• LEARNING FROM THE PRO’S: Gary Parker on Having Fun on a Commercial Dog Shoot

Enjoy, but please come back to visit me sometime too – ;-)

Ron

Getting The Shot: Blue Bulldog by Gary Parker

One beautiful, sunny but mild California day we played on a remote beach near Santa Cruz with our dog Smarty Jones, then crossed Hwy 1 between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay to have a burger and a brew on the outdoor patio of a bar & grill facing the sea, watching the perfect sunset and the sun quickly dipping down to the sea.

We sat in what felt like the patio on the edge of the world, only maybe 50 yards from the Pacific, watching the sunset, enjoying sitting in a chair after a day of running around making photographs of our athletic son and Smarty Jones, our Golden Retriever.

Perfect, for sure, BUT is there a picture here? Looking for any cool person, place or thing to photograph is always the constant photographers quest. I sat, looked and pondered. Something to photograph always presents itself…

The view was incredible as the sun slowly sank to become a tiny sliver of brilliant light then – poof – it disappeared into the sizzling sea as twilight faded while still illuminating things just a tiny, wee bit.  The neon beer signs behind us reflected onto the cars, creating a cool glow of color reflecting from shiny paint jobs.

Suddenly a car drove up, it’s good-fun occupants bailed out for their own burger & brew, then a gorgeous snow white American Bulldog presented itself in the driver’s seat, clearly concerned with where his owners went, possibly pondering why he’d been left alone out in this slightly scary place.  Silently, attentively the dog sat, snow white – looking like a white ghost glowing out of darkness – his gaze glued to his owners inside the bar & grill, a mellow sentinel, though one who could most likely bite your your leg off... (American Bulldogs are the largest bulldog and, though often good natured, are known for extreme strength and power.)

It was too cool a moment not to photograph, yet it was seriously DARK, way too dark to hand-hold my beach camera, a Canon 1Ds Mark II with the Canon 85mm/f1.2 lens I’ve learned to love, mostly. The camera was an old but good one, bearing an incredible but sometimes hard to “get sharp” lens. Having owned most major camera brands over the years, I have never seen a lens quite like the Canon 85mm/f1.2 lens. This lens alone will not make you a good photographer but is a great and serious tool in any good photographers arsenal.

At f1.2, the Canon 85mm f/1.2L can be very difficult to use and know without doubt you have a sharp photograph, considering there is no depth of field at that shallow aperture.  Since digital cameras often back focus, any such issues result in an awful, dreadfully unusable frame. It’s a serious task to get lots of sharp frames at f1.2, so using that aperture is always a risky proposition, even in sunshine.

Another problem is it was dark and I had no tripod.  Technically, there was one across the highway in my truck but this was a “now moment.”  It was much more fun to risk the shot than sprint for a tripod and risk the dog laying down to take a nap during my mad dash.

I set the camera to ISO 1600 and the lens to f1.2.  Since I didn’t have a tripod, I sat the camera and lens on the 4’ concrete wall next to our patio table.

The bare tinge of twilight, coupled with the glowing neon beer signs, gave me the minimally acceptable shutter speed of 1/20th second. In order to resolve the “no tripod” problem, to keep the camera from moving during the exposure I physically put my weight on the camera from above, basically pushing down on the camera so it could not move, and fired off several frames – while holding my breath - and refocusing a couple of times, to hopefully insure sharpness at this incredibly risky, extra-shallow depth of field.

The resulting American Bulldog image is surprisingly sharp and, after a bit of processing, ended up one of those color cool photos I love yet might easily have missed, had I not thought to turn a short brick wall into a tripod, to focus the camera manually for more accurate focus in the dark and by yet again being treated to seeing the amazing miracle of photography turning night into day or, at least, night into a cool, found-moment bulldog image!

More Gary Parker Articles

Check out some of Gary’s guest blogs here:

• Getting The Shot – 73 Seconds to Photograph Bill Gates
• Getting The Shot- Steve Jobs and Laurene Powell Jobs In Love
• Learning From The Pro’s: Gary Parker on Having Fun on a Commercial Dog Shoot

Workshop With Gary in Seattle

Gary Parker and Ron Martinsen are teaming up to teach you how to make great photographs of people outdoors in Seattle, WA on May 26th, 2012. Click here to learn more about our workshop!

About Gary Parker (by Ron Martinsen)

Gary Parker is one of my favorite photographers and this photo is just one of many in his portfolio that make me go “WOW”!!! Not only is Gary talented at photographing people, but his pet photography at CatDogPhotography.com is going to look familiar to you if you’ve ever owned a pet.

Among Gary’s long list of accomplishments is being a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Team for the San Jose Mercury News coverage of Loma Prieta Earthquake; Southern Photographer of the Year; and Newspaper Photographer of the Year (twice!).

Disclosure

This article contains one or more links that may result in a commission if you make a purchase.

Getting The Shot– 73 Seconds to Photograph Bill Gates by Gary Parker

Bill Gates by Gary Parker

One day out of the blue I get a call with a voice on the other end that exclaims, “Gary!!!!  Thank god we reached you!!! Can you quickly get up to Seattle to do a one-on-one magazine cover shoot of Bill Gates for us?”. It was the Director of Photography at Information Week in New York who was quick to add “Our executive editor just got an interview with him – it’s super rush.  Can you be there tomorrow?”  

I thought to myself, of course I can be there!!! With a crew!!! Private shoots with Bill Gates were rare, so I was all over the assignment any time I got a call to shoot Bill.

Although Information Week and most tech magazines hired photographers locally, I’d somehow worked my way onto the list of those who could be trusted to go shoot the Big Boys. Over the years I’d come to realize shooting captains of industry and world famous technologists is not so different than the fashion photography I did for years. CEO’s are just slightly less cooperative but the process is very similar.

Having previously photographed Bill one-on-one, I understood the man is gracious with photographers and business-savvy enough to allow magazine shoots, even though a man who is definitely not into having his picture made.   Bill was 100% all-business – magazine covers are good for Microsoft – so he endured all the media for the benefit of the company. 

Off to Seattle we raced, excited about the prospects of getting great new shots of Bill, a true commodity to an editorial photographer, since gaining a one-on-one audience with the man almost guaranteed multiple magazine covers. We packed 35mm and 120mm film and even a 4x5” Sinar view camera.  As it would turn out, this shoot came only months before we went digital entirely. However, at this point we were still scanning and then imaging film.

Once in the hotel in Seattle we were told hurry out to Microsoft. The next thing we know we are being told, “no wait – the shoot will NOT go down today”, so we goofed off in Seattle instead. To me Seattle is the most beautiful city in America, so it was a great place to be stranded waiting for the richest man in the world to give us 5 minutes.  We presumed the shoot would go down the next day but, no, we were again told to wait. 

Finally on the 4th day of waiting, we were told to race out to Microsoft where we ushered to a conference room near Bill’s office. We raced to set up a rather grand multiple background scenario to prepare for the shoot. My lighting kit weighed 800 pounds, so this was no small feat!

We were told we’d have 20 minutes with Bill so my thought was I’d maximize the boardroom shoot by lighting 3 separate background areas, each differently.  The cool trick I’d figured out was, knowing Bill would not be into changing locations, I put an X on the floor then lit various backgrounds so all the photographer had to do was move a little then ask Bill to simply turn on the X and, voila!, a different background would be behind him.  What a great way to maximize a shoot with this world icon! I was feeling great about this clever 3-backgrounds idea...

By the time Bill arrived – late, of course – all three backgrounds were fully lit and all 3 cameras were precisely set, with exposures coordinated and taped down – this was no time for mistakes...  My thought was I’d make a few 35mm frames first, just warm up Bill, then switch to either 120mm or 4x5, based on whether it felt like Bill was going to give us some time.  The lighting was rather intense since we’d lit each of the 3 backgrounds with a separate 2000 watt-second power supply and as many strobe heads as were needed.

Bill’s first words when he entered the warmly glowing, strobe-filled room were, “Wow, I thought this was going to be a still shoot?” so I reassured him it was to be a still shoot only.  Bill’s response was, “I’ve never seen a still shoot with so many lights.” There was no time to explain about the 3 separate backgrounds so we simply got started.

Creating a nice ambience with the modeling lights and bastard amber warming gels is a great trick for a photographers’ arsenal since, upon entering a nicely lit room, the subject typically realizes there is much professionalism involved, often a reassuring feeling to legends like Bill who have been photographed poorly on many occasions.

At this point, it’s important to note we were shooting film – Fujichrome 100 transparency film – great stuff but with very little exposure latitude.  Transparency (slide) film was known for the rich, saturated imagery it produced but also for it’s narrow exposure latitude. In other words, it was easy to screw up the exposure.  On a shoot SO rare and important, it was mandatory the Fujichrome exposure was spot on the money.  No room for errors. I had that feeling in my gut like you have when you’re about to get on Space Mountain at Disney – a little scary but mostly exciting!

How did we know for a fact each light was set correctly?  Apart from years of experience working with strobes, each light had been adjusted precisely using a Minolta Flash Meter.  

At this point, though, my concern was not so much exposure as it was lighting design.  What kind or shape of light would look coolest?

Learning lighting is crucial to any photographer’s career development yet working with lights goes far beyond merely learning how to set them up and get correct exposures.  The design of the lighting – HOW the drama and ambience is created – is critical in making the picture a solid image worthy of a magazine cover or two.

Despite the fact it was common to bracket exposures when using transparency film, I’d decided in this case I would shoot Bill without doing so.  Instead, I decided to shoot all film of Bill at the same F-stop then, as soon as he left the room, to have my assistant stand on the X where Bill had been standing so I could shoot a “snip test roll” of my assistant, with the camera set at the exact same exposure used for Bill.  This way we could have the Seattle photo lab process “snips” from the “test roll” to insure the exposure was correct.  If the first snip test happened to be too light or too dark, we could then snip another piece from that test roll so the lab could process another piece, at a different development time and so on until I was satisfied the exposure and processing time were perfect. As it turned out, the first snip was perfect, exposure-wise, so we knew every frame of Bill should be good!  But I’m jumping ahead.....

Back at the shoot, Bill stepped on the X so I picked up the 35mm camera, presuming I’d get a few quick shots then would switch to a larger format camera.  Curiously, my assistant had the presence of mind to push his wrist watch timer when I fired the first frame, curious how much time Bill would give us to accomplish this cover shoot since 20 minutes sounded excessively long to have Bill in front of me. I chose a 70-200mm lens so I could zoom in tight then zoom back out to magazine cover format very quickly.  I did some minor chatting with Bill and he was pleasant-enough, as always.

However, at the point when I’d made 31 frames on the 35mm camera, I reached for the 120mm camera at which point Bill smiled politely, said “Thank you very much!,” turned and walked out of the room.............  Uh..................   What just happened to the other 18 minutes and 47 seconds???????  My assistant clicked his stop watch timer and Bill had given us exactly 73 seconds!!!???

OH NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! No 120mm or 4x5 shots – just those now-precious 31 frames on 35mm… OH NO!!! On the other hand, one rule of photography is stuff always happens so you better be ready to shift gears, regroup and make it happen despite whatever comes up.
As soon as I pried the stunned look off my face, I had my assistant step onto the X and proceeded to shoot a roll of him at the exact same exposure I’d just used with Bill. This was to be my test roll…

We then raced to the downtown Seattle lab where we discovered the snip-test roll was perfectly exposed. I’d nailed the exposure, it appeared, so I asked the lab to go ahead and process those 31 frames of Bill at the exact same development time.  We held our breath as the film was being processed thinking things like, “What if I screwed up and accidentally bumped the aperture to something different than the test-roll exposure??? What if the film processor screws up and wraps that film around the rollers? This is the very stuff that makes photography an exciting business!!! There are so many “what-if’s” and possibilities for screw-ups in this business.
Had I been a bit more paranoid, I might have had the lab process that “priceless” roll of Bill in two parts – they could cut it in half, processed the first half then, once I inspected it, could then develop the 2nd half of the good Bill roll.  (though I would lose a frame wherever they cut the roll – and the frame you lose is always a great one, it seems…)  However, I’m a bit famous for risky photographic behavior so I found it more exciting to go ahead and process the entire roll, betting on the fact the camera was set correctly.  

When the film was done ALL frames were right on the money!!!! YES!!!!  We were dancing in the lab!!!!  I had 31 perfectly exposed frames of Bill Gates, some tight, some loose, mostly vertical for magazine cover format, though a few horizontals for full spreads.

From the lab we FedEx’d the film to the magazine in New York where we did indeed make the cover and full page lead photo inside the magazine. Once the film was returned to me – the magazine was granted one-time usage rights – those shots were now up for grabs by any magazine in need of a fresh cover-oriented photograph of Bill Gates.  

Although all 31 frames were color, I set about converting some frames to black & white, cropping others tightly, tweaking the colors richly on some while creating “effects” looks with others. I did straight black & white conversions and tweaked conversions. I even made a multi-colored Andy Warhol version shown below. I liked it but nobody used it – ha, ha.

Copyright Gary Parker – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

In the end, my best recollection is these 31 frames scored 9 magazine covers!  The shoot did NOT go as we’d hoped – we got only 31 frames on 35mm only – YET we optimized those 31 frames to the point many magazines were happy to use them and each frame looked different enough to satisfy the magazines they weren’t using the same photo as the others. 

On the 4th day we went home with a great story to tell about our 73 second shoot with Bill Gates.  Since the shoot worked out great, having only 73 seconds made it much more fun, in ways. We’re still not sure why Bill pulled the plug in only 73 seconds – the shoot was going great - yet the bottom line is we were totally prepared so, even considering what could be viewed as a mishap, those were 73 great seconds!

More Gary Parker Articles

Check out some of Gary’s guest blogs here:

• Getting The Shot- Steve Jobs and Laurene Powell Jobs In Love by Gary Parker
• Learning From The Pro’s: Gary Parker on Having Fun on a Commercial Dog Shoot

Workshop With Gary in Seattle

Gary Parker and Ron Martinsen are teaming up to teach you how to make great photographs of people outdoors in Seattle, WA on May 26th, 2012. Click here to learn more about our workshop!

About Gary Parker (by Ron Martinsen)

Redwood Dog on Gary Parker’s CatDogPhotography.com

Gary Parker is one of my favorite photographers and this photo is just one of many in his portfolio that make me go “WOW”!!! Not only is Gary talented at photographing people, but his pet photography at CatDogPhotography.com is going to look familiar to you if you’ve ever owned a pet.

Among Gary’s long list of accomplishments is being a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Team for the San Jose Mercury News coverage of Loma Prieta Earthquake; Southern Photographer of the Year; and Newspaper Photographer of the Year (twice!).