Commercial Photography In San Antonio
Sunday, February 28th, 2010When doing a commercial photograph shoot of a celebrity customer You not just need to be good at what you do, you have to be consistent and work well under stress. You not just need to make the Celebrity ecstatic but supply a photo that all others concerned are pleased with. Sometimes they will give you direction while other times the ball is in your court and it is one hundred pc your call of what to style of photograph to shoot.
As a San Antonio Photographer, I’ve had the chance to do several photo shoots of well-known people for poster advertisements and other promotions. One I remember was a shoot done a few years back for Tracy Lawrence, a well known Country Music singer. The pictures were to be used for poster advertisements and mailers. When I bid on the assignment I did not know whom I was going to photograph. All I had been told was it might be a celebrity in town for a couple of hours and what images were to be taken. And that I would be doing the still photography in the breaks in the video shoot going on at the same time.
If you know anything about video and still photography the lighting is totally different. Sharing time with a video crew usually means no time to setup and adjust your lights. It’d be an immediate setup and start shooting.
After arriving at the studio where the shoot would take place I was chuffed to find out that I had a room just about to my self. Unlike other shoots where you share a scene with the video crew I had a fresh room. I still did not know the concept of the shoot so I pulled out all of the lights I had and got prepared. They needed a clean white background and then something a touch more creative.
After I finished my light set-up I went next door and shot some background photos of the video shoot. Of course it was running long and shortly it was time for a lunch break and I continued to have not had achance to start my shoot. This seems common at a lot of the mixed video and still projects I get employed for.
During lunch I ask the promoting director what unique shots they were thinking about. One pool area shot was discussed which had the worst light you might imagine. Full sun in South Texas in the middle of the day. All I could see were the white props reflecting the light and an enormous shade from his cowboy hat and reflections off his Guitar. Having photographed jewelry for a few years I know how long it takes to eliminmate all of the reflections from brightly polished jewellery and thought a high polished Guitar in full sun would be even worse.. This wasn’t going to be my ideal photograph shoot. Fortunate for me they suspected the 100 plus degree weather was too hot so that the second concept was to use a metal lined room with arustic table for the backdrop. Perfect window light and fill using a single strobe put me back in my comfort zone.
Finally they bring the client for me to shoot and I find out the video is running truly behind and my time was cut from twenty minuets per look to about seven minutes. Not a problem as took one test shot and it was perfect. Asuperb look on the PC that everybody was happy with and Tracy Lawrence nailed each expression needed. After hours of tedious video work he was chuffed and a true pro when it came to doing the still photographs.
After my 7 mins of shooting I found I had to move all my gear to make space for another video being shot in the same room I was using and that after that Iwould have him for the remainder of the day to do the remainder of the footage. After two more hours I get the word that he’s leaving at six hundred for the airfield and since the video folks had other issues I may not have sometime to end my shoot.
During some of the down time I had done other bits of the shoot but still required Tracy so he might be in the final layout. At about 15 until 6 they assert heis on his way and to stand by. Of course the video hardware was still in they way and theyare speeding to move it around and help get my lighting back in effect. Again without any time for test shots I used the same way setup I mostly do for portraits and got an ideal look on the 1st shot. Some with a guitar, different shirt, hat and we were done shooting 4 looks in less than 15 mins. Many of these images are posted on my site.
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