Thursday 31 July 2014

From Mumbai to Sydney. How I Created an International, Custom Model Portfolio Location Shoot for Kyrien.

As mentioned in a previous post Kyrien came all the from Mumbai India to do this Sydney portfolio shoot with me. We had first contact by email and then after arriving in Sydney we met to discuss exactly what Kyrien wanted from his shoot. Although I shoot on location quite often, for most portfolio shoots it is usually more convenient for everyone to work in the studio. In the studio we have electricity, a roof, studio lighting, air conditioning etc.. we don't need to worry about the weather, we book the shoot and we are good to go. Of course photographers and photography styles aside, Kyrien could have saved himself a trip and done a studio shoot back home in Mumbai! No, a studio shoot was not going to work this time. What we needed was an International look; some subtle hints of Sydney's famous landmarks in his shots, we wanted an International and Sydney Look for when Kyrien and his world-class afro hairdo headed back home to India.

Black tie dinner suit shot, formal style menswear, The Rocks Sydney - Photography by Kent Johnson.
'Bad Ass' look, Aviator Sunglasses, linen jacket - Sydney Harbour Bridge location - Kent Johnson Photography.
 Male modelling, fitness and sport, body shot on Sydney Harbour with Kyrien Crasto, Sydney Harbour Bridge, shot by Kent Johnson
Big smile casual style wearing Panama hat - Observatory Hill Sydney - Model portfolio photography by Kent Johnson
Streetwear shot with the Sydney Opera House in the background - Model portfolio photography by Kent Johnson
Sydney harbour beach location - Model portfolio photography by Kent Johnson
A sun drenched room, men's fitness and sportswear Sydney parkland location - Model portfolio photography by Kent Johnson
Headshot, black and white - Male Model portfolio photography by Kent Johnson
Black Tie, morning after? - Menswear Modelling portfolio photography by Kent Johnson
Kyrien in The Rocks Sydney wearing the Levis Commuter Parka - Model portfolio photography by Kent Johnson
Model comp for male modelling portfolio - Model portfolio photography by Kent Johnson
Kent Johnson - Sydney Australia.
0433 796 863

Friday 18 July 2014

VSCO - SNAPSEED - Fashion Photography and a Samsung TAB 3 Tablet

Although I was I think, an early adopter of digital photography, and it was Digital that brought me back to photography (but that's a story for another day).. I have not been quite so fast to go with all digital technologies. I am quite old school in many ways and not one to jump onto the 'latest' and 'greatest' bandwagon. I prefer to wait a little while, see what really works, what gets traction, what sticks around.

My mentor, Australian Fashion Photography Icon Brett Hilder has been using me as a sounding board for research on mobile digital technologies over the past few years, and as a direct result of lending a hand checking out new products with Brett, I became aware of what I think is fair to call the 'New Era' in mobile photography and image Editing.

Modelling portfolio shoot, Black and White behind the scenes image processed on a Samsung Tab 3 with VSCO and Snapseed software.
This behind-the-scenes shot from Arabella's recent studio portfolio shoot, while having been shot with the Nikon camera was part of a selection I had pulled onto my tablet for previewing. Once there I decided to do a black and white conversion and edit using the VSCO  software on the 8" Samsung Tab 3. The screen is perfect for the job and I love that you can zoom in when using VSCO. I then exported the image to Snapseed where I selected one of the many amazing borders. The Snapseed software, which is made by the people who make the Nikon RAW file editing software for Nikon by the way.. is also amazing to work with, not just for the borders and effects in the editing suite, the normal editing tools work very well indeed with a fabulous finger swipe interface.

I am looking forward to not only working on my phone camera shots for Instagram and the like with the mobile picture editing software and the Tab 3 Tablet; there are clearly plenty of creative options for Fashion, Portrait, Landscapes, the future it seems is mobile!

Kent Johnson - Sydney Australia.
0433 796 863