Fashion & Portraits.

Is there a Fashion Photographer worth their salt who does not do a pretty good line in Portrait Photography too? I think not, fashion, people and portraits do have a lot in common even though the purpose of fashion pictures is quite different to portraiture. I think the common denominator is understanding your subject and getting to the core of the matter at hand be it the sitters personality or the form of a gorgeous dress or gown.



I met the artist Elodie Silberstein at an opening a few months ago and then attended the opening of her show ‘Mothers Day’ at Mori Gallery a few weeks later. I had no idea what the show was going to be about or what form it would take so you can imagine my surprise when I found it was an instillation piece; a massive space full of pink light, shoes arranged on shelves along one wall, a beautiful ‘model’ writhing (ever so slowly) in the middle of the floor in ‘mothers shoes’ and in very large type on another wall, a letter to a mother, quite some time deceased! Well it wasn’t Silence of the Lambs but it was a little disturbing and exciting at the same time. And those shoes! Beautiful shoes all lined up, and that pair strapped to the model/hostage, well you get the idea.

Fast forward to Now; Elodie has come to the studio for me to take her portrait before a trip to France & the UK to see Galleries about her work. Elodie was a little nervous about having her portrait done but quite likes my work and had put her trust in me. I wanted the portrait to reflect her use of space and to somehow reflect her artistic interest in shoes; all bundled up into one shot.



We agreed that B&W would be nice and I started shooting with bits of studio equipment in shot, chatting about space and shoes and motivation for making art. After getting the shots out of the camera and looking through them on the computer we both felt we had some pretty good pictures and were pretty happy. But I thought maybe we should take just a few more frames; just to be sure.

I found Elodie a stool and then gave her the copy of Vogue Italia with the beautiful Ferragamo gatefold brochure spilling out of it that we had been admiring before the shoot; “Here, why not just hold this, we love these shoes!”



I think the last shots turned out the best. After looking through the first set we could see that we had some lovely shots and Elodie could see that the portraits were just what she wanted, so now we were much more relaxed and trusting and the final pictures bring out all of that as well.



You can see more of Elodie’s work on her website here, and you can also see more of my portrait photography here. Click the images to see them by themselves.

We don't work we Play.

When asked how he and his design studio managed to remain so innovative, design guru Philippe Starck replied, “We don't work we Play”. I love this quote from Starck, its in perfect alignment with behavioral psychologists beliefs that innovation & creativity is more likely to spring forth from a relaxed state of mind. Its also highly reminiscent of the old saying, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. And no one wants dull work now do they.

Of course when working on an assignment and delivering to a deadline a relaxed and playful frame of mind may be hard to come by so thank goodness we already know what we are doing!



But what do you do when you want to come up with new ideas?

I can't say I am a big fan of the 'think outside the box' concept. If you ask me, trying to think outside the box just won't work. You need to be outside of it to do that. How do you get there, outside of the box? Better to forget the box altogether and just Play!



A couple of weeks ago I decided I just wanted to play around with the studio lighting. I didn't have a specific outcome in mind. I just wanted to see if I could try some different set-ups & see what I could get. I also had a new Hair & Make-Up (H&MU) artist I wanted to try out; Kate Bonar, so that meant I needed a model too.



Of course once you have a model and a H&MU you start to find yourself in a situation where you have an obligation to deliver. Now there is nothing wrong with that, delivering great photography is my job. But I just wanted to 'Play' (and not worry about delivering too much). I started casting around for someone that might just be happy to spend an afternoon in the studio in like-minded fashion, happy to play with ideas and see what we could come up with. Fortunately an email from another H&MU artist popped into my in-box. Cool; its always nice to find a new H&MU & at the end of the email this H&MU just happens to mention she is also an agency model. I checked her profile (could possibly use some more shots...) & gave her a call. One model booked along with a promise of a H&MU test soon.



We started at three in the afternoon and ran through until a little after eight. Together we played around with three different light set-ups and a few styling changes on the model, Kate gave us two different H&MU looks to go with the styling changes.In the end we had a rather nice clutch of pictures from four distinct shots including a new head/beauty shot for Angela & Kate. And I now had some new lighting set-ups I knew I could safely work with on future projects; a lovely new H&MU who clearly knows her stuff & another H&MU in waiting.

Having been reasonably busy shooting look books of late, the next day at the studio I cheekily remarked that I didn't know I could (still) do four shots in four hours, I thought I could only do 44!

Playing in the studio turned out not only to be a great way to find new lighting set-ups, it also turned out to be a great way to recharge the creative batteries too. And what better way to recharge than doing what you love. Making pictures.

 
H&MU Kate Bonar
Model, Angela Thomas at Scene
Assisted by Harry Perlich.

 

In the Studio, Fashion Catalogues and Advertising.

If you really want to see the garments, if you want to save on time, location fees, and the worry about whether it’s going to rain or shine on the day… Shooting Fashion in the studio has tremendous advantages. I have been doing a bit of Look-Book and Catalogue in the studio for a few designers of late and its all going very well.

On one recent shoot we did over 50 looks on the white background and then chose five of the outfits and shot ‘Studio as Location’ to create a series of complimentary images with a much edgier feel. Our model Alex who has appeared on Australia’s Next Top Model was a real pleasure to work with and remained inventive and seemed tireless over a full day of shooting.

Our over 30’s market Catalogue shoot provides a nice contrast of style for a fairly similar studio setup, though this time with softer lighting and a little more fill light. There was some lovely layering, frills and detail stitching on Thai Silks which were beautifully rendered by the studio lighting set-up.

The white background digital shots shown here on the Fashion Blog are essentially straight from the camera in old school film style. Typically the only post/retouching work required is automated curves and sharpening (digital always needs some level of sharpening) adjustment. This makes a fast turnaround on most jobs a fairly simple task.


Kent Johnson 0433 796 863
Sydney 2009 - 2012
www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au/

A European Location - in Sydney.

“I want to shoot on location but I want it to look European.”

No that is not an exasperating request it’s an inspiring one and it’s the sort of request I love to hear. And it’s not really surprising to hear it. I was often asked if my black and white shots from the 80s had been taken in Europe. At the time I found it an odd question as those shots had been taken at landmark Sydney locations; but that said much of the identifiable ‘Sydney’ bits had been removed by careful choice of framing and I suppose I had a something
of an informed(?) European take on photography.

But finding the right spot can be tricky. On this occasion the client gave me a bit of a lead, however I thought it sounded a bit too Sydney and a bit too clean for Europe. I decided to take the camera out and have a look around. Using the suggested location as a conceptual starting point and my own perception of what might lend itself to being European, I made a series of shots I thought would fit the bill.

And its not just the location; it’s also the light! I love Sydney light but it can be oh-so-strong and unforgiving. I remember the French Fashion Photographer Denis Jobron remarking to me one day that the light in Sydney was like being in a microwave oven! So the European/Sydney location needs something like a Euro lighting feel as well.

Checking light and location is all about good preparation so things go smoothly on the day. The more complex the shoot, the more preparation that may be required. What will work in post-production can also be addressed before the shoot as well. Last December I finally managed to put together a Night Fashion shoot, an Editorial Submission. It was based around an idea I had been working on for quite a while, the big problem was just how to pull it off?

Initially I simply looked out for the shots I wanted and made location pictures on my point-and-shoot. But I also needed to know how the camera and lenses would work with a real model in situ on location. My friend Julia was kind enough to stand in(twice) for these location tests which were invaluable. A new lens was found to be required to allow for shooting at the best ISO and the all important mix of lighting was tested and put through its paces.

The preparation paid off and on the night of the shoot the team and I were able to put 10 shots in the can in just three hours, but more about that shoot when I am able to show it online.

Sydney as a European location? Why not!

Editorial Fashion, Fashion Advertising & Model Folios Too.

Well I may have already blogged some of the shots from various shoots over the last few months but the Web site itself was looking a little tired and in need of some new images. For the last four days I have been working on editing, re-processing, re-sizing, re-ordering and finally replacing quite a lot of pictures on the Fashion Pages of the web site.



Its always a daunting task but one that is very worthwhile. Both the Fashion Editorial and Fashion Advertising galleries on the website have never looked better and are showing my vision for fashion photography much more clearly.

There are a couple of projects that have been in the planing stages for quite a while that are about to 'come off' so now is a good time to check out the web site before some of the old favorites disappear back into the archive.



The Beauty Photography gallery has had a bit of a make over with some lovely new images that have not been on the site or the Blog before. I have also added some of the Notorious; yes these shots do seem to be gaining some notoriety... Frankie's Nightclub Campsie shots. For those of you who are not aware, there is no Frankie's! So please, stop emailing me for the address :~)) Its an Art Project, a kind of myspace thing, but there will be more about that later. Frankie's lovers might like to check out the Modelling Portfolios pages; just because you can.



So if you have only been following the blog, please click the links and take a tour of the site, there is much more wonderful photography to be seen. And of course; the whole point of the exercise is to entice you to commission me to shoot your Fashion for you. Great shots make for great web-sites, catalogues, look-books, promotions and lots of sales!

Please call or email for a quote.

Kent Johnson

Sydney Australia 0433 796 863, kent@artcommunication.com.au

New Designers, New Fashion in Sydney.

There is some great young fashion design talent in Sydney and quite a bit of it seems to be residing, or should that be studying at Ultimo TAFE, at least if last weeks Evening Gown Parade at the Strand Arcade is anything to go by.



A little under a year ago I was approached by one of the TAFE fashion students about shooting her second year range. We met up so I could take a look at her designs. They were fine but there were only three solid outfits and they still had something of a student feel to them. I asked her to get back to me when she had her graduation range ready in 2008. And so she did.



Ryoko sent me a PDF drawing of her graduation range and I was sold immediately. What a difference a year makes! After seeing the drawings I called in a few favours, booking The Photo Studio in Glebe and enlisting two wonderful models, Kate & Joseph from Viviens to create the sort of photo shoot Ryoko’s range clearly deserved.



The range shows Ryoko’s Japanese influences in the fine fabric details (she is out from Japan studying design here in Sydney). The loosely structured garments were a pleasure to photograph.



A big thankyou to everyone who gave their time and effort for the shoot. The Models Kate & Joseph and the booking team at Viviens. North Sullivan for The Photo Studio; Kaori with Hair & Make-Up and Ryoko for her fabulous designs.

Urban Edge Fashion Advertising with Billie.

The new Australian fashion footwear label Billie Shoes have launched their web site with an on-line catalogue including background information about the shoe designs and company. I did the product shots for 'Billie' some months ago and we shot the images for the web site and promotional material in late June.



The brief for the shoot was 'young and edgey fashion' with both Urban and Beach locations coupled with some white background studio shots to boot (no pun intended)! We had six models on the shoot, three male and three female and shot about 32 setups on the day including the studio fashion. Our stylist did a wonderful job putting together about 50 outfits for the shoot which included triple shots, doubles and singles. The large(ish) number of models allowed us to shoot some while others changed making a seemingly impossible amount of shots quite do-able.



The client and the team were all very organised and the shoot went very smoothly with our little convoy of cars moving quite seamlessly from location to location. Final post work on the images was done by 'Billies' graphic designer at Maxco imparting a slightly nostalgic feel to the pictures and web site. Great job guys!



The shots were all done full length as lifestyle images for the site, advertising and promotional material. Its quite a tricky proposition keeping the focus on the shoes in all full length images but I think we did rather well with the footwear presenting as a distinctive key element in all the shots. I have decide to post the published 'web' images in this blog but I will post some of the 'originals' at a later date. You can view a couple of the white background studio shots on the previous White BG Blog.



Thanks to everyone who worked on the shoot and the models who did such a great job of delivering the laid back urban fashion feeling 'Billie' was after. You can visit the Billie Shoes web site here, Billie Shoes.