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When doing a commercial photograph shoot of a celeb client You not just have to be good at what you do, you’ve got to be consistent and work well under stress. You not just have to make the Celebrity ecstatic but provide a photo that all others concerned are happy with. Infrequently 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 professional commercial photographer,i have had the chance to do several photo shoots of well-known people for billboards and other advertisements One I remember was a shoot done a few years ago for Tracy Lawrence, a well known Country Music vocalist. The photos were to be used for billboards and mailers. When I bid on the assignment I didn’t know whom I was going to photograph.All I had been told was it would be a celeb in city for a few hours and what images were to be taken. And that I would be doing the still photography during the breaks in the video shoot going on at the same time.
If you know anything about video and still photography the lighting is totallydifferent. Sharing time with a video crew usually means no time to setup and adjust your lights. It might be an instant setup and start shooting.
After arriving at the studio where the shoot would happen I was happy to discover that I had a room nearly to my self. Unlike other shoots where you share a scene with the video crew I had a fresh room. I still didn’t know the idea of the shoot so I pulled out all the lights I had and got prepared. They would have liked 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 footage of the video shoot.Naturally 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 large amount of the mixed video and still projects I get hired for.
During lunch I ask the marketing director what unique shots they were thinking about. One pool area shot was mentioned 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 shadow from his cowboy hat and reflections off his Guitar. Having photographed for a few years I know how long it takes to eliminmate all the reflections from brightly polished jewellery and thought a high polished Guitar in full sun would be even worse.. This was not 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 employ 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.
Eventually they bring the customer for me to shoot and I find out the video is running really behind and my time was cut from twenty minuets per look to about seven minutes. Not difficult as took one test shot and that was perfect. A fantastic look on the laptop that everybody was pleased with and Tracy Lawrence nailed every expression required. After hours of tedious video work he was cheerful and a real professional when it came to doing the still photos.
After my seven mins of shooting I found I had to move all my equipment to create space for another video being shot in the same room I was using and that after that I’d have him for the rest of the day to do the remainder of the photographs. After two more hours I get the word that he is leaving at six hundred for the airport and since the video folks had other issues I may not have some time to end my shoot.
During some of the down time I had done other bits of the shoot but still needed Tracy so he could be in the final layout. At fifteen until six they say he is on his way and to stand by. Of course the video gear was still in they way and they’re dashing to move it around and help get my lighting back in place . Again without any time for test shots I used the same way setup I always do for portraits and got an ideal look on the first shot. Some with a guitar,which is hard to photograph because it reflects as much as platinum jewelry, different shirt, hat and we were done shooting 4 looks in less than 15 minutes. Many of these images are posted on my web site.
