AboutBarry Benjamin Expertise I can answer basic questions about using any camera, but I am very familiar with most of
the Nikon FILM cameras up to the FP 5. I have some background in advertising and
marketing so I know something about placement of the object or person that would be
the main focus of the photo. I did quite a bit of in home family portrature when I had my
own studio in the '80s and '90s. I also did some product and commercial photography. I
took most of the marketing photos for my families hotels in The Bahamas over the last 20
years so I have some experience about what 'sells' in the travel/hospitality industry.
Experience Started photography in 1967, also worked as a newspaper printer in Molina, Oregon in 1975, I owned my own studio from 1982 to 1996 and sold my travel images as stock since then.
Organizations Commercial Photographers International
Publications Isles of Eden, author Harvel Lloyd, published by Benjamin Publishing 1992
Education/Credentials Padgett Thompson, Basics of Design Using Desktop Publishing, 1994
Rochester Institute of Technology, Printing for People who aren't Printers, 1993
Creative Photographic Seminars, Achieving the Optimum Results in 35mm B/W photography by Harvey Glick, 1978
Seminars with Harvey Lloyd in 1980 and 1981
Seminars with Lucien Clergue in 1982 and 1983
Past/Present Clients Many families around Cleveland and Akron, Ohio; MEDI, Henderson Photography
Im trying to be slack, and get professional looking photos, without doing a 3 year degree! (or get better pics beyond the usual)
im a working artist and wanting photos to use alongside the paintings.
The easiest way to achieve this would be how?
Camera- film camera with amazing lens off ebay , something simple like a koni omega rapid. (states its a rangefinder, does this mean id not be able to focus accurately through view finder?)
Or a consumer level DSLR
Lighting- I saw some amazing lighting (Tv photo comp competiter) , that just involved a constant light, with "barn door" flaps. The colours seemed so rich.
HOW WOULD SUCH RICH LIGHTING BE PRODUCED?...(special bulb or lens filter?...or special kit?)
Many Thanks
David
Answer David:
You certainly know how to present a challenge.
First, I would not rule out the 3 year degree, but in the meantime I believe you can create some great images.
I am not sure completely but I would guess that you want to use photographic images along with paintings so that you might hang one along side each other. If on the other hand you want to use your paintings within your photographic images then there is only one reasonable choice you have and that is digital. Even the first choice above lends itself to using a digital photographic format. The bottom line is that you are going to want to have everything in a digital form anyway as it is much easier to manipulate with the available software.
Camera: This depends mostly on what kind of money you have to spend. The rule is the bigger the negative (or in this case CCD) the better the end result. It also is a rule of thumb that the bigger the CCD gets the more expensive it gets. Digital SLR run anywhere from $7500 or more down to $50. All these prices are in USD as that is the only figures I have to go on from the US. A digital SLR is quite adequate for most anything you want to do unless you are thinking of a photo bigger than Westminster Castle.
I am not positive but I believe the lighting you are talking about is a set of halogen lights. All lighting can be manipulated by the color and type of bulb used and any type of accessory that might be used between the light and the subject. There are several things going on at the same time in Ms. Chua images. First, she is using a constant light like you said in many (but not all) of her photos on her web site. In those that you mentioned as have rich colors, one of the things I believe she has done is very carefully measured, matched (to the film) and balanced the color of the light she is using (remember what I said above about different bulbs). In this way she can make sure that the film shows off its best characteristics. I believe she also under exposes the film by a 1/2 of stop from what a light meter would read the scene at. When the film is developed normally it makes the film give richer and deeper colors with more detail in the shadows and highlights. If you use a digital camera you can manipulate the richness by manipulating the saturation, color, tone, contrast and brightness AFTER the photo is taken. You still have to take a great photo but you can definitely enhance it using the software.
To a great degree, lighting is trial and error. There are rules but you can pick up a self-help lighting book that describes most of the basic lighting rules and if you practice them with live subjects you will begin to understand just how and what you want need to do to get the results you are after. It will take a few times but with a digital camera you should be able to cut the learning curve to a few sessions. This does not mean you will know how to do it every time. If you look closely at Ms. Chua's subjects you will notice that many of them are different looking. Different skin tone, facial structure, personality, abilities and many more things. The photographers job is to interpret these differences with respect to the photographers vision no matter what the subject is. Therefore a lighting technique or to be very specific a certain bulb with a specific color range will not work on the new subject after you have just used 'it' only an hour ago on the previous subject. Plan for change, be ready as much as your budget will allow and practice enough to be able to follow your gut without having your intellect get in the way of your creativity.
I hope this helps. It was fun reviewing these subjects as I have not thought about the lighting stuff for a few years now.
