by Jim Krause
A businessman with a racquet awaiting a serve on a leaf-strewn tennis court — is it a photo or a riddle? How about both? Advertising executives love images that seem to promise a compelling message or punch line without quite giving away what that message or punch line is. Why do advertisers like photographic riddles so much? Because visual puzzles encourage the viewer to seek answers in the headline or text of the advertisement in which they appear (and advertisers just love it when people read their ad's text).
A spotlight effect has been used to highlight context-bending portions of these two images. This effect was achieved in Photoshop by adding CURVES adjustment layers to darken each image significantly. Holes were cut into the adjustment layers' masks using a soft-edged BRUSH tool. Both images were also treated with a warming PHOTO FILTER effect and a color-boosting application of HUE/SATURATION controls.
Cooling PHOTO FILTER adjustment layers (set to “underwater” at 60%) were applied to the images on this page. The adjustment layers' pull-down menus were set to “screen” — a setting that lightened the photos' values considerably while tinting the scenes' backdrops with a hue that contrasted nicely with the model's red dress. CURVES controls were used to fine tune the presentation of both images.
This scene is all about contrast (both visual and conceptual): A brick wall covered in a tangle of leafless vines vs. a smooth steel door; a well-dressed model vs. a back-alley setting; bright blues vs. dull grays; and a strongly vertical pose vs. a decidedly horizontal image format. BLACK AND WHITE adjustment layers were added to both the images on this spread. The adjustment layers' masks were used to block their effects in areas of the model's clothing and her blue wig.
Up and out; the model's gaze, the cut of her hair, the angle of her shoulders, the slant of the image, the flow of the vines in the back-ground — pretty much everything in this photo points to, and beyond, the scene's upper left. The strongly directional composition of this photo is very different from the extremely static presentation of the image opposite. Be decisive when framing a scene. Aim for compositions that are what they are: straight and level, skewed, minimalist, complex, precise, jumbled, angular or curvaceous.
Here, our well-dressed model has been placed in an environment where the smooth fabric and fine cut of her dress stand out sharply against the aging siding of a barn and its crumbling concrete surrounds. These images were taken during the same photoshoot that produced the images — shortly before the model decided to have a dance with the wooden chair (the glass of wine seen on this page may or may not have had anything to do with that decision…).
If you are a graphic designer working on a promotional material for a client and want to add a little zest to the piece, consider applying a high-contrast treatment to the photos of your client's employees and executive staff. To convert the ordinary original on this page into the modern, high-contrast image to its right, a PHOTO FILTER adjustment layer (set to “orange” at 50%) was used. The adjustment layer's pull-down menu was set to “vivid light.”
Faux jewels on a pair of over-the-top eyeglasses add sparkle to a relatively cheerless streetscape beyond. A 15mm fisheye lens was used to record this scene. It's difficult to coax a shallow depth of field from a wide-angle lens, but I was able to do just that here by opening the lens' aperture to its maximum and shooting from as close to the subject as the lens would allow (about eight inches).
These four variations were created with the set of “other” options available at the bottom of Photoshop's pull-down menu of filters. Clockwise from top left, the filters used for these images are: OTHER > MAXIMUM; OTHER > OFFSET; OTHER > CUSTOM (try this filter and see what happens when you insert different numbers into its grid of settings); and OTHER > HIGH PASS.
A story is told on this spread and the next. It's the story of a man whose displeasure with television has led to a bold course of action. A fisheye lens was used to record the images in this sequence. The lens' extremely wide field of view allowed me to get very close the action while taking in enough overall detail to show what was happening in each scene.
Why include this tale-telling series of images here, instead of in chapter 11, Suggesting Story? Because of the model's attire, that's why. By dressing the model in the clothes of a city slicker, the distance between where he is now and where he normally resides has been emphasized — along with the notion that the subject has felt the need to travel to a location remote enough to allow for an unhindered demonstration of his feelings toward television.
I had to lie flat on my belly to record this final shot of the storyboard. The vacant face of the television did a nice job framing the model as he took one last look at his handiwork. I chose to tilt the camera as I composed each of this series' images to lend feelings of unsteadiness and zeal to the scenes.
Sidenote: While it's true that a real-life television was harmed (terminally) during the making of this storyboard presentation, no debris was left behind. My model, assistant and I painstakingly raked the grass and used our fingers to collect every last fragment of plastic, twisted metal and shattered glass before departing the scene.
10
Playing With Props
In theater, the word “prop” usually refers to an object that has been intentionally added to a scene. A prop could be a pencil, a plant, a pillar or a piano. On-stage props can be used as backdrop items, or they can be worn or handled by a performer.
This definition of a prop also applies to photography, but when it comes to taking pictures, the definition doesn't end there. In photography, anything a photographer comes across during a photoshoot has prop potential — whether or not the item was originally intended to be used as such. And not only is it up to the photographer and the model to decide what objects should be counted as props, it's also up to these individuals to decide whether the items should be used in ways that are logical or illogical, planned or improvised, serious or silly. The pages ahead provide examples of all of the above.
Ready, set, pose… click. Ready, set, pose… click.(And so on.) Here's all you need for a photoshoot overflowing with creative possibilities: A sunny, cloudy or rainy afternoon and a model willing to interact with a 25-foot. sheet of sheer fabric in front of the camera.
Other ready-for-play prop ideas are: a 50-foot rope; a dozen handkerchiefs; a bucket of oatmeal (cooked or uncooked); a giant pile of leaves; a yard full of fresh snow; a half-dozen bowling balls (not hard to find on-the-cheap at thrift stores); a large bag of packing popcorn; a large bag of real popcorn; a bouquet of helium balloons; a sizable collection of plastic dolls (again, check out the thrift store); a box of toothpicks; a deck of cards; one or several garden hoses — all sprayingying at full blast.
We spent about forty-five minutes taking pictures with this sheet of fabric (and we could have easily continued for much longer except that we needed to take several other photos before the sun set). A suggestion: Approach this kind of photoshoot with little or no pre-planning. Let spontaneity be the order of the day. Encourage your subject to improvise while you interject with ideas of your own. If you come across a pose or an action that looks especially good, snap as many shots as you can before moving on to the next.
Taking pictures in public often means dealing with looks, questions and sometimes interference from passersby. This is especially true if you're shooting photos of a person doing something as out-of-the-ordinary as playing around with an enormous sheet of fabric on a public stairway. If you're used to working in your home, an office or a studio, don't be surprised if you have to add some skills of diplomacy to your set of photographic skills when you start taking your camera into public.
All we knew going into this photo session was that we wanted to contrast the model's elegant cocktail dress against the weathered environs of an old barn (two more photos from this session are featured). Things were going great even before my model suddenly decided to initiate a dance between herself and a wooden dining room chair. “Wow” was all I could say when I saw this photo
among the string of shots I snapped while she and the chair were cutting loose on the barnyard patio.
The model swings her partner, round and round, in this page's first photo. When snapping photos of a quickly moving subject, consider putting the camera in continuous-shooting mode and recording bursts of images (rather than trying to record perfectly timed shots, one by one). After the shooting is done, review your photos and select keepers. The near image features the dance-a-thon partners at rest, one on the other.
Here, the dancing chair featured on the previous spread demonstrates yet another feat of physical prowess: a headstand. Remember, even if you're shooting something as straightforward as a seated portrait, consider your prop-play options.
Photoshoots begin whenever you have a camera in hand — and with whatever props are around. The left-hand image on this page was taken when my model and I went to borrow a red felt coat and a bicycle from a friend's apartment (obviously, this model likes to have a good time while she works). The near photo was snapped when the model plucked a dandelion puff and made a couple of wishes during an outdoor photoshoot.
The model and I drove to the location seen in the first image to shoot the photos. We also happened to have a large magnifying glass in the car and, in spite of the day's finger-freezing temperatures, we felt the urge to see what we could do with the glass before hurrying on with our planned work. In the adjacent image, a bowl of holiday ornaments create a myriad of playfully distorted reflections of the model's face. (Here, it's not so much a case of a model playing with props, as it is a case of props playing with the model.)
A deadpan model endures the adamant tug of a vacuum hose for the sake of a photo. (For the record, the vacuum did not leave a hickey on the model's face. Hopefully your model will be so lucky if you decide to try this one at home.)
A lot of work went into applying makeup for the shots, and I felt compelled to keep taking pictures of my decorated model after the planned photoshoot was finished. Time was short, so I grabbed the first prop that caught my eye: a candle in an ornate holder. I took these photos in the corner of a darkened room, and, even though I was using a lens that excels in low-light conditions (a 50mm), I had to raise the camera's ISO all the way to 1600 to record these candlelit shots.
A prop as beautiful as this Renaissance-style collar deserves to be considered for all kinds of photo opportunities. In the upper image, our young model flips a pancake while wearing the collar as a tongue-in-cheek chef's hat. In the lower photo, a dog is seen proudly wearing the decorative collar around his neck. (And why not — after all, the true name for this kind of collar is a “ruff.”)
My favorite detail in this photo (recorded in slanting sunlight, just before sundown) is the hint of color contained in both of the balloons' shadows. The girl in this photo is the same that appears in the next. If she looks considerably younger in this image, it's because she is. This project took three years from planning to finish, and there wasn't much I could do to hold back the effects of age on any of my models — effects that showed up most clearly in my youngest subject.
It doesn't take much to convert a jar of bubbles into a playful photographic prop. Note the blurred backdrop in this photo. If the entire scene had been recorded in sharp focus, the delicate forms of the bubbles would have had a hard time showing up against the distracting elements beyond. The shallow depth of field in this image was achieved by shooting from several feet away using a fully zoomed 70–200mm telephoto lens with its aperture opened wide.
If you have a desire to photograph a friend, or an assignment to photograph a client, how about including a prop that relates to the subject's personality or profession? And how about photographing a variety of interactions between your model and his prop? (Note: The CD was put in a microwave oven for a few seconds to create the cracked surface that shows on the disc in some of the shots. Thanks, YouTube, for that idea.)
I had some help shooting this series of photos. An assistant was employed to take hold of a lamp and move it around — per my directions — as I took pictures. This assistance proved indispensable since it was a real trick to get light to fill the space between the CD and the model's face for certain photos. Also, because the reflective surface of the CD was highly affected by the position of the light, it was often necessary to make tiny adjustments to the lamp's position before shooting.
11
Suggesting Story
Journalistic photographs depict real-life events. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that journalistic photographs convey interpretations of real-life events since it's difficult to do any better than that — even with photographs. In any case, however you define images shot by photojournalists, the pictures on display in this section are pretty much their opposite.
The images in this chapter are teasers. These photos hint at (rather than record or depict) stories, fragments of stories, ideas and notions. The images ahead are meant as visual gestures designed to engage the curiosity of the viewer and prompt a simple question, like “What's going on here?”
A woman bathes in the shadows of a tub filled with yellow daisies. If there's a story to this photo, the model seems to be encouraging the viewer to keep it secret. Photos that hint at larger stories are often featured at the beginning of magazine essays or at the head of advertisements. Why? Because they imply that something is happening, but aren't telling what (a sure-fire recipe for inciting the curiosity of at least some viewers).
Careful and complete lighting of the model's face is usually a primary concern when it comes to shooting a portrait. But how about going against convention for the sake of originality? What if you lit your scene in a way that puts the subject's face in semi or complete darkness? In this photo, the model has been positioned in a way that leaves her face and hands in the shadow cast by the tub's curving rim.
An escape and a homecoming: Since the near photo seemed to suggest a less happy story than the one opposite, I decided to darken the former's appearance by adding a “maximum black” BLACK AND WHITE adjustment layer and selecting “overlay” from that layer's pull-down menu. The BLACK AND WHITE controls in the far image were set to “maximum white,” and “screen” was chosen from its pull-down menu. The contrast in both photos was amplified with CURVES adjustment layers.
In the interest of effective composition, I chose to shoot this photo from a height that placed the horizontal line of the steel traffic light support just above the subject's head. This put a visual cap on the open space above the subject while helping form an attention-focusing frame around her torso. Also, I decided to shoot from directly in front of the subject to take advantage of the many lines of perspective (street markings, parked cars and the top of the building at upper left) that would converge upon her as a result.
Individually, the photos in this set tell fragments of a story. Seen as a series, they convey a tale that might be titled Fuel for Thought or Cereal for the Cerebellum. Another frame-by-frame visual narrative is featured. How about illustrating a thought, theme or story of your own in this way?
Production notes: The bowl was filled with clear bubble wrap and topped with a layer of tiny lightbulbs; a glow was added to the bulbs by beaming a flashlight on them from above; additional bright spots inside the bulbs were painted using Photoshop's BRUSH tool; the subject's headpiece was made from a kitchen colander, a couple electronic gadgets and colored wires; a cord ran from the bulb at the top of the headpiece to an electric outlet; all the photos were taken using an SLR mounted on a tripod and fitted with a fisheye lens.
This spread features photos with ready-to-go commercial potential (it shouldn't be too difficult imagining images like these in corporate material such as a brochure or advertisement). For the near photo, the model's head was indeed put inside a cardboard globe through a hole that had been cut through the bottom. (Sometimes it's a lot easier to go ahead and build a physical prop to achieve a certain visual effect than it is to create the same effect digitally.)
The top
image on this page is a relatively ho-hum picture of a corporate executive. The bottom image is of the same exec — only now it's a photo that calls for a second look. Not all corporations would be comfortable portraying their board members as superheroes, but this photo does offer an idea or two you might want to suggest the next time a client asks you to shoot portraits for a brochure or annual report.
The near photo seems to suggest the opening line of an edgy joke — something along the lines of “A woman with a hammer behind her back walks up to the front door and rings the bell…” The second image conveys a modern variation of the William Tell story. How about putting the darker side of your sense of humor to work and coming up with a series of wickedly ambiguous images? There just might be some commercial potential in a set of photos along these lines.
Say that a client has asked you to come up with photos for a difficult story — something that includes themes along the lines of suicide or violence-against-self. You might choose to go after images that spell out these themes in stark terms, or, as demonstrated in this page's photos, you might choose a more subtle visual route. For the near photo, I had my model stand on the ledge of my fourth-floor office window (I looped a couple fingers through the back of her belt with one hand and used my other to operate the camera).