William Darhy’s Blog

Bored to take street shots of candids, buildings and walls, I put an ad on Craiglist New York in order to find people interested in playing the role of top model for the beginner photographer that I am. Much to my surprise, I had several answers, more or less serious at this time, and more or less interesting. Eventually Christy accepted my ad and we agreed upon an appointment in Soho to take street shots. I took a lot of pictures during the session, and eventually found this one very interesting. It was shot on a bench in Soho, the sun light was reflected from a building across the street, giving a soft and diffuse brightness on the face and in the eyes.

The capture was made at 30mm, which is not recommended usually for face shot, because of the distortion it will create : making close elements in the foreground, such as the nose, appear much closer, which might not be very flattering for the model. However, on the other hand, it allows a great deepness of the picture, and emphasize a lot the eyes. So the overall feeling has much more character (who said this is a caricature?) to my eyes than a portrait using a standard 50mm or 80mm. On my humble opinion of course. Here it will mostly depends on the tastes of each one.

I also like the intensity and the brightness of the picture, and the green of the cloths in the background matching the green of the eyes. I like the vantage point and the effects of the light source on her face, her skin has a wonderful light tone that absorbs light rather than reflect it. The catch lights are just enough to give the eyes a sparkle of visual magnetism and attraction.

However the interest of the picture resides a lot more on the “behind the scene” aspect and on the overall experience of the “Making of” in this case.

Preparation

I was obviously very excited before the appointment and started to read a bunch of articles and advise about the way to successfully handle shooting sessions with models. The advices were mostly concerning the equipment, the behavior with the model, and the regulations.

• On the equipment, the advise were not really helpful, I would say that every photographer would bring what he is the most comfortable with (or basically what he owns!). Also various articles recommended reflectors and a bunch of other things. Well, reflectors are cool, if you have someone to hold them!
• In terms of regulation, I learned that I had to prepare a model release form, and that I had to be legally covered (and the model as well), to avoid any awkward trial suit after the session. On this point, I was rather prepared, and brought 2 copies of the release, to be signed by both parties.
• In terms of behavior, the recurring advice was to “drive” the session, animate and motivate the model, be rewarding, while not hesitating apply your point of view, and not the one of the model (you are the artist, aren’t you?). For this, you obviously have to be prepared, and know what you want to do!!

The couple of days before the appointment, we discussed on the purpose of the session, and mostly on the clothes that she would have to bring. Here obviously I deferred to her to find the best compromise. I would think that the model should bring whatever she feels comfortable with, or what she would like to show. On the other hand, if you don’t really know the content of your model wardrobe, you will have to be confident with your model taste and choices!

The shooting session

It was a great fun. Really. We did a lot of things, with different clothes, different poses, different backgrounds, and we laughed a lot. Looking backward, I think people seeing this scene of a photographer lying down, rolling on the ground, jumping on top of a bench or anything the street has to offer to get a different point of view was very enjoyable. The model as well had hard time, posing in different ways, different clothes, etc…

On the model form she had me add some clauses, I never used any reflector nor other equipment other than my camera body and my 18-200mm do it all lens. Also there are a bunch of things on which I was not prepared at all : Sorry, but no, I do not have a hair brush on me for a shooting session. Sorry but no I do not have eye liner with me. Next time I will have to recruit a make-up artist!!

After the session

I counted the total number of pictures taken during the session : about 400… Well, good score, however after reviewing the pics, I noticed that I was all over the place for most of the pictures :

• Either the parameters were not completely right.
• Or The background was not completely ok.
• Or I captured some expressions from the model that were not completely appropriate.
• Or …

Well, I guess this is what distinguish a pro-photographer from a true beginner : the ability to handle the model, the background, the equipment and all other parameters straight away in no time! A lot to learn here of course.

For this particular picture I just softened the skin with a gaussian blur layer on top of the background, on which I progressively, with an eraser set to a low opacity, “removed” the blur to reveal the details underneath. I then applied contrast and balances, and enhanced a little bit the lightness of the eyes. That’s pretty it!

What to learn

Well, the lesson to learn in this case is that your experience and the quality of the pictures will mostly depends on the feeling and the connexion you have with your model. The technics, all the other stuff, are just tools, good to really consider if you are shooting for Vogue, but in the scope of amateur photography, should be put aside. Enjoy the experience, be bold, be creative, dare the different point of view, roll on the ground if necessary, the more you enjoy the shooting session with your model, the more the photo will be enjoyable!!

This image was taken in the NY subway after a long wait this past summer 2007. Platforms are perticularly hot in this season, and I was trying to capture this heat feeling in the subway. This shot is very opportunistic, which is not surprising for a street shot. The woman just stepped in front of me when I was trying to shoot the train coming from the right in the station. I did not ask for anything, the opportunity came by itself.

I somehow really consider this pic as a portrait more than a regular candid or street shot. And even if the portrait is from “the back”, I find it very expressive and characteristic anyway. Now everybody will see something different in this picture. As far as I am concerned, I saw the strength of a culture, standing still. The character is not moving, but expecting. The flag, the country, the state is passing by, blurred, it is a moving target. This “back” is very strong, very powerful. this is the strength of a woman, this is the strength of an afro-american woman. The hair are very characteristic as well, and of course, there is a strong symbolic with the blurred american flag in the background. Just…blurred and passing by. People stay eventually…

As far as the technics are concerned, at start, back at home, I liked the picture, but found it was rather flat and lacking of intensity. This is really after post-processing that this picture revealed all its possibilities, by applying simply a semi-transparent layer with soft light blending mode. Progressively, using layers, I worked on the image

1. To “mute” colors and provide an overall color cast/mood
2. To emphasize texture and contrast in the skin/hair
3. I accentuated the motion blur as well…it was optional actually since it was already pretty much blurred.
4. Eventually I sharpened a bit

Here we are. This is really one of my first attempt to output something decent after post-processing in photoshop. After something like an hour or so, I really “developped” the picture. So the morality is : well, be indulgent with yourself when  reviewing your shots. Don’t trash everything. Don’t forget if you shoot “raw” that  the picture must be post processed, at least a few. If you like a picture, that is not top notch at start, try playing with some basic parameters like accentuating the contrast, or applying a B&W filter, or a basic curve, or… There is no real receipe, but it worth experimentating with all your shots you find “OK” at start, they might reveal a very decent shot later on. Also what I strongly suggest is to keep the pictures at least for a few days, and come back on them, on a different mood, with a different approach or idea. A lot of things are revealed this way!

The boy was climbing the wall but was feeling guilty in a certain manner, and he was glancing at his mother who had passed on the right just to make sure everything was alright. Who knows, she might have not seen what the boy was doing. I applied a B&W filter, which renders well on this picture on my opinion, and provides something out of time. Would this picture been shot 50 years ago, it would not make a big difference. It is like an intemporal scene which could have happened at any epoch. We might call this picture the intemporal innocence.

This photograph is a typical example of a street scene occurring in front of you and for which you are not prepared at all. The boy was running very fast, and suddenly grabbed the bars of this window. The cap was still on my lens, and I had no time to check the parameters or exposure. I just shot. Fortunately I was on a semi automatic program, but anyway, looking at the exif, the shutter speed was 1/15s ! I dare to say I was lucky on this one, it could have been worse, but eventually the picture was OK, and I would have felt very bad to miss it. Since then, when wandering in the street, I try to get ready for any situation. The compromise I found is to push the ISO to 400 and switch to a semi automated program when hanging around. The camera will do the rest. Or you can switch to a fully automated program as well. On this picture typically I would have totally missed the shot if I had been on manual mode and parameters out of whack for instance. The scene lasted may be 2 seconds…not much time to choose the correct exposure!

Also the morality is : Whatever your equipment is, whatever is the unsuspected scene happening in front of your eyes and for which you are not prepared, Press the Shutter! A photo, even so-so is better than NO photo!

This picture has been taken back in September 2007 on a rainy day. Well, it was a rainy day, and we had been wandering for a good shot all the afternoon long in Harlem, waiting most of the time the end of the multiple rain showers to output our gear.  Suddenly, when all hopes to get a beautiful picture had disappeared, a bright sun pointed its rays and shed it’s light on 125th avenue in Harlem. And it was the golden hour, when the sun is low and light gets some warmer tones. It lasted only half an hour, during which we shot frenetically people in front of this red wall.

First I tried to capture people passing by in front of the wall, then I chose to sneak a little bit. I was crouched down along the wall, when this marvelous red feary came from behind, offering her red and white back to my 18-200mm lens. My heart suddenly pounded very fast, and the shutter was pressed…3 or 4 times. Eventually at the end of the day, among the couple of hundreds pictures taken, this one only deserved a star to me. Well, it deserved a star for a lot of reasons :
1) because it is significantly caracteristic of this “capture the moment” described by Cartier-Bresson - one of these opportunistic exiting few moments captured all street photographer may feel at some point,
2) This picture is very representative of Harlem, with the bright, colourful african-style dresses and people, immerged in a totally modern urban background
3) The light at golden hour,
4) This was my first Street Photography session with a pro (and very talented) photographer friend (who said Fanikanawati in one word?)
So much I could say on it for so many reasons…I hope you will enjoy as well.

Keren Ann in Bowery Ballroom New York, March 1rst 2008. The venue was not too crowded, so I could sneak close to the stage with my 50mm. The light was very low, which is a usual thing for a concert… But this time it was PERTICULARLY low light conditions. Keren was playing with a drummer and a guitarist only, and switched of instrument a couple of times. Here she is playing with an Epiphone Country Deluxe Hollow Body. Charming. She also played a Martin & Co acoustic guitar, a Fender bass, and an harmonica. Pure country style!See the rest of the pictures there :  Keren Ann, Bowery Ballroom March 1rst, 2008