In a previous post (see here) I wrote about the assignment for Sporta, for which I had to photograph the new brochure showing the different types of sport- and accommodation facilitie.
Now that the brochure has been released, it is time to show some images in their context. I’d like to show the image that I used in a previous blogpost as it has been used in the brochure.
More to come!
Image as used in the brochure.
One of my passions in photography is architectural photography. This shouldn’t come as a big surprise with my background in engineering yet it is not an easy discipline in photography. Architectural photography is a part of photography that is often looked upon as an easy thing to do. There is just the building and the photographer, so take the image and you’re done.
Architectural photography
Not so.
When you want to photograph building, you encounter difficult kind of problems.
The first problem is, or can be, the weather. It is a fact of life that images often just sparkle so much more when you photograph in excellent weather. A sun-lit building is always much more interesting than that same building lit by an overcast sky.
However, the best time to photograph a building – generally spoken – is at dusk or dawn. Just after or before sunrise, a skilled photographer is able to blend artificial light (in and/or outside the building) in such a way that those two light sources match each other well.
architectural photography - matching ambiant light with artificial light
The second problem one can encounter is the problem of having to photograph from a point of view that is too close to the building. That results in a camera that will be tilted in an angle towards the building, but with a detrimental effect to the verticals of the building. By tilting a camera, the verticals of a building will not remain parallell, which results into an image that doesn’t hold.
To remedy this problem, an architectural photographer will always use a perspective control lens (PC lens), enabling the photographer to “tilt-shift” the lens in such a way that the verticals of a building remain vertical.
I haven’t spoken yet about obstacles, such as trees, other buildings, roadworks, even blocked access (fences, guards at gates, etc …..), which are all possible problems an architectural photographer must take into account when preparing for a shoot.
For CES, an engineering firm, I had to photograph a series of buildings of which they had redone most of the HVAC and engineering works. CES wanted images of the building, preferably during daylight. Nonetheless, as a photographer you try to give your client more than they expect, which is what I always try to do.
Herewith two screen shots of their brand new website (created by Jolux Webdesign). All images are shot on a Nikon D3x (24.5Mpix) with a Nikon 24 PC lens or a Nikon 14-24mm wide angle lens.
Architectural photography - website of CES
Architectural photography - website of CES
I would also like to salute CES, who entrusted me with this project. Meanwhile we have established a lasting relationship, which is much more rewarding than any kind of financial reward.
Looking forward to producing more images ….
In a previous post I wrote about the cover for Sporta, which was still undecided.
Due to a massive amount of work – September and October have never ever been so busy for me as it was this year – I just neglected this blog for a while. Shame!
Nevertheless, here’s the “winner” …. The Sporta cover:
Cover for sporta assignement
Although I personally prefered the other cover (image of a basketball player), I can understand very well why this one was chosen. It shows more of what one can with sporta ….
As a photographer, trying to satisfy the needs of your clients, it is sometimes a difficult exercise to meet your clients view with your own. However, as a professional photographer, creating images that have a high impact, you want to deliver photographs that your clients can use and not only what you think your client should use.
During the assignment for Sporta – a centre that provides training facilities for all sorts of athletes in varying disciplines – I photographed many setups and situations, one of which we thought would be useful for the cover of the brochure. But when it eventually came down to choosing the cover photograph, it proved to be more difficult than expected.
My opinion was fairly clear from the start on how I saw the cover photograph (but my opinion doesn’t count), but even the art-director’s opinion wasn’t 100% on par with the opinion of the board of directors.
Eventually, the art director came up with 2 versions of the cover, which are listed below.
Which one would you choose and why? Cover A or Cover B?
Please leave your comments in the comment section …
Photo A
Suggestion A for the cover of the Sporta Centrum Brochure.
Cover B
Suggestion B for the cover of the Sporta Centrum Brochure.
As a photographer, specialising in high-end corporate photography, I was commissioned by Sporta to photograph their new brochure. The assignement was very broad, because I had to photograph sporters, but also their accommodation and training facilities at their sports centre in Tongerlo, Belgium.
One of the images we did was of an athlete who was busy training on the athletic track. We wanted a high-impact image that could run as a double spread in the brochure.
The final result is the image below. It was shot during a sunny day, but by adjusting the lighting, using 2 Nikon SB 900’s flashes and little post-production in lightroom, we created this image (shot on Nikon D3x). The hardest part of the image was to direct the athlete to be at the right place in the right position.
Double spread for Sporta Centrumbrochure
Onderstaande foto werd gemaakt voor de cover van Visie ter gelegenheid van het afscheid van ACW-voorzitter Jan Renders.
Het beeld werd gemaakt op locatie – in de kantoren van het ACW – mbv 3 Nikon SB900 speedlights, met gebruik van het Nikon CLS (Creative Lighting System), waarbij 1 flits als “commander” op de camera gebruikt werd en die 2 andere flitsen aanstuurde. Beeld gemaakt op Nikon D3s, ISO 400, 120mm, F/4.5, 1/200 sec.
Bij het fotograferen moest rekening gehouden worden met de layout van het magazine, waar rechts de naam van het tijdschrift vermeld moet worden (zie beeld onderaan). Een verkeerde plaatsing van de geportretteerde en de foto zou onbruikbaar geweest zijn.
Jan Renders, voorzitter ACV, voor Visie.
Uiteindelijk werd voor een beeld gekozen waar Jan Renders zit.
Jan Renders, cover voor Visie
Photography is an expensive occupation. Children are expensive too. A combination of being a “photographer with children” is hugely expensive ….
But sometimes the two come together and work well for each other. Like that one time when I had to photograph the cover of Brico magazine, a 3-monthly that DIY-hardware store Brico publishes.
The ad-agency asked me if I could help finding children between 5 and 8 for an article about a grandfather who had build a “hut” up in a tree for his grand childrren. Ideally they would be dressed like a pirate, a princess, a “what-have-you” “you-name-it” ….
Myrte, my daughter of 7, just loves getting dressed as a princess and for Johannes, my 5 year old boy, being a pirate comes second nature to him.
And so it happened that they finally figured on the cover of a magazine. Mind you, for Johannes it was already his second appearance on the cover of a magazine. The first time was when he was about 3 months old. But the money I made with that cover has long been blown on nappies, etc …. So it was time to top up on some “money credits” ….
Cover of Brico magazine, featuring my two kids.
This image was photographed on a Nikon D3x and a 24-70mm 2.8, ISO200, F5.6 at 1/100. We used one SB900 speedlight (which we litteraly had to hang in a tree in order to get the right angle), gelled with a full cut CTO gel and complemented the lighting with a golden reflector. The flash was triggered through Nikon’s CLS system.
This image is half of a double spread that ran in the inner pages of the magazine.
So finally I’ve been able to use them to make me some money, instead of costing me money. But hey, that money has already been spent …. on a new princess and pirate outfit!
As photographers we all want to photograph “images that sell”.
Most of the times, we are comissioned by advertising agencies, businesses and magazines to photograph – or to produce images – that help sell the magazines, the business, etc ….. We photograph what the client wants to see photographed, because it will promote “its cause”.
It’s a little different when you, as a photographer, decide to go out on your own, choose your own subjects and photograph without any limits our boundaries set by your clients. These images are than aimed at photo libraries, who will try to sell your images. They’ll typically take a comission in return of doing the marketing for you, as well as the following up, the admin, … in short, the whole works.
There are some big players like Corbis and Getty, but you can also find images at istock, microstock, etc ….
Problem is, you need to get your photographs in the library (they don’t always except just whatever you provide them with) and you’re “competing” with so many other photographers in all those libraries, making it uncertain whether your investment of time and effort in making the photographs will ever pay off.
I don’t often go out to photograph randomly, except for a few times where I will first talk to my clients (mainly in health care) to listen to what they need. That’s why I went in 2007 to spend 2 days in a hospital, photographing all sorts of situations and setups. These images are now on the desks of a few picture editors, and whenever they need an image of a hospital, a doctor, a nurse, an empty hospital bed, an operation room, a scanner, etc …. they can turn to my images and use them.
I didn’t initially get paid for making those images, but every time an image gets publisched, I can invoice that image. Time and time again. In fact, I grant them the licence to publish the image.
So, after 3 years of having those images published in various magazines, it’s defenitaly “paying of” and it will continue to do so for as long as these images continue to sell ….
Image at an operation room in a hospital, stock photography.
Foto’s die verkopen ….
Dromen we daar allemaal niet van?
De meeste fotografen werken in opdracht van een tijdschrift, een reclamebureau, een bedrijf …. De fotograaf wordt gevraagd om bepaalde beelden te maken die het bedrijf kunnen vooruit helpen.
Het tegenovergestelde daarvan is wat men “stock fotografie” noemt. Daar ga je als fotograaf zelf je onderwerpen bepalen om daar dan beelden van te maken. Die beelden bied je dan aan aan “fototheken”, bibliotheken als het ware die foto’s “uitlenen” tegen een vergoeding. Getty en Corbis, istock, microstock, etc … schieten me onmiddellijk te binnen, maar je hebt er veel meer.
Ik heb ooit nog mijn beelden in het nu ter ziele gegaan iAfrika photo library gestoken. Maar ik woonde toen in Zuid-Afrika, en het was gewoon een stuk eenvoudiger om via een Zuid-Afrikaanse photo library te werken.
Tegenwoordig maak ik nog maar uiterst weinig “stock” beelden. Heel af en toe, wanneer ik het eens goed plan en organiseer, maak ik nog eens wat beelden voor een aantal klanten, voornamelijk in de medische sektor.
Zo heb ik in 2007 eens 2 dagen in een ziekenhuis beelden gemaakt, die sindsdien op een drietal redacties zitten van tijdschriften in de medische sector. De beelden ben ik toen op mijn eigen “kosten” gaan maken, ik heb ze aangeboden aan de verschillende redacties (zonder vergoeding te krijgen), maar sindsdien worden er op regelmatige tijdstippen foto’s uit gebruikt en gepubliceerd die ik telkenmale weer kan faktureren.
Het is in zekere zin “gemakkelijk” geld, maar als je beseft hoeveel tijd je er initieel hebt in gestoken, welk werk, risico, planning en moeite er is in gekropen om die beelden te maken zonder de zekerheid om ooit 1 euro er uit te krijgen, dan valt het adjecteif “gemakkelijk” al snel weg.
Nu, zo’n drie jaar na het maken van die foto’s begin ik er geld aan te verdienen, en hopelijk worden ze nog een tijdje “gerecycleerd”. En al die tijd zijn het “foto’s die verkopen” ….
What do you earn as a photographer?
Well, that depends upon the angle you look at it.
As a freelancer, earning a living out of making photographs, I would welcome Euros, Dollars, Pounds and even Yenn or Ruble would do, thank you.
As an amateur, you’re probably very happy with any kind of publication in virtually any type of magazine in return of credits (which is, believe me, nothing to impress your bank manager when it comes to paying your mortgage)
Or for the aspiring photographer, you may well be happy with any kind of encouragement, friendly words or pat-on-the-back type thing.
Well, let me tell you, I was recently comissioned to photograph the person in charge of a company that imports grape fruit. After it had taken me quite some effort to convince the person that I was there to photograph him – and not the stacks of grape fruit in the depot – he finally started to co-operate. I set up two stands with a Nikon SB900 speedlight, triggered with Nikon CLS system (on-camera speedlight on a D3s). I underexposed the atmosphere in the depot, because it had the horrible neon -fluorescent lights which turns everything – and everyone – green. Not something to brag about. I had one light – standing at the far end of the lane of crates – lighting the creates in the background, and one light through an umbrella on the person to photograph. Easy setup that works well – and fast!
But then it happened, when after the shoot was finished, he presented me with the very same piece of grape fruit he was holding during the photo shoot.
Portrait photography - what do photographers earn?
So, when you pose that question about houw much photographers do earn, remember that it can be anything from cold cash, through respect, credits and sometimes …. grapefruit.
Portret foto - keuze van de fotograaf.
Als portretfotograaf heb ik zo mijn eigen gedachten ….
Een portret maken op een eerder druilerige regendag, ‘t is niet iets waar veel fotografen op zitten te wachten.
Ik anders wel. Niets zo eenvoudig als je belichting te regelen op een dag waar de zon je geen parten speelt.
Zo verging het me ook bij de portretsessie van een prof aan het “sportkot” van de KUL. Grijze lucht, geen zon, fris windje en enkel een atletiekpiste om iets mee te doen. Verder waren aanwezig: 2 Nikon Speedlights van het SB900 type, een paar CTO kleurenfilters, een koppel pocket wizards, een 85mm tilt-shift lens, een Nikon D3s en nog wat attributen als daar zijn staanders, fototas, hoodman loupe, etc …..
De rest is geschiedenis.
Hieronder mijn favoriete beeld in de reeks ….
In de layout van het tijdschrift paste deze beter (+ het is meer close-up).
Portret fotografie, beeld dat uiteindelijk in publicatie verschenen is.