Commercial Photography In San Antonio
Mar 08
When doing a commercial photo shoot of a celeb client You not just need to be good at what you do, you’ve got to be consistent and work best under pressure. You not just need to make the Celebrity happy but offer a photo that all others concerned are satisfied with. Sometimes theyare going to give you direction while other times the ball is in your court and it is one hundred percent your call of what to style of photo to shoot.
As a San Antonio Photographer, i have had the chance to do several photo shoots of well-known people for billboards and other promotions. One I remember was a shoot done a couple years ago for Tracy Lawrence, a well known Country Music frontman. The photographs were to be used for billboards and mailers. When I bid on the assignment I didn’t know whom I was going to snap. All I had been told was it might be a star in city for a few hours and what pictures were to be taken. And that I would be doing the still photography in the breaks in the video shoot going on at the same time.
If you know anything about video and still photography the lighting is completelydifferent. Sharing time with a video crew usually means no time to setup and adjust your lights. It’d be a rapid setup and start shooting.
After arriving at the studio where the shoot would occur I was chuffed to discover that I had a room just about to my self. Unlike other shoots where you share a scene with the video crew I had aseparate room. I still didn’t know the tenet of the shoot so I pulled out all the lights I had and got ready. They needed a clean white background and then something a little more creative.
After I finished my light set-up I went next door and shot some background photos of the video shoot. Of course it was running long and shortly it was time for a lunch break and i still had not had achance to start my shoot. This appears common at a large amount of the mixed video and still projects I get employed for.
During lunch I ask the marketing director what unique shots they were thinking about. One pool area shot was discussed which had the worst light you could imagine. Full sun in South Texas in the middle of the day. All I could see were the white props reflecting the light and amassive shadow from his cowboy hat and reflections off his Guitar. Having photographed jewelry for one or two years I know how long it takes to eliminmate all the reflections from brightly polished jewelry and thought a high polished Guitar in full sun would be even worse.. This wasn’t going to be my ideal photo shoot. Lucky for me they believed the 100 plus degree weather was too hot so that the 2nd idea was to use a metal lined room with a country table for the backdrop. Perfect window light and fill using a single strobe put me back in my comfort section.
Finally they bring the client for me to shoot and I find out the video is running truly 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. Asuperb look on the laptop that everybody was pleased with and Tracy Lawrence nailed each expression required. After hours of tedious video work he was chuffed and a real pro when it came to doing the still photos.
After my 7 mins of shooting I found I had to move all my gear to create space for another video being shot in the same room I was using and that after that Iwould have him for the rest of the day to do the rest of the photographs. After a few more hours I am getting the word that he is leaving at six hundred for the airfield and since the video folk had other issues I may not have the time to complete my shoot.
During some of the down time I had done other bits of the shoot but still required Tracy so he could be in the final layout. At about 15 until 6 they say heis on his way and to prepare. Of course the video equipment was still in they way and theyare dashing to move it around and help get my lighting back in place . Again without any time for test shots I used the same light setup Ialways do for portraits and got an ideal look on the 1st shot. A few with a guitar, different shirt, hat and we were done shooting 4 looks in less than fifteen mins. Many of those pictures are posted on my web site.
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