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T E C H N I Q U E 1

Technique by Andrew Smith

In the temporary absence of a proper introduction Ill tell you briefly

what this book is intended to be:

It is an honest discussion of how I work as a full-time photographer.

I cant promise that it will help your own career, or that it will help you

take better photos, and I certainly cant promise that it will help you to

make more money. All I can promise is that everything I tell you will be

truthful, unpretentious and sincere.

It might be wrong, but Ibelieveit is right.

About me...Im a small-time photographer. I earn a modest amount of money doing

newspaper photos, portraits and some commercial work. My job is not

particularly glamorous and, for most people, would not be at all

exciting, but I love it. So thats whose advice youre reading.

For busy people...

If you want to save yourself the bother of reading the book then Ill

summarise it for you:

Customers come first. Without them youre nothing.

Integrity before money. Always.

Get paid.

Stick to those guidelines and you wont go far wrong. Thats 90% of the

book covered right there. The rest of it is detail. More detail than you

could ever possibly want to know...

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2 T E C H N I Q U E

The hook of thesingle strong element

Or: why bland sells

This family portrait of two brothers and a sister is

frequently praised for its subtle black and white toning

(the result of a laborious and intricate processing job

over several days) and for the novel twist of having the

three subjects not looking at the camera, but instead

gazing into the mysterious unknown. These, however,

are minor details, mere artistic flourishes.

In fact the image works so well because of the

composition, which brought something new to the

repetitive world of classic portraiture.

If you can show people something that they havent

seen before then that immediately elevates your image

to another level and makes your work stand out from

the crowd in an over-populated market.

Concept

The booking for this session came with a rare luxury: An existing photo

of the three subjects. Immediately I could see that the anchor point for

my portrait should be the girls striking blonde hair, and this in turn

helped me to quickly decide on the black background, the dark clothing

and the lighting design.Figure 1.1shows how the original concept was

executed successfully, producing a strong traditional portrait.

Towards the end of the session I suggested trying an alternativecomposition. I had recently seen a dramatic portrait of the Queen and

the Duke of Edinburgh, created by Lord Lichfield, in which the two

subjects were positioned next to each other, lit from the front, and then

photographed from the side. I wanted to try my own version of this

composition but with posing for the subjects. After all, the photo had

been commissioned by their mother and she would be more interested

in seeing their faces rather than any clever lighting.

I remembered the Lichfield portrait as being black and white, and had

always intended my family portrait to be presented in that way. But as

I write this I have just gone back and looked at the Lichfield image

again, and seen that it was in fact colour. What a good illustration of

how much impact a strong composition can have on the viewer!

Figure 1.1: The original concept tookadvantage of the girls striking blondehair as an anchor point for the image.

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T E C H N I Q U E 3

Lighting

Due to the composition of the image it required an

extraordinarily deep field of focus, and I was shooting

at a focal length of 110-mm so I had to use an aperture

of f/22. With an ISO speed of 100 this became one of

the most light-hungry images I had ever created.

The light was supplied by a 1000-watt strobe at full

power with a 100-cm softbox positioned just a couple

of feet in front of the subjects. When I took the first test

shot and the flash fired, all three members of my

carefully-arranged group took a step back!

As I was using a black background I also needed to put

some light around the back of the group for separation.

A set of barn doors was used on the rear strobe to

prevent light from flooding the camera lens.

Figure 1.2: Softbox in front of the subjects, bare flashbehind the subjects with barn doors.

Processing

Your initial goal in processing may be one of aesthetic fixes such as

removing blemishes or tidying up some distracting stray hairs. But

ultimately you are aiming to give someone an immaculate photograph

of themself that they will accept as being true to how they really look.

Maybe it is essential for the portrait photographer to expertly wield the

clone tool, the healing brush, surface blur and layer masks for skin

softening, and all of those techniques and more were used extensively

on this image. But equally important is knowing when to leave the

image alone. Perfection is not natural.

Nobody imagines themself as perfect. But our minds eye self-portrait

doesnt include the faults. Give someone a photo of themself with all of

their flaws fixed and theyll accept it as true. But give them a photo with

perfectly smooth skin, for example, and theyll know its fake.

Commercial photographic portraiture has the opposite goal of

traditional painted portraits. A painter wants to reveal something of a

persons soul. But a photographer is hired to produce an image that is

essentially a blank canvas. The viewer fills in the details later.

People frequently tell me that they want informal, almost candid images

of their loved ones. And they really believe that they do. But the posed

formal photos always sell the best. They have less life in them, so the

viewer can imagine the life for themselves, however they want.

And therein lies the secret of this photograph: It has its single strong

element the composition but at the same time it is quite bland.

There is nothing not to like, so people are able to love it.

Figure 1.3: The photo was shot in rawformat using a hi-res digital camera.This allowed maximum scope forconversion to black and white, tone

adjustments and selective sharpeningwith minimal loss of quality.

Figure 1.4: Stray hairs needed to bedigitally removed. Here several bright

strands of the girls hair had to beremoved while being careful to preserveher eyelashes, as well as the texture andshading of her brothers skin.

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4 T E C H N I Q U E

Figure 2.1: Channels

Compliments dont pay the bills

One of the most valuable pieces of advice given to me when I first started selling pictures was that people will

always tell you how beautiful your work is and how much they love it, but it doesnt mean much unless they

actually put their hand in their pocket and bring out some money.

I have never considered myself to be an artist but I accept that people will always talk to me as if I am one, and

it is human nature to compliment artists on their work. As the recipient of these compliments you quickly get

a sense of whether people are just being polite or if they really like your photographs, and of course it is nice

when someone genuinely likes one of your pictures. But if youre in this business to earn a living then

ultimately what you need is for them to buy it!

It may seem cold to play down the value of compliments. Perhaps someone really would like to buy the photo

but they cant afford it? Thats always a possibility. But if people truly love a photograph then generally theywill find a way to afford it so why arent they buying yours?

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T E C H N I Q U E 5

This page from top to bottom:

Figure 2.2:ArchipelagoFigure 2.3: Dawn of Winter at Cadboll PointFigure 2.4: Rocks & Water Study in Blue

Why people dont buy pictures

The owner of a renowned gallery close to where I live is

known for his support of photography. When I first

started producing landscape photos I showed him

some of my large format glossy prints.

Most of my photos were dismissed in an instant butsome were greeted with a good measure of approval.

He advised me that photographs were best displayed as

gicleprints and suggested that I invest in having them

produced in that format and then come back to him.

The idea of showing my photos in a gallery was

appealing but not a priority, so it was months before I

produced giclesof my work. Then I headed back to the

gallery to show the owner my super-duper expensive

prints which I expected to be immediately hung on the

wall and sold for outrageous prices!

The gallery owner took one look at the gicles and

without any comment about the actual images said, in

the most stereotypically pretentious tone: Ive always

felt that photos are best presented as glossy prints.

Since then Ive heard an echo of that gallery owners

voice in every enthusiastic comment about any of my

photographs. Because I realised that people will come

out with any old nonsense to avoid telling you their

honest opinion: Theylikeyour work, they just dont like

itenoughto actually buy it.

Thats why the non-buyers are always the most vocal

and complimentary. Buyers hardly say a word.

Silence is golden

All of the photos on these two pages have been widely

praised by other photographers. All have been framed

and prominently displayed in a busy caf in a popularholiday area. And all have received very positive

comments from many locals and tourists.

None of them have sold.

Meanwhile my landscape photos that do sell always go

very quietly. Consistently the people who buy them

cant explain why they like them. They dont need to.

The moral of all this is that youll receive two kinds of

compliment: Vocal and cash. The vocals are warm and

snuggly but unreliable. Base your commercial decisionson the cold hard cash. It always tells the truth.

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6 T E C H N I Q U E

Six months and nine minutes:

A story of shooting Elton

At 7:03pm on Sunday 15 July 2007 the Tulloch Caledonium Stadium inInverness came alive with the applause and jubilant screams of 18,000 people.

Elton John made a low-key entrance to stage right and thus began the most

nerve-wracking nine minutes of my photographic career.

But this story began six months earlier...

It was mid-January and I had just done a depressingly poor job of

photographing the Highland 2007 Year of Culture launch night for the

BBC Scotland web site.

The spectacular evening of music, fireworks, street performers and

giant inflatable monsters had attracted upwards of twenty other

accredited photographers from all of the local agencies and newspapers,

so I had decided to break away from the reserved media spots and look

for the pictures that nobody else would get.

As an amateur you want to get into the media areas. As a pro you often

want to get out of them. Public areas are sometimes better.

This calculated gamble didn't pay off and I missed several of the main

events. A giant Loch Ness Monster paraded through the streets of

Inverness and I didn't even see it, never mind capture it on camera.

Figure 3.1: The aerial ballet troupeTranse Express performed high aboveInverness during the launch of theHighland 2007 Year of Culture.

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T E C H N I Q U E 7

That weekend I had some serious questions to ask myself, but they all

boiled down to one thing: Was I in the right business? I could make

feeble excuses about scheduling errors by the event organisers; I could

blame over-zealous security staff who wrongly blocked access to pre-

planned locations; but such hurdles come as standard in this job. The

truth was that I simply didn't get the photos and that was my fault. Fact.

Monday rolled around. No doubt still basking in the publicity of the

well-received launch night, the Highland 2007 organisers played their

trump card: They announced that Elton John would conclude his

Rocket Man tour in the Highlands, a major coup for the region. The

population of the entire north of Scotland is less than most small cities

so we aren't exactly a prime destination for world-class stadium artists!

Climbing the career ladder

Career doubts were immediately put on hold and I set about getting

credentials for the Elton concert, still half a year away.

Somehow I hadn't entirely blotted my copybook with the BBC and I was

given the go-ahead to photograph the concert for the Highlands &

Islands web site. I would do the photos on the same basis as I covered

the Year of Culture launch: If the photos were good then they'd be

published and paid for; if not then they wouldn't be.

(Some photographers would balk at this way of working but I think it's

a sensible and fair way to start climbing the ladder. It was my

suggestion. And if that sends a chill down your spine then you won't likehearing that I never invoiced for the eleven Year of Culture pics that

were published. They didn't come up tomystandard.)

The first challenge in getting a photography pass for the Elton concert

was finding out who to request it from.

The venue referred me to the promoter who in turn referred me to a

lady at a PR company who referred me to a man at the same company

who was constantly "in a meeting". Eventually I applied by e-mail.

Freelance accreditation: Just be honest

I'm finding that few silences are more deafening than the ones you get

from PR companies. Knowing that our livelihoods depend on their

cooperation, they seem perfectly content to leave e-mails unanswered,

phone calls unreturned and answering-machine messages ignored.

In fact, at the same time I was also applying to a different PR company

for permission to photograph the Rock Ness dance festival and not one

single e-mail or phone call was ever answered. The festival came and

went without any evidence that the PR company existed at all, and a lot

of media coverage of the festival seemed to rely heavily on poor quality

camera-phone snapshots sent in by members of the audience.

Figure 3.2: Fireworks over Inverness

castle during the launch night of theHighland 2007 Year of Culture. Perhapsthe perfect example of how not tophotograph a fireworks display over acastle. Later thousands of fireworkssailed down the river and I didnt getone useable shot.

Figure 3.3: Thomas and Anna withdad Robert watched rehearsals for theHighland 2007 Year of Culture launchnight. This image, one of my earlyattempts at using off-camera flash,could have been so much better if Id

put the flash on a light stand to frameright, or asked someone to hold it.

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8 T E C H N I Q U E

It took a while, but eventually I managed to syphon a smidgen of information about the pass for the Elton John

concert: My application had been received but it would not be processed until two weeks before the concert. To

cushion the inevitable disappointment I took this to mean that it would be refused at the last minute.

And sure enough, the first week of July came and went. Elton was five days away and, again, nobody was

talking to me. More e-mails into the void. More calls not returned. More empty assurances from people who

were clearly in no position to make them.

Then an e-mail arrived from a different PR company: My pass would be confirmed as soon as possible. A

follow-up e-mail asked who I would be doing the pictures for.

Some photographers love to big themselves up to be more than they are. I never do, and I would advise others

that honesty is the best policy. So I explained that this concert was a huge opportunity for me to cover a major

event and I had asked the BBC if I could do the photos for them. I also stated that I would behave

professionally, I wouldn't cause any problems for security, I had the appropriate public liability insurance, and

I knew that the photos could only be used for news/editorial purposes, no commercial sales.

The reply came: "Fine." That was it, just one word.

Then a phone call explaining that my pass would be waiting for me at the box office.

Above all else: Getting the shot you need

However there was still one problem to overcome: The pass was

extraordinarily restrictive. Photographers were not welcome in the

stadium before the concert. We weren't allowed to photograph the

support act. We had to meet at the box office shortly before Elton was

due on stage, at which point we'd be escorted into the stadium by

security who would then wait with us for one song. Then we'd be

escorted out of the building. There would be no press facilities on-site,not even luxuries such as a chair or a power socket. And if it was

raining? Well, laptops are waterproof, aren't they...

This kiboshed most of my long-formulated plans for the day. I would

have liked to put together a gallery documenting the whole event: Stage

preparations, sound-check, audience arriving, support act, Elton, crowd

shots, Elton, the band, a bit more Elton, more crowd shots, etc. But it

was made abundantly clear to me that the photography policy was set in

stone and it applied to everyone, no exceptions.

When the big day arrived I did the best I could with my limited options.I was given my pass early, allowing me to at least shoot telephoto from

outside the stadium. I got some fun pics for the local papers. And I

chatted with the other photographers about how this was the most

media-unfriendly event I'd ever heard of.

Then it was time for us to be puppy-walked down to the stage. I think

we had three security people with us, all of whom had different ideas of

when and where we could go. One of them gave the nod for us to get on

with it and I didn't need telling twice: I installed myself in the perfect

position to get a good view of where Elton would be seated at the piano.

Figure 3.4: For this concert mediaaccess was so limited and restrictivethat it could be seen as little more thana token gesture. Even while taking thisphotograph from outside the stadium asecurity guard told me to put mycamera away, until I convinced him thatmy pass covered this area.

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T E C H N I Q U E 9

I had decided by this point that I wouldn't do crowd shots. I'd have liked to, but I wasn't going to risk losing my

vantage point. The only shots that really mattered were the ones of Elton: Get one good pic of Elton and I had

done the job right; get a Pulitzer-winning crowd shot but miss Elton and I would have failed.

I did briefly stray a few feet away and quickly took a succession of photos in a circle, a weak attempt at making

a 360-degree panorama of the stadium. Then I scurried back into position.

By now I was more nervous than when I first photographed a wedding. Realising how unexpectedly nervous I

was made me more nervous. It took me two minutes to meter the piano: I was convinced that the perfect

histogram was somehow wrong.

When your instincts fail you...

Id say I'm fairly good at photographing people on stage.

I've done it often, in a variety of environments and conditions: Badly litschools, brightly lit theatres, even a cruise ship with constantly

changing theatrical lighting.

I can switch to any of my camera's 45 focus points in a fraction of a

second. My timing is good. I can chimp without moving my eye from the

viewfinder and I can correct the exposure instantaneously.

But my first dozen photos of Elton were two stops over-exposed and

out-of-focus.

When I chimped and saw the flashing highlights I was suddenly gripped

with a fear that I didn't know what to do. It took me a second or two tobump the shutter speed and when I went back to shooting I had no idea

if I'd bumped it too far or not far enough, but another quick chimp

looked okay.

Elton had only just started playing the piano and he turned to the

audience and punched the air. It was an iconic image and I missed it,

didn't zoom out quickly enough.

So far, everything that could go wrong had gone wrong.

Elton was singing his heart out. I zoomed in, focused on his face and hit

the motor drive. I had a good shot.

Figure 3.5: Not what you want to seewhen you check your first images:Terribly over-exposed, probably even

beyond the point that it could be saved.

Figure 3.6: So it was a relief to havethis one in the bag moments later.

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1 0 T E C H N I Q U E

The rest of the shoot is mostly a blur, although thankfully the pictures

weren't. For some reason I moved from my vantage point and got some

nice frames from a more side-on angle, and then I moved back to where

I had started. One guy moved to let me back in. Moments later I ducked

down to let him get a shot over my head. I was impressed that all of the

photographers, about ten of us in an area maybe six feet square, were

mindful of what each other was doing and we worked well as a group.

I've never been an Elton John fan. Haven't even heard much of his

music. But at one point he turned to one of the photographers next to

me and gave him a stern look, which gradually melted to a smile and

then a cool-looking, playful snarl. I immediately liked Elton John. The

guy has style and charisma exploding out of him.

The first song ended and Elton leapt up to stand on his piano stool with

one foot on the piano. I switched to my centre focus point, zoomed out

and motored it. Then a security guard gave me a light punch in the ribs

and it was time to leave. I think the security guys made a point of

walking us out as slowly as possible, which was good of them.

Time to transmit

While 18,000 people danced away the perfect summer evening I went back to the hotel, only to find that the

wireless network wasn't working. I headed across town to another hotel and by the time Sir Elton was about

halfway through his set I had seven photos processed and sent off to the BBC, and to an editor at Getty who I

had asked to take a look at them with future commissions in mind.

The results of all that effort?

One photo was used to illustrate a story on the BBC web site. Getty liked the images but said they weren't

different enough from existing shots. One local paper used a cute shot I did of two local gals. Pictures in some

other papers were evidently by photographers who were given special treatment or who broke the rules, which

is the sort of behaviour that makes it difficult for the rest of us to get passes in future.

Overall a successful day. Great fun, good experience, I made a small profit and I did a competent job under

tight restrictions. I e-mailed the PR people who helped me and thanked them for giving me the break. Noreplies, of course, but I hope they read the e-mails at least.

Months later a legal firm wanted to license one of my images so I sought

clearance from the PR company. I was told that such licensing was

against policy but, as someone had forgotten to get my signature on a

contract, I could do whatever I wanted with my photos. I assured them

that I would honour the contract even though I had never seen it or

signed it, and I declined to license the image.

That, I feel, is one way to stand out from the crowd: In a cut-throat

business, put your knife away. Being trustworthy is more important to

me than selling an image. And long term it will be more profitable.

Figure 3.7: Snarl or a smile? I dontknow but it made a good photo.

Figure 3.8: Fun photos of local peopleare always a good bet with newspapers.

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T E C H N I Q U E 1 1

Metering and focusing for concert,

theatre and other stage performances

With the wide variety of stage lighting conditions you may think it

would be impossible to offer any useful guide to metering and focusing

for photographs of people on stage. But there are some fundamental

techniques that will serve you well for all kinds of live performance.

Stage lighting is almost guaranteed to confuse your cameras automatic

metering as it wont know how to cope with the brightly lit performers

against a dark background, possibly with strong back-lighting. You will

likely end up with performers over-exposed as your cameras exposure

algorithm tries to compensate for the many dark areas in the frame.

So for stage photography it is essential to use manual exposure, and a

spot meter is invaluable. This will allow you to meter the performers

face and adjust the exposure accordingly. Some cameras have spot

meters built in or you can buy light meters with spot capabilities.

You also need to have some basic knowledge of the zone system.

Now, the mere mention of the zone system can be scary for some people

but it is not nearly as complicated as you may believe. Two minutes

from now youll understand it...

All you need to know is which zone your

spot meter is calibrated to (zone 5 is the

standard) and which zones different skin

tones belong in. For example, the average

white skin tones belong in zone 6.

When you take a zone 5 spot reading of white skin the resulting image

would be under-exposed by 1-stop, so you need to adjust the reading to

over-expose by 1-stop, putting the skin tones in zone 6. Thats it!

If you understand that last paragraph then you now know how to spot

meter white people under any lighting conditions.

Dark skin goes in zone 4 or zone 3 for very dark skin. So for black people

you take your spot meter reading and then under-expose accordingly.

There, now you know how to spot meter everyone. Easy.

Focus can be an artistic choice but generally youll want to get the

performers face in focus, and specifically their eyes.

Many modern cameras have 7, 9 or 11 user-selectable focus points, and

some have as many as 45 points. So compose your frame, select the

focus point closest to the subjects eyes, and let the camera focus.

This is much more accurate than focusing with the centre point and

then re-composing the shot. When photographing performers you will

usually be working with a telephoto lens so re-composing by even a few

degrees can be enough to shift the plane of sharp focus away from their

eyes and from the rest of their face. Plus, of course, in the time it takes

for you to re-compose your shot, the performer may have moved!

Figure 3.9: Automatic meteringwould struggle with this scene due tothe black background and bright lights.But by using manual exposure settings

based on a spot meter reading of Eltonsskin tones, the exposure is correct.

Figure 3.10: The zone system dividesall visible tones into 11 zones numbered

from 0 (pure black) to 10 (pure white).Each zone covers one f-stop. Yourcamera will be able to recordapproximately 5 zones in each exposureand spot metering is the easiest way totell the camera which 5 you want.

Figure 3.11: If the camera was allowedto decide where to focus then it would

choose a high-contrast area such as thecross of the music stand or part of theharp. By selecting a focus point it waspossible to focus on the musicians eyes.

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The masterpiece myth

You are captivated by an image. It speaks to you. So you seek out other works

by the artist and you find that they are good, but something is missing. The

image you fell in love with is the pinnacle of the artists genius.

This is the masterpiece myth.

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T E C H N I Q U E 1 3

Figures 4.2 & 4.3: (Below) Otherphotos from the same shoot.

Figure 4.1: The unprocessed originalversion of the main photo.

Separating intent and result

For the purpose of considering one artist and one masterpiece there

could be no clearer choices than Leonardo da Vinci and the Mona Lisa.

But what can photographers learn from one painting by one artist?

While we may be able to garner a few gems about composition or

lighting or colour, the Mona Lisa also reveals something more telling of

human nature, something crucial to our understanding of our own work

and to the nature of the milestones that we aspire to reach.

What the Mona Lisa can teach us is that there is no such thing as a

masterpiece. At least not in the traditional sense of the word.

When we think of a piece of work as an artists masterpiece we have a

naturally romanticised view of the work being intentional from start to

finish: The artist had a vision and then made that vision real.

Yet it is debated whether or not the Mona Lisa is even complete.

As a frustrated perfectionist da Vinci was known for leaving his work

unfinished. In the case of the Mona Lisa it is noted that the subjects

eyebrows and eyelashes are missing, and perhaps her fingernails too.

And the Mona Lisa known to the modern world is somewhat removed

from the original version of the 16th century painting. Restorations and

repairs have left layers of paint upon layers of paint, discoloured by

coats of varnish, with the orphic strokes of da Vincis own brush and

perhaps even the touches of his fingertips obfuscated for centuries.

If a painting is left unfinished by the artist, and the version that weknow today has been minutely changed by the interim involvement of

restorers and repairers, then how can we sincerely declare that painting

as the artists masterpiece?

Perhaps doing so might even be considered an insult.

Youre as good as your best accident?

The black and white photograph on the left is generally regarded as my

best work, and if I were to become famous one day then it might evenbe proclaimed as my masterpiece. But it isnt.

Originally planned as the clich dichotomy of a beautiful girl against a

starkly under-exposed background, and always intended as a colour

image, the bright sunlight on the day proved too strong to over-power

with flash. The resulting image (figure 4.1) was, in a word, boring.

It was converted to black and white, and some subtle processing was

applied to enhance the surreal lighting. Only then did the photo take on

its enchanting quality and became something special.

So as much as I like the final image, I can tell you that it is not good bydesign, but by accident. And accidents are not to be aspired to...

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1 4 T E C H N I Q U E

Figure 4.6: Main photo: Bare strobewith silver reflector to frame left. Sun toframe right. Both on full power!

Figure 4.7: Harry Potter launch night:Bare strobe to frame left, strobe withCTO (orange) gel to frame right.

Figure 4.8: Chefs: Bare strobe to

frame right, strobe with CTO (orange)gel to frame left behind group.

Your masterpiece? Your decision

If you could have a conversation with Leonardo da Vinci about only one

of his paintings, which would it be: The one that the world regards as

his masterpiece, or the one that he considered to be his best work?

And the natural extension of that question: Do you aspire to take photos

that other people will tell you are good, or would you prefer to takephotos that accomplish your own pre-determined goals?

For me, its all about the goal, and the goal is composition. Before I even

held a camera I had a passion for certain styles of newspaper photo and

I would practice the compositions by forming a rectangle with my hands

and framing anything and everything. When I got my camera I began

refining my compositional skills by taking thousands of random photos

on a half-mile stretch of beach, nearly every day for months. I would

look for uninteresting scenes and try to find a good composition.

The compositions that I aspire to master are ones in which you arrange

small groups of people in such a way as to create a foreground and a

middle-ground. This is standard fare in thousands of local newspapers

around the world, and many photographers appear to create these

photos effortlessly, but I find them very difficult. To date I would say

thatfigures 4.4and4.5are my two best compositions:

So suppose I do become famous and someone holds up that black and

white photo of the girl in front of the wooden fence, and proclaims it as

my masterpiece. Of course that would be a hug for the ego, in the sense

that its always nice to hear kind words said about your work, but it

would also mean absolutely nothing. Figures 4.2 and 4.3 from the

same shoot turned out how I envisioned them an hour before I trippedthe shutter so praise for those would mean something. But praise for an

image that is accidentally good? Thats not a compliment!

Ill take a small success over an accidental masterpiece any day.

To grow as photographers we must keep in mind that luck cannot be

repeated, and luck is often a factor in why people like a particular

photograph so much. If you rate your images according to other

peoples opinions of them then the first photo you ever take could be the

best photo you ever take. Hows that for a depressing thought?

So accept the compliments graciously, but be guided by your ownopinion of your work based on how close it is to your intentions.

Figure 4.4: Chefs at Taste of Tain Figure 4.5: Harry Potter launch night

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How many hours are there inone minute of your time?

This is an issue that photographers love to whinge about but doing so

achieves nothing so we wont spend any time on that here.

The fact of the matter is that clients often dont comprehend, and

sometimes dont appreciate, the amount of effort that culminates in

those few moments when we stand in front of them and push a button.

For a family portrait in this country house, two of the first words in the

brief werequickandsimple. All those words mean in real terms is that

the client doesnt want to stand around for very long. You take the

booking with the knowledge that youll still do the usual ground-work,

and thus you charge the usual price. Dont cut your margin.

On the day of the shoot I appraised four locations and lit two of them so

the family had the choice of an inside or outside photo. Or they could

have had both if they wanted. It only took a minute to do the photo but

it wouldnt have happened without the previous couple of hours.

Figure 5.1: (Above) Even though thislocation was not used, an hour wasspent preparing it, including stabilisingthe lights due to a strong breeze. Twoother locations had also been scouted aspossible alternatives, with test shots

being done of each.

Figure 5.2: (Below) The location thatwas eventually used had also beenprepared before the family arrived. Thescene was lit with a 1000-watt strobe onfull power with a 100-cm softbox about10-feet to frame left. This set-up wasused as a lot of light would bouncearound the room so a strong directionallight source was required to createhighlights and shadows.

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Figure 7.1: (Above) The papers choicefrom the first professional footballgame I was commissioned to cover.

Shooting sports:Dont be a dinosaur

Editorial sports photography isnt about sport. And it

doesnt have much to do with photography either. Its

about money and having fun. People who specialise in

shooting sports have a passion for it and they want to

keep doing it. This can lead to them being fiercely

resistant to anyone trying to move in to their territory.

Of course theres nothing wrong with that: A few years

from now when youre having fun being paid to

photograph your sport of choice, will you be happy to

have some newcomer start taking your precious

commissions away from you?

But many long-established sports photographers have one majorweakness: They are dinosaurs. They do the same old boring shots week

in and week out. So you can get ahead by out-thinking them.

One of my first sports commissions was a mid-week night game

featuring the regions professional football team. Id paid my dues

working amateur games for a couple of years so you can imagine how

good it felt to be moving up to the next level. For me, the most exciting

thing about the commission was that Id finally have some nice stadium

backgrounds for my photos, but Ill admit to also enjoying the sense that

Id proved myself and earned the right to move up to pro games. Theres

nothing quite like that feeling when you first walk out of the press room,along the corridor and out to the sideline.

After ninety minutes in the rain and snow of a freezing Scottish winter

evening I sent off half a dozen solid action photos with good captions,

confident that Id earned my next commission.

Alas, that was not to be...

All is fair in sports and business?

Shortly after the paper hit the streets with one of my photos from the

match, I received an apologetic e-mail from the editor: She wouldnt be

able to commission me for these matches in future.

The photographer who she had been using in the past had complained

about me being commissioned instead of him. And he had backed this

up with threats about involving the National Union of Journalists. The

upshot was that he somehow forced the editor to surrender her own free

choice and commit to using him for future matches.

An injustice, for sure. And that photographers actions were certainly

extreme. But you need to be ready for people who arent entirely ethical.

So how would you have handled the situation?

Figure 7.2: (Below) Some of the otherphotos I submitted from the game.

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Figure 7.3: Netcam shots dont needto be done with a wide angle lens. Thisone was shot at around 100-mm.

Figure 7.5: Strange colouring, theplayers are too dark and it isnt obvious

who scored. But where I live Im theonly photographer who does netcamshots so they are still new and that goesa long way in getting published.

Figure 7.4: Not many photographerstake football photos from inside the

goal but at amateur games you can getaway with almost anything. This image

was the result of trying various angleswhile photographing a prolongedpenalty shoot-out. I got dozens ofunusable photos but everything cametogether perfectly for this one.

Its not their business, its our business

When you decide to earn a living by taking photos you immediately

become an equal to everyone else in the business. Yes, they have more

experience and they might even be better photographers, but you have

an equal right to earn money. And with that equal right comes an equal

responsibility to uphold the integrity of the profession.

So knowing that a fellow photographer had undermined my right to

earn a living, I had two distinct issues to deal with: First was my

responsibility to ensure that rogue elements dont harm the business.

Second was the fact that I had just hit a major roadblock in my career.

The first issue was a no-brainer: My anti-competitive peer had decided

to involve his union, so I decided to involve them myself. I made some

unofficial enquiries and then filed a complaint.

If you would have thought the problem was best left alone then

consider this: Maybe youre of a strong-enough character to cope with

someone stabbing you in the back, but what if the next person they do

it to is more fragile? Some people invest their lifes savings in pursuing

the dream of working as a photographer, and they deserve to succeed

based on the quality of their work, not how thick-skinned they are.

In my opinion, those of us who can cope with the extra pressure of

weeding-out the back-stabbers should do exactly that.

Think big, think different

Then I went straight back to the amateur games at the local parks and

focused on being the best football photographer I could be.

Thats how you compete with the dinosaurs. Dont try to beat them at

their own game. I wanted to show the editors at both local papers that

there was a whole new game, and I could play it better.

The photos on these two pages were chosen to debunk some myths

about sports photography that many newcomers have, due mainly to a

lot of bad advice bandied about on Internet photography forums.

All of these photos were published apart fromfigure 7.7whichwas the only one shot in a stadium. If youre kidding yourself that

your photos would sell better if you had stadium backgrounds

then get that idea out of your head right now. You can find good

backgrounds anywhere by working the angles.

Fast telephoto lenses are nice but you can probably earn money

in sports photography with whatever equipment you already

have. Figure 7.8 used a fast telephoto lens but every other

photo was taken with a wide angle lens or a mid-range zoom. The

netcam shots didnt use remotes, they were all hand-held.

Newspapers do value originality. Every time Ive tried a new

technique, the resulting photo has been published. Every time.

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Figure 7.8: (Above) If you can shootfrom an elevated position then you canuse the pitch itself as a background.

Figure 7.7: Stadium terraces are theideal backgrounds but it could be years

before you shoot stadium games.

Figure 7.9: (Below) Alternatively alow angle can produce a more majesticimage with a stronger sense of drama.

Figure 7.6: The newspaper didnt have a reporter covering this match so even the besttraditional action shot may have been left unused. But the unique angle of this photomade enough of an impact that the paper ran it without a match report and evendedicated space on the back page to writing about the photo itself, explaining how it wasaccomplished. The technique was simple enough: I pre-focused a wide angle lens andthen held the camera as high as possible on a 6-foot monopod. I aimed as best I could

whenever the action came close, and triggered the camera with a set of Pocket Wizardradio triggers. I worked this way for the whole game and although I got a few other shotsthat werent too bad, this was the only one that I considered useable. It may seemexcessive to commit an entire game to trying a new technique, to get only one good image,

but I would prefer to get one good original image and have it published instead of dozensof great traditional shots that dont make it into the paper.