Critique From Your Clients and The Creative Process

Almost every photographer has a similar reason why they got into photography - They love taking pictures, love the satisfaction of getting a great shot, and often love the idea that they can do what they love and make money doing it!

For many of us, we will work freelance or be our own bosses, others will be a staff photographer or something of that sort. Regardless of your employment, being a photographer comes with certain expectations and responsibilities. Most importantly you will need to be able to work with a group of people who often have very different ideas about what looks good; and you have to be able to take criticism.

Recently I did a shoot for Betteridge Jewelers for an engagement ring catalogue. The vision was basically up to me, but was guided by our designer in charge of catalogue layout and the head of business development for the company.

The challenge was to create a "look" for Betteridge that is appropriate. This "look" would ultimately become a motif or style for future ads and catalogues. Betteridge Jewelers has been around since the late 1800's and has been a high-end jewelry store located in the "old money" town of Greenwich, C.T. for many years. The store has a strong following and even has a store In Vail, Colorado and Palm Beach, Florida. I instantly knew what I wanted and I went for it. I shot each ring on old books from the 19th century and on some of the dark colored wood surfaces they had. I wanted to incorporate a modern feel of eligance while maintaining a traditional look - so I decided to use a bokeh effect.

Through out the shooting process, I worked closely with our graphic designer Jake Cooper (http://www.jakecooperdesgin.com). Given the proportions he needed for the layout posed a challenge. A wide shot that would be cropped long and narrow over two pages. This meant I had to shoot the rings all in line with each other, leave space for a break in the picture within the binding of the catalogue, shoot on a tripod at a low aperture close enough to rings to get the bokeh effect and get the diamonds in focus, shoot each individually, light each individually, and place them over each other in photoshop - phewww! Lets hope you don't accidentally move the camera, knock into a ring while trying to light another ring - or else you are shooting up to 12 frames all over again just o get one shot! On top of that, after all that work, sweating, cursing (hopefully not) - you still have a group of people with different opinions waiting to see what you got!

Below is a crumby scan of a print out that I made so that we can get our experts opinions about what needs to be fixed or reshot. Luckily by this point, I had already spent hours on these photos and was confident I would not have to reshoot. The process went like this.

Discuss ideas, shoot samples, quick edit, review, revise, shoot samples, quick edit, review, revise, shoot, more in depth edit, review, review, review, re-edit, review, review, review...you get the idea. You have to expect this especially working for a team. Generally your clients will trust that your vision and/or understanding of their vision will be accurately produced in the photographs - you will always have tweaking to do, expect it!

The photo below shows numerous but minor "problem" areas that were discovered by people such as our store manager, jewelry designer, expert sales and gemologist, owner, and my boss which is the head of business development - Win Betteridge son of owner Terry Betteridge.

After going through these corrections I started to notice things that bothered me and continued to work on the images until I was satisfied. After all was complete I believe our first catalogue will be a great way to educate people on what they like and what is important when choosing an engagement ring.

If you have any interest in viewing this catalogue, please visit my site http://www.jameskatt.com click on the "published" tab then click on the small icon on that page which will open up an external link including a digital copy of our catalogue. To view in fullscreen click inside the external link. If you want to see some of the most beautiful jewelry in the world, check out http://www.betteridge.com

Portero Luxury - Fur Shoot 09'

Hey Guys! If you haven't seen me in action yet, here's your chance. Here is a shoot we did at our warehouse for Portero.com

Photo News: Leica M7 Hermes Edition

Leica announces the special Edition M7 camera with Hermes accents.

Leica M7 Edition Hermes” comes in silver chrome with calfskin leather accents in two colors, “Ètoupe” brown or Hermès’ signature orange,just 100 of each colour will be made available.

This camera is worth approximately $15k!

The "Cousins Shoot"

"Sometimes it's good to look no further than family" (not quite my own, but close enough.)

Pre-Production:

My long time girlfriend Jenna and I were discussing my plans to build my portfolio. Jenna suggested I use her cousins as models. It was a good excuse to have some fun be productive at the same time. I teamed up with Joesph Andre Photography and his talented wife Stephanie on make up to do this shoot.

The Shoot:

We arrived at Joe's house at around 10 a.m. to start make up. Stephanie had all the make up you could imagine and the excitement in everyone was building. There was a relatively vague demand on clothing and accessories so you could imagine what it looked like when 4 girls came in with arms full of clothing. As the girls got ready Joe and I set up our shooting area and tested the light. As the girls got done with there make up they came in one by one to model in our "living room studio" space. I must say I was impressed with make up and the cousins especially because they are not professional models.

Once we were done shooting in the studio set up it was time to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. The back yard had some nice late season foliage. The lighting was soft due to the overcast conditions which allowed me the opportunity to shoot with and without the strobes with ease.

Set up and Equipment:

I brought in my 600 w/s monolights from Interfit with a 39x39 inch softbox as my key light. I used my other light with a small reflector as an edge light and two speedlights in the back of the models for a hair light and slight edge on the other side. I stuck with my 18-200 VR lens for the inside studio shooting so I was able to have a wide range of focal lengths. I try to use this lens too much because it's a 3.5-5.6 lens but in this case I was shooting above 5.6 so it didn't matter.

For the outside set up, I switched to my good old 70-200 VR lens (god i love this lens!) We got an extension cord and ran it from and outlet and created a similar set up from inside. Since the overcast lighting was so soft I began to shoot like I do as a photojournalist on weddings. I used the background details - shooting at F / 3.2 at long focal lengths to make the background go very soft. I shot low to get some of the fall colors from the trees.

Photography - James Katt Photography

http://www.jameskatt.com

Photography - Joesph Andre Lombardi

http://www.photobyjoesphandre.photoreflect.com

http://www.photobyjoesphandre.photoshop.com

Make up - Stephanie Mirro- Lombardi

(631) 486-5283

Final Words:

Everyone had an amazing time and we all can't wait to do it again. The make up came out amazing, Joe was very helpful with posing and providing a location for us to shoot at. If you are interested in getting some head shots like these email me at info@jameskatt.com

Test Shoot - 11/1/09

"What a perfect day, perfect location for a photoshoot."

The weather was overcast and a bit chilly (pretty normal for a November day) and our location was amazing! Rich Dodge of RD Visuals called me up to join him on a test shoot down by the water in East Islip, N.Y so of course I jumped to the chance.

We were fortunate enough to get a hold of a 63' Plymouth.

Kristy was our model for the shoot. She was tough and held up in the chilly weather! Sonia did Kristy's hair which came out great (especially without any electricity on location).

Pre-photography:

Rich called me up and asked me to join him on a shoot so of course I agreed since I have not really seen him since college. We discussed the location, props, model, and set up a date and time to shoot. Rich was able to plot out his two location choices with detailed descriptions on google maps. The street view was helpful in surveying the location without having the first hand scouting.

The Shoot:

We arrived at our location - it was overcast, windy, and a bit chilly, but our excitement kept us going. Sonia and Rich were setting up a spot for hair when we realize the one outlet we had was not working! After Rich and I discussed our location options we settled on a really cool "back roads" kind of area that ha tall golden weeds and a long shabby road filled with puddles.

Once our model was on set. We focused on propping her with the vehicle we were blessed to have access to. Rich and I were sort of seeing things a bit differently, but in a good way! When I noticed Rich was using alot of my angles, being the photojournalist that I am, I didn't say a word, worked my way around it, and took my ideas in a different direction. I love to photograph product and love the idea of photographing people with products (which you will see more of in blogs to come). Alot of times I see things cinematically and I used this to my advantage in creating a story for my shots of her heals.

Equipment:

Most of my shots were on the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR lens because I wanted to get the compression of space long lenses will give you. I've always loved the way long lens shots looked so of course my instincts told me to pick up this lens (too bad it's so heavy)! I used my pocket wizards and attached one to Rich's Canon flash (model currently unknown). The pocket wizards allowed us to have wireless freedom, equal compatibility, and up to 1600 ft. range! Here's a shot of Rich at work.

Final Words-

After taking a variety of shots there was a sudden break in the clouds. The tall golden weeds seemed to illuminate and create a warm glow from the low angle of the sun. With a deep blue sky and some natural light on our model, we snapped away and got some extra shots in that we didn't anticipate. We shared alot of laughs and had a great time doing the shoot together. I want to thank Rich Dodge of RD Visuals, Kristy - our model, Sonia - our hair stylist. A special thanks to the owner of the cool ride, he was a very cool guy and made it even more of pleasure. Check out one of the shots from when the sun came out and also an outtake from the shoot that was kind of funny (not sure what Kristy was doing)? Thank you for reading my first blog ever! Be sure to leave me comments and check out my website.

http://www.jameskatt.com

http://www.jameskatt.com