Fail to prepare, prepare to fail

I høst har det vært en utrolig stor oppsving her, og fra midten av August og ut Oktober har ordrebøkene vært omtrent tredobbelt booket. Rundt 90% av jobbene har vært av den arten at de bør/må fotograferes utendørs, og som så veldig ofte; 100% av oppdragene ser best ut før vinterslapset setter inn.

Med mindre man er så heldig å jobbe som fotograf, så er det selvfølgelig vanskelig å vite hvordan prosessene bak bildene er, så på første snøslapsedag passer det jo fint å skrive litt om det.

De aller fleste reklamebildene skapes ikke i kamera. Det å trykke på knappen kan kanskje sammenlignes med å signere en kontrakt, det bare forsegler all planleggingen og alle forberedelsene.

Et portrett, et pressebilde, et naturbilde (og mange andre typer) kan tas i øyeblikket. Knips - så sitter det. Noen ganger trenger man forberedelsene, andre ganger kan det være spikret på et kvart sekund.

Reklamebilder er noe annet. Hver eneste lille piksel skal representere det selskapet som bruker det på best mulig måte. Det er viktig for meg å holde ørene og øynene åpne for hva som er viktig å kommunisere for kunden, og deretter er det mine oppgave å planlegge hvordan dette kan bli visuellt bra i form av fotografi; det skal være riktig for kunden, men samtidig må det også interessant og fengene slik at forbrukeren legger merke til det. Kort sagt, det skal skille seg ut.

Og her kan gjerne ballen gå frem og tilbake flere ganger i mellom meg og kunde. Noen ganger er det mange som er en del av prosessen hos min kunde, og da kan det ta lang tid før vi finner et yttrykk som fungerer både i forhold til hva kunden vil kommunisere, samtidig som det skal være mulig teknisk å løse og at bildet skal ha impact.

Så begynner forberdelsene. Vi må kanskje ha flere modeller, og da må alle ha mulighet på samme tidspunkt. Også må man finne et tidspunkt hvor været er riktig; for mye vind så er det umulig å sette opp blitser og håret står til alle kanter på modellene. Regner det så trives hverken modeller eller utstyr. Også hvordan skal modellene se ut? Skal det være en ung og tøff gutt, eller skal det være en eldre arbeidskar? Skal damen i bakgrunnen ha grått hår og skal ryggsekken i forgrunnen være rød eller grønn? Hvilken lyssetting skal man bruke? Skal det være hardt lys som viser litt skumle mennesker, eller skal lyset være behagelig og innbydende?

Og slik fortsetter listen inn i det uendelige. Så hva skaper et godt reklamebilde? Det er grundige forberedelser. Fotografer er som folk flest; vi er ikke magikere, resultatene skapes igjennom hardt arbeide, gode kunnskaper og grundige forberedelser :)

Så når jeg står med fingeren på utløseren på kameraet er jeg som regel helt avslappet. Jeg har vært på museumet å hentet rekvita jeg trengte til denne shooten, modellen er kledd opp i de rette klærne, lyset er riktig på himmelen, blitsene er satt riktig opp, akkurat nok lavvan til at location ble i mellom de riktige stenene slik at komposisjonen ble slik jeg ønsket.

Klikk.

Kontrakten er skrevet. Puslespillet er puslet. Biffen er perfekt stekt.

Så går bildet inn i photoshop. Et fysj-ord for mange. Men i virkeligheten er det bare et digitalt mørkerom. Bildet skal fremkalles. De siste detaljene skal finjusteres. Fjell skal klippes inn. Vinflekken ingen la merke til på skjorta skal tas bort. Glassuren skal på kaka rett og slett.

Et godt håndtverk tar tid, og det masseproduseres ikke. Så neste gang du trenger bilder, gi oss gjerne litt ekstra tid. De beste bildene tar man ikke, de skaper man :)

Flash photography

The other day I found a manifesto I wrote while I was living in Australia in 2010, and actually I found it very inspiring to read what I wrote back then. When you don't have to worry about the bills, you can relax and do everything as it emerges within yourself. I miss those days, and it is nice to be reminded about the essence of your own photography. 

One of the things I wrote was that when I take a picture, I always make history for someone. Sometimes it is about capturing a personality, other times it's about making someone notice an advertising board to help the progress of someones business. That's why I care about every aspect of my photography ... it always matters for someone how I perform. 

And I just want to show a small commercial example today. A client of mine had an event, and they wanted a simple picture to show on their webpage. I could do what I did in the first image, the money was the same either way. But I wanted to create something cool for them, something that people notice. It's not going to change the world, but why not make the most out of it?

I just found a location by the airpord, got the boys there and lit them one and one (put together of 6 different images). The client might have been pleased with the first image, but to me it makes all the difference in the world that I can feel happy with the result as well.

Boys are lined up and ready to shoot (this one in natural light):

Here the image is put together of the different exposures (six in total), no photoshop adjustments:

And the last one, after post processing in photoshop:

People tend to say to me when I show before and after images; "you don't really need to do all those things, no one notice them". I do. And after a while, when you have seen the image several times, then you will probably start to notice something too. For instance how the lightpoles in the background are competing with their heads. Just the small stuff. But it matters. Because once you send it to print, or send it to the client ... the image is out there for "eternity". So why not make it all it can be? 

Enjoy your weekend folks! 

Student redesigning AN with pictures from Engmark

A while ago a student from Bodø which is now studying Mediadesign at "Høgskolen i Gjøvik" contacted me. She was working on a project where she was to redesign a newspaper. She had chosen Avisa Nordland (AN) for her project and since there was a story about Engmark Fotografi AS recently, she wanted to redesign that as a part of her new design.

I just supplied pictures, everyting else is done by Majken Falch Jonassen. And what a job she did! The whole newspaper is so stylish and clean, and for me this edition is just a joy to the eye compared to the one that you find in the newsstand. Also I myself as a interview object is so much more pleased on how I was presented with her selection of pictures.

Avisa Nordland should really take a peak at this project and concider making some changes. And I must say I wish all the best for Majken; she did a great job and she will certainly land a job within design after she completes her studies.

By the way - that is just a matter of days from now! If you want to get in contact with Majken to hire her, you can reach her on her email majkenfj@gmail.com

Also here portofolio: http://issuu.com/majkenfj/docs/majken_portfolio_issuu2

Out of the dust; Ute.no

I bet you know the feeling; you get an idea in your head and you can't get it out before you act on it - no matter what. Basically there you got my head, only it's 24/7. From the day I was born I have always had the need to create, do something or act out. When I picked up my camera I finally had a tool that finally could make something good out of me being constantly restless.

The flipside is that I want to do everything very well also. So when I get an idea, I need to photograph it while the idea is my head, before the model moves away, the weather changes and what not. However what often happens is that before I can complete my work in photoshop a new idea pops up. And there you go, things start to stack up. Especially now after school when you need to stark making money to pay rent on the store/studio and so on, personal projects often get left behind a bit. 

But in between I get those free moments, and I try to get things out of the drawer and complete it. A couple of weeks ago I managed to complete a nude series which had been sitting for a while, and now I managed to complete a school project I did for a store in Trondheim back in 2010. This was part of my final project at the end of my first year, and I just started to get the hang on the basic things. 

There is a lot more to come,  especially private fashion/beauty projects from the last year. But when each image craves 5-10 hours in Photoshop, it's hard to find the time for it. 

Outside this there has been a lot of things going on lately. I am soon starting on a big task for institution which needs a lot of imagery, and I have been working on a big project for EBEN which have craved a lot of time. EBEN in a new fashion brand that makes handbags out of fishskin - extremely cool! 

Under is the images from Ute.no - and I also did a short video just for fun with my PL-1 at that time. Keep in mind this stuff is 3 years old, I have evolved .. a lot I like to think.

Business & Pleasure :: Promo picture for Thor Einar, Stand UP Bodø

It's always nice when you get to combine business and pleasure and in this industry it's nice to just play with your own ideas from time to time. Keeps the creative part of the brain up to date.

So with this image I just wanted to do something silly as Thor Einar is a stand up comedian, which led me to the PEZ dispenser - everytime you bump the head, a new treat comes out!

Big thanks to the kiosk in Bankgata, Bodø, where one of the staff had a vintage PEZ dispenser to lend me.

Also; I will try to update the blog more frequently now, it obviously comes and goes. But now it's finally spring up north and we can play around in the lovely landscapes up here. So I am shooting a lot, and just editing whatever is needed - there will be time enough to sit inside in the winter.

To my followers on Facebook: when it comes to imagery, Facebook brings as much good as a molesting uncle. Since it feels the need to compress every image, images with red backgrounds get pixelated - and there seems to be no solution to the problem.

Thank god for alternativ stuff, like this blog!

Whoop, there it is!

Shooting for EBEN, a new label (it's fishy!)

Fashion photography is what I love to do most. It's so playful and out of the box (if you want it to be), and you can just play around with different techniques, lighting, locations, models .. the creativity is never-ending. That was definitively the biggest downside of moving to Bodø, the lack of fashion.

But in every mountain there is an ounce of gold I guess. I was so happy to be introduced to Elisabeth Benoinsen and her label EBEN. She is an designer who did what I did, moved out of London to work on her own expression. She is developing her brand with a series of exclusive fishskin handbags. 

If you are into design you will know how cool that is, but if you are a regular Joe, then you might think it's icky, smelly and rough. It's not! We are far away from talking about gutting a fish and making handbags out of it; the skin goes trough a long process to magnify the skin, and in the end you get a super exclusive and expensive skin that feels like leather, only it got the insane cool structure to it!

Elisabeth have been investing so much time, effort and money preparing her products, and she is so focused on quality that you get blown away. Absolutely nothing is left to chance, and I am so excited to see the products in the shops soon!

So during the last months we have been planning a photoshoot to promote the EBEN products. While we have been waiting for all the handbags to go into production, we have been testing different models, different clothing and accessories, different locations and so on. 

And I am the kind of photographer that doesn't want to leave anything to chance either. Out there it is so competitive that even the smallest thing can be the difference between success or no success, and imagery is often what get you noticed. Also we are aiming to make an editorial to get into magazines, so it's also trying to create that little extra.

We have learned from out test shoots and we now feel ready to do the final shoot. All the handbags will be here in any time now, so expect some results in the near future. I can say that this shoot will be a fairly big production all things considering; we even need to establish a camp in the "wild" to let the model thaw up during the shoot. But we have been out there testing - and the results can be astonishing!

Follow EBEN on Facebook!

Here is the pictures from the first shoot that have been edited to test retouch style. Hope you like them even if they are just testshots :)

Photoshoot :: Royal Guard

In december I did a shoot with a soldier from the royal guards. These are the men that protect the Norwegian king and the Norwegian castle in both peace and wartimes. This platoon was the ones that managed to get the royal family away from the Germans and over to England during the invation of Norway, and scenarios like this is what they train for even 70 years later. 

I think it was amazing to shoot these images, because the uniform is under strict regulations and you don't find many photographers that have been able to shoot this inside a studio. I enjoyed it, hope others do as well. 

Urgent shoot for Østbø AS

It's been a while now since the last blogpost. I decided ho have a real holiday during christmas, and when I got back to work, it only took one day before I got a serious flu. So the studio was basicly closed from December 23rd untill Jannuary 14th. But now everything is dandy.

The other day I got a call from Østbø As which work with special waste and recycling, they needed pictures for an advertisement with a 48 hour deadline. In finishing stages of creating their ad, they had discovered that their old pictures were not up for the job. I accepted the job and started to plan in between other shoots that day, but for a commercial photographer that is really toying with the results you get in the end.

Let me explain. There is a lot of different photographers out there. You got portrait, press, documentary, fashion, action/sports - and many others. In example, a press photographer often rely on getting plenty of frames to capture the exact moment that gives that case the correct expression. Most of the times, the picture only needs to be noticed for a day or two.

For a commercial photographer it's the other way around. We shoot few frames, we spend a lot of time bringing forward the expresion we want in photoshop - but most of all we plan, plan and plan to have complete control over every detail in the image. Which colors to use, what backdrop, what props, what location - and so on. And the image needs to last for months or even years.

Most big commercial shoots are planned in advance by an agency, and the photographer only gets a brief. And that agency can in extreme cases plan a shoot in houndreds of hours. A couple of months ago I spoke to a couple of photographers working for a frensh car manufacturer. They spent a full week driving around Lofoten just to find locations for the new campagin - and that is just a small part of the work going into the planning stages.

Now, I'm not saying that this is normal, but the key for good commercial images is planning and preperation. Fail to plan -  plan to fail. Don't expect - inspect. And so on. So accepting a commercial job with a short deadline can also be peeing in your pants to keep warm. Sure you get the job now and the money that goes with it, but if you create poor or mediocre pictures you are painting yourself into a corner.

First of all, a photographer reputation rely on two things - his best and his worst image. The next thing is that if you don't show quality work at a regular basis, you will be known as the photographer who does ok work, but nothing more. That will not lead into anything bigger or better anytime soon.

This time I actually feel the images came out fine, especially concidering that I had to plan, shoot and edit within 48 hours. But then again, just 20 minutes before shooting the worker with a garbage can there were a blizzard, and I know I don't get that lucky every shoot!

So for future clients - not only my clients, but for every commercial photographer out there - if you allow us time to plan our images, that chances are that they will turn out ten times as good - if not more. And this is not a critique for any of my clients, it's just a helpful tip, because most people are not familiar working with commercial photographers. When I started my photographic education I only knew of portrait and press photography - so why expect something different from other people?

Enough jibba jabba! Here are the images!

For this shoot I kept record of time spent, for future refrences.

Preperation: 2 hours
Shooting: 3 hours
Editing: 11,5 hours

Often less planning shows in more time editing. On these images I was not able to light everything as I wanted and to have the perfect balance between ambient and flash outside, so more time goes into creating that effect afterwards. And that is just simply to give the image impact - make it stand out. Because when people turn that page in their newspaper, you want them to notice your message instead of the one from your competitor. It's that easy.

Before / after photoshop: