Shooting for big prints ~ pictures & style

April 24th, 2009

As part of the Evolve training workshop on Wednesday I was teaching the delegates how to shoot for big pictures. A big product on a wall of a client’s home can make a dramatic impact on the mood of the place it is in. The bigger the mood change in the room, the higher the perceived value etc. So that got me thinking what constitutes an ideal picture to print big? Photographers like Jo De Banzie are fantastic at taking the ‘big pictures’ of children, so I thought I’d share a few of my own.

This was one of my pictures from Wednesday's shoot. It is quite common for me to shoot from behind my client. No eye contact with the child means the viewer can express a more fluid imagination of drifting thoughts.

It’s not just the viewpoint, or the telephoto perspective that makes the shot. The picture makes the viewer think nice things and draws them in, that is the key to the success of this photograph. The timeless nature is partly down to the post production effect that Marko has applied. It harks back to the 70′s and borrows heavily from pictures of the past. Shot on my new 5D mk2 at ISO 100 this frame will go as big as I want it too. I think it would be a great roller blind for a kitchen window, or a large canvas in a white room. My point is, that some shots by their simple thought provoking essential qualities are worth thousands of pounds while others of a more obvious nature are relegated to be part of a multi-frame or one of many prints in an album.

Here is another of my figure in the landscape pictures from Wednesday's Evolve session. This time no major post production effort was needed. The shot is less successful than the first one because there is less imagination needed to unravel the story.

Both the above pictures rely on strong graphical shapes and careful subject placement to make them work.

Here is another 70's style shot from Wednesday's shoot. Now in the digital age it is far easier to take pictures like this. Having no eye contact is again vital to the success of the picture. This shot was taken in full midday sun. I used to capture shots like this on film using Scotch Chrome 1000 ASA slide stock. I used a bit of 10 denier black stocking stretched over the back element of my lens, held in place with a rubber band. Putting the stocking in front of the lens created far too much flare. Marko only has to click on an action to add the dream effect now. I might retry my old techniques this summer using ultra high ISO settings in camera and adding optical neutral density if required.

If you want to learn how to create picture looks like these in post production then why not come to our one day spectacular event in Hampshire where Marko will be demonstrating the art of adding value to an image in the computer. Or if you want the Lovegrove creative Photoshop actions and the Lightroom presets come to Marko’s new training events here.