Charlotte Sometimes

Category: Photography

Natural Light Product Photography for Etsy

Photography is hard and product photography is considered a particularly difficult kind of photography. Even seasoned professional photographers in other fields get pretty stumped when it comes to shooting product images. Ideally every person selling products would have the budget to pay a specialist product photographer. But the reality is that those of us running handmade businesses, especially sewing businesses, don’t have that kind of luxury.

Lots of photographers will tell you that you need loads of expensive lights, a huge space, and lots of technical know-how in order to shoot a great product photo. I used to work in a large product photography studio in London shooting stuff on white backgrounds for major high street retailers. That kind of “white background” product photography does take a large amount of skill, setup knowledge and cost. It’s even harder if you’re looking for your colours in your photograph to match the colours of your product.

However there’s been a shift over the last few years by many brands away from the highly commercial and “perfect” style of photography and towards something that feels much more natural and organic. There’s been a whole movement towards “slow living” and a more bohemian feel to the way we present both ourselves and our products in many cases and this can only help a small business owner shooting their own products.

I’m not going to say it’s easier to shoot products in natural light, but it’s certainly simpler to learn. There’s a lot less gear to get to grips with and you can focus on getting to know your camera which will, in turn, enable you to shoot better images.

Using Window Light

You can shoot natural light product photography with just about any camera. The more sophisticated the camera, generally, the better results you’ll get, but you can ultimately shoot natural light product photos with a phone camera if you need to. So let’s take a look at my typical natural light product photography lighting setup. It’s super easy to be honest, just an old camping table next to a window!

I’m really lucky to live in an old house with beautiful big windows, but you could set this up next to any medium size window. You could also set it up in a garage and open the door (just make sure you’re in the shade) or next to any open door in your house. Obviously a nice window is preferable because it’s not cold in the winter, but sometimes you just have to make things work!

I almost always set my product photos up so that the brightest light source is on the left hand side. Our eyes naturally “read” images from the brightest points to the darkest points. To have the light going from the brightest on the left to the darkest on the right is the same as reading a book in English – we read from left to right. This makes the image comforting, familiar, and easier for our brains to decipher.

Faking Beautiful Backdrops

You’ll notice something clever in the pictures above – I’ve not actually shot them on a marble counter top. Even though it looks like I have. And the backing board isn’t actually a beautiful wood-panelled room in my house either.

About a year ago I discovered the amazing PhotoBoards. Basically they are high quality photographic reproductions of interesting surfaces and backdrops printed onto sturdy and lightweight boards. Yes, you could buy a slab of marble or source some amazing wooden planks and fix them together – but honestly I’d rather just have the boards and store them neatly in a little portfolio case all together.

I cannot begin to even tell you how much these boards have revolutionised my product photography. I don’t have a beautiful aged wooden farmhouse table in a huge dining room with great lighting, and I also don’t have a wonderful marble countertop in a light and airy kitchen. But thanks to these backgrounds I can have any number of different settings stored in a portfolio bag in my studio.

Here’s a couple of images with this lighting, styled to look completely different:

The lighter image above on the right is more in keeping with Etsy’s preferred style of photos. If you want to be featured in their gift guides I’d suggest sticking to light coloured backgrounds and sympathetic props. However I know that my target market are more likely to click the darker flatlay on the right on social media. It’s worth thinking about these differences. You may want to shoot your product images in more than one style for different purposes.

Photographing Flatlays

You can see the way I shoot products flatlay style in this article I wrote for Digital Photography School. It is an article on fine art photography but the principles are the same for product photography. I get my camera high above the product on a tripod and use a little spirit level to make sure the lens is perpendicular to the backing board. There’s a little bonus in owning a Fujifilm camera like mine – many of them work with the Fuji iPhone app. This means that I can put my phone down on the table where I’m styling and it doesn’t matter that the camera is above my head height because I can see exactly what the camera sees on my phone screen. Here’s a screenshot of the app, next to the final picture I produced:

I can’t recommend the little Fujifilm X-T20 highly enough. As I write this it’s currently about £900 including a starter lens on both WEX Photographic and Amazon. I bought mine about eighteen months ago and it revolutionised my photography – although that’s a discussion for a different post.

A new camera is a serious monetary investment in your business. I only mention it to let you know what I use if you wanted to upgrade to a system that allows you to use the app like I do. You probably already have a camera that will take more than adequate product photos. If you want to learn more about your camera I recommend joining a Facebook group for your make and model.

Lightboxes and Light Tents

I have used light tents in the past. Specifically I used to use them for photographing pens when I worked in the big product photography studio in London. Pens are often shiny little things and reflect everything around them, so the white surfaces from the inside of a light tent make for more pleasing reflections.

I generally don’t recommend these kinds of photography accessories unless you have particularly challenging products with reflections or you can only shoot in the evenings. It’s hard to manipulate the light to get shadows that show off the product. Everything tends to end up looking quite flat if you use a light tent.

At some point in the future I plan to try and write a post on using them well to create interesting product images.

Styling Your Images

Needless to say – styling is really important when it comes to these kinds of lifestyle product images. My plan is to write a whole series of posts (perhaps even an eBook) on the subject. But for now I’ve started writing on my photography site about styling. You can see them here:

Souring Props for Natural Product Photography

I hope that this has given you some useful information about how to go about shooting products for your Etsy shop in natural light. It’s not the easiest subject but with some practice then everyone should be able to create great images that really show off their products.

January 14, 2019
How To Choose Your Wedding Photographer

I like to think I know a fair bit about wedding photography. Over the years I’ve interviewed many wedding photographers for photography magazines. Actually photographing weddings is not for me, but I love to look at the photos! But how to choose your wedding photographer can seem like a mystical process at times! It’s full of unknowns if you’ve never done it before. So here’s some thoughts about how to go choose the photographer and get pictures that you’ll hopefully treasure for the rest of your life.

Find A Photographer You Like

No, I don’t mean their work, I mean them. You’re potentially going to be spending an awful lot of time with this person on one of the most important days of your life. They’re going to be there from the moment you’re sitting there is a dressing gown, to potentially as late as when you get in the car and go home. They’re going to spend time with your friends too.

You want someone approachable and fun, and who’s style fits the setting of your wedding. Ask what they wear as their ‘photographers uniform.’ If you’re going for something really relaxed do you want someone in a stuffy, old fashioned suit? Equally someone in a cute swing dress might not be what you’re after for a formal cathedral wedding…

They need to fit your style as much as you need to fit theirs. They won’t perform their best if they’re not enthused about your wedding and your style. Meet as many photographers as you need to in order to choose your wedding photographer. You can do your initial research on the Internet by looking for a Brooklyn Wedding Photographer (or wherever your location would be) and going through their portfolio first. If you like their work at first glance, then approach them. Speak to a few before finalizing on one (or two) photographer(s).

I’m also going to suggest that you consider how comfortable you are likely to be with your photographer during your prep. I know that if I was having a photographer in my home while I’m having my makeup and hair done and while I’m getting ready, well, I’d probably want a woman. There’s nothing wrong with that either – it’s your day.

Fall In Love With Their Work

It seems obvious, doesn’t it? You want a photographer who takes pictures that you love! The pictures are ultimately what you’re going to be keeping forever, so you do need someone who takes pictures you love (as well as someone who is fun to be around).

When you choose your wedding photographer, make sure to go through a couple of albums. Any photographer can stage a shoot in a nice location with attractive models. Any photographer can take six hours shooting the perfect bridal portrait. This is the reason why you may want to see a whole wedding album from a single wedding. You may want to see how their work looks when they’re working under pressure and on the fly. It’s important to choose your wedding photographer based on a couple of whole albums rather than just a few portfolio shots.

Embrace Technology

Even if you choose your wedding photographer very carefully and they’re great at their job, they don’t always catch the little personal moments. For that reason I’d urge anyone getting married to also sign up to a service that allows you to collect your guests memories of the day too! They can work as a beautiful, informal memento from the day alongside the formal album from your photographer. Websites such as Wedding Photo Swap can allow you to collect and share wedding photos from your special day with ease.

Some photographers don’t like this approach and ask that guests put their cameras away during the wedding. However if you’re a young, digitally connected couple who embrace technology… why shy away from it at this important moment?

August 10, 2018
Glass roofs are a major part of my dream home

When I was growing up I lived in a Victorian gardeners cottage. It was lovely, but the rooms were quite small and dark. I think it’s for this reason that I always remember one of my good friend’s houses. His parents owned a lovely place in town and it had a spectacular kitchen that was half traditional farmhouse style kitchen, and glass room, with gorgeous big windows and glass roofs. In the centre of the room was a huge glass dining table that really finished off the whole interior space and would reflect the clouds as they drifted overhead. Hence, while growing up in my own cottage, I used to crave such a house, at least a room. I really wished that my parents would contact experienced roof replacement service providers and get the ceiling and roof made of glass. Alas, that never happened!

Perhaps, the reason for not opting for a glass roof was something more complicated than my childhood brain could have fathomed. As an adult, I know now that glass roof repairs are costly and need skilled handymen like the ones at Alpine Roofing (they are known to be a reputed roof repair company in Denver) to finish the job without damaging it. Unfortunately, I never realized this as a kid until now. But this reason is still not enough for mw to stop loving the glass roofs.

Truth be told, I’ve always been captivated by the beautiful huge glass ceiling at the British Museum in London and the new ceiling at Kings Cross Station. Both are remarkable sculptures that blur the lines between architecture and art. As both an architecture and art lover I can’t complain about this – quite the opposite! I’d love to see more of this kind of thing! The sculptural quality of both of these ceilings really is quite remarkable.

The glass roof at the British Museum.

Glass Roof Inspiration

I was browsing Pinterest recently and found myself adding a few glass ceilings to the boards I keep for inspiration about my future home. I’m sure that by the time I have the money to afford to build these places my tastes and style will have changed, but it doesn’t stop me from dreaming about it right now! According to my knowledge, these roofs are not exactly easy to maintain and may require the assistance of an experienced Commercial Roofing company at all times. Nevertheless, it’s a beautiful design to marvel at and something that can be done in the future.

This shot immediately caught my eye. The way the old industrial past of the building is reflected in the dark black beams really stands out. You so often expect glass roofs to be surrounded by white beams, but this one really breaks the mould. The whole look reminds me of the old factories where I grew up. The greenery around the edge of the glass softens the effect though, and the raw-looking lightbulbs give it true style and make it extremely current.

Here they are again, those clean black industrial lines supporting a beautiful glass ceiling. I love the way that the look of this room is ultra-modern, but that modernity is set against the brick side wall of what looks like a Victorian house. Pairing it with farmhouse-style furniture makes it even more eclectic and is exactly the kind of thing I love.

Even though they both have big glass panels in the ceiling and heavy black beams to frame the glass, these two instances are very different. Both of these rooms, albeit in quite different ways, represent the architectural past of the buildings. However, when the glass roof needs to drain towards a wall, a structural gutter built with the aid of specialists from a business like MasterShield in Atlanta (https://www.mastershieldatl.com/) may be highly beneficial. All in one, the structural gutter supports the weight of the glass unit, links the glass roof to the wall structure, and offers a high-volume water drainage system.

In contrast to the two above is this one – another gorgeous example featuring thick black beams. I love the way that minimalism is starting to develop now. There’s more to minimalism than just pure white rooms sparsely decorated with white furniture. The glossy black finishes here reflect the white surfaces and the dark black beams above them. I’d really love to live here. Even if it does remind me slightly of the black ash laminate furniture I had in my bedroom as a teenager! Maybe that’s why I love it? Who knows! Either way, one day I’ll own an old industrial building that I can bring back to life in this way.

July 13, 2018
Proving Credentials

There’s a couple of things that really wind me up when it comes to model photography and modeling (and by extension, this is one of the reasons I jacked both in).

1. The requirement to ‘prove’ your credentials as a model. When I was shooting models commercially, there was no requirement for any model to ‘prove’ their credentials. If they were with an agency, and the agency thought they could do the job, then we were happy with them. And we paid them nearly a thousand pounds a day. We shot models who had five years of commercial experience, and we shot models who were on their first job. No experience was not a problem. It was our job as a photographer to coach them through it. And if we couldn’t get usable images out of them it was our problem as photographers. We were failing the models – not the other way around.

In the amateur scene this is all turned on it’s head. Models with more experience get more money and more bookings. The photographers just don’t have the same ethic. If they don’t get the results it’s always the models fault. The pressure is on the model to work for months, years even, for no money in order to then scrape measly amounts of cash from tightfisted shit photographers who don’t even really give a fuck about how the model looks – just about their experience.

2. Models without the experience, who say that they are pro, are derided by amateur photographers. They are mocked mercilessly online by people who, quite frankly, don’t appear to have much of a clue. People forget that all you need to be ‘pro’ is enough income coming in to satisfy you. I’m a professional writer and photographer. Am I earning as much as other professional writers and photographers? Nope. Doesn’t matter. I’m still a professional. I have a professional attitude and an income from my work. It’s the same with models. A model can be professional on two shoots a month, or they can be professional on four shoots a week. If they have the right look, the business acumen, and the attitude, then they’re a professional model.

3. The same shit photographers who rely on models cycling through a programme of set poses are the same shit photographers who also require photographers to ‘prove’ your credentials. If you’re not doing what they consider ‘cutting edge’ work (which is generally a bit safe and seems to involve coloured gels on your lights) then you’re doing it wrong and you’re lying if you say you’re a professional. You’re required to prove everything. I get so much shit in my line of work as a photography journalist because people think I don’t have the qualifications to back up what I say… but the fact is that I was shooting between 50-250 images *a day* for publication in catalogues before I went into journalism. I bet most photographers couldn’t do that. Sure, I’m not the most creative person on the planet – but I have never, ever claimed to be. I do catalogue photography really fucking well though. And I can pose a model for those shots – I don’t need to rely on the model posing for me.

(Crossposted from Facebook. I actually meant to conclude with a thing about the patriarchy and the power balance between male photographers and female models.)

September 7, 2016
Male photographers and girl models
“I am arranging a series of editorial/lifestyle shoots rather like a day in the life of a model. Wanting to shoot some boudoir lifestyle images and I want to know where you can buy storage boxes etc for keeping all your jewellery, necklaces, earings etc. Every female has them on their make up table or beside table. I am wanting to recreate the real effect of a girl’s boudoir as studios don’t have these on their sets. Just trying to make it as realistic as possible.”

“I find it worrying that some people seem more interested in the girls, the gear and the settings and seem less interested in looking at a great picture and admiring it for what it is and trying to develop the skill to learn how to create that yourself.”

“I never ever ask a girl to go past the agreed levels.”

I find it worrying that lots and lots of male photographers refer to female models as girls.

I’m a stickler for using the correct words for things. Why use twenty words when you can use one? And yes, sometimes I make mistakes and get things wrong, but I do try to get it right.

So in the spirit of discovery and exploration, lets determine what the word girl actually means.

When you define:girl in Google, you get this:
noun: girl; plural noun: girls

1.

a female child.

“girls go through puberty earlier than boys”

a person’s daughter.

“he was devoted to his little girl”

2.

a young or relatively young woman.

“I haven’t got the time to meet girls”

a young woman of a specified kind or having a specified job.

“a career girl”

informal

women who mix socially.

“I look forward to having a night with the girls”

a person’s girlfriend.

“his girl eloped with an accountant”

dated

a female servant.
So the first definition that Google offers us is that of ‘a female child’. Well, I can understand that some photographers do photograph female children, I have done so myself in the past. The law defines a child as being under the age of 18 in the UK, just so that we’re clear on what we’re talking about. The law also forbids making indecent images of children, and the quotes above generally come from people who are more interested in the ‘indecent’ side of photography than the pure and decent alternative. (NB – I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with indecent images. Only yesterday was I shooting dirty sex pictures of a hot guy.) In short, there’s everything wrong with most amateur photographers talking about photographing ‘girls’ in a sexually appealing way.

The second definition gets a little bit more tricky. It defines ‘girl’ in the more colloquial sense of being a young woman. This is where it gets more tricky. I still object to older male photographers referring to the models that they photograph as ‘girls’. Here is why.

Neatly and succinctly Google has laid out the reasons why this is problematic to me.
- informal
  
  women who mix socially.
  
  “I look forward to having a night with the girls”
- a person’s girlfriend.
  
  “his girl eloped with an accountant”
- dated
  
  a female servant.
First up we have the informal usage of ‘women who mix socially’.We’ve all heard women say ‘I’m going out with the girls’. Well, some women. Not all of us will say that to be honest but that’s a minor point.

When a woman calls her friends ‘her girls’, it’s a bit when people from a certain subculture use the N word. Or when my gay friends call each others fags. It’s a word that – even without many people realising – has been reclaimed for this kind of use. If you’re a member of another demographic, I’m not quite sure that you have the authority to use those words in those contexts. It’s a bit like women who have recently reclaimed the words slut and cunt – except ‘girl’ was reclaimed in a much more organic process that wasn’t overtly associated with feminist ideologies.

The two bullet points that follow are examples of how ‘girl’ is generally used (and intended) when it falls out of the mouth of almost everyone else. ‘His girl’ – quite a dated phrase nowadays, I think we tend to think of 1950s Americans when we think of this way of speaking. However it’s a pervasive attitude within society, that a girl belongs to a man. Without doing large amounts of research I’d speculate that it comes out of a time when underage girls were married to older men and treated like property – so the phrase ‘his girl’ would have been accurate at a certain time and place. That usage has followed through and in the photographic community we have photographers extending that subconscious meaning and referring to models as ‘their models’.

The second bullet point makes the point that female servants have always historically been referred to as ‘girls’. Male photographers hiring female models? Servants? All a bit too close to the bone if you ask me. There’s no denying the fact that lots of amateur male photographers do hire young, female models as a kind of weird sexual fantasy thing which makes the context of the word ‘girl’ when you know it’s historical precedence of a name for a servant rather creepy.

You see the problem is that language has baggage. Sometimes it’s good baggage – associating gay guys with a happy and carefree lifestyle isn’t necessarily a negative thing. But using the term ‘girl’ for a grown woman (even if she is ‘young’) comes with it’s fair share of negative baggage that perhaps we need to be a bit more careful about using.

I have no doubt that most male photographers don’t have this kind of intention at the forefront of their mind when they’re referring to young female models as girls. Lots of guys would be utterly horrified to think that they were involved in a turn of language that has it’s roots in the systematic oppression of women. However lets look at the culture surrounding the people that make these statements.

I’m talking about quite a specific community of photographers here. In a tongue in cheek way I’m going to write the hashtag #NotAllPhotographers, but I’ve written about this particular community before, when I discussed on this blog how not all naked chicks are art.

They’re a self-referential group of photographers. They look insularly to their own kind of inspiration and seem to be immune to inspiration from the world outside. With that attitude comes the fact that they also seem to be immune to getting with the times and understanding the implications of their actions.

The work that they create is unanimously said (by the members of this community) to glorify women. To celebrate women. To show the beauty of women (NB – interestingly you do actually get some gay photographers who photograph men in this objectifying way). It’s all supposedly about elevating women onto this pedestal and showing them as a beautiful object.

Oh fuck, there’s that word – object.

Objectifying people is problematic.
May 12, 2016
LARP Awards 2016 – The Photos I’m Not Entering

I don’t enter my pictures into the LARP Awards. This isn’t the post to go into detail about why I don’t, but I thought I’d kind of ‘play along’ and select some of my favourite images from the last year that I’ve shot.

But I’m also going to explain some of my reasoning – because I know photographers are interested in that shit. Sometimes. Well, mostly I know Tom is interested in that shit. So Tom, this one is for you. 😉

In no particular order and with no favouritism:

A technically difficult photograph to pull off. Shot late in the evening within the ritual circle created by Mandala Studios.

I’m not really big into EXIF data, but I’m going to post it a few times in this post. It helps me remember what I did in order to get the shot.

So this one was using the 25-105mm f4 lens, which is a pretty unforgiving lens in low light. It’s ability to focus in low light is… almost non-existant. So this would have been a manually focussed shot from a tripod, which means I planned the shot, prepared myself, and waited for the right moment to catch it. Which makes me very pleased. Much more pleased than a random snap of something just happening.

It’s also pretty in focus too – which is always nice. And unusual for me photographing at night. (I can’t photograph at night. It’s not me. Don’t make me do it.)

But mostly I like the composition here, and the colours. The composition really makes the shot I think.

This one is from the same Empire event as the one above.

It’s proof that you don’t need great gear to photograph with. The lens I’m using above is the Canon 100-400mm MkI, which I picked up second hand for about £600 some years ago. It’s been my workhorse over the past three years, and I’m only now really considering changing it.

I like the composition here. The framing of the Orc between other people is really nice. Mind you, this is mostly how I see people at LARP – I am only short. The rain adds something in the background too. My only irritant is that the mask sags round his mouth so I’m unable to photoshop it in order to make it into a competition entry shot. But that’s my problem – obviously – not the players problem.

Just to see the kind of results I’m getting with that lens – here’s the close up.

There are flaws with this lens. The details are rarely sharp and I don’t like the bokeh that you get in images with backlighting. But it’s a good budget option.

Shadow Wars this time. At the Gaol.

I just love the composition here. It really works for me with the dark figure agains the light background and the dark background on the other side of the image. The crispness of the vape on a cold (but sunny) day finishes the image off for me and makes it one of my favourites from this year.

I don’t particularly ‘like’ this photo, but it did feel like a bit of a technical achievement. The gas coming out of the gun was a capture I couldn’t have predicted – now I just need to get this effect on an image I love compositionally…

Forsaken LRP now. If I had my way I wouldn’t release any photo of mine that wasn’t this sharp. I think I’d quickly become even less popular than I already am though because not many of my pictures would make it out to the internet.

So this was one of those events where I borrowed Simon’s Canon 70-20mm f2.8 MkII, and it was THE shot that convinced me that I need to buy one for myself – which I really need to sort out this afternoon.

This lens is just beautiful. I mean, it’s really hard to make people understand why some lenses are lovely and some are not. And it’s not a price thing either – it’s not about ‘whoever spends the most money wins’.

It’s about the positively creamy background here. And the fact that his back shoulder is thrown out of focus which pulls your attention back to his face. The superb rendering of detail – as you can see in the close up above. And of course it’s the fact that this lens has a fantastic auto-focus mechanism. I do not shoot LARP with manual focus. I am not good enough to do that. I need a lens that will help me with the bits of photography I’m not very good at.

And of course – the guy in the photo is pretty good too. It was great timing to capture that moment of intense emotion playing out through his character. A++ would photograph him again.

Possibly my favourite LARP photo from 2015.

So, I’m picking this one. The World Went Dark is probably the first time that I’ve really thought about what imaging technology might actually look like in the setting of a game. Here I went back to inspiration taken from Daguerreotypes. Now they’re not a faithful reproduction of that style, but they are ‘inspired by’ in the coolthentic way that LARP loves.

I shot alot of good images at The World Went Dark. Far more than I normally would at an event. But still not enough ‘great’ images.

I’m going to count this as a LARP image. Cazz and I met at LARP, he’s wearing his LARP costume, the portraits were created for a future LARP, the only thing not LARP is the weapon. Would the UK LARP Awards count this as a LARP picture? Fuck knows.

I’ve been out of practice at shooting portraits and retouching them recently. Well, for a few years now. I’ve just not really made many opportunities to do it. But Cazz kept asking (a bit like an overenthusiastic puppy) and so eventually he made it to my studio and we shot stuff.

It’s good, I like the composition here. The hands are nice and tidy – in shot but out of the way (hands are really hard to deal with in portraits) and the light is good. There’s about six hours of retouching in there – believe it or not. Not because Cazz is ugly and has awful skin or anything, but because I really wanted to produce a show piece image that I could be really proud of. And here it is – understated and subtle.

And check that focus out… shot with the Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro MkI. I had to blur the image very slightly because I felt it was actually slightly *too* sharp.

Here’s a second picture of Cazz, this time having a cuddle with Russ. At the start of the year I decided that I wanted to produce a documentary project focussing on the people who make LARP events happen, rather than the players who play the events. I try to photograph people either midway through an event or just afterwards, taking them away from the hustle of the event for just a couple of minutes in order to make their portrait. I try to shoot each Gamesmaker portrait within five or so shots.

It’s also important to me to let people pose how they want to be seen. Most event organisers I know, and those who are heavily involved in running events, have a very strong sense of ‘self’. They know who they are, they know how they want to be perceived, and I like to let them show that. I suspect that I need to learn a bit more about posing this year so that I can pose people without losing their sense of self, but I’m not quite sure how to approach that, I’m sure I will.

This is one of the images that I let some photographic judges tear to pieces at the weekend. Cazz’s dark eyes need lightning in photoshop (that’s a symptom of the light and my photography rather than his tiredness…), both pairs of dark trousers need lightning slightly and possibly need a bit more saturation, and most crucially the focus is out. Russ’ arm is more in focus than their faces – which is a serious problem (although possibly correctable in Photoshop to an extent).

But, I’m still really pleased with it as a shot. The fog rolling in that morning was fantastic. And the sense of relief on their faces is really what the entire project is about.

I think this might be my overall favourite LARP shot that I took last year. Unfortunately it’s terminally out of focus and I don’t think I can save it.

But anyway. The aim was to document those in the UK who make LARP what it is. Matt might be a friend, but he also does an awful lot behind the scenes. Obviously.

The colours, the composition, they both work well here. I’m pleased with how it came out – and it really started to set the standard for how I would style my Gamesmaker portraits. I’ve tried a few different things since, but they’ve not worked quite as well. I just keep coming back to this off-centre composition and environmental setting. Objectively – I need to bring a bit more light into his eyes in Photoshop. But that’s pretty minor.

The biggest compliment though was when an event or two later Matt told me that although he hated having his picture taken, he didn’t mind sitting for me at all. And actually, he really liked the way he looked in this photo.

And that’s probably one of the biggest compliments you can pay me if I make your portrait.

January 26, 2016
Wikipedia hack-a-thon : Non-male Photographers

So… after reading some articles in class yesterday and hearing about a tutor’s experience with a women in architecture hack-a-thon, I’m curious to know if I could organise one for women photographers.

This post is serving as little more than a bookmark to make me do something about it.

November 27, 2015
Challenging the photographic industry to be better

It didn’t take me long to realise that the photography industry wasn’t a great place for everyone to inhabit. I’m not going to start recounting tales of everything I’ve ever found sexist, but you’re safe to assume that there’s a fair amount.

Many of my experiences with photography led me down the path that has ended up with me writing a dissertation on feminist, queer, and black approaches to art. The biggest one was obviously my choice to be a writer. I remember my ex saying to me something along the lines of ‘you’re just one person, you can’t change the industry’ and I thought ‘I bloody well can – but I have to be the person who is telling others how to do things’. The last three years I’ve spent working towards the idea that I can really be a force for good within the photography industry. And the last two have been spent on my degree, learning about how to apply theories to real life situations.

It’s an unusual career path, I admit. Most people work to earn money. And most people interested in photography want to be photographers. I discovered very early on that my heart wasn’t in a business where your sales tactics are worth as much (or more) than your talent.

So instead of focussing on being a better photographer I focussed on understanding why people took pictures. And why people want pictures. And why the photography industry is the way that it is. And it’s fascinating – I promise you.

The last year or so has really solidified what I want to do with my ability to write. I want to change peoples outlooks and make the industry a better place. I want to give a voice to those who don’t feel able to speak up – that can be one of the biggest challenges.

The first time I spoke up I had nothing to lose. About three years ago I wrote to Black+White Photography Magazine to complain about inequality. They had what they proclaimed as being “The Nude Issue” – except really it was “The Naked Lady Issue”. I seem to remember that they had one man featured in the entire issue, and he wasn’t even completely nude. I never got an answer back, of course, they didn’t even print me in the letters page. I didn’t let it bother me, I just kept on trying to make my voice heard.

I got into hot water later when I decided to challenge a troll on a modeling site forum and this time I lost something. He made a rape joke about women in India. I (and others) called him out on such gross and inappropriate behaviour. We both got banned from the forum for a few days. I didn’t think that this was enough – the rape joke remained on the forum for anyone to see. I wrote about my displeasure on social media. The site introduced a new rule that you can’t complain on social media and I lost my account as a result. In a way I think this was a blessing in disguise. I took some time out to think about what I really wanted to shoot and how I was shooting it. I came to the realisation that that wasn’t a crowd I really wanted to hang out with because it was pretty sexist and oppressive. I could do better – if I wanted to shoot models. To be honest I’ve not shot a model for years, I started to find other kinds of photography more interesting.

More recently I was told by Mike, my editor at the magazine, that he’d gone to a conference on landscape photography only to be told by the keynote (and very well respected) speaker that there were no women doing landscape photography. Of course he Googled, found some awesome photographers on the first and second pages, and we contacted a couple and set up a whole issue of the magazine devoted to landscape photography – including the rather excellent Lynne. She wrote a blog that caught our eye about being a woman who does landscape photography so we interviewed her and it went down a storm. Being able to talk openly about some of the issues that women faced in the industry was genuinely exciting.

And then of course, there was the Brett Florens debacle two days ago. I’ve already blogged about that. In a conversation on Facebook someone asked ‘how do I challenge these people?’ and I realised that not everyone is lucky enough to have gone down the educational path that I have.

I realised that people within the photography industry don’t always have the framework needed to confront people head on. They don’t know how to say ‘I think you’re wrong’ because they don’t yet know how to articulate why someone is wrong. One of the major problems is that the person speaking up is often one of the oppressed groups, and the person they are challenging is part of a dominant group. This means that speaking up and articulating is even harder – because you’re not just challenging one person, you’re challenging the status quo.

So last night I bought a domain name. It’s IntersectionalPhotography.com. And I hope that I can fill it with useful resources for people within the photographic industry to try and make our industry a better place to be. Everything from how to deal with sexist misconceptions to how to treat an unconventional client with respect, understanding, and compassion.

I don’t know if it’ll work. But I feel like I have to try.

June 25, 2015
Today I cried (OR: Why sometimes I hate the photography industry that I love)

If you know me, you’ll know I love taking photographs.

I mean, I really love taking photographs. I don’t quite make it the centre of my life, but it’s certainly very important to me.

Photography has shaped my life. It has touched almost every choice I’ve made over the past ten years. It’s the reason I’m at university studying history of art. Because I wanted to understand what drives humans to make pictures.

Over the years I’ve become frustrated though. So many photographers just seem to be living back in the 70s with their attitudes and world views.

This notebook seems appropriate. Someone buy it for me.

So this morning I decided to log on and watch the www.engagelive.co “What Women Want” session with Brett Florens. You see, he’s talking at the convention this year that I’m working and I’ve heard that he’s pretty awesome. Certainly I know that he’s popular within the society that I work for and so I figured I’d like to see what he’s all about. The problem was, it was just sexist drivel. Right from the start.

Florens immediately used the bigender paradigm and gender stereotypes. ‘Men are more technical and women are more creative’ was the gist of the first hour. Even suggesting that there are more women in the industry now because they don’t have technical barriers to entry. You know what he picked as his example of a ‘technical barrier’? Loading film. Now, I don’t know about you but I’ve been loading films in cameras since I was about five years old. It’s not fucking rocket science.

The problem is, that Florens has some great ideas. It’s quite clear that he is at the top of his game photographically and he does shoot great work. He also has a serious attitude problem. Every single bit of his advice seems to be framed as ‘women like this’ and ‘men do this’. And it’s frustrating. I had to turn it off after an hour or so.

Framing success in your field as gender-based is problematic.Florens seemed to be largely saying ‘men – you need to be more like women. Women photographers are emotional and in touch with other women. And your clients are mostly the Brides, so you need to learn this shit otherwise you’ll fail.’ Of course the big irony here seems to be that Florens isn’t in touch with what the woman-hivemind thinks at all, otherwise he’d know that this kind of gender stereotyping isn’t helping anyone.

There are some very real problems with gender based social conditioning in the world. For instance, our Western society teaches boys to value themselves highly and girls to value themselves less than boys. We grow up with these ideas and they become a part of our expected adult behaviours. It’s well documented that these behaviours shape our society – for instance in the gender pay gap, and the lack of women in top job roles.

It’s a common refrain; one that pops up again and again in the mailboxes and conversations of those writing about gender imbalance or even just daring to talk about it. “Women are equal now (more or less)”. Why, it is frequently demanded, do we continue to bang on about something that is barely even an issue any more? Why not think about some of the real problems in the world, given that we women in the UK now live ‘gilded lives’ and, to all intents and purposes (apart from a few little ifs and buts) have achieved equality? Those little ifs and buts don’t half have a habit of adding up though…

– Laura Bates, The Everyday Sexism Project

Laura Bates is right. The little ifs and buts really do add up. When an international superstar photographer like Florens gives lectures where he uses problematic gender stereotypes he’s basically giving permission for his followers to think this way. And then even more ifs and buts creep in, and suddenly just fighting the ‘ifs and buts’ battle is like walking up a steep hill in three feet of thick, clay mud.

So why was his language problematic to me? Well firstly there was that initial assertion that there are now more women in the photography industry because the technical barrier to industry has been removed. It seems particularly pertinent to pick up on this point again since today is National Women in Engineering day.

On face value it doesn’t seem unreasonable to suggest that there are more women in the photography industry because of the lack of technical barriers due to digital. It’s almost certainly true. But it’s almost certainly not true in the way that Florens thinks it is. Over the past 100 years or so, photography has traditionally been the preserve of the white, middle-class male. Why? Because scientific and technical hobbies were considered appropriate for this demographic. Women simply didn’t study sciences in the same way that men did during this period which meant that there wasn’t generally the base level of chemistry and physics knowledge in place to really get on with photography as a hobby easily. This did create a technical barrier to entry – but it wasn’t because women are inherently poor at technical subjects, it was because patriarchal culture kept women out of education in general and at home looking after the family. Interestingly in the first decade or two of photography there were many women photographers, it was considered a good hobby for women back then. Not sure what changed.

So really I suspect that it’s not so much that digital has lowered the technical barrier to entry, but rather that society has changed since the early 70s and more women are going into all kinds of different careers – including photography. Suggesting that women are coming into photography because the science-bit isn’t so prominent anymore is so deeply patronising to all those women who have made science their careers. The STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) industries can be hard enough when you’re a woman because of preconceived ideas about what women are capable of (or because those industries have been known to promote toxic working environments). It’s not cool to be an industry leader and promote those outdated and sexist ideas, Florens. Next you’ll be telling us that women photographers are a problem because they fall in love with you and then cry when you critisise them. Oh no, wait, that was last week in the biochemistry sector. It’s not a million miles away though.

But there was also the perpetuation of damaging male stereotypes too in Florens’ introduction this morning. Florens went to great lengths to paint ‘men’ as emotionally stunted individuals who don’t care what women are saying and who aren’t in touch with their clients at all. Even using the comparison that when women greet female friends they say things like ‘you look beautiful’ whereas men call each other ‘fat pigs’ when they see their friends. Now, maybe I’m just exceptionally lucky. But most of my female friends don’t put much weight on their female friends appearances. My friends certainly don’t fuss over each others appearance and bolster some imaginary self-confidence that is tied into looks. But my male friends don’t call each other fat pigs either. He was trying to explain that men are condescending to each other, describing this as ‘banter’. To be honest though, that kind of banter is the domain of teenagers, not adult men. Or occasionally those grim, laddish types – who I couldn’t imagine generally going into careers like photography anyway. (Char’s Pro Tip: If your mates call you a fat pig when you see them you should change your friends because they’re dickheads.)

There’s something very serious to be said here though. The persistent stereotype that men are emotionally stunted individuals who can’t open up about their feelings is a problem. It reinforces the idea that men shouldn’t talk about ‘girlie’ subjects.Florens discussed the idea that male photographers should get in touch with their feminine sides – as if emotionally connecting with people is somehow the domain of women. This isn’t a girlie thing, or a feminine thing, this is something that everyone should feel like they can do. Florens also used phrases like ‘macho men’ when describing those who guys don’t appear to be emotional or in touch with their feminine side (whatever that means), using the phrase as if this was the default state for all men.

Suggesting that being emotional is ‘feminine’ is quite damaging. In our society, we still reward ‘macho’ men and punish those that appear to be ‘feminine’. We call them fags or pussys because they’re too girlie. This is one of the leading reasons why suicide rates due to mental health are so high for men. Because it’s seen as being weak and girlie to open up. Thanks Florens for potentially reinforcing this idea in many photographers heads. I understand that Florens was suggesting you could be better in business if you are emotionally in touch with your clients, but the way it was framed as ‘women = emotional’ and ‘men = not emotional’ is just perpetuating the problem.

The whole way through Florens’ lecture I couldn’t help but feel he was missing a whole world of beautiful people. To him it seemed that only two types of people existed: feminine women and masculine men. What he was ignoring was the beautiful spectrum of everyone in between. I generally consider myself a masculine women for example, and there are men who are most certainly feminine men. And then of course there are those who fall somewhere else on the scale – transgender individuals, third gender individuals, those who don’t consider themselves either masculine or feminine, male or female. I’d urge everyone vaguely interested in being more compassionate where gender is concerned to pick up and read Halberstam’s book on Feminine Masculinity. It’s a great primer to the diversity of humans.

When you’re at the top of your game, like Brett Florens is, I believe you have a certain responsibility towards the way that you educate others. Teaching isn’t easy, it’s a real skill that has to be learned. I’ve sat through quite a few lectures and workshops by lots of different photographers and although many of them are good photographers, they couldn’t teach to save their lives. To be a good photography teacher you have to understand words as much as you understand how to load film in a camera.

Words hurt. Words can be damaging. Using the wrong words can mean that your message gets lost because your words have hurt people. Somebody said in the chatroom during the live broadcast that perhaps there should be some lectures on semantics for photographers – I think that’s a great idea. You could run Gendered Language 101, Abelist langage 101, and racist language 101 – and that’s just for starters. You could also run seminars on why women and men aren’t so different after all, and why we have far more in common than people seem to think. And then perhaps we might start to understand in the photographic industry that it’s not men that are the technical wizards and women who are the emotional souls – we’re just people with different mixes of the two.

I once spoke to a lovely photographer who said to me ‘You need to know enough of the technical stuff to be able to drive your camera competently. Only then you can start being creative.’ They weren’t wrong, you know. You can’t have one skill without the other. That simply doesn’t work any more.

So yeah, I cried today. I cried because there is still so far to go in the photography industry before we see any kind of parity. I wept because people like Florens keep perpetuating stereotypes that make it harder for anyone who isn’t a ‘macho’ man to get taken seriously. I cried tears of frustration because we are told by people like www.engagelive.co that Florens is not sexist, he is just ‘controversial’. Being sexist isn’t controversial. It’s sad. It’s the sign of someone clinging to an outdated world view that should have been left back in the 70s.

The 70s – do you remember them? When sexism was rife, people didn’t wear seat-belts, drink driving was acceptable and Jimmy Saville was still letting kids sit on his knee on the tellebox. Yeah, the 70s. That time when it was still acceptable to say that women can’t do basic technical challenges. Like changing the film in a camera.

June 23, 2015
Replicating natural light in a photography studio

Last night, the challenge was to shoot a new headshot. I really enjoy shooting headshots and I’ve often thought about doing them commercially. This was where we got to in the end – not bad for about 15 minutes of work.

One of the reasons Adam and I rented the house that we live in was the first floor front room with the beautiful bay window. It produces the most wonderful light for portraits and still life images, as seen in this image of Steve shot a few months ago.

I mean, there’s a few differences. Simon’s headshot is much more natural whereas Steve’s is a little more casual. Steve’s is daytime window light and Simon’s is studio lights at night…

Yeah, so one of the things I’m always really pleased at is that I can make studio lights look like window light. I seem to have a knack for it which does come in quite handy. I never really realised I was much good at this until I shot this picture of a model a few years back. I was pretty pleased with it, so I did what any aspiring commercial photographer would do; I got it printed up at 11×14 and popped it in my portfolio (in black and white, if I remember rightly). And then I went for an interview.

Well, they loved it at pretty much every interview I went for. Except the London College of Communication, they hated it. But the London College of Fashion interviewers fawned over it and so did the commercial product photography company interviewers – where I ended up working full time. I hadn’t realised until then that shooting ‘daylight’ in the studio was actually quite hard. I thought everyone could do it.

For the record, the below shot was done with a large, rectangular softbox with a grid on it. I really should buy one, it belonged to my ex and I actually really liked shooting with it.

But anyway, last night Simon came round after all the good light had gone from the house. The best light in my studio is pre-midday and early afternoon. So instead we had to work with what we had.

Yeah you know, the beauty dish one is fine. It’s just a bit ‘actors headshot’ and glamoury for a business headshot. It’s not really the style that they’re being shot in at the moment, and when you have friends with digital cameras (and time on their hands), there’s really no excuse not to keep your headshot up to date.

The beauty dish shot was a large Elinchrom dish with the silver baffle and white sock – about 45 degrees and above the subject to the right. Dead simple.

But there’s a trick. One that I was taught by a top commercial photographer.

Don’t have window light? Make window light!

This is what my studio looked like when I took a picture of it this morning, still set up. It was all a bit crammed in because on the left I’ve got my product table setup where I was shooting stock last week.

Just in case you’re not clear how this works, I drew you a picture of Simon having his photo taken. Doesn’t he look happy and carefree?

So yeah. Basically I bounced the very soft but directional light produced by the beauty dish (with sock) off of the window glass and a small amount of ceiling. Most of the light does travel through the glass, but a small amount reflects back in a way that looks very natural. It spreads the light in a way that it would spread the sun’s light which helps make it convincing. I also popped a reflector under his chin.

I got window the idea from a trick I was shown in the studio. If you want something that looks like window light – bounce a light off of a sheet of glass in exactly this way. Put some black or dark grey a few meters behind it to absorb the excess and you’re golden.

June 5, 2015