Benjamin Eckstein

The other week I got to take part in a fun shoot on a type of project I had never really done before.  And, this was the first job I had gotten through Twitter!  (For those who think that Twitter is just about finding out what someone had for lunch, it’s not.  I use it pretty much solely to get tips and ideas from industry people.)  A guy I follow posted that photographer Jack Hollingsworth (@photojack) was looking for 5D/7D video shooters in the Boston area.  I got in touch with Jack, and he checked out my stuff and I got the gig. The job was for Image Source, a stock photo/footage company based in London that has started to release a new line of products that they call “cross-media”. Basically they are offering packages of stock photos AND footage that are shot with the same models, wardrobes, locations and art direction.  This gives the buyers an opportunity to create a print, web, and motion campaign with the same themes, look, and feel. (For those who don’t know, “stock” is footage or photos that a buyer can license for a particular use.  The content is widely varied and usually involves models and generic props or products.)

As I understand it, traditionally photographers who shoot stock photos or footage do it on their own and then try to sell it to a stock company (like Image Source, Getty, Corbis, or the hundreds of others out there).  I have sold some footage in the past to a stock company in this way.  Rarely does a stock company contract the photographer with a particular assignment as was the case here, but I believe since this cross-media product that Image Source is offering is so new, that is how they have obtained these stills and footage.

The Shoot:

The shoot consisted of two days shooting models around Chatham, MA (on Cape Cod).  I was the DP of the motion footage and Jack Hollingsworth was in charge of the stills and directing/producing the whole shoot.  Jack has been working for years in the stock photo market, so I really looked to his experience and eye throughout the whole production.  (By the way, Jack is an AMAZING photographer who has shot all over the world.  Watching him work was pretty inspiring, and his shots were really impressive.)  We were producing content for two themes.  The first day was “Friends” and the second day was “Couples”.

For the first day we had 4 women and we shot them hanging out, talking, walking, taking pictures, etc.  Now, I have to say, shooting this stuff felt a little silly at times.  I think the types of action that traditionally work for a still photograph can look a little cheesy as motion, but I also know (as did the client) that this is the type of stuff that sells in their collections.  We shot on a couple of beaches near Chatham and were very fortunate to have unseasonably warm weather for December in New England.  We had bright sun, which we had to diffuse quite a bit with a 4×4 diffusion frame so that we didn’t have overly contrasty shadows and squinty models.  We also went into the charming downtown area to shoot the women shopping, drinking coffee, etc.  The second beach we went to was at sunset and we shot until there was no more light, but I felt we got the best stuff there.  The setting sun created an amazing warm glow, and the dunes were an awesome backdrop for shooting.

The second day we had two sets of baby boomer couples.  The forecast called for rain all day, so Jack and I discussed what we could do inside.  We came up with a few setups in his very nice Cape-style home that we could do, but it was challenging as the lighting requirements for motion and for stills is quite different.  We lucked out again, as we ended up getting decent weather during the morning.  It was overcast, but at least we didn’t have to deal with hard shadows.  We took our couples to a nearby bike path and then a pond to shoot some different “scenes”.  By lunchtime the rain had started so we went to a local nursery to shoot the couples buying holiday plants.  The nursery was great because it was essentially like shooting in a giant softbox with frosted white windows surrounding us from all sides.

The Camera:

Image Source had previously used the RED One for all their motion stock in the cross-media collections.  This is obviously a great camera, but they were curious about the new Canon DSLRS to see if they could shoot faster and cheaper with a high enough quality for their collections.  While I had my 7D along, it was mostly used for behind-the-scenes shots and I used Jack’s 5DMk2.  Image Source knew a little less about the 7D, so they wanted to try first with the full-frame, higher megapixel 5D (although I think the quality would have been almost indistinguishable).  I was in camera heaven as Jack owns almost every Canon L-series (their highest end) lens in existence.  I spent the day before the shoot just trying them all out on my 7D and was in love.  During the shoot I actually only used 2 lenses, the Canon 24-70 2.8 and the 70-200 2.8 IS (which I used probably 75% of the time).  I definitely felt like I was able to shoot pretty quickly with the setup.  I had previously written about the limitations of these cameras, and the biggest was monitoring as the client just had to watch on playback and couldn’t use an external monitor, but we got by pretty well.  The client agreed that we were able to get a lot more shot than with the MUCH bigger RED package.

When playing back the footage on an HD monitor back at the studio, the client seemed very happy with how the footage looked, and we’ll see if it flies with the tech people at Image Source.  To my eye, the biggest issue with these DSLRs is the aliasing and moire pattern that can happen on some textures, but I think since most stock content is for web-use, some of the weaknesses are easily overlooked.

All in all, I really enjoyed working with Jack and Lisa (the client) and Brad Nielson (Jack’s assistant, and Photoshop-guru), and all the other folks who helped on the shoot.  It was really nice to work on just creating great, high-end looking images, and not have to worry about sound or acting or all the other things that I often have to think of.  I found that very refreshing.

I put together a few clips from the shoot so you can see how the Canon did.  All-in-all I am quite happy with the image, but you can be the judge.  Enjoy!

Tags: Canon 5DMk2, Canon 7D, director of photography, DSLR, stock footage

Posted Monday, December 14th, 2009 and filed under Blog. Both comments and pings are currently closed.