Call me a fool, but I love good portraits. Interesting portraits. Well-done portraits. And Vanity Fair has them in the March issue, the annual Hollywood issue that comes out around the Oscars.

The cover, as usual, is by Annie Leibovitz and includes a multitude of stars, and a Leibovitz slideshow showing covers of the past is available for perusal. Just fabulous, especially the March 2006 with Scarlett Johansson, Tom Ford and Keira Knightley. The luxurious black contrasts with the pale skin of the actresses and yet comes off as soft and sensuous instead of harsh. Beautiful. (And not for the nudity.)

Seeing this gallery makes me wish I had not missed the Leibovitz show in Washington, D.C., I wanted to see ... dang. 

There is a set of celebrity portraits by Mario Testino. The Meg Ryan image is striking in its simple use of light and the unlikely sitting place on the floor next to a bed. It is not often the edge of a bed is used ans a leading line into a subject. The Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston photographs are also exquisite, the minimalistic composition enhancing the human figure within each.

Celebrity portraits are loaded in the fact they are used to being in front of the camera and acting, so it is more natural for them and makes it easier for the photographer. Yet the ability to make images that stand out from the rest, shine in their own light, is what separates them from the others.
 

Posted by Christopher Assaf at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

It is difficult to keep track of everything, let alone my own work, that is going to be going to be published in The Sun or shown onto the Web site. It is a challenge I try to meet so I can let people know what will be coming so it can be looked for on the rack or screen. But in the past few weeks as the Special Session has kept me hammering away in Annapolis a few slipped by me.

Baltimore Sun Staff Photo by Chiaki Kawajiri

Sun staff photojournalist Chiaki Kawajiri has spent an almost unfathomable amount of time working on "Scars of the Heart" about expatriate North Koreans now living in Maryland and their experiences since the Korean War. She made a beautiful series of portraits and a multimedia presentation. Her tenacity and hard work really paid off in this one.

Posted by Christopher Assaf at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

The assignment from the desk came in to photograph Terrell Suggs of the Baltimore Ravens Thursday afternoon for a preview story. In my distant past, portraits were nightmarish, in particular when an idea never crystallized on what to do with the subject. Over the years, wearing out my nose on the grindstone, I worked to gain an acceptable hold on the art (this is not talking about the haphazard, "say cheese" grin, subject placed in one-third of the frame environmental snoozers many consider acceptable) using light, pose and facial gesture.

Setting up in a small room, I decided to use three lights: a Dyna-Lite Uni400Jrg in a softbox as the key light and two Nikon SB-800 AF Speedlights; one as a rim light and the other with a purple gel for the background. After a few test images, with my hand as the model, I was ready to go.

(Nikon D2X, Nikon 50mm f/1.8, 1/250th sec. @ f/8, ISO 100) 

Enough cannot be said for being prepared before the subject arrives. Much of the time athletes, politicos and celebrities have little patience. Other than not being there, they prefer the session to be nice and quick. 

Suggs arrived, waiting for me on the sofa, and after a little chit-chat I made another test image to make sure all was working.

(Nikon D2X, Nikon 50mm f/1.8, 1/250th sec. @ f/6.3, ISO 100)  

All set, now came time to figure out what the heck to do with him. So I started off simple to get him used to me and comfortable with the situation — something that should not be tough for a guy used to chasing quarterbacks in front of 70,000 screaming people.

Then, with a smidge of rapport developed, I asked him to do some different poses.   

(Nikon D2X, Nikon 50mm f/1.8, 1/250th sec. @ f/8, ISO 100)

In each session I try to work in a few tight photographs. For some reason, and I am not sure where this came from or what influenced me, really tight facial portraits draw me in. They minimize the background and allow for the interest to be set entirely on the person and his/her eyes. A few people vehemently despise these composures, the somewhat different crops, taking off parts of the face and head, too much for to tackle mentally.

(Nikon D2X, Nikon 50mm f/1.8, 1/250th sec. @ f/8, ISO 100)

After making 40 photographs, it felt like time to change things somewhat, so a chair became part of the composition.  

(Nikon D2X, Tokina 12-24mm f/4 @ 24mm, 1/250th sec. @ f/6.3, ISO 100)

This is the first time I tried the using a wide-angle in a more formal portrait setting. It is not often desirable to have the distortion that can happen with such lenses, but I have been seeing some nice work done in this manner. The sitting subject, camera low-style is something I picked up from Platon, a very successful photographer who does a lot of celebrity and important-people type photography. The only difference is I asked Suggs to lean in toward the camera and think of sacking the quarterback.

 
(Nikon D2X, Tokina 12-24mm f/4 @ 24mm, 1/250th sec. @ f/6.3, ISO 100)

Before the session I was reading Ravens clips and releases in the media room. One item of note was a quote from Suggs concerning his impending 25th birthday on Sunday. As a possible chance to change his facial expression, I asked him to say "Happy Birthday." The final, and probably best, image from the session.

During the editing process it was very noticeable the AA batteries in the the gelled backlight had lost some juice. It did not fire for the final frame — the only one from the final series without the purple accent.

Still, the moody light, nice expression and aggressive posture make the photograph successful  

Looking at the time stamps on the images, the session started at 14:23:53 and ended at 14:30:15. Less than seven minutes for 53 photographs.   

Posted by Christopher Assaf at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
                    

Sometimes things work out pretty well and whatever glaring weaknesses or faults a photograph may have does not bother me... Too much. That's the case with this image that will be appearing in the Arts and Entertainment section of The Sun this weekend.

(Nikon D2X, 17-55 mm lens @ 17 mm, 1/20th sec. @ f/8, ISO 100)

This concoction is just a hoot. Metal, funky frames, guy sweating in a harness, 45-pound plates and two anvils -- what could be better on a warm day in July? Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius maybe, but that's all I can think of at the moment.

Back to serious business for a moment, this photograph is a profile of Laure Drogoul to precede Artscape's opening next week. The Aerial Sculpture is by artist Tim Scofield, who will be taking part with two of his flying machines. Everyone seemed to enjoy the moment as we worked to make this image, one of the last in the take. It would have been more smooth if not for the multi-false starts as I returned to my car three times for different pieces of equipment. (I really need to clean up my Honda's trunk.)

For lighting I used a Dyna-Lite Uni400JR monolight with a medium-sized softbox to the right. A Nikon SB-800 Speedlight with a yellow gel filter was to the left and aimed to add detail to the cantilever weights. The 1/20th sec. shutter speed allowed ambient light to fill some of the shadows and add a warm feeling from the tungsten lights.

The only faults I can find are the marks on the wall and the tape on the floor. There was nothing to be done about the marks, short of hiring a MICA student to do some touch-up work, and the tape did not catch my attention (most likely because sweat got in my eyes from running back-and-forth from my car.) Not enough to make me cringe but not great in hindsight either.

All in all, just a lot of fun and a cool image to boot.   

Posted by Christopher Assaf at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)