Studio Manager/Assistant Photographer
RESERACH:
My Client: Olivia Burrough
After first meeting my Second Year partner I followed her on Instagram and looked through the kind of photography that she puts on her page.
I found that the majority of her work were portraits I also found that she has a website where she put up a more diverse set of photos from street photography to sports.
After she told me that she wanted to focus on fashion for her Saturday supplement shoot I had a pretty good idea of her style and what she was going to focus on.
What makes a good studio manager/assistant photographer?:
• You need to be a highly organised individual who has great attention to detail and excellent communication skills. Also being a ‘people person’ will come in handy as you are more often then not going to be dealing with other people.
• You’ll need to have an understanding of the tools at use. This doesn’t mean you have to be proficient with every piece of software out there, but you’ll need to know enough to set realistic deadlines and meet budgets - In a professional setting - but in this unit it's more so you can help your second year if they don't know how to use something.
• You also need to check everything, then check again to make sure that everything with the studio setting is running as it should be.
• Communication is important, you need to discuss the shoot and goals to make sure you are on the same page as your photographer.
• Always be ready as it's up to you to concentrate on what's going on within the shoot so that you can be ready to provide the photographer with the correct gear and adjustments.
References:
https://fstoppers.com/bts/how-be-great-photographers-assistant-113422
INSPIRATION:
Josh Redman
Was the winner of the AOP Assistant Award 2014.
He has 6 years intensive full time experience as a freelance photographer/assistant and has varied assisting experience, from still life to fast moving fashion, architecture, lifestyle and so on. He also has experience as a digital operator and in lighting. Increasingly finding myself working on the stills side of TV/advertising sets with continuous lights. Equally at home as a silent butler type or decision maker/bouncer of ideas.
He has assisted photographers such as Andy Earl; Johnnie Pilkington; Matthew Joseph; Nicola Schafer and Simon Pantling to name a few.
He has 6 years intensive full time experience as a freelance photographer/assistant and has varied assisting experience, from still life to fast moving fashion, architecture, lifestyle and so on. He also has experience as a digital operator and in lighting. Increasingly finding myself working on the stills side of TV/advertising sets with continuous lights. Equally at home as a silent butler type or decision maker/bouncer of ideas.
He has assisted photographers such as Andy Earl; Johnnie Pilkington; Matthew Joseph; Nicola Schafer and Simon Pantling to name a few.
When researching him I found that he has a lot of knowledge when it came to equipment as he had used a broad array of brands in everything from lighting to software or cameras and had a lot of experience in both location and studio work.
I also found out that although he was a photography assistant he did a lot of personal work as well, working for clients such as Adidas, The British Museum and Sky TV
From researching Redman I've found that to be a good assistant you have to be versatile and having a lot of knowledge of a broad amount of things so that you can get informed advice or suggestions to the photographer you are assisting but also that being an assistant doesn't mean that you can't also do personal work, its just a good way to get extra experience and more exposure.
Reference:
https://www.the-aop.org/find/assisting-photographers/profile/7542/josh-redman
PLANNING:
Light Diagram:
Equipment booking/Risk Assessment:
Equipment list:
• Elinchrom Rotalux Octagonal 135 Softbox
• CALUMET Backdrop Stand
• Elinchrom Lighting Stand x2
• Clamps x2
• Elinchrom Style RX300 Monobloc Flash Heads x2
• Sekonic Flashmate L-308S
• Grey Cards
• Beauty Dish
• Phase One Camera
• Apple iMac
Props:
High chair
Normal height chair
Styling/Hair and Make up:
Moodboard:
Call sheet:
The set up:
ANALYSIS:
When booking the equipment from the Kit Store we said that we would collect everything at 11.15 on the morning of the shoot even though the shoot didn't start until 13.30
I arrived at the Kit Store at 11 and waited for Olivia. By 11.30 we had all the equipment. As there was a lot of equipment we used the trolly to get all of it from the fifth floor to the second. We then sat with the equipment until we were able to take it into room 213 at 13.30.
Once we were in 213 we started to set up. As Olivia has only used the Phase One camera once before she asked me to set it up for her. I used the tethering cable to connect the camera to capture one and adjusted the setting to the appropriate ones for a studio shoot.
Olivia then asked me to set up the lights whilst she went downstairs to collect her models, make up artist and stylist.
Once Olivia came back she introduced me to everyone and we then set up the backdrop stand. She hadn't picked what colour backdrop she was going to use yet so asked for my opinion on which one I thought would work best for her shoot. We ended up going for an off white backdrop.
Originally Olivia wanted to get a beauty dish from the Kit store but when we were booking everything they were unavailable because of this she decided to get an octagonal softbox instead however when we tried to attach the softbox to the light we realised that it was broken and therefore unusable. Because of this Olivia had to use a softbox from the cupboard in 213 but was also able to use the beauty dish that was in there as well. She started shooting at 14.15
What worked well?:
I felt that when we were setting up the equipment and and tidying up the equipment we did so in a timely and safe manner which really helped to keep Olivia to the schedule that she had set out for herself before hand. Our communication throughout the shoot was good as if Olivia needed me to do anything she knew where I was and I was always ready to help her. Having an assistant meant that Olivia was able to get her grey cards and lighting set up correctly before the models were ready as I stood in for them during the set up process. As the Phase one camera was something that Olivia wasn't as familiar with I was able to show her the basics of the camera which helped her shoot to go more smoothly.
What didn't work?:
Although communication was good during the shoot I felt that leading up to the shoot it wasn't as good. I felt that I was in the dark about Olivia's plans most of the time and as we left booking the equipment quite late I felt a lot of pressure when it came to completing the risk assessment which I had never done before. During the shoot there were times when I felt like I had nothing to do as we hadn't discussed whether she wanted me to be doing anything in particular such as checking focus on her images or giving her feedback on what she was shooting and whether her framing was as she had planned. The octagonal softbox being faulty slowed down the setting up process considerably as we were fiddling with it for about 20minutes and then it took about 10minutes to find a suitable replacement.
What would you do differently next time?
• Check the equipment more throughly when first collecting it from the kit store to avoid all the complications that came with the softbox not working properly.
• Make sure that booking equipment would happen a lot earlier so that I wouldn't have to rush the risk assessment or feel as much pressure to do so.
• Ask more questions for the shoot to make sure that I have a very clear idea of what the shoot is about/will consist of and what my main job will be throughout the shoot to avoid feeling lost.
FINAL IMAGES
