This Photoshoot Did Not Go As Planned – VINCENT PETERS
– Imagine that you are flying across the Atlantic to have a photo shoot with Charlize Theron. One of the most famous people in the world. The shoot has been planned meticulously for weeks and the entire subway station in Brooklyn has been blocked off and booked and paid for. All the outfits have been collected. All you have to do is just go over there shoot and create gorgeous photographs of a world-famous superstar. That’s what Vincent Peters thought. But he was about to be thrown a curveball, Howzit, Howzit guys? Vincent Peters is one of my favorite photographers. He is an exceptionally, celebrity/ fashion photographer, who creates these gorgeous images, specifically for black and white photographs that I find so beautiful because they remind me of a great many things that I adore in photography. Vincent Peters gets off the plane and he speaks to one of the local people there in New York and they say, you’re going to love this, Peter.
I’m sure we’ll laugh about this later on. But Charlize has said, not interested. She does not want to go to Brooklyn. Now, I believe that Charlize Theron lives in a very fancy place down in Manhattan, and I’m not sure how far Brooklyn is, but I can imagine that it’s a great distance from Manhattan. But it was a chasm that she was unwilling to cross. Now, rather understandably, Vincent Peters was somewhat distraught by this news and he said well look you have flown all this way, everything has been booked. What are we supposed to do? And I… Do you know what? I’m just gonna go back to Europe. I have done with this.
And then somebody took him aside and said, look, Vincent, you have been booked, but you are not the only photographer around if you leave, somebody else will do this as somebody else would get the cover of GQ. Tell you when, okay, fair enough? What can we do? They booked out another studio. A very short notice. They got somebody down, they said, right tomorrow, we’re going to have Charlize in there in the studio.
We’ve got an outfit set for her. It’s all good. So she turns up and you can sort of see what’s coming here. She says no. Laughs. She says I don’t like the outfit. I don’t like the outfit that you have chosen for the cover. It’s not happening So, at this point, it’s all you can imagine probably a bit of fracture in that studio. Vincent has an idea and says look, I’ve got a bed sheet from the hotel. And so he gives Charlize this bed sheet and together they create, I think which is one of the most amazing photographs. So many a celebrity fairly you know in recent memory. And, it is this sumptuous image that graces the cover of this wonderful book by Vincent Peters called The Light Between Us. And that’s a wonderful story about how some of the greatest images are made in adversity. Now, this is, this is a first-world problem.
Dawg and I don’t want to be photographed just in the next time that everything is kind of falling apart around your ears at a photo shoot, think about what happened. So, why was Vincent Peters hired in the first place to shoot this cover? Well, his images, I feel like as I mentioned, are extremely distinctive, and when I look at them, that photograph of Charlize and all the other images have caught my attention. One thing that leaps out to me, specifically, is that the lighting is very sculptural, it makes these people look like a cross between a Michelangelo sculpture full of life, full of marble, and something almost otherworldly. Now, they’re supposed to be celebrities so they have this kind of feel but I just there’s something about his lighting, and I often thought.
Initially, I said, you know, this is a softbox, but as we’re looking at these images, I want you to think about whether is there a period in Hollywood that these photographs specifically remind you of. I’m going to see if you can sort of get it. And I’m going to use the word cinematic which is a word that is used often in Vincent Peters’ photography. That lighting, if it’s not a softbox, what is it? One of the great joys of looking at a photographer’s work is to be able to look at it and see the influences and try to juice how they came about creating this image.
When you look at the photographs up close you can see the catch light size because always, I was, so when I’m thinking about light, it goes to the catch lights first. Okay. What’s, what’s that? And often in these portraits, very tiny, very small round catch lights. So it’s suggesting to me that it is an unmodified light source. So, something that hasn’t got the softbox on it or things of that nature that are softening the light. It’s a direct source. And then with the fall off, this really quick fall off, it’s possibly a finale lens, right? So these are lenses in lighting that you have seen, although you may not know the name of them, in those old Hollywood movies that are giant lights that they use, I think they’re called klieg lights and that kind of weird angular look to the lens is a Fresnel lens.
And that gives you a bit more of a tighter light rather than just a plain old lens with the light just spilling everywhere. Now, there’s a, there’s a clue, there’s a huge, could these images remind me of that period, 1920s 30s, 40s and sort of the 50s, ish of the great Hollywood, studio, portrait George Hurrell. This photographer, who can, you know, kind of parties and all these guys are all these lights and things. Vincent Peters is using that kind of lighting this continuous light to create these wonderful shapes, on the figures. Now, that’s I think a marvelous way of making your images feel a little bit distinctive. But you’ll also notice with the black and whites that they are rich, gorgeous, and some just lovely. They just, feel like the tones. You could just pick them up and oh, you could watch now wash your hands with them. I don’t know. It’s kind of like, but they just have that kind of wonderful textual quality almost like you want to reach out and touch.
And I believe that this comes from something that I discovered from reading an article, about professional photographers about this very shape which is where I drew that story from is that Vincent Peters’s photographs with his old Mamiya had 67. So and I said 67 is a big medium format camera that he’s had the same one since he was 17. 17? You know, I mean, that’s amazing. I love that I did that like a guitarist or a musician or you know, somebody they have their favorite instruments that are precious to them, that they keep, that there is a symbiosis between them that I feel. I don’t feel that with any of my modern cameras, any of my digitals. They’re just tools, but this RZ must feel a part of Vincent. And he’s photographing on film and there’s a thing with a film that I feel when you compare an image against a digital version of it and there’s something intangible in that. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that as well.
That the one on film feels organic and I’m not talking about the grain or the sharpness or any of that kind of stuff. I mean, there’s dead there’s just an indistinguishable kind of vibe about it that I get. And that’s what I think your lens or this black and white stuff to have this wonderful total quality to it. So if you are trying to think about capturing that mood that feels and you’re struggling for something elusive in your black and whites, then give the film a try.
See what happens. It’s not that expensive to double in film photography and if it’s something you haven’t experienced before, I think the results when you get it right are just something spectacular. There’s a third element to these photographs that is probably overlooked completely and that is the idea of the theater of photography. The theater of photography is this kind of intangible idea that you want somebody to feel like there’s an experience going on. So with this whole setup, that feels like the 1930s, kind of Hollywood glamour, studio portrait thing going on. That, these film stars these fashion icons can Channel themselves into that mood. When you look at that photograph of Charlize, she has that classic look. Now, she’s practiced this over time and these people are actors. But you can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a way that they are feeling somehow different, they’re inspired to act to feel differently and you can do this with your photography that you put people into a mindset, you say, look, pretend that you’re doing this or you’re this or that and you see it so often.
I feel that YouTube photographers who are trying to impress will use the latest cameras. They will use very expensive, you know, like Hasselblad H6Ds. I believe they are now, correct me if I’m wrong. They’re great cameras and they’re awesome. But they bring a lot more than just that quality to the sessions. You look at that and you’re wow, this person must be successful because they’re using a very expensive camera. I used to see this in family portrait photography as well. It’s all like smoke and mirrors. This all yet like at the theater of photography and sometimes it can be used for nefarious purposes like trying to encourage people to spend more money, but other times it can be used for beneficial things like these images making people feel that they’ve got a purpose and I just love that idea in the photographer. I just think it’s marvelous looking. I feel just, wow.
There’s, yeah. This is, as I said, the Light Between Us, it is a stunning book and I don’t often, some of you know, recommend books on this channel anymore. There’s because a lot of them are out of print and a lot of them can be quite pricey and so I’ve kind of shied away from that somewhat recently. But I would say if you are interested in celebrity portraiture if you were interested in that kind of that feeling of that film as it goes back to say, the film now, that reason, I’m saying film now is because I’ve got this page open. Look at that! I’ll bring those images up. Its, they’re just reminiscent of a different time and they have that power to transport you.
Now, if you don’t want to go down the film route to try and make your black-and-white photography be like Vincent Peters, then there’s a video here that I’ve created about why your black-and-white images look dull. Thank you ever so much for watching and I will see you again soon. [END].
What is the Trade Command Center? Trade Command Center is an innovative software solution that empowers traders with daily forex signals. Designed with user-friendliness in mind, this versatile program can be accessed from both mobile devices and desktops, allowing traders to stay connected to the markets and make informed trades no matter where they are. 😁 One of the standout features of the Trade Command Center is its ability to deliver trading signals at the optimal time for the best results. The software gives traders the power to choose their desired currency pair, giving them an edge in the fast-paced world of forex trading. Additionally, the program offers a wide range of training materials and videos to assist traders in learning how to effectively use the system, making it a great option for both experienced and novice traders.
