Master-class of studio photography

Yesterday I visited master-class of studio photography. It was initiated by Moscow youth parliament. Last year I completed 3 steps of education in this project and now I am a member of journalist's group. So I have an opportunity to visit everything organised by parliament.

Our advisor in a photostudio was Vladimir Kalinin. He has been working in morden photography since 1982. We atsrted our master-class with discuss his photos. He told us every methods he used to make them.

"It is plumbing shop. We knew that we would work in a violet place without any other color, so we took a violet fur coat, a flower and baloons. It helped us to design a composition and made a balanced picture.

The second room was red. We wanted to make bright, cheerful, waggish photos. It was a play this light and make up. It is very important to support the color of interior by every component. So our model dressed a red top and have a red neckerchief.

Besides the color you have to remember about the space in picture. If the girl dressed a light, airy clothes she would be invisible inside this interior. So I bent her to make the model larger and I squared small tail. 

When we made a photo for hairstyle magazine we had to use a hard light to see every nuance, every hair. But for the cover page we wanted more mild picture, so we added a pice of organza in front of model. We got another mood and light, the model was more relaxed too.

If you want to make a man more aggressive you have to use a minimum of light, compress a perspective, cut every superfluous not to crumble the picture. Every psychologically portret is very cropped.

There is a rule, when you make a photo with people they have to see a light by both of eyes. If this is not the case, there will be no flicker in one eye which become hollow and off. Sometimes you can divide the picture: at the first part the man will be lively person, at the second it will be a devil. But sometimes you can break the rules to have some effects. Of course you should do it skillfully.

When you make a photo of group everyone should be at the same light and sharpen, nobody overlap each other. 

The mood in photos is very important. You have to catch every moments and ideas. For example at the end of the work with one model my another client come into the studio with their newborn daughter. I decided to make a picture of my model with their baby. Despite there was a little make up on a model, the lips were not painted, the eyelashes were unstick, it became the best photo of the serie.

It is very easy to work with actors because of their professionalism. They live in front of the camera and can play a different roles. For example I worked with Svetlana Svetlichnaya for the whole day. We made a great number of pictures, different characters. She can be various.

Let's to discuss a technically complicated photo. It seems to be the model lying on a sofa in front of the window. But this picture was made in this dark studio. It had to use about 5 lamps and 6 speculums to made this light. It should be noted the background is cooler than the model.

You can make absolutly different photos by various light. All of my picture snapshots were made in this studio, but everything is varied. For example at this picture I wanted to make a cinema.

It is very important to accents. At this photo the picture is made by shoes, handbag, bracelet and necklace.

Usually the stylist creates an image and photographer make only a technical work. But you are responsible for the mood and story of picture. Once time I had a serie of girls with colored water. It was very important to design a background and light for every snapshot.

The sunlight is the most comfortable for work. Once day we had an opportunity to work in old messuage. The light was depended by day time and influenced on picture's mood. I can say that in classic interier the classic pictures is best succeed.

And last photo we made at 4 or 5 am. We used an candlelight to illuminate the model, but we saved the morning mist and the mood of photo.

This is my best favorite photo, it's called "Bosko". I was in a restaurant Bosko and stole an ashtray, it is on picture now. I used only one lamp to imitate the sun. I generally prefer to exploit one light. Of course sometimes I need take more then 1 device to accent a background or some details, but all of them are an addition to main lamp for model.

I have a bright model. She took her mother's vintazh dress and lipstick in dress color. I only had to catch the moment, the breath and foreshortening. I named this serie "Cinderella Kolya". The model is Karolina, but it is difficult to  call her by name during the shooting, so I cut her name to Kolya.

It is very important to look around. The ideas are in the air. I always drop into the alleys from the main street to find something interesting. These photos were made near the Botanical garden.

You can always find a lot of ways out. For example the chic, posh, big dress is very expencive and difficult to find. I bought 15 meters of fabric and draped model. As a result I get these nice pictures".

After this lection we had a practice. Photographer taught us to work with the model and light.