Elements of the Photoshoot, Part I: The Photographer

This is the first part of a 3 part series I will be writing about elements of successful photoshoots. I decided to go in order of importance, and in my opinion, the MOST important element of a shoot is the photographer, or photog for short. Why is the photog such an important element, even more so than the location and the model? Its simple: without the photographer, the other two dont exist! No matter how inspiring your location is, no matter how perfect your model is, if you can not successfully capture and compose the vision of the shoot director into a medium that the world can process, then what a waste it all is! Not only is the actual photog important, but his or her equipment can make or break a great scene. The camera is obviously very important; to make successful shots consistently, key word being consistently, you will need an SLR or DSLR camera. Point and click cameras are never going to give you consistent results. The reason for that is because they are not made to handle the calculations and the lighting variances that a photographer will have to deal with shoot to shoot. They are indeed user-friendly; but with that user-friendliness you lose the variences that can turn a nice photo into a work of art. Also the quality of the image can never match up to a DSLR camera. Its like day and night! Beyond the camera, lighting is paramount to a good scene. If a point in the scene is either too light or too dark it could pull focus from the areas that need it. It controls how dull or vibrant colors are seen and interpreted as well. If a designer's clothes are involved, that vibrancy is especially critical. literally millions of dollars could be gained or lost from how an article of clothing is represented in a singular picture. And you thought the model's job was difficult! Lastly, composition is what seperates the men from the boys, sort of speak. How a photographer takes his shots, as in the angle, the area within the location itself, the points of focus, all of these things affect the way the picture is interpreted. For instance, setting the aperture on the camera can make a photo vary widely; you could go from focus on everything, to focus just on the modl, to focusing just on the background. All of those views change the purpose of the shot greatly. So in conclusion, as you are getting ready to choose your next photographer, REMEMBER that your choice could very well be the key to either flat shots and wasted money or power shots and success!