A fashion photoshoot is not unlike shooting a scene for a movie. In both cases you are capturing the performance of the talent on film. For a movie it involves takes of an actor at 24 frames per second on motion picture film. For a photoshoot it is still frames of a photo model. But in both cases you need to worry about many of the same things: location, set design, makeup, wardrobe, lighting and photography. But a big difference is in the size of the crew. In movie production there are lots of workers all with specialized jobs. For a fashion shoot there are usually fewer workers. So in still photography everyone needs to be a jack-of-all-trades who can handle many different tasks.
In movie production, of course there is the Director, aka Herr Director, who is the ultimate authority on set. But the Director of Photography, or DP, really is responsible for making sure the scenes are filmed properly. Often the Director just sits back in “video village” watching each take on the monitor while the production crew does its job.
The DP is in charge of three departments: Camera, Electric and Grip. The head of the electric department is the Gaffer and all the electricians report to him. The head of the grip department is the Key Grip and the grips all report to him. The Gaffer and Key Grip in turn report to the DP. The DP himself is in charge of the camera department. The hierarchy in the camera department by seniority is the operator, 1st assistant camera, second assistant camera and loader. In union work, people start at the bottom and work there way up to DP over many years.
During production for a still photoshoot all the same jobs are done, but the crew may be only the cameraman plus one or even no assistants. So here are some of the production jobs applied to a still shoot.
Herr Director: Someone has to have a creative vision. For movies, that is the Director. For still photography that is the Art Director. She decides on the mood to convey and picks a location for the scene, which generally would be either interior (INT) or exterior (EXT). What kind of shot coverage is needed. i.e. wide establishing shots, long shots (LS) or full length, medium shots (MS) or 3/4, medium closeups (MCU) and closeups (CU). Sometime extreme closeups (ECU) of a body part (hands, shoes) or accessories are needed to tell the story. The Director and DP usually collaborate on the creative vision. Just before a take, the Director gives direction to the talent.
DP: Once on the set, he chooses a background and the general framing. The most important decision for the DP is to decide where to place the camera and which lens (wide, normal or telephoto) to go with. Second in importance is the choice of what is in-focus and the depth of field. This means choosing an f/stop like f/4 or f/8. Third is how to light the scene. Lighting sets the mood of the scene by placing shadows and by setting lighting ratios. Happy scenes like to be high key; dramatic scenes low key. The DP uses his light meter to measure anything that involves photons.
Gaffer: Places lighting instruments to make light under the direction of the DP. Maybe the gaffer is your camera assistant. The key light is placed first. Often the lighting is just a few strobe lights on tripod stands–maybe with radio slaves or just a PC-sync cable. In the studio there may be lots of lights, both strobe and tungsten. Usually you want to light the background first and then the foreground.
Key Grip: Places flags and scrims to shade the light, keeping light off walls, shading the camera lens, etc. Sometimes it could just mean someone holds a hat to shade camera lens from the sun to prevent lens flare.
Camera Operator & 1st AC: When the shooting starts, the operator aims the camera and composes each shot while the 1st AC pulls focus, i.e. makes sure the right thing is in focus like the talent’s eyes.
Naturally no one excels at every job. I have read about top photographers like Anna-Lou “Annie” Liebowitz who don’t know much about subjects like lighting. They farm that work out to gaffers and assistants so they can devote their energy to whatever they do best, which is being the Director and DP. Or maybe its schmoozing with the celebrities.
I think my own strengths are in lighting and in composing shots. In other words I think I am a good DP, gaffer and camera operator. In the studio, I have many kinds of lights that I love to play with, both strobe and tungsten. But I have a difficult time creating shade when I use strobes. I need to work on that. I find shading much easier when I use tungsten lights. I also haven’t figure out how to focus these newfangled digital SLRs, so don’t hire me as your 1st AC.
I don’t know whether I am the best Herr Director. You will have to ask the talent I have worked with. Maybe I’m a little too bossy for some. However I think newer models appreciate this because they don’t have to come here knowing anything to do a good job, because I tell them everything they have to do. I think the talent performs best when they are allowed to focus on their performance.
