All language subtitles for 2. Portrait Shoot

This is a light I use on nearly all my portraits,

probably 90% of my portraits.

Nice and polite, soft books, gritted,

and a gritted softbox means that the light is soft,

but directionally it doesn't just flat out everywhere

So even though they're sort of lit sheets,

I like to

take pictures that still feel like a repertoires moment.

You just happen to have a pure gray background behind you,

but I'm often catching the edge of the backgrounds.

So these lights I always think of is like windows.

They're literally like a north facing window or a window

that doesn't have direct sunlight coming through it.

And I often shoot people bang in front of windows with me,

that's on sweat.

It gives an incredible soft light.

Bring it towards me even more. Can we go slightly this way?

Come on.

And so that same soft light,

when it becomes really side-on,

becomes really quite dramatically different.

And it's exactly the same light

just from a slightly different angle.

Certainly when someone's posing for me, I am a participant.

So I like to sort of sense that,

and I like to give direction,

but it's not direction that I've thought through,

the only formula there is not to have a formula, I suppose,

and not to come with too much of a pre-set idea of how

the pictures are meant to look

or what they meant to do.

You also look at someone's face,

everyone's face is different.

So there was a particular angle

when Jack was looking over towards his poly board,

which has just worked fantastically,

for his bone structure.

And you don't know that before you see it.

Often in a day we'll shoot, you know,

somewhere between two and 4,000 pictures.

And, so tiny ratio of that that goes out there.

Don't get me wrong.

When I shot film, I didn't shoot 2000 pictures.

You got to work in a slightly different way

when you've got a thousand images on a card.

That's only that big, you know,

I take lots of pictures that I know aren't the picture,

but it's almost like the journey that gets you to the photo

is a journey of taking pictures.

There's that thing that caught your Bristol said

that you first received your first a hundred thousand,

but basically your first photos, any shoot,

your first photos are often not the favorites from the day.

Cause you're kind of finding your balance.

And when you work with talent,

the end result should be better than anything I had in mind

and possibly better than anything,

Jack would have had in his mind.

And that together, you sort of start to feed off each other.

And what you, the actual picture you get is a collaboration

of the two of you and the result of that.

So there's a lot of photographers who do say,

this is my light, this is where I place things.

And people just come,

they stand and they can be emotionless in that light.

And in that way, the photographer is the alter,

but in the way I work, it's very, very collaborative.

And it's the same reason why I always

show people my pictures.

I don't guide them.

I like people to be happy with them.

I gave nearly everyone approval when I do a shape,

because I would hate someone not to be happy

with the picture that I'd taken of them.

You know, I'm not an investigative journalist.

I'm photographing the installment industry.

I say, why not?

You know, I'm supposed to please everyone,

and live to fight another day.

So that's how I self, that's my general attitude to shapes.

So we're just looking at styling.

So what do we have?

We could do the Paul Smith suit.

So packed all that ready to go

Nice.

But we could do it with

like a nice gray Poloneck,
okay

Or a tutle neck,

just with the trouser.

Yeah,Lovely.

Very nice Indeed.

What else would you wanna try.

This option as well?

Yeah. It's lovely.

As you've seen,We've got this as well,

which is just a nice, like the plum.

Beautiful

Yeah. Yeah.

That would be good in there.

I just wonder we could do that with those trousers

in yeah, in the restaurant.

We should try that and then we could walk in that

and then just take it off

for the restaurant
(people mumbling)

and then just change the top in the restaurant.

Okay, Fantastic.

Thank you. Thank you.

It's actually really nice here too.

I'm gonna start you up here and get you

to walk down towards me.

Okay. So walk straight to me and I'll tell you

if you're gonna get run over.

Keep coming.

Nice, i love that.

And put your arms out.

Nice, Come on one leg.

Amazing, Got it. Got it. Got it. Thank you.

So when I was a kid at school,

I did a project called lions in shadows.

It was all about vanishing points

and it would be a good bit of homework for students.

Cause it gets you thinking about perspectives

and things like that.

And I, where things are returned to every time when I shoot

mirrors is one.

I love a reflection.

I'm sure we'll end up having a reflection somewhere in here.

And vanishing points and perspectives as wrong.

Come close to me. Keep coming, keep walking.

Inspect the lens. What's going on?

Then back up to that wall,

That's great.

Love it, love it , love it.

Actually, this is nice.

This is nice. Guys.

Come look at this.

So this is a nice light.

So, I take credit of what I'm gonna today,

but I wanna let you feel like I have a lot of lighting here.

It's kind of nice.

And so the narrative and such,

just like to put you into that.

And have a look at what it feels,

but it looks like it's gonna be very trainable.

It is. Yes.

So, the other thing I can do with light like this

is completely let it wash around,

say massively overexposed.

I'm exposing for the shadows so that all this other light

washes around.

That's great.

And then again, we've got these lovely lights here.

This is the third time we got into the apartment.

Come forward a little

Yeah

Okay. Walk with me now.

( footstep tapping )

Lovely

Lean in one of your elbow? Yeah, that's great.

So I'm basically using the vanishing lines in the picture

to frame you and leak the eye.

And it's one of the reasons I use a 28 mil lens.

Is there something about it

that really sort of a vanishing

points play very well into it?

And then the shoot we've done today since we've been out

in the street, you'll see three or four examples

of vanishing points scanning down.

I'm at the cannoli grill,

which is a restaurant at the Beaumont hotel,

which is around the corner from my studio.

And it's a place very close to my heart,

that had a lot of sort of Christmas parties here

and sustained friends and loved ones here

Its somewhere I love to be,

but it also visually has this sort of old school,

you know, there's like American Hollywood,

but then there's also that sort of London

Hollywood of Lisa Taylor and Lawrence Olivia

in the forties and foggy London town.

And they sort of placed, just sort of fits all that for me.

And so there's a timelessness to it that I love.

And I shoot here a lot and I like to place people

and it's almost like they greatly differ,

but there are certain worlds that I return to,

or that inspire me.

And when I'm in London,

that era is definitely one of them.

And I find that visually represented at this hotel.

I think they do it really, really well.

So I'm guessing if I put you around here, this'll work.

It certainly works for me.

So if you look in the mirrors and I wanna find you,

there, thank you.

That's cool.

(soft piano music playing)

Oh like it

( wind blowing )

Oh, I like how wind effect very much.

Okay, that's great.

Amazing.

Imma climb right behind you.

This is quite good. Isn't it?

Just sit on that for the wall there.

I love this.

She's great.

Look unto me

Well, this isn't so much about the light right now.

This is about the composition

that I'm sort of using the circle of that antenna

to feel nice to the frame.

And I've just got Jack in the left-hand corner and he's up

lit by this.

The bounce up light here,

(giggling)
screaming.

This is quite valley.

What's up. What's the dots on the jacket.

Go back more and round that corner and walk towards me.

So we'll curve around it towards me.

Okay. And action.

Fantastic. I love it.

Let's keep looking.

That's good.

Yep.

Definitely. Very nice.
That's a wrap.