I have had a few sets of images that I have kept offline for the time being. This is because most magazines are not interested in editorials if the images have either graced the pages of another magazine, or if they have even been showcased online on sites like Facebook and Flickr, or personal portfolio websites. They want the images to be new, unseen, so they have as big an impact as possible.

Although some magazines take submissions, many exclusively commission editorials. This is so they have as much control over the images and who works on them. These magazines tend to be either larger, or looking for a certain idea, and they often can get the photographers they want; they just ask.

I felt rather than corner myself into a smaller demographic, I would email creative directors and editors with an open message that I am offering up submission based editorial sets, but also that I was open to creating completely new content designed around a certain theme. Of course I am open to commissions, so why would I leave this out of an email.

Keeping my options open played out perfectly for me. Within a months canvassing for publications I managed to get 4 sets of images being prepared for publication in the coming months into 3 magazines. I have also been offered a commission for another magazine, which I will shoot this month.

Once the publications come through, I will release the work and the details.

Just a few behind the scenes shots, taken from shoots that I did in February. I havent posted the images yet as they might be used for publication *fingers crossed*. The shoots were with Gestalta and with Emma Bugg. I will post them as soon as I can.

1 year ago I left Japan. I spent 6 months living there, working as an assistant for a fashion photographer, and creating a lot of personal work. It had an impact on many aspects of my life, and I will be honest, I really fucking miss that place! I know I will go back there one day, and until I get to see the city lights of Tokyo again, I will feel a little loss and the lack of kawaii in my life.

No, seriously. If you are working in the industry, shooting fashion, beauty, commercial photography, photojournalism, anything, you should want to get your name and your images out into the world. I get so many people add me on various networking sites who don’t include links to their work anywhere. In fact, they seem to go out of their way to hide their work details. I understand that some things you might want to hide from the world, but your work should not be one of those.

Possibly worse still, people who do post their work, yet show no care for what they post. I so often see broken links, bad spelling and poor grammar on the front page of their networking sites, or even on their main websites. This just puts out such an awful image, and anyone who views their page will think that they just don’t give a damn about their work. Which, to be honest, they probably don’t it seems.

Occasionally I get people messaging about test shoots and how to organise them. Initially, the most difficult part was actually knowing who to shoot, and where I could find people to work with. So for this post, I will lay out a few suggestions regarding setting up a test shoot.

First of all, finding people to work with. There are two main categories with regards to who I aim to test with. Those who are signed onto a modeling agency, and those who are not. This post will mostly be aimed towards those who are not with a agency. It is considerably easier to work with people who are not signed up. They want to shoot as much portfolio work with the aim of getting a strong enough portfolio. Then they can pitch their look to agencies. Many shoot on a TF basis simply because it is fun, and there is more opportunity to be creative. As a model, working with an agency can be limiting with regards to creativity, as they are paid to model in a certain way. So doing test shoots with agency models is considerably more difficult. You have to have a strong portfolio, and an idea that will benefit the model greatly. Their portfolio is already strong enough to be getting them paid work after all.

There are many websites online that models use to network and organise shoots with photographers, but there is only one that I use. They all have their flaws, but Model Mayhem seems to be the least flawed website. You can find my profile here. The site is great in that it is a place where you can meet models, makeup artists, hair stylists, fashion stylists, designers, retouchers and more. Virtually every creative type with regards to photoshoots can be found here. This is what makes this site such a powerful tool. That, and it is the most popular model website online.

I try and work with people who are within 50miles of either London, or Cambridge. This is because one of the biggest costs with TF shoots can often be the travel costs. I like to work with poeple who are close to me to cut down on this. But also, there are less issues with late arrivals or cancellations.

I like to write down my ideas, my sources of inspiration, and then I post them to people I want to work with. I tend to introduce myself, and then ask if they want to collaborate on projects together. If they are interested, then I mention image ideas, and I send images that relate to the inspiration of the idea. I also include details regarding hair styling, makeup, fashion to be used and image style. If the person is still interested, then I will start arranging an actual day to do the shoot.

This is the difficult part. Getting a team who is interested and who would work well together can be difficult at times, but making sure they all arrive at the right time, at the right place, with all that they need can be a nightmare. Most people want to work on different days to each other, so messaging back and fourth getting the right day can be monotonous but sometimes necessary. This is the reason why just phoning can be easier, as it is quick to do and to the point. Once everyone is in agreement about the time and date, and everything is all organised, suddenly, cancellations.

This happens a lot. Especially when working with people on sites like Model Mayhem. With agency models, they are often more driven and professional about their shoots, it is their desired profession after all. But models who work as an interest, for fun, can often cancel as they have less commitment. This is extremely frustrating for the rest of the team, especially if, and this does happen, you get canceled on the day, or worse, they just don’t turn up. I have had countless cancellations, and on one occasion, I had a model just not turn up. It was for a really important shoot, but luckily that day I had multiple models to work with. I truly look forward to the point when I work solely with agency models.

“The phrase “The Devil is in the details” expresses the idea that whatever one does should be done thoroughly; details are important.” – This is so true with photography, with retouching and with every other creative outlet. Every step in the image making process is vital, and doing each step properly and efficiently only helps to further the creative process and outcome.

The Gif above and the image below shows the level of detail I went into when retouching this image. I decided that with this shoot, I would push my retouching boundaries, and take as much time and care to create something as strong as possible. I wanted the image to be treated as a canvas, and so I painstakingly spent hours doing virtually all the main retouching on the face with a slow but accurate dodging and burning method.

The process was slower than what I was used to, but the results I feel were stronger because of it. This isn’t solely relevant to retouching, but all aspects of the image making process. From pre-production, to the shooting, to the final editing. The Devil is indeed in the detail.

I had a collaboration with Maja Stina recently. The shoot was a little experimental in that we had an idea of what we were creating, but the concept was a little rough around the edges. I sometimes like shoots like that.  It keeps you on your toes having to create something new to you on the spot. The shoot was always going to have a strong beauty element, and I knew exactly what lighting I wanted, but I didn’t really know what fashion and accessories would be brought. In the end, we worked mostly on implied and partially nude beauty shots like the above images.

The last 6 months or so I have done virtually no photographic work at all. I could go into reasons why, but instead I shall just say that I have a lot planned for 2012. I have already started creating concepts for shoots in January and February, and I am so excited to get back into a creative spirit again. Expect a lot more on the blog, with a lot more behind the scenes posts.

500px is a website dedicated to showcasing your work amongst other professionals. It was recommended to me recently, and after some persuasion, I was convinced to open an account. I was dubious at first, mainly because I already use Flickr. I think it is great to showcase your work on many platforms and sites, but I am wary of doing this too much. It is better to focus more time on fewer projects than to spend less time on many individual projects.

I really like the cleaner style of the website, and the ability to showcase portfolios in a larger and cleaner format. So here is my 500px site. If you are already part of the community, follow me if you want, and if you don’t have an account, take it into consideration.

]]> http://www.adamrowney.com/blog/2011/11/500px/feed/ 0 http://www.adamrowney.com/blog/2011/10/breathing-new-life-into-old-images/ http://www.adamrowney.com/blog/2011/10/breathing-new-life-into-old-images/#comments Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:53:40 +0000 adamrowney http://www.adamrowney.com/blog/?p=1044  

So last month, I was pleasantly surprised to find an incredibly talented graphic artist by the name of Mario Arturo wanted to use one of my images for the above book cover. The design was created using an image that I did before I was even interested in fashion imagery. I never thought it would ever be used for anything, let alone for the cover of a book written by Trevanian (aka Rodney William Whitaker), who is a pretty famous novelist. So, needless to say, I am quite happy about this!