A photography portfolio is not simply a collection of a photographer’s best work, it’s also a presentation engineered to tell a story that has a beginning, middle, and end. All the photos should flow seamlessly from one to the next, to have fluidity in presenting their story.

Advertising Campaign © Jerry Avenaim 2010

Just like some movies are bad purely because of poor editing, because of the way their stories were pieced together, it can be the same with a portfolio. Despite the fact that it may contain brilliant images, the manner in which those images are presented is equally critical. In a photographer’s portfolio, flow is paramount. I open my physical portfolio with covers and beauty, which then progresses into editorial and advertising pieces, and then I close with some of my strongest personal work. I include my personal work in my portfolio because it is such an integral part of who I am. It will also give a prospective client a window into what resonates within me as an artist.

Even though individual images may wow a viewer, if a potential client views a photographer’s portfolio that’s unable to tell a story, he/she may not be convinced the photographer can tell a story in a magazine, or in the case of advertising, convey what’s needed about the client’s brand.

Image selection

For image selection, an effective practice is to either lay prints out on the floor or display them on a computer screen. Then (I prefer to do this alone or with my agent) invite a number of friends or other photographers over to assist in the selection and order process. This allows distance and perspective.

What sort of order should I put the shots in?

Advertising Campaign © 2010

The images you end up choosing to put into your portfolio will naturally fall into various categories, genres, and styles.  These are logical groupings from which to create a portfolio with a smooth flow. For example within a fashion portfolio, a possible collection of groups might look like this:

Beauty, Editorial Fashion, Lifestyle Fashion, Catalog, High Fashion and Advertising. Genres should remain together in the portfolio, but not necessarily in the above order (although many photographers do start with beauty).

Within this structure, additional classifications to consider when telling a story include the following: location, studio, color, black & white, brand, background, and digital manipulation.

How do I know which order to put the photos in one category into?

If you look at my portfolio (physical or on the web) you will see the deliberate choices I have made to make it flow.

• Each section has a strong opening.
• I’ve paired the photos with the same number of models in the shots.
• I’ve paired photos with the branding in the same corner of the image.
• I’ve grouped images with a similar feel.
• The flow always goes from beauty to fashion or editorial to advertising.
• I’ve finished with a bang.

In the advertising section, I haven’t overplayed any one brand — I’ve made the collection short, sweet and to the point.

And what is the story in advertising photography? Girls feel rich and sexy when they wear sunglasses. Guys fall from the sky to meet them and think up ways to rip their clothes off, especially when they’ve fixed their hair. So go ahead girls and spray your perfume, look cute indoors and outdoors, go dancing, work out and get sweaty, eat right with friendly people, and men will take you home, all engines running.

Happy Shooting!

Jerry Avenaim

Jerry Avenaim - Image composite by Michael Brittain for Atomic Digital

Since my transition into digital photography, I have always strived for a consistent workflow. Just as with film, all my images needed to have the same consistent look and feel to them. At first, this was quite challenging due to the limitations of the tools that were available to digital photographers, and at the time, most gray cards were made for film. When I started using the Greytag Macbeth ColorChecker card, I saw a 100 percent consistency in the color of my photographs. The only drawback (unless in studio) was the card’s large size. I would often leave it behind or in the car when on location due to its larger size. But then I was left with the painstaking task of trying to color correct and process an entire shoot with no card to go by.

With the latest color management device by x-rite, I now feel a real sense of freedom. I can fit the ColorChecker Passport in my back pocket and not think twice because of its size.  And beyond its compact size, this relatively new product changed my workflow even further. Its functionality and control takes us ten steps forward in color management, as it approaches management in an entirely new way – more like a smart card.

From the x-rite web site: “The art of color management is all about getting your colors to match from input to output. That means your camera captures true colors, your monitor displays them accurately, and your printer produces a photo that matches what you see on screen. The ColorChecker Passport is an essential component to attaining a 100% color-managed workflow. Plus, the included Enhancement target helps you take your vision one step further by providing the creativity to quickly and easily edit and express your colors just as you’ve always imagined. Whether it’s a studio shot, a colorful nature scene or a multiple photo event, you can extend the power of your photo editing software with one-click enhancements that articulate your inspiration.”

Instead of my stumbling about trying to explain with the written word (which would consume pages), take a look at this terrific video demonstration by Adobe expert Seth Resnick. This video will explain the uses of the Passport far beyond my writing ever could!

All I can say is WOW! This is truly the ultimate in ease and consistency!

Jerry Avenaim

Considering that shooting deliberately with intent was the theme of the previous two articles here on the blog, I felt that for this week’s entry, I’d wrap it up with, “The 36 Exposures Challenge.” When I stumbled upon this, I thought, what a great idea! With 16 and even 32GB memory cards becoming more and more popular, it’s like people are running around with their cameras loaded with full 20 roll bricks of film and seemingly unlimited exposures. What a great exercise this challenge is, to force a retooling of the speed at which you shoot, and to think about how and when you depress the shutter button, as in this case, you really do “only” have 36 frames, which really, is still a lot of frames to shoot if you think about it.

I’d love to hear from any of you who try this. How was it? How did it affect your approach to making an image? And perhaps even share one of the results.

“I once had a student at Bard College, where I teach, who was taking portraits. The results kept disappointing him, so each week he took more and more pictures. Still he was disappointed. Finally, I assigned him to make only one exposure the next week. The picture was excellent. His problem was that he substituted quantity when trying to come to terms with what he wanted in his pictures. If an artist doesn’t work with conscious intentionality, sometimes no amount of editing helps. There are other times when the lack of self-censorship that digital can engender communicates a more intuitive energy.”  -From the Pop Photo interview with Stephen Shore

Missing the challenge of taking photographs with “intent?” Perhaps shooting digital is pushing your mind to act too fast and not taking the time to think about the purpose of the image? File Magazine, Flak Photo and Coudal Partners have joined to create a very interesting challenge: “The 36 Exposure Challenge.”

We are asking photographers to use a film camera to explore Shore’s concept of “conscious intentionality.” Broadly speaking, we are challenging photographers to do two things: articulate a concept, project, or theme and then use a film camera to photograph the images to illustrate it. There are, then, two parts: creating the idea and then acting on it.

Give it a try, think about a mini-project, and take the challenge to think and plan the images to communicate the purpose and the intent you’d like to achieve. Photographing your images with such intent will make you think. It will make you plan. It will help you to focus and be selective, and it will make you a better photographer.

Happy shooting!

Jerry Avenaim

Polaroid (type 59) shot for Italian Vogue 1987 © Jerry Avenaim

“Jerry Avenaim’s images of supermodels and celebrities have captivated readers of almost every major magazine. Combining mastery of lighting techniques, the ability to guide his subjects to the limits of their expressiveness, endless energy, and abundant chutzpah, the L.A.-based shooter has attracted so much press coverage that when we asked him to dig deeper into some of the famous stories about his career, he replied. ‘I don’t know what else I can add. If you dig any deeper, I’ll be buried.’” -Excerpt from American Photo Interview by Mark Lapin.

During this interview I surprised myself, realizing what I could have witnessed firsthand during my years in photography world. This decade has seen a great evolution in how we create photographs, most notably film vs. digital. Photographers state they are “going back to film” while others sing the praises of digital and what can be done in post production. At times I feel like I am straddling the 38th parallel in this debate because I am, and always will be, a double agent.

To this day, I don’t regret stepping forward into digital. Nor do I lament not being able to step back into film, because I still have a variety of equipment to choose from in both avenues of image capture. Each camera I own is a tool, one that serves a purpose of capturing what I’m trying to convey in my photographs. By having all of these options at my disposal I am never compromising my photography, or my vision, by restrictions inherent to technology or available films.

In the end, the image is not determined by the equipment used but by the person who was using that equipment.  If given a pinhole camera, many photographers I know would be able to make a photographic essay shooting with only that. Of course, knowing your equipment and maximizing its potential is what will make you the photographer you are, not a visit to the camera shop and buying the most megapixels or the top shelf films.

Polaroid (type 55 negative) shot for Italian Vogue 1987 © Jerry Avenaim

I started shooting large format at a very early stage in my career. This gave me the discipline that I feel photography requires. To study my subject, compose my image, and when the moment comes, to capture it. This practice has carried over into every format and medium I shoot today.  The patience, precision-all my images were born from mastering the properties of large format film cameras.  By today’s standards a large format camera is neither portable nor frugal, but to me the discipline I learned from using it is priceless and I carry it with me everywhere.

However that’s just me, many photographers, it seems, were out sick and missed the class on discipline and patience. In my fashion photography workshops I see photographers use what I affectionately call the “spray and pray” method of shooting which is simply holding down the shutter on their camera and PRAY a good shot comes out.  Many forget there is a person on the other side of their lens and to make a great photograph both sides need to work together.  A photographer can’t simply accept what is in front of them and take a  picture, that’s not being a photographer, that’s not even being a photo journalist, that’s paparazzi at best.  There is a very different feeling in hoping one shot out of 10 is the one you want as opposed to knowing the one shot you took is exactly what you wanted.

Polaroid 8x10 (type 84 and 89) shot for L'uomo Vogue 2003 © Jerry Avenaim

Digital technology has really increased “spray and pray” shooting, and many forget that the original purpose of digital technology was to eliminate the limited exposures presented by rolls of film.  Today, digital photography is much more than just “film-less shooting.” It has changed photography for the better in so many ways that I would need another blog (with sequels) to detail how.  The only downside I can really acknowledge is that I feel digital-only photographers have not learned the discipline of photography like I did with my first steps in large format.

Go out and take pictures of anything, as many shots as you want, just don’t shoot longer than 5-10 minutes.  Next pick up your digital camera and disable your LCD screen by covering it with a piece of 2 inch paper tape (this is LCD safe) and prepare to take the same images again.  However, this time, instead of limiting your time shooting we are now limiting your images- do not shoot more than 10 – 15 images (up to 30 if you were shooting medium format), but take all of the time in the world.  And finally, do not look at them until you go home or to your studio (you could even wait a day). Treat those files as though they were film.

With only so many chances, each shot is now more valuable than the last. Odds are, moving forward, you’re not going to just push the shutter without thinking first.  Engage your subject and instruct them on posing; convey the expressions you like.  You can’t wait for them to naturally give you that spray and pray shot, after all, you now only have 10 to 30 shots at most.  Was it a landscape? Has the lighting changed or will it be changing?  Will the patience and discipline of waiting a few minutes or even over an hour present the golden hour light and make the image that much better?

Having the knowledge and the equipment is a valued attribute in the photographic community. However, it is all nothing without patience and discipline.  A photograph is made by what is on both sides of the lens, and in a photographic world full of quantity it is wise to distinguish yourself by the quality of your images.

Happy shooting!

Jerry Avenaim

Photographer Jerry Avenaim

Happy 2010 everyone. I hope you all had a safe and joyous holiday week. I’m not really into regurgitating a press release, but this is just too good to start off the new year!

I’ve been a Brightscreen® customer since the 1980′s – The product is unparalleled to anything of it’s kind. Most film photographers may have used them or are familiar with them, and some I’m sure had them installed on their Mamiya RZ 6×7 or Pentax 6×7 cameras like myself. These screens were and still are lifesavers by increasing your brightness level of up to 3 stops when looking through your cameras viewfinder, allowing greater clarity for much easier focusing.

Many might pose the question; why do I need that? I shoot digital… Well there are many reasons.

I know many photographers that shoot Canon or Nikon with manual focus Zeiss prime lenses, and that increased brightness in the viewfinder helps with pulling focus.

Ever heard me say “cropping is for farmers?” I like to look through my camera and compose my image when shooting it rather then cropping it later. (This will bring me into my next article – “The Art of Discipline in Photography”). This company makes focusing screens that you can swap in and out of your DSLR with “crop marks” for shooting 8×10 or 6×6 aspect ratio.

If you’re shooting an album cover in a square format, are you just guessing where the square crop will land? If you are shooting for a magazine, have you ever had the feet or top of your frame cut off because you weren’t leaving enough space for the 8×10 aspect ratio of the magazine? Well voila!

And by the way, I still shoot medium format film cameras with manual focus lenses and these bright screens allow me to focus!

Lastly, if you are a medium format film shooter and you put a digital back that is not full frame on your camera body, or the camera frame is larger than the sensor (RZ or Fuji et al), they make a bright screen with crop marks in the aspect ratio that matches your digital back to your camera!

So here is some the news from Jim Lakey – Founder of Brightscreen®.

Press Release Date: January 01, 2010

Nondeteriorating Mirror Cushion™

“Brightscreen® Cleveland, Tennessee USA has announced a new recently patented product “Nondeteriorating Mirror Cushion™” which targets the elimination of the majority of in camera particles in the form of dust or black spots.

Brightscreen® also produces a patent pending product Dust Collector™ which has been installed in all cameras sold or serviced by Brightscreen® as a courtesy free of charge for the past five years. This product helps control and contain camera dust and particles.

An expanded variety of custom camera focusing screens, for most all entry level up to the highest end DSLR cameras, are available now with or without optional Crop Lines®.”

Happy shooting!

Jerry Avenaim

Directing international Commercial for XX by Mexx

As we approach a new year and a new decade, I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a joyous, healthy and very prosperous future. I look forward to sharing many photography tips, tricks and observations in the new year. In the meantime, here are some of my favorite articles from 2009.

1.) Fellowship in Photography

2.) Photography Lighting – White on White

3.) Fine Art Nude Photography

4.) Celebrity Portrait Photography

5.) Dynamic Lighting on Location

Honorable Mentions:

My Voyage of Self Discovery

Fashion Photography on Life in the Fab Lane

10 Must Read Copyright Articles for Photographers

My Favorite Assignment of 2009?

Photographer, Director and guest judge on Germany’s Next Top Model!

Happy New Year!

Jerry Avenaim

24~70 Zoom for Flaunt Magazine

Fashion photography is a unique combination of all types of photography. Fashion often includes portrait photography, environmental photography, product photography, macro photography, and sometimes even landscape photography are all included under the required knowledge umbrella to be successful in fashion photography.

In order to deliver a successful fashion photography shoot, you’re going to need lenses that allow you to capture each of these aspects with artistry and creativity. In a perfect world, we’d have the finances and manpower to haul every available lens to the venue; but in reality, we’re limited to a handful of accessible, high-quality, and versatile lenses.

Here is a list (from my camera bag) of must have lenses for any given fashion or advertising assignment. I’m listing Canon lenses since I primarily shoot with 5D Mark II’s when it comes to my DSLR choice, but each lens listed should have an equivalent for other brand name DSLR producers.

Variable Zoom Lenses
1. 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Zoom Lens
This is my favorite lenses. it’s fast and versatile, it allows for quick shooting and it’s razor sharp. I can use this lens while shooting a portrait and pull out wider with it to include the environment when on location.

2. 70-200mm f/2.8L Zoom Lens
This lens creates a beautiful bokeh (blur) at f2.8, and the compression you get when you’re zoomed in from 150-200mm gives your image a look that’s hard to achieve with any other lens. It also allows you to get in close on the subject without disrupting the moment you are trying to capture.

3. 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens
Sometimes the 24-70mm lens just isn’t wide enough to capture everything you want. The ultra wide angle helps you capture your surroundings, such as in reportage on the street or in tight spaces.

Prime Lenses
4. 50mm f1.2 L USM Prime Lens
This is another one of my favorite lenses. It can save the day when the light starts to drop and allow you to bring out the backgrounds. It also, makes you less reliant on your flash, creating a softer, more natural look for your subjects. The 50mm also allows you to create stunning portraits, as the low aperture creates the shallow depth of field that makes your subject pop off the page and softens your subject’s skin.

5. 85mm f1.2L II USM Prime Lens
This is a great lens, but not a necessity if you’re happy with the results from your 70-200mm. The nice thing is it is the perfect portrait lens and carries a fraction of the weight of the aforementioned variable zoom.

6. 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens for Canon SLR Cameras
If your shooting beauty and are not able to back up enough to gain the compression you would with a 200mm here is the solution. With the 100mm Macro, you can capture detailed shots with the same quality and detail as product advertisements in magazines. because t is a macro lens, it is a bit flatter, thus giving you the feel of the 200mm compression. In addition, if you want to come in tight for a detail shot such as the lips or an eye, this is your baby.

What are your favorite lenses?

Jerry Avenaim

Jerry Avenaim for Diesel

In photography, we the photographers are often asked to shoot on a white seamless background (or a cove). One of the most challenging shots in fashion, advertising, and catalog photography is to photograph a subject wearing white clothing on a white cove with perfect separation.  In images I have seen by others, there is often no separation between the white clothing or material and the white background. Over the years, I have heard so many photographers explain how they are able to achieve this in such a clean manner leaving no spill of light on the clothes or subject.

Some have said they have to be a certain distance from the background so their is no flair or wrap around of light. Rubbish! Some have these complex equations that I think require the photographer to have a doctorate to even comprehend. For instance some believe that if the background meters at F32 and the main light reads F11, and they are 16.5 feet away, they will get the perfect separation. Rubbish!

Advertising Photography for Diesel

Now remember, to keep this consistent, they keep running to the wall to take a meter reading then back the subject to take another meter reading until that formula has been achieved. Okay, well what if you don’t have 16.5 feet or 20 feet or what ever your magic formula thinks it has to be?  Some photographers have a studio, others a garage, the formula works under conditions.  But nobody wants to run back and forth and you are not going to call Home Makeover just so that you can shoot white on white images.

Here is a simple tip to make you life easy, your white background photos consistent and flawless with no wrap, spill or flair of studio strobe lighting.

Light the white background (however you like, preferably with studio strobes). I happen to use two Profoto umbrellas stacked on each side, so you have four lights total facing the white seamless background (or cove). Then light the subject however you prefer. This brings us to the one stop rule. Take a reading of your subject, place the meter under the chin, point it at the camera and pop the flash. Let’s say the light on the face and body reads F11. Simply place the meter on the persons backside now facing the white seamless or cove and pop the flash again. You want the light traveling back to the subject to be no more than one stop less than the previous main reading on the key (front) lights. So therefore in this case, your reading on the face as I said earlier was F11 and the reading on the persons back should read F8 giving you a perfect separation between subject and and background!

Reading one stop under whatever the main light reads is the key to a consistent clean white background image. Even if the subject is wearing white clothes!

Voila, the one stop rule! And no more Rubbish!

To see more samples, visit my main web site here.

Happy shooting!

Jerry Avenaim
This post is for my friend and comrade Gerry Hanan
PS. Yes, ask questions as I’m sure there are some

Fashion Photographer Jerry Avenaim

I was sitting around this evening having to resize enough photographs to make my head spin. One of my resolutions (pardon the pun) was to have my new web site done for 2010. That resolution was last year, think I procrastinate much? I’m sure my 2010 resolutions will include – not to procrastinate.

Well in about 48 hours a temporary new look to the site and maybe even the blog will be up. This is until the livebooks site is ready. When you come back, have a look at avenaim.com and let me know if you like it, if so, maybe I’l just resize the images and use the livebooks site on another one of my domains. See, it’s late and now I’m just rambling

Back to the point, while I was working away, I received an email about these photography schools, speakers lectures and technology et al. You name it I found it, a great resource for anyone looking for some tips and tricks, you can get them here. Except: Whether you want to get inspired to take photos or learn about the history of the field, there are loads of lectures out there that can let you sit back, watch, and expand your photography knowledge. Here are 50 such lectures that will help you learn about photography basics, famous photographers, photojournalism and much more to get your creative juices flowing and help you hone your craft.

Another great resource is the Profoto blog here. I was honored to have been asked to be the first ever entry in that Profoto blog in the form of a Podcast. You can find it on the link above and iTunes

Cheers,

Jerry Avenaim

With the holiday season upon us everyone is trying to give the perfect gift, and what better then the latest digital camera. For many, each year is ANOTHER digital camera.  This one has a larger screen, more megapixels, upgrading to a Digital SLR or a point and shoot that can fit in your pocket, the options are limitless, but the problems seem to be the same. My mother-in-law had this issue when receiving her first digital point and shoot, which is simply how do you maximise the potential of your digital camera.  A few simple steps and words of wisdom and like my mother-in-law, you will be well on your way to taking great pictures!

Here are three tips that every amateur can use to improve their photography and three more are coming next week!

Pumpkin carving, the smile and the pumpkin juxtaposed from one another tell the story.

1. Get close, then get closer, then get closer still! Fill the frame with the subject and eliminate the stuff you don’t want in your picture. If you’re photographing a person, show me the person, turn your camera vertical I don’t care about the things on either side of them. And as I said, be close!  I want to see their faces, the smile, the color of their eyes.  Most amateurs try to make images from too far away. Don’t just rely on the camera’s zoom to make the object appear closer, just use your feet. You can’t go wrong when you fill the frame!

2. “I’ve heard and read, if you’re photographing outdoors, not to photograph more than two hours after sunrise or two hours before sunset.” Everyone says this but they don’t realize that this only means you will miss the “golden hour” referring to the golden glow from the rising or setting sun. I

Using a fill flash outdoors in overcast or sunlight will always improve the photograph!

love the golden hour, I don’t know a photographer who doesn’t like the light, but there are no photographers I know who will NOT take the picture simply cause he is missing that light.  No matter what the position of the sun or lack of, make certain your subjects have the sun illuminating the people from behind or to the side of them, and then make sure to take your camera off automatic. Let’s set it on P for this (that is program mode) and hit the button that has a flash on it (usually a lighting bolt). Make sure the flash is set to on and not the automatic feature so that YOU are in control and not the camera. Even if you want to capture that beautiful sunset behind the subject you are photographing, they will be perfectly lit by the “fill flash” and the ratio between the two will be just perfect!

Someone here ignored all the rules. Not close enough (we know there is a sky up there), no fill flash, and is that a dolphin coming out of your heads?

3. If anything drives me crazy (besides not following rule 1) it is backgrounds! So let’s say, you apply the above mentioned rules to take better pictures, but the one thing you leave out is what’s behind the subject? Who wants to see a photograph of your friend or loved one with next to (or behind them) a big container that reads trash? Look around you! Here is another example, you get the perfect composition, the fill flash is turned on, the moment is right and you press the button only to reveal the flag pole, tree branch, stop sign (take your pick here) is growing out of your subject head! Not a pretty picture… Either you move, or move your subject over an inch or two in either direction and problem solved!  Most of your subjects have the same ability as you the photographer, move your feet to where you want to be, then like my mother-in-law you can take the picture.

This post assumes you’re just looking for good, basic exposures that reliably convey the scene. You can break every one of these rules and get creative if you know what you’re doing. But if not, start here. You will get better photographs, guaranteed. For better or for worse, family members will be handing you the camera for the holidays cause, “you are the one who takes great pictures.” Happy holidays!

Jerry Avenaim