Gianni Guettaf, star of Belgian film 'Animals'

in

I love photographing creative people – musicians, dancers, actors, artists… But it isn’t every day that I have an opportunity to shoot a talent as hot as Gianni Guettaf. The young actor won a starring role in his very first film, ‘Animals’, by Belgian director Nabil Ben Yadir (‘Les Barons’). With ambitions to further his acting career, he came into the studio as Animals premiered across Belgium.

Gianni Guettaf, fearless

He was charming and relaxed, and his face passed so easily from one emotion to another that I sometimes had trouble keeping up. But he was patient and appreciative, and in the end we both enjoyed the session.

Gianni Guettaf, restless

For most of the shoot we played with low-key lighting that gives the images a ‘noir’ feel.

What impressed me in particular was Gianni’s ability to embody complex internal states without recourse either to words or to theatrical facial gestures. Nothing was overstated. I’d say he was a natural.

Gianni Guettaf smiling

Now I’m just waiting for a chance to get to the cinema to see him in the film itself.

Behind the scenes at a startup company

in

Neuroventis is a young Belgian startup company operating in the rapidly expanding field of device-based healthcare support. Their first two product suites gather data from migraine and epilepsy sufferers and feed it securely to their doctors, making possible earlier and more tailored interventions. I was lucky enough to be asked to make portraits of the company’s team of 14 staff on the occasion of its fifth birthday. While I was there I also shot a series of informal ‘behind the scenes’ images for the website.

I absolutely love doing this kind of photographic reportage. A couple of times I did suggest something to a member of the Neuroventis team, or ask someone to hold a position for me for a couple of minutes. But mostly I just drifted around the company’s brick-lined office space snapping what was actually going on that afternoon.

They were very welcoming and cooperated eagerly in the entire process. I left them sharing a few beers at the end of the day to celebrate the company’s first five years of existence. I can’t wait to see how they use my photos on their website.

Difficult choices

in

Choice is a critical part of the photographic process, especially when it comes to portraits. The photographer and the client both need to make a series of decisions in order to arrive at the single image which will represent the client to the world. These decisions include the choice of setting (studio, workplace, home or on location), background, clothing, lighting and framing (head-and-shoulders, half-body, full length). Here I’m going to focus on the way we choose among the images actually shot.

Why I shoot a lot

When I’m approached to set up a portrait session, the client quite often says “I only need one photo”, or “I only need two or three photos”. I explain that a portrait session will usually last at least one hour, during which I typically shoot 200-300 frames. It takes some time for most people to settle down in front of the camera, and to feel sufficiently comfortable to reveal a bit of their personality. And it really takes the pressure off the subject when they know that each shutter release does not have to be the ‘money shot’. From time to time, I’ll show them a few frames as we work. This gives the person an opportunity to adjust clothing, hair or facial expression, or to suggest a change in the setup. But mostly, it just reassures them that they are looking good and that we are making some great images.

If a client highlights one or two shots that they particularly like, I make a note of the frame numbers. But in general I ask them to trust me to select the strongest images from the session. This might seem strange, but the selection process is an art in itself. It’s my job, I’ve been doing it for a long time, and I’m good at it. For the subject, it would be agonisingly difficult and time-consuming, with no guarantee that they would even make the best choices – we are, in general, the very worst judges of what we really look like.

Picking winners

From the 250 images shot in a typical session, I very quickly select 35 or 40 ‘candidates’. I do this by rejecting not only the ones where I missed the focus or one of the studio lights failed to fire, or where the subject’s eyes were half closed or their mouth in a strange position, but also those which just feel ‘flat’. Often, I will pick the strongest from a series of three or four very similar shots. Where possible, I include at least one from each series – standing, sitting, white background, dark background, and so on.

I then work carefully on each candidate frame, retouching where necessary, making small adjustments to colour balance and contrast, and sometimes cropping slightly. As I do this, I generally promote five or six frames as ‘keepers’. I then take a fresh look at all the images I’ve worked on, and usually weed out a few weaker shots or near-duplicates, leaving me with the 25-30 portraits that I plan to deliver to the client.

Alternate versions

Finally, I consider possibilities for making alternate versions of some of the strongest frames – the ones that I identified as keepers. Would they work in black and white? Would colour grading of some kind bring out a different aspect? Perhaps a bit of vignetting would draw the viewer’s eye more strongly to the subject’s face.

In the end, my clients generally receive at least 30 images, including a few alternate versions. I’m aware that many photographers deliver many fewer image files from a session of this length. I also know that I’m giving the clients some work to do. Many have told me “I love the photos. My only difficulty is choosing among so many that I really like.” But I prefer to give them the opportunity to make the final selection themselves – and perhaps to pick different portraits for different audiences or occasions.