What I Do – A Time Out Chicago Case Study

October 20, 2011 | Filed Under Editorial Photography, Teaching, Time Out Chicago 

Often times when someone finds out that I’m a photographer, they assume that I take pictures of “weddings and stuff”. When I tell them that I don’t really photograph weddings and babies, I often get a strange look which I read as “isn’t that the only type of photography that there is?” I then try and explain to them what I do; some may get it, others don’t (Mom). So I give you the best example I have of what I love doing most with photography.

Step 1 : The Idea

Sometimes the idea is mine. Other times someone hires me to illustrate their idea. For example, I received this from Time Out Chicago Magazine along with a copy of the Dr. Do-me-a-little story.

Step 2 : Working It Out

The next step in the process is figuring out how I’m going to illustrate the idea. I start thinking about what the photo might look like, what props I might need, where I’m going to shoot it, how I’m going to light it, etc… It’s a logistical part of the process. For this job, I had about a week to brainstorm, shop for props (the budget didn’t allow for a stylist), arrange a crew … in other words, work it out.  Here is where I landed. I sent this photo to the magazine as a rough idea for lighting, propping, etc…

Step 3 : Shoot It

Once the magazine approved the direction of the photo, it was time to shoot for real! Our model showed up, we tweaked any lighting and props that needed it, and we began shooting. At this point, we were focused on shooting the model for expression. Certain things like glare on the poster and clock would be dealt with later. Once we wrapped with the model, we sent off various expressions to the magazine for them to choose one. While they were reviewing the expressions, we photographed for the background elements I mentioned earlier. Once we had all of our pieces, we began retouching. Here is the final image that we sent to the client.

Step 4 : Wait

It’s always exciting to see exactly how the image gets used in the publication. Sometimes the wait is months long, other times it can be fairly quick. Time Out Chicago is a weekly publication, so the time between the shoot and publication on this one was short. Here’s how the shot ran in the magazine.

So there you have it! That’s what I do. As the title suggests, it’s “all in a day’s work”.

Photo Assistants : Andrew Lawrence, Sarah Crump, and Braden Nesin

Retouching : Sarah Crump

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