Join David Grover as we follow up on our January Livestream regarding catalog management and strategies – this time diving into Sessions. Catalogs are great for larger image collections, but Sessions are beneficial for single tasks or short-term projects. We will explore the differences between Catalogs and Sessions, how to set them up for success, and strategies for different tasks.
If you’re interested in managing your photos on a project-by-project basis, then Sessions are for you. They are a powerful tool for tethered capture and unique projects outside the studio.
Interested in learning more about quick remote collaboration with Capture One Live? Join David Grover and photographer Dariane Sanche for a Live beauty shoot.
In this Livestream, we’ll show you how to share shoots with clients and get previews over to your team lightning fast – no matter what device they’re viewing from or where they are in the world. Learn how to collaborate quickly and save time finding and rating the best shots with your client.
During the session, we’ll share a Live link with you so you can follow along in real-time as Dariane and David work.
Portrait and documentary photographer Raymond Alva, or Rap – short for Rapberry – as he’s been known since the 4th grade, wants to challenge people to look at each other in new ways; to create understanding between different groups.
In this month’s RAW Talent, the recent graduate gives us a look at how he is taking the plunge into the world of professional photography after his studies and using his education and personal interests to explore hidden stories within street culture, fashion, and music.
How did you get into photography?
I first got introduced to stills back in 2014 at a summer camp I went to. Some older campers I knew had cameras and I was immediately interested in what they were doing. About a year later, I got my first camera from my parents for my birthday, and I’ve been shooting ever since.
You studied photography at California Baptist University. How was that? And how did it help you find your voice?
My time at CBU was incredible, to say the least. My professors there showed me time after time that photography and art can be so much more than just a pretty picture. A still image can bring life to dark areas, it can bring hope to the weary, and it can even remind us of where we come from.
Program Lead Christopher Kern has built a platform and space for students to come and truly develop their craft into something far greater and more meaningful than thought of before.
In the video: Follow along as Raymond edits the cover for R&B artist Shua’s single ‘Fix Myself To Death’: “We wanted the photos to have a similar feeling to film. We achieved this by flattening the curves and adding a slight s curve. Open up the shadows while still darkening and brightening the mid-tones. The world is not a perfectly clean place, and the texture in photos will reflect that.”
What are three things that have defined photography for you?
Photography can be a lot of things, but these three aspects came to mind first: exploration, texture, and access.
Your craft will not go anywhere without your own personal exploration and the challenges that you make for yourself. Texture can evoke so much emotion in a frame. The world is not a perfectly clean place, and the texture in photos will reflect that.
Photography can be a great tool when wanting to get close to people, places, or stories that are not usually accessible in everyday life. I meet so many people who have interesting backstories and lives. Their stories inspire me and make me grateful for this experience as a whole.
Now, about your work, you spend your time between gigs as an assistant, “digiteching”, and doing personal projects. How does your approach to commissioned work differ from the one in your personal projects?
Commissioned work is really fun because oftentimes, I’m working with someone else to achieve a creative goal. It’s a collaboration. With personal work, it’s usually just me and my camera in the field. If I have an itch to try something new or document a certain subject, it’s totally up to me and I don’t have to run it by anyone else. There are pros and cons to both for sure.
You focus a lot on street culture, music, and fashion. Through your photos, you almost offer a sneak peek at what it’s like being part of these different subcultures. How do you achieve that look and feel?
I honestly just started shooting the things that were most important to me. I’ve skated pretty much my whole life, and a couple of years ago, I realized that I had never actually documented that culture. This turned into me dedicating my senior thesis to the topic, and I began to invest myself even more in the culture.
Besides skateboarding, both fashion and music play a huge role in my life. Because of this, they naturally became subjects in my work, and their worlds started to naturally blend into mine.
What is the most interesting part of using photography as means of creative expression?
I’d say the fact that it’s enabled me to speak on topics or ideas that people might overlook. Anyone can pick up a camera and shoot a well-exposed image, but it’s the voice of the artist and what they’re saying that really makes the art of photography special.
One of the hopes I have with my work is that people would be challenged to look at each other differently. We are all a lot more similar than we think. We all mess up, we all struggle, and we all feel lost and misrepresented at times. I hope my work acts as a bridge to show that it’s ok to be different, but also, if we actually talked to each other, we would see that we are all going through very similar struggles in life.
On a different note, how did Capture One come into your workflow?
Capture One has been great for a couple reasons. First off, it’s a great tool when culling through a large amount of photos. Previews load quickly and Smart Folders make the whole process a lot more pain free.
Tethering is also a huge part of my workflow (like most photographers in the industry). It allows me to be confident in what I’m shooting. A 16+ inch screen is a lot nicer than a 3-inch screen on my camera. It has also enabled me to send quick proofs over to clients who may not be on set but still want to be involved. Overall, it raises my own experience as well as the client’s.
What are the aspects of Capture One you enjoy the most? And could you share a couple of your go-to tricks and tips with our audience?
The multi-photo viewer and the texture panel, for sure. When I’m teching on set for another photographer, I always cull some of my favorite selects from the last look we shot and showcase them on all the monitors. That way, the client can feel confident as well as be inspired for the next look. I always have people asking me what software I’m using to do this, and luckily enough, I can do it all in Capture One. I also love the texture tool and all the options it has. Soft and harsh grain are usually always my go-to, but each one has its own feeling and use.
2023 might be the first year in a while that COVID won’t keep us away from each other or the studio, but that doesn’t mean that working together remotely is history. As many photographers have found new ways of working closely with clients who could not join them on a shoot, both parties have discovered that being in the same room is not always necessary to get a good result.
We spoke to beauty and product photographer Taylor Brumfield about how she is getting closer to her clients without going anywhere.
Taylor Brumfield knows how to grab your attention. Her vibrant and lush style of photography makes the nail polish, moisturizer, or shampoo she shoots look so good that you almost want to take a bite, and encapsulates the “clean girl aesthetic” that so many aspire to for with the flawless, dewy skin of her beauty subject.
Working as a beauty and product photographer for over a decade – product photography is her bread and butter, as she puts it– Taylor works with clients all over who send her their products to photograph.
“Most of my clients are not anywhere near me,” says the Washington DC-based photographer. “They are in LA, New York, Paris, London.”
“I have some larger brands under my belt, but I work with mostly smaller ones to provide them with content that’s really going to stop people from scrolling and go to their pages to interact with their product.”
Getting closer
To achieve the best results and get the thumb-stopping effect the brands are looking for, Taylor likes to work very closely with her clients. But when they are on the other side of the country or even the world, this can be a challenge.
In 2022, Taylor started playing around with Capture One Live as a new way to share her shoots with clients. The image-sharing tool allows photographers to share a session directly from Capture One so that anyone with access to a browser and the session link can view the photos seconds after they are shot from anywhere in the world.
“That’s the nice thing about tech nowadays; they can just join a shoot remotely, and that’s really lovely,” says Taylor about how she works with her clients.
“They can ship their products to me, and then I can update them however often they need me to. But they don’t actually have to be there with me in the studio,” she says, noting that this is great news to many of her clients.
“They actually appreciate not having to come to the studio. Then they don’t have to take time out of their busy schedules to come in and watch me shoot.”
More time for being creative
Taylor’s clients are not the only ones saving time by collaborating remotely. Using the new tool, Taylor also gets more time back that she can spend on the things she really enjoys.
“I can get that immediate feedback and make any kind of adjustments. It helps me be more time efficient because they don’t have to wait for me to go and save to small form JPEG and then upload to a gallery.”
“It saves me time and I love that for me because that means I can use that time for something else or to make additional content for that client. I think it really elevates the client experience,” she says.
“These types of platforms where the client gets to be engaged, but they can be in the comfort of their own homes are very appealing. It makes them feel like they’re really getting their money’s worth out of a production. They’re handing me quite a bit of money. So they have high faith that things are running smoothly and that things are going to turn out exactly how they need to.”
Space around your workstation
In addition to getting closer to her remote clients, Taylor has also found a new way of working with her colleagues on set with Capture One Live.
“What’s lovely is that the team, so the makeup artist, the stylist, the whomever, or even the client, is that they can be in the lounge area, sitting back, maybe having a cup of coffee, chatting, doing their thing, maybe having a meeting while also watching those photos come through.”
“They don’t have to be right up on the model and me to see the screen,” says Taylor.
“It’s really convenient. Models get nervous if somebody’s right on them. So that gives me and my model space to work, but it also makes sure that my client is being taken care of. So that’s just something I appreciate.”
