Ian Curcio

I've been working on an off-camera lighting workshop geared towards subject-and-location-driven lighting, which simply means working with what you have. I took artist Bailie out with me and we scouted a few locations. You can find interesting and cool places to photograph people just about anywhere. This location is not much more than an abandoned warehouse off of a four-lane highway in small town USA. It's bent and broken, grown over and spray painted. Most people would have driven right past it and not given it a second look. But when you start pulling lights out you can turn almost nothing at all into something worth looking at in a matter of minutes. This shot took about 15 minutes start to finish.

The white balance is set to Cloudy and it’s a basic two light set-up using Nikon Speedlights. The main light is set to quarter power with a grid spot, it's four feet above the subjects face and the light stand itself is about three feet away from him.

The second light, the back light, is set to full power with two CTO gels on it and simply stuck in the back of the sliding-metal door. I did have to flag it with a Tupperware top to keep the spill under control on his face. I wanted the separation but not a flood of orange light on his face.

It's all trail and error for the most part. I started with the ambient light. It's about 3 stops under, flat and kind of gray in the open shade. Once I was happy with the ambient light I worked on the back light. One CTO gel wasn't strong enough so I added a second gel. When the light on the inside of the sliding door was rich enough and the exposure was correct I added the subject and placed the main light. While working on the main light I noticed a good bit of the back light spilling over onto his face so I went back and added the gobo. A few more test shots while moving the main light up and down until I was able to control the shadow under his chin and I was ready to shoot. I came down off the dock after about 20 or so shots and started shooting through the overgrown weeds and trees coming out of the parking lot.

Posted by Ian at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I shot for the official 2010 North Carolina Travel Guide which came out this week. Whenever on assignment I'm always looking to grab the safe shot. I tuck it away and it keeps me from worrying during the rest of the assignment. Now I'm ready to shoot something different, something more creative, something I really want to run on the pages. Sometimes the designers will go for it and sometimes they won't but I always try. If nothing else I might end up with a portfolio piece and that's what happened this time. The above shot is what ran in the magazine and the shot below found its way onto my Web site.

Posted by Ian at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Before I made the transition from cushy-staff-position photographer to freelance photographer, I had to ask myself the question, what type of photographer am I? When we think about photography as a vocation; there are generally three types of photographers.




There is the Commercial Photographer; they make images to promote a product, person or idea. Think of Commercial photography as print advertising, billboards, annual reports or product packaging.

Then there is the Editorial Photographer; they create images to educate or illustrate a written story. Think of editorial photography as images used to help tell stories in magazines, newspapers, on-line news or textbooks.

Last you have the Retail Photographer; photos that are commissioned for personal use. Think of retail photography as weddings, family portraits, greeting cards or school portraits.

I had a general idea of where I stood but I wanted to research the types of photographers to get a better idea of exactly where I fell in this long chain of photographer types. I think you'll find that many of these descriptions overlap and you might be one or more at the end of the day.

What type of photographer are you? Get the full list after the jump and feel free to add to it via the comments.

Advertising Photographer
Aerial Photographer
Architectural Photographer
Art Photographer
Aviation Photographer
Boudoir Photographer
Commercial Photographer
Concert Photographer
Celebrity Photographer
Corporate Photographer
Documentary Photographer
Editorial Photographer
Event Photographer
Family/ Baby/Children Photographer
Fashion Photographer
Food Photographer
Forensic Photographer
Glamour Photographer
Landscape Photographer
Lifestyle Photographer
Macro Photographer
Nature Photographer
Newspaper Photographer (photojournalist)
Pet Photographer
Portrait Photographer
Sports Photographer
Still-Life Photographer
Stock Photographer
Street Photographer
Travel Photographer
Underwater Photographer
War Photographer
Wedding photographer
Wildlife photographer

Posted by Ian at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As I travel the country I have a deep interest in photographing structures. Sometimes these are iconic structures and I’m photographing them for a magazine, which is a bonus because I'm getting paid. Sometimes I'm on vacation and I'm dragging my family around waiting for the perfect light, that's how these images were made.

The idea is to get something different than the mass images that are already out there. The Brooklyn Bridge has been around since 1883, it connects Brooklyn to Manhattan and has been photographed from every direction by almost every photographer living in or visiting the area. What could I do that was different? I knew before heading to NYC that I would only be there for one day. I was visiting family in Philadelphia for the New Year and only had a small window of opportunity. The first thing I did in my research was check the weather. I needed sunshine or at least a sunset, no clouds. We picked our day visiting the city based on this factor. I knew I wanted something with no people and saturated color. I also knew I wanted to get close, for me the skyline was not important, I wanted to focus on the bridge itself.

Here are the two shots I came home with. Shot with a Canon G10 in 4 degree weather.

Posted by Ian at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)