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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Creating the Photograph

Creating the Photograph: Simeon Quarrie’s “Until Your Love Frees Me”

Chris Gampat
2 Comments
04/25/2013
3 Mins read

Last Updated on 04/25/2013 by Chris Gampat

SimeonQuarrieEditedPuppet-001

Editor’s Note: Creating the Photograph is a new series that we’re starting where we interview photographers all about the photo that they shot and talk to them about how it was achieved. The results are some knowledge passed onto you. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com

We found Simeon Quarrie via Profoto’s Twitter, and fell in love with some of his work. He primarily works in the wedding photography world, but his own vision and approach is closer to commercial and fashion photography. He is now becoming recognized more in the commercial world and the photo above really demonstrates his creative vision.

Here’s his story. And if you’re interested check out more in our Creating the Photograph series.

lens rental

 

The Concept

photo

The idea originally formed about 8 months ago. I make a concerted effort to generate ideas as they are are central to my style. At the time, I was on the Underground in London. I remember the precise moment. I opened my little sketch book and just started to draw. A number were watching as my hand movements became more frantic and as I became more excited as the clarity of my idea sharpened.

At this stage I am not interested in logistics or feasibility. I worry about that later, otherwise, in my experience, the ideas become less exciting. If I had thought about logistics, I wouldn’t have attempted this series.

Much of my work involves working with couples about to get married. When I showed Lalita and Nikki an early sketch, they fell in love with the concept. Logistics for creating this series was extremely stressful and intense. The outfits were designed and put together by me with the help of the Lalita.

I work with both still and moving images, so I wanted the frame to appear as if it were a still from a film.

Gear

Canon 5D MK III

Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L

Profoto lights x 2 (3ft Octa, 1 Zoom reflector with a blue gel)

Lightroom 4

Color Effex 4 (for detail)

Photoshop CS5 (for sharpening)

Eye-fi Card synced with an iPad

Smoke Machine

The Shoot

doll_theme

With this series, I wanted to complement the natural light as much as possible. I orchestrated the scene using natural light and then added the drama by exaggerating the light slightly with Profoto strobes.

The camera was set to f4.5 1/125 at ISO 1250. I warmed up the white balance using the Kelvin setting in camera.

The couple and the models were positioned and directed and then the rope was carefully placed. Props were placed.

I shot preview JPEGs to the SD Eye-fi Card and sent to my iPad so that I could see a larger frame and critique the image as I shot. RAW files were shot to the CF card.

In the shot, I wanted it to look as if Nikesh cautiously starts to cut the girl he desires free. He checks to see if the way is clear. Then I zoom in to see him look his girl in the eye. The couple were worked hard like professional models.

I have seen others write there own interpretation of this image. That’s what I love. Everyone sees the story differently and some of them are better than my original idea!

I had a team of 11 including myself and the models to make this series happen.

Post Production

This part is actually very boring. I don’t do much. I used Lightroom 4, then Color Effex 4 for detail and Photoshop CS5 for sharpening.

You can check out Simeon’s other pages such as his twitter, his personal Facebook page and his production page.

The First Two Images of the Series

SimeonQuarrieEditedPuppet-001

SimeonQuarrieEditedPuppet-002

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canon profoto Simeon Quarrie Until Your Love Frees Me
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Written by

Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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