Production - Designing & Planning
‘Art versus Craft’, has always been a topic of debate, especially when it comes to serious photography. When a budding photographer puts in great efforts and shoots pictures for his portfolio, invests his hard-earned money in equipment and approaches the clients, he is showered with many questions and told examples of other local or even international photographers. One set of art directors will tell him, “Don’t tell us what equipment or cameras you have, your work has to speak; the equipment is secondary!” – these are the ‘art buffs’, or whom I may term as ‘marshals of art’. The other lobby, before even looking at your work, will ask you which camera you have, and how many megapixels? This second lobby turns a blind eye to the artistic lighting you may have done, but bluntly asks you which ‘make’ of lights you use and whether you have a ‘Para’ (for the uninitiated, a ‘Para’ is a type of parabolic reflector); these are the craftconscious guys, or the techno–savvy crowd. With due respect, I pity both these ‘wings’ for their overall approach. But such approaches have been alive since many years. I remember in the late 80s, a young photographer was asked whether he had a 120-format SLR (even when the image to be printed was only 5”x7”); later on, he was quizzed if he had a large format 4X5 of a specific make (Sinar); in the mid-90s it was the ‘Hosemaster’; today it is the megapixel and the ‘Para’. So what scores more, the art or the craft? Both are equally important and need to go hand in hand. Our topic this time being production designing and planning –which plays a vital role in any commercial or serious shoot–I would like to stress that it calls for the right combination of art and craft. At the same time you will find that many parameters are inter-dependent. Let me share with you with an excellent example: The great Italian composer Niccolo Paganini, while walking through the streets of Italy, saw a pavement beggar playing a violin. Hardly anyone was noticing the beggar. What attracted Paganini was the quality of the sound that violin produced. A true ‘artist’ by heart, he requested the beggar to allow him to play this violin. The beggar was unaware as to whom he was taking to, but still handed the violin to him. Paganini started playing this instrument and got so engrossed that he kept playing one piece of music after another; his eyes were closed, and in a trance-like form he continued playing, unaware as to what was happening around him. People started gathering around to hear who was playing such lovely music. Slowly the galleries and the windows of the neighboring houses started getting packed with people standing , listening and watching Paganini play the haunting melodies; mobs gathered around them and the roads got jammed by scores of music lovers. Finally, when he ended his music, people cheered and applauded. Many people, aware of the beggar next to Paganini, showered money on him. Paganini thanked the beggar and handed the violin back. The beggar stood there, happily surprised with heaps of coins and notes thrown by people around him. Remember, the place was the same, the instrument was the same, people around were the same, but the player was different. At the same time, Paganini had the ‘ear’ to hear and appreciate the melody in ‘that’ particular instrument!
So, both – Paganini and that violin – played an equally important role; both, art and the craft together produced that ‘sound of music’. Had Paganini been a snob, he might have just vouched for playing a Stradivarius, but he did not; he played that instrument which produced the right melody! Whenever you are planning a serious shoot, be it a table-top or a model shoot, you must first have the concept ready in your mind. Later, decide how to translate this concept visually and how to capture the concept in the camera. Locations, props, styling and appropriate lensing become the important components of any shoot. For example, if one has to take a tabletop of sea-food and the client or the agency decides to have the feel of a sea or beach as a backdrop, then merely hiring a shooting space – say a restaurant or a 3-star hotel near the sea, does not solve the problem; the question to be considered is, how much of the sea or sand should be visible through the lens in the desired composition. This is where clever production planning comes in. Obviously, in this case, the sea waves or the beach in the background are going to be out-of-focus; but keeping it too much out-of-focus may not define it as a sea, and it may look like a blue patch. Hence the lensing has to be perfect; the composition has to be such that the distance between the camera and the sea food, and the distance between the sea food and the sea, is correctly maintained to give the desired result. Now imagine that this has been achieved but you find that the sunlight on the sea is too bright, while the sea food is in the shade. Then you are left with no choice but to light up the cuisine with reflectors or artificial lights. But then you realize that the f/stop is too high, which would increase the depth-of- field and would sacrifice the requirement of a shallow depth of field. The solution to such a problem is to find the exact location that would satisfy the needs of the desired composition. Now suppose one does not find such a location where the lighting can be well controlled, then the only way out is (a) to take a series of exposures at the required depth of field and ( b) expose the background separately, and (c) later mixing them in post production. This is what I consider as the right use of technology, or using the craft, to obtain the desired artistic result. When it comes to production designing and planning, a photographer has to be a ‘ jack of all trades and master of one’. Also, he should not assign important tasks to his assistants, since they may or may not be fully aware of the required composition and lighting, and most importantly, may lack experience. Do the important tasks yourself; initially you may make mistakes, but you will definitely improve with time. Let me show you how some tricky concepts were handled with clever production planning and designing:
Pics 1(a,b,c) were shot for a jeweler who had completed 75 years in business; hence it was a land-mark year for them. They wished to come out with a calendar which would speak of ‘Pachahattar (75) baras ki paramparaa.’ (A 75 year old tradition). We decided that the letter 75 in Devanagri script should be part of the table top. The aspect ratio of the image to be printed was decided. Safety margins on all sides is always a safe deal for better compositions. The thought was that 1/4th of the frame should show their product, while 3/4th should speak of ‘parampara’ or tradition. The jewellery which was important to the client was first shortlisted, and a dummy shot (with the desired angle) of the jewellery was taken in the clients showroom for reference. This reference shot was first downloaded on to the computer and now started the production designing and planning.