Influence - John Robertson and Research into Lighting tips

I have been speaking to award winning photographer John Robertson. He has over 35 years experience and is a commercial photographer working for a range of clients. I actually enquired about a part time photography assistants role he'd advertised last month, unfortunately the vacancy was already filled. His work is varied and very inspiring - he takes portraiture shots as well as landscapes and currently works as a photo journalist for the Guardian and other international newspapers and magazines.

The image below is of a heroin addict in rehabilitation - even though he has no eye contact, you can feel the sheer struggle and battle he's facing to overcome his addiction. I really like the clearness and clarity of the vivid colours in this image. For me you can not see the man is ill as I usually view images of drug addicts looking painfully thin and colourless - he could just be resting after a hard day at work.

Below is an image of Mr Universe competing. Again I really like the colours particularly the contrast of the blue hues in the background and the range of skin tones, the image has been cropped as the man poses to define his muscles.

John's pictures for me a very masculine - I'm not sure if this is due the vivid colours and hard shapes. His lines are very crisp and clean in comparison to photographer Lara Jade who uses quite soft diffused light (please see influence page) but still has vivid colour ranges.

John has been giving me some great tips on lighting websites - he's critiqued my work on flickr giving me handy pointers into lighting websites, one in particular is Stroboist . I have invested in a flashgun Canon 430 EX - as I will be shooting a wedding in June throughout various periods of the day.

See some of John's tips

Hi Natalie,

Just a quick reply...

North light was a fave of the victorian photographers and a bit of an Irving Penn technique. Personally I don't really care which direction it comes from, but understanding light is key if you will excuse the pun.

Bright sunlight is always a tricky one. My preference is to use it
as a backlight or sidelight rather than full on sunlight. Then
fill in by reflector/flash or just open up the exposure more on
the subject,(or you will end up with a silhouette!)
Different technique for objects in say direct evening or early
morning sunlight-they can look superb with full on direct
sunlight. But on people it's often much too harsh and contrasty.

Hope that helps a bit! Experiment yourself-it's the best way to
learn. It doesn't need to cost a fortune. Reflectors can be made
from anything light coloured-card, old sheet, foil, polystyrene
board, all sorts. Try black velvet and black matt card to kill
light spill. You can buy black velvet from sewing shops-a bit
expensive but excellent to use as a light-killing black
background.
The other important thing to remember is to bring lights and
subject well away from it. Putting the subject and or lights too
close to the background is a very common mistake.


Best wishes,

John.