Towards Press: Film Premiere at Kino International

After a year living in Berlin, and two decades of dreams and struggles of photography, I’ve started freelancing for a press agency. This means a lot. It means excitement, access, speed. For years now I have practiced the art of press photography but generally to a different end. I have photographed protests as a demonstrator, from the anti-war demonstrations during the buildup to the Iraq War in 2003 in New York through protests against tearing up the East Side Gallery in Berlin in 2013. Now I’ll be doing it for the mainstream media.

My shooting style will be affected, too. I’ve often gone for available light, fast prime lenses. I’ve done this with black and white film that I could push or digital at high ISO. I need to be shooting with zooms now for speed in composition, where I loose a few critical stops. So I’m supposed to shoot flash, for more depth of field, for that “look”, and for those lenses.

I got access through patience. I waited until the press had gone off to send their pictures to their editors to approach the stars. Now I’ve got a press pass and I’m on the lists.

The thing is that I like my way of doing things. It isn’t just poor man’s press photography. It means talking to an important figure instead of just flashing them. It means spending hours at the event instead of minutes, to capture its spirit.

Moving forwards as a press photographer will mean growth, but not a loss of style. Learning from my colleagues, I’ll do what I can to meld the style I’ve built over a decade of press-like photography with a more classic look. It is going to be fun. A lot of my gigs are going to show up here. Below, a sneak preview.

Premiere of König von Deutschland at Kino International

Shooting the Premiere of König von Deutschland at Kino International is my first of hopefully many assignments with the agency. So here’s to my first attempt at the red carpet and chatting up German movie stars.

It begins with an actress on the guest list, Franziska Weisz. She tried to sneak by behind the red carpet, playing hard to get. Some colleagues at DPA called her over, and she was more than glad to pose. This is the kind of classic archive shot of a movie star that requires the right camera settings and being a bit annoying, but not so much in the way of, well, photographic skill.

I apologize in advance for the watermarks. The identical images are for sale across town, so to post images large enough to see I have to watermark them.

Franziska Weisz on the red carpet at the premiere of König Von Deutschland, Kino International

Franziska Weisz on the red carpet at the premiere of König Von Deutschland, Kino International

Things got more interesting as the night went on. The female lead, Katrin Bauerfeind, was tired of being flashed by the time the film had run, but was still happy to chat. Lucky me, I asked her if I could do a few shots with a flash, and she more than obliged. Available light, D800 on ISO 6400, Nikon’s 70-200 f/2.8 around 100mm and a smidgin of noise reduction. The result is almost a studio headshot. Happy photographer, happy film star.

Katrin Bauerfeind at the premiere of König Von Deutschland, Kino International

Katrin Bauerfeind at the premiere of König Von Deutschland, Kino International

Indeed, she was happy enough to grab together her co-leads in the film for the most natural of the group shots I managed that evening. Here I flashed a teency bit to kill some shadows and bring the machine down to ISO 3200. Questionable decision – the weird blue shadow on Katrin’s face is a result of the nearly impossible to control mixed lighting I had to deal with, with about 3 seconds of prep time.

Wanja Mues, Katrin Bauerfeind and Otto Dittrich at the premiere of König Von Deutschland, Kino International

Wanja Mues, Katrin Bauerfeind and Otto Dittrich at the premiere of König Von Deutschland, Kino International

The night ends back in front of Kino International with the film’s director, David Dietl. I managed a test shot at the right distance to balance the main light on David – this was a street at night, solidly three stops darker than the sign behind him. I’ve never been content with TTL flash, so I did the balancing manually. One overexposed test shot grabbed his attention, and then a well exposed shot of him, a bit looser as the night went on, pointing to the sign announcing his film’s premiere.

Director David Dietl pointing to Kino International

Director David Dietl pointing to Kino International

And that is where this first assignment ends. Stay tuned.

 

 

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