This month our guru is called Jean-Christophe and he visits us from neighboring France, specifically from the capital of the French Alps, Grenoble, called me the original of his portraits. His photographs are very expressive and leave no one indifferent as you can see below in the gallery that I include at the end of the interview. I love the importance and exquisite treatment that our guru of the month devotes to light.
With most of the international “gurus” I interview here on the blog, I have to conduct the interview in English and then translate it into Spanish before I can publish it. Today, I have to thank JC for offering to answer the questions in the Spanish interview. A detail on your part as this way I could save a lot of work?
So I’ll let you discover this creative machine called Jean-Christophe Chouillet:
JC: I am very honored to share my experience with readers of the photographer’s Blog. I am a passionate photographer, I live in Grenoble, France, and I am interested in different types of photography such as landscape photography, macrophotography, culinary photography. but what captivates me the most are the portraits.
Publisher: I am very grateful to you, Jean-Christophe, for agreeing to be with us today. To begin with, tell us, if you remember, the moment you left your amateur stage and started producing photographs in a more serious and professional way. Was it gradual . . . ?
JC: I think I started taking pictures, let’s say “seriously,” when I realized that the importance of light is even greater than the photographic equipment or camera settings. Since then, I have tried to become increasingly deliberate about the use of light. (address, type and color) in my photograph.
In my opinion, what distinguishes a “serious” photographer is precisely the vehemence and commitment to which he prepares each of the elements of a photo (light, composition ,?) Dan Winters, for example, will build the sets and lighting for your portraits. !
Editorial: How do you search for photographic inspiration?How do you come up with ideas?JC: Looking at photos of other photographers, mostly contemporary and active in the photoblogosphere, inspires us a lot. Joe McNally and David DuChemin in particular serve as role models and I extract a lot from their photos, blogs and books. Another very important source of inspiration for me is Flick. Every time I see a photo that hits me and has something I’d like to imitate, I add it to my favorites and look at it regularly.
As for ideas I try to consider each session as a photographic exercise, which can be technical or conceptual, for example, in one session I will take portraits with natural and soft light, with little depth of field, in another they will be portraits with artificial light and a solid background. A more conceptual exercise would be to create a series of contextual portraits.
Editor: You work hard in portraiture. Some of your portraits reflect really authentic, funny and very accomplished postures and gestures on the part of the model, is it because they are good professional models?Or does the photographer influence? JC: In my portraits I always pay close attention to light, and it is often their direction that dictates, to some extent, posture, however posture, composition and expression are as important as light. and require more artistic than technical judgment.
My models are not professional, and of course there are always several failed photos (because of me or the model) but these are not seen by anyone!I usually give the model some simple clues about the direction of light (“look here” or “turn your shoulders over there”) and suggest try some variations. When something seems right or wrong, I tell the model and show them the image for them to see. The result is a collaboration between photographer and model.
Editor: For a photo to convey an idea, does the photo come first and then the idea or first the idea, then the photo?JC: I try to preview each image before taking it, but above all the technical part, without the conceptual part. I have a lot of trouble expressing an idea in a photo, and for now I limit myself to basic ideas like “look what [character/object/landscape?] Which I find interesting because it has [color/texture/beauty?]”.
It can be said that in my case, first comes the selection of the theme, and it is he who defines the idea, and the photo comes at the end (with adjustments and post-processing).
Editor: Do you use Photoshop or any other photo editing program in your workflow?Do you declare yourseds a defender or an enemy of post-processing? JC: I use Lightroom for 99% of my post-processing, and if I had content-sensitive padding, I don’t think I’d ever need another program!
I try not to abuse the post-process, but it is very subjective, I have friends who find my photos very artificial, for me to change the contrast, the colors, or even take something that distracts me, are simply ways to better express the “idea” or message behind the photo.
For example, I recently took a portrait of a beautiful Brazilian woman with a red rag in red drawers, but I hadn’t noticed that there was graffiti on the back wall, when the model saw the photo she remarked it was like a favela. Maybe that would have resulted in an interesting photo, but at least it wasn’t what I wanted to express. In post-processing, of course, I cleaned the graffiti on the wall.
Editor: What’s your favorite goal you could never do without?JC: I try not to focus on the photographic equipment, but being a photographer and also a geek, I suffer from “taste for material” like everyone else.
My last purchase was a manual focus lens, the Samyang 85mm 1. 4, and I’m totally fascinated with it My perfect focus percentage on F1. 4 is quite low (less than 50%), the same with the magnifying glass and stigmameter, but the result is worth it.
Editorial: Do you have any personal tips or tricks to get better portraits? JC: Sometimes I put a mirror behind me so that the model can look at herself during the shoot, this helps the model to find original positions, quite different from the ones I can. But it is important to show the result regularly, because what the camera sees can be very different from what you see with the naked eye, especially for non-photographers, and more if you use the flash.
Publisher: Thank you for your time, Jean-Christophe, and especially for your generosity in sharing your knowledge and experiences with the readership community of this blog.
So far, interview of friends. If, like me, you also find Jean-Christophe’s photographic works very inspiring, feel free to take a look at his gallery on Flickr or visit his website to learn more about this light artist.