Lesson Info
20. Using Polariods
Lessons
Meet your Master
01:26 2Learn from the journey
15:24 3Using inspirations
08:43 4Photography is stopping time
09:27 5Albert's library of ideas
08:30 6Tips on preparing for a portrait shoot
12:10 7Setting up the studio
04:56 8Understanding studio collaboration
07:35The importance of casting and hair & make-up
08:59 10Foreground studio set up
08:46 11Studio session with a model - set up 1
11:23 12Studio session with a model - set up 2
05:55 13Studio session with a model - set up 3
08:01 14Picking the best shot
03:36 15Working with photoshop
13:14 16Creating a portrait of Alfred Hitchcock
04:18 17The gigantic question... Colour or black and white?
07:55 18One day with Kate Moss
05:06 19Learn to have your ideas ready
06:14 20Using Polariods
06:29 21Creating beautiful photographs of hands
04:45 22Controlling natural light
05:38 23Shooting a monkey with a gun
06:27 24Choosing your format
07:13 25Composition and lens
04:47 26Shooting landscapes. The Isle of Skye
15:18 27Planning and ideas for a landscape shoot
06:32 28Creating still life images
13:48 29Photographing the Lost Diary
10:53 30Shooting album covers
03:09 31The Strip Search Project
10:28 32Shooting Las Vegas landscapes
08:24 33Photographing Breaunna
07:21 34Balancing daylight, God bless America
03:45 35Creating the Maroc Project
10:21 36Creating the Maroc shoot
08:11 37Photographing sand dunes
04:09 38Photographing Moroccan children
10:42 39Advice on making portraits
10:12 40How to be alert to finding photographs
07:35 41Making a portrait of Mike Tyson
02:39 42Creating intense colour in a photograph
03:04 43Portraits of rap stars and a Golden Boy
08:40 44Photographing Jack Nicholson
04:20 45Creating a portrait of David Cronenberg
02:14 46How to light only using two $10 bulbs
07:29 47Studio fashion set up 4
10:47 48Studio session with a model. The geography of a face
13:05 49Look inside the picture
02:56 50Creating memorability in an image
02:54 51Combining nudes and landscapes
04:52 52A perfect print
07:50 53The business side of things
06:50 54Conclusion and farewell
03:55Lesson Info
Using Polariods
(piano music) Another project that I got involved with couple of years ago, we were looking at a lot of old Polaroids. And, of course, I have tens of thousands of Polaroids that I've taken over the years. And, I came across this Polaroid at the bottom of a drawer, actually. A lot of times we, which is not very archival, we just take the Polaroids, dry them, put them in a rubber band and throw them in a box. So eventually you end up with basically hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of Polaroids in a box and then you eventually end up with dozens and dozens and dozens of boxes. And, I decided to look at them, you know, go through them and I actually laid aside a period of three weeks which is a lot of time for me and I went through these boxes. And, sometimes at the bottom of a box, you find just interesting Polaroids. (piano music) I found a shot that I had done, it was a fashion shot I had done in San Francisco of a guy in a black coat. Two and a quarter Polaroid running, and I loo...
ked at it I thought it's kind of interesting. And, I put a magnifying glass on it, and I thought, hmmm. It's very interesting. So of course, what I liked was the granular quality of it that it has a certain roughness to it, which I liked, but at the same time, the lumps of grain in it looked pretty sharp to me. So, it's a strange combinations of appearing low resolution, but at the same time high resolution. So, you have this beautiful quality of this raw Polaroid and I then decided we scanned it as high a resolution that we could at 10,000 DPI in 16 bit. We scanned it, and of course, I was amazed at what suddenly appeared. So, then it was like putting it in front of an electrode magnifying glass. Sort of, it was just hyper real-looking. And, I then suggested to the people, the gallery people, that worked with me, I suggested that let's go ahead and let me do a large format print here, which turned out to be eight feet by six feet of this what was really a two and a quarter high Polaroid. And, of course the result was rather remarkable. Of course the Polaroid was not perfect, to say the least. And, on top of that it was scratched to hell. It'd been at the bottom of a pile and the scratches were all over it. But of course it became it's own beautiful object and I realized that by going through some of these Polaroids I could source Polaroids that not only were I hope quite strong images; you couldn't away from it the strength of the original image. If it was not a very good image, then it didn't really work. But if the image was strong and powerful, graphic and interesting. So the images ranged from a fashion shot of somebody running to a group of artificial flowers in a artificial vase in a Mexican restaurant that I'd taken a Polaroid of. So these things, suddenly, when they became enlarged, took on a beauty of their own. And we began doing prints of them and our gallery owner in Switzerland came by and saw them and absolutely loved them and immediately took one on his iPhone of me standing next to it, sent it to a collector in Switzerland, and he already, he sold it immediately. So, it was quite, people like these things. We had a very nice show in Zurich of these images. So, I tell this story about how really to keep aware, keep alive when you're looking at your own images, even if it's something that you had no intention when you took the picture many years ago. You know, a fashion shot in San Francisco and that you suddenly end up with it; or not suddenly, through a process of work end up with it as an exhibition in Zurich, a traveling exhibition and people actually handed over a lot of money. And we actually examined this even further, where for some reason I had kept the wrong side of the Polaroid; the wrapper. I had kept some of those, and I discovered it also in a drawer some of the original ones that I'd done of Kate Moss in Marrakech 25 years ago. I began looking at those, and we began scanning these, the negative side which, as you know, solarizes slightly in the light. We began blowing these up, and these sold immediately. So, it's not always, my initial energy in this is not always to be looking for something to sell and put up on a wall and sell it. Can I make money from this? But I have a great love of just printing and imagery like that, and it really, it truly, once again stays switched on. Don't switch off. And you can actually find local gems hidden in contact sheets and hidden in Polaroid drawers and so on. Very often, you can revisit some of your earlier work and find out that it's not quite as bad as you thought. (piano music)
Ratings and Reviews
Richard A. Heckler
"Unless you're Mozart"...this course is an invaluable asset. I'm a pro, humanitarian/documentary photographer, & wilderness...and I've learned much from the 40+ sessions here. This is truly a Master Class...next best thing to being with Albert. And although I could watch studio sessions forever, this course offered a very balanced curriculum of technical information, artistic encouragement and guidance, and a open, generous window into the thinking of a gifted artist and photographer, sifted from decades of first class experience. Kudos to all involved. Excellent!
a Creativelive Student
I purchased my first CreativeLive class in 2011 and have continued to purchase many classes over the years. I have learned so much from the many great instructors. This one is not a technical class that will tell you to set your camera at f4, 1/60, ISO 400 and you can get this shot. If you are looking for that, there are many other options. If you have a solid working knowledge of photography, this class is so much more. The way it was filmed is like you are there with him in conversation or in the room with him watching him shoot. To see and understand the how and why he does what he does. Not to take anything away from other classes that have helped to give me a strong understanding of photography, this is my favorite CreativeLive class so far.