Squares

October 18, 2010

The sage Huey Lewis, in his infinite and uncontested wisdom, once said, “It’s hip to be square.” It’s just as true today as it was way back in 1986. In tribute to Mr. Lewis, I’ve begun photographing hip people and placing them in square boxes as a sort of visual metaphor for one of the world’s great truths.

In truth, this ongoing series of portraits began when I created my own DYI beauty dish. A good friend of mine created the initial design for use with a dedicated camera flash. You can find his tutorial here. Upon modifying the design a bit, I discovered that the dish, assembled from no more than cardboard, A4 sheets and tape, produced wonderfully punchy portraits. The dish creates a natural vignette (so trendy these days) and minimizes the hard shadows that typically result from a bare flash. Because of the materials used, the dish really limits the amount of light the flash outputs. Initially, I was using a really cheap flash that didn’t produce a lot of light. To mitigate the problem, I used a wide angle lens in order to get close to the subject and maximize usable light. After upgrading my flash, I decided to stick with the same technique in order to maintain consistency.

This is an example of the result I’m getting with my current set-up. It was taken ISO 200, f 4.5, at 1/60s. The flash would of been fired at 1/8 to 1/4 power depending on available light. In my opinion, this shot looks good straight from camera but I put in some work in post-production anyway. When I edit these, my general goals are to eliminate any blown highlights, color correct the photograph, and sharpen the image. In most cases, I also selectively darken and lighten areas using layer masks in Photoshop in order to give the image even more punch. For these portraits, a square crop seems to serve the image best. Eventually I’d like to have 36 separate portraits, print them out, and arrange them in a 6 by 6 square, obviously. Here is the finished product. You can see more on my website under “squares”.

Taylor Summach is a photographer from Manitoba who also writes for Parade. Check out his website.