Photography, Great Lighting and a Unique Cover Shot

Click on any image to read the complete posted article

There's so much great content available on the Internet and especially on the Profoto website. I ran across this post in the "Inspirations" feature in the Profoto Archives, and there's a significant reason why I wanted to share it.

So often over the years, especially going back to my Rangefinder Magazine days, I'd hear photographers comment on a particular cover. The usual comment was, "I could have shot that!"  The reality is they didn't, but it goes much deeper than that - they never tried. They weren't working to build a reputation as one of the very best. They hadn't done any relationship building with the staff. Mostly they were sitting around and waiting to be discovered!

What I love most about this post, "Alexvi Reveals How He Created a Cover for GQ Magazine," is that Alexvi really does share his vision combined with his thought process in delivering an outstanding image as the finished product. Part of that process is also thinking through the format of the magazine.

From the post, Alexvi wrote:

Vicson, the creative director of GQ China, came out with a fun and bold idea – the ten people in the photo are standing in a circle, and they are all looking down at the camera. Due to the different distances between the subjects and the camera, there would be an overlay relationship between the models.

To test whether the idea was feasible, they arranged ten staff members as models to simulate the shoot and identify potential problems. The lighting setup was designed to imitate the natural sunlight from behind, while the subjects' faces also needed to be lit.
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The whole image would be folded twice and thus divided into three sections while avoiding broken lines on the subjects' faces. At the same time, the full-width image had to be well composed for the fold-out.

​The challenge we'd so often see at Rangefinder was photographers submitting work that didn't fit the cover size. First, it's a vertical format - so, horizontal images just don't work. Second, there are specific areas of the cover for the title and an open space for the address label. If you're submitting work to any magazine and hoping to be published and scoop the cover, you've got to take the time to consider the format and needs of the magazine. Just submitting beautiful images isn't enough!

There's a lot of outstanding insight in this story and it's well-worth reading the entire post. Alexvi should also be on your radar. He's a phenomenal artist.

"Alexvi is a well-known Chinese photographer. He is the photographer with whom Ang Lee most frequently cooperates in China, and he documents the daily life of Ozzy Osbourne. He has also shot for directors, actors, singers and most celebrities in China.

Alexvi, born in 1984, is a Profoto China ambassador and a master at balancing art and commerce. He collects inspiration from his daily life, which makes his work with diverse perspectives silent but profound. In a sense, he can be regarded as an artist rather than a fashion photographer.­

He is the founder of ASTUDIO and has shot covers for several fashion and art magazines, such as Chinese GQ, Esquire, Bazaar Art, ELLEMEN and Traveller.

In 2015, his photo book “Lonely Planet” won the Photobook Awards Martin Parr Edition at Lianzhou Foto Festival, and in June 2016 his project “Peking Apartments” won the Fine Art Photography Awards in London. In addition to his work as a photographer, Alexvi is also a director and director of photography. In 2016, he curated an exhibition at UCCA, one of the best known art galleries in China. The exhibition involved nine influential Chinese artists."

Check out the entire article from "Inspirations" with a click on any of the images above. And, take the time to find the Profoto dealer nearest you. Isn't it time you find out what all the buzz is about. Profoto never slows down in manufacturing the finest lighting gear in professional photography.

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