Sherman and LaChappelle

Cindy Sherman is best known for her self portraiture work in which she creates elaborate scenes to tell a story. I believe her views on photography are applicable to commercial work because of this. She takes these small notions and brings light to them by dressing herself a specific way, putting on makeup to emulate someone or something and building backgrounds and sets to further tell her stories. These exact types of things happen in the commercial industry every day. 

Sherman may not ever be selling a specific product in her photographs but when analyzing a larger body of her work you can see where product placement could actually work really well. In her work Untitled 96 we see Sherman dressed up in the garb of a child, lying on the ground and holding the wrapper to something. Whenever I look at this image it makes me think she could be holding the used container of a Smuckers peanut butter and jelly sandwich or something to that effect simply because of the compositional choices she made with the photograph. The color and pattern of the dress makes me think of a picnic and the types of food that you would bring on one.

She has more recently been seen making work including more products from popular culture. She did an entire series of photographs where she dressed herself up in these fantastic outfits while dawning her face with MAC cosmetics. These images were seen as more of a theatrical take on the wear of makeup and do not appear natural at all. The point of the photographs were to show the power that MAC cosmetics has for more theatrical purposes such as drag, theater or other forms of performance. In this way, Sherman really does take the experience she has as a fine art photographer and the styles and views she has cultivated over the multiple years and really put them into the context of a certain product to further expand on those views.

David LaChappelle's work combines aspects of commercial and fine art to create intriguing and colorful works that is sure to influence photographers for multiple generations. His work usually includes a cacophony of colors and textures accompanied by celebrities and elaborate set designs to either sell a product or tell a story. 

Some of his most famous work was created for commercial purposes and I believe more people respond to these simply because of their straightforward nature. Even though the photographs themselves are not simple by any means, the way he makes consumers want to buy a product is intriguing. An ad that comes to mind, is one that features Amber Rose dressed in these glorious gowns made to emulate the new “flavors” of Sminoff Vodka. All she is doing is standing there holding glasses of each specific flavor but the makeup and set design along with the composition and lighting make her appear as she is a “tall drink of vodka” and the clarity sells to consumers. 

Some criticize the work of LaChappelle for furthering the stereotype of women as objects and using an immense amount of retouching in his work but he really seems to enjoy using these aspects to his advantage when creating advertisements. He also like to use the aspect of spectacle as a tool to draw in the attention of viewers and play to his own unique style. His work may be over the top, oversexed and oversaturated but this distinct style he has created will definitely be taught and analyzed as a way to sell products in the foreseeable future. 

Learning from Video

I watched two 1 hour tutorials on F-stoppers about composition and lighting. Here is what I gathered from watching:

When viewing another person set up a product shoot, you can really notice all of the equipment it takes to make one little thing look its best. One of the tutorials I watched took place outside and featured Joe McNally with a model holding a product. The point of the video was to show how combining natural and artificial light can create a nice effect while still "shedding light" on the most important part of the image, the product.

He was shooting into the sun to create the natural flare effect into the camera and had to somehow light the front of the model and product so he brought in one reflector and a main key light to create the light he needed. This type of lighting setup aims to make the model or subject look at crisp as possible while still having the natural feeling of the sun setting in the background. The photographer has to pay attention to the light meter in the camera as they are setting it to get the ambient light of the sun and not completely light the subject (the lights and reflectors do that).

In this tutorial, he also focused a lot on the composition of the photograph. He completely cropped out the model's face and only showed the hand holding the product. I believe this put more emphasis on the product rather than the person and would give consumers the ability to place themselves within the role of person. By taking away the complete identity of the model, McNally allows for viewers to understand the context in which the product should be used and lights it to create a calming effect that coincided with the colors of the product.


The second tutorial I watched had to do with lighting a product in the studio. This one was much different from the first because it dealt with only using artificial light and it took out the inclusion of humans in order to sell the product. McNally stated that this type of photography is mostly used when adding images to sites to sell because it shows the products in harsh light and doesn't allow room for the imagination, which is the point. This is used to simply show the product exactly how it should look when you receive it, given consumers peace of mind when purchasing.

He used a table with white paper overtop, bounce boards and strobes to achieve the look he was going for. The table acted as a simple backdrop for the products while the bounce board down in front of the product was used to shift light from the key back into the product. By doing this type of lighting setup, you can really achieve crisp and clear images because it allows you to bring up the shutter speed on the camera. The faster the shutter, the more sharp the images look and that is exactly what you're going for in product photography. Even though these inanimate object wouldn't shift or move like a person would, a high shutter is always favored.

The composition of these images were much more simple as the shots were only composed to show the detail of the product. His camera stayed on a tripod the entire time and the shifting of composition came from moving the products themselves around on the table. This showed all of the angles of the products while showing details as well.


The second tutorial will come in handy for my next project where I will be shooting a game product for a colleague so I can't wait to put what I learned here into action.

Answers from F-Stoppers

While reading multiple articles on F-Stoppers.com I came across many interesting opinions on what commercial photography really is. There are those who believe it to be as simple as shooting images for commercial use and others who use it to tell compelling visual stories in order to sell products.

I always believed it to be the latter. The broad umbrella of commercial work extends past simple images and reaches into a realm of storytelling in order to place people and products in a real life setting in which consumers could possibly place themselves within.

In one of the articles, the author speaks about the power that photography has in the world of advertising because of its wide range of applications. Commercials are a great way to reach an audience about a product but they are very expensive to make and can only be accessed on certain platforms. Images can be seen almost anywhere which makes the creation of them much more applicable. Billboards, signs and posters can be seen really anywhere you go and photography is obviously the main sources of these images.

This is why the world of commercial photography is so lucrative. The need for educated and talented photographers is astounding because there is always the opportunity for continuous work. With the constant advances in technology, more and more people are getting access to cameras and applications such as Photoshop. However, commercial works stays one of the leading areas in photography where true professionals are the most hired due to experience in either marketing or advertising and the true eye they have for it.

One of the biggest things that sets the amateurs apart from professionals in the understanding of the equipment and the way photographers compose their shots. You can tell when someone has years of experience under their belts due to the way they know how to light and compose a shot. They know exactly how to light the subject, capture the main aspects of the product and make sure it looks the best in its end product.

I will be watching some lighting and composition tutorials by Joe McNally to see what he says about these ideas.