The Foundry Studio « Winokur Photography

The Foundry Studio

Precious Polaroid 804

Portrait of Michael Winokur by James Lesko, second sheet of film and we're off to a good start.

My friend James and I spent Saturday in my studio shooting some of the last Polaroid 8×10 film in the world. James brought over his beautiful Linhof 8×10 view camera – what a stunning example of mechanical engineering. We experimented with some black and white Polaroid 804 and a processor I had found on eBay. Neither of us had ever used this film before. All I can say is I wish I were shooting 8×10 Polaroid by the box back when it was still being made. It’s a slow methodical process but one with exactly the magic that people talk about when they romanticize photography.

James inserting the Polaroid film holder into his Lindhof Master Kardan.

The film was almost 10 years old. The processor in unknown condition. We could just have easily found out that neither worked. It could have been a hugely expensive pile of garbage. It was not garbage, it was amazing. All these years later it still made pictures that have that Polaroid goodness.

Shooting and processing 8×10 Polaroid requires - according the the instructions - 33 steps. From inserting the negative in the holder to placing the positive in the processor and timing the development to finally peeling the print from the negative. We shot 8 pictures in about 5 hours. We could have been faster but we didn’t want to waste any film. Oh, we did waste film. The first sheet got flared and then we mis-processed a sheet – that’s an expensive mistake about on par with shattering a bottle of fine wine.

The very first sheet we exposed, showing light leaks form improper handling.

Let us not give all the credit for this look to Polaroid. The Linhof camera fitted with a Heliar 360mm lens is special all by itself. One of the reasons this camera is exceptional for portraiture is that huge 8×10 image area. Technology companies have done wonders with small sensor digital cameras. But there is no changing the physics that govern light and optics. The bigger the imager (in this case 8×10) the longer the focal length of the lens which creates a “normal” field of view. The longer the focal length the greater the compression and shallower the depth of field.

Back to the Polaroid. The science side of photography is all about controlling variables. E.g. processing time and temperature effect film speed and contrast which in turn effect exposure. Many of these variables are well documented. In the case of 10 year-old film, the temperature vs. processing time side of the equation is a mystery. We started at the recommended 45 seconds and quickly doubled that to 90. With a decent supply of film that was all manufactured and stored under the same conditions we could determine the “right” processing time. Since that’s not possible we tried some variations around 90 seconds then accepted that as optimal.

This incredible day of making pictures purely for the sake of experimenting with the medium reminds me how much I loved working with Polaroid films, especially Type 55. It of course also reminds me how betrayed photographers feel by Polaroid for taking away integral film. There are fine-art photographers whose entire style was based on Polaroid’s films, if I’m annoyed by loosing this film I’m sure they are devastated.

The ghostly Polaroid negative just after being peeled away from the positive print.

There has never been more interest in photography and never have we seen more people building small companies devoted to photography enthusiasts. Somehow the MBA’s at Polaroid thought it would be better to hire Lady Gaga then to make even small amounts of the film that made them a worldwide brand. All we can hope for is the impossible. Impossible project that is. Maybe in years to come there will be more of this film. But there are very few 8×10 cameras, so it’s kind of hard to imagine. There are however tons of 4×5 cameras, I am told that 4×5 integral film like type 55 will never be made again. Polaroid destroyed the equipment. Fuji still makes a 4×5 instant film, it’s very good but it’s not the fine-art media that Polaroid’s films were.

Digital photograph of the ground glass

Michael Winokur photograph by James Lesko

James seen on the ground glass of his Master Kardan

Behind the Scenes / The Foundry Studio / Winokur Photography — No Comments
16
Nov 11

Fashion at the Foundry

We invited friend of the studio Daniel Castro to shoot a fashion test here at The Foundry studio a few weeks ago. While he and his team were here I shot a few minutes of behind the scenes video with my “toy” camera the Panasonic GF1. Take a look and see a whole new side of the Foundry Studio.

Equipment and Technology / The Foundry Studio / Winokur Photography — 1 Comment
9
Sep 11

In Our Studio: Make your digital camera better for $99

I’m not much for tech talk but I thought I’d start posting items about some of the tools we use here in our studio. A few months ago I started worrying that the grey card I use to set white balance was discolored. I looked online to see about a replacement. I happened to find the X-Rite Color-checker Passport on Amazon.com. $99 seemed ridiculous for a grey card, but I thought the integration with Light Room seemed intriguing. Now that I have it I wish I had one from the first day I bought a digital camera. We’ve been calibrating scanners and monitors for years. That it took this long to start calibrating the digital camera, in hindsight, seems crazy.

Setting Profile in Adobe Light Room

The color checker provides the same functions as a good grey-card for white balance. What makes it so brilliant is it also includes software to create a DMG table which replaces the Adobe Standard profile in the camera raw converter. Essentially it tells the converter how to convert different colors. The difference is remarkable for saturated reds and blues. We now shoot the Passport in each lighting scenario and then I use Lightroom to set white balance and camera profile before I do anything else to the files.

File straight from Canon 1ds MKIII with white balance set for Strobe

File with X-rite profile enabled

File with camera profile and white balance set.

Notice in particular the reds and blues and the stronger delineation between colors in the slur gauge on the left side. For some pictures the effects of the profile are hardly noticeable, for images with strong colors the difference can be like throwing a light switch.

Color profile set for Adobe ACR 4.4

Custom Profile

In my opinion if you care about color you need to be using this tool for every shoot, btw I have no relationship with X-Rite. There is a video tutorial here.

Animal Portraits / Behind the Scenes / Collaborations / Filmmaking / The Foundry Studio / Winokur Photography — 9 Comments
6
Sep 11

Meet Velcro and Zero.

This might be the cutest thing you’ve ever seen: Here is Mr. Fox Takes A Nap:

Introducing the adorable Zero and rambunctious Velcro: I had the great fortune to be the first photographer to work with two brand new talents in the industry. Zero, a beautiful Arctic Fox and Velcro the wide-eyed Ring-Tailed Lemur. I’ve been working on an Animal Portrait portfolio for years, I just had the amazing opportunity to photograph an 18-foot Reticulated Python named Lemondrop for California Academy of Sciences. I love making portraits of animals so I’m actively looking for new subjects and clients who share my interest.

The Fantastic Mr. Zero

Velcro the ring-tailed lemur

I found out on Facebook that Bowwow Productions were here in town working with my friends Jennifer Bullock and Tom Hood, they were doing a shoot with a big adorable St. Barnard, but they were traveling with two fresh young faces who had never been in a real shoot before. It was an opportunity for me not only to photograph two of the cutest animals, but to meet and work with Stephanie and Judy from Bowwow. I’m so happy it worked out, it was great fun for everyone and I’m very happy with these new additions to my collection of animal portraits. Check out Winokur Photography to see more photos of Zero and Velcro.

Zero is an Arctic Fox - Vulpes lagopus

There is something about a studio-portrait of an animal that I find endlessly fascinating. The thing is, and this is true for much of my work, by removing every element except the subject and the relationship between the viewer and the subject, we create an image that allows us to believe in a personal connecting with the sitter. An introduction if you will. Photographs of these animals in the wild can certainly be beautiful and fascinating, but by photographing them in a neutral setting we have the opportunity to focus on their eyes, expression and body language. These are character studies just like the portraits of people I make.

I knew it would be huge fun to have a fox and a lemur in my studio, so I recruited my brother, Stephan, to shoot some video while we worked. I edited his footage and put together this 2 minute video showing us working with Stephanie and Judy of Bowwow Productions:

Behind the Scenes / Collaborations / Editorial / The Foundry Studio / Winokur Photography — 2 Comments
9
Aug 11

New client and new friends

I wanted to work with Yoga Journal from the time I started my own yoga practice. As soon as I was introduced to Yoga I became creatively inspired by the strength, beauty and grace of the practice. I began seeking out yogis to photograph. Like dancers yogis have an awareness of their bodies that makes them a pleasure to photograph. Last December, after pestering Creative Director, Charli Ornett and Art Director, Ron Escobar for some time I was given my first assignment for the magazine.

Since December we have worked together regularly – except a brief hiatus after my knee surgery. It should be no surprise that the team from a magazine like Yoga Journal is an absolute pleasure to work with and have in the studio. The shoots are busy and we have a lot to produce each day but it feels more like having friends visit then a busy production day. Since December we’ve worked on projects for the section Home Practice, two feature stories and a video.

This video, an interview with yoga instructor, Kia Miller was a last minute request from the magazine. I had worked on several video projects but hadn’t shot lip-synch sound before. Since I didn’t trust the 5d for audio I ran around and pulled together a mixer and wireless mic in time for the shoot. Any photographer who considers film-making of interest should begin paying close attention to sound in film and take sound as seriously as pictures in their motion projects. Audio mixing is one of the next things on my self-education to-do list.

Most of the time I am looking for the moment. Dancing with a subject finding the best way to express an idea. Because YJ wants to show perfect yoga poses the methodology of their shoots is unique. We have to show the perfect expression of each pose. Conceptually, It’s as if our whole team is doing the pose together breathing into it, finding the right depth and angle. The picture is that moment when we were all in tune on that same breath.

Behind the Scenes / Collaborations / Filmmaking / The Foundry Studio / Winokur Photography — 3 Comments
4
Aug 11

Producing Small Pleasures

Small Stuff:

“Enjoy the simple things.” It’s a cliché. The kind of unwanted advice you get when you’re fighting with the big things. However once you realize that something small gives you a tickle of pleasure, like a warm welcome home from your cat or dog, it can be amazingly satisfying to pay that little moment an undue amount of attention. This concept grew into the film project I’m debuting here. No spoilers, but this is the first in a series of shorts called Life’s Small Pleasures. It’s about one of the little things we enjoy in our home. Please take 2 minutes to watch, we had a great time making this and learned a lot on the way. If you like it I hope you’ll share this link with your friends.

For me making new work isn’t just a small pleasure. It’s where my energy and happiness come from. As a result I’m always looking for my next project. Life’s Small Pleasures came to me one day while I was watching the structure of broadcast commercials. Isn’t that a great way of saying I was “working” when I was really watching TV? From that moment I started figuring out how to execute it. Like most photographers I’m always pushing myself creatively and technically. Lately that means exploring motion and learning the tools and techniques of that media.

This short film was a personal project. I was the producer, director, editor and chief instigator but I didn’t do it alone.

Film-making requires a team. We keep our crew small, tight and nimble. For this project I had help from the start from my friends at Artist Untied. Artist Representative Samantha Sommatino and I talked about the idea and she suggested stylists I could work with. Then CEO and Creative Director Jon Lucca got involved, he provided invaluable support. Artist Untied put Ken Baldwin on the project, he not only worked on props and wardrobe but he took the lead on casting. Renee Rael provided hair and makeup styling. I brought in my usual crew including Mike Blumenfeld (gaffer / assistant) and Chrysta Giffen (retoucher / colorist). This is partly because I love working with them and also because I want my motion production to run hand in hand with my still productions. I want my crew to be as comfortable changing production hats as I am.

The shoot:

By the time we had the video production moving forward and knew what location and talent would be required it was clear that we would be well-served to combine a still lifestyle project with the film production. This is what clients are requesting so why not do the same for ourselves. What we didn’t do was try to shoot still and video at the same time. Each art-form has its own creative and technical needs. By breaking the shoot into two distinct days we allowed each its own physical and mental space. Though camera and lighting tools are merging in ways that allow still and motion to come from the same teams and the same equipment each has a different kind of storytelling and directing needs.

We only had one day for the motion project and one for the lifestyle shoot, everyone worked exceptionally hard the results speak for their professionalism and talent.



	
	
		
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Creating a film and body of images out of a single stream-lined production exemplifies what I love to do for clients. We are already working on the next “Small Pleasure”

Stay tuned.

Behind the Scenes / Editorial / The Foundry Studio / Winokur Photography — No Comments
3
Aug 11

Yoga Journal at The Foundry

New this month on the Yoga Journal website is a video from the Talent Search Winner shoot we did here at Winokur Photography & The Foundry Studio. The video was shot by Lynton Vandersteen and edited by Sarah Kleinman at Yoga Journal. I think I managed to avoid being pictured, except the side of my head, but there is a good shot of my 1st assistant Mike Blumenfeld hard at work with stylists France Pierson and Lyn Heineken.

Enjoy.

Editorial / Portraiture / The Foundry Studio / Winokur Photography — 2 Comments
28
Mar 11

A call from one of my favorite magazines

Over many years Colors Magazine has been an innovative and irreverent magazine. The kind of publication that is constantly experimenting. It’s also been an interesting home for photography from all over the world. I was really happy to have a call from Mauro Bedoni back in December to shoot a feature for their Collector’s Edition. Colors is a monograph, each issue is on a single subject. This issue was to be about people with interesting collections. I finally got a copy of the magazine this month so now I can share the work here.

In addition to an assignment from a publication I’ve always admired I had the pleasure of meeting Nathan Shedroff, who collects items from The Concorde. Nathan is also on the faculty at CCA and we have some mutual friends. It’s a great thing about being a photographer that projects often come with the bonus of meeting fantastic people and making new friends.

I really like how Colors used the photos, my work with Nathan is in the very front of the magazine. I also hear the work is on view right now at Le Royal Monceau Hotel in Paris, so drop by and let me know how it looks.

Behind the Scenes / Large Format and Alternative Process / Portraiture / The Foundry Studio / Winokur Photography — 1 Comment
25
Mar 10

The Montages

Inspired by David Hockeny's Pearl Blossom Highway, this is one of a new series of montages I've been shooting here in the studio.

Since we moved into the new studio I’ve been exploring and really enjoying the new space. Right away I started a new personal project making portraits of freckled people. That series is now online here. Since I had cool people coming to the studio to sit for me I figured I could try something even more experimental then the freckles project. This series, which was inspired by David Hockeny’s Pearl Blossom Highway allows me to explore each subject through a series of detail images, this one of Ria Murphy is comprised of 69 individual photographs. I used an old Apple Box which I inherited when I moved into the studio as a unifying element in the series, it and the space itself are the only consistencies in these montages. Because of the nature of this project, you can’t tell if you have something good until you assemble all the parts, it has some of the magic and surprise that we all used to love with film.

Behind the Scenes / The Foundry Studio / Winokur Photography — 2 Comments
3
Feb 10

Change of Address

I’ve been so busy getting the APA/SF Blog going. I’ve neglected posting the biggest news from Winokur Photography. We moved. I’m very happy to tell you about The Foundry Studio, Winokur Photography’s new home. This building, erected around 1907, as the home of Pelton Water Wheel’s foundry. It has also been a studio space for a succession of talented photographers and other artists. Read about Pelton on Wikipedia, it’s fascinating. I’m proud to work in a place which was once the home of a company combining craftsmanship and engineering to make a cutting edge product. After all, photography is a juncture of art and science.

We’re located in what has been called Media Gultch, a part of San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood. We have great resturants as wells as Calumet, Left Space, Figureplant and JCX Expendables as neighbors. It’s pretty convenient.

That barber’s chair (left) has traveled with me from Philadelphia to San Diego to Palo Alto to San Francisco. I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be doing any more traveling for some time. This is the first time I’ve had a studio of my own. Even though my work is very location oriented, this studio is a great HQ. It will be an environment to experiment in, build sets, fine tune lighting setups and otherwise make a big mess.