Couples . . .
By
John Terence Turner
Stock Asylum Columnist
Aug 6, 2007
©
2006 John Terence Turner
Couples are the foundation of human society. Frequently they evolve
into families. Many ads and articles require photographs of couples
to sell products or to illustrate ideas. As a result, there is a big
demand for photographs of couples.
Therefore, we photograph a lot of couples for stock photography. This column offers some examples and discusses the backgrounds of the shoots.
How does a photographer acquire models for couple shoots? The ways are many and varied.
Let’s imagine one common circumstance. You know a couple that might be good models. They are attractive; they already are a couple so they will be comfortable with each other; they know you so they will probably be at ease with the photographer; you hire them.
That one is pretty easy and you are likely to have a good shoot and everyone will probably enjoy themselves, which should translate into images that seem real.
 This couple was easy to work with because they had once been more than friends and they still liked each other. ( © John Terence Turner ). |
However, there are other situations where you have to hire professional models. Though they have have never met, they will have to act as if their relationship is well established.
Under
such circumstances, the photographer must assess what is possible and
be diplomatic about getting it.
The photographer wants authentic, believable pictures that achieve the
goals of the shoot.
The visible chemistry between the two models is vital and it is up to the photographer to create a situation that allows the models to behave in a way that will convince the viewer that the picture is a legitimate slice of life.
Once the shoot is under way, the photographer must guide the models through the variations of expression, body language and activity and try to make some visual magic happen.
The first picture is a young couple out on the town in a big city. These two worked well together because at one time, they had been a couple and they still liked each other.
To get the effect that I wanted, I did the shoot on Seattle’s First Ave. I used a 600mm lens to compress the streetlights and taillights of traffic in the background.
My assistant lit the couple with a Flash Wizard triggered strobe. This means that the transmitter on my camera wirelessly triggered the strobe wherever it was.
By maintaining a constant distance from them as they walked up First Avenue towards me, the light hitting the couple remained constant. The shallow depth of field of the long lens meant I was able to create a scene in which the nightlife of a city was implied by the out-of-focus bright lights of the background.
Casting was important because the couple had to be young, sexy, upscale and affectionate to sell this picture.
The slow shutter speed and movement of the long lens on its tripod caused the “smear” effect of the background lights. The models remain crisp because of the freezing effect of the very fast duration of the strobe held by my assistant.
E.A. and Jocelyn worked well together because they were already familiar with each other. My requirements were simple: I wanted them to act like the affectionate, romantic couple they once were. They did so with consummate ease.
The second picture of the senior couple strolling affectionately beneath a canopy of cherry blossoms was more problematic. These two had never met and my producer had hired them from a model agency.
 The man in this picture had been married 30 years. Getting comfortable with a woman who was not his wife took him a little while. ( © John Terence Turner) |
The male model had been married for thirty years, he told us. As it turned out, he was very uncomfortable being affectionate with a woman who was not his wife.
It took a while to loosen him up.
Linda was very helpful with this effort; she took the lead and was the aggressor, with displays of affection.
However, I had to cut back my expectations a bit and make sure my couple was fairly active so that the male model didn’t have to think about being close to a woman who was not his wife.
I kept them moving and didn’t require any kissing.
This particular location had its own requirements. It was not an orchard, but a line of cherry trees on a narrow parking strip of land along a stretch of Lake Washington Boulevard in Seattle.
In order to get the canopy effect with the cherry blossoms, I shot with a 300mm lens mounted very low to the ground. This compressed the branches and blossoms of the trees and, with its narrow field of view, prevented the viewer from seeing a busy lane of automobile traffic a few feet to the right.
The most active picture in this collection is the couple playing touch football. I wanted to shoot an extremely athletic shot in which the woman was not the lesser component nor relegated to the role of cheerleader.
 The battle of the sexes is playfully played out in this touch football shot. Each model had a carefully scripted part, so it did not matter that they did not know each other. ( © John Terence Turner ). |
The idea of touch football withstood analysis because I could have an attractive, athletic woman being the star in the foreground as she escaped the tackle of a man. Because the skills required weren’t so specific as those I would require from a rock climber or s skier, it would not be as hard to cast.
The location requirement here was completely different. As opposed to the previous two photographs in which the locations were a big part of the picture and told at least half the story, this location had to be clean with minimal clutter. I wanted grass and sky, nothing more. In this picture, the action tells the story.
This was to be a playful take on the battle of the sexes—with the woman winning.
My two models had never worked together before. It didn’t matter because each had a carefully scripted, but limited, role.
I felt sorry for Gregory because he had to dive repeatedly at the fleeing backside of Celandine —and never make the tackle. That also meant that he had to land on his stomach and chest over and over. At the end of the shoot, he was suffering.
I shot this with a 300mm f2.8 lens. I used the left-hand sensor to keep Celandine in focus. I had instructed Gregory to dive towards her left-side buttock so that her body would not obscure him while he was in the air.
I instructed Celandine to leap into the air at the same time Gregory did so that I would see daylight under each of them at the crucial moment.
Additionally, I told her to look gleefully over her shoulder as she triumphed over her male opponent. “Rub it in!” I said. She took those instructions to heart and seemed to genuinely enjoy her repeated victories.
The final shot is of a six-year old boy (my son) and a five-year old girl (daughter of a good friend) on a merry-go-round.
The two were well acquainted because my wife and I were good friends of Mika’s parents. But, once again, relationships between models intruded into the dynamics of the shoot.
 The expressions here are wonderful and seem to foreshadow something about the adults that these two children will someday become. ( © John Terence Turner ). |
Then the inevitable specter of sex raised its ubiquitous head-as it sometimes does when shooting couples. Michael was not thinking about my goals for the shoot. He was distracted, however innocently.
It's an ageless story. Boy meets girl, boy wants to impress girl, boy imagines how he can impress girl, boy proceeds (oblivious to the needs of his photographer-father).
Michael's right forearm had a nasty six-inch scab from a skateboarding accident. He clearly thought it would be suitable for capturing the young lady's admiration. Unfortunately for him, she thought it was “icky”.
The two of them looked very cute in their Patagonia fleece jackets and Michael tried again to show Mika the scab, the symbol of his skateboard prowess.
She would have none of it, so they just enjoyed the disorientation of the spinning carousel. When I look at this picture, I imagine that he is saying to Mika, “Are you sure you don’t want to see my scab?”
Whatever he was saying, the expressions on both faces are priceless and seem somehow to portend the male-female dance that most of us spend much of our lives executing without ever fully mastering exactly the right steps.
I wanted everything backlit, so I had the exposure set to get good skin tones on their little faces when the sunlight was behind them. That meant that I could shoot less than half of each rotation.
Mika’s father was in charge of propelling the merry-go-round around and he did such a good job that I became sick to my stomach from viewing the scene through a wide-angle lens.
Mercifully, we stopped and I went home to lie down.
(John Terence Turner has been shooting stock photography for 20 years. His work can be seen at Getty Images, Alamy and, of course, The Stock Asylum, where his column appears twice a month. He lives and works in Seattle, WA.)
Turner's web site can be found at: http://www.johnterenceturner.com.
For more of his images: click here.
For all of Turner's columns: click here.
