Is anyone out there old enough to remember this famous line, “Ok Mr. DeMille I’m ready for my close-up”? Well I was five when Gloria Swanson first uttered these famous words in the 1950 movie Sunset Boulevard, so I didn’t actually see the movie since I was five at the time. That said, over the years I have heard it repeated several times since that line has become sort of a Hollywood semi-joke/legend.
Moving forward into modern times, I have spoken this line to my online classes with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct all over the place; btw, it’s not because I remember hearing them when I was a kid.
I say this phrase because it’s part of my approach to taking people pictures. I will usually start out with more of a longer lens environmental portrait, then once my subject is comfortable with me I move in for the close-up.
In the two images above, I was shooting for a client publishing a cookbook that was going to be called, “Autumn in Provence”. We were in a van that started out in Normandy and shot all the down to Nice. There were specific locations and events that the woman wanted me to shoot, and there were times that while we were going down the highway I woud see something worth shooting so we would stop for a photo op.
Since we were always moving South, there wasn’t time for me to wait until the best conditions so it was hit or miss as far as the quality of the light.
As we were driving down the highway I looked out at several people cleaning up after the harvest in a vineyard. We got out of the van and I approached this great looking young Frenchman and asked if I could photograph him. He loved the idea!!
As I tell my students and fellow photographers, when the sky is that nasty bluish-gray-white that we all know, do whatever you can to avoid it. I usually do this one of two ways:
I will use a lens like my 300mm F/2.8 and shoot wide open knocking everything out of focus, as in the photo above when you place the slide on the far left. Then for my close-up I’ll switch to my 20mm lens and get up close and personal thus eliminating unwanted sky; as in the photo on the right.
FYI, he wasn’t French, he was from Idaho and was spending the Fall bumming around in France.
If you’re interested in seeing Gloria say this infamous line, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIcC8YJrevQ
For me, the key to coming home with ‘wall hangers’ is to give yourself as many options as you can, and when you’re ready for that closeup…take it!!
Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my 2018 workshop schedule a the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. In conjunction with The Santa Fe Workshops, on October 2nd I’ll be leading a group in San Miguel de Allende. A beautiful oasis and artist colony, and the entire city is a UNESCO site.
JoeB
