Jeff Black's Blog

Dessie Lynn entered and won the Playboy Intimates contest for April, I think we deserve a little credit for capturing the photos ha, ha all of which you can see in my instructional videos with her.

Okay just one question if and when the government releases Bin Laden’s photos are they going to release the raw images with the metadata? The Gov. doesn’t accept .jpg as part of a 18 USC 2257 compliant Adult Model Release Form hopefully they will adhere to the same standard, yeah right!

I was recently asked in an interview “How would I best describe my website?” The short answer is a function in utility. Its no secret that we are experiencing difficult economic times which leaves many of us with little discretionary income to invest in all kinds of photography equipment. With that in mind, the focus of many of my videos is featuring equipment we can use for multiple purposes. There is plenty of unique and amazing photography equipment on the market, but a lot of it comes with quite a price tag and has limited uses. These are nice pieces to own, but does that mean we can’t achieve similar looks to our pictures without this equipment? Absolutely not, and I do my best to show you how. I recently had Alexis in the studio for some head shots, typically I would whip out the beauty dish and start shooting away, but what if you don’t own a beauty dish? Does this mean….sorry, pal you can’t do this type of shot? Nope and I will show you how.

I’d like to thank everyone who has helped support How To Photograph Models over the past year. As a small token of my appreciation, I am now offering a completely free 18 USC 2257 Compliant Adult Model Release form. Photographers there is no better way to protect yourself than having your model fill out and sign a model release form prior to your shoot. Many photographers wish they had after the fact, make sure you do it before its too late! Simply click here and its all yours, completely free! Free Adult Model Release Form

Recently, I heard something very profound said by another photographer. If you are in the business of selling photos, but you are spending a lot of time editing photos you are probably losing money. Can’t argue with that logic. So if there are filters which exist that cut your editing time by more than half and produce the same or better results, its an easy justification for using such filters. True again. This image, was converted to black and white using NIK Software, Silver EFEX PRO 2. I have found the filters work great on landscape shots, buildings and such… I have used it for a couple of glamour images and have found the results to be hit or miss, now this could definitely be due to my lack of experience with the software. I do give NIK credit, the free 15 day demo lets you use the software, and produce images without unsightly watermarks which is very cool. I don’t sell their software of get paid for rambling on about it….just thought it might be something you guys want to check out.

Davide Mecey has a 20 plus year history as a staff and contributing photographer for Playboy, I got a chance to talk with David recently, and this is what he had to say…

David it’s an honor and pleasure to have you spend a few moments with us, we know you have a lot going on these days with your personal workshops and Shoot The Centerfold. So I promise to make this quick. Here are a couple of questions I think some of our readers would be interested in knowing about you.
 
You got into photography under the advice of your doctor. Can you tell us a little more about that?

Sure. When I was just out of college I bought a motorcycle to feel the freedom of the road (that was the idea at least). Well, that lasted only a few months before a person said they didn’t see my motorcycle approaching and turned in front of me at the last minute. That put me into the hospital and I couldn’t walk for nearly a year. During that year I went back to my art background, which my doctor began to see. He was the one who would suggest I buy a camera. My first camera was a Canon Tlb 35mm film camera. It took only a day with it to hook me on photography. I began to search for books on photography and reading them front to back. So I taught myself photography basics and then would begin to experiment throughout my career to develop new ways of doing things to create a gorgeous picture.

What lead to the opportunity to work with Playboy?

Playboy was not even a thought to me when I got into photography. When I first started out in photography, I began to photograph another passion of mine, cars. Drag racing and modified street-cars were what I began to shoot, even for some of the car magazines. In fact, working for those car magazines were actually my sort of indoctrination into traveling and shooting on the road. So it was about 1978 that I discovered ‘women’ as models. I began to shoot friends of mine, girls whom I thought would photograph well, and they usually did. I became known for my pretty pictures of girls in my small town. One of them actually wanted me to submit her pictures to Playboy, something I had never thought about before. I did some research and sent off a sheet of slides and a cover sheet. I received a very nice letter of rejection for the model on Playboy letterhead. That letter later hung in my office at Playboy in Chicago. Well, I guess my name was on their radar when another young lady less than a year later would take some of my pictures with her to Chicago. It was after they saw her shots they contacted me about freelancing for them. Less than a year later after that I would have the opportunity to be hired as a staff photographer and move to Chicago.

If you were stuck on an island with beautiful women and could only have one lens what would it be?

Probably the f/2.8, 70-200 zoom. To me, that is such a great lens for shooting women. You can come in close for dramatic tight shots, then zoom it out for nice ¾ shots, even full length. But please let me have a wide angle too, the 17-40.

Soft box or umbrella?

Both. They both have a place for creating a different look. The soft box serves as a great location light to give you the look of a window where the umbrella is a very nice portrait style light with beautiful fall-off.
  
If art is made up of only two things mathematics and imagination. How much of each are you?

Good question, I’d have to say probably 30% math, 70% imagination. Since I’m self-taught I don’t feel I’m a technical guy. I’ve learned everything in the trenches, which sometimes isn’t the way it’s taught in school. Though my results are usually very good, I don’t base it on so much math, as feel. Which takes us to imagination. I literally create a story in my mind when setting up a shot. It must relate to the light in the room, why it’s what it is, its intensity, fall-off, design, etc., in order to create the mood for the image.
 
Could you tell us a little bit about a typical day or two working at Playboy.

When I was at the magazine my days were fairly relaxed at the offices. It’s when I went on the road that each day was an adventure. At the office I would arrive in the morning around 9 am, check messages, return calls, then go to the morning meeting. If I were scheduled for a Playmate test I’d go to the studio and begin the prep with my assistant. Makeup would begin before lunch with lighting tests done by lunch. We’d eat, then jump in and shoot for the afternoon. Film would be dropped off and I’d either go home or do some editing from something the day before or a previous assignment.

If I did not have a shoot planned then I would make up my own. Playboy Models was just down the hall so I’d go there and see who needed pictures. Then I’d think of an idea and put that together as a portfolio piece. It was fantastic being able to explore new lighting and ideas every day.
 
If you could pick one person (living or deceased) you would like to photograph who would it be?

Wow, let’s see, there’s a lot. Most of your readers won’t have a clue who I’m talking about, but I’d love to have had a chance to photograph actress Natalie Wood. What a beauty she was. Contemporary, there’s a model by the name of Laetitia Casta. Great face and wonderful body. She has a naturalness in front of the camera I like besides the fact she looks incredible.
 
Could you beat Arny in a foot race?

What, you kidding? Absolutely, and I’ve even got a hip replacement!!

Aside from photography you have some other pretty serious interests can you tell us about your racing team?

Yeah, as I mentioned earlier I’ve always had a love for cars. It’s been since I was a youngster actually. My only regret was that I did not grow up in a part of the country where road racing was located. Had I, you might be reading about a racecar drive’s career rather than a photographer’s! I don’t have so much a team than a company that produces track events for private parties or corporate events. I find pro drivers to sit right seat as instructors at noted racetracks so people with bad-ass automobiles can enjoy them safely on a racing surface. It’s just an awesome part of my life. Getting to this place was due to my having BMWs as my car of choice since I moved from Chicago. After several BMWs though I got into my first Porsche three years ago and now I’m hooked on that brand, a true sports car. I’m currently a Chief Instructor for the BMW Car Club of America’s LA Chapter, I’ve worked for various brands like Audi, BMW, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Hyundai, and Chrysler as a pro driver and I have raced in a number of endurance road races including three 25 hr races since ’03.

It has been a pleasure David, we know you have a lot going on and would like to thank you for stopping by. Hopefully we can check in from time to time to see what you are up to…

Hey thank you for the opportunity to share myself with everyone. Take care and I hope to speak to you again in the future.

To learn more about David Mecey and his workshops please visit http://www.davidmecey.com/
 

Tonya has become a best friend, a business partner and an integral part of my life, both personally and professionally. Tonya is an equal partner in our commercial studio and I literally couldn’t do it without her. She plays a huge part in the progress of How To Photograph Models. I’d like to thank her for being part of the team! Here’s a little tribute video for you to enjoy and see some of the stuff we have done for the site together.

Shooting nudes doesn’t have to be expensive, you just have to be a little creative. In this shot, I set up a few candles, used a couple of rice paper room dividers, the main light source was an overhead track lighting system with 5 mini light heads. The maple floor helped to produce a warm feel to the picture.

Another tribute video for our friend Marie Blanchard. Marie was great to work with and we would love to have her back for some more instructional videos.

I’d like to thank Stevie Lynn for being one of our featured models for How To Photograph Models. A little tribute video for her.