Chord Overstreet + Nash Overstreet. November 19th, 2012. West Hollywood, CA.

Robin Williams. January 18th, 2013. Boulder, CO.

Yes, there is a time and a place for $100,000 cameras and a crew of fifty. Absolutely. I love directing on that scale. And yet there are times when a entry-level camera, a fast but inexpensive piece of glass, and a $100 LED panel will do the trick. Sometimes simplicity is the key.

Case in point: Last night I shot this for our good friend Katie Ro…

With nothing but half a dozen mirrors from around the house and this:

Just a thought.

If you’ve ever seen an episode of ABC’s hit show ‘Modern Family’, you already know Nolan. Nolan plays the incredibly funny Luke Dunphy. I recently had the pleasure of working with him and here’s how the final shot (above) was made;

CONCEPT: I had been a fan of Nolan’s character on ‘Modern Family’ since its first season but the last thing I wanted to do is create another photograph of Luke Dunphy. That’s a job for the shows promotional/marketing department over at ABC.  After we green lit the shoot I began doing my homework. I quickly found out that Nolan is not only a member of Mensa with an IQ of 150 but that he tested out of high school when he was 13. Oh and he plays something like a dozen instruments.

That only reinforced my initial decision to push his shoot in the opposite direction of his television persona. Mature, intelligent, and most importantly, well-dressed. I had been watching movies such as “Skyfall” and “To Catch A Thief” in the week leading up to the shoot which ended playing a huge role in things. Backgrounds with deep texture. Tuxedos. Loose bow tie. Sand.

Time to scout.

SCOUTING: With “To Catch A Thief” on my mind, the beach was my first thought. Fortunately Santa Monica not only has a beautiful beach but a great pier. This would end up making for a perfect classic background. I walked the beach for about thirty minutes before I found my ideal angle. I snapped off a few frames and things looked decent. The sun never really burns off the morning clouds until noon or so and given that we were shooting on a weekday chances were things would be fairly quiet in terms of crowds. Perfect.

VISUAL TONE: With those particular movies I mentioned in mind and under the assumption I could get him in a tux, soft greys and blacks with desaturated colors in the pier would be my desired outcome. I didn’t want Nolan to be smiling or goofy either. Maturity was key.

SHOOTING: The day of the shoot came and we arrived an hour early to prepare. Since I was rocking this shoot with nothing but myself and my producer, there was no set to build or crew to direct. I put together my basic setup of a Profoto head and a Photek on a rolling C-stand and made my way down to the location. I quickly nailed down camera settings for the conditions and Nolan arrived shortly after.

We made our introductions and my producer sent him off to makeup. Fortunately that took all of two minutes and then it was time to shoot. Turns out Nolan is one of the greatest guys I’ve had the pleasure of working with. What’s more is that at the time he was taking a college photography course which gave us some common ground and offered me some freedom in terms of spur of the moment ideas.

Including this one…

The shoot as a whole took about an hour but that was largely because once I nailed my portfolio shot in the first fifteen minutes, Nolan and I got sidetracked playing in the sand and jumping off lifeguard stations. Like I said, great guy.

LIGHTING: Without my lighting tech I opted to setup a stationary spot with my standard setup (Profoto 7B + Photek Softlighter) and had Nolan continually walk back and forth as I fired off frames. I wanted to keep the light as natural as possible so I opted for the lowest power setting and threw the umbrella a few feet above Nolan. In essence, I like to replace the sun and/or the largest natural environmental light source with my own and this was no exception.

Pretty simple as you can see below;

And here’s Nolan mocking me when I told him to tilt his head down just slightly for the next set of images;

POST-PRODUCTION: This one was pretty intense in terms of post. Not necessarily a major overhaul but more so in the details 99% of the population will never notice. The wrinkles in the shirt, the black hues in the suit, and the palette of the pier in the distance. Basically a lot of brushing in and out color balances and my trusty Ian-Keaggy-Sharpening-Trick which you can see here.

THE REVERSE PHOTO SHOOT: I end the shoot and we shake sand covered hands. As I I start to tear down Nolan pulls me aside. He tells me that he’s currently working on a project for his photography class that revolves around photographing individuals in their “natural environment” and asks if he can take my portrait. It was a fun opportunity for both of us to switch up roles for a second. So that being said here is, well, me photographed by Nolan Gould in Santa Monica, CA.

See you in homeroom.

Ian Keaggy. April 27th, 2013. Nashville, TN.