Commercial Photos With a TwistJonathan Thorpe captures the quirk with his Tamron SP 24-70mm VC, SP 90mm Macro VC, and SP 70-200mm VC lenses. |
Article by Jenn Gidman |
With just one glance, you can tell Jonathan Thorpe's images aren't ordinary. The commercial photographer tries to make viewers do a double-take with every portrait or group image he creates. "There's an element of humor in everything I do," he says. "I've always been the funny guy, and making people smile and laugh is one of the hardest things to do. I try to incorporate storytelling into each of my images. I want viewers to think about the image and look twice at it, to wonder: Is that a painting? Is it a cartoon? Or maybe they know what it is but may not be sure how I achieved it." |
For his photo sessions, Jonathan uses the Tamron SP 24-70mm VC, the SP 90mm VC Macro, and the SP 70-200mm VC lenses. "The 24-70 is on my camera 90 percent of the time," he says. "I shoot a lot of portraits wide angle to make them look a little different from real life. Using the 24-70 for that purpose helps me add that humor element that's so important to me. I use the 90mm as well for portraits, while the 70-200 I typically use for fashion work. Having the Vibration Compensation feature available on all three lenses is incredible and ensures my images come out sharp every time." |
It's not only humor that helps Jonathan achieve his trademark look - it's his lighting philosophy. "I came from the optometry world, so it was a normal transition in understanding how light and the eye interact," he says. "However, natural light never interested me. From the time I started taking pictures five years ago, I was using a lot of flash. I know what natural light looks like already. I wanted to create something that stood out a little more and was more in the vein of what I call hyperrealism. I like to mold how I think a picture should look to people, and the lighting I use helps me do that." |
It's not uncommon for Jonathan to use at least five or six lights for each shoot. "It differs for each session, but I'll typically have two backlights on the subject's shoulders, an additional overhead with a grid, and a big 8-foot octabank behind me. I've used up to 12 lights! This also works well for my clients, because I can shoot at any time of day for them, according to their schedules." |
When photographing his subjects, Jonathan has to determine what angles work best for their individual personalities. "I'm tall at 6'3'', so often I'll shoot down on people - it thins them out a bit," he explains. "However, I'll often get down on my knees and shoot up. This makes my subjects look larger than life and opens up the background around them." |
The background he chooses depends on his subjects and what he's trying to show. "When it comes to celebrities or someone who has a strong personality, I try to place them against a blank wall," he says. "I want the strength of the photo to be on them. Taking them out of their usual element and putting them up against a wall or other plain background makes them shine a little bit more and takes a bit of the distraction away." |
That's how Jonathan approached photographing singer Lisa Loeb. "I've had a crush on her since I was 12, and I told her that," he says. "She got freaked out a little bit, but it also made her laugh. Whenever I photograph a celebrity, I also try to make the people who came with that celebrity laugh. That breaks the tension and makes the mood lighter." |
Jonathan almost never tells his subjects how to pose. "I let them do their thing, whatever their 'thing' is, and it usually comes together from there," he explains. "Lisa is working on a children's book and has some new music coming out, so a little bit into the session, I knew this photo was what I wanted to accomplish. She looks so happy with her hands in the shape of a heart, but she's also looking up into the skies, into the future." |
Sometimes his inspiration comes during the most inopportune moments. "I was photographing a group of chefs for a magazine in Georgia," he says. "I originally wanted this one chef to hold four or five dozens eggs in his arms. While we were setting up and my camera was on the ground, someone walked by and stepped on my flash trigger and broke it. While I was dealing with that, the chef was making small talk and mentioned you can't break an egg by squeezing it, but you can if you just stick your thumb inside it. I realized that was our picture. Once I fixed my problem, I had him cram his thumbs into those eggs. It was perfect." |
Jonathan uses the same process for his group shots, which can be somewhat more challenging to coordinate. "It still comes down to communication and breaking the ice beforehand," he says. "I always tell them to not worry about anything going on around them and to just be themselves. The longer a group, like a band, has been around, the easier it is. They understand what it's like to be in front of a camera and do their thing while I'm just doing my thing. One of my favorite bands is Reel Big Fish, and they were just clowning around, smashing beers together and having a great time. It was a lot of takes and a lot of beers!" |
Sometimes Jonathan's best images come at the end of a session when the "real" photos have already been taken. "I was taking pictures for an ad for a bowtie company," he says. "They wanted some images for their website. The guy model was making funny faces all day, so we did this to wrap up the shoot. Besides the sunlight coming in from above, I had two sidelights set up, as well as one big octabank in front of them." |
And the post-processing Jonathan employs to achieve his signature photos? "It's not as much as you think," he says. "Most of what I get is in-camera. I also have an awesome makeup artist, Jessie Campbell. In Photoshop I do a little bit of skin-smoothing, a little bit of sharpening. It doesn't take me long to get the look I want." |
To see more of Jonathan Thorpe's images, go to http://jthorpephoto.com. |