My shooting targets may seem rather unusual in most people’s eyes. After all, I use the same photography methods as others except for impromptu news or street photography.
Since graduated as a film major, I have taken up advertisement directing. Now I am an advertisement director and also a photographer. More than half of my work centers on the advertisement shooting of a wide range of automobiles from super sportscars, luxury RVs, refitted vehicles to antique cars, you name it. Photographs stand or fall by your passion. Just like what I told my students, you don’t have to rush to snap pictures at the first sight of a mesmerizing car. Instead, put down the camera and take a leisure walk around the car with appreciation, trying to spot her most beautiful profiles and fascinating angles. And taking a few steps back, you may even get a fresh inspiration from the car’s backdrop.
Since graduated as a film major, I have taken up advertisement directing. Now I am an advertisement director and also a photographer. More than half of my work centers on the advertisement shooting of a wide range of automobiles from super sportscars, luxury RVs, refitted vehicles to antique cars, you name it. Photographs stand or fall by your passion. Just like what I told my students, you don’t have to rush to snap pictures at the first sight of a mesmerizing car. Instead, put down the camera and take a leisure walk around the car with appreciation, trying to spot her most beautiful profiles and fascinating angles. And taking a few steps back, you may even get a fresh inspiration from the car’s backdrop.
Besides, you have to know that each vehicle has its own characteristics and styles. With proper backgrounds and shooting techniques, you can get appealing pictures instead of boring studio pictures. And you have to also know your photographic facilities. My photographs would not only be posted online, but also be printed in books, magazines or even large-size outdoor billboards. Therefore, you have to cautiously select appropriate photographic facilities to ensure that you take the best pictures for varied advertising purposes.
Canon 1-series cameras are my best choice for years for auto racing photography. In short distance races, cars hit the finish line after 8 to 10 laps, where an important moment could slip away in a flash before we can capture it and the view might be very different in the next lap. In those 12- or 24-hour-long races, working on tracks to three or four o’clock in the morning is nothing new. In this case, large battery capacity and stable performance in all weather conditions are the most important considerations for photographic facilities.
Canon 5-series cameras are definitely my favorite option for shooting magazine ads and general print ads because they can deliver high image quality and are very handy for working free from battery charger. The Canon 5-series cameras are absolutely practical for shooting in outdoor places thanks to their video recording function.
Hasselblad H4D-50 Medium Format DSLR camera, as my good companion, has become quite indispensable to photography for the large-size outdoor billboards. Experienced commercial photographers might have encountered such a predicament that their customer had a sudden impulse to enlarge a picture as an outdoor billboard but the picture was shot using a 135 film camera. However, this is impossible unless the customer is too lenient.
Either for the 135 film camera or for the 120 film camera, I use the same set of PTZ and tripod all the time. Of course I will choose those with higher load capacity. Sometimes I need to work in the early morning and may bring less or wrong tools to the shooting site when facing too many standbys. But I can always find my favorite tripod in my trunk.
(PSY print ads photographed in Hong Kong)
Photography is not a nine-to-five job for photographers to rush out photographs as in a production line. Ideal photographs often come to hand with the photographers’ love, passion, knowledge towards photography and their stringent requirements for themselves.
Chester Ng
Advertisement Director and Photographer