Unit 31: Photography for Media Products: October 2015

Duncan Philpott Notes

Duncan Philpott is an action-adventure sports photographer who works outdoors. He came into the UTC as a guest speaker to talk about his photography career.

Before doing your photoshoot, you should:
-plan based on your own local knowledge
-use Google Maps StreetView to get an idea for the area you will be shooting in
-scout the area beforehand to get an idea for the position of sunlight and good shots
-put together a shooting schedule for optimum shots.

Duncan uses Adobe Lightroom to sort through his photographs, but Adobe Bridge is similar, which is what we have at the UTC. He recommends going through your mass of photographs one by one, and rating them out of five, so you can filter through your best shots. He also recommends using effective filenames based on the project you are doing to help sort photos and save time. In one week, he took 3600 photos to only deliver 5, so this is very important!

When he was taking pictures for Nike's Instagram, he noted that they were looking for inspirational photos of people doing sports and wearing their kit, not just a picture of their shoes, as this is bland and uninspiring.

Duncan Philpott made the cover for the film "Won't Back Down", which is about motorbike racer Steve Peat. He was given a specific brief for what the cover should look like in the form of a mood board. In the end, he put his own personal spin on the brief, while still sticking loosely to it, and this was chosen for the cover. He told us not to be afraid of putting our own stamp on things, as long as you are still doing what someone wants to some extent, as you can get some great results.

He was also tasked with taking photos of five different sports taking place in Sheffield, to promote the city as an "outdoor city". He had to show the city as an attractive destination with a lot of green as well as cityscape, and also promote the city's key sports strengths.

According to Duncan, some of the perks of being a professional photographer are:
-You get to be outside a lot
-You are your own boss, you don't have to be told what to do
-You can travel all over the world
-You are doing something that you love

Some of the negatives for him are:
-You have no fixed income as you are freelance
-You have to work out your own budget
-You need to be sociable and ready to talk at all times
-You hurt yourself a lot as you travel around, hiking and cycling places
-You work long hours and have to be disciplined with your shooting schedule

In his downtime, Duncan does a lot of paperwork and invoices. He has to chase up a lot of people for money, as they don't just give it to you on time, every time! He also has to promote himself online a lot to make sure he keeps getting work. This includes blogging, social networking (e.g. Instagram and Twitter) and collaborating with other photographers.

Other photographers that he recommended to us were:
-Chris Burkard
-Joey L
-Lara Jade
-Camp4 Collective

The cameras he use are:
Canon compacts and probodies
Fuji cameras are great for carrying around as they are small but capable.