12: Interview : Diego Indraccolo

Diego Indraccolo is a London based photographer. I stumbled upon his work as he had taken some portrait shots of my girlfriend some time before we met. I have been told he is a lovely, friendly man, who has taken the time to respond to my emails to him and now to these questions. I find his work fascinating, with a style I identify with, but most of all, he has style. You can see it in his images, although he is aiming for the fashion world, he's doing it his way...If you don't follow his work, I can't make you, but please take the time out to view his portfolio and blog.

Diego's Site & Blog Can Be Found Here :

Portfolio
Blog



His Name & His Images Says It All

Diego :

When did you 1st start taking photography seriously and what inspired you to take this path?
I started having an interest in photography when I was 18. I really like movies (who doesn't?) and photography became a way of creating my own scenes.

Where do you get your inspiration from?
I guess in all of us there is a subconscious database of images we accumulate by simply seeing and feeling. Any movie, painting, photograph, book, travel, music or emotion will be stored or translated into an image and become part of my personal library. Then when I am challenged with a project or idea, all the appropriate imagery is recalled, which immediately provides me with a direction to work.




How much control over the images that you have taken have you had. Would you say most of it is personal, your vision and not dictated to you too much?I actually prefer it when there are more people contributing to the shoot. It takes it to a place where I wouldn't necessarily go on my own. Ultimately I am the one who creates the final image and I always have control of the outcome, but it is more fun to be challenged into doing things differently.

What interests you the most artistically speaking. I enjoy the dark / haunting style of your images. This seems to reflect in your fashion, landscapes, portrait work even the dentist surgery snaps. Are you the dark brooding and possible disturbed type :-) ?
I always think that if I didn't have to earn a living out of photography my portfolio would be a lot darker then that!

As for my personality, I am obviously of vampire descent. Just look at my surname...

Do you have a process, do you see a final image in your head before you begin to shoot or does it evolve & a side to that is how much photoshop do you use to achieve the final results?
Normally there is always the initial image and feel in my head. What comes out, is usually different to various degrees. As for Photoshop, I find it so boring, the less of it I can do the better. Sometimes I go for a look that requires a good amount of retouching, but I always know before hand. I never try to "fix" a picture in Photoshop. Subject direction, composition and lighting are the most important elements of a picture. No amount of digital editing can help with that.




What WAS your 5 year plan?
To make a living exclusively out of photography.


What IS your 5 year plan?
Now that I know how much I can make as a photographer I've decided I want to become a banker.


Did you achieve them in any shape or form?
The first one definitely. The second one is... Well, a joke.

I see your work has featured regularly in some magazines. Were you approached to do this kind of work or has it been all your hard work & efforts?
It's a bit of both, but my greater help in the published fashion I do comes from the stylist I work with, Kay Korsh. We've learned the game together and now it is much easier for us to get work printed.

What blogs/people are you following at the moment?
The usuals. A Photo Editor is quite a good reference as well as BJP and PDN.

Do you have, whether in photography or not, any philosophies that you follow?I have a few I'd like to follow, but I keep on changing my mind. So definitely no.

I am sure there are lots of ups and downs with this profession, can you describe some of the ups AND the downs you've experienced along the way & what keeps you going?
The ups of being a photographer are also somehow the cause of the downs. For instance, it is great to make your own schedule, meet a lot of different people, always work on different project, get to have your own studio (which doubles as your "playroom") and having your creative outlet be part of your job. But as a consequence of being your own boss, you need to motivate yourself and try hard to keep the business running. You have to deal with extremely boring parts of the profession, like invoicing, admin, taxes and promotion. You will never know how much you're going to earn and the expenses of renting a studio in London and keeping the equipment current are terribly high. You'll never have a paid holiday or sick day again. You will also never be able to separate work from private life. Photography and the business are your life.

The ups and downs of your business are the ups and downs of your life and viceversa.

What advice can you give for someone like me and others reading this and following your work?
Stop trying to learn and go take some cool photographs. There's nothing stopping you.

With Many Thanks To Diego. I look forward to seeing more work from him.

11: Just Do It

Yesterday I was asked at last minute to cover a PRETTY big event. Battersea Power Station launch party. Around 1000 people attending, I couldn't tell you how much they spent on the venure, nor on the bands, nor on the food, nor on the free beverages they supplied, which I took enough advantage of, hey, I was supposed to be there as a guest anyway, although a disclaimer, I did not get drunk just some dutch courage.

It was 3pm. I was attending the event anyway but more for the free food and booze flowing around. I had 1 hour to gather my things and my thoughts and take a couple of quick pictures as I have never done this sort of thing before, hell I've never really used my flash before and found out as I was using it that it's not compatible with the 5D MKII or so it seemed so I was winging it blind.

It turned out ooooookay. Well I hope so & it may be another bow to my string or is that string to my bow.

This is definetly something that really doesn't interest me, but beggars can't be choosers and if I can get these kinds of gigs to pay the bills every now and again then, that's what it's all about. I wanted to say no, I nearly said no, that was just the fear inside me. Fight or flight. As it turns out, it was a good night, I met some people, maybe made some contacts. That leads me to another thing, schmoooozing. Ooooh Man. I just can't bring myself to do it, but you gotta, you gotta just get out there and take all the opportunities that come your way.

I want to be an amazing respected artist/photographer but that is going to take time and I have to climb that ladder. As with most things, unfortunately, it really is probably going to be a case of who you know, not what you know.

So. To everyone out there. Just Do It. You never know where it's going to lead, who you're going to meet, yada yada yada. Now. If I can only take my own advice I'm laughing.

10: Introducing

Just quickly going to introduce another artist. Not striclty a photogrpaher but an amazing photoshop wizard.

Christophe Huet

Check him out, his work is absolutely amazing in my eyes and you've probably unwittingly already seen a lot of what he's done.

9: Colour Management

If your going to be printing your work, you are going to need to colour manage your monitor. I think there are software solutions out there that you use to tweak everything yourself, but nothing is going to be as good as using the real hardware alternative.

I use the Spyder Express 2 Dongle Thingy

Spyder Express

Attach it to your monitor run the software and hey presto, abrakadabra. You're done. Things may look strange after your done as you are used to viewing the colours differently.

If you send your work to the printer or to the printer, you are going to get a pretty good match as to what you see on the screen to what you see in yout hands.

So there you have it, Bobs your aunties sisters brothers friend.

It saves wasting ink, paper, money and time.

8: Studio Lighting Help

Look at me trying to give advice on studio lighting. Time will tell if I have a clue what I'm doing, but I am just going to share a few things that I know and some links.

What I do know is this. I don't feel I need to take any lessons, I think it can all be self taught, what you will need is equiment though, whether studio stuff or off camera speedlight setup. There is a wealth of information out there but the main thing you need to do is practice. I am against any courses because once you've done a course what are you going to do after that if you don't have equipment, nada. Different stokes for different folks though.

Here are some sites that will definetly get you going and will start that fire burning.

Strobist 101
Strobist Fickr
Studio Lighting Diargrams

There was another one I wanted to share but not at my main PC so will share it another time.

This will get you started, but like me it's just a case of practicing and practicing and trying things out. Imatate the masters until you become one yourself is my philosphy. Which is what I am attempting to do. So the months have been filled with deconstructing images, then trying them, then realising it's harder than I thought. Great. Why can't things be easy.

So. I hope this is enough to wet your appetite.

I've not gone through the strobist yet, but this is an amazing place for information.

7: Where Are We All Going

So. Where am I going I ask. Where will I be in the next year or two. Well. I'd like to hope I have an agent or at least I'd like to think I will be earning enough money so survive, not be a slave to the 9 until 5 and having the ability to do the projects or take the images I want to take, otherwise it's all pointless. Time will tell.

I'll update with the highs and the lows and the what the hell am I doings.

I forgot to mention, my partner is 7 months pregnant and I have no money, so the question I ask myself after just a few months of doing this is, what the hell am I doing.

Luckily my partner is an amazing woman. Behind (hopefully) every great man, is a great woman, and she is certainly that. She listens to me whine and complain but I keep the self doubt and fear to myself and just carry on. Whether I believe in myself of not, which I must, I carry on and she is behind me every step of the way with 100% support. So I thank her for that.

Right now I tell you this. Every moment is a quest for the next shot, a step in the right direction, something that has to be done and hopefully if you want something bad enough you will work hard enough to get it and I'm working pretty hard right now to get it. I don't want fame, I don't want fortune, well, maybe just a little. I want my images and work to speak for themselves.

Without a strong portfolio, you have nothing. So that is the 1st step before any others can be taken.

I'd like to keep this blog informative. More about the process than another self induldent set of words. So I'll try and include a behind the scenes look at how things happened, in hope that it reaches at least one person. I'll also be posting inspiring artists, helpful links and whatever pops into my head at the time.

So. I will leave you for now with one last piece of information before my next update /shoot.

Zack Arias His story is also an ispiring one. He failed at his 1st attempt at becoming pro and went back to work in an office store. Now. Well. Check him out for yourself.

6: Photoshop: How To

I am far from an expert using Photoshop. 2 years ago I didn't have a clue how to use it. I still don't but I get by.

Photoshop is a tool like any piece of equipment you have and you're going to need it. The best way IMO to use photoshop is to to make it look like you haven't used it or at least not over processed. Less is more.

A great book and inspiring photographer to me at the time was Vincent Versace & his book; 'Welcome To Oz'

It taught me workflow. It does require some understanding of photoshop, which I didn't have at the time, but I picked it up and it was a great book that got me started. It taught me workflow, so if your reading this and you need some help check it out.

I also have a large number of video tutorials to finish off, some freebies, some paid for. Personally I never pay for anything. I believe you can pick it up yourself by practicing. Pefect makes practice as I once read and to this day have no idea what that means.

Join Retouch Pro or scour the internet for the hundreds of tutorials out there. You will always need to understand :

Curves
Saturation
Sharpening
Levels
BW Conversion

I use and play with Nik Silver FX for my B/W conversions, sometimes applying two filters and tweaking.

There is so much more I need to know, so little that I do, but it all takes time & 2 years ago I knew nothing, now I like to think I get by and I also like to think that in another 2 years I will know more than what I do when I typed this.

There is so much to bloody do, sometimes it overwhelmes me. If anyone has some tips for me, please, share them.

The best thing I can advise is : Practice, Play, Meddle & Ask As Many Questions As You Can To The People Who Are Willing To Answer.

When I'm feeling brave enough I'll put up some before and afters. I realise that I need to perfect my technique in the camera 1st, but if you are like me, I am always wondering what the image looked like when it came out of the camera and not many people are willing to share this.