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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Prints that Win: Evil Eyes

LexJet Sunset Award Winner Peter Burg

The title of this print that won a LexJet Sunset Award at the Florida PPA conference this past year likely caught your attention. Sometimes a title gives you an impression that’s different than your expectation before you actually see the image, which can boost the impact it makes.

It fits the image here, captured by Peter Burg, Burg Photographix, Maitland, Fla., but it also caught the judges by surprise when they saw it.

“It’s impact. You get a mental image from the title, and then, boom, the judges come around to it and while it might not be what’s expected, it still fits,” says Burg.

Burg is a car aficionado. “That’s my thing,” as he puts it. He captured this image in early morning light at the Amelia Island Concours D’Elegance car show.

“I usually photograph cars early in the morning with the light coming behind them and using the sky as an open reflector. If you wait too long to shoot cars you get too many specular highlights,” he explains. “I masked out the entire background after I captured the image, and then created the background. It had more of the appearance that it was shot in a studio, but the giveaway is the reflection of the trees. I do quite a bit of post-production, taking out unwanted glare and smoothing reflections.”

Burg adds that he went back and forth about whether or not to keep the reflection of the trees in the image, but liked the effect and kept the reflection. By the way, the headlights are actually that color and you may notice what appear to be horns made by the windshield frame.

The image was printed with a Canon iPF6100 on KODAK PROFESSSIONAL Inkjet Photo Paper, Luster Finish. Besides the quality of the paper, Burg chose the Kodak paper since he was aiming for his ninth Kodak Gallery Elite Award.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Printing Iggy, Blondie, Dylan, Lennon, Jimi and More for an Iconic Musical Exhibition

SoHo Blues ExhibitionAllan Tannenbaum, owner of SoHo Blues in New York City, is one of the foremost music photographers of his generation. Though Tannenbaum is a seasoned international photojournalist with an extremely broad portfolio, he is best known for his work documenting New York City’s nightlife and music scene in the heady days of the 1970s and early 1980s.

SoHo Blues ExhibitionTannenbaum was there at the crossroads of the British Invasion, punk and New Wave, and New York City was the epicenter of this convergence. Tannenbaum was shooting for the SoHo News at the time, capturing the most important acts of the era as they blazed their way through the local clubs: the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Ramones, Iggy Pop, Blondie, Talking Heads, Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith, just to name a few, as well as a plethora of jazz and reggae acts.

Tannenbaum’s photography of this era became iconic, including the portrait work he did with John Lennon during the release of Double Fantasy in 1980, and shortly before Lennon was murdered that cold, bleak December day.

SoHo Blues Exhibit at Mr MusicheadFor Tannenbaum, the presentation is just as important as getting the capture right. His work has been featured in exhibitions across Europe and the U.S., and the medium gets the same care and detail as the message.

Tannenbaum’s most recent exhibition, the printing of which was sponsored by LexJet and Canon U.S.A., opened at Mr Musichead on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles on June 27 and runs through September 13. As the name implies, Mr Musichead is a gallery that focuses on music photography and art. The gallery’s tag is Where Music Meets Art.

SoHo Blues Exhibit at Mr Musichead
Mr Musichead gallery owner Sam Milgrom (left) with Allan Tannenbaum at the opening of his photo exhibit on June 27.

“It’s the most comprehensive exhibition of my work concentrating on music. I have had a lot of exhibitions that have been more general about life in New York City in the ’70s, but this really focuses on music,” explains Tannenbaum. “The gallery is only about music and this exhibition is only about music, so it’s unique, diverse in its content and runs the gamut of the music scene.”

Tannenbaum and Mr Musichead’s owner, Sam Milgrom, sifted through the copious body of work Tannenbaum produced in that era and narrowed it down to about 40 images, which Tannenbaum printed and framed in sizes ranging from 11″ x 14″ to 24″ x 36″.

“We went back and forth on the images. Since that’s the market Sam knows best he was very helpful in choosing which images to showcase,” says Tannenbaum. “For example, one of the images we chose was a concert shot of Iggy Pop, who just did a show in Los Angeles and is popular there. We added a shot I have of him in his hotel room in front of a background I brought with me where I used a ring flash with my Hasselblad; it really pops out at you. I told him that if you’re going to have Iggy, you have to have this one.”

Allan Tannenbaum Exhibition at Mr MusicheadOther musicians featured in the exhibition include Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen, The Clash, David Bowie, Debbie Harry, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, John and Yoko Lennon, Keith Richards, Tom Petty, Tom Waits, Stevie Wonder, Sid Vicious (being arrested) and Sun Ra. In other words, a veritable who’s who among the most influential acts of their day, and for all time, really. The images for the exhibition were printed with Tannenbaum’s Canon iPF6100 on LexJet Sunset Photo eSatin Paper 300g.

“The printing went very well, thanks to LexJet and Canon. A few years ago I bought my iPF6100 and iPF8100 from LexJet, and they’re great printers, especially with the Canon Plug-In for Photoshop. In terms of getting a high-quality, nice sized image, and after experimenting with a lot of different papers, I had to come up with a standard: LexJet Sunset Photo eSatin. The galleries like the paper and the finish and it has a surface that is a lot like traditional photo paper,” says Tannenbaum. “One of my philosophies about photography is that it’s important not only to just to take great pictures, but to know how to make the image. The images hold up, even if you’re printing it large, like 30×40. There must be something in the Canon software that compensates so you don’t see any artifacts or degradation in quality at all. It’s a lot easier to compensate in the software than it is in the darkroom. And, the paper is phenomenal. When you tell people they’re digital prints, they can’t believe it. A photographer should be a good printer as well; it’s not just about taking the picture. I really enjoy making prints and seeing them on gallery walls or in people’s homes.”

To find out more about the exhibition and Mr Musichead, go to mrmusichead.com. And, for Tannenbaum’s portfolio, go to www.sohoblues.com.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Prints that Win: Stepping Back in Time with John Gladman

Award winning photography and print

Actually, the title of John Gladman’s LexJet Sunset Award and best Electronic Imaging prize at the PPA North Central District photography competition is Morning Rounds. While quite appropriate for the image, it evokes a simpler and more rustic time in the past, though the main landscape image was taken near Lawrence, Kansas quite recently.

Gladman stitched together a panoramic shot of a spot near the river and just around the corner from his studio. He took out the modern distractions, power lines and whatnot, and added the horse and carriage. The result is a story, and “story” is a crucial element in an award-winning image.

“I’m big on taking an image and trying to tell a story with it, so whatever I need to do to tell the story I’ll do it. I come at it from an artistic standpoint; I’m trying to create a piece of art from the things I find in life,” explains Gladman. “I’ve been entering competitions for 25 years and I’ve been a judge myself. I’ve learned that you have to create the details that draw the eye to the image. If you think to yourself, ‘I want to go there and see that,’ then it’s drawing you in enough to score well. Judges look at hundreds of prints, and if it doesn’t grab their attention and quickly tell a story it just gets an average score as they fly on by.”

Gladman printed Morning Rounds on Sunset Photo Metallic Paper, his first experiment with it as a competition print paper. Gladman says he’s tried the Fuji and Kodak versions in past competitions, but didn’t score as well. A big difference for Gladman was being able to control the process to his liking by printing it himself on his Canon iPF6100 printer.

Pinup photography“I’m getting requests from other people to print their competition prints now that they’ve seen what I did with the Sunset Metallic. When the light hits it you get a subtle reflection back, while the others are brighter. I’ve had trouble with the other papers balancing out the highlights and shadows; the shadows go muddy and the highlights get blown out, whereas with the Sunset Metallic I was able to nail the entire spectrum,” says Gladman.

Gladman has recently embarked on a new bit of nostalgia that started as a sideline but has since blossomed into a full-blown business called Bombshell. Bombshell is a photo and fine art studio that creates vintage pinup art reminiscent of the height of the art form during the ’40s and ’50s.

“It’s all photographed and then digitally painted with Corel Painter. A lot of what we shoot is printed on LexJet Sunset Hot Press Rag, and they look amazing on that paper. We started it last May and it blew through the roof so much that I don’t have time for seniors, weddings and other types of regular work. We have girls fly in from all over the country to get this done, so it’s kind of insane,” says Gladman.