Guest Star on AMC’s Mad Men… Casting Call Contest Photo Shoot Part II

Hi again,

Mad Men © AMC.

As many of you know, Banana Republic and AMC are currently hosting a contest for picking a guest star on the television series Mad Men. From the  top 10 male and top 10 female most popular entries, a winner will be picked to guest star on the show. Entries are graded on the following: “Does the photo reflect the “Mad Men” style – 60%; originality 40%. Mr. Weiner’s decisions are final and binding on all judging matters.”

My client contacted me about having a photo shoot for the Mad Men Casting Call contest. I accepted and we went out to take pictures.

I am a graphic designer by nature. I satisfy my client’s visual communication needs by creating posters, brochures, websites, logos, icons and pretty much anything else in the realm of the creative world. I’m a jack-of-all-trades: you need it done— ta da! My background for both my work and education is graphic design.

I never took any courses in college in photography (gasp!). Yes, you heard me right. BUT, I did take a year in High School studying Nature Photography, taught by David Casterson (who recently retired from teaching). In this class, I learned all about outdoor photography: from how to use lighting, the best times of day to take an image, how to compose an image… I learned grid theory, the rule of thirds, and using crash points in creating interesting photographs. Plus, I learned how to use Photoshop in this class (including layers). I attribute this class to planting the seed in my mind for eventually pursuing graphic design in college. Over the years, I have continued to take photos in my free time, using those skills I learned over six years ago. I’ve been assigned countless times in my carrer to take photos for various events, such as Capstone Festivals, District Manager week at West Marine, West Marine University… the list goes on.

When you’re shooting in an outdoor, coastal location, you have to deal with the weather constantly changing. You cannot rely on the weather to be the same as it was the previous day. Cloud cover can easily burn away into full fledged sunlight (which in general, is terrible for outdoor photography).

We had picked a location several days prior and went out to the site for the shoot. The weather was perfect: cloudy and overcast. There was very little wind, which helped as well.

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We first started out by taking pictures by the door of the location. The lighting was very nice in this location. However, there was a garbage can chained in one corner that I had to make sure to get out of the shots. Also, there was some signage on the left of the door, which is distracting for the photo. My client had relaxed into this pose, which made the pose and the lighting correct for the “Mad Men style.” We continued taking photos. I would talk to the client, to try and get her to relax and be natural in her poses. When you’re not used to being a model, it can be difficult to act “normal” in front of the camera. Trust me, I know from experience.

What ended up happening quite a bit is that the angle that the light was coming from ended up making my client look cast in shadow. Even after adjusting the ISO (the amount of light allowed through the lens and into the camera), sometimes the lighting was not what I was looking for. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but for the “Mad Men style,” we needed the lighting to be similar to in the show itself. Some of my favorite photos were ones where the setting was correct, but the lighting would not work for the images. I’d normally just adjust images with Photoshop. We did not want to disqualify my client from the contest so I did not Photoshop any of these images.

Angela Chapman's photo entry for the Mad Men Casting Call contest.

About halfway through the photo shoot, I saw the shot I wanted forming. Everything went slow motion as I snapped the picture. As a photographer, you just know when you captured the perfect moment on film (or my case, a memory card). I knew that this shot would be the one, but we still took more photos. You can see this photo on the left of this paragraph.

After the photo shoot, my client and I both went through the photos on our computers to pick the best possible entries for the Mad Men Casting Call Contest. We were looking for an image that reflected the style of the show, but was original as well. My client and I both picked the “perfect shot.” We discussed it a bit, and decided to go with that image as the entry.

Please vote for my client’s entry here: http://madmencastingcall.amctv.com/browse/detail/Q9PN5Z

You can vote once per day, every day, until September 17th. With your help, we can make my client’s dream come true and be a guest star on AMC’s Mad Men.

What do you think of the photos I shared from the photo shoot? Do you think that the client’s entry photo reflects the “Mad Men style?”

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