Assisting My First Catalog Shoot

Peter Dokus Photography was hired to shoot a catalog for Hudson Jeans company. That’s where I came in. They were in need of a “digital tech.” Weapon of choice was the Hasselblad with a P45 Back, tethered to the MacBook Pro, and the program of choice was Capture One Pro by Phase One. I had no experience with this camera, so I had to learn quickly. What’s cool about these cameras is that you can change everything from F.stop, to shutter speed, to ISO all on the tethered program, without even touching the camera.

My main job was to file name every different pair of jeans so they are easy to differ from; as they are being shot. That’s the hard part. When I am doing that, I also need to check the focus on all the shots to make sure that we were not “blurring out” the jeans. Then, last but not least, change out lenses, batteries, handle any and all malfunctions with lighting, camera, and computer problems. Trust me, on a shoot, not everything is perfect, but it was my job to worry about these things not the photographer’s. That’s the beauty of having a photo assistant.

After a 10-hour day of shooting, I had to take care of the entire wrap up: roll up anything that had a cord, cover packs and heads, roll up the seamless, break down the high rollers and C-Stands, and take apart the camera. After that, the slow and painful part that turned the 10 hour day into a 12 hour day: the client and I had to go through 3000 shots and choose 1000 shots. I have never said “how about this one” or “this one’s good” so much in my life. I said it enough to last two lifetimes.

I learned a lot that day.