book

Client Story: Doug Allan

The cameraman Doug Allan is a well known name in the world of wildlife documentaries and I help Doug with the stills side of his business.
Doug asked me to get involved in the preparation of the images for his first book “Freeze Frame” that is just about to be released.
Some of the images date back to the early part of his career so care was needed to reduce grain and get the images looking as fresh as the day they were taken, CMYK files were prepared for the books designer Simon Bishop.

Simon has just let me know that the printing at Butler Tanner and Dennis in Somerset went well and he is very pleased with the results of the two days of printing on the new Heidelberg press there.

Copyrightimage Ltd will also be handling book distribution so Jennie will be sorting on-line orders for the book.

Book details:
“Multi-award winning wildlife photographer and cameraman Doug Allan, of the BBC’s Frozen Planet now turns the focus on himself in his first book “Freeze Frame”!

Having worked on Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Human Planet, Life, the recent Ocean Giants and the sensational Frozen Planet, Doug brings together a collection of astounding anecdotes and breathtakingly beautiful photographs from the remotest places on Earth.

Have you ever been watching one of the BBC’s groundbreaking wildlife documentaries and thought “How did he get that shot?!” – well now you can find out the incredible stories behind the images in Doug Allan’s début book.

Braving the elements and depths of the Antarctic and Arctic Oceans, Doug has produced a fascinating 240 page book filled with exceptional photographs and secrets of life behind the lens, giving you a peek into the often hostile yet inspiring world of a wildlife cameraman

This book is so much more than a collection of superb images. Doug started life as a research diver in 1976 at Signy Island, Antarctica. Now with 35 years of experience in the Antarctic and Arctic, the stories that accompany every picture in this book tell of Doug’s astonishing adventures and encounters, his insights and emotions, his deep understanding of the biology of the animals and the psychology of film-makers.

Following a foreword from friend, Sir David Attenborough, the book is split into six sections; with many stories from Doug’s unique polar experiences and Arctic field craft, highlighting the challenges – and frustrations – of filming the animals themselves.

The book contains 70 long and short stories under the following themes:
• Camerawork
• Polar Heavens
• Ice & Snow, Cold and Colder
• Shots to Remember
• Near Misses
• Characters I Have Known
• Turning Up the Heat

From being pulled under water by a walrus, to the cunning and predatory Orca whale’s hunting skills. Doug invites you to learn about and discover the awe-inspiring nature hidden within the polar wastelands. Often exciting, sometimes humorous and always revealing and refreshingly honest, this is a uniquely personal portrait of the polar environments and the animals that live there, written by the man who’s spent more time there with a camera than anyone else.

“Every picture tells a story. I’ve just given the ones in this book a chance to tell theirs.”
– Doug Allan

Doug has won four Emmy and four BAFTA awards, as well as several Wildscreen Pandas. With Freeze Frame Doug gives the public a chance to step into his frozen world – without the frostbite!

Freeze Frame will be available from February 2012 pre-order here or at www.dougallan.com

You can pre-order Doug Allan’s new book “Freeze Frame” in hardback here (for buyers in the UK):
£25 + £6 P&P

Orders taken now, deliveries start early February 2012
Pay with either a credit card or your PayPal account.
Your credit card will be debited by “TartanDragon” Ltd”.
Buy now to ensure a copy of the first edition.

Client Story: Random House / BBC Books / Frozen Planet

With the exciting BBC Frozen Planet series due to be aired on TV this month I’m pleased to reveal my work on the accompanying book of the series.

I was asked to prepare all the images for the book. I worked closely with the designer supplying colour managed and exactingly sharpened CMYK images from supplied RGB originals.

The most important part of the work was to ensure tonal and colour consistency between series of shots. As often happens sequences were filmed with multiple cameras and bringing together their disparate shots can reveal quite major exposure differences that spoil the consistency of the scenes portrayed, it was my job to provide a better visual match whilst retaining accuracy and the integrity of the shots. Such as sequence in the book is in chapter 5 covering the hunting of bison by wolves.

There was a variety of sources for the images from high quality RAW files to HD screen grabs that needed careful interpolation and sharpening to work on the printed page.

In TV and Film production the process of colour balancing images in sequence is called “grading”, what I offered was the stills equivalent and was very pleased to receive an email from the authors Alastair Fothergill and Vanessa Berlowitz thanking me for doing the work. This meant a lot to me as is so often the case I found myself immersed in the subject matter and wanted to get the best possible results.

If you have an important book project and want the very best results from the images then please feel free to contact me, its not a costly process given the difference that good grading and preparation can make.

The Frozen Planet book is now available and can be purchased on-line, here is Amazons page of the book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frozen-Planet-Alastair-Fothergill/dp/1846079624/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1319471881&sr=8-3

Client Story: Sue Flood

Congratulations to Sue Flood on her exhibition at the Getty Gallery in central London.
“Cold Places” Pole to Pole is a collection of Sue’s work from the polar regions. Its sponsored by Canon and has attracted a lot of attention from the national media and I was particularly surprised to hear Sue talk about her work on “Woman’s hour” on radio 4 which kind of gives away my listening habits! The exhibition was launched in the middle of March and runs till the 9th of April. Sue took the opportunity to launch her book “Cold Places” to coincide with the exhibition.
Gallery details are here: http://www.gettyimagesgallery.com/
Her book is available online from the usual suspects but you can get yourself a copy directly from Sue from her website: http://www.sueflood.com/
Sue was away for a large part of the time involved in producing both the book and the exhibitions so I helped out with the production. Because I keep high res copies of Sue’s files I was able to prepare press ready CMYK sharpened files optimised for the print size of each image to pass onto the books designer Simon Bishop. I worked closely with Simon and the books printers to ensure that we got the best possible colour and tone on paper. I also prepared RGB print files to size and sharpened for print to Canon for them to make the exhibition prints. Mark Bennet at Canon converted the files to the printers colour space and the result was some very pleasing large format prints, nice to see Epson have some competition in the photographic quality printer stakes.
I also prepared and sent files for PR uses and serviced requests from the national newspapers.
The whole process involved a lot of intense work over a short period but I was pleased to help get Sue’s work in front of a larger audience and help raise her profile.
In the past I have helped Sue with equipment choices and training as well as editing and retouching , Sue is an example of a client who uses my services is a holistic way which would normally require full time staff and the associated costs and responsibilities. By offering my services as a freelance I enable clients to tackle work projects to a set quality and budget.
Stephen