Something from Nothing

October 01, 2011 — “Sometimes I take pictures, and sometimes I create them,” says Simon Plant, a UK-based, award-winning photographer and retoucher who specializes in automotive and on-location photography. A dual specialist, Plant is as comfortable behind a computer doing postproduction as he is behind the camera.

“I never just want to record something as it is. I want to put my mark on the scene,” he says. “Even before digital photography, I always did my own printing. You can have the best printer in the world, but it’s hard to tell them exactly how you want an image to look and have it turn out perfectly.”

Plant draws creative inspiration from different locations and media—and due to his postprocessing and retouching skills, can reproduce the images swirling around in his head. “I love to create something from nothing,” he says.

For example, after seeing the movie 300, which depicted a battle in the Persian-Greek war, he was inspired to create an image of a Spartan warrior for his portfolio. He secured a model and approached a theatrical company for the costume. The result is this stunning image, pictured at top.

In 2006, Plant was on a shoot in Prague to capture photos of a Mercedes-Benz truck on the Charles Bridge [above]. But the dark, quiet streets at predawn made him wonder: Was this what Prague felt like during World War II under German occupation?

He snapped images of the cobblestone street, lit under an eerie street lamp, and shelved it until this year when he found a model and a German officer’s uniform. He shot the model in England and married the images together.

Plant describes his talent in the retouching arena as an extension of his photographic vision and a way to differentiate himself from the pack. “There are so many photographers now who can take an interesting image. You need a way to distinguish yourself,” he says.

It can be hard to believe that Plant, who’s been a lauded photographer for more than two decades, would still need to distinguish himself—but he has stayed relevant by reinventing his career over and over again with ventures like ProPhotoInsights.net, where the tips and tricks he’s picked up through years of trial and error are available for anyone curious about his process to view online. Plant started ProPhotoInsights.net three years ago, when he temporarily stepped away from assignment work to concentrate on the venture full-time. After being asked technical questions for years by other aspiring photographers, he decided to start shooting video tutorials. These segments address everything from camera set up to location selection to behind-the-scenes snippets from postproduction. The resulting site has been extremely popular, with approximately 7000 worldwide members. Several universities have even purchased the tutorials for photography students.

“The videos really took off and I realized I’d hit on something,” says Plant, who also shot video of his recent German officer/Prague shoot for the site. He is a one-man-show, taking photos and working video at the same time, sometimes with no assistant on hand. It’s the way he likes to do things and it’s a way to maintain total control over his product. He’ll often even tether his Mac Book Pro to his camera so he can see his work in real-time on a shoot and make adjustments accordingly.

An Unusual Way
Plant does all post-processing work himself, using Photoshop on his iMac (he also edits his video footage, using Final Cut Express). Color is his forte and he tends to do a lot of color manipulation to “show feeling.” It’s very unusual, he says, for an image to go through his system without some tweaking. He also rarely uses Photoshop actions, preferring to custom edit.

While he uses many camera bodies, he tends to favor the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II and, over the years, his taste in lenses has changed. Early on, he used a lot of wide-angle lenses but now gravitates to slightly longer focal lengths (in the 40–70mm range when possible), often using a Canon L Series 28–70 mm f/2.8.

He avoids elaborate lighting setups, preferring natural light when possible. “I use it when I have to for technical reasons, like a strobe light to lighten a model’s eyes,” he says, “but I’ve almost become known for low-light photography. Generally I go out and shoot between the sun going down and full darkness.”

The most recognized image in Plant’s portfolio, however, which graced the cover of National Geographic, was shot at dawn. The photo is of the Roman Colosseum, which he took while on vacation with his family. “It’s been my bestselling image for years. I think because it’s something that everyone can recognize, but it’s done in such an unusual way,” he says. “At the end of the day, that’s what photography is all about… showing something in a fresh way.”

While his most popular image was shot in Rome, and the on-location photographer is no stranger to travel, Plant manages to make it home for dinner more than one might think—largely because some of the most stunning landscapes in the world are an easy drive from the home he shares with his wife and three children.

Based in Somerset in South West England, Plant is an hour and 20 minutes from the famed landmark Stonehenge; he is also close to Glastonbury, a historic area with a lot of choice locations. The rocky coastline is less than a two-hour drive. Consequently, these are some of the locales he’s used for his automotive work, shooting some of the world’s most prestigious brands like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Jaguar and Audi.

While Plant always had an interest in cars, his automotive work began only five years ago. His brother owned a printing company that was printing Top Marques, a car magazine (part of The Guardian newspaper group, a well known international publication). Many in the UK who want to sell or buy a luxury car use Top Marques—and a different car is always featured on the cover.

When Plant’s brother became friendly with the creative director of the magazine and mentioned that his brother was a photographer, “They asked me if I wanted to pitch for the work,” Plant remembers. “I didn’t really think anything would come of it. But I did some test shots and they loved them.”

A three-year contract followed, enabling him to shoot luxury vehicles in a number of locations. On the heels of this contract, Plant became an early pioneer in CGI imaging for the automotive industry. He says of this opportunity: “I had to learn as I shot, as we did not really know what would work until we tried it.” He collaborated with some of the top retouchers in the UK, including Taylor James in London, to produce some CGI test images. Some of the images made, including one of a car inside a cave, cost over $40,000 in post-production work alone.

But before luxury cars and National Geographic, Plant began his relationship with photography back in the 1980s on a trip to Greece, where he “caught the bug,” he says. “My interest just evolved from there. I saw John Claridge’s work in a magazine and I was just transfixed by it. I didn’t realize you could do such things with a camera.”

Since then Plant has followed his passions and made a name for himself in an industry where it can be tough to rise above the crowd. His advice to photographers who are currently elbowing their way along? “Learn the fundamentals. I think I’m lucky that I was brought up in a period when I had to shoot film, because I had to learn my craft,” he says. “Specialize in something that you truly love—whether it’s flowers or antique airplanes. If you really love something, you’ll bring you own unique way of seeing it.”

To see more of Simon Plant’s work, visit www.plantphoto.com or ProPhotoInsights.net.