- Hi, everyone.
My name is Jahmyra or Myra for short.
I'm a Creative Pro at Apple Brickell City Center
in Miami, Florida,
and this is Creative Projects.
Today we'll be learning how to direct,
shoot, and edit powerful portraits
on iPhone with Harlem-based photographer, Mark Clennon.
By the end of this video,
you'll be ready to capture powerful portraits of your own.
Mark's photos embrace one of my favorite
and most powerful creative mottos,
which is: less is more.
And a lot of his work is captured right on the streets
of New York City, often on an iPhone.
It wasn't until 2017 that he quit his job
to pursue photography full-time.
Did I mention he's self-taught?
I also can't help but notice
that he crops his photos in a way that zooms in
on someone's unique feature or accessories.
And through that, he transforms it into a source of power.
Let's go all the way into the studio in New York City
so we can learn from Mark himself.
- Portraiture kind of found me.
I had just moved to New York City from Florida.
So I'm walking around the city with my iPhone,
just taking pictures of buildings,
taking pictures of people.
Anything that I could find that was very interesting to me
'cause from there,
I kind of felt like I wanted to become a better storyteller.
And that's when I started to introduce people's faces
into my works.
Yeah, that's fire, fire.
Fire, fire.
Okay, let's reset.
I think an important technique that I like to use
is giving energy to get back a lot of energy.
I like to exaggerate my poses.
That way my subject feels comfortable
exaggerating their poses as well.
And so we can get a good image
that translates well through camera.
Yeah, yeah.
Let that shoulder hang down.
That's dope. That's dope.
It's really just about exploring and moving our limbs
at first and finding what we like
and then just exploring what works once we find it.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Yeah. Oh, you cooking right now.
You cooking with gas right now.
I use photography as a way to make friends.
It's kind of an excuse for me to bring my camera
into a studio and say,
"Hi, I'm Mark. I have a camera. Let's be friends."
And so we're kind of guiding each other along this process
of making a portrait that we both like.
There we go, there we go.
Let's try straight out now, let's try straight out.
Let's do like a T.
Another technique that I like to use
is getting coverage and then getting creative.
And what I mean by that is I like to start off far away
and work my way in.
I go high,
I go low,
around,
and then I like to get really creative
and get the extra credit stuff.
All right, so I'm gonna stay right here,
but I have like three different cameras on this
so I can go wide.
Oh, this is dope.
Yeah, I like this.
Then I can come in tight.
Yeah, 3D, 3D. There it is.
I tend to shoot a lot of photos
and I just zoom through them.
I'm always looking for shapes
and things that might catch my eye.
That's why you see so many of my images
cropped in really closely.
'Cause I decided that I love the specific elements
of this photo so I zoomed in
and removed the rest of it.
For me it's about highlighting what I love.
What are the things I want to celebrate in a specific photo?
The first thing I'm looking for is nice framing.
Because I love the shape of his hands.
I love how Yvesmark's eyes are kind of finding me
in that frame.
So I think this is a good crop.
I think this is a good way to improve the photo
and I'm gonna keep it right here.
You know, we'll try 9:16.
I think that'll be fun.
I'm not sold on it though.
I think I'm gonna go back to 8:10,
just so we have a little bit more space to work with.
'Cause really what cropping is,
I wanna see how things emerge from the borders.
So I think this is a good crop
because it leaves us wanting to ask for more.
I want to look at this image.
I'm always looking for extra credit.
I'm in exploratory mode right now,
which is my favorite part of this.
I love the fact that I can test
and try and undo to explore different ways
to view this photo.
I like where we landed here and we have, like,
some shadow play and a nice composition.
So I like this one.
- Thanks, Mark, for walking us through your process.
Let's recap.
First, we learned all about how to give energy,
to get energy.
In other words, how to bring 120
when your subject's at 80.
Or meeting them at 100 when they're at 100.
Next, we started out wide,
then got close to get all the typical framing and poses done
before experimenting with more unexpected ones.
Finally, we learned how to crop for impact
by looking through our selects for interesting shapes
before zooming in to mine them for extra portrait gold.
We're adding new episodes regularly,
so if you liked what you saw,
please like and subscribe or send this video to a friend.
And, as always, check out Today At Apple sessions in stores
to learn more ways to take great photos,
make cool videos, or even level up your drawing skills
all using iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
Most importantly,
remember to share your portraits
with the hashtag Today at Apple,
because I'll be here waiting to check them out.
Don't worry, I'm patient.
Thank you so much. I'll see you next time.