Cute.
That's cute.
>>My cheeks hurt.
>>Taking photos of a 13 year old is hard work.
>> Yeah, especially when she says, "Oh you look so unnatural."
"Like going like this." [LAUGH]
>>Okay, so we're gonna call Art Streiber, Class of 84,
incredible photographer.
He's done photos of anyone you can imagine.
A few years ago, Paramount Pictures celebrated their hundredth anniversary,
and they wanted a photo of 100 of their Hollywood icons.
The article that I read said he got it done in six minutes,
which I can't even fathom.
I can't get a picture of my own cat in six minutes.
I'm excited to talk to Art and also learn how to take a better portrait.
[PHONE RINGING] Art, thank you so much for joining me here.
>> Of course. >> Give me a little sampling of what is
your week look like preceding lockdown here.
What's a typical week for you?
>> Some weeks I could have two shoots or three shoots.
Some weeks I could have one enormous shoot, and
then I can go a week or two or three without any shoots.
Even at this stage in my career,
I am still constantly marketing and trying to get work.
>> So then March happens and- >> It does.
>> All the phone calls stop.
Because- >> Exactly.
>> Everyone is ordered to stay at home.
So let's kinda go to that moment.
>> Slowly but surely, jobs started to cancel.
I could shoot personal projects, which I've been doing.
Or I could go out and do what I would call photojournalistic reportage
coverage of the effects of the lockdown.
And then, completely bizarrely and out of the blue, I did a Vanity Fair
shoot last Tuesday on a drone, which I had never done before.
>> I wonder if you have inklings of are some of these changes permanent?
Is photo shoot by drone going to be a thing or-
>> Absolutely.
Photo shoot by drone will not be a thing.
But I was already in talks this week with the producers I use
about what the future will look like.
What will catering on shoots look like?
What will hair and make up look like?
The drone, it's not necessary.
>> Right.
>> I can be far enough away from you safely and
do a shoot where there is no health issue.
>> Right.
>> And I think it's safe to say that if under normal circumstances,
if we had done that shoot that way at that actresses house in her backyard,
there would have been about 15 or 20 people there.
>> Wow.
>> But there were five of us.
Me, drone pilot, drone camera operator,
wardrobe stylist and prop stylist, who doubled as my assistant.
>> You mentioned kinda your pull to want to cover
this whole experience more journalistically.
>> I went to Rodeo Drive, and Rodeo Drive, as you know,
is just chock full of high end, luxury designer boutiques.
Not only was their signage in the windows saying due to the health crisis,
we're closed, we're closed until further notice.
But also, 95% of them had taken all of the merchandise out of the stores.
It was just haunting.
>> I am a horrible photographer.
[LAUGH] >> Partly.
>> Although I'm getting better because I have Art Streiber training me.
>> Yes. >> So I was looking through
some of your stuff on your website, and
I saw a series that you did that I think was all students in their rooms.
>> Yes.
>> And I thought,
we don't have enough time in the world to discuss how you do that.
But I could take a picture of my teenager's room and
it would just look like we live in a disaster area.
But you do it and it looks like it belongs in a museum.
>> That's very sweet.
The thing is, is that everybody has one of these.
>> Yeah.
>> What photography really boils down to is the composition of the image,
the light, the quality of light, the direction of the light.
And then capturing a moment and/or creating a moment to capture.
So anyway, you walk into the room, walk into your daughter's room and
figure out okay, where is the best photo?
Where does the camera need to be to tell this story?
And then you look at it and you say to yourself, where's the light?
How am I going to help the light,
manage the light, control the light to help tell the story?
Because essentially, every picture is telling the story.
And then what's the moment?
Is the moment her on her bed?
Is the moment her at her desk?
So composition, light, and moment, all in the service of telling the story.
>> Great.
Okay, well, I'll try.
[LAUGH] Well, I'll try.
All of us who are stuck in our homes.
>> I think that's great.
>> Taking photos of nothing.
>> That's a great challenge.
It's a great challenge to do what's called the environmental portrait of the people
you're living with.
If you had to think about your husband in quarantine,
what is that definitive moment and how would you best capture it?
[MUSIC]
This could be an amazing portrait series of alums by alums for
the loop or for the magazine.
>> It's a great idea.
>> And you're welcome.
>> Yeah.
[LAUGH] We'll be stealing that, thanks.
So that kind of leads us pretty seamlessly into the the project that we decided to
do together.
So a lot of people have graduates who are not giving a ceremony right now,
whether that's college or high school.
>> Yes.
>> Or even my own daughter was to have an eighth grade graduation, and
now those are gone.
And so we talked about maybe giving people some tips on how to take a good
graduation portrait to kind of commemorate that day or that time.
We needed a bad photographer, so luckily,
I have great range in the things that I'm bad at, and photography is one of them.
So I took probably 30 photos, and I sent you 2 that I thought were maybe the best.
And you were so nice, you were like great job.
We need to change everything.
[LAUGH] It's one of the best, nicest way possible.
So I was very excited to take my second round.
You mentioned a few things, so I thought that my
second choice of background was kind of multiple different bushes in the back and
stuff was better, cuz there was more color.
And you were like no, no, solid, plain background.
>> I would say clean.
I don't know that I would say solid or plain, but I would say I would say clean.
>> Consistent?
>> Yes.
>> And then there were a few other things, I had cut off her hands,
which I found out was not a good thing.
I think I had kind of a three quarter arm thing going on there.
Why don't you give us kind of the basics of if you're taking A portrait of
one human, what are your kind of five things to do or-
>> Absolutely.
>> Or not do.
>> You've seen people on these Zooms that you can't see because they're not lit.
>> Right.
Or they're not lit well.
Right now, the light on you is fantastic.
Absolutely fantastic.
[MUSIC]
So what you're looking for is this light, which is this frontal, soft light.
So what I recommended to you is trying to find what's called open shade,
beautiful, soft light.
And you're gonna find that on the north side of your house, you're gonna find it
under an awning, where you're in the shade, but you're not in the dark.
Because there's all of this what's called ambient light flooding in to that space.
And the iPhone and most phones now have portrait mode.
The normal lens on these things is a wide angle,
like the lens on this computer and on yours.
>> Right. >> Which is why my hand is getting so
silly and big as it moves closer.
So you don't want to be shooting people with a wide angle lens,
because the wide angle lens is going to distort your features.
As I get closer to this camera [LAUGH], all of a sudden my forehead gets enormous.
And then last but not least, and now I think I'm gonna stand up for this.
A lot of people make the mistake of asking people to
just kind of stand and look at the camera.
And hitting anybody head on is not as flattering as turning them
just slightly three quarters and putting your weight on your back leg.
This is a power pose.
Yeah.
But people don't know what to do with their hands.
And that's the next move which is, what am I supposed to do with my hands?
Bring them together, cross the arms, put them in your pockets.
Or like I suggested to you, perhaps they are leaning against something or
you put them on a stool in order to give them something to do with
their arms and their hands.
>> Yeah, we realized a lot of the first pictures I took of my daughter looked like
a passport photo.
They were just too straight on and she looks stiff and-
>> Exactly.
>> My solution there was to say look more natural, but that wasn't helpful.
>> Yeah, you're either doing a portrait or
you're doing what's called a three quarters or a cowboy.
I have always wanted to look up why it was called cowboy.
>> It's gotta be the thumbs in the belt
loops >> That is-
>> That's what I think of.
>> A really good question.
My God, don't look this up on the internet >> That's classic.
Okay.
>> Wow. >> [LAUGH]
>> Okay, there is a clean website called
the Body Language Project.
The cowboy pose happens by placing the thumbs in the belt loops.
>> I got it.
>> With the remaining fingers pointing downward.
The cowboy pose was popularized by old western movies.
>> There you go.
>> Yeah.
Yeah, okay, well now we know and no one needs to Google it.
>> So- >> Yeah, do not.
>> So up close, the three quarters.
>> Three quarters and then full length.
>> Full length, right, right.
Which I had the hardest time with.
You told me all of the problems with the first one.
After you said it, I could see it.
And then I went and did the second round and I sent you those.
So were any of those better?
>> Absolutely yes.
>> Yeah. >> But
you gotta be careful with the open shade because
I think in one of the portraits of your daughter, it was overcast.
>> Yeah. >> Which is great light, but
overcast light can be what we call very toppy.
And that toppiness is also not that flattering.
And the other thing to consider is trying to do these pictures either
at the beginning of the day or the end of the day when
the sun is lower in the sky >> So
I may do a third round yet, if she will tolerate me.
She said I'm done being a model.
[LAUGH] I'm over it >> I'm over it.
>> I get it, it's hard work >> I feel like I'm already
better equipped.
Everything I know about photography I learned from Art Streiber.
So I'm pretty well equipped now to go out and
take a decent photo in June of her, and that will be great for us.
So that brings me to my last little little question for
you which is, every family has their own documentarian of the family, right?
The person who takes most of the photos.
>> So I have to assume that you are your family's documentarian.
Is that true and do you drive your family crazy?
Are you capable of taking just the casual photo or do need the fiddle?
And then I also wonder what happens when somebody on the street says hey,
will you take a photo of us not knowing you know who you are.
>> If I'm out on the street and somebody says hey,
can you take a picture, I happily take their picture.
If I'm with one of my daughters, they might then give me a bunch of crap
later that I should have told them who I was or that I didn't tell them who I was.
Or thank you for not telling them who you were.
What I will do is I might do exactly what you and I were discussing,
which is that I might move them into a beautiful backlit situation.
Or move them into an open shade situation,
in which case my family says you just couldn't help yourself, could you?
And I said well, I wanted to give them the best possible picture I could.
But to answer your first question, yes, I'm the documentarian.
And no, I'm not in a lot of photos, and I do drive the family crazy.
But I then remind them that when they go back into our family archive and
database and they find these old pictures of themselves, which they love and share.
That that was only possible because I bothered them
into letting me take their picture in the moment.
>> I wanna thank you for doing this.
It was really nice to get to chat with you.
>> My pleasure. >> I've been a fan for a long time and
you're kinda legendary around Stanford Magazine office.
So- >> It's very sweet.
>> Glad we got a chance to meet virtually.
Maybe someday it'll be in person.
>> Absolutely.
>> Stay healthy and we'll talk to you soon.
Thanks. >> All right.
Thank you.
[DIAL TONE and MUSIC]