Strictly no flash: the Dynax 7D finds
its forte on the filmset
S
hooting sharp and fast in low
Richard Blanshard is a
on, grabbing them and swapping
light, unobserved, unheard them over”. Even so, dust on the
and certainly never using flash
top movie industry stills
sensors has not been a problem.
is Richard Blanshard’s stock-in-
photographer who must
He has three spare NP-400
trade. That’s why, when capturing batteries, which the cold weather
Hollywood’s finest, he fits an ƒ1.4
work fast without flash
had not seemed to affect badly.
lens on his Dynax 7D, chooses the
on film sets, and to top
He shoots nothing but Fine Large
lowest practical ISO, sets his own JPEGs, sRGB. “I would never be able
white balance and relies on the mixed quality in the studio for to shoot fast enough using RAW, or
lighting set up for the film cameras.
star portraits. He has recently gone D7 digital.
find time to process the files. I use 1

Richard is a filmset stills gigabyte cards, and transfer the shots
photographer, one of a few to a Western Digital 250 Gigabyte
specialists in this difficult job, hard disk, then burn archives on
and we interviewed him through to DVDs. I make additional DVDs
a tenuous phone link to his hotel and sent these straight to the US.
room in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he “I did try shooting AdobeRGB
has been working on the produc- JPEGs but you need Photoshop to
tion of Highlander – The Source open them, and in my world, if the
(the fifth Highlander epic). client can’t open the picture on any
“It’s just beginning to get cold”, he computer, anywhere, it’s no good
admitted, looking forward to another – they have to be sRGB JPEGs and
three weeks in the Baltic state before that way anyone can get into them.
returning to Britain in December. My shots are not being used for
He was already three weeks into the huge posters, full page at the most,
shoot, with five thousand 7D JPEGs and for that a Dynax 7D JPEG is
shot, filed, archived, and flown to the fine. We have made 20 x 30s from
USA like ‘still rushes’ for the film. some of the Keeping Mum Rowan
However, his work does not end Atkinson shots and they are great.”
when the location and studio footage When possible, he uses ISO 100
is all in the can for the movie crew. and Anti-Shake for the best qual-
On December 2nd Keeping Mum goes ity. This is when the subjects are
on release starring Rowan Atkinson, relatively still in the scene. “The light
Kristen Scott Thomas, Maggie Thomas can be very low, and it can be an
and Patrick Swayze. We can expect unusual colour”, he says. “I can set
to be seeing Richard’s star portraits the Kelvins white balance to get my
(shot in a studio set up for the shots right, and I have learned how
purpose), behind the scenes record Richard shoots studio pictures using an Elinchrom mains flash system set up on to judge the colour and brightness of
and filmset stills all over the place. location. Above, Tamsin Egerton – right, Patrick Swayze, from ‘Keeping Mum’. the rear screen on the camera, so I
He will be working, by then, on know what I will get on the computer.
many aspects of the Highlander film industry to cover Royal film F – it’s essential on filmsets where the “Today they were using a ‘storm
commission – a website featuring premiers, Olympia and Earl’s Court lighting is nothing like the camera blue’ filter on the camera for
the entire backstage, off-set story exhibitions, and many other events. meter expects. You have to take a spot effect, and I was able to replicate
from make-up and prosthetics to I found myself on the Royal Rota, reading.” Digital has slightly changed the result by adjusting the colour
stunts and fights; a documentary on and it often meant working fast. his methods, but more of that later! temperature setting on the 7D.”
the filming itself, largely depend- We would cover a premier at the At the time the ‘si’ Dynax cameras He describes his methods as
ent on creative use of still shots; Odeon Leicester Square, develop and were launched, Richard was shooting ‘guerilla shooting’ much of the time
and of course the impending final print all the shots that same night on the set of Judge Dredd, a visually – keeping out of the actor’s line of
release and all its publicity. and hand them over to Fleet Street amazing production, and covering sight, making sure the camera is
When Richard Blanshard entered picture desks before morning.” its promotion at the Cannes Film not seen or heard. Flash is of course
photography after leaving school, Richard became a special Festival. Minolta picked up on his impossible, and for some quiet
some 30 years ago, he worked for assigned photographer for Lew use of their cameras and lenses, scenes, he uses a Konica Minolta A200
Kodak then took a formal course Grade, shooting the promo work and he featured in 700si advertis- with all the sound effects turned off.
at Harrow, long one of the best for TV shows like the Muppets, and ing using Judge Dredd stills. Off set, he has a studio rigged up
photographic colleges for UK many films. He had been using Nikon Today, Richard uses a pair of with Elinchrom studio-flash lighting
professionals. He joined an Uxbridge gear, but was curious about the Konica Minolta Dynax 7D bodies heads and this is used with the 7D,
commercial studio which had a wide qualities of Minolta lenses, which – back up is essential in places which is fully studio flash compatible,
range of advertising clients, and have always had a reputation for like Vilnius or the coastal town of for more formal portraits and promo
found himself working on all formats smooth skin tones. He acquired the Klapieda where some scenes have shots of the cast. On set, he is more
from Rollei rollfilm to 10 x 8 sheet fastest lenses – ƒ1.4 – for shooting been shot. “I probably treat my likely to fit his 200mm ƒ2.8 and
film, but no 35mm. “The Rolleis were on the Minolta system in low light. equipment much worse than most even add a 2X converter, standing
our smallest cameras”, he told us. “I had always used Minolta of your members”, he admitted. “I a long way back from the action.
“I then went to work for Pic spot-meters”, he says, “so I knew the have to change the lenses in hurry, His lens line-up also includes
Photos, who had contracts for the brand. I still use a Minolta Spotmeter putting them down without rear caps the 35mm ƒ1.4 G, 50mm ƒ1.4 G,
photoworld 6
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