A Perfect Fit by Michelle Perkins
Fashion Photographs by Michael Biondo

“Organic” and “rich” were key words when designing the catalog’s images.

During his 18-year career in fashion photography, Michael Biondo’s images have graced the top magazines (Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Glamour), and his clients have included household names like Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. Yet one of his most interesting jobs has actually been with a company that many people (at least those who aren’t up to speed on couture) may find less familiar: the Jim Hjelm Occasions Collection. Featuring elegant dresses for formal occasions, the Occasions Collection is available only from select boutiques that cater to a fashion-conscious, high-end clientele. To promote the line, they produce a beautifully designed catalog—and this is where Michael Biondo comes in.

Michael became involved with Jim Hjelm Occasions when the company’s creative director, Cyndy Starer, met him on a shoot for Bride’s magazine. It was the start of a creative partnership that has now lasted for more than 10 years—a rare thing in fashion photography. Michael attributes the longevity to a natural compatibility of tastes. “Sometimes two people just have a similar way of looking at things,” he says. Cyndy says of the relationship, “There’s just something about Michael—he just gives everything.”

	Each image is crafted to emphasize the stylistic details of the dress.

In the years that he has been shooting for Occasions, a lot has changed. The company has grown rapidly and gone public (meaning bigger budgets for the shoots). It has also become more adventurous and less traditional—especially for a company that specializes in formal dresses. Recently, as the Internet has expanded the public’s awareness of fashion, the Occasions print catalog has actually become more important. It now functions not only as a vehicle for depicting merchandise, but also as an image-branding device that attracts buyers and drives them to the company’s web site (www.jim
hjelmoccasions.com).

Each season’s catalog begins with Cyndy. About a month before the shoot, she provides Michael with a series of rough ideas for the new catalog’s look. These are then hammered out during a series of meetings. “We try to articulate what we want to accomplish,” says Michael. “We look for words like ‘warm’ or ‘rich’ to describe the color palette, then match them with Pantone colors or paint chips.” Simultaneously, the designers are finalizing the season’s collection, so the catalog’s creative team must continually refine their vision to suit the colors and fabrics in the final dresses.

A week before the shoot, Cyndy and Michael begin shopping for set elements, taking advantage of New York City’s numerous prop houses. Having determined the flavor of the images that will be created, gut instinct (and, again, a shared aesthetic) comes into play when determining the “right” prop. For the images in the current catalog, Michael says, “The key words were ‘organic’ and ‘rich.’” These ideas were played out using a saturated palette of earthy tones paired with props like deep red carpets, bead-trimmed velvet pillows, weighty vases with worn finishes, paper and wood screens, and antique furniture.

A few days before the shoot, Michael and his assistant, Kent Pell, begin painting—yes, painting. Although he used to rely on professional set painters to create his backdrops, when Kent expressed some interest in trying his hand at the job, Michael was eager to give it a shot. Working on muslin stretched over 10x10-foot flats, the pair found that they could actually achieve better results than the pros—creating background elements that became all the more vibrant when lit. In the color-driven stories he creates for the Occasions catalog, this grants Michael an added element of control—one he exercises throughout the shoot, as he continues to refine the backgrounds for individual setups.

For the images in this particular catalog, Michael shot Kodak E100 120 film with a Hasselblad camera using a 60mm lens. This lens, quite unusual for fashion photography, allowed him to combine forced perspective with graphic shapes to create a sense of space—making the 10x10-foot painted flats in the background look like huge walls.

Rich tones and lavish props harmonize beautifully with this elegant, deep red gown.	The grid pattern on the screen coordinates with the clean lines of the image.	Predominately cool and neutral tones in the set make the peach-colored gown the star.

When it comes to lighting, Michael prefers a single-source look. The images in this series were shot using a ProFoto main light (gelled a little for warming). For fill, light was bounced into a V-flat behind him. This simple lighting, he notes, supports the desired organic look in a way that a complicated, six-light setup simply wouldn’t.

Working with experienced professional models, Michael provides a rough idea of the pose he wants, then tries to direct as little as possible. “I look for flattering shapes and a moment that feels real,” he says. Of course, the real subject in these images is not actually the model—it’s her dress. Says Michael, “It’s important to ask, ‘What’s this dress about?’ and build the image to show that.” Whether it’s the neckline, a belt, the hem, or the sheerness of the fabric, every element of the image—including the pose—is used to showcase that feature.

When all is said and done, what’s in front of the camera is the result of a lot of work by a lot of people, rather than the creative vision of one individual. In fact, taking the photographs themselves actually consumes less time than any other part of the process. Says Michael with a laugh, “If you’ve done the preproduction right, it’s kind of like shooting fish in a barrel.”

A single-light setup complements the clean styling of the images.	Textured props contrast with the smoothness and delicate sheen of the gown.	Digital retouching is used to finesse each image, but the effects are never obvious.

Incidentally, this particular catalog was the last job created on film for Occasions. A while back, Michael did some test shots on his Canon 1Ds. When he brought them in for Cyndy Starer’s review, she was sold—in fact, she was so impressed that one of the images was actually used as a two-page spread for InStyle magazine. Of the transition to digital Cyndy says, “I’ll never go back—with digital you can really work a photograph, and you can really see what you have.”

The Occasions catalog is vertically formatted, so horizontal images are used for two-page spreads.

The transition to digital has also been a happy one for Michael, who says his increased involvement throughout the entire creative process has boosted his enthusiasm. Rather than turning an image over to an art director or pre-press technician, he can now stay with it through postproduction. In fact, Michael works closely with Gene Bressler of Catchlight Digital (www.catchlightdigital.com) to refine both the hard and soft retouching. “Hard retouching,” says Michael, “is changing the shape or size of something in the frame.” In these images, that process included correcting for distortion caused by the use of the 60mm wide-angle lens and cleaning up the dresses by removing wrinkles.

	Michael’s models are professionals who know how to make clothes come to life

Soft retouching, on the other hand, refers collectively to color adjustments, contrast control, burning and dodging. It’s with these refinements that Michael is ultimately able to craft his previsualized image. While the changes made can be quite dramatic, they are never obvious. Says Michael, “If it looks retouched, it’s a problem.” He likens the feeling of crafting a great digital image in Photoshop to the experience of pulling a great print in the darkroom (something he hasn’t been able to do for several years due to allergies he developed to the chemicals).

In the end, Michael feels strongly that the enhanced control a digital workflow offers is a fair trade-off for the extra time involved. Of course, that control is a double-edged sword. As he points out, “You also gain the ability to screw it up—and then there’s no one else to point the finger at!”

Looking at the finely crafted images in the Jim Hjelm Collections catalogs, though, it’s clear that Michael’s work doesn’t inspire much finger-pointing—at least not of the accusatory variety. Avoiding gimmicks and clichés, he creates a look that is at once young and timeless. In the end, the only things that outshine the rich set, beautiful model, and delicate lighting are the dresses. Like the photography used to depict them, these are sumptuous, masterfully constructed and glamorous. And, in that, Michael’s work is a perfect fit.

To see more of Michael’s work and for more information, visit www.michaelbiondo.com.

Michelle Perkins is a professional writer, designer, and image retoucher. She has written for PC Photo and is the author of Beginner’s Guide to Adobe Photoshop and Traditional Photographic Effects with Adobe Photoshop (both from Amherst Media).