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Rangefinder
Magazine Profile: Craig Kienast by John Iacovino
Life changed rather dramatically for Craig Kienast about four years ago when he crossed an imaginary line between portrait photographer and fine artist. “ They’re both good trades,” Kienast says. “It’s just that I was getting bored with the one and didn’t know I could become the other and still make a good living.” What changed him? Digital photo manipulation tools and the work of photographer Darton Drake changed him, for starters. Once Craig made his commitment to a new art form, his clients’ incredibly positive reactions were all he needed to keep pushing him over one “edge” after another. Is he way, way out there today? Yes. Is he happy? Big yes.
Craig’s photographic art form, which he calls “fantasia art prints,” has helped him fall in love with his career all over again. It’s paying the bills quite well, too. And Craig believes it might just be what keeps his portrait business viable another decade. Today,
in the small market town of Clear Lake, Iowa, Kienast gets more than
double the fees of his nearest competitor (about $1200 for most
of his high school senior orders, and a little less for those who don’t
want the “fantasia” treatment). In a typical year, he shoots
about 100 seniors, 12 weddings and another 50 or so assignments for children
or families. Please Don’t Make Me Do That…
Craig knew those gimmicks would take time to produce, and he doubted if seniors or brides, much less their parents or spouses, would be willing to pay for what seemed little more than an arcade souvenir. “But that’s not what was taught at the seminar. I wish I would have stayed in the room that afternoon, I would be way ahead of where I am today,” Craig laments. “
I admit it—I needed a digital attitude adjustment,” he says. “Yes,
the digital manipulation process gives you the power to be corny, but
it also gives you the power to be sensitive and subtle—to craft
and create,” he says. When he knows an image is to be worked into a fantasia, he chooses a background that will add an element of depth and flow to the image. He’s painted several backgrounds that tend to take him in the direction he eventually will go inside his computer. His backdrops are sold exclusively through Photo Showcase backgrounds: (www.photoshocasebackgrounds.com).
Lighting techniques are pretty much the same as for any non-digitally reworked photograph. Craig uses one main light source, a Photogenic PowerLight 1500 SL, and a host of Larson Softboxes, especially the 4x6- and 6x8-foot boxes. What sets his fantasia print style apart is his “after the click” bag of toys. Working primarily in Adobe Photoshop, Craig subtly enhances the eyes—the whites of the eyes and the eyelashes. He also removes imperfections, but not all of them. “ The little twist in a young man’s smile is part of his story. I leave that. The lines in a woman’s lips are sweet—I leave, or even enhance them,” he says. “But the wrinkle under a subject’s eyes if the subject is only 18 years old or white dust particles on a subject’s black shirt get rubber stamped away,” he says. Using Photoshop and/or Painter, Craig turns the skin on women and children towards porcelain. For most backgrounds, Craig tends to dull, blur, and repaint the patterns of the backdrop so they conform to the features of the subject while they set the subject apart from the background. “ The contrast between the enhanced features of the subject and the subdued and reshaped tones of the backdrop are part of the theater of my finished images,” he says. The computer image reworking process takes Craig about 15 minutes. He usually does this with his own favorite music playing in the background—different music for different images. “Music really is a part of the creative process,” Craig says. He concentrates every bit as completely on this process as he does when the camera is in his hands.
The specific techniques and digital tools he uses are not trade secrets. He readily shows them in his seminars, prints them out in step-by-step form in his periodicals, and shares freely with photographers in chat rooms—or just in conversation. “ Besides providing a new spark of job satisfaction for photographers, I’m extremely curious to see where other creative professionals go with these ideas,” Craig says. “I fully expect to be blown away by the photographers who soar light years past my few attempts at this process. Other photographers’ work is part of what will push me forward 5–10 years from now—you know, keeping up with the Joneses,” he says. Though Kienast’s style is easily recognizable even to the casual observer, no two finished prints are ever alike. “ The mood from the session and the impression the subject has made on me influence whether my finished image will be playful and bouncy or gothic and eerie. I don’t always get it right, but when I’ve picked up the right vibe from the subject and reflect that back to them in the finished print, they go crazy. They love it and they will go to great lengths to own that image,” he says. “Usually the first words they say when they see their art print are ‘Oh, my God!’ If you can get that reaction, the sale is a given,” he says.
Apparently, Craig hits the mark quite often. Up until this year, he shot and prepared a fantasia print for each of his seniors and all of his brides. The fantasia image is printed on archival photo paper on an Epson 2200 or Epson 7600 printer, then framed for each of his sales sessions. Up until this year, he sold two of five of his seniors the print at an average price of $350. “ I’m in a small-town, small-income area,” Craig says. “If I did this in an upscale urban market, I could increase that price by three times and still sell it.” This year, Craig made an administrative change. He now asks his seniors in advance if they want a fantasia session added to their basic session. If so, they pay an extra $25 at the time of the shoot. He says approximately 7–10 seniors accept the add-on session. So far this year, only three people who have accepted the add-on fantasia session have failed to purchase the print. Many request more than one fantasia to be created. Some seniors or parents opt for the much larger, canvas version for up to $1200, unframed.
“ People will purchase art. If that art happens to be of someone they love—if it happens to pull at their heart strings, they purchase even more willingly,” he says. Of course, Craig still sells his clients the rest of the standard packages. His seniors still bring several outfit changes or ask to be photographed with their pet hamster or golf clubs. They go on location for sunsets over Clear Lake, bring their girlfriends or boyfriends, and ask for their nickname to be printed on their wallets. Craig says he now can tolerate those tried and true traditions and even welcomes them. “ As long as I occasionally get to produce something really special—like maybe just once a day—then I’m happy,” he says. “Because in addition to our industry’s ‘right-of-passage’ photographs, my clients and I understand I will also be producing something we can’t exactly predict the outcome of. There’s the anticipation that we’ll not only capture time-honored photo memories—we will also create a distinctly separate moment in time.” All photographs in this article were taken with the Canon 1Ds camera. Also the Canon 28–105mm lens was used for all images unless otherwise specified. Craig Kienast will be present a program at WPPI ‘04 on Monday, February 22, from 8:00–10 a.m. in BALLY’s, Las Vegas. The title of his program is “Breaking New Ground.” John Iacovino is a journalist with 20 years of newspaper and magazine publishing history. Ten years ago he founded Blossom Publishing, a design and print firm producing high-end print marketing projects for portrait photographers. Blossom Publishing currently works with 600 photographers annually nationwide. Top: Bottom: |
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