PDN: How would you describe your photographic style?

Morand: I think we both agree that our style is still evolving, but I would certainly describe it as cinematic. We like to use rich colors, and we are very interested in the storytelling aspect of things. I like images with depth, moodiness and shadows. I see a lot of photographers who use big, broad sources and everything is flat; I am more interested in depth and shadows.

Zwirner: I love using color to get something to jump out a bit. I'd also like to keep moving in the direction of using harder sources on a subject instead of keeping everything soft and super modeled. I'm not a fan of big, soft sources. Like Gaelle, I find the result to be flat and boring—too much like wrapping everything in a big white sheet—and I don't want any part of it.

I'm not a big brush guy. I notice other people with big Octabank sources behind the camera, but I like small, very confined sources that are very specific and do exactly what I want them to do and go where I want them to go. I like to have some sort of modeling on the subject. I will set the key to one side of the face so that I have some shadow. The interplay of light and shadow is very important to me. It's where you start to create some dimension.


PDN: Chris, what was it like to switch from being a gaffer on big movie sets to shooting stills?

Zwirner: It was humbling. I made some really stupid mistakes. A lot of gaffers are very full of themselves, thinking "I'm the one who is making this scene look great; they couldn't do this without me." So I was kind of arrogant when I picked up the camera again and, boy, was I rudely awakened. During one shoot, half of my frames caught the curtain of the camera lens because I wasn't shooting at the right shutter speed for strobe. It was heartbreaking.


PDN: Do you work with photo assistants or film crews when you're lighting still sets?

Zwirner: We have a handful of photo assistants that we work with, but I find that it's easier to bring in set lighting technicians from the film world because we speak the same language and the dynamic is very familiar to me. When Gaelle and I are shooting together, it's very much like a small film shoot.


PDN: How do you two go about determining the lighting for a given shot?

Zwirner: We sit down and have a discussion about what we are shooting and the look we are going for. Gaelle will dig up some reference photos to give me an idea of what she is looking for. I will look at the images and we will come to a consensus based on our discussion. As Gaelle discusses her ideas about the look of an image, I am already cranking away, starting to figure out what equipment I'm going to need to achieve what we are talking about. On the day of the shoot, I will rough out the lighting and she will put her two cents in at that point.

Morand: When I say to Chris, "What do you think about using a toplight?" I'm pretty sure that Chris is already thinking about the exact light that he is going to use. We are able to communicate really well about lighting during the conceptual stage. When it comes down to the actual, physical act of setting the lights, Chris comes in and crafts it. I will help move lights around, but this is definitely his strong suit. He has been gaffing for a long time and it is certainly comforting to work with somebody whose skills are so strong from a lighting point of view.


PDN: Is there a lighting tool that you consider to be indispensable?

Zwirner: The Chimera Pancake Lantern Softbox. I love the light that I get from it and what I can do with it. I feel so comfortable with it that sometimes I have to force myself to step away from it. I think it's the Chimera cloth. There is something about the quality of the light that it creates and the diffusion it provides that is exceptional. To me, it's one of the most beautiful lights that you can use to light a subject, as far as soft and inviting lighting. We use these things all the time in Hollywood for lighting subjects. I've also strewn them all the way across the top of a set to create a soft ambient top fill light. The nice thing about the pancake is that it's engineered with a built-in skirt, which I find to be very useful, because I don't have to create this grip jungle surrounding the lantern to control the light.


PDN: Tell us a little bit about the different roles that you each play in creating an image.

Zwirner: There are so many logistics involved in producing some of these shoots. Working alone, by the time you sit down and put your eye behind the lens, you are often completely exhausted. Gaelle and I divide up the work so that the production of an image is not so overwhelming.

But, more important, Gaelle brings a refinement and an elegance to the shot that might have been lacking if I had been doing it on my own. She tempers me and pulls me in a direction that I may not have seen.

Morand: We are very good collaborators. We talk about what we want to do, and then bat around our concepts or ideas. I have a heavier hand in model selection and hair and makeup, while Chris concentrates on equipment lists, pulling permits—a lot of the preproduction stuff that is very important. But, creatively, we both weigh in equally.


PDN: Gaelle, do you ever incorporate CGI techniques into your still photography?

Morand: No, I haven't done so up to this point.


PDN: Why not?

Morand: It can be time-consuming and very expensive. I would have to create the model, texture it, light it, render it and then composite it into an image, so there are a lot of steps.


PDN: You've composited different backgrounds into some of your still images. Do you do that in Photoshop?

Morand: Yes. I shoot a subject on a blue screen or green screen and then composite in another background. We did a series of images where we shot a model in the studio with blue screen and then replaced the background with a shot of an oil refinery with flames coming out of the smokestacks.


PDN: Do you have any technical tips for photographers interested in incorporating CGI imagery into their stills?

Morand: Make sure that the focal length of your lens matches the focal field of view in your CGI software program. If you are going to shoot on set in your studio, whoever is doing the CGI will need to know the focal length of the lens you used. Also, if you are shooting with a green screen or blue screen, make sure to keep the subject as far away from the background as possible, so that you don't get colored reflections on the subject's hair and cheeks and clothes.


PDN: Chris, how did you learn the craft of lighting?

Zwirner: My understanding of lighting has evolved from years of being on film sets and taking an interest in lighting and wanting to understand it better. There are plenty of guys in my motion picture union who are familiar with the equipment and know how to use it, but they are not aware of what a particular piece of equipment is capable of doing. It took me a while to get my head around that and to really start paying attention. I was fortunate to have the chance to work with people who seemed to have a real understanding of light and how it played into what they were trying to convey in a movie. I remember working with director of photography Roger Deakins and Roger absolutely refused to use a backlight. He simply didn't like the way it looked. Instead, he would create separation between the subject and the background by illuminating the background in such a way that it eliminated the need to put a direct backlight on somebody—and it worked beautifully. It was very instructive for me to see somebody go against convention—to hear someone say, "No, we're not setting a backlight on that." Along the way, as I worked with people like Roger, I paid close attention; I watched what they did and what they did differently and then carried that knowledge forward.