Professional Photo Issue 172

Introducing our second digital-only special and this one is similarly heaving with unmissable content. So sign up, download and get stuck in: there are nearly 100 pages of great stories to get to grips with inside and lots of tantalising tangents to dive off on, thanks to the highly interactive nature of our fully digital publication. Our cover this month is from celebrated US fashion specialist Jim Jordan, who tells us the extraordinary story of how he moved from being a hair and make-up specialist to being the main man behind the camera, while we’re also profiling the incredible Marilyn Stafford, whose real life story reads like the script for a Hollywood movie. She hung out with Robert Capa and Cartier-Bresson, sung in a Paris nightclub and, while well into her nineties, she was instrumental in setting up a top award to encourage female photographers. We’ve also got Richard Bradbury walking us through the building of his new home studio, a fresh graduate telling us how she’s going about getting assisting experience, a catch up with a man who’s adding vlogging to his photography mix and a look at why DAM is so crucial for a professional business. Oh, and a detailed review of the brand new Canon 1DX Mark III flagship for good measure. So insanely full, this issue is positively bursting at the seams!

Issue 172 is a digital only version.

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Box Of Secrets

While he was living the life as a successful hair and make-up artist in Los Angeles, working on jobs with the likes of Helmut Newton and Herb Ritts, Jim Jordan was also taking the opportunity between takes to set up his own pictures of some of the star names passing through the studio. Eventually the prints that lay hidden inside his secret black box were discovered and it led him to become a top international fashion photographer in his own right.

Photographic Legend

At a time when women were few and far between in the world of professional photography, US-born Marilyn Stafford was ripping up the rule book and travelling the world, following her heart and producing photographic stories about situations she felt drawn to. She headed out with Cartier-Bresson to shoot street photography, took fashion shoots out of the studio and helped to set up a major award for female photographers, and we catch up to hear more about her amazing life story.

Reach out to the world

If you’re shooting with a mirrorless camera the chances are you already have most of the kit you need to get involved in vlogging and it’s a great way to show the world your personality. We catch up with Jimmy Cheng, who has added a visual diary to his business and has now turned this into a profitable and exciting sideline that’s seen him named as an Olympus Video Ambassador with the chance to travel the world.

The Sky’s the limit

If you’re shooting pictures for stock libraries and you’re suffering the frustration of bland skies then you have the option to make your work more sellable by dropping in a substitute sky that’s full of vivid colour. Affinity Photo is the perfect tool to enable you to seamlessly do this and Matty Graham looks at the process in his latest workshop. To see the video that follows through his step-by-step guide click here.

No place like home

Richard Bradbury found he had time on his hands during lockdown and decided that it was the ideal opportunity to create his own bespoke studio in his viewing room, which could be set up and taken down in just a matter of minutes. Walking us through the process, Richard explains what he needed to source, how much it cost and why he made the buying decisions he did.

Canon’s new flagship

We get hands on with the mighty new Canon EOS 1DX Mark III, the new professional flagship model that’s aimed at sports, news and wildlife specialists. With a nearly 20fps shooting rate and the ability to produce highly usable files at ISO speeds up to 8000, this is a monster of a camera that the true pro will want to own. Check out our first hand feedback on its performance from a top sports specialist.

Time to trade up

This could be a tricky time to be spending big money on new gear, but there is always the option to trade in what you’ve got and to go down the second hand route. The experts at used specialist MPB come up with five different trade up options, where you can sell them your used kit and move further up the pro kit ladder by trading up to a model that’s better specified and yet which won’t cost you a fortune. Check out what they’ve got to recommend here.