Christian Popkes: Shooting for Perfection
Christian Popkes is not your average photographer. Popkes is a perfectionist who adopts a holistic approach to his work. He needs himself, his team and his equipment to perform to the very highest standards, which is why he has built his workflow around Apple’s Aperture software. “As a professional photographer, I trust my crew, I trust my camera and I trust my lighting”, he says. “And now we’ve got a new member: I trust Aperture”.
This affable German styles himself as a photographer and visual designer; and as the Hamburg-based member of Germany’s Association of Freelance Photo-designers (Bund Freischaffender Foto-Designer) he has worked for most of the country’s top-selling magazines — including GEO, Stern and Spiegel — as well as all the major advertising agencies.
Popkes’ self-imposed mission is “to capture a person’s essence in a split second and show it in a photograph”. Intensity and proximity to his subject are characteristics of his portraits. Popkes knows how to eke out a person’s soul for others to see and is aware of the responsibility and trust he engenders in his subjects. His images show an exceptional understanding of light and lighting — he employs both natural and artificial light to set the scene for his subject, and to craft and highlight facial features. In terms of understanding light, he looks to no less a master than the baroque painter Rembrandt. “His paintings taught me how to harness light for my own purposes”, he explains.
Popkes’ digital equipment is cutting-edge: a Hasselblad H2D-39, the world’s first integrated high-end DSLR with 39 megapixels. “Right here”, says Popkes, “we have digital photography reaching a level of quality that makes it a joy to use. The Hasselblad is particularly efficient when combined with the Briese light system”.
“When I was starting to work with digital, I was missing so much from my old workflow. Aperture is really giving me that experience back.”
Popkes uses a utility to capture his images and process them as 16-bit TIFF files. Apple’s Automator then automatically passes the images directly to Aperture, where he chooses the very best from the multiplicity of photos from a shoot. “At long last, the industry has come up with a post-production tool that does what the photographer needs and that slots neatly into the workflow”, he says. “Aperture wasn’t dreamt up by software fanatics, it was developed by people who love photography — that’s exactly what makes the program so special. It picks up on the analogue work routine and integrates a magnifier, light table, and compare and select transparency stacks into the digital work process. And the software is intuitive too, so it’s easy to get to grips with”.
Popkes learnt his trade hands-on, and knows that a computer cannot be a substitute for a photographer’s talent and experience, but he does consider it an essential tool of the trade. The Mac helps him with all his non-creative chores and facilitates efficient organisation and image processing.
He works on a Power Mac G5 Quad and also uses a 15-inch MacBook Pro when he is out in the field. Popkes makes his final selections on a 30-inch Apple Cinema Display attached to his G5 running Aperture; this enables him to utilise Aperture’s full-screen mode to maximise his screen real-estate. When he documents photo projects with the expressiveness of film, he works with the Final Cut Studio suite, making particular use of Motion; he also uses Logic Pro in combination with GarageBand Jam Packs for musical overlays.
Aperture enables Popkes to optimise his preparations for upcoming creative projects. Even in the production phase, the software supports the photographer with outstanding compare and select options. He can view captures quickly and compare shots, gauge effects and sort preferences with ease. “Aperture makes every aspect of project development and control easier”, he says.
When it comes to assessing images, Popkes focuses on details, gauging whether the light comes up to his requirements, for example. He uses Aperture’s Loupe tool for minute checks of contrast and sharpness around the subject’s eyes, completing the job in seconds without having to unnecessarily zoom in and out. Aperture enables him to intervene directly in the production process and retouch for essential minor corrections.
“Aperture respects the way I work, the way I used to work and the way I am working right now. I can rely on Aperture. It makes me feel at home.”
Popkes also finds Aperture’s Stack mode an extremely practical feature. Bracketed images or images shot sequentially at up to 60-second intervals are automatically placed in a stack for review, and the individual shots are time-sequenced and easy to find. “Stack mode helps me deal with the welter of digital captures and stay on top of things as the shoot progresses”, he says. While viewing the captures, he assesses the quality of individual shots, rating them on a scale of one to five. “The rating system helps save time and you can collapse the stack with the best image right on top, where it’s easy to find”.
Hardware and software are never the whole story, of course. A good team, with every member striving for excellence, lays the groundwork for a photographer’s creative expression. Popkes needs space in his creative work. “It’s wrong to try to keep everything under control all the time. If you’re involved in a task and your mind wanders, that’s when creativity kicks in”. In Aperture, Popkes has found exactly the right tool, one that gives him the space and energy to concentrate on what is important — his photography.
