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Some people recognize their passions and know their life’s destiny long before they step into it. Photographer Hernan Rodriguez was one of those fortunate few.

“I knew I was going to be an artist early on in my life. Probably when I was five,” says Rodriguez. “I’d spend hours drawing portraits with my father, who was a technical illustrator by profession. I pursued a career in graphic design, eventually working as an art director. Photography in this journey was just a different paint brush.” He’s been painting with this “new brush” ever since.

To this day, he says he is just as passionate about photography as he was 18 years ago when we he began that second career. And he says that while he feels blessed to get paid, “I would gladly do it for free.”

Long admired and sought out for his work with A-list celebrities and athletes (Evander Holyfield, Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, among them) Rodriguez, says that underneath the glitz and notoriety people are just people and he enjoys photographing them all. “I consider myself a specialist in photographing people,” he says. “If I take a brilliant portrait of a celebrity and you strip away the ‘celebrity’ title, it’s a brilliant portrait of an individual I’ve shared time with.

Rodriguez is a super-busy person these days and just getting him to pause long enough to talk about his career is not easy. Fortunately writer Jeff Wignall was able to slow him down long enough to ask him about his work, his intense shooting style and his love of Tamron lenses. He shares a wealth of inside information and advice, read on.

PPD: In terms of starting a successful photo business, what is the major difference between shooting celebrities and a person off the street?

HR: There are several differentiating factors that play into photographing celebrities. It is a discipline in portraiture that is not easy to break into, and in my opinion, it is greatly based on trust. The agents, managers, publicists, and celebrities need to know they are safe in your care and on capturing their talent in the proper light – no pun intended. It’s a combination of capturing the perceived image of the celebrity, and the honesty of the individual. My gift of taking pictures, coupled with my vision and style, has granted me the chance to step into many prolific people’s lives. I’ve shared moments with Neil Armstrong, Muhammad Ali, musicians, and entertainers, as well as 16 boxing world champions—some becoming personal friends.

PPD: What are the steps involved in planning a portrait shoot, selecting/maximizing the location, etc.? Do you always have a clear vision of where you’re headed?

HR: Most of my work falls in the commercial portraiture category. I am either taking pictures of up-and-coming actors, celebrities, or working with a PR firm or agency. The pre-planning is one of the most important aspects to the success of the session. As the stakes get higher with the job, more steps along the way need to be implemented. The first step is the brief. This tells me what the purpose of the shoot, whether for commercial or PR purposes. We determine whether we are shooting on location or in-studio, and the amount of set changes we will be doing. From this point I setup my mood boards, along with the talent, shot list, wardrobe selection, and location if we are shooting outdoors.

One of my recent shoots was a commercial campaign with Mario Lopez and his family for DSW. I was given only two hours to shoot, so preparation was the key to the success of the session. DSW handed me a brief with all the details of the campaign, shot list, product details, and a short history to the company’s brand. They also listed what final products were required from me which, in this case, were hi-res 350dpi final key art for the campaign. The less time I have for these types of shoots, the more assistants I need on the set. For this shoot, we had an hour to setup and two hours to shoot. Most of the time I will pre-light my sets and test the day of the shoot.

Other shoots are quite simple in approach but just as successful. I have been working with many actors from Netflix, Hulu and Prime Amazon, and these sessions are on location with just one portable Westcott FJ400 and a 5” reflector, or beauty dish.

PPD: There is a lot of demand on a celebrity’s time. Does this add time pressure on the shoots?

HR:  Time definitely is a factor in photographing celebrities. I have usually been fortunate though, to have just the right amount of time with them. What can complicate things is a publicist or manager having their set of demands, as that is their job to watch over the talent. The less time I have with the celebrity, the less complicated my lighting setups may be. In the reunion portrait session of world champions Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, the initial agreed time I had to shoot with them was approved for 45 minutes. The actual session time I had with them was six minutes. We basically scratched off our pre-planned setups, and used one Octobox for the key light, and bounced a bare flash on a white wall for the fill light. If you ask, “Do things go wrong?” my response is they most often will, but I am prepared for this. I have plan A, B and sometimes plan C turns out the best.

PPD: How do you get the expressions and reactions that you want from your subjects? Do you talk to them a lot during a session?

HR: Most of the talking is done before hand. Since I usually do not have the opportunity of meeting with many of my subjects before the session, I try to engage with them on the set. It’s just like making a new friend. This gives me the opportunity to break the ice. Once they are on set, I just take their lead, not over-posing, but letting their natural language dictate the pose. This keeps the portrait looking very natural. What has helped me tremendously is to be very observant from a distance. I study their natural gestures, smiles, even the way they walk and sit. This establishes these “markers” I can identify when they are posing for me. I can quickly identify what is real and what is not, keeping the portraits less contrived.

I remember one of my early sessions with actor/comedian Eddie Griffin. I began the session posing him and directing him and the images were just unnatural looking. Once he began role playing and showing me one of his routines, the images were brilliant. Eddie was safe and present in that environment. You must discern what is best for your subject. I do occasionally have a subject who needs guidance and help with posing through the entire session. Just be observant and ask questions.  

PPD: Which Tamron lenses do you use on a day-to-day basis and why those particular lenses?’

HR:  I have been using Tamron lenses for my entire career,  going on 18 years now. I’ve pretty much used them all and do have my favorites. To begin, I base lens selection on the job at hand. Last year I photographed NBA hall of fame, Reggie Miller for a cycling clothing line campaign. Since it was essentially action and fast movement, I only used the 150-600 lens, which was the only time I used it.

Other times I am taking an actor outdoor for lifestyle shots so the Tamron 85mm prime gives me exactly the right look I need. It’s almost like using a set of paintbrushes. Sometimes you need a broad stroke for painting skies, and other times you need a fine brush for rendering a face. It all depends on the objective. I definitely do have my favorites though. I have a new found love for the 35mm prime lens, which has immensely diversified my style. I mainly use it for environmental portraits, and it allows me a natural perspective, similarly to what the eye sees. It also allows me to use the natural settings as part of the narrative to the portrait I am creating. One lighting technique I use when creating beach lifestyle shoots is to place my subject by the water as he or she is being back lit by the sun, I then shoot wide open at F/1.4 and set my shutter speed between 1200 – 2000th of a second. This creates beautiful, creamy “airy” portraits.

Another lens I use frequently, especially for commercial portraits, is the Tamron 70-200mm. This lens is versatile and allows me not to miss those great expressions. It also allows me to step back and shoot full length for my fashion editorial shoots, while compressing the background. I also use this lens as a corrective lens, when I have a subject with a dominant nose, it allows me to compress the center of the face slightly, minimizing the features just a bit.

PPD: What are the qualities of Tamron lenses that drew you to them and that keep you working with those lenses?

HR: Tamron has evolved tremendously in the last decade. I can confidently say they perform just as well as any prime lens on the market. The clarity of the lenses and the color spectrum they allow me to produce is what I appreciate the most. For my line of work, there really are no compromises. I have a product to produce, and it has to be to the highest quality possible. Most images are for commercial and editorial purposes, but many times we have gone to full scale reproduction, such as billboards in Las Vegas. Just this past weekend I was hired by Panini America, which is in charge of creating images for the NBA, NFL and FIFA. We photographed all the new premier rookies for the 2022 NFL. We created the key art for the players with their new uniforms and standard poses. A bit of a high stakes job. I shot the whole job with the new Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 G2.The images turned out amazing.

Tamron by today’s standards is a professional lens system.

PPD: Who are the main clients for celebrity work?

HR:  It’s really hard to predict who my clients will be, but I do have a consistent set of clients and agents I regularly work with 3 Arts Entertainment, United Artists, Showtime and Netflix. Other clients include publicists and talent agents. What makes my job fun and unpredictable is that I am commissioned to photograph by the client, but where it ends up, sometimes I do not know. I just shoot everything at full resolution. Each image is shot in Raw, in the 150mb range. This allows them to use it for any purpose. The image ends up for an editorial cover story, product endorsement or large format advertisement. Other times though, the brief will be very specific for showcasing an actor for an editorial spread.

PPD: Your portraits show a good mix of studio and on-location shots, do you prefer one over the other?

HR:  If I were to choose my favorite, it would have to be studio. I basically use umbrellas of all sizes. Umbrellas with the silver inner lining, which gives added brightness to the subject’s face. It creates a more fashion looking image. I also will use bare bulb flash for dramatic fashion portraits. Most often for my male subjects. I rarely find myself using soft boxes though. I look for more contrasty images, which are acquired by less diffusion.

PPD: What was is like to photograph Evander Holyfield and Muhammad Ali?

HR  In my journey in photographing celebrities, I have had amazing experiences, which sometimes are very unexpected. One instance is my relationship with four-time world champion Evander Holyfield. Ten years ago, I started working with Holyfield, creating publicity images for his vitamin line, as well as publicity and editorial purposes. In this journey I have spent many moments with him, documenting his 50th birthday, family portraits, and as recent as two months ago, his wedding engagement pictures. Evander was invited to present Muhammad Ali for his 70th birthday celebration. Only two photographers were allowed to document this momentous day. Ali’s personal photographer and Holyfield’s personal photographer.

This has been one of the greatest highlights thus far in my photography career. Little time was allowed and pretty much just one camera and one Speedlight. You could literally feel the buzz in the room, anticipating Ali’s arrival. Being that he was in such a weak and frail state, only fifteen minutes were allocated for this presentation. Once Ali arrived, Evander lifted Ali from his wheelchair, and walked him around a makeshift boxing ring that was staged at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, where his ceremony was held. I anticipated just the right moment, and just took the one shot. Talk about an iconic moment. I later took a similar shot with Ali and his long time friend, Kris Kristofferson.

TIP:

PPD: What advice can you give to someone that is considering a career in portrait photography? What’s the best way to get started?

HR: It really starts with the desire to be a portrait photographer, coupled with passion. I set out to become a celebrity photographer, and that is what I got. If you want to be a great portrait photographer, you need to be good with people. Be a great observer. Most people will tell you who they are when the camera is turned off. I spend my time studying outside of the discipline of photography and that has carried over into my photography immensely. I have studied books on non-verbal communication, books on human behavior. I have concluded that my extensive education in art has made me the photographer I am today.

My advice to anyone seeking to become a portrait photographer is to study the master painters. Most of these portraits were created with a live subject, and for extensive hours. If you study them closely, you can see all the nuances of what constitutes a brilliant portrait. Expression dominating the portrait, with other details such as color palette, composition, graceful posing, and proper light placement. It’s all there. Lastly, engorge your mind with images of people. From fashion magazines, pop art, culture, and art. This adds an imprint in your mind, and when you least expect it, it will emerge naturally on your next photoshoot.