Rangefinder Magazine
September 2006

The Return of Dean Collins’ Finelight by Tim Mantoani
Reprising a Signature Image of Joe Montana

In 1990, the San Francisco 49ers won the Superbowl, Joe Montana was the MVP, TMax was the hottest black-and-white film on the market, and darkrooms, not Photoshop, were used for image manipulation.

Sixteen years later, the 49ers finished their last season with one of the worst records in the NFL, digital capture has replaced the majority of the film market, and Kodak has stopped manufacturing black-and-white printing paper. While image capture and printing technology have changed during this time, the basics of photographic lighting have not. For this special lighting issue of Rangefinder, I was asked to write an article about one of Dean Collins’ images.

Dean, without exception, was the most influential photographic educators the industry has known and captivated audiences around the globe with this lectures and Finelight videos on lighting theory. I had the fortunate opportunity to work for Dean for many years as his assistant and studio manager. In 2005, Dean passed away at 52 after a battle with cancer. The industry lost a great visionary and friend, but to the thousands of photographers whose careers and lives were enriched by his influence, a bit of Dean lives on each time we make an image.

Out of the countless amazing photos Dean took during his career, this portrait of Joe Montana is my favorite. It’s simplistic, yet dramatic lighting, coupled with Dean’s ability to draw gesture from his subjects, makes this image a timeless representation that I believe is the best portrait ever taken of Montana and the best portrait taken by Dean. Two pros at the heights of their careers combining their talents, and in a fraction of a second, history was recorded.

The image was commissioned for a poster series called Athletic Archives and was taken at what was then Candlestick Park. Dean, two assistants and the art director arrived at the stadium two hours prior to the shoot to allow time to scout the location and light the set. Dean chose a tunnel leading to the field as the location; he liked the way it would frame Montana, making him the focal point of the image.

To compose the image, a Hasselblad with a 120mm lens and a Polaroid back were placed on a tripod. With an assistant standing in for Montana, Dean began to light the set. First, a medium Chimera lightbox and Broncolor strobe head were placed on a stand and positioned to camera left, four feet away from the center of the frame. Dean always liked using large, soft light sources to light portraits. In most cases, he would have an assistant walk the light into the frame and then direct them to walk backwards until the light was just out of the camera’s view. This gave him the largest main light source possible.

While trying to position the softbox out of frame, Dean realized that the tunnel was too narrow to use this lighting tool. To solve this problem, he took the softbox off of the strobe and aimed it at the grey wall to camera left. To still have a soft light source to illuminate Montana, a P-22 Lightform Panel (3x6 foot) with a diffusion panel was constructed and placed between the strobe head and the talent.

With the light bouncing off the wall and through this panel, the lighting would have a similar, soft, light quality to a large softbox. This panel was held in position by a stand and raised until it touched the ceiling of the tunnel so that light did not spill over the top of the panel and affect the exposure or light quality.

Next, a second strobe head was placed on a short stand 12 feet behind where Montana would stand. No reflector or lighting tools were added to this light. The bare flash tube created a specular light source that would illuminate the dark tunnel and create separation between the subject and background. Each strobe head was powered by a separate strobe pack so the exposure of each light could be controlled independently. Once the basic lighting and composition were in place, an incident meter reading was taken of the assistant’s face with the dome of the meter aimed at the light.

Dean used this technique to determine the “diffused value” or true tone of the subject. By aiming the meter’s dome at the light, the shadow side of the image was not factored into the exposure. By adding a white or black panel to the shadow side of the set, Dean would selectively determine its density in the exposure.

The modeling lights of the strobe heads and years of experience allowed Dean to “guesstimate” what this density would be for the exposure. In this case, the grey walls of the tunnel allowed a little bit of light to bounce back and fill the shadow side of the face and no panels were used. This exposure reading was 1/60 at f/5.6. To balance this exposure with the back light, a second, incident exposure reading was taken of the rear strobe, from the talent’s position, with the dome aimed at the light. It is important for determining incident exposures while using multiple strobe heads to make sure that the dome of the meter is shielded from being struck by lights other that the one you intend to meter. This will enable you to break each light into a separate exposure and understand the effect that each one is having on your image. The power pack of the second strobe was adjusted until the meter reading matched the main light at 1/60 at f/5.6. With the lighting “roughed in”, a Polaroid back was placed on the Hasselblad and a series of black-and-white Polaroids were taken to verify the exposure and evaluate composition. Minor adjustments were made to the lighting and camera angle and Dean was ready to shoot.

When Montana arrived to the stadium, a stylist helped dirty up his uniform and make him look like he had just finished a game. The prep time for styling was about 20 minutes once he was in uniform. Dean and the client helped art direct the stylist as she prepped Montana for the shoot. Once everyone was content with the styling, the crew moved to the pre-lit set.

Montana was shown the test Polaroids of the assistant for reference and asked to find a similar pose, and another series of Polaroids was taken. This allowed the client to review the image’s lighting and composition and make minor adjustments. Since they had a very limited amount of time, Dean quickly removed the Polaroid back from the Hasselblad and replaced it with a 120mm film back, loaded with T-Max 100.

Ten rolls of 120mm film were exposed as Dean directed Montana over the next 10 minutes. Aside from Dean’s knowledge of photography, he was a great conversationalist and director, having the ability to make just about anyone feel at ease while being photographed.

Back at the studio, the film was handprocessed in the studio’s darkroom. Once contact sheets were printed and dried, Dean selected two of his favorite frames and personally printed 16x20-inch fiberbased prints. The areas around the edges of the frame were burned in slightly during printing, helping to direct the viewer’s eye to the center of the frame. Dean chose one of the two images he liked best and sent that print to the client for reproduction.

Last year, I had the opportunity to photograph Alex Smith, who was just about to have his rookie season as the 49ers’ new quarterback and their number one draft pick. I would have never imagined 16 years prior that I would be photographing the quarterback of the 49ers, and as I set up a similar lighting scenario in the tunnel of the Los Angeles Coliseum, I remembered having a conversation with Dean in my head and thanking him for all the years that he had helped me prepare for that moment.

No matter how image capture technology changes, a solid foundation of lighting and exposure is key to creating successful images… well at least for now.

This article coincides with the release of The Best of Dean Collins DVD by Software Cinema (www.software-cinema.com). The DVD includes over six hours of outstanding lighting techniques with commentary and overview by noted photographer and teacher, Tony Corbell, and Rangefinder president and author, Skip Cohen.

Tim Mantoani is a graduate of Brooks Institute of Photography, where he specialized in advertising photography. Upon graduation, he took a full-time position as the studio manager for renowned photographic educator Dean Collins in San Diego. In 1995, Tim started his own studio in San Diego. He is known for his dramatic sports portraits, as seen in his book, Mindgames: Explorations Into the Mental Area of Sport. His work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, and Newsweek, among others. Visit www.mantoani.com.