Tony Corbell - Tamron

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Corbell’s philosophy of photographing people is easy to
state, but requires considerable talent and perseverance
to execute. He says, “My goal is simply to show people as they
are, doing what they do. But you have to make it exciting–you
have to make it insightful. You might be able to fulfill the letter of
your contract on the first or second shot, but getting it right in
terms of art and expression may take three of four shots–or
forty. I call a lot of what I do ‘creative contemporary portraits’
and the key element here is creativity, which means understanding
your subjects and relating to them. That’s one reason
I Iove to photograph musicians--they’re expressive without
being self-conscious.”
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The Tamron SP AF28-75mm f/2.8 Di MacroLens:
A MASTERPIECE OF OPTICAL DESIGN
TONY
CORBELL
TAMRON: A MASTERPIECE OF OPTICAL DESIGN
Tony Corbell of San Diego, California is a highly regarded,
well established professional photographer well known among
pro shooters and students of photography from coast to
coast. His specialty is taking pictures of people--incisive
environmental portraits of everyone from musicians and
celebrities to lawyers and bank presidents. He also known
for his inspired photojournalistic coverage of society weddings
shot in such posh places as Beverly Hills. And he creates
commercial and editorial images that rise to the level of fine
art. Like many top photographers, Corbell has a discriminating
eye for dynamic composition, a well-developed instinct for
capturing decisive moments, and a finely-tuned sense of
color balance. But above all he is a master of light–it is
his brilliant use of lighting that distinguishes his work and
defines his unique style.
Unlike most successful photographers, Corbell did not begin his
career as a teenage photo hobbyist. Although he was always
visually sensitive and observant, he didn’t really get into
photography until his mid 20s--and then he was pushed into the
pool, so to speak, and discovered he was a natural swimmer. “At
age 24,I was directing and producing a kind of silly late night talk
show on cable TV that was basically a time filler. Out of the blue,
my photographer brother-in-law, Raymond Taylor, asked me to take
a portrait of a high school senior. He encouraged me, assuring
me that I had a pretty good eye for framing, and so I took the
shot, which I successfully sold. I had never thought of photography
as a career--I had never even owned a camera–and here
I was, a pro that had never been an amateur!”
Shortly afterward, Corbell bought his first camera, a Hasselblad
500C, and within three months he was shooting fulltime every
day. After about a year of on-the-job training and commercial
success as a hard-working portrait photographer, he decided to
enter some of his pictures in a local print competition. He won
in three categories--best portrait of a woman, a child and a
family. Out of this gratifying but seemingly minor triumph, something
truly remarkable evolved that was to shape Corbell’s entire
life and career. A visiting Nigerian businessman saw the contest,
contacted Corbell, and made him a business proposition.
It seems that back in 1979 there were no color photo studios
in Nigeria. Once a year, a pro from the U.K. would travel to
Lagos, the capital, and take pictures of top officials and
well-to-do families.That was it as far as color photography
was concerned.The businessman proposed that Corbell set
up a color photo studio in Lagos and teach local people how
to run it. He was to be paid a fair day rate for his services
plus a percentage of the sales, and was given carte blanche
to order any equipment he needed.
Corbell accepted the once-in-a-lifetime offer. He then spent
six weeks in Nigeria taking pictures of heads of state and
government officials, in both formal western attire and colorful
traditional Nigerian dress, while his shooting techniques and
setups were carefully documented by the studio staff. After
Corbell returned to the U.S., his Nigerian pictures were seen
and admired by the Professional Photographers of America
(PP of A) and he received much favorable publicity. By the early
80’s he had established his first real studio in Midland,
Texas, which he calls “the white collar city of the oil industry.”
While there, he photographed George Bush, Sr. on several
occasions, and these memorable portraits generated even
more publicity and business.
Despite his increasing technical competence and notable
commercial success, by 1985 Corbell sensed something was
amiss. “I felt stifled--I was in a rut--and then in late 1985 I had
an epiphany. I met my mentor, Dean Collins, a true genius, a l
egend among photographers, and one of the great photographic
teachers of all time. I sold my studio and moved to
Like all Tamron Di (Digitally Integrated) -series lenses, the
Tamron SP AF28-75mm Di has been especially formulated
to meet the more stringent demands of digital photography in
order to assure outstanding image quality with both digital media
and film. To achieve this exceptional level of performance
in a super-compact, high speed (F/2.8) constant-aperture
zoom, Tamron’s optical designers used LD glass to reduce
chromatic aberration and peripheral light falloff, high-index
XR glass to enhance sharpness while while reducing size and
weight, and an aspherical element to compensate for spherical
aberration and distortion. The result is unsurpassed imaging
performance in the smallest and lightest zoom lens ever
made in this class.
With a fast f/2.8 aperture over its entire zoom range, the
Tamron 28-75mm Di lens allows shooting in low light, and
shooting at extended distances with flash even at the tele
end. And it focuses continuously down to 13 inches at all
focal lengths, a true macro magnification of 1:3.9 at
75mm, while maintaining image quality of the highest
order. Contributing to its ease of use are its excellent balance
and handling characteristics, with extra-wide, well-textured
zoom and manual-focusing controls, and large, legible
white-on-black numerical scales. Unlike most lenses
optimized for sharpness, the Tamron 28-75mm Di delivers a
beautifully blurred quality in out-of-focus areas of the image
that draws the eye to the subject. Or, as the Japanese
would say, it has very good bokeh.
The Tamron SP AF28-75mm f/2.8 Di lens is only 3.6 inches
long at the 28mm setting and extends to a still-very-compact
4.9 inches. It weighs 18 ounces, and is available in mounts
for Canon, Minolta, Nikon and Pentax autofocus SLRs,
both 35mm and digital. Other features include: 16-element,
14-group optical construction, 7-bladed diaphragm, zoom
lock mechanism to prevent the barrel from extending
unnecessarily, and a flower-shaped lens hood designed to
minimize stray light at all focal lengths.
If you’re looking for a top-quality universal zoom lens for
your digital or film SLR, this is one to put on your short
list. As Tony Corbell said, he’s used to shooting with Zeiss
lenses on Hasselblads and he’s quite taken with how the
Tamron 28-75mm Di performs.Chances are mighty good
you will be too.

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San Diego to work with him. He was a tremendously talented
commercial photographer, but he was also the best photo
educator in the country. He was an unparalleled master of
lighting, with a full and complete understanding of being in
control of light. We would talk about light for hours, drawing
diagrams and coming up with theoretical explanations. We
would sit in a restaurant and look at the light falling on a salt
shaker and analyze why the shadow was hard or soft and why
it fell where it did. We also did lots of hands-on experiments.
Eventually, we crystallized our observations and theories into
a series of books and videos called Fine Light. We also set
up four separate companies--a lecture company, a studio, a
video company, and a research and development company
for lighting devices. As you might imagine, we were pretty
busy. In ‘86, we gave 52 lectures for Kodak all over the U.S.
and in six foreign countries. We were a veritable think tank,
but we also took lots of pictures, everything from hotels to
motorcycles. Of course we also did lots of R &D shooting in
developing the new soft boxes we marketed.”
ing at Brooks, my own creativity in areas such as wedding
photojournalism was enhanced enormously. Looking at and
really getting into the amazing images created by these
students not only pushed my own creativity to a new level, it
also energized my creative drive.”
Another important lesson Corbell learned at Brooks is that
education is an ongoing process. “One of my colleagues, an
excellent landscape photographer, recently asked a simple
question that brought me up short. ‘How come photographers
don’t go out and practice with their cameras?’ I thought about
that for a while and decided that she was right. So I gave myself
an assignment which turned into a series of images I call ‘My
Life as a Fork.’ What I did was take an ordinary fork, some red
poster board and different lights to see how much I could do
graphically with these simple elements. By thinking creatively
and trying to see differently, I created unique shadow patterns
that elicit strikingly different feelings and emotions. This goes
back to the three essential aspects of light I taught my students
at Brooks--light quality, light quantity, and light direction.”
All this experience and exposure, plus a natural affinity, eventually
led Corbell to an entirely new aspect of his
multifaceted career---teaching. He knew Ernie Brooks, founder
of the famed Brooks Institute of Photography, and let him
know he was interested in a teaching position. Despite Corbell’s
lack of academic credentials, Brooks hired him within 48 hours
based on his exemplary reputation and impressive track
record. His teaching stint at Brooks lasted four years.
As any good teacher can tell you, teaching is one of the most
effective ways to enhance the depth of your knowledge, and
Corbell emphatically agrees. “When you think you know something,”
he says, “just try to teach it and you’ll immediately come
up against your own limitations. The questions that you don’t
know to ask yourself are invariably the ones the students will
ask. These are the questions that force you to stretch, and
that’s how you gain a more profound understanding. By teach-
The next major shift in the amazing career of Tony Corbell
came in 1993 when he got a call from Skip Cohen of
Hasselblad offering him an executive spot as Director of
Corporate Communications at Hasselblad. He accepted on
one condition: That he could continue to shoot and continue
to teach. “Happily, they agreed,” he says, “and from 1993 to
2000, I was one-third corporate executive, one-third teacher,
and one-third photographer. I really grew a lot during this
period because I got to interact with really first-class
photographers like Mary-Ellen Mark, Greg Heissler, and Jay
MaiseI and look at their outstanding work. I would visit their
studios, meet them at press conferences and conventions,
and talk with them about their methods, goals, and directions.
As a result, I began to see a bigger picture of what was possible
and widened my perspective. You might say I acquired more
peripheral vision.”
When Corbell finally left Hasselblad he felt re-energized and
determined to reinvent himself as a photographer. “When an
old friend said ‘I’m so glad that you picked up a camera
again,’ I knew I had made the right decision. I had built-in
clients at Hasseslblad, but now I had a new understanding of
the commercial quest. I understood that you needed to
market yourself, to make new connections, to be an active
seeker of things. I knew I wanted to go after work that excited
and intrigued me. I like giving people what they expect, but I
also want to give them something they don’t expect. If you
consistently do the latter, you are growing as a photographer and
growing your business. In short, you are exceeding
expectations.”Over the past six months or so, Tony Corbell has
returned to one of his early specialties--shooting weddings--but
with a vibrant new twist. He now concentrates on high-end
weddings in such well-heeled venues as Beverly Hills, and his
approach is that of an inspired photojournalist. “To shoot a
wedding in this way, you have to gain the absolute trust of the
bride and groom and get them to allow you to tell the intimate
and honest story of their special day--everything from the
bride’s hair being coiffed to driving away on their honeymoon.
Unlike other photographers, I don’t even deliver proofs, but a
finished story book album of the day, so you really have to get
their commitment by making them feel this is the best choice
for them. Of course it helps to have a solid reputation and an
empathetic personality. Most photographers also charge a set
price for a certain number of pictures, but I don’t work that
way. I include digital montages, and may include 300 or more
images in the album. And we don’t miss anything. We do our
homework, so we get engaging and natural images of all the
special people, as well as capturing great moments like the
flower girl kissing the ring bearer. It is significant that this new
wedding business has been promoted entirely by word of
mouth and referrals by bridal consultants.”
While Tony Corbell still shoots about 30 percent of his images
on film, he shoots the majority of his current work, about 70
percent, digitally, with a Fuji Finepix Pro S2 camera and
Tamron Di lenses, which are designed to meet the demands
of digital photography.“For wedding portraits, the first lens I
grab is the Tamron Di 180mm f/3.5 Macro. I know that
optically it’s optimized for close work, but it is exquisitely
sharp at all distances and produces great pictures. With the
1.5 multiplication factor of the Fuji S2, it’s equivalent to a
270mm lens on 35mm and it really separates the subject
from the background, especially when shooting wide
open.”Corbell also has high praise for the 28-75mm f/2.8
Tamron Di, a lens he often leaves on the camera. “I can cover
a whole wedding with this one lens, which means I don’t have
to change lenses--and fewer lens changes mean a cleaner
image sensor. Even more important, when I shoot with this
lens, or other Tamron Di lenses, I don’t have to go into
Photoshop and enhance the images with a 20-60-0 unsharp
mask. There is less visible flare--it’s like looking at the world
after you’ve just cleaned your glasses. Tamron lenses are
physically very well designed too--easy and comfortable to handle
and hold onto. I also use a 14mm Tamron for wide-angle shots-–it’s
not a Di lens, but it has unbelievable coverage and remarkable
evenness of illumination with no falloff at the corners.
I am frankly amazed at what Tamron lenses can do. And
remember I am a Hasselblad shooter who is used to
working with Zeiss lenses. I’m not the average photographer–I
understand how optics work. And I am delighted with the
performance of Tamron lenses, which I can only describe
as outstanding.”
As my enlightening and inspiring interview with the incredible
Tony Corbell was winding down, he told me he was heading off
to Pasadena. “To shoot a society wedding?.” I asked. “No,”
he said, “I’m going to take a few advanced Photoshop courses.
If you want; to be a leader in this profession you’ve got to say
on top of our industry” A commitment to continuing education,
an unquenchable desire to expand his capabilities, and an
openness to new ideas--these things, plus a wealth of talent
and experience, are what make Tony Corbell one of the best
in the business. Corbell has just come out out with a new
DVD series on lighting called “The Power of Light” and a new
line of soft boxes of the same name. For more information on
both, go to www.corbellproductions.com.
www.tamron.com