Dixie Dixon – Professional photographer and Skylum Ambassador offers a glimpse into her creative process.
Images by Dixie Dixon
Dixie Dixon is enthusiastic, boundlessly energetic, and insightfully creative. She's in love with photography both still and motion. Let's get a look into her processes—where her ideas come from, setting the mood for a shoot and what she does after it’s over in post-production.
– Interview by Kevin Ames
Lets’s start with ideas. What is your biggest idea generator? What do you do to get bring out your creativity?
I think getting the concept and the idea is the hardest part of photography. I feel like these days we're so bombarded with technology, that everything is going so, so fast. It's hard to take the time to gather ideas and really research them. A lot of my ideas come from when I'm finally fully present, usually when I'm working out or when I'm kind of Zen, relaxing and meditating. I also get a lot of inspiration from traveling, from other artists and painters, too. Inspiration kind of comes from everywhere… music videos. I love watching music videos. It’s funny. I also get a lot when I bounce ideas off of my mom. She always has some really amazing ideas. She’s a great sounding board. She’s also really good at marketing and branding.
© Dixie Dixon
You mentioned researching ideas a minute ago. What does that look like for you? Lots of time online? Do you make mood boards?
I love making mood boards! I am very old school. While I do like Pinterest, I prefer to tear photos out of magazines or books. I like to put them on a big, large cork-board. I have it with me on the set of a shoot. That's my favorite way of doing mood boards. Sometimes if I can't find what I'm looking for or I don't have magazines around, I'll just do a print out of all the photos that I've found online. But I love having those physical tear sheets. I feel like our society's so online that it's nice to have tangible things.
Do you make playlists, musical mood boards?
I like the name musical mood board! For instance, if I'm shooting a catalog job where we have to shoot a ton of images in a day, I will always put into the playlists, super-fast music. Because I’ve noticed that when there's like music pumping, we shoot faster.
Then, if I'm shooting a portrait or something like that where I really need to capture the personality of the person I'm shooting, I like to get to know that person and what their favorite music is to put them at ease. It really depends on what it is that I'm shooting. For fashion a lot of times I want to have sort of an edgy kind of music style, kind of high fashion techno or something like that. It always depends on the shoot really. It's kind of fun getting the (laughs) musical mood boards just right.
© Dixie Dixon
How about naming some of your favorite music for fashion shoots?
Sometimes I’ll use Pandora and type in “Blurred Lines.” It’s a fun, gets-you-going-and-I-want-to-dance station that really works during a fashion shoot. There are techno bands I like to listen to… Café Del Mar radio is really good.
OK. You’re doing a portrait. How do you set up the musical mood playlist?
Oh, it always depends on the person I'm shooting. I like to get to know them before we go into actual portrait sessions. I will talk to them on the phone or meet them in person to get to know what their favorite artists are and then I'll always have those artists playing when they arrive. It really sets a photographer apart when they're willing to really get to know their client and what they're looking for because a lot of people don't take that kind of time. I think that's what really sets me apart. These days there are so many amazing photographers. I think that I mean that relationship and that connection and collaboration is really, really what makes such a huge difference today and why people hiring me or any photographer who does their homework over and over again.
© Dixie Dixon
On your website, I saw a photo of you holding a vintage Nikon SP rangefinder 35mm film camera. I have to know, do you shoot film too?
I started out on film. I started out working on my high school’s yearbook. Back then it was all dark room. It was funny. I actually got out of marching band in order to be on the yearbook staff. I had to take a summer class for using the dark room. I remember just falling in love with photography and seeing the images come to life in the dark room. I really just loved that film part of it, so I shot the Nikon FG. Back then I shot photographs of little league with it. Now I also have a Nikon F.
(Note: The Nikon F was the first practical single lens reflex camera with interchangeable lenses and viewfinders. It was introduced in 1959. It was based on the Nikon SP rangefinder body.)
Yes! I love the feel of it. It’s like the Nikon D5. it just feels, I don't know, it feels legit. I've always liked a camera that feels solid. I got the battery grip for Nikon D800 and the D810. It makes them feel right in my hand. You know, I'll probably get the grip for the D850 at some point.
I do that with my cameras too.
Right. Absolutely. The grip kind of sets the stage for my commercial clients. When they see it they're like, oh, she is the real deal.
© Dixie Dixon
Do today's photographers have to embrace motion to have a viable business?
I think it'll definitely help your business. I don't know if it's 100 percent, necessary. But I think that it's important even if you don't shoot video that you can work and collaborate with some videographers. Still photographers have to know the basics.
I direct a lot of videos. I don't shoot as much video as I do stills. I'm learning the whole motion side of things. So yeah, I think it's important. I don't know, you could probably still make a business shooting stills, but I think it's important to start doing video.
What is your photographic style?
Style is such a hard thing to describe. Style isn't really something that you'd go out and find. It already exists within you. You just need to get to know yourself and what you love and what you're passionate about because when you go out and shoot a ton of things that you love, your style is going to evolve organically. You're going to see things that come up over and over again. Things that you love doing and that ends up becoming your style as a photographer.
I love working with people and bringing out their personalities. A lot of fashion photography is more mannequin. Whereas I love to bring out the personality and the feeling, the kind of essence of wearing those clothes. What it feels like. Yeah, I guess that's how I would describe my style. It's kind of a hard, no, it's always hard to describe your own style.
Ok. That’s your shooting style. What do you do in post-production to enhance your overall style?
I use Luminar 2018. I use it for color correction, bringing out the details in the photos. I'm also adding cool effects. I love their Sunrays filter to add light beams to the images. If I have a cool lens flare in a photo I use Sunrays to really amplify the effect of what’s already in the photo. I love Luminar because really I can take my photos to the next level. I'm using the software and just seeing the details that it brings to life is pretty incredible. I'm still pretty new to the software, but I've really been blown away by the capabilities of where it can take my images.
Dixie Dixon
You mentioned the film darkroom earlier. Do you like editing—retouching your photos digitally?
Luminar is an incredible editing tool for photographers. It just keeps editing simple. I remember when I was starting having to learn Photoshop I was so daunted by the task of trying to learn this incredibly confusing program. I was trying to retouch and do things like that. Even just changing the colors was hard. Skylum really kind of puts all the tools in a really easy to use package. That means I can spend more time shooting and less time editing, which is really nice because my passion ultimately is the shooting part of it. Some people are super passionate about editing. I like to be out in the field shooting a lot more than I enjoy doing the editing part of photography. Luminar is a great easy-to-use creative tool. It gets me back into the field.
Since speed is important to you, Dixie, do you use Luminar’s presets? Or do you create your own?
I'm actually in the process of creating my own, so that's super cool. More to come on that (laughs)…
© Dixie Dixon
What else do you love about Luminar?
I love the ability to go back in the history. Photoshop can’t save its history. Once a Photoshop file is saved the history is gone! Whereas Luminar saves the whole thing. So I can literally go back when I forget how I've edited something and I'll be mad because I want to get back to that result. It's cool that Luminar saves all of the steps in your history so you're able to go back and see what you did to different photos, change it up, then use it on a new photo.
One more thing… I find that I can just see so much more detail. It's almost like the images look more three dimensional in Luminar, so I am really, really loving that.
Where do you see photography going over time?
I think that photographers will make their living more with their vision than with the technical aspect of photography. The technology is coming so quickly that anyone with a really cool vision can make amazing stuff. I think that what's going to set people apart, you know, years from now will be their different ideas and their visions and photography will just be like a medium that's a lot easier.
So vision is the key?
Absolutely!
© Dixie Dixon
Dixie Dixon is an amazing photographer who is branching out into directing motion. Spend some time on her website www.dixiedixon.com to experience her work in fashion, lifestyle, portrait, and motion.
