Silhouette Photography
| Last Updated: December 5, 2013
In this showcase feature we present the Le Mans Classic photography of Laurent Nivalle. Laurent is an art director, photographer and film director from Paris, France.
Laurent told us how he got started in photography…
I began photography in the beginning of 2006, buying a Canon 350D, just to shoot my holidays, family, etc. I learned by myself, reading the manual and testing a lot to get a good understanding of how it works.
As a professional photographer and director, from where do you draw inspiration?
Like all creative people I guess, my inspiration comes from everywhere. It can be a movie, a nice graphic layout, other directors and photographers, all creative things… But the first inspiration comes from fashion.
I studied product design, I worked with colours and material designers, so I think it’s why I love fashion. The pictures in the fashion industry are very inspiring, the photographers always experiment with new things, it’s very fresh.
As a professional photographer and director, from where do you draw inspiration?
The first time I shot “Le Mans Classic” in 2010 I was there with my company Citroën to follow two concept cars “Survolt” and “GT by Citroën” in the event. I didn’t know what “Le Mans Classic” was, so when I heard the noise of the engines in the pit lane and saw the cars, the people, the feeling I simply thought “wowww”.
It’s a really amazing motorshow to see live. So I shot some pictures for myself but I couldn’t imagine one second a lot of people will like them.
The second time, because of my good pictures of “Le Mans Classic 2010”, the team of Richard Mille sent me to “Le Mans Classic 2012” for their communication.
The way you’ve processed these images is a perfect fit for the subject and theme of this classic car series, could you give as an overview of your workflow?
I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark II
and Mark III
with the following lenses 24-70/2.8L
, 16-35/2.8L II
, 85/1.2L
, 90/2.8 TSE
, 100/2.8
and a 70-200/2.8L
but I don’t use this last one very often. Only on rare occasions when I can’t be close to my subject.
My workflow is really simple, without many plug-ins. I make by myself the retouching and the color correction with the standards tools in Photoshop, and after some adjustments in Lightroom (contrast, light, sharpen, etc.)
I don’t like plugins because the result is clearly the same as every other photographer using them, you can easily recognise them and I like to manually adjust the colours in tune with the feeling of the pictures. This way it is more the personal work of the photographer, rather than software.
What is the next photographic series you plan to work on?
I hope the next Le Mans Classic in 2014. Also I’m preparing a personal fashion series that’s very dark, in the studio and playing with materials, with a few scenes like painting.
You can see more of Laurent’s work at laurentnivalle.fr, pictogalerie.fr or connect with him via Twitter or Facebook.
Photophique has express permission to publish these images and Laurent Nivalle retains full copyright to all photographs featured in this showcase series.
Great work from Laurent – an inspiration in how quickly his work become fantastic! I follow him now and am consistently impressed. Cheers – and I’ve wondered what lenses/gear he used, nice article.
great Series Laurent, wonderful framing, congrats
Enrico