Interviewed by Robert Janelle

Tuan Nguyen

Getting an education is expensive. Tuition fees keep rising while government loans rack up interest along with limited time to work due to classes and assignments.

Tuan Nguyen, a 24-year-old senior studying photography at Savannah College of Art and Design, found freedom by shooting freelance.

Involved in arts since childhood, Nguyen started off painting but eventually became tired of the medium and moved onto photography.

After posting his availability on his school’s job board (possibly the most underused job search tool by freelancers) some work started coming in, including a gig shooting the cover and fashion spread for Key West Magazine.

Along with fashion photography, Nguyen does a variety of other work, including art projects, photographing 10,000 year old relics for an antiques dealer and helping aspiring models build their portfolios (along with his own.)

In the following e-mail conversation, Nguyen and I discuss word-of-mouth advertising, portfolio building and fair bit of photo-geek talk.

RJ: How the Key West Magazine gig come about?

TN: It was during the Fall of 2006 when Bill Semich, a publisher from Key West Magazine emailed me for the gig. He mentioned seeing my resume with a link to my online portfolio through “Job Magnet” that my school offer for students whom wish to seek freelance work.

It came out very well. We spent two days shooting the spread, ten hours a day. I didn’t get any sleep during those days. This is usual for a college kid like myself working late and often with no sleep towards the next day on a big project. We flew two models down, one from Florida and one from California, a make-up artist, and an assistant from New York to aid me with the shoot. Overall people involved in this project were happy with the final results.

RJ: I find it interesting that your school has a job board geared at freelancers. Most colleges just have standard 9-5 to job boards, or maybe I missed something at mine.

TN: Yes, I was surprised to get a magazine gig through them. I guess it worked after all.

RJ: How do you go about marketing yourself and getting more gigs?

TN: With marketing I am fortunate enough to have 95% of my clients come from word of mouth. This is a very effective tool. For the other 5% I would send out my portfolio to prospective clients in person and online. Often I would visit local businesses to offer them my photography services for their promotional purposes. I also carry my business cards around and I always give it to those I encounter. My card has a double side, one side has my contacts, the other has an image. This quickly shows the prospective clients my work without seeing my entire portfolio. Also to set off that whole “Someone may know someone, that knows someone, that knows someone who can use my service.” This is why 95% of my clients come from word of mouth.

RJ: I’m interested in your work with aspiring models, is this pro-bono work? I know a lot of young women who spend way too much working on portfolios.

TN: I do on occasions to test new models, and this is no charge kinda deal. Usually they hire me to shoot them under their own vision. Which I don’t mind.

RJ: Has any of your free work for models turned into paying work?

TN: Not directly from the models, however with the help of the models I was able to put together a decent portfolio to show, and that got me paying gigs.

RJ: Are you essentially getting through school on freelance photography work? Or have you had to take on any other part-time jobs?

TN: I wish my freelance photography work would get me through school. It comes often but not enough to pay for the high tuition at SCAD. I take out loans. Freelance photography is my only part-time job, apart from being a full time student.

RJ: Your photos have an almost painting-like quality to them, can you share some of your shooting techniques?

TN: The painter in me is very much alive. With this notion I apply it to my photography work. Some of my techniques are in camera action with slight enhancements in the digital darkroom. My techniques are very simple. Before shooting I will plan it out; from composition to color schemes, from lighting design to the focal point of view, also thinking about the overall look to the image in post-production, and the steps to achieve such effects. Once this is completed I will proceed to post-production. In this stage I use Adobe Photoshop to enhance the image. I mainly use masking, clone tool, the level tool and sharpening to make the image “POP”.

RJ: Now I’m even more curious about your technique, how do you use the clone tool to get that pop?

Good vs Good by Tuan Nguyen

TN: For an example. In this image, titled “Good vs Good” the action was captured not Photoshoped in. Everything you see on this image is in camera effects. I knocked down the background to a complete darkness using a high shutter speed, at 200. This was to give a sense of a middle world, a non descriptive battle ground, with grass. I set up a six strobe system around the two models, each head with their own power output ratio. I wanted the image to have that raw dramatic feel so I positioned the lights high to let the shadows fall down and warp around the models’ muscles. In Photshop I use the clone tool to patch in some spots on the ground, since not all of the grass was evenly grown. Some were extremely dry giving off a nasty brown which was distracting. Then I sharpened it slightly, along with level adjustment towards the darks and the highlights giving that “POP” to the image.

RJ: Oh, and since we’re getting into photo geek talk, Nikon or Canon?

TN: I use Canon.