Harvey Miedreich | Fashion and Advertising Photographer

On the last image of this post is a before/after of how I process my images, don’t forget to check it out.

Rob and Lauren

You guys are always up to something, where does your inspiration come from?

Everywhere. Movies, talking to each other, reading articles, traveling is a big one and every time we go somewhere and we get back, it’s whatever we can do to go somewhere else again. We’re always with each other 24/7 so we’re always talking.

Any advice for a photographer just starting out?

Shoot a lot, a lot, a lot! Make it an even 100 000 photos. Love your clients, love the people you work for. If you do those two things we think the rest of it will just fall into place.

Yesterday Lauren said she’s a “nick namer”, so, what are your nicknames for each other?

Nervous laughter, Rob is Peets or Peetsy, and Lauren is Sweets or sweetsy. When he calls me Lauren it weirds me out. I think he’s mad at me if he calls me Lauren, which is usually the case.

What’s next for Photography Concentrate?

Lots more information, the road trip is just the beginning. Hopefully we can start going around the world to help photographers make better images. Lots of tutorials to bring down the pipe. Rob has a billion articles to write and post up there. Lots! We just have to take it one day at a time right now.

Do you guys plan to stop photographing people?

Never.  If you’re not shooting you’re not learning more, so you don’t have as much to pass on.

Lauren Lim

What’s your name?

Lauren Lim.

Who are you?

A photographer.

Which superhero impressed you the most as a child?

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmh  Spiderman.

Why?

Because he could shoot webs from his hands and I always wanted to do that. Chkshh chkshhh Lauren says as she makes the Spiderman motions.

What was your favourite cartoon as a child?

Tin Tin

If you could wake up anywhere tomorrow where would you be?

Peru.

What has been your greatest accomplishment?

Starting and maintaining a business at a fairly young age.

What has been your most significant moment to date?

Making the decision to leave my previous plans of being a lawyer and go after something I knew nothing about.

What’s one thing people can appreciate about you?

I’m generally quite enthusiastic about everything. I think it makes boring things less boring.

What would I find in your refrigerator right now?

It’s pretty much full, lots of sauces. I like lots of sauces when I’m cooking.

Describe your perfect bite.

Malay Bread from Tropika with curry sauce.

What’s the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?

Lots of small embarrassing things rather than one big one. I say a lot of stupid things and Rob just shakes his head.

What words or phrases do you overuse?

Right now it’s stoaked, I’m stoaked about everything. I’m trying to be a surfer I guess, even though I’ve never surfed, so I just say stoaked all the time so I can pretend I am.

What is your current state of mind?

Thoughtfulness as I try to answer these questions.

What is your greatest regret?

Not caring more about everyone I’ve ever worked with. It’s something I’m working on more, making sure I really genuinely care about the people. I’ve always really liked them but I never realized how important it is to love them not just like them.

What made you realize that?

Experience, realizing what’s really important about photography and it’s not me. It’s them. I wish I had realized that earlier.

Rob Lim 

What’s your name?

Rob.

Who are you?

A photographer.

Which superhero impressed you the most as a child?

Batman. It’s pretty cool that he had all the gadgets that he did.

Did you like the animated Batman?

Yeah! I really like the animated batman POW! Blurts Lauren.

What was your favourite cartoon as a child?

Tin tin

If you could wake up anywhere tomorrow where would it be?

I would say China, when we were planning where we were going to go it was between Peru and China.

We were almost set to go to China and then chose Peru at the last minute.

Why China?

I’ve been to Southeast Asia quite a bit. And my dad’s from Singapore but I’ve never been to China and the photographic opportunities there are probably insane. I just think it would be a really great place to go.

What has been your greatest accomplishment so far?

I don’t think that it’s any one thing. I think it’s a lot of little things. Like finishing University and getting married and starting a business and then starting new businesses and I think all of those things comes together to be worthy accomplishments. I really think we are too young to have accomplished much. I think we’re just getting started. (Lauren is 24 Rob is 26).

What has been your most significant moment so far?

I would say getting married in Greece! “Ohhh make me look like a jerk” Says Lauren. Not to make Lauren look like a Jerk!  It was just something we did for ourselves.

What is one thing people can appreciate about you?

I think I’m generally pretty patient. Lauren what would you say? ”Genuine” says Lauren.

What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?

There were some pictures on Facebook of me wearing makeup. That was pretty embarrassing.  “It’s an embarrassing moment that just keeps on being embarrassing” laughs Lauren.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

This is something I’ve entertained a lot, the idea of it anyways. I think my idea of happiness revolves a

lot more around the journey and it’s always changing just like how things are always changing when

You’re traveling. You’re not usually just in one place. I think I would get bored if happiness was a 2700

square foot house 2 kids 2 dogs and a lot of money. I think I’m really happy right now in our

lives. So much is changing and so much is new every day.

Describe your perfect bite

Street food on the Khao San Road in Bangkok, Thailand. So less of a single perfect bite! Obviously you can get the best Pad

Thai cooked right before your eyes, but you can also get really amazing / simple grilled foods (chicken skewers my fav!), as

well as the best Falafel you’ve ever had! There are also fried insects if you’re brave enough. And if enjoy a refreshing

beverage they sell “buckets” which are small beach buckets filled with Ice, Thai whiskey, Thai Red Bull, and Coke — best to

share with a friend!

Which living person do you most admire?

I haven’t spent any time really at all reading biographies. I think it’s something that interests me and one person that I’ve always been fixated with is Nelson Mandela. We just watched Invictus in Peru and I really enjoyed just getting a little glimpse into his life. Although not from the historical perspective. But I think that he’s someone that definitely inspires me.

Whatdo you most value in your friends?

I like my friends to be very real. I can understand people have faults. Just don’t try to hide them. I can say honesty.  I like people being honest with me.

What words or phrases do you overuse?

Ummmmmh.

Any last words for you two?

Kowabunga.

I turned my back, asked Rob to do an awkward pose when I turn around. This, is the definition of awkward.

Before (above) After (below) How? under the last photo.

This is how I typically edit an image. If you really want to know more about how exactly I do things. Get Raw Processing and watch it all. It will teach you all I do. 

All of these images were edited 100% in Adobe Lightroom. To go from the Before to the after these are the simple adjustments I made

Exposure +0.60

Brightness +84

Contrast +90 

Clarity +10

Vibrance +13

Lens Vignetting -31

And a small crop to bring him more into the center

That’s all I’ve done to almost all of these images. Except the funky one of Lauren is a little more funky processing. But still dont in Lightroom.  To be honest, I really dig the before shot too. So it might not be the best before/after. But I hope you get the idea.