Vitaly Sidorenko – From IT to Pixels

Posted on Jul 18th, 2014

by Thierry

Blog

If you are from Canberra and in anyway have an interest for nice photography, you would certainly have seen some of Vitaly’s work.

I “met” Vitaly firstly from social networks and as I normally do, pushed the virtual into a real life meet and greet and had a chat with Vitaly a couple time.

Within a very short lapse of time, Vitaly’s work has improved immensely and it is safe to say that he now sits somewhere with the professionals of the profession.

You may have seen, or worked with Vitaly, but do you really know the man behind these awesome photographs?

We asked the man to talk about himself and his work through our now standard Q&A interview.

There are some very good advices to take out for aspiring photographers, to make your way, from a hobby, into becoming a full-time professional photographer. Live your passion, with limits and get paid for it.

Make sure you check out Vitaly’s images after the Q&A. To find out more about Vitaly and his work, follow the links.

1. Who are you?

Originally I’m from Russia and came to Australia about 10 years ago. My background is over 20 years in IT and it covers my path from the junior software developer to the senior solution architect. After 4 first years in Melbourne we (me, my wife and son) moved to Canberra where I work full time as an architect for the government department. While my day to day work requires a lot of analytical and very technical activities, photography provides for me an artistic outlet.

2. How did you become a photographer?

I liked photography from my childhood and still remember my first film camera and wet dark room processing which I did in the bathroom by covering the entrance with the blanket. The magic of images appeared from nowhere on the photographic paper astonished me. I haven’t chosen the career of photographer at that time but the bug of the love of photography got into my heart from that time though it wasn’t really active yet.

About three years ago I was surfing the internet and suddenly I caught my eye on nice images. It wasn’t anything special in them but that day changed my life significantly. The photography bug, which has been sleeping inside me for the last 20 years suppressed into the lethargy by IT work, abruptly woke up and announced about his second birth. Since that day I started to learn photography by practicing it: shooting and retouching. As I was progressing with the photography skills I started to pick up other things which were required to create great images: color theory, digital painting, makeup basics, balance and composition, model posing and the list goes on and on.

Where am I now? I stopped doing free photo-sessions unless it is a personal project which I can use for my portfolio or to test new techniques or to get a publication. I found a few skilled people which I work with all the time because they always deliver outstanding predictable results. I’m still learning and continuing my self-education process but now I’m seriously starting to think about getting into the business of commercial photography and professional retouching at the next level.

3. What inspires you?

I draw inspiration from different sources depending on my mood. Usually internet and social networks work best for me. I also have a few photographers and retouchers which work I follow. But the actual inspiration for every shoot it is a different story and might come up from a movie, image in the shop window or from looking into the photoshop tutorial on the web.

4. What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learnt either from a teacher/mentor or by the hard way?

When you are spending time on photography and retouching it is very easy to lose the time control and spend days and weeks behind the computer. It is probably fine when you are a bachelor but it becomes an issue when you have a family. You need to maintain a balance between your hobby time and the time which you spend with your family. At the end of the day your family is more important than your hobby.

5. Who would be the photographer you’d like to shoot/work along with? Who would you like to shoot/work with for your next assignment?

I’m open for free collaboration with talented people (models, MUAs, hair dressers and stylists) and would like to organise shoots for publications (beauty/fashion/editorial). If you are capable to deliver in your subject area and have a good theme don’t hesitate to contact me.

6. What’s in your bag/studio?

I bought a Nikon D800 about two years ago and loved it from the day one. It is a full frame body with very convenient controls. I do use the camera grip not so much for double the battery life but more to get the same feel when I shoot portrait or landscape oriented images. I invested into great lenses from Nikon because I think the glass is the main part of the photographic equipment together with the great censor which D800 has.

For the post processing I use Intel PC with dual monitors. I believe that the PC platform gives much better performance and specifications for the same amount of money compared to Mac which is a great brand but too overpriced from my opinion.

7. What’s your favourite piece of gear / tool / props?

My favourite lens is Nikkor 85mm/F1.4 which I use majority of the time for portraiture work because it has an excellent sharpness and doesn’t introduce distortion which is very important for quality portraits. Time to time I use 70-200/F2.8 or 24-70/2.8 when needed.

8. What would be your workflow, favourite piece of software / step by step to create a look ?

My favourite software tool is certainly Photoshop CS6 where I spend majority of my time while retouching images. I use its Adobe Raw Converter to get the best out of my raw files. If I see major shape issue then I use liquify to correct it. Then I work on to get the skin clean and move to the dodge-and-burn. When it is finished I move into color correction and tone smoothing. Sometimes I might add artistic color grading on top.

9. Do you have any suggestions for aspiring photographers?

I can give a couple of tips which I learnt in a hard way by myself:

•Try to work with the best team possible (model, makeup artist, hairdresser and stylist. Don’t hesitate to pay to professionals when you starting out. It will help you to get better results sooner and to build your portfolio faster.
•Try to get the best possible images in the camera while you are shooting. Don’t leave things to the post production – don’t follow the line “That’s Ok – I’ll fix it later in Photoshop”.

10. Anything else we should know about you?

You can see my recent work on my web site (vitalysidorenko.com) or you can follow me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/vitalysidorenko.photography). If you book a shoot with me and mention that you got my name from this blog you will receive a $50 discount on the package of your choice which can result in a free makeup for the shoot.

If you are a creative (photographer, stylist, model, make up artist or hair stylist) who wish to show case your work on this site, send us an email to Hello (at) afterRAW.com