That Natural Look

“People think that I have a 10,000-square-foot studio,” Dana Neibert says. He leads the way through his Coronado, CA home near San Diego, which he shares with his wife and two children, to a small structure adjoining the garage in back of the house. “Actually,” he says, “it’s more like 150-squarefeet.”

But inside that little room is where the post-production magic happens. Neibert, 38, a self-taught rising star among advertising shooters, does much of his own retouching, and he does it in barely enough space to house a work table, chair and a couple of monitors. There is a second room off to the side, a tad larger than a closet, which houses PC towers, his camera bodies and all his lenses. Until two years ago, it also served as a conventional darkroom.

For much of his career, Neibert shot large format film with an old Crown Graphic. “If I could still shoot the Crown Graphic, I would. It really forces you to carefully compose your shots. When you have a [DSLR] viewfinder up against your eye, you just move around and shoot stuff. You think you’re composing,” he says, “but you’re not.”

It took years for Neibert to fully embrace digital photography. He first began playing with the Nikon D100 right after it came to market. He liked the ease of operation but not the quality of the imaging. He continued to shoot 4 x 5 Kodak Portra VC, but on the side he experimented with different evolutions of digital bodies as they became available. “Now, they’re pretty good. I can make them look like the film that I was shooting. What people want is my look. That’s why they hire me.”

Part of the switch to digital was from client pressure. “They want to see you shooting tethered to the computer. They want to see the shots as they come out. They don’t trust a photographer any more to say I’ve got the shot, okay, we’re done. They want to see it for themselves.”

Dana Neibert, who is represented by the Fox Creative agency, was born in San Francisco and studied graphic design at the California College of the Arts in Oakland. He moved to San Diego and became an art director at local agencies before switching over to full-time photography. “I always had photography as a hobby. Working for small agencies there was no budget to hire a photographer, so we’d use stock or shoot it ourselves. And then on budgeted shoots I went out with real photographers and learned the ropes.”

Advertising work makes up the great majority of what he shoots, with a client list that includes Lexus, Four Seasons Hotels, Chevrolet, AT&T, Intel, Frito Lay and more. Recognized by The One Show, Communication Arts, PDN, Clio Awards and Kelly Awards, the look and feel of film remains a vital element in the construction of a Neibert image. His pictures are panoramic moments frozen in time as if they were stills taken on a motion picture set. And more often than not subjects are bathed in the natural hues of a sunrise or a sunset. “It’s a cinematic look, I think. I definitely like big wide-open expanses and small subjects. I’m not a big smile in front of the camera guy. I like natural, beautiful moments.” 

Neibert’s use of light has evolved over the years to the point that the crisp definition he achieves with natural light in relation to his subjects has evolved into a recognizable style. The lighting is never obvious or intrusive, and the natural feel prevails in a way that, supplemented or not, becomes a part of the story itself.

“I like to shoot at sunrise,” he says. “Half the battle right there is getting up and getting that morning light.” That means a typical shooting day starts early for Neibert and his crew, often at 3 a.m. They like to arrive at the location at least two hours before sunrise and set up. Neibert makes sure that talent is prepped and ready, while his producer and assistants ready his gear. “Then we just wait for the sun to come up and begin shooting. Depending on what part of the world we’re in, after a half hour the sun is at a 45-degree angle. We’re pretty much done then.”  The crew packs up and heads to the next location, which may be a sunset shot.

 “But with budgets getting tighter, clients want to squeeze more shots into a day,” he says. “So if we can do an interior shot as well, we’ll do that.” In the past, he says his workday consisted of setting up for two or three shots. Now it’s five to seven. “They just want to get more done, and they’re okay with getting more shots that look less produced. In fact, it’s almost a trend now to get shots that look less produced.”

Neibert’s crew is based out of Los Angeles. “It’s cheaper for me to go to L.A. than to bring the whole crew here. And it’s easier to get a replacement camera at two in the morning up there. Somebody will open a shop for you there. Here [in San Diego], you sometimes can’t even get a camera.”

As a former art director, Neibert says young photographers wanting to know how to land advertising work often approach him. He says there’s no silver bullet. “It’s a concert of things. You can’t just send an email blast.” The best plan of attack, he says, is to do a lot of things that work together—emails, promos, and ads in industry magazines like Archive. “Just about every art director reads Archive magazine.

 I learned that [single] postcards didn’t work very well either. You’re trying to get one image to work for everyone. I’ve always been a fan of a bigger promo with more images. If you send out 10 shots, you have 10 chances to appeal to a person,” he says.

Neibert uses Facebook to keep in touch with clients and agencies he’s worked for. “The fan page works well because it’s easier to update that than it is to update the Web site.” Neibert has his Facebook page linked to his Twitter account so that whatever goes on Facebook gets tweeted as well.

He mails 7500 promo packages annually, updates his Web site regularly and takes on personal projects. “I’ll go out for a day and shoot something. I think that agencies like that too. At some point they know you’ve shot for a brand, but they just want to see what you can do when you challenge yourself—push yourself.”

Neibert’s early portfolio was a bluesy collection of beach shots and landscapes. “I still love doing landscapes. But as a commercial photographer, if you have a book full of landscapes, you’re not going to get much work. I found that out early on.”

The range of sentiment in Dana Neibert’s portfolio is palpable. Defined by his individual trademarked sense of lighting, Neibert images have a quality about them as if they were plucked from a moment in time. Commercial assignments are about creating the essence and feel that an art director wants for a product, and that’s where Neibert excels. His seductive frames tell stories that leave a viewer wanting more.

To see more of Dana Neibert’s commercial images and personal work, visit his Web site at www.dananeibert.com.

Dave Good writes about American culture and pop music for San Diego magazine, The Reader, Pacific Magazine, SanDiego.com, and more. The occasional freelance photojournalist, he is based in Southern California.