The One Habit That Separates Pro Photographers From Amateurs

0:03 No, dude.

0:03 I think This is my friend Jason Roman,

0:07 an unbelievable photographer from New York City.

0:11 Shooting professionally for years on movie sets,

0:14 movie posters, Jason is no stranger to a camera.

0:18 I wanted to come crash his studio, shoot his portrait,

0:21 and learn how he's so much [music] faster

0:23 with his camera than anyone I've ever met.

0:29 Maybe.

0:30 Maybe.

0:30 Maybe.

0:30 [laughter] You told me once that you're [snorts] faster

0:40 with manual focus than you are with auto focus,

0:43 and auto focus actually slows you down.

0:45 And that's crazy for someone coming from like

0:46 a digital camera shooting with auto focus,

0:48 and I'd love for you to explain how you're faster in manual.

0:53 So, I guess what I'm saying is from like a technical perspective,

0:56 like once you start using manual focus, which you do now, Yep.

1:00 Yep.

1:00 and you go back to an auto focus camera, yep,

1:02 it's impossible to ignore that millisecond that the camera

1:05 has to figure out what it's latching on to.

1:08 Spending years with Leica just doing

1:10 that and feeling the shot of fire immediately,

1:12 especially on a film camera, and then going to like anything that has auto focus

1:15 feels like there's a delay and a lag on the moment.

1:19 so, for me, I like the idea of thinking

1:21 about focusing on a plane where like, okay, I'm at F8 or F4, whatever,

1:26 and understand what it is that I'm deciding to focus on.

1:29 I prefer to make that decision rather than letting the camera grab something.

1:32 And missing the shot one.

1:34 Or having to shoot in a a way that has a continuous auto focus,

1:37 so like even that takes a little bit longer.

1:39 And so, for me, I love that feeling of that's

1:42 this is the moment I hit the shutter and it just happens.

1:44 I got so much stuff over here, like especially in this corner.

1:48 This is cool.

1:50 Yeah, and then the look down.

1:51 So, if you're like want to take portraits of somebody

1:53 and like shoot down at them in the street,

1:55 these angles are like You do it from that far?

1:57 What do you shoot What do you shoot that at?

1:58 90 to 80, bro.

2:02 [laughter] I mean, Come on.

2:04 Look at that [music] view.

2:04 Look at that.

2:04 That is so sick.

2:06 That's pretty sick.

2:07 I'm so jealous of that.

2:08 good as it gets.

2:09 I just spent I won't even tell you what I spent redoing my studio,

2:13 and immediately it is sub par.

2:16 Dude, there's no way.

2:17 I think No, dude, I think I think New York's the answer.

2:20 This that view is insane.

2:22 Wait, you coming to New York?

2:23 [music] Is that the vibe?

2:26 [laughter]

2:25 There are sometimes where I see a photograph where it is a bit more distant,

2:30 and I'm like, I like that, and I'm like, why don't I ever do that?

2:33 But my instincts are always to be close.

2:35 Yeah, I think I've been shooting the opposite in the last few days.

2:39 Mhm.

2:39 And on a 28 mil, I have the zone probably 6 ft and beyond.

2:43 Mhm.

2:44 So, I think I'm going to get those shots back and look

2:46 at them and think everyone's just a little bit too small,

2:48 like a little bit too far.

2:50 Yeah.

2:50 Because I think I'm a little bit uncomfortable

2:52 with going to 0.7 and then getting into someone's space.

2:56 Yeah.

2:56 And then one, having any confidence that it's in focus,

3:00 but two, also just getting into someone's space.

3:03 Sure.

3:03 But like getting into someone's space where like you do this and like, you know,

3:06 I'm 24 and I do that, like you're not going to you people

3:09 are not going to notice that you kind of You know what I mean?

3:11 I don't know, man.

3:12 I don't know if I could do it.

3:13 I think maybe there's like a part of us all that kind

3:15 of has that idea that everyone's paying attention and everyone cares.

3:18 What I learned a long time ago was that I have

3:20 to give people the the chance to surprise me, you know?

3:24 I like that a lot.

3:25 I mean, it's it's the truth.

3:27 We can project a lot of what we think onto people.

3:30 Yeah.

3:30 There was one time when I was in Baltimore I was photographing this guy.

3:33 Well, I didn't photograph him yet, but he was a It's a pretty scary dude.

3:37 And I saw him and I was like I had these ideas

3:39 and these notions about who he was and what he was going to say.

3:42 What could happen.

3:43 Yeah.

3:43 Yeah.

3:43 And I walked by and I was like,[ __] that.

3:46 I like really hated that I felt that way,

3:47 that I felt was so scared of a human being.

3:49 So, I turned around and I was like, yo, man, can I get your portrait?

3:52 And he was like, oh, dude, for real?

3:54 And he was wearing Dickies, like tan Dickies,

3:56 and he had a cigarette in his ear, and he was also smoking a cigarette.

4:01 He He was a total vibe.

4:02 I got his name, his name was Bobby.

4:03 He's like, dude, I saw you walking out here with your boy, and he was like,

4:05 oh, man, two young black dudes on a Monday with no job and cameras.

4:08 He was like, I was sitting here thinking, what a beautiful thing.

4:10 And in my head, I was like, dude, this guy's looking at us kind of crazy, bro.

4:14 yeah.

4:14 And I went back and talked to him, we had this beautiful exchange,

4:17 I took his portrait, and I was like, give people the chance to surprise you.

4:20 We can't project, cuz if you project, I mean,

4:23 you're just creating a narrative that just doesn't exist,

4:25 and the next thing you know,

4:26 you're walking around scared because of something that's make-believe.

4:29 Kind of crazy.

4:30 That's sick, dude.

4:31 Yeah, that's awesome.

4:32 I think I have nothing else to add to that.

4:37 [laughter] I think we just hard cut to binoculars.

4:41 Hard cut to the binoculars.

4:42 Yeah, I think straight [laughter] straight to the binocular.

4:44 This is 100% [music] likely not going to work.

4:49 Maybe.

4:49 Maybe.

4:50 Maybe.

4:53 [laughter] I actually felt that [music] on the exhale.

4:57 You can like hear the spring.

4:59 All right.

5:01 Oh.

5:02 [music] So, I like that.

5:04 Yeah.

5:04 Oh, now I got to take your portrait, bro, but I'll do it in the studio.

5:09 [laughter]

5:09 I've been holding onto these binoculars for you for what almost a year, dude.

5:12 You made a You made a story about these a year ago,

5:14 and I immediately DM'd you and I was like, give me all the details.

5:17 And I was like, I have two, yeah, cuz I I got so excited to get a pair

5:21 of these that I accidentally bid on two pairs.

5:24 Yeah, [laughter] I've been there.

5:25 I've been there.

5:26 And then one of them went through, and then that showed up in the mail,

5:29 and then all of a sudden I got a notification.

5:31 I was like, boom, your card got charged again, and I was like, Yeah.

5:34 [music] I'm like, what have I done?

5:35 And then you were like, I need a pair of some Dude, I got two pairs.

5:38 I'm in, dude.

5:38 I just let them sit there.

5:39 I was like, I'm just going to ice them, like whatever.

5:42 Yeah.

5:42 I got obsessed with binoculars recently because I started

5:44 to think The first time that I looked through these

5:46 a random thing to It's insane.

5:48 This is the SL3.

5:49 These never looked through Leica glass.

5:52 You've never looked through Leica glass.

5:55 [music] Ever.

5:55 You've never looked through Leica glass unless you've used a pair of binoculars.

5:58 And so, that's why these are so insane,

6:00 cuz this is the first time you're going to look

6:01 through the clarity and how beautiful this glass actually is.

6:05 I'm ready, dude.

6:06 I'm ready.

6:07 You sent me a voice note just all fired up.

6:10 Basically, he's like, oh, the case is red, too.

6:13 Dude.

6:13 Bro, that is sick.

6:15 It's so beautiful.

6:16 With the magnet, it's so beautiful.

6:19 All right.

6:22 First time.

6:23 First time.

6:23 So, pop these bad boys out,

6:25 cuz you don't wear glasses, so it's like a little bit.

6:27 You can You just pull it.

6:28 Oh, really?

6:28 And it says New York on it.

6:30 It's very sick.

6:31 And so, this bottom button is your diopter.

6:33 Okay.

6:34 And then that's like That's your focus, right?

6:36 Well, you turn this for your focus,

6:37 but when you hold that bottom button tight, you'll see this arrow move.

6:40 So, right now, if you just look at the Leica sign back there,

6:43 focus on that, Okay.

6:45 and then change the diopter, and you're going to see the clarity go way up.

6:50 Oh, yeah, that's nuts.

6:52 Oh.

6:53 Look at this [laughter] smile.

6:56 Oh, it's so satisfying.

6:58 Yeah.

6:58 Or we just go to the window for a second.

7:01 if I had your studio with this window or the rooftop, Yeah.

7:04 I would just be all day.

7:05 Yeah.

7:06 They'd be like, oh, there's the dude up there

7:07 with the red binos that's just constantly I call them pocket binoculars.

7:11 I travel I have three pairs of those ultra bits.

7:14 I travel One of them's silver, one of them's black, and then those red ones.

7:17 I take them everywhere.

7:19 I am not kidding when I say I will use these probably every single day.

7:22 They're at my office, too.

7:23 Like I sometimes drive like my old vintage truck,

7:25 and I just I always just like to just make sure it's still there.

7:28 I'm always watching when people are around

7:30 it taking photos and birds in the backyard.

7:32 I am fired up on these, dude.

7:33 [laughter] There you go.

7:34 Thank you, man.

7:35 That's awesome.

7:36 Yeah, man.

7:36 I'm stoked.

7:37 You got to hit me with the review once you start taking those

7:40 I'll hit you with the review, trust me.

7:43 [laughter] I call you the zone daddy.

7:46 Yeah, that's me.

7:47 Cuz you're just like You don't use auto focus, and you just know.

7:50 I like that.

7:50 You know where people are, and you don't use auto focus,

7:52 and I've been trying to get good at just bring one,

7:54 bringing it everywhere, and two, just like between 2 and 3 m,

7:59 kind of like sitting in F8.

8:00 Dude, you just do that.

8:01 You probably throw it like Just put your hand out.

8:04 Where's your favorite spot on it?

8:05 Like what what do you do?

8:06 for me, if I'm shooting 28, and I'm kind of like around 4 or 5 6,

8:11 like I know that if I'm here, You zone it.

8:13 and I just do that, then you're in focus.

8:15 What's 3 ft?

8:16 0.7 m.

8:17 That's it.

8:18 That's what you do.

8:19 Especially with 28, cuz then you know that when somebody walks into your frame,

8:22 you're getting like waist, head.

8:24 What's like the How far is like what's the at the back end of that?

8:26 Like if I go here, so just a little bit further,

8:28 right there, boom, I'm getting like almost full body.

8:32 Yeah.

8:32 And so, like knowing those two, Is it just a guy?

8:34 I don't ever really take pictures of people further away than that.

8:37 Yeah.

8:37 You know what I mean?

8:38 Like Especially on a 28.

8:40 Yeah.

8:40 I can't do that with a 50.

8:41 That's when you're losing me.

8:42 You were Dude, you were in Washington Square Park,

8:45 which is like a portal to another world.

8:47 Oh, dude.

8:48 It's a vortex.

8:48 I actually don't photograph in spots like that well.

8:51 It's too overstimulating, like That's what we can't say, dude.

8:53 We walked out of there and we were like, I have no words.

8:56 I'm like, I don't even know what I just saw.

8:58 chaos, and you're like, what?

8:59 I was I was telling your brother, like,

9:01 when the lab gets these rolls back from this trip,

9:03 they're going to be like, did Pete shoot this?

9:05 Like this isn't Pete.

9:06 Like who who took [laughter] his camera?

9:07 That's so funny you say that.

9:09 Like none of them Like who are all these Pete Like did

9:11 he do drugs and just like Film is the most humbling thing,

9:15 and I feel like no one ever talks about that side of it,

9:17 where you drop something off to a lab, and you're slightly embarrassed.

9:20 about that all the time.

9:21 They're like, shoot this frame, and I'm like,

9:23 someone's going to see it before I do, and I'm not okay with that.

9:25 You know what I say all the time?

9:27 I'm like, oh, I'm testing a NEW CAMERA.

9:30 [laughter] LIKE CHECKING FOR LIGHT LEAKS.

9:32 I'M LIKE, OH, IT'S[ __] up.

9:33 The camera's[ __] up.

9:35 I drop it off, it's my friend's stuff.

9:36 He was in New York.

9:38 Yeah, like I There's a couple from me on there, but it's mostly him.

9:41 Zone focus is such a kind of a scary topic to to think about.

9:44 Like one, I don't think a lot of people

9:46 that don't shoot M or or film or manual focus anything,

9:50 a rangefinder, know what zone focus is.

9:52 They don't They don't know that there is the means to be able to do that.

9:55 Yeah.

9:56 And you know, talking to people like Joe

9:57 Greer and stuff have told me like you'll get

9:59 your best photos when you master zone focus

10:02 because like that's when everything settings just melt away.

10:05 It becomes like a part of you and you're able to just

10:08 at a whim use the camera and it's an extension of you.

10:10 It's not even like an external device anymore.

10:12 You're just you're just capturing stuff without even thinking.

10:15 And I I still have not got there, but I know you're there.

10:19 I mean, I agree with that sentiment because cuz like I'm I think I spent so

10:23 much time in photography like kind of worrying

10:24 about like what people said or don't crop,

10:26 don't do this, don't shoot in auto, don't do all those things.

10:28 When you think about when you reduce what zone focusing is [music] and sunny 16,

10:33 you're essentially turning your camera to a point and shoot, right?

10:35 You're putting in auto mode so the camera completely gets out

10:38 of your way and it's just you and what you're experiencing.

10:40 [music] And I could hand this camera in that mode to a lot

10:44 of people and they're going to all shoot something so different, right?

10:47 And so it's like the purest form of photography

10:50 to just be in that zone and it's what you see.

10:52 Is this like where you put it in your camera bag?

10:56 [laughter] Honestly, this is what I just came back from a work trip with.

10:59 So No, it's not.

11:00 I swear.

11:00 Besides this one All of this?

11:01 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

11:02 Well, this one's mine.

11:03 That one's yours?

11:03 I can't I have I had that one.

11:07 [laughter] Okay, so this is a film camera.

11:08 I use an M7 on set because when I'm

11:10 shooting unit like unit stills and like set photography,

11:13 I'm using like three or four cameras.

11:14 So for me, the M7 having aperture priority on there is like a dream.

11:19 [music] I don't want to be in like

11:20 a natural light situation where I'm shooting four cameras manual.

11:24 So I put this one in aperture priority,

11:25 aperture priority, aperture priority and I just let it rip.

11:29 I love that.

11:30 Also, that's great for me.

11:31 I have the Q3.

11:32 Also, can we just like this says New York on it?

11:34 It says New York.

11:35 I have the So sick.

11:36 It says made in New York cuz that's the same tattoo.

11:39 That's that's and then it says JWR with my initials and my birthday.

11:44 I won't even I won't even get into how

11:45 you've got engraved personalized light discs, but that is sick.

11:48 And the memento mori.

11:49 This was a cool one.

11:50 This is my Q3.

11:51 I don't use Q3s or Qs a lot,

11:54 but I really like this perspective [music] and this camera

11:56 like I was obsessed with it when it first came out.

11:59 And I wanted them to black this whole thing

12:00 out and so you can see all the Yeah, yeah.

12:02 everything's blacked out.

12:03 There's some like cool reverse lizard skin on here

12:05 and I wanted them to put memento mori.

12:07 And a homie Analogous, I don't know if you know he makes like hand grips.

12:10 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

12:10 His stuff is really dope.

12:11 He designed this for me.

12:12 Yeah.

12:13 Which is like a skull inside of a rose.

12:15 Yeah.

12:15 And the memento mori is like, you know,

12:17 that means like remember you'll die one day.

12:19 So for me with photography, I felt like that term was like so cool cuz it's

12:22 like a reminder that your work might live on longer than you.

12:26 So like be mindful of what you kind of leave behind.

12:28 Yeah, you know.

12:29 Kind of ties back to the philosophy, too,

12:30 with like you going back and wanting to give people

12:32 a chance and actually use the gear and take photos.

12:35 The subjects are human beings.

12:37 And like part of this experience is like where the camera takes you, man.

12:40 Like look where look where you've been because of a camera, right?

12:43 Like everything.

12:44 Like all my whole life to a camera.

12:46 Same.

12:47 And I'm like I don't I I love this so much and it's

12:50 the people and like when I get caught taking a photo in those experiences,

12:53 it doesn't matter which country I'm in the world.

12:55 Like if I have my camera,

12:56 I know I'm going to have like an amazing [music] experience.

12:59 I love it.

13:00 Yeah.

13:00 Let's end it there.

13:01 Thanks, man.

13:02 I appreciate it.

13:05 DID YOU GET THAT?

13:08 [laughter] ALMOST.

13:09 THAT WAS LIKE ONE OF THE BEST I'VE EVER DONE.

13:12 FIRED UP.