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TO SEE A GALLERY OF TONY CORBELL'S IMAGES, CLICK HERE

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All Photos © Tony Corbell

Zacatecas, Mexico, July 2007

“Images from the Industry” is a feature in which we spotlight the work and photography of an individual who works in a photo-related industry, but is not currently a full-time professional photographer. We’re always looking for subjects! If you know someone who’s deserving of the spotlight, contact us at editor@photoworkshop.com.

“I came into the industry a little differently than everyone else,” declares Tony Corbell. “I didn’t originally have a love of photography, and I was never an amateur photographer.” Things changed after he got a call out of the blue from his brother-in-law in the late 1970s, who invited him to come out and become a photographer in his west Texas photography studio. Corbell thought, “Why not?” and moved to west Texas. “Until that moment, I had never considered photography,” he says. “But the first picture I ever took was with a Hasselblad and I was paid to do it.”

After he graduated from high school (and prior to becoming a photographer), Corbell went straight to work. He managed ski shops, worked for radio and television stations, and directed a small, live call-in T.V. show in his native Texas. “I always had a little bit of a visual sense about me,” he explains. “I loved the television and movie world.” Corbell’s father had managed movie theatres throughout the country, so he grew up surrounded by visual stimuli. “I was considering writing for television, but then that phone call came from my brother-in-law.” The first year that Corbell worked for the photo studio, they photographed a lot of high-volume high-school seniors and weddings. He estimates that he shot more images in those initial two years than he has for the rest of his life. “I hit the ground running at a very high rate of speed,” he remembers.

Young Rock Star, 2006

Opportunity Knocks
Corbell left his brother-in-law’s studio in 1981 and moved to Midland, Texas, where he went to work for a highly successful photographer whose portrait studio grossed around $500–600K. “It was very high-end, oil money. I had to learn quickly that instead of shooting so fast and so many photos, I had to slow down,” he says. Instead of 10 sessions a day, they were shooting one or two. And a couple of years later, Corbell decided to open his own portrait studio. After a while, he decided he wanted to do more commercial work, and began collaborating with Dean Collins. “I directed my career in a more commercially oriented way,” he notes.

Eventually Collins suggested that Corbell close his studio and move to California. This proved to be very fruitful move, as he soon began to produce Collins’ books and the revered Fine Light video series. “This gave me a foundation for everything I was going to do in the future,” Corbell says, “from being a businessman to understanding light, and going to Japan to give a lecture for two weeks. I learned so much from Dean and I thank him at every seminar that I give.” He and Collins wrote a monthly column in Petersen’s PHOTOgraphic magazine called “Collins on Basics” from 1986–89. Later, photographer Tim Mantoani took over this column (Tim is a former student of Corbell’s at Brooks—you can see Tim’s work in our “Photos to Inspire” feature this month). In 1990, Corbell was given the opportunity to teach studio lighting at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. “It was so exhilarating to be surrounded by that many like-minded people,” he recalls. “Once I had gotten the bug in photography, I thought I was the only one who lived it, dreamt it and slept it.”

Borrego Springs, California, 2006

Later, Skip Cohen—then President of Hasselblad—approached Corbell. “He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, and I left Santa Barbara and moved to New Jersey.” Corbell became Director of Corporate Communications at Hasselblad “on the condition that I could continue to teach and to shoot.” By then, he had given a number of seminars and workshops and was becoming known as “the lighting guy,” taking over where Dean Collins had left off. He worked for Hasselblad for seven years before moving back to San Diego in 2000. “I went back to shooting full-time,” he says, “and started a business called Corbell Productions.”

The Cutting Edge of Technology
After six years of working for himself, Corbell began his latest venture merely a year ago—this time with Nik Software—which was also located in San Diego. He had doing a lot of commercial work and did a number of high-end weddings. He was also invited to speak all over the world during the prior six years. “Nik loved it because I was talking about their products all the time, since I used their software pretty heavily.” The company invited him to exchange ideas and suggested that they work on some of their projects together. “Pretty soon, it turned into a full-time position,” he says.

As a Senior Manager for Nik, he adds, “I’m doing a lot of work from an educational standpoint, as well as product planning. I’m helping the engineering team with what they’re going to do next—it’s pretty exciting for me.” Lately, he’s been producing how-to lessons on some of Nik’s products, which will appear on its website. Currently, the site offers a learning area with 10 to 15 new lessons in PDF format, video, and downloadable podcasts. “I get to write and teach, which I love,” Corbell says. Another recent project that he has spearheaded is “Team Nik,” which consists of the top 10 photographers around the country who use Nik products. “We sponsor some of their workshops and seminars,” he says. “Their bios and some of their images are on the website.”

Santa Fe Fashion, 2005

He also praises Nik’s new developments like UPoint technology, which is currently in Nikon’s new CaptureNex software. “This is amazing technology and I think we’ll find it in our market a lot in the future.” And of course, many photographers use Nik’s popular plug-in filters for Adobe Photoshop. The people at Nik are brilliant at developing software and creating what the users want, he points out, “And I know the users. I know how these photographers think because I’m one of them.” An e-newsletter is currently going out to registered owners of Nik products and Corbell offers tech tips in each of them.

Nowhere Else He’d Rather Be
Corbell says that his personal website may become a resource for photographers in the future. “I’m not really pursuing commercial clients anymore,” he explains. “But I do want to continue offering a resource. I think this will morph into a free educational site where young photographers can go and download articles, samples, books and videos.”  

“Our careers are based upon what most people do as their hobby and recreation,” he notes. “I have photographic friends around the country and I don’t know anyone who dreads going to work in the morning.” In addition to his work with Nik Software, he’s planning a number of upcoming workshops and has a studio lighting book on the market, published by Amphoto. There is also a series of lighting DVDs on which he’ll be going into production with Software Cinema (also founded by Dean Collins).

Tony Corbell wasn’t afraid to jump into photography initially on a whim, and has enjoyed a very successful career ever since. “I’ve been very fortunate that I have done a number of varied things and each one has been a pretty good step,” he says. “I once heard somebody say that if your vocation is your avocation, you’ll never work a day in your life. There are days when we’ll put in 14 hours on a motorcycle or car shoot, and at the end of the day you’re just dead and can’t move—but there’s nowhere else you’d rather be.”

To learn more about Nik Software, visit www.niksoftware.com. To see more of Tony Corbell’s work, go to www.corbellproductions.com.

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TO SEE A GALLERY OF TONY CORBELL'S IMAGES, CLICK HERE

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