Who Shot It Better? Mario Sorrenti vs. Craig McDean: Charlize Theron

How do you take a bad photo of a beautiful actress? You don’t. Mario Sorrenti and Craig McDean took their turns four years apart for W Magazine by photographing Charlize Theron, who I’ve had a crush on since 2 Days in the Valley. Now this an interesting situation because you have two top fashion photographers — neither of whom maintains a website. What does this mean? Well, a website is a marketing vehicle for your customers. But if your customers are a limited group who know how to contact your agency, then maintaining a website is an unnecessary distraction. This isn’t so dissimilar to finding that some social media sites aren’t effective for your business. Now I personally believe that every photographer should maintain a website, but I can understand where they are coming from (even if it has a whiff of “too cool for school”).

Let’s take a look.

British fashion photographer Craig McDean took to the Mojave Desert to photograph Theron in 2008. The sun was pretty high up in the sky, but Craig did a nice job filling in the shadows, and he basically gets a Rembrandt lighting position. The dress retains good detail, and everyone loves windblown hair.

Mario Sorrenti goes really blue on the white balance (or rather the post production). The angle is a little lower, but the light is still pretty hard like McDean’s photo. Both photographers do a good job of capture Charlize’s great physique with the wardrobe styling and pose, but I find the retouching on this photo a little heavy-handed, and Charlize comes away looking a little cold.

Verdict: McDean for a more natural, sun-drenched South African.