Keegan Allen never leaves home without a Leica
VENICE BEACH, Calif.— Keegan Allen never goes anywhere without his beloved Leica camera by his side. The actor, best known for his co-starring role on Pretty Little Liars, one of TV's most tweeted series, is also a camera buff who takes his photography very seriously.
He's just published a book of his work, life.love.beauty (St. Martin's Press, $29.99), so naturally when we met up for #TalkingTech, we dove right into — what else? Photography.
LIFELONG PHOTO NERD
The 25-year-old actor was handed an old Leica M6 film camera as a present from his father when he was 10 years old. He's been taking pictures ever since, going back and forth between the film Leica and his black-and-white-only, digital, $7,000 Leica Monochrome camera.
"A lot of people are stunned — why would you buy a camera that only shoots in black and white?" he said.
His answer: Because the end result is that it "looks like film. You can shoot in pitch black and it captures every detail. It's like a medium between digital and film."
He also shoots many, many photos on his iPhone 6 and posts them to his Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat accounts. But Leica images have the top spot in his heart.
The camera that's been beloved by photojournalists since the 1930s produces results that are "buttery. It's a feeling, an emotion that's captured rather than a moment captured on the phone. I could be crazy, but the difference is the experience. It feels like an extension of your eye," he said.
CAMERA GEAR
Besides the Leica Monochrome, he also has the original Leica M6, M4 and M240, a Hasselblad, Polaroid and the Fuji X100s. "One of my favorite things is to shoot on a 35mm throwaway camera with flash, because of the film look."
BLOGS
Allen is a big student of photography who visits the Digital Rev social photo network and review site often.
APPS
When shooting images on his iPhone 6, Allen always uses apps to pretty them up with darkroom-like effects. His favorites:
• Whiteagram (Free, Apple, Android). Puts white borders on images so they'll fit within the square aspect ratio of Instagram without cutting out the borders.
• Afterlight (99 cents, Apple, Android, Windows). An app that tries to recreate the film look with smartphone photos.
• VSCOcam (Free, Apple, Android). Another app that brings filter and effects to smartphone photos.
LIGHTING TIP
When taking photos outside, "I love natural light. I like to hold my hand up and see how the light is hitting my hand. I also bring along an egg. It will tell you what the lighting will look like."
His favorite time to shoot: when it's cloudy. "It's like a huge softbox above you."
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