Christian Schallert – Postcards, Portraits, and Playing with Gels

The Artist with a Business Plan

Christian Schallert is an Austrian photographer who’s turned a knack for visual culture into a sustainable business—selling postcards, prints, and T-shirts featuring his own work. Proof that in the creative world, having a business brain often trumps simply having good ideas. He’s a savvy operator and a genuinely friendly guy, and this shoot was a great chance to try something a little different.

Colour, Contrast, and Controlled Chaos

I wanted to experiment with lighting gels on this one—something a bit more stylised. I placed Christian beside a burned-out window that would serve as clean space for the magazine’s text overlay, then dialled in for artificial light and used a CTO gel (folded up strips of 1/4 strength) on the flash. The mix of warm light and neutral tones brought out nice contrast on the face, while also drawing attention to his T-shirt, which features one of his own designs.

These editorial portraits rarely pay the bills, but they offer something just as valuable—time to experiment. This was one of those shoots that reminded me why I still love doing this work, even when it’s more about the image than the invoice.