About technique and more.

Aimed light

One of the most difficult things to do is really aiming your light.
In a lot of workshops you will see big soft boxes aimed at the model from a moderate distance, this is of course very understandable for the simple reason that in fact you really can’t go wrong…. however the resulting image is often “a bit flat” and not that interesting lighting wise.

 

A next step is using smaller light sources like striplights or for example a beauty dish with grid.
For example in this shot I used a small striplight.

Roosmarijn Mei 22 2014  (73 of 155)-Edit

It can get way more interesting however when we start lighting our model from the back and creating a very dark front. Now normally one would let the model look upward to catch some light, but often that doesn’t really result in the image you want, a model looking towards the camera always has a little bit more….. connection, especially with glamour.

 

In the next shot I used a beauty dish from the back and lit the models face with a very small light source, in this case a snoot with grid.

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At a bit of spice to a shoot with sunglasses

Often I’m asked “What to do to spice up a shoot”
Well you can a lot of things of course, but one thing that I always find fun and can really add a little bit of an edge to a session is let the model play with sunglasses.

 

During a workshop with Sharon we added this little accessory and played with it.

 

Sharon Mei 17 2014 (56 of 121)-Edit-Edit

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The one you often don’t shoot…but should

Today a special image.
This is the kind of shot you often see but don’t shoot.
In this case it was literally a last minute shot, during the workshops in Platja d’aro the last part of the workshop it was all the students that shot the models, I was in fact preparing the last part of the workshop and doing some quick retouching of the images to show the before and after. When I went out to check if the students were almost done I saw them coming down the stairs leading up to the location, normally you would turn around and walk in….. but in this case I saw this beautiful wall and without thinking I ran inside to get my camera and wait for the models to come down.

 

Quickly I dragged them in front of the wall and took maybe 3-4 shots.
This is the image I choose from the series and I have to be honest… I LOVE it.
Again this is the kind of images I always call “the ones you often don’t shoot, but should”
And we all have those situations where you see something and think “WOW, but…… well I’m tired, I already got so many shots… so just let it go”

 

I don’t say you have to ALWAYS give in to the urge to shoot, which would actually make traveling with me almost impossible for Annewiek (:D), but I do say that if you are working with models and you do have the chance to shoot that one extra shot… GO FOR IT…. I’m incredibly glad I did because this could very well be one of my best/favorite portraits in a long time.

Platjo d aro workshops Mei 2014 (188 of 196)-Edit

The eyes, the eyes !!!

Sometimes you are thinking “what can we do to spice this up”…….
Believe it or not but masks can really help to give your shoot a little bit of extra “oomph”
In this case Corine (our model) brought a what I call “Hello kinky kitty” gas mask, and I have to be honest as soon as she put it on… I loved it.


Corine Maart 26 2014 (101 of 143)-Edit the million dollar question however is always “How do you shoot this”
One of the things I like about shooting masks is the way how it takes away the expression of the mouth and face, now one could think “that’s important right?” well yeah it is, but….. by using a mask you actually get the option to add a lot more expression on the eyes. And that’s what I really like about this, the images are actually way more intense than without the mask, eyes are indeed the mirror to the soul and the place of most expression, although normally we are more drawn towards the mouth for expression for example a laugh, a scream etc. When you take this away you can actually see how important eyes can be.

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