About technique and more.

Don’t take it too easy

We all know that photography is taking pictures…. However is it just that or is there more….
Well when a blogpost starts like this there is of course more, right…
During our travels we often also visit landmarks and to be honest I always find these challenging, not to shoot them but to create something that hasn’t been done before, because let’s be honest everything has been done once or twice at least. As soon you realize that one burden is actually lifted… pff we don’t have to be unique…. but at least lets try to do it slightly different.

 

The easiest shot is always from the what I call “Kodak point”, you can find these at some sights and the only thing you have to do is point your camera in the “general” direction and shoot, and in all honestly you’ll end up with a good shot of the landmark…. but if you try to move around, zoom in, shoot from a very low or very high angle, shoot it with an extreme wide-angle or even fish eye you will actually get something totally different. You could even use your “selfie-stick” to get some stunning shots that you would normally not get (so we finally found a good use for that stick).
In the end it’s all about one thing…
As a photographer it’s not enough to just see the landmark, treat like you would treat a model…. and ok it doesn’t listen and you can’t pose it, but you can still wait for the light, change your own position, zoom in to show details or leading lines, add something in the frame to make it funny, or weird… when you think about it the options are limitless.

 

Even from the “kodak point”.

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Sharon in a small space

One of the workshops I teach is actually called “Small spaces”
Loads of photographers “complain” about their studio being too small, and of course this is possible, but in my opinion there is always an interesting shot to get.

 

You might not be able to make a model jump (although that could be funny, and painful) but there is always a option. So this workshop is all about working in tight spaces and this means smaller modifiers (often just a beauty dish) with grids to make sure the light hits only the places you want it to, and of course we have to adjust the models poses a bit.
Remember also that tight/small spaces can actually be incredibly cool if you let your model pose with them, for example lean in between two walls, make her look “locked up” etc. when you come to think about it shooting in small spaces can be much more interesting than shooting in wide open spaces 😀

 

Today some images from this workshop with Sharon.

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As you can see sometimes you have to think outside the box… but in the case of small spaces it can help to think inside the box 😀

 

If you like these kind of tips make sure to check out my book “Mastering the model shoot” or get one of the instructional videos from this website.

Zoom in

There’s always this discussion about using zoom lenses vs primes.
LOADS of photographers will tell you that primes are much better… and well I agree they are.
But still I’m a zoom lens person.
I know primes are sharper and often a bit faster (or a lot faster, meaning wider aperture) but to be honest in the studio I always shoot between f4-f22 so most of my lenses are razor sharp in that area, but even if they would be slightly less sharp then my primes I still prefer the variety of looks I can get from my zooms.

 

Always remember that shooting an image on 50mm and walking towards your model or moving away will be different that shooting from the same location with a 24-70, with the zoom lens you are much faster and if you want a close up you actually compress the scene much more than when walking towards the model with a 50mm (for example).

 

In a photoshoot I would like to have to most options possible and I love to switch fast so for me a zoom is always a good thing. Combine this by walking around your model during the shoot and you can not only get different looks from your composition/compression but also by the light, because if you shoot under aimed lights (like in the studio) the difference can be incredible.

Do you remember the light snake images ?
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Here we used the same set and I zoomed in a lot more to use the set in a completely different way, but also included some of the red strobe in the back for a completely different look.

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And a few more with different styling and without the red spot.

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If you like these kind of tips make sure to check out my book “Mastering the model shoot” or get one of the instructional videos from this website.

working with smoke

One of the most interesting workshops is without a doubt “working with smoke”
It all might seem very simple, just pump some smoke and you’re done… but in reality it’s almost a science, I could literally write pages about it (I might do that one day).
In essence you have to remember that smoke acts like a diffuser and reflector at the same time, so backlighting smoke can be awesome and front lighting a disaster, however if you set up your lights perfectly before you add smoke it could very well be that all falls down when you add the smoke due to the fact that smoke also acts as a diffuser, so it could be way to bright OR way too dark….

 

Now if you’re smart (and I know you guys are) you can use smoke also to light up your model in areas where normally it would a bit too dark, for example put two strips behind the model and you will end up with a very dark front, however add a bit of smoke in the front and the light will bounce of the smoke and actually light the dress…… easy right? well not that easy but in essence it is, now you have to start to learn how to add the smoke.

 

With smoke we always work with 2 smoke machines if we can, just layering in the smoke using patterns that will fit the scene, and this has to be very fast because smoke will always move around, so often I’ll ask my assistants to first blow smoke in the front of the model (in these kind of shots) and then behind them and move up very fast. This way you can create some pretty interesting effects.
To show total control over your smoke you can even create two walls of smoke 😀
To light up the face of the model a bit more I used a small snoot with grid.

 

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If you like these kind of tips make sure to check out my book “Mastering the model shoot” or get one of the instructional videos from this website.