Expressions are cool….

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Expressions are very important in our daily life, imaging talking to someone that shows no expression at all….. pffff terrible right?
Still I see a lot of photographs when I do portfolio reviews that show great lighting, awesome locations, great styling and makeup but they don’t work, they don’t trigger me… for the simple reason….. there is no expression.

 

For me it’s always a challenge to bring out expressions from my models that are special, a bit over the top, a bit provoking maybe but most of all they must make my viewer go like WOW. As you can see in the following two shots the background isn’t that interesting, but the wind and the expression of the model (plus pose) really make the images speak (well at least for me).

 

 

So next time you’re on a location of which you think “this is not that interesting” always remember that with some special coaching and a model that has some real expression/guts you can make it work.

Marie Juni 7 2014 aan boord s2 39

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Always shoot….

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During trips it’s often travel, travel, travel….
And what do you do during travel?
Well you can of course work on a new book :D, do some surfing (if you have internet) or…. well what I love to do is do something that will get me some cool images, and when you have a model traveling with you it’s easy of course.

 

Sometimes you think “this location is not interesting enough” and you don’t shoot, but I’m 100% honest when I say that almost every location can be interesting if you use the proper angle to shoot it from, or use the “elements” that are available. In this case we were on the ferry to the UK and it was very windy (as usual) so I worked a lot with the hair of my model.

 

All shot are done with the Sony A7r and the Sigma 35mm 1.4 and Minolta 85mm
Editing in Capture One

Marie Juni 7 2014 aan boord 1

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Aimed light

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TIP: Look at the old lighting styles



Now a days we have all this gear that makes our life easier, but does it…. sometimes I get the idea that it also confuses people and I mean REALLY confuses people.



Often I get mails asking me what the settings were for my camera if someone likes a shot, well….. sorry to burst that bubble but actually the settings are pretty irrelevant…. you choose the aperture for the depth of field you want to see and this is also highly depended on the lens you’re using and the camera you’re holding of course, and the shutter speed for the studio… well that really doesn’t matter as long as you cut the ambient light and stay below the Xsync, so most of the times it’s 1/125. 


What I mostly tell people during my workshops is that they should look for the light, don’t be overwhelmed with questions about gear, often I think people hide the fact that they are not able to recreate something to the fact that they don’t have the gear to do it. Trust me compared to what we have today, in the old days they had a lot less.


Take for example a technique I call “Aimed light”.
With this technique I create something pretty dark with backlighting and use a single light source aimed at the models face, someone has to keep following that face, because it’s a really tight light source, or the model has to stay in one place.


This way you can create something that always reminds me of a modern twist to the film noir lighting, and yeah I know it’s completely different but it is where I took my inspiration from.


If you look at this example shot you actually see a 2 light setup, one Elinchrom beauty dish with grid from the back and one Elinchrom Snoot from the front, that’s it. Nothing complicated, now add a cool model, a strong color and there you go….. no need to worry about gear, this would look the same with a Canon 10D, a Nikon D4s or a Sony A7r (this was shot with a Medium format camera btw :D)


So next time, don’t think that you can’t do something because you don’t have the gear, dissect the image and recreate it, lighting isn’t hard (as soon as you understand it) but creating a fitting mood and working with the model and styling that’s pretty important 😀


Have fun.

Marie Mei 30 2014 (66 of 119)-Edit

Which RAW software DxO vs Capture One vs Lr

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I think that on software this is probably one of the most asked questions “Frank which RAW convertor do you use and which one do you advise?”

 

Well let me start with saying that there is no 100% best solution, in this blogpost I can only tell you what my experiences are and my results, the problem is that all three convertors are strong in certain areas and less strong in others but none is the strongest in all. So in this post I will tell you my opinion and how I use them, this might differ from yours of course.

 

The contenders :
DxO optics 9.5
Lightroom 5.x
Capture One

 

First lets look at my opinion on them and when/why/how I use them.

 

Lightroom
Adobe-Lightroom-Logo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think it’s no secret that Adobe is a huge company and their products are among the best photographers use, in fact it’s the standard for most professional workflows. Adobe has several software packages I use including Premiere for video, Lightroom and Photoshop of course, and I have to be honest I LOVE all their products, and probably that’s also the reason that they are the standard in the industry for so many people.

 

Lightroom is where all my files “life”, it’s my hub where I keep everything combined, make smart albums, label and keyword my images, and yeah I’m even using their GPS map module. In short Lightroom is what is on my computer screen a lot and when I search the archives it’s actually the only software I use.

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