Results from the workshop “Smoke and props”

I always try to add some special things to my workshops, I’ve been teaching them for many years and one of the things I never want to do is “repeat” myself, now there will always be overlap because it is a Frank Doorhof workshop and I can’t teach new things twice a week for years of course, but in the start of 2015 we started with adding themes to the workshops like “masks and posing”, “set building”, “Styling on a budget”, “Set building” and the very popular “Smoke and props”

 

The idea behind this is that every workshop has a “guide line” based on the concept (which I change during the year, add new ones and make different combinations etc), but that the rest of the workshop is 100% flexible. We start with an intense Q&A in which I try to answer the questions, or use the questions as base for the workshop in the studio (or on location).

 

One of the workshops that is often underestimated is the workshop with smoke, a lot of people book the workshop because they like the smoke shots but somehow aren’t able to pull them off themselves… and this is actually where the problem lies. When I started with smoke I also thought that it was just a matter of pushing a button and shoot, in reality however this only works (sometimes) when you use a little bit of smoke behind the model, if you want more however (especially in sets) you will have to have a “strategy” for the smoke. For the images in this blogpost for example we literally have a completely timed workflow to get the smoke the way I want it… and even then (as you can see) the results will be totally different per shot. Add to this that there are many different smoke machines and liquids out there and you will actually understand why the workshops with smoke are so popular 😀

 

Model : Linda
Clothing : Nadine and Sinister (1st dress)