Less social media more blog

Let me start by saying, don’t let the title fool you, I won’t disappear from social media.
However the last few months we’ve heard more and more from people that don’t see my posts on facebook, or only see one post a week or even month. I literally work my butt of to create content for you guys in the form of videos, tips, Q&As etc. and I think it’s a shame that most of you simply miss that material due to some “weird” algoritme from Facebook or YouTube.

This is why I decided to from now on post all the tips/reviews/articles on the blog instead of on social media and share the link to the article via social media. In essence you get the same tips but you now also have a fixed portal (this website) to find the articles and to see if you missed one.

I normally post 3-7 articles each week on the blog, so make sure to keep visiting this place, it’s really the best way to keep updated. So put www.frankdoorhof.com in your favorites and visit regulary, I’m sure you’re gonna love it here.

I’m always open for suggestions.
And don’t worry I’ll keep posting images on social media too 🙂

 

The lightmeter tutorial

Loads of people ask me about the use of a lightmeter.
And in all honesty, once you get the idea behind the meter it’s an incredible easy to use tool that will not only speed up your workflow immensely but also make sure that you deliver a constant quality to your customers.

For the coming week my video “Mastering the modelshoot : The Lightmeter” is Tutorial of the week, meaning you get a 50% discount on this in depth look at how to use the lightmeter. So don’t keep messing around with testshots, work and look like a pro by nailing that perfect exposure every shot.

The normal price of the tutorial is 29,95 euro
Use the coupon code “action” when checking out and you’ll get a stunning 50% off. If that’s not the perfect start to perfect exposures I don’t know 🙂

 

Surf to www.frankdoorhof.com/videos for the download

What I use on location

Loads of you asked what I bring when I shoot on location, so here we go.
 
Just another day at the office 😀
Or in other words, the essentials.
X-rite colorchecker passport
Hensel porty
Sekonic L858 lightmeter
Sony A7RIII with the easycover ring around the 24-70 f2.8 Gmaster
(The easycover ring I use because the zoom ring of the 24-70 has the tendency to come loose after a while and the easycover ring holds it nicely and secure)
 
On the Hensel outside I often use the 14″ reflector which is awesome for some extra lightoutput, and because it’s a 14″ reflector it gives a beautiful light quality. This is by the way one of the most important things to think about when shooting outside, make sure you use modifiers that emit enough light, going outside with 400W and a striplight with grid won’t do you much profit when you want to fight the sun (unless it’s in the afternoon or overcast), however add a 14″ reflector and it will “blind” your model and push away the sun.
The Hensel Porty we use has 1200W of pure power and I can use almost any modifier I want to create nice day to night shots, but I still use the 14″ reflector because it means I don’t have to shoot at full power, thus faster recycling and more pops out of the battery pack. This weekend we did a workshop with the Porty and 14″ reflector (and one set with the beautydish) and a full day workshop with 5 attendees meant I still had app 40% left in the battery at the end of the day, which is…. pretty impressive.
Now this is very basic.
The main thing with a camera like the Sony A-7RIII is that it uses a high quality EVF, this means that on location I can easily judge my images, when I’m shooting with a group or for a client I’ll always shoot tethered, or in other words connected to a device.
This can be wireless via the build in Sony option to a smart device/laptop, or you can use for example the Tethertools Case Air or Camranger. The disadvantage is often that you can only transfer JPGs, RAWs simply take too much time so that’s why when I shoot tethered I mostly use a cable to my laptop.
If you don’t shoot with an EVF I highly recommend using some form of tethered solution to check your images in the field, because trust me, there is nothing as frustrating as coming home with images you can’t use or not having the look you were after, by using a good way to judge your images in the field you prevent these problems. One more tip on this subject…. always make sure you can see the screen. For a workshop it’s not that critical in most cases, but when working for a client or with a real determined vision of how an image must look it’s very handy to make sure the screen you look at is in the shade, or in some form of shadow box. With the sun hitting your screen it’s impossible to really judge an image.
Any questions?
Feel free to ask.

The most bizarre thing ever

Someone just posted an image from a workshop we did in Legoland UK a few years ago during an UK tour

Now this location of course was already very special and loads of fun as you can imagine but it also was the scene of an almost twilight zone experience for me

A few years before the Legoland workshop I taught a workshop in Dubai and met a lovely young lady there in my workshop. After the workshop we never had any contact anymore (as things often go)

However when I got into the elevator I looked surprised to a lady standing next to me……… It was her.

What?

So I asked her “do you now reside in the UK?” But much to my surprise she answered “no I’m just on holiday and visiting legoland today”

Wow

What are the chances. We often hear from guys “hey man you visited a location close to our home” or “cool we were there last month” but what are the chances that you visit legoland in the UK only once and end up in the elevator with someone you met only once on the other side of the world…. Goosebumps.

But this seems to haunt me

Two years ago we traveled through Sweden and ended up on a campground where someone recognized our RV (and us) well this does happen sometimes but read on.

We didn’t tell them our route and to our surprise we ended up on another campground a few days later and again the day we went back to the Netherlands…. Talk about another weird experience 😉

Did this ever happen to you?

Leave comments below or on our social media stream and enter….the twilight zone