My blog, although I don’t see myself as a blogger but as a Photographer I will try to blog some interesting material during the weeks.
Expect at least 2 updates a week.

Skatepark images

/5 Comments/in /by

Today some images we shot last week during a video shoot on the skatepark.
For me this will be one of the last times I’m shooting in this location. I’ve done some great work there but as I always tell people don’t go back too often because it will become a “sure success” and I love to challenge myself to find new locations. I won’t say I will not shoot there again with different things but for now the models will not see this place for some time.

Nadine November 11 2013 (5 of 435)-Edit

Now let’s talk a bit about this.

Read more

The shutterspeed mystery/nonsense

/5 Comments/in , /by

You don’t want to know how often people ask me about this topic, and how many cameras are “destroyed” online due to a so called limitation of shutterspeed when working with strobes, but also strobes are destroyed online because they don’t work as people think. So I thought it would be helpful to write a very short blogpost explaining how it works.

 

X-sync
When you take a picture a lot happens in the camera but in short you can see it like this.
The shutter opens, the first shutter curtain starts to open and after an X amount of time the second curtain follows covering the sensor and the mirror flips back up.
Now this X amount of time is of course variable and will change with the shutterspeed.
As you can image there is a point where the second curtain actually is following the first curtain pretty quickly and this is where the problem lies for people to understand strobes. When the two curtains are closing so close to each other this means that there is NO point in time where the WHOLE sensor is lit by the light, it’s always just a small part (bigger part by slower speeds, smaller parts by higher speeds).

 

Now when we start using strobes you can imagine that it’s important to choose a moment where the whole sensor is available to catch the light.
And this is what we call the X-Sync speed, X-Sync speed is always the maximum speed in which a sensor is 100% free of a curtain or any other thing blocking the light so it can catch the whole light emitted by the strobe. In most FULL FRAME DSLRs this is around 1/125 to 1/250 although most cameras will be between 1/125 and 1/160. All my Canons for example topped out at 1/125 when using radio triggers and barely 1/160 when using the cable.

 

Yes indeed with a cable it’s possible that you get a little bit extra.
Now why do people think that you can get much higher sync speeds with strobes?

Nadine Juli 27 2013 12859-Edit Read more

Voltaic V60 minireview/tip

/3 Comments/in , /by

We all have a digital life, don’t we all get nervous when our laptop or phone dies?
Well when traveling it’s a matter of reality, especially when travelling long there will be a moment when a laptop battery simply dies, you can’t help it. Of course it helps if you only watch movies on a laptop because with the modern Hasswel laptops they will actually probably survive most long flights on one charge if you only watch movies and lower the brightness a bit. However I don’t just want to watch movies… I want to be able to play some games, do some work and with me that means Lightroom and Photoshop and somehow this drains the battery much faster of course.

 

So how do you solve this?
You can take a plane charger with you but not all seats in a plane have power connectors.
When you own a Mac there are many options from companies like HyperShop, which I can really advise, we owned several of their solutions and they just work flawless (and look great). But when you’re using a PC or other laptop I had to start searching all over again.

 

In the end I choose the Voltaic 60W external battery solution.
Here you see a quick iPhone shot of the Voltair next to my Vaio DUO13 which is not a large laptop, so you can really see how small the Voltair is, and this last part is incredibly important for me. When flying every pound counts and also size is important, with the Voltaic I really found something that hit the sweetspot for me.
foto

Read more

The simple light

/2 Comments/in , /by

According to some you always need strobes, according to some you never need strobes.
According to me you have to vary, use whatever you have available but most of all use it all.
Today a sample with some tips of how to transform a scene completely with the use of light, many thanks to Nadine for her amazing styling and posing.

 

Let’s first see how this scene looks with strobes.
Oh by the way this location is an old building just across the street from our studio, and streets here are 10 mtrs 😀

Nadine November 11 2013 (273 of 435)-EditIn this shot I just aimed the Elinchrom Ranger RX with Maxilight + grid straight at the model, a very simple setup that creates a high contrast image with a nice vignetting effect, but in this shot it’s all about the shirt, now let’s see what happens if we start chancing or own angle.

Read more