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.

Don’t be afraid of the sun

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A lot of people are afraid for the sun, being it shooting in the bright sun due to the “ugly” shadows or even worse shooting straight into the sun.

Roosmarijn Augustus 13 2013-95-Edit

Well the shadow story is true, but it’s also true when shooting in the studio, I always tell people “if you shoot with a large soft box it’s always great, but start using the more focussed light and it gets a lot harder but also much more interesting, shadows are the soul of a shot in my opinion so learn how to use it”.

 

When using the bright sun outside you can get some amazing shots.
In this series I shot straight into the sun and used an Elinchrom Quadra without any modifier for fill in on the first shot, the rest is all natural light (and the dynamic range of the Sony A99). The shots must not be seen as a series, I played with different looks in Topaz ReStyle to get the looks I really like and because it was not a session for a customer I could play around per image with different looks.

 

So the next time you’re outside… don’t be afraid of the sun but feel free to shoot straight into it and see what happens, I think you’re gonna like it.

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FujiFilm X-E1 vs Leica M9

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Let me start off by saying that I’m a FujiFilm user, I’m good friends with FujiFilm and I’ve been using all their cameras and own a FujiFilm X-E1. However I also own a Leica R4 with some lenses and I love that camera for analogue, and am also connecting those lenses to my X-E1 and soon Sony A99. In my reviews I however always try to take a 100% neutral view on the products so I have to start by saying that there was NO preference what so ever to start with and the review is 100% my honest opinion.

 

Of course some people will say that you need at least some weeks of experience with a rangefinder before being able to do a comparison, I agree and disagree. Over the years I’ve shot with a lot of different cameras ranging from the Zeiss folding cameras with zonefocus only, Lomo, 35mm ranging from all manual to full auto (ended up with the R4 from Leica and Mamiya 1000S), Medium format and even some box cameras. With digital the list is even longer including all FujiFilm cameras and at the moment I still use the Mamiya RZ67ProII with digital/film back on a regular basis, so I think I can pretty quickly adjust to a new camera and I’m used to doing stuff manually (especially focus). Truth being told a camera can grow on you, the remarks you read in this review are based on the experience I have with different cameras and the way the M9 felt in my hands. On the subject of pictures I can be very very short, they were shot during a small photowalk in Rotterdam lasting less than 1 hour because the time I had with the camera was limited I decided to first get familiar with the camera in the studio and at home and shoot some quick comparison shots during our trip to Rotterdam. Most of the review is based on the 2 days getting familiar with the camera, but I don’t want to bore you with my personal shots of my wife and son 🙂

highres-fujifilm-x-e1-hands-on-with-tan-case-11_1348234971

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Adding some color

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Now we all know that there are gels for our strobes right?
Me personally I don’t use them a lot as effect lights on my models, but sometimes it’s just pretty cool to play with them.
One of the things you have to be careful with is to use the proper mix of natural color (non gelled strobes) and colored gels. I always try to only use the colors as the accent lights, not hitting to much of the face. But of course…. whatever you like you do, it’s all creativity 😀

Esther Juli 10 2013-304-Edit

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More Esther

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Today some more images from Esther from a recent workshop.

Esther Juli 10 2013-134-Edit

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