Sometimes we will have a guest who will blog an article, if you have suggestions let me know.

Guestblog Stephan Bollinger

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Today a very special guestblog, a video…. 🙂
Watch the video “models are made” by Stephan Bollinger and I think there is some interesting stuff in there for everyone. Visit Stephan at http://www.stephanbollinger.com

 

MODELS ARE MADE
 Thank you very much Frank Doorhof, for the opportunity to be one of your guest bloggers.
 For us, who work in the photography industry, the process of makeup & hair, photography and post processing, is second nature. For many outsiders however, it is still a mistery, and their perception of beauty and fashion images is quite different to ours.

Many young girls compare themselves with the glamorous images of models they see in advertising, in magazines and on billboards. During a recent fashion photo shoot, we discussed what impact this has to some girls, and how it can influence their self confidence, self image and self esteem.
We decided to create a short video, showing what steps our models go through to transform from regular girls to amazing fashion models, and to help those not familiar with our industry to understand, what we do to create the perfect illusion.
A big “Thank You” to our gorgeous models Caitlin Holland, Courtney Thorpe, Gabrielle Harland and Jess Somerfield, who have agreed to record the “before & after”, which was extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. Also a big shout-out to my amazing make-up artist Tracie Weaver, and Begitta Stolk for her styling and fabulous designs.

Shooting hair Guestblog

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Today a guestblog by Damien R. von Dahlem.
Shooting hair is difficult but also one of the things that I love to do, so when Damien offered to write a guestblog for me about this subject I could not wait. And today…. here it is.

 

 

Hairstyles Magazin

by: Damien R. von Dahlem / Hairstyles Magazine

If you frequently shoot fashion, and you have already paid for the model and the studio, with a quick lens and lighting change you can create a secondary income stream that will probably cover your initial expense of the shoot.

 

Hairstyle galleries are probably the single largest photo users on the Internet. When I started the very first hairstyles gallery in 1998, it was to help readers visualize the hair advice I was giving, and to aide them in finding a new hairstyle. Little did I know at the time the headache I was creating for myself, or that my idea would spawn an entire industry of hairstyle sites that now number in the hundreds of thousands.

 

Creating the gallery was not a problem as a college friend and I had developed a thumb nail link gallery system in the late 1980’s, before the Internet as we know it today was in full swing. The problem was finding the photos of the hairstyles I needed. The first hairstyle gallery, consisted entirely of a full disk of hairstyles that came with Corel Draw. I have no idea why Corel included the disk, but yeah for me.

 

The galleries were hugely popular but as you can image, fashion photos have a definite expiration date. I needed more hairstyles, and they needed to be up to date. With no other sources available at the time I had to shoot them myself. Happily I minored in fine art photography, and owned a couple of up scale salons with champion grade hairstylists.

 

These days, with my dwindling eye sight and patience, I no longer pick up the camera myself. I therefor have to rely on reader contributions, industry promo’s, and stock agencies for the photos I need. The frustration I face every year when screening thousands of photos, is that the photographer was not shooting for the hair industry, and thus most of the photos miss my criteria for one reason or another. As a result I far to often have to settle for less than idea photos and hairstyles.

 

Although I can’t speak for other hairstyle sites, by necessity their needs should be pretty much the same as mine, and here is what I need:

 

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Guest blog Dave Black

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Today a very special guestblog with a technique I LOVE and which I will be doing in the near future on one of my projects.
I’ve met Dave a year or so ago during Photoshop World in Orlando, I was nervous as could be because this was my first PSW and luckily for me Dave was also new. I love the way Dave teaches and last week he joined me in Nieuwegein during the Professional Imaging and as you probably would have expected we had a blast 😀 (thanks again Dave).
So without keeping you from Dave, here he is, Mr. Black.

 

Lightpainting…The most Creative Lighting Technique
Let me say what a pleasure it is to be asked by my good friend and colleague, Frank Doorhof, to write a guest blog this month. I have always found Frank’s images to be most creative and stunning which leads me to post this instructional blog about what I consider the most creative lighting technique of all, Lightpainting. While capturing sports action is my usually job and creative lighting of sports is often the technique I use to distinguish my work in the industry, Lightpainting is a true endeavor of passion for me. Lightpainting has paid off well, both with what I consider to be my most unique images and with business.

 

This guest blog/article will be a general overview of how I approach Lightpainting. Should you enjoy this article and want to learn more about Lightpainting or other photographic and lighting techniques, check out my website: www.daveblackphotography.com and “click” the Workshop at the Ranch category. There you will find numerous tutorial articles on a variety of articles including an 8 article series teaching Lightpainting. You can also learn about Lightpainting from my Kelby Training video class at: www.kelbytraining.com

 

I will break down this technique into detail with example images, equipment, and in-depth commentary all in an effort to help you learn how to Lightpaint. So grab your flashlight, turn off the lights, and let’s Lightpaint.

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Guestblog Night Photography

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Today it’s time for a guestblog about something that I think is very interesting (and something I love to do whenever I can) night photography.

 

Night Vision
Night photography is all about taking pictures in the dark. At first glance it sounds like a lot of sleepless nights. Driving around in the middle of the night, only to be taking pictures when other people are asleep. Luckily, it is not all that dramatic. Because it starts to get really dark about an hour or so after sunset (depending on location and time of year). So during the winter you can already start early in the evening. That is, for our eyes it starts to get dark. Camera’s have the unique ability to collect light for longer times. Therefore it is possible to make pictures that look as if they were made during daytime. Even in the middle of the night. If you like to play with light, color and the effects of moving objects, night photography is the way to go. One of the exciting things about night photography, is that your photos will often contain one or more surprises. Because a camera is more sensible to light than our eyes, you will discover details you weren’t able to see in advance.

 

At night camera’s are able to see more and differently than our eyes. (Amsterdam)

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