When taking photos the model is important, just as the lighting…. but also the background.
Sounds logical right?
Still when you look at a lot of images online it seems that the role of the background is often more to be “invisible” than to really enhance the image, and trust me, a good background can lift your images from ok to “WOW”.

For us it actually all started in our studio.
I was pretty much bored with using seamless, and don’t get me wrong I love seamless and still use it a lot, but to shoot everything against seamless is not something I wanted to do, in fact I was almost feeling like just picking a color to fit the styling/subject and that’s it.

Now I know that it’s often thought that to make a model jump out you need to focus really on the model with both lighting and poses/expression, but also to make the background darker/black or neutral so it doesn’t compete with the model. And in all fairness I also did this a lot. But as mentioned I got bored with it, and also constantly buying new colors and throwing them out after a few weeks of heavy use also pretty much became too expensive to be fun.

When working on location I found that I just LOVED using the available backgrounds and by incorporating them into my images I really fell in love with the more “rustic” “relic” backgrounds. Think about old walls, damaged doors, broken windows etc. But then when I came back into the studio… well it was just seamless.

So we decided to fix that.
We hired two painters that were familiar with painting custom childrens bedrooms with fairytales, movie themed walls etc. So for what I wanted they actually didn’t really have to flex their muscles, but the more walls they did, the more fun they had and the walls really started to get some “attitude” and character. In the end I believe there was not one white wall left in our studio, and it was AWESOME, I could still use seamless paper but I now also had a huge selection of truly unique backgrounds with structure and no reflections…. and that last part was something that bugged me a lot when using printed backdrops, first of all the material was often reflecting my strobes back when used under extreme angles (something I love to do). And although I did find some awesome non reflective backgrounds from Lastolite which were collapsable I did needed backgrounds that were a lot bigger and could be used in landscape mode but still fit a standing model and of course were easy and fast to change.

To be short I wanted my custom walls into a system I could take with me, or use in the studio via a background system (electric or manual) and that took a while.

A few years later I was in Johannesburg for workshops and I met up with the UK based company ClickPropsBackdrops, to put it into perspective I was just looking for a background to use during a photoshoot and was absolutely not looking for a new product, I was “happy” with my custom walls in the studio, and on location most of the times I could just use what was there, but it did limit me a lot when there wasn’t an interesting background.

The first thing that caught my attention that even on a standard background system the background was actually almost completely flat, and when you mount it on a roll it will be 100% straight by the way, but we used clamps in this case which is far from ideal. During the shoot I started to move my lights around and to my surprise the background looked awesome from almost every angle I used, and I became more and more interested, especially because the chosen background was not really fitting my preference, but while shooting I just kept exploring new ways to use it, and that’s a really good sign. Also when checking the images later I could not find any reflections or glare, WOW, that’s awesome.

Long story short (well actually it already was a short story to begin with) Charlie the owner of ClickPropsBackdrops loved my work and way of teaching and we agreed to do a custom signature series of some of the walls we use in our studio. From there it all went pretty fast and I can now announce that StudioFD (Annewiek and me) will start selling the ClickPropsBackdrops in the Netherlands starting in May 2022, the official launch will be during the professional imaging in the Netherlands.

Now I don’t connect my name to products left and right, when I promote something I REALLY use it and LOVE it, when we start distribution in the Netherlands that’s a whole step further and just means for you guys that I 100% believe in a product and think it gives the absolute best in quality for it’s price.

ClickPropsBackdrops delivers a stunning selection of prints that will fit every taste and occasion, it doesn’t matter if you’re a food/new born/wedding/event or fashion/portrait photographer there is more than enough choice for you and in almost every size you could wish for, from small to huge panoramic prints that can easily handle a whole family (well maybe not all families, but you know what I mean right? it’s huge).

The backgrounds are designed for and by photographers and you can really experience this when shooting. I HATE backgrounds that show up on the photo with creases and are not flat. The ClickPropsBackdrops are hand made and printed on non reflective thick materials that (even with the magnets are clamps) hang very flat, and also important they are super easy to clean. But most of all….. you can use them in many different ways with most prints. It’s not a solution where you are forced to use the same look over and over because the background is not wide/large enough or because the print “forces” you to place your subject in a certain location.

My favourite size is without a doubt the 2.72×2.72 meter profabric which is absolutely awesome and hails back to the wonderful painted canvasses which we all love but are often way out of our price range. Also the profabric is delivered on a sturdy tube that will fit most background systems, including electric systems. So it’s just hanging it up and.. well start shooting.

And due to the prints and size you have plenty of options on where to place your model, so you can literally use the backgrounds in many different ways and be super creative with it without customers/followers commenting that you use the same background all the time… I just love this way of working.

It might be more expensive than seamless, but if you start calculating… seamless you have to replace every few weeks with heavy use, my first ClickPropsBackdrops is still looking brand new, and is used a lot during events and in our own studio, so it’s many times taken down, rolled up and transported, and it still looks brand spanking new, that’s a super good investment because when I take seamless on location I already know I can throw it away right after the event. Plus it’s way cooler of course.

Because sometimes words and images are better and sometimes video, I decided to do this special introduction both ways. So here is the official Dutch and English introduction video.

DEALERS ARE WELCOME FOR THE NETHERLANDS

Dutch video
https://youtu.be/wOB-2CZkTSE

English video
https://youtu.be/NO6sehJhSvg

We’ve added a selection of my favourite backdrops on frankdoorhof.com/shop but we can deliver every size and print you find on the official site of course.

This blogpost is something I’ve never talked about before, mainly because I was a bit suspicious about it, but also because I like to keep the blog photography related. However during the lockdowns I’ve been overthinking a lot of things and this was one of them, so I decided it was time to write this blogpost and share my 100% personal experience and how I think this can help absolutely everyone by earning/saving some money but also get a lot of extra benefits..

Travel and shopping
When the world returns back to semi normal we will of course start to travel again and visit more stores. Now as you know over time our cash money will disappear and we will start to work more and more with debit/credit cards and our smartphones and watches. This all sounds great, but for me it never really worked on my Garmin watch, and also online you have to create several payment methods, add to this loyalty cards which needs another app again and you can probably see that like the older MacBooks needed dongles we need some apps and different cards to make it work. But what if you don’t want this?

Enter the topic of todays blogpost.
The Curve
Now believe me, up until a few months ago I never heard about curve but while using it I became so enthusiastic about it I decided to for once write a piece that had no direct connection to photography.

As mentioned before we use different apps, cards etc.
This also means that keeping track of everything can be a mix and match and sometimes we pay something with the business card that was supposed to be private etc. Now wouldn’t it be nice to have solution that would make all of this easier?

Well that’s Curve
You can get Curve for free online and right from the start you can install the app and use the virtual card for online shopping and using it for your phone and watch, the real card will arrive a few days later and can be used in shops etc.

So what’s all the fuzz about.
Well, Curve itself is not really a card, yes you have a balance on the card, but the main thing about Curve is that you can connect most of your other Visa and Mastercard cards and give them the right names and select which card to use. Indeed you read that right, if you have 3 cards you just connect them all to Curve in the app and you pay in the shop/online with the Curve card and it will deduct if from the card you selected for the payment. And the cool thing… if by accident you paid with the business card, you can easily just change the card later in the app. And if you hit a limit on a card… no problem there is the anti embarrassing mode which will automatically switch to a card that does work.

During the month you get a really overview of your spendings per card and you can label each purchase with labels which makes it super easy to track your spending and see where most money is going (sorry guys)

But there is more.
You can also add your loyalty cards and use the app to show them in the store, you can use ATM machines and also abroad there are some nice benefits making life easier. And this is all for the FREE card.

We personally only use the free version, but when you select one of the paid options you can get a 1% cashback from 3-6 stores, insurance for your phone and valuables, travel insurance and access to airport lounges. As mentioned we use the free version at the moment but the moment we start travelling again we will immediately start using the subscription option.

Conclusion
The Curve card is a must have for everyone that runs a business and has to juggle with different accounts and doesn’t want the hassle of figuring out what was what and when. Add to this a 1% cashback, insurance and airport lounges for the paid version and Curve is something I think really everyone should get, at least the free version.

The free version made it for me finally possible to use my Garmin watch now with Garmin pay, and there is more…. but let me first conclude this review.

You can get the Curve card via this link.
https://www.curve.com/join#DGR3YY9E

If you follow the link you will get 10 euros and 1 month 1% cashback on every purchase, after a month the card keeps all it’s perks of course except the 1% cashback.

 

 

 

As mentioned there is more.
Since the pandemic I also started to work with crypto, and please don’t stop reading, don’t worry I’m not going to push the next memecoin, I’m 100% not into that and for sure don’t want it on my blog, however the real reason for Curve was exactly this.

Earning passive income
You’ve heard the term, and to be honest I’m getting sick and tired of it, unrealistic promises, blah blah, overnight millionaire etc. yes sure. I’m more of a realistic kind of guy, but the whole crypto thing did intrigue me. But I decided to do it slightly differently. Instead of going into the crazy world of trading I decided to start working with a so called crypto card. Let me explain.

We all use cards to pay stuff in stores and online right?
And I think we all see that life is getting more and more expensive right?
So wouldn’t it be nice if you get some discounts on 99% if your expenses?

Well this is how our journey started that ended up with Curve.
I will make this one really short, and for more information I will give a website link.

After a tip from a website we ended up with a Crypto debit card from Crypto.com, al very large player in this market which I’m pretty sure will not be gone in the foreseeable future. Now putting a lot of your own money in Crypto is not something I would advise, but I can’t deny that there is a lot of profit to be made, but also to be lost. So I would love to do it but not with money that I worked for… sounds bizar right, but read on.

With the Crypto.com card you get a debit card which you can top up with your credit card or via the bank for free. This is a VISA card so everywhere where they accept visa you can pay (also online of course). So far so good if you don’t do anything else with it.. well that’s it, you just top up and spend and top up and spend. No crypto is mentioned or used. But behind the scenes something cool happens.

When you start using the card you did create an account at crypto.com which is a so called exchange. So you could by and sell crypto there, they actually have some really cool things like supercharger and earn programs but as mentioned I won’t go into the details, just how we use it for our business/life.

Now if you opted for the free card, 99% of the purchases you make you immediately get a 1% cashback in CRO (the native token from crypto.com) you don’t have to do anything for that, and my advise is in fact… don’t touch it, we’ve been using the card since a few months and the CRO token has risen over 80% in that time, this is 100% passive income, you don’t spend money on the card itself or subscriptions, you just top up and live your life like you normally do, now look back in a year and you have a great piggybank filled with CRO tokens.

Now if that sounds great I would HIGHLY recommend looking at the Ruby Red or Green versions. They give you 2-3% cashbacks on every purchase PLUS free Spotify and Netflix, which you pay like you normally do but get back in Cashbacks in CRO tokes, which again add to your piggy bank.

Again this sounds like the many “get rich soon” commercials but I really want to stress this is not meant that way, in fact I’ve been talking with friends and attendees of the workshops about this for quite some time and most are just over the moon with the ease of Curve and the cashbacks. It’s no where near a get rich soon thing, you “only” get a few % cashback, but it’s actually shocking how fast it all adds up, we bought an Apple MacBook Pro and that was a discount of 90 euros, something Apple doesn’t give you and as mentioned the CRO token has rissen quite a bit so that 90 euros is now 125…. you won’t hear me complain if it goes down by the way, for us it’s a piggy bank, we don’t touch it for at least 4-5 years and I think by than it will be a nice vintage guitar 😀

Now you probably also get the idea of Curve.We are using the Crypto.com card (we upgraded to the green one in fact) for literally everything so it was pretty frustrating that the card didn’t work in most stores we visit, now with the Curve (which the Crypto.com card is connected to) we can pay in almost every store.

Use my referral link https://crypto.com/app/b54fav37nk to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD 🙂

Overall conclusion
The world is changing and will probably never go back to what it was, how much we want it to. A fact of life is that we all have to pay for the costs of the pandemic, and this means inflation, by using free cards and getting 1% cashbacks on ALL your spending is a way to earn some of that inflation back. If you can spare to stake 350 or 3500 euros for 6 months I would HIGHLY recommend taking a look at the RED and GREEN cards from Crypto.com

Although this has nothing to do with photography, it has everything to do with making sure we at least get some passive income by just living our lives and getting a whole lot of benefits in ease of use from the Curve.

I hope you guys appreciated this little sidestep.
I’m always willing to talk about Crypto or these solutions online or via Email but for the blog this was a one time deal, it was just too good not to share.