Often people ask me “What do I really need for a portrait?”….
Well in all honesty… everything you have, or in other words….. whatever you have with you.

In essence a portrait can be shot with natural light, the light from a candle, your iPhone (light), the iPhone (screen), a Lume cube, small flash, big flash, reflectors, a white wall acting as a reflector… the list goes on and on.

A few days ago I got a Lume cube to test out and this actually triggered the idea for this project.
I LOVE shooting people, and in the studio that’s easy and I have total control, so the idea started to grow to do it slightly differently. I have given myself the assignment (and don’t worry it’s not going to be a 365 day project) to shoot portraits with minimalistic means, so no fancy lighting, no models, no professional help etc. just me and someone…. and that someone can be anyone.

The coming weeks/months I will be shooting random people this can be friends, people on the streets, students, interns (and maybe a selfie) with one main theme, minimalistic light, there is no real theme the only thing is to use as little as possible and create something.

But of course there has to be some rules, so there we go.

1. No pro’s
   ok that’s clear, so no professional models, unless I shoot them without them posing.
2. No expensive gear
   I will be allowed to shoot with everything I have with me plus a Lume Cube and in case of emergency a speed light, camera wise I will be using my iPhone, RX100 and A7RII (ok not a cheap camera, but the challenge is aimed at the lighting and the people I shoot)
3. No Photoshop
   oops… well ok, Lightroom and DxO Optics11 will be my main editing tools, I am allowed to use Ps to take out some real annoying things but that’s it, the images should be retouched in less than a minute.
4. No styling or makeup
   IF I shoot a model it should be as they are, so in between scenes, not in styling, not in makeup etc.
   There is a loophole here…. if I shoot someone that looks interesting on the street etc. this is of course not something we add, so that’s allowed.

Why do I mention the rules?
Well maybe you like to take the challenge too 😀

The main challenge will be to create something cool and interesting with maybe some story telling elements without taking 10 minutes or more to set everything up, it will be a quick portret so to say.

You can follow the challenge on the blog of course, but also via my social media stream, with every shot I take I will also quickly explain what I did and who I shot.

 

Wish me luck…..

 

And let’s also kick off with the first shot in the series.
This is Annewiek (as you might know already)
Annewiek always does a lot of the filming during our videos/trips/workshops etc. So it was immediately clear I wanted to shoot her like that (in action). Lighting was done with the Lume Cube behind Annewiek and of course the available light in the studio.