About technique and more.

Quite Frankly Ep 48 audio in video and review of the Rode NT-USB

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When you start out with video the focus is often 100% on the video quality and of course that is understandable, but…. in fact the audio is maybe even more important and often forgotten when you start out.

 

In this video a comparison between the Rode NT-USB and the internal microphone of a MacBook Pro early 2015.
Especially when doing screen recordings often the internal microphone is used because it gives a pretty good sound recording (no denying that), however as you can see in this video it can be MUCH better, but also what happens when there is a lot of ambient noise?

 

Watch this episode of Quite Frankly and find out.

Workshop results smoke and props and tips for smoke machines

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Today some of the results from the workshop “smoke and props” with Esther.
This was the first time we used a totally new set painted by our intern Angela.

 

For the workshops we always try to come up with new ideas and sets and I this time we decided to go for the color red, which is found back in the set, the clothing and of course the props used in the set. As you can also see building a set doesn’t have to be difficult, it’s important that you create a certain “look/Atmosphere” and it will transport the viewer to that place, while in fact…. well it’s just in your studio (or home).

 

Smoke for me is often the magic ingredient, adding it always transforms a set from OK to wow, but that’s very personal.
This workshop did proof by the way why I always advise to have two smoke machines at hand…. one of them broke down and because we always have two we could continue the workshop and luckily for us our neighbor rents also smoke machines so we could actually continue with two, seeing the price of most smoke machines (below $100.00) I think you should never ever run the risk of having to stop or cancel a session due to equipment failure.

 

Now which smoke machine should you buy?
Get the once that are WATER based, don’t go for the OIL based ones.
The oil ones do start up quicker but they can “kill” your strobes.

 

Except the tinting and sharpening these shots are pretty much straight out of the camera. We used several strobes to light the scene and the model and the shutter was used to let in the ambient light from the chandelier and the lights on the branches.

Esther Keuze May 16 2015 0221

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Expressions

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I always try to scout my models not only on looks (also pretty important) but also on the ability to express themselves, both in their poses but also in their facial expressions of course. Having a very good expression in a shot, which actually can be very subtle, can literally make your image go from boring to WOW.

 

Now this next example is a bit extreme (:D) but I hope you get the point. It’s not the idea of course to make all your models shout and scream or make funny faces, it actually can be a very “stiff” or “Emotionless” expression that works for the shot, and those last few words actually are the key…. it has to fit the mood and look/feel of the series you’re shooting, for example check out the work of two of my heroes Erwin Olaf and David Lachapelle bit totally different style of photographers but both work A LOT with expression, in fact when you check out almost all great photographers you will see that 99% of them will use this, and it’s logical of course, emotion is what drives us humans, still in many of the shots of aspiring photographers or starters this is a key element that is highly over looked.

 

Model : Anna

Anna May 4 2015 1310

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Finding the right angles

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Making a photo work is part of many many elements, light, storytelling, poses, composition, tinting, “retouch” and so much more.
But one of the key elements is also finding the right angles.

 

There are always books/videos/sites that will tell you HOW to shoot something or how NOT to shoot something, if you would follow ALL the NOTs you would probably not make a picture anymore and if you follow all the HOWs you will probably shoot images that don’t work. I strongly believe that making a good shot is very personal, not only depending on the photographer but most of all the situation, model etc.
Today some attention to finding the right angles.
According to some a wide angle is not really used in model photography (and according to some it’s cool, I’m in that category) so today some images and tips for shooting images a bit differently.

 

In this shot we used a mirror on the floor and I shot it with a 24 from slightly above the model (It helps to be tall, or a ladder also).
Twiga May 2 2015 0141

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