On August 12th I joined Scott Kelby during his great “Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it” tour.
If you didn’t already see it, and it’s close to you, make sure you check it out… You’ll love it. Anyway, during my piece of the seminar I choose to do the high contrast light setup using a deep octa and strip light, during the setup I of course also talked about the use of a light meter and explained some of the theory behind it, however after the seminar I got so many questions from people who never used a meter to people who had problems using one that I decided to dedicate a blog post to it, because really honest… using a meter is like the simplest thing you can do within photography.
https://frankdoorhof.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/studioFD_Logo-1FV.png00Frank Doorhofhttps://frankdoorhof.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/studioFD_Logo-1FV.pngFrank Doorhof2011-08-15 07:00:222011-12-17 10:21:33About the light meter in a quick overview
Somehow this topic always raises a lot of questions so I’ve decided to dedicate another blog post on it.
In this blog post I will give you some pointers and tips how to calibrate the light meter.
Some companies have products that before you did not know about them you probably did some “freaky” DIY solutions. For me this was the case with Tethertools. I love to shoot tethered in the studio and on location, but one of the most frustrating problems is that if someone (or yourself) stands on your cable it will be disconnected from your camera, in the best case scenario you loose your images, reconnect and continue shooting. But in most other cases you destroy your USB/HDMI/Firewire port which means “end of the shoot” and a very costly repair. I made some DIY solutions for this which worked ok, but never 100%. Enter the Jerkstoppers from Tethertools, to make a long story short “THEY ROCK” and are so cheap that you actually can’t afford not to have them, trust me it’s a very expensive repair when your port is defective.
I was so enthusiastic about Tethertools that my wife’s company decided to take up the distribution of the Tethertools products for the Netherlands (and far beyond :D), and I was not alone, it’s been a huge success, and not only the jerkstoppers. All the Tethertools products are well thought out, and….. well I don’t want to spend much words…. they just work, if you know what I mean.
Because a lot of people ask me about it and a moving image is always nicer than a still image in this kind of cases we shot a very quick video about the Tethertools products I use myself, we shot this in between photoshoots yesterday, the audio is not the way I want it, normally I use a voice over *my own voice* but I decided to go “live” this time because it simply is nicer I think while explaining things, we already ordered some better mics so the next videos will be much better, however I still think it’s a fun piece to watch, so here we go.
https://frankdoorhof.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/studioFD_Logo-1FV.png00Frank Doorhofhttps://frankdoorhof.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/studioFD_Logo-1FV.pngFrank Doorhof2011-08-11 07:00:162011-08-10 23:11:44Tethertools, video
Often we are so obsessed with locations and expensive gear that we forget the fundamentals of Photography.
Painting with light and story telling.
Although we all love to shoot in the most beautiful locations with expensive gear it’s often also beautiful to use what’s available in your own studio and what was not meant as a “stage”/”set”. In my case I often do some shots in the area of our makeup area. I just love the way the lights work with the model and when combined with just a touch of fill and a wide aperture the images breath atmosphere. In this blog post a few images I shot at the end of the small flash workshop with Marie. This was not meant as a series by the way, just a collection of shots in the same light.
So remember to look for shots in locations were you normally don’t think about, you will be surprised what’s possible in your own location.
Anyway, during my piece of the seminar I choose to do the high contrast light setup using a deep octa and strip light, during the setup I of course also talked about the use of a light meter and explained some of the theory behind it, however after the seminar I got so many questions from people who never used a meter to people who had problems using one that I decided to dedicate a blog post to it, because really honest… using a meter is like the simplest thing you can do within photography.
