Visions and technique Archives - Page 88 of 200

tip with wide angles and backlighting

September 10, 2016/in blog, Visions and technique/by Frank Doorhof

One of the things I absolutely LOVE to do on location is use backlighting, it can be sun, a door, a window, a …. well anything.
During a recent Urbex workshop we found this amazing control room, the problem….. it was VERY dark, but… that’s why we bring strobes 😀 so we used one strobe in front of our model (Nadine) and one strobe in the back.

This backstrobe lit up the complete room and also created some really cool backlighting effects when I just let it shine through Nadine but positioning myself in different angles (seeing the light, not seeing the light is literally sometimes a matter of shifting slightly to the left or right).

Although I loved the shots, they really came to live when I added a wide angle lens in the picture, in this case the 12-24 from Sigma. A lot of people are afraid of the distortion of these extreme wide angles, but trust me… when you USE the distortion it can give you great results.

To finish the look we added a blue gel in front of the front strobe, to give it a more “futuristic” look.

Tip on angles

September 9, 2016/in Visions and technique/by Frank Doorhof

One of the easiest ways to improve your shots is by taking some care about the angle you shoot in/under.

As you can see in the samples in this blogpost there can be a HUGE difference.
The problem is that often the images you create during workshops or photoshoots where there is a lot of attention for styling already look really cool when shot from… well almost any angle, so often people are already impressed with the shots and don’t take the extra effort to do more, and why should they? often the responses from the public is also WOW, AMAZING, COOL… etc.

However those same images can be so much stronger when you also play with your angles.
Personally I love the way the images change and would really advise you to also play with these, even if you prefer the eye level shots in this series 😀

As you can see in the following samples I first changed my angle in the horizontal manner, and than I actually started shooting from much lower angles, for me the lines and drama are much more present in those really low angles.

Styling/model : Nadine

Tip : High angles can really rock

September 6, 2016/in blog, Visions and technique/by Frank Doorhof

In several blog posts I discussed the use of low angles….
Now let’s look today at what a high angle can do.
This shot was taken during a workshop with Poeka (round Emmeloord) where I used a wide-angle from a high angle aimed down at my model, thanks to the flip up screens found on most modern cameras you don’t have to guess anymore, but you can see what you’re doing. DO make sure that you check for your feet in the frame… especially with extreme wide angles.

Now you know this is going to distort like crazy, so don’t even try to correct this but go with the flow, add some expression and styling and you can get some really cool results.

Story telling part II

August 31, 2016/in blog, Visions and technique/by Frank Doorhof

Today some more images from the workshop with Ingrid where we combined different light sources, gels, smoke and props to get a more interesting setup, by adding a small prop, in this case a doll, the story telling part is enhanced a lot more for this series.

Often getting the story telling part correct in a photoshoot can be the most difficult thing, always remember that everyone can shoot a model in crappy light, getting the light correct will be more difficult, now styling and posing makes it a bit more harder but getting an image to make the viewer think “what’s going on” or at least making the viewers interested in a shot, is often regarded as one of the most difficult things.

The “trick” I often learn the attendees of the workshops is to really think about a story, not just combine “stuff” but when you shop around for props already try to have the story in your head, but do remember (as mentioned in the previous blogpost) it’s not about a typed out story (that’s always cool of course), but the “suggestion” is often more than enough.

Ok let’s stop talking and give you some images 😀

tip with wide angles and backlighting

Tip on angles

Tip : High angles can really rock

Story telling part II

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