About technique and more.

For the love of old movies

/in , /by

It’s not a secret I love comics, horror/SF movies etc.
So when I get the chance to incorporate this into my images/work I’m always happy 😀

During a recent cosplay session we did one of the last models was dressed up as the bride of Frankenstein, and although I hardly do any “additions/changes” in retouching, this image just “screamed” for some extra treatment. The final result you see on top, and here is the original.

Cosplay May 29 2016 32667

This is already the retouched image of course but still in color.
What did I do?

The model was shot with just the smoke against a black background, on a wooden floor (our studio floor).
I used several pieces of grass to change the floor into a more “real” ground for the model to stand on.
After this I looked through my images I shot during trips and found the cross and castle to be perfect for what I wanted and I inserted these into the background. The castle was shot during day time (as was the cross) so they were made a lot darker. I decided to keep the sky pitch black for a more “eery” feel, so the original sky was cut out of the castle shot.
The moment I took the shot I already knew it would become a black and white shot, so after this I went into Alien Skin Exposure X and changed the look into something a bit more fitting the idea I had, which was a cross between an old movie poster and something from the 50-70’s tv shows.

Can it be better?
Yes of course it can, I don’t do a lot of compositing and this was thrown together in a few minutes, however…. as you might have noticed during our vlogs and social media posts we recently added a nice Cintiq to our studio gear.. and that’s for a reason…. time changes and of course I want to keep challenging myself so during the coming months I will be incorporating a bit more of these kind of shots into my portfolio/work… don’t worry I will probably not start shooting models against gray seamless backgrounds and photoshop everything, I still believe that the majority of a shot should be out of the camera, but I am planning of combining my passion for drawing and photography a bit more together….. who knows what will happen.

Tip : The most simple location can be awesome

/in , /by

Often I hear photographers complain about the lack of great locations…
I always tell them “the best locations are in your head, and often right in front of you”.
Somehow it sometimes seems that if there isn’t a great location the creativity is gone, or is it just that……

In my opinion every location is great to photograph, but I often do look for certain extras like contrast, grunge (rough) and color, OR the lack of it. The more rough the better in all honesty, on the other hand something really static and modern can also be awesome, as you can see there is always something if you WANT to see it.

As I joke I sometimes say “put on your photographers eyes and hunt, don’t look for opportunities but try to find uses for what you see” this is a different mindset but often helps a lot.

Now if you add a little bit of styling to it (or a lot like in this case) you’re on the way to a great shot.
These shots were done during a workshop in Manchester with Nadine, a very simple light setup with one Elinchrom beauty dish with grid straight at Nadine. The wall didn’t look like much but I loved it, and seeing the responses from the attendees as soon as the images came in… they did too.

Nadine June 8th 2016 Manchester 0285

Nadine June 8th 2016 Manchester 0289

Tip : Expression really can make a difference

/in , /by

I’ve said it several times on the blog and online, but expression can really make or break a shot.
When I do portfolio reviews in fact most of the shots I see are well lit, have good styling, have a great location but…. it’s often the expression that kills the shot, I sometimes even think “was she waiting for the bus?” yes it can be that bad 😀

During the shoot always push your models for that real cool expression, the look where they go “WOW, SLAMBAM THERE I AM” well you know what I mean. I sometimes tell the more “shy” models that 80% of the expression is blown away by the strobes so they really have to push it over the top, and this often helps.

No most of the time the models will respond a bit surprised when they see a real expressive shots, some will love it and you are on a rollercoaster from there one, and some will start to doubt themselves, so in my experience don’t ask the model “what do you think?” but just TELL her/him “WOW look at this, THIS is amazing, your rock girl/man” you will quickly see that this last line actually works wonders.

Now when I do my testshoots the first thing I try to figure out is if the model is expressive, I’ll run him/her through different expressions and coach a lot less than I normally do (I’m a real talker during the shoot) because I know that if they do fine without coaching they will rock with.

Some models really surprise me during their testshoots and those are the models you often also see a lot during the workshops I teach :D, one of them is actually Poeka, and today some expression shots we did with Poeka during a recent small flash workshop.

 

Poeka May 28 2016 0355

Poeka May 28 2016 0335 Natural looking pop

Poeka May 28 2016 0317

Poeka May 28 2016 0313

 

Tip : should I actually see the eyes?

/in , /by

When you work with a model you often hear…. “it’s all in the eyes”
And although I often agree with this I also strongly believe that sometimes a pose can be SO much more powerful when you don’t see they eyes, in fact think about so many horror, SF movies or comics when you cover up someones eyes the attention of the viewer immediately goes to the pose and the expression/gesture in that pose.

Take for example these shots I did during a recent Cosplay shoot, as you can see you hardly see the eyes in two of these shots, and to be honest the less I see the eyes the more powerful the shot becomes…. of course I shot it with the intend to let the pose do the “talking” but when you have a model that can show a very powerful pose it’s often much cooler and more threatening/moody to just leave the eyes out.

In the first shot I went for the motion and action.
The second shot only shows a “hint” of the eyes and with the third one it’s all about the pose.
So the next shoot you do… try to do something with(out) the eyes 😀

Cosplay May 29 2016 32612

Cosplay May 29 2016 32617