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About technique and more.

Tip : working with curtains

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

Sometimes you just wonder… “what to use as a backdrop”.
You’ve already used your seamless.
You’ve already used your walls.
You’ve already used……………………….

Remember that there is always something you can use as a backdrop, but it becomes interesting when a model can use it also in her posing, or to hide something. That’s why curtains can be absolutely awesome, you can mount them on a background system, or (like in this case) just use the curtains that are there.

This was shot during a demo day for Sony on the SS Rotterdam, and the curtains were actually part of the room we were in.
As you can see Nadine uses them to pose, hide and also I think they look great with her clothing, making something that in essence is pretty simple, really stand out. That’s also part of todays tip, don’t forget the styling, mixing things is cool but always keep an eye out that they fit together.

For much more tips, techniques etc. check out my book “Mastering the model shoot” or our instructional videos (also available via this site).

Tip : Expression

April 23, 2016/in Visions and technique, blog/by Frank Doorhof

One of the most important thing for me during a photoshoot is without a doubt expression.
Now don’t think your model always has to be screaming, crying or jumping around… expression can be so much more, even when you take away half of the face a model should be able to give you expression with just her eyes.

In all honestly shooting a pretty girl in front of a background is almost always easy, but making that image go from ok to WOW is much more difficult, and it doesn’t happen by itself, I actually hardly know any model that will do a top notch performance if the photographer will just keep quiet, there will some cool shots don’t get me wrong, but it will not be that shot where you go like “wow, I really love this”.

So try the next time you do a shoot to really push that model to the point where everything just “flows”, put on some music, keep talking and coaching your model and have FUN… maybe that last one is the most important thing, because if everybody feels like they are having fun the rest will follow by itself.

In this blogpost some samples I shot during a recent “freestyle” shoot with Roosmarijn.

TIP : don’t fear the sun

April 21, 2016/1 Comment/in Visions and technique/by Frank Doorhof

A lot of people are somehow afraid to shoot straight into the sun….
Well I agree that there is a lot of talk online that it can fry your sensor but in all honesty if that was really true….well my sensors would have all been fried, just be smart and don’t look at the sun too long and keep the exposure time to your sensor limited, because… well it is a lot of light that is aimed at your sensor via a lens so don’t keep it on a tripod for an hour (just saying).

As soon as you overcome that “fear” of shooting into the sun a lot of cool options open up.
The shot you see in the opening post was done during a workshop with my DxO one connected to my iPhone, I choose a low angle because of the background (our studio).

So you do you meter something like this.
Here it’s important to understand the dynamic range of your camera a bit.
Especially knowing how much you can get back from both the highlights and shadows.
Always make sure you get enough detail in your models face, so don’t underexpose too much, but also don’t expose correctly for the model… and there are 2 reasons for this.

If you expose your model correctly the background will be almost pure white due to the high brightness of the sun/sky. Also the model will look glued on the background, so always make sure the model is slightly underexposed which will make the shot look much more natural. This same tips also goes for sunsets, always make sure you underexpose your model slightly when using strobes (and light from the side) this way the model looks more natural in the scene.
If you underexpose your model to the “max” of your dynamic range you can still raise the shadows/midtones in your RAW convertor enough to get the detail/exposure on your model that you want, the extra advantage is that with the highlights slider you can lower the brightness of the sky a lot more simply because it’s still in your dynamic range.

Planning a shot and knowing the limits of your gear is incredibly important when you like to be on the edge of lighting.
In most cases I’ll shoot as perfect as possible in camera, but when you know there is a lot of backlighting and you don’t use a reflector or strobe (like in this case) it’s always good to know these limits because now you know how much you can underexpose to “save” as much as possible from the sky, and actually almost mimic the use of a reflector or strobe.

Now don’t be afraid of noise/grain in you’ll probably shoot these kind of shots on ISO100 and often you will open up a max of 2-3 stops so in essence you’re shooting on 400-800 max for the model and with modern day cameras that is no problem at all.

So the next time you’re shooting on location try a few shots with just this technique (so no strobes or reflectors) you’ll see what your camera can do, plus it will help you in situations where you have no choice….

Want more in depth tips and techniques?
Check out my book “Mastering the model shoot” or one of the many instructional videos via this site (see the menu on the left).

A 100MP Workshop and review

March 30, 2016/in blog, Visions and technique, Reviews/by Frank Doorhof

One of the things that I really love to do is test new gear….
Often it does mean that I have to keep my mouth shut for a long time (sometimes short) but being able to work with gear in beta is very exciting, especially when you can still have input.

One of the companies I’ve worked with in the past is Mamiya/Leaf now part of Phase One, I always loved their backs and when they released their brand new XF camera system I was immediately in love, for the first time in a long time there is a REAL upgrade to the DF(+) system and the cool thing…. you can even switch to waist level finder mode on the camera, for people not knowing what this means… it means you look down on the camera and can have contact with your model much easier, wait let me show you….. here you see the camera with the normal viewfinder and with the waist level finder. This is really an incredible cool feature, especially because you now also have auto focus of course and that’s very handy. It’s not the first time there was a waist level finder camera with AF but the XF is one of the most complete systems I ever tested.

But with a camera there should also be a back right?
Well that’s how Medium Format works, you have the camera, lens and a digital/analogue back (in this case digital only).

Now Medium format was always known for the high dynamic range and high megapixel count, but in all honesty with the new Sony sensors Medium format was playing catch up, it was still better if you stayed under ISO200-400 but in all honesty above that…. well give me SLT or DLSR.
A few years ago Leaf/Phase One introduced the first Sony Sensor in a Medium Format camera and I was able to test the 50MP sensor on the road during a road trip through Denmark, it was the first time I didn’t touch my SLT camera at all, in fact I didn’t even took it out of the case, the 50MP sensor did an amazing job in both low light as in day light, the only “problem” it was a crop sensor, and in all honesty I also love to shoot with the back on a Mamiya RZ67ProII and having a full frame sensor on that camera is already a pretty tight crop, so I gave it back with the comment…please make a full frame sensor 😀

It took a while but now it’s on the market, and what a nice back…..
100MP (actually 101MP) and a TREMENDOUS dynamic range and great high-iso performance. Of course I wanted to test this camera and back. This is how the idea started to teach a one day workshop in New York with the new camera in cooperation with Phase One. And I can be very short about the experience….. this is an AMAZING camera (and back).

Now most of the attention will mostly go to the camera, this is where you really see the difference with the “old” system, the XF is MUCH faster with it’s auto focus and also much more accurate, where the DF+ is already very good but sometimes slow, the XF feels very snappy and is spot on. Also the speed in which the 100MP files are dumped over the USB connection is nothing less than stunning. The camera has a lot of new features including an automatic Electronic first curtain which makes the camera more “stable” (less vibrations) and with 100MPs to shoot with that’s not a bad thing.

The first thing a lot of people ask…. “What about dynamic range”
well this is always hard to say, because although the older backs were much less “dynamic” according to DxO labs than my Canon for example I had to disagree because my Aptus series really blew my Canon away with dynamic range, but agreed there was a bit more noise in the shadows. Now with the new backs Phase One claims a 15 stops dynamic range, I don’t know if that’s true or not, but what I do know is that it’s one of the most dynamic cameras was that I ever tested, I could get detail back in areas where I would (even with my Sony A7RII) would have said “ok this is ridiculous, it’s gone”.

The second thing is…. “What about compression and bits”
Now this one actually got me into some sort of a dilemma a while ago with my A7RII, a lot of people complained online that Sony was “butchering” their files and didn’t get the maximum quality out of the sensor, Sony responded with a (first on the market I think) totally uncompressed data output, resulting in HUGE (double the size) image files, the critiques were silent, and I still shoot “compressed” for the simple reason I can’t see a difference in 99% of my work and if I see the difference it’s not worth that I shoot the other 99% of the images in that setting taking up a load of my drive space. So that being said, the Phase One stores in different formats, which gives you the option to choose, but the best option is a real 16bits storage in their IIQ format which is handled marvelous by Capture One (the software I use for most of my RAW developing for fashion work).

But most of all people ask…. “Do you really need 100MP”
Well it depends.
For some applications 100MP is not even enough, think about people making replicas of art pieces for example, but also for the “normal” user 100MP is not as “weird” as it might sound. One thing a lot of people don’t take into account is the resolution of modern day monitors. When we edited our 16MP files most monitors topped out at 1920×1080 which at that time was HUGE, you never needed more, but most monitors also topped out at 24″. Now a days most monitors are in the 24-27-32″ range and to be honest I think most people will be on 27″ within a few years. Now size also means higher resolutions, most aRGB monitors are 2560×1440 which is a lot more pixels which in essence means that if you zoom in on your picture the “zoom effect” will be less. This means in real life that if you do a retouch on for example a pattern you have to zoom in to 200-400% to make sure you don’t mess up and have the accuracy you need. If your camera has a higher resolution zooming to 100% is often enough (although I also love to work in 200-400% with tricky parts).

Now if you travel and shoot and work on a nice new MacBook retina you might not realize that your images are actually “scaled” on a 2880×1800 display, which is even worse because it’s “only” a 15″ screen, meaning zooming in becomes very difficult. And it doesn’t stop there, new monitors with higher resolutions are coming REALLY fast, 4K (4096×2304) and even 5K (5120×2880) resolutions are hitting the market as we speak.

Editing a 16MP file on a 5K monitor is “madness”, the resolution of the file is 4608 x 3456 which would actually mean that if you zoom in to 1:1 there would hardly any difference….. well that’s not a nice way of course to edit.

To make a long story short, for print you still have more than enough resolution from a 16MP camera, but resolutions of projectors, TVs, monitors jump forward at an almost alarming speed the last few years and this means that having a 100MP camera at once isn’t that “weird” anymore especially if you do retouching (or just love to zoom in a landscape or street scene (something I LOVE to do). In fact when I zoom in on my iPhone shots on my MacBook retina there is hardly any zoom effect, and when I zoom in on my old files actually really nothing happens.

In this blogpost you can see some of the finished results from the New York workshop.
My overall opinion on the new camera is STUNNING, it’s very fast and accurate and I love to work with it, the waist level finder is great and the way the camera handles is what you expect from a camera in this price range (because it’s not cheap). The back itself is simply put breath taking, for me personally it will be a while before I will be shooting with a 100MP back myself (I also have to earn my money and can spend it only once) but if you are in the market for a camera/back combination like this… I don’t think you will find anything better… IT ROCKS… the files literally sang in Capture One and Photoshop, I could push the shadows and pull the highlights as far as I wanted and the sharpness was absolutely breath taking, but most of all I REALLY loved the skin tones, this is something that I always miss in certain cameras, even with the use of a color checker the skin tones often are just…. well…. a bit off, but the XF100 nailed it, and even although I tint all my images, it’s incredibly important to have a file to start with that is as clean and perfect as possible.

If you have the chance make sure to test the system yourself.

We started the workshop relaxed with some expression and portraits.

And playing with some contrast

Creativity within a photoshoot is always important so why not use the background in a different way, and throw in a prop (in this case, why not try to make some images for Phase One) 😀

As you can already see in the backlit images, the dynamic range is awesome, you can still see details in the models arms and the white areas aren’t blow out where I didn’t want to blow out. Pretty cool.

So we thought let’s up the ante a little bit. The next shot was done without any strobes, just using the windows and kicking up the dynamic range in Capture One, pretty impressive. Shadow detail and no blow out areas. Don’t try this with an old camera.

Here you can see that I included the bright sun in the frame and by using the leaf shutter lenses you are able to cut the ambient light, with shutter speeds up to 1/1600 you have a great range to work with to let in more or less ambient light.