Tag Archive for: angles

Finding angles… maximizing the scene

During workshops I always teach the attendees to maximize the scene by using different angles.
In this example, which was shot during the workshop in Castle Dussen, I walked around the model to get different angles from the set, different lighting effects, and even used the lens flare from the sun coming through the window to create totally different looks from the same set within seconds.

 

It’s a very simple technique that can really benefit you in situations where you are pressed for time and need to deliver a lot of different looks to your clients. But of course you should not only do it in those situations but always try to maximize your scene, and seeing the fact that’s it’s very easy to do…… don’t forget to do it 😀

 

By moving around you are not only creating different lighting effects (I always call this contrast control) but you are also showing different angles from your set/location, so do be careful that what you include in the shot should be there, if you see some cables it’s better to remove them before you take the shot than later in Photoshop.

 

Here are my samples.
Model : Nadine
MUA : Christa

 

 

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Changing your angle can have a huge impact

I tell this many times during the workshops but choosing the right angle is very important.
A lot of people will be familiar by the effect that moving the light source has, however often one forgets that when you move around yourself the effect is actually the “same”. On location this can be an a very powerful tool as you can see in the examples today.

 

First we see the image shot from the front.

Enka workshops Augustus 15 2014    121

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Top of Denmark

One of the things I absolutely love to do when traveling is finding places that are a bit “weird” or different. And in Denmark we wanted to visit two of these sites, the first is a lighthouse that was captured by sand (later more on this) and one was the absolute top of Denmark called Skagen. This is where both the Skagerrak and Kattegat come together, this gives a very dangerous situation and this is why swimming is not allowed in this area.

 

When you arrive in the location there is a huge parking and a small tractor bringing you to the point…. we of course decided to walk, it was only 500mtrs…. well that must have been the longest 500 mtrs ever, but we are used to walking so it was more than doable but if you are a bit less fit make sure to take the tractor, walking through the sand is pretty heavy.

 

On the way to the destination you pass some old bunkers, which of course also are interesting to visit, but that’s not why we where here, but I of course had to take some quick snaps 😀

Denemarken Augustus 7 2014  16

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One simple light

Often I get the compliment that I only work with one light and get some “pretty cool images”, of course it’s nice to get compliments but…. well it’s not 100% true.
Let me put it differently.
I strongly believe that if you can pull something off with only one light… why use more?

 

It has nothing to do with the fact that there is only one sun, I never really supported that case, well ok I agree there is only one sun for us earthlings but if we look at the light around us there is much more than one light source, look at reflections, the ambient light etc. etc. actually we life in a world filled with light.

 

No the real reason I often only use one light is the simple fact that it just does the trick, I love the more darker looking images sometimes and let’s be honest when you use one light with for example a grid you are already half way there. The other reason is also a bit “because it’s easy” you don’t have to drag around a lot of lights, setups are very fast and the results are always great without the chance of double shadows etc. However… and I really want to make this clear, I’m not a 1 light kind of guy, on the contrary I love using multiple light sources to really add mood to a location, pin point the model with one and add the rest with a second (or third), add some accents where I want them, add a splash of color and sometimes…. well I bought a lot of lights and Annewiek wants me to use them at least sometimes (Ok that was a joke…. or was it).

 

Now most people somehow struggle with the use of one light, so today a small sample about how you can learn to master your one light.
For this setup I used one striplight with a grid (shot during the workshops in Eersel for Studio76 with Nadine as my model).

Nadine Februari 14 Eersel (24 of 99)-Edit

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