Frank Doorhof

Styling by Nadine

September 13, 2012/9 Comments/in blog, guests/by Frank Doorhof

Sometimes as a photographer (or any other creative profession) you find people that are just plain awesome, they help you develop as a creative person and push you forward to get better results. A few years ago a model named Nadine started modeling for me and at one point we really felt that connection you sometimes have. A few years later she made me a promise “Frank, every shoot from now on I will improve and surprise you”, well she already did before that so I wondered how long she would keep this up..

And if you have been reading this blog for some time you already know the answer…. she is still keeping it up, in fact Nadine is growing into a (in my opinion) great stylist. So it’s no real surprise that today she is joining the blog as a guest blogger about…. styling.

Why styling?

Styling can make or break a shoot. A model can be absolutely stunning, which makes every shot successful, even if it’s styled pretty basic. But if the model has guts and the styling is top-knotch then everyone can be a model. Even if you’re one of those absolutely stunning models, after 5000 photo’s it does get boring.

Of course you will always have enough photographers that will demand a perfectly beautiful model, especially for glamour and lingerie work. In that case you usually won’t need and extreme styling effort. But if we’re talking about modelphotography in general then you (as a photographer) would usually want to see a form of creativity, something that sticks, something with a story.

Who needs expensive lights

June 28, 2012/13 Comments/in blog, Visions and technique/by Frank Doorhof

You know….. sometimes we are so caught up in our work that we forget to think about how things can be different. We as humans are “beasts of habit” meaning that we will figure something out, and if that something works really well for us we will always get back to that. And we photographers… well sorry to say it…. we are also that way.

That’s why sometimes it’s so incredibly important to make sure that you do a what I call “hard reset” and don’t get me wrong, I don’t want you guys (and girls) to bang your head against the wall until you pass out and wake up, so please don’t do that. What I do mean is that you should sometimes literally just pull the plug out of your strobes, put everything aside that has anything to do with “studio technique” and get back to the basics. Learn how to “see the light” but most of all “to understand the light”. And there is hardly any better tool to do this than the good old fashioned (and oops indeed it’s old fashioned, we stocked up on some because over here they are not sold anymore in the higher watts) lightbulb.

During the glamour workshop I will often grab my lighbulb fixture, it was the most bare bone fixture I could buy, and hang it from a boom stand, tell the students “this is the new setup” and watch how their jaws drop and their expressions go like “the what, the who, are you nuts”….. well yes and no (but you already know that). No really…. a lightbulb when used the right way is one of the most awesome light sources there is. So in this blog post some explanation and images from that simple lightbulb session….

It doesn’t have to be expensive……

June 13, 2011/12 Comments/in blog, Visions and technique/by Frank Doorhof

I loved this question and I think it’s something that a lot of people struggle with.
A good shot should of course include expensive things, right ?
Well actually not……