Tag Archive for: creativity

The brand new Geekoto Lantern in action

The New Geekoto Lantern

 

It’s always fun to play with new gear, and light shapers always have a special place.
And let’s be honest the light shaper defines a large part of how your image will look. This blog is about the new Geekoto Lantern.

Having new light shapers triggers creativity

The new Geekoto lantern has a few tricks up its sleeve.
First of all, like all Geekoto softboxes we use, the lantern is super easy to set up and collapse and also has the removable speedring you guys love.

What does the Geekoto Lantern do?

The big difference is in the way the lantern projects the light.
With a normal softbox, the light travels first through a diffuser which makes the light source softer and larger, after which it leaves the softbox through the front diffuser. If you want to narrow your light beam you can use a grid. But that’s about it.

Now let’s take a look at the Geekoto lantern.

The New Geekoto Lantern

The Geekoto Lantern on the Geekoto GT400

As you can see the lantern doesn’t just aim the light forwards, but it also lights from the sides.
Now this has some huge advantages.

At first, you might think that this is the perfect softbox for product photography.
Especially with product tables, you can super easily light your product and the background with a lantern.
But also for newborn photography, it’s great to create a beautiful floodlight effect.

So you might think that this is like an umbrella a softbox for the more “broad” lighting setups.
However, the lantern actually shines in the more high-contrast setups.

 

Let’s take a look at some examples.

Normal softbox with grid

One of my favorite setups is lighting the model from the side with a medium-sized softbox.
I often add an extra light source on the opposite side to open up the shadows and also to light the background.
With the main light, I cannot light the backdrop enough when it’s a more darker color. This is why I use the accent light often in a striplight configuration which I use horizontally or slightly horizontally. This makes it possible to light both the model and the background with one light source.

By aiming it slightly away from the background I get a very nice even light fall off on the background.

The first image is just with the main light.
The light used is a Geekoto GT 400 with the 36″ softbox + grid

As you can see adding the accent light creates not only a beautiful lens flare but also lights the model and the background (I love striplights).

But let’s switch to the Geekoto Lantern

The main reason I love the lantern is that it makes it possible to throw a lot more light on the background creating a totally different look.
So let’s take a look at how that works out.

using the new geekoto lantern

Also here first a setup with just the lantern, and the second one is with the striplight on.

It’s no battle

Remember that it’s a matter of which one is better.
I like them both for their lighting.
The first setup is great for a more high-contrast look with a darker background.
The second setup has a much nicer wrap-around effect and “glues” the model and background nicer together.

The cool thing about the lantern is that it gives you a totally different kind of light shaper due to the translucent sides. And that is not just better for portraits but also when you shoot full body images. It makes it possible to place the light very close to the model and still light the bottom part. Something that with a normal softbox that close can be very tricky or even impossible. Now you can place your light super close and still light the background and bottom part of your model.

I would highly recommend getting one for your studio.
We added them to our webshop of course.
On the webshop you find all the gear I use and like.
The lantern can be found here.

 

We also used the Geekoto Lantarn on the Click Live show in the UK in juni. Check out the BTS video 

 

 

 

ClickLive event 2024 Results from Day 3 with our amazing model Tion

Results Day 3 with Tion

In the previous blog we showed you the behind the scene video we shot during the ClickLive event.
Today in the blog some of the results from Tion

Shot with the Geekoto GT400 and the new Geekoto Lantern and striplight.
On the blue tinted images I’m using a GT200 with the Rogue magnetic system and a blue gel.

This was the third day and the backgrounds were not mounted 100% anymore, but I still love the results from these sessions.
Also many thanks to Tion who did his best with loads of different outfits and never too tired to pose for me or the attendees. This day was a bit more quiet on the show so I had some more time to shoot, so sorry for the many images 😀

For the first series I’m using the new Geekoto Lantern and striplight on the Geekoto GT400

It’s always a challenge to shoot images during a trade show, but with a set like this and a great model it becomes a lot more easy.
Do you want to build a set similar to this?
Check out our professional quality backdrops at www.clickbackdrops.nl

Here I placed the striplight close to the wall for some nice side lighting.
I always love this setup and with Tion it worked extremely well.

Finally I added a Geekoto GT200 with the Rogue magnetic system and a blue gel in the back, and use the Geekoto striplight as mainlight for some final more moody shots.

 

 

Great results from the Digital Classroom with Claudia

Digital Classroom is always fun to do

But it’s also always a challenge.
In fact (believe it or not) I don’t prepare the livestreams. Of course we know the theme, select some backgrounds but from there on it’s all just made up on the spot, which makes the livestreams (and workshops/demos) not only a lot of fun for me but also for the viewers, they always get something unique and it makes it possible for me to respond to questions.

Today the results from the latest digital classroom episode.
I actually make a complete blogpost with the video here.

 

The results

During this episode we did two different setups.
The theme was mostly about what different modifiers can add to a scene.
I’m using two different Geekoto softboxes to show you what the depth of the softbox does (it might surprise you), but I also used the flashbenders and magnetic system, including a cool shoot with the magnetic snoot (love that one).

So without further words… the results.

Model : Claudia.

And a nice behind the scenes setup just for fun 😀

A cool behind the scenes during a fashion shoot including all the info free tutorial

A behind the scenes look

This is how digital classroom started.
Just a webcam starting in the morning and ending when we were done, and I could hardly believe it but some people stayed awake the whole day, which for them was actually night time.

Although this was fun, it was not really something we could do often due to the very bad internet quality.
A few years later we wanted to start the live streams again but in a different format, a 3 hour live semi workshop.
At that moment we had to stream via a satellite uplink, which mostly meant I was worried almost the whole episode, because just one fat cloud and it would fall below the range of YouTube which meant “lost connection”.

Nowadays everything has changed.
We are now streaming with 4 live cams, we have a chat running where people can ask questions and of course we are now streaming via a super fast fiber connection.

Digital classroom has grown

Digital classroom now is totally different from when we started, but we are continuously looking at ways to make it more interesting for you guys. And the first thing we did was shorten the episode length to 90-120 minutes (3 hours was too long).

And of course we can’t do it without the support of our sponsors. So let’s give them a big shout out.

BenQ :
Great monitors for designers, photographers and video.
Without a doubt my choice for monitors.
And they sometimes have great offers for our viewers, like a 10% discount for all EU customers (mail us for the coupon).

Rogue :
We’ve been working with Rogue for almost as long as I shoot models.
The Flashbender is probably the product I’m the most involved in, but Rogue is the kind of company that really listens to their ambassadors and create awesome products. I use the flashbender and magnetic system in almost all my shoots.

Geekoto :
Awesome compact strobes, with great easy to setup softboxes.
And for the price, it’s almost unbelievable what they deliver. I’m very picky and have been shooting with them for over 2 years now and didn’t have any issues at all.

Calibrite :
I always advise to get a proper calibrated workflow, and Calibrite delivers all he goods you need.
I’m using their colorcheckers and analysers to get proper colors in my workflow.

Cascable :
When you see me shooting live there is a 99% change you see me using an iPad Pro, and on the iPad Pro I’m running Cascable, without any doubt my favourite tethering solution for iPad, it’s super fast and reliable, just what a I need under stress.

IQwire :
Tethering is showing your images directly on a large screen while shooting.
IQwire delivers the fastest and most reliable tethering cables and a complete defence system for camera, laptop/desktop and cable.
Available in 5-10-15 meters length (I’m mostly using the 15mtr which makes it possible to move around my whole studio without ever tripping over a cable.

ClickBackdrops :
We started with a signature series and I ended up with my whole studio filled with their amazing backdrops, and eventually we started selling them (they are just too much fun). Available in almost any size and in 2 materials. Vinyl for sharp and “harder” prints and ProFabric, which mimics the old canvasses we all love but can’t afford 😀

Most of these products we now also sell in our webshop at frankdoorhof.com/shop so make sure to check it out.
The reason we chose these brands to work with, or sell, is that they are designed FOR photographers/videographers/designers instead of designed for the photography market (a huge difference in usability).

Ok…
Let’s go straight to the brand new episode of digital classroom with our model Claudia.