Tag Archive for: discount

Black Friday…. loads of cool deals.

/in /by

Love it or hate it, but Black Friday is always fun when you are looking for good deals.
And also this year we have some cool deals for you guys.

For all deals
Coupon “blackfriday22”
www.frankdoorhof.com/shop
ONLY BENELUX

Videos and presets
50% off on all my full length tutorials and preset packs.
We have videos on many different topics ranging from modelphotography in the studio and on location to street and travel photography, there is something for everyone.

IQwire
Shooting tethered in the studio or on location is one of the best things you can do for your workflow. But with modern cameras the demands on the cables are higher than ever.

IQqwire is the “next generation” in tethering.
Available in 5 and 10 meters with inline boosters and intelliconnect for a super steady and fast connection to PC/MAC and they also work with the iPad and Android tablets.

Thanks to the boosters and intelliconnect you can use one cable for all your cameras. When your camera doesn’t support USBc you can order one of our pigtails convertors to Micro/Mini, USB-A and Phase One.

Also under our IQwire category you can find the Arca Cable Block.
If you want a rock solid connection between your camera and the IQwire the Cable Block is the way to go. The Arca mount compatibel plate has special guides for tether cables and can be connected under the camera without the need for coins or screwdrivers. We also opted for a slightly smaller form factor so the battery is accessible in 90% of the cameras.

Clickpropsbackdrops
Amazing backgrounds for every studio (or location).
Available in Vinyl and Pro-fabric which mimics the old vintage canvasses we all love.
With more than 900 prints to choose from, I’m sure there is one for you.

Rogue / Expo Imaging
We have been working with Rogue for over a decade, and they are the kind of company we all love… they listen to the photographer and create gear we can not only use in one way, but that triggers your creativity to find new ways to light your subject, and with Rogue you have a super flexible system.

We have the Flashbender series, including the Frank Doorhof Softsilver edition which I use myself.
But we also released the magnetic system in 2022 which is aimed for all photographers shooting with speedlights or the popular round strobes. Recently we got a new addition to the line up with a magnetic snoot that can be used in 8 different ways.. talk about flexible.

For the larger strobes (and all others) we recently released a brand new umbrella system with a fiberglass frame for years of use, the umbrellas can be ordere separate but also in a nice carrying kit including the white and black umbrella (including a sleeve).

If you love to reflect the light we also got you covered with both round and rectangular reflectors. Personally I love working with the rectangular reflector if you need just a bit of light under the chin of the model, it works much easier than the round reflectors, which we use outside for maximum reflection surface.

And finally we also sell the Expo Imaging Expo Disc.
So something for everyone and now with an awesome 15% discount PLUS… everyone that orders before Saturday 0:00 will also get my speedlight tutorial for free.

We hope to have something for everyone in our offers.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask, we always try to respond within 24 hours.

Bring some Hollywood in your images

/in , , /by

Sometimes you come across software that is truly unique.

Most software that you find online are variants of each other, eg Lightroom, Photoshop or they are focused on a specific part of the workflow such as tinting, skin processing, etc. But there is always a variant of a variant to be found. That’s why I was really surprised by BorisFX Optics.

As a big film lover I regularly see light effects of which you as a photographer know that it is as fake as can be… but oh how beautiful it is in the context of the film, think of the beautiful glow around street lighting in the fog on a warm summer evening, realize that there was no fog at all but it was added through special effects….

When we think of special effects we often think of space ships, talking mice, etc. but what we often don’t think about is that special effects are also used to add fog, glow, lens flares, smoke, etc. to a scene to increase the atmosphere. in a movie, and it’s just often easier to add it later than to fog up an entire street perfectly.

But also fire and particles are part of special effects, just think of a scene where someone walks into a burning house, all those small fire particles of burning paper/material… huge chance that these are all special effects.

The software that is used a lot for this could be labeled as the big brother of BorisFX Optics. And this is also very clear by the huge amount of options and very realistic looks.

There is a lot of software where you can work with overlays for smoke, for example, but I have never seen software where you can literally let the smoke pass by like a movie via a multitude of sliders and choose EXACTLY where you want the smoke, and even then you can still change a staggering amount of things building the perfect smoke. And believe it or not but almost every effect you choose has a similar slider choice, if you don’t get the desired effect with this I wouldn’t know what to do.

Anyway, isn’t this “cheating”?
Yes and no.
What I personally have trouble with is when people make no effort at all for correct lighting or styling and then try to make a photo interesting through all kinds of filters, and although sometimes you can get some very nice results, it is a completely different result if what I have in mind when I shoot a scene.

Of course you can always say that if it is not caught by the camera, it is not real… but…. then I wonder how do you see a black mist filter, which makes a lens flare clearly stronger?

And that’s basically how I see BorisFX Optics too.
I’m still trying to get the photo 100% correct in the camera, I build the whole set, put the lighting in the right places, use smoke etc. etc. But after the shoot I use BorisFX Optics to turn everything “on”, the lens flare is already in the photo, but in the retouch process you can enhance it with eg BorisFX Optics and really give it your look and feel. The same applies to turning on a spot just a little bit extra, it is there, but you make it just a bit clearer, or enhance the glow of an old tube amp…  I personally have no problem with that at all.

And let’s be honest, in the end we still made the photo ourselves and went through the entire process in the software and that is a completely creative process, only instead of just colors we now also add atmosphere in a photo which otherwise would not have been possible, and this makes it possible for me as a film enthusiast to give photos a much more film look.

In the coming months I will make several videos about BorisFX Optics, you can find them on our YouTube channel and of course from this site.

► Get 20% off Boris FX Optics via https://bit.ly/3zpQLzZ and use coupon code: doorhof-optics22

Some cool offers and discounts

/in , /by

Holidays are approaching very rapidly and as you guys we are looking forward to some time off and spending it with our family and loved ones.

 

However we also know that sometimes these days can be a bit…. boring or quite for some people so we wanted to give you all a very cool discount to enjoy all our instructional videos. So till christmas you can get a great 25% discount on ALL our videos with the coupon code “holiday15”.

 

So surf to https://frankdoorhof.com/web/shop-videos-etc/direct-video-downloads/ and start downloading your menu of videos for the holidays, and it’s of course allowed to download them now and watch later 😀

MTM video 2

But there is more :
As you know I love the plugins from MacPhun.
Over the year we have worked together with them on quite some occasions and we decided it was time to take this cooperation one step further in the form of a cool discount for their WHOLE creative suite 2016 PLUS some other goodies which will save you guys a lot of money. For this offer surf to the special page and you can take advantage of the discount there.

 

And we are not done yet :
One of the most asked questions on workflow is probably “How do you tether?” and “how do you keep it stable?”
Well the answer is quite simple, on the hardware site I use the Tethertools products which are amazing and very sturdy, and I just love the orange cables (Hey I’m Dutch). On the software side I use Capture One.

 

Capture One is one heck of a piece of software for all your tethering needs, you can not only shoot tethered but you can also use the “focus overlay mask” which will show everything green (or any other color you wish) that is in focus, so you can see from the other side of your studio if you are hitting the focus right. I always say that if my tethering stops I will always check my hardware because Capture One will never ever stop tethering, it’s rock solid.
But it’s not only for tethering btw, try zooming in on an image and you literally will think your computer just got a MAJOR upgrade, it’s blazingly fast, add to this the great RAW conversion and many other tools and you will without a doubt fall in love with Capture One (I did and I’m very picky). So surf to Phase One/Capture One and get a test version of their new Capture One 9 and start enjoying it. Now if you like it…. use the coupon code AMBDOORHOF for a cool discount on the product, and I’m sure you’re gonna keep it.

 

And finally we have another cool discount on software.
Both Alien Skin and Topaz have been long time supporters of my work and I use their plugins a lot.
Both companies gave me some nice coupons for you guys to enjoy.

Nadine 178 - August 28, 2015

Topaz labs always has nice plugins for a very very friendly price.
I always advise people to use their Clarity plugin if they are using a PC and are not able to use Macphuns Intensify, and it ROCKS, without any doubt, a plugin you really can’t afford to miss, it’s like tonal contrast on steroids, but also check out ReStyle which is an awesome tinting plugin and Clean3 which I use for the more difficult skin or to remove goosebumps. Order them via http://www.topazlabs.com/716.html . Use Doorhof99 as coupon code for a really cool 10% discount

 

Now Alien skin is one of the market leaders when it comes to tinting, I always switch between DxO filmpack and Alien Skin. DxO I use when I want very subtle lovely tonings and Exposure X when I want to go towards the more “extreme” side, although it can also do all the subtle tones of course. Visit their site via : the alien skin site  and use the code FrankDoorhof for a cool 10% discount.

 

I hope you guys can benefit from these offers, and always remember that I do promote only the gear/software that I use myself even if it means I don’t earn any money/or less from it, it’s all about advising the right stuff to you guys.

 

 

A little bit about the light meter

/in , /by

Todays fact :
How to make Frank sad….

Sometimes we work together with a company that sells some of our videos, and don’t get me wrong we love those guys and we have had a great relation, so this is not to bash them in any way but it does EXACTLY show what’s “wrong” with photography today.

Recently I recorded a new instructional video on the use of the light meter called “Mastering the model shoot : the light meter” this video explains not only how to read and use the meter but also shows examples of light setups that are normally really difficult to figure out and take a lot of test/trial and error shots while with the meter they can be set up in seconds. The video literally shows everything a photographer should need to know about the meter.

The responses on this video has been incredibly well so I thought why not offer them this video also for a nice action, right?

Imagine my surprise when I got this response this morning:

—————————————————–
Actually we were reviewing this Lightmeter video and it looks great, no doubt but its just that we feel the light meter nowadays is only used by very few photographers. It was mostly used in the early 2000s and before.

So we may not get good sales for this deal. Can you refer us some other product of Frank which is doing great now a days?
Would love to know more details if there is any.
——————————————————-

Excuse me?
The fun thing is, and really mean this… this is one of the things I hear A LOT…. and it’s just very short sighted.

 

Let me give you an example
You go the doctor and you have to have surgery.
You are on the bed and just before you close your eyes you hear this Doctor :”Hummmm nurse where is the appendix again?”
Nurse :”Pfff I don’t know, why don’t you just start cutting and if it’s not there you can always close it up”
Doctor :”good idea, but with my experience I will probably be close enough”

Sounds ridiculous right?
Well it’s about how photographers perceive photography today, we will just take some test shots, compare it on the “digital polaroid” on the back and we will correct the rest in Photoshop. Or even better… I can guess it very good… I’m normally about a stop off… (Yeah that’s double the amount of light so pretty close dude)

Or how about this one, a real story:
“I never ever use a light meter…. it just doesn’t make any sense…. you know why?… I love to overexpose all my shots by about 0.5 stops to get my signature look, so a light meter….. (scuffs) not for me”

Yeah “dumbo” so how do you know to over expose by 0.5 stops if you don’t know the correct setting.

And don’t even get me started about videos online that get thousands of views where photographers claim they don’t use a light meter because models are not 18% gray…. that’s reflective metering smartypants not incident, in fact that’s why you SHOULD use a meter because your camera tries to make everything 18% gray…. and I can go on and on and on and on.

 

In Essence…
The light meter is a tool, it’s just like a ruler a carpenter uses it’s not an old fashioned tool it’s hypermodern, there are versions with touch displays, there are apps on your phone that can do it. The light meter is not a vampire that will sucks all the creativity out of you at night when you leave it too close to you on your nightstand (btw don’t think I sleep with my light meter).

 

The light meter is a device that meters your light
In photography light is our language.
If people would take the time to LEARN that language they would find that they don’t need a meter to take photographs but that the meter is a tool that will help them to INCREDIBLY speed up their workflow, get CONSISTENT results and cut down their time in Photoshop and Lightroom AT LEAST in half, and on set probably tenfold.

People discarding the meter as pre 2000 are still thinking light changed when we switched to digital, but in essence it didn’t, we still need an Aperture and shutter speed and ISO, that didn’t change… I don’t tell you you NEED a light meter to take the photos you see from professionals, heck even a lot of pro’s don’t use a meter, what I do tell you is that if you want to make those (or your) photos QUICKER and more CONSISTENT you should really try a light meter.

In all these years I teach I have converted more people to a light meter than you can count (and I can remember), NONE of them came to my workshop with the idea they were missing it, MOST (if not 99% of them) leave the workshop with they idea they actually need a light meter for the simple and pure speed I set up my lights.

And that’s all it is… a very simple tool to help you with that.
And to be honest if you take the 70 minutes to watch the video you will actually know the meter by heart, because in essence it’s incredibly easy to use and to operate (despite of what some people tell you online)

So to make a long story short :
Head over to https://frankdoorhof.com/web/shop-videos-etc/direct-video-downloads/ and select the light meter video and use the code “light” and get a 20% discount (about the same the other offer would have been).

But I do ask you, and I normally don’t do this that much…. feel free to retweet, repost and tell people about this little rant… because I really do feel sad that a tool that is so handy for photography is put into such a bad light (no pun intended).

I will keep this code active for the next 1-2 weeks.
And if you try it on all our other videos… well it might work too 😀

Here is also the trailer we shot for this video :

Again this blogpost was not made to bash the company which we consider as dear friends (we really do) but to actually point out a “prejudice” I encounter all the time and to be honest I don’t know how it ever was created but I really wish people would think before they take their position against the light meter.