Tag Archive for: doorhof

Results cameratools workshops

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Last week I was a guest speaker at the CameraTools week of light/studio.
During the day I taught 2 2 hour workshops in their shop, the fun part was that the idea was to keep it to 90 minutes and let the group shoot for 30 minutes, but when I asked what the group wanted… to shoot or me to continue teaching they all said “continue teaching”… well I guess they did not like the backgrounds 😀

 

The model for that day was our own topstylist (and model) Nadine, it’s always a blast work with someone that creative.
Today some of the images we shot during that day, and the theme was…. well colorful and blast from the past.

 

The backgrounds you see is a mix of the amazing Lastolite series (really love those) and the real deal.

Nadine CameraTools 14 November 2014 0257-Edit

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New class on KelbyOne

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During our stay in Las Vegas for PhotoshopWorld we filmed a new class for KelbyOne in the series : The inspiration series.
It’s an 1 hour class in which I tell you everything that drives me in my work (and personal life).
You can find the class here :

http://kelbyone.com/course/fdoorhof_inspirational_vegas/

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Using props… the chair

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Often people ask me “what is the perfect prop?”
Well let me start by saying that there is no perfect prop.
However if I had to choose one I would say it’s chair…
Now don’t get the expensive posing chairs you sometimes see in studios and online, in my opinion these are nice but also very overpriced and will limit the way you can shoot for the simple reason they are often not the most attractive chairs.

 

You can not only incorporate them into your set, but you can also make the model pose more dynamically. In other words add a lot of play into the shoot.

 

My favorite way to get chairs is to visit the second hand stores and get the more damaged, ugly, vintage looking chairs they have, the first advantage is that they are often cheap (hey I’m Dutch :)) plus they (in my personal opinion) have way more character than a new one. PLUS.. when you’re done with them… well you just cut them open and you have a second life for the chair.

 

Today some images I took during the test session with Marieke with 2 of our chairs.
Some might be considered NSFW so beware.

Marieke Jansen Oktober 2 2014 (49 of 107)-Edit

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The power of the portrait

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Often people struggle with getting that little bit of extra out of a portrait, now I never claim to be an expert on this (I think no-one really is), but over time I found out that it often helps to let the model “act”, in fact I always describe photography as acting on 1/4000 of a second.

 

This is our model Bertrie and she is going through several expressions, by converting the images to BW I added a little bit of extra mood, which for me works very well with these shots.

 

When you’re shooting a portrait try to work through different emotions with your subject, some can be subtle, some can be extreme, but keep playing. Now some people will say “my subject doesn’t have any emotions to go through” and I disagree, of course she/he may not be as expressive as this model (and many others) but there is always something you can squeeze out of your model. It often helps to first play around with them, have some fun before the photoshoot, make some jokes, make them laugh, but most of all make them feel relaxed.

 

A good photoshoot should never feel like a photoshoot, it should feel like “fun” or “acting” in other words a “flow”, as soon as you let your subject pose too static I often find the results lacking and “boring”. So the next time you do a shoot make sure to COACH your model, and I think you will be surprised.

Bertrie September 11 2014 (130 of 161)

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