Building a cool set with clickbackdrops in your own studio or living room

July 25, 2024/0 Comments/in blog/by Frank Doorhof

A background helps the story

When I started out with model photography studio work was… well studio work.
It was mostly seamless paper and some nice fabrics or canvas backgrounds.
For me personally I love working this way, but I have to be honest my heart always beat faster when I find a cool location to shoot.

So why not bring locations to your studio?

As you probably know we use ClickBackDrops in our studio, we actually started with my own signature series and ended up being the distributor for the Netherlands.
Of course you can just use the backgrounds as… well backgrounds.
And although that already looks great, you can do so much more.

I already showed you guys some of the shots we took during the clicklive event in the UK where we build a complete set with 3 backgrounds and a floor part.

So I thought let’s create something in our studio again

During a recent workshop with Claudia I used two backgrounds and a floor part to create a quick set.
At the moment I was calibrating a projector for a customer that came into a huge flight case so that was the perfect prop to create something cool.
When Claudia entered the set I immediately got some huge Freddie Mercury and David Bowie vibes so I tried to get a little bit of that “rock/70’s” style into the shot.

As you can see it’s super easy to use two backgrounds and a floor part to create a small set.
Add some props and you’re ready for the shoot.
Now as you can see these backgrounds are not really meant to be shot together, but they still work very nicely I think.

Want to visit one of our workshops?
They are in Dutch, but if you book a few weeks in advance we can switch them to English.
Visit fotografie-workshops.nl for more info and booking your workshop.
Want to buy the gear I use?
Visit frankdoorhof.com/shop

A horror clown in our studio (in color)

May 7, 2024/in blog/by Frank Doorhof

Storytelling with a horror clown (in color)

For me, storytelling is always a vital part of my photography.
Even when I photograph a CEO or artist I always try to dive into the person/product/company to get something that really fits their company/person perfectly.

And sometimes you just go all out.

The fun with workshops

Teaching workshops is one of the things I love the most. Working with a group towards a result and in between explaining all the techniques, and ideas, work with styling, poses, and of course props. The images you are going to see today might not be something you shoot every day, but… and that’s the thing a lot of people miss.

If you can walk 10 km with ease, it’s no problem to walk 2-3 km.
This might sound a bit weird, but this works for many things.
If you can shoot super creative situations, and know how to handle your lighting, poses, and how to coach your model to do the most bizarre, weird, or awesome stuff it becomes MUCH easier to coach a CEO or to shoot a super creative image for a product.

Storytelling

In today’s blog post the results from one set with our model Felisa.
And although you don’t recognize her, the choice of model is vital for these kinds of shots.
One might say, she is just wearing a clown suit and props, so what’s difficult?

When you take away the expression in the face, it’s all about body language, and believe it or not this can be incredibly difficult for a model, and photographer to pull off.

I think she did great.

So let’s take a look at some images first, and then I explain a bit more.

let you model try to grab the camera and it looks really scary

The idea of this shoot with the horror clown (in color)

I don’t really like to repeat myself, but sometimes ideas are just so much fun and open for changes that you can repeat them with a fresh outcome.
Many years ago I was invited to introduce a new Phase One 101MP camera in a studio in New York.

Let me first say I love New York so the prospect of shooting in a studio there is always exciting.
The problem was that I “had” to use a gray seamless background for some images and that day I didn’t feel like using that so I decided to just place the model behind it, cut a hole, and let the model just stick her head through and later hold the camera. Great shots and loads of fun.

A few years later I did a similar thing during a trade show in the UK. Both were more fashion and fun-related.
For this workshop, we wanted to do something completely different, and as a horror fan, the idea quickly popped into my head that it would be awesome to shoot it with a killer clown.

Getting props to tell the story

I already did something with a big knife in the past so this time we wanted to do something a bit more “big”.
A hammer is fun, but what about a chainsaw, with a little bit of a hint to my all-time favorite actor and character Bruce Campbell/Ash.

Of course, we needed some backlighting and smoke.
So I used a Geekoto GT400 in the back with a large reflector and red gel.
The reason I’m using a large reflector is because I needed a lot of light due to the seamless paper. If you would use a gelled softbox it would not emit enough light to pull this off.

In the front we experimented with a softbox and a striplight with a grid, you can probably spot which is which 😀

So let’s take a look at the rest of the images.

If you also want to visit one of my workshops and learn all about light and storytelling? Check www.frankdoorhof.com or www.photography-workshops.eu
We will be in The Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK this year for events and workshops.

Read the blog about the Outside Fashion Shot for Sunglasses with model and stylist Nadine

This blog is about Working creatively with seamless paper

This is the blog about a recent workshop: storytelling to set the mood

Go all out

October 11, 2014/in blog, Visions and technique/by Frank Doorhof

Don’t be afraid to go all out during a photoshoot, always think about movies, when do we “believe” the movie?
When everything is right, the makeup, the acting, the clothing, the lighting etc.
In fact model photography is just like acting, only our models do it on 1/1000’s of a second instead of 24fps.
So when I want to shoot something I’ll try to push the model for the right expression, get the clothing right, take care of the lighting and the location. When this all comes together…. you have a story telling shot.
So the next time you watch a movie from (for example) the Asylum you will see that the acting is bad, the decors are bad, the SFX is bad etc. etc. so you don’t get pulled in to the movie. Now when you watch a well produced movie where everything is fitting to the story this is where you get pulled in.
So when you want to shoot something with A LOT of expression/madness don’t hold back on expression, but also make sure the clothing is 100% perfect, in this case we used a great stylist and as you can see he did not only used a straight jacket but he actually also made it dirty, damaged etc, it all adds that little bit of extra. Combined with a model that REALLY went for it, and there you go, in opinion a cool shot.
So for your next shoot, make the clothes a bit dirty, push your model for expression or in other words…. think movie 😀

For more tips to master YOUR photoshoot get my book “Mastering the modelshoot”

The eyes, the eyes !!!

April 11, 2014/1 Comment/in blog, Visions and technique/by Frank Doorhof

Sometimes you are thinking “what can we do to spice this up”…….
Believe it or not but masks can really help to give your shoot a little bit of extra “oomph”
In this case Corine (our model) brought a what I call “Hello kinky kitty” gas mask, and I have to be honest as soon as she put it on… I loved it.

the million dollar question however is always “How do you shoot this”
One of the things I like about shooting masks is the way how it takes away the expression of the mouth and face, now one could think “that’s important right?” well yeah it is, but….. by using a mask you actually get the option to add a lot more expression on the eyes. And that’s what I really like about this, the images are actually way more intense than without the mask, eyes are indeed the mirror to the soul and the place of most expression, although normally we are more drawn towards the mouth for expression for example a laugh, a scream etc. When you take this away you can actually see how important eyes can be.

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