Tag Archive for: location

The best locations and the best light…. are what you do….

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We all know that a good shot consists of good lighting and a great location right?
However that doesn’t mean you have to travel for that great shot, actually the best shots can be right around the corner. The main problem is that we see the locations close to us way to often to actually register as something that could be interesting for a photoshoot. If we would see them just once they might seem much more interesting than they do in every day life.

 

When we changed locations for our studio I clearly told everyone that the area behind the studio (out of sight) could not be changed and I wanted to let “nature” just run it’s course, if we have something old and “rustic” we don’t throw it out, we store it there and just place it somewhere where we can use it as a location to shoot, we even have a sea container there to use.

 

The next shots were all done in a very fast outside session with just the sun as light source.
Editing is very minimal with just some tinting and a little bit of MacPhun Intensify.

 

So the next time you are looking for a location… make sure to also check your local area, and house area. And when you own a studio building…. why not make a “mess” outside (as long as people don’t see it from the road). Also remember that the sun will actually be a great light source with great contrast, if it’s a bit too harsh you can always use some diffusion material between the model and the sun, but in all honestly I often just shoot it as is, I just love those hard shadows and popping colors.

 

Model/Styling : Nadine

Nadine Juni 12 buiten 2015 0010

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See the location

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Often people ask me for great locations, and let’s be honest, who doesn’t love to shoot in a great location, right?
For us it’s important to keep finding new locations for my workshops because I want them to be fresh and new and we have to fit in a group so those “needs” are different from what I would do if I would shoot for myself.

 

In my opinion the best locations are often right in front of you, you just have to learn to see them.
A prime example are the walls in our studio, you don’t want to know how often people have asked me “When are you gonna paint the walls?” I always answer with the same reply “these are intentional… they are used as backdrops” and in 99% of the cases the response is “Cool… I need that too”. In fact, at that point I already gave the student his/hers moneys worth for the workshop because I opened their eyes for the possibilities right in front of them.

 

Photographers travel the world for locations and often forget the beauty that is in their own area, for the simple reason they see it all the time, so todays blogpost is there to motivate you to look around, find locations close by and incorporate them into your shoots. As an example these two shots with Nadine.

 

A few years ago I had my office done, they removed the wallpaper to put in the new and when they did I saw something I wanted to shoot. Now imagine me first asking/urging them to do the work in one day, and than half way through ask them to go and come back 2 days later….. yeah they didn’t get it too :D, the result might have been the trigger to create the custom walls in our studio, long story short I loved the roughness and wanted to shoot it with a theme, I send a few snaps to Nadine and she came up with what you are going to see now.

Nadine 15 Februari 2011 - 12

 

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Radio triggers and if they don’t work

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Radio triggers are awesome, they will trigger your strobes without needing a “line of sight” and they should work for 99% of the shots without a problem, so in theory one could say “you never loose a shot with radio triggers”, but……… sometimes there are problems.
Problem with your radio triggers?
We hear this a lot, people having trouble with their radio triggers in the studio or on location, here are some tips we found out can make a HUGE difference.

 

1. WiFi
This is the biggest problem.
If you have a lot of WiFi traffic in your area this can interfere with your system, in fact we installed a WiFi security camera and this rendered our complete setup almost useless, we changed the camera from WiFi to wired and everything worked again.


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2. Antenna
They are not there for show, make sure to aim them up and you will get that little bit of extra range.

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The ultimate workshop November 21-22nd Emmeloord

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I’ve been teaching workshops for a few years now, most workshops run for a full day and although very intense there is always so much more to learn, so most students visit the workshops several times. The reason for this is very simple, I never try to duplicate workshops, there are so many things you can do with lighting, location, styling, the models etc. that it would be a shame to teach the same workshop material over and over…..

 

For the one day workshops I have several themes, for example “working on location”, “working with artificial and available light”, “Duo shoots”, “Masks”, “Smoke”, “Retouching” etc. etc. all these topics are so broad that they are already difficult to jam into one day…. so last year the idea actually grew to do a multiple day workshop, however when I do something I always want to make sure that what I deliver is solid, there is no sense in doing a workshop in 2 days or 3 days that can be taught in one day by just talking faster…..

Manon October 3 2014 2019BW

So slowly the idea for the “multiple day workshop” grew and got more shape.
After the first trials the students actually came up with the name and called it “The Ultimate workshop” and I have to say I agree and use that name for these workshops.

 

In 2-3 days you will get so much information it will make your head spin, we are working as a small team (group size is always limited to max 10-12 people depending on the location) to create literally a multitude of different scenarios. The ultimate workshops are the best workshops I can teach, and I dare to say, probably the best on the market if you’re into model photography.

 

What can you expect?
Of course we work with our very best models during these workshops, so next to learning a lot you will also get a real portfolio boost. All workshops start with an Q&A session. In this session you can actually tell me what you want to learn and I will incorporate all these questions into the workshop ahead.

 

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