Never the black screen again when using strobes

September 9, 2024/0 Comments/in blog, Visions and technique, Webinars and instructional videos/by Frank Doorhof

Black Screen on your camera when using strobes?

Oh, the black screen!

“This camera is unusable for studio use, that’s insane for such an expensive camera…. etc”
Countless of these kinds of bashing cameras can be found online, especially when the EVF in a camera was not as widely used as now. But why is the screen black when you are using strobes?

So what’s going on here?

In the older cameras, we used the sensor only as a replacement for film.
The image was still split into a part where you see the image, focus is done, etc., and a part where it’s hitting the sensor.
With the mirrorless cameras, everything changed.
First of all, we could get super accurate focus (well not at first, it was terrible at times) because you literally focus on the sensor, but we could now also use the viewfinder in a completely new way.

It started with the Sony A99

One day I got a call from Sony if I wanted to test a brand new camera that was “soon” to be released and do the press release in Dubai.
At the moment I wasn’t really into Sony. I was working with Canon cameras and absolutely loved the camera and the people at Canon (I still do :D)

But testing out new gear and getting carte blanche for my review, ……send it in.
Now there is a really funny story about batteries and Sony the Netherlands hanging up several times because they thought I was not serious seeing they didn’t know the camera yet. When it got solved I was literally stunned when looking through the viewfinder… this looks like fricking Topgun 😀
Yeah well, it was a huge improvement over the standard OVF (now I feel old).

The only problem with the A99 was the speed of the EVF. You probably remember the videos of people running through parking garages with their cameras and falling down because the EVF was too slow. In all honesty, when you do stuff like that it’s probably not just the EVF that has a … well ok it was funny 😀

Nowadays EVFs have greatly improved and yes you can now run around with them, although I would not recommend it.

But one problem remains; the black screen when using strobes

When you use the camera in the studio, the image you see through the viewfinder is totally black, and maybe when you press the shutter you can see a little bit of light. So what’s going on here?

The EVF actually does exactly what it’s supposed to do, it emulates the exposure….. ok let’s rewind.
Remember that A99?

Another thing that I found out with the EVF was that taking pictures outside was awesome, even the most difficult situations like backlighting were no problem anymore. Just change the exposure compensation till you see what you like and press the shutter. I called it the WYSIWYG display (What You See Is What You Get).

And this is the problem in the studio.
In a dark studio with the settings 1/125, F11, and ISO100 it should be 100% black in the viewfinder.
And of course, this also happened to me. And remember this was my first EVF. There was no manual and I had no contact person I could reach on the weekend. So, there was one solution, because this couldn’t be how it worked. I went through every single setting in the menu looking for something like LCD or EVF off. I couldn’t find it. Maybe it really was like this… no… ok now let’s try out all the settings. Finally I found a setting with the “not so clear for me” name “setting effect”. Because there was an option ON and OFF, I decided to go from ON to OFF… and like magic, there was my whole studio 😀

So the solution is actually pretty simple

In most cameras with an EVF, you can switch the EVF to roughly two modes.
One is an emulation of what you will get when you press the shutter with those settings.
and the other one is an emulation of what an OVF would show (optical view finder).

This means that in the studio we use the EVF on OFF and outside it’s in most cases best to leave it on ON.

On all cameras, the wording is a bit different but look for settings like “Emulation mode”, “Lighting emulation”, “Setting effect” etc.

To show it on my Sony A7RV I made a small video about the black screen when using strobes and how to solve it.
For this one, we made 2.
The first one is in English the second one is in Dutch.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.
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For the gear I use visit frankdoorhof.com/shop

How to make wow images with sets and colors

September 3, 2024/0 Comments/in blog, Visions and technique, Webinars and instructional videos/by Frank Doorhof

Sets really add something

Often when I mention sets people think about big-budget solutions, but the opposite can be true, and mostly is in my work. In this article, I combine sets and colors to create WOW images.
It’s almost a sport to create cool-looking sets without breaking the bank.
So we also look for cool stuff on fleamarkets, attics, etc. you would be surprised what kind of “junk” you can buy for next to nothing that works great in a photoshoot.

And sometimes you use what’s there.
In this case, a customer brought in a huge projector for me to calibrate and it was packaged in a flight case. So…. yes indeed why not use it in a photoshoot?

Today a small tutorial on how to spice up a small set with a touch of color.

Model: Claudia
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Below the video, the results of how I made WOW images with sets and colors

Model : Claudia

Read this blog for more sets with Claudia and colors

Creating depth and contrast in your model/portrait photography

August 31, 2024/0 Comments/in blog, Visions and technique, Webinars and instructional videos/by Frank Doorhof

How to create depth and contrast in your model photography?

However, if we want to create depth we do need to change the direction of our light. And today we are looking at one of the solutions to open up the darker side and get some really cool effects.

Depth is one of those things

We all know the term “3D looking” And maybe you also struggle with getting your images to look more “3D”
In most cases, it’s “just” a matter of changing your light to the sides of your subject.
The problem is often that the other side of the face becomes really dark. And often also the background creates really bad looking images (unless you love that look).

For me, at least the background should be lit slightly beyond the dark side of the face. This means there is some separation between the model and the background. Letting everything turn black or hardly visible is sometimes cool. But most of the time you are just left with an image that doesn’t feel right.

Accent vs flare or maybe both

When I started out with model photography I loved the Rembrandt setup. But somehow I never liked the darker part of the face. The easiest solution is of course using a reflector. But, a reflector only works when it gets enough light to bounce back. Because I use my lights mostly pretty close to the model there isn’t a lot of light hitting the reflector hence not reflecting enough back to the model.

Inverse Square Law

This is of course due to the inverse square law. This dictates that light falls off over the distance, meaning if you place your lights really close to the model it will fall off really fast and not have enough “power” left to also reflect back on the face and have a major impact.

Solution

So most of the time I solve this by using an extra light source on that side.
Now you can choose to place this behind your model and just hit the side opening up the shadows, moving it slightly back to only light the jawline, etc. This already works like a charm but let’s up the ante.

By using a light source with a more diffuse light source, like for example the Rogue magnetic system without or with the omnidirectional dome we can do a lot more.

We can now not only create a cool lighting effect on our model, but by placing it correctly (slightly more forward or backward, just experiment with very small increments, this really works very precise) you can also balance it so that the side of the light (softer and less output) hits the model. Creating a beautiful soft quality of light. But the main part of the output actually hits the lens creating an awesome lensflare.

If you are not happy with your lens flares, try older M42 lenses. Or even better, get the same filter I use, the K&F concept black diffusion filters, these make it much easier to create great flares without influencing your images when you don’t use backlighting.

Video about creating depth

Ok, because images say more than words, let’s look at a lot of images after each other, which we call video 😀

I hope you now understand better how depth and contrast can change your portrait or model photography.

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And some of the results
model: Claudia

Get stunning results and high contrast images easily with the Rogue FlashBender XL

August 29, 2024/0 Comments/in blog, Visions and technique, Webinars and instructional videos/by Frank Doorhof

I love the FlashBender XL

I’ve been using the Rogue FlashBender for over 10 years now. And it’s still one of my favorite modifiers because you get easily stunning results and can make high-contrast images.

When I got the “first” edition I started using it not as a bounce card. But to get some cool effects on the background, and due to the design of the FlashBender, you could also light your model from the back. An amazing tool at that moment which gave me loads of creative options.

This also got the attention of Expo Imaging (the creators of Rogue) and we started to talk. And over the years the Frank Doorhof XL edition was designed. Every time we added and changed smaller and larger details and I’m incredibly proud of the product as it is today.

First of all; the material on the Frank Doorhof edition is different from the other FlashBenders. We chose a soft silver material that gives you a more direct light-output vs white. So you get a really nice edge to your light. Plus it also boosts the output which can be great for outside situations where you need a bit more.

The FlashBender Frank Doorhof XL edition can be used as :

Bounce card
By bending the top you can limit the light loss and get much more direct light on your subject instead of just losing it into the air.

Softbox
In the box, you also find a softbox attachment to soften the light.

Snoot
Just fold the flashbender into a snoot by using the velcro.

Striplight with grid
Probably my favorite option and also the one I’m using in this video.

In this video, I show you how you can use the FlashBender in the striplight configuration to light both the background and the model for some really cool and contrasty images.

And some of the results you also see in the video.

For my American friends, buy from Rogue

Tag Archive for: modelphotography