Tag Archive for: photographer

That setting that drives you nuts during the calibration process on Mac (and windows)

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Calibration is important

I think most of us will agree on this. If you want proper colors and happy customers (depending on the assignment of course) it’s very smart to calibrate your monitor at least once a month, but preferably before every important retouching job. But what are the important settings during calibration?

Calibrating your monitor is super easy.

I’ve been using Calibrite (X-rite) products for years. They are easy to use and compatible with the hardware calibration options inside my BenQ monitor. This is a big plus because although the software from Calibrite is great, hardware solutions are always better, of course. Most professional and semi-professional monitors support hardware calibration.

By the way, if you are in the market for a new monitor and you live in the EU drop me an email, I have a few 10% discount codes from BenQ
They have been supporting my work with Digital Classroom for years and love to give you guys a nice discount.

Anyway back to the story.
Even with easy software, it’s sometimes easy to get an error that… well you can’t fix.
You checked everything, and although you know your brand new monitor should really be perfect, it’s far from.
Or maybe you don’t know how to read the rapports and just wonder why there is so much fuzz about professional monitors.

Step 1

This one is for all systems.
When you are using the HDMI connection make sure your monitor is set for 0-255 or FULL RGB.
If it’s set up for 16-235 (video) you will get all kinds of weird behaviors, very noticeable in the dark and bright areas, but in essence, your whole image looks way off.

When you are using USBc, TB, or Display port you don’t have to check this.
Those connections automatically select the right output.

So is HDMI bad… absolutely not, it’s just as perfect for what we do as USBc and Displayport, you just have to check that one setting.

Step 2

And that’s the nasty one.
In the Mac, there is one setting that will almost certainly have you scratching your head and probably a little bit in panic mode.

If whatever you do, you can’t pass the final certification from your calibration and the errors are constantly changing per calibration, there is probably one setting you forgot the turn off. You can find it under “Displays” in Mac OS.

important setting during calibration

This one will give you A LOT of issues when you want a stable and trusted display.
So turn it OFF.
This goes for all settings with labels like “auto”, “Enhancement”, “Super”, “Real”, “natural” etc.

Just turn everything off and run the calibration software.
You will see that you will pass the certification without any problems now 😀

Don’t forget this important setting during calibration!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them below, or reach out via our social media.

Read more about colors in this blog about Working with Colors 

 

The difference between modifiers

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Want to know how to predict your light?

And of course how to use the different modifiers to create some images with impact?
Than this is the digital classroom for you.

In almost 2 hours I show you the difference between a lantern, normal softbox, striplights and our new Geekoto Quicky softbox.

You see the setups from 3 different angles, plus all the images I shoot.
And of course there is a boatload with information in there as usual.

So enjoy the brand new Digital Classroom.
With our stunning model Jannaika.

How to make wow images with sets and colors

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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
Want to visit one of my workshops?
Check www.fotografie-workshops.nl

Do you live abroad and is travel out of the question?
We have you covered there, book a full-day 1:1 online workshop in English or Dutch.
Just mail me for more info

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

Model : Claudia

How to make WOW images with sets and colors How to make WOW images with sets and colors

 

Read this blog for more sets with Claudia and colors 

Creating depth and contrast in your model/portrait photography

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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. Continue reading how to create depth and contrast in your photography

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.

Visit www.frankdoorhof.com/shop for the gear I use.
Visit www.fotografie-workshops.nl for the Dutch workshops
Mail us for our totally new 1:1 full-day online workshops in English or Dutch.

And some of the results
model: Claudia

Depth and contrast in your photography

Depth and contrast in your photography