Tag Archive for: photoshoot

Periscope, the new social media thing or much more….

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We all know the problem… there are WAY too many social media platforms at the moment, if you want to be active on all you can’t work anymore or you have to have an ingenious system of crossposting stuff working for you. It seems that every day there is a new “someone” trying to become a millionaire by launching something new that we all HAVE to do, because if we don’t…. well you don’t want to be left behind right?

 

When Meerkat was released I have to be honest that I did not even look into it, in all honestly I just can’t be excited to see someone (not even my friends) walking their dog, eating a banana or (please don’t) sitting in the restroom reading the newspaper, and let’s be honest most people are using it just for that, and with hashtags that contain the words Fridge and see I’m already over it, or at least I thought.

 

During Professional Imaging Scott (Kelby) and Terry (White) told me to check out a new app called “Periscope” by Twitter, and I did.
What I will write down now is my PERSONAL experience, my PERSONAL opinion and the way that I’m gonna use it, so if you don’t agree there is no problem at all, it’s just my PERSONAL opinion. That being said let’s look at Periscope.

 

The app
Periscope is created by Twitter and can be found on the iOs App store, I believe other versions will be released soon (they are working on Android).
The app itself looks very simple (and that’s the way it should be) and works very fast, when you start working with it you are actually up and running in seconds, and that’s what I love about these kind of apps, they should be easy to operate and to understand.

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The complete picture

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We all know that adding motion is often that little thing that makes a photo jump out, however always also remember that it’s still very important to keep you eye out for the styling, in this sample shot for example I did not only add the motion but also matched the clothing to the hair of the model and the background.

 

 

Often people ask me how to improve their photography or they see they are missing something and in 99% of the cases it’s not a matter of a bad photo but more a matter of giving attention to 2 parts of the 5 parts that make a great shot… now don’t think I consider my shots to be great 😀 but I do always try to mix and match everything together, and because it often looks like a complete shot you don’t see how much care we take for the little things like for example a gridded spot to give a bit more contrast to the clothing and putting the vignetting around the model.

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So try to make your shots “complete” think about the complete picture and see if it ALL fits together. Sometimes it’s a very small change you need to make for a huge difference.

Styling in a photoshoot

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Styling is one of the key elements in a successful photoshoot. A lot of people overlook this subject and end up with “perfect” lighting, great locations and still unattractive photos, or at least photos that don’t make you go “WOW”

 

In my opinion styling will make or break the shot, however as soon as you start using styling you also dive into the snakepit called personal taste…… so prepare 😀

 

Now most people think “I can’t do this” or “This is SOOOO expensive” in reality however it isn’t.

 

In our studio I work together with (I think) one of the most creative stylists in the Netherlands at the moment Nadine, she can do wonders with almost nothing, and she is a pretty good model too (so what more to wish for), the idea is to combine materials and colors that work together, for example strong red with a blue wig would seem ridiculous on paper but when you execute it the right way you will see that it really works.

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Using smoke and colors

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Using smoke in a photoshoot is cool, it really adds some extra “oempf” to a shot, and it helps to mask uninteresting backgrounds of course.
When you start adding color to the smoke shot I always feel the shots are extra special.

 

In these shots I used a standard (cheap) smoke machine and one strobe with a red gel, as you can see I shoot under an almost straight angle into the light source. Because of the way smoke behaves you get a beautiful effect, adding a bit of Intensify pro from MacPhun (you can also use Topaz clarity of course or NIK tonal contrast) really finishes the shot.

Lenaa Juli 25 20142098

Lenaa Juli 25 20142111