Tag Archive for: posing

A tip on lighting patterns

/in , /by

Today a quick tip on lighting

Often people ask me what they should use to show patterns on the wall from blinds, racks, chairs etc.
You have to understand that to show patterns you will need a light that is pretty hard, meaning if you place a softbox very close to blinds you will not get the effect you want (see the first example)

 

This is of course pretty logical because the light is literally spreading around the structure of the item you place in between the model and the light source, meaning you will hardly see any patterns.

Nadine October 12 2014 0001-Edit

when you change the softbox for a reflector or even a bare-bulb strobe you will start to see the effect (see second shot).

Nadine October 12 2014 0020-Edit

Now the fun part comes into the angle of the strobe and… the distance, with all these elements you can control the outcome of the shot.
Good luck.

 
For much more tips on lighting get my book “Mastering the modelshoot” or download one of my instructional videos via : https://frankdoorhof.com/web/shop-videos-etc/direct-video-downloads/

Tip about posing and motion

/in , /by

Often people think that when you shoot an image you have to “pose” the model, and although this is true in some cases, for me it often works best to let the model pose “freely” let her/him find the poses that are comfortable and from there on I will slightly adjust the pose to make it “work” for me.
Adding motion brings in a whole new dimension, don’t let the model jump, but ask her to very slightly move her body away from the floor (yeah I know it sounds weird) this will not only give her/him a good laugh but also actually says exactly what she/he has to do.
Now if the model has a problem with the mouth (often it can be a bit “weird”) tell them to scream (without making sound) or shout “Shabang” (LOL) this will help enormously with relaxing the mouth or in other words not making it look funky.

 

An extra benefit of the small “jumps” is that it can also be done with strobes that have a slightly slower flash duration or if the model is wearing high-heels, because trust me… you don’t want a model to jump high with high-heels…. well actually the jump is not the problem but the coming down 😀

 

Good luck.
Manon October 3 2014 0874

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Using props… the chair

/in , /by

Often people ask me “what is the perfect prop?”
Well let me start by saying that there is no perfect prop.
However if I had to choose one I would say it’s chair…
Now don’t get the expensive posing chairs you sometimes see in studios and online, in my opinion these are nice but also very overpriced and will limit the way you can shoot for the simple reason they are often not the most attractive chairs.

 

You can not only incorporate them into your set, but you can also make the model pose more dynamically. In other words add a lot of play into the shoot.

 

My favorite way to get chairs is to visit the second hand stores and get the more damaged, ugly, vintage looking chairs they have, the first advantage is that they are often cheap (hey I’m Dutch :)) plus they (in my personal opinion) have way more character than a new one. PLUS.. when you’re done with them… well you just cut them open and you have a second life for the chair.

 

Today some images I took during the test session with Marieke with 2 of our chairs.
Some might be considered NSFW so beware.

Marieke Jansen Oktober 2 2014 (49 of 107)-Edit

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Playing with hair and expression

/in , /by

Sometimes a portrait can be incredibly simple but effective.
The next shots were done during a workshop with just an Elinchrom beauty dish with grid aimed at the model under a slight angle. The power for me in these shots is the very subtle expression enhanced with some wet hairs.

 

Now whenever you’re stuck in a session and don’t have the creativity to do something really cool with accessories etc. just wet the hair of the model and start playing with that, the longer the hair the better of course, the results will probably please you.

_DSC0146-Edit

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