Tag Archive for: rogue

A special Christmas scene with a beautiful background

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Christmas is a special time of the year

It’s a time where I hope we all find some time off, warmth or comfort.
It’s a time where it sometimes seems the world is just a bit more quiet.
And of course it’s a time of joy and celebration.

For me when I think of Christmas I always see a Charles Dicksens like scene, but with more warm tints and of course glowing lights. Let’s say a bit Fashion vs Charles Dickens.
During a recent session in our studio I joined the group for the last setup in building a small set with a Christmas tree.
We used our new scenic ClickBackdrops background, to get some some extra warmth I’m using a red gel from the left side aiming down from a high angle, this way it gave our model a nice accent and also side lit the tree a bit.

As main light I’m using the small Quicky softbox from Geekoto, this softbox it great for aiming your light to a smaller area than a conventional softbox and it worked great for this shot of Felisa.

I used Photoshop AI to extend the background and add a slight part to the Christmas tree and fill up the an area that was empty.
Boris FX was used to add 3 extra lights in the tree, making it all fit together.

When you try to get the image 100% right in camera, it’s often very easy to add what’s needed (if anything).
Using Photoshop AI this way is a great update and will really push the limits of what we can do creativity with photography.
Personally I’m not a big fan of text to image claiming as art, but using it to add to your photography where you build the set, setup the lighting, styling, makeup etc. I think it’s a great tool to make it possible create images much closer to our vision than ever before.


A quick test shoot

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Sometimes it just happens

For the workshops we are always looking for new models, and sometimes you find someone via the net/social media, in a restaurant or in your own studio 😀
Janice as modelling for friends of us and I could not resist to also shoot some images. And guess what… she lives close by so she will probably pop up more regularly during the workshops in 2025.

Workshops are mostly in Dutch but…

We do get a lot of questions about the workshops from people abroad, and we have some great options for you.
First of all if you’re visiting the Netherlands and let us know a few weeks in advance we can switch the regular workshops to English, or you can of course book a special 1:1 workshop with your favourite model. But even when you’re not traveling we have a brand new option for online education.

During the online workshop you are able to see all the setups via 4 mobile cameras in our studio and can interact directly with both me and the model. It’s just like a normal workshop except you can’t shoot yourself. To compensate for this you will receive the RAW files from the images I shoot during the workshop including the retouched versions to compare.

If you are interested in a workshop let us know via [email protected]
For the dutch workshops visit : www.fotografie-workshops.nl

But for now let’s take a look at the images I shot during their session.
Lightsetup is the Geekoto Lantern softbox
Using two ClickBackdrops backgrounds in an angle to create a small set.

In another set they used the Lindsay Adler projector as main light and a Geekoto GT200 with a blue gel on our Rogue magnetic system to create a nice glow on the background. I didn’t want to take a lot of their time so I just took a few quick shots, and somehow really liked these two.

 

 

Focus your light

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Don’t you just love playing with shadows

“Shadows are the soul of the shot” is one of those sayings I’ve been using ever since I started teaching lighting.
I never understood why people would use large softboxes and white backgrounds to eliminate every spot of shadow. For me it’s flat and not really something I love to look at.

Shadows can be tricky when you start out but in the end it’s the glue that sticks everything together and makes an image look more realistic and also creates depth. Of course we need light to create shadows, and the smaller the light source the faster the edge transfer (difference between shadow and light). In other words smaller light means sharper shadow edges.

But you can also work different with smaller light sources.
One of my favourite things to do during the workshops is using our Rogue magnetic snoot or the Lindsay Adler Gobo projector as my main lightsource.

The Gobo projector I will post some more about soon, but in essence it creates awesome projections on your subject that via a lens you can focus. There are also gobos with just a circle which you can use for shots like in this blog.

The Rogue magnetic snoot is a much cheaper solution. And the cool thing is that you can use it in 4 different settings, but also can take out the diffusion panel for another 4 looks. I love gear that is versatile 😀

Now when you start using these kind of very focused light sources straight on your model you can get some very striking an awesome results. Do be careful about the position of the model, this is a setup where movement is very limiting due to the shadow of the head. Wearing sunglasses can really help here. They don’t only look cool but also take the attention away from the eyes so you don’t miss the catchlights or don’t see the raccoon eyes 😀

These were shot during a session with our model Claudia.
Our workshops are mostly in Dutch, but if you visit the Netherlands and also want to visit a workshop, let us know a few weeks in advance and we can switch them to English, or contact us for a full day 1:1 online workshop, including model and full lighting in the studio walk through via 4 cameras.

Now you probably noticed something in the images?
If you only use the snoot/gobo projector or even a reflector with grid with a focussed lightsource the model will be lit but everything else will probably pitch black so for the viewer it’s not a nice image to look at.

This is why with these kind of images I often use one extra strobe with a Rogue Omnidirectional dome (also from our magnetic system) and in this case a blue gel. I place this under the same angle as my main light and a few stops below the main light (depending on the background and the mood I want). Now the blue gel will open up the shadows and when you point the strobe up you will have very soft (hardly noticeable) shadows and you can even include some cool lensflares by shooting over the strobe. And of course as you can see in these images I also experiment with placing the fill in strobe on the sides.

I call this technique light in light and it’s one of those things you can use in a lot of situations.

 

Using the foreground to add dimension to your images

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Sometimes we need something extra

We all know that when we want to show scale it’s handy to include something to show the scale.
In the case of a mountain we can of course place some people in front but today we are doing something else.

During the workshop “on location in Emmeloord” the challenge is to find locations that look not so interesting but still create some cool images.
If you ever visited our studio you know there always was an old building just in front of our studio, it didn’t look nice but it had some great walls to shoot against 😀 one of them actually made it into my signature ClickBackDrop backgrounds.

Recently they demolished the building and we ended up with a large empty building area.
Of course a great option for this workshop.

The lighting setup was pretty simple, one Geekoto with a large reflector shooting on manual mode.
During the workshops we have to shoot with so called universal triggers due to the different camera brands that are used during a workshop, this means we can’t use extra options like HSS and ETTL.  

The setup itself was ok.

But I wanted something more. Something to give the image more dimension and framing.
Because I’m shooting from a very low angel I decided to include a few of the flowers in the frame.

This already made a huge impact.
But because Nadine is pregnant we also needed a slightly different pose, and I slightly tilted the camera for a nice effect and include the sun.

I also shot on extra image from a slightly higher angle to experiment with.
I ended up with a darker look which to my surprise became the favourite image for Nadine 😀
So always shoot something different, you never know what hits the spot.

Now that we talked about the setups and the framing of the shot, let’s take a look at the video from this setup.

Also want to visit a workshop?

Today I showed you one of the  different sets we did during the workshop outside with Geekoto strobes “on location in Emmeloord” with Nadine.
During the workshops I always try to use 3-4 different setups explaining different techniques and of course it’s a great way to get a good addition to your portfolio.

If you think “that’s for me”
Than visit photography-workshops.eu for the Dutch workshops.
But if you are not living in the Netherlands or don’t speak Dutch we also have other options.
If you let is know 2 weeks in advance I can teach the workshop you want to visit in English.
Or if you can’t travel to our studio we also now offer the option to get a full 1:1 experience with 5 different camera angles, lightroom/Photoshop view and a talkback channel, you also get all the raw files and retouched results from the workshop. Visit our online workshops page for more info.