Tag Archive for: Sony

So much fun with cheap materials and lights

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It doesn’t have to be expensive

There is often a discussion about what you need to get a great image. And often it boils down to “I can’t do it because I don’t have any budget”. Well, it might surprise you but 99% of the images I post are shot during workshops, events, and trade shows. So not really situations where I have time or even a budget to really use large sets. Today a blog post about model photography with cheap materials and lights. In our studio, we do use the ClickBackdrops backgrounds of course 😀

Experiment with cheap materials and lights

One of the things I love to experiment with ar cheap lighting solutions.
This can be a string of fairy lights, Christmas lighting, or a magic lantern.
With modern cameras and great noise reduction in Lightroom or Topaz, you can really push the creative limits.

One of the biggest advantages of the strobes (Geekoto) I’m using now is that they can be adjusted to output a very slight amount of light.
Because most of these light sources are very faint it’s great that I’m now able to mix strobes and continuous lighting much easier.

 

Setup

For this setup, we used wings with small lights inside. To make sure the lights show up you have to be able to capture enough light.
This can be done with a higher ISO or a longer shutter speed.
What I normally do is use the EVF of the camera in emulation mode. This way you can see what your setup in your camera looks like.
I would advise to set up with an option to lower the shutter speed. Often when you start adding the strobes you will find that you need a bit more light from the continuous light source. Especially when a model is uncomfortable it’s nice that you can quickly change the setup by just lowering the shutter speed.

Now that you have the perfect setup just use a light meter to set the strobe up to the ISO and Aperture you chose. And you’re ready to shoot *and probably lower the shutter speed.

Background

A nice dark background is ideal with see-through materials and lights.
But it’s vital for these kinds of shots you use a focused light source, in other word,s make sure you only hit the subject with strobes where you need it. This way the continuous lighting will have a nice dark background to show up and show their color and brightness much better.

I’m using the Geekoto GT400 with a Geekoto Quicky softbox with a grid.
The Quicky is a smaller softbox that has a very straight light beam and is great for focussing light on your subject, even from a slight distance.

Model photography with cheap materials and lights, I like it!

Model photography with cheap materials and lights Model photography with cheap materials and lights Model photography with cheap materials and lights

Check out this video about being creative with 2 models dressed up as Barbie

You can rent our studio and get creative too 

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.


Working with a scenic backdrop tutorial video

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A warm scenic backdrop

It is a great start, but you can do much more with that backdrop than just use it as is.
In the previous blog post, we discussed creating depth in a scenic backdrop and I showed you some examples.
Today the video we shot during the workshop with Felisa where I explained the lighting setup and of course, how we build the set.

If you have any questions feel free to reach out, or leave comments.

 

Check the Scenic Backdrop Tutorial below

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.