Don’t just throw stuff out. It can be awesome material to make clothing or accessories
Over the years I’ve shot some bizarre clothes and accessories all made out of material that you would never expect in a photoshoot. Ofcourse it helps to have a crazy creative stylist and model like Nadine 🙂 the images in this blogpost are a mix of styling by myself and Nadine.
For example think about some packing paper and old curtains
Or for example some Christmas paper
But also postal bags work
But one of my favorite must be this heavily inspired by the 50s pulp SF movies shot which is almost completely build up from paper bags
Staying in SF what about a robot all made out of cardboard
But it can also work with a newspaper of course.
Or what about handkerchiefs
And when we are on that route… Some toilet paper ?
And sometimes a lot of fun after the shoot with bubble wrap
And staying in plastic, what about some thrashbags? Not possible? Oh yeah it is
And finally (although I have loads more) what about using some plastic material and don’t use it as clothing but as background
What did you use as a creative solution?
https://frankdoorhof.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Nadine-open-dag-November-28-2015-30526.jpg14831200Frank Doorhofhttps://frankdoorhof.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/studioFD_Logo-1FV.pngFrank Doorhof2019-05-19 23:23:022019-05-19 23:25:03Wait before you throw something out
It’s almost time for our yearly UK tour.
Every year we travel to 3 locations in the UK with a model to teach a full day workshop.
This year we will do it slightly different because we will also be teaching one of the very successful “Mastering the model shoot : A-Z” workshops in the London area.
Our team for this year:
Me (of course)
Annewiek : assisting, filming
Nadine : Styling, model
So where will we be?
We kick of the tour on June 4th in London with the “Mastering the model shoot : A-Z”
This is a full day with a complete explanation of my workflow, starting the with planning of the shoot, the light setups, retouching, sharing and business tips, all in a very flexible setup with loads of room for questions and fun.
After that we will teach a full day workshop on June 5th in the London area.
This workshop was one of the fastest ever to sell out (within a week), but you can also mail us for the reserve list if someone drops out.
These workshops are small group workshops where you also shoot yourself and trust me… you will go home with some amazing shots and an incredible amount of information.
More info via : UK tour “Mastering the model shoot” June 5th, “hands on workshop”
Because London sold out so fast we added Manchester to the list where we will be on June 8th.
This workshop is also a combination of studio and outside work with Nadine telling about styling.
For Manchester we have 3 seats left at the moment so if you want to join register via : UK TOUR “Mastering the model shoot” June 8th, “hands on workshop”
Some samples from location workshops we did
https://frankdoorhof.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Nadine-April-10-2016-Doorwerth-0043.jpg9371250Frank Doorhofhttps://frankdoorhof.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/studioFD_Logo-1FV.pngFrank Doorhof2016-05-28 08:30:392016-05-23 09:11:16UK Here we come…. for some cool workshops
When I started out with model photography I used a lot of seamless backgrounds, and I think most of you do.
However the more I shot the more I grew bored with these backgrounds and I started using the studio walls and more and more and I was drawn to location work. Of course it’s not possible to work on great locations all the time, and let’s be realistic…. the background does have to have something interesting, being it structure, rawness (is that a word?), edginess (love that word, I always use it when I don’t know something else) and…. well you get the general idea, walls can be cool if they are cool.
At one point it dawned to me that if I couldn’t go to locations all the time why not get the locations in our studio, if you go through my portfolio you can actually see that a lot of my work is using models pretty much straight up or in front of walls. In our studio we actually painted all the walls in different themes and looks going from nice and dark to totally distressed with wallpaper hanging down and broken plaster. Sometimes people will actually comment on these walls and ask me when I’m gonna do some fixing up… until I tell them that those are sets and their response is “oh cool, I need that”… actually at that time I already earned my money for the workshop because in my opinion the biggest problem a lot of photographers struggle with is “seeing possibilities”. So if you see an old broken down wall don’t see it as something that has to go but see it as an photo oppertunity.
Our studio is pretty big and there is no wall in the studio that we can’t use as a backdrop, I always am stunned when I visit studios that are HUGE but have all the same color walls, it just doesn’t make sense for me, of course a shooting area for cars has to be one color, but there are also so many other walls, areas etc. that you can use and that are often left untouched, for me the studio is a working space and not an office (heck even my office has different themes, I hate plain walls I guess).
So what if you can’t do your walls like we can?
In essence all walls can be covered with wallpaper right?
So find some interesting wall paper like for example this :
If you are not allowed to do this on the walls, make “small” (2.50×2.50 mtrs) panels and cover them.
But you can also paint those panels, in this case one of our interns did a tremendous job I think, and as you can see it REALLY spices things up, the image in front of it is already cool but the walls…. well they complete it, and it really also helps to enhance the styling.
Indeed all the structure and blues you see is in the wall, we used a little bit of smoke to spice the set up, but the wall in combination with nadine her awesome styling makes the image complete.
But a lot more can be done.
Here are some examples of our walls in action 😀
Now if you don’t have the options for panels, or wallpaper or…. there is always another option.
Lastolite is a brand you probably know right?
They have some amazing foldable backgrounds with great prints, and the fun thing is… they don’t take up any space and they look great in a photoshoot. I always have some with me when I teach on location (just in case).
Here are some samples from the Lastolites.
Now if you think these are too expensive (man you are hard to convince :D)
You can always use a backdrop system and mount some plastic to it and play with that.
Or use some curtains
So the next time you grab your seamless…. try to do something more creative and start using the walls, areas of your studio etc.
OR….. well you also use seamless of course.
If you want more in depth tips and tricks check out my book “Mastering the model shoot” it’s not just on models but also has extensive parts on styling, your studio etc.
Also check out my instructional videos via this website (see the left menu), and check out my videos on KelbyOne where you can also find one on building your own studio.
https://frankdoorhof.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Sheena-April-8-2016-31615.jpg8921250Frank Doorhofhttps://frankdoorhof.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/studioFD_Logo-1FV.pngFrank Doorhof2016-04-30 06:00:332016-04-18 10:07:33TIP on backgrounds
In this episode of Digital Classroom a full 2 hours on alternative light sources.
A lot of photographers think you need expensive strobes to get great results, but in reality it can be done with much less, even lightbulbs, christmas lights etc. they can all be used for stunning results.
In this 2 hour recording of our live broadcast you can see how Nadine styles the sets and we shoot some killer images with just the available lights, no strobes 😀
You must be logged in to post a comment.