Tag Archive for: technique

Workshop results smoke and props and tips for smoke machines

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Today some of the results from the workshop “smoke and props” with Esther.
This was the first time we used a totally new set painted by our intern Angela.

 

For the workshops we always try to come up with new ideas and sets and I this time we decided to go for the color red, which is found back in the set, the clothing and of course the props used in the set. As you can also see building a set doesn’t have to be difficult, it’s important that you create a certain “look/Atmosphere” and it will transport the viewer to that place, while in fact…. well it’s just in your studio (or home).

 

Smoke for me is often the magic ingredient, adding it always transforms a set from OK to wow, but that’s very personal.
This workshop did proof by the way why I always advise to have two smoke machines at hand…. one of them broke down and because we always have two we could continue the workshop and luckily for us our neighbor rents also smoke machines so we could actually continue with two, seeing the price of most smoke machines (below $100.00) I think you should never ever run the risk of having to stop or cancel a session due to equipment failure.

 

Now which smoke machine should you buy?
Get the once that are WATER based, don’t go for the OIL based ones.
The oil ones do start up quicker but they can “kill” your strobes.

 

Except the tinting and sharpening these shots are pretty much straight out of the camera. We used several strobes to light the scene and the model and the shutter was used to let in the ambient light from the chandelier and the lights on the branches.

Esther Keuze May 16 2015 0221

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Radio triggers and if they don’t work

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Radio triggers are awesome, they will trigger your strobes without needing a “line of sight” and they should work for 99% of the shots without a problem, so in theory one could say “you never loose a shot with radio triggers”, but……… sometimes there are problems.
Problem with your radio triggers?
We hear this a lot, people having trouble with their radio triggers in the studio or on location, here are some tips we found out can make a HUGE difference.

 

1. WiFi
This is the biggest problem.
If you have a lot of WiFi traffic in your area this can interfere with your system, in fact we installed a WiFi security camera and this rendered our complete setup almost useless, we changed the camera from WiFi to wired and everything worked again.


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2. Antenna
They are not there for show, make sure to aim them up and you will get that little bit of extra range.

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Tethering

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Shooting tethered is without a doubt something I always try to do, when in the studio or on location. So here some tips for making that experience easier.

Yvonne PTO workshops (504) February 05, 2015-Edit

1. the right laptop
make sure you choose a laptop that is durable and make sure you use a protective case. My laptop is often used in locations where it’s easy to scratch and I always use cases on the top and bottom, these cases retail for 25-50 euros and really make sure the laptop stays brand new. A good brand is for example Specks.

As my laptop I’m now back at the MacBookPro 15″, the 13″ was great but for me a bit too slow when working with loads of larger files, also the extra screen size is very nice.

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Posing tip….

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Books have been written about posing, so called posing guides… and although they might work for a base I always believe it’s better to do something really creative when you are working with your models. Often it’s not that there is a 123 solution that always works, every model is different and has different poses that work for him/her so try to approach each shoot with that in mind.

 
For example in this shot with Marie we choose for a pose not every model can pull off, and although it looked liked the posed very relaxed I can tell you that this is literally a split second shot, so time it correctly. but when you get it “right” you can end up with some pretty interesting results.
Marie 1 Maart 2008 workshop-12

For much more in depth information on model photography check out my book “Mastering the model shoot” (now also in Chinese :D) or visit www.frankdoorhof.com for instructional videos and daily updates, or check out my videos on www.kelbyone.com