Frank Doorhof

Small spaces are limiting? … nah

January 7, 2016/in Visions and technique/by Frank Doorhof

One of the most heard excuses is “my space is too small for a good shot”.
Well you might not be able to shoot a model in front of a white seamless, or fit in a whole family, or make a model jump (although that could be funny… for the photographer, not the model,….. nah don’t do it), but in essence EVERY location has potential as long as you use it to the max.

In this case we used a small staircase that is located at the back end of our studio and leads up to the “stage”. Our building is actually and old “church” and this was where the preacher was standing, it’s a tight space but for me it’s always fun to shoot there.

As you can see in the following shots I used some smoke to give the scene a bit more of an edge, but I also used my lighting to the max by moving around my model. Now always remember that smoke acts as both a diffuser and reflector so the more smoke you get… well let me put it this way, it’s always different. Also remember that as soon as the smoke gets in between the model and the front light source “all bets are off” smoke will start to act as a reflector and it will be one big white out.

We used one Elinchrom beauty dish with grid from the front and one gridded (and later open) reflector from the back with a blue gel.
Styling and model : Nadine

For the next one I left in a bit more red.

But you don’t always have to use the same pose of course…..
Why not shoot one from the back for example.

And while you’re at it. Why not move around your model and get a completely different look?

As you can see with the same light setup and the same very tight space you can create something really cool… just think outside the box… or in these kind of cases probably inside the box 😀

Good luck.

Tip on using colored lights

December 30, 2015/in blog, Visions and technique/by Frank Doorhof

You have probably seen them in kits… color gels.
Most used are the so called CTO gels which can be used to correct colorcasts for example when mixing strobes and tungsten. However there are also the “special effects” gels, for example bright red, green and blue (and many others).

Now when I started out using these some years ago I used them on my black background to give it some color and this is probably how most use them. Later I used them (a lot) when working with smoke for that real “live concert” feeling. However they can also give some great results when you use them as accent lights, which we did during the last glamour workshop of 2015 with Jade.

Today some of the results and some more tips.

As you can see I did not just use them as accent lights but also to light the floor.
The main light in these shots is an Elinchrom snoot aimed at the face of the model and the rest of the lighting is all from the colored spots from the back (gridded reflector with gels).

If you start doing this, make sure to not overpower your strobes because in that case the nice tints will be replaced by blowout white areas and only sides with the original color, you can better feather the light slightly away from the model and use the light that way, the benefits from this technique is that you can actually get some funky lens flare if you want but most of all the light fall off is much smoother on the wall, ceiling, model or floor.

If you like these kind of tips make sure to check out my book “Mastering the model shoot” or one of our instructional videos (you can order them from the menu on the left).

Tip on using your area

December 9, 2015/in blog, Visions and technique/by Frank Doorhof

This time a small tip on the use of… a staircase.

When we got our studio there was this huge staircase in the middle of the studio so that had to go, for months we didn’t have any other option to reach the upper floor than by using a fold-up stair which was ok because the upper floor wasn’t used except for storage and I didn’t want to waste any floorspace by adding another staircase.

When our business expanded (this was before the new studio) we really needed to start using that upper floor and there had to be a staircase, so we planned one in the back of the studio, very steep and as small as possible, because this would be ugly and a waste of space right….?

In the end however we used that staircase more than almost any other set in the studio, when you think about it there are so many ways to incorporate a staircase in your set, and in the end we even made a whole set around the staircase.

This is the problem with most photographers I speak too, we sometimes just don’t see the options right in front of us due to a certain mindset, I didn’t want the staircase so the staircase was bad…. however when it was there I started to see the opportunities and used it a lot you might even say that if I knew that before I would have build it differently.

Anyway, the tip for today is very simple.
Try to look at everything with “photographers-eyes” try to see opportunities for shoots and don’t think “that’s never gonna work” somehow when you think that…. well it indeed will never work.

In essence I think there is no space where it’s impossible to create some “magic”. Although some are harder or let me put it this way.. easier 😀
Good luck and show me the images you shot in places where you thought “this will never work”.

For much more in depth tips and techniques check out my book “Mastering the modelshoot” or our instructional videos which you can find on this site under the video downloads.

How did you do that?

November 21, 2015/in blog, Visions and technique/by Frank Doorhof

In a new series on the blog I’ll try to show some images including the light setup.
Normally you will find all the technical stuff in the instructional videos, my books or digital classroom but I’ll also show some on the blog.

This time a high impact portrait with Nadine.
Shot during a workshop with a very simple beauty dish and a wall with wallpaper.
You can see the students shooting the same shot.
The key is the nice harsh lighting from a silver beauty dish that is not too far away from the model and trying to shoot under an almost identical angle with the beauty dish creating nice flat lighting for this setup.

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Small spaces are limiting? … nah

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Tip on using colored lights

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