Tag Archive for: tips

3 free webinars this week

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Busy week with 3 very special webinars 🙂
And make sure to check out these, because we have some special surprises.

 

First up tonight is :
X-rite
http://www.xrite.com/top_services.aspx?eventId=1655

 

 

Right after that it’s a webinar for Peachpit about my new book
http://www.peachpit.com/promotions/peachpit-photo-club-137633

 

 

And finally on Thursday it’s time for DxO:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3642620804921329922

 

 

Now normally with webinars you watch a screenshare…… Well I hate the normally thing 🙂
So for these webinars we will be doing it slightly different, at the moment we’re setting up several cameras in our studio to also include a liveshoot on Tuesday, and probably also on Thursday.
So make sure you register and watch, it’s gonna be fun 🙂

Marie Oktober 10 2013 CameraNU (34 of 38)-Edit

Blowing out

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We all know the white backgrounds, but to be honest I think they have had their longest time.
Now a days for example I just love the light grey backgrounds a lot more… we still use a white background for this but we just don’t light it, creating a very nice modern look. However if you still want to play with white why not try the following.

 

Normally we meter the model incident and add 2.5-3 stops to the background (metered reflective) to create a really nice white background without blowing out details like hair.
In the following shots I did something else, and I really like this technique. Instead of using a strobe as main light I just use the strobes on the white background and meter towards the camera (incident) to get a “correct” exposure on the face of the model. The main light source in this case is in fact the whole studio, or in other words all the light that scattered around the studio and reaches the model from the front. This will result in a very blown out background really wrapping around our model as you can see here :

Manon November 22 2013-92-EditNow if the effect is a bit too strong you can always lower the exposure a bit on the the model or move the model further away from the background.

 

This technique also works very nice for portraits, but watch out with models with really light blond hair 🙂

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One background… many options

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During one of the workshops we decided it would be interesting to see what you can actually do with one background.
The only thing we changed was the light and the retouching process.
So the next time you think that you don’t know what to do with your backgrounds anymore… think about this post and start experimenting with the position of light, retouching etc.
I do have to add that we choose the pink background because this is a very strong color and actually much harder to “cover up” than for example gray or white.

Lenaa_-617-Edit

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The glamour pose

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One pose I can’t get enough off is the ones you see in this post.
A lot of people ask me for a glamour shot but often the models are not experienced models so posing can be a bit difficult. With this pose you can really work some magic with inexperienced models, now add a really good model and you have (well at least in my opinion) a great powerful shot.

 

The trick is to shoot this from a low angle and as wide open as possible, you could for example only use the modeling lights from the strobes if you have too much power. I used a very narrow beam of light by using a reflector with grid, but the same pose actually also works really good in hotel rooms (on the bed/floor etc.) with broad natural light.

 

The main thing you have to take care of is the way the “angle” works, find the curves in the body and let the model play with her arms and chin, I like the pose best when there is a lot of tension in the body of the model.

 

So the next time you are asked for a powerful “glamour shot” think about this one.
Good luck.

Marie November 21 2013-130-Edit

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