Sunday, December 26, 2010

Winter !!

Thank you for taking the time to read this post and watch the pictures because we froze our but off to make these...

A few weeks ago i ordered a 7,5meter TTL cable because i wanted to try some things out with very shallow DOF combined with flash light, the problem with the shallow DOF is that with the use of very luminous lenses and large openings (f1.4 / f 2 ..) there's a lot of light coming in and this raises the shutter speed way above the max sync speed of 1/250.

All pictures (except one) where made with the 85mm f:1.8, nikon SB-900 behind shoot trough umbrella on a light-stand.

The flash can be operated in full manual mode while retaining the high speed synchronization possibility (or TTL if you prefer)

Above 1/1250 -1/2500 there is a significant loss in light hiting the sensor.

The strange thing is that when the SB-900 is in normal mode and you set the power level (M) to 1/1 aka full-power it takes about 5 seconds to recycle after firing which is pretty normal, but when you use the SB-900 in the high sync speed mode (auto-FP) @ full power, it takes no time to recycle so it seems to be using a lot less power...

(You could also make use of ND filters on your lens to keep the shutter speed low while using large opening)


(This one is ambient light only)

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Sharon B

Can you deliver me some pictures in "Boudoir style" Mike? Well we can give it a try I said ;-)

I asked Google what is "Boudoir style"? It seems to have something to do with bedroom photography, intimacy, hidden stuff you normally would not see, lighting style should look more like natural light, less "light it all" used in the more glamorous style of photography.

So high ISO 800 / 1600, wide open apertures 1.4, 2.0, 2.8 and normal to long lenses, 100 / 135mm to keep a lot of the natural mood and light into the pictures
































Monday, November 8, 2010

Loft

What an amazing location this loft, and the luck of having 2 beautiful models and the superb work of Doenja with the make-up, lucky me! (Doenja, Make-up artist: http://www.doenja.be/ )

Well Lucky me, Bart Henseler also got lucky on this shoot, I invite you to check out his results on his Flickr stream http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitbanger/

Laura Theys, window-light



More Laura Theys and even more window-light ...



















100% natural portrait, only some processing on the B&W contrast





Karen de Wilde, bathing in natural light, clouded, cold and rainy day outside















Hotels, motels and B&b ..

With the winter period peeking 'round the corner since a few weeks interior locations are more than welcome, so I've been shooting in a whole bunch of hotel-rooms, bed&breakfasts and sort-like locations.

The higher ISO setting of the D700 are absolutely welcome in these conditions ;-)


These are some results from a shoot with Anna Wegener, Mu is provided by the amazing Sanne de Wolf, window-light is amazing and should be used whenever possible if you ask me, just add a reflector to fill up the shadows and keep separation from the background






Blending flashlight with window-light is tricky business,


















If you can tell the natural light shots form the strobe-lighted shots, just let me know...

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Hey, I like those pictures



Hey Mike, I like those pictures, can you make me some in the same style? That's how this shoot with Steffi de Greve and Aaike make-up started out.

Once again we were in a hotel room, in my previous shoot I used 1/4CTO gels to enhace te skin tones a bit and warm up the feeling, this time I used the 1/4 Bastard Amber gels from Rosco. The difference is that the amber has more pink in it and will throw a very soft pink color cast over the subject, the CTO will be more orange. off course you can enhance this in post but never in the same way as shooting without the gels.

the walls were not suited as bouncing surface because of their color and shapes, luckily i had my 28" westcott with me.

Steffi wanted a lot of black 'n whites so I made her a few ones, I think they worked out great.





















Aaike & Steffi






Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Confined Spaces

Working in confined spaces like small hotel rooms can be very challenging for a good shoot result.

Wide angle lenses, no place to set-up the lights, not enough ambient light to have decent results, but after years of practice I'm getting into it, the results from this shoot make me happy and give me the strength to go on with it!

This shoot was with Laura Theys as model and Tina Calzetta as Mua, they did a fantastic job!





I used 2 bare flashes to light op the room, both with 1/4 CTO to enhace skin tones, next time I'll try the Amber gels ;-) ISO 400 and f:2.2 up to f:4, most is shot with the Nikon 85mm 1.8




Legs, legs, legs...











This shot made me think of those French actresses from the 70's





This is really out of cam, just removed the color information an boosted contrast a bit in Lightroom. It's done using one of the David Hamilton techniques....














Sunday, September 5, 2010

At sea



Had an amazing shoot with Katerina Claus, Mua provided by Sophie Adam




Location Oostend








Westcott 28" softbox





silver reflective panel



























Ambient only (slightly overcast day)




















And added the beautydish powered by the 800Ws ringflash






and here you can see it at work