Daytona

Daytona, a young girl with ambition in modeling. Once again we had some very bad weather in our small country and with MUA sophie Adam we decided to do a studio shoot.

As I am not into studio work because it does not trigger my creativity, i decided to try some stuff out with my 2 striplights by positioning them in a less standard position, you can read from the catch-lights how the where set-up :-)

I used a standard 20° reflector straight on the face, it is really hard light so for this you really need a model with flawless skin...

Manon in the springtime!

Manon in the springtime. (As i called this shoot)

Weather was almost perfect, a bit of wind to keep the models hair floating, knock over the reflective pannels and trying to bring down my light stand with umbrella, but it was great fun. Just me and the model this shoot, no assistant, mua or stylist just the 2 of us and i like working with this freedom from time to time.

Location was lillo near Antwerp and during the shoot we got shortly interrupted by some bikers, i guess they were drawn to the exceptional beauty of Manon and had a hard time controlling themselves in her presence, the smartest one of the bunch of course said the magic words "do you want me to hold that reflector", yeah right :-p

Montzen Railway station

Another abandoned but still very popular place is the old Montzen railway station near the German - Belgian Frontier, there's an old train standing there since ages, it's rusted and dirty but it makes a fine backdrop for many photographers.

Many photos I've seen from that place were made using only the available ligth and as I went inside I recognized this typical light you find in these kind of places, it has a strong yellow to greenish colorcast because of the dust buildup, the light really looks dirty to me and i do not like this look, so fire away those flashes!

For Tamara's shoot we mostly made use of my 2 new striplights (30x120) and 1 bare flash for rim or hair ligth.

The Tronix Explorer 2400Ws is our portable 220Volt power outlet for "on location" use (The striplights are mounted on 600Ws studio heads)

For the second shoot at this location (with Karen) I just used some basic strobist gear as this was a much shorter shoot and this strobist solution is just perfect for this kind of locations

Tamara Miesen and the Mu was done by Anays Onsia:

1 striplight on the left & 1 striplight on the right behind Tamara

Karen Dedroog and Mu was done by Fabienne Van Hecke :

Strobist info - setup !!

Falcon eyes reflection screen (ditched it because it was not easy to setup and replaced with the California Sunbounce solution)

Nikon SB-900, on the front, in the white (shoot-through) umbrella
Pentax Af-540 on the back with my DIY McGyver folded cardboard snoot for a rimlight

Triggered with the Elinchrom Skyports

The basic 3-point light setup (keylight, fill, hair- or rimlight)

Oostend!

These are some photos from my second shoot with Annelien hacha, the location is a semi-abandonned ship warf in Oostend with plenty of possibilities for shooting outside or inside, our choice to shoot inside was quickly made when the rain starting pouring down... again!

Most of the lighting setups include 2 rectangular softboxes (30x120cm) also called striplights, these light modifier does

not make your model strip so keep it cool! I also had a go at my ringlflash (again!) but the lighting is just too flat and i intend to use this strange light source on a light stand in combination with it's beauty dish, if i ever get my hands on one!! i Ordered the dish in December 2009, at the time I'm writing this down it's June 2010 and still there is no news about availability, i guess patience is one of the most important virtue for a photographer

Pink shoot in the nature

Second shoot with Angélique, had to hurry to get in Antwerp but arrived to late because of the traffic, had to go 'round through the "Liefkenshoektunnel", cost €5,50, so i arrived at 16:30...

The idea of the shoot was to go pink, i like pink a lot and so did Angelique!

At 18:00 her phone rang, she had to go home so we shot some stuff in about 1 hour, work fast! even faster!!

The Diva look:


The sexy look:


The naughty look:


The sporty look:


all done with bare flash for hair ligth (Af54-FGZ at 1/4) and a white shoot-trough umbrella (SB-900 at 1/4)

Rani #1

It was a sunny but a rather cold day, however young models do not seem affected by cold temperatures and i was wearing a lot more clothes than Rani on the pictures.

Driving 'round in Gent harbour i found this big concrete stuff, i loved the texture and the neutral color of it on a previous shoot, this time i added some color to it all in PP.

lighting info: just a white shoot through umbrella on the left, ambient is fill

This kind of shooting against the sun is something i've done a lot with my Pentax, now i decided to give it a go with the D700 and the 24 f2.8 (@ f:22) just one monobloc 600Ws @ 1/1 power with standard reflector.

I have to admit i preferred the cheap "star" produced bij the Pentax 18-55, but sharpness, resolution, contrast and dynamic range is far better in the Nikon so, get used to it ;-)

Something completely different, something i've wanted to try for some time, lighting against the sun, but not with a single small light source but with 2 bigger light sources, 2 strip lights (120x30cm) placed camera left & right in a safe lighting set-up as i call it.

Light is deliverd by two 600Ws monoblocs @ 1/1, with the light modifiers attached this gave me about f:11 on the model and with 1/250 sync speed this gave me a bit of control against the hard midday sun.

The goal here is to fill-in the shadow side and keeping the ambient under control, once you decide how you are going to approach the ambient part you know how much fill you will need from reflectors or other light sources.

I prefer strobes to reflectors, they offer me more control, i can place them where i want and it doesn't make the model squint or cry after 10 minutes...

Mercator, Oostende

Ages ago i visited this barkentine for the first time as a schooltrip, now i did it again in good company of Daria! I'd like to place a "thank you" to the owners and crew of the Mercator for the use of this wonderful location and a very special thank you to Vanessa!

Working in this confined spaces forces your composition and light placement, not easy but we tried to make the best out of it!