Setting up a photo studio in a client’s office is often a lot of work, but I really appreciate that my clients uses their own people and places to create stock photography-looking photos instead of buying generic ones.
In many ways, it is easy to follow the stock photo recipe, and it creates photos that are easy to use for my clients. This day, we did four different settings, and the “discussion between colleagues at the coffee bar” was one of them.
The problem was the rain pouring down outside with heavy grey skies and almost no natural light to use to get ambient light into the scene.
See the Behind The Scenes and more…
I have just recently starting using umbrellas in my lighting setups, but that was not the case before Profoto released their XL line. First I bought two Umbrella XL Silver (together with front diffusers). They have proven to be very useful for easy on-location lighting of both individual portraits as well as smaller group shots.
This spring, I added an Umbrella XL Translucent to my equipment bag, mostly to use as a very soft and big fill light that didn’t take too much space in my equipment bag. Not needning to pack so many softboxes and especially speedrings makes a lot of difference when shooting on location. I carry everything myself.
The big umbrella works just fine in the studio too…
Finally I have bought a Profoto Ring Flash, together with a PR Widesoft Reflector. I got both used at two different stores last week, by pure luck, and payed a little more than half the price they cost new. So I am happy.
Having only used the Orbis for my Speedlights before (mostly for fun portraits of my kids), this is a big step for me. I have tried using the Orbis in the studio, but never really gotten any good results. This was completely different, and quite difficult.
[Read the full post here…]
Before the summer, I was hired by one of Sweden’s largest online book stores to make seven different still life product photographs for the marketing of a new ebook-reader called Letto.
The idea was not to have the reader stand alone, we planned to build some kind of environment with small still life things around it with the product standing in the center, all with different themes.
My original idea for the lighting was not at all like the final images, but just being a part of the process was interesting and rewarding, even if my ideas and preparations had to be modified to fit in with the clients needs and wants. Or rather, it all changed course during the day and we ended up with a different result.
[Read the full post here…]
Spending a small amount of money on props can make a studio portrait a little bit more interesting, in this case black bamboo blinds from IKEA together with a fantastic model and a gelled background light.
It might not fool anyone to think it was shot in some fancy location on Bermudas, but it beats using the same grey background over and over again. And it took me no longer to set up than any ordinary portrait I do.
Behind the scenes from the fake sunset…
