Ranger Quadra – first impressions

18 October 2011 om 11:13 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie Commercial,corporate photography,Flashlight,Gear,Ranger Quadra,Uncategorized

For a very long time I’ve been wondering whether I would buy a Ranger Quadra, Elinchrom’s portable flash set.

I’m known for my ability to pull of almost any type of lighting at any type of location. OK, there are limitations to what I can do and often those limitations are often due to the maximum amount of power of my flashes. Since I’ve always got 5 SB900 Nikon flashes in my bag, I’m not that often confronted with aforementioned power limitations. By adding another flash I can often solve the problem instantly. Furthermore, with Nikon’s ability for high-speed sync, which allows one to photograph beyond the flash sync speed and use large apertures, I wasn’t really convinced that an additional flash set that hasn’t got these abilities, such as the Ranger Quadra, would add much extra value to my gear (and ultimately my photography). Lastly, when I knew I would need a lot of power, I would simply take my studio lights (Elinchrom as well) on location.

And that is just what sometimes created problems, as not all locations would have a “mains” to plug in my studio flash set. In adition, lugging around with 3 flash heads and stands is not always possible/desirable. Have you ever tried boarding a plane with a studio flash set? I wouldn’t want to dream of trying to do this.

So, enter the Ranger Quadra. I had a first good look at it at Photokina in Cologne last year (September 2010) and decided against it. Too big to be small, too small to be big was my impression. But somehow the Ranger kept coming back in my mind, especially when I was out there, photographing in bright daylight ….

Eventually I decided to bite the bullet and give in to what I should have done a long time ago and bought a set consisting of two flash heads, two batteries, two stands and two flash adaptors (so I can use my studio soft boxes, snoots and grids on the Ranger as well). I was also adviced by the people at Servix, where I bought the Ranger, to buy two extension chords of 5 meter, in order to be able to put both flashes as far as 10m apart from each other.

I started experimenting with the Ranger at home, in studio, which is a safe environment. I photographed a few friends who where so kind to sit for me for a portrait session.

portrait with Ranger Quadra Elinchrom by Jürgen Doom

I then started using the Ranger Quadra for commercial assignments. When I started out taking these images, I quickly realised how easy it was to use the Quadra on location and how powerful they are. Really loved to work with it. Images were made for a construction company (Suerickx group, consisting of Icopan, Cosenco and Building Services).

Corporate shoot with Ranger Quadra Elinchrom by Jürgen Doom

Thanks to the Ranger I was able to fully control the lighting and keep the contrast in perfect balance.

Lastly, I’d like to share an image taken for a accountancy firm Moore Stephens Verschelden. I had to photograph the CEO in a setting of containers. The brief was to photograph the person in the environment, with the environment prominent in the photograph. The CEO was lit by 1 flash head.

Corporate shoot with Ranger Quadra Elinchrom by Jürgen Doom

Could I have done these shots with my Nikons SB900? Probably yes. Was it easier to photograph them with my Ranger Quadra? Maybe, maybe not. Was it comfortable to photograph this with the power of a Ranger Quadra? Absolutely yes!

So, in brief, the bottom line is that from now on I don’t leave the house without a small case, consisting of two flash heads and a bag of stands, which allows me to work very comfortably on location. And comfort comes at a price, which I’m happy to pay for when it comes to lighting …

1 Comment

Photography for Ansul – fire protection

18 August 2011 om 17:32 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie Uncategorized

I was contacted by Ansul Belgium to provide them with images that could be used for their annual report. The wanted a whole range of images, from action shots to studio photographs of their products.

As a professional photographer specialising in corporate photography, you should be able to tackle a wide range of shots and situations whilst dealing with the most difficult lighting conditions.

Herewith a short overview of the “catch of the day”.

Ansul - fire protection.

Comments Off

Portrait photography – profile photos for social media

2 August 2011 om 15:00 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie Flashlight,Photography,Portrait,Uncategorized

It comes to no surprise that choosing the right profile photo for social media – such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook – can be fairly important.

OK, it’s a different story for when you want to post something via a private Facebook account. But that story changes a bit when you look for a profile photo to use for your company Facebook profile, your Twitter stream or – most important of all – your professional LinkedIn profile.

The people at INXCO were well aware of this and asked me to make portraits of their employees and specifically to use with social media.

INXCO is a young and dynamic company, active in the field of communication and innovation for companies.

They wanted tight headshots against a fairle dark background and the images needed to be used in a square format (which is the format of profile photos in social media).

All the images were made in their kitchen, against a grey wall. I used two different lighting setups by using Nikon SB900 Speedlights and Nikon’s CLS system. As for the camera, I used the Nikon D3s with an 85mm Tilt Shift lens (manual focus). All images are cropped in the square format, but I left one image in it’s original format in order to see how it also could be used for other purposes (print media, etc …).

: Portrait photograph for social media

: Portrait photograph for social media

: Portrait photograph for social media

: Portrait photograph for social media

: Portrait photograph for social media

: Portrait photograph for social media

(more…)

1 Comment

Real estate photographer in Belgium – a rare breed

2 May 2011 om 19:58 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie real estate photographer,real estate photography,Uncategorized

Real estate photographer in Belgium

As a real estate photographer in Belgium, I’m more often than not surprised at the appalling quality of photography on websites of real estate agents. Here, in Belgium, most people are not interested in having their property photographed when they put it up for sale. With a digital point and shoot you can do this yourself.

That, to me, is a rather strange approach. When one looks at the budget that companies spend to advertise their goods, such as cereals, fine garments, canned fizz or any other consumable good, it is rather odd that people put their most valuable good for sale with images that try to scare you away from it, rather than have you come over to look at it in order to buy it. But that’s just me, I guess.

However, there are clever people who see the value in good real estate photography. Solicitor De Jonghe in Ostend, for example, who contacted me in order to photographer an Irish pub in Ostend (Celtic Ireland). In a previous post I showed how I photographed the interior of the Irish pub. But there are also hotel rooms part of the pub which needed to be photographed.

In architectural photography I will mostly all the time use my 24mm tilt-shift lens, a perspective control lens. In fact, by using such a lens, one can control the verticals in an image so that vertical remain vertical (as it should do in architectture).

However, there are a few cases in which you need to look for an alternative plan, which was the case in the first hotel room we visited. Due to the tight space, I was forced to using a 14-24mm lens to photograph the room from the angle I wanted.

: real estate photography

In addition to that I had to use a couple of Nikon SB900 speedlights, in order to lighten up the room and control the shadow areas in the image.

: real estate photography

By using speedlights you can create a warm atmosphere in the room. This is how the horizontal setup looked without flash …

: real estate photography

… and this is how it looked with the use of a few speedlights.

: real estate photography

Hotel rooms generally have bathrooms. Nesxt image is the image provided by the hotel ….

: a bathroom, I think

I have no idea what they wanted to accomplish with the previous photography, but attracting a huge crowd certainly wasn’t one of the possibilities. So I re photographed the bathroom from a slightly different angle, including the sun peeping through the window.

: real estate photography

By using a few flash lights in order to control the contrast, I lightened up this bathroom as follows

: real estate photography

The flare, created by the sun shining straight into the lens, is something I personally didn’t object to in this image.

Shot vertically, this is what it looked like.

: real estate photography

Lastly, we photographed the room from a totally different perspective.

: real estate photography

By using flashlight we were able to create that warm atmosphere we’re after.

: vastgoedfotografie

Lastly, there was a second room which needed to be photographed. In this one, I used 3 speedlights.

: real estate photography

In brief, I think that, by using a professional photographer, one is able to lift the feel of a place and certainly attract a clientèle that might not have come if the place was photographed in what I would call “the belgian way”.

Comments Off

Dean Collins on Lighting – light and photography

19 November 2010 om 17:59 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie Uncategorized

Dean Collins was a master of photography. He knew exactly how light behaves and – more importantly – how to control light.

In this video he explains the principles of lightins and how to create a 3-dimensional image (4 diminsions in fact). Sometimes he goes fast, but in this 7 minute video he explains what makes a 3D image by using a light meter in order to create specular highlights, diffused values and shadow area’s.

His joke about the couple of mixed races who are going to get married is so witty and lastly his comment about shooting Ekta or negative film is painfully accurate.

Comments Off

Using Nikon SB900 speedlights for creative photographic lighting

12 November 2010 om 13:16 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie advertising,Camera,Commercial,Flashlight,Gear,Photography,Sports,Uncategorized,workshop fotografie

As an advertising photographer, creating images for clients that will make their products look good, I try to be creative with my photography and my gear. Let’s look at an example.

Image of a gymnast.

Imagine a huge indoor sports hall. Imagine the yellow/green illumination these sports halls typically have and that cast an “ugly” type of light on the subjects (which you don’t want, you want your subject to look good). Imagine the cluttered background one usually gets in such sport halls, which will destroy the impact of the image ……

Situation - available light.

As a photographer I try to overcome problems – let’ call them challenges – instead of creating them.

When I had to photograph a young sportster, doing all sorts of neck-braking, leg-twisting, arm-bending exercices on a gym device, I had to be creative to get a shot of it that could be used as a double spread in the brochure.

Firstly, I figured I wanted to eliminate the natural lighting of the sports hall. Using a shutter speed of 1/250th at ISO 100 on a Nikon D3x (24Mpix) was good enough at f 4 to eliminate the ambiant light. That means, if you would not use flash, you would end up with a dark (black) image at these settings.

Next step was to bring in the Nikon SB900 speedlights. I used 3 of them. The main flash comes from directly above me (on-axis with the lens) but shot through a softbox in order to soften the light. It provides the main light for the subject, but because we are working very close to the subject and far away from the background, that light doesn’t reach the background, so it remains black (or under exposed).

The last step was to position two SB900 speedlights behind the subject, at either side of the girl, and aimed towards her. Those light provide the rim lighting, which make her stand out from the background even more.

The image was ultimately used as a double spread in the SPORTA brochure as shown above.

All shots were taken on the Nikon D3x, using a 85mm f1.4 lens and using the Nikon CLS lighting system.

Alternative image of the gymnast.

Nikon CLS system is a fantastic system to work on-location. It’s versatile, works well, easy to handle and learn and enables a photographer to be very flexible in his work and quickly adapt to different situations and lighting conditions. I use it all the time in my photography.

If you want to learn it as well, I run workshops on photography and flash photograph (also for users of other brands).

More to come,

Jürgen

3 Comments

Brico Cover – Pirate meets Princess meets Photographer

2 August 2010 om 14:49 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie Camera,Commercial,Photography,Uncategorized

Photography is an expensive occupation. Children are expensive too. A combination of being a “photographer with children” is hugely expensive ….

But sometimes the two come together and work well for each other. Like that one time when I had to photograph the cover of Brico magazine, a 3-monthly that DIY-hardware store Brico publishes.

The ad-agency asked me if I could help finding children between 5 and 8 for an article about a grandfather who had build a “hut” up in a tree for his grand childrren. Ideally they would be dressed like a pirate, a princess, a “what-have-you” “you-name-it” ….

Myrte, my daughter of 7, just loves getting dressed as a princess and for Johannes, my 5 year old boy, being a pirate comes second nature to him.

And so it happened that they finally figured on the cover of a magazine. Mind you, for Johannes it was already his second appearance on the cover of a magazine. The first time was when he was about 3 months old. But the money I made with that cover has long been blown on nappies, etc …. So it was time to top up on some “money credits” ….

Cover of Brico magazine, featuring my two kids.

This image was photographed on a Nikon D3x and a 24-70mm 2.8, ISO200, F5.6 at 1/100. We used one SB900 speedlight (which we litteraly had to hang in a tree in order to get the right angle), gelled with a full cut CTO gel and complemented the lighting with a golden reflector. The flash was triggered through Nikon’s CLS system.

This image is half of a double spread that ran in the inner pages of the magazine.

So finally I’ve been able to use them to make me some money, instead of costing me money. But hey, that money has already been spent …. on a new princess and pirate outfit!

1 Comment

Portrait of a musician

9 April 2010 om 16:01 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie Uncategorized

Pieter is a pianist. I had to photorgaph him with a piano for a feature on “people and music”.

The images are photographed in a small room, using two or three Nikon SB900 speedlights as well as a soft box.

Portrait of a musician, pianist.

The most difficult part in the whole setup was to contain the light and get it exactly where I wanted it to go. In a small room you easily have a spill of light against the ceiling or the walls, eventually ruining the shot.

Portrait of pianist Pieter Smout.

The image that was used for the magazine was the one above, and the layout can be seen next.

Portrait of a musician, magazine layout.

2 Comments

Freelance photographers should earn 500€ per portrait session

30 October 2009 om 15:48 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie Uncategorized

I was recently comissioned to photograph a professor in philosphy at the University of Leuven. During the shoot, with my client at my side, the professor asked what kind of money I made with such a shoot.
Not really willing to give him the exact figure, I asked him what this shoot was worth to him.

He replied by saying that this 30 minutes session was probably worth about 500€.

I turned towards my client, who was standing next to me, and suggested we should “sit down and talk” ….

Later on, I thought about it and I saw a few possible explanations for why he said this – rather high – amount;

a. He looked up to me, the photographer
b. He thought he was worth the money to be photographed
c. He thought photographers were worth that amount of money for a small portrait session.

I invite you to make up your mind ….

OKRA - cover shot

Onlangs moest ik een foto maken – een portret eerder – van een Leuvens prof filosofie. Een interessante ervaring, bleek achteraf, want tijdens de portretsessie vroeg de man langs zijn neus weg “wat schuift dat nu, zo foto’s maken” … ?

Ik kaatste de vraag terug naar hem, vragende wat hij dacht dat dit waard was, zo’n portretsessie.

Na enig geaarzel kwam hij uit op de ronde som van 500€.

Ik keerde me om naar de redactrice die er bij was en stelde voor eens samen te zitten om over “het een en ander te praten” …..

Ik heb een paar mogelijke verklaring voor zijn – laat ons duidelijk zijn – veel te hoge schatting;

hij keek geweldig op naar mij als fotograaf (zie coverfoto)
hij vond dat hij zoveel waard was als “te fotograferen onderwerp” (oordeel zelf)
hij had waarschijnlijk het beste met de fotografie voor en wou voor de neus van mijn opdrachtgever toch maar even laten voelen wat wij fotografen waarden zijn.

Ik laat het aan u om te oordelen. Ondertussen ga ik nog een portretje maken, kwestie van de rekeningen op tijd betaald te krijgen.

Comments Off

Salsa!

18 May 2009 om 15:41 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie Commercial,Flashlight,Portrait,Uncategorized

For Linea Recta Media, a Dutch media agency specialised in corporate magazines (amongst other things) commissioned me to do a shoot of a girl who does salsa dancing.

The editor wanted a full length photograph of the girl dancing alone and dancing with a partner, with her face visible (or at least recognisable to the readers of the corporate magazine, in this case One! for Unilever Benelux).

In order to do so we met on a Sunday evening in “La Tentation“, a Brussels centre for dancecourses where we set up for the shoot. During the shoot, the salsa dance was in full swing, with litteraly thens of people dancing the night away.

As it was impossible to obtain the desired images with dancing people around my dancer, we had to move to a corner in the room. Another problem is the fact that you cannot just photograph people and publisch them in a corporate magazine. Should you want to do this, you would need a model release from everybody present in the room, which is practically impossible.

For the shoot I used two Nikon SB900 speedlights with a full CTO color filter, in order to balance for the avaible (warm) light in the room. I also used a long lens (2.8 70-200mm VR ) and shot at high ISO levels in order to capture the ambient light. My settings were ISO 3200, f/5.6 at 1/50sec.

Using the speedlights I was able to sculpture the lights on my model without altering the light on the background. I used two stands to put on my flashlights and angled the at about 30° towards the dancer. The lefthandside speedlight was about 1 stop brighter than the righthandside speedlight (in order to keep depth and dimension in the face).

_0d39432