corporate photography « Jurgen Doom

Custom8

3 April 2012 om 12:16 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie corporate photography

A shoot for Custom8, specialised in technology related to sleep research …

Custom8

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

portrait with Ranger Quadra Elinchrom by Jürgen Doom

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

Corporate shoot with Ranger Quadra Elinchrom by Jürgen Doom

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 …

 

Architectural photography – interior of a showroom

15 August 2011 om 15:53 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie Architecture,corporate photography,Photography

For an advertising agency from Eindhoven, Holland, I had to photograph the interior of a newly build showroom near Brussels.

The interior of the Mercedes Benz showroom has been exquisitly decorated by magnificent Philips lighting.  For their case study, Philips needed high quality visuals that shows all the aspects of the lighting of the showroom.

The images are made on a Nikon D3x with a 24mm tilt shift lens. All images are made on a sturdy Manfrotto tripod.

To be able to photograph in such a location is just a thrill.  All these fantastic cars in a rather fantastic setting is a real pleasure and a treat for a photographer.  Glad I was able to capture these images.

 

Interior photography of a showroom

 

Interior photography of a showroom

Interior photography of a showroom

Interior photography of a showroom

Personal drive – dynamic images for a dynamic duo

12 August 2011 om 16:42 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie advertising,corporate photography,Photography

Personal drive is a young and dynamic company run by two extremely healthy and friendly personal coaches, Ruth and Filip.

After they had seen the images I had made for Sporta, which you can see here, here, and here, they asked me if I could photograph the visuals for their website.

I teamed up with my stylist and make up artist Ans Brugmans for a shoot, which we set up in …. a gym!

I used about all my lights and equipment, going from a white seamless on a support system, my Elinchrom flashes as well as my Nikon SB900 flashes, all sorts of flags, gobo’s, snoots and gells …. but ultimately it was the willingnes of Ruth and Filip that made the images come alive!

All images are shot on a Nikon D3s with a variety of lenses.

All images have been photographed against a white seamless background, also the ones with a black background in the image.  Remember, if you don’t light your background, it goes black.  If you do light it, it goes white ….

This is the result, which can also be seen on www.personaldrive.be

Go check it out (and improve your health too!).

 

Personal drive.

Personal drive.

Personal drive.

Personal drive.

Fashion photography for Sonja Sonneville

7 April 2011 om 11:35 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie corporate photography,fashion,fashion photography,fotografie,photographer,Photography

Sonja Sonneville is a trendy fashion store in the vicinity of Leuven (Holsbeek).

Twice a year they need to have the new collection photographed (summer and winter).  So, a while ago – on a wet and windy autumn day – we photographed their new summer collection, which is now available in the shop.  So with summer approaching, it might be a good idea to go and have a look at their stunning collection.

We photographed the summer collection on location, in their shop.  In order to do so we created  a studio, complete with seemless white background, Elinchrom studio lights with beauty dish and striplights as well as small reportage flashes (type Nikon SB 900).  Ans Brugmans was our make-up artist and the model of the day was Carla Sonneville.

The images were needed primarily for their website and small catalog that they publish.  The images didn’t need to be cut out of the background, as the layout guy of the catalog would introduce backgrounds and colors himself.

You can see the images on their website here. And here are some of the 30 odd silhouettes that we photographed during the day ….

modefotografie sonja sonneville
modefotografie sonja sonneville
modefotografie sonja sonnevill
modefotografie sonja sonneville
modefotografie sonja sonnevill
modefotografie sonja sonneville
modefotografie sonja sonnevill
modefotografie sonja sonneville
modefotografie sonja sonneville
modefotografie sonja sonneville
modefotografie sonja sonneville
modefotografie sonja sonneville
modefotografie sonja sonneville
modefotografie sonja sonneville

Corporate photography – or how to make photos to meet your clients needs

4 March 2011 om 14:47 door Jürgen geplaatst in de categorie advertising,Commercial,corporate photography,Flashlight,photographer,Photography

As a corporate photographer, specialising in business to business photography, you need to be able to produce photographs that meet your clients needs.

In this particular case, the people at bakker asked me to come up with a series of photos for their new website.  They had photographs on their old website, but those were stock images bought from an image bank.  They wanted the same look and feel of what they had on their old site, but instead of “generic” photos of models, they wanted to use their own people (in fact, the staff and partners).

So what the client basically wanted was to have images that were fairly evenly lit, with relatively clean backgrounds that breath professionalism.  All the shots were to be made at their offices in Antwerp.

I had Ans Brugmans with me as my make-up artist and Jasmijn assisted me with the photography and lighting.

During the course of the day, we did about 8 completely different setups, having to change the lighting each and every time. Within each setup there was often room to move around and play with different compositions.

I used my studio lighting (Elinchrom RX600) in conjunction with my small portable Nikon SB900 strobes in order to create the look we wanted.  All images are photographed on a Nikon D3s.  During the day I only used 2 prime lenses.  One was a Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens and the other was a Nikon 85mm f/1.4 lens).  I prefer to work with prime lenses over zoom lenses because it is sharper, has a higher contrast and is generally much lighter than have zooms.  On an assignement like this there is no need to work with zoom lenses as you have both your lighting and setup under control.  Framing the image is just a matter of moving forwards or backwards in order to compose your image.

Of course, all images were photographer in the RAW format and post processed through Adobe Lightroom.

The images are now used on their site, which looks like this (at www.bakker.be) and which looks stunning (see screenshots below).  Website made by Van Katoen (Damien Dubois).

Corporate photography for bakker.be

Corporate photography for bakker.be

Corporate photography for bakker.be

Corporate photography for bakker.be

Corporate photography for bakker.be

Corporate photography for bakker.be

Corporate photography for bakker.be

Corporate photography for bakker.be

Corporate photography for bakker.be

Corporate photography for bakker.be