These are the shots I finally made after I used my brother as a stand-in for a few tests shots (see previous post). Roger is such a shy person and I was only allowed to photograph him whilst he was reading his newspaper ….
Roger
Roger
Ranger Quadra – first impressions
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 …
Portrait photos for profile image on social media
I have recently written a blog post about the quality of profile photographs for LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. You can find it here.
Recently I was contacted via the contact page of my website by …. my spouse! She asked me if she could make an appointment for a portrait session in order to get photographs for social media. Since my wife has access to my calender, she proposed a day and time I was available. So there was no possible escape for me … ! Photographing people who are close to you is even more difficult than photographing people who are not in your circle of relatives and friends …
Nonetheless, herewith a selection of images, shot on Nikon D3, 85mm 1.4 at f/4, 1/250. I used 3 flashes (Nikon SB900) using Nikon’s CLS system.
- Portrait and profile photograph for social network sites
- Portrait and profile photo for social media
- Portrait and profile photo for social media
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Photography for Ansul – fire protection
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.
Ansul - fire protection.
Ansul - fire protection.
Ansul - fire protection.
Ansul - fire protection.
Ansul - fire protection.
Ansul - fire protection.
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Architectural photography – interior of a showroom
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
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Personal drive – dynamic images for a dynamic duo
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.
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Portrait photography – profile photos for social media
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
Real estate photographer in Belgium – a rare breed
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”.
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