An hour in the woods of Geldrop

The beautiful weather with a completely blue sky was a nice bonus for yesterday's family photoshoot with two little girls and their parents. We went to the woods around Geldrop, close to Eindhoven, to find some shade and nice early-autumn backdrops. Of course I threw my car full of equipment while at the end of the day I only used one off-camera light.


My lovely assistent Marjon was so kind to take some 'how it's done' - photos to add to this photo series. 

Note that I am the one with the camera in my hands, not the father of the family in pink, who is testing his 'how to let my children smile' - poses (which is good!), but does not see that his girls are almost lost in the woods.

Next time I ask my assistent to build up my softboxes, so I can concentrate on compositions instead.


Here some results of the shoot.

 

How it's done...
The 'how it's done' photos are made with my Canon 450D with 10-22mm wide angle lens. 
The first two portraits are made with a 85mm/F1.8, set to F2.8. With this large aperture you have to be carefull that both faces in the same plane. Else one may be out of focus due to the thin depth of field. 

For the first portrait I used a bare speedlite (Metz 58), which gives a bit of harsh shadows, which I like. Also I can easily overpower the sun, although we are in the shade here. 

In the second portrait I added an easy-softbox on a light stand. The light is about 45 degrees high, and 45 degrees to the front of the girl. I did not pay much attention to the so called feathering of the light over the face, but the result is nice and soft anyway. The low sunlight gives a nice glow over her jacket. 


The last photo is made with the 35mm lens, set to F6.3. Already a 35mm is quite wide-angle, so the depth of field is quite thick. By slowing it down to F6.3 you can have all people in focus, even when they are obviously not in same plane like here.

Along came a spider...

Some days ago I noticed this giant spider (for dutch ideas, that is...) and yesterday I managed to find him back in our front yard. It was still in his deep sleep under the light. Digesting I guess, regarding it's huge size.
I took it to my studio and took some pictures. He surely didn't like the flash light. Whenever I flashed he started to walk faster. Well, you have to do something to be star.
Don't you worry: after the photoshoot I put him back where I found it. No harm done (I hope).

Click on the picture for a large version..

How it's done...

I don't have a close-up lens so I used a much cheaper Canon 250D close-up filter on my 50mm F/1.8 lens. Then you can get a bit closer to your subject. I used a white background sheet which I bought in the DYI store. You can bend it and use it for all kinds of 'product' photos. On top I had my 60x60cm softbox with flash. So the light is coming from right above only. The spider was walking continuously so camera was hand-held, 1/160s (fastest speed for my remote flash trigger) and F/20 for maximum depth of field. In my computer I made sure the background is completely white from corner to corner for a nice sterile look.
Don't you like the subtle shadows of the legs?

Portrait workshop (Workshop portretfotografie)

Yes! Now everyting is arranged for my first workshop portrait photography. Location, model, students, equipment and preparations.
Take a look at my website for more information. [LINK]
For now.... only in dutch.

I want to be a fire fighter!

Boys and toys... or Reds like red... or does every boy wants to be a fire fighter when he grows up? Anyway, I made this nice picture some days ago for a family potrait with red-heads only.

How it's done...

The photo is made on eye level, no flash and the carrousel is only spinning slowly here to avoid motion blur. Of course his mother is standing close to me for getting him to wave and smile. Never underestimate the spinning speed of a carrousel when taking pictures... I took enough photos to be sure I had a few good ones.
On my computer I darkened the corners to guide your eye to the subject.
Metadata: 70mm, F/4, ISO 1600, 1/2000s, no flash

Here some more photos, taken on the same day.

Business portrait Marielle

Marielle, owner of company Fairtrade-tassen, asked me to make some business portraits of her for promotional purposes. We made a nice series of photos, inside and outside the office. Both of us are very happy with the results.  

 

How it's done...

For this shot I used my new Canon 35mm F/2 lens to include a good part of the room in the picture, (full-frame camera). I set the camera on manual for ultimate control, and F/8 for a good overall depth of field. Note that with a relative wide lens like this one, the depth of field is very thick, which you can see in the photo: everything from front to back is sharp. A wider aperture could have worked here as well, like F/5.6 of F4.

Normally for portraits I use about a 1/100 sec (1/80 in this case), but to be very sure of a crispy sharp picture I used a tripod as well.

Exposure wise I used the above settings and played with the ISO to get the trees in the windows well lit. So, not too dark, not too bright. I ended up with ISO 400, which still gives absolutely noise free images with my camera. For a camera with a lesser noise performance I would suggest to keep the ISO as low as possible and slow down the shutterspeed instead. Like me, you would be working with a tripod of course.

Now, when I took the picture my subject, Marielle, was too dark. Therefore I used a speedlite (Metz 58) in a 60x60cm speedlite-softbox to camera right, 45 degrees from above and from the side. This light lit my subject well and bounced nicely through the room, giving it a natural diffused look, thanks to the white walls. Of course I had to move the flash a couple of times to make sure there were no unwanted reflections in the windows. The power of the flash was changed until both our subject, and the outside trees were all lit as intended.

Should I mention that all items in the frame, including the open window and spotless desk are set up with eye for detail?