We get to see some snow pretty much every winter in Belgium but most often that is limited to a couple of days here and there. This winter we got already two pretty lengthy snow stretches (for Belgium). People even get used to it and don’t crash their cars anymore when driving over a snowball. I actually like the snow, beats those rainy, windy winters. But now the snow started to melt at a fast pace, I’m also looking forward to spring because I’m experiencing a bit of the winter blues. I need light, sun and warmth to get my energy levels back to normal.

Getting outside is the only thing that helps, so when fellow photographer Kristof asked me to join him and his friends for a short photowalk, I dragged myself out of my office chair, left all the work at home and enjoyed just being outdoors.

All the pictures where taken with just my 5D mkII and the 50mm except for the last four images, who were shot on my Hasselblad with the 80mm.

Last Saturday my wife was out on a hen party and my parents kidnapped my kids, so I unexpectedly ended up home alone. Since I received some new studio lighting equipment last week, I couldn’t resist setting up a quick improvised test shoot. I asked on Twitter if anyone wanted to pose for me and Lut, the wife of fellow photographer Kristof, volunteered. Thanks Lut for being so stunning and patient.

We started out with a Hensel Expert Pro 500 monobloc with a 150 cm octabox to camera left as the main light. A second Hensel monobloc with a softbox was placed on the opposite side. This second light performs two duties: adding light to the brick wall and taking care of some separation by spilling some light on Lut and the couch.

Here the main light is the Hensel monobloc with a beautydish. A Sunbounce micro-mini below and a pro to camera left, are used as fill light. A second Hensel monobloc with a softbox was placed on the opposite side to get a tiny bit of hair light.

For the last image, we replaced the softbox on the light behind Lut by a standard reflector and a grid. It was pointed to the floor behind Lut to create a streak of light.

I’ll talk about the how and why of the Hensel gear soon, but first I want to do some more testing. I also shot 3 rolls of film on the Hasselblad, if anything decent comes out of it, I’ll post that once I get the films developped.

Here it is, finally, the final part of my 50/50 project. The pictures have been processed for months but I just didn’t find the time to put the last slideshow together.

I must admit that the last two weeks of the project were the hardest, I really had to keep pushing myself to make some pictures and on some days I didn’t produce anything that’s worth keeping really. But then again, that’s probably the most interesting part of the project.

View on YouTube

After the last day of the 50/50 project I was relieved that it was over but much to my surprise I didn’t feel like putting away the 50mm lens for 6 months. I use it now much more than before. My 70-200 probably saw most action before, but now the 50 is my most used lens.

I’ve learned so much from this project. If I would put it all on the blog, I’d probably have to rename it to the 50/50 blog. I was also pleasantly surprised that so many people gave feedback and got inspired by the project to start their own personal project. A few people even suggested to make a book out of it and I’m considering to do just that. My idea would be to to show my 50 favorite pictures and tell you 50 things I’ve learned. Let me know if you would consider buying a decent priced (e-)book with that kind of content.

Thanks for all your support on the 50/50 project.

Dear Photography Industry,

I’m sorry I didn’t make you a Christmas / New Year card this year. Instead I wanted to write you a letter. A letter to my peers, my suppliers, my clients and everyone who’s in love with photography. This is going to be my fifth year in business, so by now you should know that you shouldn’t expect a scientific study nor a bunch of numbers and graphs from me. This is just MY letter with MY opinions, MY thoughts and MY views on a couple of things. I could add “in my humble opinion” to just about any sentence in this letter. I’m not asking you to take this letter too seriously. I’m not asking you to agree with me. I’m just asking you to stop and think for a couple of minutes.

Respect to Resurrect

It’s probably not common to give a letter a title, but I’m doing it anyway. This letter is called “Respect to Resurrect”. I know photographers who talk lyrically about the good old days when being a professional photographer was easy. But personally I have only known a highly competitive business that continuously changes and shifts in a fierce battle to survive. I don’t expect 2010 to be any different but why don’t we all approach it on the positive side and try to start the resurrection of our industry. The keyword to make that happen is RESPECT.

——

Dear photographers, respect other creatives!

Thanks to the internet and technology we aren’t just photographers anymore, we are also copywriters, retouchers, designers, marketeers, publishers, … We’ve even become film makers. I am the first to embrace all this. This is what I’ve been dreaming of since I was at film school. I’ve always felt that I was born way too late for my taste of music and way too early for the technologic possibilities I need to express myself. But let’s not forget that we all have our limitations, lots of those in my case.

Starting out my career as a screenwriter / director for television, video is a medium I’m familiar with. I’ve seen how small, cheap DV-camera’s and powerful home computers made it possible to shoot and edit video way faster and cheaper than ever before. And now I’m seeing how technology finally makes it possible to ad stunning movie-like visuals to the mix. The technology to make a blockbuster movie is within reach to all of us.

But having a 5D mkII and a laptop with Final Cut Pro doesn’t make you a film maker. Sure there are similarities but moving images differ from still images. Writing a script not only requires some talent but it’s also a craft that requires knowledge and experience. Learning Final Cut Pro is only a very small part of learning how to edit. Recording good sound is more than just plugging in a microphone. Directing is not just about yelling “cut!” Can you be good in all those things? Some probably can but can you do it all at the same time?
Don’t get me wrong, if you’re interested in video (or writing, designing, …) by all means go for it! But don’t think you can learn it by just reading a book on the subject.

We rant about uncle Bobs stealing wedding clients and corporations producing their own annual report pictures and rightfully so. But then please don’t start stealing away specialist work from videographers, writers and other creatives.

“Convergence” is here to stay. Different media are overlapping and I’m very happy with it, but that doesn’t mean we can be specialists in everything.

—–

Dear manufacturers, respect those who buy your stuff!

Too many manufacturers still lock themselves up in their ivory towers and by doing so are loosing the edge to those who leave those towers and turn them into a cosy bar where they can meet for a beer with their clients.

The bigger the company the harder it seems to be to get out of those towers. The giants like Canon and Nikon sometimes seem to reinforce the walls rather than making doors in them. Local branches of these companies are doing their best. I had great experiences with Canon Belgium and Europe and I know some people who had similar experiences with that other brand. But I also felt the frustration of local people when it comes to the rigidness of the worldwide headquarters. I just don’t understand why a company like Canon wants to take Vincent Laforet’s movies offline while they are probably the best commercials ever made for the 5D mkII and 1D mkIV. Is it just to show who’s the boss? I don’t know but it doesn’t seem like a smart choice. So big guys in Japan, listen to your local people!

I consider myself lucky to be able to work with some people and companies with a vision and I hope they can be an example to others.

Dear manufacturers, we photographers want to help you improve your products. We even want to help you make more money. But in return we want you to make the stuff we need and give us support to get the most out of it.

—–

Dear photographers, respect your clients!

One of the most horrible experiences I had last year was attending a meeting of a trade association where several experienced social photographers talked about their sales strategies. Like I said before, there’s nothing wrong with making money but hearing some of those speakers talk about how they abuse the trust of their clients to make money, made me cringe.

We all know someone who can sell sand in the Sahara but I don’t know a single person who’s able to sell it twice to the same client. And even if you would be able to shake money out of an ignorant client several times, what does that say about you? During that trade association meeting I felt disgusted when I saw those assholes being proud about how they do business. If photographers don’t have a very good reputation it’s because these people are ruining it for the majority of photographers who want to make money in an ethical way.

I know that my chaotic mind sometimes gets in the way of giving clients the service they deserve but the day I deliberately give them inferior products and service because “they don’t notice it anyway”, please punch me in the face, really hard!

—–

Dear clients, respect the photographers!

Stop seeing a picture as a bunch of pixels on a disk or as a group of ink droplets on a piece of paper. A picture = vision + experience + knowledge + creativity + equipment + talent. That is what you pay us for.

We don’t mind working lots of hours a week, because we love what we do. But please understand that working 60 hours doesn’t equal 60 times our hourly fee. Most of our time goes to administration, marketing, meeting you and other unpaid tasks.

Also please stop thinking that what you pay us equals what we put in our pockets. We have to invest huge amounts of money in up-to-date equipment and backup equipment to make sure we can make pictures for you. We also need a car to get to you, we need a studio to welcome you, we need electricity, water, gas, …. We hope you are able to set some money aside to enjoy life after you stopped working and have insurances and health care in case something goes wrong. We are sure you understand that we want to provide ourselves and our families the same security. And then there’s the huge amount of money most of us invest in our society by paying our taxes.

—–

Dear magazines and newspapers, respect quality!

I know, the last few years have been really hard on you and budgets are down. But don’t settle for a slow death. There will always be a market for quality. To reach that market you’ll need the courage to stand out and embrace new technology. Hang in there, e-readers are on their way and people are starting to spend money on quality online content.

—–

Dear amateurs, respect the professionals!

The words “amateur” or “professional” don’t say anything about the quality of the work. In fact I know lots of amateurs who make amazing pictures. The distinction is about making money with photography or not. And an amateur simply isn’t allowed to make money with his pictures, it’s as simple as that.

You don’t want to lose your job because there are too many people who want to do your work for peanuts. So please don’t make professional photographers lose their job.

If you want money to buy new gear you have two options: make more money or spend less. If you’re good, you can make money with photography but then you’ll have to become a professional photographer and cope with all the costs that come with such a decision.

But above all, enjoy photography for the art of photography!

—–

Dear professionals, respect the amateurs!

Even someone who has been a successfully professional photographer for 40 years can still learn from an amateur who just bought a camera. A fresh look at things can’t be bought by money. Experience and skill even get in the way of that.

Each professional should be an amateur from time to time. When is the last time you photographed just for fun? When is the last time you’ve enjoyed the freedom and creativity that comes with working without deadlines, limitations and expectations?

Team up with some amateurs and trade your knowledge for their fresh views, the fun and the freedom of doing something for yourself.

—–

Dear wannabe professional photographers, respect the professionals!

So you want to be a professional photographer? Then you’ve just signed up for a bumpy ride with lots of hard work but if you have the passion, it’s worth it. As a wannabe pro, you should respect what you want to become. Undercutting rates, dirty tricks and that’ll-do-work are not the right strategies to make it into the business.

Many professionals are willing to help you out but only if you don’t let them down. Assisting  is hard work but the harder you work, the more you will learn. Be reliable, don’t cut corners and exceed the expectations.

Open up and you’ll discover that a competitor isn’t necessary an enemy.

—–

Dear professional, respect the wannabe professionals!

Did you suddenly wake up as a professional photographer? I know, I didn’t. First I was an amateur, than I became a wannabe professional. A wannabe professional who thought that undercutting rates, dirty tricks and that’ll-do-work were valid business strategies. I still make mistakes that harm the industry but I’m lucky that a couple of more experienced professionals are always there to help and educate me about the business side of photography.

So have patience with the mistakes the new generation makes. That doesn’t mean you’ll have to tolerate it. Talk to them, make them understand the cost of doing business.

I strongly believe that the cake is big enough for all good photographers to have a piece of it. If you let the newcomers to the business have your piece, it’s not their fault, it’s yours. You are more experienced then the new people and have a larger client base, so if you keep working hard you will hold the edge. Make sure you stay on top of your game and you’ll be having plenty of cake for many years to come.

—–

Dear photographer’s associations, respect the current reality!

As much as I would like to see the return of the good old days where things apparently evolved in a much slower pace and being a professional photographer was a good steady job, things have changed. Many photographers associations are doing great work and are riding on the right waves but I’ve also had some experiences with organizations who seem to be missing the boat. You should focus all your energy and resources on helping your members survive and thrive in today’s and tomorrow’s industry.

As the world changes, our profession too will change. Look at the world from the perspective of your members but don’t forget to also put yourself in the shoes of their clients. Don’t waste your energy on desperately trying to hold on to the past. Fight for what’s worth fighting for.

—–

Dear photographers, respect the art and the craft!

The hardware and software industry keep throwing innovations at us. Photographers from all over the world show us innovative techniques and inspirational images. That shouldn’t scare or discourage us. All these new opportunities should make us happy like a kid in a toy store.

You should stand up for your vision, for what makes you unique. But you also have to open up for the vision of others. If you need to buy an extra ticket for your ego when you take the bus, ditch the ego. I’d rather have a stunning, inspirational fellow photographer sitting next to me on the magical bus ride of photography.

—–

Dear All,

If you managed to read this letter all the way to end, you deserve my eternal respect.
Have a fantastic 2010!

It doesn’t happen too often here in Belgium that we get a nice layer of snow that pretty much covers everything. And when it happens it usually doesn’t take more than a few days before it’s gone. So I did absolutely want to do a shoot in the snow.  I had this image in my head of a guy in a suit in the snowy fields. (Don’t ask me why, that’s just the way my chaotic brain works.) My friend David offered to pose so a couple of days ago we went for a quick improvised 20 minute shoot in the fields behind my house.
I could have shot this digitally of course but I’ve been dying to shoot some posed portraits with the Hasselblad.

Loading film into the Hasselblad back is getting better and faster every time. Only this time … ok it’s the second time it happened, I forgot to advance the film after it was loaded. No harm done, just some lost frames but I really need to focus more when shooting film.

Except for the picture above, all the pics were shot with the sun behind David. The snow reacts as a giant Sunbounce giving fill light everywhere.
The vignetting in the picture below looks a bit too much. It looks ok at full size but I really have to watch out when resizing these kind of vignetted pictures.

It was pretty cold, certainly for David in his suit, so we only shot 3 rolls of film. It’s amazing how many kinds of films that exist and all of them have different characteristics. Until now I pretty much bought the films that were available in local stores but I really want to start trying out different films to see which ones suit me best. One of the films I really wanted to test out was Kodak Tri-X. It’s maybe not the technically best film but I discoverd with this shoot that it has a lot of character.

It seems more contrasty and has more grain (which doesn’t have to be a bad thing). When I saw these scans I just had to think about Reservoir Dogs and decided to call David, Mr. White from now on.

And I promise I will post some digital images sometimes soon
Merry Christmas to you all!

Just after I published my previous blog post about how I’m doing with my medium format film camera, the doorbell rang. The DHL guy seemed to be a bit disappointed when “Stephani” turned out not to be a sexy babe but the last name of a fat photographer. I, on the contrary, was pretty excited by his visit because he brought me my new scanner: the Epson Perfection V700 Photo.

I did quite some research about the options to scan the negatives of my Hasselblad 500cm. Once I’ve learned to work with it, I’ll write a more in-depth review about why I choose it and if it is able to meet my (high) expectations. For now, I’ll leave you with some first impressions.

I must admit that I was pretty sceptical when die hard film fans stated that a well scanned medium format negative could hold it’s own against a digital file from a modern DSLR. But now, I’m not so sure about that anymore. I don’t have enough knowledge and experience yet to make a founded statement on that. Too be honest, I don’t even want to spend my time on doing scientific tests to find out what is best. At the moment I think that you can’t really compare film to digital in a completely objective way. It’s like vinyl vs CD, sure a CD is cleaner but the technical quality of vinyl isn’t that bad and it has something that digital lacks: character. Like cd (or iTunes), I believe that digital is probably the best option for most photography but film still has it’s place if you’re after that certain look.

But back to the Epson V700, here are my first impressions:

- The thing is huuuuuge, it looks more like a desktop copier than a scanner. But it doesn’t look out of place next to a trendy Mac.
- It all feels pretty sturdy and professional.
- It comes with adapters for different sizes of film.
- I read some horror stories about these film holders but I found the MF holder to be pretty practical.
- The MF film holder holds 6 square negatives. That’s better for productivity than the 2 I had on my old scanner.
- Preview scanning is pretty fast
- Scanning time at 1200 dpi is rather fast too
- Scanning time at 2400 dpi takes a bit longer, but I’d rather have a slow but good scan than a fast but bad one. I haven’t tested higher resolutions yet.
- I’ve heard lots of good things about the Silverfast SE6 software that came with the scanner. The more advanced version of this software is supposed to be even better but for now I’ll stick to the SE-version. There’s already way more options in it than I can understand. It’s not “dummy”-software (although it probably has some dummy-mode”. That means that I’ll probably have to go through a steep learning curve but if that makes my scans better, that’s time well invested.
- Last observation for now: I’m blown away with the image quality (I bet you saw that one coming).

I only did a couple of test scans last night. The difference with my old scanner is huge. Not only in the resolution but also in the gradations captured. In the picture above, the little girl was a bit blown out. I tried to scan it for safety, so I got a pretty dull grey image that would give me more options for some dodging and burning. But before the dodging and burning, I cleaned up the dust and scratches.
The image below was shot on color film (Porta 400NC) and converted to black and white, I also did some cleaning up and some minor dodging and burning.

Scanned at 2400 dpi the above image of my wife became a 5115 x 5010 pixel image. That’s a pretty big file hey. Below you can see how much detail is present in a 100% crop. I must say that I found that to be pretty impressive.

Now I’m even more desperately looking for some free time to do some test shoots with the Hasselblad.

So how am I doing with my new/old Hasselblad 500cm? Well, I’m still in love with that camera but I haven’t been able to give it as much action as I would like to. I’ve been so busy that I shot only 8 rolls of film so far (including the 3 test rolls before I bought it).

Here’s one more of the session with my lovely wife:

I also shot some pics with my 5D mkII and the 50mm lens during that shoot, mainly as a digital polaroid to check if the exposure I got from my handheld light meter were correct. Here are some of the digital pics:

I really want to do some posed testshoots soon. But because I just don’t seem to find the time, I played around with a roll of expired film to see how I’m doing with the Sunny 16 rule.

I also tried doing reportage style stuff indoors with a roll of 400 iso black and white film. Just to see how I would do when getting some meter readings every now and then, and then just guess for the rest.

I really enjoy the challenge the Hasselblad throws at me. It makes me think so much more about my images. For the first time in quite a while I feel like a kid in the candy store when I think of all the possibilities and things that I still can learn about photography like:

- discover what films I like best
- start developing my own film again and find out the results of different chemicals with different films
- learn to make decent scans (these scans are all done with my crappy old scanner, but a new one is on it’s way)
- try out flash with film photography
- …

For now on, I’ll try to learn this camera inside out but I’m pretty sure it will find it’s way in my work for some assignments (something I didn’t consider at all when I bought it).

Here’s the final part of the Mike Larson/Sunbounce/Calumet trilogy. But before we move on to the bride pictures, I’d like to give a big thanks to two new friends. Waldemar (or something like that) and Stefan from Sunbounce worked sooooo hard to make everything go smooth for Mike and me. While we were enjoying breakfast, these guys were setting up everything each morning. Waldemar (or something like that) is a former police officer from Kazachstan who’s normally in charge of manually bending German steel and putting it in the SunMover reflectors. We decided to call him the real Sun Sniper. Stefan is only 14 years old (or something like that) but seems to manage the traveling Sunbounce circus like he was born in that same circus. As you can tell, they are both big fans of Fotofolio.

In Amsterdam the weather wasn’t great but at least it didn’t rain. I felt I needed some air, so I decided to move outside for my speedlight/sunbounce demo. In this kind of industrial area, there’s lots of nice background to be found but maybe not suited for pictures of a bride. But the blue sky with some fluffy clouds seemed suitable. Backgrounds don’t always have to be vertical things. Don’t forget to look up and down when searching for backgrounds too. I needed to raise the fantastic model Julia a bit to get rid of the buildings in the background so Stefan and Waldemar (or something like that) went asking for some pallets at the nearby Calumet store.

Exposing for the sky gave me a nice background but turned the model into a silhouette. Sunbounce Pro and speedlight to the rescue. The flash was set to full power to get enough light on the model. We choose the gold/silver zebra fabric to warm up the skin tones a bit. The warm light contrasts nicely with the blue tones of the sky.

Thanks to Mike for taking these setup shots.

And here are the results:

I had an amazing four days on the road but I must admit that after the long drive home from Amsterdam I was absolutely exhausted. I’m still looking for my usual energy levels. Big thanks for all who helped organizing these workshops and to all the people who attended.

Here are the pictures from the Calumet / Sunbounce workshop in Antwerp. The day started with cold and rain but after lunch the skies cleared up and we even got some sun. It seems a bit silly to start my demonstration with the words “imagine there’s no good light” when you have this great low standing sun projecting the finest orange glow on our model. But because in our country a wedding photographer more often than not has to deal with less then ideal light. So I wanted to show in my short live shooting demo how to MAKE beautiful natural looking sunlight. So we moved into the shadow.

Off-camera flash speedlights are a good match for photographers who have to work without assistants, under time pressure and on a tight schedule in situations they don’t control. I think that’s pretty much the definition of a wedding photographer. Direct bare flash would be the easiest to use but it’s often way too harsh. Umbrella’s and small softboxes make the light softer and more pleasing but to me they often look just a bit too perfect. That’s why in those circumstances I often bounce the flash into a reflector. This creates the soft light of a bigger lightsource but it still allows the light to influence and be influenced by external factors. The catchlights also look more natural.

For these pictures we used a Sunbounce Mini reflector as this is to me the most versatile size. As you can see you can light a headshot to a 3/4 shot.
I often get the question on which Sunbounce reflector to buy: well, I think the mini (which is not so “mini” by the way) is a good choice for most photographers. I’d buy it with the zebra/white fabric (that’s what we used here). The zebra gently warms the light up without going over the top.

I finished my session with a couple of quick shots without flash. Just the sun as a hair/back light and the Mini reflector to light the face from camera left. Judging by the catchlights we might have used another reflector to fill in the shadow side, but I forgot.

It’s always difficult to get thrown in front of a crowd and perform some tricks but I guess that again is what wedding photography is all about.

For four days I’m being immersed in the magical world of wedding photography workshops. My favorite brand of reflectors California Sunbounce is doing a European workshop tour with the famous wedding photographer Mike Larson. I joined them for a four days and I’m currently writing this blog post from my hotel room in Amsterdam (btw, never every eat at the Golden Tulip hotel in Amsterdam). I’m too tired to write much, so I’m not going to write too much.

On Saturday Calumet hosted a workshop in Antwerp with Mike where Fotofolio and I also gave a little demo of how we use reflectors (pics are coming later). Yesterday Mike and our own Pieter Van Impe, joined forces for an orgasm of wedding photography information during a LIME workshop in “the Barn”. It was nice to welcome lots of new and old friends from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Russia and the USA.

Mike framed by Filip and Sarah during a live engagement shoot:

Mike even took the participants to my back yard for the shoot:

Sunbounce guru Peter Geller is shorter than the models:

Peter documenting the workshop on the left. A reunion of the Blues Brothers on the right:

Mike stresses out the importance of building a friendship with your clients:

Today the circus moved to the Rotterdam in the Netherlands. I gave a little demo of how I use Sunbounce Reflectors in combination with off-camera flash to create natural looking light. The workshop was held in a big studio that’s great for … well … studio photography but doesn’t offer much available light. I only found some small tungsten lights aimed at photographs and used these as an out of focus background. I lit the model with a single speedlight bounced into a Sunbounce Pro Zebra. We also added a silver Mini on the right as fill.

Let’s catch some sleep because tomorrow we have another workshop in Amsterdam.