Small flashes allow you to work fast on location without much compromise when it comes to light quality. The new PocketWizards will let you work even faster with even less compromises and a number of unique extra options. In this workshop you’ll learn about TTL vs manual, flash above sync speed, hyper sync, … You’ll experience a number of situations in which the system can really make a difference.

THE DAY
A guided tour of the equipment and it’s possibilities is the perfect way to start this day, we’ll also take a look at the PocketWizard Utility Software. Then we’ll present you with a number of challenging situations in which the Pocketwizard TT1, TT5 and AC3 will make your life easier, your pictures better and your clients happier. We’ll test out TTL exposure for a quick portrait, we’ll stop action, we get shallow depth-of-field flash lit portraits, we’ll setup lights for an unpredictable first dance or event and we’ll find solutions for challenges that you face in your photography.

WHAT TO BRING
The new PocketWizards are currently only available for Canon or Nikon, so bring your Canon or Nikon DSLR, at least a standard zoom and your Canon or Nikon Speedlights. If you already have your own PocketWizards, feel free to bring them. If not, we got a Canon and Nikon set, you can use.
Thanks to the support of Servix & Partners and California Sunbounce, the studio is equipped with lots of great toys from Pocketwizard, Manfrotto, Lastolite, Chimera, Elinchrom, Sunbounce, … Most of these go beyond the scope of this workshop but feel free to try it out.

PRACTICAL
Location: The Barn, Dijkstraat 42, 1820 Steenokkerzeel
Time: 9h30 to 17h (I’m notorious for going over time)
Number of participants: max 4
Level: You’ll need a good basic knowledge about photography and elementary knowledge about using flash.
Language: English (unless all the students speak Dutch)
Price: 245 EUR excl. VAT (296,45 EUR incl. VAT)
Workshop fee includes teaching, model fee and a tasty bread lunch

DATES AND BOOKINGS
No dates set at the moment. Contact us if you would like to book this workshop.

The Speedlight Portrait Techniques saga goes on. In this workshop you’ll explore more advanced Speedlight setups that will make your subject look even better by using multiple Speedlights.  In a small group of maximum four participants, you can be sure of a very personal learning experience and a fun atmosphere.

THE DAY
We’ll start this day by quickly revisiting the most important basics by making a complete speedlight studio setup. This will also allow us to getting to grips with the challenges of using multiple lights and how they affect each other. Then we’ll move on to the more advanced techniques like producing beauty light in a couple of different ways, producing the glamorous soft Hollywood lighting with only hard light and some other rather unconventional setups. You’ll be challenged to bring all that knowledge into practice during a number of assignments.

WHAT TO BRING
Bring your camera and at least a standard zoom lens. Also bring your flashes, triggers and accessories. If you don’t have 17 flashes yet, don’t worry, you can supplement your own gear with some of ours.
Thanks to the support of Servix & Partners and California Sunbounce, you’ll be able to play around with lots of great toys from Pocketwizard, Manfrotto, Lastolite, Chimera, Elinchrom, Sunbounce, …

PRACTICAL
Location: The Barn, Dijkstraat 42, 1820 Steenokkerzeel
Time: 9h30 to 17h (I’m notorious for going over time)
Number of participants: max 4
Level: You don’t have to be a seasoned professional lighting guru to benefit from this workshop but a good decent knowledge of off-camera flash techniques is required.
Language: English (unless all the students speak Dutch)
Price: 245 EUR excl. VAT (296,45 EUR incl. VAT)
Workshop fee includes teaching and a tasty bread lunch

DATES AND BOOKINGS
- Monday June 25 : book your spot (4 spots available)
more dates will be announced later

Usually I paint with light but this morning I painted with … paint. You see, my hallway and staircase were in desperate need for a full make-over. In fact, my whole house is in desperate need for a make-over but you’ve got to start somewhere.
I can get pretty happy about good light but I never got high on it. That’s the difference between light and paint. Paint fumes really get into your brain.

When I started painting the top step of the stairs I started thinking about my first Tabula Rasa post about what a pain e-mail can be. By the second step, I was thinking about how beautiful life would be without all that e-mail and by the third step, I was pondering about what my ideal life as a photographer should look like. Being a rational human being, I dismissed most of those ideas because they seemed practically impossible. I told myself to be reasonable and to just accept that everyone just have to spend a lot of his time doing things he doesn’t like.

It wasn’t until the fifth step that the paint fumes dissolved the last bit rationality in my thinking. Levis, the goddess of paint, whispered to me in her soft seductive voice (she sounded like Patricia Arquette in True Romance): “Practicality destroys great ideas! Switch it around. Start from your craziest ideas and try to find practical solutions to make them come true!”

By now Levis has left the building and as soon she’s out of the door (watch out, fresh paint!) practicality returns. Luckily I still got a lot of painting to do, so maybe I will be high enough to convince myself to write down the things I really want to do and use them as the foundation of a better business organization.

disclaimer: if all of this doesn’t make sense, I blame the paint

Last week I was interviewed by fellow photographer/teacher Piet Van den Eynde for an upcoming e-book that contains interviews with a number of Belgian photographers about how they use off-camera flash. That e-book won’t be available for the next couple of weeks (I’ll let you know when it does). But Piet has written a couple of other interesting books. The one I’d like to highlight is “Making Light”.

Learning to light is a long and intensive process but when I started using off-camera flash the real challenge was to find information on how it works and what you need. These days, there’s almost too much information available for anyone who wants to get started in off-camera flash. The amount of information can be so overwhelming that it seems like lighting is only for rocket scientists. But hey, if I managed to learn off-camera flash, any 10 year old can. All you need is to get the basics sorted out. That’s why I’m doing my Speedlight Portrait Techniques 1 workshops (new dates will be announced soon). In his e-book Piet did a great job in focusing on the basics and explaining them well, illustrated with inspiring travel pictures.

For anyone who’s new to off-camera flash or feels like he’s missing some of the basics, I can really recommend this e-book. It’s available on the Craft & Vision site for the crazy price of 5 dollar. All the Craft & Vision e-books can also be bought (for the same price) from within their iPad app.

This e-book isn’t my first from Craft & Vision. I really like their e-book format. They are not full size books but go beyond what can be explained in a magazine article or blog post. I think the price is right and the layout is usually damned beautiful. When Piet interviewed me, he got me thinking of writing a couple of e-books myself. There are lots of subjects I would like to write about more extensively than would be practical for the blog and probably too short for a “real” book. So I might see if I can find some time in the near future to write a test e-book. If you have any ideas, hit me in the comments.

This time of year I get asked a lot what photo gear I take with me on a holiday. So let’s use my summer holidays with the kids as case study over a couple of posts to see what I’m taking and why. In the previous posts I talked about my holiday workhorse, the Panasonic Lumix GF1 and my good old trusty Canon Ixus 860IS compact camera. I also wrote about diving with my Olympus E-PL1 in the underwater housing. but the Olympus is more than just a camera for scuba diving.

In fact scuba diving isn’t the reason why I bought the E-PL1 and the underwater housing. I got it because I’ve always had this special thing with water and I got frustrated with the fact that cameras don’t like to get wet. There’s lots of stuff I want to shoot in, on and near the water without having to worry about my expensive gear. Kobe and Maya, me two eldest kids, are crazy about being in the water. So I took the E-PL1 with me to the beach to see if I could have some fun with it.

Kobe and his buddy Cedric had loads of fun, jumping into the waves.

Maya and Cedric also had a lot of fun posing for the camera.

At one time we were on the beach, heavy clouds came rolling in. While everyone else was scrambling our beach gear together, I went into the pretty heavy surf to shoot some dramatic seascapes.

On the last two days of our holiday Kobe and May took their first surfing lessons. The weather wasn’t very good but the surf was.

Kobe did extremely well for his first time on the surfboard.

Maya even managed to surprise everyone by standing up on her very first run on the board.

Here’s another one of Maya and one from another girl in her group.

And here’s Cedric with the surfing teacher:

The shot below is probably my favorite of this really great holiday with the kids.

You can probably tell that I’m really digging this h2o thing. It’s so challenging and I got so much to learn and discover. At the moment I’m editing a pretty extensive “educational” behind-the-scenes video of an underwater pool shoot. So if you don’t like my water stuff, stay away from the blog for a while.

Do you remember Pieter, that crazy little fat dwarf that used to be my sidekick on the LIME podcast? Well, he’s still little and crazier than ever but not that fat anymore. After a year of training, he managed to finish the Stockholm Marathon a couple of weeks ago. He describes his adventures on Run Pieter Run btw. And now – I told you he was crazier than ever – he started training for a triathlon.

A while ago, I blogged about my new personal project about water. Thanks to your input, I got plenty of interesting potential subjects. But before I actually start the project, I need to figure out some kind of style that I can keep fairly consistent. One thing I miss to guarantee that, is experience with shooting in the water and the lack of practice with my underwater gear. To partly solve that, I asked Pieter if he would let me shoot him during an open water swim training.

Pieter in his two sizes too small wetsuit and me with wetsuit, mask, fins and an underwater camera, might have looked slightly out of place at a swimming spot full of skinny teenagers in swimming shorts and bikini’s. But hey don’t we always? We started out with some simple portraits and during our scientific expedition up the river, I even shot a picture of a flower that we’ve just discovered. We’re not sure yet, but we are thinking of calling it a “water lily”.

I even tried making some grungy riverscapes.

I realize that for this project to work, I need to be able to do it with relatively little gear. I might be using big strobes and assistants for some of the shots, but I also need to be able to pull it of while traveling light. Therefor I really wanted to see what can be done with just the E-PL1 and one underwater flash. I used an Inon S2000 flash on a flexible arm attached to the Olympus housing. I’ll probably do a more technical post about the gear once I got a bit more experience with it. But the most important thing is that it’s a small, light and flexible setup that allows me to work alone, and move easily without risking my life and/or lots of money.

My goal was to capture Pieter’s swimming in action:

But then better … from a more creative angle:

Spending the better part of two hours swimming around in a river, really made me appreciate the magic of swimming surrounded by nature. So I decided to include more of the environment in the picture.

I’m pretty happy with the results and I’m pretty confident that I could make a decent shot in most circumstances. It’s just that I don’t know WHAT KIND of decent shot. While Pieter’s goal is to get fit and have the right technique to finish a triathlon, mine is to get to the point that I can virtually guarantee that I can make the H2O shot I had in my head. I guess we both have a lot of work ahead.

4 DAY+ MASTERCLASS

This full immersion 4 day+ photography boot camp will rock your world and challenge you like you’ve never been challenged before. It’s about technique, lighting, posing, business, post processing but it’s also about identity, ideas and vision. You’ll get to experience all this in the great atmosphere of a small group (maximum 6 participants), creative subjects and great food & drinks.

We have prepared a great mix of lectures, practice sessions, product presentations and post-processing sessions. At the same time, we have build in the flexibility to adapt the schedule to the needs of the group. Thanks to California Sunbounce and Servix & Partners, we have a whole range of toys at our disposal for our experiments: lights, modifiers, reflectors, medium format camera, …

Lunches on Monday and Tuesday are included. The two days we are on location, we’ll make sure you can get lunch at very good rates. Drinks are on me when we are in The Barn. The welcome dinner and diner on Tuesday are also included in the workshop fee.

SCHEDULE
We’ll start this masterclass with a welcome dinner at the studio on Sunday night, so we can all meet and talk about what you can expect in the following days.

Monday is safe portrait day. I strongly believe that a safe portrait is the perfect starting point for a creative photoshoot. It keeps your clients happy, is het perfect insurance for anything that can go wrong and it builds confidence for both the subject and the photographer. We’ll teach you bulletproof lighting techniques, tricks to loosen up nervous subjects, posing tips and much more. This day will give you a toolbox of techniques to get the job done even in the most extreme situations.

Tuesday will be all about lighting. We’ll spent most of the time in the studio to create both natural looking images and extreme lighting setups. At night we’ll have a nice dinner together followed by a lecture about the business of photography with some surprise guests.

On Wednesday we’ll be working on location. The morning will be dedicated to run-and-gun techniques that will allow you to make spectacular pictures in no time with a minimum of gear. In the afternoon, we’ll take “spectacular” to a new level for a big and crazy shoot. We’ll all have to work together to pull this one off.

Thursday morning is special request time. If there’s anything we’ve missed during the previous days or that isn’t clear, we’ll handle it. In the afternoon, you will be presented with a great subject and a challenging assignment. Before we say goodbye, we’ll do a last image review / cocktail hour.

FOR WHO
his masterclass is not for the faint at heart. This is only for passionate photographers who are prepared to work hard to take their work to the next level. If you really push yourself you might even take it to the level beyond the next. We expect a good basic knowledge of photography, your gear and your post processing software.

WHAT TO BRING
A bag filled with a DSLR, some lenses and a laptop are all you really need but if you want to bring lighting equipment or your large format printer, we won’t stop you.

PRACTICAL
Location: The Barn, Dijkstraat 42, 1820 Steenokkerzeel BELGIUM
Number of participants: max 6
Language: English (unless all the students speak Dutch)
Price: 910 EUR excl. VAT (1101,10 EUR incl. VAT)
Workshop fee includes teaching, model fees, equipment rentals, 2 lunches, 2 dinners, drinks at The Barn

DATES AND BOOKINGS
No dates set at the moment. Contact us if you would like to book this workshop.

BIG LIGHTS ON LOCATION WORKSHOP

Get your hands on some of the best battery powered studio equipment on the market for a full day of hands-on learning. Discover the power of big lights on location in a small group of maximum four participants.
If you need power and light quality, there’s no substitute for big lights. Rugged, compact battery powered studio strobes combine these qualities with portability and a high-end image. In this workshop you will learn how to improve your photography by using the big guns.

THE DAY
We will start the day with a tour of the gear and a discussion on how you can benefit from implementing big lights in your shooting style and workflow. Thanks to the support of Servix & Partners and California Sunbounce, you’ll get the chance to try out Elinchrom portable units with all kinds of modifiers like softboxes, reflectors, grids, ring flash and Sunbounce reflectors.
After a tasty lunch, we’ll start working on a couple of assignments that will push your creative and technical knowledge to a higher level under the Bert’s guidance. To end the day, we’ll break out the beers and discuss the pictures you’ve made.

FOR WHO
This workshop is targeted towards serious photographers who know the basics about lighting and want to learn more about using big lights on location.

WHAT TO BRING
You basically only need a DSLR and a lens. If you have your own big light(s), feel free to bring them.

PRACTICAL
Location: The Barn, Dijkstraat 42, 1820 Steenokkerzeel
Time: 9h30 to 17h (I’m notorious for going over time)
Language: English (unless all the students speak Dutch)
Number of participants: max 4
Price: 245 EUR excl. VAT (296,45 EUR incl. VAT)
Workshop fee includes teaching, model fee and a tasty bread lunch

DATES AND BOOKINGS
- Thursday March 22 : book your spot (4 spots available)

In this fully packed hands-on one day workshop, Bert will teach you the crucial lighting techniques to create stunning portraits anytime, anywhere. In a small group of maximum four participants, you can be sure of a very personal learning experience and a fun atmosphere

THE DAY
We’ll start the day with a lesson in choosing the right gear for the job and then we’ll proceed to an in-depth study of the most important lighting setups. Great light is all about subtlety, so during a number of exercises we’ll pay a lot attention to the fine art of flash placement, feathering, choosing the right modifiers and blending flash with the available light.
After a tasty lunch (included), Bert will present you with some lighting challenges and assist you on bringing them to a visually pleasing end. We will get you a great subject to shoot some pictures for your portfolio. We’ll end the day by discussing our images over a couple of beers.

WHAT TO BRING
You basically only need a DSLR and a lens. If you want to bring your own speedlights, triggers, … feel free to do so.
Thanks to the support of Servix & Partners and California Sunbounce, you’ll be able to play around with lots of great toys from Pocketwizard, Manfrotto, Lastolite, Chimera, Elinchrom, Sunbounce, …

PRACTICAL
Location: The Barn, Dijkstraat 42, 1820 Steenokkerzeel
Time: 9h30 to 17h (I’m notorious for going over time)
Number of participants: max 4
Language: English (unless all the students speak Dutch)
Price: 245 EUR excl. VAT (296,45 EUR incl. VAT)
Workshop fee includes teaching and a tasty bread lunch

DATES AND BOOKINGS
- Sunday June 10 : book your spot (4 spots available)

more dates will be announced later

This year I shot more communion sessions than I usually do. The fact that my own son did his communion this year had probably something to do with that. With girls, these kind of assignments are usually easy. At that age most of them love to pose and be a star in their own pictures. With boys however things are a bit different. At eight years old most of them really start thinking that posing in nice clothes isn’t really cool.

I always adapt my gear needs to the subject and the circumstances trying to find a balance between having enough technical options and avoid having too much gear that can disturb the flow of a shoot. Sometimes that means giving up some technical options to ensure good interaction, certainly if the attention span of your subject is pretty short.

Here are some of the communion pics of Kobe. I’ve shot all the images in 15 minutes around my house. Maya assisted me by preventing my light stand from getting blown over by the wind.

So what gear did I use?

I shot everything with the 5D mkII and the 70-200 2.8 L IS. This camera keeps giving me great image quality and the 70-200 is the perfect portrait companion. Thanks to the long and fast lens, I get good backgrounds pretty much everywhere. The fast glass allows me to throw the background out of focus and thanks to the narrow angle of a long lens, I can find many different backgrounds in one spot by just moving my camera a couple degrees. When slightly overexposed I find the 70-200 gives me nice creamy skintones while keeping the facial features sharp.

Lighting wise I took a single 580EX II with an umbrella, mounted on a lightstand. It’s small, light and gives me lots of options if I can combine it with available light. I can use it without an umbrella to create a sunny hair light or use it as a soft main lightsource.

The 580EX II is triggered by a Pocketwizard TT5 with a TT1 and AC3 zone-controller on top of my camera. Although the TTL works pretty well in these circumstances I shoot mostly full manual on my camera and flash for ultimate control over my exposures. After lots of practice I’m pretty good at guessing aperture, shutterspeed, iso and flash power, so I don’t loose any time with it. By shooting full manual the exposures are also consistent which cuts down a lot of time in post processing. The nice thing about the TT5/TT1 combo is that I can control everything from the camera and I don’t have to worry about max sync speed, as the pocketwizards will automatically switch to high speed sync when I go over my max sync speed.

It’s usually not hard to find some soft ambient light if you know where to look. It’s way harder to find soft light with the RIGHT DIRECTION. On overcast days like here, the biggest amount of light comes from straight above which puts the eyes in the shadow and creates shadows under the nose and chin. They might be less ugly than with hard light from above but they still are not very flattering. I often alter the direction of the light by blocking the light that comes from above. It’s simple but not always practical. Another option, and the one I used here, is to use a flash to give the light some direction. The first picture below is takes with only ambient light. For the second picture, I added a speedlight, to camera left.

As you can see from the un-flashed picture, I’m only shooting the ambient light slightly under exposed, probably not even a full stop. By adding a flash, slightly above the ambient light levels, you maintain the soft light feel of the overcast sky but you add direction to the light creating more pleasing shadows and sparkles in the eyes.

This might not be a spectacular dramatic technique but it helps to keep a rather natural soft feel to the portraits.