The wait is almost over … we are almost there. If we don’t encounter any unexpected setbacks my lighting DVD should be available by the end of this month. I’ve been thinking, writing, studying, testing and investigating the content of this DVD ever since I got the idea to do a DVD a few years ago. I’ve been analyzing what information photographers really need to bring their lighting to a whole new level. And I’ve been working very hard to find the best form of getting that information and vision across.
And even then, it took Pieter and me many months of hard work to plan, shoot and edit all this together. Right now we are editing like crazy to get the final details right. I’m extremely happy and proud about the way it all comes together in the editing booth. So I’m very excited that it will be available really soon now.
Here’s another sneak peek that will give you an idea of what we got out of our first days of recording.
We are flooded with questions about the DVD, so let me give you some answers:
- The DVD is in English (or at least my interpretation of English).
- We are still editing but the final result will run somewhere between two and three hours. The biggest part is about lighting but there will be also some sections on gear and postprocessing. We also tried to squeeze in as much small practical tips as possible.
- We’ll offer the DVD as a download. That way you can access your purchase immediately and we avoid having to ask a higher price to cover costs like handling, disks, packaging, shipping, taxes, … We also shot everything in High Definiton and with the download you can enjoy the full quality. For those who want to have a physical disc, we’ll offer a slightly more expensive download + double DVD version. So as long as you have an internet account and a credit card, you can buy it anywhere in the world.
- We still need to finalize some last calculations but the final price for the download version of the DVD will be around 125 EUR / 175 USD
- We are honored that so many of you want to preorder but since you can have immediate access to the download, there’s no need to preorder.
If you have any more questions about the DVD, I’ll be happy to answer them in the comments.
For the last couple of months I’ve been working countless hours on an instructional DVD about lighting. This week we entered the final post processing stage and I’m very thrilled to see all the hard work come together in the editing suite. The DVD should be available worldwide in a couple of weeks. In the mean time, let’s entertain you with some outtakes/bloopers:
The idea of doing a DVD has been ripening for about two years now. I didn’t want to start it head over heels. Instead I’ve been writing and rewriting the script many times just to make sure that it’s a useful addition to the lighting videos that are already out there.
Here are already a couple of shots we made for the DVD.
You’ve already seen the digital shots of my improvised test shoot with Lut. The main goal of this shoot was to test my new lights and modifiers. For that kind of stuff, the instant feedback of digital is certainly very convenient. But I couldn’t resist quickly shooting a couple of rolls of film with the Hasselblad. The pictures didn’t completely came out like I hoped for, but hey, that’s what test shoots are for.
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.
There, I did it, I bought a Hasselblad 500 c/m. Paying good money for a camera that was produced the year I was born, might not seem like a wise business decision. But I believe that an irrational decision every now and then is a very wise thing to do. I don’t KNOW what this strange square box will bring me but I FEEL that it’s going to help me become a better photographer. I bought it out of the love for photography, so it seemed perfect to have my lovely wife Nancy on the other side of the camera for a first Hasselblad photoshoot.
These are the results from the first roll of film (Ilford HP5 plus 400). I will do some experiments with flash soon, but I wanted to use the limited available light on this grey day. I struggle a lot with the controls of this camera. It’s so different from a DSLR but at the same time it also feels rather natural. I’m sure it will become easier soon but I’m already loving it. The huge square viewfinder, using a handheld lightmeter, focusing manually, having only 12 shots before loading a new roll of film (which takes like half a day for me), … it all helps to photograph in a very different way: slower, with more attention to composition and detail.
Having to wait at least a day for developing the film is annoying and great at the same time. I’m used to the instant feedback of digital but the feeling of anticipation when finally looking at the negatives has it’s charm too.
I’m aware that medium format film should be able to give me some very decent image quality. The problem is that a good scan is pretty expensive. I must say that I was pretty surprised (and not in a positive way) when I found out how much my lab charges for the not impressive 1500 pixel scans of the 2 test rolls I shot last week. So I dug out my old Epson 1240U flatbed scanner and tried to scan the negatives myself. I couldn’t find the MF film holder, so I had to lay the film straight on the glass and that gave me some distortion. I’ll try to find it or improvise something. It’s an old scanner but I found the results to be on par with the low res lab scans. Good enough for internet use for the moment.
I loved it, I really loved it and I was so happy I could photograph the most beautiful woman in the world with it. We shot one more roll of black and white film and one roll of color film. I haven’t scanned them yet but if there are some decent shots there, I’ll show them to you.
Not much happening on this blog lately and I’m sorry about that. Let me fill you in on why it’s been so slow here.
For starters there’s the usual work that takes up a considerable amount of time and next to that I’m involved in two big projects. The first one is the studio, I’ve been working my ass off trying to finally get my playground ready. I’m sure it will be a work in progress for the next couple of years but I want it very soon in a state of readiness that allows me to work in it without any limitations. The upstairs part has been usable for a while but as long as there are ongoing construction works in the building, it requires quite a bit of cleaning before I can shoot. And then still, I have to greet everyone with the words “Don’t mind the mess”. And I’m tired of that stuff.
Deadlines in the distant future have never worked for me, I need pressure to be productive, so I set myself some crazy deadlines to finish the studio. In the past few weeks I’ve been working out pretty much every night in the studio. I demolished some old ugly walls and a ceiling, I did a great deal of cleaning and then went on to the finishing touches. The floors upstairs got their final layer of varnish and downstairs we’ve been painting the walls. In the mean time we also filled a container up to the brim with debris from almost a year of construction work. Still to do: a second layer of paint, even out and paint the floor, paint the doors and install the kitchen. And then it’s time to put in furniture, hang prints, … It’s exciting to get have the finish line in sight and luckily I can count on some great friends to help me out.
About two weeks ago (wall demolishing time), Sofie asked me if she could photograph me for a school assignment called photographers in their own environment. I agreed as long as I could play “photographer who demolishes his own environment.”
And then there’s the second big project. During workshops and meetings with photographers I noticed that the technical part of lighting (and using off-camera flash) is something that most people get the hang of pretty quickly. But knowing how to trigger a flash and putting it at the right power setting doesn’t automatically mean you’ll have good light. I see lots of people struggle with the placement of their lights, choosing the right modifiers, … Using light as the very powerful story telling tool it is, seems to be another thing people struggle with. That’s why we decided to record a DVD with the working title “Motivational Light”. There are already some very good How-To video’s on the market, so we will be focusing on the Why-To. It will be the first LIME/Bert Stephani DVD so it’s very exciting to work on.
Here’s an iPhone snap of the cast and crew during a shoot in the forest:
Pieter and I already put a lot of planning, testing and preparation into this project to ensure a quality product. Our first 3 days of recording have been hard work but also lots of fun. We’ll keep you posted. If there’s anything you would like to have explained in this DVD, hit the comments. We can’t guarantee every question will make the DVD, but we’ll try.
More than a month ago I did another test shoot in the studio with Peggy. A couple of years ago, when I got just started as a photographer, I already worked with her. She remember me as that pretty shy guy who came into her house with a load of pvc tubes and a speedlite (diffusion panel). I must admit that at that time I was pretty nervous as I was very honored this experienced model would want to work with a noob like me. On top of that it was my very first lingerie session. But the pictures came out pretty well and Peggy still uses some of those images in her portfolio.
This time I was still nervous. Not because she’s even more experienced now or because it was going to be lingerie, but because I didn’t have much of a clue what to shoot. I knew I wanted to work with just one light and a grey backdrop but that was about it. Luckily Peggy came to the rescue with some clever outfits and some amazing poses.
I still feel I’m struggling a bit in the studio. When I play it safe I’m sure I can come up with decent pictures, but I want more than just decent. I’m pretty happy with the results of this session as I think it’s another step into the right direction to develop my own studio style. As usual, your input is very welcome.
Here are some more pictures about my testshoot with Kailyka (here’s part 1). For the next two pictures we moved on to what’s often referred to as “clamshell lighting”. This means that you put a soft light source right above the camera and a second right below (to fill in the shadows). The result is usually a very pleasing flattering light. I wanted to try to get it to look a bit edgier and therefore put the lights further apart. The Elinchrom Ranger head with a large beautydish is almost over Kailyka’s head. Most of the light spills in front of her face to give the silver Sunbounce Mini reflector on the floor enough light to act as the light below the camera. A Lumopro LP 120 flash was used to light the background.
I noticed the angle on Kailyka’s legs and I’ve put the small Lumopro on the floor to get another triangular shape on the background. To finish the triangular shape composition, I asked Kailyka to keep her arms like this:
I then played around with the Elinchrom softlighter umbrella box because I haven’t used it very often yet (it came with the Ranger kit). It doesn’t give the same quality of light than the softbox but it’s not bad and just a touch faster to set up.
I feel like I still have a long way to go before I can define my own studio portrait style, but this fun shoot was certainly and interesting experiment. And the thing about experiments is that they’re always useful even if they go terribly wrong.
People in the photography industry sometimes have to think like the people in the fashion industry: in the winter we have to think about summer and vice-versa. We had some pretty good weather here in Belgium lately but you can never count on it. Now that I have the studio I always have an alternative location available if I can’t shoot outside, so I might as well get used to shooting there.
I’m pretty much at ease on any location. I always find some nice light or an interesting background and I go from there. I have to admit that I’m finding it harder to create something in the studio. It’s not that I can’t light something or don’t know how to handle studio lights, I even think I can make an acceptable image. But I struggle to make a “Bert Stephani picture” in the studio. That’s why I decided to start doing a series of test shoots to try out new stuff. Kailyka was so kind to pose for me on this one.
I’m not afraid of using many lights but at the same time I know I will be moving my lights a lot in function of the story, the mood and the features of the model. That’s why I decided to keep it very simple. For all these pictures I used one Elinchrom Ranger head with a medium Chimera softbox as the main light. For some of the first pictures I added a Lumopro LP 120 speedlight on low power to get some light in the background. For one picture I just putted a silver Sunbounce Mini on the floor (in the frame) to reflect some light from the main light and get me some separation between the model and the background.
As a blogging photographer who’s blog is mostly read by other photographers, I probably focus a bit too much on the more technical shoots. I’ll keep posting the geeky stuff but I will try to remind myself to post some of my other work too.
Here are some of the results from a fashion shoot I did for Enolah a while ago:
I once spoke at a photo club with a very conservative view on the art of photography. Their response to my work: colors are unnatural, no detail in the shadows, blown highlights and way too little depth-of-field. I’m sure my strange crops and weird locations made some of them throw up in their camera bags. And you know what … I don’t care. I even tend to refuse those jobs where I have to keep within strict technical guidelines.
Too be honest, I wasn’t sure I was the perfect match for this shoot. But then lightning struck me. Refusing this assignment wouldn’t make me any better than the photo club guys. For a moment I was too arrogant to see this. But my job is to tell stories in the best possible way and for my client that was the way these pictures are. My challenge was to do the best possible job within a tight framework. The fact that my favorite model Erika, was going to be the model for this job and that I liked the clothes helped to take on the job too.
Soft light, detail in the shadows and highlights, working on a tripod, white seamless, f8, … it seemed so unlike me but to my surprise I really enjoyed this shoot. I enjoyed the challenge of lighting the details and structure of the fabrics without making the pictures look flat.
Once the lights, the background and the camera were set and Erika’s spot was marked we didn’t change the setup for the rest of the shoot (except for some minor adjustments). A lot of the atmosphere had to come from the poses and working in such a fixed setup allowed me to completely concentrate on posing. I found that to be extremely rewarding.
I adore the clothes and when I started talking to Griet, the designer, I immediately felt a connection. The philosophy behind her designs are very close to my views on photography. She also knew very well what she wanted and didn’t loose any time on changing her mind. I was shooting tethered (wifi) and once Griet saw the image she wanted appear on the laptop, we could move on to the next setup very fast. Nicki could have been a model herself but on this job she did a fantastic job with the make-up and styling. And Erika … well, she keeps amazing me.
I really enjoyed working with such a creative team. No ego’s, just working together to get the best results.
