A couple of months ago I went to a lecture by the famous internationally acclaimed editorial and assignment photographer Drew Gardner (and here’s his blog). Even the lecture was only a couple of hours, I was completely blown away. I was so impressed with Drew’s work, his teaching and his funny down-to-earth attitude that we set up a two day workshop in Belgium on 4 and 5 September. This is a unique opportunity if you want to learn from one of the very best. We still got some spots available. Everything about the workshop can be found here.
I first came around Drew’s work when he decided to invade a Polish forest with lots of light, smoke, a waterbuffalo and a naked model. You may find it weird but that combination really got me interested in the man’s work.
There won’t be any big wildlife in the studio for the workshop but we will make it an amazing hands-on experience and if the weather allows we’ll be shooting on location too. Drew is a true master of light but he’s also going to teach about the planning and logistics involved in location shooting. You may not be shooting an elephant in the jungle next week, but the same principles apply to shooting your cat in the backyard (just don’t put a nude model on top of your cat).
Drew was a photojournalist for over 20 years before he started doing commercial photography. His ability to improvise is often what makes the shoot. Although we all like to use the best tools available, Drew isn’t about gear, but rather about how to make the best of what you have.
When you hear Drew talking, you can feel his passion for photography and he is great in passing on his passion and knowledge. I will be assisting Drew at the workshop to ensure the best practical experience. As you can tell, I’m extremely excited about having Drew teach a workshop in Belgium and if you want to improve your location photography, I highly recommend you book yourself one of the remaining seats (although you won’t be sitting much) on this workshop. The workshop will be held on 4 and 5 September and costs 560 EUR (including VAT, lunches and drinks). Click here for more info and booking.
I must admit, in the aftermath of the incredibly time and energy consuming adventure of creating my own instructional DVD, I got a bit burned out. I loved making it and I’m very proud of the result but it was a huuuuuuge job, certainly combined with my personal situation. It’s not that I had enough of teaching but I felt I needed to focus on my photography again. It’s a great feeling to teach other photographers but I started feeling like I was the only one that didn’t progress as a photographer.
It wasn’t deliberate but for a while, I just had to put my blog, workshops and LIME in the fridge and focus on my own work again. I spent a lot of time studying the work of people that I admire, re-evaluate my own work, meet creative people outside my own little network and did a lot of thinking about the direction I want to go.
You know how important it is to me to master as much techniques as possible but these are just tools to allow you to tell a story or convey an emotion. And I just found that even though my technique is better than ever, I wasn’t very happy with my pictures anymore. So I went back to the roots, keeping it simple, shooting for fun, focusing on feeling rather than detail in the shadows and perfectly level horizons. And I found it back … the amateur photographer in me.
With the changes in my personal life, things have changed pretty dramatically for my financial and business situation too. I’m not ashamed to admit that a visit to my accountant earlier this week wasn’t very motivating. And I would like to thank everyone who bought Motivational Light, because you gave me that little bit of breathing space to dedicate some time to rediscovering my own creativity.
To make things work out, I really need to grow my business faster than what would normally be possible but I believe I can do it thanks to finding myself as a creative photographer again.
I know I need to be more business minded. And I know that I need to make some decisions that I don’t really want to. But I’m still very positive that I can work things out. Last week, with the help of many great friends, I spent the whole time testing out ideas and concepts for a new big project that I will launch in September. I strongly believe that it is going to be a way to be creative and economically viable at the same time. All the images in this post were taken during that creative test week.
The test week was really the the result of all my self rediscovery activities. I’m charged with creative energy and feel like shooting every day again. I feel I’m ready to teach and blog again and all of that is thanks to my friends, family and my kids who have supported me through these difficult times.
I’ll be taking some time off to enjoy the kids but after that I’ll be back at full force! Promise
I’m so excited, after six months of blood, sweat and tears my Motivational Light DVD is finally available.
Check out the official trailer that Pieter made.
We drove ourselves to exhaustion to get it finished but that’s easily forgotten when I look at the end result. The goal was to make a 90 minute instructional DVD, but we ended up with two and a half hours of video about learning how to light. We also tried to squeeze in as much small practical hints and tips as possible. On top of that, there’s an hour of video about how I post processed a number of pictures I shot for the DVD. And then we still have a long section about gear that we just couldn’t fit into the DVD. We’ll release those videos and some more unused footage soon as free online bonus material.
I’m very curious about your reviews, comments and reactions, so please let me know what you think in the comments.
We also would be very thankful if you would help us to spread the news about Motivational Light.
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.
