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.
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.
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.
When I started this personal project, I did expect it would be hard on some days but I didn’t anticipate the difficult days to turn up so soon. The previous week I’ve been to London and visited the traffic control tower but at the moment I’m spending most of my days at home postprocessing, writing, doing paperwork, finishing up projects, … All important stuff but not really visually stimulating. I can hardly take screenshots all day. We also entered the last big phase in the construction works on our house (new roof on the house) which requires me to be home most of the time. There’s a lot to photograph in this daily routine but I start to feel that I did it all. Don’t mistake a “desk period” for a quiet one, lots of deadlines to meet. So it’s not like I have the time to schedule photo trips and TFCD shoots.
It is to be expected that a project like this puts some strain on your daily life and I’m fine with that but not to the point where it disturbs my family life. So sometimes I put the camera away on what is probably the best moment of the day to take pictures.
But you know what, I don’t care. In fact, I’m happy with these difficult days. These are the times when I grow the most as a photographer. I have to improvise, look for another angle on something I’ve shot many times before or go out at 11pm because I haven’t made a decent picture yet that day. I’m perfectly fine with some bad picture days as long as they push me forward as a photographer.
So how is the project going? Let me tell you that on some days it’s hard to keep it up. It’s pretty easy on days that I’m doing interesting stuff and/or have time to go for a mini photowalk. But at the moment I’m spending most of my time behind the computer and I’m so busy that during the day I usually don’t have time to go out and shoot. Those days may not get me the best pictures in this project but are probably the most interesting ones because I have to get really creative to get some decent shots. That’s when I really have to step out of my comfort zone and do stuff I usually don’t do.
I’m really happy (and surprised) that many of you seem to like the project and some get inspired to do their own project but I’m actually not very concerned about the quality of my images like I would in my usual blogging. Being able to mess up creates the freedom that I need to become a better photographer. I don’t put the images online to show off, it is just a way to force myself to keep shooting every day and I secretly hoped it would inspire a couple of people to do a personal project themselves.
I made the picture above during a tour of our new town (well it was new to us almost a year ago). We got the exceptional chance to visit the traffic control tower of Brussels Airport. This picture alone, makes the 50/50 project worth all the time and effort I’m putting into it. This is not just a picture of a kid in a spot with a nice view. This is a PORTRAIT of my son. I admit it almost physically hurts to decide not to take a wide angle and a fisheye knowing that you’ll have a probably once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get that amazing view combined with fantastic architectural lines. But if I had done that (even with the 50mm in my camera bag) I would never have made this image.
To me it’s the best capture of my son’s personality I made in a very long time. So even if I don’t make a decent image during the rest of the project, it exceeded my expectations.
Here are the pics from day 2-5 from my 50/50 project.
Why the 50mm lens?
I promised to explain this project a bit more so let’s start by the lens choice, why did I choose the 50mm lens? Before (decent) zoom lenses start hitting the market, the 50mm fixed focal lens was considered THE standard lens and it often came bundled with SLR’s like you have kitlenses these days. A 50mm lens on a full frame lens is seen as the most neutral lens that comes close to the way the human eye sees. Our eyes can look at a wider angle but if you don’t count in the blurred edges of our vision, you’ll get a field of view close to that of a 50mm lens. Anything below that focal length can be considered a wide angle lens which distorts the edges and makes things close to the lens look larger than life. Any focal length above 50mm is in the tele range and starts to compress the depth.
I’ve been told that 50mm lenses are about the easiest lenses to construct. Most manufacturers have two or three version of the 50mm in their line-up but there will be at least one affordable lens. The 50mm 1.8 aka plastic fantastic may be flimsy, noisy and feel like a toy you get in your box of cornflakes but it gives you amazing image quality for around 100 EUR/dollars. If your budget is tight, you might at least pick up one of those if you are serious about your photography. On the upper end there are lenses like the 50mm f1.2 L which costs an arm and a leg (and maybe a lung). No doubt they are worth every of the many Euro’s if you use this lens all the time for professional work but I settled for the 50mm f1.4 USM lens. It’s much better build, more accurate in focusing and gives a better bokeh than the 1.8 but costs considerably less than the 1.2.
I used my 50mm mostly when shooting portraits in low light and for portraits with that typical ultra sharp, slightly cold look I find the 50mm gives me. But I never really considered using it a lot for anything else than portraits or for emergency low light work. That’s until I saw Jeff Ascough’s video on Canon’s Professional Network site (his blog is also an interesting read). Jeff says he uses the 50mm for 70% of his wedding images. That really made me smack my forehead repeatedly. Instead of seeing the limitations of this prime lens, I should be using the potential of it. So I started playing with the 50mm a bit in situation where I normally wouldn’t use it and got really excited. It’s wide enough to make establishing shots and it’s long enough to pick out details if you move in a bit closer. Because of the fast aperture you can work in near darkness and isolate subjects from the background. But what I found the biggest asset is that I could work a lot more low profile. I used it mostly on my 5D mkII (without the grip) and noticed that I could get really close to people without drawing too much attention. Try that with a 1D and a 24-70. What I always liked about primes is that they force you to look hard for creative angles that will give you better pictures.
These couple of little experiments tasted like more, so that’s why I came up with the 50/50 project.
50/50 is a personal project in which I’ll be shooting anything and everything for the next 50 days with just a 50mm lens.
Just don’t expect me to post a video every single day. I’ll probably have to group several days into one video to keep me from crashing on day 8. But I will be shooting every day. Some days I’ll probably have lots of images on other days only a few. I will be using my usual range of equipment when I’m working for clients but I’ll stick to the 50mm for all the rest.
I could tell you so much more about why I’m doing this project but I could use some sleep too. So I’ll keep the info for a future blog post.
A while ago, I talked to you about a cool project where we shot all around Belgium during 24 straight hours with 5 photographers and 2 videographers.
Our goal was to get creative in bouncing light. Here’s the video:
And here are the pics I took:
This mission was not just for fun (although we had a lot of it), it is mainly a creative way to kick off the LIME Bounce competition. Basically it’s a competition in which you can show your skills and talent by making a video where you show how you bounce light.
We have some amazing prizes to win, so head over to LIME and find out the details of the competition.
Group shots are most photographers’ worst nightmare: blinkers, hard to find large uncluttered backgrounds, difficult to light, hard to be creative and the attention span of a group can only be measured in nanoseconds. So what do you do when one of your best client asks you to do a groups shot of 800 people in a dark conference room (think, 1/30th at f2.8 and iso 3200)?
Well, you just breath in and out a few times and then start thinking, scouting, testing and working with the client to find a solution. I know I’m a bit geeky about technique and light, but that’s because I also know that this basic knowledge will allow you to find a solution for just about every problem. And I strongly believe that a good picture can be made anywhere, anytime, if you just look hard enough.
Here is a quickly shot video about how we handled the shot above:
I used to be one of those many photographers who started sweating and trembling when they words “group” and “picture” were mentioned in the same phrase. But these days I actually like the challenge of it.
A big thanks to the client for the perfect cooperation and to Ake and Stijn to be perfect assistants.
