I while ago I wrote about my plans to get new instructional videos out that would go far beyond my original Confession videos on Youtube. As usual with such plans, even the most pessimistic deadlines proved to be aimed too high as there was a lot of stuff to figure out.  But I’m glad (and proud) that I did push through. In short, in the Confession XL videos, I will take you on a shoot from start to finish, including the post processing.  Here’s the trailer for the new videos:

www.confessionsXL.com is a new site to host the new videos. At the moment it’s still a quickly put together iWeb site, but soon it will be the stylish home of all my instructional activities: blog, videos, workshops, …

The first Confession XL video is titled GF1 Guerilla Style. Here’s the trailer for it:

The video can be purchased on www.confessionsXL.com. The normal price is 9,95 EUR or 12,95 USD but until midnight tomorrow I’m offering it for the special introduction price of 7,95 EUR or 9,95 USD. So if you want to get yourself a last minute New Year’s present, hurry to www.confessionsXL.com.

Big thanks for all the great reactions from the early adopters btw. And I would really appreciate it, if you would spread the word.

This was what got it all started:

View on YouTube

Many of my friends thought it was crazy and stupid to put so much time and effort in creating these videos while at the same time giving away my knowledge for free. I’m not know for being smart, nor for being a good businessman but what started out as a passion for sharing turned out into so much more. It’s hard to tell how much business these videos create but one thing is sure: it helped my business in a big way. It creates name recognition for me as a photographer and teacher. It helps to convince people that my workshops and DVD are worth it and occasionally I even landed a job only because someone saw one of the videos.

But the most important thing is that these videos help me to grow as a photographer and have gotten me in contact with loads of interesting, great people. Many of them have became friends that supported me when I needed it, invited me into great conversations and made me laugh more often than ever.

It’s passion that made me start sharing these videos and it’s the same passion that made me keep doing it on an irregular bases. I get asked maybe 20 or 30 times a week why I don’t make these kind of videos more often. The answer is simple: it takes an incredible amount of time, energy and gear (aka money) to make a single video however basic they may be. From a business point-of-view it doesn’t make much sense anymore to do more videos. I already got more work than I can handle. The thing is … I love producing these things! It’s not so much the process of making a video that is fun. It’s the part that forces me to do personal work and figure out a way to make a picture that’s hopefully better than any of my previous work. So what do I do?

About six months ago, I sat down and spend a full day trying to answer that question. In short, the answer is:

If I can find a way to keep making photography videos without jeopardizing my business, I’ll do it.

I’m not sure if I can do it but after lots of thinking I decided to invest lots of time and a bit of money in at least giving it a try. How? Well let’s see if I can make it work by producing a combination of free and very affordable videos.

I did a lot of test projects. Some went better than others but I learned from all of them. By now, I think I figured out more or less how to create good content and still keep it manageable. At the moment there are a number of videos in different stages of production. There will be the free classic short YouTube videos but there will also be much more elaborated paid versions. These will deal with the shoot from concept to post processing and will be made available for a surprisingly cheap price. I’m hoping to launch the first new video in a couple of weeks.

Behind-the-scenes of a shoot we did last week with my favorite model. Big thx to Serge for shooting the video on this shoot.

The subject of this video is to see what you can get out of a low end, limited kit of gear (Panasonic GF1, 20mm 1.7, Lumopro LP160 and Cactus triggers. Here are some more pictures of that shoot with my favorite model Erika:

I really hope you are going to like the new Confession videos so I can make a lot more of them.

]]> http://bertstephani.com/2011/10/16/the-return-of-the-confessions-videos-with-a-vengeance/feed/ 18 http://bertstephani.com/2011/05/12/me-in-a-tv-show/ http://bertstephani.com/2011/05/12/me-in-a-tv-show/#comments Thu, 12 May 2011 09:18:19 +0000 Bert Stephani http://bertstephani.com/?p=1323 A while ago I was asked to be part of a television show on the Flemish kids channel Ketnet. The show is called “Mijn Job is Top”, I guess even the non-Dutch speakers can figure out it’s about dream jobs. The format is about two kids who would like to try out their dream profession. They learn three aspects of the job and then compete against each other in a challenge.

Here’s the episode I participated on:

View on YouTube

Some of you may know that I started my working career as a director/screenwriter in television. It’s been 6 or 7 year since I walked away from the television industry since the lifestyle conflicted to much with trying to be the father I want to be. I never regretted that decision but it sure felt good to be part of a tv production for a day again.

As photographers who work mostly on our own, we can learn something from the way teamwork is essential in video. The teamwork pushes everyone to a higher level and keeps the fun into work even during a long day of hard work.

Without further ado, here’s the video:

View on YouTube

Let’s break it down a little more:

LIGHTS – a double halogen work light (2×350W): This throws out a lot of light at first sight, but when you diffuse it, there’s not much left. You can still shoot handheld but then you’ll have to shoot at iso 800-1600 to avoid camera shake. On the 5D mkII these iso’s show very little noise, so I don’t hesitate to use them. I shot most of the soft light pictures on a tripod at 200 iso and around 1/10th of a second. I would normally never have done that but I found out that it’s perfectly possible to get a good keeper rate when the model, sits down and doesn’t have Parkinson. We played with very small subtle movements because I think they can often make a picture more “real”. That organic feel is exactly what I was looking for because I found my studio pictures where always to artificial.

The work lights come with some downsides too. For a start these things get incredibly hot. You really have to watch out if you want to work with them. When I just started experimenting with artificial light, I used some of these too and managed to let them perform double duty: making light and acting as a smoke machine by setting the diffuser on fire. An ear drum piercing fire alarm, a burned carpet and a scared model later, I decided to buy a couple of flashes instead.

The stand that comes with the lights isn’t exactly as well build and stable as a nice Manfrotto stand. And it doesn’t go up very high so I had to improvise platforms to raise it above eye-level.

In time, I might replace the work lights with some really nice photo/video lights. But apart from being safer, easier to handle and better looking, light is just light.

Diffuser/Scrim – 2 White Shower Curtains: Many people who’ve been to my workshops, know that I always carry a plastic shower curtain in my lighting kit. It has come in handy numerous times as a diffuser, background and picnic blanket. These things are dirt cheap (10EUR for a 2×2 meter light modifier), light and pack very small. I usually clamp or gaffer tape the shower screen to whatever I can find. For this shoot I taped them to my background support system. I guess you could also make some kind of frame for them.

Just like the lights, there are commercial alternatives on the market for the shower curtain diffuser. In fact I have some of them because they handle well and look more professional. But if budget is tight, a shower screen or white bed sheet will get the job done just as well.

Background – 2 textured rough blankets: I like texture in the background, often it looks even better out of focus. When I work on location it’s usually pretty easy to find a textured background but in the studio you have to supply it yourself. I keep some old doors with rust and chipped paint in the studio to be used as a background but it’s not always easy to handle these heavy things. I also wanted to have something lighter that I could use in different ways. When I went buying the lights and shower curtains in the local DIY store, I saw these blankets, and knew immediately that they would be great backgrounds. The rough texture will create interesting highlights and shadows when light strikes the blanket from an angle.

These things are rather small, so I’m thinking about buying some more and stitching them together.

After having seen the video, I’m sure at least half of you are thinking: “Fuck the light, when is he going to tell more about that wireless tethering to the iPad?”
Well … I’ll save that for a future blog post. I first need to go over the hard light pictures.

The two pictures are above where the result of a happy accident. During a break, Stefanie was working on her tan by standing close to the lights. The light looked quite nice even though it was hard and coming from below eye-level. So we started playing with it.

It’s got that timeless, glamorous Hollywood look from the 40’s and 50’s (and even earlier). There are a couple of reasons why this hard light works. First of all, Stefanie has a great bone structure and smooth skin. It’s not impossible to make hard light work with less good looking people, but it sure is hard work.

The second reason is that the hard light, isn’t actually that hard. A work light is a lot bigger than a bare speedlight. If you place the light source meters away from the subject there won’t be much of a difference but when used up close the relative size of a work light is a lot bigger then a small flash, so it gives you softer light.

And then the light becomes even softer because it’s a DOUBLE light. This off-course doubles the size of the light source. And because the two lights are slightly apart one will fill in some of the shadows that the other creates and vice-versa. This is much like those classic Hollywood pictures. In the days of slow film and not-so-powerful lights, they didn’t use much diffusers. Instead they used multiple movie lights to create a bigger surface.

I hope you enjoyed the new Confessions video.

Here’s the behind-the-scenes video of my test shoot with the Pentax 645D. Filmed by Pieter and Andy.

View on YouTube

Hope you enjoyed it. Let me now what kind of videos you would like to see in the future.

But things are changing in the digital MF world, and because I like the image quality so much, I keep an eye on the evolutions. Pentax announced the 645D so long ago and kept postponing the release so often, that many thought it would never come. But it’s here now. The specifications look very interesting and promise a medium format camera that handles like an ordinary DSLR. So when I was asked by Shoot Magazine to test the Pentax, I jumped to the occasion.

All medium format camera’s work well in studio or another controlled environment but I wanted to see how the camera handles in a real world location shoot. It was also a last minute thing so we improvised a fashion/portrait shoot in the snow. Lien volunteered to model, Andy assisted and Pieter walked around with a video camera (yes, there’s a behind-the-scenes-video). I wanted a challenging environment and that’s exactly what I got, maybe even a bit too challenging as it was terribly cold. It was just unbearable to work for more than 5 minutes at the time before taking a 15 minute heating up break in the car. So we had to improvise and working really fast. I was curious to see how the Pentax handled such a situation.

First impressions count, so here they are: Even though the camera came without a manual and I’ve never shot a Pentax before, I was shooting within a couple of minutes. The shape of the body may look a bit weird but is very ergonomically and surprisingly light yet sturdy. All the buttons are where you’d expect them to be and I could even operate them with big gloves. Pentax Belgium delivered the camera with the relatively light and compact 55mm 2.8 lens which is like a 40mm on a full frame DSLR.

The viewfinder may not be as big as some of the other MF camera’s but it’s still a lot bigger than your average Canon or Nikon. The LCD screen is also pretty good. Some people say the LCD-screen on a MF camera is unimportant because you’re supposed to tether it to a computer. I don’t agree. I like to shoot tethered whenever possible but sometimes it’s just not practical and then I like to have a decent LCD.

The autofocus is fast and accurate with several focus points. That’s a pretty normal feature in DSLR land, even the entry level camera’s have decent autofocus but not all medium format score very well in this discipline.

The buffer is big enough to keep shooting at a normal pace while the camera writes the images to the card. Dual SD card slots instead of CF, seem a bit of an odd choice to me, but hey, why not? The downside of the buffer is that it has to be emptied completely before you can go through the images. I found out that 10 seconds can seem really long when your genitals are freezing off.

Another downside is that the flash sync is only 1/125 while some MF camera’s can go to 1/500 and higher. It may seem like a small thing but I know shooters who switched to MF only for the faster sync speed.

For this kind of work, I’d normally shoot a longer lens but the Pentax 55mm lens pushed me towards more creative angles and compositions. It seems to distort very little but this isn’t a lens for headshots off-course.

When I looked at the picture on my computer later, the first thing you notice is how big 40 megapixels really is. Even for high end commercial jobs, 40 megapixels is often not a must for the end result. But more pixels, means more options when retouching. But like I said before even more important than the image size, is the image depth and the Pentax certainly didn’t disappoint. Even at high iso’s the noise levels where pretty acceptable and the colors are crisp and clean.

Conclusion: I’m pretty impressed with this camera. It’s a nice combination of image quality and usability. When my work shifts even more towards bigger commercial jobs and pure portraiture (and less reportage style work), I will strongly consider going the medium format way and the Pentax would stand a good chance. I hope to test out some other MF-systems in the near future so that I can compare them to the Pentax.

The behind-the-scenes video is coming very soon!
EDIT: here’s the video

The picture below is what sparked my imagination the minute we arrived at the location:

The exposure I choose for the street proved to be a bit dark for the models:

So I added a single bare speedlite (camera left in the final shot). The picture below is just a quick test shot to see if the flash exposure was right. This is a pretty spacious setup, so if you keep running back and forth between the camera position and the flash to make adjustments, you are going to loose a lot of time (and in the case of Dubai also: sweat). So adjust the power setting on the flash, take a quick test shot from the position of the flash and if necessary repeat the process until it looks right.

Then we added two back lights to create more depth in the picture and to give the whole picture a bit of an artificial look as these classy models with nice clothes look a bit out of place. I like the contrast between their look and the location. It’s an unreal situation so if you would light this naturally it wouldn’t work too well, I believe.

The finishing tough is adding dust. We just had two guys kicking up dust right before I took the shot. It’s all about getting the timing right. You want the models to get in their walking action just after the dustkickers went past. I actually like the setup picture below a lot.

I must admit that I stole the dust idea from my buddy Fotofolio. But hey, I once saved him from being a ridiculously cheap photographer, so I figure I can steal his ideas whenever I want. Here’s Tom’s video.

I wish we had more time to do some more fine tuning, especially on the poses and expressions but we only had a couple of runs before we had to catch our bus back to the conference center. But still, I’m very happy with the results.

The pictures where shot with a 5D2 and a 70-200 2.8L IS at iso 50, 1/160th at f4. I used the follow focus on the center point because the models are walking towards the camera. The follow focus on the 5D2 isn’t the best, so that’s why I went for f4 instead of 2.8 for that little bit of extra depth-of-field. If I recall it correctly all the flashes were set to 1/2 power.

In the video about my Dubai trip, you can see some behind-the-scenes shots:

View on YouTube

One of the students suggested we’d do a group shot in the same setup. Here it is:

Fotoweekend has been a 7-day rollercoaster. Big thanks to all the wonderful students and models, here’s a slideshow with many student images. An even bigger thanks to Faisal, who did a great job taking all the practical stuff out of my hands by assisting me. I had lots of fun and great conversations in the Vista Bar with my co-instructors: Bobbi Lane, Carol Dragon, Martin Prihoda and David Nightingale. Last but not least, the biggest thank you’s are for the Gulf Photo Plus team, especially Mohamed and Hala, who are both great and busy photographers but still find the time to make GPP a success.

I had so much fun, learned a lot and met a bunch of amazing people in Dubai. To spare you a 15 page written report, I decided to take a video camera and make a movie about this event:

View on YouTube

There’s another reason too why I invested in a new small but high quality video camera, took it with me everywhere in Dubai and brushed up on my rusty video editing skills. I’ll tell you about it soon.

I’ll also be posting some how-I’ve-done-this-picture-in-Dubai articles over the next days.

Drew Gardner Workshop at Bert Stephani HQ Belgium from drew gardner on Vimeo.

I hope we can do this again next year!

For this occassion, we decided to offer the DVD for a reduced price. If you order your download now at www.motivationallight.com you get 25 EUR or 35 USD off the normal price.

Enter “bdlive” as the coupon code on the ordering page to get your reduction. Don’t wait because this offer will end in 48 hours (9pm Belgian time on Wednesday).