02 Sep 09 NYIP
We have asked the New York Institute of Photography is we could review their course and waiting for their answer. We had more then 500 emails in the last year asking us about this Institute and if it is any good. From a first impression on their website it looks promising and that is why we took the step in free-up some resources for the next year or so to have an good review of it. That is if they allow us to run a review course.
Happy shooting
Tags: course, institute, NYIP, photography
28 Aug 09 9 ways to improve your portraits
1 Shoot in natural light when possible.
Natural light is beautiful to shoot in for more then 1 reason. We have from nature only one light source, the sun, and feel that portraits taken with one light source, natural or studio, more pleasing then when we use multiple light sources light flashes and so on. The beauty, and difficulty, with natural light is that is changes, it is never the same and as a photography you must take advantage of this. Look at how the light models the face, how it creates shadows, and start thinking how you can use it.
2 Natural light over reflector, reflector over flash
This is the best advice I ever got and stand by it. Your first light source is natural light, use it! If the shadows are to deep or the light is harsh and the contrast high then use a reflector to lighten the darker shadows and only if you can solve it with a reflector use and , of camera, flash for the best results.
3 Use diffusion
Harsh midday sunlight is the worse light to photograph in. It shows every line and general makes you subject look older. Clouds on the other hand acts as a giant soft box and fold the light nicely around the face and hide those lines with soft shadows. If you are forced to shoot in full sunlight try to find some shadow to put your subject in. The first tree in a forest is perfect. The crown of the tree with its leave will filter the sunlight but you have enough light to shot with some speed. If you go deeper in the forest the reflecting light falls away. If this isn’t possible and you have no shadow available shot against the sun and use a reflector or flash to lighten the face which is now in the shadow.
4 Shoot with a low aperture
To let your subject stand-out against the background use a low aperture (F2.8 – F4). This created a shallow dept-of-field and you subject become a natural focal point of the image.
5 Use longer lenses
To enhance the shallow dept-of-field effect start using longer lenses in your photo shoots. I am using two lenses for my portrait work: My 90mm Macro F2.8 which is beautiful sharp even at F2.8 and creates a very nice dept-of-field and my Nikon zoom 80-200mm F2.8. The last one I use mostly at the 200mm setting in combination with F2.8 which creates beautiful portraits. You need some space to step back from your model and the directing of the poses is a bit more difficult but worth the effort.
6 Angles
Instead of shooting from eye-level start taking images from different angles, use a stepladder, lie on the ground, do whatever it takes to get something different. Not only will it set your portrait aside from the “point-and-shoot” approach it will make you discover that you can do more.
7 Direct your subject
Most beginning photographers find this the hardest bit of portrait photography, I know I thought it was a hard thing to do but if you leave it to the sitter you will get mostly the same boring picture. So you need to direct them for several reasons. You want the light to fall on their face so it brings the best out of it BUT not only their face, their body. Is the subject very slim, more filled and so. The way you pose them is the way it goes on the photo and the flattering you can do this the more sales you will get in the end.
8 Posing sheets
Create your own posing sheet with your favourite poses. If you struggle with ideas then there are many posing guides on the market as you can find in my blog. They are reasonable priced and very handy to create your own preferable sheet. I have 5 of them: female, male, child, couple and group and this works for me every time. The biggest advantage is that if you have a problem in telling your subject how to sit, stand or lie you can show them (I will write another article on how to use them next month).
9 Practise, Practise, Practise
Nothing is this world will improve your portrait photography as must as take pictures. If portrait photography is what you want to do then start taking a picture a day and if possible take it every day a bit different.
Happy shooting
Tags: model, natural light, photography, portrait, posing, posing guides, Theo van Stratum
13 Aug 09 The Posing Guide (2)
In my search for posing guides I came across the posing guide of the Film Photo Academy. Although their guide is based on nude photography it is the most useful guide for all sort of model photography I have came across (and I have seen many). Simon Walden is taken you through many series of posing which are organised as follows:
- Lying – Working on the floor
- Sofa – using a settee
- Top Down 1 – Using drapes
- Top Down 2 – Looking down
- Standing 1 – Long shot standing poses
- Standing 2 – Mid shot standing poses
- Headshots 1 – Waist upwards
- Headshots 2 – Close up headshots
- Sitting 1 – Sitting poses on the floor
- Sitting 2 – Close to sitting poses on the floor
- Sitting 3 – On a posing block
- Sitting 4 – Other posing block positions
- Chair – Poses using a chair as a prop
As you can see a lot of variation BUT what is so unique about this posing guide is, is that it allows the photographer and model to go in sequence from one pose to another and make the session painless, something I haven’t seen in all the other posing books in the market.
For a price of £9.50 you get all the poses in PDF format (so you can print them) in automatic sequence slideshows and manual slideshows. Those last slideshows are specially handy for models who want to learn those sequences and become models who can pose.
This is what Simon himself says about the guide:
For photographers
This guide has a collection of shows you can run through in several ways. The automaticguides page through the poses in sequence – from this you can see how your posing session can move from step to step – building on each pose as you go – giving you lots of styles of posing,
quickly but effectively. Watch these sequences and note how the model moves from one to another – often small moves make big differences.The manual guides let you page through each style of posing, one image at a time, you can take your time to examine how the pose works, what works well, what areas you need to be careful with and how you can translate it to your own working method.
By the end of this book you will have learnt new, time saving techniques for creating professional poses. You will know how to sequence a photographic set to make your model look their best – and give you control and professionalism in your posing.
For Models
Watch the automatic sequences – in particular note how the model is quickly moving from one pose to another, in this way you show your photographer client your many different looks. You will be more professional and more rewarding for the photographer.
As well as looking at the overall pose shape, look at how the details work, what shape are the hands, how are the feet posed, how is the tummy held and where are the hips supported. Use the manual guides to look more closely at the poses.
By the end of this guide you will have learnt new poses, and be able to offer a better and more professional service to your clients.
Tags: artistic nude, glamour, guide, model, model guide, nude, photography, portfolio, portrait, posing, Simon Walden, Studio
23 Mar 09 Online (Extra) Training
Although the course at the Institute is very, very good we all feel, well I feel, that we need sometimes some extra training in specific areas.
I personally wanted to become more proficient in Photoshop as I see that as the "old" Dark Room I have many years ago. After I have read some book I still got the feeling that things were missing and I signed-up to the video site of http://www.lynda.com/. They give you the possibility to target on specific learning items on all types of graphic software and I find them very good! I have done some of their courses like: Photoshop CS4 for photographers, Photoshop CS4 creative effects and (the one I like most) Photoshop CS4 Portrait Retouching Essential Training.
The instructors are all experts in their fields and give you an endless amount of tips and tricks. I know that I personally am not a really creative man (would like to be though) but through these video course are looking in a different way towards my photography.
This image of the thistle above was a dull, middle of the road, macro but after playing in Photoshop and using the techniques the tutor Chris Orwig demonstrated I think I was able to create an appealing images, now used as a desktop by many
Happy shooting
Tags: Adobe, Chris Orwig, cs4, F/Stop, freelance, Freelance photography, How to create a portfolio, image libraries, image library, Photo course, photo editing, Photo portfolios, photo projects, photo student, photographic techniques, photography, Photography course, Photography Institute, photography study, photoshop, Photoshop CS4, portfolio, stock photo, stock photograph, Stock photography, The Photo Student, The photography Institute, Theo van Stratum, www.lynda.com
17 Mar 09 Create your photo book (3)
I have the printed photo books from Blurb (BookSmart) and CEWE (Photo World) in.
I must say that I am very impressed as the quality, and I did their cheapest option, is very high. the print quality, colour balance and brightness is exact as I had set it is photoshop.
So who is the best?
If you want more flexibility in creating your photobook then the software of CEWE has more possibilities in layout and text as you can add or removes all the place holders you want, something I miss in Blurb’s BookSmart. but beside that I can’t see any difference in quality and service they provide.
Living in England I would go for CEWE, for I like the flexibility, but just they can deliver faster and postage should be cheaper. Having said that Blurb delivered 10 earlier then promised when I did the order which makes them as fast, for England, as CEWE.
I know one thing fore sure and that is that for my professional work where a book is needed, portfolios, wedding and so on, I am using this service as for those prices and quality it isn’t worth the time doing this yourself.
Theo
Tags: Blurb, book, CEWE, color balance, colour balance, create a portfolio, female model, freelance, Freelance photography, How to create a portfolio, male model, model, models, Photo book, photo editing, Photo portfolios, photography, Photography course, Photography Institute, photography study, photoshop, Photoshop CS4, portfolio, portrait, portrait photographer, portrait photography, The Photo Student, The photography Institute, Theo van Stratum
10 Mar 09 How to create a portfolio(3)
Now that I have set my appointments for the shoot I need to start thinking about the light arrangements. As I have several different settings, woman, man, couples, kid and families over the next few weeks I though I start with three light arrangements with studio flashes and outdoor light when weather permit this.
For the woman and kids I am using paramount and loop lighting and for the men I though to practise with the Rembrandt light setup.
In the paramount lighting we have the key light high and in front of the sitter. The light is following the nose light. The fill-light (in my case a reflector) is low and bounces the light into the shadows created by the key light. This will give a smooth-soft light. Added we have a hair light but I will also do this without. You can add a light to light the background but I would like to go doe a dark background in this case
This is a glamour or beauty lighting setup.
As a second setup I will use a variation of the paramount arrangement "The Loop light".
Here we see that the key light is a little more to the side of the sitter and the fill light (reflector) is lighting the shadows from the opposite direction. The fill light comes from the camera axis and must not throw a shadow of its own. A reflector work better then a "real" light here.
Again the hair light and background light can be used.
The third light is my favourite for photographing men and is could the Rembrandt setup.
Here we have a 45 degree key light with a fill from the other side again. The setup got its name from the Famous Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rhijn and as I am Dutch you can see that this works for me 
During the next few weeks I will continue with this part of the blog and will post photos from the several setting.
The family photos I will try to take outside and make them more dynamic using movement and natural light, although this depends on the weather.
Tags: artificial light, back lighting, correct lighting, create a portfolio, customers, environmental portrait, female model, flash light, freelance, Freelance photography, How to create a portfolio, incident metering, light metering, light. sun light, male model, model, models, natural light, Nikon, Photo portfolios, photo projects, photo student, photographic techniques, photography, Photography course, Photography Institute, photography study, photos, portfolio, portrait, portrait photographer, portrait photography, professional lighting, Proline, ProLine 300 Studio kit, studio flash, studio lighting, studion lights, The Photo Student, The photography Institute, Theo van Stratum
18 Sep 08 On the halfway mark
We are in module 6 which is the halfway mark of the course. The technical apprenticeship is over and we are moving on to more intangibles like the quality and feel of light which is, as George writes, a more personal feeling as everybody as his or her preferences.
Having a quick look at the assignments for this module then we see that we are starting to make a protrait in natural and artificial light and work with a vaity index, as I haven’t read the module I have no idea what that is at the moment 
For students who have access to professional lighting we need to submit 6 photos (portrait) with a vanity index from 0 to 5.
As a warning from George the critique on the shots will be ruthless so the gloves are off. As this is not a technical module anymore I will write more during the week to explain what it is all about.
Happy shooting
Tags: artificial light, back lighting, flash light, light. sun light, photo, photography, Photography Institute, portrait, professional lighting, The Photo Student, tunsten light, vanity index
05 Sep 08 Phase One 645 Camera system
Phase On is shipping its mid-range 645 camera system with several digital backs. The beautiful system will be the centre and great partner in all your photographic work.
Visit out Phase One page at The Photo Student – Phase One
Happy shooting
Tags: 645 camera, freelance, Freelance photography, high-end camera, medium format, mid range camera, phase one, photography, Stock photography, The Photo Student
21 Aug 08 Results assignment 3
Although my tutor is on holiday the marking on the assignments didn’t suffer. This time George Seper himself market it, which is great just to get a change to communicate with the big man himself. The comments were very helpful and got some ideas, which materialized in the chess pictures.
I am sorry to say but a full 10 again, can’t stop showing off
I have already done module 4 and will put in the images for the assignment tonight and now busy with module 5 which is about light and colour.
I will try to come in contact with other students of the photography institute and see if I get some comments from them on the course.
Happy shooting
Tags: Freelance photography, Photo course, Photo portfolios, photography, Photography course, The Photo Student, The photography Institute
19 Aug 08 Module 4
I just submitted assignment 3 and downloaded module 4. This module is technical on film and digital processing and give a brief history on photography (which is very interesting). In the current climate the film (wet) processing is a little over kill I think as most of the new students will work in digital. I myself have work in film and had my own darkroom but sold that years ago and wouldn’t dream on going back. But it gives you a clear idea how to do it.
On the digital part it gives you a good idea how the chips are working and what to watch-out for. It goes slightly into the histogram of the camera and what is important to look for, although this is very light and will be handled more in module 6. Furthermore the “In Camera Controls” are talked about nd how to set them in general and why? mostly due to post processing which is better done in Photoshop, which is handled in module 9.
In general:
Switch everything off,
Take pictures in Adobe 1998RGB colour space,
Take them in RAW
and do the rest in Photoshop.
The assignments for this module are, for the DSLR, simple and to do in an hour, which I will do as soon as the last assignment is marked.
happy shooting
Tags: CCM, CMOS, color space, colour space, digital, film, freelance, photography, photography study, The Photo Student, The photography Institute, wet processing
