DIY Scrim/Silk Frame For Huge Diffused Lighting Modifier

Technique Tuesday DIY Scrim Silk For Huge Diffused Lighting Modifier.jpg

So before the film school nerds explode, let me just explain what a ‘scrim’ actually is and what the term colloquially means to us photographers.

Technically scrims are large sheets of black woven fabric that reduce the brightness of a light when placed in front of them (these are usually constant HMI lights that don’t have individual brightness adjusters).

There are alternative large sheets of fabric that are placed in front of lights called ‘silks’ and these are actually white in colour. When ‘silks’ are placed in front of the lights, they diffuse the light and spread it over a far wider area resulting in very soft lighting. You could consider that a softbox is actually just a small silk as it has a large sheet of diffusion material in front of the light that softens it as it passes through it.

So what’s the confusion between silks and scrims?

Like I said, colloquially we photographers tend to use the term ‘scrim’ when referring to large sheets of diffusion. Theatres actually use the same wording for similar semitransparent sheets of white fabric and it may be where the confusion comes from. But rightly or wrongly, if you ask for a scrim on a photoshoot, someone is gonna grab you a large sheet of diffusion.

But regardless of whether you call your huge sheets of light diffusing fabric scrims or silks, let’s get on with article.

What does a scrim actually do?

Like I said, think of these scrims as HUGE softboxes. You place your light on one side of them and when you shine that light through them, they essentially enlarge the relative size of the light source and as a result you get extremely soft light.

Take a look at my quick example below. The top row of images is a strobe with an open reflector dish attached. The bottom row has that same open reflector dish, only this time I’ve placed the white scrim (it’s actually the diffusion that sits inside those 5-in-1 reflectors) and you can see it in the shot on the bottom left. See how the shadows and contrast of light changes dramatically between the two setups? This is what placing a simple large sheet of diffusion material in front of your light can do to your image.

Click to enlarge: The top row of images above is with a bare strobe light. The bottom row of shots has that exact same bare strobe, but this time is has a scrim placed between the light and the subject. See how the shadows on the subject change dram… — *Click to enlarge:* The top row of images above is with a bare strobe light. The bottom row of shots has that exact same bare strobe, but this time is has a scrim placed between the light and the subject. See how the shadows on the subject change dramatically with that one simple addition.

Why should I use a scrim?

This is personal preference of course, but many people like the extremely soft lighting effect a huge scrim provides. This type of lighting is also used a lot in cinema and TV as the resulting light bathes an entire scene or room in a soft light that can cover the subject as well as large areas of the set at the same time. This lighting effect looks far more natural to us when viewed on screen compared to strong directional lighting that can cause harsh highlights and deep shadows.

Below, I found a great example of a scrim being used in sunlight to diffuse the incredibly harsh sunlight. In the image we see photographer Terry White using the Westcott Scrim Jim (a professional solution to scrims) to entirely cover the model and thereby softening the light of his entire frame. I’m sure you can imagine how harsh the sunlight would be in this shot without it.

Here we have a scrim in action in sunlight. You can see how soft the otherwise incredibly hard sunlight has now become. Image from the Westcott website, photo taken by Terry White — Here we have a scrim in action in sunlight. You can see how soft the otherwise incredibly hard sunlight has now become. *Image from the* *Westcott website, photo taken by Terry White*

What will I use as my scrim?

Remember, we’re actually more concerned with making the frame for our scrim in this article. The scrim is actually the fabric that goes on the frame and you can practically use any white fabric you want as a scrim. Sure, you need to be mindful that the fabric is white and slightly translucent, but I’ve used bedsheets and even old curtains on locations as makeshift scrims in the past.

For this article, I bought some professional diffusion fabric and it’s actually far cheaper than you might expect. Here’s what I purchased below…

Use whatever fabric you like, but just be mindful of the size you purchase in relation to the frame you’re making.

Here is an Amazon affiliate link to everything I purchased for this frame and the diffusion material is included in there too.

Kit List for DIY Scrim/Silk For Huge Diffused Lighting Modifier

Yes this is an affiliate link and I will get a few grains of sand if you use it. Trust me the affiliate link is just an easy way for me to put everything together and share a single link for you. If you find any of these items elsewhere that are cheaper or better, then by all means buy them there. If you love what I do and still want to offer up a small thank you, I’d far rather you donate a small amount to me directly and get yourself a hi-res printable version of one of my books here: Studio Lighting Books

Don’t do this… The first frame was plastic. It didn’t end well.

Mistakes were made…

It’s worth bearing in mind that there’s already scores of film students who’ve made their own scrim frames. Sadly, I didn’t look at those examples and I made all my own mistakes which hopefully means you won’t have to.

Don’t believe I made mistakes? Take a look at the image included here…

I’ve already made this damn article twice as the first time I made the frame I was dumb enough to make it out of plastic pipe!!!

….it didn’t go well and the damn thing fell apart almost instantly!!!

So yeah, don’t do that. But what should you make your frame out of? In the end, I decided to make my frame from 15mm copper piping. Yes you can make it from other piping and sizes, but I wanted to use quick release connectors so I could easily assemble and reassemble my frame multiple times. More on those connects later, but that’s ultimately why I went with the 15mm copper pipe.

In the unlikely even that you can’t read Cornish, I’ve also provided the measurements in English for this frame elsewhere in the article too. — In the unlikely even that you can’t read Cornish, I’ve also provided the measurements in English for this frame elsewhere in the article too.

How big shall I make it?

This question is highly dependant on a couple of things. Firstly, how big is the space you’re planning on using it in? And how many of these panels do you want to make?

I only ended up making this scrim modifier as I was bored being stuck indoors during the great apocalypse of 2020. As a result, I made mine with the limits of my home ceiling in mind and I recommend you do the same. Secondly, I wanted to make two panels or frames, so that they could be connected together and then stand unaided like an open book would do.

Here are the measurements I used…

Each frame panel requires:

3x 150cm sections
4 x 100cm sections

Multiply that by 2 for both panels and I need 17 metres of copper pipe.

Copper pipe is pretty easy to purchase and you can pick it up from many DIY stores…. although they tend to be a lot more expensive than buying it from specialists like plumbers. 18m of copper pipe cost me less than £40.

John Guest Speedfit connectors allow you to assemble and disassemble your frame with ease if needed.

How shall I hold all the pipes together?

Do you remember me mentioning that I screwed up and bought all this in plastic pipe first? Well as a result of that wasted order, I did actually purchase a whole bunch of plastic connectors. I bought these specific connectors as they are designed to be easy to use and simply connect the pipes to them via screwing them up by hand and you’re done. I liked this option as it also means I could unscrew them and disassemble my frame and reassemble it as often I liked.

These plastic connectors are called John Guest Speedfit connectors and are definitely worth a look if you’re after a simple way to connect it all together.

You can find more info on the John Guest Speedfit connectors here: https://www.johnguest.com/speedfit/

How many connectors will I need?

For my frames I decided to brace the longer side sections with a central piece too (I highly recommend doing the same). As a result I not only needed 4x corner sections, but 2x T-joint connectors too. Here’s the outline…

I actually only needed 8 corners, but it was cheaper to buy a pack of 10 above.

Do I need anything else?

There are a couple of extra things you can pick up to complete the design and they will make your life easier too.

Copper pipe cutter

There is a bunch of ways to cut copper pipe and you could even use a hacksaw. But I will say that this little tool is ingenious, incredibly quick and easy to use, but more importantly, it actually leaves the ends of your pipes curled in slightly. This not only makes it safer with no sharp edges, but the pipes are now far easier to use with the Speedfit connectors. I highly recommend you use this cutter or one similar.

Deburrer

This one is up to you, but they cost next to nothing so I recommend getting it. All it does is sand down the edges of your pipe where you cut it via metal bristles. You are cutting metal after all so any stray edges and splinters of metal will hurt if you catch yourself on them. Simply use this tool (that is specific to the size pipe you have) on every cut section you make and you’re done.

Frame Connectors

Granted, frame connectors isn’t the name of these, but it’s what I use them for. Clip these to one edge of one frame and then clip the other side of this to the other frame and you now have yourself an open book style scrim that will stand on its own.

Frame Clips

These little individual 15mm clips are super cheap and it’s what we’ll be using to actually clip our diffusion fabric to our frame. Like I said, they’re really cheap so just buy a bunch of them to hold your diffusion fabric in place.

Assembly

Okay so we have all our parts, now it’s time to put it all together…

Once you have all your parts, you’re ready to start assembling. Tip: I used electrical tape on the ends of the two size poles to distinguish them. This just makes reassembly faster in the future when you’re holding similar length poles. — Once you have all your parts, you’re ready to start assembling. *Tip: I used electrical tape on the ends of the two size poles to distinguish them. This just makes reassembly faster in the future when you’re holding similar length poles.*

Measure and Cut

First things first, we want to lay out our pipes and measure them into the sections you need cutting.

Next you’ll simply need to cut them and if you’re using that cutting tool I recommended, a few twists around the pipe with it and you’re done.

Deburr and Sand

Next up we just want to take off any stray splinters or rough and sharp edges. Use that deburring tool on all the ends to ensure they’re free of rough edges. Then I just used the other end of that tool to clean up the ends on the outside too.

Lastly, and this is a purely cosmetic addition, but I just took a sheet of sandpaper and rubbed the whole pipe down to take the shine off. Like I said, this entirely optional and copper is very soft so it only takes a few seconds to rub each pipe down.

Connecting

With all our separate pipes cut and laid out, it’s now time to connect everything together.

If you’ve chosen the JG Speedfit connectors like I have, then here’s a few important things to remember when assembling and dissembling your frame with them.

Important: To insert the pipe into the connector, it needs to be fully unscrewed. You should notice that if this is the case then the collar at the base of the connector is snug against it. Once the pipe is inserted and the collar tightened, the collar should now be separated from the main connector housing.

The reason I mention this, is because when it comes to decouple these, sometimes the collar remains separated and the pipe will not come out. If that is the case, make sure you push that collar back into place if needed and the pipe can be removed with ease.

Tape

You are pretty much done, but there was one last thing that I did for convenience and that was to mark up the different pipe lengths with electrical tape. Two white strips for the side sections and one white strip for the horizontals. This just makes life that much easier when pulling 14 similar looking copper pipes out of a bag!

Are we done yet?

Yes we are finally all done and ready to shoot. Let’s take a quick look at the final frame constructed and with the diffusion in place.

Click to enlarge: Here we have the final form. My two scrim frames assembled and ready for the application of the diffusion material. — *Click to enlarge:* Here we have the final form. My two scrim frames assembled and ready for the application of the diffusion material.

Click to enlarge: Here I’ve attached my diffusion material to one of the frames and in the far right image we can see me connecting the two frames together with a dual 15mm pipe connector. — *Click to enlarge:* Here I’ve attached my diffusion material to one of the frames and in the far right image we can see me connecting the two frames together with a dual 15mm pipe connector.

What can I do with my scrim now?

So big congratulations are in order, you’ve finally finished your own DIY scrim frame. But what now? What can we use this jumbo diffusion panel for? Well this article is already big enough so I’ll leave it here this week, but next week I’ll share an article on how I shot the images below with my scrim….

Click any of the images below to enlarge them…

Featured model: Ryo Love

In the above shots you should be able to see some beautifully soft light as well as some harder light in there too. Next week I’ll explain how this was setup and shot because with such an incredibly soft light source thanks to this jumbo scrim, we can also seamlessly add hard light into the shot as well to create some very unique looks.

PLUS! This is actually shot in my living room! I made the DIY scrim during lockdown and I shot this before we reopened the studio, so you can even create unbelievably soft light like this in small spaces like a home studio too!

I’ll speak to you all again next week. Until then, stay safe.

For reference, here’s that link to all the products you need on Amazon:

Kit List for DIY Scrim/Silk For Huge Diffused Lighting Modifier

Thank You

Thanks for checking out this article and spending a little bit of your day with me here. I hope you found it useful and that you left here with a little more knowledge than when you arrived. If you did, then this was worth it. As always, if you have any questions or comments about the scrim, then by all means fire-away in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer what I can. Thanks again and I’ll see you in the next one.

Don’t forget to sign up to my newsletter to be sent all of these photo tips and techniques articles every month in case you miss one.

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Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 010

Foreword

"Stay Inspired" is a weekly post on my Facebook Page where I share the work of an inspirational photographer or artist every Thursday. I've been doing this every week since 2013, so there’s now a vast number of outstanding creatives from all genres and disciplines that we've looked at over the years. In fact, I’ve been sharing these for so long now, that even I’ve forgotten some of the great artists I shared at the beginning.

So because many of these great names have been lost to time, I thought ‘why don't I try and collate them all into one place for not only myself, but for you as well’.

This is the tenth compilation, so if you missed the previous ones and are interested in an inspiration-overload, here’s the links to them;

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 001

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 002

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 003

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 004

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 005

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 006

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 007

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 008

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 009

These new posts will look at a collection of 10 artists each and they should prove to be an excellent resource for not only inspiration but motivation as well. With each artist shared, I will include a short overview of their work including things to consider and look at whilst on their portfolio.

Please bear in mind that these opinions are mine and as such are clearly very subjective. I could just share a link, but I believe a more personal point of view on another artists’ work may be of more value to you over simply stating their name and age for example. But this does mean you may not always agree with me and I would encourage that. Art is subjective and like music, the best art does not appeal to everybody.

Inspirational Work from 10 Photographers and Artists 010

Primo Liu

This is the real deal, Primo Liu's work is on another level and if you are even remotely interested in fashion and makeup photography, you need to check out this guys work. The colours, the locations, the styling, the makeup, everything is looking hyper-real. I often see work where one link in the chain has let down another, maybe the lighting doesn't work with the styling, maybe the hair is flat, these things happen, but Primo's work is a great example of when every single person in the team is bringing their ‘A’ game.

I've been receiving a lot of interest on my port through Model Mayhem recently and it looks like the antiquated site is having a little a resurgence for those who are prepared to do a little extra digging (remember this was originally written in 2015). It looks like I struck gold with Primo Liu's work because unless my google is broken I can find very little out there about their work beyond this portfolio.

Head on over and check out the gorgeous imagery and while your there why not have a little hunt about and see if you can find something new.

http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/1029201/viewall

Bruno Aveillan

If you are looking to improve your photography in the lens, not just on the screen then it's a good idea to take a look at some of the more creative cinematographers out there. Lots of the time cinematographers have to think about creating artistic and interesting effects in-camera, because it's just not cost or time-effective to generate crazy lighting effects digitally over hundreds of still frames a second.

Bruno Aveillan is definitely one of those guys and he's created some truly outstanding commercials for the likes of Cartier, Louis Vuitton and Audi to name but a few. His style, especially in his earlier work uses a lot of 'shoot-through', diffusion and even the tricky split field diopters to gorgeous effect. More impressively though (in my opinion) is that he managed to sell this look to literally the biggest names out there, and frankly if blurry sparkles are good enough for L.V. it’s good enough for anybody.

I've included a link below to his fashion stills in a similar vein but I urge those of you who don't know me to check out his videos and for those that do know me I insist that you do.

Old link - http://www.mfilomeno.com/photograph…/bruno-aveillan/fashion/

Updated 2020 link is his agency site here: https://www.mfilomeno.com/artist/bruno-aveillan/

Below is a link to his videos too:

Old link - http://www.mfilomeno.com/film-d…/bruno-aveillan/commercials/

Updated video link on his agency - https://www.mfilomeno.com/artist/bruno-aveillan/gallery/motion-2

Videos that must be watched:

Louis Vuitton - A Journey
Hugo Boss - Woman
Santoni

Kirsty Mitchell

There are certainly many great photographers out there who say that the key to a great photograph, is to tell a great story.

Photographer Kirsty Mitchell rose to photo infamy by doing exactly that and her phenomenal 5 year Wonderland project was the result of a story that was certainly an incredibly motivating and moving one indeed.

The images that Kirsty produced over that time are nothing short of breathtaking and with some of them taking up to a year each to plan and complete she exemplifies the ‘quality of quantity’ principle in photography.

I think we are all sometimes guilty of getting too bogged down in the technical aspects of photography, we fuss over the quality of a lens, worry about the flash duration of a specific head, wishing we had another light… the list goes on, but although these are important to build a shot, none of them actually tell a story.

Take a look at Kirsty's Wonderland project and take two minutes to read the story behind it and ask yourself 'what story are my photographs trying to tell?'

Remember not every image has to be incredibly deep and meaningful, but you should always at the very least know what emotion and feeling you are trying to convey with your shots.

http://kirstymitchellphotography.com/galleries/wonderland/

Sophie Rata

I really like Sophie Rata's work, I came across it a while ago but it's one of the rare portfolios that actually made me want to revisit.

The Belgium based photographer has somehow carved out a style from many things like technique and post pro but also from her models and posing. Every shot in her port almost looks like it's from the same shoot, a clear sign of unwavering consistency. Whilst we are on the subject of style, I really love Sophie's post pro technique and colour toning. It's very clear she has an amazing grasp of colour throughout all of her work, just scroll down and you'll see what I mean. Every shot in a set is rock solid in colour consistency and that is far harder to pull off than it sounds.

So what’s the reason this port brought me back? Well the main reason was that I was surprised at the layout, every image in her port is displayed in a continuous visual river as you scroll down and I was curious as to how that doesn't just look like a mess, I'm pretty sure my portfolio would be almost impossible to look at had it been displayed like this.

2020 Edit Note: Sadly we can no longer see her website in 2020, but seeing as this was written back in 2015, this was really before professional photographers were using Instagram and that free-flowing set of images in how Instagram ultimately is today.

So why does this one work? Well for reasons I explained earlier; Sophie knows how she wants her models posed before shooting because she has a vision of her style in mind. She also has a perfectionists eye for colour and tone which enables every image in every set to be pieces of the same puzzle, not just a set of stand alone shots.
It's worth taking a moment to imagine your own portfolio laid out like this and see if it would look like a cohesive stream or just a wave of independent cameo shots.

Old Site (now set to private) http://www.sophierata.com

New 2020 link to her Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sophie_rata_photography/ Be sure to scroll to her earlier work for the more creative stuff or check out her Flickr here https://www.flickr.com/photos/sanukgal/

Hunter & Gatti

Tonight we take a look at another creative duo that are synonymous with high-end fashion photography world wide.

Cristian Borillo and Martin Cespedes make up the team known as Hunter & Gatti and although they originally started as creative directors over ten years ago, their passion for art and all things fashion has seen them working with brands including Hugo Boss, Guess and Massimo Dutti.

In November of 2013 the pair launched their first exhibition in New York where they showcased their photography as well as paintings which incorporate their photographs in a mixed media.

I find their background an interesting one and one that is reflected in their photographic style. Firstly, they work as a duo, but secondly they have an art direction background so they would need to be good at verbalisation and managing shoots to create their vision, something that a lot of new photographers find very hard to refine.

Lastly though and probably most telling in their photographic style is their art background. They aren't afraid of trying to maintain realism and love to push colours into the 'ultra real' spectrum. Another sign of artist-turn-photographer is their love of eclectic composition. Rarely do they guide a viewer through an image with tricks like depth of field, as this is a look rarely present in paintings.

Their work is definitely worth a visit and especially if you're even vaguely interested in high-end fashion and advertising. If you'd like to do a little more digging, then their fashion editorial magazine HGISSUE is also really good too.

https://www.hunterandgatti.com

Glen Luchford

Today we look at where we've come from and what we can learn from fashion photographers that will forget more than we'll ever learn.

British born in 1968, Glen Luchford has worked in the fashion industry for decades and photographed campaigns for everybody, including Gucci, Levi, Mercedes Benz and so on. I can't honestly say that his style is synonymous with his name but his particular off-kilter look certainly did draw my attention to his work.

If you're taking a peruse though his work on his agency site, you may not be too surprised but bear in mind when he was taking some of these shots. Luchford was signed to Art+Commerce agency at 24 and was shooting major campaigns shortly after. Photographic statements like shooting an entire Gucci campaign in dingy bedsit certainly takes nerve to pull off, let alone shooting an Yves Saint Lauren advertising campaign through what looks like a pin-hole, leaving the majority of the double page spread in the black. I'm fairly sure his agency was holding their breath on those ones.

It would also seem that Luchford was the victim of what we would class as a complete hard drive melt down. In the late nineties Luchford stored thousands of negatives off site for a couple of weeks. Upon returning he found the storage had suffered a major flood and everything was covered in mould and flies. Not good.

Now this is catastrophic for anybody, but you have to remember the nineties was Luchford's heyday, back then he was one of the first to collaborate with the likes of Kate Moss and all of those images where destroyed in that flood. Just to give you some idea of the financial loss we are talking about, Luchford was selling a single print from that era for £25,000 and he lost thousands of negatives!

I'm off to back up my work just once more, but I recommend you check out the fashion photographer legend that is Glen Luchford on his current agencies sit.

This is a link to his agencies site (but it’s slower than my first Vauxhall Nova, so use his Instagram link below instead) https://www.artpartner.com/artists/film-print/glen-luchford/portfolio/

Glen Luchford Instagram https://www.instagram.com/_glen_luchford/

Joao Guedes

This weeks inspiration comes from the awesome Joao Guedes and his truly beautiful natural light feminine portraits.

I hesitated on what to call his photographic genre, because for many years this type of imagery would have been the staple of many a boudoir photographer, but this in my opinion is an outstanding evolution of that look.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking boudoir photography, I am all to aware of the 'reality' of that market but I have to say that I find Guedes' skill of composition and mastery of light-play on his models far sexier than the slightly contrived alternative.

Guedes makes this style of imagery look very effortless and candid, although I guarantee the skill he posses in making his models look this relaxed and timeless is not easy to come by.

Head on over to his site and see for yourselves but I don't think you'll be disappointed.

https://joaoguedes.com/diaries

Don’t worry millennials, I got you covered fam, here’s his Instagram too https://www.instagram.com/joaohguedes/

Emily Soto

It's always a good idea to revisit some of the work from photographers you admire, granted there is always somebody new and hungry on the scene vying for your precious eyeball-time, but going back to revisit the work of familiar artists is useful as it visually explains how an artist grows their style and where they've taken it. Sometimes nothing much will have changed, they're still shooting the same Rembradt lighting they've been using for decades, keeping it safe and getting paid for what they're known for. There's nothing wrong with that, but there are certain artists who are hungry to develop and push their style and Emily Soto is definitely one of those people.

Soto is known for her softer, slightly dreamy approach to her work and she's done an extraordinary job of being at the forefront of making analogue photography ‘cool’ again. Every man/woman and their dog has now gone out and picked up at least one old Polaroid camera or dug through their granddads attic for the ability to have a go at shooting a real life instant image for themselves.

I know Soto works very closely with the nostalgia-machines of Lomo and the Impossible Project and she's managed to produce some seriously breathtaking imagery whilst testing some of their kit.

I have to say that if you haven't already seen Emily Soto's work then you're in for a real treat. If like me and you saw some of her early work a few years ago when she was first tinkering with film, then you're also in for a mind blowing update as she is nailing that incredibly distinctive style of hers and no matter how much the rest of us try, many will never come close to that truly timeless and nostalgic look.

2020 Editors note: Ironically, when I originally wrote this in 2015, what I said held true then as it does now and 5 years on, Emily’s work has evolved again. Oddly, it’s actually very hard to find some of Emily’s very early work today, but I think some of her early shots are still viewable on Instagram and are certainly worth a look too.

http://www.emilysoto.com

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/emilysoto/

Sugar Los Angeles

Here's another little nugget from the land of the perpetual magic-hour, Sugar Los Angeles. Sugar Los Angeles is about a freelance photographer who focuses his lens on the natural beauty of women and he staes on his site

'There are no makeup artists, hairstylists, or anyone else who can misrepresent who these wonderful people are.'

He has a very simple, but yet very striking style with flawless lighting, composition and posing. All this comes together to present us with a very timeless and sensual series of images.
A couple of weeks back I posted a similar style and I mentioned then that this really is the modern boudoir photography (Edit: See Joao Guedes above) , and whether its to your taste or not, I guarantee we will be seeing a lot more of this in the coming years (Wow, how right I was back in 2015)

It’s worth checking out the video in the 'workshop' tab too, as that looks like an uber chilled and super cool day (man where the hell are those locations?! I NEED them).

Edit: Sadly I dont this he runs workshops any more and as a result, I can’t see the videos listed anywhere. If you find them, let me know.

http://www.sugarlosangeles.com/images1

Insta- https://www.instagram.com/sugarlosangeles/

Laurent Nivalle

Ive been following Laurent Nivalle's work for a couple of years now, and although I was originally following him for his love and interpretation of the classic cars and motorbikes he was shooting, he has started to share a lot more of his personal work including more portraiture and fashion.

His style, in my opinion. is nothing short of breathtaking and every image he displays is outstanding in its own right There are very few 'filler' shots here.

Regardless of whether or not Nivalle is photographing person or machine, his timeless approach to his post-pro is perfect and occasionally he will mix that with some very modern styled typography too. This gives his images an almost steampunk-esque mix of old and new.

It's very rare for me to say this, as it's often never important, but I would love to know some details on Nivalle's kit. It looks like he plays with some cinema style lenses and I'm convinced that the dramatic tilt-focus effects he's pulling off are in camera too. I'd love to know how he's pulling those off. They look so cool.

Regardless of how he gets the final results though, his extensive portfolio speaks for itself. Follow the link, have a poke around but if you're looking for a quick fix, scroll to the bottom of his index page and there is a fairly comprehensive 'portraits' section which shows some of best earlier works too.

Let me know what you think and if you reckon you know any of his 'in' and 'out' of camera tricks, feel free to share :D

https://laurentnivalle.fr

Closing Comments

As with all of my posts, I welcome your comments and thoughts on the artists I've shared here today. But although all of the photographers and creatives I've mentioned above come from my own personal tastes and appreciations, I still feel they are all incredibly varied, which ultimately means there will be at least one persons work here that you'll love.

Granted we've really only looked at 'people' photographers including, portraits, fashion and editorial shooters with none of the other photographic genres being covered, but it's still incredible to me as to how varied this single discipline can be.

I think one of the core things I want you to take away from this series is how another person interprets their subject into a photograph.

Sure you can simply reverse engineer the lighting or copy a pose of an image, but I hope you take away a lot more than simply the mechanics of a photograph.

Look at their style and see how that is impacting their work for the better. Look for similarities in pose, expression, subject, lighting, theme and colour. All of these things play a role in any image and by appreciating that in others work, we can be better equipped to express it in our own images.

Thank You

Thanks for checking out this article and spending a little bit of your day with me here. I hope you found it useful and that you left here a little more inspired than when you arrived. If you did, then this was worth it. As always, if you have any questions, then by all means fire-away in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer what I can. Thanks again and I’ll see you in the next one.

Don’t forget to sign up to my newsletter to be sent all of these photo tips and techniques articles every month in case you miss one.

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Colour in Cinema: Ad Astra - The Most Colourful Movie You Never Saw

Have you seen Ad Astra? Do you remember it being one of the most colourful movies you’ve ever seen? No? Why not?

Many modern space films have been guilty of looking a little drab and desaturated, but can we blame them? Space, as far as many of us see it, is pretty colourless. It’s just a vast black void punctuated only by blindingly bright light. We don't immediately associate that limitless void with bold, striking colours that exist between those two extremes. So how does a film about space inject colour into its scenes whilst still remaining somewhat realistic?

Below is a couple of examples of other modern space movies and their more conservative colour palettes - click to enlarge them

A quick Google image search for Interstellar…

A quick Google image search for Gravity…

A quick Google image search for The Martian…

I just did a quick Google image search for a couple of relatively recent space movies that sprang to mind above. It should be pretty clear to see that many movies set in space are often fairly monochrome and often stick to a fairly muted and small palette throughout.

Note: Remember I’m looking at present day space movies here, not the kids movies that include space in them from Marvel, nor the broader and more futuristic sci-fi movies like Bladerunner.

In contest to that, now look at some stills from Ad Astra. Immediately we can see above that Ad Astra is trying to cover a far broader spectrum of colours in their movie, but do they get away with this non-traditional vision of space? And how?

Ad Astra the Movie

First off, if you’ve not seen the movie, you should probably watch it first. I wont really be spoiling a huge amount that isn’t already discussed in the movie trailer though. I will be referencing the fact that our main character Brad Pit goes to visit his dad Tommy Lee Jones, but again, T.L.J. is shown in the trailer. Of course if you’d rather not risk seeing anything prior to watching the film, then stop now. I will also add that this movie does not have any crazy plot twists, so there’s not really anything to ruin. Either way, definitely watch it as soon as you can, because although it’s not a groundbreaking story or anything, it’s certainly beautiful to look at and below we’ll discuss how they slide that beauty right under our noses the whole time.

Also, this is also not a movie review. I will be talking about colour and ideas surrounding the film whilst assuming you’ve seen the movie. I wont be discussing scenes in detail and explaining the plot, but the ideas on colour I’m discussing don’t require you to have seen the film either.

What does it look like?

Here are a few screens from the movie so that you get the gist of what it looks like first.

Click any of the images below to enlarge them.

Pretty colourful right?

If you’re not familiar with the plot or need a quick recap, essentially our boy Brad Pitt has gotta leave Earth on a very long journey to Neptune to see his old man about some lightning. It’s a very long trip, so the first stop is the moon (which we can now grab a domestic flight too in this timeline). We get attacked by pirates as we drive across the surface of the moon to the rocket which is our ticket to our next stop (and nope, the pirates attacking makes little sense in the movie too - it was blatantly just an excuse to shoot a cool sequence and showcase some gorgeous colours).

We then hitch a ride on a rocket to Mars. Try to call dad from there, he’s screening his calls so we gotta go see him in person. The plot thickens as our boss isn’t too keen on us going, but we stowaway on another ship anyway and settle down for the long journey to see the old man.

Granted, I’m simplifying the movie here…. but not by much. To further cement that simplification, let’s now break those plot beats down into scenes and more importantly colours.

Earth
Moon base
Journey across Moon
Moon Rocket Base
Journey to Mars
Pitstop at another ship
Mars
Leaving Mars
Arriving on ship to Neptune
Trip to Neptune
Neptune
Prior to meeting dad
Dad
Father / Son

Below I will show you a series of images from each of these scenes and discuss the colouring within them briefly.

If you’re after a masterclass in modern visual storytelling with colour, then you could do worse than use Ad Astra as a template.

Click any of the shots below to enlarge them.

Earth: Greens / Browns / Yellows

It goes without saying that Earth and its characters are all seen in more ‘natural’ colours. Nearly all of the scenes on Earth are seen in these very clear greens, yellows and browns. In isolation, some of the scenes from our main characters personal life are very heavily coloured and orchestrated in that earthy brown colour. Like I say, it looks odd in isolation (see bottom left image above), but in the film when surrounded by other earthy scenes, it makes perfect sense.

Moon Base: Blue / Yellow

As with many scenes in Ad Astra, the moon base here is broken down into two colours and this one is a very distinct blue and yellow theme.

Moon Surface: White / Gold

This is actually one of the most striking scenes in the entire film and although it makes little sense, I love that it’s included as the golds and whites against that jet-black sky look incredible.

Moon Rocket Base: Teal / Grey

There are several scenes prior to this base where these two characters interact. Prior to this though, those scenes were very grey. Now as we are about to transition out of this chapter, we see grey being used in conjunction with teal.

Trip to Mars: Grey

There are a few scenes in Ad Astra that are predominantly grey. Sure, these are quieter times for reflection, but I also see them as a visual verse. A lull in the colour to allow us to appreciate the colourful chorus to come.

Pitstop at another ship: Beige / White

Again, I personally see this scene as a pacing device over having any real importance towards the arch of the film. That aside, I once again love the colours they are able to work with here and they yet again manage to make another floating corridor appear very different from the last.

Mars: Reds

I’m sure it comes as no surprise to anyone that the ‘red planet’ is depicted in this way, and although we spend a decent chunk of the movie here, the key vibe of the place is always depicted in these very rich, warm colours when we are showcasing mood and plot over individual character. I’ll discuss other Mars scenes that splice our time here at the end of this section, but for now, red and orange is our palette.

Leaving Mars: Yellows

As we prepare to leave Mars, we physically walk away from the darker oranges and transition into these yellows and golds. I find these scenes to be among some of the most abstract in the film. Yellow is often used for hope, warmth and new things. And although we emerge from the blackness into this warmth in the film, there is a heavy underlying tension that feels at odds with colours being portrayed to us. If you recall the movie then you’ll know what I’m referring too and our character quite literally emerges into this yellow lighting. Again, this is Ad Astra very boldly relying on a monochrome palette that is actually far harder to make look good than they’re making us believe.

New/Old Ship: Cyan / Violet

We are now back aboard the ship we arrived on. But now we never see that drab grey palette from earlier ever again. Far from it in fact as this colour palette of cyan and violet is among my favourite from the entire film. Sadly, we don’t actually see a huge amount of these colours because this combo is on the very edge of being a believable colour scheme. Spend too long here and we end up in the bizarre colour-scapes of other sci-fi genres that are rooted in less believable ideas.

Trip to Neptune: Yellow / Blue

In terms of visual colour progression that happens in films, this one is pretty on-the-nose. We’ve just left the yellow scenes and now we are about to reach the blue scenes. This journey between the two surprises nobody by showcasing both of them at the same time. Seems blatant I know, but in reality this is a very powerful tool in leading the viewer visual from one scene to another and if done badly, can look horrendous.

Neptune: Blue

It’s actually rarer than you might think, but very few films will show extremely heavy monochromatic scenes like this. Ad Astra does this several times throughout its runtime, but when we arrive at Neptune, the heavy single colour use is very prevalent. It’s made even more apparent by the extremely dark nature of this single colour blue. Again this is something that is rarely done due to how hard it is to showcase not only actual detail, but hold a viewers attention without them being distracted by the slightest thing outside of this complete colour wash.

Preparing to Meet Dad: Blue / Yellow

This is not actually a long scene, but I wanted to include it as there is a lead up to and the joining of these colours. Here we see Brad in his yellow scene, entering into the dads scene which is now a completely different colour. This will make more sense later as we actually reverse this colour journey later on.

Dad: Green-ish

Here we see the transition into the dad scene and we can still see the failing yellow colours as we are now overtaken by this deep, heavy green colour. This is a longer heartfelt scene, but this very natural-looking colour somehow doesn’t feel out of place when surrounded by very bold blues and yellows that bookend it. I say ‘natural-looking’ as this is a scene where we discuss family, home and of course Earth. It’s no surprise that the prevailing colours should of course reflect what we’ve already established as Earth coloured earlier in the film.

On a personal note, I found this scene somehow extremely visually pleasing. The earthy tones used on Tommy Lee Jones including his jumper, the lighting and the surrounding area is gorgeous. Those mossy or older green colours punctuated by a few warm brown accents of skin and surroundings are gorgeous and draw us in. Remember, its been over an hour since we’ve seen earthy, natural tones and we are longing for them at this point.

Father& Son: Blue / Yellow

So as I mentioned earlier, we are now backtracking that colour progression and now we meld the deep blue of Neptune with Brad’s yellow. When viewing this scene in isolation, it looks ridiculously out of place. Such a stark and bold contrast between these two colours seems bizarre in isolation, but we’ve been colour-trained up until this point so that it makes perfect sense.

Additional Visual Vignettes

I have clearly broken the film down into some fairly broad colour strokes above, but there are a few notable outliers that still use striking colour outside of these key scenes.

Projections

The most notable is when we’re on Mars and Brad is going through a somewhat confusing time. His character, who although ordinarily very calm, has become very confused, frustrated and conflicted. As a result of this emotional outburst, he his sent to what I recall is called an emotions room. Essentially this room is wall to wall projected images. Apparently, surrounding the occupant in a womblike enclosure and bombarding them in bold, bright and dominating colours is supposed to calm them?!

As bizarre as this scene seems, I personally enjoyed it as a visual storytelling prop. This scene is all the more bizarre as it’s quite possibly the only scene in the entire film that has multiple colours throughout it. Again, I think these colours stand out and perhaps feels so alien and awkward for the character compared to how harmonic the rest of the films colours are. Like it or not, I personally think it works and I loved what they did with it here.

Conclusions

Films as a whole tend to have a fairly tight colour palette. By that I mean they rely on a single dominating colour that speaks to that film. Look at films like the Matrix green, Fury Road and its golden yellow or the 2001 Space Odyssey red.

This is actually very common and most films will do this although usually to a lesser degree. This is what colour toning is after all, it’s only more noticeable to those films that choose to colour tone before they shoot it and they do that with colours in the location, props, styling etc.

As we approach more futuristic sci-fi films, this uniform colour becomes a little tricky to maintain. Many sci-fi films love to portray the future in bizarre dystopian Tokyo vibe and as a result an extremely eclectic colour palette emerges that is very chaotic and visually busy.

Many sci-fi films go down the road of eclectic colour instead of themed palettes… Above we see Valerian and Altered Carbon.

And of course, like I mentioned at the start, modern space films keep things very clean and simple with relatively monochromic palettes like we saw in The Martian with its orange colours and Interstellar’s steely blues.

The Martians strong orange and Interstellar’s greys and blues are mainstays of these films throughout.

Ad Astra breaks this mould by actually producing a surprisingly colourful film. Just look at the stills I’ve shown you above, there’s no arguing it’s a very colourful movie. Yet ask anyone who’s seen it and they never mention the colours. I asked several people and none of them remarked or even remembered the use of colours.

The colours not being remembered is not actually a bad thing though, in fact this is just more power to the people that made Ad Astra. This is not some self-indulgent Neon Demon film that nobody remembers a damn thing about….apart from the colour. Ad Astra is a serious and very slow movie, you’d think you’d remember the colour, but you don’t due to how well it’s used. Each scene has its own life and character and it all fits together perfectly so that the colour does exactly what it is supposed to do, tell a story. Moreover, this is further compounded by clever transitions between colours. There are scenes between scenes that include the two bookended colours. As a result, this further eases us through colour without violently snapping from one bold colour to another.

The colour is not the character here and many modern films can forget this.

Look at the images above and tell me that’s not one of the most colourful movies you’ve ever seen. Yet, ask anybody who’s seen Ad Astra and they wont remember seeing any prominent colours at all.

I’m a photographer, not a film student Jake!

As much of my audience is photographers, I appreciate it if you’ve gotten down this far, but how does any of this relate to you? I think Ad Astra is an example of a film that utilises colour in a very striking, powerful and yet subtle way due to how it’s used. Look at the detail within the colours, look at the tonality in those colours, its all there. All too often films will blow out colour when it simply isn’t needed. I think one reason we are affected by the colour in Ad Astra but don’t remember it is due to this fact. The colour in this film simply seems more organic, more real and I believe it’s due to how detailed the colour is.

Ad Astra is actually shot on film, and no I’m not gonna start a whole film is better than digital debate…… but, I will say that colour and skin tones are still shot on film by the best filmmakers in the world for a reason. One reason for this (and those of you who’ve shot on film will attest to this) is that film holds its highlights and shadows far more cleanly than digital does. You never get pure white and pure black on film and the same applies in the real world. Artists never use pure white and pure black on their canvas because those colours don’t truly exist and the same is happening in this film. When you see even the brightest scenes or the richest colours, you’re still held in a believable world due to how you’re viewing it.

This is probably one of the most contrasty scenes in the film. Look at both the brightest highlights and the darkest shadows still contain colour on film.

Arguably we’ll never know what this film would have looked like had it been shot in digital, but I think the colours would have looked less realistic and probably more memorable for the wrong reasons.

I mentioned this film also boldly showcases a lot of monochrome scenes. Scenes where there is just one single colour. Again, this looks incredible due to how it was shot and the film stock that’s retaining those tones. There is a reason you rarely see monochrome scenes in films, but Ad Astra doesn’t shy away from them.

I hope, and I believe we will see more of these films where colour is used so well, that we don’t even notice it. I appreciate that may sound odd, but watch Ad Astra for yourself (or watch it again) and see how colour can be used in such a striking, yet subtle way to tell a story and simply dominate it.

If you’ve seen Ad Astra, let me know what you think of the film and its colouring in the comments below. I’d be interested to hear others thoughts and if you remember the film being this colourful when you first saw it.

Thank You

Thanks for checking out this article and spending a little bit of your day with me here. I hope you found it useful and that you left here with a little more knowledge than when you arrived. If you did, then this was worth it. As always, if you have any questions or comments about the film, then by all means fire-away in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer what I can. Thanks again and I’ll see you in the next one.

Don’t forget to sign up to my newsletter to be sent all of these photo tips and techniques articles every month in case you miss one.

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Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 009

Foreword

So because so many of these have been lost to time, I thought ‘why don't I try and collate them all into one place for not only myself, but for you as well’.

This is the eighth compilation, so if you missed the previous ones and are interested in an inspiration overload, here’s the links to them;

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 001

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 002

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 003

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 004

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 005

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 006

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 007

Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 008

Please bear in mind that these opinions are mine and as such are clearly very subjective. I could just share a link but I believe a more personal point of view of another artists’ work may be of more value to you over simply stating their name and age for example. But this does mean you may not always agree with me and I would encourage that. Art is subjective and like music, the best art does not appeal to everybody.

Inspirational Work from 10 Photographers and Artists 009

Davis Ayer

It's that time again, the gear heads and pixel peepers may want to keep on walking because we are about to get creative. You have been warned.

Photography has undergone many dramatic shifts in recent years, from the vast surge of its accessibility to the sheer numbers of people that now actually consume it. If photography is still considered art, then it may well be be the most consumed form of art we embrace day to day.

So in that daily visual noise, how do we as photographers who want to record more than our Friday nights, actually stand out from the tidal waves of baby photos and meal updates?
This of course is the million dollar question, but in short you have to get people to look, stop and actually engage the brain, and that is getting harder and harder to do.
I personally think that one way to borrow your viewers time is to actually get more creative with photography, whether it’s with location, styling, props or lighting, all of these things will help to make a photograph look different and stand out.

One guy who manages to keep every single one of his images looking different in absolute spades, is L.A. based Davis Ayer.

I personally love Ayer's work for many reasons and although we live in a hipsta age, I don't think Ayer is trying to chase the rosy nostalgia of his childhood family holidays from the backlit palm display of Instagram, I think he is truly playing with the photographic art form the way we all should once in a while.

I guarantee he will have hundreds if not thousands of crazy 'almost but not quite what I was after' shots as he pounds his Mamiya RZ with countless double exposures, light leaks and distressed films.

His timeless and playful style is what I love and it is within these miniature 6x7cm pieces of artwork that you find yourself stopping and actually engaging your brain.

http://www.davisayer.com

Kesler Tran

Don't hate me, but if this work doesn't make you want to cry yourself to sleep, then you're doing it wrong.

This week we head off once again to the (seemingly perpetually) sunnier climes of L.A. and look at the gorgeous work of Kesler Tran.

I've featured Kesler's work some time ago, but its certainly worth a revisit as his style has gone from strength to strength and I love it now more than ever. For some reason though I can't really put my finger on what it is that I love so much about this look. A lot of his work is clearly taken on location in the infamous L.A. sun, but although his work has a very dark look and feel to it, you always still have the impression that the image is taken in blindingly bright light. This contrast is very difficult to achieve effectively and yes there is some gorgeous post pro involved here, but perhaps only that L.A. light has that quality because you will see a similar style from many other L.A. shooters.

I know I have mentioned this before, but I really need to look at playing with this level of contrast as I believe it’s harder than it looks. The highlights are always so glossy and the shadows are always so deep, you need to have a very keen eye for composition and lighting to pull this off as effectively as Kesler.

For those that are interested it seems Kesler Tran is a Sony guy through and through and he's come from the Sony Nex7 to the Rx1, the A7 and now on the full frame beast of the A7II.

I only mention these cameras as I very rarely come across Sony shooters and even rarer are Sony only shooters too so I must say I am blown away by these images from a camera that you can nearly fit in your pocket. (Edit: Please remember that this was originally written in 2015 - Sony shooters are everywhere now, but they were far rarer back then)

Let me know what you think and if you're a Sony shooter let me know what you think compared to some of the other brands.

http://keslertran.com

Camilla Akrans

I've just finished reading an interview with Camilla Akrans on the Fashionography site before I decided to revisit her work with a new insight into an outstanding fashion photographers visual process.

I would strongly recommend you do the same as Akrans explains her design background her obsession with flowers and her thoughts on casting models.

Looking at her work again I was definitely moved by her graphic eye and her ability to somehow see colours in monochrome (remember monochrome means one tone not specifically just black and white) and the power that single colour can have across a story.
I also hadn't noticed her obsession with flowers, but upon revisiting the site it seems nearly every campaign has a subtle balance of nature throughout, again something that is very tricky to pull off at this level especially when you are faced with complementing the beauty of a model over drowning her out.
Is this a delicate quality of female photographers or have you seen this achieved by male photographers too?
Definitely try to read Camilla Akrans interview first and then check out her amazing work.

http://www.lundlund.com/camilla-akrans/

The interview on Fashionography: http://thefashionography.com/camilla-akrans-interview/

Bastian Traunfellner

For those of us that remember the original ground breaking tablet, 'Speak and Spell', you will also remember iconic British fashion and culture magazine 'The Face'. For those poor souls that missed the whole New Romance and Heroin Chic era's then you will have missed out a whole host of outstanding photographers like Glen Luchford, Craig McDean and Elaine Constantine. They were at the forefront of creating flawless imperfections in photography, a raw and vivid style that the likes of Terry Richardson has now assimilated along with an instagram generation.

If we take a look at Bastian Traunfellner's portfolio here you can see how a new generation has taken that more relaxed attitude to the science of photography and really concentrated on the art of the look.

Traunfellner isn't so worried about pin-sharp focus, generic composition or balanced histograms, he's more concerned with creating a mood and a feeling behind a shoot, something science finds very hard to visualise.

Head on over and take a look at his work and for those fortunate enough to remember flicking through a copy of The Face, spare a thought as to where Bastian Traunfellner may have found those early seeds of inspiration.

https://www.resurrect.it/index2

Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton

'Hey Jake what you doin' with that big ol' bar there?'

'Oh this? I'm just trying to raise it all the way up here, but for some reason I don't think it will EVER go any higher!'

Yup I'm warning you, this work is phenomenal in my opinion and so yet again the bar for blending art and photography has been seriously raised.

Artists Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton have been called modern day painters as their work is so departed from what the mainstream calls photography, in fact

in an interview with the Vinyl Factory last year they positioned themselves as active artists in their own right rather than simply a commercial lens-for-hire.

This is an interesting distinction, but it only makes sense when you see their work, they just don't want to be confined by the preconceived ideas and limitations associated with photography.

The pair started out nearly a decade and a half ago working with clients like YSL, Levis, Nike and BMW but further down the road their artistry is used by other artists to represent their own work. Artists like Bjork Alexander McQueen and Massive Attack have all worked closely with Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton to ensure their own work is seen in the best possible light.

What bigger compliment is there than to be asked by an infamous artist to create art to represent them and their work?

Check them out for yourselves but be wary as this site is very image and video heavy so I would recommend a desktop visit.

http://www.warrendupreeznickthorntonjones.com/category/fashion-beauty/

Mecuro B Cotto

I'm not a huge fan of nude 'photography' because I rarely see the photographer inputting enough to complement the beauty of the model. Sometimes it just feels like the model is actually doing all the work to make a beautiful shot.

Mecuro B Cotto certainly isn't leaving it to his models to carry the image as his mastery of light play and composition is outstanding and always manages to compliment and showcase the human form perfectly.

Certainly check out his nudes but definitely stop by his portraits section too as he has some fantastic shots in there too.

Edit in 2020: In appears that Mecuro may have suffered at the hands of copyright theft in recent years as his site now only shows tiny images of his work compared to the huge and beautiful displays of years ago. A sad but very real consequence of likely theft I’m afraid.

http://mecurobcotto.com

Ana Dias

I've never shared a glamour photographers work on here before…. and today is no different. Ana Dias is certainly no 'glamour' photographer, she has worked for Playboy all over the world and photographed some of the most beautiful women around, but she does not rely on her models to carry the picture, she brings her own outstanding skills to bear on every shoot.

This genre of photography is marred in my opinion by some cheesy work by shooters that rely on the 'pretty girl' but Playboy shooters aren't allowed to be so lazy and are renowned for some exquisite lighting.
It is certainly not uncommon for Playboy centrefolds to be photographed with anything from 15 to 50 lights and this level of lighting and beautifying refinement is outstanding and certainly a dying art.

Ana is no different in her approach and her attention to incredibly crisp, clean and contrasty lighting is phenomenal in my opinion and something that baffles me. Even her simple white background images have a contrast and definition that eludes me.

There are those of you that will rightly argue that this look is too synthetic and devoid of artistic merit, but I urge you to appreciate the skill it takes to light a model this perfectly.

Head on over and check out Ana Dias's site and let me know what you think or even better, feel free to let me know how you think she's lighting some of these shots or what modifiers you think gives her that vibrant look

http://www.anadiasphotography.com

Thomaas

Hahah so I was literally in the middle of posting this weeks Stay Inspired when I came across this guys work. I had already started writing about somebody else and getting all 'Radio 4' and arty-farty about their work when I stumbled across the visually viscous work of Hamburg born and Paris based artist Tomaas.

I immediately fell in love with Thomaas's work and I had to share it and so it jumped the queue.

At first I thought this was the work of an agency, a group or at the very least a production team but no, this is actually the work of an individual.
Thomaas's work seems more self indulgent than most, he seems drawn by the project as it evolves and the results seem raw for it. I mean raw in its base form, the images are processed but in a way that is not meticulous, they are played with in way an artist would play with paint on a canvas and I love this approach and result.

I for one am far too guilty of over thinking some of my work and as a result sometimes I feel the end product is just that, 'a product' and too contrived and soulless. Thomaas doesn't seem to suffer the same hesitations and his work certainly speaks for itself.

Sometimes we should force ourselves to just let the chips lie where they fall and just let the art happen.

https://www.tomaas.com/collections/artwork

Victoria Will

As the title of this weekly feature suggests, these posts are supposed to give a little inspiration to those of us that want to push our work further or even explore a different direction entirely. This weeks Stay Inspired takes that core idea and looks at celebrity portrait shooter Victoria Will and how she re-imagined her role of celebrity portrait shooter at the Sundance Film festival earlier this year (2015).

These shots have been circulating the web for the last couple of weeks and rightly so as they are outstanding results of what is a very complex process taken of people who aren't to keen on sitting around for too long. Her portraits were taken using a technique called 'tintypes' or 'wet plates', these are essentially large format plates with active and wet chemicals on them with an ISO rating of around zero! These portraits need a LOT of light to be correctly exposed and when originally used the exposure could have been up to fifteen minutes, but with Victoria's modern twist she was able to use flash to capture the shot instantly, this, unfortunately for Victoria's subjects, did mean a 9600w flash!

Take the time to check out Victoria Will's site and the section that I'm referring to is the 'Tintypes' one.

https://www.victoriawill.com/project/borne-back

What is definitely also worth checking out is Will's explanation of the process and a video of her in action.

It's pretty funny to see her subjects reaction after being nuked by nearly 10,000ws of flash haha.

https://profoto.com/uk/profoto-stories/victoria-will-shoots-tintype-portraits-of-the-stars-at-sundance

Simona Smrčková

Todays spotlight of inspiration is for those of you that like colour, people, weddings, models, babies, portraits, make up …………pretty much anything you can photograph really because Simona Smrčková seems to have mastered them all.

They say 'you can't specialise in everything' but Smrčková comes very close, but what caught my eye in particular was their mastery of colour. I don't mean colour theory, although that is very strong here, I mean his ability to capture colour and present it so amazingly well. The colour in his images are amazing, so vibrant and saturated without the telltale banding or clumping of colours I normally see in work this bright. The images almost look like they've been printed on that metallic paper as they seem to already have that sheen to them, an effect that I'd love to achieve one day too.
I am certainly open to suggestions as to how you think he's achieving this look but it may well be post pro alone or a combination of a very high bit depth capture camera like a medium format back or similar.
Either way make sure you check out his site and if you're interested in the weddings and portraits side of things check that out too as he's got plenty of cool ideas on how to approach that too.
Let me know what you think, especially if you know how he's getting those colours

https://en.simsfoto.com/portretnifotograf

Closing Comments

I think one of the core things I want you to take away from this series is how another person interprets their subject into a photograph.

Sure you can simply reverse engineer the lighting or copy a pose of an image, but I hope you take away a lot more than simply the mechanics of a photograph.

Thank You

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Lensbaby - Omni Colour Expansion Pack Review

For those that have followed my work for a while, you’ll know that I love to show a sense of depth to my images. Sure we can all shoot wide-open (f2.8 for example) to get that shallow depth of field, but nothing beats the depth of showing not only a separation between subject and background, but a foreground element to your image too.

Adding foreground elements to your shot like you see above can add a sense of depth. But relying on a metallic chair leg like I’m doing here can be a pain!

Whenever I’m on location or even in the studio, I am always looking for elements around me that might be introduced into the foreground of my image. Plants, widow reflections and even a metallic chair leg have all been clever ways to add a sense of depth to my images, but they are far from consistent and reliable choices.

To combat this issue of unreliable foreground elements, I’ve often resorted to holding all manner of objects in front of my lens. Items like crystals, wine glasses, keys… the list goes on, but again, these are often inconsistent and nearly always inconvenient due to me having to hold them with one hand and shoot with the other. That was until Lensbaby introduced me to the Omni.

The original base pack for the Omni contains all the key items you need to hold the filters in front of your camera. The back disk above simply screws on to your lens thread and you attach the filters to that via magnets.

If you’re not familiar with what the Omni is, then by all means check out my previous review on it here Lensbaby Omni Review. But in short, the Omni is a metal disk that screws onto the front of your lens. On that metal disc you place moveable magnets and onto those movable magnets, you place all manner of creative elements (filters) that can moved and supported unaided in front of your lens. As a result, you get consistent and hands-free foreground elements with each and every shot.

The original Omni was released by Lensbaby last year in 2019. It quickly saw huge success and demand for more variety in elements to hold in front of your lens soon followed. As a result, Lensbaby answered the call with their latest offering, Omni - Colour Expansion Pack.

The images above shows what the original Omni does for your shots. It adds those beautiful foreground elements in-camera without the need for post-pro.

The Omni Colour Expansion Pack

This year however, Lensbaby released a brand new pack of additional elements to play with and that pack is called the ‘Colour Expansion’ pack. As you may well assume from the name, these new elements are designed to add a splash of colour to your shots. But what do we get with this latest edition?

What’s in the box?

So what do we have in the add-on pack?

In the box we have:

Two multicolor crystal effect wands
A bunch rainbow diffraction film
A set of colored films & gels

As the image above shows, we have 4 new magnet stalks that attach to the original Omni metal ring and on these new stalks, we have a whole host of new items to play with. First and foremost we have two brand new crystal elements, both of which have a rainbow coating that add a variety of additional colours to the shots. One of these crystals is straight and the other is curved and cut so that you can get more of a shape in front of the lens. This is handy if you are after a more subtle effect.

In addition to the two crystals, we also have a bunch of coloured films to play with and they break down into three sets.

First we have the coloured gel films. These are simple swatches of colour that can be held in front of the lens.

Next we have the almost quilted diffraction films. These films are highly reflective but also let a little light through them. The quilted surface is producing just enough shape so as to catch some highlights across its surface if you have lights going back into the lens.

And lastly we have a set of flat diffraction films. These are thinner and let more light through them, plus they are flat and won’t catch the light as much as the quilted versions.

5 new additions to the Omni lineup: 1.Curved Crystal 2 Straight Crystal 3.Coloured Films 4.Quilted Diffractions 5.Flat Diffractions

What Effects Do They Produce?

But of course, the real question is, what results do they produce?

Below you’ll see me playing with a bunch of the different filters from this Omni Colour Expansion pack during a model shoot. Take a look and see for yourself. See anything you like?

Note: Clicking on any of the images below will enlarge them

All of the images below are taken with the straight crystal…

All three images here were taken with the regular straight crystal.

All of the images below are taken with the curved crystal…

Both of these images are taken with the curved crystal

All of the images below are taken with the quilted diffraction film…

The images here were all taken with the quilted diffraction film

The image below is taken with the flat diffraction film…

Image here taken with the flat diffraction film.

The image below is taken with the coloured film…

Before you message me about the lighting…

Oh and before you ask, as I know I always get loads of messages about this lighting setup whenever I share it… yes this is using the coloured gels from my Gel Packs on the lights and this setup is also part of my Creatively Simple Lighting Workshop. This is the second setup of six that we cover on the day and you can see more about it here.

The Lensbaby Omni ‘Colour Expansion Pack’ does add a lot of colourful effects to your shots. In fact all of the new filters in this pack each have a huge range of looks and colours, but are you ready for that level of creativity?

Closing Comments

Of course, as with many reviews I do, I tend to shoot a lot of example images so that you guys can make your own decisions from what you see. But I do also like to share my personal thoughts with regards to things I like or any concerns I might have.

Essentially this ‘Colour Expansion Pack’ is more of the same from the Lensbaby Omni. If you are familiar with the base product and what that entails, this whole process and look probably makes a lot more sense to you than if you’re seeing this idea for the fist time. The Omni product allows you to maintain a more consistent look with your foreground elements as it literally keeps everything in place so that you can get the same look with each shot you take.

If you shoot any video, you may immediately appreciate the power and value of this. Having a video with something wobbling about in the foreground of the shot will be extremely distracting. Having this effect locked down with the Omni however is huge.

The base Omni pack contains a solid selection of creative tools for you to play with, but ultimately they are all fairly clean and crisp looking. This new ‘Colour Expansion’ pack does kick the creativity up a good few gears as every item in this pack will add colour to your images. Yes this colour can be managed, but I did find it tricky to keep a consistent look throughout a range of shots due to how much variety in colour each of these items add. The crystals (which although my favourite) did add the most variation due to their rainbow coating. Any minor adjustment made huge changes in the final shot, and although I loved that level of variation in images, some may find it frustrating to recreate one look from a previous shoot.

Personally I think the sheer variety in looks this new pack adds is it's selling point and like I said, it’s a lot more creative than the base pack. In short, if you already have the base Omni pack and you’re not afraid of adding a little bit of colour to your images, then this is a must-buy for you. If you prefer a slightly subtler and cleaner effect to your images, maybe stick with the base pack for now.

Featured model: Valencia Germain

U.K. Links - If you’re buying from the U.K. be sure to check my discount code below

The Lensbaby Omni Colour Expansion Pack - Currently retailing at £59.00 (June 2020)

Lensbaby OMNI Creative Filter System Large for filter thread sizes 62-82mm - Currently retailing at £86.95 (June 2020)

Jake Hicks Discount Code

Although I was not paid to write this review, I was given a discount code to share with you guys if you buy any Lensbaby product from WEX Photo here in the U.K.

Use the code: JAKEHICKS10 at checkout for 10% off. Plus this code works on ALL Lensbaby products at WEX too!!

U.S. Links

The Lensbaby Omni Colour Expansion Pack - Currently retailing at $59.95 (June 2020)

The Lensbaby Omni Creative Filter System (Base Pack) - Currently retailing at $99.95 (June 2020) - Note that there are two base system sizes depending on the lens sizes you have. Be sure to check which is best for your lenses first.

Please note: I do not earn commission from any sales on the Lensbaby store.

Thank You

Thanks for checking out this review and spending a little bit of your day with me here. I know this article probably took a little while to load due to all the large images, but I hope you found it useful and that you left here with a little more knowledge than when you arrived. If you did, then this was worth it. As always, if you have any questions, then by all means fire-away in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer what I can. Thanks again and I’ll see you in the next one.

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