happy new year!

From the last photoshoot this year. Found this cool location with walls made of different colors and textures. It was pitch black with no electricity, so modeling light from Pro-7B and smartphone flashlight applications saved again the day. Photos coming later. Happy new year!

Tina

plugged

Hellmet returns with software update. Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

video editing

Learning to use the Adobe Premiere for video editing. Premiere is like Photoshop, even the basic things are hard to do until you master the software. Tons of options is a bit overwhelming but allows the user to have total control of everything. Editing photos is so straightforward. There are no audio track(s) to choose/licence, rhythm or typography choices to make :)

Anna

Set of fashion/slightly messy hair in movement photos with small variations in the setup. Time lapse in the end of post showing that most of the time goes building lighting setups and waiting.

making of

Pull back from yesterday, photos coming later.

Profoto power control UIs

There are some benefits when using set of exactly same kind of lights.

Three different Profoto flashes with completely different flash output controls.

Compact 600ws, goes from 1/16 to 1/1
Pro-7B 1200ws, goes from -4 to MAX
D1 250ws, goes from 4 to 10

Tougher Than a Lion

 

Army themed (inspiration from Rihanna's music video) shoot with Henri. Sunny October day, just perfect weather for shooting in gravel pit. After sun was setting, day continued inside the studio. More photos and BTS shots after the jump.

Profoto RFi softbox

On the beginning of this month Profoto released a new line of softboxes. It was rather surprising to notice that Profoto's new set of sofboxes, speedring and grids are noticeably cheaper than previous versions and come with design improvements like color coded rods and selection of speedrings to attach the boxes to all major flash brands.

I have been planning to replace my cheap stripbox, and getting the brand new RFi stripbox with half of the price compared to their older line of boxes made the upgrade decision easy. Campaign offer where free Nikon/Canon speedring is given for buyer of RFi box+speedring made it even easier. Profoto is known from their robustly made lighting equipment and this kind of steep price reduction put me little bit cautious. Can the new RFi (name comes from recessed front, improved) boxes stand against their older brothers.

Hanna

 

before the show

Live music photos after looong break. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart playing at Korjaamo, Helsinki. This one with gleaming red lights in darkness was taken before the band started playing.

Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything

Upgrading slowly the monoblocks in studio. Starting with D1 250 that goes to all the way down to 3.5ws, which is lot less than Compact 600 is giving at lowest power setting (37,5ws). In home/studio use, power control range of 7+ stops is usually better than high light output. D1 with shoot through umbrella at lowest power is giving ok exposures for head & shoulder portraits taken with f2.8. Nice! Some of the other advantages of D1 over Compact series are more compact size (eh), stronger modeling light and option to get build in Air for radio triggering/power control.

DigiExpo

Traditional visit to DigiExpo exhibition, Helsinki. More chaotic experience than before. Took some time to find camera, games and other electronics from the ski & skate stuff that were dominating the event. In the  picture Canon EOS C500 with CN-E 24mm T1.5 L F Cine Lens. Professional 4K video camera, for people who think HD is passé.


Finnish war photograpgher Niklas Meltio giving presentation

time lapse setup

Took time lapse from recent studio shoot by placing 808 on the studio corner.

Setup: light stand, magic arm, three super clamps and masking tape. Clip can be seen from this post.

Marigona

Test shoot of Marigona

Anna Emilia

 

DaVinci Resolve Lite

More exploration to the world of video editing. Node based interface in DaVinci Resolve Lite requires some time to get confortable, but software feels excellent considering it is FREE.

body painting SM 2012

Body painting Finnish championship 2012

back to basics

Two evenings behind teaching photography basics and introduction to studio lighting. Lots of good questions during the sessions and I could sense the excitement from people discovering the possibilities what can be done with studio lights & speedlights.

Saara with furry hat

Test shoot for amazing Saara. Three different styles this time. Many of the photos from the studio session were done by using Umbrella XL as the main light. Soft but contrasty light, one of my favorite light modifiers currently. Some of the lighting setups can be seen from the behind the scenes video at the end of post.

DIY laser trigger for flash

Colleague built this DIY laser trigger for flash. Electronics are packed inside the small pelicase. Probably not TSA approved device.

How many photographers are needed to test the device? Answer can be found from short video below.

DIY laser trigger from Marko on Vimeo.

Marooned

Fashion shoot at beach next to the sea, Helsinki. More photos after the link.

burdock the 8th passenger

You often meet interesting people during photo shoots but sometimes you also get unwanted new friends. There have been cases when I have found spiders from my camera bag after taking photos in abandoned buildings. 

This week's new friends were burdocks that I found from my clothes & camera bag after the shoot.

Futuristic

Fashion shoot at awesome plastic house Futuro at WeeGee Näyttelykeskus. Exhibition is still running some weeks so if you happen to be around Espoo it is worth checking the yellow Futuro house designed by architect Matti Suuronen in 1960s.

Iiris

From the ex tempore shoot with Iiris & Henri about month ago.

studio day

Original plan was to shoot outside but rainy weather once again changed plans. Long but good day at studio with three totally different styles, including the one with white furry hat. Photos & video can be found here.

Mini tripod

Mini tripod, helps when placing small flash to uneven surface. Borrowed and tested one from MarkoO during summer and had to buy one for my camera bag. Costs & weights nothing, but can be really helpful.

I have been using dSRL Gorillapod for same purposes but where Gorillapod is more sturdy and versatile, it also weights a lot more and can't be carried on your back pocket.

Bad color day

Sometimes it feels like the whole color spectrum is against you. Two hours and about twenty layers later I decided that this particular photo works best as black & white.

Apparently it was right decision as the final photo was one of the model's & make-up artist's favorites from that shoot.

SoStylish opening party

My friend Anu opened her SoStylish Fashion & Make-up boutique. Took some photos from the opening party.

costume portraits

Steampunk

Again photographing the costume portraits at Ropecon 2012. Busy weekend with more portrait photos than in previous events. Lots of awesome fan made costumes. More photos after the link.

Iroquois

Photos for Emiisa F clothing. Shoot at sunny Lammassaari

Nokia 808 PureView

I have been using the Nokia 808 PureView and its amazing camera (41MP sensor, Full HD video) to capture photos & record making of videos from shoots during summer.

Hunger magazine

The Hunger is a biannual magazine from photographer and publisher, Rankin. 500 pages and not that much ads. Worth checking.

All numbers comes with two different covers. One with male and other with female model. Male version was 2,10€ cheaper in local bookstore. I demand equality :)

Thanks for mentioning this MarkoO!

windy day

From the ex tempore shoot with Henri and Iiris. We had idea to test parabolic umbrella outside, but as can be seen from video the day was too windy for that. Good shoot without too much pre-planning. We took some photos with D-lite & beauty dish and lot more just using ambient light and reflector. Photos coming later.

another workshop

Arranged another workshop with Sky. Great weather to shoot outside and talented people attending to take photos and participate creating the setups.

One workshop more planned for the summer. Get the latest information about upcoming workshops/get together from my Facebook page.

PocketWizard PLUS III

Got new PocketWizard PLUS III radiotrigger. Refreshing to notice that new version is cheaper and in most areas even better than older PLUS II. It also comes with all the needed cables to attach it to studio flashes or speedlights which is big difference compared to old models where the cables had to be purchased separately.

Lucky Hell

From the editorial mini series collaboration with Lucky Hell & Anu Hämäläinen.

Setting priorities

I occasionally write short reviews of equipment to my blog as I am also really interested about the technical aspects of photography. How new cameras, lights and gadgets work. Are they effective and comfortable to use. What can be done with them and how they will drive the photography further and make the life of photographers easier. Product reviews seem to be also the most popular posts in my blog if measured by number of views. It is refreshing to get and test new cameras, lenses and light modifiers and find new inspiration and ways of doing photos through them but it is good to keep in mind that they are just equipment. All the innovations and enhancement in new equipment makes the working easier but they don't mean automatically better photos.

If you are into editorial portrait, fashion or beauty photography where production value (= team & location in addition of photographer) matter more than for example with street photography, don't invest just on new lens or light. Invest money on getting professional models, make-up artists and stylists to work towards your vision. That will usually show much more on the end results, than using new one stop faster lens. I have seen so much talented and jaw dropping work done with cheapest dSRLs with kit-lenses that I often wonder why semi-intelligent people (including me) are panicking to immediately upgrade photography gear to recently introduced new versions. Even after writing this I have to admit that this has been already exciting year what comes to new photography product & software announcements. I feel truly sorry for all of you who are struggling with acute G.A.S (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).
 
You can buy more pixels or faster lenses but not talent. Don't forget the 10 000 hours rule, so keep on taking photos to really improve. Keep on taking photos that are out of your comfort zone. Try to edit things differently with whatever software you are using. Try using just the natural ambient light if you are flash photographer and vice verse. I am also trying to follow this by doing the lighting & retouching differently and to learn more about video editing. It is sometimes difficult as hell but rewarding when things will go right. Maybe by that way I one day learn to take good photos.

I chose the picture for this entry as it was taken few years ago with ancient 6 megapixel Nikon D70s and SB-600 flash + reflector. Combination worth of around 400€. It also has good summer vibe with my friend in the lake drinking cola. For this shoot extra money was not used for professional make-up artist or things like that, it all went for grilling accessories. Summer is here again, keep your mind focused on that. Summer is good. Grilling is even better.

Lady Laverna & the Ravishing Shangri-La Rubies

Promo photo for Lady Laverna I took around January.

Before and after by Herstyler & Gaya

From makeover shoot last year for Gaya cosmetics & HerStyler

Yacht workshop

Co-arranged this sailing themed portrait photography workshop with Tapiola cameraclub. We did portraits using ambient light with diffusion fabric/reflector to open shadows and then same with flashes. Two professional models & make-up artist and sunny weather. Good combination for successful day.

Nobody fell to the water during day and only item that sea claimed was cheap radio trigger :)  More photos & one video after link.

Mia

I don't that often like to use wide angle lenses for portrait/fashion, but I think for this photo focal lenght choice (14-24) worked well. This was also the first outdoor shoot this year when it didn't get cold because of really sunny & warm weather. Summer is great.

Layer pizza

Example of not that well organized layer structure. After finishing retouched image you don't always have time or energy to start reorganizing and renaming the layers. Putting them into groups, adding explanations or color codes describing what the layers are in image and deleting unneeded layers. Deleting duplicated base layers/merged layers and textures that are not used in final image can save lots of hard drive space. Keeping files tidy and compact will also make them faster to open & save. Saving time & hard drive space is saving money.

Poorly structured file can be called as layer pizza. Layer pizza = totally or semi-randomly lied out layer structure without proper layer names. Interpreting it later is like decoding DNA structure.

I have also heard stories that some people use Photoshop without layers...

Dia de los Muertos

Finally had opportunity to create Dia de los Muertos themed photos. Aiju was great choice as model and she had some authentic Mexican props to suit the theme (figure and candle to keep the bad spirits away). Flower arrangements in hair was done by Anu and they are combination of real & fake flowers.

As for the lighting, gridded beauty dish served as main light, while some of photos below were done just using the candle light.

Poison Ivy

Wanted to do something really colorful for change. Bright green dress from Pandora Deluxe combined with green background and red hair created strong color contrasts for this image.

f16 day setup

From last weekend's photoshoot. Four different locations and this one from the place with big tree. Really sunny & hot day so I had to use sun lotion and most of the day f16-f22 to compete against the burning sun (when using flash).

Note to self: 4 meters long light stand is not really tall enough when you shoot below the subject and subject is located above you in the tree :)

Final photo can be seen from here

Zombiewalk Helsinki 2012: Survival of Sickest

Finland was beaten in ice hockey. Either that or sunny weather made the zombies invade the streets of Helsinki. New record of 302 zombies participated. Again, some really great costumes.

Two hair movement photos

Model: Vesna


Model: Alevtina