View allAll Photos Tagged bertstephani
De Haan, BELGIUM
After a stormy periode in my life, the kids and I needed to recharge our batteries again to start a new chapter. So we went for a couple of days to the Belgian coast.
These are my first shots ever with a rangefinder (Leica M4-2 borrowed from a friend - thx Wil)
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
and our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
Steenokkerzeel, BELGIUM (studio)
Now that I have a nice big studio, I might as well learn how to take pictures in it. I find it much more difficult than shooting on location. That's why I'm doing a series of test shoots to try stuff out. The fantastic Kailyka helped me out on this one.
LIGHTING INFO:
I know I move my lights around a lot in function of the mood, the story and the model's features. That's why I figured to keep it rather simple in the studio. This one is made with one Elinchrom Ranger head in a medium Chimera softbox to camera left. To get a touch of light in the background for separation, I aimed a Lumopro LP 120 on very low power to the floor behind the model.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
or our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
BELGIUM
wedding F&F
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
LIGHTING INFO:
The main light is natural light (in the open shade). A snooted SB24 behind the flowers (camera right) provides some separation light on the flowers and the rings on the Jaguar statue. Triggered with PW's.
BELGIUM - Sint-Katelijne Waver
Noa turned 10 days, we've been married for 7 years and the family (on my mother's side) got together for a party. What I really liked is that so many members of the family got together. It's been several years since I saw some of them.
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Maya just loves make-up. After a few hours she looked like a camouflaged gay sniper.
Steenokkerzeel, BELGIUM
Last Saturday my wife was out with her friends and my parents kidnapped my kids, so I unexpectedly ended up home alone. Since I received some new studio lighting equipment last week, I couldn't resist setting up a quick improvised test shoot. I asked on Twitter if anyone wanted to pose for me and Lut, the wife of a fellow photographer, volunteered. Thanks Lut for being so stunning and patient.
As this was mainly a test for the new lighting equipment I shot mostly digital. But I just couldn't resist to shoot a couple of rolls of film with my Hasselblad. First time I shot it in combination with flash.
This is lit with a Hensel Expert Pro 500 monobloc with a beautydish. A Sunbounce micro-mini below and a pro to camera left, are used as fill light.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
or our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
Steenokkerzeel, BELGIUM
Wedding photography superstar Mike Larson and our very own master Pieter Van Impe joined forces for a LIME workshop at the Barn. This was simply a multiple orgasm of wedding photography information.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
or our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
Canet-Plage, FRANCE
Just a snap from the family holiday in France. As a professional photographer it's tempting to lug around all that gear on holiday but I find it important to step away from photography from time to time and just focus on my family. I only took 400 images in two weeks and mostly just with my small digicam (and a waterproof housing).
My three little darlings at the pool.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
or our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
Diepenbeek, BELGIUM
Some photographers loose their freshness, spontanity and creativity after a few years in this very competitive business. To avoid that happening to me, I take some time to play every now and then.
This time my friend and fellow photographer Karla, showed me some tricks for working in a small studio and I took her outside for some strobist style shooting.
TECH INFO
Vivitar 285HV on 1/2 or 1/1 power about 30 degrees to camera left as the main light. Another Vivitar with a grid was placed opposite the main light to provide just a liitle separation light.
Also check out my blog:
Ghent, BELGIUM
I don't shoot many weddings anymore but how could I resist shooting the big day of a good friend and his stunning bride.
Check out my blog:
Leuven area, Belgium
I had the honor to document the baptism and welcoming party of Tigist, a cute, fun, small girl from Ethiopia that was welcomed in her new amazing family.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
Ghent, BELGIUM
After six months of work, MOTIVATIONAL LIGHT, my instructional video about lighting is finally available.
For more info, trailers, bonus footage and purchasing, visit:
This image was shot during a fast paced real life wedding shoot. We shot with the 5DmkII and my old Hasselblad 500cm with a combination of Kodak Tri-X 400 and a borrowed 39 megapixel CFV-39 digital back
Also check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
and our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
This is a test picture of my son. We were going for a walk to check out some potential locations in the area. I noticed the a little tunnel with a nice pattern of fluorescent lights. It's often really ennoying when you have to deal with light sources of a different colour. But I could see a nice effect in this. For this test shot my son was lit by the available natural light. By using the right white balance for the natural light, the colour of the fluorescent lights shifted to green.
I got the idea to exagerate the effect by using a flash with a red gel as the main light. Choosing the right white balance to make the red light appear white, the colour of the fluorescents would shift to an extremely saturated green.
I used this idea the next day on a model shoot.
You can check out the results in this set: www.flickr.com/photos/98609590@N00/sets/72157600233832136/
To see how these pictures would look when a neutral white balance was used (and no compensation for the red gel in front of the strobe), check www.flickr.com/photos/98609590@N00/541375849/in/set-72157...
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI
If you wish to use this picture, please contact me.
BELGIUM - De Panne - Plopsaland
Our two oldest kids, Kobe and Maya, are really relaxed about their baby sister Noa getting most of the attention these days. But yesterday was all about them. We dropped Noa of at my parents and took Kobe and Maya to Plopsaland (a theme park). We all had so much fun.
43 EUR for some burgers and fries, auch.
"the Barn", Steenokkerzeel, BELGIUM
After six months of work, MOTIVATIONAL LIGHT, my instructional video about lighting is finally available.
For more info, trailers, bonus footage and purchasing, visit:
This image was shot for a sequence where we explain the importance of giving yourself some time to play from time to time in order to grow as a photographer. We did an improvisations shoot. The models wanted to do some kind of retro themed shoot and I wanted to shoot a bit with my Hasselblad 500cm on Kodak Tri-X 400, perfect match. We also shot a number of testshots with a DSLR and some of these actually came out pretty well too.
Also check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
and our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
BELGIUM - Zaventem
Photographing 5 kids is always a challenge but this time it went pretty smooth.
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
BELGIUM - De Panne - Plopsaland
Our two oldest kids, Kobe and Maya, are really relaxed about their baby sister Noa getting most of the attention these days. But yesterday was all about them. We dropped Noa of at my parents and took Kobe and Maya to Plopsaland (a theme park). We all had so much fun.
Kobe riding a "knight horse with mirrors on the side" (his words"
After the Strobist Seminar in Paris we were hungry for more Strobist facts. Bert Stephani, Pieter Van Impe, Didier Jouret and me went on a Strobist trip in Vilvoorde, Belgium.
Without the help of the fantastic models Dirk Hesse and Sylviane Alliet this day wouldn't have been possible!
Hofstade, BELGIUM
Today we had a shooting day / workshop for www.squeezethelime.com
At the end the participants and I decided to make a bit of a creative architectural group shot. The abandoned building was just too beautiful not to use.
LIGHTING INFO: 4 speedlights on stands hidden behind the pilars on full power (one of them didn't fire because of the long recycling time in this picture) and one speelight on half power superclamped to the window frame pointing straight at the group. Full CTO filters on all flashes.
Cullera, Valencia, SPAIN
I was asked to do a presentation at the AFPV congress in Spain about photography 2.0
I was told in advance that this congress is always a lot of fun but I wasn't prepared for so much fun, inspiration and friendship.
I didn't plan to talk about technique or lighting but lots of people expressed their interest in my lighting style on location. So I decided to do an improvised off-camera flash demo in and around the hotel on the last day. Carol is a talented Spanish photographer and also proved to be an excellent model. Not easy when you have 50+ people looking at you.
I didn't have any speedlights or triggers with me, so I borrowed a battery powered studio light. We shot everything with just the one light and a standard reflector.
The main light is natural light and we used a hair light to create a more sunny feel.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
or our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
"the Barn", Steenokkerzeel, BELGIUM
After six months of work, MOTIVATIONAL LIGHT, my instructional video about lighting is finally available.
For more info, trailers, bonus footage and purchasing, visit:
This image was shot for a sequence where we explain the importance of giving yourself some time to play from time to time in order to grow as a photographer. We did an improvisations shoot. The models wanted to do some kind of retro themed shoot and I wanted to shoot a bit with my Hasselblad 500cm on Kodak Tri-X 400, perfect match. We also shot a number of testshots with a DSLR and some of these actually came out pretty well too.
Also check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
and our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
Aalter, BELGIUM
The Belgian association of Professional Photographers organised a lecture/celebration about the life and work of Filip and Ria Santens. It was great to see how they still have this crazy appetite for creating images and we had lots of fun.
I'm sure the view must be spectacular
Check out my blog:
BELGIUM - Melsbroek
Lately I've been incredibly busy. I'm really grateful that business is going so well, but sometimes I really need a break from it. That break doesn't have to be two weeks on an exotic beach (but if you offer me I'll gladly accept it). Yesterday my two eldest kids went geocaching (www.geocaching.com) with my friend David and his kids.
These couple of hours outdoors with happy kids and a good friend gave me such an energy boost.
David is leading the kids towards the geocache.
BELGIUM - Zaventem
I've always been the kind of person who likes to do the opposite of what a sain person would do. So what do I do on a very windy, rainy, cold day with low and uninteresting light, yup, I go outside. Model Kaatje was a trooper in that bad weather.
Also check out my blog:
Cullera, Valencia, SPAIN
I was asked to do a presentation at the AFPV congress in Spain about photography 2.0
I was told in advance that this congress is always a lot of fun but I wasn't prepared for so much fun, inspiration and friendship.
I didn't plan to talk about technique or lighting but lots of people expressed their interest in my lighting style on location. So I decided to do an improvised off-camera flash demo in and around the hotel on the last day. Carol is a talented Spanish photographer and also proved to be an excellent model. Not easy when you have 50+ people looking at you.
I didn't have any speedlights or triggers with me, so I borrowed a battery powered studio light. We shot everything with just the one light and a standard reflector.
The main light is natural light and we used the studio light to get some light in the background.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
or our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
BELGIUM - Zaventem
Holidays are over for the kids.It's time to go back to school. Kobe doesn't look to thrilled to give up his vacation-life.
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
De Haan, Belgium
My son Kobe sometimes doesn't get the attention I'd like to give him. So once in while we take some time to do something fun with jus the guys
Kobe had been talking about fishing, so I asked one of my best friends Sven (aka Ponette) to take us fishing.
We spent the afternoon at a creek but didn't catch anything. But we took enough food for a nice bbq on the beach anyway. Sleeping in a tent on the beach was quite an adventure for Kobe. The three of us really enjoyed it.
BELGIUM - Lommel
Family Holiday in Centerparks De Vossemeren
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
They fight all the time but when I get the camera, it's big love between Kobe and Maya.
Ghent, BELGIUM
I don't shoot many weddings anymore but how could I resist shooting the big day of a good friend and his stunning bride.
Check out my blog:
Ghent, BELGIUM
I don't shoot many weddings anymore but how could I resist shooting the big day of a good friend and his stunning bride.
Check out my blog:
De Haan, BELGIUM
I strongly (convince myself to) believe that professional photographers should take some time to play every now and then. We played around all the time when we where amateurs and that's what made us good enough to go pro anyway. So to become a better pro, I try to allow some time to play in my tight schedule.
A few months ago I got into a conversation between some like minded photographers and we decided to do some kind of fun shoot together. I actually didn't have the time but I went anyway. And I'm glad I did, because I came back with more energy and motivation.
We were joined by Yvan from www.birdseye.be, who shoots pictures with his remotely operated Canon G9 hanging from a kite. We realised too late that we could make a cool strobist shot with Yvan's kit and our wireless flash equipment. We quickly improvised a setup for a groupshot balancing flash with the quickly setting sun. By the time we figured out the technical part, the sun was gone, but we still managed to get some shots from an unusual angle.
This shot was made by Yvan with his G9 set to iso 400, f/2.8 and 1/125 to allow for some (by that time not existing) ambient light into the shot. We used one speedlight with a beauty dish to camera right, set at 1/4 and a bare speedlight on camera left at 1/8.
We'll be back to create a supershot with the kite soon.
Check out my blog:
BELGIUM
As a personal project, I decided to shoot everything and anything for 50 days with just a 50mm lens (on a full frame body).
Day 1
Check out my blog for more on the project: www.bertstephani.com/blog
BELGIUM
wedding F&F
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
LIGHTING INFO:
A snooted SB24 behind the couple to camera right, provides the hairlight. Triggered with PW's.
BELGIUM - Zaventem
My daughter Maya turnde 3 last friday. Ofcourse we had to celebrate that. Maya enjoyed all the presents, sweets and attention.
In the afternoon there was a grandparents party in Maya's school, that's why she lookes like a member of the special forces in a happy mood.
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
FRANCE - Paris Strobist Seminar
We left really early in the morning to go to the Strobist Seminar in Paris. We all made some crazy pics while having a pitstop. This is an unconventional picture of the unconventional Madelien.
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHT RESERVED
LIGHTING INFO:
This is done with just one speedlite in my left hand, while holding the camera with the ST-E2 transmitter in my right hand.
Anderlecht, BELGIUM
The guys from Canon asked me if I could do some workshops at the Canon Eos Discovery Days. It was a bit weird for me to do this in front of such a huge and diverse audience in a really short time but it was big fun and I met tons of great people.
For those who couldn't be there or didn't understand my very special interpretation of the French language, I decided to try to replicate my workshop on my blog. 3 new posts are coming up.
LIGHTING INFO
I guess most people know me from my off-camera flash stuff, but I wanted to share some tricks for down-and-dirty work with the flash ON the camera. Because sometimes that's the only possible solution. You probably won't make masterpieces but you may just as well to try to squeeze the most out of it.
I tried showing some techniques by a series of 3 photographs. I did the first one with the camera in P-mode and letting all those clever Japanese inside do the work. The picture didn't turn out particulary well, so I switched to Manual mode for the second picture. In these kind of situations I always look for light in the background to get more depth and separation between the subject and the background. I lowered the shutterspeed and increased the ISO to let more available light in. The flash does the rest.
The last step was to create an off-camera light source without getting the flash off the camera. Many people know the technique to bounce flash onto the ceiling but never take it a step further while there so much other stuff you can bounce the light on and gain more control over your lighting. I picked somebody with a white-ish shirt/sweater out of the audience to stand on my left side, so I could bounce the flash on his/her clothes. My message is that there's often uncoventional lighting equipment to be found just about anywhere.
Check out the photoset to see how the shot evolved
Check out my blog:
BELGIUM - Vilvoorde
After we finished the 'Running in 2020' pictures, we were joined by pro model Sylvianne. We improvised and had a lot of fun with Dirk and Sylvianne. This picture was shot under a highway bridge.
LIGHTING INFO:
A Vivitar 285HV with shoot through umbrella to camera right is the main light. Another Vivitar with a black straw grid was placed behind the models as a hair light.
A video of this shoot can be found at:
youtube.com/watch?v=bUOfBY05_K8
More info, will be published soon on my blog:
BELGIUM - Overijse
The wedding of Liv & Gert.
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
LIGHTING INFO:
A bare SB24 was placed to camera right on half of full power (triggered with PW's) to overpower the ambient light.
Haacht, BELGIUM
I am not a sports photographer at all but I find it fun to shoot one of my son's soccer games from time to time. I really enjoy it although my respect for sports photographers grows every time I attempt taking some good action shots.
TECHNICAL INFO
I used a 1D mkIII with a 70-200 and a 2x extender on a Gitzo monopod. The extender reduces the 70-200 to an f5.6 lens that doesn't always focus fast and accurate enough. The extender also reduces the image quality, certainly in backlit situation. I can't justify getting a 400mm f/4 to shoot for fun but for what I use it, the 70-200 + extender is more than good enough.
Oh yeah, they won 1-22!
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
or our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
"the Barn", Steenokkerzeel, BELGIUM
After six months of work, MOTIVATIONAL LIGHT, my instructional video about lighting is finally available.
For more info, trailers, bonus footage and purchasing, visit:
This image was shot for a sequence where we explain the importance of giving yourself some time to play from time to time in order to grow as a photographer. We did an improvisations shoot. The models wanted to do some kind of retro themed shoot and I wanted to shoot a bit with my Hasselblad 500cm on Kodak Tri-X 400, perfect match. We also shot a number of testshots with a DSLR and some of these actually came out pretty well too.
Also check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
and our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
Diepenbeek, BELGIUM
Some photographers loose their freshness, spontanity and creativity after a few years in this very competitive business. To avoid that happening to me, I take some time to play every now and then.
This time my friend and fellow photographer Karla, showed me some tricks for working in a small studio and I took her outside for some strobist style shooting.
Just a quick available light portrait.
Also check out my blog:
BELGIUM
As a personal project, I decided to shoot everything and anything for 50 days with just a 50mm lens (on a full frame body).
Check out my blog for more on the project: www.bertstephani.com/blog
BELGIUM
As a personal project, I decided to shoot everything and anything for 50 days with just a 50mm lens (on a full frame body).
Day 2
Check out my blog for more on the project: www.bertstephani.com/blog
uPlace Triathlon Training Camp at Sands Beach Resort in Costa Teguise Lanzarote.
Photos by Bert Stephani bertstephani.com/
Somewhere in Limburg, BELGIUM
Last Saturday my cousin got married and I had the honor to photograph this fantastic day. They choose to have a winter wedding and boy did they get what they wanted. Because of the unexpected snow we almost didn't get there.
Between church and reception I asked them to jump in the car and give me 15 minutes to make some pics in the snow before the sun would set. I saw this vineyard, pulled over and took some pictures.
I shot most of the wedding on digital but couldn't resist shooting a couple of rolls of film on my Hasselblad. This was all natural light and shot on Tri-X 400
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
or our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
De Haan, BELGIUM
I strongly (convince myself to) believe that professional photographers should take some time to play every now and then. We played around all the time when we where amateurs and that's what made us good enough to go pro anyway. So to become a better pro, I try to allow some time to play in my tight schedule.
A few months ago I got into a conversation between some like minded photographers and we decided to do some kind of fun shoot together. I actually didn't have the time but I went anyway. And I'm glad I did, because I came back with more energy and motivation.
LIGHTING INFO
Although it was pretty chilly, Fauve didn't mind to shoot for 10 minutes in the surf. The sun was still pretty high. I underexposed the scene by a stop or two to keep enough detail in the sky. This rendered our model to almost pitch black. Ake was kind enough to get in the water with us holding a California Sunbounce mini micro reflector (silver) and a flash (Vivitar 285HV) attached to it (camera left). The Vivitar was set to full power to balance with the still powerful backlight. Triggered with PW's.
Ake managed to not only keep the sunbounce steady in heavy winds without falling in the water, she also yelled every time a big wave came in (still got pretty wet though).
Check out my blog:
Frankfurt - GERMANY
I was asked to head the first Frankfurt Strobist meetup and help out with lighting. I'd like to thank everyone for hiring me and giving me such a pleasant stay.
more pictures, setups, ... in the Frankfurt Strobist Group
Also check out my blog:
"the Barn", Steenokkerzeel, BELGIUM
After six months of work, MOTIVATIONAL LIGHT, my instructional video about lighting is finally available.
For more info, trailers, bonus footage and purchasing, visit:
This image was shot for a sequence in which we demonstrate how to create different moods within the same setting by just changing the light.
Also check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
and our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com