View allAll Photos Tagged bertstephani
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
Broncolor flash head with huge beauty dish to camera left. We used only the pilot light (not the actual flash) to simulate daylight.
Check out my blog:
BELGIUM - Overijse
The wedding of Liv & Gert.
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
LIGHTING INFO:
This is a setup shot for this picture: www.flickr.com/photos/98609590@N00/1531003062/
The Hummer driver held the stand because it was a bit windy.
2007 may 18, Zaventem (Belgium), photoshoot with model Irene Proshina (model release).
This is personal work. No goals,themes or expectations, just a fun shoot to try out some new ideas.
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI
If you wish to use this picture, please contact me.
Here's a setup shot from this picture: www.flickr.com/photos/98609590@N00/541376347/in/set-72157...
BELGIUM - Zaventem
Yesterday we bought one of those giant trampolines for the kids. They really love it and showed off the whole day. When I stuck my head into the safety net, I noticed the round shapes, she unusual angle and the nice clouds. It immediately struck me that this would be a perfect situation to photograph with my new 8mm Peleng Fisheye lens. PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
LIGHTING INFO:
After a few shots with just available light, I wanted to add a strobe to make the background/sky more dramatic while the subjects remained well lit. A visiting friend acted as a human lightstand (camera left) for a single bare Nikon SB-24 (triggered with PW's). You can actually see the flash on the left side of the frame.
The strobe was at 24mm and full power. Camera was set to 1/250 at f/16.
Brussels, BELGIUM
I've set up this shoot with my muse and favorite model Erika to explore a few new ideas. I do experiment when photographing clients but I can't go as far as I wish. That's why I need this kind of freewheeling improvisation shoots from time to time.
As usual it was great to have Ake around as an assistant. Frederik, a communications student, shot some making-of footage for us.
We started out with some shots in an open area of the forest to play around with that harsh sunlight but after a while I wanted more control over the light. Erika was placed in the shade and we used a small flash from camera right (pretty close to Erika) on full power to balance the main light with the blue sky.
Check out my blog:
BELGIUM - Peleng 8mm fisheye lens
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I put a little review about this lens on my blog www.bertstephani.com/blog
Oostende, BELGIUM
I recently did a guerilla shoot together with my friend and fellow photographer Jean. The goal was to test the California Sunbounce Micro Mini reflector with flash attachement. We decided to go on a completely unplanned mission: no location, no make-up, no models, not much gear and no concept. Just shoot what we came up with at the moment.
LIGHTING INFO
We used the Sunbounce to block the harsh summer sun (camera left). We allowed just a bit of light spill on her hair to create separation from the dark background.
Here's the YouTube video of this shoot.
Check out my blog:
Lovenjoel, BELGIUM
I was asked to give a demonstration about the way I work with off-camera flash on an event for the Belgian Federation of Professional Photographers. I gave a presentation for 20 minutes together with my buddy and wedding photographer Pieter Van Impe. Later that day we did a 45 minute live shoot.
I wanted to show how I improvise with the model and the location, so I didn't prepare anything. It wasn 't easy to look for backgrounds, set up lights, make pics and at the same time explain what I was doing to 60 photographers. So it's not my best work but I hope I gave an idea of the endless possibilities of small flashes.
Check out my blog:
Steenokkerzeel (Studio), BELGIUM
I really needed to do something different in the studio. After being inspired by a lecture of Paulo Reversi, I set all the flash/studio gear aside and go back to basics. I spent 70 EUR in the DIY store on a pair of halogen worklights and shower curtains (to make a large lightsource) and a couple of rough blankets as a background.
Shot with my Hasselblad 500cm on Ilford Fuji Neopan 400
Shutterspeed was 1 second (no surprise I used a tripod then)
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
BELGIUM - Zaventem
Lotte got a photoshoot as a present for her birthday. The friends and Lotte's bf, came along. I had a lot of fun shooting them. It was a dull gray fall day, but we managed to get a more sunny feeling in most of the pics.
LIGHTING INFO:
I used a bare Vivitar 285HV as the main light (camera left about 45°).
Another 285HV was placed behind the subjects to create some separation light and some more light on the leaves. I added an CTO (orange) gel to the backlight. Triggered with PW's.
More info, pics and video's can be found on my blog
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Brussels, BELGIUM
I've set up this shoot with my muse and favorite model Erika to explore a few new ideas. I do experiment when photographing clients but I can't go as far as I wish. That's why I need this kind of freewheeling improvisation shoots from time to time.
As usual it was great to have Ake around as an assistant. Frederik, a communications student, shot some making-of footage for us.
One of the keywords I had in mind for this shoot was "hippie". Erika got some cool hippiewear out of her magic suitcase and we played around in natural light.
Check out my blog:
Steenokkerzeel, BELGIUM
When the people at Calumet Belgium found out I've quickly became addicted to my Hasselblad 500 CM, they said I should really try out the CFV39 digital back. The CFV39 simply turns my 35yo film camera into a 39 megapixel digital monster. They were so kind to let me use it for a couple of days.
I've set up an improvised test shoot together with Wil, a photographer that I respect a lot (and met through Flickr) www.flickr.com/photos/westerw/
Sigrid who's a dear friend since I was a teenager, offered to pose.
This is lit with just one Hensel Expert Pro monobloc with the 150cm Hensel Octabox.
I'll blog about my experiences with the CFV39 soon.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
or our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
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:
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 amazing Peggy helped me out on this one.
LIGHTING INFO:
Peggy is standing in front of a dark grey paper backdrop (love the versatility of grey) and is lit with one Elinchrom Ranger had with a medium softbox.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
or our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
BELGIUM - Vilvoorde
I wanted to create an image for a photo contest about the environment. The idea was to make a picture of a jogger in 2020. After we had the shot we wanted, we had some time to improvise some other pics with the same setup.
LIGHTING INFO:
We placed two Vivitar 285HV's behind the model to create a strong separation light. A third flash was placed about 30° to camera left to fill in the front of the model. Triggered with Pocket Wizards.
More info, pics and making of video can be found on my blog
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Oslo, NORWAY
Just some impressions of Oslo on a soaking wet day before I did my workshop there.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
or our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
Limburg, BELGIUM
Test shoot with the new Pentax 645D medium format digital camera for Shoot magazine. We took the camera out for a real-life test in very challenging (cold) conditions.
One bare Lumopro LP160 with a CTO gel to camera left.
Check out the review and a behind-the-scenes video on my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
Steenokkerzeel, BELGIUM
During a one-on-one workshop I teached, I remembered an old plan to do a model shoot with a simple compact camera instead of a DSLR. I could only snap a couple of pics of Ine posing for Michael but it sure did remember me to actually plan a model shoot with just a compact cam. This one was actually shot with my iPhone and processed in phone with the camerabag app.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
or our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
Kortenberg, 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 cold night shoot for a sequence about combining artificial ambient with flash.
Also check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
and our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
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
Steenokkerzeel, Belgium
Most of the pictures during my 5-day portrait Master Class are taken by the participants, but here are some that I took myself as an example.
Ine on location
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
or our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
Aalst, BELGIUM
We did this series of pictures in an old factory to illustrate how you can 'flow' from one lighting setup to the next. Check out the cool making-of video we made at:
Zaventem (Belgium) lighting test with Erika
I wanted to check out some setups in my ministudio, so I asked my friend/muse/model Erika to pose for me.
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI
LIGHTING INFO:
Being supercreative is great but you got to master the classics first. There's nothing extraordinary about this lighting setup: just a medium softbox on a studio strobe to camera right and a snooted SB-24 behind the model as a hairlight. Lights triggered with Pocketwizards.
Nothing fancy at all but I'm still pretty new to studio photography and I'm trying to get the details right.
Bergse Diep, Tholen, THE NETHERLANDS
When I started experimenting with photography in the water, I had no interest at all in the typical scuba diving photography. But I decided to give it a try anyway and to my surprise I actually enjoyed it a lot.
Amazing sunset, just when we went in the water.
my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
Aalst, BELGIUM
We did this series of pictures in an old factory to illustrate how you can 'flow' from one lighting setup to the next. Check out the cool making-of video we made at:
Steenokkerzeel, BELGIUM
What do you do when you shoot a couple who are equally in love with each other as with their Harley?
LIGHTING INFO:
One Elinchrom Ranger portable ranger with standard reflector to camera right.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
or our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
Zaventem, BELGIUM
I doesn't happen very often but sometimes it feels like you know someone pretty well without ever meeting each other. Veerle is Belgian but lives with her husband and their adorable daughter in California. I've been reading her blog about their American adventures for ages and Veerle was one of the first readers of my blog.
On their recent visit to our country I finally had the pleasure to meet Veerle, Sven and Nina for a photo session and a nice chat. I really hope I can visit them in the US one day.
TECHNICAL INFO
When shooting babies, it's often best to keep the lighting simple. We used a single Vivitar 285HV in a lastolite softbox above and behind Nina.
Also check out my blog:
Drongen, BELGIUM
As part of my workshop 'the Decisive Photographer', I did a one hour live shoot. I wanted to play it fair and didn't check the location or anything in advance. We just took a walk and stopped when we saw some good light, backgrounds, ... for portraits. Thanks to some of the people in the class for modelling.
This was actually just a shot to check exposure.
Check out my blog:
Zingst, GERMANY
Last weekend I drove 11h to the North of Germany to meet my friends from California Sunbounce and attend a workshop by one of my all time favorite photographers, Greg Gorman.
I arrived at night and had dinner with some friends, Greg and Mike (one of the models). After dinner we went to the pier to watch a slideshow of Greg's work. Peter Geller aka Mr. Sunbounce wanted a portrait of Greg in front of the sunset and projection screen. I quickly ran to my car to get a camera and a flash to get the shot before the great background light would be gone.
I exposed for the background and we added a 580EXII with an umbrella to balance out Greg. The flash was put on a monopod and held by an assistant to camera left. I left it up to the flash and my new Pocketwizard Flex TT5 to figure out the exposure. I adjusted the flash compensation on the camera a bit. I love the new PW's for these fast shots. It took less than 5 minutes to set up this shot.
We also used a California Sunbounce SunMover to have a tiny bit of fill light on Greg.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
and our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
Zingst, GERMANY
Last weekend I drove 11h to the North of Germany to meet my friends from California Sunbounce and attend a workshop by one of my all time favorite photographers, Greg Gorman.
Model Mike posing for a lighting demo with an HMI light
Taken with the Panasonic Lumix GF1 and the 20mm pancake. I really love that little camera.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
and our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
Steenokkerzeel / Zaventem, BELGIUM
Daphne and Katrien agreed to do something out of the ordinary for their engagement shoot. So we ventured outside on a cold night around the airport.
LIGHTING INFO
For this picture I've been lying in a ditch with my 15mm fisheye lens for over an hour. Daphne and Katrien were lit with a single speedlight to camera right. The hardest part was the timing to have the airplane at the right place in the frame.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
or our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
BELGIUM - Zaventem
Lotte got a photoshoot as a present for her birthday. The friends and Lotte's bf, came along. I had a lot of fun shooting them. It was a dull gray fall day, but we managed to get a more sunny feeling in most of the pics.
LIGHTING INFO:
There is no natural light in this picture. I used an Vivitar 285HV as the main light (camera left).
Another 285HV was held by Lotte's boyfriend behind the girls to create some separation light. Main light was at 1/1 to overpower the ambient, backlight was at 1/4. Triggered with PW's.
More info, pics and video's can be found on my blog
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
BELGIUM - Zaventem
Yesterday we bought one of those giant trampolines for the kids. They really love it and showed off the whole day. When I stuck my head into the safety net, I noticed the round shapes, she unusual angle and the nice clouds. It immediately struck me that this would be a perfect situation to photograph with my new 8mm Peleng Fisheye lens. PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
LIGHTING INFO:
After a few shots with just available light, I wanted to add a strobe to make the background/sky more dramatic while the subjects remained well lit. A visiting friend acted as a human lightstand (camera left) for a single bare Nikon SB-24 (triggered with PW's).
The strobe was at 24mm and full power. Camera was set to 1/250 at f/16.
BELGIUM - Zaventem
Yesterday we bought one of those giant trampolines for the kids. They really love it and showed off the whole day. When I stuck my head into the safety net, I noticed the round shapes, she unusual angle and the nice clouds. It immediately struck me that this would be a perfect situation to photograph with my new 8mm Peleng Fisheye lens.
PHOTO BY BERT STEPHANI - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
LIGHTING INFO:
After a few shots with just available light, I wanted to add a strobe to make the background/sky more dramatic while the subjects remained well lit. A visiting friend acted as a human lightstand (camera left) for a single bare Nikon SB-24 (triggered with PW's).
The strobe was at 24mm and full power. Camera was set to 1/250 at f/16.
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
Broncolor flash head with huge beauty dish to camera left. We used only the pilot light (not the actual flash) to simulate daylight.
Check out my blog:
Hofstade, BELGIUM
We had a shooting day / workshop for www.squeezethelime.com
LIGHTING INFO: natural light with a bit of hair light with a flash.
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:
Apeldoorn, THE NETHERLANDS
I got to do a fun workshop / demo at a "strobist" festival organized by a Dutch camerastore (www.cameratools.nl). They provided me with some cool skaters and a small ramp.
LIGHTING INFO:
For the second setup we wanted to make a shot of both skaters. The background was underexposed for a dramatic effect. I really wanted to spotlight each skater separately but that's not easy to do with moving subjects. So I decided to give them both a Lumopro flash to light themselves. A third flash behind and slightly over the camera was held by a participant and aimed at the skateboards for some fill.
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.
Lien posing in open shade
Check out my blog:
Strombeek, BELGIUM
A few weeks ago one of my best corporate clients threw a party for their employees, clients, and business relations. I was hired to shoot the event. Now these guys know how to throw a party. In the afternoon two famous Belgian singers performed and at night time there was a show by a Belgian singer who's big all over Europe. The shows were great, especially the last one and the best thing is that I had acces to more or less everywhere I wanted to as long as I didn't sing myself. I'm not allowed to show recognisable pictures of the artists, so you'll have to do with this one.
LIGHTING INFO:
I checked the stage an hour or so before the show and decided to superclamp one single Vivitar 285HV onto the support of the stage lights. I knew I wanted to shoot from the side and the back of the stage so this light would give me a pretty edgy look. The Vivitar was set to 1/4 of the power and that allowed me to shoot at a shutterspeed of at least 1/100 at iso 800. I tried the same without flash and had to shoot at 1/40 at iso 1600. Thanks to the flash every shot was pin sharp and I even had to add noise to the picture.
Check out my blog:
Zaventem, BELGIUM
Suzanne is an Egyptian beauty who lives in Antwerp. She needed a small portfolio to audition for a part in a videoclip from her favorite Egyptian artist.
Suzanne's great looks, fantastic smile, natural posing skills and fun character made it easy for me. It's hard to believe that she never posed before and was very nervous the first 15 minutes.
Check out my blog:
Kampenhout, BELGIUM
Christina and I went out for a magic walk/talk/shoot on the longest day of the year.
All shot with wonderful available light and the Panasonic GF1 + 20mm pancake lens.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
and our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
Oostende, BELGIUM
I recently did a guerilla shoot together with my friend and fellow photographer Jean. The goal was to test the California Sunbounce Micro Mini reflector with flash attachement. We decided to go on a completely unplanned mission: no location, no make-up, no models, not much gear and no concept. Just shoot what we came up with at the moment.
Behind-the-scenes shot
Here's the YouTube video of this shoot.
Check out my blog:
Zingst, GERMANY
Last weekend I drove 11h to the North of Germany to meet my friends from California Sunbounce and attend a workshop by one of my all time favorite photographers, Greg Gorman.
Greg walking us through his exposition.
Taken with the Panasonic Lumix GF1 and the 20mm pancake. I really love that little camera.
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
and our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com
Zaventem, BELGIUM
Suzanne is an Egyptian beauty who lives in Antwerp. She needed a small portfolio to audition for a part in a videoclip from her favorite Egyptian artist.
Suzanne's great looks, fantastic smile, natural posing skills and fun character made it easy for me. It's hard to believe that she never posed before and was very nervous the first 15 minutes.
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
Sint-Katelijne Waver, BELGIUM
My mom is an avid ceramist. She's graduating this month and needed to have a portrait to put in her paper.
To make the connection with ceramics, I asked her to put a layer of porcelain clay on her face. We waited until it dried and we got the cracks in the clay mask.
This was shot with two Vivitar 285's to the side and behind my mom. I put my expensive striplights on the flashes for a more even light.
Check out my blog:
Steenokkerzeel, BELGIUM
Some pics of my eldest daughter's (Maya) family birthday party. Congrats big girl.
Mega Maya
Check out my blog:
Anwerp, BELGIUM
Met up with some friends at a workshop. We didn't follow the workshop (we already had before) but just had some fun outside. We borrowed some gear and models from Calumet and Sunbounce who organized the workshop.
What does a Chase Jarvis fan do with an H4D in his hands and when his friends turns out to be a Ninja? White man can jump.
Studio light with beautydish to camera left and another studio light with standard reflector acts as the sun/backlight (in the frame).
Check out my blog: www.bertstephani.com/blog
and our photography project: www.squeezethelime.com