Les étoiles dans les yeux

Voici déjà un certain temps que je souhaitais refaire quelques portraits mais il me manquait un concept porteur dans le sens où photographier une jolie fille en soi est joli, sympathique, etc… mais que cela manque un peu de contenant si je peux m’exprimer ainsi. Ce qui finalement donne du plaisir est autant la conception que le résultat. Et sans commencer ici un débat philosophique, je crois que cette affirmation est vraie pour beaucoup de choses dans la vie.

Alors j’ai cherché un concept. C’est ainsi que, après un certain temps, mettre les étoiles dans le regard a surgi dans mon esprit. J’ai un peu recherché comment faire et très vite tout est clair dans mon esprit pour faire le shooting. Il neme restait plus qu’à demander à une de mes collègues de participer. L’idée lui plu et une semaine plus tard nous étions dans le studio pour ce TFP.

Le matériel : des lampes LED, un grillage pour les fixer et… c’est tout.

Pour le fond, j’ai posé une plaque de plastique transparente que l’on utilise normalement comme un toit pour les cabanes ou les maisons de jardin. J’ai utilisé un flash rouge dans ce set up.

Sur la photo ci-dessus, pas de flash. Les nuances bleues proviennent de la lumière ambiante du studio dont la chaleur est celle de la lumière du jour. Mes LED ayant une lumière de 32ooK (donc plus chaude), mon réglage calé sur celle-ci fait que la lumière du jour devient froide.

Voilà voilà…

(Wien, TFP, Juni 2016)

 

In French – La mort de l’artiste…

Salut à tous,

Je viens de voir une vidéo qui montre comment un ordinateur a analysé les tableaux de Rembrandt pour en peindre lui même. Le résultat est à la fois génial et inquiétant.

Génial car l’ordinateur a fait un travail extraordinaire. Le résultat est bluffant et je suis persuadé que ce tableau glissé parmi les autres dans une exposition, personne n’aurait vu la supercherie hormis les experts bien entendu.

Inquiétant car il se pose la question du devenir de l’artiste et dans tous les cas celui des photos de mode et de catalogue. Vous voulez une photo de Demarchalier : on va analyser ses photos, on inclue des photos de vêtement à promouvoir et hop! L’ordinateur fait le reste. Et pourquoi pas faire une photo où votre portrait sera travaillé et stylé puis collé à la créativité digitale dans le style de Demarchelier… Jusqu’un certain point cela marchera certainement.

Plus j’y pense et plus je me dis que le copiage va devenir parfait. Pour la photo commerciale de produits sans mise en scene ou sans “story”, ces algorithmes risquent de faire mal aux photographes. Mais pour l’artiste, lui, pas de danger. Il va savoir créer une histoire une tension, et chacune de ses photos est unique.

Tout de même inquiétant tout cela…

Voici la vidéo en anglais que j’ai trouvé dans un article du Huffington Post.

 

A bientôt

It’s about Nudes (safe for Work)

Erica Simone, a French-American photographer thinks nudity should be seen as a normal dress and made a project about it.

Enjoy!

It’s about being inspired

Hi guys!

This post is about getting inspired.

I have seen a picture by Zack Arias about a shot he made a strobe shooting at a  mirror which is reflecting the light at the model.

This is my attempt :

And this is the source of inspiration :

(Below : Picture by Zack Arias found in his blog)

When you are looking for inspiration, copying (but give the credit) is a way to get inspired and it’s a good way to start something new.

It’s Yes It’s Me When I Shoot!

 

Sometimes funny things happen during a shooting and this time, Mister Sun had decided to pay us a visit.

What you see is me shooting at a mirror. I stand in a sunbeam. Sunset has started. Behind me, my wife, under a Beauty Dish. I just think it’s cool.

more to come…

Things I have learned yesterday

My wife and I have decided to make a few shots in a totally different direction we use to do.

I call it, the “Emily Soto”. Stop. I don’t pretend to be as good as she is. What I mean by that is only the kind of dream-uish girls with flowers and kind of vintage victorian clothes. You get the idea (hopefully). Anyway, if you want to check on her gallery, click here.

She is a master of this style. Which is not what I am drawn to but it’s kind interesting and women seam to love that. So OK, let’S give it a try. I loaded my car and off we go. After a minute or two, my back let me remember I am 45 and it hurt. Not the best thing for a shoot. No position did help. The good thing about this is you have to be effective since you don’t want to suffer for nuts.

I took 3 cameras to see if there are differences. A nikon DF, a Fuji EX1 and a Sony Alpha700. And yes there are and will be a subject of a future post. We made 2 setups. The one below was shot with a Nikon Dƒ, 70-200mm 2,8G, S1/125 ƒ5, ISO 100. It’s lighted by 3 strobes.

1. My Keylight is a beautydish. I now think a big SB would have been more appropriate. It aims down at her at a 45° angle.
2. My backlight is 1/3 of my key light. It’s a bare head of my quadra, B plug. It’s gelled with a CTO.
3. My third light is a fill. It’s 40cm above the ground aiming straight at a silver reflector

I made just on measurement with my light-meter and I was done and ready to shoot.

My postproduction is only about the skin + background smoothing. No vignette or any kind of other adjustments. I hope this kind of picture will interest new models based in Vienna who want to build their portfolio for free (TFP).

Have a nice Sunday, more to come…

 

My boots

Years ago, as my wife and I were spending a week in Paris, we came into a shop known for its discounts and its good deals on clothes and shoes. It’s on the rue de Rivoli. Anyway, I saw those Marlboro boots made of crocodile’s leather and I could not resist… And got them for 200€.

Setting in my new boots was quiete difficult, I size 43 and they are 43. But they are tight and it was a real deal of pain to set into them. So, I wore them 2 or 3 times and I gave up since 5 minutes per foot is simply too long. But I could not get rid of them. So they spent a few years in the darkness waiting for getting sold… One day.

As I was talking to a colleague of mine, he smiled at me and seamed interested in buying them, interested enough to say ” Hey, Marc, why don’t you bring them. I will have a look and if it fits my feet, I’ll buy them!” Deal! But his feet are to long for my boots…

I am having a diet. Since December, I have lost 12kg. And for fun, as he was disappointed for not  buying them, I told him”You know what? Maybe my feet are less fat now that I’ve lost some weight, maybe they suit me now! 🙂 ”

Back home, I tried. An believe it or not, but they now do. I thought I had to make a picture im remembrance of this story.

Go figure….. ????

One strip-softbox (Elinchrom 90x30cm) camera right aiming down at me at a 30° angle.
A white reflector camera left to rim the boots.
Shot at f14 with a sekonic 758d aiming at the light source.

Editing achieved in NIK Color Efex Pro + CC for the vignette.

Thank you !

This picture was shot to say thank you to my colleagues who were so kind to give presents to my daughter Louise.

One strobe wich happens to be a striplight of Elinchrom (90 x 130) set at ƒ11, a black reflector camera left. Done.

More to come!

iPad et peinture

Depuis quelques jours une video tourne sur le net avec vitesse impressionnante. Il s’agit d’un portrait de l’acteur noir américain – excellent acteur soit dit en passant – Morgan Freemann. Cette video montre comment le i-peintre Kyle Lambert a peint un magnifique portrait de Morgan. Kyle est un artiste graphique britannique très prometteur.

Ce qui est impressionnant, c’est la ressemblance entre ce que cette peinture sur iPad a avec la qualité d’une photographie. Et je dois avouer que je n’aurais pas pensé une seconde qu’il s’agissait d’une peinture.

La vidéo montre comment le portrait a été réalisé.

Encore une fois, la preuve est donnée que le talent ne se mesure pas au tarif des outils utilisés. Ce qui d’ailleurs peut perturber et déstabiliser parfois mais aussi donner espoir. L’application utilisée ne coute que 5,99€ et peut être téléchargée ici: procreate.

Avant de finir ce post, j’ajouterai que je me suis demandé si Kyle n’est pas partie de la photo scannée pour ensuite la déformer… dans une démarche inversée. Et puis je me pose également la question des droits d’auteurs…

Marc

2 Tips To Notice When It’s Time To Move On!

Hi everyone!

Today’s blog isn’t about technique. It’s not about how you can set up lights. Not about the gears or tips in photoshop. Today’s blog is about facing the truth about your talent or, better said, your lake of it.

Oh yes, I can remember how things were when I started to shoot as a hobby photog’. It sucked. I did not see it and I was proud of myself. And my dear friends, very nice guys, told me what I so obviously wanted to hear : “Man you’re good!!”. So I kept on. And there is nothing wrong with keeping on moving further in order to reach the next level.

But, at the same time, there are signals you should learn if you don’t want to experience avoidable situations. One of them, and this is dedicated to the ones who shoot people, is to learn when it’s time to move on or to wrap up.

While you learn, as a newbie, you are not-self confident, you control gears, light, background… and indeed you have to and then you have to drive your subject, to direct she/him. Not an easy thing at first and you get stressed. And I guess you need failures to learn what to do and how to fix the problem encountered.

As long as you are alone on the set, keep going practicing. But don’t forget you have wife/man who is baby-sitting and maybe waiting for you since you are back from business trip and he/she would love to share time with you. My strategy is to shoot my family, photographically I mean. But then, you have less time to get ready : your partner isn’t interested in ISO, ƒ-stops or whatever. They are just trying to be nice. But if you are like this :

“euhh, wait… Hum, yes, maybe your head, nooo… it was better before. Yes it’s good now, but why do you wear this (cheap) dress? would you mind being… Ho, the pic is shitty. Maybe this (cheap) dress was not so bad, could you….?…”

Then your dear partner gets bored. So, here is my 2 tips:

• NUMBER ONE
  If it’s a test shooting so to say, keep it short. One setup = one shooting. Set everything before, and then shoot only 30 minutes. And then, spend time with your relatives. The positive thing is that she/he will then accept to remodel because he/she knows you will be quick and you know when to stop.
• NUMBER TWO.
  But sometimes we are so passionate that we don’t see the signal. So when you see your partner having a look like the one below, it’s time call the dogs because the hunt is over! Accept it, get mad (but don’t show it), wrap up and/or move on.

This was the last shot of the test-shots. I noticed she is getting bored and that she wanders “Oh man, how long will take him before we start??? I want to watch “Sex in the City” on time…” So I said “Hey sweetheart, we are good now, get dressed!” Of course I was not. But I could make some changes on the way and I managed great shots I won’t upload here because they are not safe for work! 🙂

more to come…