No more updates on this site

Hello,

I am currently working on a new website, so no further updates will be posted here for now.

This site will still be updated (revamped) , but it will focus only on my portfolio work and booking information as a photographer. For blogs, photography workshops, Godox workshops, reviews, lectures, and other technical content, please visit my new website: http://www.iso100.eu, which will go live by the end of 2024 or early 2025.

Be sure to check it out soon!

Ordered a new Dell Alienware R15!

After 6 years my Alienware R6 is still going strong but it is time for a new PC. Because I was very happy with my R6 I decided to buy a Dell Alienware R15.

This time with a AMD processor and a GEM of a graphic card:

The Geforce 4090

Not that it makes a huge difference in Photoshop in comparison with a cheaper 4070 but for video and other graphic applications it will be visible.

Here is the configuration. According to the webiste of Dell the delivery of this machine will take place on December 12th.

Thank you dad for the financial support!

Alienware Aurora R15

Bestelgegevens
Dell Order
Item number: 799-AANV
Besturingssysteem
Windows 11 Pro, English, Dutch, French, German, Italian
Item number: 619-AQMC
Beveiligingssoftware
Not selected in this configuration
Item number: 817-BBBC
Bronmedia besturingssysteem
No Media
Item number: 620-AAOH
Chassis opties
Dark Side of the Moon 1350W PSU, Advanced Liquid Cooled CPU & Clear Side Panel
Item number: 321-BIKW
Cooling Option
Top fan not required
Item number: 321-BHCL
diensten
1Y Premium Support and Onsite Service Upgrade
Item number: 344-71214
Y2-3 Premium Support and Onsite Service Extension
Item number: 344-71216
Documentatie/schijven
English, French, German, Italian, Dutch Shipping Docs
Item number: 340-ACCX
Draadloos
Realtek Wi-Fi 6 RTL8852BE, 2x2, 802.11ax, MU-MIMO, Bluetooth(R) wireless card
Item number: 555-BIFF
Driver voor draadloze communicatie
RTL 8852BE wireless driver
Item number: 340-DDIT
Etiket
Regulatory Label
Item number: 340-DDIY
Extra software
Additional Software
Item number: 658-BFQD
Game Pass
Item number: 658-BFQH
FGA Module
Custom BTO Configuration
Item number: 817-BBCE
Gedis-pakketreferentie
DAWR15A02
Item number: 486-80331
Geheugen
64GB, 2x32GB, DDR5, 4800MHz
Item number: 370-AHMH
Grafische kaart
NVIDIA(R) GeForce RTX(TM) 4090, 24GB GDDR6X
Item number: 490-BJDV
Kabels
Power Cord - Europe
Item number: 470-AFNV
Microsoft Application Software
Microsoft Office 30 Day Trial - Excludes Office License
Item number: 630-ABBT
Muis
Optical Mouse MS116AW
Item number: 570-AATJ
Opslag
2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive
Item number: 400-BONT
Processor
AMD Ryzen(TM) 9 7950X (16 core, 80MB total cache, up to 5.7GHz max boost)
Item number: 338-CHHK
Processoretiket
AMD Ryzen(TM) 9 Label
Item number: 389-EFSG
Supportservices
1Y Collect and Return Service
Item number: 302-11095
Toetsenbord
Dell Multimedia Keyboard-KB216 - Belgian (AZERTY) - Black
Item number: 580-ADDJ
Verpakking
Shipping Material
Item number: 328-BFIN

Godox S-200, a first look

This is not an extensive review of the godox S-200 but my first experience working with it.

The S-200 is an external flash and not just a regular flash but in the form of a cylinder. You need a Godox AD200 or AD200 Pro to be able to use it.

The street price of the S-200 is about 300 Euro (inc. VAT). 300 Euro is what you pay for a Godox AD200.

The flash comes in a nice carrying case. Included are barn doors and a light stand holder (swivel) from the same type as the AD200 Pro and AD100 Pro.

The weight is about 1 kg.

One of the nice things about this S-200 is its versatility. Without using barn doors the AD-S200 creates omnidirectional light. This is very useful because the light spreads anywhere. Compare it with a flash bulb like the AD600 pro without any lightfomer attached to it.

Once you add the barn doors you can define the shape of the light and I was very happy with what I saw. You can easily create a small rectangle and by placing the doors in a 180° position the light also will have an angle of the same amount.

Because of the size you could easily put this behind a model towards the backdrop and control the angle of light.

When you put the S-200 in a parabolic lightformer using a S-Bracket (like the Godox S1) the light spreads evenly inside the parabolic. I will have to perform some tests with the standard AD200 bulb (not the fresnel) and the S-200 before making any conclusions.

The AD200 is attached to the tripod using a clamb (not visible)
Here I used a Godox S1 bracket, the S200 and a Smallrig LA-D65 with outer diffuse.

My first impression is very good but it is to early to give a final verdict. I first need to do some further testing and shoots to give a a more detailled review what this thing can do.

The four pillars of photography

The four pillars of photography.

Some weeks ago I bought some secondhand gear from someone who wanted to become a wedding photographer.

He had only started a few months earlier and the Godox AD200 Pro and AD100 Pro were not even used at all! These are people who think photography is easy. Well it's not. But it is also not that difficult either.

In my lectures I talk about my work as a photographer and how I learned photography in a relatively small period of time. Still a lot of photographers starting out think it is only pressing the shutter button on your camera and easily make money.

When people ask me how long it takes to become a good photographer I always tell them it takes between 3 and 5 years and that is not a lie. You have to photograph with a passion. Learning photography never stops.

There is so much involved in how to make a good picture and you learn by doing.

Let me explain.

The first important and probably the most important pillar is "content". If you cannot show something interesting your photo will just be a snapshot. Nothing more and nothing less.

If you photograph a person (portrait photography) you have to make sure it looks interesting to the viewer. Sometimes beautiful eyes can be enough to make the photo work and stand out.

When a young woman just stands there without any expression or beautiful pose the photo will be just one out of the millions. The content of your photo is extremely important.

This is an example where content is extremely important. I also choose the make it a black & white picture to make sure the colors of the trousers are not distracting. It is certainly technically a difficult photo. I used on camera flash using a Godox V1 with dome to spread the light.

But what is content without a good “composition”. Let's say you capture a beautiful model on a very basic white background but she is not filling the frame at all.

Even if your model is stunningly beautiful with the right pose and expression the photo will not have the same impact for your viewer compared to a nice composition.

This can be a full body shot but also a close up portrait photo. Composition is something you can learn but some people just have it by nature.

For this photo I used a higher angle and a 50mm lens. This makes for this picture a huge difference compare to using a 85 mm lens. The colors I used are also monochromatic.
This is Claire. She was the first runner up of Miss Belgium in 2023.

The third one is “knowledge, experience but also gear.”

But let me start first with the importance of knowledge. What if you do not know how a camera works? What if you don't know how to set your white balance? What if you do not know how your flashes work? (trust me I came across photographers who don't even know HSS exists or what lightformers do)

What if you do not know how to set the focus point of your camera? I even know photographers who still don't fully understand the photographic triangle and how light behaves when using omnidirectional light.

You need to learn a LOT. There are so many things to learn from the basics of photography to very extensive light setups (depending on what you photograph).

To cut a long story short. This takes time and a lot of practice. Every successful photographer in this world was not born with all photographic knowledge and experience so don't panic and slowly get better as a photographer every day.

When I hear professional successful photographers telling people gear is not important, why do they use very expensive Hasselblads & Broncolor gear? please tell me.

I would not be able to take photos without my flashes, light formers, light stands and a good camera and lens. You can start with very simple gear and when you get better you can start investing in better flashes and lightformers.

Don't forget you can buy excellent strobes from Godox at very affordable prices. You can buy an AD200 Pro for 350 Euro and when I tell you one of my favorite lightformers is the Smallrig RA-D55 costing 100 Euro (Vat inc) then you know what I mean. Compared to your expensive camera and lenses this investment is relatively small.

It all depends what type of photography you are into. A landscape photographer for example does not need to invest in flashes (strobes) while a sport photographer needs to buy an expensive tele lens to be able to photograph a football game.

But experience is not only all technical stuff but also how to guide models. How do you make them feel comfortable? What is, for example, a nice pose?

For the picture below during a workshop I used 5 flashes.

The last one is “post processing.”

When you see a breathtaking picture a lot of post processing has probably been done to improve the photo. Even with the most beautiful light the photo can always be improved by the basics in post processing and that is dodging & burning.

Let's say you have photographed a beautiful model at sunrise using a flash. There is no existence of a lightformer only illuminating your model. The floor will also get a touch (or a lot) of light. If you do not want that then you can easily improve the photo by darkening the floor.

There are many things you can improve. When I started out as a photographer I always thought I had to capture the things as they are but I was wrong. To give you an example, I once took a photo of the city Gent (Ghent) and at that time there were a lot of construction cranes in the back.

These are temporary so they can (should) be removed.

Don’t think Lightroom is the only program you need. Though you can do a lot with it, Photoshop is still by far the most impressive photo editing software available. (I use Capture One Pro instead of Lightroom by the way.)

For this picture I used the 4 pillars of photography.
1. I have a beautiful model wearing a blue dress and there is some movement in the picture. The content is there.
2. I made sure the compostion is how it should be with enough room on top because this would be lateron a cover of a magazine so the people of the layout have enough room for text.
3. I could never have made this picture in my first year as a photographer. This was shot at 1/50 of a second using the knowledge of flash duration. You only have 10 minutes to make this photo and then the light changes dramaticaly.
4. The photo was post processed in both Capture One and Photoshop. It takes a few years time until you start to see what can be improved and you also need to know how to do it. Trust me. This is not an easy picture.

Thanks for reading and see you soon in one of my workshops.

Sony A7R2 A7RII in loop (bootloop)

Some time ago I found out my Sony A7R2 was in some kind of bootloop. Though the camera is 7 years old now I still use it when I need more cameras. The image quality of this camera is still top notch! There is very little and even not visible image quality between the A7R2 and A7R3. Both are excellent cameras but the A7R2 only has one SD card slot and is slow when you operate it. When the buffer is clearing you cannot access the menu for example.

Though I still use it as a third camera when photographing a Gary Numan concert mainly for wide angle shots where speed of focussing is less important using wide angle lenses. The depth of field using a wide angle less is a lot more at f2.8 compared to using 200 mm f/2.8.

I bought this camera on the grey market. This means it is not made for the european market and therefor there is no European garantuee and the dutch language is not available too. However I installed a fix that fixed this problem and after the update I can also use it as a video camera for videorecordings longer as 30 minutes. I would not recommend buying grey market stuff but to buy at your local dealer. I never had any problems until now.

It just wouldn’t boot and I thought it was over and out.

When I plugged in the USB cable suddenly the menu showed up with mass storage active. Unplugging the camera made my camera work again until I removed the battery.

I found out you only need to set the date and time and then the camera is working again like before.

Miss België fotograaf in de fout (dutch language)

Op 17 augustus 2023 maakte de vrt bekend dat een fotograaf binnen de organisatie ongepast gedrag vertoonde. Algemeen komt het erop neer dat een administratieve medewerker (die ook fotograaf is) ex kandidaten van Miss België contacteerde voor naaktshoots en enigsinds in een kleine vorm #metoo gedrag vertoonde. (#metoo is ook seksueel gedrag maar er waren geen seksuele handelingen!)

Bron: vrt (zie artikel)

“In een van de berichten vertelt de man dat hij enkel een gratis fotoshoot ziet zitten als de vrouwen zonder bh poseren. Soms laat hij ook weten dat hij enkele foto’s van hen wil nemen waarbij ze hun borsten niet bedekken. Ook wanneer de kandidates blijven weigeren, contacteert de man hen opnieuw. Zo kon onze redactie een online gesprek inlezen waarin de man tot zes keer toe terugkomt op zijn vraag, over een periode van drie jaar.“

Bijgevoegd de link naar het artikel.

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2023/08/17/miss-belgie-fotograaf/

Op dat moment zat ik erg verveeld met de situatie. Iemand van de pers stond na het bericht direct ‘s morgens aan mijn deur voor een interview met het idee dat ik deze persoon zou zijn.

De reden is niet ver te zoeken. Op de Instagram pagina van Miss België staat mijn naam regelmatig vermeld waardoor een ‘link’ snel gemaakt is. “Joeri Peeters Photography”, het zal die wel zijn en mijn adres is terug te vinden op deze website.

Voor alle duidelijkheid ben ik een freelancefotograaf die de afgelopen jaren in opdracht werkte voor het MB comité en dus NIET de persoon ben waarover het artikel gaat.

In het artikel staat vermeld:

“De vaste fotograaf en mede-organisator van Miss België contacteerde herhaaldelijk verschillende ex-kandidates voor naaktshoots….”

Het personeel dat werkt bij Miss België vindt u terug op de officiëlle site van Miss Belgium.

Ik ben tegen elke vorm van #metoo en het is mijn taak om tijdens de shoots met de kandidaten hen te verwittigen van de gevaren van shoots te doen met fOUtografen.

Toch zijn er telkens jonge dames die zich laten vangen. Ik leg echter NOOIT de schuld bij hun. Soms is het naïviteit, het spannend vinden of willen opscheppen tegenover vrienden. De dame in kwestie is NOOIT in fout.

Wanneer echter het ‘jonge’ model zich ongemakkelijk voelt en meermaals twijfelachtig gedrag vertoont op de vraag van de fotograaf om naakt te gaan maar uiteindelijk toegeeft dan vind ik dit spijtig.

Zo contacteerde een jonge vrouw mij een tijdje gelden die inging op de vraag om enkele ‘naakt’ beelden te sturen naar de fotograaf. Op dat moment was ze minderjarig.

Ik ben absoluut niet tegen naaktshoots of boudoir zolang beide partijen hier elkaar in kunnen vinden.

In mijn portfolio vindt u dan ook professionele stijlvolle naaktfoto’s terug omdat ik deze shoots ook aanbied. (Denk bijvoorbeeld aan een vrouw die nooit de stap durfde zetten en een boudoirshoot als cadeau krijgt van haar man —> zie cadeaubons). https://www.joeripeeters.com/boudoircb

Wanneer een vrouw na 20 jaar nog eens fier naar een afgedrukte kwalitatieve naaktfoto kijkt toen ze zwanger was, zijn dit voor haar mooie en dierbare herinneringen. En dat is onze taak als portret fotograaf. We leggen een ‘moment’ vast in iemands leven dat zich nooit meer kan herhalen.

Wat echter niet kan voor mij is ‘stalking’ gedrag vertonen en misbruik maken van je postitie binnen een bedrijf. ‘Nee is nee’ en daarmee uit.

Ik wil hier niet al te negatief zijn want ik ben ervan overtuigd dat het merendeel van fotografen correcte mensen zijn. Toch zijn er fOutografen die nog een stapje verder gaan (tot ongewenste seksuele handelingen) en hiermee wegkomen. De dames in kwestie zijn steeds bang dat de fotograaf naaktfoto’s van de shoot op het internet zou gaan publiceren.

Ik heb dan ook lang nagedacht hoe ik hiermee zou omgaan. Stoppen met het MB verhaal of niet. U kan begrijpen dat ik elke vorm van negatieve reclame als de pest kan missen en ik het helemaal niet leuk vind dat er mensen zijn die maar enigszins zouden kunnen vermoeden dat ik de fotograaf in kwestie zou zijn. Ik wil nogmaals benadrukken dat ik met heel deze gebeuren niets te maken heb.

Ik heb de afgelopen jaren met plezier mijn taak als fotograaf voor het Miss België comité uitgeoefend en mevr. Darline Devos en partner Guy zijn intussen vrienden geworden. Het zou onfair zijn om hen te laten vallen en het is net om die reden dat ik dan ook verder met het MB comité zal samenwerken.

Enkel de medewerker is uit de bocht is gegaan. Mijn vrouw en ik hadden met hem steeds een goede verstandhouding en waren zodanig geschrokken dat hij ondanks een verwittiging van 1 1/2 jaar geleden zijn gang bleef gaan. We hopen dat hij zich herpakt en inziet dat zulk gedrag echt niet kan maar iedereen verdient een tweede kans.

Magmod Professional Strobe Kit XL (English)

Photo shoot with the Magmod Professional Strobe Kit XL as light shaper

“Finally available, a Magmod with Bowens mount!”

Magmod's light shapers are part of (many) photographers' daily setup. These universal add-ons are suitable for universal flash units for both rectangular and round flash heads (Magmod 2).

The success of these light shapers are mainly due to the ability to quickly install / remove accessories such as a grid, a diffuse, sphere or snoot by means of magnets. Many wedding photographers always have them with them.

A product engineer at the Magmod company must have thought of making an XL version with Bowen's mount. It is now available. Other mounts such as for Profoto can be ordered separately.

The Dutch importer Disnet sent me a copy of the Magmod Professional strobe kit XL a few weeks ago and asked me to test the product. As a portrait and fashion photographer, I use various light modifiers in my daily work. So I was very curious in which circumstances I could best use the Magmod Professional strobe kit XL.

Contents of the XL Kit

In a beautiful printed cardboard box you will find a sturdy cylindrical carrying case with the following parts.

A collapsible XL reflector
A magsphere (a soft white sphere in soft white transparant rubber)
Two rubber grids. (angle of 40° and 20°)
3 CTO gels (1/1, 1/2 and 1/4). (no CTB gels)

Each part feels very sturdy and professional. It is therefore not surprising that this product is aimed at both professional and amateur photographers.

The carrying case has a clickable strap at the back so you can attach it for example to a tripod. However, there is no handle, but you could attach a carrying strap (not included).

The collapsible reflector has a silver coating.

A 20° and 40° rubber grid are part of the package.

The 3 CTO gels fit together. You will find a 1/1, 1/2 and 1/4 gel in the box.

Dimensions:

All parts together (with the collapsed reflector) measure approximately 21 cm high and fit perfectly in the supplied cylindrical bag.

With the reflector unfolded, we measure approximately 28 cm

The three supplied CTO gels in hard plastic fit perfectly in the folded reflector.

The CTO gel placed (here a 1/1) in the reflector

The grids (made of rubber) are easy to apply magnetically

You can magnetically attach the Magsphere on top of the grid.

Light output:

The basic part, the XL reflector, is made of plastic and has a silver coating on the inside. At first glance, this seems to reflect a little less compared to a standard metal reflector. I was therefore curious about the light output of this light shaper. Mounted on a Godox AD600 Pro, I measured the light output of the standard supplied reflector of the Godox AD600 Pro as well as that of the Magmod XL with a Sekonic L-858D. I also compared the light output with a Godox RFT-19 with ribbed silver interior.

Here are the values I measured:

Standard AD600 Pro head: f/22
MagMod: f/22 (same)
Godox RFT19: f/32.2 (1 & 2/10 of a stop more light)
MagMod with full CTO: f/11.2 (Almost 2 full stops less light)
MagMod with 1/2 CTO: f/11.8 (1 stop and 2/10 less in light)
MagMod with 1/4 CTO: f/16.1 (Nearly 1 stop less of light)
MagMod with Magsphere: f/16 (1 stop less of light)
MagMod with 40° grid: f/11.8 (1 stop less of light)
MagMod with 20° grid: f/16.1 (1 stop + 1/3 less in light)

Certainly not bad values. It is completely normal that the light output decreases with every addition of an accessory.

You can stack accessories. For example, you can first place a grid. On top of that you attach the Magsphere (although you probably won't use it much in practice).

The supplied three CTO gels are made of a hard plastic and slide into each other. The very first time you have to pull them apart with a little force. After that it goes a lot smoother.

Weight & Build Quality:

The collapsible reflector weighs 420 grams. That is about twice as much as a standard metal reflector.

Comparison:

MagMod XL: 420 grams
AD600 Pro standard reflector: 202 grams
Godox RFT19: 161 grams

The whole set together weighs 1690 grams.

Because the majority of the kit consists of plastic and rubber, they can take a beating. It is no problem, for example, to play Frisbee with the supplied grid.

The Magmod in practice:

I tested the MagMod XL during a shoot in the heart of Prague. My model was the beautiful and lovely Kedist Deltour (Miss Belgium 2021).

For these kind of photo shoots I like to work with a lightweight and compact setup. No arsenal of primes, but three zooms: Sony G 24-105 f/4, Sony GM2 70-200 f/2.8 and a Tamron 17-28 f/2.8. All photos were taken with a Sony A1 in RAW format. White balance was set to manual and focus was set to continuous focus with eye detection.

In the end it turned out that I took all the photos with the Sony G 24-105 f/4 . The background for this shoot had to be quite recognizable so I took all photos with an aperture of f/4.

I brought a lightweight carbon camera tripod that served as a tripod for the AD600 Pro that I equipped with an extension head. The AD600 Pro was in a Godox carrying bag and served as a counterweight. (see photo below)

The Magmod reflector is easy and quick to apply. I was pleasantly surprised with the result of the first photos. The light was softer than I expected. A reflector remains a small light source and that means in general hard light.

The photos underwent minimal post-processing with Capture One Pro that consisted primarily of dodging and burning, adjusting contrast, and sharpening the photo.

The advantage of working with a smaller light shaper such as this Magmod reflector is in general the light is a bit harder and therefore richer in contrast. This allows you to place your tripod a little further and there may be quite a bit of wind, your tripod will not fall over quickly.

A reflector behaves like a reflector. It provides focused light, but at the same time the light beam is sufficiently wide. I usually place the light source between 2 and 3 meters from the model.

I generally place the flash towards the sun. You can see this by the double shadows in the next photo. The direction of the flash light comes from the left (+ 3 meters) while the sunlight came from the right side. I opted for a black and white edit. The AD600 Pro flashed at full flash power. Camera settings: 24mm, f/4, 1/200, ISO50

The flash light gives extra "punch" to your photos.

Also for the next photo I was pleasantly surprised by the light quality. You just have to try to find the balance between ambient and strobe light. When you place the light source at the right distance, height and direction, very little can go wrong.

CTO gels:

Time to try out the CTO gels (Color Temperature Orange) although I only used the 1/1 (Full) CTO gel in this test. Just place the gel in the reflector, and that is an easy task. To remove it, lightly press the CTO gel together. Despite the fact that it is a hard material, removal is easy because of the recesses.

CTO gels are mainly used as color correction when you combine flash light with the available sunlight. Especially in the golden hour they are very useful because the ambient light is very warm. The color temperature of a flash is approximately 5500 Kelvin and that is white light. Depending on the time of day, you place a ¼, ½ or 1/1 gel.

But first we went looking for a more suitable spot to continue our shooting. A beautiful monument made out of metal as a backdrop turned out to be an excellent choice.

To make everything more blue and to give it an artistic touch I set my camera to 4000 Kelvin. That is a difference of 1500 K. This choice is purely a matter of taste. Usually, using a Full CTO gel, a white balance of 3200 K is chosen when shooting in daylight.

Here I placed the flash at a distance of about 2 to 3 meters aimed frontally at Kedist (see shadow on the ground). The flash was fired at almost full flash power with the following camera settings: 1/400, ISO50 and f/4 (1/400 on the Sony A1 is the maximum flash sync speed, so HSS was not used)

You can like it or not but as you can see the result is much different compared to using only natural light.

In post processing I replaced the background using AI in Photoshop. The wall in the background is digitally created. You can see the real environment in the photo below.

Gels and black and white editing:

When working using contrasting colors, it is also easier to make adjustments afterwards when you convert the photo to black and white. For example, you can lighten or darken the skin by adjusting the value of red and/or yellow. If we want to adjust the rest of the photo (everything that is blue) it is just as simple. Another advantage of working with gels.

Photo of “behind the scenes” is a snapshot from a smartphone video recording.

VID20230727131534.mp4_snapshot_00.01.054_FullHD.jpg

Hopefully Magmod will bring other color gels on the market. Personally I would opt for magnetic gels.

I cut different gels myself with a cutting plotter and with 4 small magnets I can quickly apply and remove these self made gels. A magnetic outer ring adhered to the gel would even be a better solution.

This blue color gel with magnets is not part of the kit!

The Magsphere:

I placed the 1/1 CTO gel together with the magsphere to see if the light would become softer, but as soon as you place the light source too far from the model, using any diffuser makes little sense. The light becomes omni-directional and is therefore much more wide (unless you really want this).

With the magsphere, the light became a bit softer, but also wider. just place the flash close enough to the model. Don't expect miracles. It remains a small light source.

For this photo I removed the CTO gel and I added the Magsphere back on. That's the power of this setup. The swap is very fast and that makes this product so interesting.

Using a Magmodsphere is certainly also useful indoors. You place the flash head with the sphere towards the ceiling and the light will spread nicely in the room.

However, if you want bundled light, then use grids. They are fantastic. You can literally use them as a frisnbee because they are made of rubber. The intention was to do a short shoot in the hotel, but that did not happen (due to lack of time). I prefer to use grids indoors rather than outdoors.

Conclusion:

The Magmod Professional Strobekit XL is a very interesting kit and costs just under 300 Euro. That is a significant amount but it is worth every euro. There is certainly no lack of quality (and light quality). It seems like it was made to never break.

You get in a cylindrical case, a reflector, the magsphere, two grids and CTO gels. This way you can quickly change the quality of the flash light. Of course, the magsphere cannot replace a large light shaper with double diffuse, but that is not the intention. You can easily use the set on location and in the open air, but also in your own studio.

Without the supplied cylindrical case, the kit fits easily in a travel case. If Magmod were to market an extension that turns this magmod reflector into a sports reflector (long reflector), I can finally take a long reflector in a travel case for my photo shoots (A metal sports reflector does not fit in a travel case). No manufacturer currently offers this.

I'm curious which accessories Magmod will bring to the market. A larger white transparant rubber sphere with a silver coating for even softer light is certainly one of the options. I would gladly communicate with Magmod about what I think would be very useful. 😊

If you want more light output with the same flash power, there are other light shapers available on the market, but then you miss the flexibility of the XL. You can place a grid in no time and if you want softer light with the magsphere, you can do this at 1,2,3.

Can I recommend this kit? Absolutely. I am using it already.

Photos copyright: Joeri Peeters

Magmod Professional Strobe Kit XL (Dutch)

ENGLISH VERSION HERE:

Praktijktest met de Magmod Professional Strobe Kit XL

“Nu eindelijk ook een Magmod met Bowensvatting!“

De lichtvormers van Magmod maken bij (heel wat) fotografen onderdeel uit van hun dagelijkse setup. Deze universele add-ons zijn geschikt voor universele reportageflitsers met zowel rechthoekige als ronde flitskoppen(Magmod 2).

Het succes van deze lichtvormer is vooral te danken aan de mogelijkheid om snel accessoires zoals een grid, een diffuus, bol of snoot, te kunnen aanbrengen/verwijderen door middel van magneten. Vele huwelijksfotografen hebben ze dan ook altijd bij.

Een productingenieur bij de firma Magmod moet gedacht hebben om een XL-versie te maken met Bowens vatting. Die is nu verkrijgbaar. Andere mounts zoals voor Profoto zijn apart te bestellen.

De Nederlandse importeur Disnet bezorgde me enkele weken geleden een exemplaar van de Magmod Professional strobe kit XL en vroeg me om het product te testen. Als portret- en fashionfotograaf gebruik ik in mijn dagelijks werk diverse lichtvormers. Ik was dus heel benieuwd in welke omstandigheden ik de Magmod Professional strobe kit XL best zou kunnen inzetten.

Inhoud van de XL Kit

In een mooie bedrukte kartonnen doos vindt je een stevige cilindervormige draagtas met volgende onderdelen.

Een inklapbare XL reflector

Een magsphere (een zachte witte bol in kunststof)
Twee rubberen grids. (hoek van 40° en 20°)
3 CTO gels (1/1, 1/2 and 1/4). (geen CTB gels)

Elk onderdeel voelt heel stevig en professioneel aan. Het is dan ook niet verwonderlijk dat dit product gericht is naar zowel professionele- als amateurfotografen.

De draagtas heeft een klikbare band aan de achterzijde zodat je deze bijvoorbeeld aan een statief kan bevestigen. Er is echter geen handvat maar je zou welk een draagriem kunnen bevestigen (niet bijgeleverd)

De inklapbare reflector is voorzien van een zilveren coating.

Een 20° en 40° rubberen grid maken onderdeel uit van het pakket.

De 3 CTO gels passen in elkaar. Je vindt een 1/1,1/2 en 1/4 gel in de box terug.

Afmetingen:

Alle onderdelen samen (met de ingeklapte reflector) meten ongeveer 21 cm hoog en passen perfect in de bijgeleverde cilindervormige tas.

Met uitgeklapte reflector meten we ongeveer 28cm

De drie bijgeleverde CTO gels in hard kunststof passen perfect in de ingeklapte reflector.

De CTO gel (hier een 1/1) plaats je omgekeerd in de reflector

De grids (gemaakt uit rubber) laten zich gemakkelijk magnetisch aanbrengen

Je kan de Magsphere bovenop de grid magnetisch aanbrengen.

Lichtopbrengst:

Het basisonderdeel, de XL reflector, vervaardigd in kunststof, heeft aan de binnenkant een zilveren coating. Deze lijkt op het eerste gezicht iets minder te reflecteren als een standaard metalen reflector. Ik was dan ook benieuwd naar de lichtopbrengst van deze lichtvormer. Bevestigd op een Godox AD600 Pro mat ik met een Sekonic L-858D de lichtopbrengst van de standaard bijgeleverde reflector van de Godox AD600 Pro als ook die van de Magmod XL. Ik vergeleek ook de lichtopbrengst met een Godox RFT-19 met geribbelde zilveren binnenkant.

Dit zijn de waarden die ik mat:

· Standaard AD600 Pro head: f/22

· MagMod: f/22 (hetzelfde)

· Godox RFT19: f/32.2 (1 & 2/10 van een stop meer licht)

· MagMod met full CTO: f/11.2 (Bijna 2 full stops minder aan licht)

· MagMod met 1/2 CTO: f/11.8 (1 stop en 2/10 minder aan licht)

· MagMod met 1/4 CTO: f/16.1 (Bijna 1 stop minder aan licht)

· MagMod met Magsphere: f/16 (1 stop minder aan licht)

· MagMod met 40° grid: f/11.8 (1 stop minder aan licht)

· MagMod met 20° grid: f/16.1 (1 stop + 1/3 minder aan licht)

Op zich zeker geen slechte waarden. Het is volstrekt normaal dat bij elke toevoeging van een accessoire de lichtopbrengst afneemt.

Je kan accessoires stapelen. Zo kan je bijvoorbeeld eerst een grid plaatsen. Daarbovenop bevestig je dan de Magsphere (al ga je dit waarschijnlijk in de praktijk niet snel gebruiken).

De bijgeleverde drie CTO gels zijn vervaardigd in een harde kunststof en schuiven in elkaar. De allereerste keer moet je ze met een beetje kracht uit elkaar halen. Daarna gaat het een stuk vlotter.

Gewicht & bouwkwaliteit:

Op 1 gram na weegt de inklapbare reflector 420 gram. Dat is ongeveer het dubbele van een standaard reflector uit metaal.

Vergelijking:

MagMod XL: 420 gram
AD600 Pro standaard reflector: 202 gram
Godox RFT19: 161 gram

De hele set samen weegt 1690 gram.

Omdat het merendeel van de kit bestaat uit kunststof en rubber kunnen ze tegen een stootje. Het is geen probleem om bijvoorbeeld te frisbeeën met een bijgeleverde grid.

De Magmod in de praktijk:

Ik testte de MagMod XL tijdens een shoot uit in hartje Praag. Als model kon beschikken over de mooie en supersympathieke Kedist Deltour (Miss België 2021).

Voor zulke foto shoots werk ik graag met een lichte en compacte setup. Geen arsenaal aan primelenzen maar drie zoomlenzen waarmee ik het grootste bereik kan afdekken: Sony G 24-105 f/4, Sony GM2 70-200 f/2.8 en een Tamron 17-28 f/2.8. Alle foto’s werden gemaakt met een Sony A1 in RAW formaat. De instelling van de witbalans stond op manueel en scherpstelling op continuous focus met oogdetectie.

Uiteindelijk bleek dat ik alle foto’s maakte met de Sony G 24-105 f/4 . De achtergrond voor deze shoot mocht best herkenbaar zijn dus nam ik alle foto’s met een diafragma van f/4.

Ik nam een lichtgewicht carbon camera statief mee dat diende als statief voor de AD600 Pro die ik uitrustte met een extensiehead. De AD600 Pro kon zo in een draagtas laten die dan weer diende als contragewicht. (zie foto verderop)

De Magmodreflector laat zich makkelijk en snel aanbrengen. Ik was aangenaam verast met het resultaat van de eerste foto’s. Het licht was zachter dan ik had verwacht. Een reflector blijft uiteindelijk een kleine lichtbron.

De foto’s ondergingen van een minimale nabewerking met Capture One Pro dat voornamelijk bestond uit tegenhouden en doordrukken, contrast regelen en de foto verscherpen.

Het voordeel van werken met een kleinere lichtvormer zoals deze Magmod is dat het licht wat harder en dus contrastrijker is. Je kan hierdoor je statief wat verder plaatsen en er mag dan ook aardig wat wind zijn, je statief zal niet snel omvallen.

Een reflector gedraagt zich als een reflector. Het geeft gericht licht maar tegelijkertijd is de lichtbundel voldoende breed. Ik plaats meestal de lichtbron tussen de 2 en 3 meter van het model.

Ik fotografeer algemeen met de flitser tegen de zon in. Je ziet dit trouwens aan de dubbele schaduwen op volgende foto. De richting van het flitslicht komt van links (+ 3 meter) terwijl het zonlicht van schuinrechts kwam. Ik koos voor een zwart wit bewerking. De AD600 Pro flitste aan volle flitskracht. Camera instellingen: 24mm, f/4, 1/200, ISO50

Het flitslicht geeft extra “punch” aan je foto’s.

Ook voor volgende foto was ik aangenaam verast van de lichtkwaliteit. Je moet enkel trachten het evenwicht te zoeken tussen aanwezig en flitslicht. Wanneer je de lichtbron op de juiste afstand, hoogte en richting plaatst kan er weinig mis gaan.

CTO gels:

Tijd om de CTO gels (Color Temperature Orange) uit te proberen al hield ik het bij deze test enkel bij de 1/1 (Full) CTO gel. Je plaatst hem in de reflector, en dat gaat vrij gemakkelijk. Om deze terug te verwijderen druk je de CTO gel lichtjes samen. Ondanks dat het hard materiaal is gaat het verwijderen vlot vanwege de uitsparingen.

CTO gels worden voornamelijk gebruikt als kleurcorrectie wanneer je flitslicht met het aanwezige zonlicht gaat combineren. Ik denk dan vooral aan het gouden uur waar we te maken hebben met heel warm licht. De kleurentemperatuur van een flitser bedraagt ongeveer 5500 Kelvin en dat is dus wit licht. Afhankelijk van het moment van de dag plaats je een ¼, ½ of 1/1 gel.

Mar eerst gingen we op zoek naar een geschikter plekje. Een mooi metalen monument als achtergrond bleek een uitstekende keuze te zijn.

Om alles wat blauwer maar ook artistieker te maken zette ik mijn camera op 4000 Kelvin. Dat is een verschil van 1500 K. Deze keuze is puur een kwestie van smaak. Meestal kiest men voor een Full CTO gel een witbalans van 3200 K bij daglicht.

Hier plaatste ik de flitser op een afstand van ongeveer 2 a 3 meter frontaal op Kedist gericht (zie schaduw op de grond). Er werd geflitst met bijna volle flitskracht met volgende camera-instellingen: 1/400, ISO50 en f/4 (1/400 op de Sony A1 is de maximale flitssynchronisatiesnelheid dus HSS is niet gebruikt)

Je houdt ervan of niet maar geef toe, het resultaat is net iets anders als werken met enkel natuurlijk licht.

In de nabewerking verving ik de achtergrond door gebruik te maken van AI in Photoshop. De muur op de achtergrond staat er dus niet. (zie foto verderop)

Gels en zwart/wit bewerking:

Wanneer je met contrasterende kleuren werkt kan je nadien ook makkelijker aanpassingen maken wanneer je de foto omzet naar zwart/wit. Zo kan je bijvoorbeeld de huid oplichten of donkerder maken door de waarde van rood en/of geel aan te passen. Willen we het overige van de foto aangepast (alle wat blauw is) dan kan dit ook in een vingerknip. Nog een voordeel van werken met gels.

Foto van “behind the scenes” is een snapshot uit een smartphone-videoopname.

Hopelijk brengt de firma Magmod nog andere gels op de markt. Persoonlijk zou ik dan opteren voor magnetische gels.

Zelf sneed ik verschillende gels met een snijplotter op grootte en met 4 kleine magneetjes kan ik zo snel deze gels aanbrengen en verwijderen. Een magnetische buitenring gekleefd op de gel zou nog een betere oplossing zijn.

Deze blauwe kleurengel met magneetjes maakt geen deel uit van de inhoud!

De magsphere:

Ik plaatste de 1/1 CTO gel samen met de magsphere om te kijken of het licht wat zachter zou worden maar van zodra je lichtbron te ver van het model plaatst heeft dit weinig zin. Het licht wordt omni-directioneel en is hierdoor veel meer verspreid (tenzij je dit echt wil).

Met de magsphere werd het licht iets zachter maar vooral ook breder. Plaats de flitser dicht genoeg bij het model. Verwacht echter geen wonderen. Het blijft een kleine lichtbron.

Voor deze foto verwijderde ik de CTO gel maar de Magsphere klikte ik er terug op. Dat is net de kracht van deze setup. Het wisselen gaat erg snel en dat maakt het product zo interessant.

Het gebruik van een Magmodsphere is zeker ook binnenhuis zinvol. Je plaats de flitskop met de sphere richting plafond en het licht zal zich mooi verspreiden in de kamer.

Wil je echter gebundeld licht dan zijn de grids fantastisch. Je kan er letterlijk mee gooien want ze zijn vervaardigd in rubber. De bedoeling was om nog een korte shoot te doen in het hotel maar dat is er (wegens tijdgebrek) niet van gekomen. Ik gebruik grids eerder binnen als in open lucht. (al kan het natuurlijk wel)

Conclusie:

De Magmod Professional Strobekit XL is een erg interessante kit en kost net geen 300 Euro. Dat is een aanzienlijk bedrag maar het is elke euro waard. Aan kwaliteit (en lichtkwaliteit) ontbreekt het zeker niet. Het lijkt wel of het gemaakt is om nooit stuk te mogen gaan.

Je krijgt in een cilindervormige koffer, een reflector, de magsphere, twee grids en CTO gels. Zo kan je snel de kwaliteit van het flitslicht veranderen. De magsphere kan natuurlijk geen grote lichtvormer met dubbel diffuus vervangen, maar dat is ook niet de bedoeling. Je kan de set makkelijk op locatie en in open lucht gebruiken maar ook zeker in je eigen studio.

Zonder de bijgeleverde cilindervormige koffer past de kit makkelijk in een reiskoffer. Als Magmod een verlengstuk op de markt zou brengen die van deze magmod reflector een sportreflector (long reflector) maakt kan ik eindelijk voor mijn foto shoots een lange reflector meenemen in een reiskoffer (Een metalen sportreflector past niet in een reiskoffer). Geen enkele fabrikant biedt dit momenteel aan.

Ik ben benieuwd welke accessoires Magmod nog op de markt zal brengen. Een grotere kunstofbol met een zilveren coating voor nog zachter licht behoort zeker tot de mogelijkheden. Magmod mag me altijd contacteren. 😊

Wil je meer lichtopbrengst met dezelfde flitskracht dan zijn er andere lichtvormers in de handel verkrijgbaar maar dan mis je de flexibiliteit van de XL. In een mum van tijd plaats je een grid en wil je zachter licht met de magsphere dan kan dit op 1,2,3.

Kan ik deze kit aanraden? Absoluut. Ik ga hem alvast gebruiken.

Foto’s copyright: Joeri Peeters

Publication in shoot (103 + 104)

In the current issue of Shoot magazine (103 + 104) there is you will find 8 pages about my work.

My ultimate mobile flash set-up

I was looking for a low weight and a powerful flash combination to take with me for non commercial shoots.

It is very important to expand your portfolio with new work.

I own and use several Godox flashes.

1 x AD100 Pro
6 x AD200
1 x AD200 pro
2 AD600 Pro
2 AD1200 Pro

All together a total of 52000 Ws and that is a lot of flash power!

For commercial work I use my AD600 pro’s and AD1200 pro’s. The AD200 are mainly used as a vignet light. When you have to take a lot of photos you better have extra power so your flashes do not overheat. It is not very professional when you need to tell your client to have a 10 minute break so your flashes can cool down again.

I do love the AD200’s because they are portable and very powerful and battery life is excellent. You can attach a fresnel head, a round head or a bare bulb head.

I very rarely use the standard (fresnel) head and recently found out the output of the Godox mini wistro AD-M reflector is excellent.

It is not only excellent but the light it produces is between soft and hard.

I came up with a very mobile solution that is both low weight and extremely powerful!

Here it is:

You can use any lightweight stand like a Manfrotto nanopole.

In the middle a standard Godox AD200 flash holder. I use it to attach an white umbrella.

On a nanopole stand. I do recommend a more stable lightstand. It is doable though.
After this picture I cut the grass.

Trust me. This is a very powerful combination. I use the Godox AD200 extension heads and the AD200’s are in fomito pouches I bought at least 5 years ago. Godox now also offer pouches for the 200’s so I recommend to buy these ones.

It all fits in a bag (+ an AD100 pro).

I mainly shoot models with the sun on their back, expose for the general ambient light and use flash to get a balanced photo like the photo below.

The photo in the middle is without flash and the photo on the right is using an AD1200 Pro and a small open 50 cm octabox. (with small inner diffuse)

In general I place the flash a few meters away from the model. When you shoot towards the sun you need flashpower. For the photo above I used an ND4 filter, 1/200, ISO50, F/4. Flash Power was in general between 1/4 and 1/8.

I don’t use HSS very often because you loose at least a stop of light. It drains your battery faster and your flash can overheat faster.

HSS is fantastic but if you need to shoot a lot of pictures in a very short time using an ND filter is the way to go.

I did some test shots outside and I was impressed with the power and quality of light this setup produces.

I also added an extra AD200 holder so I can attach a white umbrella when I want the light to be softer. I don’t use umbrellas very often because thet are not the best light formers. There is always some light that bounces back and therefor the light efficiency is not as good but they are very lightweight and portable.

This setup is all I need when I want much power with a minium of gear. Check my ‘what is in my bag’ blog to get an idea what my total setup is for TFP shoots.

In the bag is also an AD100 Pro that I can attach on the light stand to brighten the lower parts of the model and as a general fill. This AD100 pro is in general at the same power as the AD200’s. That is 2 stops of light less compared to the 2 AD200’s.

It only takes a few minutes to assemble the complete setup and very easy to carry when you move from one place to another.

This setup (without the AD100) is 2/10 of a stop more powerful than an AD1200 Pro with standard reflector. That is 400Ws compared to 1200Ws and the 400Ws is even more powerful. This proves reflectors can make a huge difference.

When AD200’s are placed in a dual bracket (AD-B2) a Bowens mount lightformer the advantage of having extra power is lost.

But there you have it. The ultimate powerful mobile light setup using only 2 AD200’s.

What is in my bag (my mini setup)

Every photographer wants to be mobile and does not like to carry lots of heavy gear. Sometimes it is mandatory to bring lots of gear to get an assignment done. When you need to take 1500 pictures a day and shoot rapidly I can really recommend a Godox flash like an AD1200 Pro but it’s heavy.

When I shoot TFP on a location outdoors I used to bring an AD600 Pro or an AD1200 Pro with me but in general this is overkill. The reason is you do not need so much power when you are shooting less photos and you have time to give the flash to breathe again.

Here is my goto list (this is not my general more extensive setup):

Think Tank Photocross 13 carbond Grey
This is a very small sling bag but I really love it. It looks small but it can store a lot.

2. Sony A1

This is my main camera. I don’t bring a second body for a TFP shoot. If my camera fails (and it probably will not) it is not a huge deal.

3. Sony G 24-105 F/4

This is in my opinion the best overall lens for the Sony. It is F/4 but in most cases this is fine. It supports 30 fps and is also very sharp even at 50 MP. If I want bokeh I use another lens. I just love the 35 mm extra compared to a 24-70.

4. Sony GM2 70-200 F/2.8

For a F/2.8 it is not a heavy and big lens. This lens delivers. It is absolutely a fantastic and very sharp lens. I do love my 135mm F/1.8 but the 70-200 is just more versatile. I am think of buying the 2.0 extender in case I would need it.

5. Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 Di III RXD

It is certainly not the best lens out there but I don’t use it very often so at this moment there is no need to upgrade. I take it with me because it is lightweight.

6. Gobe 77mm ND4 & ND8 Filter

These filters are cheap and IMO very good. I use them when using flash so I don’t need to shoot in HSS. The 24-105 and 70-200 both have a 77mm thread.

7. SMALLRIG Folding Tool Set AAK2495

Just a multitool but sometimes it is very handy!

8. Giottos AA1900 airbomb

You should always have this in your bag.

9. Sekonic L-858D with Godox module

In most of my photography I use a light meter. It saves time, measures incident light and the first shot is always spot on.

10. A Godox transmitter

Because I use a lightmeter I can use any Godox transmitter. The X1, X2, Xpro or Xpro II. For the 3 first you need to set in on APP mode and in the latest XPro II it is as L-858 in the menu selectable. I have used the XPro the most (because of the TCM function in case I need it) but the Mark II version now also has this wireless scanning function and tells you exactly what channels are free.

11. A Godox AD200 Pro

I have 1 Godox AD200 Pro and 6 AD200’s (the pro was not availabale at the time I bought them). I love this little flash as it is lightweight, powerful and the battery are small and powerfull. Most of the time I don’t take the standard fresnel head with me.

12. Godox AD-S2 - Mini reflector

You would be amazed what this little thing can do. In the studio I use it as vignet light but outdoors it is also used as my main light. This reflector bundles the light and strangely enough it creates rather soft light.

13. Godox AD-S7 Multifunctional Softbox 480mm

This 48mm softbox is foldable like an umbrella and gives you beautiful light. When used close to the model I put the outer diffuser on it. It also comes with a grid I don’t use outdoors and a metal plate you can fix in the middle. I don’t use this plate at all because I have noticed it creates a shadow in the middle. Godox should have used a white transparant plate. Maybe I will make one myself.

14.Manfrotto MS0490A Nanopole Lightstand

Trust me, these are the best. I also bought similar one from K&F and Fosoto. The K&F was broken after a few times use and to expand the Fostoto it takes more force because it is just not smooth at all. It also is not that high fully expanded.

15. Batteries for the A1 and Godox AD200

16. Microfiber (several)

This is my goto kit. It s very portable and I can carry this all day long. When I want to make a portrait I use the AD-S7 and the minireflector for shots where the flash is a few meters away from the model.

Sometimes I also take the an extension cable and pouch for the AD200 with me.

I rarely take extra SD cards with me because I use 128GB or 256GB cards. This means I can shoot +/- 2500 photos in compressed RAW on a 128Gb card. Cards are always mirrored in the camera. This means photos are written to both the card in slot 1 as slot 2 at the same time.

Shoot with Claire

Yesterday I had a photo shoot with Claire. She came all the way from Zeebrugge and we had a lovely afternoon.

Claire was 1st runner up in the Miss Belgium 2023 contest and she is a lovely lady, a fantasic singer and a really good chef (in the kitchen) too!

The fashion pose below is one of my favorite photos ever. If a model turns her eyes completely to one side it can look akward especially when her face is not towards you but here it is perfectly fine because there is still some eye white visible and her face is mostly towards the photographer.

For this shoot I used 3 Godox flashes. One from the top, 1 front and another in front but lower compared to my main light.

I used monochromatic colors to give this photo even more a fashion look. Or I could have used a cyan background too if I wanted a more contrasty look.

The nice thing about these shoots is you can try things out and do something out of the box in a very relaxed atmosphere. As you can see this is not just a standard pose but an example of a model who dares to pose.

People who know me or work close to me know I always want to try to make ‘perfect’ photos but that is just impossible. In my opinion there is always something that could have been better. But in this case I can’t find anything (yet) that is not OK in the picture.

I also find the sitting pose another example of a great pose. I only asked her to turn her body in an angle of 45 degrees.

This photo also works (at least to me) in Black & White because of color of the dress.

Here is another picture where Claire sits down. For this photo I also used a 85mm lens.

And a close up.

Claire wanted a “wild look” and I am happy because that was exactly the same idea I had for this type of shoot.

Joeri's workflow

Sometimes people ask me how much time I need to edit a photo.

Well, it depends.

I very rarely only edit photos only in a RAW editing program like Capture One pro or Lightroom because these programs are not as powerful as Photoshop.

What if a woman has a bad skin? What if the eyebrows are not nicely plucked? What when she has a red skin because of stress? What if the dress is full of wrinckles?

After culling images (selecting the best) in Capture One (or FastRAWviewer) I drop the RAW files in the selects folder in Capture One Pro. This folder contains all the RAW files for editing purposes.

This is my workflow:

RAW editor (Capture One):

General exposure adjustments
Dodge & Burn using luminosity masks
White Balance correction
Skin color correction (equalize skin color only when necessary)
Edit width: Photoshop (16 bit)

Photoshop:

Copy the background layer (always)
Heal & clone distracting elements (also hair, nose hair, eyebrows,…)
Convert this layer to a smart layer
Liquify: Modify the dress and hair 'when needed.
Smoothen the background (only when using background paper)
FS 2.0: Smoothen hard skin edges & remove wrinckles on clothing (some fabric like satin)
Dodge & Burn: Make parts of the image darker or lighter
Give contour to the face and in general
Brighten the eyes a tiny bit but not always
Whiten the teeth when needed
Darken the eyebrows
Add glow (Highlights) like on the lips
Modify levels (midtones, shadows & highlights)
Dodge & burn more
Sharpen using a Highpass filter (except hair)
Modify color balance (too yelow, too red, …)
Add a touch of grain
Combine all layers to a smart layer (except the background)
Save as a PSB file (mot files are + 6GB)
Flatten image
SaveAs PSD

Final toch in Capture One:

Change general levels
When needed modify light with Luma masks
Color balance
Dodge & Burn (only small changes)
Export to JPG in several sizes

Here is an example of changing colors & luminosity in Capture One Pro.

Shoot with Cecile

Cecile participated in the Miss Belgium 2023 contest and was a finalist and last Sunday she came to my studio.

She poses really well, is not scared to try things out and this results in beautiful photos.

Good posing is not standing still but to move and twist your body and arms to get these shots. I only asked for minor improvements like the position of hands and feet.

Thank you Cecile & Nancy Vrancken for the Make-up. It was a great day!

Wonderful pose by Cecile! I choose green to get the contrast I wanted.

I love grey as a background. You need to be careful when shooting grey, black and nearly white in one photo.
Too many times a part of these kind of photos are underexposed or overexposed like a white dress that just looks like a white huge spot in the photo.

Making the background as white as possible.

Shoot with Alina

I own several Godox flashes like the AD200, AD600 Pro but also the AD1200 Pro.

When you need to shoot a lot (and I mean a lot like 1500 photos a day with flash) you better have too much flash power. However the more flashpower you need the bigger & heavier the flash. These 600 Ws or 1200 Ws flashes are far more expensive compared to a normal on camera flash.

The AD200 was released in 2017 and I bought my first set in april 2018 and these little 200Ws flashes are one of my favorite photo tools. They are small, powerful and batterylife is excellent too!

These AD200’s are too small for a 165cm umbrella with white sock but excellent as fill light in the studio. On location outdoors they are very useful too!

Alina contacted me some time ago for a shoot and it was because she had a cute movie on her Instagram I decided to accede to her request.

I drove to Antwerp to the Izy coffee bar and we went to the top roof to start our shoot. It was cold and windy but Alina’s roots are in Seberia so she didn’t mind at all.

I only took my Manfrotto Nanopole with me and a AD200 with AD-S7 softbox. This softbox is a small foldable umbrella and is excellent on location. I used this setup for all the photos you see below.

It was rather dangerous as the ladder was not 100% fixed. When Alina sat on a wall and was posing I was afraid she would fall and asked her not to take any risks. The picture might be very beautiful but it is just not worth it to take risks. Here you see the topview of a AD200 and AD-S7 with diffuse. There is also a metal curved plate you can screw inside (and a grid) but I never use that because it creates a shadow in the middle.

The roof was high and I was a little bit scared that she would loose balance and fall to death.
It was a gray day and absolutely not the light I love. I called this flat light because it is just too soft. Using a AD200 you can add some punch to get this result.
Good she was wearing a red suit to make the photo more colorful. I LOVE the color red in photos.
I shot this using 49 mm as a focal length. Personally I like this photo a lot. Alina poses really well.

On the other side of the roof I took this photo below and decided to make it black & white. Another photo I like very much.

For some reason this photo could have been taken in Russia too.

Here is a perfect example of using a 24-105mm at 105mm f/4.

Alina changed clothes and we did a few more photos on the top floor. The top building was not used for some time and there was dust everywhere but it gave the photo something extra.

I decided to shoot using a 35mm f/1.4 prime lens and it was the right choice. I very rarely use 35mm but I really should use this focal lenght more.

The color picture were variants of beige. I already decided at the location I would post process this photo in B&W. In my opinion another beautiful photo. Always make sure you straigthen the vertical lines first during post processing.

For this photo I used a 35mm prime lens at f/1.4 and balanced the ambient light with flash light: AD200 + AD-S7
Settings: ISO200, 1/125, f/1.4

Alina changed clothes again with the idea to shoot in the streets of Antwerp but when we got outside it was raining a bit so I decided to shoot inside the coffeebar and I am happy I did.

I did not adjust my white balance(which is no problem shooting in RAW) and had to lower the yellows with at least 1500 Kelvin to get the colors correct.

Here is a close up I love. The way she tilted her head at a perfect angle is just fantastic. I said “wow” and it was the first photo I photoshopped when I was back home.

For the picture above and below I used one of my favorite lenses. The Sony GM 135mm f/1.8. It is an expensive prime lens but the results you get from this lens are stunning, just stunning. The bokeh is buttersmooth and the focus speed is top notch and it always nails focus.

I moved the AD200 flash several times but only used it to fill the shadows.

I could have used the 35mm too. Shot from another angle the legs would be much longer but in general I made more close ups and photographed her in portrait mode (vertical).

Nude shoot with Kimsy

I don’t shoot nude very often. There are many photographers photographing nude because it is just nude.

Don’t get me wrong. I do like capturing the nude female body but when you only do this kind of photography some people look at you as a photographer in a different way.

I offer boudoir shooting for woman who have a shoot on their bucket list or as a present from their partner. To expand my portfolio I shoot nude once in a while.

There is one rule and that is never to touch the body of the woman. Because I use a light meter I sometimes get close to the model but I always communicate why it is important to measure the light. Make sure the studio is warm enough. It also helps when a woman (like my wife Nancy who is also a MUA) is present at the shooting. Some want no other people around.

It is not always a good idea when the partner is also present. They often provide a distraction not helping for a smooth photo shoot. However when the model feels more safe I allow the partner to be there.

For this shoot with Kimsy I was going for one pose and one photo but because she loves low key photography I did some more pictures of her and I am happy I did. Here are two photos from our shooting.

Pregnancy shoot with Alison

I wanted to expand my portfolio with some pregnancy photos and responded to a call on Facebook by Alison.

She sent me a moodboard and we decided to have a shoot.

Here are some photos from our shoot.

Workshop at Cameranu, Antwerp with Kedist Deltour

On April 29th I gave a workshop at Cameranu in Antwerp. Former Miss Belgium 2021, the lovely and beautiful Kedist Deltour was so kind to be the model of the day. There was an overbooking so in consultation with cameranu we decided the keep the amount of attendees at a maximum of 10 to make sure that the quality of the workshop would not suffer.

It was an intense workshop and I am very happy with the feedback afterwards: “It was a lovely and very instructive day.”

To be honest I was very tired back home but that also had to do with the fact that I had a bad cold that week.

At 10:00 I started with a shortened version of my general lecture about beauty & fashion photography but first I gave my fellow photographers a note book to write things down.

The main subject throughout the workshop was the added value of ‘off-camera’ flash both in the studio as outdoors. Because the workshop was indoors I could not demonstrate the power of using flash outdoors live, but showed some examples of off-camera flash outdoors.

If anyone is interested in a workshop using off-camera flash outdoors please let me know.

In the slide below you can clearly see the difference between the second photo and the third. Exposure for the ambient light and add the right amount of flash power to make a well balanced lit photo.

As a Godox ambassador I explained the different Godox strobes and provided info about the different Godox triggers.

The gear you need depends on your assignements. You can already do a lot with just one or two AD200’s (or a AD300) but when +1500 photos a day are required you need more power to get the job done.

Here are a few slides from the presentation.

Here is my personal recommendation when starting out with off-camera flash. Better to have two flashes instead of one. One can act as the main light and the other as fill light. If you need more power just combine the flashes in a AD-B2 dual head for 400 Ws.

A very informative topic was flash duration. Godox is very good at it to freeze motion in dark environments.

Here is an example of making use of flash duration outdoors in the early morning when the sun is rising.

The photo on the right on the slide below was shot at 1/50, ISO800 at f/2.8, 129mm on a tripod. Because the ambient light was very dark I used a slow shutterspeed to maintain quality. You can only do this when your flash is capable of delivering short flash durations! Thank you Godox.

I can assure you there was a lot of wind but there was no motion blur visible at all in none of the photos.

If I would have used a shutterspeed of 1/400 the ISO would have been 6400 decreasing quality a lot. High ISO is less quality. It is as simple as that.
During sunrise you only have 10-15 minutes and then it is over and out. Increase the shutterspeed and lower the ISO when more sunlight is hitting your subject.

I also showed some examples about composition and female and male posing.

A lot more topics were covered. Join me on other lectures and workshops to find out!

After the lecture we took a break and started the wokshop.

During the lecture I already talked about adapting to the environment. The cameranu store is painted in violet so I decided to use as much grids as I could to make sure the reflected (purple) light would not hit the model. You can fix this in post by adding green but better to prevent than to cure.

I wish the ceiling would have been white and the walls in natural grey. Then you can bounce some light to fill the shadows and reflection of the walls would be minimal.

The goal of the workshop was beauty & fashion with off-camera flash so I decided to start with my signature light setup for beauty. I demonstrated the added value of using a Sekonic Lightmeter with integrated wireless Godox module.

I used a total of 6 flashes for this setup. We started with one flash and expanded our lighting setup further. Because I photographed tethered I showed the result of each individual light. I mainly used AD200’s to demonstrate you do not need AD600’s or AD1200’s for this kind of work.

Don’t get me wrong! You can do a lot with only 1 or 2 flashes but I wanted to demonstrate the different light modifiers and what they do. It is a workshop and you have to make sure people learn and not go home with a feeling the workshop was not useful at all.

Using a godox ad200 with a mini reflector creates this beautiful vignet light and two small stripboxes with grid create rim light on the arms for an extra 3D feeling.

For this beautyshot I decided to go for monochromatic colors. In this case we used variations of beige/brown.

I only took a few photos myself to make sure everyone had the time to capture the beautiful Kedist.

Here is my version. (slightly edited in post processing)

Some behind the scenes photos by Nancy Vrancken who did the make-up too.

Because of the low ceiling I asked Kedist to sit down to make this light setup possible.

Here I showed the added value of using a light meter.

When using one flash you can use TTL and then by using the GODOX TCM method you get consistant light but once you start using more flashes, manual is the way to go.

For the next light setup I decided to go for analogus colors. This means we use a part of the colorwheel as shown below.

I choose the background colors according to the colors of the clothing and accessories.

Shooting with a (short) telelens (85 mm - 135mm ) from low to the ground makes the model more elegant. One of the tips I gave during the demo.

The light setup used here was a sport reflector with a 30° grid, a 165cm Godox umbrella without diffuser to brighten the shadows and a SMDV 512 stripbox to make sure her right side was also lit but it also softened the shadows on the paper. If you want harder shadows you can put a grid on it.

Below is a finished photo.

Last but not least I demonstrated a quick workflow in post processing. Because we shoot in RAW it is necessary to post process the image. I showed the power of FS2.0 to blend hard transitions but also how it is very effective to iron clothing in satin fabric.

Conclusion:

I had a lovely day and everything went smooth.

Thank you cameranu for the excellent support, Kedist for being our model (you did fantastic).

Other feedback I received was it made a difference working with a professional model that was also very friendly and open.

Thank you Nancy for the make-up and helping out.

Thank you Bart Boodts for some of the behind the scenes footage and all participants for not only being there but for the excellent cooporation and feedback.

Distinctive and Merit awards

Also this year I got 4 merit awards and 1 distinctive awards at the FEP in Prague.

Happy with the recognition. This is the distinctive award photo.

Shoot with Kim

A few days ago I had a wonderful shoot with Kim Engelbosch to expand my portfoliio. Kim is like Petra Gysen a well known model and als a very lovely and professional model.

By placing her far enough from the background I made sure it was dark enough. I used a combination of a Godox 2x AD1200 Pro & AD600 Pro with a SMDV Speedbox 100cm & 70 cm and 85 cm Smallrig Parabolic all double diffused with grid.