A seven second pose

Here is an example of a model posing in 7 seconds and in slowmotion version at 25% of original speed.

First she takes care of her hair. Then she makes sure her dress has some movement and at nearly the same moment she strikes a pose.

ISO stands for quality.

The ideal ISO value is the native ISO (base) value of your camera. In most cases the base ISO is 100 but some cameras start at ISO200.

Light goes through the lens and reaches your digital image sensor. If there is enough light your camera will always choose the lowest ISO possible. That is when ISO is set on automatic.

But what when we shoot indoors in a badly lid environment? Your camera will automatically raise the ISO value. This is done by amplifying (analog) the captured light. This results in more noise and more noise means less image quality.

By the way, noise is not grain.

In post processing photographers sometimes add grain after sharpening the picture to make the image less “perfect”. When you have a noisy picture your image will be less sharp and when you post process the image like lifting the shadows more color noise will be visible. That is why you always need to photograph at the lowest possible value but this is not always possible.

Sometimes you cannot use a value of ISO 100. For example when I am shooting a concert ISO values can raise up to ISO6400. Most of the time ISO is set to automatic as the amount of light on a concert can be unpredictable.

When you photograph indoors it can happen you need to use a faster shutterspeed to make sure you do not have blurry pictures (motion blur) even when using a fast lens shooting at f/1.4.

In this case you really need to raise the ISO value on your camera.

For this picture I had to raise my ISO to 2500 because their was only one small light source. To make sure I didn’t have motion blur I shot at 1/60 at 24mm. Kedist was not moving so 1/60 is perfectly fine. The lens I was using was a 24-105 f/4 at f/4. The RAW picture was post processed afterwards because even with these settings the photo was still underexposed.

Look at the color noise in the RAW image. Noise canceling software and image sensors have improved a lot over the years. There was a time when the image quality at ISO 800 was much worse compared to the excellent Sony A1 with a whopping 50MP sensor.

DXO optics has excellent denoise software (even at ISO6400 on modern cameras) but the quality will NEVER be as good when shooting at ISO100. Some photographers swear by Topaz Labs Denoise but personally I find the result not as good as the DXO software.

Denoise software and the quality of image sensors have improved a lot over the years and a lot of photographers think using high ISO values are the way to go.

Though ISO is the last parameter in the exposure triangle you should modify.

A few weeks ago I saw a youtube video of a photographer with more than a million followers photographing a model outdoors. She used ISO 800 at 1/1600 of a second!

The reactions on her post were positive and most of her followers now think using ISO 800 outside is perfectly normal. It’s not. These are the kind of videos I really hate. I have nothing against youtubers bringing great content but when you shoot with these values outdoors you don’t even understand the basics of the exposure triangle!

The correct values should have been ISO100 and a shutterspeed of 1/200. The picture would have been also razorsharp and best quality. Just lower both values by 3 stops. 800->400->200->100 and 1/1600->1/800->1/400->1/200

In real life most people do not see the difference between a sharp and a less sharp picture so why bother?

As a photographer you want the best image quality and that was ISO is all about.

There is nothing wrong using higher ISO values but only when necessary.

Lecture @cameranu.be

Yesterday I gave a lecture at the “www.cameranu.be” shop in the heart of Antwerp. I talked about my work as a photographer and afterwards the feedback was very positive. Thank you.

It was a two-hour lecture where topics such as knowledge, experience, material, preparation, the day of the photo shoot and the post-processing were discussed.

I also showed some before & after pictures and light setups. See screenshot below.

The video below was presented too how you can “iron” cloth in Photoshop using FS 2.0

Thank you cameranu & everyone who showed up.

Using FS 2.0 for retouching of clothing

I just finished my presentation for the lecture at Cameranu. I also added some short video’s like this one where I iron a Belgian flag using FS 2.0.

It makes a huge difference when you deliver a photo with a wrinckleless dress or flag or not.

Here is a 2 minute video where I brush, remove the wrinkles in Photoshop. In real life it takes more time but this is the video I included in my presenation and I think 2 minutes is the maximum to keep people interested.

This picture was send for participation of Dhenia Covens at the Miss Universe contest.

Model Agency polaroid shoot

Too many times models think you need a lot of pictures in a portfolio to convince model agencies to get a contract.

Let me be clear. The most important photo is called a polaroid photo. Don’t get me wrong. It is not a real Polaroid photo but an unedited picture of a model without any make-up. Shoot in RAW and only adjust color, light and contrast.

Here is an example of such a shoot.

Jeans, a top and normally you should wear sneakers. However a woman looks more elegant when she wears high heels.

In real life starting models send a lot of garbage to an agency. If you send them 20 photos without any good ones you can be sure you will not get any contract. The first pictures should always be your polaroids.

How is your skin, figure, hair,… It’s all in that ONE polaroid photo. You also need close ups, pictures from the side and the back. It’s always a good idea to send them one photo with a collage of different expressions like smiling, laughing, surprised, angry, cute, sensual,…

Everything else is less important BUT if you have PRO photos in your portfolio and if you have a website (not instagram) with great photos you will look far more professional. Use a domain name like I do: “www.joeripeeters.com”. Not some free website where your site name is for example “lauren.weebly.com”….

I cannot emphasize it enough. Looking PRO is very important to be taken seriously.

In real life models send average or sometimes even bad pictures to agencies. When they scroll through the ‘bad’ pictures you will not be taken seriously and you only get one chance.

Work with the best photographers. (the best will ask for money as it is their income). Provide a varied portfolio. Polaroids, in swimwear, casual, high fashion, special make-up, editorial.

Lingerie is not needed unless you have a really beautiful body and want to become a “lingerie” model. The pictures need to be stylish! Not some casual pictures taken by an amateur who just wants to shoot women as naked as possible.

I can provide these pictures for you. Just get in touch with me and we will work something out.

Shoot with Miss Belgium 2022 Chayenne Van Aarle

On October 22, 2023 I did the photoshoot for the official “portrait” photos for Miss Universe. I am writing “I” but it is always teamwork. The guideline by Miss Universe is to shoot on a flat grey or black background.

Most of the time I use a flash on the background to create a gradient (vignet) to separate the model from the background but this was not allowed. A way to separate a model from the background is to use back light and that is what I did.

My main light was the Godox Parabolic 128 with a D2 diffuser to soften the light even more powered by a Godox AD1200 pro mainly aimed downwards. By positioning the light this way the light does not reach the background. To brighten the shadows I used a tri reflector by Lasolite. To be honest I use this reflection screen not enough. It creates beautiful light and a nice catch light in the eyes.

As backlight I used 2 small jinbei (they are actually very good) 80cm stripbox double diffused with honeycomb grid to make sure the light does not spil in all directions. Both powered by 2 Godox AD200’s in a dual head.

As back hair light I used another AD200 and a Godox AD-S7 as soft box.

Chayenne was positioned about 2,60 meters from the background. I added a white vinyl marker on the ground to make sure photos were consistent. (check photo)

All lights were measured using a Sekonic L-858D.

Settings used:

Sony A1 with Sony G 90mm macro f/2.8

1/200

ISO 100

f/9

The result with this setup. Post processing was done in Capture One Pro & Photoshop. Mainly just dodging and burning and some color grading.

2022-10-22_Chja01334_HighResolution 1.jpg

When dynamic range comes in handy

In 2021 we went with the lovely and beautiful Miss Belgium 2021, Kedist Deltour to Addis Abeba to look for her biological father.

When Kedist was 10 years old she was adopted with her younger brother and sister by a Belgian Family as they were put in an orphanage a few months before. The father could not take care of them anymore after her mum died of cancer.

The photo below is one of the only moments in my life as an adult I cried. It was taken in the room where she grew up. It was a simplistic basic house (rather a cabin) and made out of mud (probably loam soil) and straw.

You have to imagine a few hours before she was just reunited with her father.

We entered the room and she sat on the bed and we didn’t say anything for a few minutes. I was a bit emotional because of what happend before and you could clearly see Kedist was bringing back memories. She smiled and looked at me and suddenly said: “I was so happy and I have really beautiful memories here“. At that very moment I cried. These words grabbed me by the throat. Growing up in a very minimalistic and basic world and still being happy. The photo was taken just a few seconds before.

I used the Sony A1 at ISO 2500, 1/60 and f/4 (24-105 f/4 lens).

Even in this very dark environment it locked the eye.

Back home I post processed the photos and made the overal image brighter. Personally I would rather choose to keep it that way as it was a correct representation of the moment. For the newspapers I had to brighten the image.

It is impressive the A1 image sensor is really capable of brightening the overal image as it was shot that way.

Thank you Kedist for sharing this moment with me and looking at life differently.

Calibrate your screen!

Are you a photographer and not using a screen that has been calibrated?

What would you say if you buy 1 kg of apples and you come home and you got only 650 grams. What if your car tells you you are driving 70 km/h but in reality it is 110 km/h? How can you be sure the colors of your photos are correct? By calibrating. It’s as simple as that.

We look at screens every day. A monitor, laptop, smartphone, tablet or even the digital screen in your car.

Let's assume 100% is the maximum of colors a screen can display. What if your smartphone only shows 27% of these colors?

The picture above is the color spectrum. The complete area are the colors a human eye can see. The purple triangle is the Prophoto color space while the black triangle is the range of colors defined as sRGB standard. Sadly a lot of screens aren’t even capable of showing all colors defined in the sRGB standard. Photos on my website are uploaded in sRGB color space. When I edit my images I do not work in sRGB. I use AdobeRGB because my 4K 32 inch monitor supports 99,5% of the AdobeRGB color space, a much wider color space compared to sRGB.

I export in my photos in sRGB. While AdobeRGB supports more colors it is not always a good idea to use this color space while exporting in this format (as JPG). Some browsers but also other (viewing) software do not support this standard and this results in flat colors. It just doesn’t look nice.

When we want our photos printed we can simulate the colors on our screen how they would look like on the print itself. We do this by importing the provided color profiles (of the paper) and then we activate it in software like photoshop, lightroom, capture one pro,….

In general, newspapers use low quality paper. If we simulate this kind of paper in our software you will see a lot of colors are out of gamut. In general: better paper results in better colors. This is logical. Rough paper absorbs more ink and when printed they flow into each other. High quality paper is very smooth so the ink does not mix that much during printing.

When we simulate the paper in our software we adjust the colors using the color profile of the printer and try to match the colors as close as possible. This is called soft proofing.

Not all print services provide the icm files (image color management) or icc files. Some print offices adjust the colors automatically. Sometimes you must deactivate this choice in the order proces.

You have to make sure the colors on your screen are correct!

If you have an iPad you can compare the photos on your ipad with your computermonitor. iPads are very good in color accuracy and well calibrated out of the factory. In general the colors of an iPad are mostly correct.
If you need to buy a monitor make sure you buy at least a monitor supporting 100% sRGB.

You also need calibration hardware and software. I use a Xrite i1display pro and I calibrate my screens using the provided software at least 4 times a year.

The process is very simple. Install the calibration software, run it and it will guide you through the process. It takes a few minutes to generate the color profile. During calibrating your screen will show different colors being measured and then compared to the ideal color value. When finished, a color profile is provided and stored on your computer.

The photo below is the screen and calibration hardware I am using now.

Displaycal is freeware and does an excellent job. You can use this as an alternative.

Picture below is the result of my Dell 3216Q: the color gamut (colored lines) of my screen is way more than the sRGB standard. (dashed lines)

http://www.displaycal.net

I do not understand why some big clothing companies use color graded photos where the colors do not match the real colors at all. It’s an artistic choice.