I used flash (strobes) for a looong time and I still love them, but lately I been working a lot with HMI (ARRI) continuous light. This blog entry is to illustrate what I find nice about that and what to be aware of in a pro and con way.

Shooting flash gives you the ability to shoot out lots of light for a short time (aperture wise) and give you all the light you will ever need. It’s made for still photography and therefore the big brands has lots of light modifiers that will help you do exactly what you want to do.

Shooting HMI is almost the opposite. It gives you limited amount of light (aperture wise). It’s mainly made for video / film which is not as often controlled in another way because actors have to be able to move in the light without it dropping drastically (unless that’s what you want of course). This means limited amount of light modifiers at least you are use to. The obvious benefit is of course that you get what you see.

Pros
* You get what you see.
* Pupils get small because of the strong light which means lots of eye which IMHO is much nicer even though it’s offend said that it makes people look a bit more hostile. I still like it more.
* Texture on the skin especially when working with wet skin is much more controllable.
* Skin color and texture is IMHO nicer than with flash.
* That hard light look like real sunlight is much easier to get.
* It dos not “eat” the makeup the way flash does. Which makes it easier to control the colors.

Cons
* Very tough for the models eyes, it is a super strong light and some models have no problems with it others don’t really get use to it.
* You need to shoot high ISO or big aperture which means narrow depth of field which can be bad in real closeups.
* Not as many light modifiers.
* Expensive because it burns the bulb every time you use it meaning you pay by the hour even if you rent it.
* Quite a lot of power is needed to get a good ISO and aperture, I normally go with a 2.5Kwatt SUN HMI as my main source. That doesn’t leave room for much more on a standard 220v plug.
* Heavy gear which is not easy to move around especially on location.

So if you have not yet tried it, you really should just to play around with it and that get what you see feeling is really nice. It’s not really that expensive to rent for a single day to try it out but remember the light bulbs are pretty expensive which is why rental companies are charging for burning hours as well. I normally rent from lysudlejningen.dk

This is about what I normally rent. 2.5kwatt, 1.2kwatt, 2x575watt which makes me able to shoot on about f9 at ISO 200 depending on the modifiers and lenses I’m using.

See if you can find a story in my work that is shot with HMI and one that is short with Flash?? JonasJ.com – what makes you think it’s shot with HMI / Flash?

In sync with me shooting more and more and especially because I’m focusing on beauty which all of you properly know is very time consuming in retouching it means I don’t really have enough time on my hands. I could shoot lots more if I did not do my own retouching. As said the retouching is super time consuming so why not try to get this outsourced? – I see my self as a very capable retoucher, I might not be 110% up to date with the latest techniques but for me that just means a little time saved not really better result. I think when you have learn the basic Photoshop skills and see yourself as an advance photoshopper the techniques are not really that complicated and not that hard to learn. Fair enough some of them might take some practice to master, but the idea behind them are not that hard. In other words I believe everyone can learn to retouch like me in a few months if we look at technique only. I believe that if any of you out there are still fairly new to photography and retouching (maybe just a year or two “old”) you would think sitting in with someone like me when doing retouch would make you get tips and tricks you had never dreamed of, but that’s actually not true. Most of you already got the technics I’m using and nothing new in that. But but…
As in anything creative being photography, retouching or something else completely it’s all a matter of what I call “good taste”. To be able to see where different technics needs to be applied and where not to do anything at all. This is what makes you a top artist and this is what I’m having difficulties letting go off when looking to outsource. This is what I learn over the years, I’m not saying I’m perfect at it in any way but I know what I like and what I don’t like and it makes it hard for everyone else to work with my images in a way I like it.

What is good taste? – In fact I don’t really think there is such a thing as good taste or bad taste, there is your taste and everyone else taste, so for me when trying to find the right retoucher it’s a matter of finding someone who got a similar taste to mine. Preferable someone who can come up with ideas I could not even come up with myself but I still like and thereby lifting my work even more.

I been trying lots of different retoucher and I’m very rarely get what I want and of course that’s because I’m picky and because I get 100% what I want if I do it myself, nobody else will get exactly that and that’s what I as a photographer needs to be able to let go off and start learning that it will never be exactly the same as when I do it myself but even so it can still be good or within what I call good taste. It’s also a fact that it takes time to learn each others taste, so even though you are an amazing retoucher your not sure to get the clients (me) work correctly the first few times you do them. It’s a tight relationship in modern photography because retouching and look is such a big part of the final statement. If you as the reader are one of the retouchers I been trying out but felt it did not work this is definitely not because you are a bad retoucher or don’t have taste but because I was to picky. Because if you were not a good retoucher you would never had been tried out to start with.

So what to do? – Should I try even more retouchers online whos work I like and try to see how they apply to my work? – should I hire someone here where I can sit in which makes it easier but in most cases also more expensive? – should I find someone talented and willing to learn and try to teach them everything I know in hope my “taste” will rub off on them while teaching them the technics? – And if so how do I secure I start out with someone who got taste enough? – so I don’t end up spending a few months teaching before I find out they will never have the taste to do it.

Can taste be learn if you don’t have it? – If you are SUPER talented Is it possible to adapt to someones taste even though it’s not your own and do the job well anyway?

As I said input are more than welcome and link to retouchers portfolios are also more than welcome. I hope my images give a good idea of what I like retouch-wise. So if you for some odd reason haven’t seen them yet – do so NOW!

I wanna start this post out saying that I’m a still photographer and my knowledge about video and the video equipment is limited to some degree compared with whats going on with still cameras. So I might be pulling your leg with some of the informations, because I only have them from the net and not by own experince.

As a still photographer the Canon 5D Mrk III is a obvious choice because we already know it and might even own it. Thats said I think the only reason to choose this camera over the others should be because you already own it or need the still images capability which none of the others have (Yes you can pull a nice still images from them but it’s a lot more complex than just click and shot)

I was invited to the Black Magic Cinema event at Stjernholm media (great arrangement so thank you for that) – See there cap of the event here
Stjernholm Black Magic Event

A guy (sorry can’t remember the name) from Black Magic was presenting the camera and the software and I must say I was impressed, in my eyes it killed canon 5d Mrk III on video and the grading software (Black Magic – DaVinci Resolve) is superb. I was very impressed about the whole workflow, working with a camera which was prepared for digital grading etc. Recording on SSD drives and transfering with Thunderbolt was just a few of the very nice features. But 13 fstops and RAW 2.5k recording is of course the main feature that really kills the canon competition. You get a free copy of DaVince Resolve when you buy the camera and the camera is even cheaper than a 5d, so if you are doing video only I see absolutely no reason not to go with the Black Magic over Canon. It’s Canon EF mount or Micro 3/4. Biggest bummers about the Black Magic is no slow motion features at all and the big crop factor (about 2.2x) which means you need to look into some serious wideangle lenses.

So why do I take RED ONE MX into this discussion at all? – Well this week the RED ONE MX (the good old RED camera) took a drop in price from wooping $27k to just $4k which fair enough is still more expensive than canon and Black Magic because you need more than just the RED brain to be up and running, but it still takes it down to a price level that is not far from the two others and with features that to me rocks compared to the others. It’s a 4k RAW camera which is able to shoot 120frames/sec in 2k RAW and gives you all the super high pro range of accessories (which will of course also set you likewise back, so please talk to your banker before going bonkers) – PL mount to mention one that will really set you back.

Conclusion:
If you got the money go for the Arri Alexa.. ups ups – Na if you got the money I would go for the RED even though it’s not brand new technology it’s a killer camera and a classic, but it depends what you are doing, the converting and workflow is more complex than the workflow you see on the Black Magic which will enable you to get very high quality and a very easy workflow. The canon is in my eyes completely out of the picture unless you already got it for your still work.

Here you can see the process. I got 7x3meters of fabric.

1. I started out with a few tests, here you can see the coffee and the tea samples.

2. Then I covered the studio floor with two layers of plastic (more about that later)

3. Checked out if my fabric could fit in the covered area (here you can see the textile as it was when I got it, off-white I would call it)

4. Then I brew ALOT of coffee and put it in a big container and started to sink my fabric into the brew.

5. After finding out it was more or less impossible to get it all soaked in coffee I pulled it out and sparead it out of my plastic.

6. I hand painted the rest of it to make sure it was all covered, here is a closeup of the fabric.

7. And the fully covered fabric

8. I let it dry up for about 24 hours and this is the look on front and back after it was dry.

9. A big crop of the fabric

10. Rolled it up on a stick

11. The mistake – When I cleaned it all up I found out my floor looked like this underneath which was a big bummer because there was nothing to do except repaint it. So for all of you out there please do not paint with coffee inside it is impossible to get off again and apparently it went through my plastic cover even though I used two layers.

12. The finished background

13. Portrait of my assistant Jaspar on the background

Take care and be creative out there

Photographer: JonasJ.com
Styling: Maria Angelova
Model: Daniel Aude / Diva models
Makeup: Maria Bauch Wahlin

I shoot 3 different pictures of each girl. A beauty shot which can be seen here and a full body shot and a half figure shot which both will be revealed together with the big final show in “Kødbyen Copenhagen” Friday (the 10th of Aug) doing fashion week where all the judges will be attending together with all the VIPs to a great fashion show and the winner will be selected.

Good luck to all the girls, Line, Sandra, Bettina and Gladys maybe the best girl win.

Go check them out on the official app on facebook http://www.facebook.com/LouisNielsen

Line:

Sandra:

Bettina:

Gladys:

Styled by Maria Angelova http://fashionaddict.dk
Makeup by Line Ahnstrøm.