I’ve been testing kit and doing a few fun practice shoots ahead of my next workshops in Belgium and the Wild West USA.
The first few shots in this post are of Liv Free. We did a quick simple shoot at Pipewell Hall using a couple of Lupo 1000 Fresnel lights and a mains operated haze machine.
01. I used a classical style for this shot of Liv. I used the contrast depth effect used by the renaissance painters of the late 15th and early 16th century, this method depicts the most distant parts in the scene with the least contrast.
02. Still with a bit of haze hanging in the air I shot this frame with a warmed up white balance.
03. Pipewell Hall is a wonderful shoot location with eccentric touches to an otherwise classical interior.
04. I shot Liv from above using the 32-64mm lens to capture this peaceful study.
The next three photographs are of young Belgian dancer Lana Verkest. We shot in an abandoned factory near Charleroi in Belgium. I was shooting with my friends and we took it in turn to create a few setups.
05. I lit Lana Verkest with a couple of Godox AD600 units fitted with a 70cm softbox from the left and a strip light reflector from the right.
06. A puff of smoke from the Smoke Factory Scotty 2 machine caught the sunlight in this naturally lit scene.
07. Two Godox AD600 flashes were used in HSS mode for this shot of Lana.
Next on the scene was Sherelle De Jong also from Belgium. We shot in the same factory and continued to brave the cold.
08. Sherelle De Jong in a puff of smoke and lit with a pair of Godox AD600 flashes.
09. Sunlight through an artificial haze.
10. I shot a few casual sequences of Sherelle using natural light and the 110mm lens on my GFX50s camera.
11. Sunlight, beauty, fun.
12. Intimacy.
My friends and I had a day of shooting in this fabulous apartment in Ghent that I had hired and Qian was our model for the session.
13. I lit Qian with a Lupo 1000 spotlight with a Scattergel.
I shot Qian for my forthcoming book Tutu. Don’t ask me when it will be out because right now I feel I still have more to shoot and apart from a title and 650 frames in the shortlist I still have no final plan. I’ll get the feeling when I’m almost there and I hope by the autumn of 2018 I should be able to plan the final shoots and production.
14. The Lupo spotlights came in handy here too.
15. The apartment in the centre of Ghent was a perfect shoot location and I feel we only just started to see it’s potential.
16. The light behind was natural reflected sunlight coming through a Venetian blind. The key light was a Lupo 1000 spotlight.
17. I Love pixie cut hair styles like this and it suits Qian perfectly.
18. I placed the Lupo 1000 spotlight with Scattergel out on the terrace and shone it back through the kitchen window.
19. High key study. As many of you know I’m keen to let white be white and I’m not scared of clipped histograms. This is bright but I think I got away with it.
If like me you are passionate about creating beautiful pictures of beautiful people join me on this 8 day photography road trip/ adventure to the Wild West USA or this 3 day intensive workshop in Tuscany.
Please feel free to comment on these photographs below.
Lots of great shots here, Damien! Nice action shots with Lana. My favorite is set #10. You really know how to take advantage of the natural light! Did you use the green filter in Lightroom for the black & white conversion?
Jay
Hi Jay,
Thank you for the compliments. Yes, I use Acros G camera profile in Lightroom to match my in camera look. I always adjust the shots in Pro Neg S colour profile first getting the skin tones spot on before creating a virtual copy and switching to Acros G. I hope this helps.
Damien.
…Just breathtaking…
Your artistical education and awareness make you the real contemporary master in painting!
I really love the way you painted with light the panel 01.
I have a dream: I dream to join a Lovegrove italian-spoken wokshop some day…
Kind regards, Enzo.
Ciao Enzo,
Grazie per le gentili parole.
Per quanto riguarda il tuo sogno … Ho parlato a Orvieto Photographica alcuni anni fa e questo è stato tradotto con successo. Forse potrò organizzare una serie di eventi di workshop in Italia con un traduttore. Ho molti buoni amici italiani che possono tradurre per me. Sei un membro di organizzazioni o gruppi di fotografia in Italia che potrebbero essere in grado di pubblicizzare un evento del genere?
Cordiali saluti
Damien
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Hi Enzo,
Thank you for your kind words.
Regarding your dream… I was speaking at Orvieto Photographica a few years back and that was translated successfully. Perhaps I can put on a series of workshop events in Italy with a translator. I have several good Italian friends who can translate for me. Are you a member of any organisations or photography groups in Italy who might be able to publicise such an event?
Kindest regards
Damien
Damien its nice to see your work again and what your up too.
Excellent as always what can I say I do love your style!
Thank you Steve for your kind comments and encouragement. Cheers, Damien
With every blog post, your work gets more and more intoxicating! I keep staring at that second shot. The way the lighted breakfront adds to the ambience and the key light accentuates the model, is mesmerising. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your work!
Thank you Marie.
Photography for me is a life journey that keeps getting better. It’s great to share it with you.
Kindest regards, Damien.
Loving the urbex images Damien, very atmospheric
Thank you Tracy for the compliments. I’m back at that location in Belgium running this workshop in 3 weeks time. I love Urbex portraits :)
Yet another series of wonderful images. I love the high key shot of Qian, very suttle and soft light.
I also love my GFX and the images are wonderful from it. I mainly shoot landscape. Maybe I should do some portraits.
Thank you Frank. I’m glad you are loving your GFX too. It’s good to try different genres from time to time. I like to shoot landscapes from time to time too :)
Cheers, Damien
Lovely set of photos Damien!
Over and over again!!
Sure feel like I missed this opportunity!
Cheers! See u soon!!
Ioannis.
Thank you Ioannis. We’ll be shooting together very soon :)
Cheers, my friend.