Nikonian Martin Joergensen

DIY mini-striplight

2008-11-17T22:48:33Z

I have always liked the light that comes from striplights - narrow softboxes, which create a well defined strip of light. Opposite square or wide, rectangular softboxes, the striplight gives a more defined light, which is not quite as soft as the light from the softbox.

Striplights are often used to accent body shapes or to create distinct rimlights on bodies or faces. the narrow band of light will create character in one direction and soft light in the other. When used on shiny objects the reflections - the specular highlights - will also be narrow strips rather than squares or dots - or reflections of an umbrella or another familiar shape. ]]>

One day, after having unpacked a piece of furniture, I was left with some Styrofoam and cardboard, which had the perfect dimensions for my project. In combination with some aluminum foil, gaffer tape and black adhesive foil, I created a small silver lined triangular box. The flash fits in a small and tight opening in the back ridge of the box, and some gaffer reinforced the construction enough to get it to sit tightly.
The idea of a striplight or a softbox is to get an even surface of light, and in order to obtain that you will need to disperse the light as much as possible. My striplight isn't scientifically designed, but by gluing aluminum foil to the inside of the box, and blocking the direct light from the flash with a small piece of aluminum-covered cardboard I got an almost even light. As a final step I covered the opening with some foamy plastic, which may well take a bit of light, but helps spread the rest even more.

I had a roll of black adhesive plastic foil, and by covering the cardboard and the Styrofoam with black foil, I got a striplight, which is almost good looking. It's far from pro quality, but it's not embarrassing, at least.

I use it by mounting the flash on a light stand, tipping it so that the head is vertical, and then plugging on the striplight. Since it's fairly small, I usually put it close to the subject - 2-3 meters or 10 feet max - oftentimes closer. If I move it further away, I loose the effect of the narrow light strip.

I have used the striplight several times already, and I like the effect as anticipated. It's only suitable for smaller setups due to its limited size.

If I want to become a Martin Schoeller, I will need to buy some more furniture and build more and maybe larger striplights. Shoeller shows what light can do and how to utilize this kind of light. For now I'm quite content with my little cheapskate DIY-thingamajig.

10 Golden Rules

2008-11-10T22:57:37Z

These ten rules were originally made for Lomo's and Lomography. If you are not familiar with this concept, check it out. I'm not going to cover it in depth here. But I will happily steal the Ten Golden Rules of Lomography and rewrite them to Ten Golden Rules of Photography.

Like the Lomo, these rules are kind of anarchistic and definitely against the establishment. But they are still very much in line with my recent entry "Exercise your photography muscles". These rules are kinda "Exercise your photography muscles in a fun way".

]]> My personal favorite rule is number 10: there are no rules, but the rest are worth reading too. I have replaced Lomography with Photography and added my comments.

Take your camera everywhere you go (I said so!)
Use it any time - day and night (Don't worry about light, great images come in really bad light too)
Photography is not an interference in your life but a part of it (Just make it natural to shoot all the time)
Try the shot from the hip (My rule: go low. I often just hold my camera vertical towards the ground and fire. Some great shots have come from that)
Approach the objects of your photographic desire as close as possible. (My rule: go close. Proximity is obvious in the final images)
Don't think. (Follow any whim, just shoot and don't worry. Bits are free)
Be fast. (Situations come and go in instances. Be on the trigger immediately. Don't think, don't adjust, don't compose - shoot!)
You don't have to know beforehand what you capture. (The original said "on film". It goes equally well for digital cameras)
Afterwards either (Oftentimes you can surprise yourself once you see the pictures on a computer. Chimping doesn't show everything)
Don't worry about any rules (The best rule of them all)

Strobist Meetup Video

2008-11-05T09:00:00Z

Unfortunately the system I use for my "On Location" slide shows don't allow me to incorporate video (yet), but I still shoot some footage now and then when I'm on location.

These 7-and-a-half minutes were shot at the Strobist Meetup here in Copenhagen, which I covered a couple of podcasts ago. The video shows the ambiance at these meetings as well as some setups and more results from the day.

And yes, I know there are white lenses in there, but trust me, those C-shooters can actually be quite nice.

You can see a larger version of the video at Vimeo.

Exercise your photography muscles

2008-11-04T13:49:51Z

You should eat fresh fruit every day!
You should be out of breath once every day!
You should kiss your spouse every day!
You spend time with your kids every day!
You should take pictures every day!

Yep, I truly think you should exercise your photographic muscles every day. In this digital age, there are no problems in shooting at will, and just "wasting" images on things less important.

As I mention in my latest podcast - Storage Blues - the only problem with shooting a ton of pictures is that they take up space.

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The advantage is not only getting to shoot when the chance is there and hopefully produce some nice shots, but that you get to shoot lots of different subjects under a wealth of different circumstances. This will hone your skills and make you a better photographer - both in a creative and a technical sense.

You can put your daily photography into system by giving yourself an assignment. It could just be "shoot and post a photo every day". Such 365-day-projects are numerous on the web, and any photo forum usually has several.
You can also challenge yourself by narrowing the scope: 365 days on my street, 365 self portraits, 365 house numbers and signs, 365 leaves. You can make any assignment that you want and know you can fulfill. Make it easy or difficult as you please. You can of course just shoot at random when you get the chance. That's what I do.

The images that accompany this entry were all shot this morning. I stuck my 10.5mm fish eye on my D40, which gives me a very small package, perfect for convenient shooting during a morning stroll. One is taken on a local playground, empty this time of day and year, and one was taken two houses away from my own. There are literally thousands of subjects right here on my small street, no more than 10 house numbers long and less than a quarter of a mile from end to end.

How to look good

2008-10-23T11:02:57Z

The series "How to look good in pictures" created by Nikon is simply brilliant! This little online show focuses mainly on the models: expression, clothing, poses etc. and contains all kinds of neat and easy tricks to look good in good portraits. But it also gives the photographer a lot of hints to how he or she can get a good shot.

The host of the show is Carson Kressley, who is just perfect for the role as an instructor. Carson used to be one of the hosts in the surprise hit show "Queer eye for the straight guy", which started back in 2003. In this show five gay men helps a straight guy get some style in his appearance, home, cooking and other things in order to impress a girl.

Carson's manners are, eh... manners... A bit exaggerated, maybe, but close to perfect for the concept. He is very nice and engaged and does indeed "strike a pose" every time the camera points at him. But no matter what, he gets the message over, talking to celebs, pro photographers or just people in the streets of New York.

Shot by the famous

2008-10-19T10:14:52Z

We see celebrity pictures all over the place, all the time, and mostly too many of them if you ask me. But it's not often we see pictures shot by the celebrities themselves.
Famous people, usually spending their time in front of the lens, can be great photographers too.

Dennis Hopper has been my all time favorite celeb-shooter. I saw some of his images at Photokina recently, where they were shown in large copies. His fame comes primarily from his acting - Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now, Blue Velvet, Red Rock West and many more - but his stylish shots of artists like Bill Cosby, Andy Warhol, and David Hockney as well as his shots from the sixties' civil rights demonstrations in the US have proven him quite accomplished behind a camera. It almost makes me forgive him for Waterworld... almost.

]]> Just recently we have seen Brad Pitt shoot Angelina Jolie for the magazine W. Mr. Pitt is obviously not a stranger to photography. At least he demanded to be equipped with a rare and out-of-production film - Kodak Tech Pan - for his session with Ms. Jolie. And Mr. Pitt is not a bad photographer either, at least judging from the results presented on W's web site. On the other hand, give me a week with Ms. Jolie and some grainy B/W film, and I'll show you what magic I can do...

Danish born actor Viggo Mortensen is also well versed as a photographer. He has shot since childhood it seems, and exhibits on occasions and has published his photos in several books. The photo to the right is from his book Skovbo. He has just opened a exhibition here in Denmark of his beautiful landscapes and scenic shots. The opening was transmitted on TV, and not only did Mr. Mortensen himself come over as a really nice and modest guy, but his pictures looked great and the hanging seemed very well organized. I will try to find the time to go to Roskilde to see his exhibition.

PS: Speaking of film inspiration. My favorite flicks with the above, all shot in ways that can inspire photography, and very different too.
Hopper: Blue Velvet. Any day. He's so scary!
Pitt: Snatch. Oy! Pikey!
Mortensen: Gotta be Lord of the Rings. Sorry for not having more fantasy, but he was so well cast for that role. Return of the King is my personal favorite.

Reuter's Olympics

2008-10-15T20:49:45Z

If you think that any of those many great press bureau pictures that you saw from the Olympics in Beijing were just lucky punches, think again. This little video from Reuters shows with all possible clarity that it's hard work and tonnes of resources that gets the photographers 80% of the way towards the great pictures - the last 20% is skill and some luck.

Reuters brought 40 photographers and 25 people to edit, process, transfer etc. to the games, and the video illustrates some of the efforts and preparations made to grab the right shot of the right person in the right moment. Impressing!

Practical HDRI book

2008-10-14T14:44:50Z

I have always liked photo books from the publisher Rocky Nook. The titles, the format, the layout. It just talks my language, and this book entitled Practical HDRI by Jack Howard further enhances that feeling. Like other Rocky Nook books on my shelves it's concentrated and right to the point, and manages to get a lot of practical information over in a fairly compact number of pages.

Jack Howard focuses on the practical side of shooting high dynamic range (HDR), and covers both gear selection, seeing an HDR-option, shooting and the critical post processing.]]> The number of screenshots illustrating this are one one hand almost numbing, but also serve to point out the effect of every little adjustment, and emphasize the fact that HDR is as much a result of choices made by the photographer during the postprocessing as it is the result of the physical capture on location.

If you have started fooling around with HDR and want to really break into the realm of deeper understanding, finer control and better and more individual results, Jack Howard's book has a lot to offer.
Whether you aim for the cartoon-like exaggerated look that some HDR-images display, want to make more artful (and sometimes bordering on the artificial) images or simply want to document scenes, which have more dynamic range than your camera can capture, Jack Howard has some advice for you.

The 170 page, soft cover book is 33 US$ from most sources, and can be bought directly from O'Reilly - the order-processing mothership of Rocky Nook.

On Location image galleries

2008-10-14T10:26:50Z

When I first started producing the On Location podcasts, I created Nikonians image galleries for each with the most important images from the shoot. But that was honestly quite a bit of work on top of shooting, post processing, recording, producing and all the other tasks, and since I already create a kind of gallery in the slide show, I thought it would be easier to draw the images from there.

Enter my day job skills as a web developer. A bit of programming and Voilà! We have a set of "On Location" galleries. Each episode is listed, and when you click on it, you see all the images from that week's slide show.

Sometimes it it pays off to be a nerd!

Ten movies that inspired my photography

2008-10-13T12:03:12Z

I stumbled over these lists on the web site Film in Focus - different visual artists, photographers included, who listed their five most influential films. Gregory Crewdson, Larry Sultan, Amy Stein and many more reveal their favorite films with regards to imagery.

That made me think: being a movie buff, from which movies did I pick out photographic inspiration? Several of Film in Focus' guests mention Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter. Can't remember having seen that, so it's now on my to-see list.

But making my own top-five list was way too easy, and I had to expand it to ten. There are many more when I start thinking, but I have to limit myself.
Here they are in no particular order: ]]> Blade Runner
This one just blew my socks off! Being a SciFi-nerd helped it rise to stardom in my perspective With its rich and eerie futuristic scenes it settled deep in me when I saw it the first time. I have seen it again many times since, and it's still very fascinating with fantastic sets, great light and some fine angles and compositions. I can almost hear Ridley Scott: Light! Rain! Aaaand action!

Once Upon a Time in the West
The could essentially have been any Sergio Leone western from A Fistful of Dollars to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I love his play with closeups, his large, widescreen scenes and his use of the harsh desert light. And if I had music in my photographs it would be like Ennio Morricone's!

Fanny and Alexander
This is Bergman, and an example of the grand Swedish filmmaker at his visual best. If you haven't seen it, see it! It's visually stunning, and captures the ambiance of its era with convincing beauty in the happy scenes as well as with scary precision in the less happy ones. Bergman can get joy, love, angst and hate into his pictures with what seems to be few but very efficient means.

North by Northwest
I saw this as a kid and always thought of it as just another Hitchcock movie, but a few years back I managed to borrow it from the local library in a restored DVD-version. Whoa! Most of the scenes here are so classic, so well thought through and so finely tuned with regards to light, composition and other visual elements that it's stunning. The main characters, Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason are portrayed again and again in pictures that would be worthy of a front page on any of that era's magazines. And Eva Marie Saint is to die for!

Delicatessen
If you want an injection of weird people doing weird things in weird settings shot from weird angles, try one of French instructor Jean-Pierre Jeunet's movies. Delicatessen, The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain, The City of Lost Children, even Alien 4, which is somewhat out of tune with the rest, but still visually inspiring like most of the Alien films. French, yes, but fun, different, colorful.

House of Flying Daggers
The Chinese certainly do things differently, and are not afraid of using an eloquent visual language of colors, light, composition and lots of subtle (and not-so-subtle) exaggeration. Many of the recent year's Chinese movies have an almost constructed, artificial, painted quality and so visually stunning that it has to be seen. Hero, Crouching Tiger - Hidden Dragon, Raise the Red Lantern and many more. Awesome!

Seven Samurai
No list like this would be complete without a Kurosawa movie. My personal favorite is The Seven Samurai, which in spite of being black and white, a bit grainy and not always delivered in tack sharp or noise free copies, is inspiring photographically seen. Don't be knocked over by the action scenes, captivating as they are, but notice the well thought through composition of any scene, and the way the old Japanese master stuffs every scene with ambiance - but still keeps it visually simple.

Brazil
In many ways the ultimate urban exploration trip, shot in large and strange buildings, in oddly constructed futuristic but old fashioned locations as well as in simple and depressing concrete ghettos. I have never been crazy about the instructor Terry Gilliam's fantasy scenes where the main character flies with large wings in a land inhabited by dwarfs and giants, but you've gotta love Michael Palin's torture chamber and the installations in the main character Sam Lowry's flat.

No Country for Old Men
Anything by any of the Coen brothers makes me happy, from Raising Arizona over The Hudsucker Proxy, O Brother, Where art Thou and Fargo to The Big Lebowsky. Most of them live through strong characters and great (and not least funny) plots. But No Country for Old Men tops them all visually. It's so strong and intense in its imagery. Some of the older flicks had a lot of great pictures, but Old Men has almost nothing else.

Black Hawk Down
Ridley Scott is a man of many genres and even though I'm usually not a big fan of war movies, I have to respect the craftsmanship in Black Hawk Down. Seen from a photographer's standpoint, this is a tour de force in great photography (and cinematography, of course), and the gritty, brownish, stylish way this movie is shot is nothing but stunning. The use of telephoto shots (soldiers running out of Mogadishu), arial shots (overflying the town on many occasions), close and intimate shots (caring for the wounded soldiers in the dungeon like building in town) and POV shots (in the cars, in the crashed helicopter) is just a perfect mix of perspective and composition, which any photographer can use as inpsiration.

How about yourself? Did you ever get inpsired in your photography by a movie? Feel free to post your own sources of great imagery in the comments.

D90 video out

2008-10-06T07:34:51Z

The Nikon folks in Swiss have been climbing mountains (literally) to get a D90 video online, and now it's there. Unfortunately it's on YouTube where the compression does little good to anything, but there will most likely be a higher quality version ready soon - if anybody dares host a large file like this.

Canon has had bad experience with Vincent Laforet's D5 MkII video "Reverie", which became so popular that Canon took it down.

The D90 video isn't quite as elaborate in its use of expensive glass, light and models, but still quite convincing. Laforet was scooting about in a helicopter over a big city with a full staff (and most of Canon's expensive lenses). The Nikon D90 was after all carried to the top of the Eiger by mere humans.

iheartphotograph

2008-10-03T13:20:22Z

One of my absolute favorite photographic blogs is iheartphotograph - like in I love photograph with the heart symbol. Iheartphotograph is a daily dose of different photography gathered and published by New York based art curator Laurel Ptak.

And when I say different I really mean it. This huge collection of photographs and display of photographer's works is quite far from what I shoot myself (and then again, see later), and quite far from the type of photos I mostly look at in galleries, on the web, in books or in magazines.

]]> And maybe exactly because of that this site has become my daily watering hole in a desert of photography. Now, don't get me wrong. The stuff I look at most is beautiful, well executed and technically impeccable, and as such a boon to the eye and generally very nice to look at. But it contains only few surprises.

Iheartphotograph is exactly the opposite. Not all images are beautiful, most are technically inferior and some are both ugly and in all ways strange. But that's exactly what I like. The images Laurel collects on her site are endlessly surprising and inspiring.
OK, I admit that some are so odd and so bad in the technical sense that it's embarrassing. Shot with small cameras, out of focus, badly lighted and often further mistreated in post. Others are deeply fascinating, esoteric and strangely beautiful.

Some of the artists on display have themes, others have a certain style while others stick out in all directions. Many are very artsy. And I say that in the not-so-respectful sense. It's like if you shoot lousy, blurred, badly composed images of really weird things, desaturate them a bit and give them an inexplicable title, it's art.
Some honestly look like accidental shots, the artist pressing the trigger by mistake. Some remind me of my grandmother's pictures from my childhood holidays, helpless, ridiculous.

On the other hand I see great art on the site more than once a week. Well thought through or impulsive, beautiful or ugly, plain or strange, but surely art - meant in the very respectful way. I love Paho Mann's drawers, Levi Van Leuw's landscapes and Scarlett Stephenson-Connolly's Amongst the Animals, which I all found through iheartphotograph.

In that way iheartphotograph keeps me on my photographic toes: thinking, forming opinions and never resting.

I am not a stranger to doing iheartphotograph-style pictures. We all have our moments of the artful, and even though I don't expect to wind up in a gallery in Big Apple or to be curated for a trendy online gallery, I can also sometimes be tempted to shoot blurred, unsaturated, oddly looking pictures of strange subjects. On this page you see a couple of tongue-in-cheek slideshows with some of my artsy pictures.

But for the real thing: go to iheartphotograph.

Virtual Photokina

2008-09-30T21:04:35Z

So you didn't go to Photokina? Well, no worries, because the International VR Photography Association (IVRPA) will gladly take you there - virtually.

They have a ton of VR-shots on their special Photokina panoblog, and whether you want to check out Nikon's booth, look at Kata bags or join a Phase One shoot, IVRPA offers the opportunity. And of course IVRPA's own booth. No, unfortunately no Nikonian's booth anywhere.

Just click a thumbprint and start maneuvering in this virtual world of Photokina 08.

Nachtwey's TED wish

2008-09-30T16:17:17Z

I have always been fascinated by the work of war photographer James Nachtwey. I have been captured by Nachtwey's graphical and unpleasant yet stunningly beautiful photos ever since I saw a documentary about him shooting amongst others a father in Indonesia, who had not only lost an arm and a leg in a railway accident, but also lived on a piece of cardboard literally between two railway tracks with his family.

One of Nachtwey's pictures of this man is seen here.

]]> In a TED talk from March 2007 Nachtwey returns to this man and tells that he has since moved to a small house, paid by contributions sparked by Nachtwey's pictures. The TED talk was held in connection with Nachtwey being granted a TED Prize - a prize given by the organization behind the TED talks. With the prize follows a wish, and Nachtwey wished to tell a story, most likely in photos, a story which he meant needed to be told.

His wish was "I'm working on a story that the world needs to know about. I wish for you to help me break it in a way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age." I'm helping in my very humble way by bringing his message on. Nachtwey will break his story on October 3rd.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design and if you haven't seen one or more TED talks already, you are in for a big treat. Start with Nachtwey, but be prepared for grueling pictures, but also compassion, dignity and humanity.
Other photo related TED talks are by the photo director for National Geographic, David Griffin, talking about the power of photography not to mention Blaise Aguera y Arcas' original and still astonishing Photosynth demo.

iTTL Pocket Wizards?

2008-09-29T19:45:24Z

During Photokina I had the pleasure of talking to Pocket Wizard's Sales and Marketing Manager Lorenzo Gasperini, who told me something very interesting.
I mentioned that the current Pocket Wizard line had no exposure control, and even though Lorenzo pointed out that the MultiMax has some control - the ability to turn flashes on and off - he admitted that exposure control per se was not available.

But...

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Lorenzo said that it might be a good idea to keep an eye out for Pocket Wizard in 2009, and more than hinted that Radiopoppers quite possibly wouldn't be the only flash trigger product with support for exposure control in the future.
Indeed an interesting development, if you ask me, because even though Pocket Wizards do their job very well and many pros swear by fully manual flash exposure, Radiopoppers sure has upped the ante regarding control. I will personally keep a close eye on Pocket Wizard.

You can hear my interview with Lorenzo Gasperini in my podcast from Photokina.