BJØRN CHRISTIANSEN | Photographer

Having written a bit about shooting documentary style photos I want to give you some tips on how to do basic lighting in a studio for portrait, fashion and commercial purposes. This is a shot from one of my assignments at Norsk Fotofagskole. It was a part of the photo marathon we had the last semester in second grade. The task was to shoot a commercial for glasses. We got the assignment early Tuesday morning at it was due to the day after. Having quite a few friends in Trondheim I started making calls finding models suited for these types of photos. I got two yes-es and had hoped for just one, but since I had the opportunity and it didn’t do much to have two models I booked both models. The next step in completing this task was to get the main accessories and getting an idea of what the final result should look like. I went straight to a shop that sold spectacles and asked them to lend me some glasses. Making a deal with them sending them photos after the shoot I got to borrow quit a few spectacles. Next up I had to figure out what my models should wear. Since I had experience shooting school portraits and glasses is something many can relate to studying I wanted to have this kind of feel to the photo, but raising the idea of quality by having the models tie their hair back and wearing straight, light colored shirts.

With the help of my friend Sascha Njaa I rigged the studio and did the shoot in two hours. Here is what I wrote almost two years ago about the technical specifications:

Lighting the scene

This picture is lit by four Elinchrom BX Ri 500. There are two flash heads with strip-light softbox on each sides and behind the models pointing at an 45 degree angel at them, one flash head at a tripod with a beauty dish and grid almost straight on the models and one octabank shooting straight into the ceiling on the left side and about a two meters away from the model. I have also two polystyrene boards with the black side facing the models and another one with white side up in front and facing up reflecting into the models eyes.

So why do I use this lighting setup? Setting up a studio like this from back to front as I usually do I want a main light source to light my subjects. The ABC of lighting techniques you should always set up a flattering light, the types of lighting varies from model to model and from expression to expression on the models. Having two models some might say that I complicated the scene a bit, but having the right equipment and an idea before you start rigging the studio, it helps a lot. The main light source in a typical school portrait comes from a slight angle, the more know Rembrant-light comes from an angle of 45 degrees from either the left or the right side of the subject and the nose is casting a shadow across the face furthest away from the light source. It also creates a triangular light shape beneath the eye furthest away. This models the face quite drastic which was not in my plan. Another setup that I use quite often is the butterfly lighting that I used at this particular shot. The main light placed straight in front and above of the model pointing slightly down making the nose casting the shadow straight above the subjects over lip. To even out the shadow that can be a bit to sharp I placed a white board below the models angeling it upwards and evening out the shadow and also casting light into the iris. The second light I set up was what I call an ambient light to further lighten the faces but also the background in the scene. Modifying this light source with a large octabank / softbox this doesn’t do much to the shadows in the models faces but evens out harsh shadows created with the beauty dish (main light) even more than the white board below the models. It also helps me light my white background a bit so it does not turn totally dark, but gives it some tone to it. The two black boards on the left and right of the models adds some contrast to the subjects. Had it just been just white walls around the studio the colors would look a bit washed out. The two light sources on the left and right, positioned further back of the models gives highlights to both the shoulders and the sides of the models helping me sculpt out their faces. In straight on school portraits you just might use two light sources, one main light and one on the background. Shooting with a white background, depending on the setup, stray light might do the same job as the two light sources behind the models. The two light sources behind the models are modified with two strip light softboxes. This is because I don’t want any light spill on the background and I also want large light to hit the models faces not creating any harsh shadows.

Shooting portraits in studio you might consider having a plan for each shoot, bring some accessories in form of clothes or spectacles to give the model something to work with. Plan the lighting and the feel before starting rigging the studio. It also helps having an assistant to help you out both rigging and giving you creative feedback as you work towards a final photo.

This is a fairly newer shot from a job I did for Runway Passport at Oslo Fashion Week 2012. After a week of shooting documentary and catwalk in Oslo this winter I covered the backstage and catwalk at the final show, Moods of Norway. It was fairly cold that day, I meet my two journalists from OurStyle down town Oslo before taking a taxi with a fellow colleague to Mathallen – Vulcan five hours before the show started to get the best behind the scenes / documentary shots. The backstage area was dim lit with a lot of different models from different agencies getting their hair and make-up done. I had spoken with the model manager of Trend Models, Gry Sæther, asking her if she had some models in this show. After walking around the backstage for a while I spotted Julie H in a chair surrounded by a bunch of stylists.

I shot this image with a Nikon D700 and a 35mm f/2.0 lens. Documentary photo is capturing a moment in time telling the viewer a story of what this moment is all about, not only showing what is exactly what is in the image but also giving the viewer a sense of what the subjects in the photo is feeling. These shots can only be composed with your camera. Concentrating on what details are in the frame and also what is not. Reading out of this picture I see the crew-cards with a logo on two of the hair stylists telling me this is has something to do with Moods of Norway, seeing all the other people in this photo is telling me that this might be something more than this is not just an ordinary photo shoot, but something more. A stressful mime on all three stylists might indicate that they are on a tight schedule. What is the model thinking?

To capture these details you have to know your tools. This is shot with a 35mm wide angle lens at a shutter speed of 1/13 of a second at f/5.0 and ISO2500. Tearing down this specifications into pieces you might get an idea of what I am thinking while capturing this frame. First of all, I start out with my camera. It is a full frame Nikon D700 able to capture shots on the calibrated ISO range from ISO200 to ISO6400. This means that I can work in very low light situations and get quite decent exposures. The 35mm gives me a fairly wide, but also narrow angle on a setting to show as much of the situation and also restraining it to be what is important not having to move in to close, but not to far away at the same time. I didn’t want the face of the male models up on the left side to show, nor the model sitting next to Julie. Setting up my camera to shoot in aperture priority at f/5.0 gave me the the depth in the frame that I wanted not showing all the background in full focus, but blurring it a bit out. I had also set my ISO to automatically adjust in the range from ISO800 to ISO2500 if the shutter speed fell below 1/10th of a second. I know the D700 can produce fairly detailed shots at ISO6400 so I didn’t bother having to much grain in this shot.
Since this is a wide angle motion in the camera wouldn’t show up as much as if I had shot this with a normal / zoom lens. I know I can hold tight to the camera at 1/10th of a second. I mainly recommend to use the shooting no slower shutter than the denominator of matching the focal length. The thumb rule: having a focal length of 20mm, you should never have a slower shutter than 1/20 of a second, at 35mm, 1/30th, 50mm 1/50th, 200mm 1/200th of a second. Having good or fast glass meaning having a lens that is able to have a wide aperture. The standard aperture scale (F-stops); f/0.7, f/1.0, f/1.4, f/2.0, f/2.8, f/4.0 f/5.6, f/8.0, f/11.0, f/16.0, f/22.0, f/32, f/45, f/64, f/90, f/128, f/180, f/256. Lenses are divided into primes and zoom. The prime lenses has a fixed focal length while the zoom lenses can vary from ie. 18mm to 55mm, 24mm to 70mm, 70mm to 200. The numbers you should concentrate about is what the widest aperture these lenses has, a smaller f-number, the larger the aperture, the more light the lens is able to send through to the camera sensor or the film roll you are shooting. Lenses with a larger aperture at the widest focal length is more expensive. The old 35mm f/2.0 I bought used for 2000NOK (around ), but the newer 35mm f/1.4 a F-stop larger costs around 14500NOK () because there is more glass inside.

A quick summary of my thoughts shooting this kind of documentary style shots, I don’t want the shots to be un-sharp because of camera movement, having some movement in the subjects gave me the feel of intensity in the situation, I didn’t want to much hassle doing light metering knowing my camera could handle the conditions quite well at different exposure compensation-settings I set my camera to aperture priority (A on Nikon and Av on Canon), knowing that f/5.0 was the sharpness all over that I wanted.
Having much time to look for situations is one of the key ingredients to get great shots, be nice to the people back stage, if they are not to busy ask them what they are doing, show them photos of what you have shot and you’ll get great shots back.

The most expensive show during Oslo Fashion Week 2012 was the one Runway Passport.

For my two models, Maria Ishoel Frelsøy and Karoline Dilling Broks I’ve published four new pictures from the photo shoot we had on Tuesday for the assignment spectacle commercial at Norsk Fotofagskole. Spectacles I got from Brilleland and goes by the brand Moods of Norway and Lyle&Scott and are new of this season (W/S 2011).

The last picture in this post is another selection after getting comments on Maria’s hand that was a bit miss placed.

Since I had a this commercial assignment with spectacles I just had to photograph the four pairs I borrowed from Brilleland as a product photo. This was shoot was just a quick and dirty fix with no planning what so ever. The light I used was a halogen work light that was used, during the photo festival we had at school, to light Jock Sturges’ gallery. A high bare bulb light, with the color temperature of about 2500K.
The spectacles I shot were from Moods of Norway and Lyle & Scott.

Evaluation went well, the teacher pointed out the fingers on the shoulder of one of the models and didn’t really see the point in shooting horizontally and ended up liking the one portrait of Karoline the most.

Next assignment

The next assignment in our photo marathon at school is photographing architecture, Hovedfagsbygget at NTNU Gløshaugen. This is an old building from the early 20th century in a gothic style. I’ve photographed this building several times before, but not mainly architecture. Now I’m going to pack my tripod and other photo gear and head off to NTNU.

I have two photos from yesterday that I like a lot. I like the stuck up expression of the two models on the tall one, but the hand on that photo isn’t helping much. The horizontal one gives the photo a dramaturgy with both models looking at “something”. I like their expression on this one too, but I did shoot it in horizontal of some reason.
In an hour I am having evaluation and I am thinking about delivering three photos, just the one with Karoline and the two with both girls. Hope Mr. Øhlander is happy with at least one of them.
The spectacles are new of this season (W/S 2011) and from Moods of Norway. Brilleland was so kind as to lend me four pairs of spectacles that we could shoot. I also had a pair of Lyle & Scott and yet another pair from Moods of Norway. The shirts are borrowed from Zara.

Lighting the scene

This picture is lit by four Elinchrom BX Ri 500. There are two flash heads with strip-light softbox on each sides and behind the models pointing at an 45 degree angel at them, one flash head at a tripod with a beauty dish and grid almost straight on the models and one octabank shooting straight into the ceiling on the left side and about a two meters away from the model. I have also two polystyrene boards with the black side facing the models and another one with white side up in front and facing up reflecting into the models eyes.

3. One who has been tricked or made to appear ridiculous; a dupe: They made a fool of me by pretending I had won.

Today my assignment was shooting a commercial poster / portrait of someone wearing spectacles. I asked Maria Ishoel Frelsøy and Karoline Dilling Broks if they could be so kind as to pose for my camera this afternoon. No problem. After picking up some spectacles from Brilleland, Moods of Norway and Lyle & Scott, I picked up some shirts from Zara to go with the spectacles.
We had a lot of time in studio and did get to shoot all four pair of spectacles and even some watches that Karoline brought. The reason we shot the watches were because one of the other groups at school got an assignment, not very unlike the one I got, to shoot a commercial picture for a wrist watch and I thought it was a good idea to do the other assignment too. I realized that my styling were a bit too dull to shoot wrist watches. The two pictures added in this post were of somewhat less serious matter. Though I thought that they were to nice to just keep them to myself, so i decided to show them to the world by my blog and my Flickr profile. The rest of this evening I am going to spend doing post production of the final spectacle-image.

This is the second picture in my series I shot with Kristin Folstad yesterday. The shot was taken for a poster-competition and the photo marathon that is ongoing these three weeks in January. This is a more cute, melancholic and sweet portrait of Kristin, no hard facial expression as the first one were. Makeup and hair is done by Hong-My Thi Nguyen supervised by me.

Lighting technique

This portrait is a high-key photo which is a technique where most part of the information in the picture is on the right side of the histogram, instead of a mid-key photo which has all information spread evenly throughout the histogram, the opposite of high-key is low-key, which has all its information in the left side of the histogram. A high-key photo is fairly light and the shadow areas, which in most photos define the shape. This particular series is shot with four light sources, two Elinchrom BX Ri 600 with strip-light softbox from each side and behind the model as a kicker-light defining the models edge and one beauty dish about 45 degrees above the model and almost straight on. Since the boom wasn’t available I had to use a regular tripod. To avoid having the tripod in the models face, the beauty dish is positioned slightly to the left of the model. Also I have modified the beauty dish with a grid to give more contrast to the image. The last light is also a flash head with a softbox behind and right of the model shooting at a slight angel at the background give it a nice, even light.
The last thing in this rig is three polystyrene boards painted black, two on each side and one as a ceiling or roof above the model. This gives the image more contrast instead of having all the white walls in the studio casting reflection and killing the nice shadow the beauty dish makes.

Next assignment

We had evaluation of the Jazzfest-posters we shot today, but we couldn’t publish since it was sort of a contest. Next assignment is shooting a commercial picture of glasses. I booked two models I haven’t shot before, so I will gain a bit new experience this time as well. I am going for a classical beauty-shot with strict styling, not very different from the series I did with Kristin yesterday. I went to Brilleland in Kongensgate and got to borrow four pairs of glasses, some from the new collection from Moods of Norway. Hoping styling, models, makeup and glasses will fit well together. Studio time is from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. Wish me good luck!

Da var dagens opptak ferdig på Oslo Fashion Week høsten 2010. De kjente navnene i dag var Björn Borg og deres undertøyskolleksjon. Pia Haraldsen med sin litt små tacky 80-talls sirkus / slut-stil og snowboarderen Daniel Franck på Sukkerbiten ved Operahuset med sin snowboard / streetwear-greie.
Björn Borg var som man hadde forventet seg, helt vanlig, Pia Haraldsen leverte som forventet i forhold til det jeg hadde lest av kritikker før lanseringen, og Daniel Franck hadde jeg ingen forventning eller forutsetning til å forestille meg hva han skulle finne på, men en regnvåt catwalk med litt for mye forsinkelser satte kanskje en liten demper på stemningen min. Jeg er sikker på at alle som ikke jobbet, men koste seg med diverse i teltet hadde det kjempefint :)

I morgen / i dag er det Calvin Klein klokka 1800 og Moods of Norway klokka 2200 på Kongsgården på Bygdøy som står på skyteplanen min. Det kan bli interessant.

Her er bildene jeg tok på Moods of Norway-visningen under Oslo Fashion Week 2010. Kolleksjonen Simen Staalnacke, Peder Børresen og Stefan Dahlquist har designet heter Cocktail Transport og inkluderer det meste fra fine dresser til bademote. Av pauseinnslag spilte både Vazelina Bilopphøggers og WigWam med Åge Sten Nilsen på vokalen. Også en småerotisk wet-t-shirt-dans ble fremført og en smågal dame med vinkelsliper lagde fine gnister.

På grunn av ymse variasjoner av lys, plassering og at kameraet hadde gått rundt 3000 eksponering de siste fire dagene gjorde at jeg både måtte stille om eksponeringen flere ganger og at autofokusen takket for seg ett par ganger. Problemet med fokusen ordnet jeg lett ved å bruke svenskeknappen (skru av og på kameraet red.amn).

Dette var siste rest av bildene jeg tok under Oslo Fashion Week 2010. For å se alle bildene jeg tok under OFW kan dere klikke på kategorien jeg har merket med Oslo Fashion Week. Håper dere har likt det dere har sett og legg gjerne igjen en kommentar eller to.

Flere bilder kan du se på bloggen til Bjørn Tore Økland sin fotoblogg.

Jeg har forresten plassert min blogg i Trondheim på norske bloggkart.

Onsdag denne uken hadde jeg mitt første opptak på lenge med Maren Elise Aasen fra Trend Models. Bildene er i forbindelse med at jeg ønsker å prøve meg litt mer på fashion-fotografering og til modellkortet Maren Elise har hos Trend Models. Maren Elise har stått modell for meg en gang før under et lyssettingskurs arrangert at Fotopia for drøyt ett år siden. Siden kurset har hun ikke stått noe særlig modell, mye grunnet ett lengre studieopphold på Bali.

Styling og Sminke

Klesstylingen er lånt hos Zara og er en del av en ny militærinspirert kolleksjon. Skoene er lånt hos Bianco Footwear i Nordre Gate i Trondheim. Hår og sminke ble gjort av Tina Larsen fra H2 Akademiet som også ved tidligere anledninger har hjulpet meg med sminke og hår på tidligere opptak:

• Fashion med Mari Lunder Krogen – Del 2
• Fashion med Mari Lunder Krogen – Del 1
• Fashionopptak med Elisabeth Bolme
• Venus fødsel – oppgave på Norsk Fotofagskole
• Blits på location – La Chapelle-inspirert oppgave

Lyssettig

I serien jobbet jeg med to forskjellige lyssettinger. Det første oppsettet er med to lamper, en som fungerer som hovedlys for å gi bildet en maleristisk og myk lyskvalitet. Dette lyset er pekt opp i taket og spretter ned igjen på modellen. For å bruke denne type lyssetting bør man være sikker på at taket er helt hvitt. Det andre lyset i oppsettet fungerer som fyllys og lyser opp mørke områder i bildet slik at man får tegning i skyggene.
Det andre lysoppsettet kan du lese mer om på blogg-posten om Zeleste Vejle – Grafisk Uttrykk. I korte trekk skal hovedlyset gi en lyskvalitet tilnærmet dagslys/direkte sollys. Til å assistere meg på opptaket var Sascha Njaa så vennlig å stille opp for meg.

Bilder fra opptaket

Bildene fra opptaket kommer i løpet av uka når jeg forhåpentligvis er ferdig å redigere bildene jeg tok under Oslo Fashion Week 2010. I skrivende stund er det bare fredag, Kristar Design, Epilogue, Leila Hafzi og Moods of Norway som mangler filtrering og fargekorreksjon.

Bilder fra Kristar Design, Oslo Fashion Week 2010

Bilder fra Epilogue, Oslo Fashion Week 2010

Bilder fra Leila Hafzi, Oslo Fashion Week 2010

Bilder fra Moods of Norway, Fabrikkhallen, Oslo Fashion Week 2010

Fredag var siste dagen jeg skulle fotografere Oslo Fashion Week 2010. Jeg skulle hovedsaklig fotografere backstage på alle visningene, Epilouge, Leila Hafzi og Moods of Norway, men etter litt overtalelse fikk jeg bytta med Bjørn Tore slik at jeg kunne få prøvd litt mer catwalk-bilder. Det ble en smule for lite utfordring å fotografere backstage og inspirasjonen til å variere nok ble for liten på torsdag. Visningene startet klokka 17:00 med Kristar Design hvor Bjørn Tore var satt opp på runway og hvor jeg egentlig hadde fri. Istedenfor å sitte på latsida ble jeg med å fotograferte. Modellene som gikk for Kristar Design hadde det en smule travelt og tendensen mot uskarpe bilder er veldig fremtredende.
Epilouge og Eva Emanuelsens visning var noget mer spennende og hadde litt mer show-preg over seg, men det var nok den siste visningen, Leila Hafzi, som gjorde størst inntrykk på meg. Hele visninga var godt gjennomført i hvit, nærmest toga-brudekjole-stil (ikke at jeg egentlig har veldig mye peiling på fashion). Hele visninga ble avsluttet med at Jenny Skavlan, atter en gang, kom glidende over catwalken med to unger oppkledd i Leila Hafzi-antrekk og til slutt alle modellene samlet i en slags Annie Leibovitz-gruppering.

Etter visningene på Oslo Kongressenter i Youngsgate 11, ble vi plukket opp av Christian og turen gikk videre til Sjokoladefabrikken og Fabrikkhallen hvor Moods Of Norway hadde den siste visningen i forbindelse med Oslo Fashion Week 2010. Noe dårlig organisering gjorde at jeg ikke fikk kommet meg backstage for å gjøre den fotograferinga Runway Passport hadde sendt meg for å gjøre, backstage, så det ble heller til at jeg tok plass i presse-piten foran catwalken og skøyt enda flere catwalk-bilder.
Moods Of Norway hadde forsåvidt ett av de mest publikumsvennlige visningene under hele Oslo Fashion Week 2010 etter min smak. Både artister som Vazelina Bilopphøggers, Wig Wam, noen eksotiske dansere og en vinkelslipende dame stod for underholdninga mens modellene, stylistene og designerne holdt på for fullt å skifte om klær.

I morgen, eller rettere sagt i dag går turen hjemover til Trøndelag rundt tolv etter at jeg har fotografert Jens og Jenny, barna til søskenbarnet mitt Lars. Det blir godt å komme hjem etter en lang-kort uke med mye fotografering. Mandag er det på igjen med foto-teori, foto-historie og kickboxing. God vinterferie til de av dere som har det.

Noen ferske bilder fra visningen til Epilouge og Leila Hafzi på Oslo Fashion Week 2010.
Nå går turen til Fabrikkhallen og Moods of Norway

Fotografering av Oslo Fashion Week
I morgen tidlig reiser jeg og Bjørn Tore Økland til Oslo for å fotografere Oslo Fashion Week på oppdrag fra Runway Passport. Det kommer til å bli en spennende og interessant erfaring. Jeg har aldri fotografert fashion så tett opp på den måten før og har egentlig heller aldri sett en catwalk. Utfordring på strak arm.

Her er i hvert fall fotoplanen min:

• Onsdag – 17:00 Armando Santos – (backstage)
• Onsdag – 21:00 Fam Irvoll – (runway)
• Torsdag – 18.00 Soyaaulait – (backstage)
• Fredag – 18.00 Epilogue (backstage)
• Fredag – 19.00 Leila Hafzi (runway)
• Fredag – 22.00 Moods of Norway (backstage)

Blogg-tørke

Til mine trofaste lesere må jeg bare beklage at det har vært litt dårlig med oppdateringen de siste ukene. Mye rart har skjedd og oppgavene på skolen har vært til tider litt lite inspirerende, dog veldig nødvendig. Stoffet som har blitt gjennomgått har i hovedsak dreid seg om lagring og katalogisering av bildene vi tar, litt om retusj og etterbehandling og litt lyssetting og foto. Neste kurs ser jeg at kan bli litt mer utfordrende og interessant, “Farge og estetikk”.

Bildene i posten er forresten av Sascha Njaa og Bjørn Tore Økland under et forsøk på å ta landskapsbilder med høyt dynamisk omfang. Et prosjekt som fra morgentimene viste seg å være helt dødfødt med tanke på været.
For de av dere som ikke er så dreven på terminologien høyt dynamisk omfang, så går det ut på å få størst mulig spenn fra mørkt til lyst i et bilde. Tre-bokstavs-forkortelsen er HDR og står for High Dynamic Range. Man kan fotografere HDR-bilder enten ved å, populært sett, over og undereksponere ett og samme motiv tre steg og samtidig en normaleksponering for siden å sette bildet sammen i for eksempel Adobe Photoshop og hente inn detalj-informasjonen i mørke og lyse områder. Eller man kan fotografere motivet en gang med overeksponerte innstillinger for så å ta inn detaljene i høylysene i RAW-fil-konverteren. Problemet oppstår når det, som på denne dagen, ikke er noen kontrast i omgivelsene rundt en på grunn av gråvær eller i dette tilfellet snøvær.