BJØRN CHRISTIANSEN | Photographer

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Kofi Gyimah

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Kofi Gyimah

This Easter, instead of doing the traditionally Norwegian stuff, head into the mountains for on a hut or a cabbin and do cross country skiing for a whole week, eating candy, eggs and lamb. Instead I had two photo shoots, one with Kofi Gyimah and another one with Camilla Devik, both models from Trend Models. These two first shots I’m presenting are from the shoot with Kofi.
I got some questions about the expressions of my models, why do they always look miserable, unhappy, angry and so on, and are never smiling and inviting. Since I have a background from school photography, both shooting portraits and group-pictures for Fovea AS and Iris Skolefoto for a few years I have grown a bit tired of the always-happy-portrait. You can always make someone smile by doing stupid things, telling jokes or just ask the models to be a bit happy getting a little grin on their face. It is fairly easy, you just need to know the technique which you might learn from experience. It is easy, but getting a model to express other feelings than just happiness you need to communicate that in a right way so that he or she gets what you are thinking of. There are a lot of techniques in getting the right expression and how you get there is something you’ll need to figure out for yourself. A tip can be to show the models the expressions, either by photo or video or doing them yourself.

Here are some more photos of Kofi:

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, modell: Trine Eide, stylist: Tina Larsen

Starting at Fotofagskolen I was pretty fresh shooting fashion photography. I didn’t have that much experience or “the right” inspirations to build my own shoots. After learning some techniques and leafing through various fashion magazines I got an understanding of what you should do in an editorial series. In spring of my first year, Tina Larsen from fstyle.blogg.no/a> asked me to help her out on her final exam at H2 shooting an avant garde, baroque-inspired fashion series. She showed me some inspirational photos and we discussed what location we should use. Having shot a lot of photos at NTNU Gløshaugen and Hovedbygget, the choice was quite easy. For my inspiration I used Cinderella and the Czech movie Three Wishes for Cinderella (Tri orísky pro Popelku) which in Norwegian tradition is always showing on Christmas eve. Our model was Trine Eide. I called NTNU and asked to use their building for location and got a yes.
Having helping me out as an assistant on this shoot was my friend Sascha Njaa. Before the photo shoot we went to the location places and angles fit for a backdrop. The photos were to be put in Tina’s final portfolio and viewed at a catwalk show the students at H2-Akademiet had put together later that month.

Having found quite a few spots to shoot at the location I was able to shoot a huge variation for the series. This particular photo was shot in a large window facing south, at the opposite side I had my huge bed sheet reflector which gave me enough light to get a decent exposure in the front of the model. Having a stylist doing clothing, hair and make-up doing the styling of your photo shoots helps you a great deal getting the photos you want to shoot. Have common understanding on what your theme and photo style should be. Tina passed her exam and is now working as a hairdresser at Heads Up Hårsalong på Byåsen and a freelance stylist.

Building a web based Portfolio by Bjørn Christiansen

Building a web based Portfolio by Bjørn Christiansen

Building a web based Portfolio by Bjørn Christiansen

A good friend of mine, Sondre Nymoen, recommended me to create an online portfolio in addition to the book edition I go around applying for jobs. Good tips, I thought, and put the brain into a extensive thinking process. It has been a while since I have actively worked to develop a website, so it took some time just searching around for information about how different things could be done and for keeping me updated on the code within the HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP. Not only were I to develop a framework for how the page should behave in form of functionality, it also had to look good and provide a good user experience to captivate a possible visitor. There are a lot of consideration I have had to deal with me when I designed websites before. For example, I worked on a project called the International Conference of Ethiopian Studies 2007 at NTNU, where one of the demands was that the page should be adapted to Ethiopia standards in form of download speeds. In 2006 – 2007 were Ethiopia, today, a developing country where broadband was not very well developed. The bottom line was that each page in the site had to be no greater than 20KB per page, which meant much text and few images for optimizing speeds. Another demand was the screen resolution for the target group this project applied. The requirements from the client was to keep me in 800×600 pixels, which in reality meant a maximum around 768 pixels in width. The user experience of the side was also important, it had to be recognizable in relation to navigation and update of the webmasters.

Requirements for the site then, as now I had in mind when I set to develop the new portfolios my Sunday and Monday. I aimed to make each page as small in kilobyte size as possible, but taking into consideration that there is a photo portfolio, so I had to ease the some of the requirements in that to see the pictures on the Internet in the respective size and with the respective resolution must reflect the image files will also be quite large in file size. Reason being is that my target group this time aren’t scientists with regard to Ethiopia, which initially has an interest in my portfolio, but feel free to clients and other photographers with much faster internet access than a dial-up modem.

I’ve also realized that the world has gone a step further in terms of screen resolutions. Since I first posted the google analytics to the statistics on this wordpress blog, only 0.18% run a resolution equivalent to 800×600, a resolution that ends up on a 28th place in my stats. In 14th place resolution is 768×1024 with 0.78% and a 10th place is 320×480 with 1.88% who does not even account for more than 3% of all visits to online my page. For those who do not understand any of these numbers as the first number indicates the width of the resolution of the screen visitors. I have the feeling that the tens place is due to multiple use mobile phones when they are surfing. To create something that as many visitors as possible will be able to watch you should stay within these limits so that the visitor don’t need to scroll both horizontally and vertically to see the content. But for me to get with me the last 3% of users, I took some simple design measures that I have seen a number of web-based portfolio do, converting from vertical to horizontal scrolling. Maybe it’s a more comfortable way to see pictures of in relation to that in western countries read from left to right and can take the contents horizontally.
Some technical challenges were there in order for me to convert to this way designing a platform. I had to take into account that people still wanted to use the scroll wheel to navigate along the side and possibly having to move the mouse very far each time you would get to the last picture in the gallery. I found some JavaScript that worked relatively smoothly. Most are based on jQuery, frameworks I’m not very familiar with, but have an understanding that is very prevalent within the web nowadays. I would also add a little security that people realized that it was horizontal content and did some graphic grip and let the horizontal arrows in every direction. These arrows could pushed and the content, in this case the gallery, would jumped in the direction of the arrow shown.

For the visitor would be having to scroll all the way back to start to navigate to the next category, I let the menu be fixed on the screen while scrolled across. This function is started acting very badly when I tested it on my android phone this morning, but on the other hand I can not account for everything. The menu has a value of opacity: 0.8; which means that it has a transparency of 20%. This I have done only as a design grip and separate me from the rest of the portfolio with horizontal scrolling.

In addition to having created categories of images I have photographed, I have also created a separate category with videos and animations I have made.

Basically, I have tried to keep to the requirements and specifications I have always designed websites with, kept things clean, fast and easy with an option for most visitors to see the page as it originally intended to be seen. I have also tried to keep me within the W3 standard for HTML 4.01 Transitional Loose. Since I wanted the menu transparent, I have had sacrifices an error, the one line of code, opacity, CSS-stylesheet. I hope that the design is so intuitive that I do not have to go into detail what I have done. But there are some questions, feedback or the like, do not hesitate to contact me.

If you didn’t find the portfolio, click here: www.bj0rn.net

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Kristine Hove Røsok

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Kristine Hove Røsok

Earlier this year, namely April, I had a photo shoot with Kristine Hove Røsok studying a Master Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at NTNU. Kristine has been a lot infront of my camera during fall 2010 and spring 2011, while I was a student at Norsk Fotofagskole. These photos are taken right before I went to Århus, Denmark, to shoot an editorial fashion series that was a task at school. This series I photographed on free basis to have something to do, a half-baked plan, a little makeup and the models own clothes. It turned out nice at the end.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Photographing the Sinar - Realfagsbygget, NTNU Gløshaugen

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Photographing the Sinar - Realfagsbygget, NTNU Gløshaugen

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Photographing the Sinar - Realfagsbygget, NTNU Gløshaugen

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Photographing the Sinar - Realfagsbygget, NTNU Gløshaugen

The Sinar F2 on location. This is the last part of my series with the camera, both in studio and location for now. The series was taken during the photo marathon we had at school.

Photographing for Hipster.no

Tonight I am hitting the cinema to watch Tron: Legacy with my friend Sascha Njaa before visiting Kos Bar&Lounge at 00:00 and Vega Club at 01:00. Dress up, put on the happy face and get photographed.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Sinar - Large Format Camera

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Sinar - Large Format Camera

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Sinar - Large Format Camera

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Sinar - Large Format Camera

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Sinar - Large Format Camera

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Sinar - Large Format Camera

Since last post much has happen on the project, “Give Wall-E Life- to Sinar”,I am working on. I’ve done post production on fourteen photos, both studio / product done Wednesday afternoon and the shots on location I did yesterday. I went for the cool, blue style I almost always use on my photos. They are all in black and white, and high contrast. Here are six images that didn’t make it for the final selection of eight images. Thank you Sascha and Mimoza for helping me picking out the best photos. I trust you guys made the right choices.

The six reasons these pictures weren’t included in the last package.

Image one was looking a bit to similar to the one I chose for the first image in the series. Image two you needed to have the reference to Wall-E to really understand the picture. Three and four was too similar to each other, they were also a bit boring comparing to the eight I have picked for the finals. Number five was too heavy with its whole, massive dark space. I like the rhyme and repetition and the soft lighting, but it didn’t cross the finish line. The Last and sixth picture looks just like a cropped image of the main, opening picture of my series.

Behind the photo

The location shots are taken at Realfagsbygget at NTNU Gløshaugen, the product photos are taken in studio. All with natural lighting and a shutter of at least one second. I believe the ISO to be about 800 on the studio-shots and 200 on location. The aperture varies between f/2, f/16, f/22 and even f/32 on some pictures. Everything is take with a tripod attached to get the really long exposures.

I will try to publish the final series during noon tomorrow if I manage staying awake. In about five hours I will have the final evaluation of this photo marathon, hoping to get some sleep now.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Sinar - Large Format Camera

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Sinar - Large Format Camera

The Sinar large format camera is a swiss made camera that we use at school, mainly for architecture photography during the spring on the second semester. It’s large format and its tilt-shift capabilities makes it the number one choice when it comes to photographing architecture. Since this camera and format is such a large part of the photographic history I wanted to portray it in its right environment, modern architecture, at NTNU Gløshaugen and Realfagsbygget. In one of our first assignments in the architecture course, we photograph this building and many photographers will recognize this as they enter the school. One of the reasons that I didn’t shoot a random fashion portrait of a person is that if my series, or picture, is to be selected, it is going to hang on one of the main walls of the school for quite a time and I am afraid that people will get quite tired of looking at the same face day in and day out.

The next 12 hours

Yesterday I photographed the Sinar in studio, found some interesting angles and details. Today, in company of Sascha Njaa, I went to NTNU Gløshaugen with the Sinar, photographed some architecture photos with the Sinar as my model. I was trying to give the Sinar some kind of sould giving the feeling that the Sinar was exploring Gløshaugen more than photographing it. Now I have a long night in front of me. First off is choosing what pictures I want to have in my series, then post production, and then again selecting further more and at last mounting the whole series on another picture of the wall where they are going to hang.
By the time I’m done with all this, I am going to have my breakfast, head for school and have my evaluation at 9:30 am. Wish me good luck!

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, architecture: Hovedbygget at NTNU Gløshaugen

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, architecture: Hovedbygget at NTNU Gløshaugen

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, architecture: Hovedbygget at NTNU Gløshaugen

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, architecture: Hovedbygget at NTNU Gløshaugen

Yesterdays assignment was to photograph four pictures of Hovedbygget at NTNU Gløshaugen. The building is in a gothic style and was finished in 1910 and was the first of many buildings at NTH (NTNU). The architecture is quite special, a hall about 40 meters tall makes up the main area and where one can move between the floors, get to the auditoriums and the library. There are also some offices at this old building. I believe the open space, arches and staircases was the main detail of the thoughts and ideas behind this building. A large window situated at the south end makes out the main light. When the sun is shining through them it makes up a spectacular scene on the opposite wall where the light falls. Unfortunately yesterdays weather was overcast and no sun.
My four pictures wants to tell the story how to move around the building, starting with a staircase leading up to the second floor. You can also move in the side halls as separate areas making out the main hall. I also wanted to show the main window at the south wall and give this cathedral-feeling with the arches in the ceiling and how the light was cast from the large window to the other side. I didn’t have wider angel than a 24mm, so the picture was maybe not as spectacular as I had hoped for. At last I wanted to show off the whole space of the hall by shooting an overview picture.

Evaluation in a few moments, hope the headmaster likes this collage.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Karoline Dilling Broks

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.

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, location: Hovedbygget på NTNU Gløshaugen

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, location: Hovedbygget på NTNU Gløshaugen

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, location: Hovedbygget på NTNU Gløshaugen

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, location: Hovedbygget på NTNU Gløshaugen

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, produktdesigner: Torhild Hove

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, produktdesigner: Torhild Hove

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, produktdesigner: Torhild Hove

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, produktdesigner: Torhild Hove

Jeg fotograferer andre ting en fashion og mote, det som stod på tapetet i går var produktfoto av salt- og pepperbøsser utviklet av Torhild Hove ved Produktdesign på NTNU Gløshaugen. Jeg ble kontaktet av henne etter kurset Sascha Njaa og jeg hadde for linjeforeningen Leonardo i Oktober 2010, hvor hun lurte på om jeg kunne ta produktbilder av de tre produktene hun hadde utviklet.

Oppsett

Lysoppsett - Produktfoto

Lysoppsettet var ganske enkelt og greit rett frem. Aluminiumsplate med svak kuv lyssatt med en oktaboks bakfra på blender f/16 og en strip-boks fra høyresiden for å få tegning i fronten med en varierende lysstyrke på fra f/8-16. I tillegg brukte jeg to sorte isoporplater på hver side av aluminiumsplata for å dra ut reflekser og skape litt hardere kontrast i kantene av produktene. På noen av bildene har jeg også brukt ei plate av hvit plexiglass for å reflektere inn litt mer lys og sort papp for å flagge ut strø-lys.

Erfaringer

Erfaringer jeg gjorde meg var at små motiver er vanskelig å flagge ut med store lyskilder. Å lyssette en pyramide med alle fire sidene er umulig med mindre man hever kamerastandpunktet. I denne sammenhengen skulle jeg fotografere en pyramideformet salt-bøsse som hadde en fått tuppen dratt ut til den ene siden. Stilig form, men hadde jeg fotografert den ovenfra hadde den jeg kanskje ikke fått med åpningen som jeg anså som en veldig viktig detalj på produktet. Dessuten ville bildet stå seg ut i fra resten av serien om jeg plutselig endra kamerastandpunktet høyere enn på de andre bildene.
Forslaget fra foreleseren i produktfotografering, Jan Christian Sørlie, fra Spot Foto, foreslo at jeg skulle gjøre om alle objektene til path og rekonstruere bildene som datagrafikk. Jeg slo i fra meg tanken ganske fort.

Foto: Bjørn Christiansen - Et produktbilde av en håndholdt støvsuger-modell

Foto: Bjørn Christiansen - Sascha Njaa forteller om forskjellige lyskvaliteter

I går hadde Sascha Njaa og jeg kurs for rundt 50 studenter fra Leonardo, linjeforeninga for Produktdesign på NTNU. Produktdesign handler mye om å utvikle modeller til alt fra hverdagsobjekter til litt mer spesifiserte gjøremål. Kurset var satt opp for at produktbildene studentene leverer til eksamensbesvarelsene sine skulle bli bedre og mer korrekte.
Vi delte opp kurset i tre bolker hvor vi først tok for oss kameratekniske ting, lukkerhastighet, blender, ISO og brennvidde. Den andre bolken var lysteori og lyskvaliteter og den siste bolken kjørte vi demonstrasjon av hvordan vi kunne lyssette solide objekter, som en håndholdt støvsuger-modell vi fikk låne, ei colaflaske og et glass.

Foto: Bjørn Christiansen og Sascha Njaa; Produktfoto

Foto: Bjørn Christiansen og Sascha Njaa; Produktfoto

Foto: Bjørn Christiansen og Sascha Njaa; Produktfoto

Foto: Bjørn Christiansen og Sascha Njaa; Produktfoto

Foto: Bjørn Christiansen og Sascha Njaa; Produktfoto

Foto: Bjørn Christiansen og Sascha Njaa; Produktfoto

Foto: Bjørn Christiansen og Sascha Njaa; Produktfoto

Foto: Bjørn Christiansen og Sascha Njaa; Produktfoto

I uke 42 skal Sascha Njaa og jeg holde kurs på NTNU for Produktdesign. Det blir et tre-timers kurs hvor vi lærer bort hvordan de kan lyssette modellene og prototypene de utvikler under studiet sitt. Fra Norsk Fotofagskole har vi hatt et kurs selv med Jan Christian Sørlie i stilleben og produktfotografering. Et kurs som for meg ikke falt helt i smak fordi jeg hovedsaklig liker å fotografere mennesker. På en annen side var det veldig flatterende å bli spurt om å holde kurs, så nå skal jeg gjøre det beste ut av det i samarbeid med Sascha.
Bildene i denne tråden er fra et opptak Sascha og jeg kjørte i gang for å ha noe materiale å vise til under kurset. Tre av produktene er modeller lagd av studenter på Produktdesign som vi fikk låne for å lyssette de på en skikkelig måte og på “feil” måter. Den seks-kantede sylinderen er en kaffetrakter med kopp, uten kopp, som minnet mer om en robot fra Starwars. Vi prøvde å lyssette den feil, men resultatet ble litt for bra til at det gikk som vi hadde håpet på.
En av utfordringene vi har i forbindelse med lyssettingen av produktene er at utstyret de har på NTNU Gløshaugen er kun én blits og én kvadratisk softboks i ca 40cm x 40cm. Ut i fra det har vi lyssatt de fleste av produktbildene ved hjelp av nesten samme utstyr. I tillegg har vi satt inn sorte og hvite isoporvegger for å få refleksjonene vi skal ha og brukt en aluminiumsplate som underlag. Vi har også tatt noen bilder hvor vi har brukt fler enn en blits bare for å vise hvordan man kan gjøre det hvis man har en ekstra blits.

Sannsynligvis det offisielle produktbildet av presskanna

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, modell: Marion Dyrvik Homlong

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, modell: Marion Dyrvik Homlong

Del fem av modelltestinga med Marion Dyrvik Homlong fotografert på Hovedbygget på NTNU Gløshaugen. Serien er gjort i forbindelse med TFP (Time For Prints) for Miss Norway og World Beauty Congress. Klær og accessories er plukket ut av Marion selv.

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, Ralfagsbygget på NTNU Gløshaugen

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, Ralfagsbygget på NTNU Gløshaugen

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, Ralfagsbygget på NTNU Gløshaugen

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, Ralfagsbygget på NTNU Gløshaugen

Forrige uke var jeg på Realfagsbygget, NTNU Gløshaugen og fotograferte arkitektur på storformat (Sinar F2). Tirsdag hadde vi gjennomgang av alle bildene hvor tilbakemeldingen var litt varierende, men ble jevnt over godkjent.
Noe kjedelig lys, men heldigvis snødde det ikke den dagen vi var på opptaket. Tror aldri jeg har opplevd snø i Mai, men denne uka var det litt vel ekstremt. Hadde jeg vært helt sikker på værmeldinga hadde det blitt en ekstra runde med storformaten for å få litt mer kontrast. Gjort er gjort og det er for sent å gjøre noe med det nå.

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, modell: Marie Folstad, stylist: Tina Larsen

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, modell: Marie Folstad, stylist: Tina Larsen

Dette er tredje del fra fashion-opptaket jeg gjorde for Tina Larsen fra H2-Akademiet i Trondheim. Inspirasjonen i bildene var hovedsaklig Tri orísky pro Popelku (Tre Nøtter til Askepott) og den veien, men på slutten av opptaket var både, modell, stylist/MUA, assistent og spesielt fotograf veldig slitne. Det resulterte i Heroin Chic-bilde i kjent Kate Moss-stil. Dessuten fikk vi skutt inn signatur-poseringen, som snart har blitt en standard for alt jeg gjør av opptak.

Dessuten våknet jeg opp til en utrolig varm omtale av Benedikte Bull i dag.

- Benedikte Bull

Ta gjerne turen innom hjemmesiden / bloggen for å se arbeidet til en fotografspire fra nord :)

Ellers å melde så er jeg inne i nest siste uke med arkitekturfotografering og det snør, snødde i morges. Det passer veldig dårlig for meg, og egentlig alle andre også, at det skal snø i starten av Mai med tanke på at jeg skal stå ute med et upraktisk stort storformat-kamera (4×5″) og ta bilder av Byåsen VGS. Man får vel bare bite i det sure eplet, det har jo tross alt blitt tatt bilder i dårlig vær før også.

Her er meg, ny sveis sist fredag ;)

Ha ei fin uke!