BJØRN CHRISTIANSEN | Photographer

A few weeks ago I did a model test with actress Elise Strømberg Mærlie for Trend Models. Here are some mixed shots from the test, both natural lighting and a on camera speedlight flash unit. The model test was just a warm up for the shoot we had the day after, to see how Elise did in front of the camera. For a first-timer doing this type of work in front of a camera, I was quite satisfied. Gry Saether at Trend Models have already decided to represent Elise and is now listed under new faces on their web-page. She’ll probably to reach far with a little hard work.

This week I have had a few photo shoots portraying a wide aspect of different people, doing a business editorial / documentary for Orega and Norservice. The shots will be published in a advertising supplement in the local newspaper Adresseavisen later this month and is of kind of the same work I did last autumn, Editorial for Norservice. These type of jobs are quite different from the fashion work I do for i.e. RunwayPassport, in style, preparations and expression, but the similarities are much the same, meeting people and making them look as good as possible.

Another project I am currently working on is a short presentation for NTNUi-Langrenn, the university sports club for cross country skiing and their SL2013-competition in the town center last Saturday.

Today some of the photos I shot at a catwalk show at Solsiden in October, was published in Adresseavisen as an advertising insert.

I do have a lot of different ongoing projects, from photographing crying kids in kinder garden, high fashion in Denmark, magazine portraits more or less known people in Norway and stone bricks in private gardens. This weekend I shot a fashion show, “Dans oppå bordet”, at one of Trondheims many malls, Solsiden Senter where the mall showed of clothes and accessories from their various stores and some inspirational hair cuts that was done by the two hairdressers, OK Frisører A/S and Sjakk Matt Frisør. I can’t remember all the stores that were represented, but after some searching on the web I found the following; Namasté, BikBok, Dressmann, Vila, Høyer Solsiden, Chantal, Ilse Jackobsen and Match Man/Woman.
It was said that it was sixty models from both Trend Models and DP Models in addition to co-workers at the different stores walking down the catwalk that afternoon. Solsiden Senter had also asked Pia Haraldsen, a woman famous for …, to host their show. Guest artist Mugi Nhozi from Dropout Musical with dancers from Let’s Dance performed a rap / song from a musical soon to be played in Trondheim. As a grand finale Tore Johansen also sang a tune for us. For me he is best known as Gjertrud form The Julekalender.

Liked the Dropout Musical-tune? Found it on Vimeo

Photographing the backstage

Some technical stuff
Rumors has it that hair dressers, make-up artists and models started working at six o’clock Saturday morning, a bit to early even for me to start photographing. Showing up at half past nine there was still quite a lot of action in the make-up room with hair dressers doing some amazing big hair-styles. Both female and male models had their faces painted with make-up. The make-up- and hair-room had dark, brown walls, lit with dim, fluorescent light and had some big windows with daylight shining through on one side. Not the optimized conditions for a photographer wanting to work with available / natural lighting considering the two different color temperatures. In these conditions one should consider what is the main light falling on the subjects faces and adjust for that. If you have better time you can neutralize the either one of the two temperatures, but with the time aspect and amount of files the costumer wanted, I didn’t have time for that.
In the lounge area, the canteen for employees at Solsiden Senter, I found the most interesting situations where my subjects (models), were in the beginning a bit skeptical towards me running around with two fairly big cameras taking photos, but after a few hours got a bit more relaxed.
Speaking of equipment, I brought both my Nikon D700 and Nikon D800, the Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 and the Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VRII. The D700 I brought mainly because with a BL-4 battery I can have a decent FPS at the catwalk, the D800 in combination with the 35mm is what I mainly use whenever photographing whatever. The 35mm has a fairly big aperture in combination with decent quality at high ISO on the D800 I can shoot in low / poor light conditions but still preserving the details. It might be that I should have opened the aperture a third to a half of a stop more and shot at ISO640. Knowing my equipment colors in the higher range of ISO has a tendency to become quite strange. The telephoto is also great for shooting documentary, at a distance, if you don’t want your subjects knowing they are being photographed. And as I typed that last sentence I felt that I was leaning towards becoming a sleezy paparazzi photographer with dirty intentions. That’s not the fact, but if you want to photograph something happening without having to stage everything, a telephoto is a nice tool. You are also as a photographer quite far out of anyones comfort zone and they can carry on with whatever they do.

Photographinc the catwalk

I’ve been shooting fashion shows / catwalk for quite a while now. The first experience was for Runway Passport at Oslo Fashion Week where I learned that FPS combined with a decent wide aperture, fast auto focus, a telephoto lens with a stable platform was the best combination for getting the shots decent shots of the models. When it came to lighting that day, Solsiden Senter has huge rooftop windows letting daylight inside the shopping mall providing a lot of light in the open areas. This catwalk was built with the end of below the second floor giving the photographers some problems adjusting the exposure when the models were just at the end of the catwalk. I decided to have most of my shots taken in the open area and fire of some bursts with my D800 in the low light, overbuilt end of the catwalk. If you are for some reason shooting catwalk, a tip is to find out where the models stops and turns are. They are different from each show. If you are so lucky to get to talk to the choreographer he or she can tell you, but a main rule is to look at the first one or two models and figure out what their routines are.
Another tip is to figure out the exposure and white balance. You might consider being on the faster side of 1/125 seconds to get the sharpest images and an aperture around f/3.5 to f4 to isolate each models. If you trust your auto focus system you can always shoot at the widest aperture keeping in mind what unwanted effects in the photos that will give you, such as vignetting and not that sharp subjects. White balance is quite easy now days. A great tip is to set your camera in LiveView Mode, hit the WB-button and run through the temperature from 2500K to the highest kelvin using the LiveView screen to match the ambient light. If you are shooting runways that are lit by tungsten lighting you might also ask the light rigger, but mainly those lights are around 2750K.

Luckily the same show was set up two times that day, one at one show o’clock and one show at three o’clock. That gave me the opportunity to shoot the catwalk from two different angles getting the shots I didn’t get at the end of the catwalk. Getting some close ups of Pia Haraldsen, Mugi Nhozi and Tore Johansen.

The following gallery consists of all the shots I did this weekend from the fashion show.

Frequency in blogging have gone down by 100 percent, I am very sorry. From my Google Analytics-statistics I can see that I have lost a lot of followers the past three months because of this. I am not sure if I am capable to continue the frequency of new posts as I did before Christmas. Why? Well, I’ve got a job at an advertising agency, Centerteam Reklamebyrå A/S as a photographer assistant and I haven’t really found time to write about ongoing private projects, but fear not, I am doing a lot of fashion photography in addition to products and editorial stuff I do at work.

In February I covered Oslo Fashion Week (A/W 2012) for Runway Passport doing both runway / catwalk and backstage documentary. My campaign for Dronning Mauds Minne Høgskole have been running at both cinemas in Trondheim and billboards around town.

So, what is this youtube/vimeo-video about? Since it was Easter and I had some time off to do private projects, Charite Viken, who I did a music video for in January, and I brought some camera equipment on location and did this little piece mainly just for fun and experimentation shooting moving pictures with a DSLR.
Roomer has it that moving pictures are the thing of the future and I will not be stuck in the past. I like working with new technology and I will not be left behind. I am trying to find my style and find out how the technology works and how I will get the best results that I am looking for. I have received a lot of criticism that both this and my last video with Charite lacked of storytelling and I must agree. There is this third dimension, time, that is more prominent in motion photography than in still pictures and each clip as a in pictures need to tell a story. The discussion for me is more about me to take my criticism and do something with it, or continue as a mere photograph and film pretty and interesting clips based more on composition and detail. My trend is pointing in the direction that I want to do just that, planning the small clips instead of putting together a coherent story and instead let the sound and finish the connecting link.
Regarding the soundtracks for the movies I produce, I can see that there is a violation of copyright law to pick pieces of music artists and bands to use in my videos. I’m just as unhappy when someone tampers with the images I shoot. I can only apologize to all those I have stolen music from and going to steal music, but the reason is that you make so damn good music and it that helps me to set the mood for my moving photos . I have done and will always put the band and artist that plays the sound and the song is taken from.
Enjoy my little moving picture with Charite Viken as main actress and model. If you like the tune, listen to the full length at Spotify.

Past video projects

Charite – In My Head (Official Promo)

Behind the Scenes with Ane Aspén

Carina Velva (Trend Models) – Huldra

Moesgård & Bellevue – A Fashion Story

The last show on Oslo Fashion Week A/W 2012 the Danish designers from Samsøe Samsøe. Photographed for Runway Passport.

Shoes from Helene Westbye at Oslo Fashion Week, shot for Runway Passport.

Line of Oslo at Oslo Fashion Week A/W 2012. Photographing for Runway Passport.

The Norwegian designer Kristine Vikse at Oslo Fashion Week. Photos are shot for Runway Passport

The Cool Project 2012 at Oslo Fashion Week, shot for Runway Passport.

The designer Kristine Vikse showing off her MeMini Collection on Oslo Fashion Week A/W 2012. Photos are shot for Runway Passport

RunwayPassport:

RP: WHAT IS THE MOST EXCITING PART OF BEING A DESIGNER?
MLS: That I am a part of how society reacts to first impressions. Many people don’t think that designers have an important job, but if you think about it we’re the ones who decide what you’re wearing to a first date, how soccer-players uniforms should look like, if your outfit to the job interview helps you land the job etc. If there were no designers, there would be no clothes, no style, no fit, no trends, and no stores. Clothes are such a huge part of a person’s life, either if it is for pleasure, business or necessity.

Today RunwayPassport published a story on the designer Magnhild Sundland and the photos I shot for her in August. Head over to RunwayPassport and read the whole interview!

Bilder fra visningen til Daniel Franck på Sukkerbiten utenfor Den Norske Opera under Oslo Fashion Week høsten 2010. En litt spesiell catwalk bygd på stillas og pyroteknikk i front gjorde at det var relativt vanskelige fotoforhold. Det gjorde det ikke bedre at fotografene og videofolka fra MCM, ca 15 av oss, ble plassert på et 2×4 meter stort og ustabilt stillas. Visninga var i tillegg til regn også forsinket i godt og vel en halvtime. Kul styling på modellene i hvert fall.

Den nye, norske klesdesignerens, Linn Renée Blegeberg, kleskolleksjon, S/S 11, på Oslo Fashion Week høsten 2010.

 

Her er siste del av fashion-serien jeg skøyt med Unni Lund Olsen i sommer. Hår og sminke er gjort av Tina Larsen og assistenten min var Sascha Njaa.

Her er bildene av Unni Lund Olsen fra mitt Maike Ludenbach-inspirerte fashion-opptak. Stylist, hår og make-up er Tina Larsen. Opptaket er gjort på Lademoen i naturlig og reflektert lys.
Snart er jeg på mot tigerstaden og Oslo Fashion Week for å fotografere catwalk / runway for Runway Passport. Turen ned går sammen med Sascha Njaa, Tina Larsen og ei venninne av henne. Følg med på bloggen min for litt oppdateringer fra Oslo Fashion Week og ny, norsk mote.