Inspiration or theft?

My wife's aunt was a great cook before she was taken away by Alzheimer's. Even though she was constantly competing with the other society wives, she would always readily give away her recipes. She used to say that the course would taste differently when prepared by someone else - and what she didn't say was that she never served the same dish to the same person twice.

Being a portrait photographer, I am constantly inspired by the masters: Avedon, Penn, Karsh, Lando and all the others, and being an amateur I am not ashamed to steal from them. And I never try to hide it, in fact I try to get as close as possible to the inspiration.

Take a look for instance at this picture of Karoline, inspired by Irving Penn's picture of Marlene Dietrich from 1948:

When I was commisioned to picture Karoline, this picture came to mind immediately because the composition signals stamina and strength while still being dynamic. Karoline has recently gone through a phase of her life where those characteristics were vital, so there was no doubt in my mind we should try this setup. Luckily Karoline was willing to play along.

I am rather fond of this picture, in part because of the similarities to Penn's, but also because of the little extras which made their way into mine: the zipper on the buttock and the little bright triangle between the arm, the body and the the thigh have their own little stories to tell, confirming auntie's saying, that despite the recipe being the same, the dish will taste differently.

Portrait with a white background, Nenad

Nenad came by to get a new portrait for his CV. Since the technique for creating a clipped white background is not universally known, I recorded how I went about it.

Clipping happens in digital photography, as there is a finite number of tones from all white to all black. At a certain exposure, white will not get any whiter, regardless how much more light you add.

But first the result:


Four strobes at 300 Ws each lights this portrait. Two brolly boxes light the background, main is a 180 cm reflective umbrella and fill is from an 80x120 cm softbox. I did not measure the lights but recorded the settings: the background lights were max - 2.2 stops (~60 Ws), main was max - 5.5 stops (~7 Ws) and fill was max - 6.5 stops (~4 Ws).

I decided I wanted a deep DoF for this picture, so I set out to expose it around f/8. I then adjusted the background lights to clipping + 0.3 stop using the blinkies on the lcd, adjusted the main to give a proper exposure and the fill appropriately lower, all set using the lcd. After fiddling a bit with the lights, I ended with an exposure of f/9. I placed Nenad ~2.5 m from the background to have as little bleed from the background as possible. The width of the background (1.8 m) and the length of the studio (my living room - 7 m) are the limits I worked within.

The picture is cropped to 1:1 keeping the original height and cropping the sides. After converting to B&W I added some contrast. Apart from that, no post processing was applied.

The worst pitfall in a setup like this is the background bleeding unto the motive. This happens if the background throws so much light on the contours of the subject, that they also turn white. This is fine for creating a dreamy, romantic picture, but was not wanted here.

I am not so proud of the reflections in his glasses, there should be none. There are different techniques to avoid them, but obviously I don't master either of them satisfactory. More work, more to learn.

Apart from that, I'm quite satisfied with the lighting. I call it "Nordic Cool", because I think it is an example of the simple, yet carefully crafted design, typical of the nordic countries. And then I think it looks cool too.

Nenad claims that this is a rare occasion of his genuine smile being caught in a portrait. After having spent a lot of space on the left-hemisphere considerations above, I am proud that the right hemisphere of my brain also contributed to this portrait.

And I am of course thankful to Nenad for trusting me and patiently sitting for me.

Welcome to my Photograpy Blog

After a long hiatus I have decided to revive this blog, but now with photographic content and in English. For a couple of years I have participated heavily on the DPReview forums, but on my blog I will direct my attention to more coherent thoughts on photography in general and portrait photography in particular.

The ideal is David Hobby and his Strobist Blog, but less will have to do, obviously.