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Yet again I was hired to do some people portraits for the company detailkarriere.dk in Denmark. It's a basic lighting setup, with two SB-910 through a white umbrella on the left and a white reflector on the right. Exposure settings for both photos are: 1/60 sec, at f/8.0, ISO 100, 0EV, A Equipment: Nikon D800, AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G, Nikon SB-910,  PocketWizard Flex TT5, PocketWizard Mini TT1  and PocketWizard AC3. Highlights are well controlled with the help of the PocketWizards. In post I have added a bit more light to the male model, as I thought this suited him well.  The client and I have agreed that tonality doesn't have to be 100% identical for the six portrait photos I've made for this company. It is more important that the shooting angle, b/w settings and framing to enhance the models personality.

Nikon Coolpix A is my traveller companion. I don't bring my D800 anymore. Beside the tack sharp files straight out of the camera I'm impressed with its ability to hit the correct white balance each time and the color reproduction. The colors are just spot on - not too saturated our pale. Especially skin colors are realistic. The photo my beautiful wife Vivi is a good example of a "snap shot" I took at a train station. Exposure = 1/125 sec f/4.5, 0 EV, ISO 100. Bang - no sharpening or other correction (except Lens Correction) in Lightroom. If you are shooting D700, D600, D610, D800, D3 or D4. Buy a Nikon Coolpix A as your traveling companion. It is worth every dollar.

On the growing list of portrait photographer that I admire - the young an very talented Miller Mobley has just been added. The enclosed portrait og late Philip Seymour Hoffman is a good example of a composition and perfect light technique that emphasizes a unique personality and personal situation.

I love shooting portraits - both the kind where I have creative freedom and those where I have to stick to a certain look and feel. The two photos I will show here today belong to the latter category. Both photos are for online usage - company website, Linkedin profile etc. They needed to radiate seriousness and professionalism. The lighting set-up need to be simple and fast to mount. I was only given 1 hour to set-up, take the photos and dismantle, before they needed the meeting room. My lighting source was a single Elinchrom D-Lite 4 (400W) studio flash with an Elinchrom Portalite Square Soft Box (40 cm) controlled with the EL-Skyport Transmitter mounted in the hot shoe on my D800. Even though I only needed an upper body a head shot I chose to bounce the light into a nearby white wall to soften the light even more. The model was place so, that some natural window light lit them on their right side (left on the photo) and my single light source lit them on the left side. ...

Retouching a portrait always involve some dodging and burning during post processing. If you want to enhance facial form by the use of light and shadow, the "Dodge & Burn" on a 50% grey layer is very effective. The german photographer and Photoshop master - Calvin Hollywood - has made a tutorial where he demonstrates a fast method to achieve an automatic dodge & burn effect.

UPDATE: Here are the four portraits that the client chose for the home page (www.detailkarriere.dk) and their Facebook company page. The photos will soon show on those locations: Original post: At this job I had to shoot four people while they took a break from work. The set-up is similar to the one described in the previous blog post. The main light is two SB-910 shot through a white umbrella and a silver reflector acted as fill light. We shot against a white wall. I used a Nikon D800 with AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G. Post processing done in Lightroom 5 and Silver Efex Pro2. The total picture count was around 40. The shoot took 1 hour and post processing 2-3 hours. I delivered app. 25 photos for the first review. Four examples are shown here. Only a b/w version was ordered. This is not the final version. As soon as the client has selected the photos they want to use, I will align the tonality profile and format. I still have to improve my Lightroom workflo...

I'm finally returning to my blog after a while - nearly 6 month. There are several reasons for this, but let's not focus on trivia around securing an income - let's focus on the exiting process of creating portraits. Today I had the pleasure of photographing my good friend Finn Wichmann Lund , as he needed a straight forward business portrait for Linkedin and other "official" web pages / documents. I call this "Quick Portrait" as the set-up is really fast. I use two Nikon SB-910 attached to a Lastolite Professional A2412 Triflash bracket mounted on a Manfrotto 5001B Tripod. As a diffusor I use a standard shoot through white umbrella. On each Nikon SB-910 speedlight I attach a PocketWizard Flex TT5. On my Nikon D800 with AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 I mount a PocketWizard MiniTT1 and an AC3. To reflect some light back I use a Silver California Sunbouncer. The camera is in Aperture priority mode, ISO 100, f/7.1. I´m shooting against a white wall. The RAW fil...

I'm still a novice within portrait photography but I just loves making unique portraits of all kind of people. Working with young female models like Celine demands a completely different approach than working with male models. This was not supposed to be a dramatic portrait, so I chose to work with soft shadows and an Elinchrom Minisoft-44 beauty dish as main light and a Elicnhrom silver reflector 18 cm with grid from above right as a kicker to add highlight to the hair. I just love the light coming from a beauty dish. Look at her eyes. They just sparkle. All post processing was conducted in LR4. Nikon D800 with Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 1/100 sec at f/9.0, 0EV, ISO 100, 170mm

Yesterday was a busy day with three portrait shoots. It was a fantastic experience and we all had a blast doing what we love. My clients wanted a more traditional facial photo for their CV and online presence and my daughters  client wanted us to be creative with light and various posing expressions. I also had a chance to test a V-Flat proto type, that I'm developing with a partner. More information on this product will soon be available. We used a white seamless back drop and two Elinchrom studio lights (D-Lite 2/4). Five Elinchrom light shapers was in action: a square soft box, a strip soft box, a beauty dish, a silver reflector with grid and a silver reflector. Here are three photos from the session with Peter Johannesen. Do you need a new portrait photo for a CV or your on-line presence, then give me a call at +4540528090 or mail me at lars.kirstein 'at' me.com.

SOS International is the leading assistance organisation in the Nordic region. From their emergency centres in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, they provide acute personal assistance all over the world. My assignment today was to photograph four employees for an "New Employee Welcome folder" and take some photos from the HQ entrances showing their logo. The time slot was short, so I went for a simple set-up with one Nikon SB-910 powered with an additional Nikon SD-9 battery pack and mounted on a light stand with a white umbrella. The flash was angled 45 degrees to the left of the person. On the opposite side I placed another light stand with a California Sunbouncer mounted. The SB-910 was triggered with my trusted Pocket Wizard FlexTT5 and MiniTT1 . In addition I used a PocketWizard AC3 to control the flash output. I used a Nikon D800 with a Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. The client asked me to use a brick wall as back drop, which worked just fine. The s...

Portrait photography is a very rewarding discipline - especially when you succeed in capturing the personality of the model and can enhance it further in the post processing. Malene has very classic facial features and can look straight into the camera without seeing the camera. For this portrait I chose a "film noir" post processing style (using Nik Efex Pro). Camera: Nikon D800 with AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G. Light: Two Elinchrom D-Lite-it studio flash

Yet another of my former colleagues has asked me to create a couple of portraits to be used to update a Linkedin profile and other on-line existence. 

Your Linkedin profile need to be up-to-data and tailored towards "opening doors" for new opportunities. This also include your profile photo. The visual first impression is an extremely important element when your Linkedin profile are being viewed. My former colleague Peter Bausager - who is looking for a new job - decided that he needed a new portrait photo to be used on Linkedin, other on-line platforms and in his CV. If a portrait has to function well on platforms like Linkedin, the face has to fill the major part of the frame. I like to work with natural light and a fill flash, which enables me to work fast and still create some interesting shadows and a catch light. The back drop can be neutral or "busy" but need to be out of focus so it helps frame the face. I'm a fan of the 4:3 format and compose according to the "rule of third". Here is some examples from the shoot with Peter Bausager. If you are living in Denmark and would like me to sho...

One of my photographic passions are the edgy portrait. I'm still experimenting and far from ready to display my work in large scale (I also need more models). But from time to time I meet a person that is comfortable in from of a camera and then it is possible to capture something useful.  For this photo we were sitting a big a large meeting room where an abundance of natural light was radiating through the windows. But instead of using the natural light as the main light source I used it as a heavy back light source. I had no flash with me so to prevent Jan's face to become completely dark I increased the ISO to 12.500 and shot at 1/250 sec at f/8.0. Even with ISO 12.500 the digital noise was low (D800 rocks) and I used a vintage preset from NIC Silver Efe Pro 2 to twist the portrait in the edgy direction. My current photographic projet is capturing graffiti art on metal surfaces and combining then to a 3 x Triptych (Nine photos in total). Here is two candidates ...

How difficult can it be was my initial thought when I asked to photograph (I don't want to use the word "shoot") a baby. The mother Malene is a former colleague and I also know her husband Rasmus. It's a lovely family and they live on the country side in a small town just aside a corn field. Lot's of good natural light and a fairly spacious home. The day we had chosen for the event turned out to be one of the hottest days in Denmark ever recorded. And there was no wind. The sun was burning hot and bright from a clear sky, so I had to photograph indoors using my Elinchrom D-Lite lamps and a California Sunbounce. My assistent (my daughter) was a great help. As you can imaging we were all sweating a lot and the little newborn - Emma - was also not comfortable. In addition the D-Lite lamps produced additional heat. My equipment was a Nikon D800 with an AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. In close quarters like this I couldn't use the AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8. I used bot...

I'm writing an article on Nikon Speedlight SB-910 and hence has to experiment with it. Once again I persuaded my daughter to act as a model. As light modifier both the standard SB-910 diffuser and a white umbrella has been used. Straight out of camera and converted to b/w in LR4. The umbrella is very close to her face giving a wrapping soft light.

I'm writing a little book about how to use flash in photography. This also involves a lot of experimenting with different set-up - mostly simple set-up that all photographer on a budget can afford. My standard set-up is a Nikon D300 with a 50mm f/1.4 mounted on a tripod. On another tripod a SB-900 Speedlight  (the updated model is named SB-910) is mounted with the standard SB-900 diffuser on and an additional white umbrella. You can also use a SB-700 Speedlight . I can wireless tricker the SB-900 unit with Nikon's CLS (Creative Lighting System) and using the built in flash og the D300 as commander. But I have chosen to add a Pocket Wizard FlexTT5 to the SB-900 (Receiver) and a Pocket Wizard MiniTT1 (Transmitter) to the D300. On top of the PW MiniTT1 a PW AC3 is mounted (Light Power). In addition I have added a Nikon SD-9 battery pack enabling the SB-900 unit to recharge faster and extending the time the SB-900 unit can operate before battery depletion. This is a more exp...

What makes a good portrait? IMO it's a combination of three elements: A model that allows you to take a photo Good light Natural and blurred surroundings On purpose I didn't mention equipment as it can't be an excuse for making a bad photo. The same goes for the abilities of the photographer - they are constantly being developed as we grow as a photographer - by studying the masters, constantly practise and being able to receive critique without counter-arguments. How about a neutral color backdrop? I use them (white, black and grey) but I prefere to shoot a portrait with a backdrop that ads to the portrait without stealing the picture - so to say. Always carry a camera with you. Here we are dining at the IKEA store in Genova, Italy. My kids are sitting opposite me and it's a grey a rainy day, so the light coming from big windows to our right is just soft and perfect. The only thing I needed to add was some reflective light, but as I didn't ca...

I'm experimenting with complementary colors. My Nikon D300 WB is set for Kelvin 2700 (blue) and on a hand held SB-700 (TTL-cable SC-29) a full CTO color filter is mounted. The light is aimed at a white wall to the left of Camilla and hence reflected as very soft light on her face. I have only made very light adjustments in LR and find the resulting skin color very authentic.