Foto | Indsigt | Synspunkt

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.

You don't have to travel far to find amazing photographic opportunities. Close to where I live (Lyngby near Copenhagen) we have small streams with slow clean water. Time is in a capsule here. I just love to find beauty in the nature that surrounds me. As we don't have mountains and valleys I have to zoom in on the grandness of the ordinary.

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...

The first image in a series of black & white photos where mother nature plays the main role. Capture details: Nikon D800 with AF-S 14-24 f/2.8G Exposure of 1/125 sec at f/4.0, 0EV, ISO 100 Post processed in Lightroom, CS6 and Silver Efex Pro 2

Coolpix A, 1/800 sec at f/7.1, 0EV, ISO 100, A Coolpix A, 1/640 sec at f/7.1, 0EV, ISO 100, A Coolpix A, 1/400 sec at f/9.0, 0EV, ISO 100, A Coolpix A, 1/640 sec at f/9.0, 0EV, ISO 100, A Enclosed four photos taken with the new Nikon Coolpix A - DX format camera. I'm very impressed with the level of details and the dynamic range that this camera can capture. Above photos has been through a post process in LR4, but that is also what we expect to be able to do with large RAW-files from the DX-sensor with no low pass filter.

D800 with AF-S 24-70mm, 1/80 sec at f/6.3, ISO 100, 0EV, 56mm Even on a cloudy day it's possible to find strong black & white photographic subjects - especially because the sky serves a a great softbox. When you go for a walk and bring you camera, try to look down! An amazing array of interesting subjects and pattern emerges right in front of you. Here I found an array of stone fragments and leafs that created a interesting pattern - very suitable for a black & white representation. I hope you agree. The photo was prepared in Lightroom and then converted to B&W in Silver Efex Pro 2.0.

D800 with AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8: 1/80 sec af f/4.5, 0 EV, ISO 200, 28mm OMG - I have not posted on my blog for over a month. Starting up in a new position as CEO for Danimex Communication is occupying the main part of my waking hours. I'm spending my time between three homes - my work home in Sønderborg , my week-end home in Lyngby and my holiday home near Acqui Terme in Piedmont, Italy.  In between I'm traveling to interested places - Sorrento , Italy - Dubai , UAE - Johannesburg , South Africa - in March alone. It's a good time to get engulfed in my hobby - photography. D800 with AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8: 1/125 sec af f/7.1, 0 EV, ISO 400, 66mm The photos here are not a visual metaphor representing my three homes :-) Not far from my home in Italy the old porous layers of compressed clay, limestone, chalk and other elements are visible just along side the old dirt road. Black and white is the best way to capture this display of natures fragility. D800 with AF-...

The Nikon D800 is an amazing camera. Coupled with the equal as amazing AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G and  a travel tripod Velbon UT-43Q I took this early evening shot from a balcony from our ski apartment in the beautiful ski resort city Bad Gastein . Equipment: Nikon D800 with AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G Exposure: 30 sec at f/13, 0 EV, ISO 100, 24mm - (file size: 39MB)

It has been a while since my last post. The reason is that I have started as CEO at Danimex Communication A/S in the wonderful city Sønderborg (where I was born). Last week a small delegation from our company visited the Italian city Sorrento to participate in a "Executive Partner Conference" by Motorola. Visiting Sorrento was a first for me and unfortunately there was not time during our 3 day stay to conduct a photo walk. More or less the only photo I managed was this shot from my hotel balcony, where I had a direct view across the Bay of Naples to the Mount Vesuvius . Equipment: Nikon D3200 with AF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED Exposure: 1/400 sec at f/7.1, 0 EV, ISO 100, 80mm - (file size: 15MB)

My wife and daughter read their fair share of magazines and hence are exposed to many commercial featuring beautiful women and men promoting stuff that we need to buy to become happy. As my daughter is setting her sight on becoming a professional photographer we often discuss the commercials from a photographic perspective. The models are an illusion created to please our brain an create a stop effect. In real life they are still beautiful people, but in the adds they have undergone a transformation towards the unattainable ideal of a human being. You won't believe what can be done on the photo retouching process. Sometimes it is gentle and subtle changes underlining the already existing beauty. But sometimes it is deep and transformative changes, that creates another person. I'm not a fan of the latter, but can accept minor retouching to enhance what is already there. Let me give an example. In January I had the pleasure of working together with an new model with a very ...

Twitter is a fabulous social media giving me access to a wast amount of interesting people and topics related to photography. Lately though I've been unsubscribing a lot to focus on a selected few twitters who doesn't spam their twitter feed and who distributes interesting insight and knowledge through links or own work. @thomashawk posted a twit with the following head line "Husband takes bird's-eye view photos of his naked wife" and a link to a New Zealand based photographer by the name John Crawford . Of course this headline caught my attention :-) - but it also lead me to a great photographer, who has been around for many years.  The set Arial Photos  was made in the good old analogue days, and the sheer effort it must have taken to orchestrate one photo is impressive by all standards.  John Crawford states that his aim is to capture images that have a high degree of interest and contrast,don’t look too technical, and are easy to look at an...

Fantastic TED talk by author Elizabeth Gilbert about the spiritual source of creativity shaping a genius.

After 10 months pondering about the effect of the global recession on the domestic job market, I'm finally back in the game. January 2nd 2013 I'll start as CEO at Danimex Communication A/S in the wonderful city of Sønderborg (where I'm born). I'm really exited about this challenge. Danimex has tapped into a market with a huge global growth potential - whether it revolves around delivering a single satellite phone for an arctic expedition oran entire wireless infrastructure for a developing country. While walking with my dog Lucca I passed this lonely leaf coming to life as the early morning sunlight radiates through it. I feel the same way.

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.

This is a digital representation of the analogue film Ilford Delta Pro 400 . Thanks to Nic Silver Efex Pro 2 it is possible to emulate old film types. Old tree's have a fantastic surface when its bark gets old, broken and weathered - perfect for b/w interpretation. In this photo I chose to underexpose a few stops to emphasize the structure and the triangular shape.

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

Viggo Rivad is one of the most significant Danish photographers and this summer he turned 90. My daughter and I visited the "Nivaagårds Malerisamling" museum, where a special exhibition of Viggo Rivad's photographs are on display until Januar 2013. Black and white film has always been Viggo Rivad's preferred platform and one of his many life long themes was documenting the life on the bottom of the society. But among the exhibited themes you will also find photographs from his many trips and portraits of artists like Viggo - true masters of their craft.