Category Archives: For Photographers

July 1, 2010

finding your voice

I’ve always loved singing. When I was a boy I was a boy soprano [insert nervous mocking laughter here], my clear crisp voice would turn heads wherever I went. When puberty hit and my voice broke I was suddenly lost. I wanted to sound like Bono and tried my hardest to sing exactly like him. I couldn’t really, my voice had turned into a deep bass and Bono’s high tenor was out of my reach.

But boy did I try.

If you’ve got the skills you can copy anything, make it sound almost like the original as long as you don’t push it too far.

So I did.

It took me years to be comfortable with the sound of my voice. It didn’t sound at all like Bono’s, but if I covered it up, I could make it sound almost similar.

Then one day I picked up my guitar and started singing some lyrics I had written the night before. I tried my faux Bono, but it felt wrong. After a while I started singing with my own voice and all of a sudden everything fell in place. All the nuances I had missed trying to sound like mr Paul David Hewson finally bubbled up to the surface. I was using my voice the way it was meant to be used and all of a sudden I had a whole new range to play with. My voice was different, but it was my voice and it was more honest than anything I had ever tried to copy.

I had found my voice.

So why am I telling you this?

Well, I’m sitting here in a hotel room in Madrid. I’m on a whirlwind tour around the world and I get questions all the time about how I edit my images or why I compose images the way I do. People want to get under my skin and even though I find it absolutely ludicrous, I do understand the urge to sound like someone else.

But do you know what?

It’s absolutely ok to do so, but it’s not until you start trusting your own voice you’ll reach your full potential.

It’s as simple as that.

Don’t be a copy, you’ll end up being  a Jasmine Star Light, a [p]ecker or Shit Sean Flanigan.

Be you.

For Photographers

by Jonas

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February 16, 2010

ask me anything

I get quite a few questions regarding my photography; what gear I use, settings, if I prefer to shoot RAW or jpeg etc, etc. I’m more than happy to help out. For that reason I started answering questions here a while back. I have now answered some 500 questions, so if you’re interested in what I do and how I do it, chances are you’ll find it answered there. If not, please ask me your question and I will try and answer it.

For Photographers

by Jonas

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February 11, 2010

alley shot

When I was approached by a friend of Jacqui’s, asking me if I could shoot some promotional photos for a local dance/club artist, my immediate reaction was no. No, no, no. I told him I don’t have the experience or the lighting equipment to pull something like that off. But he persisted. And then I started thinking about it. I went through the gear I have and figured, yeah, maybe I can do it. If I keep it simple. I’ve never done any composites or hardly even used my flash off camera, but hey, how hard can it be?

I’d read tutorials online on how to do it and I knew roughly how to pull it off.

I also knew I wanted some sort of film poster look to it. A bit gritty, but still a simple setup. I didn’t need the hassle of working some kind of idea into a shot I’d never even tried shooting before. The post processing in photoshop took less than 30 minutes and I think the end result looks pretty good for a club act. If you know PS, all I’ve done is use layer masks and then some cloning to clean up around the place. The cross processing is Nik Color Efex Pro. It’s not what I’d normally shoot, or even how I’d edit it, but there’s nothing like stepping out of your comfort zone to keep you on your toes.

I’ve put together a small making of, just to show you it’s not that hard to do.

As an experiment it was quite fun.

This is the gear I used.

Canon 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24mm 1.4L
2 Pocket Wizards
Canon 580 EX II  (bare flash)

The flash was on a monopod which Jacqui held at different angles, the camera was on a tripod. The final shot is a composite of three shots where the artist and back-ups were lit by a single bare flash in each one. If you have any questions, shoot away. I’m no Zack Arias, but it was fun to see I could actually do it. I hardly edit my wedding images at all, so this was something completely new. It was nice to get out and shoot using ideas and equipment I know little about. I don’t think I’ll use much of this for my wedding work, but now I know off camera flash is nothing to be too scared of.

I know this shot could have been shot better, but still.

If I can do this, you can.

You can view the final shot large here.

For Photographers

by Jonas

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December 17, 2009

New section

Since I now have decided to blog more, I may as well add a section. I get a lot of questions about photography, gear and post processing. I try and answer most of them, but sometimes I’m just too busy, so I apologize if your question hasn’t been answered. If you have any questions regarding gear, processing, techniques or similar, please post them in the comments. I will try and answer as many as possible in an upcoming post. Ok?

twofaces

For Photographers

by Jonas

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