Before the big day Aniko and Olaf wanted to have a killer save the date shoot. The creative mind came from Aniko herself. As a photographer I had to manouvre myself above the couple on a ladder, which was kind of exciting. I was pleased with the result and happy to hear the picture was going to be published in a big bride and groom magazine called 'Bruid en Bruidegom', third edition 2014. Check out the original and published picture below. I can call this the first original publication of my work in a magazine.

Technical information: Nikon D7100, Nikon AF-S 50mm F/1.4G, Nikon AF-S DX 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR.


Aniko is an event stylist herself. Check out here website: www.instyleido.com

A great collaboration with a very talented artist Michiel Kuijper I was pleased to visit this great exhibition. Michiel is an upcoming drawer who mainly draws with pencils, charcoal and drybrush. His work reflects a great passion of his. It was a day of inspiration and I had a lot of fun working with him. Enjoy my short coverage of his part of the exhibition.

Technical information: Nikon D7100, Nikon AF-S 50mm F/1.4G.

For more work from Michiel Kuijper visit his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michiel-Art-Works/171138799703377

Introduction
This create this effect is one of the fun techniques to combine when doing long exposure (night)shots. There are a lot of tutorials out there explaining this technique. In this tutorial I will try to give you some practical tips how to execute this technique. The written advice is what works for my. If you have any thoughts or suggestions feel free to comment. 

Equipment
- Sturdy tripod: this technique is hard to execute without a good and strurdy tripod. I've tried it earlier shooting without a tripod, but this is only possible with relatively faster shutterspeeds and by moving the camera rather to zoom in/out. See my example here: http://www.photostudiort.com/1/post/2014/01/the-zoom-effect.html
- Remote shutter: use a wired of wireless remote shutter to minimize camera movement. 
- Battery life: speaks for itself, especially when doing long exposure nightshots. If you use an extra battery grip use this. This is my own experience. This technique is so addictive and fun that you forget all about battery life. You just go on and on to get the picture right.

Settings
- Manual mode: make sure you have full control of the situation.
- ISO: as low as possible. Most cameras have ISO 100 as lowest level. Make sure AUTO-ISO is turned off. Using lower ISO reduces noise levels, especially with long exposures.
- Lens: obviously you need a zoom lens to do a zoom effect! Try to use the widest lens you have with the largest range. This will give the maximal effect to the zoom.
- Turn of any VR (Vibration Reduction) on your lens.

Execution
- Shoot in a clear night situation.
- Isolate and center a subject with a lot of light in it or around it: think of buildings, bridges, etc.
- Leave at least 50% empty space (darkness of the air, water, etc.) around the subject.
- Find the optimal exposure time and Aperture. I prefer Apertures between F/8 and F/16. Lower could give less sharpness, higher causes diffraction.
- Focus on the subject automatically, then turn the switch to Manual Focus.
- Once released the shutter, zoom in after reached 2/3 of the exposure time as even as possible. Try to do this with minimal camera movement to get straight lines.

Example: assume F/8, 15 sec, ISO 100 will give the optimal light. After released the shutter, you wait 10 sec. After 10 sec., you start to zoom in from lets say 18mm to 55mm in the remaining 5 sec. Try to execute the zoom in even movement all the way.

Post-processing
This is nothing special. Just use your usual long exposure presets. I like to use higher contrast and saturation levels to emphasize the light beams.

I hope you have fun trying this technique. If you have any questions or want to add something please feel free to comment. 

After being part of the opening of the exhibition "In the course of time" I was asked to photograph the actual  paintings from Behrouz Naghipour. It was technically challenging to photograph a still life that is flat, but still has a lot of structures. The structures combined with the colours tell the actual story. If the camera is not positioned right or the right angle chosen, it will give an unrealistic and flat look. I choose to use a tripod and positioned an off camera flash (Nikon SB-700) slightly high on the right of the paintings. Natural light was coming in from the left. A wired shutter release in combination of the MUP (Mirror Up) function on the camera were used to minimize camera movement. The whole session of paintings are shown below.

Technical information: Nikon D7100, Nikon AF-S 50mm F/1.4G, SB-700 Flash. Shot at f/8 ad ISO 250.

My coverage of the Opening 'In the course of time' is found here.

Post-processing
When you get back with 5-20 RAW files it’s time to do the stacking. This means you’ll have to stack all these images on top of each other. I’m not going to compare Lightroom and Photoshop here, but both basically will do the same.
The first step is to open the frames in separate layers in your software-program.
The second step is to set the opacity for each layer in a strict order. The formula you use for this: opacity = 100 x (1/(L+1)), where L stands for number of layers below the current layer.
The layer on the bottom gets a 100% opacity. The opacity of the layers above it are set by the formula, where you could choose to round up or down the numbers.
I’ve calculated the opacity of the first 20 layers for you, rounding down the numbers:

Layer #                Opacity

20                          5%
19                          5%
18                          6%
17                          6%
16                          6%
15                          7%
14                          7%
13                          8%
12                          8%
11                          9%
10                          10%
9                            11%
8                            12%
7                            14%
6                            17%
5                            20%
4                            25%
3                            33%
2                            50%
1                            100%

 Once you’ve done this you’ll see a faked ND-filter effect. Because you’ve used these short exposure times (relatively to longer exposure times with filters) you’ll see almost no noise and absolutely no hotspots.
This technique takes time to get used to. Also the post-processing is more extensive. But once you master it, it’s quite fun to do.

So these guys were out to make some spectacular jumps. I just happen to be there and freezed some great heights.  Hope you enjoy my B&W impression.

Technical information: Nikon D7100, Nikon AF-S 50mm F/1.4G.

This is a new technique I've been trying lately, the "Zoom effect". Basically the trick is to zoom in while taking a picture. In this case I had a prime lens (105mm), so I just moved my camera forwards after pushing the button. Sounds easy, but takes a little practice to get it right and create a magical and intriguing scenery.

Technical information: Nikon D7100, Nikon AF-S 105mm F/2.8G iF ED VR Micro, 1 sec., f/20, ISO 100, no tripod.

This is my second session of model photography. This time with the lovely Sarah. This photoshoot has been performed in my homemade studio with one external flash. 
Technical information: Nikon D7100, Nikon AF-S 50mm F/1.4G, Nikon AF-S 70-200mm F/4.0G ED VR, Nikon SB-700 Flash.

I'm glad to welcome you to my photography website! In this section I'll be posting my newly added photos, news and photography related links. Feel free to look around in my full portfolio. You can also leave comments of messages via my Contact page. Don't forget to visit my Facebook and Flickr page. Enjoy your ride!

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