Photoshop-tip: putting type on a path

I wanted to credit photographer Michael Schnabl for this picture he took of me. The image is being used in the Visual Storytelling Conference, where you’ll be able to watch choose from over 80 hours of tutorials that are being broadcast live between May 15 and May 17. You can read more about the conference in this blog post.

But… How do you put type on a path? You’ll find the answer in this video tutorial below. Want to see more tutorials and training like this? Then make sure to register for the Visual Storytelling Conference.

The Visual Storytelling Conference

Register for free for the Visual Storytelling Conference

If you’re interested in visual storytelling by means of photography or videography, then the online Visual Storytelling Conference is THE place to be from May 14 to May 17.

The most important part of the Visual Storytelling Conference is a live 'virtual summit' that takes place from Saturday, May 15 until Monday, May 17. There are keynotes by National Geographic photographer Mike Libecki and internationally acclaimed landscape and cityscape photographer Elia Locardi. Furthermore, there are two parallel tracks that offer various one hour lectures about the creative, practical and even business aspects of photography and videography.

The entire three-day summit can be watched live for free: simply register with this link. That’s where you’ll also find the entire schedule and a list of all the speakers.

I’m honoured to have been asked to do two talks: one about flash photography and another about Local Adjustments in Lightroom.

A weekend with the Fujifilm GFX100S and the GF80

Just before its launch, my fellow Fujfilm Belgium ambassadors Tom Museeuw and Pieter D’Hoop and myself, got our hands on the GFX100S and the GF80 f/1.7 lens. We were followed by a camera crew who documented our endeavours and turned them into three five-minute video impressions. For English subtitles, click on the CC icon in the video player.

If you want to see more of our work, then follow us on Instagram

• Follow Tom Museeuw on Instagram

• Follow Pieter D’Hoop on Instagram

• Follow Piet Van den Eynde on Instagram

A Lovegrove portrait deconstructed - part 3

This is the third and last part in a series of guest posts by my good friend and lighting wizard Damien Lovegrove, in which he deconstructs a couple of his favourite images. If you find these posts inspiring, then make sure to register for next week’s two-part live online lecture, ‘Lovegrove Portraits Deconstructed, part III & IV’. Until January 21, there’s a 40% early bird discount and you also receive a downloadable recording of both sessions to rewatch at any time you want. So even if the date does not suit you to watch the event live, you’ll still have the recording. Below is what you can expect:

Damien goes Wild (West)

I took this shot using a 250mm telephoto lens at f/4 in the baking hot desert wilderness near Paige in the USA. I lit Yesenia from the right with a Godox AD600 fitted with a 18cm reflector and was happy to find the flash trigger worked at the 100m range. I placed a walkie talkie on the ground behind the rock where Yesenia is standing so I could give direction from the camera position.

I also used a Godox AD600 with a 18cm reflector for this shot of Claire in Monument Valley. In both of these shots I rigged the flash directly opposite the sun and used it on full power. I love how f/4 renders the background beautifully out of focus yet supporting the narrative of this ‘follow me’ shot.

Damien has been using the Fujifilm GFX system for almost all his images from the past years, so if you’re interested in investing in one of the GFX camera’s, you’ll get a great idea of what they’re capable of.

A Lovegrove portrait deconstructed - part 2

This is the second part in a series of three guest posts in which my good friend and lighting wizard Damien Lovegrove deconstructs a number of his favourite images. If you find these blog posts inspiring, then make sure to sign up for next week’s two-part live online lecture, ‘Lovegrove Portraits Deconstructed, part III & IV’ that takes place on January 26 and 28, from 7 to 9 PM GMT. During those sessions, you’ll see and hear a lot more inspiring images and tips like these. Until January 21, you save 40 percent on the joint ticket price and pay only €30 for both sessions. Furthermore, every participant will receive a downloadable recording, so you can watch the sessions again as many times as you like, where you like and when you like! So even if you can’t make it to the live show, it’s still a good idea to book a spot!

The double exposure technique for when you can’t hide your light stand

Martina in an interesting location about an hour from Rome. Damien shot this on his 2020 road trip between the lockdowns.

Sometimes I struggle to get the flash where I need it in the shot without it being in the frame, so I use a double exposure technique. I always use a tripod for my camera so this technique is a piece of cake for me. I place the light where it needs to be and capture my moment. Once I have the energy and pose that I need I shoot my master frame. Then without moving the camera, I derive the light and shoot a frame without the flash using the same exposure settings. I then join the two shots in post production. The modifier you see in the shot is the Scatterflash which I also mentioned in the previous blog post.

Urbex with Martina

For this shot of Martina taken at an abandoned sugar factory in Italy also used a double exposure technique. This time though I used the more powerful Godox AD1200 Pro (editor’s note: here you can see Piet using the AD1200 Pro in Brussels) and a 70cm soft box and grid. Once I had the principal shot I took another without the flash and combined them.

You will notice that the sun is coming from a different direction to my flash light and this is quite deliberate. I had no intention of trying to make this shot look realistic. It is a stylised fashionable shot inspired by music album covers of the 1970s.

All these images were shot with a Fujifilm GFX 50S.

A Lovegrove Portrait Deconstructed

This is the first in a series of three guest posts by my good friend and lighting wizard Damien Lovegrove, in which he ‘deconstructs’ a series of his favourite shots. If you’d like to see and hear almost four hours’ worth of composition, posing and lighting tips and techniques like these, then sign up for the two-part inspirational live online lecture ‘Lovegrove Portraits Deconstructed, part III & IV’. Save 40% on your ticket until January 21st.

Working with a central composition

I took this simple shot of Amelia in Switzerland between lockdowns last year. I chose a very central composition when I rigged my tripod. I was unsure about the patch of sunlight on the floor but I really wanted the boarded up window and sloping cobblestones to feature prominently.

I then placed a Godox AD200 high on a stand just out of shot on the right. It was rigged almost touching the wall and was fitted with a Scatterflash attachment. This gave the dappled look that I love so much.

I did a test exposure and settled on ¼ power for the flash and then I invited Amelia to come into the shot. I like to get all the faffing done before I introduce my subject otherwise they get bored.

Shooting 90 degrees to the light

I used the same set up here for this shot of Kate taken in Poland in May 2020. I rigged my Godox AD200 high on a stand at 90° to the camera and scooted the light down the wall. A Scatterflash attachment completed the look.

When I asked Kate to take up her place on the steps I was keen to ensure that I have the ‘Hollywood triangle’ of light on her left cheek. 

I gave the finished image a bit of a ‘look’ in Lightroom using a LUT.

In this Set.A.Light 3D setup I simulated the lighting from above. The Scatterflash is not in the tools in Set.A.Light, but I simulated the effect by using a gobo. You can see that the camera and the light are at an angle of ninety degrees to each other and that the model looks about halfway between the two, so that you get the beautiful Rembrandt triangle.

All images shot with a Fujifilm GFX 50S.

Godox AD1200 Pro and AD300 Pro Location Shoot

A few weeks ago, I had my first post-Corona shoot. With how things are looking Corona-wise, it may very well have been my last shoot for a while, too. The aim was to test the new Godox AD300 Pro and AD1200 Pro and make a video about it for Disnet, the Benelux importer of Godox and other cool lighting gear such as SMDV. After months of inactivity, I was quite nervous. I had arranged – thanks Bruno! – to meet up near the Brussels Congress Column with Nabil and Shana, two dancers from Brussels. Below you can see the flashes - and the dancers - in action in the behind-the-scenes video that photographer and filmmaker Bruno Maes made. The camera I used was my trusted GFX 100.

AD1200 Pro

What can I say? This thing is a monster! Even after four hours of shooting, the battery was still at two thirds! The fact that you have 1200 Ws at your fingertips gives you an incredible amount of creative freedom. Below you will find the main specifications of this powerhouse.

• 5 groups & 32 channels

• High Speed Sync support up to 1 / 8000th of a second

• Optical slave modes

• Normal color temperature mode: 5600 K ± 200 K

• Stable color temperature mode: 5600 K ± 75 ° K

• Powerful 40W LED pilot light

• Bowens mount

• 3,5 meter power cable

• Weight: 8.25 kg including flash head, battery and cable

• 1200 Ws

• fan-cooled head

• 0,01 - 1,9 seconden recycle time

• interchangeable 5200 mAh lithium-ion battery. An optional 2600 mAh battery is available if you want to bring the AD1200 Pro along on a plane (the standard battery is too powerful to bring on a plane)

• Power manually adjustable from 1:1 to 1:256

• TTL / M / Multi

• Second curtain sync, front curtain sync

By the way, AD1200 Pro is not the only Godox solution to use 1200 Ws of power on location. Until now, I used two AD600 flashes with the optional H1200B head. In terms of price, you are close to the AD1200 Pro with this combination. The solution with the H1200B head offers the advantage that you are more flexible because you can also use the two flashes separately in a setup with a main light and a kicker light. However, if you often want to shoot at full power, the AD1200 Pro is more convenient to use and moreover it’s a full second faster in terms of recycling time. It’s also more practical to work with one battery pack than with two AD600 flashes that you stuff in a camera bag: with the H1200B and double AD600 combo, it occasionally happened that one of the units in my bag accidentally got into sleep mode (or ran out of power) and that I was actually only working at half power without realizing it.

The AD1200 Pro has a RRP of € 1,699 including VAT. The only alternative known to me is the Elinchrom ELB 1200, but it costs about double that including flash head.
But you shouldn't buy the AD1200 Pro just for its maximum power. Recycle time and battery life can also be an important factor. The full power recycle time is just under two seconds, but that obviously decreases the less power you need, while the battery lasts longer. The AD1200 Pro comes with a roller case that is very similar in concept to the ThinkTank Airport TakeOff: it can be converted into a backpack if necessary via the two carrying straps hidden in the back panel. With some rearranging, there is even room in the trolley for an AD300 Pro, which immediately brings me to the next flash I used on this shoot.

AD300 Pro

As the new top-of-the-bill in the Godox range, the AD1200 Pro is of course somewhat more of a niche product. Although… It apparently sells so well that it is sold out at most Belgian and Dutch retailers. The AD300 Pro on the other hand has everything to become a real best-seller. It is very compact because it comes standard with Godox's own mount and not with the more popular but larger Bowens mount. However, with the new S2 adapter you can easily make it Bowens-compatible. If you’re looking for a more permanent solution, then there is also an adapter that you screw onto the AD300 Pro. This adapter exists in a Bowens, Profoto, Elinchrom and Broncolor version. Handy if you already have numerous light modifiers for one of those brands.

Because of its compact shape, the AD300 Pro is easy to stow away in a camera bag. The battery allows for more than 300 full power flashes and you can even use AD200 & AD200 Pro batteries in it. The AD300 Pro is not only suitable for portrait photography, I recently used it to take real estate photos. I used to use hotshoe flashes like the V860 II for that, but at almost four times the power, the AD300 Pro lets me work faster, and also makes it easier to use bounce and indirect flash to evenly illuminate a large space. Also handy is the LED pilot light whose color temperature is adjustable between 3000 and 6000 Kelvin.

The ideal travel flash?

Thanks to its compact shape, the AD300 Pro seems to be the ideal travel flash when you want a bit more power than a standard hotshoe flash. In combination with an S65 or S85 Godox Softbox that use the compact Godox Mount, you have a compact mini-studio for a total weight of about two kilos. Personally, I still prefer the twice as powerful, but also much larger and heavier AD600 when traveling. That's partly because I like using even bigger softboxes - and the larger the softbox, the more powerful your light needs to be. However, it is mainly because I teach at travel workshops and I need the extra battery capacity of the AD600 for my students. Also, I normally work with Fujifilm's GFX camera line. These have a sync speed of only 1/125th compared to the 1/250th of most other cameras (for example, the X-T4).

The sync speed has an impact on how powerful your flash must be to make a certain photo. For example, with my X-T4, I can work at 1/250th, ISO 100, f/8. To get the same background exposure, I have to work with my GFX on 1/125th and use f/11. However, that aperture only lets in half the amount of flash light compared to f/8. So I have to use a twice as powerful flash to take the same picture with the GFX as with the X-T4. The slower sync speed is basically costing me a stop of flash power that I need to compensate for by using a more powerful flash. Using HSS is possible, but involves a loss of efficiency, so it is not a solution from an efficiency standpoint.

The 'sync speed problem' arises especially when photographing with flash during the day, in full sun, but that's exactly the time of day I want to use flash, to balance the sun. Moral of the story: with an AD300 Pro and a camera with a 'normal' synchro speed of 1/250th second, you can do quite a lot.

I think Godox have a real winner on their hands with the AD300 Pro.

• Normal color temperature range: 5600 K ± 200 K

• Stable color temperature mode: 5600 K ± 100 ° K

• Bi-color LED pilot light (3000 K - 6000 K)

• Godox mount. Optional Bowens, Profoto, Elinchrom & Broncolor adapters available

• USB Type C port for firmware upgrades

• 3,5 mm sync port for manual sync

• Dimensions: 19 x 9,8 x 8,7cm

• Weight: 1,4 kg including battery

• 300 Ws

• 0,01 - 1,5 second recycle time

• interchangeable 14,4 V / 2600 mAh lithium-ion battery. The AD300 Pro also can use AD200 and AD200 Pro batteries.

• Manual power range from full power to 1:256

• TTL / M / Multi

• Rear curtain sync & front curtain sync

• 5 groups & 32 channels

• High Speed Sync support up to 1 / 8000th of a second

• Optical slave mode

Compatibility

As I have been saying for a few years now, the reason why I use Godox is not only their good value for money but especially because Godox offers a complete eco-system where all flashes, from the tiny TT350 to the 30 times heavier (literally and figuratively) ) AD1200 Pro are mutually compatible and work seamlessly and wirelessly. Moreover, Godox has the widest camera compatibility in the market: there are transmitters for Nikon, Canon, Fujifilm, Olympus / Panasonic, Sony and even Pentax! Only Leica users don’t have a dedicated trigger but if they swear by the available light anyway :-)

Resources:

If you want to get better at off-camera flash, have a look at my PDF ebook Pushing Light: at 200 pages, it teaches you all you need to know to work with flash on location. The deluxe edition comes with three bonus videos and 5 bonus Lightroom presets and is available here for only USD 34.95

The color grading of the images in the video was done with my latest Creative Profiles pack for Lightroom Classic, ACR & Photoshop. It’s available here.

My personal 5DayDeal top five and two new videos for the weekend

The 5DayDeal irrevocably ends in…

My personal top five

There's so much stuff in the new edition of the 5DayDeal, that annual new bundle for all photographic training and other photographic tools such as presets, overlays, actions and more, that it's easy to be overwhelmed. In a prior blog post, I already covered the full offer. In this blog post I want to dig a bit deeper into my personal top five!

1. Aurora HDR 2019

Aurora HDR 2019 is by the same makers as Luminar and is one of the best – if not the best – HDR software application on the market today. If you think that HDR is only useful to make those exaggerated, cartoonish grungy edits, you're mistaken. Of course you can do that too, but HDR software is also used by landscape and architectural photographers. Something few people know, is that you can also use it to make some very moody black-and-whites, either in combination with Lightroom or Photoshop or not. Aurora HDR 2019 is normally $99. Now, you can get it together with all the other tools in the 5DayDeal for less than that. Aurora HDR 2019 is part of the basic Photography Bundle of $89.

2. Serge Ramelli’s Fine Art Photography Masterclass

Serge Ramelli is somewhat of a phenomenon. This Frenchie-with-the-charming-English-accent has managed to build a proper Lightroom training imperium over the last couple of years. 500,000 YouTube followers? I can only dream of it! In general, I often think his edits are a little over-the-top – which coming from me means something as I don't shy away from a bold Lightroom slider move or two – but as the French say ‘Qui peut le plus, peut le moins’. The Lightroom tutorials in his Fine Art Photography Master class are pretty advanced and they showcase some surprising, out-of-the-box applications of specific Lightroom tools. Amongst others, there is a really nice day-to-night tutorial in which he transforms a picture that he took during the day into a night scene. Serge’s entire Masterclass normally retails for $147. Now you can get it for $89 together with all the rest of the tutorials in the 5DayDeal.

3. Getting Started with Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw

Blake Rudis of f/64 Academy is a big name in the Photoshop training industry. He's also made a couple of Photoshop panels that are very popular with landscape photographers. In this course, he takes a really deep dive into Adobe Camera Raw. After all, not everybody works with Lightroom :-) How deep? Well… I've learned more than one thing and I'm only halfway the course. That should tell you something…

4. The Artist by Joel Grimes

Joel’s signature light setup: twoi strip lights and a beauty dish in a butterfly light position.

I think I've got about every tutorial that Joel Grimes has ever published. The fact that I started to pay more attention in my photography to working with rim light and striplights, I have Joel to thank for. This year's 5DayDeal bundle features his ‘The Artist’ course. This isn't a real hands-on tutorial but rather a motivating, almost philosophical course about how to improve in your photography, also if you're doing this for a living. Throughout the course, you'll see plenty of examples of Joel's work. Amidst all the more practical courses in the 5DayDeal, this course is a welcome and motivating change. In this course, Joel also talks about overcoming your limitations as a photographer and he knows what he's talking about, as he is colourblind! This course normally retails for $179. Now it's in the bundle, with 70 hours of other tutorials for only $89.

5. Complete Posing workshop by SLR Lounge

You know the feeling? During a workshop or on the tradeshow, generally you'll be photographing professional models that can strike a different pose with every click of your camera. But then back home, when you try to apply your recently acquired skills on your neighbour's son or daughter or even worse, on your own kids, things don't work quite as well. Posing is one of the most underestimated skills in photography. Really good models take years to get to that point. But… As a photographer you can lend your models a helping hand. In the Complete Posing Workshop by SLR Lounge there is no shortage of ideas and techniques to give even the most clumsy sitter a camera-friendly pose. This course was an eye-opener, also for me! It talks about posing men, women and – the most difficult skill of all – posing couples! The nice thing about it is that it is in part filmed live and that the public, consisting of amateur photographers, takes turns at taking the pictures while the teacher gives directions. This way, you can also learn from the mistakes that are being made.

My favourites from the Charity Bundle and the Pro-Bundle

The 5DayDeal base bundle is $89, but upon checkout, you can optionally purchase two smaller add-on bundles: the Charity Bundle and the Pro-Bundle, which will respectively set you back 24 and $39 extra. It obviously depends on your budget, but there are a couple of hidden gems amongst those two extra bundles as well. I've picked one from each bundle:

“I purchased the 5DayDeal 2 years ago. Zero regret. This one sounds even better. These packages hold extreme value and they also contribute to a very worthy cause. Such high profile contributors ensure that the quality of product and software is top notch. I can highly recommend these pacakages to anyone looking to lift their game.”

— Philip Weary

The Beginner’s guide to Photoshop (part of the Charity Bundle)

In addition to my own Photoshop for Lightroom Users course, there is another Photoshop course in the 5DayDeal. However it's not in the $89 base bundle but in the Charity Bundle. If one of your goals is to learn Photoshop, I really advise you to add the Charity Bundle to your order. This is a course by Phlearn, an authority in the field of Photoshop courses. After having watched both this course and my own, Photoshop won't have many secrets left for you!

Beverage Photography and Retouching with Rob Grimm (part of the Pro Bundle)

In this beautifully shot tutorial, you get a number of examples of the preparation, lighting setup, shooting and postprocessing of beverages, one of the trickiest forms of product and studio photography. This tutorial normally retails for $99, now it is part of the optional Pro-Bundle of $39 that you can add to the basic Photography bundle of $89.

Watched two videos from my ‘Photoshop for Lightroom users’ course for free, this weekend!

Because I'm humble, shy or both :-) – I haven't listed my own Photoshop for Lightroom users course in the top five. But in the meantime, you should know that this brand-new, seven hour course is also part of the 5DayDeal bundle. My course comprises 25 case studies (‘chapters’) with exercise files about when and how as a Lightroom user, you should go to Photoshop and back. As promised, until the end of the 5DayDeal, each day I’ll stream an entire chapter of my course for free! And because tomorrow is Sunday and I don't want to send out any emails, I'm already putting Sunday's video online today! Twice the viewing pleasure :-)

The first video is about how you can use Photoshop to clone… in perspective! You can do so with the remarkable yet highly unknown Vanishing Point Filter. The second video is about Content Aware Fill, another one of those things that I regularly go from Lightroom to Photoshop for.

Did you pick up something? Then imagine what you could learn from the full seven hour course and from all the other courses in the 2019 edition of the 5DayDeal!

Extra bonus! Buy the 5DayDeal through my link and you will receive one of the bonuses below completely free:

As a thank you for buying the 5DayDeal (and therefore my new course) through my affiliate link, I've got an extra gift for you: you can pick one item from the following list! How about one of my two texture packs, one of my two Creative Profiles packs for Lightroom Classic, a preset pack for Lightroom or a complete introductory course to Lightroom Classic? Once you've purchased the 5DayDeal bundle through this link, this other link will give you all the information you need to claim the bonus of your choice. Important: don't go looking for that bonus during the checkout procedure on the actual 5DayDeal site: this bonus is an extra offered by me personally and therefore delivery of it is handled by me, via this form!

*: + VAT for European citizens. If you have a VAT number, you can enter that during checkout and you can order VAT-free.

Affiliate disclaimer: the links in this blog post are affiliate links. When you use these links, MoreThanWords receives a commission. This commission is paid for entirely by the organizer of the bundle, 5DayDeal. Therefore this commission doesn't cost you anything extra. On the contrary, when you use my affiliate link you will receive an extra bonus that you wouldn't have had when purchasing directly.

Organising small flashes with F-Stop's Medium Shallow ICU

What you’re about to watch is highly unusual for me. I’m going to give organisational and packing advice! Move over, Marie Kondo :-) It’s kind of funny, really, because I normally am really bad at organising things but I think what I do in the video makes sense. Judge for yourself :-)

Save over 35 percent on my Light It Up ebook

Packing flashes is one thing. Knowing what to do with them when you open the bag an entirely different one. But I’ve got your back: in my best-selling ebook Light It Up! I explain everything I’ve learnt in the past ten years of working with flashes big and small. I start with simple examples and gradually take it up a couple of notches. This Deluxe Edition even comes with three bonus videos totaling 45 minutes of playing time.

The Steampunk Sessions, part 1

I’m connected to a lot of photographers on Facebook from all over the world. And as much as I like these virtual interactions, I like it even more when I get the chance to meet one of these Facebook friends in real life. This happened last week with David. David’s a Belgian photographer who lives in Thailand most of the year. He’s an amazing travel photographer and he popped over to Belgium for a couple of weeks. So we decided to go on a shoot together. I like doing these kinds of spontaneous, last-minute freestyle shoots with other photographers because I think we can all learn from each other.

Steampunk @ the factory

I love shooting in abandoned factories and lately, I’ve been into photographing steampunkers, too. These two subjects are a match made in heaven. So I called up Major TC Theodoricus, one of Belgium’s most passionate steampunkers and we all met up in an old paper factory about an hour’s drive from where I live. Another friend, Frank, came along to make some BTS shots.

Gear-wise, I brought the Fujifilm GFX 50S, the GF 110 mm, GF 32-64 mm and the GF 23 mm. As for lights, I packed my three trusted Godox AD600B flashes, my SMDV Alpha 110 gridded softbox and my two Nicefoto strip lights, which have become an essential part of my lighting kit. Last noteworthy item was my Scotty II portable smoke machine. No steampunk shoot should happen without a smoke machine :-)

I was immediately struck by the vast hall with the cast iron pillars and thought they’d make great compositional elements in the frame. Now I’m a slow shooter and I prefer to get a couple of images that I’m really happy with.

In total, I got seven images I like in about five hours of shooting.

That’s actually a nice harvest for me. Here’s the first two in this blog post. With a dramatic subject and a dramatic backdrop like this, I think the lighting and the postprocessing needs to be dramatic, too. So I used a cross lighting setup and I positioned my main light in a way that The Major would be short-lit. I also wanted a moody, atmosphere so although I could have made the entire scene a lot brighter (I was only at 1/32nd power on the flashes), I went for a low-key look.

As you can see from this setup shot, there are two more lights in this shot: one strip light to the left of The Major, just out of frame and a second one behind him, pointed at the steel pillar. I did that to make the lighting more coherent. Apart from editing out the softbox on the right and adding the flame coming out of the gun in Photoshop, the complete styling and color-grading was done in Lightroom, using the profiles in my Creative Profiles Starter Pack.

This ebook teaches you all you need to know to make dramatically lit images like the ones in this blog post.

The Fujifilm GFX, the ideal camera for this sort of work

Two things I love most about the GFX are the incredible dynamic range, which lets me do quite nice things in postproduction as you can see from the before & after above, and the resolution. In fact, this is a 16:9 crop from the 4:3 original and it is still over 36 megapixel! Having more flexibility in choosing your aspect after the fact is also one of the reasons I’m secretly already lusting for the GFX 100S…

Here’s a 1:1 crop in Lightroom. The detail of the GFX is simply amazing. I just love that camera.

Smoking gun

I personally like the version with the understated gunfire best, but I also played around with a more extreme version, as you can see below. Adding fire like that is simpler than you might think. I used an image from Adobe Stock. If the fire’s been photographed on a black background, in Photoshop, just change the blending mode of the layer to Screen, and you’re good. If you still see some artefacts around the fire, that’s a telltale sign that the background isn’t pure black. Just add a Levels adjustment and click with the black eyedropper on the black of the flame’s background to turn it completely black and in the Screen blending mode, the black will magically vanish!

The image above was shot with the 23 mm, which corresponds to an 18 mm on a fullframe camera. That’s a super wide lens so it takes in a lot of the environment. However, because of it being so wide, and having a relatively slow maximum aperture of f/4, it’s difficult to use shallow depth of field to separate your subject from the background. That’s why I also brought the 110, the bokeh monster of the GF lens lineup.

In the image below, I stitched a couple of vertical shots I took with the GF 110 wide open at f/2 into a panorama using Photoshop. I then colorgraded the image in Lightroom. If you’re on a fullframe camera system, try using an 85 mm 1.4 or 1.8. If you’re on a crop camera, try something like a 50 mm 1.4 or, in the case of Fujifilm, the 56 1.2.

With the GFX, I tend to underexpose more than I used to because there’s so much leeway in bringing up shadow detail.

The result is an image with a wide angle of view but at the same time the super shallow depth of field of a portrait lens. And as a bonus, you get an even crazier resolution. The image below is a whopping 10.860 x 8.145 pixels! That’s almost the resolution of the upcoming GFX 100S!

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF110mmF2 R LM WR @ 110 mm | 1/125 sec. @ f/2 | ISO 250

Again, other than the merging of the panorama which I had to do in Photoshop because it offers more control, the entire look of the image was created in Lightroom. Below is a 1:1 screenshot.

The controlled lighting and the super shallow depth of field really make the subject stand out from the background.

That’s it for this blog post. If you live in or near Belgium, speak Dutch and you’d like to photograph The Major yourself, you might be interested in the next edition of the Epic Steampunk Workshop, which is held on March 8, 2019. More information here (in Dutch). Ticket sales start January 31, 8 PM Brussels time. Below’s a 90 second impression of that workshop.

Also, don’t forget that until the end of January, you can save 25% on my brand new ‘Learn Lightroom Classic in 2.5 hours’ video course. Check it out here.

Save 25% on my new Lightroom Classic Tutorial:

left to save 25% on my new ‘Learn Lightroom Classic in 2.5 hours’ course AND score a bonus set of 10 Creative Profiles

My GFX 50R Review

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to test drive a preproduction model of the GFX 50R in Ethiopia. My buddy and fellow X-Photographer Matt Brandon came with me and documented our trip for a short video that will be released later. But because the shipping date of the GFX 50R is getting nearer, and because I get a lot of questions from people what it was like shooting the camera and if they should get it or rather the GFX 50S, I decided to make this video review.

3 disclaimers:

1. I’m a Fujifilm X Photographer and a Fujifilm ambassador so I’m probably not the most neutral judge. But on the other hand, I became an ambassador because I love the quality of the Fujifilm cameras. I have been shooting with them for almost seven years now, starting with the X-Pro 1. After trying out the GFX 50S in India, I bought one myself and I would not have done that if I did not love the system and believe in its potential.

2. All the images you’ll see in the video have been processed (many of them with my Lightroom Creative Profiles Starter Pack). They are not straight out of camera images. As much as I love the Fujifilm film simulations, for me they’re just a starting point. I love processing images, in fact I probably love it even more than actually making them. Through my processing, I try to convey the way the scene felt to me when I was there. In fact, one of the reasons I love the GFX system so much, is because these files can take a beating in postproduction. The dynamic range is stellar and the sharpness of the lenses incredible. I can do just about anything with a GFX50 raw file. In Lightroom! I love having that amount of flexibility.

3. Other than the fact that the GFX 50R has a 50 megapixel, 33 x 44 mm sensor inside, I won’t bother you with other technical specs. You can find those on the Fujifilm website.

So, with that in mind, here’s my review. I suggest you only watch it if you have some money to spend, because chances are you’ll either want a 50R or a 50S by the end of the video… Don’t say I did not warn you :-) I have included some sample images but the poor compression really does not do them much justice. If you have any questions or remarks, hit me in the comments.

By the way, this was also a scouting trip for a new photo workshop on location lighting and portraiture in Ethiopia. We’re currently working out the details for a 2019 trip. If you want to know more about that, sign up for the newsletter and you’ll be the first to hear. As a thank you for signing up, you’ll also get a set of 10 free Lightroom presets.

As you may have noticed in the video, I use a lot of flash in my travel images. I like the way how flash can amplify, modify or sometimes even downright overpower the available light and let me create my own lighting rather than having to deal with what the climate gods decide to throw at me on any given day - which in Ethiopia is a glaring, way too contrasty sun from early morning until late in the evening. If you want to learn more about using flash on location, have a look at my Light It Up! ebook: it’s loaded with advice on how to use flash for travel and location portraiture.

Fujifilm GFX 50R | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 64 mm | 1/125 sec @ f/8 | ISO 100

Fujifilm GFX 50R | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 32 mm | 1/500 sec @ f/8 | ISO 200

And here is a 1:1 crop of that image:

Special thanks to…

Special thanks to Fujifilm Belgium and Fujifilm Japan, Matt Brandon, Billy, Jan and the entire team at Starling travel and their Ethiopian counterpart for organising this trip. Also thanks to Lacie, Compagnon and Godox importer Disnet for providing us with some of the essential other tools we needed to make this trip happen. Could not have done it without all of you!

5DayDeal 2018 Flash Sale: a free preview of my new Lightroom Library Beyond the Basics Tutorial

The 5DayDeal irrevocably ends in…

A big chunk of this year’s 5DayDeal bundle is Lightroom-related: there are a couple of tutorials and almost five hundred presets and of course there’s the Luminar plug-in, which I talked about extensively in yesterday’s blog post and video.

“How Piet expertly curates the information is what makes this program truly stand out as one of the best Lightroom training programs I’ve come across (and I’ve seen a lot).”

— Chris O'Donnell (creativeRAW)

One of the Lightroom tutorials is a bit special for three reasons:

1. First of all, because it’s mine and it’s my very first full-blown English Lightroom tutorial, an accomplishment of which I’m quite proud :-).

2. Second because it’s a launch exclusive: for the moment, it’s only available as part of the 5DayDeal and you can’t get it anywhere else yet.

3. And lastly, because it focuses entirely on the Lightroom Catalog and Library. It’s an intermediate to advanced 3+ hour tutorial and I made it because every day, the workshops I teach and the emails I get in my inbox remind me that there are still a lot of people struggling with the whole concept of Lightroom.

Well, I made this tutorial for all of you: after watching it, you’ll be a full-blown Lightroom Library Ninja and you’ll leverage the advantages of Lightroom a lot better and avoid many of the pitfalls the program sometimes throws at its users, too.

Below is a 30 minute free preview of one of the chapters in the tutorial. I’ll leave it on the site as long as the countdown timer is running :-) This chapter’s about Collections and Smart Collections and although I personally consider that to be more of an entry-level feature, each workshop I teach there are quite a number of - even long term - Lightroom users that don’t (or hardly) use these powerful organisational tools. So I decided to include a video about them in the tutorial.

“Piet doesn’t throw a barrage of information at you, overwhelming you with useless data...instead, he’s taken that extra step to create an engaging curriculum that tells you exactly what you need to know.”

— Chris O'Donnell (creativeRAW)

Even if you feel like you already know your way around collections, I’m pretty sure you’ll pick up a thing or two. For example, I hardly know anyone who uses Target Collections and yet they’re super handy! And if you want to know what else I cover in the full course, here’s a list of all the other chapters. This 3+ hour video tutorial is the culmination of 10 years of teaching Lightroom, writing about it and most of all, using it almost every single day!

1. Introduction: 14’ 35”

2. Importing: 41’

3. Tethered Capture: 15’ 16”

4. File & Folder Management: 37’ 39”

5. Two Lesser Known View Modes: 22’ 29”

6. Collections, Smart Collections & Filtering: 37’ 55”

7. Metadata & Keywording: 24’ 30”

8. Exporting: 21’ 23”

9. Publish Services: 10’ 52”

10. Exporting as a Catalog & Importing from Another Catalog: 26’ 19”

11. Working with an External Catalog Drive: 13’ 40”

12. Bonus Chapter: Back up or Back off: 14’ 40”

“If you learned something new in this free 30 minute clip, imagine how much you can learn from the 60+ hours of tutorials in the entire 5DayDeal bundle!”

— Yours truly :-)

Still on the fence? The 5DayDeal also includes Luminar 2018 (a $69 value), one of the most innovative Lightroom plug-ins out there. I did a free 30 minute video tutorial about it. You can watch that here.

And don’t forget, if you buy the 5DayDeal through the links on my MoreThanWords blog, you’ll receive a special bonus: my brand new high resolution Textures Pack, Vol. 01!**

*: + VAT for European citizens. If you have a valid VAT number, you can enter that upon checkout and you won’t be charged VAT.

** Texture pack will be sent out free of charge in the week after January 15 to those people who bought the 5DayDeal bundle via the links on the MoreThanWords blog or in the MoreThanWords newsletter.

The return of the 5DayDeal 2018: my free Luminar 2018 mini-course

When the 5DayDeal originally was released in October, I put up a this mini-course on Luminar 2018. With the flash-sale reprise of the 5DayDeal, only until Midnight, EST, November 25th, I thought it would be a good idea to put bring the mini-course back. Regardless of whether you want to buy the 5DayDeal or not, there’s some interesting information in there, I think :-)

The 5DayDeal irrevocably ends in…

“The inclusion of Luminar 2018 makes this year’s 5DayDeal an absolute no-brainer!”

— Yours truly :-)

So, the 5DayDeal is a bundle of high-quality resources for photographers: tutorial videos, Lightroom presets, textures, actions, you name it. It’s a whopping 50 gigabyte of goodies at a super steep discount. In yesterday’s blog post, I dug a little deeper into the training content that’s in this year’s 5DayDeal. But the 5DayDeal folks really outdid themselves this year, because there’s also two entire software packages included, the most important of which undoubtedly is Luminar 2018. My original plan was to make a quick three minute overview of what Luminar is but you know me: I don’t do quick very well. So it turned out to be a 25 minute mini-tutorial full of cool processing tips in general and Luminar tips in particular.

Unlike with some other bundles, this version of Luminar 2018 is exactly the same as the $69 retail version that you can buy directly on Skylum’s (makers of Luminar) website, but you’d be crazy not to pay the extra $20 and get it as part of the 5DayDeal bundle!

“Buy the 5Deal through the links on my blog and you’ll receive my High Resolution Texture Pack, Vol. 01 for free* !”

— Yours truly

This year’s bundle includes a Luminar 2018 license, an interesting Lightroom and Photoshop plug-in that some people even use as a complete Lightroom alternative. In one of the next blog posts, I’ll go a little deeper into the unique features of Luminar that make it stand out, especially when used in conjunction with Lightroom. Until Sunday, November 25th, a copy of Luminar 2018 is included in this year’s 5DayDeal bundle. Click here for more info.

*: + VAT for European citizens. If you have a valid VAT number, you can enter that upon checkout and you won’ be charged VAT.

** You will receive your bonus textures in the week after November 15, 2018

Surprise return: this year's 5DayDeal is back... for just 72 hours...

The 2018 edition of the 5DayDeal ended over a month ago, but… the 5DayDeal people decided to bring it back to life for 72 hours only on occasion of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. So, it’s effectively like a 3DayDeal now :-) If you have already purchased the 5DayDeal back in October (it’s the same thing), no need to buy it again obviously, but if you were on the fence then… now is your chance. You’ll get over $2.500 worth of photographic resources for only $89, including my not yet released Lightroom Library Beyond the Basics course. And… just like in October, I’ll throw in my $24.95 High Resolution Texture Pack if you purchase the bundle through my link!

The Reprise Flash Sale of the 5DayDeal really, positively and irrevocably ends in…

For those of you who don’t know, the 5DayDeal is a unique bundle of training content and creative tools for photographers. If you were to buy everything separately, you’d be out of more than $2,500. Now, and until November 25, 23.59 EDT only, you pay $89*. The bundle contains dozens of hours of top notch video training, multiple eBooks and hundreds of Lightroom presets and Photoshop actions. In total nearly 50 gigabyte worth of content! Specifically for this year, there’s a lot of attention to drone photography and videography, including a drone course by no one less than Trey Ratcliff.

Look at who’s standing next to Lightroom guru Serge Ramelli? Yes, that’s me and there’s also a brand new Lightroom course by me in this year’s 5DayDeal! That alone should be a reason to buy it :-)

Of course, you’re wondering if the bundle is really worth it. Is it worth $2,500? Maybe not: there’s always something that’s not quite your cup of tea but then again, there’s also a couple of hidden gems each year that you would never think of buying but that turn out to be really interesting. So, the real question is: ‘Is it worth more than $89'?’ And the answer to that question is a solid ‘Yes, absolutely!’ This bundle will do more for your photography than a new camera bag or a couple of UV filters!

Obviously, I’m slightly biased as in those 60+ hours of video training, there’s over three of my own: In 'Lightroom Library Beyond the Basics’ I guide you through some of the more advanced concepts of Lightroom Catalogs, including working with multiple catalogs, leveraging collections and smart collections, using publish services and more. This brand new course is currently only available as a part of this year’s 5DayDeal Photography bundle and is in itself valued at $99, which is more than the price of the entire bundle. As a matter of fact, there are quite a lot of tutorials in the 5DayDeal bundle that have a list price that is higher than the entire bundle.

So what’s the catch, I hear you ask? There isn’t one… by offering so much value, the 5DayDeal folks aim to sell lots of units as to make it worthwhile for all the contributors, even at that crazy discount. The only catch so to speak is that you have to buy before November 26 because the offer is valid for only 3 days. Why is it called the 5DayDeal then? Well remember, the original 5DayDeal ran in October. This is a surprise reprise, on account of Black Friday, and that’s why it only lasts three days. So think of it as the 3DayDeal :-)

If you think that you need insane budgets to produce fashion-style images, you’ll be in for a treat in Lindsay Adler’s ‘Creativity on a budget’: Lindsay first shows you how she makes six different fashion accessories on a shoestring and then continues to photograph all six.

An expensive hat? No, it’s an expertly folded placemat. Or how craftsmanship, light, lighting and pose can turn a cheap kitchen accessory into high fashion. An eye-opening course, and another one that normally retails for more than the entire 5DayDeal bundle.

To make it easier for you to determine if the 5DayDeal bundle is something for you, I’ve highlighted the content by three broad areas of interest: image editing, portrait and landscape photography. You’ll notice that even if you’re only interested in one of these topics, the bundle is already worth purchasing. If you’re interested in multiple topics, it’s really a no-brainer.

1. You’re mainly interested in image editing

The total value of the highlighted items alone is $1495. The full bundle is yours for less than a tenth of that.

In ‘The Art of Black & White in Lightroom & Beyond’, Andrew Gibson explores the beautiful world of monochrome.

Traditionally, image editing is one of the strongholds of the 5DayDeal. This year is no different. In addition to my own advanced ‘Lightroom Library beyond the Basics’ tutorial, on which I’ll expand a little more in a future blogpost, there’s also an entire Lightroom course by Serge Ramelli. Other highlights are:

• Travel Pro Kit:
  A vast collection of Lightroom presets that use a similar structure as I use in my own Black & White preset pack (which is currently being reworked for Lightroom Classic). By working with ‘effect-presets’ on the one hand and ‘finishing touches’ presets on the other, Travel Pro Kit creates a complete click-based editing workflow that yields impressive results in no time. The accompanying PDF shows examples of how specific looks were made in just a couple of clicks.

• The Art of Black & White in Lightroom and Beyond
  A great course on Black & White conversion in Lightroom by Andrew Gibson, who I know from back in our Craft & Vision days. His material is always spot on, well-researched and expertly taught. This is another course that retails for more than the 5DayDeal’s bundle price.

• Adobe Photoshop Foundations
  In this tutorial, Photoshop Guru (and founder of the well-known f64 site) Blake Rudis delves deeper into a number of Photoshop topics, ranging from selections and masks to retouching images.

Great news: this year’s 5DayDeal includes a full Luminar 2018 license!

There are several other editing-related goodies in the bundle, but probably the biggest highlight is the fact that this year’s bundle comes with a complete licence for Luminar 2018 by Skylum (formerly known as Macphun). This license alone is worth $69. Luminar used to be Mac-only, but now it’s also available for Windows. Some people use it as a Lightroom alternative, but I think it’s at its best when used as a Lightroom plug-in. In one of the following blog posts, I’ll show you a couple of the more interesting features of Luminar.

This year’s bundle also includes a Luminar 2018 license, an interesting Lightroom and Photoshop plug-in that some people even use as a complete Lightroom alternative. In one of the next blog posts, I’ll go a little deeper into the unique features of Luminar that make it stand out, especially when used in conjunction with Lightroom. Click here for more info.

2. You’re mainly interested in photographing people, with or without flash

The total value of the highlighted items is $732. The full bundle is yours for less than 15 percent of that. If you’re into photographing people, I found the following tutorials to be interesting:

Zack Arias takes nobody seriously and certainly not himself in his new Photo 101 tutorial. I like that attitude (or lack of it) :-)

• Photo 101.
  A new tutorial by Zack Arias, the man who, along with David Hobby, taught an entire generation how to use flash. This time, he leaves the flashes unplugged, though and focuses on the basics of photography. Photo 101 is Zacks own introductory course. I’m listing it with the portrait courses because after the introduction, Zack takes you along on three portrait shoots where he uses minimal means to produce cool shots.

• Creativity on a Budget.
  Lindsay Adler is another big name in the photo tutorial business and rightly so. Her course to me was the surprise of this year’s bundle. In ‘Creativity on a Budget’ she shows you how you can turn cheap and often everyday items into fashion accessories but she does not stop there: in part 2, she actually photographs the fruit of her handicraft and produces some amazing results!

• Photographing the Bride.
  This tutorial focuses on what is probably the most important type of portrait photography: bridal portraits!

• Finding Rembrandt: Shoot Like the Old Masters.
  One of my favourite tutorials in this 5DayDeal is by one of my favourite teachers. Just like me, Chris Knight has a thing for dramatic, Rembrandt-style lighting patterns. In this video course, he dives deeply into Rembrandt portraits and he also takes you through his postproduction. Another highly recommended tutorial that by itself costs more than the entire bundle.

“A new camera makes you no more of a great photographer than a box of cake-mix makes you a great pastry chef.”

— Zack Arias in Photo 101

My favourite light setup: short light (in this case: short loupe light). In this tutorial, Chris Knight explores the tools and techniques to create dramatic looking portraits. Until October 16, this tutorial and many others is yours for only $89 as part of the 5DayDeal.

3. You’re mainly interested in product, landscape and architecture photography.

Admittedly, this list is shorter but that’s mainly because I only highlighted the courses that deal with the photography side of things, not the postprocessing. In practice, the other courses (such as Serge Ramelli’s Adobe Lightroom Masterclass and the Mastering Luminosity Masks course by Nick Page) contain a lot of content that is geared towards landscape and architectural photographers.

Still not convinced? I’ve got 5 more arguments for you:

1. This way of learning is by far the cheapest way to improve your photographic skills at your own pace, when and where you want. Most of the tutorials are downloadable video files, so you’re not tied to subscriptions or internet access to watch them. The 5DayDeal bundle gives you 60+ hours of video tutorials for less than $1.5 per hour. Yours to keep forever! The eBooks and presets come on top of that. And that’s without counting Luminar 2018!

2. A large part of the 5DayDeal bundle is new and if it is not new, it’s never been offered as part of another bundle.

3. This extra flash sale of the 5DayDeal bundle is gone forever on Sunday, November 25, 23.59 EDT

4. 10 percent of the turnover goes to charity. In total, previous 5DayDeals have collected over $300.000 for various charities.

5. There are two optional bundles that you can purchase upon checkout:

   • The Charity Bundle and the Pro Bundle ($19 and $29, respectively). Here’s the complete list of what these bundles contain. The latter one focuses on pro photographers and includes a full wedding photography course!

*: + VAT for European citizens. If you have a valid VAT number, you can enter that upon checkout and you won’ be charged VAT.

Black Friday: save 50 percent on my ebooks, Creative Profiles & Textures

On account of Black Friday, almost everything in the MoreThanWords store is a whopping 50 percent off! My two ebooks (Light It Up! and Lightroom 6/CC Unmasked), my Creative Profiles Starter Pack and my just released Texture Pack. On top of that, I wanted to make it easy for you. No need to fuss around with discount codes: the discount is already applied in the prices you see. But don’t wait too long: Monday evening at midnight, the prices double!

New: ‘Piet Van den Eynde Collected’

Especially for Black Friday, I have also made a bundle, aptly called Piet Van den Eynde Collected, which contains my two English ebooks, my Creative Profiles Starter Pack and my Texture Pack. This bundle retails for 15 percent less than the individual products it contains and for Black Friday, it is also discounted by 50 percent! This means you can get these 4 products for less than $35!

‘Piet Van den Eynde Collected’:

until 11/26 only $34.97 € instead of $69.95

2 ebooks, (together over 600 pages of industry-leading instruction) + 25 high-res textures and backgrounds, photographed with the Fujifilm GFX + 10 Creatieve Profiles for Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC - the very same profiles I use on a daily basis to edit my own images, including my recent Ethiopia series!

Buy the full bundle now

---

25 High-Res Textures & Backgrounds

until 11/26 only $13.75 € instead of $27.50

25 high-res textures and backgrounds, photographed with the Fujifilm GFX, ideal for all your compositing projects or to overlay as a texture on a grey studio background.

Buy the high-res Texture Pack now

---

Creative Profiles Starter Pack:

10 Creative Profiles for Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC

until 11/26 only $7 instead of $14

10 Creative Profiles for Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC - the very same profiles I use on a daily basis to edit my own images, including my recent Ethiopia series! With Lightroom’s Amount Slider, you can easily fine-tune the effect of a profile.

Improve your images with these one-click profiles

---

Light It Up! Techniques for Dramatic Off-Camera Flash-

Deluxe Edition

until 11/26 only $17.47 instead of $34.95

Learn to light like a master with this comprehensive ebook. I teach you everything I have learned in the past 10 years of using big and small flashes on location. This book is aimed at beginners and more advanced users. The latter will appreciate the more elaborate case studies. Contains a special chapter on lighting and postprocessing. This Deluxe version contains 45 minutes of bonus video and five bonus Lightroom presets.

Learn how to light with Light It Up!

---

Lightroom 6/CC Unmasked - eBook.

until 11/26 only $12.47 instead of $24.95

One of the most comprehensive Lightroom books on the planet.

Buy Lightroom Unmasked now

5DayDeal 2018: a free preview of my new Lightroom Library Beyond the Basics Tutorial

The 5DayDeal irrevocably ends in…

A big chunk of this year’s 5DayDeal bundle is Lightroom-related: there are a couple of tutorials and almost five hundred presets and of course there’s the Luminar plug-in, which I talked about extensively in yesterday’s blog post and video.

“How Piet expertly curates the information is what makes this program truly stand out as one of the best Lightroom training programs I’ve come across (and I’ve seen a lot).”

— Chris O'Donnell (creativeRAW)

One of the Lightroom tutorials is a bit special for three reasons:

1. First of all, because it’s mine and it’s my very first full-blown English Lightroom tutorial, an accomplishment of which I’m quite proud :-).

2. Second because it’s a launch exclusive: for the moment, it’s only available as part of the 5DayDeal and you can’t get it anywhere else yet.

3. And lastly, because it focuses entirely on the Lightroom Catalog and Library. It’s an intermediate to advanced 3+ hour tutorial and I made it because every day, the workshops I teach and the emails I get in my inbox remind me that there are still a lot of people struggling with the whole concept of Lightroom.

Well, I made this tutorial for all of you: after watching it, you’ll be a full-blown Lightroom Library Ninja and you’ll leverage the advantages of Lightroom a lot better and avoid many of the pitfalls the program sometimes throws at its users, too.

Below is a 30 minute free preview of one of the chapters in the tutorial. I’ll leave it on the site as long as the countdown timer is running :-) This chapter’s about Collections and Smart Collections and although I personally consider that to be more of an entry-level feature, each workshop I teach there are quite a number of - even long term - Lightroom users that don’t (or hardly) use these powerful organisational tools. So I decided to include a video about them in the tutorial.

“Piet doesn’t throw a barrage of information at you, overwhelming you with useless data...instead, he’s taken that extra step to create an engaging curriculum that tells you exactly what you need to know.”

— Chris O'Donnell (creativeRAW)

Even if you feel like you already know your way around collections, I’m pretty sure you’ll pick up a thing or two. For example, I hardly know anyone who uses Target Collections and yet they’re super handy! And if you want to know what else I cover in the full course, here’s a list of all the other chapters. This 3+ hour video tutorial is the culmination of 10 years of teaching Lightroom, writing about it and most of all, using it almost every single day!

1. Introduction: 14’ 35”

2. Importing: 41’

3. Tethered Capture: 15’ 16”

4. File & Folder Management: 37’ 39”

5. Two Lesser Known View Modes: 22’ 29”

6. Collections, Smart Collections & Filtering: 37’ 55”

7. Metadata & Keywording: 24’ 30”

8. Exporting: 21’ 23”

9. Publish Services: 10’ 52”

10. Exporting as a Catalog & Importing from Another Catalog: 26’ 19”

11. Working with an External Catalog Drive: 13’ 40”

12. Bonus Chapter: Back up or Back off: 14’ 40”

“If you learned something new in this free 30 minute clip, imagine how much you can learn from the 60+ hours of tutorials in the entire 5DayDeal bundle!”

— Yours truly :-)

Still on the fence? The 5DayDeal also includes Luminar 2018 (a $69 value), one of the most innovative Lightroom plug-ins out there. I did a free 30 minute video tutorial about it yesterday. You can watch that here.

And don’t forget, if you buy the 5DayDeal through the links on my MoreThanWords blog, you’ll receive a special bonus: my brand new high resolution Textures Pack!**

*: + VAT for European citizens. If you have a valid VAT number, you can enter that upon checkout and you won’t be charged VAT.

** Texture pack will be sent out free of charge in the week after November 15 to those people who bought the 5DayDeal bundle via the links on the MoreThanWords blog or in the MoreThanWords newsletter.

5DayDeal 2018: my free Luminar 2018 mini-course

The 5DayDeal irrevocably ends in…

“The inclusion of Luminar 2018 makes this year’s 5DayDeal an absolute no-brainer!”

— Yours truly :-)

So, the 5DayDeal is a bundle of high-quality resources for photographers: tutorial videos, Lightroom presets, textures, actions, you name it. It’s a whopping 50 gigabyte of goodies at a super steep discount. In yesterday’s blog post, I dug a little deeper into the training content that’s in this year’s 5DayDeal. But the 5DayDeal folks really outdid themselves this year, because there’s also two entire software packages included, the most important of which undoubtedly is Luminar 2018. My original plan was to make a quick three minute overview of what Luminar is but you know me: I don’t do quick very well. So it turned out to be a 25 minute mini-tutorial full of cool processing tips in general and Luminar tips in particular.

Unlike with some other bundles, this version of Luminar 2018 is exactly the same as the $69 retail version that you can buy directly on Skylum’s (makers of Luminar) website, but you’d be crazy not to pay the extra $20 and get it as part of the 5DayDeal bundle!

This year’s bundle includes a Luminar 2018 license, an interesting Lightroom and Photoshop plug-in that some people even use as a complete Lightroom alternative. In one of the next blog posts, I’ll go a little deeper into the unique features of Luminar that make it stand out, especially when used in conjunction with Lightroom. Until October 16, a copy of Luminar 2018 is included in this year’s 5DayDeal bundle. Click here for more info.

*: + VAT for European citizens. If you have a valid VAT number, you can enter that upon checkout and you won’ be charged VAT.

** You will receive your bonus textures in the week after November 15, 2018

The 5DayDeal: What's in it for you?

The 5DayDeal irrevocably ends in…

Oh yes, it’s that time of year again. Once a year, for 5 days only, you can purchase the 5DayDeal Photography bundle. This year’s edition runs from October 11 to Tuesday, October 16, noon PDT (that’s 9 PM Brussels time). For those of you who don’t know, the 5DayDeal is a unique bundle of training content and creative tools for photographers. If you were to buy everything separately, you’d be out of more than $2,500. Now, and until October 16 only, you pay $89*. The bundle contains dozens of hours of top notch video training, multiple eBooks and hundreds of Lightroom presets and Photoshop actions. In total nearly 50 gigabyte worth of content! Specifically for this year, there’s a lot of attention to drone photography and videography, including a drone course by no one less than Trey Ratcliff.

Look at who’s standing next to Lightroom guru Serge Ramelli? Yes, that’s me and there’s also a brand new Lightroom course by me in this year’s 5DayDeal! That alone should be a reason to buy it :-)

Of course, you’re wondering if the bundle is really worth it. Is it worth $2,500? Maybe not: there’s always something that’s not quite your cup of tea but then again, there’s also a couple of hidden gems each year that you would never think of buying but that turn out to be really interesting. So, the real question is: ‘Is it worth more than $89'?’ And the answer to that question is a solid ‘Yes, absolutely!’ This bundle will do more for your photography than a new camera bag or a couple of UV filters!

Obviously, I’m slightly biased as in those 60+ hours of video training, there’s over three of my own: In 'Lightroom Library Beyond the Basics’ I guide you through some of the more advanced concepts of Lightroom Catalogs, including working with multiple catalogs, leveraging collections and smart collections, using publish services and more. This brand new course is currently only available as a part of this year’s 5DayDeal Photography bundle and is in itself valued at $99, which is more than the price of the entire bundle. As a matter of fact, there are quite a lot of tutorials in the 5DayDeal bundle that have a list price that is higher than the entire bundle.

So what’s the catch, I hear you ask? There isn’t one… by offering so much value, the 5DayDeal folks aim to sell lots of units as to make it worthwhile for all the contributors, even at that crazy discount. The only catch so to speak is that you have to buy before October 16 because the offer is valid for only 5 days. Once you’ve bought, you’ve got until November 30 to download your 50 gigabyte worth of goodies, though!

If you think that you need insane budgets to produce fashion-style images, you’ll be in for a treat in Lindsay Adler’s ‘Creativity on a budget’: Lindsay first shows you how she makes six different fashion accessories on a shoestring and then continues to photograph all six.

An expensive hat? No, it’s an expertly folded placemat. Or how craftsmanship, light, lighting and pose can turn a cheap kitchen accessory into high fashion. An eye-opening course, and another one that normally retails for more than the entire 5DayDeal bundle.

To make it easier for you to determine if the 5DayDeal bundle is something for you, I’ve highlighted the content by three broad areas of interest: image editing, portrait and landscape photography. You’ll notice that even if you’re only interested in one of these topics, the bundle is already worth purchasing. If you’re interested in multiple topics, it’s really a no-brainer.

1. You’re mainly interested in image editing

The total value of the highlighted items alone is $1495. The full bundle is yours for less than a tenth of that.

In ‘The Art of Black & White in Lightroom & Beyond’, Andrew Gibson explores the beautiful world of monochrome.

Traditionally, image editing is one of the strongholds of the 5DayDeal. This year is no different. In addition to my own advanced ‘Lightroom Library beyond the Basics’ tutorial, on which I’ll expand a little more in a future blogpost, there’s also an entire Lightroom course by Serge Ramelli. Other highlights are:

• Travel Pro Kit:
  A vast collection of Lightroom presets that use a similar structure as I use in my own Black & White preset pack (which is currently being reworked for Lightroom Classic). By working with ‘effect-presets’ on the one hand and ‘finishing touches’ presets on the other, Travel Pro Kit creates a complete click-based editing workflow that yields impressive results in no time. The accompanying PDF shows examples of how specific looks were made in just a couple of clicks.

• The Art of Black & White in Lightroom and Beyond
  A great course on Black & White conversion in Lightroom by Andrew Gibson, who I know from back in our Craft & Vision days. His material is always spot on, well-researched and expertly taught. This is another course that retails for more than the 5DayDeal’s bundle price.

• Adobe Photoshop Foundations
  In this tutorial, Photoshop Guru (and founder of the well-known f64 site) Blake Rudis delves deeper into a number of Photoshop topics, ranging from selections and masks to retouching images.

Great news: this year’s 5DayDeal includes a full Luminar 2018 license!

There are several other editing-related goodies in the bundle, but probably the biggest highlight is the fact that this year’s bundle comes with a complete licence for Luminar 2018 by Skylum (formerly known as Macphun). This license alone is worth $69. Luminar used to be Mac-only, but now it’s also available for Windows. Some people use it as a Lightroom alternative, but I think it’s at its best when used as a Lightroom plug-in. In one of the following blog posts, I’ll show you a couple of the more interesting features of Luminar.

This year’s bundle also includes a Luminar 2018 license, an interesting Lightroom and Photoshop plug-in that some people even use as a complete Lightroom alternative. In one of the next blog posts, I’ll go a little deeper into the unique features of Luminar that make it stand out, especially when used in conjunction with Lightroom. Until October 16, a copy of Luminar 2018 is included in this year’s 5DayDeal bundle. Click here for more info.

2. You’re mainly interested in photographing people, with or without flash

The total value of the highlighted items is $732. The full bundle is yours for less than 15 percent of that. If you’re into photographing people, I found the following tutorials to be interesting:

Zack Arias takes nobody seriously and certainly not himself in his new Photo 101 tutorial. I like that attitude (or lack of it) :-)

• Photo 101.
  A new tutorial by Zack Arias, the man who, along with David Hobby, taught an entire generation how to use flash. This time, he leaves the flashes unplugged, though and focuses on the basics of photography. Photo 101 is Zacks own introductory course. I’m listing it with the portrait courses because after the introduction, Zack takes you along on three portrait shoots where he uses minimal means to produce cool shots.

• Creativity on a Budget.
  Lindsay Adler is another big name in the photo tutorial business and rightly so. Her course to me was the surprise of this year’s bundle. In ‘Creativity on a Budget’ she shows you how you can turn cheap and often everyday items into fashion accessories but she does not stop there: in part 2, she actually photographs the fruit of her handicraft and produces some amazing results!

• Photographing the Bride.
  This tutorial focuses on what is probably the most important type of portrait photography: bridal portraits!

• Finding Rembrandt: Shoot Like the Old Masters.
  One of my favourite tutorials in this 5DayDeal is by one of my favourite teachers. Just like me, Chris Knight has a thing for dramatic, Rembrandt-style lighting patterns. In this video course, he dives deeply into Rembrandt portraits and he also takes you through his postproduction. Another highly recommended tutorial that by itself costs more than the entire bundle.

“A new camera makes you no more of a great photographer than a box of cake-mix makes you a great pastry chef.”

— Zack Arias in Photo 101

My favourite light setup: short light (in this case: short loupe light). In this tutorial, Chris Knight explores the tools and techniques to create dramatic looking portraits. Until October 16, this tutorial and many others is yours for only $89 as part of the 5DayDeal.

3. You’re mainly interested in product, landscape and architecture photography.

Admittedly, this list is shorter but that’s mainly because I only highlighted the courses that deal with the photography side of things, not the postprocessing. In practice, the other courses (such as Serge Ramelli’s Adobe Lightroom Masterclass and the Mastering Luminosity Masks course by Nick Page) contain a lot of content that is geared towards landscape and architectural photographers.

Still not convinced? I’ve got 5 more arguments for you:

1. This way of learning is by far the cheapest way to improve your photographic skills at your own pace, when and where you want. Most of the tutorials are downloadable video files, so you’re not tied to subscriptions or internet access to watch them. The 5DayDeal bundle gives you 60+ hours of video tutorials for less than $1.5 per hour. Yours to keep forever! The eBooks and presets come on top of that. And that’s without counting Luminar 2018!

2. A large part of the 5DayDeal bundle is new and if it is not new, it’s never been offered as part of another bundle.

3. The bundle is gone on October 16, noon PDT.

4. 10 percent of the turnover goes to charity. In total, previous 5DayDeals have collected over $300.000 for various charities.

5. There are two optional bundles that you can purchase upon checkout:

   • The Charity Bundle and the Pro Bundle ($19 and $29, respectively). Here’s the complete list of what these bundles contain. The latter one focuses on pro photographers and includes a full wedding photography course!

*: + VAT for European citizens. If you have a valid VAT number, you can enter that upon checkout and you won’ be charged VAT.

Location portraiture with the SMDV Mega 180 Speedbox and the Fujifilm GFX - part 2

In the previous blog post, I introduced you to the SMDV Speedbox Mega 180. I took it for a spin - and if it had been any windier, it would have taken me for a spin - in the city of Ghent, Belgium, where I live. We made about 5 different set-ups in a little over two hours time because our talented dancer Lana had to be back home in time for rehearsals! When you’re a bit in a rush, you don’t want to spend half of whatever time you have setting up your lights. In part 1, I showed you that I managed to set up the Mega 180 in under a minute - quite a feat for a softbox this size and that has everything to do with its design and not with my two left hands :-) In the video below, you see us creating the first shot. I call this my ‘warming up shots’. It’s a safe shot that technically isn’t too challenging and we made it in a quiet area. This allows for the model, the team and myself to get to know each other and get in the flow of things, without too many tourists looking along. It’s also reassuring to have at least one useable shot right from the get-go.

The essential guide to working with small and big flashes on location. This ebook will show you all you need to know to create killer flash images.

One of the things I love about this SMDV Mega 180 is that it creates super soft light, even for full-length portraits. I even helped it a bit, by putting it in the frame and then masking it out afterwards, a technique I’m using more and more.

Below, you can see a high-speed behind-the-scenes video of the actual shoot and the retouching. I was shooting on the GF23 on my trusted Fujifilm GFX 50S because I wanted to take in the entire castle. But working with such a wide angle caused a bit of distortion on her left arm and hand, which is why you’ll see me use the Liquify tool in Photoshop. The colour grading is done through one of my Creative Profiles for Lightroom Classic CC, Photoshop CC 2018 and Camera Raw.

The Fujifilm GFX 50S is my favourite camera ever. You can do just about anything with the files that come out of it. The potential for shadow recovery without noise is amazing. If you don’t believe me, check out this blog post, where I recuperate a four-stop underexposed image… But be warned. I’ve know at least one photographer personally who bought a GFX after reading that blog post :-)

The GFX has made me slow down and work on a tripod more. This is my Sirui Traveller T2204-XL. You can also see me use the right-angle finder on my camera. I love that accessory. I’m wearing a Spider Holster and the GFX has a Spider plate with an Arca Swiss compatible base plate. It makes me look like a bit like Robocop but I’m past the desire of looking fashionable when I’m shooting. I’ll leave that to my models :-) Image © Frank Verheye.

Location portraiture with the SMDV Mega 180 Speedbox - part 1

Introduction

If you're a regular reader of this blog or you've read my Light It Up ebook (available in Dutch as Flash!), you know I'm an avid user of the softboxes of the South-Korean brand SMDV. One of the main reasons I like them so much is because they are super fast to set up and even faster to break down. As most of the stuff I do is location portraiture, often with non-professional models who have better things to do than sit around and wait while I set up a softbox, this is an important advantage.

My favorite softboxes so far in the SMDV range have been the Speedbox 70 and Speedbox Alpha 110. I manage to set up the Alpha 110 in less than 15 seconds. Breaking it down is even faster: 2 seconds. These softboxes are dodecagonal, which is a fancy word for being 12-sided. As such, they create an even more circular catchlight than regular octas.

The 110 is probably my absolute favorite: it's still light enough to carry around and I've used it everywhere from India to Mongolia. It just fits in my North Face Rolling Thunder 36 bag, without having to disassemble it. With smaller speedlights, I sometimes use the 70 as well. Apart from the quick setup and breakdown, what I also love is the build quality and the fact that I can add grids to the softboxes. As my style of portraiture is pretty dark and moody, I like the extra control that a grid can bring. Below you can see a setup shot where I use the 110 and the 70 together in this impromptu street portrait of a lawyer-turned-sadhu in India. This portrait was made during the first Location Portraiture and Lighting Masterclass. Details of the 2019 edition can be found here.

The grid helps to control the rim light and to avoid flare in my lens.

Fujifilm X-Pro2 | XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR @ 129.2 mm | 1-250 sec. @ f/8 | ISO 400 | This one was done with my Jinbei HD600 flash - I'm using Godox AD600 and 200 flashes now. | Camera left: SMDV Alpha 110 - Camera right: Gridded SMDV 70.

This is Matt Brandon's SMDV Alpha 90 being used to make a portrait of these Mongolian Eagle Hunters... It took two people just to hold the 90 so the 180 would not have been an option here...

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 56.5 mm | 1-125 sec. @ f/13 | ISO 100 | SMDV Alpha 90 with Godox AD600B

The SMDV Mega Speedbox series

However, sometimes, I want an even bigger light source, so when SMDV announced the Mega Series of softboxes and more specifically the Mega 180, I was all ears and eyes. They were kind enough to send me a review copy and so I took it out for a spin in the city of Ghent, Belgium where I live.

The Mega series consists of five softboxes, ranging in size from 90 cm to 180 cm. The three smallest (90, 110 and 130 are deep octa style softboxes, except for the fact that they're not eight-sided but 24-sided! The two biggest ones, the 160 and the 180 have a more regular width-to-depth ratio. Weights range from 2.1 to 3.24 kg.

Now mind you, this is one big softbox. In fact, it's taller than most of the people I shoot. So, although it's probably a softbox that most photographers would use indoors, I wanted to see how I fared with it outdoors, as this is my natural habitat.

Construction and setup

It's actually 181 cm, but who's counting :-) Image © Frank Verheyen.

When you take it out of its bag, this softbox just oozes quality and sturdiness. SMDV managed to maintain a quick setup system but they improved and reinforced it, which was necessary because of the additional strain a softbox this size puts on the entire folding mechanism. Furthermore, as this softbox has no less than 24 sides, setup takes a little longer than the SMDV Alpha 110 but it's still doable in less than a minute, as you can see from the video. The first couple of times you set it up, it can feel a bit tight but that improves a lot: after the tenth time I set it up, I could do it in under a minute. One thing that helps is to not secure every rod in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction, but to secure every other one and then give it a second pass with the ones you left out on the first go. That same trick also works on the Alpha 110, by the way.

24 sides means there's also 24 rods to click into place. Still, after some practice, I manage to do it in under a minute! Breaking down is even faster. Image © Frank Verheyen.

In one way, I like the new setup even system better than the old one on the small and Alpha SMDV speedboxes. On those units, one thing you have to watch out for is dust or sand getting inside the speedring. The new setup system of the Mega series is all external, so there's no risk of sand or other dirt getting inside and blocking the setup system. I've once had to open the speedring of my Speedbox 70 and the inside is almost as complex as a Swiss watch :-). It's a great system - I just wouldn't do any beach shots with it...

Another difference between the Mega series and the regular SMDV softboxes lies in how you break them down. The latter are broken down by depressing a couple of switch-like buttons, which is as fast as it gets. With the Mega series, however, you have to flip each of the 24 switches individually. Again, it's something that can be done in 30 seconds or so. So it's still very fast for a softbox this size (and with this many sides), just not as fast as its smaller siblings.

On my regular SMDV softboxes, I generally leave the middle diffuser and the front diffuser (and sometimes even the grid) attached when I break them up. While you could do so on the Mega series, especially on the 180 I think it's probably just as fast to take at least the front diffuser off when taking it down because leaving it on adds some extra tension when you tighten the rods to put it back together. This is one huge softbox, after all! 

In the video below, I show you how easy it is to set up the softbox. In fact, putting on the front diffuser takes longer than setting up the actual softbox.

That's it for the first part of blog post. In the next part, we'll actually put the SMDV, our model and our assistants to work and make some images!

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 33.8 mm | 1-125 sec at f - 8,0 | ISO 100 | 2 x Godox AD600B with H1200B head in SMDV Mega 180 Speedbox.