Experiences, notions, successes and fails from 15 years in analog and digital photography!
Hi there, hope you had nice early spring days with some time for photos in the warm sun I had a very busy week with travelling to Berlin at Tuesday, a visit at Joe McNally’s workshop in Hamburg (northern Germany) on Thursday (Joe was really humorous and made me laugh a lot) and a seven hours business assignment on saturday where I had to wake up at 5.45 AM. But the people there were great and we got some very…
I just uploaded another behind the scenes-video to YouTube and Vimeo.com. It shows the first part of an outdoor senior photo shoot with the beautiful Anouk. She was just 16 when we did this at the end of last October so her parents signed a release for her. Only 16, but she did it very well!
14 comments
Really great video and lovely pictures.
This has inspired me to use my gel’s in a more creative way. Thx mr Simonsen!
B.r /Fredrik S, Sweden
Fredrik, you’re welcome!
Oh, if you wouldn’t mind please say “Stefan”, because I’m not an old teacher *haha*
Outstanding shots/compositions – tack sharp!! Two questions: Do you shoot RAW/NEF? And what Post Processing work did you do (if any)?
-Jim
Hi Jim, when doing portrait-/industrial shoots I’m always using .nef’s and editing them in Lightroom. This days I’m trying Apple’s Aperture too, but the photos in this video were edited just with Lightroom 3 Beta 1, no Photoshop etc…
@ Stefan: 
Very Nice. Simple setup with super results. Thanks for another inspiring behind the scenes.
Wonderfully lit.
Hello Stephan, Excellent job, beautiful pictures. One question, What setting did you use in your camera?.
And keep going doing this class of video. Congratulations.
Hi Juan, thx!
Camera in M, ISO at 100-200, 1/250s, and an aperture between 3.5 and 2.5
Hi there,
Can I ask you how you fired the SB900? I just got a set of quadras today and wanted to try firing a flash also.
Just put the SB in the menu to SU-4 to activate the photocell and switch to “remote”. Then your SB will not recognize the iTTL-signals from the master anymore but will fire whenever a flash is firing.
Don’t forget to put the SB in M-Mode and to set the right power. iTTL isn’t available with SU4…
Hope I explained it well 
Thanks Stefan, I was nearly there, was setting it in SU4 but not flicking it to remote, so could not understand why it would not fire. Thanks again.
Love looking at your work, lighting is superb!
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I love it! Brilliant work!
In recent years I took hundred thousands of photos. A bunch of them were published via news agencies. Last week the people at one agency ask the photographers to select ten of their most recognizable pictures for an exhibition. I picked this ones…
1 comment
They are really great shot, my favourite is the last one, so unusual and well taken, a masterpiece!
Very good work!
Last weeks sunday I had the pleasure to make photographs of a big family. Three generations, eleven people. Despite partially heavy rain we had a lot of fun and got some really beautiful pictures. For me it was a specially delight to catch the grandparents’ still noticeable lovingness with my work! The photo shoot was a big surprise for the grandparents. They only knew about a session with me and her granddaughter but one hour later the other part of…
10 comments
Hi Stefan,
I stumbled upon your blog through some of your flickr photos. I really enjoy reading your posts. I love how you include tips within your posts. It helps and motivates me to get better.
Thank you for sharing your photos and tips. Your English is great by the way! =)
Hi Ty, thank you again for your nice comment, you’re welcome!
Stefan – you’re shots here are amazing and inspiring – you captured the moments perfectly!!
-Jim
Thank you, Jim!
Hi Stefan,
Fantastic photos, your colours really have super punch, how do you achieve this, is it in post production? I also have a D3, great camera.
Oh yes and great videos, I have learnt a lot from you in one afternoon watching your techniques, I’m a Firefighter in England so appreciated your calendar shoot.
Great work, I’m inspired to get out and use my flash and new ezybox much more.
Kind regards
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
I shot the photos as raw-files and used the camera settings “Portrait”. In Lightroom I just increased the “Vibrance” to get more punchier colors. You should not use “Saturation” because it will increase all colors including skin tones – “Vibrance” will only increase colors except them!
I’m glad you like my work and got some inspiration
Hi Stefan,
Thank you for that info, I’ve just downloaded the portrait plug in for my D3, I wasn’t aware of this until you said about it, I’ll give it a go tomorrow.
Thanks again
Kevin
There are no words to describe how bodicaous this is.
Hi Stefan,
Your work is an inspiration The colours brilliant and the use of Depth of Field fabulous,
Exploring your site and watching the videos I have learnt a mass of information.
and ordered some extra lighting gear
Keep up the great work
Barry John
Hey Barry, I’m always happy to hear about another photographer who has been inspired by me and my work. Thank you!
Just a short clip with some explanations of the photo shoot with Mareike. Have Fun! ( for RSS-readers the full link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkhc-UM43mE )
6 comments
Stefan:
Another awesome video! Terrific set of shots! I absolutely love what you are doing with the Quadras. I myself just purchased an Elinchrom system and am very excited to get it out and set up.
Keep up the excellent work, man. Looking forward to seeing your next video!
-Matt
Thank you, Matt!
You bought the Quadra? Man, this will change your way of photography and was the best decision you could made Have fun with it, I’m dying to see some pics at flickr!
Stefan:
Actually bought the Ranger! Very excited. You need to hop a flight with your gear to Boston, MA so that we can put together a nice big shoot “American” style.
Again, love your work and really looking forward to your next video!
Yeah, that would be great! I already wanted to visit Boston, loved what I saw at pictures! Just have to improve my english a little bit more
Hi Stefan
When you use your Ranger Quadra’s you always say that first you take a shot in Aperture Priority mode at the aperture you want to use then put those settings into manual. My questions is what do you then set the Quadra’s at, the same or different? to achieve that darker background
Hi Richard,
first you have to think about how the Quadra should act: As the mainlight with a few ambient light or as a fill light with ambient light as the main light source.
The Quadra (or whatever u use as flash light) should set to a power that lights the subject right, whatever variation u want to use. When u set the light and the fixed aperture in manual mode just make the shutter time longer to control how much ambient light will flood your image.
Remember: The aperture controls the amount of flashlight, the shutter controls the amount of ambient light!
That will do the trick!
2 comments
Your videos are interesting and helpful – thanks for posting them!
JH
This is a great series of videos. Interesting to see how steady the sandbagged C stand is in the wind with the light panel on top.