TIA - This Is Africa

I’ve been itching to share these images with you for a while now. Together with a very talented creative team I shot a fashion editorial inspired by the many references to Africa that can be found in SS14 creations from many labels. Africa is definitely a continent on the rise and the world of fashion is never late to pick up on current trends, from wherever they evolve. Here is a selection from this fashion editorial – This Is Africa – published in latest issue 14 of The View Magazine.

Technically, it was a fairly simple setup in terms of lighting, with a large Elinchrom Rotalux octabox to the left on a 45 degree angle, a v-flat to the right and a medium grey background.

Read the full story about the shoot here.

Photo: Donald Linderyd, www.dlinderyd.com
Stylist: Dasha Egay, www.funfunstyling.com
Models: Julia W & Holly Miller @ Leni's Model Management, www.lenismodels.com
Makeup: Kat Krupa-Ringuet, www.katkruparinguet.co.uk & Tamash Sharkan, www.tamashsharkan.com
Hair: Vimal Chavda using Evo products
Wardrobe: Top ZARA, Trousers ONE TEASPOON, Necklace TOPSHOP, Bag VALENTINO, Shoes NEW LOOK, Bracelet Alexander McQueen, Dress COS, Top ZARA, Scarf ISABEL MARANT, Sandals ASOS HARBOUR
www.dlinderyd.com | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | London Fashion & Portrait Photographer

Hollywood Lighting

I’ve really started to like hard lighting. If it works it can make portraits almost look 3D-like. If it doesn’t work it’ll be a disaster with very unpleasing shadows in the wrong place. Still worth a try.

Having mostly aimed for soft light with soft boxes and shoot-through brollies in the past, I took on the task to learn more about hard light. I wanted to create the classic “Hollywood lighting” or cinematic lighting from the 1940s that is so popular. Think Marilyn Monroe and you know what I mean.

I spent an evening doing self-portraits, just to see what the shadows looked like. My Canon Speedlite 580 EX IIs came in very handy, as they are small light sources and can be made even smaller and harder with grids and snoots from HONL, perfect for what I was looking for.

Self-portraits can be interesting and good practise, but my wife is definitely a better model, so I asked her to sit in for a few shots. I think we’re both pretty pleased with the result.

New Life

One of my favourite local spots seems to be going through a bit of a change. There were actually people there this weekend seemingly busy to try to clear the area of junk and debris. The place isn’t going to look respectable anytime soon is my prediction, but at least I got the chance to shoot it again in all it’s glory. We were even a bit lucky with the light.

Here are a few of the images. It’s all natural light. Some are HDR. I’ll try to post a few more in a few days. Enjoy!

The Beach

I hooked up with very talented model (and working photographer) Marcela Diaz in August to create some traditional beach images, including bikinis and beachwear. Well, that was the plan…

The summer had been fantastic, with hot and sunny weather in abundance… until we decided to do a beach session. After a number of failed attempts we decided to give it a go.

Finally at the beach we realised just how windy and overcast the conditions actually were. We had initially talked about high contrast beachfront pictures with blue skies and a lots of sun. Instead we had to change our plan drastically.


More after the break…

Wireless Flash on Location

Two small flashguns, a brolly and a small grid can work wonders for almost any photo.
I tried this setup in a park in east London, UK, this weekend and am very pleased with the results from such a small and lightweight setup. Obviously, I brought much more gear than needed. But it could have been very lightweight, easily fitting into a LowePro backpack.