Furstset

@furstset

Best of the week 17 at #nomadict 2021

Six ingredients to achieve a solid creative foundation!

Usually, people recognize my style because I add a magic touch to it. I want my work to look clean and take people with me to that moment. In the following guide, you can find some basic steps I follow to stay true to my creative vision and keep evolving:

1) I search for locations using Instagram, Google Maps, and Earth. If I find something on IG, I visit Maps and look for new locations in that area. To me, sunrise and sunset are my go-to for shooting. So I always try to understand where the sun will rise and where it sets. In this regard, the app called ‘Alpenglow’ is quite helpful.

2) On location, I always shoot RAW. Then, I stick to some base settings: ISO 100, an aperture between 5.6 and 11, and a shutter speed of 1/125. Then depending on the light, I modify the camera’s aperture, and if I want to shoot in 1.4, I either use a filter to get less light or change the shutter speed.

3) In post-processing, I edit the colors of the entire scene in the first place with Lightroom. I scroll through my presets, apply one that suits the image, and change things if needed. Then I save the shot and open it in Photoshop. Often I clean the scenery by removing cars, footsteps, etc.

4) The foreground can help you tell the story, so making it visible and prioritizing the highlights to make them stand out will also help you achieve a beautiful photograph. I also like to add warm tones and saturation to my images to give that positive and welcoming/inviting feeling to the photo.

5) I think I spend a minimum of 1 hour per photo, but it can take up to 5+ hours, depending on the shot. After editing, I place it in my grid. I check my grid daily, so whenever I feel like changing something, I go back to Photoshop/Lightroom and change things.

6) Every day, I learn and change my workflow based on my liking. We all keep changing/evolving. In this regard, “Practice makes perfect” and “Just do it!” are two mottos I like. Combine those two, and you will progress. I have no doubts about that!

Full article with Furstset

What I strive for most in life is to live, and not regret anything. That’s one of the reasons why I went to visit Stokksnes in Iceland. Seeing this place was one of my biggest goals in life since I was young. I can remember seeing an image of this beach when I was little and it is one of those places that I visited multiple times in my dreams. All I can remember from this place in my dreams is that the sun was bright and the scenery felt like it was out of a fantasy book. Once I visited this beach in real life, it felt as if that dream had been some kind of vision. As if that place was meant for me to visit. And I did find out the reason behind that visit.

We were traveling through Iceland with six people in total and we had one goal: Visit as many locations as possible. Due to the fact the midnight sun was almost there, we had long sunrises and sunsets, meaning that we were shooting and driving about 16-18 hours a day and we didn’t really sleep that much. The particular morning I took the photo was a morning not to forget; it was life changing in a way. Let me take you back to that moment… It was a cold morning. We parked the car on the beach itself and I remember waking up with the sun just rising above the horizon. Within five minutes we were all ready to shoot, tired, but going crazy because of the amazing conditions. That’s all I can remember of that morning – I blacked out. 

Once I was back in the car I looked at the images taken, I asked the others: “Who shot all those images?” Jonas looked at me and told me that I was the one running around like a maniac, getting all the shots.

"For me that was the morning that changed the way I looked at life."

I have this strong passion for photography, a passion for getting the perfect image. Yet it was killing me. I feel like I was putting too much pressure on myself due to having a big following and not wanting to disappoint those people. From that moment I learned to live more in the moment, to breathe and enjoy the views with my eyes, not through my lens. To appreciate those moments and to give myself the chance to save them in my memory, not solely on my hard drive. I really wish I knew and remembered what I was doing that moment, but I was shooting without consciousness, literally. It must’ve been my body’s automated pilot. 

For me, Stokksnes was a place out of my dreams, so that’s what I tried to achieve in the editing process. Usually people recognize my style because I add a magic touch to it. I want my work to look clean and I want to take people with me to that exact moment. What I really loved in this shot was the grass in the foreground. To me, it gives the feeling you are there, standing or sitting there watching the sun rise. That is why I really wanted to make sure that the grass was visible and I decided to make the highlights pop and stand out on the black sand. I’ve added some warm tones and saturation to the entire image as well to give that positive and welcoming/inviting feeling to the photo.

In my opinion we are incredibly lucky to be visitors on such an amazing and beautiful planet – and I believe this beauty has to be shared. With my work I try to inspire and motivate people to appreciate what we’ve been given and to show them the small things that make life so worthy. Traveling, or as I like to call it “exploring the planet”, gives us the chance to witness all these beautiful places with their own culture, history and identity.

My passion for photography was passed on to me by my dad, even though I never got to know him – He passed away before I set foot on this planet. But he loved photography and I feel like he is the fire that drives my passion. I believe that life is beautiful; it starts somewhere, it’s unknown how long your journey will be and it will always end. However, when you look at the television or read the newspaper, we see that most of the information is based on negativity and there is a lot of fear around death. 

My father left me something amazing, a passion to live for. With my photography I hope to pass this onto others and inspire people to live life by the day, make the best out of each hour and not regret anything. 

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