For years I arrived on set with two cases of lights. Now I arrive with a reflector, a roll of black fabric and a lot of patience.
Read the room first
Before I unpack anything I spend twenty minutes watching where the light falls and how fast it moves. Most rooms have one good wall and one good hour. The job is to find both.
Shape, don’t add
A white card to lift a shadow, a black flag to deepen one. That’s usually all it takes. The light stays soft and the pictures look like the place they were made in.
When I still use flash
Late winter afternoons in Bergen, and product shots where colour has to be exact. Even then, I try to make it look like a window.
More from the journal
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process, styling
Building a set from one wall
Notes from the Linen campaign, where the whole shoot happened against a single stretch of plaster.
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beauty, light
Shooting skin without retouching
What changes when you promise a client that nothing will be smoothed out afterwards.
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commissions, process
What happens after you send an enquiry
The steps from first email to final files, so you know what to expect before we talk.