Frank Doorhof

Fashion, Portrait | Last Updated: February 4, 2021

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I was born in Amsterdam but my parents moved to the NoordOostPolder pretty quickly where I grew up and we still have our studio.

Photography was literally in my upbringing, both my grandparents and parents love video and photography and also did their own developing. Although I still shoot assignments, I’m mainly focused on education and running our social media including a very active YouTube channel.

I’m heavily inspired by the old masters like Rembrandt (see guide) and Caravaggio and photographers like David Lachapelle.

Over the years we’ve released over 15 full length instructional videos and I’m a member of the KelbyOne team where you can also find unique tutorials.

Besides photography, I’m a trained ISF tech/calibrator which explains my passion for movies and colors I hope.

At the moment I teach twice a week in our studio and several workshops worldwide during the year, plus a lot of demos for companies on trade shows.

Of course, the content of my bag varies per assignment but is pretty much the standard gear I bring with me most of the time.

Camera:

Sony A7RIII

Camera choice is very simple, at the moment I strongly believe Sony is at the top of their game, great output for fashion and street/travel photography, and the body not too heavy. I always use a grip so that makes it possible to use 2 batteries, but the camera is slightly heavier.

Lenses:

Sony 24-70mm f/2.8
Sony 70-400mm f/4-5.6
Sigma 12-24mm f/4
Lensbaby 80mm tilt lens
Techart AF Adapter + a vintage lens (Leica R or M42 etc)
LAE A mount to E mount convertors for A mount lens

Lenses are always personal! I just love the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8, it gives me a lot of options to play with wide-angle and tele to get totally different looks from my subject, I also love primes but in all honesty, the constant changing of lenses was something I (and my subjects) grew tired of pretty fast.

I do have a nice collection of primes and do use them, but in my bag, it’s almost all zoom for what I need most.

The Sony 70-400mm f/4-5.6 for the simple reason it has a longer reach than my Sony 70-200mm f/2.8, it might be as fast as the f/2.8 but I almost always stop down a bit and when traveling I prefer the 70-400 for the longer reach.

Also, the Sigma 12-24mm f/4 is always in my bag, I just love the way it renders images and I love playing with those wide-angle shots, it gives a different view of the world.

For special effects, I’m in love with the LensBaby 80mm. It’s a very sharp portrait lens with a twist, you can tilt it for cool focus effects (or not and get everything in focus), the nice thing about the 80mm is that is also has an aperture ring (not fixed) and it’s very sensitive for lens flare (something I love to play with), add to this the macro option and it’s a very cool lens to bring.

And finally, I almost always bring my TechArt AF Adapter with me. I just love vintage lenses and have a nice selection of M42, Leica R, Minolta, etc. lenses, you buy them for next to nothing and they give you crazy or cool looks, for example the Helios 55mm has some crazy bokeh.

Now with the Techart Adapter those manual lenses actually become autofocus lenses, it has some limitations with longer lenses but nothing you can’t solve, it’s very cool to have AF on those old lenses and it makes using them a lot of fun. Although focusing manually via the Sony EVF is also a breeze.

Flash:

Mitros + Phottix strobes (1-2)
Rogue Flashbenders (1-2)
Rogue color gels
Odin II Remote

Essentials:

Xrite Colorchecker Passport II
Sekonic 858 lightmeter
Tethertools tether cable USB to USB-C
Tethertools tetherblock

Colorchecker – I always bring with me for accurate colors.

Lightmeter – Goes without saying for proper lighting (I love to shoot manual strobes).

Normally we use Hensel lighting gear, but on the road it’s often easier to bring speedlights (especially when you walk around or have to fly). For the strobes I choose the Mitros+ from Phottix because they have the receivers inside, this saves on batteries I have to carry with me and weight, and it works like a charm. I use the Odin II to control and trigger the strobes.

When shooting tethered we of course use Tethertools USB cables and a Tethertools tetherblock to make sure my port doesn’t get damaged, this is something a lot of people forget to secure so make sure you use a Jerkstopper or a Tetherblock. Those ports are really fragile and incredibly expensive to replace.

The coin you see is actually for mounting the tetherblock, it takes less space than a screwdriver.

Laptop:

Dell XPS 9570 i9

My laptop is my workhorse and gets replaced almost every year, I guess 80% of my work is done on the laptop when I’m not in the studio. In this case I choose the Dell XPS 9570 i9, it edits 4K video without a problem and for a 15” it’s not that large.

In the future I’m thinking about the Surfacebook 3 when it’s released because we normally bring a Wacom tablet with us, with the Surfacebook 3 that wont be necessary anymore.

Bag:

Lowepro backpacks or roller cases

Bags for me are without a doubt Lowepro, bags are very personal but with Lowepro I somehow always have exactly what I need and they are very durable.

www.frankdoorhof.com | @frankdoorhof