Q&A- THE MAKE UP DILEMMA AND MY PHOTOGRAPHY EQUIPMENT

Sitter på kontoret med en sovande hund på mina fötter och en Sean som knattrar på sin dator framför mig. Jag hade tänkt göra ett inlägg med svar på era frågor, men hann bara svara på två av dem innan jag insåg att inlägget skulle bli olidligt långt om jag svarade på fler. Jag hade visst massor av tankar att skriva av mig angående smink-dilemmat och min fotoutrustning:

I’m sitting in the office with a dog sleeping at my feet and Sean writing on his computer in front of me. I was going to make a post with answers to your questions, but only managed to answer two of them before I realized that the post would become unbearably long if I answered more. Apparently I had a lot of thoughts to write down about the make-up dilemma, and my photography equipment:

“I thought that i would really like to read a post about your relationship with make-up…i don’t know if you’ve done this before. My relationship with make-up is quite conflicting…i don’t like wearing it (i don’t like how it feels on my skin), and yet I find it very challenging to go out without a bit of BB Cream to hide my acne and/or mascara to make me look less tired. I saw in some of your pictures that you seem to be wearing quite a lot of make-up : how do you feel about this ? is this something that you like (like a nice accessory or something) or that you feel obliged to ? Are you annoyed with these women (quite often the “parisian” tyPe of girls) taking pride in being “natural”, not wearing make-up, etc. (i am). I would looove to know your point of view on this topic!”

Hi there! THANK YOU for this question, this is really something I think a lot about. I wear make up more or less every day, and most times I don’t feel very confident in public without it. On the one hand, I’m suuuuper annoyed by people (mostly dudes) bashing down on all the girls ”wasting” time putting on make up, calling them superficial etc (that part of me just want to put them in to place by using tonnes of shading and glitter eyeshadows). On the other hand, I’m annoyed by realizing that I live in a society where I, as a girl, am expected to look pretty all the time (that part of me just want to boycott the whole beauty industry and everything that has with make up to do).

Right now, I use make up every day because I do think it’s really fun to put it on, it’s somehow a creative process of creating an aesthetics that I want to communicate (like editing a photo or choosing an outfit). I love playing with it and use it more like an accessory that completes a look, like painting fake freckles, making glitter eyebrows or using a very strong accent color.
But it’s always healthy to analyze WHY I think it’s fun tu put on make up: probably because I feel prettier or cooler. And WHY do I want to look pretty? probably because our society premiers good looks. And so on.

But I can also see a feministic part of the make-up industry. We’re not just a bunch of girls forced to manipulate our looks to feel good enough- there’s also a strong wave of confident girls reclaiming the make up. It feels like we are starting to putting on make up for our own sake, because we think it’s fun and because we like it. Not as a tool to please some random dude who wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a rouge and a highlighter anyway. I mean, just look at all the powerful girls in the beauty genre in social media.

Do you guys have any wise opinions about this? To be honest all these thoughts makes me very confused. It would be very interesting to read what you have to say.

I would love to read a bit more about your photography! I love how there is always really nice lighting in your outfit photos. I noticed you rarely shoot in direct sunlight – you are usually in shade, or the photos are backlit. How do you achieve such a good and even lighting in such conditions? I mostly take landscape photos but I noticed that the lighting is something I struggle the most when I occasionally take portrait shots. Do you use reflector discs? Or flash? Who takes your outfit photos for you? Back in Umea, did you use tripod and remote shutter? I find it quite hard to disguise the remote shutter in my hand, it always looks like I’m awkwardly holding my hand closed. Are you happy with your current camera+lenses (Nikon D600+ 85mm f/1.8 I believe)? I know you had them for quite a while now. Do you think you are going to upgrade to something else in the near future and if so, what? Would you splurge on 85mm f/1.4? I started reading your blog back in the days when you still used D90, and you inspired me to buy my first DSLR 🙂 It’s been five years since, and it’s falling apart so I’m trying to decide what to buy next.

Thank you! I love experimenting with lightning, and I agree that its super difficult to create the perfect conditions for a nicely lit picture. I’ve started to experiment more with direct sunlight, but I usually prefer ”soft” light. Here’s a post where I’ve experimented with direct sunlight, for example.
I think the ideal timings for good pictures is cloudy weather, or just when the sun is about to set/just after it has rised.
Sometimes it’s hard to see exactly how the light is (you get better at this over time though) but the best way is always to snap a test-picture to get a good overview. And never underestimate the magic that can be done i photoshop afterwards!
I use a reflector sometimes for food or product shots, but almost never for portraits.
I’m still super happy with my Nikon D600+ 85mm f/1.8, but I’m going to get a new lens, 28mm f/1,8, for more casual everyday pictures, since the 85mm is so incredibly zoomed in, haha.

(I use my Olympus Pen for taking photos on the go)