The Perfect Picture; wildlife and personal heroes

Wednesday 8 December 2021, 23:23 by Elja Trum | 5,311 views | 1 comment

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Tonight was the semi-final of Het Perfecte Plaatje. In this episode, the contestants took on two more photography assignments. The first was to take a wildlife photo in the Netherlands, and the second was to photograph their personal hero.

Wildlife in the Netherlands

For both assignments in this episode, the contestants had to create series. For this first assignment, it was a diptych.

Creating a series can be quite difficult. Taking one good photo is not that hard, but taking two or more good photos that also have a clear relationship to each other is more difficult.

The contestants went to the popular Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen for their Dutch wildlife. In this nature reserve, it is almost difficult not to photograph foxes or fallow deer. So it is a great location for a shoot like this.

Wildlife photographer Jeroen Stel was the guest judge for this first shoot and also helped the Dutch celebrities during their shoot.

For this assignment, the contestants used the Canon EOS R6 mirrorless camera with either an RF 70-200mm f/4 or the EF 100-100mm f/4.5-5.6.

Both telephoto zooms are of course perfectly suited to this kind of wildlife photography. Especially the 100-400mm, which lets you take beautiful close-ups of, for example, the fallow deer from a considerable distance.

Winning series by Frits Sissing
f/5.6, 1/500s, 320 ISO and f/22, 1/500s, 200 ISO
» View all the photos from this assignment

Personal heroes

The second assignment was to recreate a photo of their own personal hero. They were also given extra preparation time so they could plan their shoot.

As an extra challenge, they also had to be visible in one of the photos themselves.

For this shoot, the contestants used the Canon EOS R6 with either an RF 24-105 f/4 or the Canon RF 85mm f/2.0 Macro.

You see the Canon R6 being used more and more in the latest assignments. It is of course a real all-rounder, and I think the entire programme could simply have been shot with it. Especially combined with the 24-105mm, you can handle almost any situation.

During this shoot, they could also use the 85mm. An ideal lens for close-up portraits.

Winning series by Patrick Martens
Patrick won this shoot with his series about the LGBTQ community.

» View all the photos from the assignment

What also stood out to me in these series was that many contestants chose to alternate between landscape and portrait photos, meaning horizontal and vertical. Personally, I often find that a strange choice in a series, because it can look odd when the series is exhibited.

Eliminated

Juvat had to leave the show this week. It did feel a little as if the scoring had been set up so that Patrick would win anyway. After he got a 5 in the first assignment, he was suddenly given a solid 9.

Next week

Next week we will see part one of the final, with the three finalists leaving for Bonaire. There they will photograph kitesurfers, partly underwater, and head into the kitchen.

Fancy working on your own photography in the meantime?
Get some more tips from the Het Perfecte Plaatje tip videos from Canon.

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