Nathan Stampfli is a Swiss-based photographer and web designer that specializes in portrait, product and landscape photography. Nathan likes to use pale tones combined with their complementary tones to create bold compositions and vintage-style photos. He recently tagged us in several of his Instagram posts, which had a colourful 1950’s theme.
We thought his compositions were so interesting that we reached out to Nathan and inquired about his setups for the photographs. In his response, Nathan said that he finds Rosco’s colour filter range perfectly aligns with his style - “I love Rosco filters, I use them on every photo I take.” Below are the shots Nathan shared with us, along with his descriptions of how he created the 50's themed portraits using gels from his Rosco Color Effects Filter Kit.
This was my first photo shoot with Rosco filters. In order to create a warm sunlight glow on the model’s face, I placed a Cinegel #3408 Roscosun CTO filter on a reflector bowl behind the model. While this colour-correction filter was not necessarily designed to create this coloured effect, it shows that it is quite possible to get something consistent by properly mastering the use of colour filters.
The model in this photo is illuminated by the colourful sign in the restaurant, but the same effect could easily be obtained by using Rosco #12 Straw, #26 Light Red and #80 Primary Blue colour filters – all are tones that I often rely on to create the vintage look in my photos.
In this photo we shot the pin-up model Alice Veil inside McFly's Diner in Neuchâtel, Switzerland and, using the neon sign as inspiration, created the atmosphere of an American diner in the 1950’s. We placed a flash side-lighting the model on the right and inserted a Rosco #26 Light Red. A flash on the left of the model had Rosco #65 Daylight Blue and a flash without any filter was placed in front of the model.
We used the same colour scheme in this photo - Rosco #26 Light Red on the right, #65 Daylight Blue on the left – and placed a flash in neutral light at a 45° angle to the model.
In this photo we wanted to create a jazz-vintage atmosphere using rich colorimetry in the style of American films. The scene, showing model Mathieu Bolomey sitting on a bar, was composed using three flashes outfitted with Rosco gels: a flash on the left of the model had a Rosco #21 Golden Amber filter, a flash behind the subject illuminated the wall with Rosco #47 Light Rose Purple, and a flash on the right of the subject had a Rosco #44 Middle Rose filter.
In this photo shoot we wanted to create the world of jazz and pin-up colors of the 50s. We shot the pin-up model Tina de Velours inside a dance school in Switzerland and used the following filters to evoke the atmosphere of the time: we inserted Rosco #21 Golden Amber on a flash behind the model, Rosco #44 Middle Rose on the right flash and we placed a neutral flash without the gel in front of the model.
This photo shows the same setting enhanced with blue tones: a flash behind the model used Rosco #21 Golden Amber, a flash on the right side of the model had the Rosco #65 Daylight Blue and a neutral flash without filter was placed in front of the model.
To learn more about Nathan Stampfli’s work, visit his website, and be sure to follow him via Instagram: @nathanpaspour. If you’d like to learn more about the filters that Nathan used to create the vibrant colors in the photos above, explore the Color Effects Filter Kit product page on our website.
