Today NiSi invite one of our cooperating photographer Stefan Schäfer, even though he is very young, but have been the brand ambassador of NiSi for around half a year!
He must have some unique experience during this period, so it’s exciting to have an interview with him and reach out more details of his attractive pictures.
S for Stefan and L for Lee
L: Firstly please do a brief introduction of yourself ?
S: Hi, my name is Stefan, I am a german photographer, based in the beautiful capital Berlin. Most of the time I take pictures of cities (Cityscape Photography) and teach Photography skills to other people. I have a YouTube Channel, where you can find a lot of tutorials about Photography and Post Production. But I work also for private clients, like weddings and Corporate Photography. So I have a wonderful mix of different types of photography and it never gets boring !
L: How long have you been taking pictures? How did you start capturing?
S: I started photography in 2011 with a camera of my mom. She was a amateur photographer and I worked as a graphic designer but I was also interested in taking pictures to have good material for my Photoshop work. But then I realized, that Photography is even better than Graphic Design :)
with NiSi Natural Night Filter
L: From your Instagram, it appears that you seems you are more interested in shooting night view of cities than other kind of photography, why?
S: I tried a lot of different types of photography, but this one is my favorite. I love the changeable colors in the sky and the city when the sun goes down and it becomes dark. Its a beautiful mix of both natural light and artificial light. Also you don’t need other people to be models, so you can decide on your own, when you go outside.
L: Which is your favorite photo of those you have shot?
S: Last year I stayed in New York for one week and I was able to have a helicopter flight over the city. And of course it was around sunset and the blue hour. It was very difficult, because you have to increase the ISO a lot. But it’s very shaky in the helicopter and you have to keep the shutter around 1/200sec in order to get sharp images.
But finally I got one really nice picture, where you can see lower Manhattan as well as the two main bridges (Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge) in the Foreground.
L: Could you give a suggestion about night view shooting?
S: Especially Chinese photographer have the great opportunity to shoot great cityscapes. You can find different scenes like modern and also traditional areas. In my case, I shoot with a wide angle lens, an aperture of f/8 most of the time, ISO 100, to get the best possible image quality and a shutter, which depends on the available light. The best results you will get with a tripod, because you can use much longer shutter speeds, to achieve looks with light trails as well. If its too bright, just use a ND Filter from NiSi, to darken the photo and get longer shutter speeds.
L: How is your life changes after you became a ambassador of NiSi?
S: I’ve got a lot of new contacts with great people all over the world. There are so many awesome photographers, which all have the same passion. I really enjoy talking to them, get new inspiration and ideas. NiSi provide me great products, which I can use to get the most out of my photos. I am very thankful!
with NiSi Natural Night Filter
L: What is your next step in the future?
S: I am working on different workshops right now all over the world. So I will be a lot more on my way :-) My family is not that happy about it but my goal is to see as many different places of the world as possible. Also I will extend my YouTube Channel and bring more free tutorials, maybe also in English language in the future……
