We are so excited to welcome Marcel to the AOV family. We had the chance to get to know him and learn about his inspiring experience in Iceland. He offers some empowering advice and has created amazing presets for the community that are shown below.
My name is Marcel, I´m a German based self-taught landscape and adventure lifestyle photographer. I love traveling the world to see the most beautiful places with my own eyes and through my camera. I developed my interest for landscape photography during an exchange program in the USA.
What brought you to Iceland?
I went to iceland late August. I really loved this unique landscapes, the glaciers, waterfalls and rivers across this land. Sadly the weather wasn’t that great for photography. The chance came up to visit this unique destination again this year and the decision was made within one second! I had to return! This time we were blessed with perfect conditions so iceland became one of my favorite destination for adventures!The real challenge in iceland is to find unique and new places: but don’t worry, take your time – open your eyes for new angles, Little things and don’t be too focused on other people photos.
Processed with VSCO with a8 preset
Above is my favorite image from iceland !This moment when I flew my drone over the black sand beach in iceland and realized that I just got the perfect timed shot! The sea gull really wanted to be my model at this morning.My advise: as much as you really want this particular shot: don’t plan too much! Sometimes just sit down in the sand, fly your drone and enjoy the new perspective you can get through this technology.
Do you have any shooting advise for our photography community?
Wake up early! It´s always worth it. The spots are usually empty and not already packed with tourists blocking the view onto the subject of your photo. The light is super calm and usually golden. A great start into the day is taking the camera with you and creating some “bangers”.
Do you have any editing advise for our community?
1. I use always one of my presets to get started. This is the best way to keep that unique picture style
2. I lower the saturation to get the faded and cinematic look
3. split toned and color corrections are the sections I invest most of my editing time – and it´s worth it!
4. Use gradial filters to highlight your subjects.
How do you support your photography?
I keep practicing all day and all trip long. I also watch some youtube tutorials in case I cant figure something out myself. But usually I´m teaching myself in getting tons of ugly looking pictures until I find the best settings to take the photo!
Where are you located?
All pictures where taken in Iceland
What are your goals with these presets?
My presets are made to skip the “boring” stuff. They already add some contrast, blacks and fade to your images. Rising up the highlights and some clarity to get a crispy pisture style. Usually I lower the saturation a little bit to get this cinematic look as well. I always focus on color correction and split tones as well!
I created this special Icelandic preset pack cause I´m really proud on the progress I made since the last time I went to iceland which was in August. I keep teaching myself in editing and I´m getting closer to the style which I want to follow!
What do we get with your set of presets?
5 Premium Presets:
Canyon: In case you are too late for the fresh summer greens on the field. This preset can bring back some of the green color into your images while the natural colors are already changed.
Mug: Looking for the typical lifestyle PNW faded and cinematic look? THis peresets takes the blacks and gives some fade to create this unique style.
Kvernu: This edit pushes the temperature of your image from cold to warm. It also bright it up a little bit in case you were too late for daylight. The colors are pretty basic. Its a good preset to get started and common adjistments done!
Puddle: You got a pretty sunny day and anything was kind of too bright. This preset can change the entire image into a moody one. It´s gonna add a lot of blacks and reduces the white and lights to create the darker look.
River: Looking for a minimalistic image style? This presets will focus onto the blacks and highlights. At the same time colors are reduced to create a cinamtic and dramatic looking image.