Petri Damstén

For a photo idea, I require a prop gun equipped with a silencer. Luckily, I have an airsoft pistol that appeared sufficiently realistic in photos. However, in order to complete the illusion, I needed to fabricate a silencer. I made it from a PVC pipe, 3D printed parts, a machine screw, and some glue.

I found myself in need of a protective cap for one of my flashes. Rather than waiting for one to arrive from China, I decided to take matters into my own hands and design and 3D print one myself. Not only was it a quicker solution, but it also allowed me to customize the design...

NSFF Gold for Dystopia photo video from Nordiskt Fotomästerskap Bildspel 2023. The photo series “Dystopia” was completed some time ago, but I decided to turn it into a video presentation when a photo competition was announced by the Nordic Society of Photography. These photos from the series are still dear to me and, considering the...

Gold for Dystopia

I’m stuck with this room concept and I’m good with that. I did it in “The Dark Room” series and for this new series “Peculiar Events” I’m doing it again. In contrast to my previous approach, where I used photoshopped room, I have built a real 1:6 scale room for this series. As a hobbyist,...

I was searching for a solution to bring a large top light into my home studio, which has a normal room height and a relatively low ceiling. I discovered that using the inner diffuser of a 200x140cm reflector mounted on two C stands would do the trick. The C stands were also used to hold...

Top light in home studio

I was looking to take a photo from a longer distance and our bedroom door provides the perfect line of sight against the grey background. However, the height of my studio stand was an issue when getting through the doorway. While hand-held photography is an option, I wanted to use stand in this situation too....

Shortening studio stand

I have a lot of sunglasses and glasses that I use as photography props, and it was difficult to find the ones I needed because they were all jumbled up in a box. So, I decided to make my own storage solution.

DIY storage for (sun)glasses

Chair in the Corridor

Chair in the Corridor – FStopppers POTD

As the final task of the year for my photography, I updated my portfolio and created a video showcasing my Photoshop edits from 2022, including lighting diagrams. I tend to watch these edit videos through myself to identify any mistakes I may have made and use them as a learning opportunity for myself too. I...

For the final image from this shoot, I chose to go with a black and white portrait. I wanted to try something a bit more traditional and classic, in contrast to the more stylized and artistic portraits we had done earlier. Despite the change in approach, I wanted to make sure that the darkness and...

Portrait in Darkness

I wanted to really highlight the beard in this image, and I thought that using a headshot pose similar to the one from the Peaky Blinders poster would be the perfect way to do it. I believe that keeping the eyes hidden adds an element of drama and mystery to the image. By concealing this...

This leather apron was originally intended for grilling, but it also worked well as a welder’s apron, giving off some intense “welder from hell” vibes. I’ve used these welder glasses before, and they work great with a beard. With just these two simple props, I was able to create a really interesting, creative, and gritty...

I’ve had this leather jacket for a while, but I haven’t worn it in a long time. I’m glad I didn’t get rid of it, because it ended up being perfect for this pilot-themed image. These motorcycle goggles really completed the look. They fogged up easily, but it actually looked so good that I enhanced...

My friend had grown a nice beard so I asked him to visit my home studio. Here’s the first image from the shoot. I named the picture after the best Christmas movie ever made. I also asked chatGPT what it would say about the image. My friend and I stumbled upon an eerie photograph of...

Interview With The 2022 European Photography Awards Category Winner of the Year – Petri Damstén

Interview With The 2022 EPA Category Winner of the Year

My son and his classmates had schoolwork to make a fair stand to sell something. They wanted to sell naughty cookies, Xmas calendars and such and “hired” me as their graphic designer and photographer. So Xmas-themed ad we did.

Bunch of guys renting a cottage once in a while to hang out together. I got a job taking a group portrait. There was a nice place outside to take one. The wind was so cold that we didn’t want to be there more than was absolutely necessary. The photographer might have been under the...

– “I can photograph you with the green Škoda for this series.”– “No, I prefer the electric bike.”– “Well, that’s fine as well.”That was the conversation with my wife to get her to be part of the “How I Move” series. I wanted the water behind the bike to be smoother. It was simple enough,...

How I Move – Sari

Another image pair for the “How I Move” series. Horses are a bit trickier to photograph in this style. While he was a good sport there is always a little movement between frames like it would with humans too. Takes a bit longer in post and have to use different techniques for layer blending but...

How I Move – Henna

These images are from this autumn, taken with three different cameras (Fuji GFX 50s, Nikon D850, and iPhone 13 Pro). I wanted to test new Lightroom features, so I edited images from the harbour only in Lightroom. The new masking tools are a huge improvement and enable quite a complex editing without photoshop. I also...