Why I ❤️ Optics: Josefien Hoekstra, Photographer

Josefien Hoekstra is a Netherlands-born photographer who specializes in colorful photography — think feminine, powerful, and sensual. Her clients span from private shoots to artists (Scroobius Pip), brands (Bloom Gin), lingerie designers (Marlies Dekkers), and magazines (Playboy). She also teaches classes and workshops, offers online courses, and gives lectures.

Discover why she relies on Boris FX Optics inside Photoshop to help enhance her deeply personal, artistic visions. Follow her on IG.  

How did you first get into photography?

I was always very focused on drawing, but when I was around 12, my mother got a digital camera from my father to photograph her paintings. I started occasionally grabbing her camera and shooting pictures of plants, insects, and cats in the garden. Then I slowly moved on to pictures of my sister, self-portraits, and pictures of friends. When I was studying graphic design, I got an internship with a photographer who was also an old family friend. The knowledge and freedom she gave me were truly the start of my lifelong obsession with photography. I am also a full-blown ADHD-er, which means yes, I’m creative, but the business side of being a photographer is a nightmare for me.  

What type of stories do you like to tell with your photos?

My work is very personal, and I am very driven by the visuals my brain constantly keeps imagining. Sometimes a story develops while I’m working on a moodboard. Sometimes it happens during editing when everything comes together. I focus a lot on colour, a mood, a certain kind of light. Sometimes a song and its melody and lyrics will guide the story, and sometimes it’s just a small thought that keeps expanding. For me, femininity, softness, colour, individuality, sensuality, and inner strength are important themes in my work.

Your portraits celebrate individuality and often feature bold, saturated colors. Where do you draw creative inspiration from?

Colour and light are a huge part of my drive to create. As well as helping other people see something new, something more, in themselves. Often, I find inspiration in a certain piece of the image. For example, the subject itself, or when a designer sends me a look to shoot. I also often buy flowers for myself and have done many, many shoots that simply came to be because I was inspired by a flower's colour and shape. Sometimes the inspiration isn’t there, and I still have to shoot, so I just start the process, let it flow, and see where the day takes me.

What type of photo editing/manipulation tasks do you look to a plugin like Optics to help with?

I love playing with colour and texture in my editing, adding extra elements to enhance a certain look and mood. I mostly use the Optics Photoshop plugin as part of my regular workflow, but sometimes open the standalone version as well if I just want to make a quick adjustment or add a look to a batch of images.

Which Optics effects do you like most — and why?

I think I can safely say I use one or more of the film stocks in about 85% of my edits. They add so much life to an image and can really help enhance the mood. There’s enough there to not have to change anything, but also many options to adjust and tweak it to perfection and layer different ones. I also really love the glint and glow effects; they match my style quite well and can be used in a variety of ways, from super subtle to wonderfully punchy.

Before learning Optics, how did you create effects like glows and lens flares? Have you used other photo plugins?

I have spent a lot of time figuring out how to create my own effects with blurs, layers, layer styles, stock photos, and more. While I still enjoy doing that, there’s something really wonderful about how intuitive and quick Optics can make this process. It’s been a long time since I used other tools, so unfortunately, I can’t remember the names of the plugins I used before. It was more focused on vintage and Lomography styles, though, and not nearly as impressive as Optics.

If you could have only one Optics effect, which would it be?

I don’t think I could do without my Film Lab anymore at this point, haha! But please don’t take all my other beloved effects from me!

What are your top 3 reasons photographers should use Optics?

• You will save yourself time and struggle less in the edit process.

• You will get a lot of inspiration and get new, different ideas when you cycle through all the effects and see what they do to your image.

• I know photographers love a new toy to expand their arsenal, and Optics is like a TON of new toys in one neat little package.

What’s your best pro tip to artists new to Optics?

Take your time getting to know and playing with all the filters, even the ones that don’t seem like your cup of tea at first. Just play around and figure stuff out. And create your own looks! I have a bunch of looks I use for a lot of my work at the moment, saving even more time on the retouching process.

What’s your favorite project or image you’ve ever worked on?

This is such an impossible question to answer! A lot of my projects are very personal, and some are memorable for other reasons. For example, a trip to Bonaire with three girlfriends to shoot a swimwear collection for a Dutch female designer was one of my most memorable projects because of all the adventures we had, but a self-portrait shoot I did to process some personal trauma is still dear to my heart for other reasons. A lot of the work I do is very special to me because I love what I do so much and put a lot of myself into it.