workshop view: Atlanta « Neil vN

workshop view: Atlanta

March 20, 2008

Atlanta was the last stop in my series of workshops for this Spring.

For this photograph of Calisto, (one of our models for the day), we used a speedlight mounted in a softbox to get this dramatic and directional light. As you may notice, the lighting looks fairly similar to the image I show for the blog entry on the workshop in Charlotte. This image of Calisto, however, was photographed earlier in the day, so we needed a lot more power to match the brighter daytime light. We therefore couldn’t just bounce flash into a reflector like we do during the evening sessions where ambient light levels are low. Different techniques for different situations, but with similar results.

Thank you to everyone who made this Spring series a success. The workshops will return in the Fall with a series on the East Coast, and in a new format.

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5 Comments »

Fantastic workshop Neil! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with all of us. You are a gifted photographer and wonderful teacher.

Comment by Heather Carson — March 20, 2008 @ 7:10 pm
Great lighting. You have really helped me in my lighting. What do you think of using the Canon 580EXII in the auto mode with the tryistor. How did you trigger the flash in the speedlite? Did you use a radio slave, or infra red canon?

Thanks,
Peter Pecci

Comment by Peter W. Pecci — March 21, 2008 @ 9:09 am
Hi there Peter …

The Canon 580EX II under-exposes a lot when used in Auto mode. (In limited experience of using it.)

My main problem though with using the 580EX II in Auto mode, is that you have to go through the menu .. and the 580EX menu is very sparse with info. You’d have to write down somewhere (or memorize) the sequence of values you need to change (and back), when you move from TTL to Auto. It’s a pain.

I triggered the flash with a Pocket-Wizard. This way I don’t need line-of-sight like I would with wireless TTL.

The listing of equipment that I used can be found here:
http://neilvn.com/tangents/my-gear/flashes/
http://neilvn.com/tangents/my-gear/accessories/

Comment by Neil — March 21, 2008 @ 9:14 pm
Neil,

Thanks so much for the class. I learned so much!!! I told my buddies that there was probably no way that you could deliver on teaching us all that you advertised that you would. I even remember saying that if I learned half of it, that it would be worth the time and money. But you taught us all of it. You are a great teacher and I’m so glad that I found out about the class. I had a great time practicing what we learned with the models.

In short – I really loved the class, had a great time and learned alot.

Thank you so much,
Mary Hickman

Comment by Mary Hickman — March 22, 2008 @ 11:01 pm
Neil,

Glad we did our outdoors shoot yesterday because it rained most of today here in Atlanta. You hit the jackpot with a very informative and great instructional on flash. For me it’s the first step on the journey to lightpainting in the style of Dave Black. By all means make Atlanta a regular tour stop!!!

Jerry Klein

Comment by Jerry Klein — March 27, 2008 @ 11:28 pm