workshop view: Jersey City, NJ « Neil vN

Tangents

workshop view: Jersey City, NJ

July 19, 2009

As a report-back on the most recent workshop in New Jersey, (held in Jersey City) I thought I’d simply post the first feedback email I received about the workshop. It is always good to hear the workshop has such impact:

Neil,  So tonight I shot my first ‘post-workshop’ wedding…. Holy Crap – what an incredible difference!!!
    I shot 30% less images tonight than I normally do. Out of those, I have more ‘keepers’ than I’ve ever had before *with* all the additional shots. I’m stunned that my first attempt at applying what you gave me produced results like this – I can only imagine where this will take me with practice! (oh, you can only use the above as a testimonial if you keep the “holy crap” bit in! )
    I have to say, I loved the workshop – perfect balance of classroom and ‘hands on’ – for someone like me form a rock in the ocean where we have no way to learn other than reading and trying, it was an awesome experience. Thanks so much for everything.
    Ben J.

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And as usual with the report-back on a workshop, here’s an image from the workshop and a little explanation of some of the techniques that can be expected to be covered.

I positioned Priscilla, one of our models, so that we could play around with the idea of getting directional light from our on-camera speedlights – even to where we could get very close to the short lighting style of portrait lighting. And just to show where we started from without flash:

Yup, nearly all the light you see in the top image is from the single on-camera speedlight. Both images at 1/250th @ f3.5 @ 1250 ISO. In this case the high shutter speed was to demonstrate the effect of the flash.

And with some sweetening with some Photoshop fairy dust to give a more stylized effect, we end up with:

Thank you to everyone who attended, and thank you to our two models, Priscilla and Precious.

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11 Comments »

Thanks for that, but unfortunately the steps between the very dark photo and all the tweaks done to get to the last one, are missing.
Some “Photoshop fairy dust” does not explain the steps from a photograph that is very similar to the things I produce and
the beautiful end result.

Comment by Andreas — July 20, 2009 @ 7:54 am
Andreas .. the steps between the dark “start” image and the image at the top, is the use of a single on-camera flash. The steps to the final tweaked image … weeell, it will come, it will come. This was a report-back on the workshop. I’m sorry you feel cheated that I decided to add it.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — July 20, 2009 @ 8:15 am
Wow! I am looking forward to your class when it comes to Texas. So was the bounce done to camera-right, or behind and to the right? About how big was the room you were working with?

Thanks for all your teaching…

Comment by Andrew — July 20, 2009 @ 8:46 am
Andrew, I did bounce the flash to my right, and bounced the flash a little past her in order to light up the side of her face that is farthest from the camera, more than the side of her face closer to the camera. And in order to do that, and not have direct flash on her, I flagged the flash.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — July 20, 2009 @ 9:34 am
I absolutely love your work and your blog, which has been tremendously helpful in terms of improving my knowledge of lighting. My only question is, in the photo above, is there a problem with the model’s eyes not being lit. That is, without a catchlight in the eye, is that a problem with respect to “normal” portrait aesthetics? I know I generally prefer to see it myself.

Comment by George — July 20, 2009 @ 10:04 am
George, I do agree. I would’ve loved to see more light in her eyes.

Now, not to make an excuse for this, her hair was blocking a lot of light from her face, and I should’ve adjusted that. Also, most times when I show an image from a workshop, it is a photo where I wanted to show the attendees what to aim for .. rather than it being an image where I tweaked a few things and adjusted a few things while everyone waits for me. I’d rather not delay everyone who wants to start shooting .. and this ends up with me not always having the most ideal image to show here.

So with that in mind, look at the photo and realize it was a quick set-up, and that it is already 90% of the way there, and as you pointed out, would need some adjusting on the spot to really get it right.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — July 20, 2009 @ 11:53 am
Although, I like to sit back & watch … I learned a ton. Truly one of the best workshops I have attended yet. You made me participate (very awesome), you made me comfortable, you filled my head with incredible knowledge that will & has gone to good use! Can’t thank you enough for that.

Your workshop comes highly recommended by me!

Comment by Kim — July 20, 2009 @ 9:38 pm
Is the Photoshop fairy dust a plug-in? Makes for beautiful skin

Comment by Amanda Tang — July 22, 2009 @ 2:24 pm
Neil,

The workshop was amazing! I walked away with far more knowledge than what I even anticipated to learn. I shot a wedding the Saturday after the workshop and was amazed at the difference in my images. Fewer images, more keepers! LOVED IT! I appreciate that you were more than willing to share everything you know…you didn’t hold back at all. I loved the hands on and the fact that you came around and critiqued my work. It was so helpful and you never made anyone feel that they couldn’t do just as great as you! So, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

April

Comment by April Williams — July 22, 2009 @ 10:13 pm
Thanks everyone. It’s good to know the workshop had such benefit for everyone.

Jim Ambrose sent me this image from the workshop .. and it illustrates better how we added flash to the available light to enhance the situation.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — July 25, 2009 @ 7:35 pm
I learned a lot from this workshop. I had an immediate opportunity to use this in an event. It worked. There were many keepers, far less shots than I would have otherwise shot.

I used this technique for capturing table arrangements as well and it worked great.

Comment by Rajan — August 3, 2009 @ 10:35 am