Comments on: workshop view: Birmingham, UK

By: Francesco Romeo

Francesco Romeo — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:01:16 +0000

Sorry I’m in late for the comment :-)
Very nice photo. But for my taste maybe there is too much difference looking the blonde girl’s eyes. the left one has a shadow. the right one no. She seems to have make up in one eye and no make up in the other. anyway very good job. bye

By: Neil

Neil — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:15:19 +0000

Sash … similar results can be achieved with an umbrella. A softbox gives you more control though. It gives a more focused swathe of light, and depending on how your softbox is baffled, the softbox can give you more light than an umbrella. You also have more control in how the light spills onto the background .. which is not a problem here though.

A softbox is also slightly easier to handle outdoors where you have wind. An umbrella really is at the mercy of the wind in how it sometimes scoops the wind.

Generally though, with wedding portraits, I tend to use umbrellas because they are faster to set up.

Neil vN

By: Sash

Sash — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:33:37 +0000

Hello Neil.

I am curious, can results be achieved the same with white umbrella stands or is softbox “must have” ?

Thanks

By: Damian Brown

Damian Brown — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:03:01 +0000

ABSOLUTELY GUTTED that I had to miss this one. Right on my door step, basically in my living room!!! And to make it worse I didn’t even pass by that spot, one of my mostly frequented routes!

By: Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:01:33 +0000

As another attendee of this workshop I can also vouch for the great day! I’ve been following Neil’s blog for some time and was VERY happy to see he was coming to the UK, to the point where I ended up travelling many thousands of miles (due to work) to ensure I made it!

Thanks again Neil, it was a cracking day!

Some of my shots from the day can be found here

By: Ben Hui

Ben Hui — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:53:46 +0000

Hi Neil,
Congratulation on another fabulous workshop session.

Hi MP,
I think what Neil meant was to adjust the flash’s power until the flash meter read f4.

Ben

By: Mohanpreet Singh

Mohanpreet Singh — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:24:27 +0000

Hi Neil
Thanks for a great post again. Will greatly admire a little clarification on the following -
“Camera settings: 1/200th @ f4 @ 200 ISO … which were chosen so that our background exposed properly. Then we added manual flash in softboxes, and we metered for this to give us f4 @ 200 ISO, by using flashmeters and changing the power setting on the speeflights”

If Camera settings (1/200th, f4, ISO200) were already chosen , what readings did flashmeter give. Does flahsmeter tell about the power of flash to be adjusted. I am really trying to learn about using flashmeters. So it would help.

Thanks.
-MP

By: Rene Skrodzki

Rene Skrodzki — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:40:17 +0000

Since I cannot make it your workshops I have to settle on the book I guess. I hope that arrives on time, so I can learn quick :)

Actually I am really looking forward to it.

By: Neil

Neil — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:52:02 +0000

Michael .. I haven’t yet posted any examples of using off-camera speedlights directly on my subjects. I prefer softer light so I usually go with softboxes and other light modifiers like that.

But I’ll make a note of it to add future posts where I use flash like that – direct off-camera flash.

Neil vN

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:50:37 +0000

Absolutely fantastic combination of Flash and available light. Thank you.
I do not have small softboxes, but I do have a pair of same power flashes and I am wondering; Do you have any samples using Flashes without softboxes? and is there a large different in results?

Regards,
Michael