I having been photographing properly for about 6months since i bought a d90 with a 18-55mm kit lens and a 50mm prime 1.8 which hasn’t left my camera since i bought it. I like portrait/people photography by far and i have been offered a 17-55mm 2.8 which i have been told is a good lens for family parties/weddings etc, at a very reduced price, any reccomendations?

Also regarding lighting, you mentioned the softbox and assistant on this page, but i doubt im going to be able to have an assistant to hold the box up for me on my shoots, i’ve recently got hold of a sb 600 cheap and would love to get either an umbrella or softbox for multi use to start to understand lighting and get more proffesional results. What would you reccomend?

Thankyou so much! starting out in photography especially all the settings is a mind field, im slowly taking it in, but in bite size chunks, i love it.

Nick !

Ange .. I’ve had a number of Ozzies ask about the workshops. We’ll have to see. :)

Neil vN

Thanks for the speedy reply.
When will you visit our shores here in Australia.
Perhaps a side link to see what sort of numbers you would expect to see, if you were to get some sort of respone.
Im sure your visit would be well represented by your loyal followers down under.

Cheers

Ange

Ange .. it wouldn’t make sense for me to expose correctly for the couple using the ambient exposure. The light on them is to uneven, and they are shaded relative to the background.

So I would have had to take a exposure reading from the background.

Neil vN

In the comment posted by Rob, he questioned the ambient being under exp by 2 stops and your reply was …

12. Rob .. thanks! I didn’t specifically under-expose my ambient by two stops. My main consideration was the exposure for the background… I based my exposure on how I wanted the background to appear in this instance.
.
My questions are -
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Did you exp for the ambient perse by physically taking a reading from this
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OR
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Exp for the subj without flash first and then look at how the background appears. Then added flash to lift the subject. To me this would blow out the background if you exp for subject.
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Cheers

Ange..

Hi there Nancy .. no fill-flash, and no off-camera lighting. Neither did I hold up a reflector.

However, they were standing in the middle of an opening in the trees, so with the sun hitting the leaves all around them, the place was flooded with natural fill light.

So this is very much about specifically placing the couple in a scenario where the light is great.

Neil vN

Hi there Jonas ..

I used the Photoflex Litedome Q39 – 24×32 (medium) here.
The 12″x12″ Quantum softbox is just too small.

Neil vN

I was wondering what specific softbox you use with your Q flashes because the 12″x12″ quantum softbox you mention in your gearpage looks a bit small for such even lighting. In case you used one of your Photoflex softboxes is it a similar set-up as with a Speedlite?

Greets!