workshop view: Austin, TX « Neil vN

I always like visiting Austin with its vibrant music scene and night life, so it was good to visit again. I also met up again with Juliana who was our model at last year’s workshop. That’s her crazy self there on the right-hand side of the image, along with her friend Tatiana who also modelled for us at the workshop.

Some techie details:
The photo was taken during the practical session where we work with manual flash (via speedlights in softboxes). In this instance we had both softboxes in use, one on each model. Both were set for the same output. The flash output was chosen such that the ambient light is under-exposed by a stop. It allows us to get clean controlled lighting on our models with the diffused flash. My final camera settings were: 1/250th @ f5.6 @ 250 ISO .. but I had to pull back the exposure in RAW by 1/3rd stop.

Thank you to everyone who attended – it was a nice group of people and it was great meeting all of you. Also, a thank you to our two models.

Regarding the workshops in general – The Austin workshop was the penultimate workshop of the year, and also the travelling workshops. Next stop is Dallas .. and then from next year, a restructured revamped 2-day workshop on lighting which will include more practical sessions with on-location lighting.

9 Comments »

The workshop was a real eye-opener on getting the lighting right in repeatable and rapid ways. My brain and hand were both pretty fried by the end of the day from all of the information and the 100′s of clicks on the camera. I found myself waking up this morning still digesting some of the concepts. Now I just need to practice, practice, practice. Well taught, and informative.

I’m still amazed that we didn’t end up having pictures of Juliana tending a broken ankle. She and Tatiana did a couple of jumps for each of us to practice the timing and focus.

If you can make it to Dallas, it would be worth your while…

Comment by Andrew — November 18, 2009 @ 3:41 pm
Thank you so much, Neil!! This was a really really beyond awesome workshop! I read your book twice and the blog before the workshop, but the practical experience during the workshop really was priceless! You are a great teacher! I think the key is to practice using these concepts until they become second nature.

And thank you to our models who were so enthusiastic!

For those who are in the Dallas workshop today, you are in for a treat!

Comment by Annie — November 19, 2009 @ 12:23 pm
Wow!! Thank you so much for a great workshop. You make it so easy to learn. I’m going to read your book for reinforcement.
The models made the workshop complete. Nothing beats hands on experience.

Comment by Debbie — November 19, 2009 @ 7:21 pm
Neil,

I will be at the next Austin workshop. Please come back next year. Right now I’m reading your book and I can’t put it down. My wife doesn’t understand. I just have one question. Why do you go out of your way to teach us your magic technique, for free? I’m so glad you do. Thank you a million times over.

Comment by Eleazar Paradise — November 19, 2009 @ 11:28 pm
Eleazer … there will only be NYC / NJ workshops from next year onward. ie, this was the final Austin workshop fr the time being. If you consider that only 2 attendees were from Texas (and only one from Austin itself), then it doesn’t make sense for me to travel to these destinations. So, come to New York. : )

As for why I maintain this website? It’s been part of my own learning process. And I like to give. Obscure motives like that.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — November 19, 2009 @ 11:45 pm
Neil, I have a leftover question from the shoot on Tuesday. In one location I had a tendancy to catch light off a red pilar (which was my bad since a slight correction in angle solved the problem for other shots). This got me wondering, though, how you deal with bounce in rooms where you don’t get a nice neutral tone, and especially when the flash doesn’t contribute all of the light. In one of my shots, the red light faded away and I was left with ambient tungsten, so if I corrected her face for the red cast, her legs when green. Do you get clever with gels and use green gels if you have pink walls to get the light back in the range of normal?

Thanks again for all the teaching you do!

Comment by Andrew — November 20, 2009 @ 10:08 am
Andrew, in that situation, I would just move my model to a different place or position her differently. Or turn the image into a B&W photograph. I think it would be undertaking too much to try and correct this problem you had there with different gels, and exactly match the shading over her entire body. Life’s too short to chase that impossible venture. ; )

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — November 21, 2009 @ 11:18 pm
Neil–After digesting the materials several more times, I have a follow up question. In some situations where the background is important (like the wedding in front of the New York sky line you showed), we meter for the background, and use flash to correctly expose the people that would otherwise be dark. In another post elsewhere in your blog, there was an example where we meter for the background minus 2 stops, and then use flash to correctly expose the person. Would the metering for ambient minus 2 stops be for a situation where the light for the background and the person is pretty even, and the photo would have been ok without the flash (but better with the flash)?

Thanks again!!!

Comment by Annie — November 22, 2009 @ 11:05 pm
It of course depends entirely on what you want to achieve there.

However, the situation you describe where you underexpose the background by a stop (or two) can be done for several reasons:
– to make your subject pop out from the background, or
– can be done in low light, where you need to expose correctly for your subject,or
– to light your subject with a better quality light than the ambient light does at that point.

Or you can do similar to what you often see in fashion and music magazines, where the subject is in a pool of light (from flash), against a darker cityscape. All for dramatic effect.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil — November 22, 2009 @ 11:27 pm