webinar: don’t fear your flash « Neil vN

Tangents

webinar: don’t fear your flash

April 6, 2011

The webcam seminar that I presented on April 12, 2011 – Don’t Fear Your Flash!
is now available for download from the ClickinMoms website, as a 112 minute movie file.

The price: $30.00 – purchase & download via the CM site.

In conjunction with the Clickin Moms forums, I will be presenting a webinar next week, Tuesday April 12th on the topic of flash photography, centered around the idea of getting great results from bounce flash photography.

Clickin Moms is a booming but close-knit community of over 8000 members. 65% of their members are professional photographers, and 35% are either aspiring professionals or passionate hobbyists. What they all share is a commitment to honing the craft in order to deliver extraordinary images for their clients, beautifully capture the lives of their own children, produce works of fine art, or engage in creative self expression.

program description:

A photo session is often a rushed, fast moving event with less than ideal light. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have great light indoors that approaches studio-quality lighting. Join Neil as he explains the techniques to create beautiful images while working fast, yet still getting exceptional results from equipment you already have – your on-camera speedlight.

This is a 90 minute webinar that includes live demonstrations, supplemental images shared on-screen, and interactive Q&A between Neil and audience members throughout the presentation.

when: Tuesday, April 12 at 1:00pm EST (USA)

cost: $30 to watch the live webinar

CM members sign up here.
Non-members sign up here.

After you make your purchase, you will receive a follow-up email containing information about claiming your seat in the live audience. Webinar seats are nonrefundable and nontransferable.

System Requirements:
PC-based attendees - required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
Macintosh®-based attendees – required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

follow-up articles:

- New to flash photography? Where to even start …

32 Comments »

Where will the event take place?

Comment by Jazz Guy — April 6, 2011 @ 7:21 am
It’s a webinar, so you’d log in on your computer and watch.

I’ll be in a studio in New York.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 6, 2011 @ 7:27 am
Are any Clickin’ Dads allowed? :-)

Comment by Bogdan — April 6, 2011 @ 7:49 am
Apparantly they are! Also, you don’t have to be a member of the forum to sign up for the webinar .. just use the non-members link.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 6, 2011 @ 8:00 am
“Log onto your computer” ?? It’s a big world out there. Where on my computer do I log on. Is it to your Planet Neil site or another ( please provide url or specific link ) ?? Please be more specific
on the non member CLICKIN site why do they insist on paypal info if I am not attending and just want to view the webinair ? Will the 90 minute presentation be available for future viewing on your web site ? I am a little confused here…but then again I usually am.

Comment by ron lemish — April 6, 2011 @ 8:30 am
After signing up, and paying the fee, you’ll be emailed a link and specific code, which will allow you to log on and view the live webinar.

“After you make your purchase, you will receive a follow-up email containing information about claiming your seat in the live audience.”

You have to sign up to view the webinar.
There’s no “not attending, but will be viewing” option. : )

As far as I know, The webinar will not be available for viewing afterwards. It’s a once-only event.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 6, 2011 @ 9:01 am
Live from New York, it’s Neil Live!

In all seriousness, I agree with Ron the program description. That cost description should just read “$30″ to avoid confusion with next sentence in the description, but I know you didn’t write the program description.

In any case, congratulations on another speaking engagement! People will get their money’s worth. :)

Comment by Stephen — April 6, 2011 @ 10:24 am
I’ve changed the text now to remove the ambiguity. Thanks!

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 6, 2011 @ 10:54 am
I have just sign in for the webinars. I have read your second book. But you always learn more from a lesson like this or a video. For an amateur photographer the workshop you would plan in the Nederland’s near my country is a lot of money. Something like this or a video like you have done with the black foamy thing is much more affordable. I don’t want to say the workshops are to expensive but for me it is a lot of money.
Thank you for your books, your website and the video’s

Comment by Evert Thomaes — April 6, 2011 @ 12:34 pm
Hi,

Will this webinar be recorded and will it be available after the fact? Even if it is fee based? Would love to see this but the day job prevents me from doing so…

Thank you!

Comment by Tim A. — April 7, 2011 @ 10:10 am
same here , I am working at 1pm and cannot do it, but if i can replay it they yes,
I noticed you said one time event but maybe there is a way to make it available afterwards?

Comment by bartosz wegrzyn — April 7, 2011 @ 12:26 pm
I’ve twitted it.
http://twitter.com/#!/daniellimphoto

Comment by Daniel Lim — April 8, 2011 @ 1:10 am
Hi Neil—-LOVE your devotion to improving photography!!! Just tried to sign up for the webinar and when i clicked ‘non member’ was taken to a spot to become a member. So, i did join for 6 months for $30. Then i came back to your blog to sign up as a member and when i did was directed back to clickin’ moms site and i could not just choose the $30 webinar, the $100 pro membership is automatically selected so the bill is $130. Is this right?
thanks!
Jennifer :)

Comment by Jennifer — April 11, 2011 @ 4:00 pm
Jennifer … that doesn’t sound right.
I passed your info on to the Clickin Moms team, and they will check it out and contact you. Sorry for any trouble.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 11, 2011 @ 6:46 pm
Thank you to everyone who posted this on Twitter and Facebook.

I’ve picked the winner of the free spot on the webinar .. Andrea Brandt. Congrats, and thank you!

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 11, 2011 @ 7:08 pm
To everyone who enquired whether the webinar will be available for download afterwards – we had to make sure the quality of the recording is up to scratch. We updated some software and hardware, and our test run looked really good. So it does look like we’ll be able to make the webinar available for download afterwards. Watch this space!

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 11, 2011 @ 7:10 pm
Thanks Neil—Clickin moms did get back right away. For some reason the pro membership gets checked when i select the webinar but i could uncheck it and pay for just the webinar. looking forward to it tomorrow!

Comment by Jennifer — April 11, 2011 @ 10:14 pm
Neil will this be available as a download to purchase afterwards?

Comment by Russ — April 12, 2011 @ 2:07 pm
Russ, as soon as the Clickin Moms team confirms the video and audio quality is good enough and we’ve figured out any other technical stuff we need to, we’ll be able to announce the clip for sale. Stay tuned!

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 12, 2011 @ 2:20 pm
Hi Neil, just finished viewing your webinar. Great job, and thanks for doing that. It really helps to actually see some of your concepts being demonstrated.

A question came in toward the end that I didn’t catch the answer to — could you elaborate again on how to increase your depth of field when photographing groups? I think your answer addressed changes to ISO, but I’m not sure.

Thanks again!
John

Comment by John Smith — April 12, 2011 @ 3:03 pm
John … thanks!

The question pertained to getting more depth of field when you photograph groups.

My reply was that you could increase the power of your flash. That would give you more light to reach that smaller aperture. And you’d then have more depth of field.

But when you don’t have enough power from your flash, then you can bump up your ISO to reach your desired aperture.

I often do that if I am photographing groups. Instead of pulling my Q-flashes down from the light-stands and adjusting their power up a notch or two, it is easier and faster to just ride my ISO up by 2/3rds of a stop or so.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 12, 2011 @ 3:10 pm
First of al congratulation with your first webinar! It was a great evening (7pm local time) for me to see how everything works and to cross check it whit what I have learned from your website and your books.
In the webinar you mention one moment you zoomed your flash. Do you always zoom it in to maximum when you use indoor bounce flash with the black foamy thing to get the most out of the flash?

Comment by Evert Thomaes — April 12, 2011 @ 3:16 pm
Evert .. I normally zoom my flash head to maximum, with the idea that I might get that touch more range on the flash’s output.

There have been times where the flash was best at a wider angle. For example, with one church where I photographed inside, the wall that I bounced off was convex … and I had a hard time hitting it with the flash at the right angle as I moved. By just zooming my flash head wider, the problem was solved.

So it’s one of those things where it is a good idea, but not an inflexible one.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 12, 2011 @ 3:20 pm
I just finished you webinar, thank you, and wonder what your opinion is of soft boxes for speedlites.

Comment by Annie — April 12, 2011 @ 3:25 pm
Annie .. I really like the Lastolite Ezybox softboxes. They are easy to carry and easy to set up.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 12, 2011 @ 4:07 pm
Let me add my appreciation for this webinar. Well done!

The tip about zooming the flash when bouncing is great. I checked the owner’s manuals of the Canon flashes and see that they default to the 50mm zoom position when the flash head is tilted (unless manually overridden). Setting the zoom to 105mm should help increase range, help prevent blinding the people behind/next to me, and save batteries.

The only snafu with the broadcast was that anytime you shot more than a couple of photos in quick succession, your SD wireless tether seemed to knot up your iMac, resulting in temporarily frozen screens for those of us on the other end of the webinar.

Thanks again. It was great to see and hear you work. I learned a lot.

Comment by Bill — April 12, 2011 @ 4:13 pm
Bill … thank you for letting me know. The wireless SD card did seem the most elegant choice, but your observation means it was eating too much of the bandwidth.

I will have to shoot tethered next time then. There’s always something to improve. And they will. : )

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 13, 2011 @ 3:29 pm
Hi Neil,

I was just wondering if the webinar will be available for purchase at a later date. Unfortunately I will be working and unable to attend.

Thanks, Rich ;-(

Comment by Rich — April 13, 2011 @ 3:38 pm
Rich .. as soon as the Clickin Moms team confirms the video and audio quality is good enough and we’ve figured out any other technical stuff we need to, we’ll be able to announce the clip for sale. Stay tuned!

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 13, 2011 @ 3:44 pm
The two webinar attendees that won copies of my book, Off-Camera Flash, as prizes, are:
– Melody Brotherton
– Lori Olive

Congrats and thank you! Your copies of the book are on their way already.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 13, 2011 @ 4:29 pm
There were numerous questions during the webinar that we didn’t get to, even though we over-ran on time to handle the Q&A session. We’ll get to these in the next few days, and I’ll be answering questions on the Clickin Moms forum, as well as here on the Tangents blog.

The first article inspired by the webinar presentation:
New to flash photography? Where to even start.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 13, 2011 @ 4:33 pm
The webcam seminar that I presented on April 12, 2011 – Don’t Fear Your Flash!
is now available for download from the ClickinMoms website, as a 112 minute movie file.

The price: $30.00 – purchase & download via the CM site.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 20, 2011 @ 4:01 am