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Tangents

on top of the world

October 31, 2011

Oct 31st was A Big Day for me. Today, after nearly 12 years here in America, I finally became a citizen of the USA.

To encapsulate how I felt at that moment, I asked my wife, Sara, to take a celebratory photograph of me near the top of the red steps in Times Square this evening. I really do feel on top of the world.

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a simple lighting setup for studio photography

October 30, 2011

simple lighting setup for studio for studio photography

This photo of Anelisa and Aleona, two of my favorite models, were taken towards the end of the evening of the most recent flash photography and lighting workshop here in New York. The studio that the workshop was held in, had a white cyclorama that was just inviting to be used.

As a recap of manual flash photography, I wanted to show how simple and easy a basic studio lighting setup was … and that it was quite within the reach of every photographer. Well, not the studio itself, but the lighting setup and equipment, as well as the technique, is well within the reach of any photographer …

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photography workflow – back-up plans for your main computer

October 24, 2011

photography workflow – back-up plans for the main computer

The photograph above was shot with my iPhone while I was waiting for a corporate photo shoot to commence. The sky over lower Manhattan was grim and rainy. You can see the reflection of the fluorescent lights inside the room. This gave the city scene a Blade-Runner-esque feel. And with that, this image is perhaps suitably Apocalyptic for this topic – what are your plans for catastrophic failure of your main computer?

The idea for this article comes from a discussion with another photographer – she cringed every time I mentioned, “so what happens to your business if your house burns down and your computer is gone?” My other remark that her computer’s hard drive most likely will fail at some point, didn’t seem to lift her spirits either.

So with that, let’s look at those two points:
1. Safe-guarding yourself against catastrophic loss of your computer.
2. Preparing yourself for when your hard drive crashes.

The solutions are fortunately quite simple and elegant …

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come say hi at PhotoPlus Expo

October 23, 2011

PhotoPlus Expo – NYC, 2011

I’ll be doing a short presentation on bounce flash photography at the PhotoPlus Expo trade-show, on three days this coming week. I’ll be at the Unique Photo booth (#464) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 12:30 – 1:15 on each of those days.  The presentation will be on how to use the black foamie thing with bounce flash, to get studio quality lighting.

Those who are familiar with the Tangents blog will recognize the topic (and photos), but come stop by anyway and say hi. I look forward to meeting everyone.

Details of all the presentations taking place at Unique Photo’s booth.

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favorite wedding image – city lights & off-camera flash

October 19, 2011

wedding photography – favorite image – city lights

This photo from a event wedding received a lot of favorable comments when I posted it on my Facebook page, as well as questions about how it was shot.

For the romantic portraits, I often take a couple around the venue – the light is just different than during the day. This is where video light comes into its own. Here though, I wanted some of the city lights and light from the traffic outside the venue to appear in the background. The way I envisioned it, was as a stream of cars behind them, but in the first few test images, the cars were too distinct, even at f2.8 and 200mm focal length. Looking at how the approaching cars lined up at the traffic intersection, I decided to use that instead, and let the cars’ headlights flare out.

Then I just needed some light on the couple to complete the image …

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shooting promotional photos for a band

October 17, 2011

camera settings: 1/50 @ f8 @ 800 ISO … lens zoomed to 35mm;  available light

shooting promotional photos for a band

Anyone who knows me well is probably very aware that my first true love is music. I live my life to a music soundtrack. There’s always music playing. Not the radio, but music of my own choice. I love music … however, my sense of rhythm isn’t all that it should’ve been for me to be a natural muso. But still, I love music. All of which meant that one few non-negotiable rules for my daughter was that she had to take music lessons. So she plays bari sax in the high-school’s Jazz band, and she’s also been taking guitar lessons for a few years now with a guitar teacher, Gerard.

All of which brings us to this photo session – promotional photos of Gerard’s band. That is Gerard (right) and Ed (center : piano) and Joe (left : guitar). I met up this weekend with them in Hoboken. Perfect for the urban feel to the photos. Hanging out with them for a few hours coming up with ideas and places for photos, was great fun. The camaraderie between them will be familiar to anyone who has ever played in a band. You connect. That all too short time I played tenor sax in a rock band back in South Africa circa 1999, just before we emigrated to the USA, was one of the best times in my life. But I digress. It was cool to hang out with these three musicians for the afternoon.

Here are some of my favorite images, with some details  …

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flash photography workshops – New York

October 16, 2011

flash photography workshop – New York – Oct 25

The Oct 25 workshop is sold out … but there have been requests for any spots that might open up due to cancellations. This doesn’t usually happen … but if we can get 5 people together for a smaller workshop, then we can make one last workshop still happen this year. (The next workshop in New York will only happen in May 2012 sometime.)

So if you’re interested in attending a flash photography workshop sometime in the next two weeks, drop me a note before the end of this week. If there is enough response, then we can make it happen.

I’ll announce the workshops for 2012 later on some time. As always, check back .. or better yet, subscribe to the email list.

Check these posts on the Tangents forum for (unsolicited) feedback about the May 16th workshop, and also for feedback about a one-on-one tutoring session.

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example: direct off-camera flash vs softbox (model: Ulorin Vex)

October 12, 2011

example: direct off-camera flash vs softbox (model: Ulorin Vex)

Ulorin Vex posing for us during part of the on-location session of the flash photography workshops which I presented in San Francisco earlier this year. Ulorin Vex is of course absolutely stunning, as always. While I often direct models how they should pose, this one is all her doing . Not even I can improve on that.

The image here at the top was shot with an off-camera softbox – my usual preferred Lastolite Ezybox softbox. The direction of the light here should immediately reveal the approximate position where the light was positioned. Just as comparison, we removed the two baffles of the Lastolite, to see how direct off-camera flash would compare. We kept the softbox hull in place, so it did help contain the spread of light a bit. As you’d expect, the results look more dramatic.

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Canon wireless e-TTL flash triggers / radio transmitters

October 10, 2011

Canon wireless e-TTL flash triggers / radio transmitters

A bridal portrait (taken during one of the photo sessions arranged by the Hudson Valley Click), where it is easy to see the advantage of using off-camera lighting.

The strong back-lighting is used as a way to highlight the background and have the rim-lighting etch our model against the background. Of course, having her turn her back to the sun also helps with not having our model squinting in the bright light. We immediately avoid unflattering hard light on her face. But we then do need to add off-camera lighting of some kind to cross-light her.

I used TTL flash here, since I often find this is the fastest and easiest way to get good flash exposure. The flash was diffused with a white shoot-through umbrella, and I used wireless TTL triggers to control my flash.

Let’s have a look at our current options that we have to trigger the off-camera TTL flash …

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practical tutorial: controls for manual flash exposure

October 3, 2011

The photo above is of Hannah, one of our models at the workshops in Dublin, Ireland. The lighting is off-camera flash via a softbox to camera left, held up on a monopod. In this instance we used TTL flash with Radio Poppers. TTL flash makes it easy to get to great (or close to great) flash exposure immediately. But for consistency, manual flash is usually the best option.

With manual flash, there are the 4 controls for manual flash exposure:
(We should know this off by heart.)
- distance from your light source to your subject
- power of your flash (including diffusion of your light)
- aperture
- ISO

Now, in an explanation – whether in a written description like this, or with me waving my hands around in wild semaphore fashion – it all easily makes academic sense why the 4 controls would affect manual flash exposure. For example, it just makes intuitive sense that if you bring your light source closer, you get more light on your subject … and would have to adjust one or more of the other controls: exposure, ISO and power. You move the light further away, and then you get less light. But while we might academically understand how the individual controls affect manual flash exposure, it might not immediately make sense in an “oh, yes of course, I get it!” way how the 4 controls are inter-related.

practical tutorial: manual flash – distance, power, ISO & aperture

In explaining all this during flash photography workshops, I felt that the connection between those 4 controls didn’t immediately interlink in people’s mind. It needed a more direct explanation to get to that aha! moment that is necessary for it all to make sense. And to help with that, we work through a hypothetical scenario, camera in hand … and then see how it all connects.

It’s quite an elementary tutorial, so if you’re an experienced hand at off-camera flash or studio lighting, then this isn’t for you. But if you feel like you just haven’t quite made that intuitive connection yet between those 4 controls, and how it affects manual flash exposure, hang in there …

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