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February 20, 2012
on-camera flash modifier system – Spinlight 360
For the past few weddings I have photographed, I’ve been testing out a new flash modifier – the Spinlight 360. I’ve been putting it through its paces, checking whether I like it and whether it would hold up during actual shooting of an event. And I do. So *this* post is the public premiere of this device. The auspicious announcement of the Spinlight 360
Instead of just diffusing flash, or having a bounce card, the Spinlight 360 also encompasses the idea behind the black foamie thing – that it is all about the direction of light, not just how your flash’s light is dispersed from on top of your camera.
I’ve had many people suggest I should sell the black foamie thing, but for me the BFT has always been about the technique, rather than the actual device. And I loved that it was so cheap and easily crafted. But it has its limitations when there is nothing to bounce your flash off, and you really need a bounce card to act as a larger surface to create softer light. Also, the BFT wasn’t easy to adjust from horizontal to vertical position. But with the Spinlight 360, you can easily rotate the black card which flags your flash. It is flexible and adaptable.
So here it is – a versatile modular on-camera flash modifier.
More info on the Spinlight 360, and info on how to order one.
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February 17, 2012
exciting new cameras for photographers
This photo was taken at a recent workshop where I was one of the instructors. I used the new Fuji X10 camera (B&H) and when I zoomed in to check the image sharpness on the camera’s display, I was a little surprised at just how good it looked. Crisp! There wasn’t anything immediately obvious there that would reveal the photo wasn’t taken with A Big Camera.
This article was originally going to be a review of the Fuji X10 camera (B&H). However, with my workload, compiling material for a comparative review between the Fuji X10 and several other Point & Shoot cameras, took longer than I intended. And now we’re at a point where there’s a range of other truly impressive cameras to about to hit the market. With such a fast-paced release of new tantalizing cameras, it felt to me like a single review might’ve become a little redundant a few month later.
Of course, various cameras are aimed at different sectors of the market, so they are not all equal. But if we have a look at the results from this small-sensor Point & Shoot camera, then it’s a real surprise how good the image quality is … and then we have to wonder what the cameras coming up in the next year or so, will deliver.
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January 17, 2012
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Again it is quite a thrill to hear that I won the Bride’s Choice Awards 2012 from WeddingWire! This is the 3nd year in a row that I received the Wedding Wire award being in the Top 5 percent of wedding photographers in New Jersey.
It’s wonderful receiving this recognition, even with the work as a wedding photographer being rewarding in its own right.
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Filed under: news — Neil vN @ 10:57 pm
January 1, 2012
a big thank you to everyone
Seen in retrospect, 2011 was a great year, with a number of exciting things happening.
The one thing that I take great pride in is in how many people read and even follow the Tangents blog. It’s both inspiring and humbling to know that a great number of photographers across the world continue to find this website of so much value. This is where the graphic at the top comes in – the number of visitors to the Tangents blog during the Oct-Dec quarter. During Oct to Dec 2011, there were 446,640 visits to the site.
In 2010, there were 372,000 visits for the last 3 months of the year.
In 2009 there were 251,000 visits for the final quarter of the year.
Again it’s been a massive jump in traffic to this website for 2011. (As an aside, the reason why I look at the 4th quarter and not the entire year, is that at the start of 2009, I changed domain names from planetneil and it was simpler to look at only part of the year’s traffic.)
So thank you to everyone who follows the Tangents blog and forum, and participate and ask questions and even reply to questions. You all help make this site what it is.
Other highlights of 2011 …
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Filed under: news — Neil vN @ 10:56 pm
December 21, 2011
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December 20, 2011
photo seminar: Photography Tri-Age – January 11, 2012
Alongside my friends, Natalie Licini and Jennifer Rozenbaum, I’ll be co-presenting a photo shoot-out / seminar on January 11, 2012. The program is a varied one, with three groups alternating between us, the three presenters, over the course of the day. The subjects include boudoir photography and wedding photography, incl posing and lighting.
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December 10, 2011
During the past week I did a major (but nearly transparent) change to my one website. My wedding & portrait photography blog, One Perfect Moment, now resides on the base domain, and not in the /blog/ folder. The change was purely to clean up the website and simplify a bunch of things. No changes to the actual content, aside from the usual regular updates.
The reason why I mention this, is that I know a fair number of people who regularly follow the Tangents blog, also has the One Perfect Moment site on their RSS feed. This is the new RSS feed for One Perfect Moment. So please update your RSS feed.
As as aside: as I mentioned in my page on my style in photography, was that the name, One Perfect Moment, encapsulated the ideal that I strive for with photography – capturing essential and distinctive moments. It derives from the idea of the ‘Decisive Moment’ in photography where everything just falls perfectly into place. Hence … One Perfect Moment.
Comments (3)
November 9, 2011
As much as I believe in the “get it right in camera” ethos, it is near inescapable that most images can use some sweetening in Photoshop. My own preference is for fairly subtle retouching of photographs.
The photograph above is one I’ve shown a few times as a great example of how good on-camera bounce flash can look. I did have to adjust the WB and exposure as part of my usual RAW post-processing workflow. And for the image on the left, I also removed some skin blemishes with the Healing Tool. So it does look pretty good .. but it can be subtly enhanced. And the keyword here for me is *subtle*.
My post-processing retouching for portraits involve some Photoshop plug-ins that I use, but there are some useful (and well-known) Photoshop techniques to make an image pop a little bit more. Over several articles on Tangents, I’ve referred to it as either “Photoshop fairy dust” or in a humorous way as my “secret sauce”. The techniques vary, depending on what is needed, and on what I’d like to achieve. So the “secret sauce” varies from image to image by some degree. It really depends.
With the help of Photoshop wiz, Adrian (aka, Trev from the Tangents forum), we’ve put together two action sets that make these Photoshop techniques quite accessible … and more importantly, accessible in a subtle way. No over-the-top effect. Just that sweetening of the photograph as is necessary. The image on the right-hand shows the type of retouching that is possible with this action set.
The action set, called Neil’s Secret Sauce, is available for download for a $10 fee from that linked page. The zip file includes two actions as well as a PDF instruction sheet.
And of course, we’ll gladly help!
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November 6, 2011
When I posted the first few pages in 2006 on the topic of basic flash photography, I never expected it to snowball into a much larger website. Those initial few pages became the flagship articles around which the rest of the site hinged. But with an ever-increasing workload, and the desire to post newer articles, I haven’t had much time to update the original pages. I recently decided to start on those 15+ pages, and update them with newer images and also improve the text.
The page that has been updated, is the flash + ambient light discussion. I’ve expanded the page with more images, and finessed the text somewhat. While the material is familiar to the regular visitors to this site, the page was in need of drastic updating for the new visitors. Hopefully though, in covering the familiar topic, it might just help click things into place for some.
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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.
Comments (8)
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