Instagram

My friend Chuck Arlund mentioned Instagram to me earlier on last year. Instagram is an iPhone app which allows instant sharing of images, but with a unique way of doing so. I briefly had a look at it then, and uploaded a photo of Chuck … and then promptly forgot about it again. That’s just how it goes with dozens of photo apps on the iPhone, nevermind the zillion things clamoring for our attention every day.

Then over the weekend another friend nudged me again to check Instagram out again, and this time I more carefully looked into it. I then realized it wasn’t just a stand-alone photo app, but rather a photo-sharing social media cosmos based on the iPhone. Interesting. Of course, you can share photos on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Tumblr.

You may well say that I’m late to this game, but here I am if you’d like to follow random images that I will post on Instagram in future. I should be easy to find – neilvn

finding that photo opportunity

We stumbled upon this opportunity for this portrait of Jessica, my infamous assistant with an attitude. The reception room for a wedding we were photographing had several large boxes of lights against the walls as a kind of light mural, with baubles inside that were lit up. And the back of each of these displays was a mirror …

… and if you stood close enough to photograph the reflection through the light spheres, and you carefully moved around to frame your subject, you could get captivating portraits like the one above. Magical!

An aperture of f/1.4 on the 85mm lens made sure that nothing else but Jessica’s eye closest to the camera, was in focus. Of course, I had to move as well to not get myself in the camera’s frame.

camera settings: 1/60 (handheld) @ f/1.4 @ 3200 ISO
Nikon D3S  (B&H);  Nikon 85mm f/1.4G  (B&H)

Finally, I used a combination of filters in the RadLab action set to give the image more of a vintage look.

Simply beautiful.

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personal work – Manhattan cityscapes

It’s been a long cold winter without much chance to roam around and explore with a camera. The past weekend it seemed like the weather was finally relenting and becoming warmer. Taking to the streets to shoot for myself a bit with no purpose in mind, I ended up with three images that I liked – all deserted New York city scenes. Or in the case of the image above, nearly deserted.

It felt good to let my thoughts roam for a while, getting some exercise and listening to music … looking for anything that visually appealed to me in the camera’s viewfinder.

With this image above, the street had tourists floating around. I shot about 10 frames over the course of 10 minutes, with the camera steadied on my iPad and iPhone on the steps of a building opposite. My camera settings were: 8 seconds at f14 @ 200 ISO. I purposely went for such a slow shutter speed, since I wanted passersby to melt away.

In taking several shots as people milled around, I was able to layer a few photos in Photoshop, erasing the static tourists via a layer mask. This way I could reveal a duplicated part of the scene where there was nobody in any chosen area. The final result … a deserted scene.

Canon 1D Mark IV (B&H);   Canon 24-105mm f4L (B&H)

Processing for all three images:
1. my usual B&W processing in ACR / Bridge, but with the local contrast cranked up.
2. Topaz Adjust 4 – Spicify – at 50% opacity on a duplicate layer.
3. Topaz Adjust 4 – Vibrance – at 50% opacity on another duplicate layer.

If you’d like to order Topaz Adjust, or any Topaz product through this affiliate link, use the discount code ‘planetneil’ for a 15% discount off any item in your shopping cart.

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just a lazy afternoon photo session, using an LED video light

all images:  1/400 @ f1.2 @ 1250 ISO
Canon 5D mk II (B&H);  Canon 85mm f1.2 II (B&H)
Litepanels MicroPro (B&H)

model: Jess B, sans attitude

portrait retouching sequence
more articles about the use of video light for photography …

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Film Noir style portrait using video light

Last week I attended the Digital Wedding Forum convention in San Antonio, where I also did a presentation. Great fun meeting up with old friends and making new ones. Since this was the 7th DWF Convention, there are a few traditions that have been established by now. One of these regular unofficial events at the Convention is the Avatar Shoot. Stephanie Zettl, who has featured on a few guest posts here on Tangents, arranges this shoot at the convention. The idea is to shoot new portraits to be used as avatars.

The theme this year was Film Noir. Using just one (or sometimes two) video lights, she created moody portraits of every innocent bystander attendee hanging out at the hotel bar the one evening. The video light is perfect for lighting for a Film Noir look to the photos. With the dramatic drop-off in light to the edges, the area around your subject will usually fall into darkness rapidly. This creates a kind of a spotlight effect. Perfect lighting for this!

The photo at the top is my portrait. I just pulled up my collar and sank back against the wall. Working so close to the wall was useful in allowing a shadow to appear … and Stephanie very effectively used the negative space there to add more drama. Just to keep the momentum of the photography process a little off-balance here .. the moment she took the first shot, I stepped away and told her we are done. Just the one shot. And it worked. It had to.

A little more about the specific video light used here:

The LED light that I have settled on for use in photography, is the LitePanels Micro Pro. It is quite spendy in comparison to other LED video lights on the market. The model of LED Video Light that was used here, is the Fancier 126 Dimmable LED Camera Light. (Amazon) It is surprisingly affordable … and going by the results, it works just great.

A thank you to Stephanie for this cool shot.
btw, Stephanie is an awesome wedding photographer in St Louis, MO.

Other articles on using video light for photography.

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portrait using a gridded softbox

It’s been about a year since I last took a more formal portrait of my daughter Janine. Last year it was her with the steam-punk goggles, when I used a beauty dish (with a sock) as lighting. During a restaurant dinner last night I noticed Janine had ‘LOVE’ scribbled on both her forearms with a felt marker. I asked her about it, and she explained the idea behind ‘To Write Love On Her Arms‘. So I decided to include this tonight in the portrait of her.

Lighting her and the words on her arms was a slight challenge. I wanted a moody portrait, instead of just flooding it with even light from something like bounced flash …

For the sequence of photos I took of her here, I used a few speedlights. To control the light, I used a gridded softbox – exactly the same as shown in a previous article about the sequence of setting up the lighting during a shoot. In a small and simple light set-up with speedlights, there just wasn’t the control to have short lighting on her face, and somehow spot-light the writing on her arm. With a sprained wrist she couldn’t turn her right hand towards me, so we only photographed the one.

In getting the light on her and her arm, I ended up with broad lighting, and the pose was more formal than I originally intended. I wanted something more dramatic … but this is where we ended up for this photograph of her.

To give a more dramatic light fall-off to the top and bottom, I turned the gridded softbox sideways. See the pull-back shot below.

The grey backdrop was lit up by another speedlight bouncing flash into the passage to the right of the backdrop. I used an on-camera speedlight as Master (with its own output disabled), which controlled the gridded softbox (Group A), and the light on the background (Group B). Both Slaved speedlights were in manual output. The light reflected back onto the backdrop gave the slight gradient of light you can see there on the background. That same reflected light spilled onto her face, giving a bit of a welcome accent light. More accident light perhaps, since it wasn’t necessarily by design.

The expression? Not boredom as you might suspect, but annoyance because I dared brush her hair out of her eyes for the photographs. Not everything is under our control as photographers. ; )

Lighting equipment used with this photo session:

Here is what the gridded softbox looks like that were used:

the Creative Light 1×3′ Recessed Softbox (B&H),
with the Creative Light 1×3′ Softgrid (B&H), attached to it.

The softbox does need a speed ring to attach it to the speedlight or other flashgun. The speedring I used here is the one made by Creative Light (B&H), which is specifically made for speedlights. It also rotates, which is helpful if you use it with other softboxes as well. Other accessories used can be seen on my equipment page.

You get different types of grids – ‘eggcrate’ and ‘honeycomb’.  The actual construction and look of the grid will tell you which name is applicable. The Softgrid shown above is of the eggcrate type. A search on B&H’s website will show you numerous options and possibilities.

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favorite image from the weekend – trampoline jump

Another photograph from the PDF event this weekend where I photographed the fire performer, is this one from earlier in the afternoon.  I noticed some event-goers taking turns at a trampoline.  I decided to shoot into the sun for dramatic effect .. but also to make the image more anonymous and therefore more about the feel of the day.  More about the mood than a recognizable portrait.  Shooting at high shutter speeds, I was able to freeze the action completely, and caught this guy in mid-tumble … as if mysteriously floating by.  Slightly surreal.

Image details:
1/2000 @ f8 @ 200 ISO (no flash)
Nikon D3; Nikon 85mm f1.4D

Another image that I really liked, is of this girl dancing with a hula-hoop.  Again, I like the anonymity, with her arms obscuring her face … but you see just enough of the expression as she concentrates on the moves.

Like the photos of the fire performers in the recent posts, it took numerous tries to get but a few images that worked – where the photograph was sharp, and the ‘gesture’ being photographed made sense visually.   The photograph should make some visual sense, and not just a random photo that happens to be sharp.

Image details:
1/100 @ f1.4 @ 3200 ISO (no flash)
Nikon D3; Nikon 85mm f1.4D

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After I was so thrilled with watching and photographing the fire performers at their wedding, Katie and Nathan managed to get me a ticket to the PDF event this weekend. Due to work commitments this weekend, I was only able to visit tonight (Friday), and take in the activities and spirit of the event, and chat to random people. Magical.

Of the fire performers (and other participants) I photographed, I really liked the few images I got of Nichole .. and thought I’d show them here as a small glimpse of the event.

Shot with the Nikon D3, using the Nikon 85mm f1.4D lens
1/125 @ f1.4 @ 3200 ISO

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A quick informal portrait of a photographer friend of mine, Sarah Smith.

While walking in Manhattan, I saw what would make a great background when viewed from a certain angle.  I asked Sarah to stop, and then asked her to turn her gaze slightly outwards to the light coming from the street side of the Manhattan sidewalk. I carefully framed the image in my camera’s viewfinder, using shallow depth of field. A great background, beautiful light and a very photogenic subject.  Sometimes it’s this easy, and this quick.

Nikon D700 (B&H);  Nikon 85mm f1.4 AF-D (B&H)
1/640 @ f2 @ 640 ISO

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In 1998 I had the great opportunity to visit Madagascar to photograph stock images for a travel agent.  This guitar player in one of the markets in Antananarivo caught my eye, especially with the bold colors.  This photo from the archives is this week’s entry for the Alive for 365 project.

Antananarivo, Madagascar  //  Jan ’98
Nikon F90;  Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 AF-D
81A warming filter;  Fuji Sensia 100

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