As I mentioned in my announcement post here – this is all very exciting to me. Some of the biggest names in the photography world have presented talks and seminars at B&H. So for me, this was quite A Big Deal to present a lecture there.

Just as exciting was to see that the place was jam-packed. The venue has 65 seats, but in the end I think there were about 75 people inside, with some sitting on the floor in front of me, and some lining the door .. and some 20+ people outside seeing if there were some way of still finding a spot …

This 24mm wide shot wasn’t even wide enough to capture everyone in there!

Oh, by the way, the pieces of blue tape on my shirt was to hold the microphone in place – the clip had broken.  More pieces of tape was added as the lecture progressed, to everyone’s amusement.

Response by those who attended was also wonderful:

Your class at B & H’s Event Space was fast paced and full of concepts that could be hard to wrap ones head around, but you made them easy and fun. There was plenty of time for questions both during, and after the class and I feel that every student received as much attention as they needed. I know I did.
(Jeff Mitchel)

Hi Neil, it was wonderful attending your workshop yesterday, at B&H. Fantastic! Thanks again and look forward to more of its kind.
I was sitting in the first row, across from your laptop. Truly enjoyed the class–hands on, built so that everybody would understand. Maybe a good title would be “Deconstructing the secrets of lighting with flash” or something of that sort.
(Alina Oswald)

Because of the phenomenal initial response by people booking spots for this lecture, I arranged with the people at B&H that we do a repeat on another date later this month - August 26, 2010 – but that too has filled up by now.

I’m planning to present other lectures on different topics at B&H in the future as well, so sign up to their newsletter .. and sign up to my newsletter to keep up to date with announcements. As always, I look forward to meeting everyone there.

The video recording of the first presentation can be seen here.

And if you’re interested in attending a workshop on flash photography, check the link for the dates and more details.

Aleona caught in mid-air during the recent flash photography workshop. As part of an explanation of High-Speed Flash Sync, she patiently vaulted into the air numerous times for everyone who attended the 2nd day of the workshop.  As before, the 2nd day is the on-location fun practical segment of the workshop which takes place in Manhattan.

The first day of the workshop still takes place in Jersey City at a hotel where we have a grand view of Manhattan …

A few more images from the workshop in progress:

Just before lunchtime on the 2nd day, we had a massive rainstorm, so we continued under the awnings for a while until we finally broke for lunch at a nearby Thai restaurant.  And yes, I did stand in the middle of the road in the rain to get this shot.  I switched the transceivers to the same channel so I could fire both the flashes at the same time.  A thank you to the group for cooperating for the shot. : )

I want to thank everyone who attended. It was really nice meeting everyone, and I hope the workshop was a huge benefit to your photography.  A big thank you to our four models, Aleona, Anelisa, Catherine and Sana. And thank you to Jessica and Robert, and Richard for helping out and assisting again.

If anyone is interested in attending a workshop, the final workshop for the year will take place on Sept 13-14, 2010.  The next workshop is tentatively slated for May next year, so this will be the last opportunity for a while to attend.  More details about the workshop, as well as registration, can be found on this page.

Finally, a few more images from the workshop, and technical details (incl the image at the top):

settings:  1/2000 @ f3.2 @ 400 ISO;
Manual flash at full power from a Slaved speedlight, controlled wirelessly  with the on-camera flash set to Master.
The speedlight was still mounted on the softbox, but we had removed the two baffles to ensure enough light reached her from the flash.  Going to HSS kills at least half the power from your flash, so you have to adjust for that.  The easiest is usually to move the flash closer.  Or add more speedlights.

Nikon D3;  Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S .. set to 30mm;  2x Nikon SB-900 (B&H)
Lastolite EZYBOX 24×24 softbox (B&H); Quantum SC battery pack (B&H)
Manfrotto 680B monopod (B&H);  Manfrotto quick-release plate (B&H)

settings:  1/200 @ f3.5 @ 200 ISO; TTL flash at -0.7 FEC.
The Slaved flash was in a softbox, fired by the on-camera flash set to Master.
The Master flash’s output was disabled.

Nikon D3;  Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S .. set to 50mm;  2x Nikon SB-900 (B&H)
Lastolite EZYBOX 24×24 softbox (B&H); Quantum SC battery pack (B&H)
Manfrotto 680B monopod (B&H);  Manfrotto quick-release plate (B&H)

settings:  1/125 @ f2.2 @ 800 ISO;
on-camera TTL flash (+0.7 FEC), bounced off the outside wall of the hotel to our right.
Nikon D3;  Nikon 50mm f1.4 AF-S (B&H);  Nikon SB-900 (B&H)

flash photography workshop in New York

Aleona was one of our striking models at the recent 2-day flash photography workshop held in Jersey City and Manhattan.  The setting here was in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn, with Manhattan in the background.  The challenge was to overcome the hard sunlight with a small speedlight … and still make it look good.

The flash photography workshops have undergone certain changes over time – the material and sequence of material are always honed over time. The biggest recent change is that the workshop has expanded with an optional 2nd day where we play around further with on-location lighting. The first day is still the intensive workshop – the combination of seminar and practical sessions where we cover everything thoroughly.  The first day takes place in a hotel in Jersey City with a magnificent view of Manhattan.  (It is right next to the Path station, so it is easily accessible for anyone coming from Manhattan or Brooklyn.)

The second day is where we have fun, and walk around with two models, and try different backgrounds and lighting scenarios. So that’s the workshop now … 2 days, with the first day an intensive 10 hour workshop, with two models.  The next day is the application of that, and we roam around the Meat-Packing District in Manhattan with two different models.

Thank you to everyone who attended and made it a success.  And a big thank you to our four models; my friend Richard and my assistant-with-an-attitude, Jessica, who helped on the day.  For anyone who might be interested, the next workshop series is coming up in July.

As an aside:  the two recent posts on combining video light and ambient light and photographic composition in editing, both featured images from this workshop …

composition in photography

In composing an image, it isn’t just a matter of placing your subject somewhere in the frame. This is true for whether you go by the rigid restrictions of the Rule of Thirds, or whether you like a more central composition .. or a composition with a lot of negative space .. or whether composition is more in the way you instinctively react to the scene and subject in front of you.

Equally as important as where you place your subject, is what you include and what you exclude in the frame.   With photographic composition you have to look at the edges of your frame.

I really prefer getting it right in camera – composing for that 3:2 ratio.  But it isn’t always possible.  Sometimes a different crop works better .. say a square crop. With this image of our model, Catherine, standing inside this massive sundial, it made visual sense to use the shape of the sundial to dictate what the final composition should be.

(This was photo taken during the most recent workshop on flash photography
held in New Jersey and New York.)

So let’s look at what was excluded in the crop …

What I had to crop out was the softbox which provided the light on our model.

balancing wireless TTL flash and ambient light

Here I used wireless TTL flash.  I had my on-camera speedlight (master),  pointing to the speedlight mounted outside the softbox (slave / remote).  I needed line of sight for the master to control the remote flash. The master’s main output was disabled, and it was only used to control the remote / slave speedlight.

I had to move the softbox close enough to give me the 1/250th @ f10 @ 200 ISO that I needed for this exposure.  I still wanted a little bit of detail in the sky, and this dictated a small aperture at a low ISO … at maximum sync speed. The softbox does pull down the output of the speedlight, but it gives me light that is soft enough for my liking.

I knew I would crop out the buildings on the left anyway since they didn’t add much to the image I had in mind. So it wasn’t a problem to move the softbox within shot.

With this image, I had my flash exposure compensation (FEC), set to + 1.33 EV to compensate for the brighter tonality of the scene.  The metal reflects a lot of light, and would cause the camera to think there is more light from the flash than there actually was.  So I had to dial up my FEC.

To overcome the drop in power, I would’ve had to use a more powerful flashgun .. or use two (or more) speedlights in tandem. I could also have used bare flash.  This would’ve been powerful enough to have moved the flash back, and out of shot.  But the light would’ve looked different.

The rest of the success of the image then depended on a fantastic model … and a great architect.

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combining video light and daylight for photography

An image from the most recent workshop, held in Jersey City – our model, Catherine, lit by a combination of daylight coming in through the window, and a video light held aloft. The careful use of the different color balance of daylight vs video light, gives this image its arresting palette. I did make sure that her face was mostly lit by video light, for a uniform color there. The camera was set to Tungsten WB – the preset appropriate for a video light.

The background is the Manhattan Skyline.  It is blown out because it is much brighter than what the video light is capable of.  But it does help in giving this photo a certain ethereal quality.

equipment: Canon 5D;  Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS II;  Lowell ID-Light as video light.

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The topic – Flash On The Run – was an amalgamation of material from my book on flash photography, some of the writings here, and a lot of new photos from recent weddings. The seminar was about how all the techniques fit together on a wedding day to give you the best results from your flash while still shooting fast. And specifically, how to achieve portrait-quality lighting from your on-camera flash.

If I have to go by the number of questions asked and how much longer the seminar ran, it feels like quite a success – and hopefully everyone gained something that will affect their own photography and approach to flash. To everyone who attended, thank you for being there. And do keep in touch with any questions you may have about the material.  I’d love to hear from you.

An icy cold day in the Meatpacking District in Manhattan … and a brave model that insisted on going bare feet.  That’s just a glimpse of the latest NYC Photog Shootout gathering that took place on Saturday.  This shootout is part of the ongoing series of events arranged by Rob Nicholson.  There were many familiar faces in today’s group amongst the new.  Good opportunity to say hi to old friends, and make a few new ones.

As with the previous NYC shootout in June 2009 , I gave some instruction on some of the basics of manual off-camera flash to the groups. We worked with a Q-flash and a softbox (and sometimes without the softbox), and a bunch of Pocketwizards that I handed to anyone in the group who didn’t have.  Strange thing – I ended up with one more pocketwizard than I started out with.  Bonus!   (Actually, if you were there and you’re missing one, let me know.)

It was a bit of the Wild West out there with the huge groups of photographers firing away.

The second group had an interesting addition to the shoot …

.

Hopefully everyone got some images they like, and even learned something about lighting.  Thank you to everyone who came up to me to introduce themselves … and re-introduce themselves. ; )

.

And a little something for everyone else who wasn’t there – more info about the image at the top:

Since we already had soft available light there, we used flash with the softbox to control our lighting better.  While the available light might have been soft, it was top-heavy.  To effectively use only the ambient light, we would’ve been limited to posing our model in specific ways.  But with using flash in a softbox, we now had control over the quality of light.

The approach there in using flash in this scenario, was to figure out the available light exposure.  Once we had agreement on what our settings would be … we under-exposed by a stop.  Here’s the resulting under-exposed available light image:

settings:  1/250 @ f5.6 @ 200 ISO

Now we have to add manual flash (in a softbox), at f5.6 @ 200 ISO … by controlling the other two variables – distance and power.

And there you have it:

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reports on workshops that took place in 2009:

Dana Point, CA – March 17
San Francisco, CA – March 19   -  report-back on California workshops
San Francisco, CA – March 20
Nashville, TN – May 12   -  report-back on workshop
St Louis, MO – May 14  -  report-back on workshop
Hoboken, NJ - May 18   -  report-back on workshop
Albany, NY – May 20   -  report-back on workshop
Jersey City, NJ - July 13 -  report-back on workshop
Brighton, UK - July 28   -  report-back on workshop
Birmingham, UK - July 30    -  report-back on workshop
Cork, Ireland - Aug 02 / 03 -  report-back on workshop
Portland, OR  -  Sept 1 (Tue)   -  reportback on workshop
Seattle, WA  -  Sept 3 (Thu)   -  report-back on workshop
NJ / NYC  –  Sept 14 (Mon)  -  report-back on workshop
Boston, MA  -  Sept 16 (Wed)  -  report-back on workshop
Philadelphia, PA  -  Sept 29 (Tue)  -  report-back on workshop
Atlanta, GA  -  Oct 13 (Tue)  -  report-back on workshop
Jupiter, FL  -  Nov 03 (Tue)  -  report-back on workshop
Austin, TX  -  Nov 17 (Tue) – report-back on workshop
Dallas, TX  – Nov 19 (Thu) – report-back on workshop

The final workshop of the year!  And what a wild interesting ride it’s been the past two years with the workshops.  Wonderful people that I’ve met; interesting cities and places .. and some adventures.  (Those who attended last year’s workshop in Dallas, will remember the belligerent cowboy!) 

The workshop in Dallas was a great way to end up this series of workshops – two fantastic models in an interesting venue, and a great group of people.  As always, it felt really good seeing how things click into place for the photographers who attended.  Thank you to everyone! 

The image above was from the session where we played around with video lights.  In this case, finally getting the two models together in a dramatic pose;  then lighting them with a video light from either side.  The sconce lighting on the walls then helped make the image more compelling that a bland background would have.  A few tweaks in Photoshop, essentially bumping up the contrast and saturation, also helps give the image more impact.

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.