materials for the black foamie thing / black foamy thing

I have also added a page with links to all the articles relating to the black foamie thing.

Of course, there is also a Facebook fan page for the black foamie thing.

If you find these articles interesting and of value, then you can help by using
these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies.   Thank you!

composition for full-length portraits – step back instead of zooming wide

A comment in the article on a simple lighting setup for the family formal photos, asked why I recommended that a photographer should step back rather than zoom wide when photographing a group. The reason is that the perspective distortion that a wide-angle lens will give to your subject, is not all that flattering.

With this straight-forward portrait of Anelisa, I was shooting with the 24-70mm lens (on a full-frame camera), zoomed to 70mm. I wasn’t super-tight in my composition, so I was shooting at a distance where there is no distortion introduced on her face. (For example, a 50mm lens used as a close portrait lens on a full-frame camera, will bring unfortunate distortion to your subject’s face.)

It is a simple, pleasant portrait. Nothing complicated.

I was shooting at this distance from Anelisa for that portrait.

If I want to shoot a full-length portrait now, I have two options:
- I can zoom wider (and not move my position), or
- I can keep my lens to 70mm, and step back until I have her full-length in my frame.

Zooming wider and shooting from “above”, will give me this kind of bobble-head distortion, where her head is much larger, and her legs are much shorter. NOT flattering.

Stepping back forces a more pleasant perspective.

So when photographing someone, I fight the immediate urge to be lazy and just zoom. Instead, I keep to the longer focal length as much as I can, stepping back until I get the framing I want. Invariably, this is the more flattering perspective.

Only when I can’t safely or comfortably step back anymore, will I zoom wider. But my focal length then will still be more appropriate than if I had immediately racked my zoom as wide as it could.

And to give you an idea of the relative distances, I was standing this far from Anelisa when photographing the full-length portrait at 70mm.

Obviously there will be times when you want a more dynamic composition, or you may want to go for the crazy wide-angle shot. But for a representative portrait, it is always the better decision to step back rather than being lazy and just zooming wider.

The entire motif behind this article then, is to be aware of your own position in relation to your subject, and see how this will affect your composition … and how pleasantly this might render your subject. This is one of those things in photography where it is a good idea to just get a camera in your hand and start playing. See how zooming affects your angle of view, and how this might affect your own position if you recompose.

other articles on composition in photography

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bounce flash photography & the inverse square law

After you’re done noticing the decorated candles that the bride is holding while dancing with the groom (a tradition in Palestinian weddings), you may well notice how evenly lit this photograph is – from foreground to background.

The people visible in the background seen there between the bride and the groom, are nearly as well lit as the bride and groom. Because this was on-camera bounce flash, the background will be brighter than may have been anticipated. If I had used direct flash, or flash with a diffuser cup or bounce card, my background would’ve been much darker. This is because when we bounce flash behind us, the Inverse Square Law works for us.

This gets interesting, but hopefully we can make it less complicated than the topic often appears. So hang in there …

As comparison, here is an image taken shortly before, where I shot too fast for my on-camera flash to keep up. So this misfire will give you an idea of the effect the single flash had.

My camera settings:
the image without flash:  1/100 @ f3.5 @ 3200 ISO
the image with flash: 1/80 @ f3.2 @ 3200 ISO … TTL flash set to 0 FEC; gelled with 1/2 CTS
Nikon D3S  (B&H); Nikon 24-70mm f2.8G ED AF-S  (B&H)
Nikon SB-910 Speedlight (B&H);  Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)

Looking at this image again compared to the image where the flash didn’t go off, we can see just how much the flash lit up the entire room. Now, it helps to keep in mind that it was the flash riding ‘on top of’ ambient light, and not quite the flash doing all the work here in getting to the final correct exposure.

Even though this reception venue is quite large, I was able to use only an on-camera bounce flash. I bounced it over my shoulder, using a black foamie thing to flag it so I don’t hurt people behind me with the blindingly powerful flash. I was able to do it because of the incredible high-ISO performance of the Nikon D3S  (B&H) which allowed me to comfortably shoot at 3200 ISO.

Now, when we bounce flash like this without a plastic diffuser or bounce card, we don’t think of our flash as our light source anymore. Instead, the surface that we bounce off, becomes our light source. In this case it was the ceiling and walls above and behind me. The walls behind me were about as far away as the walls there in the back of the photograph. In other words, the de facto light source is now quite some distance away.  And this is where the Inverse Square Law kicks in to help explain why the background is relatively bright in comparison to the subject.

Inverse Square Law

The Inverse Square Law implies that as we move away from a light source, the light becomes less bright in proportion to the square of the distance.

This video clip by Mark Wallace as posted on the Fstoppers site, is the best explanation of the Inverse Square Law that I’ve seen to date. Mark Wallace really breaks the daunting topic down to something which can be visually understood, and those 12 minutes will be a solid investment in your photography.

In a similar way, I want to make it visually understandable why bouncing flash behind you would open up the background of the image.  It might sound counter-intuitive, but here is what happens. And it relates directly to the Inverse Square Law.

Let’s work through an example:

If we measure a (manual) flash at 12 feet and let’s say we measure f8
then if we measure the same flash at twice that distance (24 feet),
we will lose 2 stops of light. Our light will measure now measure as f4

If we double our distance from the light, then we will lose another 2 stops of light.
So if we move from 24 feet, ie, where we measure f4.0
then at 48 feet, we will measure f2.0

Every halving or doubling of distance means a 2 stop difference in light.

This is where the gradient of light fall off becomes important.

If you move from 6 feet (which would measure f16 in this scenario)
to only 12 feet away (where we measured f8)
then a mere 6 feet change in distance implied a massive 2 stops drop in light.

But moving from 24 feet to 48 feet – a huge jump in distance,
would mean the same drop in light levels … 2 stops.

Those are the numbers. And the theory works in practice too.

The clear implication is that the gradient of light fall-off is less steep, the further we move from the light source. This is hugely important!

How it all adds up with bounce flash photography on location:

In a real shooting situation, we might not get as technical as that. We just need an innate understanding of what is going on.  The further our subject+background moves from the light source, the brighter our background will appear, relative to when our subject+background is much closer to the light source.

Now if we look at the image at the top … the people in the background are not twice the distance from my light source compared to the bride and groom. They are closer than that. Therefore, they will be only a stop or so darker than my subjects. Or even less than a stop. The fall-off becomes much slower now at this distance from our light.

If I had used direct flash, then the people in the background would comparatively have been much further from my light source than the bride and groom .. hence, the people in the background would’ve been much more under-exposed with direct flash …. than they would’ve been with flash bounced over our shoulder behind us.

Here is another example that I have used in the article on flash photography during the wedding ceremony in church.

1/125 @ f3.5 @ 1600 ISO
on-camera TTL bounce flash (gelled with 1/2 CTS)

The shot without flash is uniformly dark. The shot with flash bounced behind me into the front of the church … the background brightens up considerably more than we might’ve anticipated. People behind the bride and her parents, are well lit by the on-camera bounce flash.

Again, it happens this way because the people in the background are not that much further from my light source, than the bride and her parents are from the light source.  The Inverse Square Law implies that the further our subject+background is from our light source, the less dramatic the light fall-off between our subject and background.

Hopefully this article helps easing in a subject which can be daunting from the outset.  And hopefully this article helps with the “feel” if not the immediate math. The part we need to intuitively grasp here is that if we bounce our flash behind us, our background opens up.

And for those already familiar with the top of the Inverse Square Law, I hope that this article brings it in again from a different direction.

Let me know if there are any questions, and let’s work through this. Understanding all of this (to some degree at least), will help our understanding of flash photography.

related articles:
- photographing the wedding processional
- flash photography during the wedding ceremony in church
- bounce flash examples – wedding receptions

practical tutorial: controls for manual flash exposure

more articles about wedding photography …

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book review: boudoir photography, by Critsey Rowe

Boudoir photography seems to have a surge in popularity in the past years. More and more interest by photographers – and it’s no wonder. As much as boudoir is a fascinating genre, it is also quite challenging. The pressure is on *you* as the photographer to get the best images you can of someone who is most likely feeling quite vulnerable. So not only are your lighting skills and posing skills and your general skill as a photographer tested … your people skills really need to kick into gear too. Boudoir photography is personal photography on so many levels.

The 30 pages devoted as a posing reference is the core of the book, in my regard. Posing the boudoir client is where the photo session can easily come unglued. While under pressure, you can easily run out of ideas with a momentary “brain-freeze”. Therefore, it is essential for a boudoir photographer to have a repertoire of ideas on hand to use. Attention is also given in this chapter to corrective posing, and working with a plus sized client.

The chapter on post-processing is also an important one. In my experience, boudoir photography’s biggest time drain is the time spent in front of the computer, carefully retouching the images. The other chapters in the book cover the actual photo session, and the presentation afterwards.

Such a thorough overview of the subject would of course be less appealing if the book didn’t contain numerous sexy and alluring photos. The printing is also of a high standard.

For a look inside the book, check the Amazon link:
Boudoir Photography: The Complete Guide to Shooting Intimate Portraits

My final summary – right now, this is in my opinion the best book available on the topic of boudoir photography, bar none. Highly recommended.

further reading:
- lighting tips for boudoir photography
- best photography books
- recommended photography books
- reviews of photography books on Tangents

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these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies.   Thank you!

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what is holding you back as a photographer?

Over a lunchtime conversation with a photographer friend, the discussion went back to something I’ve prodded her a few times about .. her self-doubt as a photographer. In my estimation she’s a better photographer than she thinks she is, but it is as if she holds back on some decisions to advance her business. Then I asked her, “what are you afraid of?”

Ironically enough, her biggest fear is the fear of failure. The fear of not being able to cope with certain challenging photography shoots. The fear of not being ready. The fear of being embarrassed by failure.

Now, one of my driving interests in life is music, and for a long time I took saxophone lessons. Admittedly, I wasn’t all that wonderful on the saxophone. At best I was an intermediate player. Even that’s stretching it. But still, I had fun playing the instrument.

There was one key moment when my saxophone teacher, Len, said in his good-natured but serious way, “You can’t remain a student forever.” And that hit me like a shock. I’ve been practicing and practicing … until what? What was it that I aiming for? Practicing until I get better?  When would that “better” be?

Of course, the more I play, the better I’d get. That’s the nature of any activity. The more you do any thing, the better you’ll get at it. But in constantly practicing and taking lessons … I was delaying actually playing the instrument, and I was delaying playing with other musicians. I was deferring the time when I would actually be creating music.

With that revelation, I started seeking out other musicians, and eventually ended up with a great group of other music fans who played for the fun of it. And for that year before I emigrated to the USA, I jammed and rehearsed with the mighty Bizarre Bazaar. Rehearsal every Wednesday night was the highlight of  any week, and those evenings will remain some of the best memories of my life. But if I hadn’t had that nudge from Len, I would most likely have kept practicing on my own, aiming to just get better at playing the sax.

Back to the lunchtime conversation about the fear of failure holding oneself back …

It made me consider the very things which held me back for far too long in my career as a photographer … a childhood where financial stability was unknown. I could see how a lack of money shaped my parents’ choices and how it shaped the future of myself and my sister as we grew up. Lack of money meant there was less control over our lives. Our options were limited, and our decisions were often forced decisions.

As an adult, that fear of being poor again, and fear of having no control over my life, often had me hesitating instead of making bold decisions. (Although that said, emigrating to another country after selling what we owned, was a pretty ballsy step.)

Fear of not being able to make it with my own business, kept me working as a photographer for other studios for longer than I should have. There is that. I’m aware of what holds me back, and what drives me. It is a constant reassessment whether my caution (and sometimes contradictory recklessness), is motivated by innate fear, or whether cautious decisions are the sensible direction.

But this kind of assessment of - where I am / what I’m doing /  and where am I headed / and where do I want to be – will have to be considered against whether any decision is based on fear, or whether it is sound decision based on what is real. Yet there has to be forward momentum, because I / you / we can’t keep marking time, preparing, waiting …

So here’s the bold question: what is holding you back as a photographer .. and should it?

The photograph above is of a mural in Dublin, Ireland, that I snapped on my iPhone while walking around the city center. The mural was like a chalkboard where people could scribble their thoughts. It seemed appropriate now.

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a simple lighting setup for photographing the wedding formals

Photographing a wedding can be pretty hectic at times, especially as it so often becomes the photographer’s de facto responsibility to keep everything on track. The formal photo session specifically is a part of the day that many photographers find challenging. (The other is photographing the wedding processional.)

When photographing the family portraits, you can really help yourself by nailing your lighting. Get it down.  Then you can concentrate on getting the groups together, and concentrate on posing the groups. But your lighting works! Much less stress.

I mostly work with the Quantum flashes since they are workhorses and don’t melt when used hard. They also have a bit more power than a speedlight. But quite often, I like working with a speedlight setup …

and if you need to see a similar image with the exposure pulled down to give a bit more detail of the flash set-up.

But here’s a proper close-up of what’s been used.

the equipment you’d need:

Two speedlights.
Here I used two Nikon SB-900 speedlights.
They’ve now been updated as the even better  Nikon SB-910 Speedlight (B&H)

If you’re a Canon shooter, then the  Canon 580EX II Speedlite (B&H) is a great choice. But any speedlights would’ve worked. There are good reasons to use cheaper manual-only speedlights, but I prefer having only the top-end speedlights which offer the flexibility and features I need, such as TTL flash and high-speed flash sync.

Radio triggers
I like the PocketWizard TT5 units, but since we’ll be using manual flash only here, there’s a wide variety of radio triggers for flash that would’ve worked well.

45? white satin umbrella (B&H)
This single shoot-through umbrella disperses the light surprisingly evenly.

Umbrella Bracket (B&H)
You need something to hook the umbrella up to the light-stand, and be able to swivel the umbrella into a specific direction.

Battery packs
For faster recycling, I’d strongly recommend battery packs.  The proprietary battery packs make a lot of sense:
- Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
- Canon CP-E4  Compact Battery Pack (B&H)

Dual Speedlite Bracket
I use the IDC double mount as shown in the photograph above, but it’s been updated by the Triple Threat. There are numerous options here, and a Google search will show many choices. There’s the Morris Umbrella Tilt Head (B&H); the Interfit Strobies Triple Flash bracket (B&H). Lightware offers the FourSquare. There’s the WizardBracket. There are also DIY dual flash brackets.  A wide choice.

But it does make sense to get two speedlights in there for extra power, or for faster recycling. Besides, you have at least two speedlights anyway.

Lightstand
I like the Manfrotto 1004BAC (B&H), but a lower priced lightstand like the Impact Heavy Duty 13′ LightStand (B&H) is a good option.

That about covers the gear you’d need.

Oh, currently my standard camera and lens for formals:
Nikon D3S  (B&H);
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8G ED AF-S  (B&H)

Exposure metering

I don’t use a lightmeter here, since I can rely on the histogram method of getting accurate exposure with manual flash.

Since the family members will be in a fixed position in relation to the light (on a light-stand), it just makes the most sense to use manual flash. TTL flash will cause too much variation in exposure.  What you need for a faster workflow afterwards, is consistent and accurate exposure. Every frame with exactly the same exposure.

Manual flash exposure is controlled by these 4 factors:
- distance between the light source and subjects (which is fixed)
- power  …  the power / output of your speedlights. You need to figure this out, for your chosen aperture and ISO
- ISO  …  select a reasonable ISO. I often go as high as 800 ISO with the family photos with a suitable camera. 
 - aperture  …  pick a suitable aperture. f5.6 makes sense. f8 makes sense. f2.8 is kinda risky for a group because the depth-of-field is so shallow. Stay with a medium aperture.

My settings for the image at the top were:
1/160 @ 4.5 @ 400 ISO
There was a lot of available light streaming in, so I chose my settings accordingly, and added enough manual flash to give me good exposure for the brides dress.  All other tones fell into place along with this.

related article:
- exposure metering for the bride & the bride’s dress

For this wedding, in a darker church, I chose:
1/60 @ f5 @ 800 ISO … using exactly the same setup.

A quick note about focal length – use as long a focal length as you comfortably and practically can. Really resist the urge to zoom wider on a group of people .. really try to rather step back and keep to a longer focal length.

And this is how it comes together for the lighting – using a lighting gear that is easy to use, and gives surprisingly great light for a medium sized umbrella. This way you can take stress off you by having great light with the family formals session.

more articles about wedding photography
and specifically:
- lighting and photographing the wedding formals
- lighting the wedding formals

other articles on off-camera flash photography

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photography workshops and seminars in 2012

full-day flash photography & lighting workshop – New York

I will be presenting three flash photography workshops in New York this year.
The first date is Tue, May 22   (follow the link for more details, and to book a spot.)
The other workshops will take place in July and October, with the specific dates to be announced.

Las Vegas mini-workshops: on-location flash photography

These mini-workshops are 4 hours long (1-5pm on each day), and the fee is $350 per person
Mon, Feb 20  ::  Tue, Feb 21
The mini-workshops will be limited to only 3 people at a time. Definitely un-crowded! Therefore these mini-workshops will be closer to being individual tutoring sessions, with a model to photograph. Contact me via email to book, or for more details.

After Dark Photography Education – Dallas, TX – Feb 27-29, 2012

This discount code: NVNP will save you $72 when you register
signing up and more details on the After Dark Education site.

Epic Summit – weddding & event business conference – Lodi, NJ – March 30, 2012

As mentioned in various posts last year, I had decided to pause the travelling workshops for the time being. The workshops in other areas of the USA, away from home, have been rewarding, but the time spent travelling has taken me away from my work as a wedding photographer, and I need to focus on that again.

However, if someone wants to help get a group together of 10 people, then we can figure out if a workshop away from New York is feasible.

I’m still finalizing dates and places for possible workshops in the UK and possibly the Netherlands. And maybe, maybe even Canada.

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I’m in the top 5% of wedding photographers in New Jersey!

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.

exposure metering – let your background blow out!

Too often there’s the desire for us to bring the detail in our backgrounds back in by adding flash. But there are times when the image will be stronger if we just allow the background to completely blow out. It especially works in our favor if the background is cluttered, because then by letting the background completely over-expose, we can simplify our composition.

The photo at the top is of Randa, whose wedding I photographed the past weekend. While finishing her preparation in the bedroom, I noticed a gesture she made as she tried to control the veil … but I also knew that if I exposed correctly for her as my subject, the background would melt away.  So we played with the idea for a minute.

Here is another photo in the sequence, but with the exposure pulled down by 3 stops with the RAW file. That will give you an idea of what the background would look like. Not bad … but not as simple as I like.

Then by exposing correctly for her, the background disappeared. I also lose some detail in the veil, but I can live with that, since this image is more about the mood and the gesture than it is about exact retention of detail in the veil.

Here is the image without any post-processing. (Aside from a slight tweak of the white balance of the RAW file.)

camera settings: 1/80 @f/2.8 @ 1600 ISO
Nikon D3S  (B&H);  Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II  (B&H)

Then for the final image, shown at the start of the article, I used the Totally Rad action set, with a mixture of presets that I named ‘Vintage‘, that I’ve used before with some images. It gives the image a warm muted look that works well in this context.

The technique is so simple, but it relies on us recognizing the potential while actually shooting.

This is exactly the technique I used when I photographed Anelisa in the shopping mall when working on the review of the Fuji X100. By exposing for my subject, I let my background blow out, giving an ethereal looking photograph.

You can order the RadLab or the Totally Rad action sets, via this affiliate link:
the discount code 1086NEILVN will save you 15%

more articles on available light photography
more articles about wedding photography

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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