Tangents

One Perfect Moment – latest work – wedding photography

June 23, 2011

latest work – wedding photography & photo sessions

Video & photo fusion is something I’ve started working with recently. The idea with fusion is to create a vibrant blend of selected photographs with short video sections, to give a 5 or 6 minute overview of the wedding day.

As with the previous fusion clips I created with Jessica, my assistant with an attitude, I shot with the Nikon D3 bodies and she shot the HD video sections with the Canon 5D mk II (B&H). It’s a lot of work putting this together, for I think that adding stills and video is more involved than just doing either. But I like the result, and hopefully clients and prospective clients will also be taken with it.

While we’re on the topic of photographing weddings and showing new work to clients – this would be a good time to mention (or even announce! with fanfare!) that the Latest Work blog has been revamped and active again. With 900px wide images, it will hopefully show a selection of my latest work off to best advantage.

The majority of my work as a photographer consists of wedding photography, photo sessions, corporate work and such. But there is the Tangents / planetneil related stuff which, for me is the fun stuff. The part of photography that, for me, is deeply rooted in the photo enthusiast aspect of photography – the thrill of taking photos and the thrill of playing with the toys. So my website serves a dual purpose – I have to attract new clients, but I also like to help other photographers through the Tangents site and forum, as well as my books and the occasional workshops and seminars.

This all has kept me very busy – to the point where I have neglected updating the Latest Work blog for a long, long time. Partly because I was forever stuck halfway in having the blog updated for larger images, but also because I started posting new work regularly on my photography page on Facebook.

But when I recently got this message on Twitter from another photographer …
“still doing weddings? I referred someone to you. But their feedback to me is that you haven’t shown a wedding in a long time”
… I realized I had better concentrate as well on pulling my entire site together. Time for some house-keeping and gardening and neatening things up a bit. So it’s not that I haven’t gone away, I’ve just been busy. And it’s not that I am back all of a sudden … I’m still here, working my arse off and loving it!

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Stay informed of new articles via the monthly newsletter.
Also join us on the Tangents forum for further discussions.

If you need more direct help or instruction on flash photography,
I do present workshops & seminars and also offer individual tutoring sessions.

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!

19 Comments »

Maybe it’s a lot of work putting this together, but the end result is impressive.

Comment by Jacek — June 24, 2011 @ 5:09 am
Jessica(with attitude and beauty)your filming is great keep up yor fine work…Ron

Comment by ron lemish — June 24, 2011 @ 6:38 am
I have noticed that with more avenues to promote oneself, the more work it becomes to keep them all avenues up to date. I have seven sites where I post my hobby photos (although not all photos go to all sites). You cannot take any avenue for granted. There may be a lot of people on Facebook, but there are people who never use it, so one cannot neglect other methods of communication.

Comment by Stephen — June 24, 2011 @ 10:22 am
It does become overwhelming keeping up with everything. Facebook truly dominates at this point, but there is also Twitter and Flickr and LinkedIn, and now Tumblr. They all can be used to one extent or another … but that means they have to continually be fed.

I am hesitant at this point to create content for Facebook because of two friends who had their pages shut down without warning because they posted boudoir and burlesque images, and someone complained. I’m wary of leaving so much of my work at the hands of an impenetrable and anonymous entity like Facebook.

So for me, the blogs are still most important of all., and I’d rather use Facebook to drive traffic to them.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — June 24, 2011 @ 10:24 am
Neil,
Just watched the video.
Seemed like a tough crowd in terms of getting smiles at the beginning but everything seemed to warm up soon after.
Is the music the same as the final product that you are going to present to the client?

Overall, great work!

Comment by R Poinvil — June 24, 2011 @ 10:30 am
This clip was for promotional purposes and for us to gain more experience in creating fusion clips. So the music was my choice, and not as a final product created specifically for the client.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — June 24, 2011 @ 1:08 pm
I like the idea, like a more dynamic slideshow. The shots are great and the video looks stabilized. My only “but” is that I hate the music, specially for a wedding video. It calls to much attention to intself and is just plain distracting and annoying.

Comment by Guillermo — June 24, 2011 @ 7:39 pm
The music was chosen because I wanted something with a continuous driving rhythm to it, and an epic sound to it. But I was also looking for something with a faintly Middle Eastern feel to it. Rula and James’ wedding reception had Arabic music. (I actually really like Arabic music when I’ve heard bands play at wedding receptions.) You can see the musicians briefly towards the end of the clip. However, Jessica and I couldn’t find a track with Arabic music which really fit .. or else we would have had to mix several tracks in and out.

Since I despise twinkly overly slushy “romantic” sound clips like you often find on wedding photography sites … that wasn’t an option either. Probably never will be for me.

We both felt the chosen soundtrack was the best fit we could find. Decision made.

Whether it is a track which will put some potential clients off .. that’s open for discussion, I suppose. Ultimately, it will be just one of several tracks which I want to use as promotional material.

And in the end, there is a volume slider.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — June 24, 2011 @ 11:21 pm
I have since changed the music that was on the original clip.

For all the positive reaction to the music, there was also some negative comments. With that, I thought it might be best to use music which wouldn’t risk pushing a potential client away.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — June 24, 2011 @ 11:48 pm
you are the best… i’ve learned more from you’re blog in 1 day than i have in 3 years!

Comment by Lisa — June 25, 2011 @ 2:37 am
Hi Neil.I know you do not use AWB.So how you deal with different type of lighting changing every second inside the room.Thanks Pavel.

Comment by Pavel — June 25, 2011 @ 3:43 pm
Neil, Your work is always inspiring. I don’t do any wedding or portrait photography (at least not yet); however, I have begun to dabble in “video and photo fusion” on a personal level.

Can you tell us what software you use to create these videos?

Thanks for all you do for all of us that are eager to learn!

Eric

Comment by Eric — June 26, 2011 @ 11:57 am
Eric … we used iMovie ’11, but just purchased Final Cut Pro X, so we’ll see how that works out.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — June 26, 2011 @ 6:16 pm
Since you’re new to the video, are you using all the gadgets like the Redrock thing and the Zabruta eye-piece, monitor, etc? If not, how is Jessica with an attitude approaching it. And what speed cards are you using?
Thanks for my daily fix of Planet Neil.
By the way, I’m sure I spelled a few things rong. I’ve only heard of them, not seen them.

Comment by Jerry — June 27, 2011 @ 2:55 am
The hardware we used is mentioned in the linked article to this previous Fusion clip we’ve shown here. I do have a Marshall monitor that I bought, but haven’t used it on a shoot yet. The Zabruta eye-piece … I am hovering on that decision still.

Re the Redrock cage … by the time you get that, you’re better off buying the new Sony NEX FS-100 (B&H) instead, and have a proper dedicated 1080p video camera.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — June 28, 2011 @ 6:20 pm
Hi Neil, it must have been great for your client to receive such a beautiful wedding fusion. Seeing the people in a picture to unexpectedly start moving around, fascinated me most, though more so at first than after some repetition. Mostly I’d appreciate if you would share some of your thoughts and comments on the differences of quality and effect between your photo camera pictures and stills taken from the recorded video in the fused result.

Comment by jona — June 30, 2011 @ 2:45 am
Jona – just to clarify, I’m shooting video along side Neil as he photographs. The still images you see are not stills taken from the recorded video, they are the actual photographs Neil has captured. It takes some effort on my part to align the video I was recording to the exact moment Neil pressed his shutter button, but we feel it gives a better flow to the video.

Also, as everything happens at warp speed on a wedding day, it simply wouldn’t be possible for me to switch back and forth between shooting photos and videos. And, I don’t believe the quality of a still image taken from video would compare even in the slightest bit to the level of quality Neil shoots at.

Hope that helps you.

Jess B

Comment by jess b — June 30, 2011 @ 5:30 am
Hi Neil,

What an amazing job you’re doing here. Your clients should consider themselves
priveledged.
Is this the future of wedding photography, I certainly hope so. On a professional
note I can’t imagine how long it took to put that 6 minute clip together but what a wonderful sales product it is for other weddings.
The very best of luck to you and Jessica. I’m going to pass this link around to a few people in the U.K.
Keep up the good work quality photography will always win through even in difficult
times such as these. I survived three severe down-turns in the economy over here just by doing my very best to stay the best in portraiture.

Comment by Gil Cox — June 30, 2011 @ 7:07 am
With all the ways to electronically reach the masses these days it’s almost as if you need a dedicated social communications coordinator.

I’m not volunteering mind you, but it may be time to consider such matters so you can re-focus on those things which must be done and leaving those matters easily handled by others to…well… others.

Comment by forkboy1965 — July 3, 2011 @ 9:29 pm