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Photo session – Modern Gypsies – mermaid

December 10, 2012 Neil vN 10 Comments

Photo session - Modern Gypsies - mermaid

When the Modern Gypsies asked me to photograph their one performance piece in a night-club in Manhattan, I wasn't sure what equipment to bring along. I tend to over-prepare and bring too much. You know, just in case. So I have a tendency to overload myself with gear at times. It's a discipline thing then to strip it down to just the essentials ... but still be flexible enough to accomodate a challenging situation. The previous time I photographed them, I knew there would be a large prep room, so I could bring in extra gear such as  Read more inside...

Available light photography: Posing into the light

August 18, 2012 Neil vN 6 Comments

Available light photography: Posing into the light

A topic that we've given more and more attention to here on Tangents, is available light photography - but specifically the idea that in using available light, it isn't just a random way of taking photos, but that consideration has to be given to the direction of light. When you work with someone you want to take a portrait of, it is crucial that you pose someone in flattering light. This often means posing someone into the light, with the one shoulder toward the direction of light. This idea works for even the simplest of cameras -  Read more inside...

Photography technique – Taking photos in bright sunlight

May 7, 2012 Neil vN 18 Comments

Taking photos in bright sunlight

Taking photographs of people in hard sunlight will always be one of the more daunting lighting situations we can find ourselves in. Without additional lighting, or the use of scrims, we have a few basic ways of dealing with the harsh sun: - pose our subject into the light, - pose our subject with their back to the sun, or - just suck it up and accept that our photos will look bad. Well, that last option isn't really the way to go if we have any pride in our work as photographers. Which leaves us with the two other options ...  Read more inside...

Photographing in bright sunlight – find the shade!

April 11, 2012 Neil vN 23 Comments

Photographing in bright sunlight - find the shade!

Hard sunlight must be one of the most difficult lighting scenarios to work under. But with a bit of thought, we can work around it and still easily get photos that look great. It's a topic that we've touched on a number of times on the Tangents blog, (see related articles at the end here). Where I can though, the simplest approach for me though, is where I can, is to just not deal with the hard sunlight. I find shade. This maternity portrait session of Amy was taken on a bright day, and I wanted to avoid her squinting in  Read more inside...

Bridal portrait – Working with the available light

April 4, 2012 Neil vN 20 Comments

Bridal portrait - Working with the available light

This striking portrait is of Rachel, a bride whose wedding I photographed yesterday. Yes, a Tuesday wedding! The prep was at a hotel on the Jersey shore, and when Rachel was ready, I wanted to shoot a few straight-forward portraits there in the hotel. There was a lot of light in the hotel room itself, but the decor was white - which helps for high-key portraits. But I wanted some variety. So I scouted around, and decided to do some photographs in the passage outside her hotel room. Since it was a wedding on the Jersey shore, and  Read more inside...

Even with high ISO settings, you still need good light

April 2, 2012 Neil vN 11 Comments

Even with high ISO settings, you still need good light

Still having fun with the Canon 5D Mark III (B&H / Amazon), I met up with Elmira again in New York. Elmira is the model I used in my initial tests of the Canon 5D Mark III high-ISO performance. Being a delightful model to work with, I decided to use her again as a subject. New York was cold on this day, so shooting indoors just seemed a lot more attractive. We went to Grand Central Station - a grandiose building, but with light levels quite low. Low enough that I was glad that I brought the Canon EF 35mm  Read more inside...

Exposure metering – Let your background blow out!

January 16, 2012 Neil vN 12 Comments

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 key here then is to expose for your subject with careful exposure metering.  Read more inside...

Short Lighting with available light – and adding a little bit of flash

December 27, 2011 Neil vN 7 Comments

Short Lighting with available light - and adding a little bit of flash

When working with available light or flash or video light or any kind of additional light, the most important aspect of the light is the direction of the light. We need to take a moment and observe the light. Where do the light sources come from? What is the quality of the light? As a short-cut idea, I usually aim for Short Lighting, whether I am using flash or available light. More on the topic of Short Lighting: - Off-camera flash: Short lighting vs. Broad lighting - Bounce flash photography – Short  Read more inside...

Available light photography – Observing and using the available light

November 11, 2011 Neil vN 20 Comments

Photography - Observing and using the available light

With a few top-end point & shoot cameras to test, I met up with Anelisa on this crisp late-Fall afternoon in New York. Similar to how I often work, the idea was to walk around and explore and find interesting places and interesting light to take photographs in. So when at this particular spot in Bryant Park, and I saw the light was just incredible, I ditched the point & shoot cameras, and grabbed my Nikon D3 with the Nikon AF-S 35mm f/1.4G (affiliate) on it. Since the idea with today's photo shoot was to *find*  Read more inside...

shooting promotional photos for a band

October 17, 2011 Neil vN 17 Comments

camera settings: 1/50 @ f8 @ 800 ISO ... lens zoomed to 35mm;  available light

shooting promotional photos for a band

Anyone who knows me well is probably very aware that my first true love is music. I live my life to a music soundtrack. There's always music playing. Not the radio, but music of my own choice. I love music ... however, my sense of rhythm isn't all that it should've been for me to be a natural muso. But still, I love music. All of which meant that one few non-negotiable rules for my daughter was that she had to take music lessons. So she plays bari sax in the  Read more inside...

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