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Wedding photography tips

June 30, 2016 Neil vN 47 Comments

Wedding photography tips

When I first started as a wedding photographer, the biggest hurdle for me was feeling like I had a grasp over the entire day's time-line. For 8+ hours, you have to balance so many things - being creative, working with people, dealing with ever-changing environments and lighting situations, while still hitting every beat. You have to stay on top of things, and deliver the best images you can, as your clients expect of you. It felt over-whelming at the beginning, but eventually I found my stride - my own rhythm where I could more effortlessly do my work as a  Read more inside...

More spontaneous portrait photography

November 27, 2015 Neil vN 15 Comments

More spontaneous portrait photography

A friend of my daughter sent me an email with a few observations and a question, which in turn, set of a much longer train of thought about portrait photography, and making it more spontaneous. My portrait photography tends to be controlled on some levels. I don't strictly pose, but I do control the pose and the lighting and composition - while still trying to retain some spontaneous reaction from my subject. Here's Terry's email (which was titled: Intrinsic Splendor) I was thumbing through one of your books to brush up on something  Read more inside...

Portrait photography: Show us a favorite or break-through photograph

March 15, 2015 Neil vN 67 Comments

portrait photography - favorite photograph

Portrait photography: Show us a favorite or break-through photograph

This photograph remains one of my favorites. It was taken circa early 90's during a studio shoot-out arranged by a camera club (CCJ) I belonged to in Jo'burg. In this photo, the models are waiting for their turn to be photographed in a studio setup, using studio lighting, as well as available light in the large studio. It was a candid moment, as I knelt in front of this model, Megan. For me, this was a transitionary photograph - I was at a point where I knew basic photography techniques. I read voraciously, and  Read more inside...

review: Bolt VB-22 bare-bulb flash

January 27, 2015 Neil vN 92 Comments

review: Bolt VB-22 bare-bulb flash

review: Bolt VB-22 barebulb flash

These are good times for photographers who love using off-camera flash. There are more and more options coming out for us to choose from and use. B&H has rebranded their own version of a popular series of flashguns. The Bolt VB-22 bare-bulb flash (B&H) looks like the Cheetah Light CL-360, and the Godox Witstro AD360, and the Neewer AD-360. They all seem to have similar spec. So if you've been browsing for any of those options, B&H has the Bolt VB-22 flash at a competitive price. For the photo at the top, I had my camera set  Read more inside...

Best photography tips

April 24, 2012 Neil vN 196 Comments

Best photography tips

There are numerous tips and ideas in photography that helped me improve as a photographer over the years. This came via magazines and books and other photographers. Many sources. One of the best tips that helped me develop a style over time - when using a zoom lens, zoom to the longest focal length, and then frame your shot by walking forward or back, to where you have the composition that you want. Doing so will result in the most compression in the image, helping to isolate my subject against an out-of-focus background. (Of course, using a long lens with  Read more inside...

digital workflow tips / office workflow tips

December 8, 2010 Neil vN 16 Comments

your best digital work-flow tip / your best office work-flow tip

I'm once again on a mission to get more control of office work-flow, and to streamline my digital work-flow even further. De-cluttering my desk then made a big difference.  Adding some pieces of technology in a more sensible way to my office too, made my life easier and allowed me to work faster.  Well, I'm again changing a few things to improve my work-flow. (More about this later perhaps). In a kind of parallel to this, there was the recent article on the extra items in your camera bag - with some ideas on  Read more inside...

reverse engineering an image (3) – contest result & feedback

December 8, 2010 Neil vN 12 Comments

wedding portraits with multiple light sources

We have a winner for the contest we had last week, where we had to reverse-engineer the lighting in a photograph. I'll be contacting the winner who will shortly receive a $50 B&H gift voucher. Thank you everyone for vigorously participating! Here is Josh Lynn to explain what he did for the lighting in the contest image, of which the photo above is the wider shot. This photo reveals more of the one light source. ...  Read more inside...

reverse engineering an image (3) – a contest!

December 1, 2010 Neil vN

wedding portraits with multiple light sources

edited on Dec 08, 2010 : contest winner has been announced, with feedback from Josh about this photograph When we've previously featured photographs that we tried to reverse engineer, there was a great response by readers of the Tangents blog. Similarly, many participated in the recent Photoshop contest. So I've decided that we should combine the two. Maybe even make it a regular event. The contest then is to reverse engineer this photograph in terms of the lighting. The winner gets a $50 B&H gift  Read more inside...

Photoshop contest winner

September 9, 2010 Neil vN 12 Comments

I'm happy to announce the winner of the Photoshop contest from last week.  The winning entry was submitted by Hanssel Galeano, and he will receive the $50 B&H voucher for this effort. Before I let Hanssel explain his process in editing the image, here is the original again for comparison ...  Read more inside...

Photoshop contest

September 2, 2010 Neil vN

updated Sept 09, 2010: The contest is now closed. Here is the winning entry, as well as another notable entry. Thank you to everyone who entered! One of the images I took during the recent photo session with the Modern Gypsies, was this photo above. With all his antics, I had asked him to jump against the wall as if he was going to scale it. It looks pretty cool ... but the mundane urban background pulls this potentially surreal image back to normality. A little bit anyway. Then I imagined it as him scaling an impossibly high wall, rising up from an unseen area below. Pretty cool  Read more inside...

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