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off-camera flash photography: distance between softbox and subject

February 1, 2011 Neil vN 19 Comments

off-camera flash photography: distance between softbox and subject

There are all kinds of formulas for how to figure out the optimal distance between the softbox and the subject. One of the most common suggestions is to use the diagonal of the softbox. While I believe this might something you can play around with in the studio, I do think it is an overly technical way to approach it when shooting on-location. Working on-location am usually concerned with: - getting my composition, - direction of the light from the softbox (in relation to my subject's positioning), - my shooting  Read more inside...

using a small softbox for lighting an intimate photo session

January 22, 2011 Neil vN 37 Comments

using a small softbox for lighting an intimate / boudoir photo session

With intimate photo sessions, I use a number ways of lighting my subject. This helps to bring some variety to the images. It helps mixing things up a bit by not using just one specific way to light the session. While I sometimes use a softbox, the medium sized softboxes (or the 24" x 24" softboxes) are just a little too big to swing around in a small room. With a recent on-location photo session in New York, I used the Lastolite 8.6" Ezybox (B&H) a few times. I took it along on that photo session because it  Read more inside...

review: Lumodi beauty dish for speedlights

January 15, 2011 Neil vN 12 Comments

review: Lumodi beauty dish for speedlights

Light from a Beauty Dish has a distinctive look - an interesting combination of soft light with a pronounced fall-off to the edges. With a softbox there is a lot of scattering of the light, making it exactly that soft light source that it is named after.  A softbox is therefore quite forgiving of how you position the light in relation to your subject.  The beauty dish in comparison, used as a single light source, will give light that can be both dramatic and pleasing.  (Not nearly as hard as video light or direct unmodified  Read more inside...

a kid’s studio portrait

January 5, 2011 Neil vN 26 Comments

children's studio portrait - lighting setup and post-processing

The lighting setup was very simple. Mostly because there wasn't much space in the area where I set up my home-studio in my dining room area.  But also, because a complicated lighting setup wasn't necessary. Just two lights. One light on my subject - this adorable little girl; the other light on my background.  Read more inside...

softbox vs shoot-through umbrella vs bounce umbrella

December 20, 2010 Neil vN 32 Comments

Comparison between a softbox, a white shoot-through umbrella and a bounce umbrella

I've had several requests from readers of the Tangents blog about how the light from a softbox would differ from the light from an umbrella. Spurred on by that, and by my own curiosity, I met up a while ago with my favorite model, Anelisa, specifically to do comparison shots. And here it is ...  Read more inside...

Fashion photo shoot, using multiple lights

December 13, 2010 Neil vN 9 Comments

My friend Chuck Arlund is a Fashion Photographer whose elegant photography is something I always admire. Chuck’s previous guest spots here have been well received. His article on  simple on-location lighting techniques using a reflector & flash, was especially popular. Therefore I’m really glad that Chuck is graciously sharing with us how he came to shoot this stunning photograph for Parasuco.

Fashion photo shoot, using multiple lights

a guest post by Chuck Arlund Hey there everyone!  I have been working with a celebrity stylist and we have shot a  Read more inside...

mixing up the lighting techniques for wedding photography

December 12, 2010 Neil vN 23 Comments

using a variety of lighting techniques for wedding photography

This recent post on lighting ideas for the romantic wedding portraits, showed that I like to mix it up a bit, and not rely on one specific technique. Not every situation we're going to encounter can be solved with one specific approach only.  Mixing it up in terms of lighting also helps to provide my clients with more variety in the look of the final selection of images. In addition, it also keeps it interesting and fresh for me.  Constantly adapting to challenges is part of the process of growing to be a better  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...

using multiple speedlights with high-speed flash sync

December 6, 2010 Neil vN 56 Comments

using multiple speedlights with high-speed flash sync

This photo of Angelique, our model, was taken at 1/8000 @ f2 @ 100 ISO. Yes, an eight-thousand-th of a second.  The accompanying wide aperture (with an ultra-wide angle lens), gives a unique look to the image. The shallow depth-of-field and high shutter speed are mutually dependent effects in shooting in bright light. Working with a fast shutter speed, brought us into high-speed flash sync (HSS) territory. Do keep in mind that this shoot was more of a technical exercise to work through the settings and see how the flash behaves  Read more inside...

off-camera flash photography: feathering the light

December 4, 2010 Neil vN 17 Comments

off-camera flash: feathering the light

Comparing those two images, you should notice two things immediately: - the sky is brighter in the top image. - the grass in front of the group is more lit in the bottom photo.  In other words, the accent is more on the guys in the top photo, since grass in front of them are less well lit. Both images were lit by a single off-camera softbox, using a speedlight. My on-camera speedlight was set to Master, but with its output disabled. Therefore only the Slave flash (in the softbox) was lighting the group.  I liked the exposure on them  Read more inside...

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