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off-camera flash – bringing sparkle on a rainy day

June 14, 2010 Neil vN 58 Comments

using off-camera flash to give more snap to photos

Scheduling an on-location photo session, we are always left at the mercy of the weather.  This Sunday the threat of rain turned into a real downpour just before the photo session with a couple, Jen & Chris, whose wedding I am photographing later on in 2011.  During phone conversation while driving in, we agreed to just go ahead and work under the overhangs of various buildings if it should rain. When we started, it was still raining so we moved to certain spots where we were shielded from the rain.  I could shoot towards the building  Read more inside...

photographic composition in editing

May 26, 2010 Neil vN 26 Comments

composition in photography

In composing an image, it isn't just a matter of placing your subject somewhere in the frame. This is true for whether you go by the rigid restrictions of the Rule of Thirds, or whether you like a more central composition .. or a composition with a lot of negative space .. or whether composition is more in the way you instinctively react to the scene and subject in front of you. Equally as important as where you place your subject, is what you include and what you exclude in the frame.   With photographic composition you have to look at the edges of your  Read more inside...

Mixing TTL flash with manual flash – wedding receptions

May 19, 2010 Neil vN 48 Comments

Mixing TTL flash with manual flash - wedding receptions

A common technique used in photographing wedding receptions, is to use additional lighting to lift the general light levels in large reception rooms.  The additional lights can be wirelessly controlled TTL flash - but more often the additional lighting would be manual flash. Then you can use an on-camera flash, either in manual or in TTL. My preference when working like this, is for my on-camera flash to be used in TTL mode, and the additional light(s) to be in manual. In the photograph above, taken during a wedding  Read more inside...

background exposure and flash

April 28, 2010 Neil vN 7 Comments

flash photography - background exposure and flash

When I saw this dramatic sky with the approaching storm during our recent shoot at Coney Island, I knew I wanted to photograph our model against it.  By the time I actually started taking photos, the raindrops were already spattering around us. So there was little time to work. I knew I wanted a brooding sky.  Now, depending on how I chose my exposure, I could've had a much the sky appear much brighter, or just a little bit brighter than shown here.  There's a whole range of possibilities in how I could've exposed for my  Read more inside...

it was one of those days ..

April 22, 2010 Neil vN 19 Comments

You know how some days you have the feeling that the day is just filled with all kinds of possibilities? Today was one of those days. I got to meet and hang out with someone's whose work I admire - Frank Doorhof. Frank is a fashion photographer from The Netherlands who is highly regarded for his lighting skills. He is currently visiting New York to present workshops on photography lighting. (In fact, there are still a few spots open for the Monday workshop.) A mutual friend, Richard Verlaque, arranged for us to meet, with the intention of us also doing a photo shoot, and possibly exploring  Read more inside...

Bokeh vs shallow depth-of-field (DoF)

April 19, 2010 Neil vN 15 Comments

Bokeh vs shallow depth-of-field (DoF)

The first thing you might notice in this image is our super-cute model, Johannie. Next you will probably notice either: - the strange background pattern, due to the bokeh of this lens - or the shallow depth-of-field of the Nikon 50mm f/1.4D used wide open - or the lighting on her, (a reflector), These are all inter-related in some way for this photo ...  Read more inside...

flash & ambient light – reverse engineering an image

April 13, 2010 Neil vN 18 Comments

combining off-camera flash and ambient light

For a semi-guest-post this week, I thought I'd use a photo taken by my friend Josh Lynn, and reverse-engineer the lighting.  By scrutinizing the photo, we'll try and decipher how he set this up.  I did of course have the help of double-checking with Josh himself, and by checking the EXIF data. Josh is a New Jersey wedding photographer - but this photo of our model, Danielle, was taken at a recent photo shootout in Manhattan.  Josh led a group of photographers showing some lighting techniques. So let's see what we can figure out here  Read more inside...

tutorial: Balancing flash with ambient exposure

April 8, 2010 Neil vN 56 Comments

tutorial: Balancing flash with available light / ambient exposure

Many of the questions I get on the Tangents blog relate to balancing flash with available light, and I want to pull it all together into a single article. The questions often revolve around metering for the ambient light, and how to balance flash with the ambient light. Tied in with this, is how to make the decision about which camera settings are the best. It's a juggling act, balancing all the factors quickly enough ... and still being able to deliver solid photos. The answer to the questions about how to  Read more inside...

Boudoir photography – an intimate photo session

March 27, 2010 Neil vN 24 Comments

Style in boudoir photography - intimate photo sessions

I did a recent photo shoot with a model, Carly Erin, to expand my boudoir portfolio. Sometimes you get to work in large spacious rooms or studios.  Sometimes you work in smaller more intimate locations. When you work in a tighter, more intimate setting, the choice to include the surroundings or not will greatly affect how you shoot. I made the decision that I didn't want the location to be identifiable and this affected how I shot, so I used a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens for most of the photo session to compress the perspective, and  Read more inside...

Effective on-location portraits

March 21, 2010 Neil vN 54 Comments

Effective on-location portraits, with off-camera flash

When I photograph someone on location, I rely on a simple, yet effective method that will ensure that at the very least, I will get portraits that work. Let's have a look at this method, step-by-step:  Read more inside...

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