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Bounce flash & direction of light

March 12, 2010 Neil vN 41 Comments

Bounce flash & direction of light

An aspect to flash photography that I frequently underline in the articles on this site, is that we need to carefully consider the direction of light from our flash when we bounce our flash.  Sometimes we just need to bounce the flash behind us into the room to get soft light.  But when we have multiple walls / surfaces we can bounce the flash off, then our choices become more interesting ... especially when we do portraits. This is Carly Erin, a delightful model that I photographed for my own portfolio: an intimate photo session. What I  Read more inside...

off-camera flash portrait of a show dog, Chanel

March 1, 2010 Neil vN 14 Comments

off-camera wireless TTL flash setup for a portrait of a show dog

A friend of mine, Carol Beuchat, is a photographer who specializes in dog portraits and dog shows.  She was at the recent Westminster Dog Show, and needed to photograph this beautiful whippet, Chanel, for a magazine cover.  Since it was in Manhattan and it was ice cold freezing outside, we had to photograph the dog indoors.  The hotel lobby where the attendees to the dog show stayed would have to be the setting.  And would have to make a great setting. The one foyer of the hotel had these gleaming metal elevator  Read more inside...

simple on-location lighting techniques – reflector & flash

February 23, 2010 Neil vN 46 Comments

Chuck Arlund is a Fashion photographer based in Nashville whose work constantly impresses me.  As a friend, I occasionally have the privilege of getting to interrogate him on his technique.  What surprises me every time then, is the simplicity of his lighting.  His setups are rarely complex, but always effective.  I feel quite fortunate that he agreed to a guest spot this week to explain more about his approach to on-location lighting. (Chuck also offers workshops and mentoring sessions.)

simple and effective on-location lighting techniques

a guest post  Read more inside...

photo session: Jeannie Dee

February 20, 2010 Neil vN 6 Comments

photo session: Jeannie Dee

Last weekend I had the great pleasure of photographing Jeannie D, a well-known South African TV personality.  Actually, "well-known" is an understatement - she's a bit of a star. The shoot was for the cover of Top Billing magazine.  The cover image had specific requirements for the setup of the scene - a Manhattan apartment, with a view of the city in the background. I'll post more of the actual cover shoot later on, but in the meantime wanted to show some of the portraits of Jeannie D that I got in between the TV crew setting up, and the setting being  Read more inside...

Flash photography tips – Start with the ambient exposure

January 24, 2010 Neil vN 13 Comments

Flash photography tips - Start with the ambient exposure

An icy cold day in the Meatpacking District in Manhattan ... and a brave model that insisted on going bare feet during this Photo Shootout in New York.  There were many familiar faces in today's group amongst the new. Thank you to everyone who came up to me to introduce themselves, or re-introduce themselves. I gave some instruction on some of the basics of manual off-camera flash to the group. We worked with a Q-flash and a softbox (and sometimes without the softbox), and a bunch of Pocketwizards that I handed to anyone in  Read more inside...

lighting for boudoir photo sessions

January 19, 2010 Neil vN 26 Comments

lighting for boudoir photo sessions

The one type of photo session where I work the most at getting my lighting just right, is with a boudoir session. These intimate photo sessions can be quite a challenge since you have to get a variety of looks in a short time.  For this you have to not only concentrate on posing and angles, but also concentrate on the lighting.  On top of that, you have to make sure your model or client is comfortable and relaxed at all times. The session has to be fun and really show her off at her best. I bring a variety of lighting equipment to these shoots -  Read more inside...

flash & low ambient light – adapting during an outdoor wedding ceremony

January 11, 2010 Neil vN 41 Comments

wedding photography: flash and low ambient light - adapting during the shoot

I'm often asked what I would do when I encounter a situation where you need to use flash, but there is no easy way to bounce flash.  My flippant answer is ... you're screwed! Well, not really. My advice is that you have to improvise and in some way of finesse your use of light.  In tough situations, you still want to try and shy away from using direct on-camera flash whenever possible.  Direct on-camera flash as the main source of light is rarely aesthetically the best choice.  Read more inside...

combining flash and ambient light

January 4, 2010 Neil vN 46 Comments

combining flash and ambient light

Going by the emails that I receive, one of the areas that many photographers struggle with is that of combining ambient exposure and flash exposure.  This question  is also expressed in other ways.  It can be a frustrated, "where do we even start?"  I also often see it expressed as an involved step-by-step deconstruction of technique, making the entire process more complex than it is. In reply to that, and many other emails I've received in the past few months, I'd like to offer an analysis of a few images from a recent shoot. One of my  Read more inside...

Portrait session using a beauty dish

December 20, 2009 Neil vN 19 Comments

Portrait session using a beauty dish

As my daughter, Janine, grew up from being a baby, it became more difficult getting photos of her. I think most parents can relate to that increased resistance by your children to having their photo taken. This is Janine, a few moths after her 16th birthday - since I have so very few recent images of her that are of professional quality, I was able to cajole her into this on this snow-bound afternoon. She loved the results: "Facebook profile photo FTW!" I set this up in our living room, with a grey paper backdrop to create a quick home  Read more inside...

Bounce flash technique – mimicking soft window light

December 7, 2009 Neil vN 55 Comments

Bounce flash photography technique - mimicking window light

The classic shot - a beautiful bride lit by soft window light. That's a yes on the beautiful bride - but it's a solid no on the window light. What you see there is on-camera flash.  (Which most likely won't be a surprise to regular readers of the Tangents blog.) This image is from a wedding this past weekend, and it makes a great example of how light, choice of lens, composition, angle and technique come together to make an image work. With a bit of post-processing added finally for that vintage  Read more inside...

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