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review: Fuji X100 camera – photo shoot with a model

June 22, 2011 Neil vN 17 Comments

review: Fuji X100 camera - photo shoot with a model

First of all, for those who haven't heard of the Fuji X100 (affiliate) yet, it is a beautiful retro-looking rangefinder-mimicking 12 megapixel digital point & shoot camera (with a fixed 35mm equivalent f2.0 lens), that gives remarkable image quality. That about sums it up. For all those reasons, quite a buzz developed around this camera. Quite unlike anything since ... oh, the Leica X1. Or the Olympus Pen EP-2. Or the Sony NEX-5. There was greater excitement building up around the Fuji X100 though than other cameras,  Read more inside...

photographic composition – eliminate & simplify

June 6, 2011 Neil vN 19 Comments

eliminate & simplify - the first steps in photography composition

These two images were taken from more or less the same spot. All that changed was my vantage point, and my choice of lens. This vibrant park in Manhattan seemed like an interesting place to photograph, but when photographing a couple, I really want the accent to be on them. The best way to do this is to frame them so that the background is as simple as possible, but still complements the final photograph. I had the couple sit on top of this grassy mound, and I lay down on the grass, and framed them tightly  Read more inside...

Photographing couples – Going beyond just posing

May 31, 2011 Neil vN 10 Comments

Photographing couples - Going beyond just posing

With the recent post on a few guidelines on posing people, I wanted to add the reminder that when photographing people, our final destination isn't just the posed photograph, but that we should try and capture something about our subject. Something about their personality, or showing some facet of who they are and their lives. When photographing couples in particular, my accent is on photographing their relationship as well. In addition to the portraits of the couple, I want to show how they interact with each other - playfulness  Read more inside...

Using a macro lens for a photo session of a newborn

May 21, 2011 Neil vN 13 Comments

Using a macro lens for a photo session of a newborn

I had the pleasure of photographing Jen and David's newborn baby. Aside from photographing the proud parents with their little one, it is also essential to get detail photos of the baby. With close-up images, you see even more clearly just how small this newborn baby is, when you show the scale. A tiny hand clasping a finger. Tiny toes gently flexing against her mother's hand. For this, a macro lens is an essential part of my camera bag.  Read more inside...

Mimicking window light with off-camera bounce flash

April 27, 2011 Neil vN 23 Comments

Mimicking window light with off-camera bounce flash

Continuing the photo session with Ulorin, we worked inside the hotel room for the next part. The photo above is a candid shot of Ulorin fixing her hair between changes in clothing. Ulorin's next outfit shown in this article, was more revealing than the previous outfits during the photo session. (Just a heads-up for the Tangents readers who are surfing from their workplace.) Photographing inside the room, I initially tried to work with just the window-light, but hit a small snag. The indirect light through the window kept changing  Read more inside...

Off-camera flash – Change your position, change the direction of light

April 26, 2011 Neil vN 37 Comments

Off-camera flash - Change the light by changing your own position

Ulorin Vex was one of the two models that we used in the recent workshops in San Francisco. Having seen Ulorin Vex's personal site and portfolio on Model Mayhem, I jumped at the chance of working with her again with a photo session the day after the workshops. Working with a model as professional and striking-looking as Ulorin, was an experience. The photographs shown in this article was from a sequence we did in the passage outside my hotel room. The lighting was surprisingly simple, but I had to improvise with the  Read more inside...

photo session: a lazy afternoon

April 8, 2011 Neil vN 17 Comments

 Read more inside...

on a photo shoot with fashion photographer, Angie Lazaro

April 7, 2011 Neil vN 10 Comments

It's a great pleasure to present this guest spot by Angie Lazaro - a good friend from way back in South Africa. Angie is a fashion photographer in Cape Town. Angie and I became friends at a time when I was still finding my way as a photographer, doing all kinds of freelance photo shoots ... and she was still a photography student at a university in South Africa. We've both come a long way from those lunch-time conversations at the Full Stop café in Melville, Johannesburg .. and I doubt either of us could've imagined where we'd end up over time. So I really am thrilled to present Angie now  Read more inside...

portrait session – Steinway pianist

April 5, 2011 Neil vN 28 Comments

portrait session - Steinway pianist

I had the opportunity recently of photographing Robert Wyatt, a pianist affiliated with Steinway, at the Steinway offices in New York. This photo was taken as we were set to leave after the photo session was already done. I was immediately drawn to the symmetry of the architecture and the lavish foyer below. The pose and framing was deliberately centered. For this lighting setup, I quickly pulled out the Lastolite softbox again, and used it as a single light source. It was all that was needed for a simple portrait here. But earlier on, for the  Read more inside...

photo session with various 85mm lenses

March 30, 2011 Neil vN 23 Comments

photo session using various 85mm lenses  (model: Jess B.)

A fast 85mm lens is an essential addition to any camera bag, whether an f1.8 or f1.4  or even an f1.2 aperture. With their shallow depth of field, and the pleasant perspective for portraits (when not used with a super-tight composition), these lenses will have your subject just pop from the background. Jessica and I are busy with a new project - testing various 85mm lenses - specifically for how their bokeh appears in comparison. It is proving a tad more difficult than I had hoped for to show when poor bokeh is truly  Read more inside...

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Recent Comments

  • Tommy Ray: Hi Neil, did you end up posting this in a different article as you said above? “When using flashes...
  • Alicia Poling: Same one contacted us. Hello, i’m Sandra, I got your details from the internet and am wondering...
  • Adrian Jones: Great post Neil. I use the Profoto B2 with the OCF Beauty Dish on location & totally agree that the...
  • Neil vN: Nothing unusual. I do use the “Camera Standard” profile in Lightroom / Bridge, because that...
  • Greg: Hi Neil, Can you share any tips on editing files from original X100? These are by far the best pictures from...

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