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How to get a blurred background in photos

August 9, 2016 Neil vN 4 Comments

How to get a blurred background in photos

How to get a blurred background in photos

Somewhere at the start of the adventure that is photography, a newer photographer will soon realize that having your subject stand out from the background, really gives the photo a near-3-dimensional effect. Your subject just pops out with the background blurred. The question of how to get blurred backgrounds in photos, is easily answered. There are two ways to blur the background in a photography - In-camera (i.e., optical) vs Photoshop. Doing it in Photoshop is in my opinion, a boring way to spend an afternoon when you could be out  Read more inside...

More spontaneous portrait photography

November 27, 2015 Neil vN 16 Comments

More spontaneous portrait photography

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...

Engagement photo sessions: Posing, lighting & context

May 27, 2015 Neil vN 20 Comments

Engagement photo sessions: Posing, lighting & context

Engagement photo sessions: Posing, lighting & context

I love this photo! I also like how it came together. This was within minutes of meeting DaWeon and Toban for their engagement photo session in Philadelphia. We had only chatted on Skype before. Embarrassingly enough, I arrived late to the meeting place for their engagement session through my misunderstanding about the address. No excuses there. But it did mean I had to work fast - the setting sun was lighting up the Philadelphia skyline, and I had to nail a series of photos very quickly. DaWeon and Toban had said they  Read more inside...

Using the Profoto B1 portable flash at a wedding

September 30, 2014 Neil vN 54 Comments

Using the Profoto B1 portable flash at a wedding

Using the Profoto B1 portable flash at a wedding

With wedding photography, there are nearly inevitably time-constraints. It is therefore imperative that you, as the wedding photographer, are able to keep everything running as smoothly as possible on your side. Which implies that it is important that you (and your equipment) are adaptable. And it is also hugely important that your gear is easy to set up, and very reliable. Karissa and Rory's wedding was the first where I pulled out the Profoto B1 battery powered flash (B&H / Amazon). I'm even more impressed with it  Read more inside...

Using lens bokeh as a design element

May 23, 2014 Neil vN 25 Comments

Using lens bokeh as a design element

Using lens bokeh as a design element

In previous articles we could see how a fast 85mm can be used for shallow depth-of-field to shoot nearly anywhere by melting away the background. There's another aspect to this - the bokeh of the lens. The bokeh is a reference to how the quality of the background blur is rendered by a lens. It can be smooth, or have "jittery" patterns to the edges of objects, and the highlights. Do note though that bokeh and shallow depth-of-field are not quite the same thing. While the DoF / choice of aperture does affect the appearance of the bokeh of  Read more inside...

adapting your photographic style during a photo session

June 17, 2013 Neil vN 19 Comments

adapting your photographic style during a photo session

adapting your photographic style during a shoot

I had the pleasure of photographing Rebecca and Max's elopement wedding in New York. They're both from Denmark. (Actually, Max is from Spain originally.) They both planned to get married in New York while over on a trip here. I met up with them at City Hall on the day, where I was the witness to their wedding ceremony. That's quite an honor too. Then, after the ceremony, we ventured out into Manhattan for an extended photo session. And this is where there is a certain balance that I need to maintain. If I have a specific style in  Read more inside...

The flow of a photo session

November 28, 2011 Neil vN 5 Comments

The flow of a photo session

The flow of a photo session

In the recent article, turning day into night, I described the thought-process of a photo sequence. Starting with an idea, we worked up to a photo that looked impressive. So that entails a few test shots, including one to show the couple what we're trying to achieve. Then we finesse it. That's the usual process when coming up with ideas - it's a succession of photos, changing things up a bit until we have a few images that look really good and show the couple at their best. But sometimes, the idea doesn't work. It takes time for a photographer to  Read more inside...

Looking for photo opportunities

November 24, 2011 Neil vN 5 Comments

Looking for photo opportunities

Looking for photo opportunities

This is what we do as photographers - looking for photo opportunities and looking for angles and backgrounds which are not mundane. Even when not taking photographs, it is always a good exercise to look for what would have made a good photograph. It's constant training for the mind. We stumbled upon this opportunity for this portrait of Jessica - the reception room for a wedding we were photographing had several large boxes of lights against the walls as a kind of light mural, with baubles inside that were lit up. And the back of each of these displays  Read more inside...

Wedding photography – Style, technique & choice of gear

November 14, 2011 Neil vN 15 Comments

Wedding photography – Style, technique & choice of gear

Wedding photography - Style, technique & choice of gear

With Manhattan as a back-drop, I wanted a cinematic look for the photograph of Nima and Peter. A magnificent view behind them as they snuggle in. While I approach wedding photography with my eye on telling the story of the day, for me, where a photographer really reveals a specific style, is in the portraits of the bride and groom. I wanted a romantic look to this sequence of images, so there were specific choices to be made in terms of equipment, camera settings and the lighting. So let's run through the  Read more inside...

shooting promotional photos for a band

October 17, 2011 Neil vN 17 Comments

shooting promotional photos for a band

camera settings: 1/50 @ f8 @ 800 ISO ... lens zoomed to 35mm;  available light

shooting promotional photos for a band

Anyone who knows me well is probably very aware that my first true love is music. I live my life to a music soundtrack. There's always music playing. Not the radio, but music of my own choice. I love music ... however, my sense of rhythm isn't all that it should've been for me to be a natural muso. But still, I love music. All of which meant that one few non-negotiable rules for my daughter was that she had to take music lessons. So she plays bari sax in the  Read more inside...

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Recent Comments

  • Jeff Woodall: I found (Planet) Neil by chance – online years ago and bought signed copies of his first couple...
  • Neil vN: I would recommend the B10 over the B1 for most photographers … unless you need a flash like the B1...
  • Jeff Woodall: Hi Neil, I can’t thank you enough for fitting me in on a City Walk with model & helper at...
  • Neil vN: With the two Profoto B1 flashes here, with the way I used them, the B2 would have been under-powered....
  • Simon Vail: Thanks for the exposition. I guess you could not have achieved this with profoto B2s unless you had...
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