wedding photography – a photo-journalistic style, or more posed?
Wedding photography - a photo-journalistic style ... or more posed?
A photographer who attended the recent flash photography workshop here in New York, asked me an interesting question regarding my wedding photography style. His observation was about how I seemed to consistently get such well-timed un-posed and natural looking images with my wedding photography. Since my explanation seemed to surprise him, and even bordered on being a real aha! moment for him, I thought it could serve as an article here which might interest other wedding photographers. When asked by photographers Read more inside...directing & posing an available light portrait
directing & posing - using randomly found available light as portrait lighting
During a trip to California, I was keen to meet up with another favorite model, Bethany. We were allowed to shoot in a night-club on a Sunday afternoon when it was all quiet with no one there. It's an interesting place to work with a beautiful model, and I had a multiple-flash setup ready to use. However, the first series of photos of Bethany was shot with just the available light there. But first I had to recognize the light as being interesting light for a portrait. I had to "see" it first. As it Read more inside...Mimicking window light with off-camera bounce flash
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
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...Cherryl & Jim – their wedding day – stills and video fusion clip
wedding photography, The Grove, New Jersey
overview: Cherryl & Jim's wedding at The Grove, NJ A little bit of info about the video and stills photography ... Read more inside...Wedding photography – Dealing with the videographer’s light
Wedding photography - Dealing with the videographer's light
With wedding receptions, we're most often working within a very warm spectrum. There are tungsten (incandescent) lights all around. (**) There is candle light. There might be twinkling lights as decoration ... and there is the videographer's light. The videographer's light will be Tungsten balanced, even if it is an LED video light that they are using. (***) So while a wedding photographer might be using a lot of flash to dominate the lighting .. and settle for Cloudy or Flash WB, there is often a conflict of interest Read more inside...On learning the essentials of photography
I am super-thrilled to have Frank Doorhof as a guest writer on Tangents. Frank is a highly regarded Fashion photographer based in The Netherlands, whom I had the pleasure of meeting. We hung out the one afternoon, photographing a model in Coney Island. What I found particularly interesting, is how our approach to using flash and ambient light differ. Distinct styles and techniques. Quite an inspiring afternoon. (Please note: with this blog post, the images aren't illustrative of any particular part of the writing, but are there to showcase some of Frank's work.)
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Flash photography: Recreating Hollywood Glamor style portraits
Flash photography: Recreating Hollywood Glamor style portraits
With this portrait of my friends Natalie and Chris, I wanted to portray something dramatic, reminiscent of the old Hollywood Style Glamor portraits. While the classic Hollywood portraits, as done by the masters were lit with Fresnel spotlights (which are continuous lights), I wanted to create some of that mood with a few speedlights ... Read more inside...Fashion photo shoot, using multiple lights
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.