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using a neutral density (ND) filter with flash

July 16, 2010 Neil vN 30 Comments

using neutral density (ND) filters with flash to control depth of field

Working in bright light, the limitation of having a maximum flash sync speed forces a small aperture on us.  That small aperture means more depth of field than we might like. There are two ways to force a high shutter speed / wide aperture combination: - go to high speed sync (HSS) mode. - use a neutral density (ND) filter. Using HSS dramatically cuts down our power of our flash, so if we're working in very bright light, we might be past the edge of what our flash is capable of. Then we need to bring it  Read more inside...

overpowering hard sunlight with flash

July 14, 2010 Neil vN 35 Comments

overpowering hard sunlight with flash

With this part of a photo session with Johannie, we worked in an alley. The light was very uneven, with some swathes of sunlight falling directly on her.  (See the image below for the photo without flash.)  To get rid of this uneven sunlight falling on her, we have to add at least as much light on her as the brightest areas lit by sunlight. In the example above, our exposure is set to 1/250 @ f13 @ 200 ISO and we can see from the bright patch of light on her shoulder, that we’re at the edge of acceptable exposure. Any wider on our aperture, or  Read more inside...

photo session – Modern Gypsies – Bird Girl

July 7, 2010 Neil vN 11 Comments

Before we went in to Times Square with the Modern Gypsies, we did a quick portrait session with one of the Modern Gypsies performers, Bird Girl ...  Read more inside...

Bridal portrait with on-camera bounce flash

June 29, 2010 Neil vN 13 Comments

Bounce flash photography - bridal portrait

As another example of bounce flash technique, here is a portrait of the bride from a recent wedding. The technique is quite simple, and should be obvious by now to regular readers of the Tangents blog: I used a wide aperture, focused on the eye closest to the camera .. and bounced my flash towards the bride, but blocked by the black foamie thing.  No direct flash.  No diffuser cup.  No tupperware on your flash. Because of this indirect directional light, we have this broad swathe of light coming in from camera-left.  The intention was  Read more inside...

dynamic composition – changing your viewpoint (model – Carrie)

June 26, 2010 Neil vN 8 Comments

dynamic composition - changing your viewpoint (model - Carrie)

Near the end of the recent photo session with Carrie, I walked across the street to find another angle. Walking back, I noticed the sun just dipping behind the roof of this old train station. I thought it might flare interestingly if I caught the sun just on the edge there. The problem was that I had to step into the street a few times when there was a lull in the traffic. The angle was a tough one since I had to, or rather, wanted to keep my camera at ground level to shoot up. I wanted the flare, and I wanted this  Read more inside...

photography using the available light

June 21, 2010 Neil vN 25 Comments

photography using only the existing light

Instead of a photo session where I had to rely on off-camera lighting to give some color and snap to the photos, I want to show a photo session where I used no additional lighting or reflectors.  Just the available light.  This photo session was shot in same area as the previous one, but a week later  with different light and a different couple, Kristy and Tom.  They were just as great to photograph with tons of personality, making my work easier.  But I still had to look for opportunity and great backgrounds. Using off-camera  Read more inside...

composition – framing the shot

June 4, 2010 Neil vN 6 Comments

composition in photography - framing the shot

In composing a photograph, what you exclude from the frame, is as important as what you include.  With this portrait of Anelisa, I noticed that at this angle, the light reflecting off the black-painted wall created a warm glow of light behind her.  With the receding lines of the bricks, I immediately composed the photo to exclude everything but our model and the specific background.  A very specific background. Looking at the edges of the camera's viewfinder, I eliminated everything that could distract or didn't add to  Read more inside...

First curtain sync -vs- Rear curtain sync

June 2, 2010 Neil vN 30 Comments

First curtain vs Rear (2nd) curtain flash sync

A topic that has been briefly discussed on the Tangents blog before, is that of first curtain flash sync vs second curtain flash sync.  First curtain sync is also often called front curtain sync; and rear curtain sync is often called second curtain sync. (This is also covered in my book on flash photography). Since it is an important topic in flash photography, let's look at what this entails and the difference between the two ways we can sync our flash .. and why would the one way would be preferable over the other. To help us  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...

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...

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