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Photographing wedding portraits in bright sunlight

October 5, 2010 Neil vN 60 Comments

Photographing wedding portraits in bright sunlight

Hard sunlight overhead is some of the most difficult light that you can find yourself shooting in. When you aren't able to position your subjects, then your options are limited - fill-flash or working with the RAW file in post-processing. However, when you're able to move your subjects, but don't have the opportunity for off-camera lighting, then your best two options are: - have your subjects turn their backs to the sun, - use the light from the sun so that there are no harsh cross-shadows. Here are typical examples of  Read more inside...

fire performers … at a wedding

October 2, 2010 Neil vN 33 Comments

The bride and groom at last night's wedding are veteran burners - people who attend Burning Man - and several of their guests are fire performers. Later the evening during the reception, four of the guests showed their skill in juggling and dancing with fire.

Photographing fire performers

Photographing the fire performers, especially in such low light - i.e. near darkness - was a challenge.  A slow shutter speed to show the movement of the fire, would cause the performer to be completely blurred.  But a fast shutter speed would not show enough movement in the fire.  A fast shutter  Read more inside...

exposure metering – shifting exposure settings

September 26, 2010 Neil vN 16 Comments

exposure metering - shifting your exposure settings by counting the clicks

When shooting in consistent light, and I have a specific exposure setting that is correct - then changing settings to a an equivalent exposure  is as easy as counting the clicks. These clicks on your digital camera - whether aperture, or shutter speed or ISO - change the exposure by 1/3rd of a stop. You can then simply count these up and down to get to an equivalent exposure with a different combination of settings.  Read more inside...

Wedding day portraits – Simplifying composition for effect

September 19, 2010 Neil vN 23 Comments

Wedding day portraits - Simplifying composition for effect

With this article I want to reinforce the idea from a few recent posts about being very specific about your composition. By simplifying the image, we have greater impact. We include only what we need to include in the frame to enhance it.  Just as important, is what we exclude:  Read more inside...

photography: direction of light & change in background

August 21, 2010 Neil vN 15 Comments

Positioning your subject - direction of light & choice of background

Taking cover from the rain under an awning during a photography workshop in New York, we ended up in this spot against a wall that was painted black.  However, looking along the wall at an angle, the black paint of the wall reflected the light from behind. This completely changed the character of the background.  Since the available light was low level, and not flattering, we added some light from an off-camera flash in a softbox. Shooting nearly completely in line with the flash, the light on Catherine was  Read more inside...

photography: direction of light & choice of background

August 20, 2010 Neil vN 7 Comments

posing your subject - direction of light & choice of background

Reinforcing the ideas from a few previous posts, we're going to look at that intersect where everything comes together: - direction of light, - choice of background, - posing your subject, - positioning yourself. When we work with our subject - whether a family member or a model or anyone we're photographing - then we have the opportunity to control at least a few aspects to make the final photograph more successful.  Read more inside...

sequence: setting up the lighting at a photo shoot

August 6, 2010 Neil vN 40 Comments

analysis of the lighting setup during a photo shoot

The photo above of Jessica, my assistant, shows the final lighting setup during a recent commercial shoot.  I had to photograph various people at a medical technology imaging company for use on their website and promotional material.  I had to show some of the workplace, but put the accent on the person I am photographing. Of course, it is much easier to work with my assistant, and do test shots and changes in the setup beforehand.  Then we can change the lights and anything else we need to, until we're happy with the results.  Read more inside...

looking for the light

July 31, 2010 Neil vN 8 Comments

photography technique - looking for great light

This afternoon I walked around the Princeton campus with a couple, Renee and David, looking for cool spots to photograph them.  I noticed the spread of light on a wall coming through an entrance way ...  Read more inside...

available light portrait (model – Anelisa)

July 22, 2010 Neil vN 34 Comments

photographing people - available light portrait

While unloading lighting gear from the van to shoot a last few images for a certain section for my next book, I turned around and noticed the way the light fell on Anelisa.  Beautiful portrait light.  The (cropped) pull-back shot will show why ..  Read more inside...

Photography composition – Look at your background!

July 18, 2010 Neil vN 19 Comments

Photography composition - Look at your background!

The impact in this photo of our model, Jessica, relies equally on her looks and pose, the lighting, and the background. The background was very specifically chosen by how *I* positioned myself in relation to my subject. The background was out of focus neon lights in Times Square. I composed the photo very tightly with a 70-200mm lens, set to 200mm. By compressing the perspective with that tight focal length, I can select exactly what I want to include in the image. And that's the key here to the composition - deciding what to  Read more inside...

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