using a small softbox for lighting an intimate photo session
using a small softbox for lighting an intimate / boudoir photo session
With intimate photo sessions, I use a number ways of lighting my subject. This helps to bring some variety to the images. It helps mixing things up a bit by not using just one specific way to light the session. While I sometimes use a softbox, the medium sized softboxes (or the 24" x 24" softboxes) are just a little too big to swing around in a small room. With a recent on-location photo session in New York, I used the Lastolite 8.6" Ezybox (B&H) a few times. I took it along on that photo session because it Read more inside...review: Lumodi beauty dish for speedlights
review: Lumodi beauty dish for speedlights
Light from a Beauty Dish has a distinctive look - an interesting combination of soft light with a pronounced fall-off to the edges. With a softbox there is a lot of scattering of the light, making it exactly that soft light source that it is named after. A softbox is therefore quite forgiving of how you position the light in relation to your subject. The beauty dish in comparison, used as a single light source, will give light that can be both dramatic and pleasing. (Not nearly as hard as video light or direct unmodified Read more inside...Flash ‘on top of’ ambient light – Adding bounce flash to ambient light
Adding bounce flash to ambient light
Using images from a past workshop, I want to explain a simple concept with flash photography on location. In workshops and seminars I quite often describe the flash as 'riding on top of' the available light exposure. It's just another way of describing the usual technique of under-exposing the ambient light somewhat, and then using flash to give correct exposure. We can thereby control the final look of the image by controlling the direction of light from our flash. By using flash like this, we can use the flash to 'clean up' the light in the Read more inside...Kate – a New York photo session
Kate - a photo shoot in New York
Kate is from Ukraine and has a deep fascination for New York. As a present, Kate's sister flew both of them out for a vacation here ... and had me photograph Kate around New York yesterday. The idea was to get a mixture of portraits of Kate and some photos of Kate in obvious New York locales. We started off in the Meat-Packing district because I wanted a photogenic spot that wasn't too crowded during a weekday (in winter), so we could have an easy start to the photo session. Since Kate might not have been experienced with photo shoots, I thought Read more inside...Hyper-Manual mode for Nikon & Canon
'Hyper-Manual' mode for Nikon and Canon
(subtitled: the episode where I finally learn now to use the Auto modes elegantly) In my discussion of what would be the best camera in the world, I mentioned (at length) the clear advantage that Pentax cameras have because of their Hyper-Program and Hyper-Manual modes. I explain these two modes in more detail in that linked article, but in essence, the modes work as such: Hyper-Program - is a program exposure mode, but by dialing the shutter speed dial it becomes Shutter Priority / Tv. By dialing the aperture dial, you instantly Read more inside...a kid’s studio portrait
children's studio portrait - lighting setup and post-processing
The lighting setup was very simple. Mostly because there wasn't much space in the area where I set up my home-studio in my dining room area. But also, because a complicated lighting setup wasn't necessary. Just two lights. One light on my subject - this adorable little girl; the other light on my background. Read more inside...softbox vs shoot-through umbrella vs bounce umbrella
Comparison between a softbox, a white shoot-through umbrella and a bounce umbrella
I've had several requests from readers of the Tangents blog about how the light from a softbox would differ from the light from an umbrella. Spurred on by that, and by my own curiosity, I met up a while ago with my favorite model, Anelisa, specifically to do comparison shots. And here it is ... Read more inside...photographic composition – a lesson relearned
photographic composition - finding and framing your best shot
Strolling through Green Park in London, I saw these rows of winter-barren trees. The way the snow clung to the trees and branches from the morning's snow storm, white against dark brown, gave a posterized effect already - the crazy patterns of the branches starkly etched against the white snow. I took several photographs, finally liking this photo above the most of all. Aside from resizing, it is straight out of camera ... my iPhone 4. And therein was a lesson for me that I mulled over the rest of the day, while further Read more inside...using the new Nikon D3100 for its video capability
Melissa & Dennis - their wedding day from Neil van Niekerk on Vimeo.
review of the Nikon D3100 video capability
Nikon recently released two very interesting D-SLRs - the Nikon D3100 (B&H) and the Nikon D7000 (B&H). Improving on several of the entry-level Nikon D-SLRs, they also offer HD video capability (1080p at 24 fps), and even does so with full-time auto-focus capability. So when B&H sent me a Nikon D3100 for review, I thought what better test than to start in the deep end, and use it during a wedding to shoot HD video. The intention was to use the HD Read more inside...- « Previous Page
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