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Becoming more confident in posing people

June 9, 2014 Neil vN 8 Comments

Becoming more confident in posing people

How to confidently pose people for portraits, is likely as big a challenge for new photographers, as how to use light. Even a model as professional and inventive as Ulorin Vex has told me that one of her biggest frustrations with photographers is when the photographer expects her to drive the shoot, and pose herself and come up with ideas. So yes, even when working with professional models, you need to guide them. For me, the first step in becoming more confident in posing people was to practice. And practice by posing  Read more inside...

Photography: Posing tips – the leaning pose

May 4, 2014 Neil vN 11 Comments

Photography: Posing tips - the leaning pose

Even when you're photographing a bride as graceful as Patricia, there's still a need to adjust and guide the pose. I liked the roughness and color of this gate, and I also knew the background would be an out-of-focus mush behind her. When you ask someone to lean against something, they tend to fall back onto the wall or object, with both shoulders and their back flat agains the surface. My starting point with this pose, is that I show what I want. Remember, people don't usually know what you're after, and they most definitely don't  Read more inside...

slideshow: Favorite images – wedding in Melbourne, Australia

April 15, 2014 Neil vN 14 Comments

Peiwen & Eric - wedding in Melbourne, Australia - slideshow

I've shown a few images already of the wedding I photographed in Melbourne, Australia, early in March 2014. Everything fell into place during our visit to Australia - and on the wedding day itself - great weather, lovely people, a truly fantastic couple. It's a huge honor indeed that Eric reached out to my last year, enquiring whether I'd be up for photographing his and Peiwen's wedding in Melbourne. And yes, I did feel a lot of pressure. The images dared not be mediocre! But Eric and Peiwen really were great to work  Read more inside...

Exposure metering: Under- / Over-exposure vs. exposing correctly

April 13, 2014 Neil vN 18 Comments

Under-exposure / Over-exposure vs. exposing correctly

When I posted this photograph of Peiwen & Eric's wedding in Melbourne, Australia, on Facebook, someone asked the question: how much did I over-expose this photo by? We have to be very clear with our terminology regarding over-exposure and under-exposure. This photograph is not over-exposed. It is exposed correctly! Did my camera's light-meter jump all the way to the right-hand side? Yes, it surely did. Does it matter? No, it does not. Why not? Because I exposed correctly. Not under, not over, but correctly. This  Read more inside...

Bounce flash: Adjusting the black foamie thing as a snoot

March 17, 2014 Neil vN 15 Comments

Bounce flash - Adjusting the black foamie thing to be a snoot

During the day, as I photograph a wedding, I am continually mixing up the lighting, adapting and adjusting. It's part of the process of giving my clients as much variety as possible, and also just being flexible in adapting to the demands of the various locations. It's therefore a varied approach in using all kinds of light sources: off-camera flash, on-camera flash, video light and available light. It's part of the fun, and part of the challenge of being a wedding photographer - thinking on your feet. Of course there's  Read more inside...

A wedding in Melbourne, Australia

March 10, 2014 Neil vN 13 Comments

Photographing a wedding in Melbourne, Australia

I was in Australia for the past two weeks, enjoying a rare vacation and time off. My wife and I spent a week in Sydney, and then a week in Melbourne. But the real motive in coming to Melbourne specifically, was Peiwen and Eric's wedding. I am hugely honored that Eric and Peiwen would have me fly in to photograph their wedding here. A lovely couple in every way, they were so easy to photograph and work with. It was just a pleasure. In fact, the whole experience here in Australia has been great. I am so excited by what we shot, that I had  Read more inside...

Wedding photography – Dealing with the DJ’s lights

March 6, 2014 Neil vN 18 Comments

Wedding photography - Dealing with the DJ's lights

As wedding reception venues and DJs are becoming more sophisticated in their lighting, there's now the added challenge of spotlights and lasers and other lighting effects that compete with the simplicity of just using flash. So how do you deal with this? You just deal with this. One way or another. You can either embrace the colors (as in the example above), or you can use flash to neutralize some of the wild color casts. Just how do you do that? Well, there's a little bit of homework at the end of this. Very often, I  Read more inside...

Wedding photography – Using video light for macro detail photos

January 8, 2014 Neil vN 10 Comments

Wedding photography - Video light for macro detail photos

With the details photos of the wedding rings, I generally resort to on-camera bounce flash for enough light ... and for interesting light. Sometimes though, I mix it up by using video light instead. Here I used an LED video light (affiliate). What I love about this LED video light, is that the White Balance can be changed from Incandescent to Daylight. This helps you blend the additional light to that of the existing ambient light where you are photographing the subject. The need for smaller apertures with macro  Read more inside...

Wedding photography – Big bounce flash

December 23, 2013 Neil vN 34 Comments

Wedding photography - Big bounce flash

In photographing groups with weddings, I have a preference to keep the light soft and even. This makes posing a large group easier, since you don't have to worry about odd shadows. A big light source, just off to my side, is the simplest way of lighting this. Previous articles described how to do this with speedlights and an umbrella. (Check links at the bottom of the article.) Often enough though, you'll find yourself in a scenario where one or two speedlights just don't have enough juice, and then you need to bring out something bigger and  Read more inside...

Use light & lighting to add impact to your photos

December 16, 2013 Neil vN 22 Comments

Use light & lighting to add dramatic impact to your portraits

Simplifying your composition is generally a really good way to add impact to your photos - remove visual clutter, and draw the viewer's eye to what's essential. But there's a converse challenge to this - when you have a location that isn't necessarily that interesting , how do you add more impact? Light and Lighting is an obvious way to do this. Create impact and drama in how you add light to the scene, and light your subjects. A recent article discussed this in relation to off-camera flash: using off-camera flash  Read more inside...

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