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Wedding photography: Bounce flash indoors … in the limo

December 11, 2013 Neil vN 9 Comments

Wedding photography: Bounce flash "indoors" … in the limo

This is a reminder that when you have a high-contrast situation such as when photographing the bride and groom inside the limo - then using on-camera bounce flash is your easiest way to control the lighting. Simply bounce your flash behind you into the limo. Even with the dark interior and fittings inside a limo, enough light should spill back to lift the shadow detail. The trick here of course is to expose correctly for the ambient light, if possible. With the camera settings then dictated by the ambient light coming  Read more inside...

Off-camera flash for wedding portraits on the beach

October 14, 2013 Neil vN 21 Comments

Off-camera flash for wedding portraits on the beach

I had the great pleasure of photographing Sarah and Antonio's wedding in Santa Monica, California. For the romantic portrait, we went down to the beach in the late afternoon. With the pier in the background, and with the sun (even at 5pm) still beating down, the photos were going to look vibrant, with that sun-drenched look. Beautiful. When I posted the photos in an album on Facebook, a number of people asked me about this (and other photos), and how I photographed them. The technique is quite straight-forward, as described in  Read more inside...

Using video light for romantic portraits of the bride & groom

October 10, 2013 Neil vN 15 Comments

Using video light for romantic portraits of the bride & groom

One of my favorite photos of the day. Why can't wedding portraits of the bride and groom be a little bit sexy? When I went back to the bridal suite during a quieter moment in the wedding reception to fetch some gear I had left there earlier, I had this thought that mmmm, yes! romantic portraits of the bride and groom on the bed in their suite. This might just work! So I called Julia and Louis back to the the bridal suite at the venue, and we did a sequence of images using video light. I'm a big fan of video light  Read more inside...

Wedding photography – Adapting the use of light & flash photography

August 19, 2013 Neil vN 29 Comments

Wedding photography - Adapting the use of light & flash photography

When I posted the photographs of a recent wedding in an album on FB, there were a lot of questions regarding my lighting. The answer is an easy one - I change it up as needed, throughout the day. Whatever is needed to give me the best results the fastest. It's rarely just one thing. So with Alesha and Patrick's wedding, I used on-camera flash, off-camera flash (with a soft box), Profoto on-location lighting kit, and of course, if it worked, then I just used the available light. The one only lighting option that I  Read more inside...

Wedding photography – Detail shots, bounce flash & macro lenses

August 5, 2013 Neil vN 16 Comments

Wedding photography - Detail shots, bounce flash & macro lenses

Macro photography for wedding detail shots is one of those areas where you need a smaller aperture. I know it's been suggested by some high-profile photographer(s) that you shoot macro at f/2.8 but this is tough advice to follow. If you even breathe, your plane of focus changes for that close distance you're working at. That smaller aperture (and I regularly work at f/11 or there-abouts), implies you will need a lot of light. A lot of daylight or lots of flash. When you're shooting indoors, this means flash,  Read more inside...

adapting your photographic style during a photo session

June 17, 2013 Neil vN 19 Comments

adapting your photographic style during a shoot

I had the pleasure of photographing Rebecca and Max's elopement wedding in New York. They're both from Denmark. (Actually, Max is from Spain originally.) They both planned to get married in New York while over on a trip here. I met up with them at City Hall on the day, where I was the witness to their wedding ceremony. That's quite an honor too. Then, after the ceremony, we ventured out into Manhattan for an extended photo session. And this is where there is a certain balance that I need to maintain. If I have a specific style in  Read more inside...

Wedding photography – Creating special moments

May 9, 2013 Neil vN 12 Comments

Wedding photography - Creating those special moments

Anticipation and timing on the photographer's part is essential to getting those key moments on the wedding day. Certain moments will happen, so we have to be ready for them. This relies on your keen observation and you ability to recognize important moments. You have to know your cameras and equipment, and you have to know the fundamentals of photography. You have to be ready. And you can only be ready if you know your equipment well, and know the techniques. No excuses. But there is no need to passively wait for moments  Read more inside...

Photographing the wedding processional with extreme bounce flash

April 4, 2013 Neil vN 28 Comments

Photographing the wedding processional with extreme bounce flash

As mentioned in the article on photographing the wedding processional, in my opinion, the wedding processional in the church is likely the most challenging part of the day in terms of our technique. People are moving towards you - admittedly at slow pace, unless the bridesmaids are nervous. Then they can easily just zip right up to the front! The light levels are low, and the light is most likely uneven. Adding flash to this is a reliable way to get clean open light on your subjects, but bounce flash can be a bit of a  Read more inside...

Wedding photography – Lighting large groups with a large light

February 8, 2013 Neil vN 12 Comments

Wedding photography - Lighting large groups with a large light

Relating to the article positioning your flash for the wedding formals, where the family portraits and groups where photographed with a single umbrella and two speedlights, the question then inevitably comes up - what do you do when you need to photograph a large group of people. The obvious answer is - you need a lot more juice! You either need to add more flashguns, or use a more powerful unit. As a wedding photographer of Indian weddings, I know that I will be dealing with huge groups of people. And that means a  Read more inside...

Wedding photography: Positioning your flash for the formals

February 7, 2013 Neil vN 22 Comments

Wedding photography: Positioning the lighting for the groups & formals

In setting up the lighting for wedding formals in the church, the question often crops up - where do you place the lights. How far from your subjects do you place the lights. The photograph above shows how and where I place the flash with the umbrella - about 3 pews in, just behind me or to my left (or right). This is approximate though. Two pews in would be fine. Of course, if you're shooting the wedding formals elsewhere in a different location, just use the same idea. The closer you bring the light,  Read more inside...

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