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Featured on PDN: How to shoot cinematic time-lapses

August 22, 2017 Neil vN Leave a Comment

Featured on PDN: How to shoot cinematic time-lapses

Just in case you're not aware of what PDN is - Photo District News is one of the premier photography industry magazines in the USA. And of course, since we are in the 21st century, they maintain a web presence and a Facebook page. So as you can imagine then, it was a big honor that the team at PDN asked me about how I shoot time-lapse videos, and what equipment I use, as well as tips on camera settings and such. This led to a 2-part video, of which the first appeared on PDN magazine's website: How to shoot cinematic time-lapse  Read more inside...

Solar Eclipse 2017 – New York

August 21, 2017 Neil vN 4 Comments

Solar Eclipse 2017 - New York

A time-lapse clip of ... well, the clouds on the day of the 2017 solar eclipse, where we had 71% partial eclipse viewable from New York City. My initial intention with this time-lapse clip was to show how the environment became darker, but the continuous cloud cover made it something different. I did have another camera for close-up photos of the solar eclipse. (The photos are shown lower down here.) There were short moments when the sun did peek out, so that we could see the progression of the eclipse. Even then, it was magical to see. Here is my  Read more inside...

On-location headshots

August 13, 2017 Neil vN 1 Comment

On-location headshots

With these on-location headshots of actor and TV presenter, Andy Peeke, there is a lot going on despite the apparent simplicity. The photos were done in a very short space of time - we rained out! So I had to work fast and still nail the images as intended. Also, - I wanted that out-of-focus city scene behind Andy, and I wanted it to appear bright. - The lighting, off-camera flash added to the ambient light, shouldn't intrude and make itself obvious. I wanted the light on him perfectly balanced with the way I intended the background to appear. - Unusual for  Read more inside...

Working on my New York bucket list

August 9, 2017 Neil vN 6 Comments

Working on my New York bucket list

Today I had my photograph taken by the New York photography icon, Louis Mendes. This has been on my New York bucket list for a long while now. I had to go in to B&H to return some gear, and when I saw Louis Mendes again on the corner of the street, I decided this is it - today! So I asked him to take a photo of me, and then had a friend take several photos with me with him. If you've visited B&H, or the Photo Plus Expo, you've seen this guy. He has this monster hybrid vintage setup that he uses to shoot polaroids of anyone who wants  Read more inside...

Bounce flash and choice of background & backlighting

August 8, 2017 Neil vN 16 Comments

Bounce flash and choice of background + backlighting

This is where style and technique intersect - the choice of how to use flash (or any other kind of additional lighting) at wedding receptions. Many photographers prefer the crisp look of multiple off-camera flash setups at wedding receptions. While I do think some of the photos look incredible, I am not convinced that the success rate is all that high. Hot spots in the background, and weird cross-shadows will mar many of the photos. My preference has always been for the predictability and flexibility of using on-camera bounce  Read more inside...

Photographer friends, we have work to do, and art to create!

August 6, 2017 Neil vN 7 Comments

Photographer friends, we have work to do, and art to create!

A quiet word to my photographer friends. I'm in various photography groups and forums, and I see a strong tendency in the more technical forums to whine about the specs of current cameras, or to bitch to-and-fro, disparaging others or other brands. My feelings about that - We should always keep in mind that our photography heroes of previous eras created masterpieces with cameras less advanced than we have now. For me, Richard Avedon immediately comes to mind. There are many others. So if you feel you're being held back  Read more inside...

Flash brackets vs Bounce Flash

August 4, 2017 Neil vN 10 Comments

Flash brackets vs Bounce Flash

A flash bracket, such as the the Custom Brackets Pro-M rotating flash bracket (affiliate), is useful in keeping the flash's orientation above the camera & lens axis, regardless of how the camera is rotated. You can see in the photo that the camera, whether horizontal or vertical, has the flash above the camera. The two photos below show the difference in results. On the left - if you just hold the camera vertically, with the flash in the hot-shoe, you get that sideways shadow. It is distracting. With a flash bracket, the flash shadow  Read more inside...

How I dodged a bullet, and got a second chance at everything

August 1, 2017 Neil vN 103 Comments

How I dodged a bullet, and got a second chance at everything

At the onset, I have to tell you exactly what this blog article is about, since it is long and self-indulgent. In short, I had an acute myocardial infarction on the first day of my trip to Italy, July 21st. I spent 8 days in the hospital in Como, Italy - 3 days in ICU, and then 5 days in the general ward of the cardio wing. We flew back home on July 31st. The cardiologist said I will bounce back from this, somewhat unscathed. I dodged a bullet! Hopefully the story is told with some humor and with enough narrative appeal  Read more inside...

Camera settings for Time-lapse photography

July 9, 2017 Neil vN 11 Comments

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Camera settings for Time-lapse photography

With even smart phones now offering a Time-lapse Photography mode, this interesting area of photography is accessible to anyone. For the smooth, professional-looking time-Lapse sequences you see in movies and TV series, you would have to put some thought into how you control your camera - and specifically, your camera settings for time-lapse photography. The smoothness of a time-lapse sequence is mostly dependent on the choice of camera settings ... and there is a specific thought-process involved. This does involve a bit of  Read more inside...

Posing tips: Avoid foreshortening by seeing two-dimensionally

July 6, 2017 Neil vN 2 Comments

Posing tips: Avoid foreshortening by seeing two-dimensionally

There is this translation we have to do as photographers, from seeing in 3 dimensions, to realizing our images will be shown in 2 dimension. We might see the depth, but that information is mostly missing when the scene is flattened as a photograph. This is a stumbling block when we pose people - we might see their limbs and hands in 3 dimensions, but when your subjects hands extend towards you, there is foreshortening. The perspective changes, and makes the limbs look shorter than they are. This can be visually  Read more inside...

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