Tangents

photography tutorials, reviews & workshops

tangents photography blog
learn : discuss : share
subscribe today
  • Tangents
  • Tutorials
    • Flash Photography
    • Wedding Photography
    • Studio Photography
    • Posing People
    • Understanding Your Camera
    • Exposure metering
    • BFT
    • Best Photo Books
  • Workshops
    • Info: Workshops
    • In-person
      tutoring sessions
    • Online
      tutoring sessions
    • Video tutorials
    • Workshops in
      New Jersey (NJ)
    • Workshops in
      New York (NYC)
    • Studio Workshop
    • Workshop results
  • Books
    • On-Camera Flash (revised ed.)
    • Direction & Quality of Light
    • Off-Camera Flash Photography
    • Lighting & Design
    • On-Camera Flash (1st ed.)
  • Reviews
    • Nikon
    • Sony
    • Canon
    • Fuji
    • Profoto
    • lighting gear
  • Projects
    • Two Perspectives
    • B&W Infrared
    • Vintage lenses
    • Time-lapse photography
  • Info
    • About
    • Contact
    • Newsletter
    • Join us on Facebook
    • Books by NvN
    • Acclaim
    • Success Stories
    • Photo Gear
    • Photoshop Actions
    • Support this Site
  • Forum

Wedding photography: Video light vs (gelled) flash

August 27, 2021 Neil vN Leave a Comment

Wedding photography: Video light vs (gelled) flash

Over time, I've posted several articles explaining how I use gels to bring the color of my flash closer to that of the ambient light. In summary, we gel our flash, to improve the color balance in the photo, and avoid an overly saturated murky orange background, when our subject is lit by flash, and the background is lit by incandescent lighting or warm lighting of some kind. We can reduce this difference in color temperature / white balance, by adding a gel to our flash.  The gel can be CTO or CTS.  I prefer CTS, and usually as a 1/2  Read more inside...

Fashion inspired photo session in New York, with the Zeiss ZX1

July 16, 2021 Neil vN 4 Comments

Fashion inspired photo session in New York, with the Zeiss ZX1

As another installment on the theme of Two Perspectives, I met up with my friend Tracy Bosworth Page (instagram), while she was on a visit to New York. She had brought along a most interesting camera for her visit -- the very unusual and beautiful Zeiss ZX1 (B&H / Amazon). I mentioned my interest in checking out this camera and playing with it, and Since she is a Zeiss brand ambassador, she was able to wangle a loaner copy of this camera for me to use for a few days ... and from that was  Read more inside...

Photographing corporate events – flash or no flash?

June 17, 2021 Neil vN 6 Comments

Photographing corporate events - flash or no flash?

Mirrorless cameras offering an electronic shutter which is truly silent, is one of the best advantages to using mirrorless cameras over DSLRs. With these types of events, I really do prefer using a silent shutter, so I can take enough photos where the speaker doesn't have odd expressions and weird mouth shapes. You really have to over-shoot to be sure you have enough usable images which you can give to your client. With flash and the shutter sound, at quieter events, I am sure it can be distracting to the speaker to have every  Read more inside...

Bounce flash photography with wooden ceilings

February 5, 2021 Neil vN 2 Comments

Bounce flash photography with wooden ceilings

When photographing wedding receptions, I would ideally like to get away with just one on-camera flash that I bounce off surfaces behind me. A venue with (close to) white ceilings and walls are just perfect. Super easy. Even with really high ceilings, I try to make it work. Here for example, I used a single bare on-camera flash to light up the entire place -- Wedding reception lighting with one flash. No diffuser cup or white bounce card. Bare flash with the Black Foamie Thing. But occasionally I reach the dead-end of a venue with black  Read more inside...

review: Profoto A10 flash

January 26, 2021 Neil vN Leave a Comment

review: Profoto A10 flash

The Profoto A10 flash (Amazon / B&H)is an update on the already impressive Profoto A1 flash - it is powerful, and it recycles fast - just 1 second from a full power burst. The controls on the A1, and now the A10 are easy to use. The same for the menu system - everything is obvious. With this video review of the Profoto A10 flash, we are going to look at some of that features -- but also the way that you can now control the Profoto A10 via an app on your phone, using the bluetooth connection. Another improvement that the A10 has over  Read more inside...

Studio portraits – different setups for different looks

January 8, 2021 Neil vN 2 Comments

Studio portraits - different setups for different looks

As a kind of “inaugural” photo session in my new studio space, I asked my photographer friend, @ClaytonReynolds, if he’d be willing come in to be photographed. I liked the way Clayton's confidence and natural charm comes through in these photos. We used 3 different setups for 3 different looks. From the simplest of setups -- just window-light, to a more complex setup using a spotlight with a gobo. There are two pull-back shots if you're curious about the lighting configuration. This photo above is a favorite way to quickly  Read more inside...

Best photography purchases of 2020

December 27, 2020 Neil vN 28 Comments

Best photography purchases of 2020

What a strange, strange year this has been. Hopefully things will turn around next year with the development of vaccines. Life will return to some semblance of normalcy soon. This year was most certainly different because all of us have had to cut corners and budget real tightly. With  "stay at home" orders, and events & weddings being shut down, most photographers were hit pretty hard. That of course is context to this regular year-end reflection as we discuss what photo gear bought in 2020 to augment our photography hobby or career. So that  Read more inside...

New photo studio!

December 16, 2020 Neil vN 14 Comments

New photo studio!

Nearly 8 years ago I found a studio space in an old warehouse here in New Jersey, and transformed it over time into a full-equipped photography studio with an extensive range of Profoto lighting gear. My initial post about this -- Finally, my own studio space! -- will show how I started out with not much at all. It was a transformational move for me, enabling me to shift my photography career towards commercial work and studio portraits and headshots and product photography. Much of this is challenging and awkward when you work from home. Having a studio space of my  Read more inside...

Off-camera flash with the Profoto A1, A1x, A10 flashes

November 23, 2020 Neil vN 3 Comments

Off-camera flash with the Profoto A1, A1x, A10 flashes

Profoto has a huge array of light modifiers which use their proprietary speed-ring and collar. The Profoto collar is especially easy to use in how the light modifiers fasten to the Profoto flashes. All fine .. except that until now, there was a big gap preventing you from using the Profoto A series flashes with those light modifiers. Profoto took the obvious next big step by adding the Profoto OCF adapter  (B&H / Amazon) into the mix. You can now use your Profoto A1 series flashes with any of those light  Read more inside...

More intuitive composition with eye-focus of mirrorless cameras

November 8, 2020 Neil vN 4 Comments

More intuitive composition with eye-focus of mirrorless cameras

Continuing on a topic we have discussed here before: a strong advantage that mirrorless cameras have over DSLRs – how Eye-focus makes Composition more intuitive. When I reviewed the sequence of images while photographing a wedding recently, where the bridesmaids were helping to lace up the bride's corset, the composition immediately stood out for me -- all the elements just came together. A bit of luck ... and being ready. The composition really hangs together, because the bridesmaid in the center is framed by all the  Read more inside...

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 101
  • Next Page »

categories

Articles & Tutorials

  • • About myself & this site
    • Books by Neil vN
    • Best photography books
    • Black foamie thing
    • Spinlight 360
    • Photographers’ success stories
    • email newsletter
  • • Flash Photography Techniques
    • Natural looking flash
    • Flash + Ambient light
    • Dragging the shutter
    • Bouncing your flash
    • On-camera flash outdoors
    • Exposure metering
    • Flash exposure compensation
    • Bounce flash examples
    • Which is the best flashgun?
    • Flash brackets
    • Off-camera flash photography
    • Flash photography basics
    • Using video lights
    • Flash photography tips
    • Photography books
  • • Photography workshops NJ / NYC
    • Models @ photography workshops
tutorials:
flash photography
Photography
Workshops

Recent Comments

  • Bartosz: Neil, how is it that I read this post at the exact moment I was thinking about specializing. I thought about...
  • Neil vN: I mostly use the zooms. They are convenient. The primes are used in low-light situations, where I really...
  • Brittany Johnson: This is such a great read! I’m making the switch from Nikon to Sony this month & I...
  • Kathy: I call the weird smearing thing “Lartigue-ing”. :) https://www.metmuseum.org/a...
  • Stacey: Hey Neil- I believe your’re supposed to turn the E Front Curtain off when using flash. I haven’t...

All rights reserved. Copyright © Neil van Niekerk 2022 · Customization by The Traveling Designer

Copyright © 2022 · NvN on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in