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studio lighting : gridded stripboxes and gels

June 16, 2024 Neil vN Leave a Comment

Studio lighting : gridded stripboxes and gels

Working with Uncured, doing promotional photos of the band members. They wanted a variety of photos in the studio, but with a dramatic look and with splashes of color. With that in mind, we kept the lighting consistent ... but changed out the gels for the various sequences. The idea was to get a variety of looks in terms of the colors and how the light fell ... and be able to make the changes quickly, without requiring long setup times. The pullback shot will show the lighting setup: -- Two lights high up against the background to  Read more inside...

Colorful, dramatic portraits in the studio with continuous / LED lights

May 15, 2024 Neil vN 3 Comments

Colorful, dramatic portraits in the studio with continuous / LED lights

It was a thrill to work with the band Uncured on their promotional photos. They are focused! I expect them to break out and be huge. During this photo session we mostly worked with the usual Profoto flashes I have in the studio.  The brief was to create dramatic photos of the band. I used gridded stripboxes which were gelled. This gave the desired effect. (I will post some of the images in a follow-up post here.) But for one sequence of photos (of which three images are shown here), I changed it up with some  Read more inside...

Posing with your camera?

February 17, 2024 Neil vN 2 Comments

“Why do all chefs cross their arms in photos?” I photographed a corporate event in Manhattan a few weeks ago, hosted by a prominent London-based marketing group. One of the fascinating presentations (by EatBigFish) was about “Blanding” - when branding of so many companies conform to a consistent idea of what branding should look like. This slide summarized many of the themes in the presentation. And I immediately thought of how photographers do the same thing on their websites — posing with their cameras as if to prove they are photographers. It’s a crutch! As photographers we need to  Read more inside...

Studio photography : Improvising on lighting setups

February 13, 2024 Neil vN Leave a Comment

Studio photography : Improvising on lighting setups

Declan in the studio. This kid, only 8 years old, brought the suaveness and confidence of James Bond to the photo session. It was quite a treat to work with someone so young, but who had specific ideas of how he wanted to present himself, to the extent that this was somewhat of a collaboration. camera : Sony A1 (Amazon / B&H) lens : Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM ii  (B&H / Amazon) lighting: lots of Profoto gear of course. See the description below for the setup.  Read more inside...

Dance photography – studio lighting with dramatic shadows

January 22, 2024 Neil vN 1 Comment

Dance photography - studio lighting with dramatic shadows

Jaqlin and I wanted to create photos in the studio that captured the sheer power in her dance movements. It took several tries for me to get her at the peak of her jump. The lighting here is very simple — a single Profoto B1x 500Ws flash (B&H / Amazon), and the Profoto Magnum reflector (B&H / Amazon). With the flash high up on a light-stand in the studio, I wanted it to simulate hard sunlight, with the shadow of Jaqlin, the dancer, being part of the design of the image. The shadow has  Read more inside...

Creating AI Art – but now what?

December 20, 2023 Neil vN 5 Comments

Creating AI Art - but now what?

I just paid for a one month subscription to Stable Diffusion AI just to check it out. My first ever foray into "creating AI Art". Here is my 3rd "creation" with AI. And here is the prompt for these 4 images: "sepia tinted black & white photo with distressed edges to the photo showing a truly beautiful woman from the 1930s wearing a hat and a long coat slightly open in the front, flaring from the wind. In the background is an out of focus scene from Manhattan with various buildings and cars and out of focus people" These images look  Read more inside...

Bounce Flash Photography – directional bounce flash

December 8, 2023 Neil vN 4 Comments

Bounce Flash Photography - directional bounce flash

One of my favorite photos from a recent wedding, is this one of the groom and bride being hoisted aloft, with his priceless expression of surprise. Timing and framing is everything, of course. And the lighting. This is pretty much the way it came out of camera, with only minor adjustments to the RAW file. Note that the light on the groom is about the same as the amount of light on the bride in the background. (Yes, she changed into white overalls after jumping into the pool with her dress.) But back to the lighting -- an equal  Read more inside...

Headshot Photography : adapting the lighting setup

December 1, 2023 Neil vN 2 Comments

Headshot Photography : adapting the lighting setup

With headshot photography in the studio, there are several setups such that consistently give great, repeatable results. One such lighting setup is Clamshell Lighting, for example. The results are always solid. Just looks great. In this link with articles on headshot photography, you can read up about some of these lighting setups. While I alway enjoy working with clients to give them outstanding headshots and business portraits, it is an extra bit of fun when I meet a client who wants something extra. Something a little different  Read more inside...

Review : Profoto A2 flash & Clic light modifiers

November 25, 2023 Neil vN Leave a Comment

Review : Profoto A2 flash & Clic light modifiers

Profoto has created an entire system of portable lighting with accessories around their Profoto A2 flash  (B&H / Amazon). With this behind-the-scenes video, I show how I used the Profoto A2 flashes and accessories during a photo session with a friend, Franklin Elliot, who is a musician and actor (Instagram / Youtube). The intent was to create a series of promotional photos, with a variety of looks. During the extended photo session, we achieved 5 different setups. I want to highlight one  Read more inside...

A lighting solution for photographing a wedding ceremony in a barn

October 31, 2023 Neil vN 5 Comments

A lighting solution for photographing a wedding ceremony in a barn

An endearing image : the somewhat shy ring-bearer had to be coaxed by the bride and groom to bring the wedding rings to them. Most often, the lighting that I use isn't for dramatic, artistic purposes ... but instead for problem solving. Since it was raining on the day, the outdoor wedding ceremony was moved inside to this large barn. There was very little light inside, and there was strong backlighting. I needed even light, and I also needed to use a telephoto zoom to take photos from further up the aisle.  Read more inside...

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