Tangents

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Lighting and Design: (de)-constructing a photograph

December 8, 2014 Neil vN 9 Comments

lighting and design in photography: (de)-constructing an image

Lighting and Design in photography: (de)-constructing an image

For me, Design in photography relates to the way an image is constructed at the time of shooting. Composition and content. Lighting. Every element which forms part of a successful and eye-catching photograph. Some of the elements in the photograph are pre-visualized, some of it a kind of serendipity that is then expanded on at the time. Some of it might only be understood afterwards in looking at the photograph. My latest book, Lighting and Design for Portrait Photography, looks at exactly that thought-process  Read more inside...

review: Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 vs Canon and Nikon

December 2, 2014 Neil vN 34 Comments

review: Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 vs Canon and Nikon

review: Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4  vs  Canon and Nikon

Even when taking photography only slightly seriously, you'll have come up against the legendary name, Zeiss. Renowned for innovations in optical designs that helped shape the history of photography, the Zeiss brand name is also synonymous with precision engineered lenses and impeccable attention to build quality. With all that behind them, Zeiss has released a new range called Otus. The first lens is a Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4 (affiliate) which Zeiss describes with phrases such as "the absolute measure of perfection" and  Read more inside...

Boudoir Photography tutorial: Top-selling images & quick posing tips

November 30, 2014 Neil vN 11 Comments

Boudoir Photography tutorial: top-selling images

Boudoir Photography tutorial: Top-selling images & quick posing tips

Posing women in boudoir portraits is both an art form and a learned skill. Women are by nature sensitive about perceived body flaws. Expert posing aimed at highlighting her favorite features (and downplaying others) can make or break her experience and love of her photos—and ultimately your sale. Petra Herrmann, an exceptional boudoir photographer, based in Kansas City, has the guest spot here with a few of her top-selling poses with some quick posing tips you can try out during your next boudoir  Read more inside...

Wedding reception lighting with one flash

November 22, 2014 Neil vN 33 Comments

Wedding reception lighting with one flash

The last wedding of the year just behind me, I want to use one of my favorite images to touch again on the recent topic of high-ISO bounce flash with on-camera speedlight. I want to show that the results aren't a fluke - but that with a consistent approach to bounce flash photography, you can get consistent results. However, since we shoot under various scenario changes, we have to adapt a bit. The venue was this hotel reception room with massively high ceilings ... but with the walls closer by. Easy enough to bounce on-camera flash off.  Read more inside...

review: High-ISO performance – Nikon D750 / D4S / D4 / D810 / D610

November 20, 2014 Neil vN 27 Comments

review: High-ISO performance – Nikon D750 / D4S / D4 / D810 / D610

With the initial quick test of the Nikon D750 high-ISO noise performance, I was quite impressed. But it really is only in comparison to other cameras that we can see how good it is. With that, I took 5 of the current full-frame Nikon DSLRs to compare them against each other to see their high-ISO noise. Nikon D750 Nikon D4s Nikon D4 Nikon D810 Nikon D610 The Nikon D4s (affiliate) is currently the high-ISO king, so it was specifically interesting to see how the 24 megapixel Nikon  Read more inside...

review: Sigma 50mm f/1.4 ART lens

November 12, 2014 Neil vN 27 Comments

review: Sigma 50mm f/1.4 ART lens

The moment you hold the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 ART lens (affiliate) in your hand, you know it is a serious lens. It is hefty. It feels like quality. It just feels like they took craftsman-like care in designing and manufacturing this lens! Sigma has somehow turned their image around from being just a third-party lens-manufacturer, to a company that needs to be taken seriously for quality optics. It started with the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 ART lens, which proved to be a spectacular lens! (Here is my review: Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HMS art lens.) There's  Read more inside...

High-ISO bounce flash photography

November 11, 2014 Neil vN 37 Comments

High-ISO bounce flash photography

One of the misconceptions about bounce flash photography that many photographers cling to, is that you absolutely need a white wall or ceiling near you. While it does help, this shouldn't stop you from trying to be a little adventurous with on-camera bounce flash to see if it gets you the results you want. There have been several articles on the topic of bouncing off various other surfaces, or, not any particular surface nearby: Bounce flash photography at wedding receptions  (bride: Juana) Wedding reception lighting with one flash  (groom:  Read more inside...

Photography: questions & answers (FAQ) – Exposure metering

November 8, 2014 Neil vN 21 Comments

Photography questions & answers (FAQ) - Exposure metering

Looking at some of the questions about photography that appear via Google searches, I wanted to more directly answer some of the questions. This article is a selection of questions that I decided to amalgamate into one longer article. The questions mostly center around exposure metering and selection of camera settings. A related page looks specifically at questions about flash photography.  Read more inside...

Photo gear & logistics: Corporate headshots

November 7, 2014 Neil vN 25 Comments

Photo gear & logistics: Corporate headshots

With any professional shoot, forethought and planning is a necessity. For personal photography there's always place for serendipity. But relying on luck with a professional shoot isn't going to go all that far. The same goes for photographing on-location headshots - planning is essential. With the on-location corporate headshots described in a previous article, I aimed for efficiency and speed. I set up various speedlights and soft boxes around the office place for environmental headshots. This way I could step each person through  Read more inside...

On-location headshots and promotional portraits

October 27, 2014 Neil vN 5 Comments

On-location headshots and promotional portraits

One of the things I like the most about photography, aside from the cool toys, is that you get to meet interesting people. Characters. People with spark. The challenge is then to capture that and show it in the photographs. A headshots photo session needs to be more than just a mere glimpse of your subject's personality. Jonathan Arons, also known as “the trombone dancer”, is a multi-talented actor, singer, dancer and musician, based in New York. Jonathan needed some professonial headshots and some portraits for promotional use. We  Read more inside...

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