Tangents

photography tutorials, reviews & workshops

tangents photography blog
learn : discuss : share

Studio photography: Never shoot at 320 ISO @ f/5.6 with white seamless

21 Comments

 

Never shoot at 320 ISO @ f/5.6 with white seamless

...  because Amazon's patent on how to shoot against a white background, 
(with camera settings given as "about 320 ISO" and "about f/5.6" ) 
has been granted to them by the US Patents office.  Yes, I know, this makes no sense. One of the oldest studio photography techniques - shooting against a white backdrop - has been patented by Amazon.  Udi Tirosh at DIY photo reported on this. So I guess the easiest way to circumvent this, (aside from easily proving  Read more inside...

Photography: Posing tips – the leaning pose

11 Comments

Photography: Posing tips - the leaning pose

Even when you're photographing a bride as graceful as Patricia, there's still a need to adjust and guide the pose. I liked the roughness and color of this gate, and I also knew the background would be an out-of-focus mush behind her. When you ask someone to lean against something, they tend to fall back onto the wall or object, with both shoulders and their back flat agains the surface. My starting point with this pose, is that I show what I want. Remember, people don't usually know what you're after, and they most definitely don't  Read more inside...

Photographers, what have you done today for your business?

19 Comments

Photographers, what have YOU done today to advance your business?

How serious are you about succeeding as a photographer in your business, whether part-time or full-time? I know, I know, we are all serious about photography. After all, we all have a passion for photography. So there's that. But really, how serious are you, and what are you doing to advance your photography career? A while back I did a presentation to a group of photographers, and as usual, there are distractions that you as the presenter have to overcome and work against. Distractions can be as crazy as competing  Read more inside...

Headshot photography: What makes for good head shots?

12 Comments

Headshot photography: What makes for a good headshot?

A few out-takes mixed with a few keepers from this headshot photo session, and it helps illustrate some of the process of getting to a good headshot. The lighting is key. Posing is important. But there's another aspect that makes a great headshot - your subject's personality needs to come shining through. So, yes, it is in the lighting. It is in the posing. It's in the expression ... but a very important key is the personality of the photographer - how to make your subject feel relaxed. How to make the photography not feel like  Read more inside...

review: Nikon D4S auto-focus / AF performance

19 Comments

review: Nikon D4S auto-focus / AF performance

The Nikon D4s  (B&H / Amazon) updates the already-awesome Nikon D4. The short summary lists some improvements, which while they may appear incremental, overall make for a solid new release by Nikon: - a newly designed sensor, offering better high-ISO performance, - an additional AF mode has been added - Group Area AF - for more accurate subject tracking, - 11 fps continuous shooting with continuous AE/AF (compared to the 10 fps of the D4) - 'small' Raw size of 8 Mpx, - 1080/60p video - faster processing with the new  Read more inside...

My hard drive has died – what should I do?

15 Comments

My hard drive has died – what should I do?

"My hard drive has died – what should I do right now!? I don't know what to do!" These were the sounds the angry woman next to me at the Apple Store counter made, while crying about her hard disc that had died. "But it was fine this morning!" My sympathy was more with the blue-shirted geniuses who took her anger with a calmness that was impressive. My sympathy for her? Well, I just thought to myself, "Now here is someone who doesn't understand the concept of single point of failure." Back your data up, all the time. Constantly.  Read more inside...

B&W infrared photography – Urban landscapes

8 Comments

B&W infrared photography - Urban landscapes

Funny how personal projects often work - there's the initial enthusiasm, and then life and work takes over. Last year I bought a used Canon 5D mark II that had been converted to Infra-Red. I did take it out twice for walkabouts in New York - and posted the initial results. But then the work-load added up, and then a particularly harsh winter where it was just too miserable outside to go exploring in the city - and I never took it out again, until now. With the weather improving now and the sun shining, it was just a good time to go out  Read more inside...

Post-processing workflow: How to deal with color banding

12 Comments

Post-processing workflow: How to deal with color banding / posterization

If you've ever noticed banding or  posterization in your photos, where you'd expect solid colors, then there's a relatively easy fix for it. This posterization effect appears as bands of colors, where the transitions between similar tones aren't smooth, but have jagged edges instead. It is caused by the 8-bit JPG not having enough data to give you a smooth gradient when large blocks of color slowly change. You'll often see it in the blue sky in landscapes, or as in this case, with large areas of color in the  Read more inside...

After Dark photography education

10 Comments

After Dark photography education

This photograph was taken at one of the stations at the After Dark workshops. Two strip lights on either side, freezing this acrobatic performer doing jumps on his board. Pretty wild, I think. "Pretty wild" would also sum up the general experience of attending the After Dark workshops.  This is where After Dark differs from other workshops and conventions, in my opinion.  Just a simple description of the workshop as being 3 days of a series of seminars and demonstrations, doesn't quite encompass it ...  Read more inside...

slideshow: Favorite images – wedding in Melbourne, Australia

14 Comments

Peiwen & Eric - wedding in Melbourne, Australia - slideshow

I've shown a few images already of the wedding I photographed in Melbourne, Australia, early in March 2014. Everything fell into place during our visit to Australia - and on the wedding day itself - great weather, lovely people, a truly fantastic couple. It's a huge honor indeed that Eric reached out to my last year, enquiring whether I'd be up for photographing his and Peiwen's wedding in Melbourne. And yes, I did feel a lot of pressure. The images dared not be mediocre! But Eric and Peiwen really were great to work  Read more inside...