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review: Sony Alpha a7R camera

February 21, 2014 Neil vN 11 Comments

review: Sony Alpha a7R camera

Sony is still on fire with their new camera releases. There is the delicious full-frame compact  Sony RX1 (Amazon).  (Read my review of the Sony RX1).  For a relatively long while, the best compact camera on the market was the Sony RX100 (Amazon) which was improved with the Sony RX100 II (Amazon). The full-frame Sony A99 DSLR also received great reports.  So no doubt about it - Sony makes great cameras. Another trend that has gained momentum in the last year or two - Mirrorless cameras. Without the bulk of the mirror and  Read more inside...

Working as a combat photographer in the US Marines

February 19, 2014 Neil vN 35 Comments

Tammy Hineline is a Sergeant in the US Marine Corps serving as a Combat Photographer / Videographer. And ... Tammy follows the Tangents blog! She graciously responded to my request asking if she'd be interested in writing a guest article about the life as a military photographer in the Marines. It's a fascinating glimpse into a photography career outside of what most of us would ever experience. Since enlisting in 2008 Tammy has done two deployments and has provided photographic support to multiple training evolutions, humanitarian operations, and other military events. She recently  Read more inside...

Photography – Creating foreground bokeh effects

February 18, 2014 Neil vN 31 Comments

Creating foreground bokeh effects in-camera

The closer you move to a foreground object, the more it's shape and color and opacity will affect the image … in unpredictable ways. It's a well-established technique then to create unusual color splashes and shapes in the image by creating flare highlights. It is often called "foreground bokeh effect". Ulorin Vex is an unusually photogenic model that I have photographed on a few occasions. When Ulorin visited the East Coast again recently, I jumped at the opportunity to meet up with her again and play in the studio. Her striking looks  Read more inside...

Available light portraits – Composition, light and style

February 14, 2014 Neil vN 14 Comments

Available light portraits - Composition and light

Over time I noticed that my style in photographing portraits have gravitated to a specific look where everything is quite simplified - the lighting, the background and the framing of the shot. Whether I use the available light, or video light, or off-camera flash, or even on-camera bounce flash, there's a certain uncomplicated look. I'd like to think of it as elegant unfussy simplicity. Analyzing this, it is easy to see there's a specific method here. It's a method which helps especially when under pressure. Here, even allowing  Read more inside...

Paying for Facebook likes

February 10, 2014 Neil vN 13 Comments

Consider carefully before paying for Facebook likes

If you have paid for FB likes for your page, then you have to, absolutely have to watch this video clip. Watch it to the end and let it sink in. Yes, we've all been had. If you have a Facebook page for your business, then you may have been tempted to pay for Facebook likes. There is then the immediate obstacle in that Facebook wants you to pay again to get to that exact same audience that you paid to accumulate. This has been a topic that has been hotly discussed on various forums. It even got a mention on the Tangents blog a  Read more inside...

Video tutorial: Wedding photography – Posing family groups

February 7, 2014 Neil vN 3 Comments

Wedding photography - Posing and sequencing the family groups

The fourth video tutorial in conjunction with Craftsy, is an interesting one - photographing the family groups at weddings. This is one area where newer photographers have difficulty in finding traction. Suddenly under pressure and with dozens of people pulling in different directions, it is easy to come apart. With this video tutorial, we'll cover ways of sequencing and posing the family groups. With numerous useful tips, I cover this topic and explain how I keep everything on track during this part of the wedding day.  Read more inside...

A first-steps guide to using a light meter with manual flash

February 3, 2014 Neil vN 79 Comments

A guide to using a light meter with manual flash & ambient light

A question posted on the Tangents forum was on the topic of exactly how to use a light meter to get to correct settings for manual flash. This article covers that first tentative step in what exactly you should do with this brand-new light-meter in your hand. It will help you cope with that initial "what now?" moment. How exactly would you have used the flash meter (with the strobe in manual mode) to arrive at the correct settings to illuminate the model properly without changing your in-camera settings? Values  Read more inside...

Anatomy of a time-limited photo session

January 27, 2014 Neil vN 11 Comments

Brian Friedman is an event and publicity photographer based in NYC. When I first became acquainted with Brian and his work, my reaction was, "damn! I wish I could shoot this type of work." Looking at his website, you'll see the kind of gigs that Brian shoots - interesting and diverse. Quite exciting. Brian was gracious enough to describe the behind-the-scenes activity of a recent photo session: “Kitten Bowl 2014”  

Anatomy of a "simple" photo session for a client

a guest post by Brian Friedman, New York portrait and event  Read more inside...

Boudoir photography with the 50mm lens

January 26, 2014 Neil vN 44 Comments

boudoir photography and the 50mm lens

Boudoir photography with the 50mm lens

With shooting space often times so tight for boudoir photo sessions, there is the temptation to use a 50mm lens for tighter headshots on a full-frame D-SLR. Instead of stepping back a bit and using an 85mm lens or longer, a bit of visual laziness comes into play, and we rely on the 50mm lens too much. It really is too short a focal length for a tight portrait. I think many photographers are even too in love with their 50mm lenses, and use it without thought of how this would distort someone's face when used too close to their subjects. I  Read more inside...

Environmental portraits – Speedway racer

January 16, 2014 Neil vN 16 Comments

Environmental portraits - Speedway racer, Courtney Lefcourt

When Courtney's mom first contacted me, she told me that Courtney is a race-car driver and that the camera loves her. Intrigued, I met up with her family at the Bethel Motor Speedway for on-location portraits of Courtney. To find out more about Courtney, check out her Facebook page, Courtney Taylor Racing. So the challenge here was two-part. The sun was very bright since it was 3:30pm in the afternoon. The other challenge is that while speedway racing might be an exhilarating sport to watch, the speedway race-track isn't  Read more inside...

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