Tangents

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Lighting a boudoir photo session

January 28, 2013 Neil vN 9 Comments

Lighting a boudoir photo session

"We want it to look Fashion-y and Retro. And a little glamorous." "But I don't want it to be like a bridal hairdo!" No wonder the hair-dresser was confused by these vague instructions from myself and the model, Carla. The hair-dresser really looked like she was under pressure, wondering if she'd be able to come up with something fabulous enough to be all of that. Fashion-y and Retro and Glamorous. Carla is a friend (and previous bride), and we've been trying to get it together for a photo session for a few years now. But life, work and  Read more inside...

Bokeh comparison: Sony RX1 vs Nikon 35mmm f/1.4G

January 20, 2013 Neil vN 32 Comments

Bokeh comparison: Sony RX1 vs Nikon 35mmm f/1.4G

Sony has been on fire recently with their new camera releases. The Sony RX100 is arguably the best point&shoot on the market right now. The full-frame Sony A99 DSLR has been getting great reports ... and then there is the new Sony RX1 (B&H / Amazon) - full-frame goodness in a compact camera with a fixed 35mm f/2 lens. And just in anyone has missed the crucial news - Sony cameras use Zeiss lenses. The word "legendary" is usually automatically associated with the word Zeiss. A quick summary of what makes the Sony  Read more inside...

Wedding photography: 3 tips to speed up your workflow

January 16, 2013 Neil vN 46 Comments

Wedding photography: 3 tips to speed up your editing workflow

One of the questions that came up during the Q&A at my presentation at B&H, was how long does it take me to edit a wedding. Well, the ideal is that it takes me less than a day. During the peak wedding season around September and October, it is easy to slip behind, but that still remains my goal - to edit a wedding during the week right after the wedding took place. There are several things motivating this idea: I am more likely to get print orders from the guests at a wedding if the event is still fresh in  Read more inside...

Photographic composition: Working towards the final image

January 14, 2013 Neil vN 13 Comments

Photography composition: Working toward the final image

When I first immersed myself in photography way way back, it took me a while to realize that what I see in a magazine or book, isn't necessarily the first image. Those incredible images that can inspire us, (or even make us just want to give up photography), most often are not fully-formed masterpieces. Most often, the photograph that we as the viewer are presented with, are but one of a series. One photograph that stood out, or where the elements in the photograph were controlled by the photographer. And even with the work of  Read more inside...

Flash photography – bouncing your flash behind you

January 9, 2013 Neil vN 17 Comments

Bouncing your on-camera flash behind you

A comment posted to the article, directional light from your on-camera flash, asked a lot of questions about bounce flash photography. While most of these have been answered over time in various articles, it might be a good thing to pull it all together in directly answering those questions here. This uncomplicated portrait of Anelisa that shows specific elements in how I bounce flash: catchlights in the eyes directional light which can be observed here as that gradient of light across her cheek no hard shadows from direct  Read more inside...

Colored gels with flash photography

January 6, 2013 Neil vN 24 Comments

Colored gels with flash photography

I met Jessica Joy during a photo shoot-out in Las Vegas last year when a group of photographers and models met up. She was there as both a photographer and a model. We had discussed doing a proper photo session some time in the future ... and then Jessica got news that her husband will be stationed abroad in a few months from now. So we decided that *now* was the time to do this. With winter-time in New Jersey and New York just too cold to comfortably do a photo shoot outdoors, we settled on doing it as a studio shoot. I bought two sets of  Read more inside...

Bounce flash portrait & post-processing

December 24, 2012 Neil vN 10 Comments

Bounce flash portrait & Photoshop retouching technique

When we were done with the studio shoot with Ulorin Vex, we still had a few minutes left, so I thought I could do a bounce flash portrait as well. Just for a comparison of sorts to show that on-camera bounce flash can give interesting results too. Here is the low-key portraits we did with the Profoto set-up. The only semi-interesting background I could find in the studio (that wasn't a white wall), was this grungy green door to one of the store-rooms. I thought it might work as a gritty urban setting. I shot about eight  Read more inside...

Wedding photography – Advice on starting as a wedding photographer

December 21, 2012 Neil vN 20 Comments

Wedding photography - Where to start building a portfolio

I do get some interesting emails and Facebook messages. The strange ones run the whole range from trippy & bizarre, all the way to obscure. One of my favorite weird emails was one that had the title, "Nikon D100" with the body of the email simply asking, "How do you do that?" This morning, I saw news that Facebook is once again altering things, including the way that messages are delivered. Paid messages from strangers now seem to be on the horizon. So with that, for the first time in forever, I went through the backlog  Read more inside...

Photo session with a model in New York

December 18, 2012 Neil vN 20 Comments

Photo session with a model in New York

I have already showed part of the photo session with Sarah Raley, in the article, vintage photo session w/ off-camera flash. It was part of a longer on-location photo session in New York. With four changes of clothing, we aimed for a diverse look during the photo session. I'd like to share some of them here, along with some of the lighting techniques, and post-processing. Most of the photos were taken with the Canon 5D mark II, and two zooms: the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II (affiliate), and the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II (affiliate). The  Read more inside...

Photo session – Modern Gypsies – mermaid

December 10, 2012 Neil vN 10 Comments

Photo session - Modern Gypsies - mermaid

When the Modern Gypsies asked me to photograph their one performance piece in a night-club in Manhattan, I wasn't sure what equipment to bring along. I tend to over-prepare and bring too much. You know, just in case. So I have a tendency to overload myself with gear at times. It's a discipline thing then to strip it down to just the essentials ... but still be flexible enough to accomodate a challenging situation. The previous time I photographed them, I knew there would be a large prep room, so I could bring in extra gear such as  Read more inside...

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