Tangents

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review: Canon ST-E3-RT Transmitter and Canon 600EX-RT Speedlite

June 6, 2012 Neil vN 71 Comments

review: Canon ST-E3-RT Speedlite Transmitter and Canon 600EX-RT

In my review of the Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT, I've already raved about the ease of use of the new speedlite - thanks to a menu system that you can follow without having to decipher it via a manual), but mostly because of the built-in radio control of the flash. This elevates the Canon 600EX-RT to a new level. As mentioned in my review, I really think this flashgun will change things in the photo industry. It's huge. The main advantages of the Canon ST-E3 Speedlite Transmitter (B&H / Amazon), is that you  Read more inside...

Off-camera flash in low light – choosing your shutter speed

June 5, 2012 Neil vN 19 Comments

Off-camera flash in low light - choosing your shutter speed

With flash photography, the maximum flash sync speed is an important camera setting. It is the best go-to camera setting when you use flash in bright ambient light. But when we shoot in low ambient light levels, then we need to adjust our shutter speed accordingly. We would most likely be at a shutter speed where the ambient light shows up. We want some of the ambient light to register in our photographs, because it gives us context. Allowing more ambient light to appear in our low-light photos where we use flash, enhances  Read more inside...

What photo gear had a fundamental impact on your photography?

May 31, 2012 Neil vN 152 Comments

What photo gear had a fundamental impact on your photography?

In tracing my progress as a photographer, I can see how the things I learned from other photographers really helped me - whether through magazines, books, workshops and presentations. Sometimes it's a dramatic impact;  sometimes it's just an incremental change; but it is there. And all this has a ripple effect on how I approach photography. Accumulated knowledge, coupled with experience. In the same way, some photography equipment also had a huge influence on how my style and technique developed. For example, getting  Read more inside...

review: Impact Quikbox Softbox (24″ x 24″)

May 29, 2012 Neil vN 54 Comments

review: Impact Quikbox Softbox (24 x 24")

My favorite diffuser / modifier for off-camera flash, is the Lastolite Ezybox 24x24 for speed lights (affiliate). The Lastolite Ezybox has featured often on the Tangents blog. (Here is the review). It's easy to use and super-easy to set up. And in its original configuration, folds up to a surprisingly small bundle. The good news for photographers who have been curious about the Lastolite Ezybox, is that Impact now makes a softbox - the Impact Quikbox 24x24 softbox (affiliate), which is virtually identical, at a lower  Read more inside...

Using video lights for outdoor night-time portrait photography

May 24, 2012 Neil vN 9 Comments

Using video lights for outdoor night-time portrait photography

These outdoor night-time portraits of the bide and groom were taken on the streets in Baltimore. We sneaked away briefly from the reception to shoot a few impromptu portraits. With the unpredictable nature of found light out on the streets at night, we had to use additional lighting - and my choice was an LED video light (affiliate). The beauty of these kind of lights is that the White Balance can be changed from Incandescent to Daylight. This helps immeasurably in matching your light to that of the existing  Read more inside...

news: Chinese translations of my flash photography books

May 21, 2012 Neil vN 12 Comments

Chinese translations of my flash photography books

It was with great surprise when my publisher notified me that my 1st book, On-Camera Flash Photography, has been translated into Chinese and is now available for purchase in China. While still trying to digest that news, I got an email from the translator of my 2nd book, Off-Camera Flash Photography, wanting to clarify a few things. So that's pretty big news, especially because it's already getting good reviews, if I go by the star ratings. As soon as I get my copy, it'll sit comfortably next to the Polish translations of my 1st  Read more inside...

Lighting for on-location photo sessions – pick your battles

May 20, 2012 Neil vN 26 Comments

Lighting for on-location photo sessions - pick your battles

When doing a photo session with a couple on location, I mix up the lighting as needed. Some sequences are shot with shoot available light only; for other sequences I may use off-camera flash with a softbox. Sometimes I use on-camera TTL fill-flash if that helps working faster. Even in varying the way I may use the available light and flash, I still aim to have a consistent look to it all. My specific style has to be apparent. Or perhaps, in the way that I work, my style becomes apparent. The one way that I help make  Read more inside...

Reasons to use TTL flash – speed & simplicity

May 10, 2012 Neil vN 19 Comments

Reasons to use TTL flash - speed & simplicity

Okay, true strobists might recoil in horror, but I often prefer using TTL flash to sweeten an image when shooting on location. I get to the final image faster than if I had gone the more methodical route of manual flash. For some situations, manual flash is the only way to go. For example, when your subject is static in relation to your lights and you have to get consistent lighting and consistent exposures, image after image, then manual flash makes the most sense. But for times where you want to shoot faster, and shoot on the  Read more inside...

Photography technique – Taking photos in bright sunlight

May 7, 2012 Neil vN 18 Comments

Taking photos in bright sunlight

Taking photographs of people in hard sunlight will always be one of the more daunting lighting situations we can find ourselves in. Without additional lighting, or the use of scrims, we have a few basic ways of dealing with the harsh sun: - pose our subject into the light, - pose our subject with their back to the sun, or - just suck it up and accept that our photos will look bad. Well, that last option isn't really the way to go if we have any pride in our work as photographers. Which leaves us with the two other options ...  Read more inside...

review: Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT

May 1, 2012 Neil vN 32 Comments

review: Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT

Summary: Right off the bat, let me say it - this speedlite, the Canon 600EX-RT (B&H / Amazon), is going to change the industry. Nothing is going to be the same again. A speedlite that has radio transmitters built in, has been anticipated for quite some time now. It just makes sense.  So it was just a matter of time before one of the big camera manufacturers did this ... and Canon is the first. And they didn't drop the ball on the rest of the speedlite's features, or with the functionality of this piece of gear. It's easy to use, with  Read more inside...

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