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Tutorial: How to use the guide number of your flash

March 8, 2012 Neil vN 24 Comments

Tutorial: How to use the guide number of your flash

GN  =  distance  *  f-stop Your flash's Guide Number (GN) is determined at 100 ISO, when it gives correct exposure at a certain distance, multiplied by the f-stop The idea that we can figure out the manual flash exposure by the combination of distance and aperture (for a given ISO setting), was covered in these recent topics: - getting the most power out of your flash / speedlite / speedlight - practical tutorial: controls for manual flash exposure In these articles, we relied on the display on the back of the  Read more inside...

Getting the most power from your flash / speedlite / speedlight

March 4, 2012 Neil vN 51 Comments

Getting the most power from your flash / speedlite / speedlight

This might be obvious, but the most power (or light) that you're going to get from your flash, is at full output in manual. Then the flash dumps everything it has. Full power. You could of course zoom your flash-head a little tighter and get more power / range, but essentially, you're at the limit. This is useful to know when you're balancing flash with bright sunlight. With this portrait of Shawna, out on the Las Vegas strip, I wanted that sun-flare look ... but I also wanted to balance the super-bright background  Read more inside...

Romantic wedding portraits – Working with an idea

February 24, 2012 Neil vN 19 Comments

Romantic wedding portraits - Working with an idea

I was down in Baltimore last weekend, photographing a wedding there. The groom, Chris, follows the Tangents blog, and he and Lindsay sought me out as their wedding photographer. While this is hugely flattering, there is now a little extra pressure to live up to and even exceed expectations! We snuck outside during dinner time, and walked around the Lord Baltimore hotel, to get a few urban portraits. During dinner there is a bit of a lull in the reception while the guests enjoy their meals. A good time to get additional romantic  Read more inside...

Bounce flash portrait – a consistent technique

February 22, 2012 Neil vN 54 Comments

Bounce flash portrait - a consistent technique

WPPI 2012 took place during the past week - as always, a crazy-hectic and exciting event. I once again presented a Master Class at WPPI. But I also took time to present a private mini-workshop to the first 3 people that signed up. We went over a condensed version of my full-day workshop, covering most of the material in the 4-hr long mini-workshop. Like last year, I called on my favorite model in Las Vegas, Shawna. Actually, she has since moved to L.A. but she was quite happy to make the trip back to Las Vegas to be our model. The  Read more inside...

3 tips to improve your boudoir photography

February 14, 2012 Neil vN 11 Comments

Jennifer Rozenbaum of Jenerations Boudoir, is a New York boudoir photographer who is fast rising in prominence. She was featured in a recent interview on Good Morning America with their insert on boudoir photography for Valentine's Day. For a Tangents guest post, Jennifer kindly sent in a few tips on how we can improve our boudoir photography.  

3 Tips to improve your boudoir photography

by Jennifer Rozenbaum, New York boudoir photographer   "WOW! I can't believe that is me...I AM hot!" This is always the reaction that I aim for  Read more inside...

Materials for the Black Foamie Thing

February 8, 2012 Neil vN 16 Comments

Materials for the Black Foamie Thing / Black Foamy Thing

More links to articles relating to the black foamie thing.  Read more inside...

Composition for full-length portraits – step back!

February 6, 2012 Neil vN 37 Comments

Composition for full-length portraits - step back!

A comment in the article on a simple lighting setup for the family formal photos, asked why I recommended that a photographer should step back rather than zoom wide when photographing a group. The reason is that the perspective distortion that a wide-angle lens will give to your subject, is not all that flattering.  Read more inside...

Bounce flash photography & The Inverse Square Law

February 1, 2012 Neil vN 48 Comments

Bounce flash photography & The Inverse Square Law

After you're done noticing the decorated candles that the bride is holding while dancing with the groom (a tradition in Palestinian weddings), you may well notice how evenly lit this photograph is - from foreground to background. The people visible in the background seen there between the bride and the groom, are nearly as well lit as the bride and groom. Because this was on-camera bounce flash, the background will be brighter than may have been anticipated. If I had used direct flash, or flash with a diffuser cup or bounce  Read more inside...

book review: Boudoir photography, by Critsey Rowe

January 28, 2012 Neil vN 4 Comments

 Read more inside...

Photographers: what’s holding you back?

January 27, 2012 Neil vN 34 Comments

What is holding you back as a photographer?

Over a lunchtime conversation with a photographer friend, the discussion went back to something I've prodded her a few times about .. her self-doubt as a photographer. In my estimation she's a better photographer than she thinks she is, but it is as if she holds back on some decisions to advance her business. Then I asked her, "what are you afraid of?" Ironically enough, her biggest fear is the fear of failure. The fear of not being able to cope with certain challenging photography shoots. The fear of not being ready. The fear of being  Read more inside...

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