Tangents

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A simple lighting setup for photographing the wedding formals

January 23, 2012 Neil vN 46 Comments

A simple lighting setup for photographing the wedding formals

Photographing a wedding can be pretty hectic at times, especially as it so often becomes the photographer's de facto responsibility to keep everything on track. The formal photo session specifically is a part of the day that many photographers find challenging. The other challenging part of the wedding day is photographing the wedding processional. You have a narrow margin to get things just right. No second chance. When photographing the family portraits, you can really help yourself by nailing your lighting. Get it  Read more inside...

Exposure metering – Let your background blow out!

January 16, 2012 Neil vN 12 Comments

Exposure metering - Let your background blow out!

Too often there's the desire for us to bring the detail in our backgrounds back in by adding flash. But there are times when the image will be stronger if we just allow the background to completely blow out. It especially works in our favor if the background is cluttered, because then by letting the background completely over-expose, we can simplify our composition. The key here then is to expose for your subject with careful exposure metering.  Read more inside...

Inspired boudoir photography lighting

January 12, 2012 Neil vN 5 Comments

Hanging out with my friend Brooke, (NYC boudoir photographer), at a recent workshop, I noticed some of the images on her iPad that she was showing to explain her lighting techniques. The photographs had an interesting mix of gold and blue tones, and I thought the way she achieved it would be of interest to everyone. It might be familiar to regular followers of the Tangents blog.  

Inspired boudoir photography lighting

by Brooke Ismach, New York boudoir photographer   Since launching Inspired Boudoir, a joint photography venture with  Read more inside...

Wedding photography – Using bounce flash outside

January 10, 2012 Neil vN 31 Comments

Wedding photography - Using bounce flash outside

When working with a couple during the romantic portrait session, there's the need to bring variety to the images - not just in posing and composition, but also in terms of light & lighting. For this reason I use a variety - available light; video light; off-camera flash and on-camera bounce flash. I really like using on-camera bounce flash since it is such an easy light source to use, always at hand. There was a recent article on using bounce flash outdoors, but I'd like to add another example where I used bounce flash outside a  Read more inside...

2011 overview – My favorite wedding photographs

January 3, 2012 Neil vN 12 Comments

Best wedding images of 2011 – NJ wedding photographer

2011 was another busy year for me as a wedding photographer. This slideshow features some of my favorite wedding and engagement session images of 2011. If you are interested in using me as your wedding photographer, please have a look at my wedding portfolio and contact me. soundtrack courtesy of TripleScoopMusic wedding photography tutorials New Jersey wedding photographer    Read more inside...

Alli & Scott – their wedding day – fusion clip

December 28, 2011 Neil vN 17 Comments

Alli & Scott - their wedding day - fusion clip

The latest Fusion clip where we blend video and stills to give a short form overview of the wedding day, is of Alli & Scott – their wedding day – Temple Israel of Lawrence, NY . They were also the couple in the recent article on photographing the bride & groom's portraits with video light. The Fusion clip was edited in iMovie, with the soundtrack from Triple Scoop Music. [ For more videos, follow me on Vimeo / YouTube ] More interesting is the thought-process that went into choosing the camera settings for the Canon  Read more inside...

Short Lighting with available light – and adding a little bit of flash

December 27, 2011 Neil vN 7 Comments

Short Lighting with available light - and adding a little bit of flash

When working with available light or flash or video light or any kind of additional light, the most important aspect of the light is the direction of the light. We need to take a moment and observe the light. Where do the light sources come from? What is the quality of the light? As a short-cut idea, I usually aim for Short Lighting, whether I am using flash or available light. More on the topic of Short Lighting: - Off-camera flash: Short lighting vs. Broad lighting - Bounce flash photography – Short  Read more inside...

Flash photography tip: Find your background, then your settings

December 22, 2011 Neil vN 16 Comments

Flash photography tip: Find your background, then your settings

With flash photography on location, we nearly always start off by figuring out what we want to do in relation to our available light. We might just need fill-flash, or or flash might need to do the "heavy lifting" and expose correctly for our subject in relation to the available light. When we have our subject in (relative) shade, and need to figure out our flash exposure, we also need to decide exactly what our background is. It usually works best to be specific about our background ... and how we position ourselves  Read more inside...

Vivian Maier exhibition in New York

December 18, 2011 Neil vN 4 Comments

Vivian Maier exhibition in New York

One of the most interesting stories unfolding in photography in recent years, was the accidental discovery of an incredible body of work by an unknown photographer, Vivian Maier. Incredible in terms of quality and the sheer volume of photographs. If you're not familiar with the backstory  -  in 2007, John Maloof, a real estate agent in Chicago, who was working on a project documenting the one neighborhood in Chicago, discovered and bought a vast collection of negatives and prints of a completely unknown photographer, Vivian Maier. What makes  Read more inside...

Wedding photography – Tips on posing – asymmetry

December 15, 2011 Neil vN 11 Comments

Wedding photography - Tips on posing - asymmetry

When working with a bride and groom for their portraits, there are a few ideas that I know will work. You have to have somewhere to start. Some fail-safe ideas for poses that allow you to at least get the essential images. From there on, I try to improvise a little, depending on the personalities of the couple, and also the place where we find ourselves, and the light. So opportunity does sway the portrait session a fair amount. I prefer working this way, rather than applying a more mechanical "flow posing" technique. I feel that  Read more inside...

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