Tangents

photography tutorials, reviews & workshops

tangents photography blog
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portrait session – Steinway pianist

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portrait session - Steinway pianist

I had the opportunity recently of photographing Robert Wyatt, a pianist affiliated with Steinway, at the Steinway offices in New York. This photo was taken as we were set to leave after the photo session was already done. I was immediately drawn to the symmetry of the architecture and the lavish foyer below. The pose and framing was deliberately centered. For this lighting setup, I quickly pulled out the Lastolite softbox again, and used it as a single light source. It was all that was needed for a simple portrait here. But earlier on, for the  Read more inside...

photo session with various 85mm lenses

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photo session using various 85mm lenses  (model: Jess B.)

A fast 85mm lens is an essential addition to any camera bag, whether an f1.8 or f1.4  or even an f1.2 aperture. With their shallow depth of field, and the pleasant perspective for portraits (when not used with a super-tight composition), these lenses will have your subject just pop from the background. Jessica and I are busy with a new project - testing various 85mm lenses - specifically for how their bokeh appears in comparison. It is proving a tad more difficult than I had hoped for to show when poor bokeh is truly  Read more inside...

video light as fill-light for wedding portraits

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using video light as fill-light for the romantic wedding portraits

Having just photographed my first wedding of 2011, I'm back in the groove of things. Keeping to the recent theme of showing how video lights are used for photography, I'd like to show a small selection of images of Cherryl and Jim's wedding where I used a video light to enhance the existing incandescent lighting at the reception venue ...  Read more inside...

comparison: Lowel ID-light & MicroPro LED light & Dedo Ledzilla

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comparative review: Lowel ID-light & Litepanels MicroPro LED light & Dedo Ledzilla

The use of video light for stills photography has become ever more popular in recent years, as high-ISO capable cameras made it possible to shoot in lower light without having to resort to flash. The immediacy of video light - the 'wysiwyg' nature of video light - makes it an interesting light source to play with and experiment with on a shoot. The dramatic quality of the light is also quite appealing. Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of video light out there: - the traditional  Read more inside...

a maternity photo session – creating that connection

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high-key lighting with maternity photo session

Part of what makes wedding photography so rewarding, is keeping contact with clients over the years as life continues past the wedding date. Maternity photo sessions .. babies .. kiddos .. it's all part of how couples' lives unfold. If we're fortunate as photographers, we remain part of it. So it was with great pleasure that I had a maternity photo session with Renee and David. As usual with a photo session, I like to mix things up in terms of the lighting ... all with the intent of getting more diversity in the selection of images:  Read more inside...

Wedding photography – Dealing with the videographer’s light

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Wedding photography - Dealing with the videographer's light

With wedding receptions, we're most often working within a very warm spectrum. There are tungsten (incandescent) lights all around. (**) There is candle light. There might be twinkling lights as decoration ... and there is the videographer's light. The videographer's light will be Tungsten balanced, even if it is an LED video light that they are using. (***) So while a wedding photographer might be using a lot of flash to dominate the lighting .. and settle for Cloudy or Flash WB, there is often a conflict of interest  Read more inside...

Auto FP flash setting for Nikon D300s & D700

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Auto FP setting for Nikon D300s & D700 - high speed flash sync

The Nikon D300s and Nikon D700 have a custom setting to enable high-speed flash sync - custom fucntion e1. However, you have the option of setting it to either 1/250 Auto FP, or 1/320 Auto FP. I've often been asked which is the preferable setting ... and you know, I never quite knew either. So it was time then to systematically check this out and see what actually happens at either setting - 1/250 Auto FP and 1/320 Auto FP - for both the Nikon D300s and  D700 ...  Read more inside...

On learning the essentials of photography

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I am super-thrilled to have Frank Doorhof as a guest writer on Tangents. Frank is a highly regarded Fashion photographer based in The Netherlands, whom I had the pleasure of meeting. We hung out the one afternoon, photographing a model in Coney Island. What I found particularly interesting, is how our approach to using flash and ambient light differ. Distinct styles and techniques. Quite an inspiring afternoon. (Please note: with this blog post, the images aren't illustrative of any particular part of the writing, but are there to showcase some of Frank's work.)

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