Tangents

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a kid’s studio portrait

January 5, 2011 Neil vN 26 Comments

children's studio portrait - lighting setup and post-processing

The lighting setup was very simple. Mostly because there wasn't much space in the area where I set up my home-studio in my dining room area.  But also, because a complicated lighting setup wasn't necessary. Just two lights. One light on my subject - this adorable little girl; the other light on my background.  Read more inside...

2010 overview – my favorite wedding photographs

December 30, 2010 Neil vN 19 Comments

best wedding images of 2010 – New Jersey wedding photographer

There seems to be a pattern here - 2010 was another crazy-busy year for me. Photographing weddings, portrait sessions, maintaining this website and writing another book ... all this added up to a full calendar and not much sleep. It is always a rewarding experience as a wedding photographer to work with wonderful brides and groom and their families. So, as a wrap-up of the year – and also to show off a bit – here is a slide show of some of my favorite wedding and engagement session images of 2010. (Oh, and you had  Read more inside...

why use such high ISO settings with flash?

December 27, 2010 Neil vN 38 Comments

why should you use a higher ISO?

The advice for optimal camera settings for best image quality are usually: - use the lowest possible ISO: - at an aperture about 3 stops down from maximum (the widest) aperture; - at a shutter speed fast enough to avoid camera shake and unintentional subject movement. Taking this general advice at face value, means using the camera at its base ISO, which would either be 100 ISO or 200 ISO. However, while this advice is sound in theory, in practice this doesn't have direct consequence on my decision about my camera settings. In terms of  Read more inside...

softbox vs shoot-through umbrella vs bounce umbrella

December 20, 2010 Neil vN 32 Comments

Comparison between a softbox, a white shoot-through umbrella and a bounce umbrella

I've had several requests from readers of the Tangents blog about how the light from a softbox would differ from the light from an umbrella. Spurred on by that, and by my own curiosity, I met up a while ago with my favorite model, Anelisa, specifically to do comparison shots. And here it is ...  Read more inside...

photographic composition – a lesson relearned

December 19, 2010 Neil vN 9 Comments

photographic composition - finding and framing your best shot

Strolling through Green Park in London, I saw these rows of winter-barren trees. The way the snow clung to the trees and branches from the morning's snow storm, white against dark brown, gave a posterized effect already - the crazy patterns of the branches starkly etched against the white snow. I took several photographs, finally liking this photo above the most of all. Aside from resizing, it is straight out of camera ... my iPhone 4. And therein was a lesson for me that I mulled over the rest of the day, while further  Read more inside...

using the new Nikon D3100 for its video capability

December 15, 2010 Neil vN 36 Comments

Melissa & Dennis - their wedding day from Neil van Niekerk on Vimeo.

review of the Nikon D3100 video capability

Nikon recently released two very interesting D-SLRs - the Nikon D3100 (B&H) and the Nikon D7000 (B&H). Improving on several of the entry-level Nikon D-SLRs, they also offer HD video capability (1080p at 24 fps), and even does so with full-time auto-focus capability. So when B&H sent me a Nikon D3100 for review, I thought what better test than to start in the deep end, and use it during a wedding to shoot HD video. The intention was to use the HD  Read more inside...

Fashion photo shoot, using multiple lights

December 13, 2010 Neil vN 9 Comments

My friend Chuck Arlund is a Fashion Photographer whose elegant photography is something I always admire. Chuck’s previous guest spots here have been well received. His article on  simple on-location lighting techniques using a reflector & flash, was especially popular. Therefore I’m really glad that Chuck is graciously sharing with us how he came to shoot this stunning photograph for Parasuco.

Fashion photo shoot, using multiple lights

a guest post by Chuck Arlund Hey there everyone!  I have been working with a celebrity stylist and we have shot a  Read more inside...

mixing up the lighting techniques for wedding photography

December 12, 2010 Neil vN 23 Comments

using a variety of lighting techniques for wedding photography

This recent post on lighting ideas for the romantic wedding portraits, showed that I like to mix it up a bit, and not rely on one specific technique. Not every situation we're going to encounter can be solved with one specific approach only.  Mixing it up in terms of lighting also helps to provide my clients with more variety in the look of the final selection of images. In addition, it also keeps it interesting and fresh for me.  Constantly adapting to challenges is part of the process of growing to be a better  Read more inside...

digital workflow tips / office workflow tips

December 8, 2010 Neil vN 16 Comments

your best digital work-flow tip / your best office work-flow tip

I'm once again on a mission to get more control of office work-flow, and to streamline my digital work-flow even further. De-cluttering my desk then made a big difference.  Adding some pieces of technology in a more sensible way to my office too, made my life easier and allowed me to work faster.  Well, I'm again changing a few things to improve my work-flow. (More about this later perhaps). In a kind of parallel to this, there was the recent article on the extra items in your camera bag - with some ideas on  Read more inside...

reverse engineering an image (3) – contest result & feedback

December 8, 2010 Neil vN 12 Comments

wedding portraits with multiple light sources

We have a winner for the contest we had last week, where we had to reverse-engineer the lighting in a photograph. I'll be contacting the winner who will shortly receive a $50 B&H gift voucher. Thank you everyone for vigorously participating! Here is Josh Lynn to explain what he did for the lighting in the contest image, of which the photo above is the wider shot. This photo reveals more of the one light source. ...  Read more inside...

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