Tangents

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tangents photography blog
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Flash photography tutorial – Balancing flash and ambient

November 4, 2010 Neil vN 103 Comments

Flash photography tutorial - balancing flash and ambient light

An email I received recently from someone explained how she is struggling with flash. The basic building blocks of photography are all there and understood, but it somehow doesn't gel when she uses flash. She explains how she understands exposure metering, but "the minute I attach my flash, nothing makes sense." Having read my book and scoured this blog, she admits that at the point where she uses her flash and needs to set aperture and shutter speed, she is completely lost. I'm sure this is something many many  Read more inside...

New Jersey wedding photographer

November 2, 2010 Neil vN Leave a Comment

New Jersey wedding photographer - photojournalistic style

Drawing from a story-telling photojournalistic sensibility; and also from the classic style of wedding photography; with a dash of Fashion flair; and Romance ... the intention is to give you images that will forever recall this fantastic day. The images on the New Jersey wedding photographer blog will show you the style and consistency of work that you can expect for your own wedding. As an author of several books on photography, I’m definitely serious about this stuff! The domain name I chose for me wedding &  Read more inside...

finding (and using) interesting available light

November 1, 2010 Neil vN 7 Comments

finding (and using) interesting available light

I hope that no one thinks that the flash photography and lighting techniques that I describe on the Tangents blog are only applicable to wedding photography. In a recent post I described where I photographed a model in an alley way when I noticed a splash of sunlight (reflected from a window) falling onto the wall. In recognizing that interesting splash of light, and using it, I got an image which was different than I would've had if I had just used the even shaded light in the alley. I used this very same idea at a recent wedding in  Read more inside...

lampa blyskowa w fotografii slubnej

October 29, 2010 Neil vN 13 Comments

It is with great surprise and pleasure that I noticed someone mention that my book on flash photography has been translated into Polish! (Thank you Robert Gabriel for pointing this out to me.) I know there are numerous photographers in Poland who regularly visit my site, so I am sure it is with their interest and support that this came to be. Thank you! (I was going to use Google Translator to mutilate this into Polish for me, just like I did with the announcement of the Portuguese translation published in Brazil. But somehow my blog template doesn't recognize the Polish character set at  Read more inside...

using narrow depth-of-field & great bokeh

October 27, 2010 Neil vN 34 Comments

creating a background with narrow depth-of-field & great bokeh

Shooting images for the review of the Nikon 85mm f1.4G AF-S lens, it struck me how truly superb this lens is. It improves on the legendary Nikon 85mm f1.4 AF-D lens in some key areas. (For me the updated lens was an immediate upgrade.) But ultimately, you could get similarly beautiful images with any short portrait lens that gives you a very narrow depth-of-field AND has great bokeh. (Just to reinforce that again .. narrow DoF and bokeh are not the same thing. But I digress.) So, whether you're shooting with a  Read more inside...

Bokeh – quality of lens blur

October 26, 2010 Neil vN 34 Comments

Bokeh - quality of lens blur

The way that a specific lens renders the out-of-focus areas in the background (ie, the bokeh of the lens), is always an interesting aspect of any lens' behavior. If the out of focus areas show hard edges, or highlights with a kind of double edge, then the bokeh can appear intrusive. Then it is called harsh bokeh. If the out of focus areas are smooth without the edges being defined, then the bokeh is described as being pleasant. And then on occasion, you get bokeh that is ... well, let's just call it 'interesting'. I noticed that the Nikon 105mm f/2.8  Read more inside...

review: Nikon 85mm f/1.4G

October 22, 2010 Neil vN 52 Comments

review: Nikon AF-S 85mm f/1.4 G

Itching to try out the Nikon 85mm f1.4G (B&H /Amazon) during a photo session, I had Jessica model for me. During this short photo session, I used the new 85mm f1.4G and the classic 85mm f1.4D side-by-side. As you can see in the photo above,  the lens' extremely shallow depth of field and superb bokeh, give backgrounds that just melt away. My first impression already is that lens is even better than I anticipated ...  Read more inside...

Exposure metering for the bride’s dress

October 20, 2010 Neil vN 52 Comments

Exposure metering - bride & the bride's dress

From a technical point of view, photographing a bride in her dress can be a challenge ... depending on the lighting.  If everything is under your control as the photographer, and you're lighting the formal portraits with off-camera manual flash, then it is essentially a study of the zone system. The simplest way for me then to get accurate exposure, is to use the histogram.  I place my brightest relevant tone at the edge of the histogram.  All the other tones will fall into place.  (It is clearly explained in that linked article,  Read more inside...

Shutter speed, Aperture and ISO

October 18, 2010 Neil vN 25 Comments

Camera settings: Shutter speed, Aperture & ISO

A presentation that I've given on several occasions, is called 'Just Give Me The F-Stop'. The presentation is based on the perception that many photographers, in trying to get to grips with flash photography, try to break it down into what they think are the understandable elements – the numerical values of the settings used. They want numbers, believing that in knowing a certain image was taken at 1/125th @ f4.5 @ 400 ISO, that they might get closer to understanding lighting. They want the f-stop. However, the scenarios we  Read more inside...

photographic composition – the neon sky

October 14, 2010 Neil vN 14 Comments

composition: finding the perfect background for photographs

Photographers and clients alike regularly comment on this photograph in my portfolio, and the question invariably asked is whether this is a Photoshop effect.  Far from it - this image is straight out of the camera ...  Read more inside...

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