flash & ambient light – reverse engineering an image
combining off-camera flash and ambient light
For a semi-guest-post this week, I thought I'd use a photo taken by my friend Josh Lynn, and reverse-engineer the lighting. By scrutinizing the photo, we'll try and decipher how he set this up. I did of course have the help of double-checking with Josh himself, and by checking the EXIF data. Josh is a New Jersey wedding photographer - but this photo of our model, Danielle, was taken at a recent photo shootout in Manhattan. Josh led a group of photographers showing some lighting techniques. So let's see what we can figure out here Read more inside...tutorial: Balancing flash with ambient exposure
tutorial: Balancing flash with available light / ambient exposure
Many of the questions I get on the Tangents blog relate to balancing flash with available light, and I want to pull it all together into a single article. The questions often revolve around metering for the ambient light, and how to balance flash with the ambient light. Tied in with this, is how to make the decision about which camera settings are the best. It's a juggling act, balancing all the factors quickly enough ... and still being able to deliver solid photos. The answer to the questions about how to Read more inside...favorite image from the weekend …
using additional off-camera lighting at events
With the Bar Mitzvah boy lifted on the shoulders of his friends at his party, I ducked and weaved to make sure that I kept one of the additional flashes behind him as the group moved. I purposely shot faster than my flash could recycle, so that I could get images with my on-camera flash, and without. It's easier to do it this way and ensure I have both options to choose from in the edit - rather than trying to switch my on-camera flash on & off while shooting fast. The colored spots are from the DJ's lights. The white specs in Read more inside...Boudoir photography – an intimate photo session
Style in boudoir photography - intimate photo sessions
I did a recent photo shoot with a model, Carly Erin, to expand my boudoir portfolio. Sometimes you get to work in large spacious rooms or studios. Sometimes you work in smaller more intimate locations. When you work in a tighter, more intimate setting, the choice to include the surroundings or not will greatly affect how you shoot. I made the decision that I didn't want the location to be identifiable and this affected how I shot, so I used a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens for most of the photo session to compress the perspective, and Read more inside...Effective on-location portraits
Effective on-location portraits, with off-camera flash
When I photograph someone on location, I rely on a simple, yet effective method that will ensure that at the very least, I will get portraits that work. Let's have a look at this method, step-by-step: Read more inside...Exposure metering: Photographing in snow
Exposure metering: Photographing in snow
I had the pleasure challenge of photographing this super-cute Jack Russell terrier, Sundae. She just loves snow! After one of the heavy snowstorms, we went to a park where I could photograph her acrobatically snatching at bits of snow hurled at her. The exposure metering for the snow was the least of the challenges here. It might have been the easiest part of photographing this fast-moving dog. This is a white dog on white snow. Fortunately, it was overcast, so the light was very even / flat. (One man's meat / even light, is another man's Read more inside...what you see …
... is not necessarily quite what was there in the original scene. Read more inside...
Catchlights in the eyes with bounce flash
Catchlights in the eyes with bounce flash
I'm often asked about how I get those catch-lights in the eyes of my subjects. My answer is - if you bounce your flash properly, the catchlights have to be there! When working indoors with surfaces that I can easily bounce my flash off, the question that I always ask myself is: If this had been a studio shoot, where would I place my softbox? In a studio-type setup, you'd rarely place a softbox directly over someone's head as a single light-source. There are two places to commonly place a softbox in the studio .. to left (and slightly Read more inside...Bounce flash & direction of light
Bounce flash & direction of light
An aspect to flash photography that I frequently underline in the articles on this site, is that we need to carefully consider the direction of light from our flash when we bounce our flash. Sometimes we just need to bounce the flash behind us into the room to get soft light. But when we have multiple walls / surfaces we can bounce the flash off, then our choices become more interesting ... especially when we do portraits. This is Carly Erin, a delightful model that I photographed for my own portfolio: an intimate photo session. What I Read more inside...- « Previous Page
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