Portrait session using a beauty dish
Portrait session using a beauty dish
As my daughter, Janine, grew up from being a baby, it became more difficult getting photos of her. I think most parents can relate to that increased resistance by your children to having their photo taken. This is Janine, a few moths after her 16th birthday - since I have so very few recent images of her that are of professional quality, I was able to cajole her into this on this snow-bound afternoon. She loved the results: "Facebook profile photo FTW!" I set this up in our living room, with a grey paper backdrop to create a quick home Read more inside...bounce flash examples – wedding receptions
bounce flash examples - wedding receptions
Over the course of the past year or so, I've made a steady attempt to move this blog away from being wedding-heavy, and take the material more towards general photography, and photographing people. However, since the most of my work is as done as a wedding photographer in New Jersey, I still get a large number of questions which relate to wedding photography - and specifically, photographing the reception. So I thought I would expand a little on the techniques I use in photographing wedding receptions. A few years back, I would Read more inside...Photoshop tips – making your images pop (2) – Topaz Adjust
Photoshop tips – making your images pop - Topaz Adjust
I'd like to present another in the ongoing series on giving your images more 'snap' in Photoshop. This time, I'd like to specifically look at Topaz Adjust- a neat plug-in for Photoshop. What I like about Topaz, is its simplicity of use - but if you want to, you can delve much deeper into it. The possibilities are wide open. (Also nice is that it is relatively inexpensive as software goes.) There are hundreds of ways you could use this program, because you can blend the different effects in different ways on a single Read more inside...When (not) to use rear-curtain flash sync
Rear curtain flash sync - potential problems
With flash photography, suggestions are often given that you should use rear-curtain sync. Most often for incorrect reasons. So here is when NOT to use rear-curtain sync flash ... whenever you don't need it. Sounds confusing? Well, let me explain ...Rear-curtain vs first-curtain sync
Your camera's shutter consists of two curtains that open, and allows the light to hit the sensor or film. This is true for all focal plane shutter film cameras, (as opposed to those with leaf shutters), and true for all digital cameras Read more inside...Bounce flash technique – mimicking soft window light
Bounce flash photography technique - mimicking window light
The classic shot - a beautiful bride lit by soft window light. That's a yes on the beautiful bride - but it's a solid no on the window light. What you see there is on-camera flash. (Which most likely won't be a surprise to regular readers of the Tangents blog.) This image is from a wedding this past weekend, and it makes a great example of how light, choice of lens, composition, angle and technique come together to make an image work. With a bit of post-processing added finally for that vintage Read more inside...lighting the wedding formals (part 3)
lighting the wedding formals
In the first of two postings on how I light the wedding formals, I showed how I use a single flashgun when photographing smaller formal groups indoors. The equipment is relatively simple then - a single flashgun (Q-flash) and a large 60" umbrella to give me good lighting. The flashgun that I use for these, is a Q-flash. Specifically the older T2 model since I only use them in manual mode here. When I have a larger group I use two of these flashguns - each with an umbrella. But more about that in a follow-up article coming up soon. What I wanted to Read more inside...Wedding photography – Retouching & style
Wedding photography - Retouching & style
My style in wedding photography veers towards the more straight-forward image - uncluttered and without much Photoshop work done. I really believe that the more you fudge with a photograph, the more likely it would not be as timeless as you might want it to be. Retouching styles become dated. So I tend towards the more straight-forward rendition of a photograph. That said, you can most definitely enhance the original photograph to make it really pop. Here is an example - a favorite image from a sequence taken during the romantic Read more inside...Photoshop tips – making your images pop – soft-light layer
Photoshop tips - making your images pop - soft-light layer
As much as I am a firm believer in getting it as close as possible in camera, by using proper exposure and proper camera settings, and good light .. most often an image can be enhanced in Photoshop with a few simple techniques. There is an entire industry built around software and plug-ins and add-ons and action sets for Photoshop to enhance and manipulate images in Photoshop. However, I'd first like to go over some of the simpler ones that you can use in Photoshop without additional software. These Photoshop Read more inside...using two video lights
using two video lights for photography
Video lights as a way of lighting still photography portraits is something that I've mentioned more often on this blog of late. When the subject and setting is such that a more dramatic way of lighting would work, then I quite often use video lights. This image is from the recent workshop in Philadelphia, and someone held a single video light to the right and above me. The angle that the light should be held at, is guided by how I want the shadow under her nose to appear. I prefer the shadow to appear as loop lighting or as butterfly Read more inside...- « Previous Page
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