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bouncing flash off walls outdoors for fill-flash

July 20, 2009 Neil vN 12 Comments

fill-flash outdoors by bouncing flash off walls

When I recently photographed one of my couples in Hoboken, we worked for a while in one of the colorful alleys.  To lift the shadows a little bit, I used flash.  However a softbox might have been overkill when just a touch of fill-flash is needed .. especially when there is a useful wall directly behind me.  Read more inside...

Photographing the wedding processional

July 12, 2009 Neil vN 112 Comments

Photographing the wedding processional

The processional is technically probably the most difficult part of a wedding to shoot and get right. Light levels are low in cavernous churches, while people are walking towards you. Getting enough light on them, and having that light look good, as well as getting the image sharp .. that's a tall order. In the photo at the top, the adorable flower girl  just had to stop and check in with dad half-way down the aisle. [  1/80th @ f4 @ 1600 ISO  //  Nikon SB-900, Nikon D3,  Nikon 24-70mm f2.8  ] I use on-camera flash to photograph the  Read more inside...

NYC photo sessions – Sarah & Mark

July 7, 2009 Neil vN 41 Comments

New York photo session - Sarah & Mark

I have already posted several images from the extended photo session with Sarah and Mark - but here is the epic video.   The intention with these photo sessions was to expand Sarah's portfolio as much as we could. We started off at Coney Island, doing a session with Sarah and Mark at the edge of the beach with Sarah in swimwear .. and from there it went into more of a lifestyle shoot with the two of them on the boardwalk.  Later on we had Sarah run towards the camera in sportswear.  But we rained out with a massive thunderstorm rolling in  Read more inside...

the progression of an idea ..

July 3, 2009 Neil vN 22 Comments

[ click on photo to see a larger image ]

the progression of an idea during a photo shoot; incl the use of off camera flash

Because of the positive comments I've had to the recent addition of video clips that show a glimpse of how I work, I thought I'd show the progression of an idea.  Not just how the actual image was made, but how the idea progressed. The photo above of Sarah and Mark at Coney Island, is from the day-long photo session where we went to different locations in New York.  Where this image above started, was in a previous sequence ..  Read more inside...

3 NYC photo sessions

June 30, 2009 Neil vN 20 Comments

NYC photo sessions with models

I met up with 3 models in New York recently for a photo session with each.  The intention was to try out different lighting techniques, different equipment .. and just to have fun and see what we can come up with. First we roamed the Meat-packing District and Greenwich with Aleona and Laura Lee, and then later on met up with Sasha in Brooklyn.  This video clip will be a glimpse of working with three gorgeous models in an ever-fascinating city. Enjoy! I think what might be interesting with this video, is to see the wider view in relation to the  Read more inside...

Flash photography: Overpowering the sun with flash

June 29, 2009 Neil vN 39 Comments

Flash photography: Overpowering the sun with flash

When we think about overpowering the sun with flash, we are most often really considering to match the sunlight with enough flash. We usually want to lift the shadow areas to the same level as the sunlit areas. There's a tiny bit of math involved here which makes the algorithm or thought-process predictable. Since the Sunny 16 rule has it that broad daylight is in the order of 1/200th or 1/250th @ f11 @ 100 ISO ... you'd either have to shoot with a bare speedlight, (which, as a small light source, will cause hard shadows) .. or use a  Read more inside...

using video light for portraits

June 24, 2009 Neil vN 7 Comments

using video light for portraits

using video light for portraits

In reply to some questions on using video light for portraits, here are some images of Sasha, a model who brought an entirely appropriate sense of the dramatic to the photo session.  With vintage clothing and hats, the video lights appeared a good choice for lighting. For this session, I had an assistant who held up two Lowel ID-lights (affiliate), each with barn-doors to flag the light and stop light spill .. and in this way get a lot of control over the direction and placing of the light.   The one light was used to light up our model,  Read more inside...

Syncing at higher than max flash sync speed

June 23, 2009 Neil vN 18 Comments

Syncing at higher than max flash sync speed

The model, Aleona, was lit with an off-camera Q-flash T5D-R, using Quantum’s wireless system, and a 24×32 softbox, mounted on a lightstand. The settings were:  1/1000th @ f4 @ 200 ISO It is noteworthy that this was shot at 1/1000th of a second with a Q-flash .. and they don't support high-speed sync. I never paid much attention to the physics and shape of the pulse of flash, or how the pulse of light is shaped, but after reading up on how the new PocketWizards work, I was curious .. and played around with the Q-flash. And to my  Read more inside...

NYC photo-shootout redux

June 14, 2009 Neil vN 18 Comments

Another photograph from the recent NYC photo shootout.  We were a group of photographers working with Lea during this part of the afternoon.  There are several parts in what makes an image successful - the subject, the setting, lighting and then the post-processing. There are limitations in working as a group with a model.  So where I would've preferred shooting with a longer lens to compress the perspective more, you sometimes have to accept the situation.  In this case, the setting wasn't ideal, and there was a fair amount of background clutter.  Therefore this might be a good time to to  Read more inside...

On-camera flash light modifiers? Remove the plastic diffuser cup!

June 7, 2009 Neil vN 52 Comments

Choosing on-camera flash light modifiers

One of the things I always emphasize if you want to achieve the best results from your on-camera speedlight, is to be aware of the direction of light from your flashgun. When you know which direction you want your light from your flash to come from, then the simplest way to figure out what direction to bounce your flash towards, is to consider the simple geometry of it all.  Yup, triangular geometry from your days in primary school.  And from Science class in high school, you can also consider the Angle of Incidence = Angle of  Read more inside...

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