An exotic model in a bridal dress; manual off-camera flash with a softbox; some Photoshop fairy dust ... and there's an image I really like. Earlier today, a group of about 50 photographers, (along with 5 models), converged on the Meat-Packing District in New York - another of the photo shoot-out / get-togethers / super-fun events that Rob Nicholson arranged. I helped rotating groups of photographers, showing the essentials of using a single off-camera softbox with manual flash. The techniques included balancing the flash with ambient light, and also looking at the direction of Read more inside...
Shutter speed controls background exposure?
Shutter speed controls background exposure? Usually ...
Something I kick against when I try to teach others about flash photography, is the use of short-cut phrases. Those axioms that are supposed to help the understanding of how to mix flash with ambient light, can often mislead you since they don't give you all the information. Two of those phrases were recently discussed here: aperture controls flash exposure, shutter speed controls available light. These are merely reductions of the way that shutter speed, aperture and ISO inter-relate with available light and Read more inside...On-camera bounce flash for natural looking light
On-camera bounce flash for natural looking light
This photo of Precious, a model at a photography workshop, was taken during part of the practical session where emphasis was placed on getting soft directional light from an on-camera speedlight. The trick here is to absolutely have no hint of light coming from the camera's view-point. To do this, I once again used the Black Foamie Thing to control the light from my on-camera speedlight, shielding the light from the flash. I pointed my speedlight 90' to my left, so that the light reflected back towards our model from that Read more inside...exposure metering for manual flash and softbox
exposure metering for manual flash and softbox
Valerie is the striking model I used for a flash photography workshop held in Nashville. The lighting is simple - the softbox is held to the my left-hand side in this instance. As you can see in the ambient-only image below, I let the available light under-expose by a stop. I metered for the available light with a hand-held meter.If you're unfamiliar with using a light meter, check out this first-steps guide to using a light meter with manual flash. You could just as well have used the histogram method .. and then take the Read more inside...high ISO is no substitute for good light
The light on Valerie here is from the evening sky, some city lights, and some of the parking lot's lights. All of this added up to give me enough light to use for a lovely impromptu available-light portrait of her, right there in the middle of the parking lot. My settings were: 1/160th @ f1.4 @ 1250 ISO My equipment: Nikon D3 and Nikon 85mm f1.4 The light was soft, but wasn't necessarily the best for a portrait where she is simply looking at the camera. Because of the surrounding buildings, the light was fairly top-heavy. So I asked Valerie to lift her gaze slightly - and in this way Read more inside...
Bouncing on-camera flash off a brick wall
Bouncing flash off other surfaces
When I am stuck in an area where there aren't any white or near-white surfaces to bounce my flash off, I will look around for alternate areas. In the image above, I bounced off the wood paneling and brick walls in this large enclosed entrance area of a restaurant. As most of you already know, the problem with the bounce flash technique, is that you will pick up the color cast of the area that you are bouncing your flash off. When this color cast is slightly warm, it is often simple enough just to switch to a Daylight White Balance. This Read more inside...Personal photos from the archives – South Africa
Personal photos from the archives - South Africa
Digging deep into the archives, here are some of my favorite images from way back. These were all shot on transparency film - Fuji Provia RDP being my choice of film at the time. And as usual with personal photography, there are memories and stories attached to these images. To get this photograph above of the DC3 flying over Johannesburg, I had to wind down the window of the WW2 vintage Junkers I was flying in. Because there was no window glass in the way, I could get a crisp photo of this DC3 following us. The golden glow to Read more inside...destination wedding photography ..
destination wedding photography
A few times a year I'm fortunate enough to photograph a destination wedding, where I fly out to a more glamorous location than New Jersey. The Bahamas, Aruba, Jamaica, and even locations within the USA are choice destinations for couples who are looking to have their weddings in an exotic locale. The choice of equipment to fly out to photograph a destination wedding, as well as the way to transport them becomes a real concern. You have to have a flexible selection of gear with you, with a certain amount of redundancy in case something goes wrong Read more inside...machine-gunning a photo .. (model – Priscilla)
A technique I often use to get crisp images in low ambient light when I shoot without flash, is to simply put my camera on continuous drive, and let it rip for a second or so. So while camera shake may ruin some (or even most) images, I am usually sure of getting at least one image that is really sharp. I know this runs counter to so much of the philosophizing in photography - waiting for that oh-so-perfect-moment when it all comes together, and then with great precision and superb intuition of the moment you're in, to take the photograph. Much of my personal photography is driven by the Read more inside...
fluorescent lighting .. I give in! (model – Priscilla)
[ Nikon D3; Nikon 200mm f2 AF-S VR .. 1/100th @ f2 @ 1250 ISO ] click on the image to see a larger version My friend Steve Z from Colorado was around for a few days, visiting friends and family here in NJ. So we got together to do a photo shoot, and I arranged to meet up with Priscilla, a model with whom I've worked before. I also was fortunate in getting permission to photograph inside the Paterson museum - an interesting historic building. Steve Z is also into photographic lighting, so we packed up a bunch of gear - a beauty dish, softboxes, speedlights and video lights. We were Read more inside...
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 93
- 94
- 95
- 96
- 97
- …
- 103
- Next Page »