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wedding photography: standing out / blending in

April 7, 2008 Neil vN 16 Comments

wedding photography: standing out / blending in

An interesting question I received in an email recently had me thinking about, and considering my style in photographing weddings: Do you sometimes feel as if you can't be inconspicuous in order to get a certain shot during a wedding? There have been times I feel like I'm not blending into the background enough. How do you handle this?    (Regina Coble) In trying to verbalize my answer, I came upon some interesting insights for myself.  Read more inside...

Nikon D300 custom settings

April 4, 2008 Neil vN 83 Comments

Nikon D300 custom settings

The Nikon D300 (which superseded the highly-regarded D200), offers great image quality and offering many of the same features of the Nikon D3, but at a more affordable price - all of which will make the D300 a camera that many professional photographers will chose as their main camera. Many of the custom settings of the D300 are the same as for the D200, but there are a few differences.  (eg, Auto ISO is now set in the Shooting Menu.) Here are my preferences for the Custom Settings .. and why.  Read more inside...

off-camera flash photography: what are your camera settings?

March 27, 2008 Neil vN 30 Comments

off-camera flash photography: what are your camera settings?

What are your settings? -  a question that I am often asked about various images. Sometimes, the answer is surprising  -  it doesn't really matter. Sometimes the specific settings are of importance, but usually much less so than the method of getting to correct exposure of the ambient light and the flash. This is the photographic equivalent of teaching someone to fish, versus just slapping a fish down on a dinner plate.  Just telling my settings will reveal very little about the how.  And yet, the how is far  Read more inside...

cross-processing …

March 23, 2008 Neil vN 19 Comments

Many photographers who have entered the industry in the last several years aren't readily aware that a number of the digital techniques and special effects available today in Photoshop, are actually based on processes that were available to film shooters of past years. One effect that seems to be a particular favorite of photographers recently is cross-processing - an effect where colors are made more vivid, and the tonality and contrast are skewed to create a high-fashion or slightly surreal effect. Fuji Sensia 200 exposed at 125 ISO - processed as C41 print film. Nikon F90 camera;   Read more inside...

gear for destination wedding photography (Canon)

March 15, 2008 Neil vN 12 Comments

gear for destination wedding photography (Canon)

I enjoy photographing destination weddings- and I've been fortunate to photograph weddings in Aruba, Bahamas, Miami and Las Vegas. These are weddings are often in exotic locales.  (Well, nearly everything will seem exotic outside of New Jersey, but I digress.)  Even even though it sounds exciting to photograph in faraway places, there is a challenge that comes along with that -  packing enough of my gear and getting it safely to my destination.  It is even more of a challenge with restrictions placed on air travel. Since I  Read more inside...

"Dragging the Shutter" revisited

February 29, 2008 Neil vN 72 Comments

1/100 @ f1.6 @ 1000 ISO "Dragging the Shutter" is a term used to describe the technique of using a slow enough shutter speed to allow a measure of ambient light to register when using flash. This term originates from an era when photographers would determine correct flash exposure for on-location photography by : - setting the ISO speed according to the film used, - setting the aperture according to subject distance  (depends on flashgun's guide number), - then using the shutter speed as the ONLY way of independently allowing more ambient light in, slowing the shutter speed far lower  Read more inside...

using slow shutter speeds with a hand-held camera

February 22, 2008 Neil vN 35 Comments

(1/20th @ f2.8 @ 1250 iso)

using slow shutter speeds

I am frequently asked whether I use a tripod at all to help overcome the slow shutter speeds that I often shoot at.  The question also often relates to shooting hand-held, below the arbitrary value of 1/60th of a second. The choice of shutter speed at which you will get a sharp (enough) image will depend on a number of factors, such as how fast your subject is moving and at what angle compared to your camera, and whether you are panning with your subject.  And also choice of lens, and camera's sensor size, and your own ability  Read more inside...

choosing your direction

January 16, 2008 Neil vN 17 Comments

specifically choosing your direction of bounce flash

The reason why I want (if possible) only indirect light from my on-camera flash, is that any direct flash looks too harsh. Here's a typical example: As you can see, using the Stofen helps to disperse some light and is a huge step up from direct flash.  But you can also see in the entire frame that the light from top to bottom is uneven.  In the close-up you can see how there is a hard shadow on the bride's face, as well as some specular reflection on her skin from the flash directly from the Stofen.  And in some way, any time  Read more inside...

burning out / melting your speedlights & flashes

January 11, 2008 Neil vN 8 Comments

burning out / melting your speedlights & flashes

The obvious question that comes up with bouncing flash behind you, is that they do tend to fire at full power or close to full power. If you shoot events, where you need to take repeated shots with your on-camera flash, they do take a beating and even risk even burning out. I do hammer my speedlights, especially when I use the Quantum 2x2 battery packs.  This doesn't bother me greatly, since I regard my speedlights in a way, as consumable items. They will become unrepairable at some point. Cost of doing business as an event  Read more inside...

using bounce flash outdoors

January 3, 2008 Neil vN 18 Comments

using bounce flash outdoors

While the bounce flash techniques described on these pages are heavily dependent on shooting indoors which provide those places to bounce flash off ... it wouldn't seem possible to use these techniques outdoors.  After all, you can't bounce flash off the clouds.  (Although we've all seen photographers attempt this outside.) So while there are obvious limitations in applying these bounce flash techniques outdoors, there are times when these techniques can still be quite effective. This example, also shown in the tutorial pages is of this image taken  Read more inside...

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