Tangents

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Bounce Flash Photography – directional bounce flash

December 8, 2023 Neil vN 4 Comments

Bounce Flash Photography - directional bounce flash

One of my favorite photos from a recent wedding, is this one of the groom and bride being hoisted aloft, with his priceless expression of surprise. Timing and framing is everything, of course. And the lighting. This is pretty much the way it came out of camera, with only minor adjustments to the RAW file. Note that the light on the groom is about the same as the amount of light on the bride in the background. (Yes, she changed into white overalls after jumping into the pool with her dress.) But back to the lighting -- an equal  Read more inside...

Flagging your flash to control back-lighting

November 10, 2013 Neil vN 11 Comments

Flagging your back-lighting flash with the black foamie thing

My favorite on-camera light modifier, the black foamie thing, is of course, nothing more than a very affordable (and flexible) way to flag your flash. This helps control how the light from your on-camera flash spills. (It's not a flash diffuser!) I also keep one on hand when I use off-camera flash, to flag any direct flash - whether to control it from flaring the lens, or from spilling onto my subject. When I did the photo session for the review of the Canon 600EX-RT, I had to flag the one speedlight so it didn't spill  Read more inside...

Bounce flash with and without the black foamie thing

May 6, 2013 Neil vN 26 Comments

Bounce flash comparison: With & without the black foamie thing

One of the presentations that I gave at the After Dark event in St Louis, was (perhaps inevitably by now), about bounce flash photography. Part of this was a sequence explaining how the direction that you bounce your flash into, will define the light pattern on your subject. The black foamie thing helps in directing the light from your flash, especially if you want short lighting on your subject. And here is the comparison - with the black foamie thing, and without. Without flagging the flash, there is direct  Read more inside...

Bounce flash portrait – a consistent technique

February 22, 2012 Neil vN 54 Comments

Bounce flash portrait - a consistent technique

WPPI 2012 took place during the past week - as always, a crazy-hectic and exciting event. I once again presented a Master Class at WPPI. But I also took time to present a private mini-workshop to the first 3 people that signed up. We went over a condensed version of my full-day workshop, covering most of the material in the 4-hr long mini-workshop. Like last year, I called on my favorite model in Las Vegas, Shawna. Actually, she has since moved to L.A. but she was quite happy to make the trip back to Las Vegas to be our model. The  Read more inside...

Materials for the Black Foamie Thing

February 8, 2012 Neil vN 16 Comments

Materials for the Black Foamie Thing / Black Foamy Thing

More links to articles relating to the black foamie thing.  Read more inside...

Video tutorial – Using the ‘black foamie thing’

March 8, 2011 Neil vN 98 Comments

 

Video tutorial - Using the 'black foamie thing'

   Read more inside...

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