Tangents

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finding (and using) interesting available light

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finding (and using) interesting available light

I hope that no one thinks that the flash photography and lighting techniques that I describe on the Tangents blog are only applicable to wedding photography. In a recent post I described where I photographed a model in an alley way when I noticed a splash of sunlight (reflected from a window) falling onto the wall. In recognizing that interesting splash of light, and using it, I got an image which was different than I would've had if I had just used the even shaded light in the alley. I used this very same idea at a recent wedding in  Read more inside...

Exposure metering for the bride’s dress

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Exposure metering - bride & the bride's dress

From a technical point of view, photographing a bride in her dress can be a challenge ... depending on the lighting.  If everything is under your control as the photographer, and you're lighting the formal portraits with off-camera manual flash, then it is essentially a study of the zone system. The simplest way for me then to get accurate exposure, is to use the histogram.  I place my brightest relevant tone at the edge of the histogram.  All the other tones will fall into place.  (It is clearly explained in that linked article,  Read more inside...

Photographing wedding portraits in bright sunlight

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Photographing wedding portraits in bright sunlight

Hard sunlight overhead is some of the most difficult light that you can find yourself shooting in. When you aren't able to position your subjects, then your options are limited - fill-flash or working with the RAW file in post-processing. However, when you're able to move your subjects, but don't have the opportunity for off-camera lighting, then your best two options are: - have your subjects turn their backs to the sun, - use the light from the sun so that there are no harsh cross-shadows. Here are typical examples of  Read more inside...

fire performers … at a wedding

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The bride and groom at last night's wedding are veteran burners - people who attend Burning Man - and several of their guests are fire performers. Later the evening during the reception, four of the guests showed their skill in juggling and dancing with fire.

Photographing fire performers

Photographing the fire performers, especially in such low light - i.e. near darkness - was a challenge.  A slow shutter speed to show the movement of the fire, would cause the performer to be completely blurred.  But a fast shutter speed would not show enough movement in the fire.  A fast shutter  Read more inside...