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Wedding photography – Adapting the use of light & flash photography

August 19, 2013 Neil vN 29 Comments

Wedding photography - Adapting the use of light & flash photography

When I posted the photographs of a recent wedding in an album on FB, there were a lot of questions regarding my lighting. The answer is an easy one - I change it up as needed, throughout the day. Whatever is needed to give me the best results the fastest. It's rarely just one thing. So with Alesha and Patrick's wedding, I used on-camera flash, off-camera flash (with a soft box), Profoto on-location lighting kit, and of course, if it worked, then I just used the available light. The one only lighting option that I  Read more inside...

Wedding photography – Creating special moments

May 9, 2013 Neil vN 12 Comments

Wedding photography - Creating those special moments

Anticipation and timing on the photographer's part is essential to getting those key moments on the wedding day. Certain moments will happen, so we have to be ready for them. This relies on your keen observation and you ability to recognize important moments. You have to know your cameras and equipment, and you have to know the fundamentals of photography. You have to be ready. And you can only be ready if you know your equipment well, and know the techniques. No excuses. But there is no need to passively wait for moments  Read more inside...

How do you meter for TTL flash & ambient light?

April 11, 2013 Neil vN 26 Comments

How do you meter for TTL flash & ambient light?

In taking these kinds of candid images, I set the camera so that there is enough light recorded on the test shots without flash. No real metering technique, but I judge by the LCD to see that there will be enough detail in the background. It is kinda the dragging the shutter technique, but not as specific perhaps. I just want some ambient light to register. Then I simply use TTL flash to expose correctly for any subject which is turned away from the main source of ambient light - the window. Without flash, these kids' features  Read more inside...

Wedding photography – Lighting large groups with a large light

February 8, 2013 Neil vN 12 Comments

Wedding photography - Lighting large groups with a large light

Relating to the article positioning your flash for the wedding formals, where the family portraits and groups where photographed with a single umbrella and two speedlights, the question then inevitably comes up - what do you do when you need to photograph a large group of people. The obvious answer is - you need a lot more juice! You either need to add more flashguns, or use a more powerful unit. As a wedding photographer of Indian weddings, I know that I will be dealing with huge groups of people. And that means a  Read more inside...

Wedding photography – Advice on starting as a wedding photographer

December 21, 2012 Neil vN 20 Comments

Wedding photography - Where to start building a portfolio

I do get some interesting emails and Facebook messages. The strange ones run the whole range from trippy & bizarre, all the way to obscure. One of my favorite weird emails was one that had the title, "Nikon D100" with the body of the email simply asking, "How do you do that?" This morning, I saw news that Facebook is once again altering things, including the way that messages are delivered. Paid messages from strangers now seem to be on the horizon. So with that, for the first time in forever, I went through the backlog  Read more inside...

2012 overview – My best wedding photographs

December 7, 2012 Neil vN 7 Comments

Best wedding images of 2012 – New Jersey wedding photographer

2012 was another busy year! This slideshow features some of my favorite wedding and engagement session images photographed during 2012. I traveled further than NJ and NYC, photographing weddings across the USA. Please contact me if you're searching for a wedding photographer for your own wedding.    Read more inside...

Manual on-camera bounce flash

November 18, 2012 Neil vN 15 Comments

Manual on-camera bounce flash

With the response to the article on bounce flash photography at wedding receptions, it might be good to continue the topic. While I prefer TTL flash when I use bounce flash, there are times when I do use my on-camera flash in manual exposure mode when I bounce it. Julie & Kenny's wedding, at the Laurita Winery, NJ, proved to be a bit of a challenge with the reception. The reception area was in the winery which had a beautiful interior ... but it wasn't white. Bounce flash was a touch more difficult than usual here.  Read more inside...

Bounce flash photography at wedding receptions

November 12, 2012 Neil vN 42 Comments

Bounce flash photography at wedding receptions

This photograph from a recent wedding got a few comments and questions in the album on Facebook. The questions really hinged around "where did all that light come from?" or whether I had used off-camera flash. The purple and blue light in the back-ground is from the up-lighting from the entertainment / DJ company. The light on the couple entering the reception room ... is all one on-camera bounce flash.  Read more inside...

A wedding in Central Park, New York

August 8, 2012 Neil vN 31 Comments

A wedding in Central Park, New York

A groom holding up the softbox for me ... as you may well guess, there's a story here. Alvin and Lucia are from the UK, but decided to get married in Central Park. Of course, there's a story here too.  Read more inside...

Wedding photography: Controlling those found moments

July 23, 2012 Neil vN 10 Comments

Wedding photography: Controlling those found moments

This photograph of Catherine, during the preparation on her wedding day, triggered a question in album of photos I posted on Facebook. The question was about the focal length I used, and also about how did I get this photo? The answer is that this is a found moment - a candid moment - that I controlled. As I discussed in the article - wedding photography – a photo-journalistic style, or more posed? - I often guide things along on the wedding day. If I see something that I could nudge towards being a better photograph, I have no  Read more inside...

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