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reverse engineering an image (3) – contest result & feedback

December 8, 2010 Neil vN 12 Comments

wedding portraits with multiple light sources

We have a winner for the contest we had last week, where we had to reverse-engineer the lighting in a photograph. I'll be contacting the winner who will shortly receive a $50 B&H gift voucher. Thank you everyone for vigorously participating! Here is Josh Lynn to explain what he did for the lighting in the contest image, of which the photo above is the wider shot. This photo reveals more of the one light source. ...  Read more inside...

off-camera flash photography: feathering the light

December 4, 2010 Neil vN 17 Comments

off-camera flash: feathering the light

Comparing those two images, you should notice two things immediately: - the sky is brighter in the top image. - the grass in front of the group is more lit in the bottom photo.  In other words, the accent is more on the guys in the top photo, since grass in front of them are less well lit. Both images were lit by a single off-camera softbox, using a speedlight. My on-camera speedlight was set to Master, but with its output disabled. Therefore only the Slave flash (in the softbox) was lighting the group.  I liked the exposure on them  Read more inside...

lighting ideas for romantic wedding portraits

November 29, 2010 Neil vN 15 Comments

lighting the romantic portraits of the bride & groom

Scouting around the location during dinner time, I peered over the edge of this spiraling staircase and thought it would be a good idea to get some light on the couple, seated on the couch. I posed Melissa so that  she lounged back with her head on Dennis' lap. There is no way to get light on them from my position with on-camera bounce flash, and definitely not if my intention is to get light only on them. It needed off-camera flash. To add some variety,  I also thought of a few other things to try with the lighting, using  Read more inside...

New Jersey wedding photographer

November 2, 2010 Neil vN Leave a Comment

New Jersey wedding photographer - photojournalistic style

Drawing from a story-telling photojournalistic sensibility; and also from the classic style of wedding photography; with a dash of Fashion flair; and Romance ... the intention is to give you images that will forever recall this fantastic day. The images on the New Jersey wedding photographer blog will show you the style and consistency of work that you can expect for your own wedding. As an author of several books on photography, I’m definitely serious about this stuff! The domain name I chose for me wedding &  Read more inside...

Exposure metering for the bride’s dress

October 20, 2010 Neil vN 52 Comments

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...

Using a video light for wedding portraits

October 11, 2010 Neil vN 8 Comments

Using a video light for wedding portraits

When possible during a lull in the wedding reception, I like to sneak the bride and groom away for a few minutes to do romantic portraits. Since time is usually tight, and the couple wants to enjoy as much of their reception as possible, I like to work efficiently. Jessica and Michael had their reception at a venue where I hadn't worked before, so during dinner time, I quickly went around the venue with my assistant, to scout a few places to photograph the couple. In the basement of this venue, I noticed the light shining through gates ...  Read more inside...

the moment after ‘the kiss’

October 11, 2010 Neil vN 10 Comments

favorite image from the weekend – the moment after the kiss

I'm normally in the center aisle when I work as a solo photographer at a wedding.  But with the wedding on Saturday, I knew I could trust my 2nd shooter to nail the photographs I needed.  This allowed me the opportunity to move around, looking for other angles. I was hoping that Lori-Ann would hug her husband, George, in the first seconds after The First Kiss. I was hoping to get her expression in that hug. She did hug him, but with her face over his other shoulder.  I had a 50% chance of guessing that right! So I didn't  Read more inside...

Photographing wedding portraits in bright sunlight

October 5, 2010 Neil vN 60 Comments

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

October 2, 2010 Neil vN 33 Comments

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...

Wedding day portraits – Simplifying composition for effect

September 19, 2010 Neil vN 23 Comments

Wedding day portraits - Simplifying composition for effect

With this article I want to reinforce the idea from a few recent posts about being very specific about your composition. By simplifying the image, we have greater impact. We include only what we need to include in the frame to enhance it.  Just as important, is what we exclude:  Read more inside...

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