Images from Neil van Niekerk's workshop (15 pics)

rwells

I recently attended Neil's workshop in Dallas and thought I'd post some images.

If you've read Neil's blog, you know he does some things a little different than most photogs. He uses a flash "on-camera" for some striking images. Neil also works with off-camera flash when that's the best option.

But it's the on-camera flash that I was more interested in. I'll not go into all the details here as you can go to his blog and gain a wealth of information there.

I will say, the workshop was a hand-held version of his excellent book. It was nice to have a hands-on confirmation that you understand everything in his book, that you thought you understood

As with any workshop, there were varying levels of experience and understanding present, so I guess everyone would have benefited on different levels from the same workshop.

Neil's workshop is classroom, followed by practical sessions using the methods just discussed in the classroom. This worked well. While the images following don't/won't show it, Neil sets-up the shooting situation where you'll be faced with some (normally) bad/unnerving lighting nightmares. Half a models face lit with strong window light, the other side only the dark ambient. Situations like that.




Anyway, here are some of my images from the workshop.

1) I'll start-off with one of the strong side window lit images. The (camera right) side of her face was in very dark shadows. I wanted to maintain a short-lighting effect on this image.

Darren Troy C

3, 8, & 9

Qarik

good stuff randy..I just finished his book. You wouldn't have shots of the 1/2 lit faces before flash would you?

rwells

Qarik wrote:

good stuff randy..I just finished his book. You wouldn't have shots of the 1/2 lit faces before flash would you?

I don't have before/after with the exception of our first exercise. He had us meter off her white shirt then adjust the ambient for a proper exposure first. Then, we purposely had the model look straight ahead to have strong light on half of the face only. We bounced the flash and shot a series with FEC: -3, -2, -1 & 0.

Note: These shots, the model was NOT in DIRECT SUNLIGHT as in image #3 posted above. That shot in particular gave me a lot of confidence in being able to balance such disparaged lighting with on-camera flash.

1) No flash


2) FEC -3


3) FEC -2


4) FEC -1


5) FEC 0



Hope that helps...

rwells

Darren Troy C wrote:

3, 8, & 9

Thanks Darren

adbsgicom

2/5/11/12 are really nice, the rest are just very nice...:D

2. Nice even fill.
5. Like how the light is coming districtly off-camera.
11. Same like...
12. Like the hard shadows of the video light here. Didn't like my video light stuff as well as yours....

Swartzy

Most excellent examples here Randy....just excellent! I'm thrilled that you have shared what you learned from Neil as he's the master. I've been a proponent (as many know) of using on camera flash and these examples show just where one can take an image....especially when faced with harsh examples. Thank you for also sharing the "when the light is right" examples.

Wonderful work here. Loving the video light too....been meaning to pick one up. Once understanding the concepts, then event shooting becomes fun rather than always such a challenge. Finally....someone else 'GET'S' it......

Thanks again! Keep up the great work.

rwells

adbsgicom wrote:

2/5/11/12 are really nice, the rest are just very nice...:D

2. Nice even fill.
5. Like how the light is coming districtly off-camera.
11. Same like...
12. Like the hard shadows of the video light here. Didn't like my video light stuff as well as yours....

I appreciate your input (and nice comments) Andrew,

I just wanted to share/show some of the benefits of what we learned in Neil's workshop and book.

rwells

Swartzy wrote:

Most excellent examples here Randy....just excellent! I'm thrilled that you have shared what you learned from Neil as he's the master. I've been a proponent (as many know) of using on camera flash and these examples show just where one can take an image....especially when faced with harsh examples. Thank you for also sharing the "when the light is right" examples.

Wonderful work here. Loving the video light too....been meaning to pick one up. Once understanding the concepts, then event shooting becomes fun rather than always such a challenge. Finally....someone else 'GET'S' it......

Thanks again! Keep up the great work.

Hey Dave,

Thanks for taking the time to look and also for your always useful comments

It can't be overstated that a LOT of the success of bouncing on-camera flash has to do with proper flagging of the flash, so that none of it reaches your subject DIRECTLY. This doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but I learned first-hand how important that little piece of the puzzle is!

As to the available light thing: I am very active in our Strobist group, and of course off-camera flash is what it's about. But unfortunately, a lot of photographers get single-track minded on something and don't switch techniques to get the best results given the situation and goal. This is a real shame and will hold back their photography progress until it is corrected.

I am striving to have the technical ability to reach my photographic goals on every shoot. That usually means, the more knowledge in the bag, the easier it is to accomplish my goal.

The video light: It's quick, simple and dramatic ~ but at the same time can be a bust. The video light is VERY dependent on exactly where it's positioned. I quickly noticed that if whomever was holding the light was not concentrating on it's exact placement, you suffer all kinds of bad things. Extreme exposure changes, color temp shifts, etc. So, it's cool if your assistant understands it's pitfalls.



Neil's latest post goes into a lot more detail on his "Black Foam Thing" than in the past. It works, and it works VERY WELL!!!

adbsgicom

rwells wrote:

I just wanted to share/show some of the benefits of what we learned in Neil's workshop and book.

Got me off the dime to post a couple from the Austin shoot.

And yes, yes, yes to your reply to Swartzy, the foamy thing is the secret sauce, and the hair bands. I made the mistake of being clever and putting on a couple pieces of velcro, but that doesn't allow one to slide the half-snoot around to suit your needs, or shorten it if you need to as well.

Swartzy

Hi again gentlemen..... I just wanted to share something which I think you are well aware. The concepts of course are about what "YOU" wish the shot to look like. I have a couple foamies as well (one white and black) and sometimes use both as a wrap around snoot too, folding them, etc. for a particular look. Let it be known (as many who are reading this thread may not understand), using a flag/gobo provides a particular desired look. There are times I don't use anything but the flash allowing the light to spill onto the subject...remember, it's all about mixing ambient with flash EV.

Not to steal the thread by any means but to provide a further example (edification for readers) here is one that has no foamy...pointed at the ceiling and adjacent wall...yes, a bit of spill towards the subject but not so much as to create harsh lighting/reflection on the face. There are times to where using the foamy just doesn't allow for enough light fill one wants so, I pull it off and go from there. Here's the example (thanks for entertaining me..)

CoryUT

Excellent shots Randy! Thanks for sharing. I think I'm going to have to pick up that book.

adbsgicom

Good point Swartzy! In the two pix I posted in the other thread, the one with spill might be preferred since the eyes are much better lit by the spill. But your main point is well taken. It is all just part of the arsenal, not the sole-solution to all conditions. The first exercise at the class was just using the flash for fill (straight on, no diffuser, no bouncing).

rwells

Dave,

I'm not sure if you understand what Neil's workshops are about. He spends most of the workshop, talking/working with us shooting, about how to get the best pictures, pictures you want using flash. In my workshop, very little time was actually spent talking about the black foam thingy. Most of the time, he is drilling into your head how to mix flash and ambient, and how to overcome many of the bad lighting situations that one encounters & how to get the most out of your flash.

He also relentlestly drills on ambient light and how your camera setting choices affect your flash use. I thought that this would be rudamentary after shooting for almost 30 years, but I have to admit ~ Neil's approach to a shot is much more systematic than mine and I have no doubt that my images will be better adopting his approach.

But, it quickly became obvious that a flash without a flag has serious limitations to accomplish some of those goals. No one is saying that without a flag on your flash, your pictures won't look good. What became obvious is that the flag allows tremendous versatility not available without it.

The instant that any direct flash reaches your subject, (were talking on-camera flash here), you are starting to flatten out the lighting and usually adding hard shadows. Of course as your example image shows, this can be used to benefit at times, other times it just degrades an image. Like you state, it's all about how you want the image to look.




Here's a couple of examples: These were shot in sequence, albiet I moved my position slightly, but nothing else changed ~ camera nor flash settings

Bounce flash with blk foamy completely flagging flash from subject


Same basic shot with one big exception: I didn't position the flag (blk foamy) correctly to FULLY block any direct light from falling onto my subject. (the direct flash and bounce can be seen in her eyes) Now the nice "off-camera" type shadows are deminished and a very strong HARD shadow under her jaw line appears.



I appreciate your extra example and explainations

Swartzy wrote:

Hi again gentlemen..... I just wanted to share something which I think you are well aware. The concepts of course are about what "YOU" wish the shot to look like. I have a couple foamies as well (one white and black) and sometimes use both as a wrap around snoot too, folding them, etc. for a particular look. Let it be known (as many who are reading this thread may not understand), using a flag/gobo provides a particular desired look. There are times I don't use anything but the flash allowing the light to spill onto the subject...remember, it's all about mixing ambient with flash EV.

Not to steal the thread by any means but to provide a further example (edification for readers) here is one that has no foamy...pointed at the ceiling and adjacent wall...yes, a bit of spill towards the subject but not so much as to create harsh lighting/reflection on the face. There are times to where using the foamy just doesn't allow for enough light fill one wants so, I pull it off and go from there. Here's the example (thanks for entertaining me..)

rwells

CoryUT wrote:

Excellent shots Randy! Thanks for sharing. I think I'm going to have to pick up that book.

Thanks Cory,

It's a good book, you'll probably learn something(s) from it.

rwells

adbsgicom wrote:

Good point Swartzy! In the two pix I posted in the other thread, the one with spill might be preferred since the eyes are much better lit by the spill. But your main point is well taken. It is all just part of the arsenal, not the sole-solution to all conditions. The first exercise at the class was just using the flash for fill (straight on, no diffuser, no bouncing).

Just a note about that statement: That may have been the case for Andrew's workshop, but not mine. The first exercise (that I posted images from later in this thread) all used bounce flash. In our case, we had a strong side lit model. If I had used direct flash, then the sunlit side would have started blowing out. I (we) used bounce flash to help balance the shadow side with the lit side.

I just didn't want anyone reading this thread to make the assumption that I was able to balance such lighting differences with direct flash.

Swartzy

This is a great discussion and appreciate the examples. We deal with challenges at every shoot, proper lighting techniques being the most...especially when things move fast..like weddings...

I wanted to show just one more example why it is SO important to know about lighting...both ambient and flash, mixing the two, etc. I only post this so everyone can see the significant choices we have in the same setting.

Shot on the left: ISO 160, f/13, 1/200th

Shot on right: ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/200th

Both with bounced flash. Shot on right w/foamie. 1/200th as I wanted to retain the stain glassed colors in the windows.