Tips and techniques for photographers at all levels. Covers digital photography and image manipulation with Photoshop.
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Available for local and destination weddings and portrait sessions. Each project is different, so contact me for an exact quote. Portrait sessions start at $300 and wedding coverage begins at $3,000. Typical wedding fees are about $5,000 - Send an email to me.
OK, so I have a beautiful woman in front of my camera and I blow it. Check the shadow that her nose is casting -- onto her eye -- yikes! All I had to do was raise the fill light to lower the shadow. I could have caught that simply by checking the LCD. I'm not a big fan of using the LCD, but when lighting with flash, it can provide useful information.
Yesterday was a great day. First, it was Veteran's Day (in the US). My cousin called to wish me happy Veteran's Day - that was kind of cool. It's not one of the 'major' holidays. Most people don't get the day off, no one gives gifts. Well, no one give gifts, except for the vets -- whom give us the most precious gift of all. THANK YOU.
OK, so a bunch of us -- about 16-17 from the [b] school-- took a trip to Calico. Calico is a ghost town (except for the park rangers and other people who work there) in the hills near Barstow, CA -- just of I-15 and not far from the I-15 & I-40 junction). It was a gold mining town in the late 1800s and there are museums, old building and artifacts, and a couple of mines that you can tour - all giving a very real view of what life must have been like in those days.
I took two cameras. One is my newest -- a Nikon D-700, and the other is my oldest (well, oldest dSLR) - a Nikon D-100 that I have just had converted to IR (infrared) only. I'll do a whole post on IR, including an interview with Jim Chen - the guy who did the conversion for me, pretty soon, but for today, I just want to share some images with you.
The bottom photo is a collage of IR images. The three above it are sepia tone conversion, done in Photoshop. The top image shows some of our group from the [b] school.
Today, I received this question from a reader in Australia: (his name is Paul, also)
"Hi Paul
"In 1977 I visited Papua New Guinea while i was there i bought a camera a Soligor 35mm SLR with 50mm lense. I was 21years old. That was the start of my photography. Many years ago around twenty I think while i was riding my motor bike at 100 klm the camera fell off the back of my motor bike . To my horror the camera flew in the air a number of times hitting the ground, i pulled over my bike, thinking that my camera would be in bits and pieces, to my surprise the camera was intact and still working. I still have that camera today and works. I have used a number of film based cameras, the last few years i have been using pentax Z1 and a Pentax Z1P which i use for weddings with Fuji Film pro 160 colour and the black and white using ilford. I have been thinking going over to Digital but so many cameras, Since 2003 I went blind in my right eye and told that I would not get back my eye sight, since 1977 using my right eye to take photos , its been hard to use my left eye, the good news is that i have got back my eye sight to about 90% , I love my pentax cameras they are heavy and good to use. I like the Pentax K20 but with 14m.p. would this be good enough to do weddings or do you have any suggestions, Many thanks, Paul"
----
Hey Paul,
Thanks for writing. My first SLR was a Pentax Spotmatic, in 1970. I shot hundreds of weddings and other events with it, until I gave it to my son, about 2000. In 2001, I switched to digital (Nikon D100).
While I doubt many of the pro-sumer level digital cameras would survive jumping off a moving vehicle, there are many excellent choices. Certainly, Nikon, Canon, Fuji, Pentax -- they can all do a great job. The decision is so personal -- I tell everyone, unless they have some specific technical requirements that only a few models offer, the best way to decide is to go to a good camera shop and hold them in your hands. It's that simple -- what feels good to you - that is as good a way to choose as any. The simple reason is that, as much as reviewers like to point out minor differences, or hype what they perceive as major flaws, one camera is pretty much as good as another, within specific price ranges....and, nearly any camera in the $1,000US price range, or above, can deliver creditable results in the hands of are competent photographer.
Are there major reasons to choose one camera over another? Even for most pros, the answer is 'no'. In most cases, it comes down to what you like. It's more personal preference than any technical issue.
Would a K20 be suitable for weddings? Certainly - with the right lens selection, even the K200 will do the job. More than brand, or model, the following is the sequence that I RECOMMEND FOR ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS, if they are going to photograph people, and want to be able to control the light. Follow this sequence, as budget allows:
Get a camera -- get a flash -- get a diffuser -- get the flash off the camera -- get multiple flashes, with diffusers.
Beyond this, get good lenses. Get fast lenses. I love 2.8 or faster, yet the main lens that I use for weddings is still a 24mm-120mm, 3.5-5.6.
These are all general statements, and opinions. Are there specific cameras that are better suited for certain situations? Certainly. Are there advantages and features in the $3,000 or $5,000 cameras that are not available in the $1,000 models? Yes, without a doubt.
But --- If the question is, can I do a good job shooting weddings with a K20, the answer is YES.
By the way, if you want to hook up with an online community of wedding photographers, check out the [b] school: thebschool.com
They are doing some maintenance, so you can't get in, right now, but if you go to: thebschoolblog.com/support you can get added to the waiting list. It will be well worth it, in my opinion.
Well, Paul, I think I may just use your question on my blog -- thanks, again for writing.
This week, I received a great email/photo of a wedding group, so I though I'd take some time to talk about shooting weddings with a Gary Fong Lightsphere.
The Lightsphere, currently, comes in two models -- the Lightsphere-2 and the Lightsphere-Universal. Both also come in Clear and Cloud versions. Previously, I've done videos showing the differences and giving my recommendations.
The differences between the Lightsphere-2 Cloud and Clear:
The Lightsphere-Universal:
First, I should say that the above videos reflect my opinion and are just guidelines -- your goals and shooting style may lead you to other opinions.
I'd like to share two group photos.
This image appears on Gary Fong's website and was shot by Anne Ruthmann. Here is a post that Anne made, in answer to how she captured the image.
I'm pretty sure my settings were manual mode, ISO 800, Shutter 1/60, f2.8 on a 5D with at 24mm.. handheld. The flash was pointed straight up with no dome on the Lightsphere and the flash on E-TTL. However, because I was leaning downward toward the guests, the flash was actually pointed at a spot on the ceiling over the guests (think: angle of trajectory). It really was fairly dim lighting and I believe I was slightly underexposed without the flash.
Why f2.8? Because of the lens angle of the subject distance, this was really all I needed... plus I wanted to allow the maximum breadth of light in order to reduce vignetting. ISO 800 with flash doesn't show any noise to speak of, and the shutter speed was for hand holding. Getting everyone into the aisle and taking the shots took about 5 minutes. :-)
===
The second photo comes from a really talented landscape shooter, making his first foray into wedding photography -- Tom Vadnais.
=== Hi, Paul –
I had never shot a wedding before, and was more nervous than the bride and groom. To make matters worse, I was faced with a large wedding party in dark church with can lights in a black ceiling on a rainy day. I used my Lightsphere II for every flash shot over two days. The attached image was made with the Clear Lightsphere II on my SB-900 on my D3 at ISO 2500. The only things I have done to the Raw file are a slight increase in contrast in the shadows and a little bit of sharpening. I have done no lightning or darkening of any portion of the image. I am blown away with the uncomplicated even lighting.
The D3 camera settings were: 1/40 sec at f/5 at ISO 2500. I used the Clear Lightsphere II with the white dome, pointed straight up on a hotshoe-mounted SB-900.
Finally, I'd like to share an album -- it was shot with a Lightsphere-Universal-Clear, on a Nikon SB-800 (some shots may have been with a SB-600), and a Chromedome -- the Chromedome was generally used when the light was about 10 fee, or more, from the subject -- on the indoor shots.
OK - you can buy Lightspheres directly from garyfong.com -- of course, I'd appreciate it if you bought from Adorama -- links are in the right margin :-)
It's been an interesting couple of weeks. If you are concerned about how to best run your business in today's financial environment, take a look at this video and then visit these sites:
We got up this morning and walked down to the beach for coffee and a muffin. There was a heavy marine layer, so it was cool to the runners and walkers.
This was shot with my wife's Nikon Coolpix P5000 point and shoot, on program mode. I fired the built-in flash through a Gary Fong Delta Diffuser. I really didn't need the flash, but had it turned on from some previous shots, where I wanted some fill, because of the overcast.
I love the P5000. Actually, I'm a big fan of P&S cameras for casual use. There was no way I was going to carry a DSLR and lens on an early morning walk, but the P&S just goes into a pocket. I'll paraphrase, but someone once said that the best camera is the one you have with you when the image appears. This was about 7AM, and getting myself to the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) was hard enough, without carrying a heavy camera.
About mid-morning, I decided to shoot some of the local parade. I was mainly interested in shooting narrow depth-of-field portraits of participants, as well as viewers alone the parade route.
I love to have the image jump off the blurred background. For those who don't know, long focal lengths and wide apertures are the key to limited depth-of-field photos.
In most of the above, I shot at f:2.8 and near 200mm. The lens was a borrowed 80-200 -- non-VR. On a few shots, I closed to about f:11. I put the camera on Aperture priority, because I wanted to maintain the wide aperture, to guarantee the narrow DOF. The sky was nice and sunny, by about 10AM, so I knew that my shutter speeds would be very fast. I put the camera, a Nikon D70s, on a monopod. The monopod was not needed to steady the camera. It's just that I knew I'd be standing along the street for a couple hours, and the camera and lens would be getting heavy.
When you click on the image, bellow, you'll be taken to a Picasa Album. There are a couple photos of helicopters and jets flying by. You will probably notice some spots on the image. That's an indicator of a dirty sensor, so cleaning it will be my next project.
If you've been droooooling over the Nikon D3, but couldn't get one without your significant other noticing that you skipped a couple mortgage payments, then this is for you. Nikon, yesterday, announced a full-frame camera using the D3 sensor, but in a D300 body - sort of.
Retailers don't expect to have them in stock until the end of July, but you can pre-order your, here.
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