Blue Skies

One of my favorite things at a wedding to do is to try to get a "scene setter" shot of the reception venue right after sundown. It's a little tricky, but for about four to five minutes every day, there's a dark, deep blue sky that you can photograph behind your venue or location.

The trick is to wait to take the shot until the exposure of the sky is the same as the building. That's how I took all these images. I went outside and pointed my camera at the sky and took an exposure and then I took an exposure from the building. When the two started to match, I started shooting.

You can do this with anything that time of night. I've even managed to shoot brides and grooms with this deep blue light behind them. None of the images below had any photoshop on them other than light saturation. This is how they looked on the back of the camera when I shot them.

I hope you enjoy getting this effect on your late afternoon shoots!

We have a new D300!

They shipped out Thursday and Friday we added a new D300 to our studio. We were one of the first studios in Georgia to get one and have been on the waiting list for months. We're actually still on another waiting list for a 2nd body!

I have been testing this camera out for a couple of days now and I wanted to let you know a little bit about my experience so far.

First, I am in love with this camera. It focues extremely fast even in low light situations and the noise at low ISOs is really amazing after using the D200s for so long.

Adobe already has Lightroom 1.3 out so we can start working with these images right away.

I have been using the amazing Cannon 5D for a while now and it has great low light capabilities and the color is just beautiful. Cannon had the edge on Nikon with noise, but now, Nikon is now just as good, maybe even better, but I'll have to shoot with it a while before I make that call.

I strongly suggest if any of you guys are looking for a great camera to do portrait, wedding or even commercial work, that you consider the D300!

Here's a great review on the D300:

http://www.dpreview.com/previews/nikond300/

What Mode?

There’s so many ways to do something in photography and no one way is absolutely right for everyone. But you’re here on my blog, so I’ll share with you how we shoot around our studio and why.

MANUAL MODE

Manual mode is your friend. I don’t shoot manual mode all the time, but I think it’s important to be able to. I have some friends who went to college to be photojournalist. They were handed a manual 35mm camera and taught to shoot it manually. They shoot in manual mode.

If I’m in a tricky light situation, for instance a dimly lit church with a bride in a white dress and a groom in a black tux (how often can that happen?), I always switch my camera to M for manual mode.

Typically in that situation, I’d fire off some test shots of the front of the church to start with and make sure the exposure is right. I know that if I shoot anything less than 25th of a second and people are moving quickly, I’ll get really soft, blurry images, so if the camera meter tells me I am underexposed at 25th, I’ll open up my aperture from let’s say F4 to F2.8 and increase my ISO from 800 to 1250 or 1600 until I get the lowest ISO and the best shutter speed I can afford.

So if they are standing there saying their vows, I can use 25th, and decrease my ISO. If they are lighting the unity candle, I’ll go up to 40th and increase my ISO. I always try to use the fastest shutter speed I can get away with – 60th or higher is best and the lowest ISO (1000 and less depending on gear). The higher the ISO the more grain will be on the film.


APERTURE PRIORITY MODE

Dennis Reggie shoots his weddings on Aperture mode (A in Nikon, Av in Cannon). The idea is that you pick the Aperture and let the camera select the correct shutter speed. So if you are doing a close up of someone and you want the background blurred out (for a shallow “depth of field”) then you would pick a larger aperture, for instance 2.8.

If you had a group shot where you needed to be able to see everyone in the back row as easily as you can people in the front row and it was outside, then you would pick a smaller aperture, for instance F8.

Some less expensive zoom lenses can only go as large as F4 or F5. For instance you can get a 100-200mm lens for around $200 that has a maximum of F4 or you can spend $1600 and get a 70-200 that can do 2.8. (If I was on a deserted Island and could have only one lens I would want my 70-200 2.8!)

The difference is that the more expensive lens lets in twice the light so if you are shooting in a dark church someplace, you can get a great shoot of the bride and groom close in and it won’t be a soft picture because the shutter was too slow or grainy picture because the ISO was too high.

Personally, if I have a kid in the park and that kid is running around playing and the light is constantly changing, I’ll set the camera to Aperture Mode at 2.8 with my 70-200 and fire away. I’ll have split seconds to capture the kids smile as he looks over his shoulder running away from me as I chase him. I’m using all my attention to frame the shot and anticipate the moment.

I like using a 2.8 aperture for portraits (like 2.8) because it makes the background really soft. They make some lenses that go to 1.4, or even 1.0.

PROGRAM MODE
At a recent seminar I attended, Joe Buissink said that he uses program mode most of the time. He says he knows his cameras so well that he knows in any situation what they are going to do. He says that he might grab a quick exposure from the carpet and do an exposure lock and then photograph the couple.

He also said that sometimes he’ll pick the certain apertures. I assume from that he also shoots Aperture mode.

I’ve seen videos of him shooting and he shoots very fast. He’ll see a shot and toss the camera up to his face and take the image in less than a second, and then he’s looking for the next shot. I believe he shoots program mode because it allows him capture so fast.

Program mode might also be good when you’re shooting group shots and you want the maximum depth of field.

SHUTTER PRIORITY MODE
Shutter priority lets you set the shutter and then the camera sets the aperture to what it needs to be. Some people like to use this mode for sport shots.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

I also find that the Nikon D200 has a better light meter in it than the Cannon 5D or 30D. The Nikon camera meters see in color where the Cannon see in black and white so when you set the camera exposure, you have to compensate more with the Cannon’s than the Nikons. The Cannon’s have much less image noise at higher ISOs.

The Nikon D3 and D300 are about to be released and they are reported to have amazing ISO performance. We’ll see. Every year or two it seems that technology just gets better and better. There’s never been a better time to be a photographer!

I guess if someone was starting out and asking me how to shoot portraits outside, I’d tell them to set the camera to 400 ISO, Aperture priority at 2.8 for one subject, open it up a bit more for two subjects to F4 (like an engagement with a guy in back and the girl in front) and if they were shooting a big family shot, then open it on up to F5.6 or F8 and concentrate on the framing.

I’ll post some more information on depth of field in later posts but wanted to give you some ideas of how different people shoot and why.

How to Read an Image

Okay, so you have your fashion magazine and now you have a photo that you like, but how do you read the image so you can go and make it your own?

First, look at the lighting. Is it natural light, or did they do it with studio light, or a mixture of both? If it’s natural light, then see if you can find where the sun was placed, where any reflectors were replaced and if the model is in shade. If it’s in the studio, try to find out all the light sources so you’ll know how to place your lights.

One of the best tips someone told me is to look at the eyes of the model and a lot of times that will tell you how the image was photographed.



For instance, in this image the actress is probably lit from a rectangular soft box placed to the left of the camera and another light source (maybe another soft box?) from directly above her to the right. She’s got her back to a window and some light is coming in through the window and lighting her shoulder.

So if I wanted an image like this for my portfolio, I’d find a bank of windows and using a light meter take a reading of the ambient light out the window and then set my two flashes up with soft boxes and balance them with the ambient light. I might even try to make them a stop or so above ambient so she would pop out from the image. Also, the temperature of the light looks warm to me, so I might try using a warming gel over the flash.

Or, if I wanted to try to keep things simple and was trying to do this all using just my digital camera and no additional lighting, I’d try to find a bank of windows facing the sun, pose her in this manner and then using a large white poster board or foam core board, reflect light onto her face. If I was on a budget and didn’t want to buy a gold reflector, maybe some gold fabric to put over the foam core might be all the warming I needed for her.

If I was trying for this look for one of my clients, say a bride on her wedding day, I’d place her back to the church windows, using a reflector bounce light back up onto her face and get her to lean on her left arm so that shoulder would raised and then ask her to turn her head a little to the right and then cut her eyes back at me. A lot of times I wind up getting clients into places where the light is great and then just let them be themselves and have fun with them so I can get a chance to make a great shot.

Sometimes I’ll start out trying for a shot like this and then I might tell her to look out the window and find that there’s a totally different shot there. I might shoot directly into the sun and make her a silhouette. There’s so many things to explore while you’re shooting.

I’ll post some more specific articles on how I make certain shots, but I wanted to give you an idea of the thought process I have when I approach a shot.

One thing I want to note is that I’m not advocating copying verbatim another photographer’s work. What I’m suggesting is that by looking at amazing photography you can find techniques that you can use to tell your own story.

How I Learned Photography

And really, how I still learn photography.

My wife Kerry gets Vogue magazine to keep up with the latest tips and techniques for women’s fashion, and sometimes she even manages to get to it before I do. Last Christmas some friends of ours bought me subscriptions to several women’s magazines, not because I look good in pumps, but because that’s one of the ways I learn about photography.

There are some of the most gifted and talented photographers in the world who shoot images for the top fashion magazines. They will spend all day and thousands of dollars (sometimes tens of thousands) to get images that sell an idea to women.

It’s the idea of glamour, sexiness or romance that sells the clothes and when you see an image of a beautiful woman wearing a Prada bag on her shoulder, the message is that if you buy Prada, you’ll be glamorous just like her. They are selling a feeling.

As a wedding and portrait photographer, I do much the same thing, only the clients I photograph are real and so are the moments they are photographed in. You can take the same techniques and make an image that’s real and also beautiful and make it even more meaningful for your clients.

It’s the best five dollars I can think of to purchase a fashion magazine, find images that you think are compelling and go and make them your own.