|
February 1, 2012
bounce flash photography & the inverse square law
After you’re done noticing the decorated candles that the bride is holding while dancing with the groom (a tradition in Palestinian weddings), you may well notice how evenly lit this photograph is – from foreground to background.
The people visible in the background seen there between the bride and the groom, are nearly as well lit as the bride and groom. Because this was on-camera bounce flash, the background will be brighter than may have been anticipated. If I had used direct flash, or flash with a diffuser cup or bounce card, my background would’ve been much darker. This is because when we bounce flash behind us, the Inverse Square Law works for us.
This gets interesting, but hopefully we can make it less complicated than the topic often appears. So hang in there …
(more…)
Comments (38)
January 16, 2012
exposure metering – let your background blow out!
Too often there’s the desire for us to bring the detail in our backgrounds back in by adding flash. But there are times when the image will be stronger if we just allow the background to completely blow out. It especially works in our favor if the background is cluttered, because then by letting the background completely over-expose, we can simplify our composition.
(more…)
Comments (10)
January 10, 2012
wedding photography – using bounce flash outside
When working with a couple during the romantic portrait session, there’s the need to bring variety to the images – not just in posing and composition, but also in terms of light & lighting. For this reason I use a variety – available light; video light; off-camera flash and on-camera bounce flash. I really like using on-camera bounce flash since it is such an easy light source to use, always at hand. There was a recent article on using bounce flash outdoors, but I’d like to add another example where I used bounce flash outside a wedding venue. Let’s look at the sequence of images …
(more…)
Comments (29)
December 28, 2011
Alli & Scott – their wedding day – fusion clip
The latest Fusion clip where we blend video and stills to give a short form overview of the wedding day, is of Alli and Scott’s wedding. They were also the couple in the recent article on photographing the bride & groom’s portraits with video light.
The Fusion clip was edited in iMovie. More interestingly, is the thought-process that went into choosing the camera settings for the Canon 5D mk II that the video clips were shot with …
(more…)
Comments (17)
September 8, 2011
You’re a photographer, but at a wedding as a guest? Well, then just be a guest.
A recent article on the Off-Beat Bride blog, dealt with the topic of the unplugged wedding. They mention some brides now request guests switch off their cameras, and rather be in the moment and enjoy the wedding. I truly want every photographer, whether professional, amateur, or at any level, to read that article and take it to heart.
If you’ve been to a wedding and observed the people there, you will surely have noticed the barrage of cameras. It is especially prevalent during key moments such as the bride entering the ceremony with her dad. What you’d also notice is that as soon as the bride has swept past any guest with a camera, they are immediately checking their cameras. Engrossed in the image on the back of their cameras with their heads down, they give the bride and groom only a further glance again as something to photograph.
(more…)
Comments (60)
August 18, 2011
wedding photography – developing a personal style
I’ve been mulling a while now over a question someone asked me about how long I think it took to develop a personal style in photography.
“What does it take, and how many years do you think it generally takes a photographer to develop their own personal style, meaning, you can look at a photograph and know who took it. Not everyone would know, but some people could tell it’s your style. I think very few photographers actually have their own style and I’m curious what you think it took to get there.”
How long do I think it takes? A life-time. But that’s too glib an answer, even though I think it is a never-ending journey as a photographer – honing your style along with your technique, understanding and skill. So how does one develop a personal style in photography?
(more…)
Comments (37)
August 12, 2011
wedding photography – the romantic portraits – more than just, “and now, kiss”
More frequently than not, when looking at the work of other photographers, I see that the romantic portraits of the couple are just of them kissing. Having worked with a number of photographers over the years, I’ve also seen how the instruction “and now, kiss”, becomes reflexive. Pose the couple; have them look at each other … *snap* … and now kiss … *snap*. And then the photographer takes no other photos of the couple at that specific place. Yet, there are more (and perhaps even better) ways to show intimacy in the romantic portraits than just having the couple kiss …
(more…)
Comments (12)
August 11, 2011
4 tips on selling wedding albums
We all want our clients to get nice wedding albums. On their 50th wedding anniversary, this will be the one thing that they will cherish from their wedding. But, being a big investment, clients often need to be convinced of the value.
Selling really isn’t that hard, and selling albums isn’t that hard if you have a few tips that will get you launched. Here are some simple strategies for selling albums in a straightforward way, by making your clients want the albums.
photography & design by Frank Salas, Orange County Wedding Photographer
(more…)
Comments (2)
July 31, 2011
wedding photography – tips for detail shots of the wedding rings
In photographing the detail images of the wedding rings, there are a few things to aim for:
- context within which to place the rings,
- a few images with different angles,
- great lighting which is easily achievable.
Then we also have to take care of the depth-of-field and the tricky focusing …
(more…)
Comments (24)
July 12, 2011
Sydney & Paul – their wedding day – photo & video fusion clip
This idea of blending photographs and video snippets from a wedding, into a fusion clip, still fascinates me. In a 5 to 6 minute clip you’re able to give a nicely condensed view of the wedding day. Combining the photos and video in a sensible way that visually makes sense, takes time however. And Jessica and I are still on the learning curve. (Is it even possible to really get to to the top of things these days with the rapidly accelerated pace of digital photography?) Anyway, I love the results so far!
So here it is – the latest fusion clip of a wedding I photographed,
with Jessica shooting & editing the video.
(more…)
Comments (10)
Older Posts »
|
|
