Evelyn and Kirk part 2

Some pics taken at the San Gabriel Mission (a very popular place for pictures, but a little overrated). Once again, some awesome warm sunset lighting. The D3's focus tracking system worked flawlessly when they were walking. Anyway, this is my last post from Southern California.

Kirk and Evelyn

Some awesome sunset lighting.

A little more processing for the cool cross-process effect.

File this one under Johnny's Favorites.

This one too.

Something a little different.

One of my best friends Kirk AKA "Beef" and his wife Evelyn got married a few months ago, so they're doing things backwards by finally taking some pictures. I took the D3 out for a spin and it did pretty awesome. All these pictures were taken locally in Alhambra. I spoted this gym for a while now and always wanted to shoot there because of the colors. This goes to show you that you don't have to go to a fancy romantic place to get some awesome pictures. It's all about lighting and angles. I am absolutely loving the colors and sharpness coming out of the D3. These have been retouched a bit but nothing like the D70s, which required some heavy processing.

I've been super busy so pictures have not been my priority. But...this is a double header...tomorrow (Sunday) is an engagement shoot with Barbara and Mike. So check back soon!

Before | After

I was talking to Shari today about photos and retouching so I gave her a quick demo. The first pic is straight out of the camera and the second shot is retouched. As you can see, it makes a big difference. My philisophy on this is just to do enough to enhance the picture a little bit - don't go nuts. The trick is a good shot to begin with. Some people can perform miracles with Photoshop but I can't. I love the lighting in this shot, giving her the famous "glow."

What I've done is enhance the color saturation and contrast and boosted the light a little. Some people might not like the color or that you can't see the beach but I like the warm tones on this one - the effect I was going for, it's all a matter of taste. Also notice she's not facing the sun. But you do it I bet either the flash goes off or the person is too dark. How did I do this?

1. You need a DSLR (you can get one for pretty cheap these days, don't anything fancy)
2. Spot meter on the face (make sure your camera has this)
3. Adjust your camera settings to it and make some adjustments. (I use manual mode)

How did I learn this? Reading photography sites with tips like this one and practicing ;) I'm just passing along the info.

Feel free to leave questions in the comments or share your photo tips.

Shari @ Santa Monica

Earlier this week Shari and I met up in Santa Monica for some food and hanging out. I had my camera with me so we snapped a few photos. She spotted a great location on the pier and the lighting was perfect.

So what's the best way to light a person with sunlight? There are a couple of ways to go about this. A lot of people face the sun, but all you get are squints and it looks harsh. Some people will have the sun to the back but it'll come out dark or you'll have to use a flash, which isn't flattering. My favorite is to have the sun at an angle - notice the nice glow :) This can only be done during specific times.

So what's the best time to shoot? Ideally, I like to shoot during dusk, about 30 minutes before the sun sets. The worst time is probably high noon, when the sun is bright which casts harsh shadows. It can be easily fixed by just going in the shade - but if you do make sure you have a good fast lens.

That's my way of shooting, there is really no right or wrong way but this way produces the more flattering pictures in my opinion and it's just my style of lighting. Some people love it and some might hate it.

Saturday I'll get a chance to shoot with AC so hopefully I'll have some nice pictures to show.

A Birthday with Crawdads

I had a tasty cholesterol-filled treat this past weekend at Anisa's birthday crawdad extravaganza. This is the second year I've done this so I'm a pro at this now - the trick is not to eat the meat and suck the head but you gotta peal the head back to scrape the head fat (the best part). Yes, it sounds gross but true crawdad fans know what I'm talkin about. The next birthday coming up in my good friend "Prince" Howard's this weekend (see the post where I was a groomsman at his wedding).

Anyway, here are a couple of my portraits shot with awesome sunset lighting and my favorite 1.4 lens. I'm going to post another golden sunset lighting picture soon that I shot at Santa Monica.

Also, looks like I'm going to be assisting AC this weekend to shoot a wedding so that should be fun. A lot more pictures soon.

Carien, Holland and Facebook

Carien is from Holland and here for school this quarter. We went out last week and took a few pictures. Notice the awesome lighting on her hair? Forget reflectors and fancy photography equipment, all you need is nature and a good angle. She doesn't normally like pictures of herself but I knew she liked this one (I do too). You wanna know how? It ended up on Facebook almost immediately!

Instead of fighting Facebook and preventing my pictures from being on there, I've decided to embrace it. I've started a new group called "Awesome profile picture" where I invite people who use a photo I took of them as their profile pic. So far there are 5 members including me. Check it out HERE and feel free to friend me up!

Also, I just noticed this is my 100th post of 2007! Thank you everyone for supporting this blog. Lurkers, how bout leaving a comment to celebrate!

Bryana @ the Park

Th' most important thin' when takin' pictures be th' lightin'. IMO, th' best time t' take them be when th' sun be settin' (or risin' if ye`re an early bird). Ye only get around an hour o' golden sun that looks great (notice th' hair). 't can be tricky t' take an' ye definitely need an SLR type camera wi' good lens if ye`re shootin' into th' sun, but if ye can pull 't off, 't looks great.

edit: Today be talk like a scurvy pirate day, so as ye can be seein', I be participatin' in that. Luckily fer me thar`s a shipmate translator on th' web which saved me a lot o' time. Here`s th' link fer more details, if ye click on 't I won`t be havin' t' keel haul th' plank. Yarr.