Jeannine + Blake: Ceremony

The special moment






One outside

I'm trying different Photoshop effects these days - hopefully they don't look TOO processed. I don't like it when people overdo the retouching. At the same time, when you don't do anything to the pictures, they look a bit plain. Anyway, I screwed up on one part of the wedding: I accidentally turned off the image stabilization (VR) on my lens and a lot of important pictures, like walking to the front, were blurry :( The image stabilization makes a HUGE difference. Fortunately, I blasted away a ton of shots so a few of them were in focus. I guess that's my tip - take as many pictures as you can since they're free. That's the beauty of digital photography.

Also, it looks like my camera, after 2 years of service, is no longer the top dog camera as it is being replaced by a slight upgrade, the 3Ds. It has an insane ISO of over 100,000. A lot of people are whining that the video is only 720p. Here are my thoughts on video on a DSLR: it is a good feature to have on the side. The key is, it's on the side. Personally, when I take pictures, I'm not thinking about video or anything like that. I wouldn't imagine fussing over trying to take both pictures and video. Maybe if I were the second shooter, I might. But to me, it's really not a big deal at all just because I'm not a huge fan of wedding videos. To me, the camera has to take the best pictures possible and everything else is just bonus as long as it does affect picture taking. But that's just me. Anyway, I'll probably post a couple more then find something else to post on.

More getting ready shots

Carrot cake

Ben getting some instructions

Jeannine's handsome dad and one of my favorite pictures from the wedding

Another one of my favorites

Awesome shoes

I've learned that it's pretty impossible for the bride to get dressed on her own. Blake didn't have a problem though.

Here are a few more shots I fixed up. More to come soon of the actual ceremony. Here are a few thoughts on wedding photography that I've learned through the last few weddings I shot:

It's easy and hard. It's easy in that you just point a camera and press some buttons. It's hard in that you can easily forget a setting and leave it on the wrong setting, which may ruin many pictures. I accidentally knocked the image stabilization (VR) off my rental lens (70-200) and my walkway shots were half ruined :(

Travel light. The less stuff you lug around, the better. I've narrowed it down to 3 lenses and one flash, although a macro lens would've come in handy for the rings.

You don't need a lot of fancy lighting. One flash on top of the camera with a fresh set of batteries and a diffuser card, that's it. No need for power packs, cords, umbrellas and other stuff. Also, store bought disposable batteries are way better than the rechargeable ones.

I tend to hold the camera vertically like 80% of the time. I find that if you're holding it horizontally for one or two people, you're probably standing too far away. The trick to most of my photography (which is 99% uncropped) is just getting a little closer.

Anyway, more soon.

Test Post Using Windows Live Writer

I’m trying out Microsoft’s Windows Live Writer that can edit and format an the major blogs including blogger.  So far I have to say that I’m impressed at the ease.  I don’t need to do a 2 stage process of first uploading a pic to flickr and then embedding it using html editor on blogger.  This is just a one step process that even has some cool special effects like this reflection…even a watermark.  How cool is that?  Thank Khiemy for the recommendation.

This picture is of Lily, my friend Chip’s daughter I took on Halloween.  It’s not the most technically the best photo due to the wrong focus area.  It was done on my old pal the D70s.  Speaking of which, that’s the same camera Jeff got.  So yup, that was really easy…so easy I almost want to post another picture.  You know what, I think I will actually!Me @ the Modern Art Museum | Ft. Worth, TX Summer, 2008

*Presses the Easy button.  Bam!  How you like that?!  Very cool.  I can even crop, resize, and add some effects like sepia ton.  If I didn’t have so many archived pics on Flickr I’d cancel it.  But oh well… This thing can even embed video too but only low res.  I’m still looking a WMV to MP4 or other HD res file compatible with Youtube’s High Quality mode.  Doh!  Where are the Blogger tags?  I guess you can’t do it all here.  Oh well still impressed….OH WAIT…they show it right before you publish.  Ok this thing rules.

UPdate:  ok the first picture is pixelated and I can't get it to be not pixelated.  So much for being cool.  Boooo!!!

This picture of me and Khiemy cracks me up - we were in goofy moods.  It was taken when I was back home after our group ate at Lucille's in Brea.  Come to think of it...we shared the dinner...then this picture.  What is going on here?!!

Just to mention photos - I've noticed that more and more people are buying some nice DSLR cameras, which is great.  They usually ask me which one to buy and my answer is:

1.  Stick with Canon or Nikon because there are a huge selection of lenses and accessories that are easily available, ranging from beginner's stuff to high end fancy stuff.

2.  If your budget is under $1000, get a Canon Rebel __.  It has great picture quality and is compatible with all the new Canon lenses.  The Nikons D40/60 can't use older mechanical lenses.

3.  If your budget is between $1000-$2000, get a Nikon.  Big high resolution screens and manual controls built for serious photographers will allow you to learn your camera, making the next step up very easy.  I was very comfortable with the D3 after the D70s.  

4.  $2000 and up - either brand is great.  At this point, it's really your own skill rather than the camera that's limiting you.  

Finally, I will say that the camera only matters so much and having a nice one makes your life a little easier.  Unfortunately, having the best camera without the knowledge or artistic sense will lead to boring pictures, even if they are sharp.  The best pictures technically don't necessarily mean good pictures.  Some of my favorite pics are grainy, a little out of focus...it's ok as long as people find it interesting.  Anyway, that's my 2 cents!   More soon.

Retouching

Someone's mom was asking where her picture was so I had to throw one in there. But to make things interesting, this is a little before and after action. What I did was a little cross processing, added a border, and sharpened a little. I was going for a cooler look. There are many ways to make a picture have that special look. Images coming out of Nikon cameras tend to underexpose a little bit and under-sharpen. This allows me to tweak these things and bring out the detail. For variety, I like to do some photos in black and white, with a bluish tint, sepia etc. Lots of photo purists don't appreciate the photoshop work but I definitely support it as long as it's not overdone.  

Anyway, I'm back at the ranch and I noticed that I'm constantly missing being at the other place.  When I was back in Socal I missed Texas believe it or not and vice versa.  I really need to make some time to get the photo stuff started here...that'll be my project for the next month.

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.

Photo Gear Talk

I finally broke down and now I'm going to talk about the photo equipment I use. Some people are more interested in gear more than others like me, who like looking at and talking about the photos more.

So here's what I own and use:

Nikon D70s
18-70mm 3.5-4.5 (came with my camera)
50mm 1.4
17-35mm 2.8
SB600 flash
SB800 flash
Flash diffuser
Photoflex softbox
Manfrotto light stand (not pictured)

I also use Photoshop for retouching - on a PC running Vista. As said earlier, if you own a dSLR, you probably have a better camera than I do. The D70s is a few years old and is by no means a "professional" camera. Part of the reason why I don't like focusing too much on the equipment is that it really doesn't matter too much what you use as long as it's fast and reliable and does what you want. Having a better camera won't make your pictures look great overnight, it takes a little bit of practice and having a good feel for what the final pics will look like. Here are some things I've learned so far:

- Go light: Carry what you need in a small bag and don't lug around all your equipment if it's not necessary. I have a "murse" I carry 1 lens and a extra battery and a couple of small things. The bigger the bag, the more cumbersome and heavy.
- People look good smiling: "say cheese" is very cliche but smiling is still great especially when it's a genuine smile.
- Light first: Before the background, always check out the lighting - if it's harsh, etc. Don't mix harsh sun with shadow because you'll get some really dark areas and areas that are too bright, especially if there are bits of sun in people's faces. Just be in all shade or all sun.
- Don't be self conscious about your equipment: I've had big lenses on my camera, I've had small cheapy lenses on my camera. Heck, I could've been shooting with a shoebox with a hole cut out, no one ever asked me about it. They're only interested in the pictures.
- Tripods are a pain: I've tried it once when I was shooting in Dana Point and it was the most cumbersome, slow, and ineffective device for shooting people. Instead, use high ISO and fast lenses.
- Lens caps and camera straps are a pain: I can't count how many times I've tried to take a picture with the cap still on. The straps seem to always be in the way but if you must, neoprene ones make things seem lighter.
- Use flash sparingly: It's a pain to get the lighting just right and it makes people look not so good. I always prefer natural lighting.

- Prime lenses rule them all: You can't zoom but the pictures are incredible when used right.
- Stuff looks awesome printed: Don't forget to print your pictures and blow them up. Even pictures that look a little blurry and grainy come out great in print.
- Ditch the inkjet: Go to Target, order your prints at a kiosk, walk around for 15 minutes and pick up your photos. Buying ink is a ripoff and it doesn't look as nice.
- Photography equipment is expensive: Duh.
- Learn from others: Choose some pictures you really like and mimic them to learn how they were shot. Then apply those techniques to your own style of shooting. Or just ask around or use Google.
- Get up close: Don't be shy, get up close. Get on your knees...get on your stomach. Try new angles. Stuff like this makes it more interesting.

Almost everyone I know either has a Nikon or Canon. It's quite divided - more on this later.

Before and After

Out of camera picture resized for the blog.


Picture processed with Photoshop - brighten, sharpened, contrast.

The trick to using Photoshop or any other type of photo processing program is simply starting with a good photo. I don't mean good looking photo, but good in terms of lighting, focus, color balance etc. A great smile doesn't hurt either. This way, all you have to do is tweak it a little bit. The key is a little bit, you definitely don't want to go overboard and make it look unnatural and weird (unless that's the style you're going for). If you do it right, it's like those Claritin D commercials where the cloudy film is lifted off revealing a vibrant picture. It's actually pretty fun, but you have to have a good photo to begin with. If you want to do it the simple way, use Photoshop Lightroom with the presets and just turn it down a little bit. Here's a picture of Sienna and you can see the differences are subtle, which means that the picture was taken with proper exposure.

A more dramatic example can be found HERE (which is what I have as my desktop background, that's how much I like it).

Colorful!

I haven't posted any pictures for a while so I thought I'd look in my archives and find something interesting to share. Here are some colors and patters from my Atlanta visit to the World of Coke. The good news is I'll have some pictures soon of little miss sassy, AKA Sienna this Thursday.

It's weird to see wedding planning ramping up because my blog has been hit with a lot of inquiries about the Huntington Beach Hyatt, which I did a post for my friend Howard's wedding. Here's my advice for selecting a photographer:

- The Ultimate Photography Litmus Test

1. Women are the most critical of pictures of themselves. Evidence: they tend to look at group photos and focus in on themselves first and determine whether they like a pic on how they look. Usually, it's ewww I hate this picture.

2. If a photographer can get a woman/girl to truly like a picture of themselves, then he/she is a good photographer. Evidence: They not only like their picture but show it off. It's cheesy but posting on a social network such as facebook is a for sure sign.

This sounds silly but it's harder than you think. Try it out and see ;)

Balboa Boat Parade

No, I did this on purpose.



These are pictures from the Christmas Boat Parade at Balboa peninsula Island. Suprisingly, the houses were more decked out than the boats. Some went a little TOO far with the decorations. One of them even had a big snowman made out of real snow - rich people are pretty outrageous sometimes. The last picture was taken by putting the camera on manual focus to get those light spheres. Cool huh?

I found this helpful VIDEO on taking pictures of holiday lights, even with small cameras. My advice is just to do a trial-and-error and don't just trust the LCD screen without zooming in. Because it's such a small screen, things appear sharp even when they're slightly out of focus. I personally prefer higher ISO and faster lenses to cumbersome tripods. You can clean up the noise easily and modern DSLR cameras look great even at high ISOs. Have fun.

Update: Some INCREDIBLE award-winning nature photos HERE. (A must see)

Old and Busted

Cool effect huh? It's a sepia/blue split-tone.

I've been pretty swamped lately so this blog has been a little neglected but I should be posting more pictures of actual people soon. In the meantime, check out this cool rustic wagon wheel picture I took at Craig's house from last time. I try to get some shots of cool things when I'm out taking pictures.

How to take a good picture? I really don't know but here are things that catch my eye besides good looking people:

- Good Lighting: soft natural lighting, like golden sunset time or just cool shadows and shapes.

- Vivid colors: When I see some bright vibrant color, that always gets my attention. Like buildings painting a certain color (see Jazmine's photo shoot in the archives) or flower beds etc.

- Busted up crap: Like this wagon wheel, rusty beat up stuff etc.
- Cool patterns: A row of arches or shapes and patterns are always cool to place someone in front of.

Those are just some things that catch my attention. The great thing is there are no rules. Personally I don't like to shoot too many cliche shots like sunsets. Anyway, more soon hopefully.

More pics from Lilia

Now that Lilia has seen all her pics I thought I'd share a few more. These were taken a couple weeks ago in San Diego (scroll down for earlier pics). This weekend I'll be heading back to SD but this time for her aspiring model sister and hopefully this time my pal Jeff will be able to make it for some pointers. Afterwards, I'm hanging out with Bryana that evening in happenin Downtown. Stay tuned...

Speaking of pointers, from my experience it's not good to carry a ton of camera equipment around. Carrying around 20 lbs of gear just gets in the way and gets your tired quickly. Just pick a couple of lenses for the occasion and go with it. What I did was after Lilia's shoot last time I broke down and bought a man purse or "murse" that I carry around to put a lens and an extra battery, memory cards etc. when I shoot. It has come in super handy and allows me to quickly change lenses without putting them on the ground or handing it someone to hold it which slows down the flow of things. Anyway, it's so great that I might just end up carrying it around even when I'm not shooting....maybe.

More Jaz

I love the yellow background. This house was painted bright yellow there and the painter was cool enough to let us go inside the gate and take a few snaps.

Here are some more pictures of Jazmine. I seriously can't wait for her big 1-5. She's got over 100 guests, which is considered "small." Can you believe that? They know how to party! I'll be running around for sure that day.

We made due with the harsh lighting by taking lot of pictures in the shade - big photo tip there used by many pros. Speaking of which, we saw a pro photographer there with the same idea shooting a couple using a big ol flash. Personally, I don't like using flash at all and only do so sparingly and only when necessary. A lot of people suggest using fill flash so you don't blow out the background while keeping the person lit. Me, I don't really care for the background too much. But this was some seriously harsh lighting to take pictures in but I think we pulled it off nicely. What do you think? Note: I usually don't show these many pics to keep things a surprise but I couldn't help myself!