Posts from the ‘Tips and Tricks’ Category

How To | By Nate…

It’s crazy to think that we just recently passed our 1 year anniversary. (Boom!) It seriously feels like it was just last month that we were exploring Europe and eating our body weight in gelato and pizza. We love looking back at the photos that our photographer took for us while we were there. They are priceless! Needless to say, we know what it’s like to have to decide on something so important, not only did we go through it ourselves, but we meet with people all the time making the same decision. And since we hear, “I don’t know what to ask or where to start.” all the time… We thought we’d try to help…

If you Google “how to choose a wedding photographer”, the majority of the pages that come back to you are either outdated guides, or pieces from planning books with huge lists of seemingly random questions. (Liability insurance, RAW files, megapixels, oh my!) I wanted to share some things that I’ve been mulling over recently. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section afterward too…

First, lets get on the same page and make a few assumptions about couples looking for their photographers:

1. Obviously budget is always factor. But money aside, what’s really important in the search?
2. No matter how cautious you are, there are always a few bad eggs out there that give everyone else a bad name. By taking the time to evaluate what you want in photography and by doing your homework, you can easily avoid any potential messes. Let’s assume that you are choosing between established and reputable professionals so all the standard (do you have liability insurance, do you have backup equipment, do you shoot RAW or JPEG) type questions can be thrown out the window for now.
3. Assuming there are many talented pros to pick from, who is the right choice for you? We’ll be the first to tell you that we’re not right for everyone. This is not a ploy or an attempt at false humility. We’re really just not. Our style is not a one-size-fits-all style and neither are our personalities. But we’re okay with that, and we don’t change it on purpose because we feel that by being true to ourselves, we are better artists and people. Your job is to find the photographer who is perfect for you.
And a few other statements before I proceed:

Fact: Picking out a wedding photographer can seem daunting. You should approach it as a couple (you both need to be confident and comfortable in your decision) and you should always explore several options before making a choice.
Quasi-fact: You get what you pay for. And you get back what you put in. Take the time to be confident in your choice.
Fact: Seahorses do not have a stomach or teeth, and process food so fast that they must constantly eat to live.
Opinion: Seahorses are neat.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way. These next few principles are the three things that I think are paramount when deciding on your photographer. Let’s call them The Four C’s.

Character
If you’re a bride, you have a right and responsibility to research your vendors. Some things will be apparent right off the bat. Do you like their work? Do they post a lot of weddings that are consistently good? Are they quick and courteous in their responses to you? Photography is a service provided on your wedding day, but you don’t see the product until weeks later. You put a lot of faith in your photographer to deliver what they say they will, based on the assumption that the work they deliver will be of the same quality as what they represented before hand. They need to have a solid character that you can trust and that you mesh well with. The best way to get to know us and our character is by looking through our blog here, hanging out with us on our Facebook page, and by flipping through our info magazine.

Consistency
“Even a blind squirrel finds a nut from time to time.” Anyone can buy a website template. Anyone can buy a “pretty fancy” camera. If you take enough pictures you’ll probably get enough randomly good ones to make a decent portfolio. Sadly, there are people out there doing photography that are not exactly qualified to do so. It’s your job to weed them out.  Look at websites, blogs, full sample weddings, and pay attention to the PHOTOGRAPHY, without focusing on the manner in which it is presented. A nice website or an impressive online persona is important to any photography business, but is should not be a mask to make mediocre pictures look prettier. And if you, as a client, would like to see a full wedding of ours, just send us an email and we’ll be happy to send you a link and password to an entire wedding on our proofing site.

Compatibility
This is what we really believe makes us different, what we believe makes us unique, and a part of our business that we take exceptional pride in. We take very seriously the fact that when wedding day comes around, we will spend more time with the bride and groom than they will with each other, with their families, their wedding party, and their guests. If you don’t feel a personal connection with your photographer during your consultations, run away. This is one of the reasons we encourage every single couple to do an engagement session before their wedding, and it’s one of the reasons our engagement sessions so often turn into wine and/or dinner dates. This is also why we like to meet or at least talk with our couples before sending them a contract. That way they can get a feel for our personalities and visa versa.

Cuality and Style
Normally pronounced “quality” (but I needed a fourth “C”) this is pretty self explanatory, but is often overlooked when all of the aforementioned prerequisites are met. Spend time with your future spouse looking at several photographers images, and talk about what you both like and want when it comes to style, price, and how your images are returned (do you want albums or large art pieces, prints or digital files). Ask your friends to see pictures from their weddings. Ask your photographer to define their style, and ask for more of a description than “traditional, modern, vintage, or photojournalistic” (currently the most popular buzzwords in our industry). Make sure their description is consistent with what you talked about and saw in their portfolio.

And lastly…

Once you’ve made your decision, give yourself the freedom to be proud of it and be confident in it. Nothing kills a photographer’s creativity like being micromanaged by a couple that doesn’t really trust that they’ll do a good job. You know what it feels like when you can tell that someone doesn’t truly trust you and it isn’t that great of a feeling. You chose the person you did for a reason. And, since you are brilliant, stylish, and completely on top of your wedding planning game, they are probably pretty darn fabulous.

Till next time,

Nate

Happy tax day! (Except it’s not really happy at all, especially not for us small business owners because today I have to write a check to the government bigger than I’ve ever written a check before and then I have to trek down to the post office and wish and hope and pray for short lines and I know it’s mostly my fault for waiting till the last minute but I can’t help it because my accountant just sent me the form I need the other day and I accidentally dismantled our office before realizing I’d be needing to print something but the office-turned-guest room looks amazing and Nate’s happy because I set up his drum set in there, or at least tried to but I put the bass drum in backwards, and now I need to call Guinness to see if I can apply for the award of longest run on sentence ever. Amen.)

Since most of you don’t have tons of extra time today, I’ll try to keep this short (but long enough to be a happy distraction, or procrastination, let’s just be honest here). When we sent out our spring blog survey a bit ago one of the overwhelming requests was that we post more before and afters. I’m hoping that’s because you like the way we edit and not because you’re wondering if we take horrible images and somehow with photoshop wizardry make them look good. I’ll keep hoping for the former either way.

Let me first begin this with a disclaimer: We are not claiming to be experts on editing. This is just what we do and what works for us so take it all with a grain of salt. Every photographer has a different style, a different mentality, and a different workflow with editing and all we are trying to do is show you ours in case it helps you with yours or inspires you in a new way. (Or in case you aren’t a photographer but just like to see the difference between before and afters. That’s okay too.) And of course we’d love to hear your thoughts or your favorite tricks as well so feel free to share in the comments section.

Image 1: Bridesmaids

This images was shot by me (Becka) durning the getting ready time. The room had a strange mix of natural and tungsten lighting (that’s like table lamp lightbulbs for you non-light-temperature-fluent friends). The image just needed a few simple tweaks and it was completely done in Adobe Lightroom. (We try and do as much as we can in Lightroom to help save time and only pull in our favorite images or ones that need a bit more TLC into Photoshop) Here’s what I did: Import> TRA Preset Golden Age > Exposure +.25 > Orange shift -6

Image 2: Groomsmen

This image was shot by Nate before the ceremony. It was taken outside on a sunny day in April. It was great, except a tad dark. So all we needed to do was basic adjustments, no tonings. Here’s what I did: TRA Preset Auto Tone > Temp +633 (warmed it up) > Highlight recovery +16

Image 3: Bridal Portrait

This image was taken by me in a room with all kinds of crazy lighting happening. I snapped it fast while the bride was looking away. I loved the shape her neck and shoulders made and the fact that her hair was being shown off. But, since I snapped it fast I didn’t have time to do much else other than snap the shutter. This photo needs more help than Lightroom can handle so this one had to be pulled into Photoshop. Here’s what I did: Import into Lightroom > White Balance: Custom (using the dropper to match from her dress) > Temp to 3.7K (to warm it up more) > Exposure +.25 > Highlight Recovery +16 >  Post-crop vignette -21 > TRA Brightside Lite > export import to PS3 > Use the Stamp to clone out the chair, finished with a custom action of mine that adds just a bit of golden light and definition.

Lastly, I wanted to address something about the last photo. The bride has a tiny scar on her back right shoulder and no I did not remove it. It is my personal belief if it is permanent, I leave it. If it’s a scratch, scab, pimple, booger (are you grossed out yet?), etc… I’ll take it out. But things that are part of a person like a scar or a mole or freckles… those things stay. Those things make them beautiful and unique. There is an ethics issue at play here and while other people may disagree and think that you should Photoshop the hell out of people to make them look perfect (READ: plastic) I disagree. (Again, this is just my opinion.) To go even a step higher on this soapbox, I only Liquify things that aren’t normally there on my clients. For example, I don’t just arbitrarily Liquify my clients to look 15 pounds lighter, or to make a certain body part look smaller. But, if my client moves in a way that makes a certain part look bigger or different than it actually is in real life (like an arm being smooshed against a body, or a dress causing a bit of a bulge in a tight spot) I’ll fix that. Because that’s not what they normally look like, that’s just an unflattering pose. Does that make sense? I think it’s insulting for me to go in and photoshop them into being someone completely different. If I need to do that to make my photo look better, than I didn’t do a very good job taking it in the first place. *end scene*

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Discloser: We are part of an associates program with Get Totally Rad through which we earn a percentage based on purchases made after clicking through one of the links we post. We believe in the product and use it ourselves. So… it’s good for you, it’s good for Totally Rad, and it’s good for us. Triple win.

The Ferrari 360 Modena is one of my all-time favorite cars.  Ferrari craftsmanship is some of the finest built in the world, they make beautiful cars that perform as well as any on the market, and range from $175,000 to close to a million bucks. For about $80,000, however, you can get a Nissan Skyline.  It’s not only a gorgeous car, but actually FASTER than the Ferrari, and is in EVERY way truly state of the art.  On-board computers monitor the car’s telemetry, g-forces, gas mileage, horse power, tire pressure, and hundreds of other measurements in real-time, and display them right on your dash, and the traction-control system is the most advanced in the world.

I wanted to begin with this analogy, as both cars kept popping into my head when comparing the 5DmkII and the 7D.  the 7D is more advanced, incredibly fast, smarter and loaded with gizmos, but sometimes feels like something is missing at its core, but for 2/3′s the price, it’s certainly an appealing option.

I’ll keep the rest brief and let the pictures do the talking today. Let me preface this by saying that I love my camera, but it’s common knowledge that the 5dMkII has superior image quality.  The real reason for this comparison is because so many people have been asking me how big of a difference there really is, how usable is the 7D at High ISO, and if it’s worth the money.

The following images are all simply one shot, and although I took some more, they were not good comparisons (my focus may or may not have been soft…ooops).  The images below were shot at ISO 3200 at f/1.8, 1/80 of a second. The images taken with the 5DmkII were shot with a 50mm f/1.2 and the 7D images were shot with a 35mm f/1.4. I chose these lenses to compensate for the crop factor, although because they are different f-stops away from the maximum aperture, sharpness may not be to scale (the 50mm is probably sharpest at ~1.6, whereas the 35mm is probably sharpest a ~2.0).

Special thanks to my good friend X:144 for being my model/guinea pig.  He’s one of the most talented people I know, so go check him out @ www.x144.com.

Conclusions:

Noise – the 5DmkII is clearly better at high ISO, but that really is like saying that Scarlett Johannsen is hotter than Jessica Alba.  While it may be true, I wouldn’t put a bag over Jessica’s head when we go out for my birthday dinner tomorrow.  Even at 3200 ISO, the 7D is still perfectly usable

Detail – Under low light conditions, like these, the 5D clearly excels.  Under normal light, however, I’ve found my images to be about as sharp as Becka’s, although she generally shoots with the 50mm f/1.2 and I usually shoot with the 35mm f/1.4, both known for being incredibly sharp but hers usually wins in lab tests.

Color – Becka describes my color as sometimes “a little wonky”.  The images sometimes have a bit of a green tint, especially in low light, while her skin tones are usually more accurate. But blue skies and green grass seem to pop more, probably too much more, on my camera.

Bokeh – The images from the 5dMKII have a much better background blur, some of that is obviously from the 50mm f/1.2 which is know for the amazing bokeh, but it’s largely in part to the larger sensor of the 5D.  For as much as I really want to understand why sensor size effects bokeh, I really don’t, at least not well enough to explain it.

Fun – The 7D is simply more fun to me.  The controls are smarter, the AF system is faster and more accurate, also giving you more options for select AF points, and the 8 frames per second is just amazing. if you need more, please see my review on the 7D

So….. for about a $1000 price difference, you really need to figure out what is most important to you.  Becka prefers the 5D for her style of shooting. I prefer the 7D. To be honest, they go together like peas and carrots, cheese and chips, and Becka and me (sorry Ms. Alba).  They complement each other perfectly, but if buying both of them isn’t in the cards for you, you’re going to have to decide if you want the fun and speed of the Skyline or the pure quality and reputation of the Ferrari.

If you’d like to see the high res versions for a more up close and personal comparison you can download the files at this link and compare for yourself. We hope this helps!

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