Tag Archive for 'kansas'

It was a dark and stormy… um… Morning

Published
by
Tommy
on September 24, 2008
in advice on photography and customer service
. 1 Comment

I was thinking back to a engagement session I did with a couple earlier this year. It was probably in April. You know what they say about April. It brings spring showers. It indeed was dark and stormy and rainy and cold and very windy. We live in Kansas. The wind here is very strong year round. It was definitely not good weather for taking engagement portraits outdoors. And that is exactly what I envisioned for this couple. We were having our studio worked on and so we agreed with the couple to take their portraits outdoors. Even if we could shoot them outdoors under an awning or under a covering where we wouldn’t get wet, there was no light, or at least not enough light that would be sufficient to get a shutter speed that would give us sharp portraits. I could introduce flash but as you know flash normally does not look appealing when ambient light is low. Imagine using flash for outdoor portraits thirty minutes after dusk. You would not get appealing light.

Our session was scheduled for 8 am. We met in the designated location, a store parking lot, and they pulled up to me, rolled down their windows and we just seriously looked at each other with a bit of disappointment on their faces. We were both thinking the same thing. This weather is awful. It couldn’t be much worse than it was. They still assumed that we were going to go on with it, and I tried to explain that this sort of weather and light would not produce anything that they would actually want. The groom to be was pretty adamant about being photographed that day, so I suggested meeting back at the same location at nine am, an hour later and seeing how things were looking by then. The problem was the news forecasted a dark and dreary day, all day, leading into the next day. So I knew that there was not going to be any change. I didn’t want to use flash or a high ISO, so what was I going to do? We really needed to get them photographed that day, but I didn’t see how it was going to happen. So, when we met back up, he suggested that we shoot inside the state capital building. I thought to myself, “well, the light will not be good, but it is a pretty scene and we can probably get something half way usable. I really didn’t want to go that route, but he was certain that we needed to photograph that day and I didn’t want to upset him, so I decided, we need to make it work.

I think that is one characteristic of a professional photographer. Not that you will always have an answer to a problem. But that you will be able to figure out a solution to any roadblock that comes your way.

Anyway, I put a flash on the camera and bounced it off the side wall and reflector back into them . The light was adequate, but the fall off was very strong and not very appealing in my opinion. I tried shooting on a slightly higher ISO, but still the photos were not sharp and they were grainy. To me, I was frustrated though, I tried not to show it. I really didn’t want to put my name on those photos. I then noticed that while it was still rainy and cold, it was not quite as dark. The time was around 10:30 and there was complete cloud cover but the clouds were whitish gray as opposed to the dark gray that they were just hours earlier.

The bride to be suggested we go to the site of their reception and there were these beautiful old windows with very old looking drapes. And while there was complete cloud cover, the light was very soft, diffuse and strong. So, I decided to pose them near this beautiful large window and used a reflector behind them to fill in the shadows. The results were in my opinion just amazing. Much, much, much better than anything we had gotten to this point. We shot at this location, then we moved over to a very cool hotel down the street that has an amazing lobby and inside courtyard. We were able to get some very nice shots there as well. Again, the best shots were taken by window light. The light was strong enough to give us shutter speeds of 125th of a second and therefore were sharp enough to pass my standard of the quality I want to put out to my customers and for the world to see.

After about two and a half to three hours, we had about one hundred and fifty exposures, half of which were very usable and attractive in my opinion. When we finally showed them their photographs, they were very happy and impressed. I initially intended to photograph them outside, but they were so happy with their window light portraits, that I thought to myself, why should I complain. It was a potentially bleak situation that was resolved through some brainstorming and patience.

Though the intention was to get outdoor engagement portraits, with a little creativity, we were able to get portraits that the couple was very pleased with. That's part of being professional.

Though the intention was to get outdoor engagement portraits, with a little creativity, we were able to get portraits that the couple was very pleased with. That's part of being professional.

The interesting thing is it taught me that no matter what situation you are put in, it is crucial that we as professional photographers do our best to remain professional throughout the situation. I think that given the situation, they were even more impressed with the fact that even though we didn’t have nice light, or the weather was not good, we still managed to get photos that they will cherish forever.

It may have been a dark and stormy morning, but in the minds and hearts of my clients, it was a bright and sunny experience!

 

Ask the Petersons - Advice on Lens Flare

Published
by
Tommy
on September 10, 2008
in Ask The Petersons - Q&A, advice on photography, engagement and seniors
. 4 Comments

Recently we posted a blog post entitled “Ask The Petersons“. Our intention was to get you the reader to send us questions that you had that you wanted us to answer. We have gotten several great questions and we are excited to answer them for you. Here is a question from Steve about lens flare. He writes:

“Hi Tommy and Holly, thanks for all the great info on your blog here. That interview with the Enchanted folks was very informative and inspiring!

Do you have any advice on eliminating lens flare on location shots? The photo below is from the Enchanted Images website… what a beautiful portrait!

How do you shoot into the sun without ruining the shot!?!

How do you shoot into the sun without ruining the shot!?!

But when I tried something similar, I wound up with 4 lovely little polygon thingies, one smack dab in the middle of my daughters face. The usually recommended lens hood might have helped me, but I wouldn’t think it would make any difference on this portrait. Any idea how they could have shot that much into the sun and not have ANY flare doo-dads?

Here’s one of the photos I had a problem with. For some reason, my daughter’s friend Brenna was not excited about the green circle on her forehead! It was taken with a not-bad but not-great lens, the Nikon 18-70 @51, on a D70.

An otherwise decent shot, the flare really detracts from this photo.

An otherwise decent shot, the flare really detracts from this photo.

Again, thanks for all you helpful info!”

Steve Cooper, California

Thanks Steve for the great question! I have put some thought into your question and decided that while we are not normally a “technical” blog, we are bound to run across technical problems and it’s things that every photographer has to deal with. So, while I thought of a great answer for you, I thought to myself, why not ask the author of this photo, James Hays, to answer the question for you. He was gracious enough to do just that! He responded:

“To quote Kelly McGillis in Top Gun…”The encounter was a victory, but we’ve shown it as an example of what not to do”. The camera lens is not really meant to do this, but with enough trial and error (lots of error) I can usually get it to look the way I want it.

Using sun as backlight and making it this visible is great. But you still have to remain in control of it!

Using sun as back light and making it this visible is great, but you still have to remain in control of it!

These were shot at 1.4 on a 35mm fixed lens and I am familiar with how this particular lens reacts to direct sun. The 85/1.2 behaves a little differently, so does the 70-200. This is why lots of trial and error is needed. When I’m wide open on the 35, the flare is very big, almost a wash and gives the images a ‘dreamy’ feel. It tends to wipe out the contrast but I usually adjust with a curves layer in post.

Shooting into the sun. Wreckles?! Maybe. Beautiful? DEFINITELY!

Shooting into the sun. Wreckless?! Maybe. Beautiful? DEFINITELY!

Now, some field tips. I am always looking for free flags and scrims. In this case, I had some trees, and when they weren’t available, I used the subjects themselves. I always try to position SOMETHING in between the sun and the lens, and then slightly move to let a little bit of the sun peek out. The viewfinder on the 5d is pretty good about letting me see what I’m going to get, even then it doesn’t always work out. You can see in the blog photos the sun is just out of frame. An inch higher, and it would have been a wash of white. The shot on the bench was with a telephoto, much easier to flag yourself with since you can be so far from the subjects. In this case, I was in the shade of the tree and they were in the sun.

As photographers, we must be masters of light. Using it as our tool at our disposal to do whatever we want! In this case, making beautiful portraits by backlighting and then bouncing light back into the subjects face. Brilliant!

As photographers, we must be masters of light. Using it as our tool at our disposal to do whatever we want! In this case, making beautiful portraits by back lighting and then bouncing light back into the subjects face. Brilliant!

The lower the sun the better, it is weaker then, and flares a bit less. As much as I love that time, it’s not always available so I have to improvise. The shot of the senior girl for example, the flare & sunlight were not really there, I added them later. Sure the sun was behind her which added a nice rim but it was very high…not the look I was after. Photoshop has a lens flare filter which is fun, but not quite as subtle as I like. For that image I used Light Factory (a snazzy lens flare plugin) to give it a little more glow.
Lens hoods help, but won’t remove the ‘doo-dads’ completely. The thing is, when you are shooting into the sun, strange things happen…welcome them!

Here is the senior shot before the added flare. Hope that helps!”

A beautiful portrait without the backlighting. But when backlighting is introduced, a transformation happens!

A beautiful portrait without the lens flare. Yes it's backlit but when lens flare is introduced, even if it's fake, a transformation happens!

James, Enchanted Images

Yes! That certainly does help! Wow, what an answer and thank you so much for giving such great advice James. I think it’s funny that for our very first “Ask The Petersons”, I had another photographer answer the question, but it’s all good! The question was great. The answer was great. I’m happy. We may not have answered it, but we did get the answer for you!

We will have plenty more questions and answers for you. If you have a question you’d like answered here, please email us or leave your question in the comments section at “Ask The Petersons”

A family of thirteen

Published
by
Tommy
on August 25, 2008
in Stories from the studio
. 2 Comments

A while back, a family of thirteen came into our studio to be photographed. The family consisted of a mother and father and eleven children. The children ranged in age from six months to sixteen years old. It was quite a sight to see so many kids, so close in age and to know that they came from the same mother and father. It was a joyful sight that not many get to see in this day and age. The children were for the most part well behaved. Something I have noticed with families that are large in size such as this, is that they normally are for the most part, very well behaved and orderly.

It is the families with one or two children that have kids that are completely out of control and wild. It is rarely the families with a half a dozen children to a full dozen that have this problem. I think that if parents had one, two or three children that were completely insane, it would be hard to see them with ten or twelve children that act the same way. They would probably protect themselves from letting themselves have any more children.

Anyway, I used to get nervous when I knew I was going to photograph large groups such as these realizing that normally in these circumstances I would have to photograph at least two to three very young children at the same time, rather than just one or none at all for that matter. In fact in this family there were five children that were six years old or younger. I began to pose the family in a nice configuration that I thought would make them look nice and organized and appealing. A nice large base of about five to six members of the family and slowly building a pyramid from there.

It only (the word ONLY is being used sarcastically) took twenty to thirty shots to get one to two decent shots. I say sarcastically because normally this can be obtained in eight to ten shots of groups that are smaller, let’s say in the size range of three to five. The main issue here was not their size, nor was it their discipline level, yet it was the large number of small young members that were not completely understanding of being on their absolute best behavior and cooperating to their best to get the shot most effectively and quickly. So getting them to cooperate was a challenge. I used all the tricks I had up my sleeve. The trick with a  group like this is being engaging and entertaining for the two year old toddler and also being funny enough for the cool sixteen year old brother to smile and of course everyone in between.

Have ever seen the movie “Cheaper by the dozen” with Steve Martin? Imagine trying to get all those to smile and look happy at the same time and get the best expressions. It would obviously be a challenge. The likeliness that they would be on top of their game and have the attitude to do a good job and try to look happy would not be likely, so as a portrait photographer there is the need of being a comedian too. In fact, I get asked often if I am a stand up comic as well. I usually reply by doing a back flip, landing in a split and waving my spirit fingers excitedly in the air as I, in shortness of breath, answer “Huh?” .

Anyway, getting back to the subject, I finally decided that we had gotten a few decent shots, but the very youngest children were getting distracted, irritated and not being cooperative anymore, so I decided to get a humorous image. I told everyone on the count of three to give me their funniest expression. I got everything ranging from tongue sticking out to eyes crossing, to the young 18 month old girl sitting in daddy’s lap trying to escape with a distressed look on her face. But by far the funniest expression was mom’s, who had a confused, stressed, quirky, half smile, half crying look on her face. It was real. It was funny. It was real funny. It reminded me of a cartoon where everything that could go wrong did and all that’s left is the main character looking at the camera with a lost and distorted look. It was a photo that made me laugh every time I looked at it. They did end up purchasing a copy of it, though it wasn’t the main photo they chose, but I think that I was the fact that it was a memorable photo and it made you remember that photo session vividly that was the reason it should have been taken and therefore it should have been purchased and displayed for all to see.

These moments are what make my job the real joy that it is and makes my job so enjoyable. I can only imagine what life is like at home for this beautiful and unique family of thirteen.

say cheese!

say cheese!

A very easy and inexpensive way to promote your business

Published
by
Tommy
on August 23, 2008
in Business Advice
. 6 Comments

If you actually take the time to read this entire article, it will pay off for you. Enjoy!

As photographers in business for ourselves, we are always looking for new and innovative ways to promote ourselves. Marketing and advertising is so expensive nowadays that there must be ways found to promote our businesses without breaking the bank. I found a way recently that was quite interesting as well as effective and very inexpensive.

We photographed a wedding recently. I offered to include, free of charge to the bride and groom, custom designed thank you cards. They were 4”x6” postcards. One side was glossy and the other side was matte. The front side which was glossy had a beautiful portrait from their images taken directly after the ceremony that I took in downtown Topeka, KS with the state capital building in the background.  It had the classic car they were driving around in behind them. It was the perfect shot for their postcard. The back of the card was matte and had a close up shot of them as they left the ceremony and were showered by lavender. It was in black and white and was blurred slightly and lightened so that it appeared more as a watermark rather than anything else. This made it more appropriate for writing a thank you note on. Rather than the typical old- fashioned thank you notes that are card stock in pearl white or off white, this was much more trendy and cool. One of the points that the bride and groom appreciated about this is the fact that they did not have to purchase any thank you cards and they wouldn’t have to mail them at full postage. They could instead pay only postcard postage which saved them almost twenty cents per piece. On the front side of the postcard I included my business name, phone number and website. So it worked as a business card and the best part is, they were paying the postage for mailing. It worked like a direct mailing. On top of that, the backside had a link to a blog where the recipient of the postcard could go and see a slide show of the wedding. They loved this idea, because it saved them money, gave everyone of their guests a photograph of their wedding and made their thank you cards something very memorable that most of their guests have never seen. In fact, I was told that they received many compliments and were very impressed by them. They made an impact on the guests and rather than just tossing them in the garbage as so many are eventually, these I guarantee will not make it in the the bin. They will go up on a shelf or in some memory book or even picture frame.

this is how the front of the postcard looked

Promotional material that makes an impression!

For the back, use a simple but strong image that makes an impact, but make it simple and light enough to be used as a postcard so they can be written on.

For the back, use a strong image that makes an impact, but make it simple and light enough to be used as a postcard so they can be written on. You may need to drop opacity down to 35-50%

I made five hundred copies through a on line printer called www.gotprint.com. They do all my printing for promotional materials. They do great work and I am always very pleased. I gave them about four hundred of the copies and I kept one hundred to give away like a business card and to keep as samples for future consultations of weddings. I will offer this for free and I think that it will help sale myself as a photographer. They don’t cost very much. Only pennies really, but they can have a profound effect in that while in the past not everyone has been able to see the wedding photos, now everyone who went to the wedding will be able to see at least two photos from the wedding and will know exactly who the photographer was. It is a very small price to pay to advertise myself. I doubt that they will not pay off. In fact, there has already been one contact made from them, that while it has not come to be a wedding for me yet, it has generated a lead. It was something that I sort of stumbled across by accident in thinking of new ways to promote my business. The couple was very excited about the idea and so was  I.  One thing they really loved about the idea is that it was completely free of charge to them. Everyone loves a freebie! It just makes you as a photography business look even more awesome.  Not every couple will go for this idea, but I have a feeling that most for now on will chose to help promote me. It should only help to enhance my business every time!

Just think about the fact that of all the three to five hundred thank you cards that are sent out, if only two weddings are booked from that, and then you did the same for those two weddings, with the same results of getting two more weddings, well you see how this could quickly multiply and  really  help promote your business in a very strong way. The same concept could be used in senior portraits to children’s portraits to family portraits to labor and delivery portraits. When people have awesome photos, they want the world to see. If it is an amazing photograph, they will tell the world. They will show everyone they know. And the cost to you will be very little, and if you truly look at the payoff, there is really no cost to you.

Another thing to consider is, this is one way to maximize on advertisement. When you send out direct mail to potential clients, no matter how specific the customer, no matter how much market research you have done, the mailing comes across as “marketing and advertising”. But when you make promo material such as a postcard for a customer, mailed from the customer, well then it comes across as “Hey cousin so and so or grandma, look at this great photo of our wedding or check out this cool senior photo of myself.” They are likely to brag about the photographer on the postcard and say how cool or awesome you were. So then not only is it direct mailing, but it goes over into the more powerful advertising world of the coveted “word of mouth” advertising. This sort of advertising you cannot pay for. It’s the best of two worlds. And on top of that, they are paying for it. Also, the customer is usually willing to do something like this because it’s the novelty of the idea that they will be on a piece of your advertising. In their minds, they are thinking, “How cool is this! I am on a postcard!! Woo hoo!!!”  You get the idea. This is worth trying out. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised as to how good this works out for your business.

Just think, if every time you photograph a wedding, three to five hundred of these “advertisements” or “thank you cards” get mailed out to people in your area, what kind of results you could see from this. It’s inevitable that the same people will get the these cards over and over, if they go to the same weddings you shoot. People getting your advertisements over and over and over and new people hearing about you for the first time constantly. What kind of effect do you think this will have on your business? I think it will be profound.

The key to advertising and being effective besides doing what works over and over is to always brainstorm new ideas and try them out. You never know what might happen. You might just hit a gold mine!

Photography Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory