Tag Archive for 'weddings'

Spotlight interview with Danny Iskandar

Published
by
Tommy
on December 26, 2008
in Spotlight Interviews, advice on photography and weddings
. 2 Comments
The amazing photography of Danny Iskandar

The amazing photography of Danny Iskandar

Today we are interviewing Danny Iskandar from Fishers, IN. He is an internationally recognized wedding photojournalist. His work is amazing and awe-inspiring. What I noticed most about his wedding work and possibly even more from his engagement work is just how natural his subjects look. It is so real and so emotional and yet they seem almost perfectly orchestrated.

I was moved by his dramatic website intro which almost seemed like a movie trailer. It showcased some of his best work and made you feel like you were watching a dramatic scene in a romantic movie. The music was perfect and complimented his extreme talent. Today we will discuss briefly Danny’s work and his love for capturing couples on their big day. So without further delay, here we go!

P.O.T.P.: Danny, first of all, thank you so much for agreeing to join us here at Pieces of the Picture. Let’s get started. Your work is amazing and you are a master at what you do. How long have you been in the business?

Danny: Three years

P.O.T.P.: That’s incredible. So what would you say sets you apart from other portrait photographers in your area?

Danny: I do weddings.

P.O.T.P.: So, how did you get your start?

Danny: I did it for a friend for free.

P.O.T.P.: Why are you a photographer?

Danny: It’s my passion since I was a kid.

P.O.T.P.: What did you do before you became a photographer?

Danny: I was an engineer.

P.O.T.P.: What is your favorite subject to photograph?

Danny: I am a wedding photojournalist, so it’s the people.

Capturing people being "real" in photojournalism with this level of creativity takes intuition and much talent.

P.O.T.P.: Any tips for those considering getting into your line of work?

Danny: You need to have that passion first in your heart. The passion to capture moments, in my line of work. If you don’t have it then it will be difficult. If you have that passion, everything else will follow more easily.

Emotions run high at weddings. Great photojournlist will be able to do more than just document it. They will make you feel what their subjects feel.

P.O.T.P.: What gear do you use?

Danny: Nikon d3 and D300 with Nikkor lenses.

P.O.T.P.: A tip that has helped you that might help other photographers.

Danny: Be a second shooter or intern or whatever you want to call it to somebody whose work you admire. Even though he/she does not give any financial benefit. Consider this a free lesson or course.

P.O.T.P.: What is your biggest challenge in photographing people?

Danny: Make themselves comfortable to you, this is very important especially if you are a wedding photojournalist.

Capturing the life in people.

P.O.T.P.: What do you feel is your strongest area in photography?

Danny: You could judge for yourself, by visiting my website.

P.O.T.P.: Most interesting customer you’ve had to photograph?

Danny: A couple that could just naturally in front me without I am telling them what to do.

P.O.T.P.: What’s your secret to satisfied customers?

Danny: I am photographer, so it is obvious I have to deliver the goods. The images. Concentrate on the images and you will be fine.

P.O.T.P.: Do you find yourself directing subjects often?

Danny: Depends on the subject, as a rule of thumb I try to minimize directing my subjects unless I have to. I want my subjects to find their own moments.

P.O.T.P.: You’re on location, would you rather shoot urban scenery or nature?

Danny: I chase beautiful light more than anything else.

Beautiful light comes in all colors, levels of brightness and sometimes at the most unexpected times.

P.O.T.P.: That’s perfect! So, if you weren’t a photographer what would you be doing?

Danny: Still an engineer or open up a restaurant.

P.O.T.P.: Film or digital?

Danny: Digital, I don’t understand why people still want to shoot film.

P.O.T.P.: Actually, I agree, but I know that there are many out there who still insist on shooting film. Besides people, what area of photography interests you as well?

Danny: Landscape.

P.O.T.P.: What have you found to be an effective form of advertising and marketing

Danny: Word of mouth

P.O.T.P.: That really seems to be the case with many wedding photographers. What do you like most about photographing weddings?

Danny: Capturing people moments in probably one of the most milestone in their life. Finding locations/spot for creative portrait and turns that into beautiful images for my clients.

P.O.T.P.: Danny, from the images I have seen on your site, I know that your subjects must be thrilled with what they get from you! What is the best part of being in business for yourself?

Danny: I could still take care of my kids at home.

P.O.T.P.: That’s wonderful and I completely understand! Okay, so what is the hardest aspect of being in business for yourself?

Danny: Being alone most of the time, sometimes I miss those adult conversation that i used to have in my previous job.

P.O.T.P.: Where did you grow up?

Danny: Indonesia

P.O.T.P.: Did you take photography courses in high school or college?

Danny: Yes, for probably about six months in high school. College no.

P.O.T.P.: Besides weddings, do you photograph other subject matter for your business?

Danny: Engagement.

Unconventional composition and beautiful light are what makes Danny's work so special.

P.O.T.P.: Myspace or facebook?

Danny: Facebook

P.O.T.P.: Do you ever want to quit?

Danny: Not at the moment.

P.O.T.P.: In one word, define your style

Danny: Creative wedding photojournalism

P.O.T.P.: List the top 5 ways you believe that photographers should educate themselves in photography.

Danny: First thing the fundamental of photography (f stop, speed, iso, depth of field), second learn about lighting.  the third, fourth and fifth are the same as the first and second.

P.O.T.P.: Besides shoot, shoot, shoot, best advice to photographers just starting out .

Danny: You need to have an approach of how do you want to shoot, the proper camera setting, the proper lens, then think of how do you want to shoot/compose it in order to tell the story.

P.O.T.P.: If you could only bring a camera and one lens and one piece of foam core to photograph the wedding of your favorite television actor, would you take the job?

Danny: I don’t need the foam core, but yes I would do it.

P.O.T.P.: How do you generally direct subjects?

Danny: This is a simplistic way to say it: stand here, sit here, walk here or walk there, do this do that, etc.

Photography like this requires the ability to get your subjects to relax around you. Images like these speak high of the photographer's personality.

P.O.T.P.: Haha. You make that seem so simple! Do you have a studio?

Danny: No

P.O.T.P.: Most popular products you offer to your customers?

Danny: My images.

P.O.T.P.: That’s great! Best answer of the night! Do you work alone?

Danny: Yes

P.O.T.P.: Do you have lots of photographers contacting you trying to assist or work under you?

Danny: Sometimes, yes probably 5-6 times in a year.

Beautiful light can come anytime of the day or night.

P.O.T.P.: Okay Danny, I think we’ll wrap it up here. You have been wonderful to converse with and your answers show that you are very confident in what you do and your images just prove that so much more. I think what makes your work so special is your ability to use light in any form and compose images that are beautiful and original. It has been an honor to interview you and I appreciate you taking time out of your obviously busy schedule. I’m sure you’ll make many fans here!

To see more of Danny’s work, check out his website!

Thank you guys for continuing to support us with your visits. We have so many great photographers lined up to interview, we hope you will continue to stop by throughout the week, but especially on Fridays as that is the day we get a chance to sit down with great people photographers. Remember, if you have suggestions, let us know!

Stumble It!

Finding your passion in photography

Published
by
Tommy
on December 17, 2008
in advice on photography, babies and children
. 3 Comments
When you are passionate about the subjects that you photograph, it will show!

When you find your passion in photography, you become much more excited about photography than you already are!

How do you find your passion in photography? You ask many photographers and they say their passion is photography. However, if you ask those photographers what their passion beyond that is, many do no know or they can’t really put their finger on it. All that they know is that they want to be photographers. However, I would like to argue the fact that while it may be true that you could still have a passion for photography while not knowing what you want to photograph, you will be much more passionate about what you want to photograph once you figure out what it is you want to be passionate about in the area of photography. I used to think that I wanted to photograph everything from weddings to children, families to landscapes, seniors to commercial, greeting cards to labor and delivery, and everything else you could come up with. However, the problem with this is that when you don’t focus your efforts in one area or at least begin to narrow down your real interests, you never really become focused and an expert in your field.

I want to make one quick point however, I do suggest when you begin photographing people, trying all ages and groups and types to figure out what makes you happy and who you enjoy photographing the most. Try photographing kids and families and teenagers and pets… You get the point. Try it all until you begin to see what it is that you enjoy the most.

I worked for a portrait company for many years where my daily task was to photograph families of every age and size. A large portion of my subjects were the elderly. And while I felt that I was very good at photographing elderly people, I never felt passionate about it. However, when children would come into our studio, I felt happy and excited to take their portraits. I loved interacting with babies, children and teenagers. If they were under 18, I had a good time, for the most part. However, while I liked photographing teenagers, I realized that photographing children was my real passion. I love being silly and when dealing with children, you can be as silly as you want and they will appreciate it and laugh at you often. They, for me, are the greatest source of joy for me as a portrait photographer. And while I enjoyed my job as a portrait photographer, I realized that it was not the fact that I was a photographer that I loved so much, it was the interaction between myself and children. Photography is only the outlet that I use to interact between the child and myself.

If you are not passionate about the subjects you photograph, you may actually grow to become uninterested in photography.

If you are not passionate about the subjects you photograph, you may actually grow to become uninterested in photography.

I feel that if you want to find your passion in photography, it won’t come if your passion is cameras. If it is, consider working in a camera store. I feel that your passion will come, in portrait photography specifically, if you love people, genuinely love working with people. The real question is what people? Do you love brides on their wedding day? Do you love weddings and the fanfare? Then weddings may be your outlet. Do you love the attitude and mood of teenagers. Can you relate to them and enjoy being around them? Then senior portraiture may be just your thing. Do you love being around older people? Then perhaps specializing in senior citizens may be just the right type of photography for you. Do you love acting silly and playing with kids? If so, you might want to consider being a children’s photographer. When you figure out what you want you want to photograph, rather than just saying, “I want to be a photographer”, then you will find out what your passion is.

I spent many years just going through the motions, photographing families, older people and couples and the entire time I never realized that my passion was photographing children. I was good at all these groups but had not real passion for photographing them. However, now I spend my days photographing just the subjects that make me the happiest and that is children. I love it. There is no other group I want to photograph. Give me children everyday and I’ll be content. I would never want to go back to the old way of doing things. This is my passion. I wish I would have figured this out much sooner, but it’s okay, because I know it now. So, my suggestion to anyone trying to figure out what they want to do in photography is not attempt to be a generalist. Rather, try to figure out what it is that would make you excited to photograph every day. Is it animals, then photograph pets. Is is it kids? Then be a children’s photographer. You get the idea. Do what makes you happy. Do what makes you excited to get up everyday and photograph. It will make you a much happier and more fulfilled photographer.


When you find your passion in photography, you become much more excited about photography than you already are!

When you are passionate about the subjects that you photograph, it will show!

The emotional power of music

Published
by
Tommy
on October 2, 2008
in Thought For Thursday and advice on photography
. 1 Comment

 Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.- William Congreve

Don’t let the title fool you. Yes, this is photography related. In fact, it is very much photography related. My thought for today’s “Thought for Thursday” is this: Music is powerful and pictures are powerful. Use both to maximize the emotional power of your portraits.

I will give you a good example of what I mean. Look at this photograph. It is a photograph that was taken by the ultra talented Robert Mullins. It is a picture of a wedding dress just hanging there. It is processed beautifully. It is a powerful image alone. It certainly can stand on it’s own.

This image alone stands very strongly.

This image alone stands very strongly.

 

But what happens when music is added. I found this image on robert’s blog. And I did find some appeal to it. I found some uniqueness to it. But when I found the same exact image on his website accompanied by music, the effect was very different. I want you to watch the slideshow on his website: Robert’s Website. After a few seconds, you will see the image of the dress. Do you see how the music has affected the way you feel about the photograph. Perhaps it won’t affect all persons, but I believe that it wil for most.

What did you think? How did you feel? Don’t you think that the music enhances those images? Don’t you think that the right music sets the right mood? We all know music affects us emotionally.

And we know that images can have a very strong and emotional effect on us as well. Does it not then make sense that if we combine the two mediums that we will get a result in which our emotions are even more affected. I’d like to get your feedback on this subject matter.

Quick tip for easy variation on the same pose

Published
by
Tommy
on September 29, 2008
in advice on photography
. 1 Comment

My common way of photographing subjects, especially groups is straight on or slightly above their eye level. And unless there is a reason to, I normally never shoot up at them. There is times when shooting up at my subjects is appropriate and has an interesting look to it. Yet the norm is I almost always shoot straight at them. But recently, I have been trying something new. It’s been done for years but it is just something that I haven’t done very much before. So, it’s pretty simple actually. Let’s take a single of a girl for example. Just pose her leaning into something. For example, with her arm extended out leaning on a lower object than where she is sitting. It doesn’t have to be much lower; just six inches lower or so. Then, have her bring her head towards the lower shoulder, (the shoulder that is closer to the camera) and look towards the lens. Bring the camera up above the subject about a foot or so and have the subject look up towards the camera without wrinkling their forehead. This will cause different parts of their face to look different. For example, it will enlarge their forehead and make their chin smaller. But if they have a small forehead and large chin, this would make a good pose. If you shoot straight on and then switch camera position to this, you can have a totally different look with a minimal amount of work. Of course, this is just one quick example and many variations could be done on this concept alone.

Another idea would be with a single male. Head on would be fine, but try raising the camera about six inches to a foot above him while he leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees. He could either bring his hands to his chin or not. Either way would be fine, but just have him looking in an upward direction toward the camera. This is an interesting look that is a bit different from the typical head shot. It also stretches out the neck and hides any double chins that someone may want to hide. Actually anytime you do this pose with hand near the chin, that is just another way of hiding any unwanted double chins from showing. And a third way to make the neck even less visible is to use a light ratio that is high enough for the neck to be in the shadows. Just light in such a way that you do not illuminate the neck. This is called retractive lighting. I call it carving and sculpting with light. We are painters and sculptors and our medium is light.

The raise in the camera position is about one foot. It isn't much but if you look closely, you can see subtle differences that make these two photos distinctly different.

The raise in the camera position is about one foot. It isn't much but if you look closely, you can see subtle differances that make this photo distinctly different. A subtle change and you have different image.

With large groups, having a raised camera position is good for getting everyone’s faces in the shot. If you have a group of thirty for example and you try to capture all of them standing in rows next to each other, the likeliness is that you will get some people covering other people because they are standing behind someone who is almost as tall as they are. You may have seen examples of shooting large groups of people like this for school classes or high school reunions or maybe large companies that want photos of all of their employees. But you know when an amateur is photographing a large group because you will have people’s faces completely blocked by others that are standing in front of them. You may want to consider this technique next time you are photographing a large group.

One last to thing to keep in mind. The distance you are from your subjects makes a big difference. If you are photographing a single person and you are 12 inches above them but you are only three feet from them, those twelve inches will look very dramatic. Conversely, if you were 12 inches but were 30 feet away, it would appear that you were at eye level. You could even be three to four feet above their eye level yet you would still look like you were near eye level if you were 30 feet back.

Remember, the customer wants something different. The more options you give them the better. And the great thing is, you don’t have to reinvent everything, every time you snap an exposure. Sometimes, simply changing your camera’s perspective can make a dramatic change that the customer will love.

 

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”

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