LIFELINE

• Uncategorized

by Steve

It’s time to let everybody take a peek behind the curtain.  Today I’ll be talking about retouching and sharing my views about how it relates to wedding photography.

I one had this bride who was getting her makeup placed  on her face and I stared deeply at her face and it was PERFECT.  I couldn’t find a single flaw.  And then I got her images of the close up of her face and hidden acne, dead pores, crow’s feet and other issues.   The problem is in a nutshell digital camera lenses are too sharp for their own good, and they are unforgiving.   One of my recent brides was in her mid 30’s and liked to spend time out in the sun.   She had a nice makeup artist but in her images she ran the risk of looking older than her age.    I know how women are, if they have an album that has unflattering images of them in it, they won’t show it around.    it will go in the closet under the board games.  But if they look good chances are that she’ll show it around.  In her particular case he skin hue made her a bit hard to work on.  I fixed the image, and then I fixed them again and the effects were still noticeable.   It took a while but once I figured out how to work on one of her images I was able to fix them all.    She wrote me back when she go the album and said I LOVE IT!!!!!

My philosophy on retouching goes like this “I want people to look like themselves, only better.”  What I mean is that if people look at your images and think “Oh, that’s not what you looked like, you’ve been Photoshoped” then your wedding day story looses credibility.  So, I am very careful to not overdo a retouch to the point that it’s obvious. My job is to enhance reality, not redecorate it!

Today’s model is the lovely Erin.  Of course he beauty secret is having highly attractive parents giving her a wonderful genes.  That’s 90% of it.  Make up and other beauty secrets can only do so much, genetics help a lot.  But hey, even my stunning brides need a little help.

The first thing I can tell you about this image is that it was no accident.  After she was done getting dressed I picked out a spot where I knew the lighting was exceptional and I asked her to go to this location.   I like doing the close-ups  of the bride as soon as she gets dressed because I know that’s when her look will be the freshest .  A lot of photographers would have chosen to blast her with on camera flash to get the shot and  it wouldn’t be compelling, just flat boring lighting ,  Erin was this super thin, tiny gal who had lovely blue eyes and a cool swirl to her blond hair.  I wanted the lighting to be perfect so that it gave dimensionality to her face and called attention to her eyes. The diagonal  tilt of her head  gave what is called :”The feminine pose.”    The flowers in front of her and in her hair were her prop.  The yellow in the flowers highlighted her blond hair.  This actually all flowed together very nicely.   From the way I describe it you may think that a lot of time went into this setup, and in reality it was around 20 seconds.

The image that came out of the camera is on the left.    Was I happy with it?  Yes, certainly. Could it be improved, most definitely.  The first thing is that the lighting was very soft and very directional.  As you can see on the image on the left she the lighting was exactly the same on the back of her head as it was on the flowers in front of her.  This is large, flat lighting which is excellent for portrait work.  It softens the skin and doesn’t throw any hard shadows.  But, I felt that her lovely blond hair called too much attention to itself and distracted us from her eyes and face.    The background was this taupe carpet.  All in all it was a low contrast image.  If I were to print this I would simply pump up the contrast a bit more before printing.  But I am showing you what came out of the camera.

When I was thinking of making this print the first thing that came to mind was that the background wasn’t all that important. I could let it go dark and use it to pump up the contrast of her blond hair.    The second thing was that I didn’t  feel that we needed to see that all her hair was as equally blond from front to back.  I wanted more lighting on the front of her face to call attention to her face

When it came to her skin well even with the semi flat lighting and low contrast I did notice some issues with her skin that would have made this an image she wouldn’t show in public.  I blame my ultra sharp lens.  Normally what I would do is paint off the highlights on her face and make her skin matte across the board.  But I liked the shine on her face, it gave her a healthy glow.   I wanted to give her skin a movie star quality to it.   And lastly  I wanted to give this image a little more power by pumping up her pretty blue eyes just  a tad.

The image was used for a trade show booth as a way to grab people’s attention.  You can see both extremes of the image.  For an album we may not go quiet as far with this image.  It really depends on the bride.  It would make a compelling image in the bridal album for some brides while others would want a more natural, toned down looking version of themselves about half way between both images.

This post has no tag

Leave comment

• Uncategorized

by Steve

Every industry has it’s gimmick.  With rock musicians it’s the line “Hey (insert name of  city) I hear you guys like to rock!”  For comedians its fart jokes, and for photographers it’s the black and white  image with spot color.  When it’s combined with another thing that can be a gimmick, the fisheye lens, it can lead to an image that would be better off not being shown in a gallery, oh but I love it!

Let’s discuss the fish eye lens first.  It’s a tool that can be over used and misused .  Since my late, great mom spent her life as a math teacher she will be glad to know that I am giving a small math lesson.   A circle is how many degrees?  That’s right, 360 degrees.    Half a circle is 180 degrees.  The fisheye lens

can see 180 degrees.  Your normal field of vision is 140 degrees so with a fisheye lens you can see stuff you normally can’t see.  Often when I use it I can see my shoes and I sometimes have to kindly ask people who are standing next to me to move behind me when taking a photo. They can’t believe I can see them and yes you can see a wider area in the camera than you can with your own eye.

The point of the fisheye lens is the distortion.  Things on the edges look smaller and pushed in and things in the center tend to look longer and thinner.  Dead center of the image  is a fairy safe bet because it has less distortion.   Like any other lens I own the fisheye is a tool, and there are right applications for it and wrong ones.

I believe the fisheye lens is one of the least understood lenses from photographers.  Ask any photographer who just got his first camera, it’s on their list of “must have” lenses.   So many impressive images have been made with it that the lens wreaks of creativity.  But used wrong it’s like nails on a chalkboard.

This is clearly from an engagement portrait session.  Many years ago when I shot film and went to a lab I saw one photographer who had these lovely pictures of a couple wearing blue jeans and white shirts sitting on a rock in Little Corona Del Mar at sunset.  Lovely and impressive.  The next week it was the exact same thing, a different couple barefoot, wearing the exact same clothing sitting on the exact same rock in Little Corona Del Mar.    Oh yeah,  I know how to do safe bet photography as well.  But I expect more out of myself.  I like to journey outside my  comfort zone to make images.   On this day we were in Long Beach going from downtown to the water. The stairs were a transition point from the bridge to the water and no it’s nor a lovely place to make engagement images.    But for some reason, to me it works.   First of all there are many geometric shapes in this image.  The lead in lines from the circular railing make the image fun.  The nearly cylinder looking elevator gives the image power.    The black and white tends to make the area look a bit more gritty while the couple pops out in color looking pristine.  No, I don’t expect that they will blow this up large and put it in their house, but for an image in their engagement book it will be compelling.

Today’s shout out!

Martha Hill  951-743-3881

Martha.bagpiper@gmail.com

Ask any Scottish man, everybody knows that the world’s best bagpiper’s are Latinas!  Bagpipers for rent are somewhat hard to find, but a Latina bagpiper, you have to admit the idea sounds cool?  Martha did a great jobs and was a really nice lady.   if you want to throw some curveballs in your wedding, give Martha a call.

This post has no tag

Leave comment

• Weddings

by Steve

I am the son

And the heir

Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar

I am the son and heir

Of nothing in particular

You shut your mouth

How can you say

I go about things the wrong way?

I am human and I need to be loved

Just like everybody else does

“How Soon Is Now?”    Morrissey, Marr ,   The Smiths

I have met some interesting brides in my day.   But none like Samantha, or Sam as I call her.  The “How soon is now?” lyrics from Morrissey call into mind people who are shy.  Then there are the chronically shy. Samantha is probably the most shy person I’ve ever met, and perhaps one of the most fascinating brides I’ve ever worked with.

I tried calling her on the phone when she first contacted me, but she didn’t  answer.  The truth is that unless she recognizes the number she won’t talk to anybody who calls.   Even now that I know her and met her face to face we have never spoken on the phone and no even if she knew I was calling she still wouldn’t talk to me on the phone.   Yet, I held full conversations with her face to face.

The day she got married there were four of us at the wedding.  The bride and groom, the minister and  me, the photographer.  After the ceremony there were three of us and we went out and did a photo session.   They got married on the shores of Catalina, and I was a witness to their wedding

So, being shy Sam doesn’t have a lot to say?    My gosh, this woman can write!  She has a very vivid and colorful personality   Intriguing and fascinating I didn’t know what to expect when I met her.  Beneath her two lovely blue eyes was this baby face.   There was something so sweet and innocent about her that makes you feel that you just want to protect her from the world.

“I am going to lay down over here” she announced and I simply said “Well, okay.”   There wasn’t much to the picture, but then again there was.  There was a level of trust that I work hard to establish with the women who come in and meet me face to face to interview me about doing there wedding photography.  They don’t want to be judged but they do want to be understood.   Sam didn’t have a normal wedding day and she didn’t want a photographic experience where I dictate and she complies.  She had ideas of her own and was willing to share them with me.   Her wedding photography was a partnership.  Most women wouldn’t dream of laying down in the field of flowers in their wedding dress.

This image wasn’t my idea.  I am not ashamed to say that.  This was all Sam’s idea.   Some of my most favorite images haven’t been my ideas.  I am not there to dictate the photo ops, I am there to facilitate the possibilities.   In a wedding day, opportunities happen, and either we can grab them or let them go by.  Sometimes one idea leads to another.   A client suggest something and I do it, and t hen suggest something else that is similar and see where it goes.

When I look at this image it screams so many different things to me.   Innocence, confidence, a little girl, and a full grown woman all staring back at me. The puffy cheeks scream “little girl” but the stare and the chest scream “Woman.”   Sam is not a woman to flaunt sexuality but she does hint at it.  After all, it was her wedding day and she needs to be loved  “just like everybody else does.”

This image has been in the gallery for over a year but I felt it was a good story.  Ah, stories, I love them!

Random Shout Out of the day!

At a recent bridal show Carlos Valadez (Yes, that’s how you spell his name)  from Amaze Production Entertainment came and Introduced himself to me. He’s a DJ and he looks familiar, I know I’ve worked with him before.  His website is www.amazedj.com 877-262-9335.    He was a very nice guy! Thanks for stopping by Carlos!

This post has no tag

Leave comment

• Uncategorized

by Steve

Its time to add new images to the gallery, and instead of adding them in bunches like I normally do I am going to give some insight to each image.  What made them special in my mind?

The bride, Hollyn was the younger sister of Chelsea, a bride from about five years ago.  As stunning and gorgeous as the family is, they are also super nice!   Hollyh had some ideas of her own when it came to her wedding.   She was just full of them, and her wedding rocked!    She had some ideas about where to take pictures but the sun wasn’t working for us at the location she had in mind.  I know it sounds strange to tell someone to go behind a barn when there was so much other good stuff to use.

But after using the other good stuff we went to where the sun was which was behind the barn.   I love the placement of the hands and arms.   Yes, the groom has his hands on her butt, people can we talk for a moment here?   I was there, this guy just swore off all other  women for eternity not even an hour earlier.  He can have his hand on her butt.  It’s fine with me.  The embrace was something that was strong, slightly sexual but also classy.   I love the height differences between them.  Call me old fashioned but I love it when the man is taller than the woman.  Their height was just about perfect for each other. He was able to get away with a  slight dip  which breaks up the rigidity  of his stance.  Hollyn of course sells the image in my opinion.  I love her hand on his face and her dip.  There were about 20 variations of this shot, but the smile of this shot is what sold me on this particular one.  The rest they were kissing.  The smile was so very real, she was totally happy and very into the moment.   The warm sun sells the romance angle and the back of the barn frames the shot nicely.    I love the backlighting on their hair and the out of focus foliage in the foreground adds depth.

I could have told a much different story about this image. Would you believe it if I told you that they  had snuck away from the crowd for a few minutes  and they were telling each other about how happy they both were and  what they had planned later on during the honeymoon.

I could have beaten them up a bit more to get a slightly more perfect picture out of them.  There would be a couple of things that could be changed in my mind to make it a more perfect image.   But, he would have stiffened up and her smile would have gone away.   The picture wouldn’t have been as wonderful if it wasn’t for her loving smile in conjunction with her warm embrace.    I’m after capturing love not prints to impress other photographers.   My parents celebrated 50 years of marriage and then my mom got sick right after anniversary party and died five weeks later.    There were no romantic images of them on their wedding day, but from what I can tell you about them they did love each other deeply.  I’m hoping these two are among the 5% of marriages that make it 50 years.   When I look at this image all I can say is “yes, I think they will.”

Other Stuff

I would like to give a shout out to my buddy Dan Douglass at Plug Video.  www.plugvideo.com .  I was talking to him the other day and he’s telling me that he’s getting a ton of phone calls from new clients who are looking into his services.   We are going to be working together on a great wedding this summer at Los Coyotes Country Club.  I can’t wait!

This post has no tag

Leave comment

• Uncategorized

by Steve

Chances are you have a soft spot in your heart for the brand “Kodak” though you haven’t purchased their film in quite some time if ever at all.  Many of your cherished memories were made possible to Kodak.   Your grade school pictures, your parents wedding photos  were printed on Kodak papers and likely captured with Kodak film.   Kodak is an American institution much like Levi’s Jeans and Schwinn bicycles.   But just like Schwinn their future may be reduced to  a brand name owned by another company.

The net problem Kodak faced was that they saw the digital revolution coming and they were actually ahead of the curve.   The problem was that they had a business model based on the fact that every time you depressed the shutter they made money.    They could have been the leaders in digital photography in a way that would have made them a prosperous company today.  Instead of biting the bullet an securing a less lucrative future they decided to milk their cash cow until it nearly died from dehydration.   They didn’t  scale back fast enough in their demise and they