Happy Birthday Kohl Mansion!

Photo #1: 1/250, F 11.0, ISO (equivalent) 100

This photo is Right Out of Camera, and has not been altered in any way, save the credit line layered into the lower right hand corner. It was taken at the Kohl Mansion in Burlingame during its year-long 100th Anniversary Celebration. Guests were invited to wear period correct clothing, as this couple did. The shot, made soon after my arrival, became my first-choice submission after I learned that the gentleman was the Vice President of the Burlingame Historical Society. The parasol, the blue skies, and wispy clouds made the photo. An explanation of the in-camera exposure tweaks will follow.

Posed or Directed? This photo was not posed, but instead directed. Before making the shot, I introduced myself and explained that I wanted to make a photo with the mansion in the background. Once they were in place, I adjusted my position until the edges of the parasol weren’t clipped. The photo was a keeper in a single take: I examined it with a Hoodman Hood Loupe, and found the image totally satisfactory. Even so, I continued to photograph for another hour, since you never know when a better image might come along. Having this shot in the can gave me a chance to relax and look for images that might prove more interesting. I did make some additional exposures, but I already felt I had taken the winner.

Automated Exposure Settings: Although I had an E-Z Box in the trunk of my car and my Zumbrella on a Monopod on my belt, I just went with on camera speedlight fill. For today, I set my D300 as follows: 

• Lens: 11-16 2.8 Tokina.

• Exposure Mode: I set it the camera to Shutter Priority at 1/250 of a second (the highest normal sync speed).
• Exposure Compensation: Exposure Compensation on the body was set to -1/3 of a stop, which helped to darken the sky and bring out the clouds.
• Aperture: Set by the camera. Depending on the background, the aperture ran from F11 to F8.
• ISO: The ISO on the D300 was set to L 1.0, which is 1 full stop below the minimum ISO 200 setting, giving me an effective ISO of 100. I have no idea why Nikon doesn’t just call it ISO 100.
• Speedlight: A Nikon SB-800 was shoe-mounted and was set to the standard TTL mode with an exposure compensation setting from -1 to -2 stops. I don't recall the exact compensation used for this photo, as it isn't included in the EXIF data as viewed via the File Info option in Elements. I can't say if the data could have been retrieved with other software.

Photo #3: Shutter Priority, 1/250, F9.0, ISO 100

Flash Exposure Variations: I made Photo #3 a little later in the day. It illustrates a slightly different lighting arrangement. Notice that the natural sunlight played a more important role in lighting the front plane of my subject's face. If I were to make the photo with a Flash Exposure Compensation setting of "0", the light would surely overexpose the right side of my subject's face. Here, the Flash EC must be set much lower. How much? This is probably a salt to taste adjustment. Too much light and you will the burn out the highlights. Too little and you risk losing detain in the shadow side of the face. I think I found the "Goldilocks" Zone: Not too hot, not too cold, but just right!

You can see from this enlarged section that the shadow side of the face was filled enough to bring out the detail, but the highlight side of the face is pleasingly rendered. There are some other graphic elements in the image. My heroine is placed close to the center of the frame, but not on it. The immediate background is the shadow side of the Mansion, which helps bring some separation for her face. Her protagonist at camera left helped to frame the image, and his gaze brought the viewer's attention to my main subject. This wasn't as compelling (or attractive) an image as my first choice, but served as a good example of the fluid approach to exposure that digital cameras allow. By chimping after the first shot, you can make some quick adjustments based on what the results. Of course, familiarity with your exposure options will make it easier (and faster) to achieve the "just right" image.

While I have been a strong proponent of iTTL flash metering, this is the first time I combined automated flash exposure with automated ambient exposure. I can accept this abdication of exposure responsibility by remembering that I still have control over my highlights and shadows. Shadows can be controlled by using the flash exposure compensation, the highlights controlled by exposure compensation on the body. By starting off underexposed on both controls, I can get satisfactory results (usually) on the first shot, and with some minor adjustments, a much improved second one.

Life just got better.

Advice From Davids Hobby and Ziser

http://prometheus.med.utah.edu

David Hobby (left), aka The Strobist, writes my favorite photo blog. He uses flash. I use flash. He uses Nikons. I use Nikons. His blog was named by Time Magazine as one of the 25 Best Blogs of 2010. Two out of three isn't bad.

I have extracted some text from a (relatively) recent post on a subject he is imminently qualified to speak about:  Finding Oneself  As A Photographer. This excerpt comes from this posting.

"...It's not enough to just be a photographer. Maybe it was once, when cameras were scarce and expensive and conjuring prints in a darkroom was literally a dark art. Now, technically speaking, everybody (my emphasis) is a photographer. Their camera, video camera, darkroom and world-wide transmission/syndication department is right there in their front pocket. It is as if anyone could go down to the Apple store and buy another language for $99 with a two-year contract..."

Mr. Hobby's comments speak to the new reality: Nearly all of the mystery of the photographic process has been eliminated. Mastery of the physics and alchemy once so integral to the photographic process has been rendered irrelevant by automation and clever engineering. All this, and it's hidden inside your phone.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com

David Ziser (right) is a well-known wedding and portrait photographer, the author of Captured By The Light , and a highly sought-after lecturer and presenter. I have attended several of his seminars for wedding photographers, and am amazed by how much solid material he presents during his fast paced, one-evening presentations. He is also a gentleman of the first order, a kind man, and one who readily shares his sales and marketing experience with his students.

He makes an important marketing point during his client presentations, as summarized from this exerpt from his book: 

"...Why do we want to differentiate ourselves from the competition? The main reason is this: if I am just one of many photographers out there shooting weddings, then the primary reason my clients select me as their wedding photographer is price. But, if I differentiate myself from the competition in both style and technique, my clients will seek me out for those differences - price is no longer the primary consideration in that decision-making process. The bottom line is that you can charge a whole lot more for "differences" than you can for "sameness..."

Anyone who has considered photography as an occupation needs to keep these two truisms in mind. As a nod to Mr. Hobby, it isn't enough to show up at a wedding with a digital single lens reflex, once considered the penultimate in performance and cost. Today, if you attend any social event, you'll see many guests carrying them. In some cases they will be more expensive than the camera in your own hands. As a result, all those Nikon totin' guests start feeling like they are now playing in your sandbox, and they might begin to question what makes your images so special, since they often believe that your camera and theirs cameras are essentially the same.

Mr. Ziser's message is a little more nuanced. For the wedding photographer (actually every photographer), the task at hand is documenting every stage of an event unfolding. Anyone can stand in front of the happy couple and press the shutter the moment the knife hits the cake. But is it the right moment? Is it properly focused? Were the exposure settings appropriate for the conditions? If the answer to these three questions was "Yes", you've made it to third base. But to make the Home Run, you'll need to bring something to your photograph that will set it apart from the millions of photos that were made before, and the millions more that will be made in the future. It is that extra something, your own "secret sauce", that you must use to raise the photo from ordinary to exceptional.

© J. Quinn Miller

This photo composite, made by J. Quinn Miller in Baton Rouge, LA., may well have created the high water mark for creative wedding photography. Now you can't tell me that there are brides (and grooms!) everywhere who would pay any price to have this image in their wedding album. It has already inspired a number of copycat images. Didn’t know it was a composite? Get real!

In short, the proper equipment is just the start. Knowing how to provide over-the-top customer service is absolutely essential if a photographer wants to be competitive.