Halloween Portrait Sessions, Fort Worth, Tx

Halloween specials starting today.
1 Hour session for $40 up to 4 people. ($5 per extra person)
1 CD with high quality images for printing up to 5x7s and low resolution images for posting to your favorite social networking site.
Choice between 2 5x7s or 1 8x10
Printed in house with Canon Professional Glossy photo paper using Canon Ink for highest quality prints.
Prints mounted on 1/4 foam board ready to hang.

On Our Own: How I Shot That

This is a quick run through with the process used for making the series "On Our Own."


 The children were shot inside a studio with a simple two light setup. A medium softbox was setup to the camera right with a grid attached to the front. The light was at a 30 degree angle to the camera. The grid ensured that the light did not spill into the lens but directed at the subjects. It was placed slightly behind the subjects and set 1 stop over the key light to create a dramatic rim light. The key light was set forward of them and directly opposite the rim light. A large softbox was placed over the light to create a soft fill to the subjects. The camera was kept on a tripod for each shot, but I changed the angle and height to create a different look for each shot. After I got a shot I liked, I wrote down the information on placement of the camera (tripod height, angle, focal length). The aperture, shutterspeed, and ISO were kept the same.

The next step was to find the location I was going to fill the background in with. Once I decided on the location I would set up the camera using the information I wrote down back in the studio. I used available light only and shot in areas where there was not any discernible direction of light.

After getting the shots I wanted, I combined the image together using Topaz Remask and Photoshop CS6.

I saved back into Lightroom 4 and edited them some more.

For the final touches I used Color Efex Pro 4. The filters used were detail extractor, glamour glow, and cross processing.

The Brenizer Method

This is a new technique that I just learned about. I have never heard of it before and apparently Ryan Brenizer is the originator of this method.

The idea is to take a wide angle image (one that covers are large area of a scene) but retain a shallow depth of field (the main subject is in sharp focus while the foreground and background are out of focus). If you have ever shot with a wide angle lens, than you know that even at their widest aperture, the overall image is rather sharp  from foreground to background. Ryan Brenizer created this method to overcome that issue.

Here is how I shot my first Brenizer image. I used my 50mm f/1.8 lens. Everything was set to manual (shutterspeed, aperture, ISO, WB, focus). I then "scanned" the scene firing off about 30-40 images. It is essentially a panorama. After stitching the images together using PTgui, I re-imported into Lightroom and finished the editing process. I suggest you check out Ryan's work, as he is the originator and the master of the technique.

On Our Own

Well, here is the completed collection of photos for my biggest and most complicated series so far. This shoot drained me physically, emotionally, and artistically. I would like to do a series like this again some time in the future. I have learned a lot from this series and if that is all that comes from it, than all the better. 

Fort Worth on Film 2

Back to the ol' 35mm camera. This time I shot the highly acclaimed Kodak Ektar 100 color film. I have read a lot of good things about this film and was expecting a lot. It did not disappoint. The images are sharp and colorful. The grain is very nice up close and from a distance the images appear sharp. I was also surprised to see how much information the negatives retained. I was able to pull a lot of the skies back down from overexposed.

My only regret so far, is that I could not have picked a worse day to shoot architecture. The sky was either completely overcast and therefore bland, or it was perfectly clear which did nothing to help the images. I did have a few that came back with some nice clouds and I was able to pull them in to proper light using Lightroom 4's new highlight/shadow algorithms. This thing does amazing stuff with images.

I will return to shooting film again in the future; however, it is quite expensive so I must take a break every now and then. Maybe I will try the 4x5 Toyoview next time.

The Traditional Wedding Photographer

Photo by Busath Photography

Photo by Mario Testino

I just read this article by wedding stylist Lauren Johnson. It covered something that I have been thinking a lot about. The gist of the article is that pro wedding photographers are moving back to using traditional style portraits. This trend was brought to the fore front when Mario Testino released the wedding portraits from Prince William and Kate Middleton. The images were not shot in a rustic urban setting, they did not have the vintage film look, and they were posed very conservatively.

Article by Lauren Johnson

This look goes back to my style of wedding portraits. I like to shoot traditional style. Give a timeless look to the images. Will these trendy looks survive the test of time or will they become cliche' and outdated. When we look at wedding photos from the 80's and 90's we can tell if they were taken during those years because of the trendy looks they had. Sometimes these images are mocked for how dated the styling is. What will we think if 20 or 30 years from now we look back at the images from this time period? Will we mock them for being so "instagramy"?

Fort Worth on Film

Finally got the prints done for my next series. The idea is simple. Photograph outdoor seating at restaurants, coffee shops, and diners. I don't really know what it is about the absence of people in these images that draws me to them time and time again. It has such a quiet feeling, like the calm before the storm. At some point, each of these seats will be filled with hungry patrons.

As for my experience with film, I still like it a lot. The Canon AE-1 is a great little camera and with the 50mm 1.8 on the front, the images are remarkable. I used Fuji 200 speed film for these shots. My next series will be Ektar 100 speed film. I have heard great things about that film and can't wait to shoot it and get it processed.

There are so many things to think about when shooting with film. It really constrains you and forces you to think about things a little harder. The AE-1 also does not have auto-focus and its Av mode is not really helpful. The light meter works pretty well. I know with film, I have some leeway on how dark and light I can go and still get a great looking image.

So, enjoy the images, leave a comment, and let me know what you would like me to shoot next.