Hi All…just a quick post to let you know that I will be presenting my updated “Adaptive Lighting” seminar at the quarterly meeting/lecture series of PPSNYS (Professional Photographers Society of New York State). The program will be presented in Suffern, NY on Sunday, May 20, 2012. Stay tuned to the PPSNYS web site for details. This program will be open to PPSNYS members and non-members alike.
I am happy to announce that I will be presenting a two-part seminar and live workshop series in association with Berger Bros Camera Exchange, Long Island’s premier camera store. Class is on June 6, 2012. Workshop will follow on June 20, 2012. For more information visit www.berger-bros.com and click on the “classes” link. Seating and workshop attendance is very limited so sign up early. Call Victoria at Berger Bros at (516) 762-3056 -or- email Victoria at classinfo@berger-bros.com
Hot off the press is another great new book from Author, Bill Hurter and publisher, Amherst Media, Inc. The book is entitled “Small Flash Photography • Techniques For Professional Digital Photographers”. For those of you that don’t know Bill Hurter here is a small portion of his impressive biography:
“Bill Hurter has been involved in the photographic industry for the past thirty years. He is the former editor of Petersen’s PhotoGraphic magazine and currently the editor of both Rangefinder and After Capture magazines. He has authored over thirty books on photography and hundreds of articles on photography and photographic technique. He is a graduate of American University and Brooks Institute of Photography, from which he holds a BFA and Honorary Masters of Science and Masters of Fine Arts degrees”.
Bill has once again used his incredible editorial and authoring skills to compile a book that is a must-have for every wedding photographer. The book is filled with extraordinary images from some of the most highly regarded wedding photographers working today. The list includes Marcus Bell, Mike Colón, Cherie Steinberg-Cote, Dan Doke, Bruce Dorn, Jim Garner, Greg Gibson, Kevin Jairaj, Cliff Mautner and JB & DeEtte Sallee. I am truly honored to have my photographic work and techniques showcased in this book alongside some of the finest photographers in the world.
The book is available on Amazon.com, Amherst Media’s site and Camerabooks.com. Be sure to check the archives of my blog for information on other great books from Bill Hurter and Amherst Media.
I’ve featured a few Leather Craftsmen albums here on The Pro Spot in the past, but this one is truly one to behold. Head designer, Sal Mannino, and his crew at Leather Craftsmen, really went the extra mile on this one; enabling me to deliver a truly unique keepsake to a wonderful client.
I had the privilege of photographing Paula & Michael’s wedding many years ago. Since that time I have covered weddings for some of their siblings and now, a generation later, found my self at the Bat Mitzvah and Bar Mitzvah of their children. Nolan’s Bar Mitzvah featured a “Wide World of Sports” theme and even included an appearance by The New York Jets Flight Crew Cheerleaders!
When it came time to design Nolan’s album his father suggested that we cover his album with a “pigskin” textured material, similar to a football. Leather Craftsmen is always ready to collaborate with photographers on special designs. I bounced the concept off Sal and he quickly suggested inlaying an actual NFL football, laces and all, right into the cover of the book. I took the concept back to Nolan’s parents and got their enthusiastic approval. The one-of-a-kind custom album was bound in Euro Green leather with an authentic NFL football inlay that wraps around the cover and spine of the book.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Leather Craftsmen is the best in the business. Period. For more than 20 years I have been using Leather Craftsmen exclusively for all my album binding. Their quality and craftsmanship is second to none and their staff provides the finest customer service in the industry. If you’re not using Leather Craftsmen you should be. Give them a call. Tell them I sent you.
At the conclusion of my recent Master Class presentation at WPPI 2011 an advance offer was extended to my students to study with me, on the job, on actual wedding assignments here in New York. Most of the available weekend experiences have been filled up…only four additional dates remain. If you are interested in studying with Michael we urge you to contact us as soon as possible.
Your weekend wedding experience with Michael will include the following:
Day 1: Arrive in New York, tour of the studio, familiarization with the equipment and techniques that we will employ and a casual one-on-one mentoring session over dinner where Michael will address any questions you may have on photographic technique, post production, album design, marketing, customer relations…whatever.
Day 2: Accompany Michael and his assistant on an actual wedding assignment here in New York. Witness, first hand, the techniques we employ in creating award-winning images. Hands on participation as Michael’s assistant as well as creating images for your own portfolio. This will be a complete (long) wedding day assignment from the early preparations of the day through the final activities at the wedding reception. You will witness Michael’s use and manipulation of available light, on-camera and multiple radio-controlled portable electronic flash, alternative light sources, video lights, etc. You will learn camera techniques, proper lens selection and applied use of the handheld and internal camera light meters. You will experience the posing techniques Michael uses to create spontaneous looking contemporary portraits.
Day 3: Witness Michael’s post production workflow doing final image editing. Learn basic techniques and advanced use of software applications including Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop CS5, On One Software products, Kubota Image Tools and various NIK software applications.
Your investment of $1,000.00 is all-inclusive. From the moment we pick you up at the airport (or you drive into town) you will be our guest for the entire weekend. You are welcome to stay with us in our home and enjoy all of your meals with us without any further cost. If you prefer to make your own arrangements there are numerous hotels nearby.
If you are interested in experiencing a weekend wedding mentorship with Michael contact us before the remaining four opportunities are filled. A 50% deposit will be required to confirm your choice of dates, the balance being payable when you arrive in New York. We look forward to the opportunity to share decades of experience with you.
Hey guys…it’s almost here. The largest international trade show, educational platform and conference in the United States for professional photographers…WPPI. We look forward to seeing all our old friends and meeting new ones. Here’s what our schedule looks like: We’ll be flying into Las Vegas on Friday afternoon and will be staying at the MGM Grand Hotel & Conference Center.
Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) has once again asked me to return as one of the judges for the 2011 Awards of Excellence 16 X 20 Print Competition. Print competition will be held Saturday & Sunday in various rooms on the third floor of the conference center. I will be judging in one of the Wedding category rooms, sitting alongside some of the most renowned photographers in our industry. Print competition is one of the most stimulating educational events to experience during your time in Las Vegas. You’ll witness the presentation of some of the finest photographic creations from the most talented image makers on the planet, and hear live commentary from some of the most respected professionals in our industry. Be sure to allow some time in your schedule to sit in on the various categories of images that will be judged over this two day period.
I will be presenting my Master Class program “Adaptive Lighting” on Monday morning. This class sold out within 24 hours of the start of registration and the lucky students who filled the room are in for a great program. I think I’ve got about 80 hours of preparation in on this 2 hour class. Thanks go out to my sponsors, Nikon and Leather Craftsmen, Inc. for making this program possible. I also want to send out my thanks to some affiliate sponsors who have contributed to the program: Roy Ashen of Triple Scoop Music, Brian Kraft of onOne Software, Doug Gordon of Doug Gordon Workshops and Jessica Lauren Goodman of Camera Slingers.
Monday afternoon will be devoted to the trade show…checking out some of the latest offerings from the greatest vendors in the business…followed by a couple of meetings with some business colleagues. Weather permitting we’re taking Tuesday off from the show for a ride in the desert out to Valley of Fire State Park. Not just a break from the show; this will be my first stop on an ambitious personal photographic project that I’ve established for myself for this year. More on that at a later date…hopefully accompanied by some extraordinary images.
We’ll be back at the show on Wednesday and are looking forward to the WPPI Awards event Wednesday evening. We’ve already got a bunch of dinner dates in our calendar with some dear friends. If there happens to be any time left over we’re pretty sure the city of Las Vegas can offer up some distraction.
See you all at the show…
I have received lots of inquiries regarding the numerous elements that go into my client’s finished wedding albums. I’ve been asked questions about design software, printing and bookbinding, so I’ll touch on each of those subjects in this post. Before I get into the nuts and bolts, however, I think a short statement on sales philosophy is in order. For that I will refer you to a previous post on this forum entitled “FIRST AND FOREMOST WE SELL IMAGES“. Read that post right now and then come back to this feature.
OK. You’re back. Great. On to the album design process.
I take the 100-200 (or more) images that my clients have chosen and finish edit each of them in Photoshop. Up until this point I have only done basic editing in Lightroom or Aperture (any necessary color or density correction, vignetting and some black & white or sepia conversions). I present my clients with 600-1,000 previews from their wedding, but only do complete finish editing on the images they purchase for their album.
The finished images are imported into Yervant’s Page Gallery for construction of the basic album page spreads. I tell this software to output the page spreads as layered Photoshop files so I can manipulate them to my liking….making each page unique by rearranging the preset templates, adding phantom background images, graphic design elements and text. I can’t begin to tell you how great this album design software is. Like Photoshop, itself, it is without peer. Be warned, however, that as of this writing Page Gallery will not run within Photoshop CS5. I truly hope that the Yervant camp is working on an update that will work within Photoshop CS5. Until then I have dedicated a separate computer on my studio network solely for the purpose of running Page Gallery under Photoshop CS4. That’s how much I love this program!
All of my clients trust me with total creative freedom of the design of their albums however I don’t go to print or bookbinding until they have viewed the finished design on the Apple 30″ HD Cinema Display in my studio. Once my clients have previewed their album design the Photoshop files are flattened and sent via FTP to master printmaker, Phil Milazzo, for printing. Phil has been doing my album page printing for more than a decade and always delivers on his slogan “Small Lab, Big Results”. Any photographer looking to develop a strong working relationship with a great custom color lab is urged to contact Phil.
After Phil has worked his magic the prints are delivered to the finest bookbinder in the industry, Leather Craftsmen, Inc. I’ve showcased some of Leather Craftsmen’s work in previous posts but feel compelled to do so again now. This latest album that I’m going to showcase is one of their new “T-Stripe” designs created by lead designer Sal Mannino in their New York facility. This particular album features Euro Red and Euro Black leather on both the album and it’s matching slipcase. The 12″ X 12″ album also features a luxurious cork end lining at the beginning and end of the book and custom text imprinting, vertically and horizontally, on both the album and the matching slipcase.
For more than 20 years I have been using Leather Craftsmen exclusively for all my album binding. Their quality and craftsmanship is second to none and their staff provides the finest customer service in the industry. Stay tuned to this blog to see some true custom cover designs I’m collaborating on with Sal and the rest of the crew at Leather Craftsmen.
So what does this album look like on the inside? I thought you would never ask. Here’s a short presentation of the finished album design of 212 images on 66 pages (33 page spreads). Enjoy…
Priceless? To my clients, yes. Expensive? Remember what industry icon, Jerry Ghionis, said: “What is priceless tomorrow has to be expensive today”.
All the best…
I’ve gotten lots of inquiries about this image that was posted on my blog earlier this week so I’ve decided to talk a little about it on this forum. The lighting for this photograph is just a simple twist on my “Twilight Blues” effect discussed in an earlier post. If you haven’t already read that post you should do so now by clicking here.
This image uses the same exact technique…only indoors. As you can see this particular church has large stained glass windows running down both sides of the building. There is also a large expanse of stained glass behind me. Therefore the predominant ambient light in the venue is daylight. I used a Lowel iD light, held by my assistant, 45 degrees to the left of my camera position. My assistant focused the light in a tight spot pattern illuminating the bride’s face and the bodice of her gown. The light was set at an intensity approx. 2 stops brighter than the ambient light. The camera’s white balance was set to tungsten. The exposure was 1/80 sec @ f8 @ ISO 2000 (handheld) and everything outside the area of the Lowel Light‘s illumination naturally turns darker and blue. Only a little edge burning was done in Photoshop.
Once again I can’t say enough about the high ISO, low noise capabilities of my Nikon D3 cameras. This image is virtually noise free at ISO 2000 and I haven’t used a tripod once since I started using these cameras. I’ll be reporting to you very soon about the expanded ISO capabilities of the Nikon D3s camera.
Some great photographs are the result of being in the right place at the right time but most are the product of a preconceived idea and the forethought necessary to execute that idea with the right tools and timing. I’m going to share one such image here along with the thought and execution processes that made this image a reality.
I spotted this location on the North Fork of Long Island awhile back. The vintage truck, parked in the middle of a cow pasture, looked rather drab at mid day in overcast weather, but I knew that it would have potential to be an extraordinary prop at a later time. I recently had the opportunity to return to this location with one of my wedding couples so I chose a time just before sunset with the low directional late day sunlight falling on the scene.
I positioned my subjects next to the truck so that the falling sun, at a 90 degree angle, would create a dramatic split light on their faces. Using a Nikon D3 camera I mounted a Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 lens, setting the focal length to 24mm. Keeping my subjects near the center of the frame minimized any distortion of them but created an emphasis on the front of the truck which was framed well to the right in the viewfinder. I made three quick exposures (1/250 sec. @ f9 @ ISO 800) and we were off to the next location.
Back in the studio I opened my RAW file using Nikon’s Capture NX2 software. I already knew exactly how I was going to tweak this image. I set a color control point on the truck and used the incredible u-point technology in this software to increase the brightness and saturation of the truck without affecting any of the other elements in the composition. Sure you could probably spend a lot of time in Photoshop and eventually come up with a similar result but the Nikon Capture NX2 software returned my preconceived bold color vision instantly!
Some final Photoshop image enhancements included some dodging on the front of the bride’s dress, the front of the truck and the ground under the truck followed by the addition of some wispy clouds in the sky using Alien Skin’s Xenofex software. My total investment in time editing this image was about three minutes!
Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture…all great software solutions. But none of them can leverage the power of a Nikon .NEF RAW image like Capture NX2…Period. I encourage every Nikon RAW shooter out there to add this incredible software product to your arsenal. You can download a trial version from the Nikon USA web site.
About a week ago I posted this image on Facebook, along with a link to my web site, where my clients along with their friends & family could view some of their wedding images. Emails poured in from photographers asking how this capture was made and enhanced. In this post I am going to share the extraordinary technique, that when coupled with an exceptional software product, enables you to EASILY create dramatic images involving intricate masking.
I captured this image on my Nikon D3 camera equipped with an AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8G ED lens. My assistant was positioned behind the couple with a radio fired Nikon SB 900 Speedlight. Looking at the before and after versions of this image side-by-side will help you visualize just how exacting the masking had to be in order to achieve the final result. Simply burning down the sky in Photoshop was not an option. To do so would have taken all the detail out of the tops of the trees that lined the path and put them totally into silhouette. I wanted to hold all of the detail in those trees while allowing a magnificent sunset to show through all the openings around the individual leaves.
The first step in creating this image was to darken the sky in Photoshop to create the breathtaking sunset. Simply making a levels adjustment of the RGB channels (Image>Adjustments>Levels) and lowering the mid range slider yielded this image. The sky is amazing…the rest of the image is useless. Save this image under a different file name. It will look something like this:
Now comes the fun part which has been made ever so easy by the folks at Vertustech and their unbelievable software offering “Fluid Mask 3“. I first met Mornee and the crew from Vertus at WPPI in 2008. Fluid Mask Version 2 was being shown at the trade show and was thrilling everyone that witnessed their incredible demos. I purchased this software on the spot. As good as it was then, Version 3 blows it away. I encourage you to visit the Vertustech web site, download a trial version of the software and experiment with a few images. There are extensive video tutorials on their web site showing how to use this product. I’m going to give you a short description of the steps involved but I’ll refer any specific questions on use back to the good folks at Vertus.
Open your original image in Photoshop and choose the Fluid Mask 3 filter from your filter menu (Filter>Vertus>Fluid Mask 3). Your Photoshop window will close to conserve RAM and a dedicated Fluid Mask workspace will open. You will not believe how easy and automatic this software works. Choose the local delete brush and paint a swatch across the sky and Fluid Mask intuitively chooses the areas of the sky that you wish to mask out. Any small spots it misses can be selected by clicking on those areas with smaller sized local delete brush. The image now looks something like this:
Next you will Autofill the areas of the image that you wish to keep by choosing Image>Auto-Fill with Keep. Your workspace will now look something like this:
You must now fine tune your selection mask by using the Blend Exact brush. Your workspace will now look something like this:
Finally, you’ll tweak the most exacting selection masking choices using the patch tool:
When you are happy with your selection mask click to create your cutout and Fluid Mask generates the most precise automatic mask you’ve ever seen. This one looked like this:
Copy this cutout to your clipboard, reopen the image you created with the deep sunset and paste the cutout on top of it. Voila! An amazing composite with awesome detail in the shadows and a saturated deep rich sunset.
The entire process took me about five or six minutes and I don’t use this software very often. The pros at Vertus could probably have effected this composite in under two minutes. With practice you and I could too.
Detailed tutorials on the use of this software product are available on Vertus’ web site. Any technical questions should be directed to the folks at Vertus. Give this great product a try and check out the galleries on the Vertus web site to see how other creative imaging professionals are using this product to handle challenging masking projects.
