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.

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.

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.

Wanted to let you all know about a great new wedding photography book by author, David Pearce and Oliver Cameron Publishing.  Simply entitled “Wedding Photography-A Guide To Posing” this in-depth guide to posing techniques has over 500 images illustrating the use of poses in the context of a wedding. There is a fascinating array of images from around the World, shot by amazing photographers such as Yervant, Chenin Boutwell, Dave & Quin and David Beckstead.

I am honored to have my images and techniques featured in this fine book alongside some of the finest wedding photographers in the world.  An entire chapter in this book has been devoted to illustrating the workflow and Photoshop techniques I use when creating my award-winning images and album designs .  Measuring approximately 7″ x 5” the book has been designed to fit into your camera bag or jacket pocket, so it’s there at your fingertips when you need some inspiration.

The book is available on the web site of Oliver Cameron Publishing.  Click here to order your copy today.

It is with great joy that I announce that we finalized the real estate transactions today for the new home of Michael ONeill Fine Art.  Our new studio and gallery will be located at 81 Larkfield Road, East Northport, NY in a newly renovated historical building on this main mercantile thoroughfare.  Our past gallery locations have been on Larkfield Road since 1984 and it feels great to return to this wonderful community following a brief period of working from our home.

Formerly the East Northport movie theatre, this property has been completely renovated into luxury space with an art deco feel inside and out.  When you enter the main lobby a large expanse of glass looks in to the Michael ONeill Fine Art gallery space.

Beyond that glass is the reception area with glass-partitioned walls and double french doors wrapping around the conference area.

The open format conference area will serve as our client consultation space and also as a small ‘classroom’ for the photography workshops I offer here on Long Island.  Our computer workstations and fine art printing room will be located in the office immediately adjacent to the conference area.  This office opens directly into the conference area allowing our clients access to our computer workstations, where we retouch and enhance our images, and create our award-winning custom album designs.

A long hallway runs the length of the facility and will be set up as our fine art photography gallery.  The initial presentation here will be of my fine art works, but plans to host shows for other photographic artists are in the future.  The second office space in line will be our production/fulfillment area.

The wall between the third and fourth offices will be removed and the area will become our camera room.  In addition to our state-of-the-art lighting gear a north facing glass block window will allow for beautiful natural light portraiture indoors!

At the end of the gallery hall there is a service area perfect for cosmetology and wardrobe changes.  This service area also includes a compact fully-equipped kitchenette.  A private restroom and a storage closet completes the space.

The physical move into our new home will be taking place over the next few weeks.  There is so much to do…installing telephone, internet, WiFi and security systems; construction for the camera room, accepting delivery of furnishings, adding custom interior lighting for our gallery of photographic art, etc., etc.  We are confident that the transition will be efficient and painless.  One down side of the move will be the loss of our existing telephone number.  We will be updating all of our clients and colleagues with our new information as soon as possible.  Our existing phone number will remain in place for a period of time and will forward calls to the new location.  Stay tuned to this blog for progress reports and for information on our grand opening reception to be held this summer.  Our sincerest thanks go out to all of our wonderful clients and colleagues that contributed to making this dream gallery a reality.

Hot off the press is another great new book from Author, Bill Hurter and publisher, Amherst Media, Inc.  The book is entitled “Wedding Photography: Advanced Techniques for 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, Joe Buissink, Mike Colón, Jesh de Rox, Dan Doke, Bruce Dorn, Jerry Ghionis, Greg Gibson, Kevin Jairaj, Charles & Jennifer Maring, JB & DeEtte Sallee, Ken Sklute and Yervant Zanazanian.  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 already available on Amazon.com, Amherst Media’s site, Camerabooks.com. and in the online store on the WPPI web site.  Be sure to check the archives of my blog for information on other great books from Bill Hurter and Amherst Media. (Search Word: “Book”)

I then set my sights on the subject’s eyes.  Using Photoshop’s dodge tool at an opacity of about 12% I carefully lighten the color of my subject’s eyes and lighten the whites of the eyes.  Using the smudge tool I “push” the white of the eye into the corners to remove any red that is showing.  Finally I set the burn tool to a very small diameter and carefully burn the black line around the colored portion of the eye.  These adjustments, when practiced regularly, will take you less than a minute and work wonders to enhance the inherent beauty of your subject’s eyes.

Next I go to work on my subject’s skin texture.  There are countless ways to address this. Both Lightroom and Aperture now include skin softener brushes where you can enhance your subject’s complexion when you open your RAW files for the very first time.  There are also countless third party filters and actions that plug in to Photoshop available to you.  For an extreme close up, like the one we’re working on, I love the Kodak Digital GEM Airbrush Pro filter.  I start by duplicating the main layer and roughly selecting the area where the airbrush filter will be applied.  I feather that selection by approx. 20 pixels and apply the airbrush filter at it’s default settings.  I then erase the filter effect from the subjects eyes and mouth and reduce the opacity of the duplicate layer until I like the look.  The airbrush filter at 100% opacity is too much, thus it’s application on a duplicate layer (with the final adjustment being made via the layer’s opacity setting).  I then flatten the image and move on to some selective burning.

There are numerous ways to burn an image in Photoshop but I have found the burning and vignette tools in The “Kubota Image Tools” action sets to be incredibly efficient while rendering extraordinary results.  I applied two levels of vignettes to this image: first an oval shaped vignette tilted to the same orientation as my subjects head; followed by the edge burner action to darken the edges of the print.  I also burned down the side of my subject’s face to draw the attention of the viewer to my subject’s incredible eyes.  Once again I flatten the image for the final steps.

For the final touch on this image I used the Kubota Action called “Lord of the Rings” to put a wonderful glow on the subject’s skin and to add a diffuse glow to her veil.  Though this action renders a dramatic result you have to be very careful using it as it can block up the shadow areas or blow out highlights in an image.  To avoid this, and to render a true custom effect; I run the action, flatten the image and save the file to my desktop under a temporary name.  I then open the last saved version of my file and copy and paste the temporary file over it.  Using the eraser tool I brush away the “Lord of the Rings” effect from the deep shadow areas in my subject’s hair, from the eyes and from the lips.  I then adjust the opacity of this layer down to where I like the overall effect.  Lastly, I flatten the image again and use the Kubota “Edge Blur – More” action on the right hand side of the image to put a nice blur in the bride’s veil, then I add a touch of sharpening to the bride’s headpiece.

In future posts I will share some other great Photoshop tools and techniques I employ to retouch and enhance my images.  I welcome your requests for solutions to any specific challenges you may be having and will do my best to get you the answers to your questions.  In the meantime fire up Photoshop and explore, experiment and practice.

I returned last week from WPPI 2010.  What an extraordinary event this was.  This is the definitive conference and trade show for every one in our industry.  Mark your calendars and save the dates for WPPI 2011: February 17 – 24, 2011 at The MGM Grand Hotel and Conference Center in Las Vegas.  I am proud to report that I returned from WPPI with five Accolades of Excellence in the 16″ X 20″ print competition.  You can check out my award-winning prints on my blog.

A quick update on your mentorship requests.  I have read all of your emails, visited your web sites and have sent out the first set of invitations to some lucky individuals.  I wish I could work with all of you but unfortunately I must limit these on-the-job mentorships to about a dozen wedding events in 2010. I look forward to meeting all of you and working with you in the very near future.

Now onto today’s feature with some more insight into the initial sales consultation with a prospective bridal client.  This feature started a few weeks back with the post “First Impressions”.  You may want to give that feature a read first.  Click here and it will open in a new window.

After my clients have relaxed and viewed my samples at their pace I return to the room and get them to start talking about the subject they are so excited about…their wedding.  Keep your mouth shut and your ears open.  Resist any urge to start telling them what you do…you’ll get to that soon enough.  I ask them questions that will keep them excited and talking about their wedding, but also ask questions that reveal to me a lot about their personalities, their friends, their families and their budget.  Spend a few minutes finding out how many people are in their bridal party, who is important in their formal family photographs, how many guests are going to attend the reception, who the other vendors are, etc?  My clients are all unique and I can’t see them that way until I know some of the little details that make up who they are.  I try to bring something unique to each and every wedding I’m given the privilege of photographing.  The only way to do this is by finding out what your clients are all about.

I then spend a little time educating my clients on a number of subjects relating to their wedding photography.  I talk to them about off camera lighting and the role my photographic assistants play in creating dramatic, detailed images for them.  I talk about Photoshop and how it is a tool used to enhance fine photography.  I have an album of “before and after” images that I display showing beautiful complexion enhancements and dramatic image effects.  I talk about the importance of proper archiving of my clients images, telling them about our in-house RAID storage system and offline backup on a server at a remote location.  I talk about the importance of doing their engagement session…to get to know them better and to build their confidence for the wedding day.  I talk about how all of my image editing and finished album design is done in-house and how they will have a real influence in the theme of their finished album presentation.  What it really comes down to is I talk about ALL of the things that I offer that set me apart from my competition.

Only at this point do I start to discuss pricing.  There is basic pricing information on my web site that has already told my prospective clients that my average couple invests between $5,000.00 and $6,000.00 on their wedding photography.  Don’t be put off if the only question your client asks is “How much”?  Remember…you’ve done this before, they haven’t.  They don’t know what else to ask.  Address the subject with confidence and professionalism…you know what your services are worth.

I give my prospective clients the information they will need regarding my payment schedule, acceptable methods of payment, my retainer of the copyright to all of my images, etc.  I finish my presentation by thanking the couple for the opportunity to discuss their wedding plans with them and encourage them to call me with any other questions that might come up as they continue to shop.  A great deal of the time my clients confess that after sitting down with me they didn’t feel the need to shop anywhere else and retain my services within a day or two of our initial meeting.

So there you have it.  An accurate description of the manner in which I handle the initial sales consultation with my brides and grooms.  Take the ideas that work for you and incorporate them into your efforts.  Remember: differentiate yourself from your competition and always remember that it is your client’s wishes and desires that must be met.  If you’re the right man or woman for the job you will be granted the privilege of capturing that special couple’s memories for a lifetime.

I must also apologize. As much as I would love to work with all of you I will be unable to accommodate everyone. I will only be photographing about 45 weddings in 2010. I have read all of your emails and visited each and every one of your web sites. I was truly impressed by the quality of the photography I viewed, again feeling honored that you think enough of my artistry to make the commitment to come to New York to study with me. I have decided that the only right thing for me to do is choose my pupils randomly so that no one feels that they were not chosen because of any shortcomings. That is not the case. I will be collaborating and sharing with photographers on all levels.

I will be contacting all of you within the next two weeks. I will be arriving this Friday afternoon in Las Vegas for WPPI 2010. Those of you that are attending should look me up when you are there. I will be tied up all day Saturday and Sunday judging the Accolades of Excellence 16 X 20 Print Competition.  I’ll be on the “Wedding 2″ judging panel in room 302 of the conference center. (Read more about that here).  Stop by and say “Hello” or look for me at many of the events, platform programs or on the trade show floor. I would love to meet each and every one of you in person.

Thanks again for all of your enthusiasm. I look forward to sharing with you.