Wedding photography styles research

Shown here are the main phtography styles that photographers use for their weddings. I would say that I possibly use the first 3


1. Photojournalism style – This style is completely candid and is more of a documentary way of shooting a wedding. Few (if any) photos are staged and everything is shot in the moment, where the photographer roams around the ceremony and reception and captures the event as it’s happening. This style is very in vogue and popular among couples.

2. Traditional posed photography – This is the style of photography that your parents probably used in which most photos are staged, with participants facing the camera and smiling or otherwise posing for the photos. This is akin to traditional portrait style and is sometimes used in combination with the photojournalism style.

3. Fashion-shoot style – For brides who can’t get enough of Vogue or Cosmo, this style is for you. It is a much more modern style of shooting, with different camera angles and closeups, fashion-forward poses, unique lighting and lots of finishing touches with photography image software.

4. Vintage contemporary – Vintage clothing is back in style, and thus the demand for vintage contemporary photography, which is often staged with vintage or throwback props and attire. In addition, photos can be given an antique treatment with photography studio software.

5. Pre-wedding photo shoots – Because the big day can get so jam-packed with events, sometimes it’s a better idea to get some of the photography out of the way early. Because of this, some couples are choosing to have a pohto session with their photographer a day or two before the wedding. This is an opportunity to get more causal photos of the couple as well as family members who have arrived for the wedding.

Wedding photography is an evolving field that requires artistic talent, vision, and highly technical expertise.
In the past wedding photography was almost always limited to stiff posses without much regard for the underlying story, emotion, romance, and behind the scene events of the wedding day.
Although there is still a big segment of the wedding industry that practices traditional photography with its preplanned poses, and recreation of the wedding peak events such as the kiss, the ring exchange, etc., the modern wedding couple demands a more contemporary approach to their wedding day.
Wedding photojournalism has been in vogue for the past decade. The central idea behind it has been the capture of the wedding events without any interference or direction from the wedding photographer. The photographer is there to capture the true essence of the wedding day. As a result of this realistic approach the photographs are a true representation of the wedding day. Hard core wedding journalistic will be totally opposed to posing any wedding related event. If it doesn't not happen during the wedding it won't be recorded. This includes family group photos.
Several photographers offer a hybrid approach to wedding photography, usually a combination of traditional and journalistic wedding photography. In this approach the photographer focuses on documenting the wedding day but the coverage also includes a session with the couple for formal posed or semi-posed photographs and also family group photos.
The latest trend in wedding photography is toward a more fashionable approach. Inspired on high-end fashion magazines such as Vogue, Elle, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, GQ, American Photo, etc., and wedding magazines the photographer seeks to make the couple's fantasies real. In the fashion wedding photography approach the goal is to make the wedding couple look their best. Their romantic interplay is glamorized to its maximum expression. The everyday couple becomes like wedding celebrities. Attention to detail is required to achieve the perfect look. This approach requires a great deal of artistic talent behind the camera and also great computer image editing skill to produce a unique photo. Half the photo is made on the camera with the second half achieved though digital image editing and manipulation.
Which style is best, is for you to decide. In our experience a big segment of the wedding couples want to capture the reality, details and romance of the wedding day but at the same time they have fantasies about their wedding and the way they should look.
When making a decision for a wedding photographer look closely to the photographer's portfolio and see how it agrees with your philosophy on how your wedding day should be photographed. Regardless of your philosophy please make sure that you select a master of the craft, you and the next generation deserve masterpiece memories of your wedding day.
Juan Carlos Torres is a very respected and awarded wedding photographer in Oregon. He has a Masters Degree in Remote Sensing with a strong background in digital image processing and photography. His wedding photographs are unique and very artistic and have been featured in national and international magazines. For a sample of his works please visithttp://www.juancarlosphoto.com and http://www.willamettephoto.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Understanding Octodomes/Octo Boxes: A Lighting Tutorial

This is another really great tutorial on using soft boxes which shows the process of modifying and softening our light sources which have dramatic effects on our models/subjects

I researched this video from you tube a really great resource for phtographers to give me a greater understanding of photography techniques

Balancing Abient light with Studio flash Video

This is a really intuitive video which has helped me to understand how lighting characteristics behave when we balance 2 light sources together,one being the natural light of the sun and the other, the artificial light of studio flash

I am trying out this technique over the coming months of summer using my newly purchased portable studio flash system out on location

Evening ambient light shoot with Studio lights on location

I was asked by a local model to produce a set of images of herself modelling different clothes which she wants to use to help her to promote her business and modelling career

This was a dual purpose shoot with the model which encompassed combining fashion and product photography in one evening's work

She particularly wanted some really good promo images taking of the red dress she was wearing for use in marketing campaigns to push her business and gain awareness

These will be the last images shot on this course as I will be concentrating more on finishing off all my blogs which will include labeling,adding more content and  adding additional images I have already shot

Shown here are my latest images from the evening shoot shot locally with my model helen. This was a TFP shoot where we both benefited from the photography 

The images were shot with my new Lencarta Safari portable studio light system that I took out on location with me. This was an evening shoot and I had specifically planed this shoot at this time to capture the ambiance of the summer evening skies

The setup cost a me over a £1000 at the time and I thought am I doing the right thing spending this amount of money on a portable lighting setup. But yes I think I can safely justify the costs as I am starting to achieve some really good results which can be seen from some of the images below

The setup allows me to shoot up to 600 watts out on location and even at 200 watts the unit delivers over 2300 pops from a single charge,amazing. Having this amount of power enabled me to shoot even with bright sunny skies as I was able to counter balance the light intensity from the sun and overpower the daylight with my studio heads

I had to consider the health and safety of my model at all times. We had blankets on hand for my model to use between shots when posing as the eveing was getting a little chilly
My model was also using a step ladder in certain shots but I had a collegeue and lighting man on hand during the whole shoot who helped getting my model up and down the steps

I wanted to mix ambient light with a studio quality light out on location and this system allows me to achieve this. I shot and metered the images for the ambient light available then introduced power from the flash heads in increments until the desired effect was achieved. i wanted to use a second flash head as a rim light to light the models hair and side physique. I found I didn't need the second head as the sun did an excellent job for me which can be seen from the top image below 


I had planned this shoot for a long time and had to wait for the right day with the right weather and cloud formations to achieve the desired results. I used photoshop and Bridge to manipulate an embellish my final images chosen from about 200 shots.

The images are now being used in E-commerce and marketed on various websites,social media websites and also used in publicity materials for advertising and promotions
Shown here are some of the images from the shoot

I have slightly sharpened the images in photoshop and cloned out unwanted articles such as telegraph poles and pylons which were a distraction in the images

Shown below is an screen shot of an advert of my model Helen advertising her services on the modelling agency website Purpleport using my images

I will be using a lot of the images produced on this shoot for my own continuing marketing plan which I use to sell my services and products. These will be included on  my website,blogs and printed media to push and advertise my business to greater levels

Shown below are some of the images I used for research and ideas which were copied fron the Internet

Film Noir (Image manipulation)

I was commissioned by a friend to shoot some images of a 30th birthday party. I was given a brief to produce some old style images and the theme of the party was 20's 30's film noir night,which roughly translates to old black and white films and characters from this era.The party goers were all dressed as different characters from this era in time and I was asked to manipulate the images to possibly reflect and emulate this era in time

The images were all shot in a local hotel.The images were shot with a Canon 5D3 and a Canon 430 speedlight. The ceiling of the hotel was very low so I bounced the flash to give an even spread of light to eluminate my subjects

I mainly used photoshop for this procedure using various layers to change the images structures. I firstly desaturated the images to black and white then added a texture from my library of textured images to give the images an aged feel

I used a third party piece of software which has some in built filters to shift the focal point of the image of centre to another part of the image and also added a blurred vignette to the edges of the images

Shown here are the finished images which I think portray the 1920's-30's era that my client requested

Shown below are the original images shot on the night before manipulation

I have also included some screen grabs of the meta data taken from the images which shows aperture, shutter speeds and other data that my camera was using at the time when the images were shot

Shown here are some more screen grabs of the techniques that I used to desaturate and blend layers together in Photoshop to give my images a sort of old/worn appearance, I think the technique works quite well

Shown below here is a screen grab taken from Bridge of some of my textures that I use to add to my images. I have a library of textures which I collect and add to and it's amazing how many different textures there are out there if you just open your eyes and look for them

The texture I used in the images above here was taken from a very old tree which had some interesting patterns,shadows and grooves,which when desaturated produces the ideal layer to give my images an old /worn look

Shown below are some of the images I used for ideas and inspiration for this project.These were general images taken from the Internet which gave me posing ideas, information on hairstyles and ideas to create the ambiance of the images

The final images were sent to print at an online print processor named Loxley Colour one of the best online photo printers in the business. The prints were requested in various sizes and printed on an extreme matt paper which gave the images an authentic look and feel which the client was really please with. The images were then mounted in a photographic album of the clients choice and presented to my client as the finished article

Flash Techniques

Over the last 6 months I have been using even more flash in my photography. I bought a Canon 430EX 2 speed-light for some weddings I was photographing to assist me with enhancing my images and to use  mainly as fill in flash 


Jim my work colleague being a bit of an expert on the subject has been giving me lots of tuition on using speed-lights recently and at long last I think I have mastered these wonderful gadgets


At first I thought like everybody else,stick it on auto and fire away. Wrong, this is the worst thing you can do with such a great piece of equipment, you must learn how to use it and get to balance your flash with ambient light, the results can be amazing


It took me some time to understand the flash and learn how to use it but now I think i am reaping benefits of my studies


At first I didn't understand sync speeds but after some studying,reading and watching video's I have finally got my head around them now. I understand the science of the subject now and everything has fell into place


Here's a brief explanation of sync speeds and what they do:


Sync speed is the fastest shutter speed you can use with that flash with your camera 


When you take a picture, the shutter opens and closes to let light strike the image sensor. When it does so, the shutter is fully open for a very short time. If the shutter speed is too fast, the burst of light from the flash won't fully expose all parts of the image sensor and part of the scene won't be captured in the image. The fastest shutter speed that can be used is called the flash synchronization speed and is usually between 1/125-1/500 second. My Canon 7 D uses a sync of 1/250th sec. If you select a faster shutter speed directly or indirectly, most cameras will override you and lower it. The shutter works with two curtains, a front and rear (sometimes called first and second curtains). The shutter opens when the front curtain slides out of the way and ends when the rear curtain slides to close it. The flash fires either when the shutter first fully opens or just before it's about to close.

Shown here are some images that explain the process

(Top row) Front/first curtain sync (the usual mode) means the flash fires when the shutter's front curtain first fully opens to expose the image sensor.

• (Bottom row) Rear/second curtain sync means the flash fires just before the shutter's rear curtain starts to close to end the exposure.

A focal plane shutter opens a curtain to begin an exposure and closes a second curtain to end it. At fast shutter speeds (top) the second curtain starts to end the exposure before the first curtain has fully opened so the two curtains form a slit traveling across the image sensor. Flash would only expose the area uncovered by the slit between the two rapidly moving curtains. At the flash sync speed and slower (bottom) the second curtain doesn't start to close until the first one is fully open.  
 

Exploring techniques old and new

I am in the process of examining different photographer's work's and styles. I particularly like the fantasy art style of portrait images shown below which show a combination of art and photography

Shown here are some images of various photographers taken of the website "Master Photographers Association" This is a particular style that I like and will be experimenting with over the next couple of months Portraits are bended together with different textures using various layers using the sosftware Photoshop

These images mainly consist of portraits that are blended together with various textures which are then darkened using a various vignetting layers

I will be shooting some new portraits shortly and will be blending them with various textures I have photographed over the last couple of months. Shown below are some of my textures that I may be using , I photogrphed lot of these textures on recent phtogrphy trips to Lacock Abbey near Bath and Tutbury castle some local historic ruins situated about 6 miles from Burton

I have always been an avid lover of Photoshop and have played around with textures and blending modes for years. Shown below are some of my  manipulated images which show show various blends and textures using different layers that I have created in Photoshop   

This image has 3 elements applied to it, a base image which I have de-saturated, various softening layers applied and a soft Grunge texture added to give an old dirty type of effect 

This image shows a simple blend of a recent seascape I took on holiday combined with a stone wall "grunge"texture taken from an image from a wall at Tutbury Castle a local historical ruin that I visited in the summer

I blended the image above of a friend of mine together with a texture of ice photographed on my car windscreen using various layers,blends and masks

Shown here is a base image with just one texture added, I blended the images together using layers, masks and blending in Photoshop. I find the possibilities are endless of what can be achieved it's all down creativity and being inspired by other photographers work's

This image has mutiple layers blended together to produce a soft focus type of feel

I hope to take blending with textures to a higher level over the next few months a technique that I find very fascinating and which I am passionate about. This technique requires creativity along with a good knowledge of using Photoshop which I feel I posses but would now like to take these elements to the next level