Last year I wrote an article about using true HDR techniques with people. Yep, portraits, fashion, and wedding images can be utterly amazing using High Dynamic Range photography. HDR is not just reserved for nature and still life shooting. We’ve been using it at Seim Photography for over a year now! Here goes six nitty gritty tips and tricks to get you moving with HDR, and a few of my own HDR portraits to start things off.
1. What is HDR all about anyways?
First lets cover basics. If you’re already an HDR master you can skip this part. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. It’s better seen that talked about, so other than the images I’ve included in this article, you can see some of my latest HDR portrait work on my HDR portraits set on Flickr. You can also check out my HDR nature work. Essentially however HDR is the combining of multiple images taken at varied exposure levels, and then blended using software like Photomatix, Photoshop, or another HDR program.
Basically this software blending allows the photographer to selectively choose how much lighting he wants in various parts of the image. You’ll have a light to dark range that’s much higher than that of a normal exposure, thus giving you a LOT more control over the finished image.
You can also check our two PPS episodes from last year, that talk all about HDR portraits in detail, and will also get you started on HDR in general… HDR Podcast Part1 & HDR Podcast Part2
Continue reading ‘HDR Portraits,Wedding & Fashion Photography 2nd Edition’
I know we’re always talking on the show about staying inspired. Today I thought I point to a fellow photographers tips for keeping things creative.
David Ziser over at Digital Pro Talk has a nice article about staying inspired before you go to a shoot. He applies it to weddings, but you can really use it for just about any session. Check it out.
Do I have your attention? I hope so!
The Orphan Works Act of 2008 will take away the automatic protection that artists now have. Currently in the US if you take a picture, or make a piece of art you automatically own the copyright, and before someone uses of for their own purpose they have to obtain/purchase rights from you.
In essence the new law makes so that to retain copyright, you have to have it registered in a database (yep every image), and if it’s not found in the database the the person who wants to use it, then that work may be freely copied. They will do this by developing huge private certified software databases.
Soooo… every image you have ever created must be registered for you to retain copyright! That’s billions of photographs. Since that will never happen and all those photographers will instantly loose copyright protection.
If this passes, the government becomes steward of copyright, you essentially loose copyright to every image you have ever created, and all past, current and future work comes under the control of government. All it does is make stealing copyright really really easy.
Take Action… You can go to this site for specific details on the bill. You can also email your senators automatically right from the page as well.
As the wedding photographer, we tend to be one of the first ones to arrive at the church or other such ceremony locations the morning of the wedding. This first usually involves finding the one unlocked door to get into the building followed by walking into a dark and very quiet sanctuary. This can be both refreshing and creepy at the same time. One of the advantages of being one of the first ones to arrive at the church is that you get your pick of the best locations to shoot from. Continue reading ‘Wedding Tip Wednesday #8: Stake Your Claim’
Do you find yourself falling back on the same outdoor location to shoot your engagement sessions? Even worse, do you do the same two poses on the same boring backdrops in your studio? Do all of your engagement sessions closely resemble one another? One of the easiest ways to break out of this rut is to shoot a couple’s engagement session at the location they got engaged at. Not only is it a new location for you, these images will mean so much more to your clients.
Now it’s true some of the locations your clients got engaged at won’t be reasonable to travel to for a quick photo session. If that’s the case, why not suggest doing the session at the place they first met? If all else fails, find out what the couple’s interests are and go from there. What do they like to do in their spare time? Do they have any similar hobbies? Say they let on that they love riding bikes together around a particular lake or park. Perhaps they frequent the same coffee shop and sit at the very same table every Saturday afternoon. Maybe you discover the couple is really big into taxidermy…awkward. Hey, I never said you wouldn’t end up in some pretty weird places, just not your “safe & comfy” locations you tend to favor!
Continue reading ‘Wedding Tip Wednesday #7: Meaningful Engagement Pics’
The session was near Ritzville Washington. We were on a bridge that spanned this pond, and the lighting had been really flat thru the session, though we had still got some great shots. It was getting pretty dark however and I needed something dramatic to finish up with. The clouds had destroyed my dreams a stunning HDR sunset, and I knew I had to try something fast.
Looking around at the light, I got a plan. The car headlights on My Pontiac had gone on, and cast light and shadows across their path. I had the 580EX, but on camera flash was not what I needed here. I decided to try something I had never done before by parking the car across the road with the lights on Jacob. After editing with a few of my Lightroom effects I was able to get some pretty cool results.
There were birds flying all around the pond as well, and I decided to get a few shots with them in the background. It paid off! This shot was made with the “UBW Vintage” preset from my B&W set, plus a little tweaking. You can see a few more from this session on Jacobs Senior Portraits, over on my blog. I’ve decided to open up my mind to more alternative lighting techniques in the future and see what comes… Gavin Seim
Continue reading ‘Intersting Portrait Lighting! Headlights?’
