Michael and Emilee

Hi all,

Well, it's time to revive the blog. I was inspired to do this due to some great people I met tonight - Michael and Emilee (love that spelling). Such nice down to earth people who want a wedding that works well.

It was nice to hear why Michael and Emilee hired me to photograph their wedding. First they found my images on the Fort Edmonton website and then they were told about me by a member of a wedding party I just finished shooting. After interviewing a few photographers they decided that we were a good fit. After meeting them for a few times I would agree. I am really looking forward to shooting their wedding this fall and making their images the best possible.

Well, more to come later. I will take this opportunity to welcome myself back to this blogging thing.

Jana and Marco

Here is a little video of some of the final images for a great wedding I shot back in October.  The couple were amazing and their wedding day was by far one of the "Funnest" shoots I have had in a long time. I am very happy to have been included in their wedding plans, and was overjoyed that we were able to spend as much time taking pictures as we did.  

I loved shooting this wedding.  Thanks, again, Jana and Marco. You two are great together.

Wedding in the Mountains

What a perfect day!

Hi Everybody. Here is a video of a great wedding shot out in the beautiful mountains located in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Our good friends got hitched in the picturesque location at the end of January. The people, the weather, the reason - it all came together. Congrat's to Arley and Catherine. You two are great together.

Talk to you all soon!

A young girl - Before and after

Hello All!

At a recent wedding, I was working to get images of people at the brides house before the bride arrived. The gal here is a VIP of the wedding and I was lucky enough to have time to create some dramatic shots of her while we waited for the bride to make her appearance. The background here is the curtains in the living room.  I moved her as far away from the background as I could, and kept my F-stop rather low (2.0). Combined with camera right off-camera flash we were able to punch in some light and still have a great deal of hair light rimming from the sun coming in through a window that was above the brown curtains.

Hope you all enjoy!

Fix what we can

Hi All!

Sometimes we shoot an image that has great potential but when we do shoot it, the results are somewhat less than we had hoped.  This shot here is an example of that.  When I shot it I was hoping to create a blurred effect, but after playing with it for a bit I realized that this shot did not warrant that type of effect.  I then studied the characters in the image and the setting and decided that the image needed to pop.  So what I did was open the image in photoshop.  I then duplicated the background layer.  To this new layer I added an adjustment layer of black and white. I then merged that adjustment layer and the duplicate layer into one.  Then I changed the setting from normal to overlay and adjusted the opacity to 60%.  I then merged the images together.  I then created a new empty layer above this image and went, filter>render>cloud. I also changed this layer to overlay mode, and reduced its opacity to about 60%.  I then added a layer mask to this cloud layer and brushed out the center of the image.  Try this effect on an image that is good, but needs a bit more drama.  

Enjoy!

Weekend Wedding

http://www.lanceburnsphotography.com/

Hi All! Wow, what a weekend. I shot a great bride a groom on Saturday. Jana and Marco made my weekend. These two people were happy to shoot in so many locations! We had a blast. This past weekend was a bit on the cooler side, about 8 degrees celsius, but the spirits of family I was shooting were very warm.  Doesn't Marco look happy back there?  He is actually 9 feet tall.  I had to put him two wheat fields over to get this perspective.

This was the first wedding in which I was using my new D700. I must say that I was very impressed with its function and the quality of the images. Some things that stood out for me as both a pro and a con would include the autoISO feature. I initially had it on and found that I couldn't create the mood I was looking for in my portrait shots so I turned it off. However, I believe that I should have kept it on for the church and some of the candids. These are shots that I want to get and not have to mess around to much. I was very happy with shooting manual but in reflecting on my work, I would have been happy to switch my autoISO off and on at my will. I will set my camera up for this.

Another thing that was pretty cool was the LiveView feature. I didn't think I would use this, but it was late at night, and I was trying to set up a shot that was over my head...LITERALLY, NOT ARTISTICALLY...lol. The LiveView feature enabled me to frame the shot and then proceed as normal. It is a cool feature for both amateurs and pros. Figure out how you will use it, and use it.

Overall, the change from the D200 to the D700 was an easy one for the features that appear in all cameras. I can shoot in manual mode, where I am most comfortable, and I can control the basics of any menu. To truly appreciate this camera I will be spending some quality time this weekend getting to know the details of its completely redesigned menu and its great low light shooting abilities.

Spec: Nikon D700, F/2.8 @ 1/160, 102 mm with my 70-200 mm. white balance: auto, and ISO, the trusty 100 (or low 1, as it is now called).

Getting it right the first time!

LanceBurnsPhotography.com

Hi all!  Today I wanted to share an image that I took on my Friday shoot.  This was at a local hotel with a great view of the river valley, as well as a wonderful sky view.  This image was posed to ensure the bride was on the right side of center, with her face on a node.  I have her looking back into the image so you are not wondering what she is looking at.  If she was looking the other way, I am quite sure it wouldn't have the same appeal, or impact on the viewer.  OK, so I took the original and noticed that I didn't like the way the background was set up.  I adjusted the background in photoshop and used a high pass filter for sharpening.  Of course I am not going over all the photoshop work, but you get the point.

Specs: Nikon D200, 17-55  mm lens @ 17 mm, F/3.2 @ 1/2000, right side main SB-800 at F/3.2, camera close left SB-800 1-stop under for fill.  SU-800 trigger on camera.

Key point - get the image right in camera so the work that you do afterwards is minimized.  

Enjoy!

LanceBurnsPhotography.com

Hi All!  Today I wanted to share a photo of  a the brides flowers.  Why just this image?   Well, think about where you get your inspiration and how we experiment during a wedding shoot.  This shot was done after I was standing in line at a grocery store and I was looking at a bride magazine...I do that....yes, I seriously do...again, that is serious.  After looking at  a number of images I was caught by the way the brides flowers were captured. I thought to myself "self, why not try that on the next wedding shoot?" So I did.  Now I did other shots but this one was a test.  I will do this shot again on other weddings but I will also ensure that I do the shots that I am comfortable with so I get a shot the bride will like.  My technique on this shot was a bit loose, but I to our credit, that is what we have to do on a wedding shoot.  We have to try new things and sometimes they will work out and sometimes they won't.  The details are not that important on this shot, nor is the post work that I have completed, but remember to have fun with your wedding shots and to try and find inspiration when and where you can! I have included the raw image and the one I completed on post production.

All my best.  Lance Burns.

Bride at Dusk

LanceBurnsPhotography.com

Hi all.  Today I wanted to show a bride image taken here in Edmonton this past weekend. We had a great day of shooting and as the evening progressed I looked outside and noticed a great cloud passing over. With a setting Sun in the West and the clouds in front of that Sun, I saw an opportunity to capture a great image of the bride.  The specs of this shot were 1/4000 of a second at F/3.2.  That was the numbers used to properly expose the sky. The flash was fired to illuminate the bride (balanced at F/3.2) and the lighting pattern was loop lighting.  I used an SU-800 on the camera to fire the off camera SB-800 flash I was holding in my left hand.