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!

What Gets You Up in the Morning?

LanceBurnsPhotography.com

Hi All!  I have one more bit of information for you.  How do you get ready for a wedding? I don't mean your equipment check or that. I mean how do you get pysched up for the shoot? How do you find inspiration for the day. I wanted to share with you what I do. I usually get up extra early.  I am usually up and working by 8 am of the wedding day.  Today for example is a wedding day shoot...yes, a Friday wedding.  I like to check out websites and collect images that I can think about for the days shoot.  Does this work?  Absolutely, I have a collection of images from websites, magazines, books, and videos that I have put together so I can review them. As a matter of fact, if I have a second shooter I bring two copies and I explain what shots I would like him/her to focus on.  This way we can review the progress as we go.  This morning I was reviewing a video I have titled "Masters of Wedding Photography 2."  I was watching Marcus Bell this morning and thinking about how he causally poses the shots and then gets to work after the formals are done.....very creative and artistically inspiring.

I also like to google words like "wedding", "portrait", etc., and look through google images.  You never know what you will fine.

What goes you up in the morning?

The Details

LanceBurnsPhotography.com

Hi All!  On a recent wedding shoot I was scouting locations to shooting high angles of the ceremony from outside.  As I was doing this I had to walk through the reception area.  There was a great deal of movement in this area as people were getting the venue ready.  One person in particular, a relative of the bride, was getting the center pieces ready. She was really proud of this work and indicated that buying the pieces was a special treat for her and the bride.  I remembered this so I could try and capture this item in a unique way during the ceremony.

Technically this shot used a hand held SB-800 to light the candle and glass properly while the blurry background was lite naturally.  

Specs: Nikon D200, 17-55mm @ 25 mm, F/3.2 @ 1/60, SB-800 TTL left hand, SU-8-- on Hotshoe.

Enjoy!

backlighting on couple

LanceBurnsPhotography.com

Hi All!  Well the image that we are looking at today was shot about 4 months ago.The first images is the original that was shot in camera (see specs below).  After the ceremony the crowd dispersed and the family and the couple were left in the church. I decided to try something a bit different with this image.  I took an SB-800 and had my assistant hold the flash directly behind the couple and aimed towards their waists.  I had direct control of this flash by using the SU-800 on the camera.  The flash was on TTL, and I set the flash to 2 over so we would get the rim lighting.  I shot this with no front lighting and the original image was cool, but I wanted to get some more light on the front of the couple. Lucky I shot this in RAW (NEF, I am a nikon shooter if you haven't noticed).  I brought the exposure up by 2 stops after the shoot, and used NIK DFine to sharpen parts of the image. Remember, season to taste!  You have to like the images you put out there.

Specs: Nikon D200, 17-55 mm @ 19.0 mm, F/2.8 @ 1/125, ISO 200

Dad and Baby

LanceBurnsPhotography.com

This weekend I was doing a photography shoot of a family.  The mom wanted shots of the baby's hands, feet, etc.  Some of the basic stuff.  Well, it pays to pay attention.  As the father was waiting in the wings while mom and I chatted, the perfect scene was set, the father laid down with the baby and guess what? The baby fell asleep on Dad's chest.  Good stuff!  So I set up two portable SB-800's on light stands behind shoot through umbrella's.  The lighting for the image was main light on 30 degree angle left of camera at my cameras correct F, and the fill was over my right shoulder, one stop under.  The original image is shown on top. Notice that I accidentally left my group C SB-800 flash on.  It is on the counter.  Post production work, besides the building of the counter on the left side, including building a photo of the baby to hang above the scene.

Don't be scared to think through a picture after you capture it.  I didn't know what I was going to do with the original picture of the father with the baby, but after we had it, we were able to talk about what we could do. The family loved this shot and are going to be using it as a gift for the mom's parents!

Specs: Nikon D200, 17-55 mm lens @ 17 mm, 1/60 sec, F/3.5, two SB-800s (main left, and fill at camera position)

Enjoy!  Hope this all helps!

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.

Swimmers Portrait

LanceBurnsPhotography.com

Hi All!  This portrait is really exciting for me and scarry for me also!  On a recent trip I was reading a great book by Joe McNally called The Moment it Clicks.  This book has amazing information for any aspiring or professional photographer.  Joe is very nice to share technique as well as style with the reader.  The image you see below is based heavily on a picture on page 72 from the book.  This image was made about one hour before sunset.  I took a number of shots of the background to get the right mood.  This was faster than the normal /250 flash sync speed, but with Nikon's Creative Lighting System (CLS) I was able to forget about trying to compensate for that and just focus on getting the right mood.  I was using the SU-800 to remotely fire off my single SB-800 which my assistant is holding.

My technique was to have an assistant in the water on the left hand side just outside of the range of the field of view firing the flash into my subjects face.  I was also aware that the water would reflect a great deal of light back up into my subjects shadowed side of the face. My largest fear was falling in the water myself. I am knee deep in the lake and the bottom is rather slippery! I didn't take to many precautions and lucky had no issues with the camera, the flash or my model.

My camera specs are: Nikon D200, fitted with a 17-55 mm lens at 28 mm, F/2.5 @ 1/1600 second, ISO 100. Hope this provides some inspiration.

LanceBurnsPhotography.com

Hi everybody.  Today's post is about selective colour.  I was watching a post on digitalprotalk, the blog site of David Ziser and he was going through a method of selecting specific objects with a picture.  It made me think about one other method that you could use to select colour besides the methods mentioned by David.  Of course, as we all know, with photoshop there are 1000 different ways to do something, so here are two more.  All the best everybody!  Let me know if there is something you would me to demonstrate or explain.