vacation photography tips continued (sunsets, how to)

Continuing on my vacation photo tips is, how to shoot a sunset. As you might have guesed the baby is taking her afternoon nap;-)

If your sunsets arent coming out colorfull enough you are probably overexposing them. Try zooming in on the brghter parts of the sunset in P modeand see what the exposure reads. Then use M mode to dial in those settings and see how you like it. I also like to take sunset pics a while after the sungoes down,just keeptaking shots and the colors will get more saturated about 5 -10 minutes after the actual sunset.

Another trick is to include some silouetts in the scene to add extra interest like the example above. I shot this about 45 minutes after sunset hand hald in P mode. I focused on the tree, but this late after the sunset the sky's colors arent ascontrasty so your images are easier to get the right exposure for. If you want people in the shot I'd shoot the scene in P mode, switch to M mode and dial in the P modes exposure info, and then add a flash to capture the peoples faces.

Cheers! Soren
www.fortunephotobooth.com
soren@fortunephotobooth.com

Vacation photo tips continued....

The following is a fun iPhone trick.


So I woke up and had a cup of coffee that Erica had made. "Amazing" I said, t"he coffee here tastes so much better than at home. Let's buy some extra to bring home." the she told me I was crazy, since we brought this coffee from home.

Everything tastes better on vacation. Even cheap beer.

Things look better on vacation too, and it's your job as a photographer to come back with photos that will remind you of how great it is to be on vacation

I was trying to capture the light coming through my beer with my iPhone. And the exposure of these phone pics is fully automatic. This backlit scene needed mor light.


Just taking the shot causes a darkish shot because of the back lighting. What to do? I could switch to my dslr and fiddle with the exposure compensation, but I wanted a challenge, so I was going to fool the iPhone into adding more light to the photo like in the top example.

To do this I simply focused the pic on the table by turning the cam down and getting rid of the exposure, the table was in the shade so it automatically added more light to the scene. Then quickly I brought the camera back up to the position to grab this shot and took the pic before the camera could recalibrate it's exposure. I, in a way, fooled the iPhone into adding more light to the exposure. It's a fun iPhone trick that also works with most fully automatic cameras.

You can also do a similar trick with your fancy dslr. You can lock the exposure, even in an automatic mode, by pointing the camera to a non back lit area, pushing the exposure lock button, then recomposing. It is easier with the dslr because once the exposure is locked you have all the time you need to take the picture. With the iPhone trick you have to be fast, and that takes practice.

Good luck, let me know how you like this tip, or let me know if you think I'm delusional. Email me personally at Soren@fortunephotobooth.com

Cheers!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Be a better photographer #6- vacation photo tips

Short posts about taking better vacation photos. We all deserve vacations, and you all need better vacation photos to remind you to take more vacations. I also believe that how good your vacation photos are reflects on how good a photographer you are. Vacation photos also remind me of wedding photography in a couple of ways. Way 1 is that you don't have much time to think about it, you are busy trying to relax on vacation so you have to be ready and shoot fast, just like at a wedding. 2 is that they can be very documentary in nature.

Anyway, I'm doing this from my iPhone, so I'll try to keep it short. The only reason to have time to do this is that the baby is taking a nap:-)

Tip#1. Go on more vacations. Practice makes perfect. Being in a new place also helps rejuvinate your creative juices and can allow you to see a whole new light.

Tip#2. like the iPhone pic of a limes in a cup above, capture the small things. Food is a natural subject, try a few still lifes to remember the food. Details can often add spice to anyones vacation album. Which brings up tip #3.




Tip #3. make an album. Not some cheapo album, but one of the really cool new press printed books. My favorite company is Blurb http:www.Blurb.com .try out their premium paper, and wrap around photo covers. They are not only easy to make and affordable, they make really great looking books. They are also fast. I normally get a book in my mail slot less than a week after ordering.

Tip #4. I'm not able to show you an example from my phone, but use a flash for shooting people in brightly lit situations, even a built in flash can help. If you are vacationing in the sand or the snow, a flash can really fill in those shaddow areas. If you are using a point and shoot you may have to set it to force the flash to fire every time. Please figure out how to do this. I've been watching people on this trip, and no ones camera is flashing on the beach. They will be disapointed in their photos of people with dark shaddowy faces.

Now, I'm always writing tips about using a flash, and in truth most flash pictures you see look awfull right? I think I should explain it a bit more. Flashes can ruin photos, but I think it is solely because people (and cameras) choose the wrong times to flash. Use a flash when your are shooting people that are back lit ( like a sunset) or when it's so bright the sun makes harsh shadows on them. Also use a flash when it's too dark to really see, there are some dark shots that just require that. Other wise try to shoot without a flash and see how your high ISO settings can make good pics in mist darkish situations. The problem with this advice is that cameras in dummy modes, or point and shoots, always get this wrong, except the really really obvious people in a cave scenario.

#5 kids still asleep, I might have time for #5. Carry your nice point and shoot or dslr, but don't worry about mixing in some cell phone shots, sometimes it just makes sence to shoot a candid shot with the phone.




#6 Give the kids a simple camera to take shots they think are cool. Obviously don't give them something too nice. Set it up to force flash i'f it's really sunny, or reasly dark, and set it to higher ISO and no flash for medium and darkish light, P mode if you got it. You might find they take pictures of things that really help you remember a trip.

#7 still no crying baby, I'll keep writing. Here is a tip I've never tried, but always wanted to. Buy a water proof camera. Of you know of a good one let me know. I once stopes a point and shoot full of pics into the ocean. Erica and I had just spent the day kayaking and snorkeling in Mazatlan Mexico and were just coming back in to shore, when we realized the mainland surf was much rougher than when we left. The wave that snuck up behind us must have been a 6 footer, and we were in a 2 person tourist grade kayak. We surfed that wave right into a perfect front somersault, a complete endo. The most amazing thing is that the camera was around my neck on a strap, so we didn't lose it. The camera was busted, but as always those memory cards are almost industructable, so we had all the photos. I actually also sent the camera in, and the manufacturer fixed it for much less than a new camera would have cost.

I'll work on tips 8+ tomorrow during nap time. For now just remember to contact me personally for guidance or clarification of anything I've written. I also take requests, so bring on the topics you'd like me to cover next. Soren@fortunephotobooth.com

Cheers from fortunephotobooth.com





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Photo Booth Song

http://tinyurl.com/yfyfyxb Death Cab for Cutie "Photobooth" song on youtube

Be a Better Photographer- #5 manual exposure

This is a series of articles geared towards becoming a better photographer, with emphasis on wedding a portrait photography. I am Soren Coughlin-Glaser Photographer and owner of http://www.fortunephotobooth.com and and since my photo booth sales clients are usually wedding and event photographers, I am writing these articles to help you all become better photographers. I always value your opinion, so please email me if you need clarification or have a great question you would like answered here. You can contact me personally at soren@fortunephotobooth.com .

Today on Be a Better Photographer I am going to talk about how you can use manual mode on your camera to get better photos in difficult lighting situations.

I'm a big fan of the auto exposure features of today's DSLRs, I use P and AV modes for 90% of my candid wedding shooting. I shoot Raw (see #3 in the
series) so I know I have some latitude for exposure adjustment in post processing, and the auto modes of the cameras really helps you get a shot quickly without thinking about it.

But, I also use the auto modes as a cheater light meter to help me get better manual mode photos in tricky lighting situations. Sometimes you do have the time to fix your exposure so you know all the shots will be well exposed. I shoot a lot up at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood see:
http://www.timberlinelodge.com It is an amazing destination wedding spot.
It is right at Timberline, which means if you look up at the mountain, there are no trees in the way to block your view, and if you look down the mountain its nothing but tree covered hills for miles and miles. The scenery is amazing. And, it's a photographers nightmare! Its cold, its sunny, and shady and hot, and snowy, and glary, all that in the same shot sometimes.
Automatic exposure modes just give you blown out mountain, or have your subject's faces in the deep dark shade.



To fix this sort of back lit problem and crank out 100 different portraits that are well exposed with very little thought I use manual mode. It may be easy for me to say because I cut my photo teeth on film and completely manual cameras, but you too can do it, and your camera can help you. Manual mode makes things easier in these situations, because you set it up correctly, and then everything you shoot will be well exposed, as long as the lighting stays the same.



So imagine 16 wedding attendants facing you with the sun behind them. If you set your camera to P mode and take a shot, chances are that their faces will be too dark because the cameras meter will be fooled by the bright background. If you could just get the exposure correct for their faces and lock the camera to that then you'd be set to shoot away.

So here is the trick. Set your camera to P mode (or AV if you are comfortable with selecting your own aperture. Zoom in on the subjects, allowing very little background, or no back ground to show. You can zoom in or walk very close. You may have to warn your subjects that you are "Just getting an exposure" if you are invading their personal space by getting too close. Look at the photo on the back of the camera, and see if the exposure is acceptable. If it is, your cameras review screen can be set to tell you the aperture and shutter speed it used. Then remember those two numbers and switch your camera to M mode and enter those numbers. Then you are done, you know that exposure will give you good results. Get out of your groom face and shoot away knowing your camera won't be fooled.

Now even if 10 brides maids walk up with white dresses, or 10 groomsmen in black tuxes you know what exposure to use. This is an amazing feeling, knowing the shot is going to work before you shoot it. Just don't forget to change back to P mode if you change locations.

Now sometimes you can get a perfect exposure for the back lit group, but then the background is important too, and if you expose for the people in the shade, your background will get blown out! This happens at Timberline, because everyone wants the mountain in the background of their shots, which always puts their faces in the shade. The only way to solve this is to use M mode with the camera set for the mountains exposure, and use your flash to fill in their faces. So... First go to P mode and snap a pic of the mountain, if it is a well exposed shot you can remember the settings and set them in your camera while it is in M mode. Then compose your shot with the mountain and the shady group and have your Camera flash on. Shoot and see if you like it. I bet you will.

(warning advanced procedure below which may require you to read your cameras manual. Oh nooooooooooooo!!! Not reading the manual!!!) One caution to this method is that the flash is probably set to an auto mode too. You can go to a manual mode for it too, but for this article lets do something different if the people still aren't bright enough, or they are too bright. Follow the steps above and see what the group shot looks like in M mode with the flash on. If the people are still too dark you can adjust the Flashes exposure compensation feature to give you more flash. I do this all the time and I consider this a must have skill. Knowing how to brighten or darken your flash for individual shots is critical. So learn how to do it, and adjust the flash up or down as much as needed for each shot.
Its not easy but take your time and do it in practice first, once you are comfortable adjusting your flash compensation there is no stopping you from getting great exposed subjects and backgrounds.

Try it you might like it and it will certainly make you a better photographer. I use this with my DSLR all the time, and point and shoot cameras also have this feature. In my Photo booths http://www.fortuenphotobooth.com the background is white. If I didn't use the flash exposure compensation on the cameras the subjects would be too dark. So boosting the flash exp. Comp. gives me better results. So if you like it with your DSLR, try it with your point and shoot too.



As always feel free to contact me directly with questions or comments. I am here to help, and I actually like talking about this stuff. Email me at soren@portlandphotographer.com

Cheers!

Soren Coughlin-Glaser


www.FortunePhotoBooth.com

Be a Better Photographer #4 - Point and Shoot Advice

Today on Be a Better Photographer I'm going to talk about the cameras I love to hate. The point and shoot digital camera. Everyone has one of these things and there are a few tricks that you can learn that can really improve your snap shots. I am not necessarily talking about cell phone cameras or video cameras that take stills, but real dedicated small cameras that fit in your pocket and have a flash.


I do own a bunch of theses, mostly Canon brand, although most of these cameras have a similar feature set. A good resource for looking up the different makes and models is at http://www.dpreview.com If its not on their site, it probably doesn't exist.

What to look for when buying a point and shoot. This is the number one question I hear form people in social situations, once they find out I'm a photographer. Actually they usually want an exact model recommendation, but I really don't know much about the exact models, there are so many, and I don't use them except in my photobooth (shameless self plug warning http://www.fortunephotobooth.com ) And in the photobooth I use almost none of the features except the flash.

But I do know what to look for in these cameras. There are two features that will make you a better photographer. Hopefully you won't actually have to read your manual to figure out how to use these features. I know everyone hates reading.

Feature #1. A point and shoot that will be really useful will have an ISO setting of 1600 or higher. Shooting anything moving indoors with a point and shoot is almost impossible without a high ISO setting. Most people leave their point and shoots in full dummy mode. This will get you the same photos as any other dummy using their point and shoot. I suggest trying something called "P" mode or "program" mode. This will give you a little bit extra control over the cameras settings and allow you to take better photos.

I was recently photographing a Tennis tournament at my local tennis club, and a friend of mine asked why his pictures were so blurry, was there anything he could do to make them. I said "I doubt it.'" but I took a look at his camera just in case I could figure something out. better (This is all without flash, Sports mode turns off the flash which is its best feature since you would probably be removed from the sporting event if you use your flash)He must have read some of his manual, because he didn't have the camera in complete dummy mode, he was in the "sports" mode, which you would think would try to capture movement with as little blur as possible. But Sports mode is just some variation on the dummy mode. It's dummy mode for people looking at sports, and he was getting the same dumb pictures that everyone else was. I did two things, 1. I switched to P mode, when in P mode extra settings came up when the menu button is pressed and one of those was ISO! Eureka! This little camera (a Canon by the way) had ISO 1600 as a feature. I set the camera to ISO 1600, left it in P mode and Wow! He was getting pictures of tennis players serving indoors that didn't look like an interpretative underwater Swan Lake dace recital. I was able to reduce the blur a bit more when I turned the Camera to AV Mode and set it to the cameras widest aperture (The widest aperture is the smallest number, Why largest = smallest ? This small fact has probably discouraged more budding photographers than anything else, It was probably a plot by professional photographers to keep away the competition.)

Anyway try it you might like it. You just have to remember to turn the ISO back to "auto" when you are done, or the pictures of your family at the beach will look like you all have the Swine Flu. The real downside of ISO 1600 is the noise you will see in your images. But getting the picture (in my mind) always out weighs how much noise it has. Try this at home with indoor lighting. You can also combine this with the cameras built in Flash and you will see how much extra light your camera will let in. Stick your camera in P mode, turn on the flash and use ISO 800 and see what happens.

Feature #2. Get a long zoom. Its ok to have a camera with a 3x zoom, but you'll never get that creative with it. Get one with a 10x or 12x (or more) zoom. These cameras have the drawback of being slightly bigger, but this article is about taking better pictures, not more convenient ones. If the camera has to fit in my shirt pocket I prefer to use my phone. I use the iPhone which has a pretty mediocre camera and no flash but I always have it on me and it takes decent pics in normal light. I feel that cameras will keep getting better in cell phones till the tiny point and shoots will almost disappear, just wait and see. The big advantage of a small point and shoot over a cell phone is the more powerful flash.

Now that you have your point and shoot in hand here are two more tips for using it.

Tip #1. Learn how to turn off your flash! Start using P mode instead of dummy mode, and for most situations auto ISO is fine. P mode allows you to turn off the flash if you want. If you are in a well lit room and your subject isn't back lit, then turn off your flash for a shot and shoot a few natural light shots. Turn the flash back on and see what it does. Which do you like better? Natural light shots are often more natural and more pleasing, but as the light gets brighter or the light gets too dark, a flash can really help. In darker situations try the high ISO settings without a flash, and also try to turn the flash on. If the shots are too blurry without the flash then you need a tripod or table to stabilize the camera, but you can add some awesome variety to your shots if you learn to turn off that flash!

One thing I touched on above I kind of glossed over, so here goes again. As conditions get bright and sunny a flash becomes useful to reduce shadows on peoples faces. Bright sun almost always calls for a flash. Try it out. Dummy mode seems to turn the flash off in these situations. Go to P mode and turn on the flash, Of course your flash will do nothing for landscapes and distance shots, but it will really help your portraits. If it's too sunny find some shade, put your subject in the shade and turn that flash off for some. If there is no shade, turn the subject so their back is to the sun and turn the flash back on. Go ahead, try it.

Tip #2. This is my favorite tip for people who don't know how to work their cameras and may solve the number one complaint of point and shoot users. The complaint is... "when my subject is moving it takes too long for my camera to take the picture after I press the button." There is a work around for this problem. The shutter release button on almost every camera has 3 positions, 1/2 way down and all the way down, and all the way up. There is no way to just mash the button from all the way up to all the way down and get the camera to respond quickly. Don't be a button Masher!

What you need to do is anticipate the action a little bit. You see your cat crouched on the edge of the chair, ready to pounce! You see your spouse asleep on the floor beneath the cat with their hair blowing gently in the breeze from the open window. You can imagine the great photo you are about to take, you can feel it. The expression on their face will be worth reading this article on how to capture it! "Don't be a button masher" you say to yourself. So here is how you do it. You first focus on your spouses face by pushing the button 1/2 way down, and HOLD IT! WAIT, WAIT... The cat Jumps and lands on your spouses face. And you then PUSH THE BUTTON DOWN FURTHER! Eureka! You did it. The camera takes the picture exactly when you pushed the button.

OK, it didn't work, the picture is of the back of your spouses head, after the cat has been thrown out the door. What happened? If you did exactly what I said then it is your fault, you were too slow, not the camera. I have no cure for timid finger delay, only camera delay. So what happened? What happened was that you must have pushed the button down 1/2 way, waited, but your next move was critical, never let the button go back all the way up until you are done, go directly to the down position and collect your $200. If you ever let the button back up the plan will not work, you must push the button half way down which sets the camera up and locks it into ready position., then when you need the camera to fire, just finish pressing the button down all the way. I repeat, Never let the button back up after going 1/2 way down, go ahead and mash that button down. It takes practice, but have someone run by you back and forth over and over until you can get that camera to fire right when they are in the center of the frame every time. You can do it!

OK, there goes another segment in the Be a Better Photographer series. Remember. Don't be a button masher, and if you have any question comments fears or concerns, let me know about it. Feel free to email me at soren@fortunephotobooth.com or explore our website at http://www.fortunephotobooth.com I'll try to work on cutting down my run of the mouth sentences as the series goes along. Who needs punctuation....,,,??"!

Cheers!
Soren Coughlin-Glaser

Be a Better Photographer- #3 Shoot RAW

Please don't hate me because I shoot RAW.

In this installment of How to Be a Better Photographer (or If Soren Does it That Way, it Must be the Right Way, Right?) I am going to discuss RAW shooting and why you should do it too. I know that sounds like a terrible idea, and I resisted it at first too, but I am here to convince you to shoot raw and improve your images.

RAW is a file format that contains all the information that your camera was capable of capturing in any particular image. In contrast to RAW is the jpg mode that most everyone is familiar with and used to shooting in. Each jpg you shoot throws away information! It lock the exposure, it locks highlight and shadow clipping, it locks the white balance! Your camera is capable of so much more, if you would just give it a chance.

Shooting RAW takes up more memory on your cards, so you can fit fewer images on each card. Some people see this as a bad thing. But I'm here to tell you memory is cheap! In fact you can by compact flash memory cheaper than professional film and developing. That means if you shot RAW images on inexpensive cards and never threw them away, and just used a new card every time it would be cheaper than shooting film was in the "old days".

I don't recommend this however. I have read that Compact Flash cards are a great storage medium, and that they should last longer than DVD's or CD's, but there is one major problem with Flash Memory drives. The problem is that they can fail and not store images at all, or store them for a short period and then loose them. But fortunately this usually happens all the time and right from the beginning of a cards life. So, you should never use a new card at a wedding. All Wedding cards IMHO should be filled up and emptied of images at least twice to see if there are any problems, and then after that the chances of them failing are super small. I usually test new cards with family fun shots, or little shoots that I know I can re-do with little effort or embarrassment.

So Golden Rule #1 Never use a new flash card at a wedding!

I used to think that shooting RAW would take up more of my editing time and that that was why I shot 1/2 my wedding images as jpgs for several years.
That is no longer true. In fact with RAW shooting I think my computer time is now less than it used to be. And with Memory and Hard drives so cheap, there is no reason not to shoot RAW from now on.

What is so intimidating about shooting RAW is that you have to convert every file into a jpg or Tiff in order to print or see them without special software. But don't let it be intimidating, embrace it and learn how to convert your RAW images, and that will make you a better photographer.

I must make a couple of admissions at this point. Admission #1 is that Iu se PC's not Mac's, I can't even really help you with Mac specific questions.
Sorry about that. I'm just not a Mac fan. With my photo booth business
(www.fortunephotobooth.com) and photography studio I have at least 10 different computers working at a given time. Mac's would have either bankrupted me or kept me from expanding as fast as I wanted to. Admission
#2 is that I don't use Adobe Lightroom to convert my Raw images, I use the free software that comes with Canon Cameras called Digital Photo Professional or DPP for short. Its free, it works, it lacks some bells and whistles but you can always use lightroom for a few images if you have to, and the biggest reason I haven't switched to Lightroom like everyone else I know is that I think The skin tones of the converted RAW images are better from the free DPP than Lightroom. Lightroom has made some strides with newer camera profiles, but I am still not comfortable with the "look" of the images from Lightroom.

So If you have a Canon Camera, Shoot some RAW images, Over expose some, and underexpose some, and shoot some regularly. Open DPP and browse to the folder that has your new images. Select them all or a few and click the Edit Image button. In the tools panel that pops up you can adjust the brightness of the image to recover blown highlights or recover blocked up shadows, You can change the white balance and the sharpness, adjust the saturation (you can even turn it black and white or sepia toned), and highlight and shadow clipping. You can also reduce noise in the image and lens distortions too. All that and when it converts the image to a wonderfull looking perfectly exposed jpg file so you can print it or view it online, then you still have the original RAW file to play with in the future. You can do all this in Lightroom too, and its worth a try, the workflow can be a little better, but it is harder to master and maybe a bit intimidating at first.

Here is my favorite part: If the software improves in the future (and it always does) you can reconvert old RAW files and produce even better images than you can right now. I do that with my old D30 files and it is worth it!


See how much better you can make some of your underexposed and overexposed images. See how much control you now have. At weddings you are bound to take many exposures that are less than optimal. Even I sometimes underexpose an image ;-) Shooting raw and just changing a few exposures in your files can keep you from having to open any images in Photoshop, and that my friends, saves time.

If you want jpg files straight from the camera, you can set your camera to capture both RAW and JPG files, and even if you shoot RAW only you can still get a decent sized JPG file almost instantaneously from a batch of RAW files by extracting the embedded jpg file that is inside of them. I do this for quick and dirty web pages from batches of RAW images. For this extraction process I use Breeze Browser which is available from http://www.breezesys.com Breezebrowser is a great workflow help to me. When I drop images onto my hard drive the first thing I do is open them as thumbnails with Breeze Browser. You can mark images for deletion simply by pressing the space bar and then deleting them all at once. Actually it can be set to just move them to a deleted folder so you aren't worried about deleting ones by mistake.

I'll do an article on my Wedding work flow soon. While your waiting for that one with bated breath, send me your comments directly by emailing me at soren@fortunephotobooth.com I'd love to hear that you like the articles, or that you think I should be shooting portraits at Babies R Us. Either way I really care what you think, and I'm here to help you become a better photographer.


Cheers!

Soren Coughlin-Glaser

Be a Better Photographer #2 - Camera and Lens Advice

(Cameras)
If you are serious about photography as a hobby or profession you are going to want to buy a DSLR (digital single Lens Reflex) camera. This is a camera system that is made up of a body with interchangeable lenses, where you look through the lens (via a mirror in the camera body) to frame your shot, not on an electronic viewfinder or auxiliary lens. I'm not convinced that DSLR's won't be replaced by electronic viewfinders (it's already starting) but for now that is what you want.

I would also suggest you buy a Canon or Nikon DSLR. My personal preference is Canon (that is one n not two) I use Canon DSLR's for my weddings and portraits http://www.portlandphotographer.com and Canon point and shoots for my photo booths http://www.fortunephotobooth.com I have certain biases that Canon is better than Nikon and if you have a Nikon you better have the opposite feelings, otherwise there would be no reason to fight about it.
Many a Camera forum war has been started by someone dissing Nikon or saying they wouldn't use a Canon for a paper weight. We'll try to be civil here though, so keep your comments nice and clean. (Canon rules!)

Why Canon and Nikon? Because they have been around for a long time and I feel they really care about photographers, and photography I general. There is an amazing array of lenses and products made for these cameras and not only are they at the forefront in technology (canon may be a bit ahead ;-) but I think they will be around for a long time to keep supporting their products. Once you buy a nice lens you may have that lens for ever. After borrowing equipment for a few years I bought my first Canon Lens in 1993, a Canon 28-80 USM 3.5-5.6. It was and still is a fine variable aperture lens, and I still have it, and even use it as a back up lens. If it ever breaks I know I can send it in t Canon and in a week or so have it back in my bag functioning perfectly.

Canon was also named one of the worlds most environmental companies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_(company) Take that Nikon. Now give Canon some love.

The mega pixel race is winding down. All current DSLR's (IMHO) have enough resolution. I used to shoot weddings with a 3 Mega pixel camera, The Canon D30. Looking back maybe 3 MP wasn't quite enough, but then I had the D60 and 6 was pretty good. 8-10 seems like a great number, although with today's technology you'd be hard to find anything under 10 MP. Too many pixels crammed on a sensor can negatively affect image quality, but apparently has never hurt sales. I'm not saying more is always bad, it's just that all cameras have the required mega pixels for weddings and portraits at this point.

I actually still have my D-30 and D60 cameras and they still work. But eventually if you shoot for a living, or shoot a lot then your cameras mechanical shutter will break. You will be shooting away and suddenly your camera will sound funny while shooting, then when you review your images you will either see a black bar across your images or half of your photo may be over exposed. Time to send the camera in for repairs. This happens somewhere around the 300 thousandth frame. Which is why you will have a back up camera at all times. I usually use a camera until the shutter blows, repair it, then it becomes my back up and I upgrade bodies for my Primary camera. You can sell your old cameras or do something fun and crazy like what I did to my D30 - turn it into an Infrared Camera. See:
http://canonir.blogspot.com/ (There are also shops that will do this for you, but its cool to tear things apart and put them back together, and if they still work its amazingly satisfying. Just what to do with all the leftover parts that I was left with.)

Personally I love to shoot with a full frame sensor. That is, a sensor that is the same size as a piece of 35 mm film. If the sensor is smaller then all of your lenses are not what they say they are. For instance a camera with a 1.6 crop means a 20 mm lens is actually a 20 x 1.6 = 32 mm lens. And I love to shoot wide. Another benefit of a full frame sensor is that the photo sites are larger. Lets say two cameras had 1 pixel resolution, One of these is full frame and one is a 1.6 crop camera. That one pixel will be larger on the full frame camera right? It will be the size of a piece 35mm film. The same is true of 20 mega pixel cameras, the larger the sensor the larger the individual photo-sites are, and larger is always better right?
Like, "How big a hole would you like me to drill in your head?" But really, larger photo-sites mean cleaner images and more accurate colors. The draw backs to full frame sensors is that 1. your lenses are wider (and you might only like close ups) and the larger the sensor the more flaws your lenses will show. Lenses are often sharpest in the middle, and softer at the edges, so If your camera crops off the edges than you crop off all the soft areas that your lens makes.

Now, if you follow my advice and buy a Canon or a Nikon you will find that there are millions of other users online who are dying to answer your questions about these products. Go to http://www.dpreview.com and look at the Canon and Nikon forums, and you can solicit advice on which exact camera and which lenses you should buy. You may also notice that if you need to borrow or rent equipment, chances are that it will be Canon or Nikon, so if you are already familiar with then it will make borrowing and renting much easier.

(A word or two about Lenses)

"What lens should I buy?" That is a question I hear all the time. Of course it depends on what you are shooting, how much money you have, and if you are doing it for a living or not. I am a fan of the zoom lens. I love to zoom.
I stick with a 24-70mm lens for most of my wedding shooting. Others like to shoot with fixed focal length lenses, but as I said, I loves me the zoom.
In the studio I'll often shoot fixed, but for most shots a zoom has all the quality you'll need, and twice the convenience.

Case #1 The student with no money who wants to take better photos. In this case go cheap, go Sigma or another of brand and get something with a killer zoom range. Sigma makes a 18-300 Image stabilized lens that will get the job done. You may never change lenses again! Don't be afraid to buy used, but lenses will last forever and I find the quality control on new lenses is bad (see later comments on this) so don't buy unless you know you can return a defective copy of your lens.

Case #2 Someone starting out shooting weddings, and making a little bit of money at their hobby. In this case I think you need to have at least 2 lenses and a back up main lens. You need something in the 24-70 range and something in the 70-200 range to capture portraits and ceremony shots from far away. (Sigma and Canon and Nikon make these two lenses with a fixed 2.8
aperture) I am more of a fan of getting a 2.8 lens rather than relying on image stabilization. In weddings it's the subject moving that causes me to make blurry shots, not camera shake. Make the investment and go 2.8.

Case #3 The person who wants more and isn't afraid to make the investment.
At a minimum I would get the 24-70 and 70-200 lenses and then add the 15mm fisheye and a Lensbaby kit. Lensbaby now makes a circular fish eye for about $150 that is super fun http://www.lensbay.com . I'm going to write a lensbaby article soon. (watch this space) What else are you willing to lug around? You could add a 400 mm lens (better have an assistant to carry your
gear) or maybe a 85 or 100 mm macro/portrait lens. Everyone is going to suggest their own favorite arsenal, and feel free to leave your list as a comment to this blog post, or email me directly at soren@fortunephotobooth.com

(Side Note)

People who work with me know that I hate lens caps. When I buy a lens I open the box, put on the lens shade, throw the lens cap to the kids to use as a Frisbee and then throw the lens into the bottom of my camera bag. I do use the lens shade which gives some measure of lens protection. In fact, I better stop there.
I ALWAYS use a lens shade (and when I say ALWAYS, I hope you know I mean usually ;-) You must use a lens shade. Please go out and make sure you have a lens shade on every lens you use. Lens shades actually make pictures look better! They reduce lens flare which increases contrast, and I even believe it makes better pictures indoors as well as outdoors. Why do lens caps drive me nuts? Because they slow me down. I switch lenses quite often and removing and replacing lens caps just isn't in my work flow. Also, I just can't stand the embarrassment of pulling out an impressive looking 70-200 mm lens, and plopping it on in front of a big group at a wedding. Then you bring the camera up to your and then everyone in the group shouts "wait.
Wait! You left the lens cap on." Like you wouldn't have noticed, its an SLR do you can't see the scene with the cap on.

You however should not blame me when you scratch your nice new lens because Soren doesn't use lens caps, and doesn't scratch his lenses. Honestly though if lens caps float your boat, go ahead, I'm just a speed freak, I switch fast and furious and lens caps slow me down, or at least add a subliminal message to my brain telling me ... "Don't switch lenses, it's a pain." And the kids dig playing with them.
Some people are filter freaks and buy an $80 filter to protect their lens glass, fine go ahead if you must (I don't believe in them they just add more glass for reflections and lowering the contrast of the final shot.)
(end of lens cap rant here, its my own problem, and I know it.)

What about lens brands. I must admit I a not a purist here. I use Canon lenses, Lensbaby lenses, Sigma lenses, Tamron lenses, I'll use anything that fits on my camera if I like it, I even use a Holga lens on my canon, See:
http://www.holgamods.com/mods/mods.html . If you are looking for lens reviews I'd go somewhere like http://www.fredmiranda.com Fred has a great site with lots of gear info and helpful forums. It wouldn't hurt to visit http://www.dpreview.com either since the forums there have more posts than you could ever hope to read.

Here is my important advice on lens buying: One thing I've noticed about lenses, made by any company, is that quality control seems pretty low. You can buy a Canon 24-70 f2.8 L, and shoot 100 test shots of a non moving subject and the subject may never be in focus, (some call these blurry shots "Artistic.")But if you do some quick tests and find the lens is soft or won't focus and you swap it for another of the same kind you might find the worlds sharpest lens. I'm not sure why there is such a difference between two seemingly identical lenses, but it must be that these things are just that complicated. And if you are going to have a lens forever, you might as well test it, and send back the bad ones for a replacement.
Canon and Nikon make great lenses, but they are expensive, and I drop and break them just as often as I drop less expensive lenses. I suggest exploring Sigma as a substitute if you are on a budget, they make some 2.8 and better aperture lenses that I really like, The 24-70 and 70-200 are ones I use, as well as their 15mm fish eye and 14 mm wide angle. Just make sure
you get a good copy. (One reason I never liked the Canon zoom lenses is
that I shoot with off camera lights at weddings and the canons gave me big yellow pumpkin-like blob reflections on my shots, and I never get these with the Sigmas.) I'll be doing a lighting article soon.

That's it for now, I wrote way more than I thought I would, and I'm sure I'll have updates to this topic soon. As always please tell me if you like the article, or if you think I'm just full of it. Really I'd like to hear. You can email me at soren@fortunephotobooth.com Let me know if there is something you would like me to expand on or re-explain.


Cheers!

Soren
http://www.fortunephotobooth.com

Be a Better Photographer- #1 Adaptation

This is the first, in what I hope to be, A long series of informative articles about being a better photographer. I have been shooting weddings and portraits since 1996, and I am constantly being asked for, and giving advice to aspiring professionals, long time pros, as well as amateurs who are all trying to make better images. By following these articles I hope to give help to others. Lord knows I had plenty of help figuring it all out myself (and I'm still learning too) There just is so much to know on the way to becoming a great photographer that it can't be said that someone is entirely self-taught (even the camera manuals that came with your camera are full of golden rules, and practical advice).

A lot of what I say will be centered around wedding photography and portrait photography because that is what I do and know best. I also feel that a good wedding photographer can probably handle any type of photo assignment.

I was once asked, by a client, if I knew of a good commercial photographer in New York City. I told him to Google wedding photographers and pick a good one from their portfolio and that would be someone who could handle the job. My articles will be philosophical like this one, but also technical how to articles and creative ideas to help anyone who reads be a better photographer.

So, what makes a good wedding photographer? The answer to this is a lot different today than it was 10 years ago, and that is precisely my point.

A good wedding photographer adapts.

A good wedding photographer can be thrown into any situation expected or not, and they know their equipment and skills so well that they will come up with great images for their clients. That I call Adapting to the situation.

Imagine yourself at a wedding shooting the bride coming down the isle towards you. She is Beautiful and wearing a designer gown that is just stunning. Her father is smiling and brimming with pride. There is great sunlight falling on them from a frosted window, plenty of light on the background and you are shooting happily without a flash. Then, a scream from behind. The groom is about to pass out and fall off the stage, You swing around and see nothing but a brightly back lit scene with a silhouette of a Groom wobbling around as the groomsmen rush towards him to try and stop the imminent disaster from occurring. You have a warmed up flash on the camera, and you switch it on in time to flash him and freeze the motion as the groom hangs in mid air with an amazingly smug look on his face. You did it! The Bride won't want it, but all of his friends will buy a copy from you for sure, it might go viral on the internet and you'll be tuning down requests for weddings in Maui, "Oh I've shot too many there this year." How did you do it? Because you knew your equipment and you knew the lighting situation.
If you didn't you would have let your camera make all the decisions and you would have gotten a silhouette of a groom with a brilliantly well lit back ground, Bravo.

A good wedding photographer adapts to meet the challenges of their environment, but also of the times they live in. 10 years ago it may have meant having two or three cameras loaded with different types of film to make sure the photographer got a color, a black and white, and maybe a high ISO no flash shot of a certain scene. Today it might mean knowing how much room is left on their memory card during the bouquet toss (oops, I missed that just won't cut it, and neither will wait, wait.., let me get another card from my bag in the next room -or- We can do the cake cutting again right? Wipe the cake off the brides face and turn the cake around for when I re-load). It could also be how to remove an exit sign above the brides head in the best candid photo of her that as taken that night.

What brides and grooms want and expect change. When I was starting out in the mid 90's I found some photographers out there who claimed that my previous statement wasn't true. "I gave the bride and groom the same thing I gave them 20 years ago. I'm a traditional photographer. Or Brides will never accept a digital photographer. I will never change" But you know what? There aren't many of these guys around anymore.

This is especially true in today's tough economy. Brides now have an amazing amount of information to inform them about their photography choices. Brides are informed and they will get what they want, if you aren't following the trends then you won't be offering anything that will put you on their radar. And what is a Great photographer without any clients? A great photographer knows what their clients are looking for and how to deliver that to them.
When I started there basically wasn't a commercial internet, you had to choose your photographer by asking for referrals and viewing their portfolios in person, or going to a wedding show and seeing a few select photographers in one day (that's what I did when I got married, the wedding show, and boy was I sorry). Now you can view 10 different local photographers portfolios in 10 minutes, from the comfort of your own home.

How can you adapt your business to give Brides what they want?
How do you spot the trends? The same way the Brides do. Spend one day a month reading the wedding sites. Scan your competitions web sites (the ones that rank high on Google) and see what they are showing, what are they offering. Is any one doing something really fun and different? Don't be afraid to look outside your area. Look to New York, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Omaha, See what's happening all around you and be the first to offer some new service or type of special effect.

Go to http://www.flickr.com/ and search for these things HDR, Lensbaby, Infra Red, wedding photography, photobooth, and see what comes up. These are things I use to attract brides, and you can find things that you can implement into your photography that be the next great wedding trend. Start a Flickr account today and start posting your favorite shots. (Don't know what Flickr is> Go to it and find out. It is a a photo sharing site with more photos and photographers than you can imagine, many are very bad, but there are a surprising amount of talented people using Flickr to share images. There is a great search feature on the main page. Type in a subject and you will be directed to groups and individual images that others have tagged as related to your search term. Try it now! Type in "Lensbaby", If you don't know what that is you will find out.

Anyway that wraps up post number one. As always please email me personally with questions, at soren@fortunephotobooth.com and visit our main site http://www.blogger.com/www.fortunephotobooth.com to see what we are doing with our photo booth sales business. Photo booths are one way we are separating our wedding business from the competition.
Got an idea for the next article? Let me know that too.

Cheers!

PhotoBooth Software now fully functional

We just finished our first fully functional photo booth software. Email me for a DEMO version, and I will email it to you to check out. It is very stable and reliable, I am so excited! We have tried other software and run into nothing but problems. So far we have solved all of these glitches and made our software easy to use and really reliable.

All that is left to do now is to offer it as a DEMO on the web site and to licence it properly.

Before the end of the year I hope to have it for sale on our web site.

Monday is also a big day in the booth making process. Our plastics company will be finalizing our tools to produce our custom parts. Big things are happening, so stay tuned.

http://www.fortunephotobooth.com/

Customizable Panels

One of the design benefits of the Fortune Photobooth booth design is that the panels can be completely customized for your business, or even for each client. The Panels themselves are made out of durable, recyclable, printable Correx. They are extremely lightweight, yet strong enough to support the booth. The examples above were made for Corporate clients. The booth needs to be printed only on two sides as shown to give the users the feeling that all the sides are printed which saves money on printing costs. The Boards can accept stickers, or be printed on directly. We hope to have a design service available soon. The curtains could also be customized by you to add to the appearance of the booth, or have the inside curtain changed so that the photos themselves will have a custom background.

Welcome to the Fortune Photobooth Blog

Welcome to the Fortune Photobooth Blog. We are the portable photo booth business solution. We make a portable photo booth kit that can function as a regular photo booth, or a flip book booth or a video testimonial booth. We have our own photo booth rental business at http://www.portlandphotobooth.com and are here to help you get started with your own fun and exciting photo booth company.

This blog will be an area where we talk all things photo booth. We will focus on fun uses and creative ideas for the photo booth business, and also add informational articles about our products and upcoming products.

http://www.fortunephotobooth.com is going to be The place on the Internet for photo booth info and equipment.

Enjoy!

Cheers!
Soren