"The Colors Of Summer"©David A. Ziser
This image was made on a very, very hot afternoon in September. The challenge was this. Was there any way I could capture the rich color of the blue sky with beautiful cloud formations behind the bride? The typical “F16 sunny day” rule for correct exposure is;
1/ISO @ F16. You can see from the camera specs that I was in the ballpark for the exposure. I managed to keep the bride in the shade but I still needed to sync my Canon 5D at 1/500 second – no problem –just hit the “high speed sync” button of the back of the flash and I’ve got it. Because of the giant power dump of the flash in high-speed sync mode, my second 580EX flash had to be fairly close to the bride. That wasn’t a problem either because of my tight field of view with my long lens. With the bride in the shade, the shadows went a bit dark. This was an easy fix with my on-camera 580EX flash dialed down to the appropriate intensity for the contrast I wanted. Hey, a little complicated but I think we still captured a nice shot. Canon 5D fitted with 70-200mm F2.8 IS lens at 120mm, F14 @ 1/500 second, ISO 400.
Enjoy! -David
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Following this logic further - we can see that we can actually shoot the Canon 50D at 35mm optic focused at 10 feet at F4 and actually have more depth of field that I was getting at with my Hasselblad fitted with its 80mm lens. I always thought it was interesting that so many film photographers as they transitioned to digital 35s continued to shoot at the same F8 aperture they used on their medium format cameras. Many didn’t even realize that they were increasing their depth of field tremendously.
The bottom line is this - I find that F5.6 gives me plenty of depth of field for all of my wedding day flash candids. As long as I shoot with the focal length between 24-50mm I’ve got plenty of depth of field to capture the action, and I'm assured that even if the auto focus misses a bit I'm still covered by my depth of field.
So many locations have fabulous views when we point our cameras to the stars. This can include churches, synagogues, and reception venues.
It's how we look up that's important too. My favorite gear for looking up are my wide angle lenses. I prefer the 10-22mm lens on my Canon 40D. On my Canon 5D Mark II, the Sigma 12-24mm is utterly fantastic. Both the camera lens combos give you about the widest view you will ever need.
Can we include foreground elements like flowers that add to the dramatics of the scene? Adding foreground elements places the ceiling in a different visual context in the image. Although the ceiling is indeed dramatic, it's the flowers in the foreground that dominate the composition because of the wide angle optic creating a quite striking image.
LaDawn and I were in Paris a few years ago and I strolled around the Eiffel Tower with the Sigma 12-24mm lens on my 5d at the time. I loved the images I captured - quite dramatic and a view quite different to what you normally see of this fabulous Paris landmark.
Hey gang, that's it for me today. We head back to Cincy on Sunday, so I'll see you on the flip side of the weekend. Have a good one and I'll see you Monday. -David 
Kerry just put up another post, "
Here is where the twist begins. If it's that easy to make a "Signature Brush", why not develop some other "brushes" that can help us in our work flow. That's exactly what we do. After each wedding shoot , we have to edit the images, prep them for order, slightly tweak them in lightroom if needed, create the client presentation, and get them on-line for the client to view. One of the key elements in creating the client presentation is the "titling" process. I want a beginning title image and an ending title image as part of each presentation.
We are working on other Text Brushes to make life easier at the studio. The other brushes might include, Thank You, Special promos, what ever you can dream up. With you new brush set, you can easily and quickly create personalized invites, reminder cards, etc for your client.
You have to check out his wife's Sol's best images of 2008. They will blow you away! Head on over to Matt’s place today and give a peek. Here is the 
I’ll tell you, his work is a bit edgy capturing the wedding day emotions in a unique way. Go check out 
Now what do I do to get the same visual effect as I was getting with my trusty 150mm Sonnar? The easy answer was - get a slightly longer lens and shoot it wider open - like at F4.0. After doing some testing, I found the "Magic Bullet" of a beautiful outdoor portrait was about 125mm to 200mm lens at F4.0 on my DSLR - I was back in business. I once again had great background separation of the subject from the background. That focal length/F-stop combo are now my default settings when ever I shoot a portrait outdoors.
There is the occasional exception, but that usually has to do with shooting in a brighter ambient light situation where I need to stop the lens to F5.6 - Yes, you can tell the difference, it's simply not as pretty.
Too many photographers are afraid to shoot at the wider aperture causing the background to come into sharper focus which then competes for attention with the subject. Back in my early film days, I had to practice focusing at the wider apertures to be sure I was sharp on the subjects. Today, there is nothing to it with the auto focus cameras we have available.
3 - NEVER stand in front of the bride with all the girls behind the bride to take the shot. The bride blocks way to many of the girls and the shot will look awful. It’s always about seeing as many faces, capturing all the excitement as possible for the shot.
5 – How about the exposure – my standard F-stop is F6.3 on my Canon 5D Mark II fitted with my 24-105mm IS lens and F5.6 on my 50D fitted with either my 17-85mm IS lens. I also like working with the 18-200mm IS lens too. It’s a great working lens for wedding candids because of the range of the focal length.
Head over to the site and register right now. Want to save $20, be sure to enter 
There are always smiles and sometimes tears and hugs, all of which need to be captured as part of the series. I have a regular routine that I use when photographing this series of events for my clients. It's a routine I follow every wedding to be sure that I have a great series of images of both the bride dancing with her father and the groom dancing with his mother.
2 -- Early in the dance I try to grab one coaxed candidate of the bride and her father dancing. This would mean that right after the dance begins I would approach them easily and ask both of them to look into the camera give each other a hug.
3 -- In the opening moments of the father/daughter dance the bride and her dad, most of the time, share reassuring, loving words with each other and there are some great expressions to be captured at this time.
6 -- As the song reaches its end, be sure that you are ready for what will invariably happen at nearly every father daughter dance. As a last note is played the father and the bride will hug tightly with each other, maybe kiss, maybe a dip of his daughter and maybe hold each other for a moment or two. Don’t miss this – it’s a wonderful opportunity to capture some treasured expressions and great shots of these wonderful moments. 
Hey everybody, that wraps it for me today. I'll see everybody tomorrow for Business Day Thursday: Wedding Inquiry - How To Get All The Info You Need. See ya' then. -David
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