Quick Hit Monday: Great Wedding Weekend – Tried Lots Of New Things; Ansel Adams In A Box; Super Size Sensors

Good Morning Everybody,

We made it through our very busy weekend and I was happy to be on the plane back to Denver. You know you are too busy when you look forward to airports and plane flights for your break in the action ;~)

Anyway, I photographed a beautiful wedding celebration Saturday, and between beautiful homes, wonderful parks, and an urban setting or two thrown in for good measure, 12 hours later we had plenty of photographic variety for my client. I'll share a few of the images with you over the next few days.

Yesterday LaDawn and I just took most of the day off, relaxed, and caught up on some sleep - it was a well needed break for the both of us.

Today we kick off the third leg of of our Captured By The Light 2010 [link] tour visiting Denver, Kansas City, and St. Louis this week.  Once again, we are expecting a crowd of over 200 excited photographers. The Denver photographers have always been a good group as I have presented to their PPA organization several times. We are looking forward to catching up with a few familiar faces.

I hope you'll get a chance to stop by this week.

Time to get on with today's post...

Wedding Recap: I Tried Lots Of New Ideas At This Weekend's Wedding Celebration

For this past weekend's wedding, I think I used every lighting technique I talk about in the CBTL tour. Once again, the coolest lighting tool was my gigantic 7 foot umbrella. Instead of just using my trusty Zumbrella, I pulled out the giant umbrella for a few shots. I have to say, it does put a pretty light on the subject. In fact, it figures in tomorrow's brand new Technique Tuesday episode, so stay tuned.

This was also the first time I had my bride request a few "urban" bridal images. Heck, we allotted 6 hours for photography so there was plenty of time to capture everything she wanted. I'll post one or two of these images later this week.

Sigma also sent me a few lenses to try out. One of them was their 4mm Fisheye. This lens was designed for APS sized sensor cameras like the Canon 7D. The lens gives you a 180 degree view showing a perfect circle or fisheye view image.

Nicholas, my Ace #1 assistant, gave it a try or two during the reception. Let's just say the results where interesting. This is one of those lenses that you have to think through how you want to use it on a job. I'll give it a try next time and see if I have better luck. Hey, if Edison had only tried one time in making the light bulb, we all would still be in the dark - right?

Lastly, I threw caution to the wind, and used my Canon 5D Mk II to shoot a lot of my available light images at ISO 6400. I really had no choice because of the extremely low light conditions of the church. These are images I never would have gotten back in the film days - now it's a "piece of cake" and I can capture some great moments like this one right before the bride walked down the aisle.

Anyway, we tried lots of new ideas and I know my client will love the results.

Ansel Adams In A Box & Secret NIK Deals

Several months ago I did a tutorial on NIK Software's Silver Efex Pro [link]. This is the best piece of software on the planet earth for making, finessing, and fine tuning your Black and White images. I just love the control you have In controlling the various tonal ranges of the image.

Silver EFEX Pro goes even further than that though. Check out this lesson I found  at Luminous Landscape on the same topic [link].  Mark Segal goes into great detail about how the software works and how to get maximum benefit out of it's use. Check it out right here.

Oh, by the way, all CBTL attendees get 20% of the published price of all NIK Software by using my secret code. If our readers of DPT want the same deal, I've got to whisper the code to you so no one else hears. OK, listen close - here's the code: DZISER. That will get you 20% off any NIK product purchased through their website. Keep it to yourself, OK ;~)

Super Sized Sensors – Pixels Run Amuck!

Canon just announced that they've developed the largest CMOS sensor in the world with a chip size measuring 202 x 205 mm [link]. It just doesn't fit into any cameras available now on the market but, it does reveal how far their research has progressed in this field.

A week earlier they announced an 120 meg APS size sensor or a pixel count of 13,280 x 9,184 pixels – unbelievable [link]! OK, how long is that going to take to open in Photoshop and process?  Canon has no immediate plans to put it in production.

Let's see - if my math serves me right, I should be able to shoot 133 shots on my 16 gig cards. So, I shoot at least 3000 shots on a wedding. That means I would need over 1/3 terabyte or 76 DVDs to back up the job. I think I'll stick to my 7D for the time being. Isn't technology wonderful!

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Hey gang, that's it for me today. We've got to head on down to the ballroom and begin setting the room in just a few hours. Tomorrow we make the day long drive to the Kansas City and have my presentation scheduled for Wednesday evening. It's St. Louis on Thursday and then home for the weekend and our big KPPA Worldwide webcast on Sunday. I know it sounds busy, but it's still fun.

Hope to see a few of you this week as we visit a city near you.

Adios for today, -David