Sunsets and Photoshop – Florence, Italy Comes To Life!

Good Morning Everybody,

We have had a great couple of days  in Florence, Italy.  Of course the highlights of the trip have been seeing all the beautiful paintings and sculpture, the historic buildings and architecture throughout the city.  Once again, Florence was the birthplace of the Renaissance - the rebirth of Europe after the dark ages.  To be in the center of such history is a breathtaking experience.

Sunsets - Some Of The Best Are In Florence Italy!

We walked everywhere in Florence coving nearly 35 miles in our 3 day visit. Hey, you've got to walk off the Gelati desserts, right ;~)  One of our long walks took us to the top of the city, Piazzale Michelangelo where the view was magnificent!  We arrived just at sunset and LaDawn and I spent the next hour or so photographing the Florence skyline from about every perspective.  The image below is one of my favorites.

I love the HDR feature on my Canon 5D Mark III.  For images like the sunset above, it just adds so much more to the scene and really represents the images more as we remember them.  Look at the straight photograph below.  This was one of the three images used to produce the HDR image above.  It's not near as exciting as the original scene.

  Sure, I could tweak it quite a bit in Lightroom and Photoshop and get a very beautiful result.  But, for a quick sunset grab, I like the HDR feature set to Art Vivid --- way cool!!

Piazzale Michelangelo is really one of the best locations to really feel the expanse of this historic city.  I clicked off a few more images, in HDR mode of course, highlighting some of the predominant buildings on the landscape like the Duomo below.  Enjoy!

A Breathtaking Art Experience - Maybe Needed A Little Photoshop?

We have seen the original David sculpture by Michelangelo – no relation BTW, but Michelangelo’s interpretation of David from David and Goliath in the Bible.  David is considered to be one the pre-eminent works of art in the world.  Michelangelo's exciting sculpture captures both the strength and innocence of the subject.  Actually, Michelangelo saw a piece of marble in the courtyard years ago and asked if he could use it.  After getting the OK, he set upon creating this perfect masterpiece.

We also visited the Uffizi Museum, the oldest museum in the world and were presented with art works which clearly illustrated the transition from medieval art where perspective was not considered - the images were painted in a rather two dimensional perspective.  The Renaissance artists like Leonardo di Vinci, Michelangelo, and Botticelli brought a brand new dimension to their art….. literally! Seeing these world famous paintings up close and personnel IS quite a thrill.

OK, I'm going to take a little liberty with one of the artist's masterpieces, Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" that you see above.  I thought the original image was painted with very muted tones. Maybe it’s the fact that the painting is over 500 years old.  I'm thinking, "How could this painting have looked if Mr. B had access to Lightroom and Photoshop?  Take a look at the second image - what do you think ;~)

OK, before I offend any art historians out there, you need to see the Accademia Gallery "playful" version of Mr. M's famous David - please see image below.

Yep, right outside the gift shop - there was the blond haired, pick skinned David for the entire world to see - kind of funny.

One Of The Friendliest Countries We've Ever Visited

One of the travel treats for me is meeting and visiting with the people in any new city.  I don't care if it's NYC, LA, London, or Florence, Italy - I'll always try to strike up a conversation.  For me, it's just another way to absorb the flavor of the people and the locale.  Everyone we've met has been always ready to help, even if they didn't speak the language, which, BTW so far, has not been an obstacle at all to our travels.

In addition to the friendliness of the locals, We've also met several fellow tourists who were equally friendly and willing to share experiences of their travels.  One of the couples we met, they were newlyweds, were on a 5 week holiday throughout Europe.  They told us that in New Zealand, that he as a police officer receives 12 weeks of paid vacation and must take that time off - we were floored.  They believed the average employee received around 6 weeks paid vacation after their first year of employment. They were also equally as floored when we explained that an average employee in the US would receive 1-2 weeks paid vacation after working a full year or two, then maybe 3 weeks after being employed with the same company after 4-5 years. We work way too hard in the good old USA ;~)

On Friday, we enjoyed one of our best dinners at the super popular and highly recommended Il Latini Restaurant.  This restaurant is HUGE seating upwards of 400 guests on a busy night.  And they do it with a kitchen staff of four and  wait staff of only 17 - efficiency is the key, we were told by our good natured waiter.  We were quickly engaged in a lively conversation with two couples next to us - all of us sharing our travel adventures so far.  Greg and his wife Kelly even had our photograph taken with the owner (left of LaDawn) above- all good fun. Cost for 2 appetizers, salads, pasta course, an unbelievable cut of the most tender veal anywhere, veggies, two bottles of wine, dessert, and after dinner drinks - $60 each - unbelievable!!! 

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Hey gang, that's it for me today.  We head off to Rapallo Sunday morning via train to explore the northwest coast of Italy including the world famous Rapallo, Portofino, Cinque Terra region of the country.  More next week.  Have a great weekend and I'll see you soon.

Arrivederci,  David

Technique Tuesday: Happy B-Day & New Orleans Wedding Shoot – Part Two

Good Afternoon Everybody,

First off, let me thank everyone for all the birthday wishes that came pouring in from around the world.  I read each and everyone of them and really THANK YOU all for the very kind thoughts. Yes, it’s another year older for me today – should I try that box of Grecian Formula or not ;~) All joking aside, a person is as old as they feel and I really don’t feel as old as I’m suppose to be.  I think it comes down to how one embraces life, always looking on the bright side, and always embracing all the new challenges that we sometimes must face.

This past weekend, after all the trials and tribulations of dealing with 3 cancelled Delta flights, and all the frustrations in trying to get my daughter, Elizabeth into town, I can happier report that we all had a great weekend even though it was much shorter than expected.  The highlight of the weekend had to be the trip to Kings Island and the marathon riding of the coasters. 

I remember a few years ago, I mentioned to LaDawn that I felt my coaster days were over. I was heading into that 6th decade of my life and felt like I was needing to slow down.  Part of those feelings were due to the extra weight I had put on and an overall felling of losing some of my never-ending energy. 

But about 4 months ago a few students in my Master Class and I were discussing getting and staying in shape. They convinced me it was my time to take the “bull by the horns” and do something about how I was feeling. The following week I began my journey to do just that. Now 4 months later I’m walking 7-8 miles a day, eating sensibly, and am currently 50 pounds lighter than I was at the beginning of my journey 4 months ago.  I felt alive again – and ready for the Kings Island coasters!!!

Now you have to picture this.  I am quite literally the “most senior” person in all the coaster lines.  I read with trepidation all the cautions about riding the coasters with bad backs or necks, high blood pressure, and the myriad listing of ailments that I probably have to some degree or another.  But, none of that deters me away from a great coaster ride. And, I want the front car too!!

Anyway, this weekend showed me that I have a few more years in me to ride the great coasters of the world and I can’t wait!!! Alright gang, time to get back to our regularly scheduled feature – Technique Tuesday.

Technique Tuesday: New Orleans Wedding Shoot – Part Two

As I’ve previously mentioned, we had a great time in New Orleans a few weeks ago. My wedding shoot-out was a kick because I got the opportunity to shoot with the new Canon 600 EX-RT speedlites and I really put them through their paces. In my first post about my shooting experience [link1], I covered a lot of details about the strobes. I also posted two other very informative articles covering my use of the strobes that you can find right here - [link2 and link3].

In today's shoot I will walk you through several more images from that session. As I review the series of images I’ll discuss the lighting, the exposure, and the compositional challenges we faced during that shoot. I was thrilled with the results that I was getting.  During that class-time, the bride had her mother with her, so I shared all the images with her mother as well as with the bride.  The bride and her mother were both ecstatic over the results.  

Why not hit the PLAY button below and let me share a few more those images with you here today.  I think you'll enjoy the show.

Other links discussed in today’s post:

Quick Hit Monday: My First Day With Canon 600EX-RT Speedlights–WOW!

Technique Tuesday On Wednesday: New Orleans Wedding Shoot - Part 1

Bonus Post: Canon 600EX-RT Works Great For Reception Photography

Canon 600 EX-RT speedlite info: [link]

David Ziser’s 42” Zumbrella: [link]

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Hey gang, that's it for this Birthday Boy today.

Have a great rest of the day and I'll see you soon, David

"Some Enchanted Evening"

"Some Enchanted Evening"
© David A. Ziser

This is an image later in the evening during the rehearsal dinner of my recent northern Michigan wedding. The restaurant’s location was just perfect to enjoy the beautiful setting sun over Lake Michigan. The crowds had pretty much disappeared from the beach this evening – those that were left I removed with the content aware tool in CS6 ;~)

 

The setting sun was working it’s wonderful cinematic magic on the horizon. I thought to enhance that cinematic sunset magic by making an HDR exposure of the scene – this is my result.

I feel that the new HDR features and my Canon 5D Mark III camera combined with the beautiful view of the setting sun gave me a beautiful image that truly does capture the feeling of the image’s title above.

 

In the original photograph I thought there was just a little too much space between the trees on the left and the umbrella you see in the foreground on the right. I took the image into Photoshop CS6 and used the “Content Aware Scale” feature to reduce that space just a bit and get the proper visual balance I was looking for in my final composition.

Going back into Lightroom 4, I tweaked the vibrancy, clarity, and saturation sliders just a bit to get the finished result I was looking for. I think the simplicity of this composition, the beautiful, rich, contrasting colors, and the peaceful, serene nature of the image make for a great landscape image.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Tamron 28–300 mm VC lens at 28mm, F6.3 at 1/50 second, ISO 400. Enjoy! – David

"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"

"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"
© David A. Ziser

I love this photograph. It's a simple backlit photograph of the bride dancing with her father. With my assistant positioned behind the bride and her father and with the both of them turned about 45° to the axis of the camera, the light from the backlight  illuminates the father shirt which then becomes the light source for the bride's face. Utilizing a higher ISO guarantees a decent exposure on the bride's face letting me see her beaming expression as she enjoys this wonderful moment with her father.

This technique works equally well when the bride is dancing with her groom.  The secret is to be sure to catch the couple at about a 45° from a line drawn from the camera to the flash behind the couple. As long as the flash has a clear view of the guy’s shirt – dad or groom, that shirt will become the light source giving you the illumination you want on the bride's face.

This is a great technique I've used over and over again. Once I've made a full-length exposure of the couple I’ll then zoom in and follow the action  for several more minutes hoping to capture a close-up image of either the bride with the groom or dad beaning back at her. 

Remember too, if we use the same technique with the bride’s back to the camera and the front of her gown oriented to the backlight, the light will bounce off of her white gown creating a light source for either the father’s or the groom's face and will get the same result is what we see right here. These new combo images are a perfect combination to the example we see here in today’s post.

Too many people settle for the  simplest of photographs of this special moment - just a quick photograph of the bride and groom or the bride and her dad this looking directly back into the camera smiling.  I think the image I'm showing today represents a bit more creative and exciting approach to that special moment of the evening. Again, it takes an auxiliary flash to pull it off but the results are worth it.  And, that folks, is one of the big differences that makes a difference in wedding photography these days.

DAZNOTE:  The question comes up, "Will this technique work with a remotely fired smaller shoe mount flash?" The answer is yes but once again you get a remember that you will be using high ISOs – probably any ISO 6400 or maybe even higher. You will have to use them at a power setting – maybe full power – to get the same result. 

This image becomes part of a full page spread in the bridal album and is always a favorite for whomever is represented in the image.

Camera specs  Canon 5D Mark three fitted with Tamron 28 – 300 mm lens at 28 mm,  F5.6 @ 1/100th of a second, ISO 4000. Enjoy! – David

“Summer Silhouettes"

"Summer Silhouettes"
©David A. Ziser

This is an image I made a few weeks ago at a wedding.  This wedding is also featured in today’s Technique Tuesday.  We had just arrived at the wedding/reception venue – Drees Pavilion – and we were the only ones there.  A few of the wedding party were gathering all the items from the limos and placing them into the bride’s room.  My assistants were busy gathering all our gear for the start of our shoot at Drees.

I stepped back and liked what I saw – the bride and a few bridesmaids looking out the large bank of windows onto the Ohio River valley showing the river and full cityscape of Cincinnati, Ohio.  There was no way I could quickly capture the full dynamic range of the scene so I settled for the girls’ silhouettes in front of the windows.  I do like that you barely see mom and dad sharing the moment too as they exchange smiles with each other.

Later in the evening I quickly put together an iPad slideshow for the wedding party and the guests to enjoy.  Several of the bridesmaids came over to tell me this was one of their favorite images – hence, its selection for today’s post.  I think the image has a nice “quiet moment” feel about it and like it a lot.

Camera specs:  Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Tamron 28-300mm IS lens at 28mm, F5.6 @ 1/800 second, ISO 2500.  Enjoy!  -David

p.s.  The high ISO setting is probably a left over setting from the available light images I made earlier at the hotel.  It’s a non-issue because of the low noise characteristics of the camera so I wasn’t worried a bit about noise.  -DAZ

Quick Hit Monday: From New York City - My Times Square Photo-Walk Last Night

Good Morning Everybody,

That's right, today and all this week, I'll be coming to you from the Big Apple - NYC.  We landed safe and sound yesterday, had a nice lunch with my soon to be graduated daughter, Elizabeth, and finally got checked in to our hotel late yesterday.

We didn't just want to hang around the hotel, a very nice one btw, so we decided to start walking towards Time Square to see if we could nab a Broadway play ticket or two and then take in a movie. It was about a half hour walk down to 42nd Street and I knew I would have my camera in tow - but which lens to use???

My NYC Photo Walk Challenge

I have this little creative game I play with myself whereby I'll put one lens on the camera and just shoot everything with that lens. Since we've been to NYC many times I sure didn't need any more touristy pics taken with my normal go-to-vacation lens, my 24-105mm IS lens. I wanted an optic that would give a completely different perspective on my subject than any normal focal length lens.

Also, I figured we would be walking back to the hotel after dark and I thinking it would be cool to get some shots of Times Square at night with whatever optic I choose.  OK, so which lens did I chose - drum roll please,  my new 8-15mm zoomable Fisheye.  Have I mentioned how much I like that lens? So, the Fisheye it was. Wait, there's more - I also set my Canon Mark III to the new HDR setting to simply play around and see what images I might capture.  Hey, If I didn't get the HDR effect I wanted, I still had the 3 separate exposures to choose from for a traditional photograph. 

Below is a collection of some of my favorite images from last night's walk back to our hotel.

From the AMC Theater roof top down on 42nd Street:

Another from the same rooftop looking down on 42nd Street:

In front of the McDonalds on 42nd:

42nd and Broadway heading up Broadway:

From 45th and Broadway looking down Broadway:

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Hey gang, that's it for me today.  Don’t forget to check out my new set of Photoshop Freebies following this post – you’ll love them. On that note, we heading out to see the sights today and visit a few friends.  I'll plan to see everybody tomorrow for Technique Tuesday.

Have a great one and I'll see you then,  David

Quick Hit Monday – New Canon Flash News; Another New Camera??; Inspirational Photography; and More!

Good Morning Everybody,

Hey gang, I'm stoked this morning - we are kicking off my 5-day Digital Master Class/Workshop.  The batteries are charged - mine included,  workbooks are printed, models are ready to go, we've selected all the locations , and my coaches are waiting in the wings ready to assist for another great week.  And, the weather looks like it's going to hold for our shooting sessions too - always a good thing for a workshop;~)  Of course, I'll keep you posted with our progress throughout the week.

Anyway, before I get to class, I've got a few HOT links for you to check out for today's Quick Hit Monday.  Here we go...

Canon 5D Mark III & 600EX-RT Flash Update!

I was doing my web cruise over the weekend and saw that my blogging buddy and good friend, Syl Arena, just nabbed three of Canon's NEW, not yet released in the US, 600EX-RT (for radio control) strobes from his European Canon connection!  Hey Syl, I wish we all had connections like that ;~)

Here is the deal'; Syl ran the strobe units through about every test and shooting situation you could possibly put those "flash puppies" through and reports on his experience in these next two links.  Enjoy!  Hey Syl, can I play with them when you're finished?

-First Impressions: Testing Canon’s New Speedlight 600EX-RT & Speedlight Transmitter ST-E3-R: [link]

 

-Video: Hands-On With The Canon 600EX-RT Speedlight & ST-E3-RT Speedlight Transmitter: [link]

 

Ok, you know how I'm blown away with the High ISO abilities of the new Canon camera.  Check out this video over at YouTube that once again shows amazing results of some high ISO night videos captured with the new camera - amazing!!

-Canon 5D Mark III High ISO Performance Tested at Night: [link]

How About Some Inspiration Photography to Get Your Week Off To A Great Start

40 Gorgeous Photographs of Wedding Couples: Some really nice images and some good ideas too. [link]

Absolutely creative people photography by Elox:  Very exciting and captivating images - worth the trip. [link]

PDN's 30 2012: New and Emerging Photographers to Watch:  Check out each of these photographers - some absolutely amazing images!!! [link]

Is This My Next Camera?

A few weeks ago I blogged about how I shot some HD video at a recent wedding and then used Lightroom 4 Frame Capture feature to nab the best frames - in JPEG, of course.  I then used those frame grabs to design in Lightroom 4 some cool wedding album pages for the client.  The size limitation of the frame grab let's me get, just barely, up to an 8x10 image. [link]

So have you checked out Canon's latest 4K Cinema EOS C500/C500 PL digital cinematography camera announcement? [link]  What’s a 4K camera? It's a video camera that captures 4x the resolution of the 5d Mk 3.  It can output quad full-HD (3840 x 2160) 10 bit RAW video stream.  Now were getting serious!  With that kind of resolution, I suspect you’ll have the ability to output some amazing images from those frame grabs!

Does this mean the end to still photography as we know it? I would think not. But just wait until the price drops and more photographers capture images from video grabs.  Looks like a brand new way of thinking and capturing images to me.    Here is the entire story right here.  What do you think?

Some Cool Lightroom 4 and Photoshop Tidbits For You

Advanced Portrait Retouch on a Male Subject in Lightroom 4 – Part 1 of 3:  This is a hit-it-out-of-the-park LR4 tutorial.  It's well thought out and makes some great points about how to use many of the new features of the recently released Lightroom 4. Definitely worth the trip. [link]

Colorize a Black and White Photo in Photoshop: This is an utterly fascinating tutorial on how to colorize a black and white image.  The walk through of the techniques is definitely worth the visit. [link]

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Hey gang, that should get you going for the week.   Once again we have an international student roster which always makes the  Master Class even more exciting and informational as we explore weddings from other parts of the world.  After the class today, it's back to our home for our Welcome Party.  It's a fabulous way to begin the week and allows everyone get to know each other in a casual atmosphere.  On that note gang, I've got to get moving - class starts shortly. Have a great rest of the day and I'll see everyone tomorrow for another brand new Technique Tuesday.

See ya' then,  David

Technique Tuesday: The Power Of The JPEG!

Good Afternoon Everybody,

Sorry for the late post today – it seems Camtasia, my default video editor, is having a little trouble with my higher resolution video files I'm using. It gets pretty frustrating sometimes. So, I'm on the lookout for some new video editing software – any suggestions?

Technique Tuesday: The Power Of The JPEG!
Anyway, I finally have today's post organized so I hope you enjoy the presentation.  The whole idea for today's Technique Tuesday came about as I was uploading my brand-new Canon 5D Mark III images into Lightroom 4. Since I  duplicated all the images to a second SDHC card as JPEG's I thought I would just play around and see what kind of JPEG versatility I had in Lightroom 4.  Before long, one thing led to another, and I was spending a fair amount of time testing the limits of some of my JPEGs.  The more I played with them in Lightroom 4 the more surprised I was with the results.

In this tutorial I'll walk you through several images, some as many as three stops overexposed and some almost 2 stops underexposed and show you what I discovered.  I will tell you that the ones that were three stops overexposed, even those that were two stops overexposed cannot be saved. That was also true with the duplicate RAW files I also use this comparison in my demonstration.

Understand that my exposures are pretty consistent throughout an entire event. The images I chose to use were just a few image hic-cups every photographer experiences in the course of a nine hour shoot. But what was most surprising to me was the fact that I could easily recover data from JPEG files that were 1 - 1 1/2 stops overexposed and 1 - 1 1/2 stops underexposed!  The LR4 adjusted images looked quite good!  The experience has certainly made me reconsider whether or not I want to shoot an entire job in RAW. My thinking at this point is to shoot the secondary images and the lower priority images as JPEGs while reserving the RAW setting for the most important images of the day. That should save me quite a bit on hard drive space without any compromise in the final product that I deliver our clients.

I cover a lot of ground on this tutorial and it does run a little bit longer than usual. I suggest you break it into a two-part viewing session.  I think the information is quite valid and quite useful. Why not hit the PLAY button below, be patient, and enjoy the show.

 

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Hey gang, that's it for me today. Since we made it through convention season we're getting a few loose ends wrapped up here at the studio and it feels good.

Just a quick note – I invited our DPT readers to submit suggestions about my new book, Make Your Lighting Exciting, in last Friday’s post [link]. I'll leave the suggestion box open for a few more days but after that I'm closing it off.  Remember, the best suggestion will win you a $50 B&H gift card. So don't delay, shoot your ideas over to me in the Comment section following the post right here and you just might win a $50 gift card from B&H.

On that note, I'm out here. Have a great rest of the day and I'll see you soon.

Adios, – David

Quick Hit Monday: 5D Mk3 Impressions; PSW12 Notes; Wedding Shootout In St. Mathew’s Cathedral; and More! Updated!

We arrived in Washington, D.C. last Thursday and have been on the run ever since.  First off, the weather has been perfect - great for viewing the cherry blossoms which we yet have had a chance to see. Today the temperature dropped significantly so I hope the blossoms continue to remain on the trees.  In fact the official 100 year anniversary of the National Cherry Blossom Festival kicked off yesterday in the same convention center as Photoshop World. Lots of cute kids running around to help with the celebration ;~) Needless to say, it is one busy place. 

We're still holding out hope to see the 100 year anniversary of the blooming blossoms. Photoshop World wraps today and we're sticking around a few more days to take in the sights.  OK, time to get to today's Quick Hit Monday post. Here we go...

Photoshop World Kick Off Was A Hoot!

This year's theme was all all about politics with Sarah Palin even making an appearance.  The opening ceremonies had everyone in stitches! 

Oh, BTW, that’s me with Sarah after the opening ceremonies.  Actually, Sarah was played by Pasty Gilbert, an actress in Washington, D. C. Head over to her website right here to see more of Patsy as Sarah – check out the video too. She does a great Tina Fey impersonation too ;~)

Anyway, everybody is having a great time up at this year’s Photoshop World – it’s their largest East Coast convention in many, many years!  High Fives to all the people that work so hard to pull it off.

Canon 5D Mark III First Impressions

Yep, I picked up my brand new Canon 5D Mark III the day we arrived,  My good buddies at Dury's had reserved one for me and went out of their way to see that I had it by the beginning of the convention. Thanks - you guys!

Here is the quick hit list of my very early impressions. 

• Very quiet shooting in "silent" mode".  Silent mode does slow down the frame rate but that's not a problem in most of my shooting situations.  I'll just switch it up to the faster - and noisier -  frame rate when needed.
• The build quality makes it a joy to hold in your hands and shoot with.
• The high ISOs make it a kick to shoot with in low light.  I took a couple of quick images of some of the attendees during the opening ceremonies in a very dark room . The images below shot at 12,800 ISO were about a stop under-exposed so I had to tweak the exposure a bit in LR4. That made the effective ISO 25,600! Even the close up, after applying NR, looks pretty darn good!

 

• I shot the convention party on Saturday at ISO 12,800 and they look really good considering the high ISO I used.  The names of the revelers shall remain anonymous ;~)  It was really a kick to shoot the party.  My shutter speed on the dark dance floor was hovering around 1/200 second at F4.5 and was plenty fast to stop the action.  I can’t wait to try it out again at this weekend’s upcoming wedding.

• No support for Lightroom 4 just yet although the Adobe folks tell me that the wait should not be long. I'm still planning to shoot in RAW mode at this weekend's upcoming wedding.  The work around is to use use Adobe's beta 6.7 DNG converter [link] which I'm doing right now, and then import them into Lightroom.
• The built in HDR feature looks interesting but I haven't had a chance to really try it out yet.  Maybe I give that new feature a tryout on the left over Cherry Blossoms tomorrow ;~)
• Update!  One thing I forgot to mention in the original post is the fact that the FOCUS is finally working as all of us wished the FOCUS would work in the Mk2 – fast and sure.  Even in very low lighting conditions, it was easy to lock on to the subject and get the shot.  Now it becomes a wedding/event camera again instead of, in my case, a very little used portrait/travel camera.

My Wedding Shoot-Out Was A hit

Once again my class was a sell-out with about 48 attendees being part of the group that headed to the historic St. Matthew’s Cathedral where JFK’s funeral was held years ago.  The sanctuary is amazingly beautiful and truly a joy and inspiration to photograph.

I also brought out my brand new lens I picked up when I took delivery of the 5D Mk2 – Canon’s 8-15mm zoomable fisheye!  WOW! What a cool lens to work with! We captured some amazing images in the cathedral – here are a few.  I’ll share more with you throughout the week. 

I had another pleasant surprise too during the workshop.  A handsome gentleman comes up to me and introduced himself.  It’s Mike McCaskey, the former president and Chairman of the Board for the Chicago Bears.  Mike always comes to Photoshop World and has been a friend of Scott’s for several years.  What an honor it was for me to have him in my class.  Mike also took a few shots of me during the class as well – THANKS Mike.

There’s a lot to talk about from my pre-con class but I need to be getting back to the convention so I’ll update you more this week.

I’m Featured At The Adobe Booth!

This was another surprise.  As we were walking the show floor, I noticed a photograph of mine hanging in the Adobe booth.  I had submitted some samples weeks ago and now – here was one of my images.  This has always been one of my favorite wedding images so it was exciting to see it at the show. There were not many images displayed so it was quite an honor to be included in the elite company of so many esteemed photographers.

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Hey gang, it’s getting late and I’ve got to call it quits for today.  I’ve got one more program to give today at 2:25 p.m. and need to review it one more time before I hit the stage.  Check back tomorrow – I hope to have a brand new Technique Tuesday for you.

Have a good one and I’ll see you soon, David

Is The Decisive Moment Dead Or At Least Less Decisive?

Good Morning Everybody,

I sure hope you had as good of a weekend as we did around here.  The weather has been unbelievably gorgeous for the last few days - we'll all wondering if we really did skate by most of the snow for the winter.  We're keeping our fingers crossed ;~)

In addition to great weather, I also had a wonderful Bar Mitzvah shoot on Saturday.  It was one of those parties where everything went off without a hitch, the clients were wonderful to work with and everybody had a fun time.  This was actually the third event I photographed for the family and as I said everything went smooth as silk.

The thing that really stood out for me this weekend were the people - not just Charlie's family, but Charlie himself.  I have never seen such a self assured, generous, attentive young man in quite a while. Remember he is 13 years old and he was just a joy to be around.  Mark my words mom and dad, if you are reading this, Charlie is headed to the top of his field at what ever career he eventually chooses.  I captured some terrific images and plan to share a few of them with you this week - so stay tuned.

Is The Decisive Moment Dead Or At Least Less Decisive?

I've kind of a different post from our normal Quick Hit Monday post for you.  Today I want to pose the question: When it comes to photography, is the decisive moment a thing of the past?  OK, do I have your attention?  You're obviously thinking that I must be crazy to even ask the question.  That's what photography, or at least a good part of photography is all about right - capturing the decisive moment.

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a master at capturing the decisive moment as are all good photojournalists, especially sports, and event photographers need to have this ability.  But to accomplish that took skill,  practice, timing and a specially trained eye for anticipating that decisive moment. 

Do we even need that trained eye anymore?  Do we even need to get our timing perfect to get the shot?  My quick answer - I think not.  Technology now allows anyone to capture the decisive moment quite easily and effectively.   Here's why I make such a statement.

Fleeting Moments Are Not So Fleeting…. These Days

Moments are fleeting but it’s much easier to capture those fleeting moments these days. Look at the evolution of digital photography.  We've grown from a few megapixel cameras 12 years ago to 45MP monsters and beyond today.  The new Canon 5D Mark III is pushing 22MP and the new Nikon is pushing 36MP.

Three years ago Canon added decent HD video to the 5D's feature set and the entire movie world went gaga over the camera.  My gosh, the camera shoots 30 frames a second at a 1920x1080p resolution - that's not far from the resolution of my first DSLR, a Fuji S-1 Pro coming in at 2048x1536 – pretty astonishing isn't it.

Why not just shoot a few seconds of video during those special emotional moments, say when the bride and groom kiss, when dad makes the heartfelt toast at the wedding reception, or any other special times during an emotionally charged event.  Heck, at 30 fps, 5 seconds of shooting should net me 150 separate frames/images - the decisive moment MUST be in there somewhere - right?! 

Actually, I think so. OK, the images won't be RAW images but they will certainly be adequate for me to get the one or two images I need to tell that part of the story.  With the image processing capabilities in the new Lightroom 4, I'm sure I could knock out some better-than-acceptable images for the wedding couple's album.  At the 1080p setting on my DSLR, I could easily get the quality I need for a good 8x10. 

If you think I'm still crazy let me tell you about a little test I did – see the above image.  A few years ago after the Canon 5D Mark II was released, I ran such a test. My friend Kent and I did some quick  HD video footage of a high school senior.  I pulled a few frame grabs, made the necessary adjustments in Photoshop and printed them out as 11x14's - and they looked great.  OK, I know a close up of a high school senior is no real test when it comes to a highly detailed subject matter, but for "people" subject matter, the images looked just fine.

Here is the deal - the cameras are getting better all the time.  Take the RED ONE video camera , the RED HD video that started it all shoots the equivalent of a 9.4-megapixel still 24 times a second in RAW!.  You don't think a frame from that camera would make a great printed image. Well it does. The cover of the June 2009 issue of Esquire magazine that was shot with the RED ONE camera - the quality was amazing.  You can read the entire Esquire/RED ONE story right here.

The frame grabbing technique to pull the images for the Esquire cover works the same for our new digital wonders like the newly introduced Nikon and Canon cameras.  And, YES, we can get good looking 8x10 images from those grabs. The HD DSLR cameras once again give us the technology to capture more effortlessly than ever before those decisive moments.

So to answer the question, Is the decisive moment dead? No, never – it’s just far easier to capture than ever before!

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today. We spent the night in Lexington, KY – got an early PhotoPro Network meeting today to discuss our upcoming 2012 events and put a little planning into the 2013 convention.  A busy day then back to Cincy tomorrow and another wedding this coming weekend. 

Have a great rest of the day and, all the pixels willing, I’ll see you sometime tomorrow for another Technique Tuesday.  The topic – Just How Far Can Your Push Your Images In Lightroom?

See ya’ then,  David

Canon 5D Mark III: Big Deal? Yes…a BIG DEAL!

Good Afternoon Everybody,

You know how it is when you got a trip on your schedule.  For LaDawn and I it usually means that our bodies each have a built in alarm clocks.  This morning both of our alarm clocks went off about 4:00a.m.  I hit the computer and got caught up on all my lingering emails, transferred about 70 gig of data to a portable hard drive so I could work on my programs for Photoshop World, and then grabbed the iPad and brought up Zite, my favorite "keep you informed" iPad app.

A Great Morning Surprise!

And there it was - all the news about Canon's just announced 5D Mark III camera to be available by the end of March. I have to say, I'm stoked by the new specifications.  I'm usually the first in line at B&H when Canon announces a new camera.  I was the first on my block with the 5d Mark II and the 7D.  Time to get in line for the new 5D Mark III – I hope LaDawn isn’t reading this ;~)

In spite of all the rave reviews the earlier 5D's - both revs - have received over the years, I quickly moved on to the 40D and 7D respectively for my wedding work once those two cameras became available.  In both cases, I found the 40D and 7D, APS sized sensor cameras much more nimble for my wedding shooting routine.

OK, that may change with the new 5DM3 intro.  Most of the nimbleness I referred to earlier was because of the frame rate of both the 40D and 7D.  Also, I felt the focus was quicker in the APS sized sensors.  The 5D’s focus just seemed to bog down in low light for me. 

Better Specs, Better Camera

Again, it looks like all that is changing with Canon's new 5DM3 intro [link]. In the new camera we get a frame rate that is twice as fast as it's precursors along with a much superior focusing system.  Sounds like both of these improvements will cure my earlier 5D blues.

After that, things really begin to get interesting for the 5DM3 when you look at the spec sheet.  First of all, I can't wait to give those stratospheric new high ISOs a try.

The reality is this - with these new super high ISOs, we will be able to shoot in lighting conditions 1/500 as bright as we could back in the film days.  I find that an amazing feat with our new digital cameras.

Only 22 MP, Who Cares?

Some may be griping about the fact that Canon didn’t take the bait Nikon offered with their 36mp D800. It comes down to this - just how many megapixels do you need for wedding photography?  I rarely shoot either my 5DM2 or 7D at full resolution. Heck, I was a happy camper with the 20D's 8MP and was printing up 24x36 images from that camera.  Come by the Adobe booth at Photoshop World in a few weeks and you just may see one of those images - no kidding! 

Aren't you tired of constantly upgrading to newer and faster computers just to keep up with the hardware overhead needed to process the ever increasing file sizes.  I’m working on my "rocket box" computer right now and don't want any more slow downs.  22mp is just fine for me and will easily give me a 40x60 inch family portrait.

Now Backing Up Your Shoot Is Easy and Convenient

I also like the the fact that the new 5DM3 is now  has dual card slots providing me the opportunity to run CF cards and SDHC cards, backing each other up and sequentially, for more shooting capacity.  Has it occurred to anybody, other than me, that this camera may have solved our eternally troublesome backup issues.

Just how far behind are you on your backup chores?  We used to burn everything to DVD before switching to RAW 4 years ago.  Now we're slightly behind the 8 ball with a terabyte or two of data to burn to DVDs.  Each job would take about 12 DVDs to back up. But with the dual slot configuration of the new 5DM3, I could duplicate all the images in real time right to a fairly inexpensive SDHC card.

When I checked this morning, a 32 gig SDHC card could be purchased for about $30. I would need less than 2 cards per job and just file the SDHC cards with the client's paperwork - easy, quick, efficient, a reasonably inexpensive solution.

Cool Radio Control 600EX-RT Speed Light

Now let's move on to the new Canon's speed light, the 600ES-RT. I think this really looks interesting.  The fact that it's radio controlled makes it especially enticing.  I've been a Quantum fan since the "get go" but now with Canon being a player in the field of radio controlled flashes, I think things will really get interesting.

But now let's read between the lines.  Canon's flash in only 60 watt seconds, the same power as the current 580EXII.  Interestedly enough, you will see some very high guide numbers associated with the new 600EX-RT.  Why? Because Canon is determining the guide number at it's furthest zoom setting, now upped to 200mm with the new unit.  Hey, any focused light will be brighter at the hot spot, right? OK, it a little juggling with the numbers but the unit is still 60 watt seconds - end of story. That means I need almost 3 600EX-RT's to match the power of my Quantum flash, kind of pricey.

But on the plus side of the equation, the fact that the on camera flash can control up to 15 flashes in 5 groups by radio control makes high speed flash sync a much more compelling option.

Don't get me wrong, I've always loved my EXII's - they're reliable, accurate, and I can shoot an entire wedding without a battery change. What I really like about the new radio controlled unit is the fact that there is a chance it will eventually work with my Quantum flashes.  Wouldn't that be cool!

I called my buddies up at Quantum today, but no word if and when that would/could happen.  They haven't even seen the new strobes to make an appropriate guess about that possibility. We'll have to wait and see.

I’m Ready To Buy The Wi-Fi Transmitter

And finally Canon got it right with their wireless transmitter - I'm talking about the new WFT-E7 Wi-Fi Transmitter [link] for the camera, not the one on the flash.  I can’t begin to tell you how many times I almost bought that $800 Wi-Fi transmitter but was always put off by the fact that is would only work on one camera.  That seemed way too expensive a proposition since I owned both 5Ds and 7Ds.  The new Wi-Fi transmitter works with the 5DM3, 7D, and 60D. Finally one transmitter for all three cameras.

Now I’ll Know Where I’ve Been

Lastly I like the new GPS unit Canon also introduced [link].  Finally photographers using Canon cameras have a decent GPS solution just like the Nikon boys. 

I just talked with my Canon Rep, who is going to be in the area in the next week or two.  She promised me an up close and personal peek at the camera.  I hope to have an update for you at that time - so stay tuned.  What can I say, I'm giving my B&H buddies a call right now and securing my place near the front of the line for it's release at the end of this month. LaDawn says " Boys and their toys…never-ending and always costly!”

Related Posts:

1. Canon unveils the 22.3 Megapixel EOS 5D Mark III DSLR [link]

2. Hands-on preview: Canon 5D Mark III, Speed-lite radio flash system, and more [link]

3. Vincent LaForet: Canon 5D MKIII – my thoughts [link]

Enjoy the reads, David

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Hey gang, that's it for me today.  I was pretty fired up when I heard the news this morning and wanted to quickly share my thoughts about Canon's announcement with you.  I'd appreciate hearing your take on the announcement too.  Just post them in the Comments section below for the benefit of all our DPT readers.

Have a great weekend everybody.  I hope to see a few of you at the Professional Photographers of North Carolina Convention this week-end.  Please come on up and say HI.  LaDawn is setting up the room as we speak so I'm going to join her to see how things are going.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you Monday,  David