”A View From The Top”

”A View From The Top”
©David A. Ziser

Here is another image I captured during our stay in the Andalusia region of Spain.  The locales in this part of Spain are simply spectacular.  This image was made from the town of Ronda which was built on the top of the cliffs in the area.  This setting gave the residents a perfect vantage point in order to keep their eyes on any would be intruders.

Shooting mid-day under very sunny lighting conditions can be quite challenging.  In the past I have tried to remedy the situation by shooting my Canon 5D Mark III in HDR mode.  I’ve never been thrilled with the result.  This scene photographed the same way gave me a resulting photograph that I think makes for a pretty nice mountain landscape image.

First of all I like the composition with the foreground dropping deep into the valley below and the plateau receding into the mountains in the distance.  The architecture and the medieval design of the town sure didn't hurt. Shooting HDR did a good job preserving the very wide range of tones throughout the image. It’s a magnificent setting in a very historical part of this wonderful country of Spain which we enjoyed so much.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Tamron 28-300mm VC lens at 24mm, F4.0 at 1/1000 second, ISO 250. Camera HDR mode Auto, Art Standard 

DAZNOTE: You may question my use of F-Stop for this image. I don’t remember why the camera was set to F 4.0 either.  I’m presuming I was shooting in Aperture Priority mode moments before and simply forgot to make the change before I made this image.  The 28mm focal length still carries the depth of field just fine though. David

LDNOTE: This was the exact location I received word from home and discovered I became a Great Aunt for the third time. BIG Congratulations to Chelsea and Joe!

"Desert Dancer"

"Desert Dancer"
© David A. Ziser

This is another image I captured during my wedding shoot out on Tuesday. It’s hard to believe that this image was made in the middle of the city.  The low vantage point, I was laying on the ground to get the shot, really minimized the foreground and disguised a lot of the distractions in the background.

My goal was to get a great photograph of the bride against the rich blue desert sky dotted with the wispy clouds.  That  meant I had to get quite a lot of light on the subject so as to not blow out the sky.  The easy solution was to grab my Sunspotz reflector as my main light source and bounce the sun’s 100 degree bright light back at the bride.  It worked like a charm. You may be wondering how the bride can keep her eyes open for such a shot.  Remember, she’s not looking directly into the super bright reflector which is actually positioned slightly behind her – that helped.  Also, my assistant holding the reflector was about 15 feet away which also helps to minimize the brightness of the reflector for the subject.

The simple pose, beautiful lighting, exciting background, and strong composition make for a great wedding image.  Hope you like it.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Tamron 28-300mm lens at 68mm, F5.6 @ 1/640 second, ISO 200.  Enjoy!  -David

"Love Is Blue"

"Love Is Blue"
© David A. Ziser

This is one of my favorite images from the wedding we photographed in upper Michigan a few weeks ago.  Things were rushed as usual, but the bride was taking it easy for a few moments before we were to begin the group portraits.

I noticed that the window light from camera left was falling on her face ever so beautifully giving me that perfect and most flattering dimensional loop lighting that I love. Also, I notice how the light coming in from the front door camera right gave me the beautiful accent light on the back of the bride’s hair and neck – a perfect separation light.  My camera had my super wide Sigma 12-24mm lens attached so I just went with it. 

First of all, look at all the turquoise colors in the scene and also notice how those vibrant colors are arranged around the scene in a perfect balance to create a “frame of color” around our beautiful subject.  It’s the bride’s special “weekend bouquet’ to the right balancing the painting on the back wall on the left that add the visual excitement to this image.

Notice too how the line of the bride;s gown leads your eye right up to the bride’s beauty face.  This is a simple, yet very elegant portrait of our lovely bride.  In spite of how wedding styles have changed over the years, I still believe this style of  imagery carries a certain lasting beauty to it.  My clients sure love it!

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Sigma 12-24mm lens at 20mm, F9.0 at 1/100 second, ISO 3200.  Enjoy!  -David

"I’m Ready For My Close Up, Mr. DeMille"

"I’m Ready For My Close Up, Mr. DeMille"
© David A. Ziser

The style of the bride’s hair and that direct look back into the camera is what inspired my title for this image.  I paraphrased from Gloria Swanson’s line in the movie Sunset Boulevard, which was directed by Cecil B. DeMille. (Whoops! Billy Wilder)  Cecil was the director In the movie.

This is another photograph from the wedding we recently photographed in Northern Michigan.  I only wish I was the one who captured the photograph.  This is actually one of LaDawn’s images – and she says she hates to shoot.  What, getting images like this!!!  I think it’s just beautiful.

I was working other aspects of the coverage and LaDawn, while helping the bride and the girls get organized with the wedding preparations was shooting the occasional candid of all the activities.  She has a way of engaging the clients that results in wonder (and beautiful) expressions and images. This is one of those times.

She also knows that the portrait will look best with the light crossing the subject as it does in this image.  ( I guess I had a good teacher!)  Lighting was all natural with the light coming in from a sliding glass door camera right.  The light colored walls offered a simple yet pleasing background for this beautiful portrait.

The way LaDawn caught that great expression is what makes this image work for me.  The fairly shallow depth of field also softened the background even more bringing the viewer’s attention directly to the bride’s beautiful (and surprisingly sharp) eyes.

I tweaked the image slightly in Photoshop and Lightroom 4 to get the B&W tonalities where I wanted them.  I just love this image as a black and white too – it just forces you to look directly back at the bride’s eyes. I love it!

Camera specs: Canon 7D fitted with 18-200mm lens at 200mm, F5.6 @ 1/80 second, ISO 2,500.  Enjoy!  -David

"Little Boy Blue"

"Little Boy Blue"
© David A. Ziser

This image was made during the wedding rehearsal of the wedding I was photographed in northern Michigan just a few weeks ago.  I just love roaming the grounds looking for great guest expressions that I can catch with my camera. The children are always favorite subjects for these candids. This little boy, the ring bearers for the wedding, had just arrived with his sisters and mom and dad.

He was a little shy and even when I pointed my camera in his direction, he really made no move at all to avoid camera. His simple, soft, gentle, innocent look back to the camera was exactly what I was looking for.

The lighting was perfect.  The light was coming in from through an open door camera right. The lighting ratio was perfect and the expression was natural.  I zoomed in for a very close cropped image of his face and fired away. In the very short amount of time that transpired get this photograph – only seconds – I believe I captured a timeless image of this very young boy, the ring bearer.

I tweaked the image slightly in Lightroom 4. I adjusted a few of the scene’s tonalities and added a slight vignette to focus the viewers attention even more to this young boy’s face. I also used the “adjustment brush” in LR4 to tone down some of the areas around his face to even more effectively focus on those beautiful facial features and big eyes.

A quick trip to Photoshop to finish up some facial retouching and some eye enhancement gave me the finished result. I think that when you consider the candid nature of this photograph and then view the finished result, it is very exciting and rewarding to pull off a striking image in a very short amount of time. To me that's part of the magic of this profession and it's one of the things I thoroughly enjoy accomplishing for my clients.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Tamron 28 – 300 mm lens at 184 mm, F6.3 @ 1/200 of a second, ISO 6400.  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

"Butterflies Are Free”

"Butterflies Are Free”
©David A. Ziser

Yesterday afternoon LaDawn and took a little time off to visit the annual Butterfly Show over at the Krohn Conservatory in Cincinnati, Ohio. It’s a great place to relax on a beautiful spring day.  I thought we would get a decent image or two from one or two of the butterflies flitting through the show.  I managed to get one or two.  This one was one of my favorites.

One of the cool things I learned yesterday was just how close I could get to the butterflies – about 10-12 inches away.  That close focusing characteristic of the lens allowed me to create nearly 2:1 macro shots of the butterflies.  In the image above the butterfly measured about three inches across and I was able to photograph it nearly full frame.  Heck, saves you money on a macro lens ;~)

Instead of posting it as just as a photograph of a butterfly, I decided to add my very own kaleidoscopic effect to the image via Photoshop by flipping it a few times top to bottom and then left to right.  This was the result – kind of cool, I think

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Tamron 28-300mm lens at 300mm, F9.0 @ 1/80 second, ISO 1600.  Enjoy!  -David

"Dreaming Of You"

"Dreaming Of You"
©David A. Ziser

This is an image I captured during yesterdays’ on-location-photo-session while at Texas School.  We had just finished lunch and were making preparations to head to our next location.  One of the class members asked what I would do on a bright sunny day where the sun was still pretty high in the sky. 

Well, we were standing in the church parking lot, it was about 1:00 p.m. and the sun was blazing brightly. Hey, a perfect place to show my solution.  The bottom line is this: for soft, easy portraits you  need soft light – that wasn’t happening in this parking lot.

First I selected an area of the parking lot where I could use a small line of trees to supply my background.  But after wrapping the bride’s veil around her the background was not really an issue. 

The “soft light” solution was solved by pulling out my 84” Westcott parabolic translucent umbrella and interrupting the suns rays falling on my bride’s face.  That gave me the softness I needed. I oriented the bride’s beautiful face so that it would alight with the soft direction of light I had created with my giant umbrella.  I simply needed to sure to get light into her eyes and not “pocket” her eye sockets.

Next, I  switched on “Live View” on my camera so that I get a higher vantage point for my photograph.  The higher vantage point and tight telephoto lens did a lot to ameliorate the fact that my background was not perfect.

The sun was quite bright so I asked the bride to close her eyes and shot away.  When I looked at the image, I found I really liked the image with her eyes closed – that fact seemed to add a certain gentleness to the overall feel of the image.

To finish up the image, I used Lightroom 4 to add a bit more softness by sliding the Clarity slider just a few points to the left.  I think the result is quite a beautiful portrait. Who would has guessed it was created just a few feet from a very busy street with cars zooming by and in direct sunlight at 1:00p.m. in the afternoon?

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with Sigma 85mm F1.4 lens, F1.8 @ 1/4000 second, ISO 200.  Enjoy!  -David

A Long Day Of Shooting But We Got Some Great Images!

Good Morning Everybody,

The third day of my Master Class is the longest day of the week. We begin class in the morning by reviewing everyone’s favorite images, reviewing lighting, posing, composition….. Then we look over my selection of images to recap again some of those same points I made during Monday’s class. The cool thing for the students is that we record these image critiques as MP4 files so that each class member can take home with them and review once again. It's a nice perk and everyone in the class really enjoys it.

After lunch we loaded up the vans once again with the class members, the models, my coaches, and myself. We then headed over to Ault Park, one of the most popular parks in the city, especially for photography. In fact, while we were there yesterday, a photographer that recognized me came by and said Hi. He was photographing a young couple for their engagement session. We also bumped into another group, a Groupon class, who is planning to spend the evening photographing the beautiful horticultural aspects of the Park.

The park provides a lot of variety, both in lighting conditions and locations for the class to shoot. We cover everything from shooting in direct sunlight to working in open shade and also how to use light modifiers to get the best lighting on your subjects. This day is also the day where we have the models dressed in casual attire giving everyone the opportunity to practice on regular people instead of just brides and grooms.

After a full day shooting in the park we took a quick dinner break at Skyline Chili for a Cincinnati favorite - chili three-way.  This is a culinary visit that every visitor to Cincinnati should make. Skyline Chili – nothing like your regular Texas chili –  is a regional Cincinnati flavor that you can’t get anywhere else in the country. I won't say that it's a “love it or hate it” taste but I will say that everyone in the class really enjoyed their chili tasting experience last night.

After our quick dinner break we headed to the riverfront in downtown Covington, Kentucky to finish out the day photographing our beautiful models against the Cincinnati skyline. This is kind of a fun way to wrap the day because, not only do we have a great background for the portraits, shooting a cityscape at nighttime raises a few lighting challenges for everybody.  Nevertheless, everybody has a great time and comes back with some terrific images. We wrapped the day about 9:15 p.m. and got back to the hotel about 10:00 – like I said, a long day:~)

In today's post I’d like to walk you through a few more images that I made during yesterday shoot. We'll get back  to our regular  Business Day Thursday post next week. In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the images below.

This first image you see above was made under the most difficult lighting conditions that we faced yesterday. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon and we were shooting in direct sunlight. The challenge comes from the fact that, if I want to capture some detail in the clouds and sky and, if I want to use off-camera flash,  I'm limited by the top shutter sync speed of my camera  which typically is  1/250th second. In bright sunlight that makes the aperture quite small – in this case about F16. I'll go into further detail on this image over the next few days here at DPT. Anyway, we pulled off a nice image in our very, very bright lighting conditions.

The photograph below is again very interesting because of the technique I used to capture it. The fountain you see behind our subject was illuminated by the direct light of the sun.  I chose to shade the subject with my Westcott 84 inch  translucent parabolic umbrella. That placed her in complete shadow which allowed me to add directional light with my off-camera flash, my Quantum strobe shooting through my Zumbrella, coming in from camera left. The off-camera gave me the soft, directional light I wanted on my subject. The low camera angle provided the cool repeating elements of the fountain behind my subject  resulting in a very nice portrait.

The next image was also made in front of the same fountain, albeit at a much greater distance. this time, in order to not have to deal with the direct sun illuminating my model, I moved her into a shady area of the lawn and next added my off-camera flash from camera left. Balancing sunny daylight exposure gave me a great photograph of both the subject with the fountain area behind her. The rich blue skies added to the dramatic impact of this image.

And now for the last image of the day. This is just a fun image that I took to wrap up the day’s shooting.  I wanted to get a photograph of all three of our models. Tarah, on the left,  suggested that we wrap up the session with the Toyota jump photograph. On the count of three Tarah, Anthony, and Dawn  all leapt into the air. I captured this moment at the peak of their leap. It's a fun photograph and, with the city in the background, certainly captures the enthusiasm that everybody had for yesterday shoot.

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Hey gang, that's it for me today. Class is starting in just a few minutes so I've got to run. I'll plan to see everyone again tomorrow for one more short post wrapping up our experiences for the week.

Everyone have a great rest of the day. –David

"Stairway To Heaven”

"Stairway To Heaven”
©David A. Ziser

I'm leading off today's post with one of the images from my Technique Tuesday video featured below. This is one of the images I captured of our bride after we re-entered the convention center returning from my wedding shoot out in downtown Washington, D.C. Think of this as a very contemporary bridal portrait given the very contemporary location and all the diagonal lines, prominently featured, leading directly to my subject.

Those leading lines were accentuated by the fact that I was using a very wide optic to make this exposure – my Sigma 12–24 MM lens on my Canon 5D Mark II. As I explain in the video below it took careful placement of the subject within the space to avoid the distortion that one sometimes gets when using an optic this wide. Keeping her away from the far right corner of the frame certainly helps in that regard.

I really like how the image framed up the bride against the blue carpeted stairs and her head placement against a simple, non-distracting wood veneer background. Notice how all lines lead directly to her.

The light on the bride's face was simply the naturally occurring light in the convention center that afternoon. I needed to tilt her head up slightly so I could catch the light just right to give me the nice loop-lighting pattern I'm always looking for my subject’s face.  Why not watch the video below and hear my full discussion of this image and many more.  I think it will give you some insight into how my mind thinks when I'm setting up these fairly unusual wedding images.

Camera specs:  Canon 5D Mark 2 fitted with Sigma 12–24mm wide-angle lens at 12mm, F5 .6 @ 1/320 second, ISO 1250.  Enjoy! – David

"Reflections Of Love”

"Reflections Of Love”
©David A. Ziser

Here is another image I made in Washington D.C. a few weeks ago.  What you see here is one of those special moments that come along every now and then.  We were between locations on my shoot when I looked over at the bride and saw the beautiful natural light falling on her face from an open doorway – it was gorgeous!

I asked her not to move and then adjusted her position slightly to get the most flattering view of her.  The trickier part was getting her positioned against the background properly. I wanted no distractions behind her beautiful profile.  I carefully positioned her profile against the pillar you see much further back in the setting.  That pillar’s surface offered an clean background for our bride’s lovely face.

Background selection is where a lot of photographers fall short of the mark.  They see the beautiful lighting but lose focus on the background and end up having things growing out of the bride’s head and don’t realize it till they’re back at their computer and download the images.

You can see in this image that the lighting is a perfect loop lighting for the profile view of the face.  Should I have asked the bride to look back at me?  I think not – doing so would have compromised the lighting severely for this image.  It looks just beautiful just the way it is.

Camera specs:  Canon 5D Mark II fitted with 24-105mm IS lens at 105mm, F4.0 @ 1/25 second, ISO 1600.  Enjoy!  -David

"Fantasy In White”

"Fantasy In White”
©David A. Ziser

Here is another image from the wedding I photographed a few weeks ago.  I had taken this window light image as one of the last I made of the bride before we headed out to do the group photographs.  I like the high angle on my subject and was happy with the shallow depth of field. When I originally looked at the image, I felt there was something there but it wasn’t totally thrilling me either. 

I was spending some time over the weekend editing and generally playing with B&W conversions in Lightroom 4. The more I experimented with this image, the more I began to fall in love with it.  I was attracted to one sharp eyelash contrasting with all the other mid to high tones of gray throughout the image.

I liked how the my eye first entered the image at the bride’s eye but then slowly picked up on her very soft and gentle expression throughout the rest of the image.  The feeling was quite ethereal as I gazed longer at this image. It is not your typical wedding image but is very beautiful nevertheless.  I’ve got some more photographs to show you in the following post – hope you enjoy them.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark III fitted with 24-105mm IS lens at 105mm, F4.0 @ 1/40 second, ISO 800.  Enjoy!  -David

Quick Hit Monday: Just One More Shot – Fun With Lightroom 4! & More Super Fast ISO’s

Good Morning Everybody,

I sure hope everyone had a great weekend and got to spend some time with family as many celebrated the Easter and Passover holiday.  Once again the weather was perfect around our part of the world and we just took it kind of easy around the house.

We’ve got my Master Class/Digital Workshop beginning next week and are doing our best to get everything finalized and ready for the class. It turns out that this will be our most “international” class ever with several of the attendees coming from outside the US – it should be fun!

Hey gang, I’ve got an interesting post coming your way today so let’s get right to it.

Quick Hit Monday: Just One More Shot B&W, Of Course! & More Super Fast ISO’s

More Super Fast ISO’s

I have been constantly amazed by two things over these recent days. The first is my utter bedazzlement every time I look at a ISO 12,800 image from my new Canon 5D Mark III.  I was doing some volunteer shooting over the Easter weekend at our local church.  The church is planning a parish directory and it’s my job to supply all the candid images from the church’s ongoing activities.

Check out the image below.  It is a view of one of the church steeples at the conclusion of one of the weekend’s services.  Do you see any noise at all!! I sure don’t!  This image was shot as in MED JPEG mode (2560 x 3840  Pixels) and made at a fairly slow ISO 6400.  Can you believe it – “fairly slow” – ha!

The “in-camera” noise reduction did a phenomenal job of removing the noise. I’ve put up the actual images  so feel free to do a right mouse click nab of the image and inspect it yourself.  I think you’ll really be surprised.

Now look at the second image – the pipe organ below.  This one was made during yesterday’s services and I had the ISO cranked up to ISO 12,800! 

This image was shot in SM JPEG mode (1920 x 2880 Pixels) again with normal in-camera noise reduction.  Both of these images are right out of the camera – NO post processing whatsoever – Amazing!

Just One More Shot – Fun With Lightroom 4!

Over the weekend I took a little pleasure is playing around in Lightroom 4.1.  I have to say, this is truly the best version EVER!  It’s amazing just how much control you have over the image. And, it’s easy to tweak the image to it’s absolute best!

One of my favorite things to do is make B&W conversions, especially when it comes to portrait wedding images.  There are lots of ways to make the conversions – I plan to show you a few in tomorrow’s Technique Tuesday, BTW ;~)  But in todays’ post I want to give you a peak into my thought process and what I was seeing as I processed the photographs I’m showing today.

You know, as a wedding photographer, TIME is always of the essence.  There is never enough of it and it flies by rather quickly.  We had just made several images of the bride with her bridesmaids and her parents.  We ran about every combination possible and time was ticking off quickly.  But, I knew I still had to get some great close up portraits of my beautiful subject.

The first image you see above was a quick GRAB of the bride from behind – I better be care how I phase that ;~) She had just turned reacting to a remark someone in the room had made.  I made the quick exposure only to find that it was severely over-exposed.  But the conversion to B&W gave it a very unusual, ethereal “feel” to me. 

The image seems to be a fleeting  moment captured in time.  The very high key effect of the over-exposure removed most of the remaining detail of the scene.  The viewer is left to wonder what was happening. You may think nothing is happening, as LaDawn did, when she saw the image.  Still, for me, I still like the feeling of this fleeting moment.  Maybe the crop is changed, or it becomes a background image, for one of the page designs – who knows?  I still like it.

In this next image – a simple window light image – I went in quite close on the bride’s face. Her easy expression, quick peek and with her gaze  directly back into the camera makes it a captivating image. Once again, the limited higher key tonalities of the image make it a nice image to enjoy.

The next image changes up the portrait viewing experience slightly.  The high camera position together with the high key B&W conversion gives us a wonderfully pleasing image of our lovely bride.Notice that the main focus is on her lips which adds a certain sensuality to this photograph. Sine she is not looking back into the camera, your eyes are free to roam the scene and enjoy it’s soft, gentle quality.

A few seconds later, I ask the bride to look back into the camera.  The photograph is nearly the same as the image above with the only difference being  a slightly closer crop and the change of direction of her eyes.  Look how that small change affects how the image is perceived by the viewer.  It’s almost as if she caught us peeking in on her private thoughts.  Still her gentle expression does not blame us for the implied intrusion, but seems to invite the viewer to come in even closer.

And finally in this last image, the one I blogged as our Image of the Day post above, we have our bride once again looking away. But this time, because of the very shallow depth of field we are presented with almost an abstract portrait.  Nothing is in focus except the eyelashes.  Everything else is well out of focus but that’s what I think makes it such a cool image.

Remember how  I recanted at  the beginning that wedding photographers had to work fast?  I know time was short because we had to catch up with the groom, his parents, and the rest of the wedding party for the group wedding photographs.  I asked the bride for just one more shot and got these five images you see above.  I took the first one at 4:15 p.m. and the last image at 4:18 p.m. – only three minutes to get some very compelling wedding images. But, that is part of the fun of wedding photography – being in the grove and getting those great images for your client!

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  Have a great rest of the day and I hope to see you same time, same place for tomorrow’s Technique Tuesday.

Adios everybody,  -David

"The Softness Of Your Kiss"

"The Softness Of Your Kiss"
©David A. Ziser

This was an image I made during last week's wedding. What's fascinating about this image is how I created it. I used the HD video features of my Canon 7D.  I set up the location, natural soft lighting, and framing on the couple and asked them to simply interact with each other as I filmed continuously for about 30 seconds.

As I kept the camera focused on them I give them simple directions -to look at each other, snuggle in with each other, give each other a soft kiss, etc. At 30 frames a second that meant I had nearly 900 images to select from.  That made it easy to get the best expressions and the best image.

This frame grab was one of my favorites. We printed out several of the frame grabs from the shoot. Even at the 8x10 size they look fabulous. This topic is going to be the subject of one of my Technique Tuesday's coming up very soon – I promise.

But getting back to this photograph - what I like about it is the soft light on the both of them are and how gently they're interacting with each other.

I tweaked the image just a bit in Lightroom 4 raising the shadow density just a bit and increasing the exposure slightly as well. I preferred the medium to high key effect in my black-and-white images. To finish the image with the soft, ethereal feel I wanted I reduced the clarity to -70. That adjustment gave me the halation around the brighter parts of the image adding to the “dreamy” effect. I think it's an image the bride and groom will really enjoy having in their wedding album.

Camera specs: Canon 7D fitted with 18-200mm IS lens at 100mm, F8.0, ISO 400, 1920x1080 HD video. Enjoy! – David

"This Takes The Cake"

"This Takes The Cake"
©David A. Ziser

This is an image I made at this past weekend's wedding.The reception venue is quite unique with its vaulted arching ceiling architecture.

I could've photograph the wedding cake straight on but, since there were guests already in the room I felt the lower vantage point would provide a more interesting view. I carefully position the cake against the plane background being careful not to have it intersect with the first arch above it.

The beautiful lighting on the wedding cake was achieved by the large picture windows on the left side and right side of the reception venue. It was all natural light.  In fact it was great shooting toasts, and the welcome from the bride’s parents at this wedding reception because the lighting was so beautiful.

Okay, this is where I come clean. You’ll never guess what I used to capture this photograph! Look at the camera specs below and prepare to be amazed!

Camera specs: The new iPad (iPad 3) with built in camera, F2.4 @ 1/15 second, 4.28mm (35mm lens – 35mm film equivalent), ISO 250, GPS 40°8'56" N 84°14'25" W. All very cool!  Enjoy!  -David

"Sneaking A Peak"

"Sneaking A Peak"
© David A. Ziser

This image is a bit of a "blast from the past". Any time you see them come up square, it usually means an image from the film days. That's the case with this image, but it is still one of my favorites.

I know I post a lot of dramatic pictorials, but 90-95% of the images I show the client are hopefully a great collection of spontaneous candid images - much like this one.

Here is the story. The girls were lined up and ready to walk down the aisle on the cue from the bridal consultant. The doors were just opened for the processional to begin. The little flower girls wanted to see what was happening and both leaned at the same time to "take a peek."

My Hasselblad was fitted with the 50mm Distagon lens. When I saw the girls lean over, I set the exposure quickly to get the shot. Even after all these years, the image still captures the spontaneous essence of the moment.

Camera specs; Hasselblad fitted with 50mm Distagon lens, F4 @ 1/30 second, Vericolor 400 film. Enjoy! –David

p.s. Hey gang, I’ll get the rest of Thursday’s post up tomorrow. A bad cold, a Bar Mitzvah shoot this afternoon, and a horrendous traffic jam getting back to the studio has kind of thrown a wrench into the works today.

All is good though – see ya’ tomorrow.

-David

Technique Tuesday: PhotoPro Expo Only 4 Weeks Away! & No Flash Pizzazz

Good Morning Everybody,

Welcome to a brand new year at DigitalProTalk.  Today I’m hailing to you from sunny, yet a bit chilly, Orlando, Florida. That’s right, after the holidays LaDawn and I head south for a little recharge before we launch big time into the new year. We have a few friends in the area, including my son, Aaron, who we plan on catching up with this week.

Still Working Hard Though

Don’t get the wrong idea, I’m still working hard every day – the BIGGEST item on my plate being our PhotoPro Expo with is now only four weeks away!  We have photographers attending from 22 states around the country, including Canada, so this is going to be a truly international event.  And, one of the best learning experiences happening  in the Midwest for 2012!

I sure hope you plan to attend. Our room block is filling fast at the 4-star Marriott on the river so if you’re planning to come by, be sure to book your room right away before they sell out.  Hit the link to the right for all the info.

Over the next few weeks I’ll keep you posted about all the special activities we have planned for the convention. I think you’ll be amazed!

No Flash Pizzazz! Or How To Make Wedding?Portrait Images Exciting Without Flash!

There, I said it.  Can you believe it? Ziser talking about getting great wedding images without using a flash.  I know my mantra at DigitalProTalk is nearly always about off-camera flash, creating highlights next to shadows, going for the loop lighting pattern – you know the speech.

But, all joking (and preaching) aside, I know you can still create some terrific images with nature’s own wonderful light.  I think the secret to creating outstanding images without flash, particularly wedding and portrait images lies in the fact that you as the creator of the image have a decent sense of color, composition, timing, and lighting skills.

In today’s lesson I’ll walk you through about two dozen images discussing why I think these images stand on their own without any use of extraneous additive lighting.  In this tutorial you’ll get a peek as to how I compose my images, what I’m seeing in the camera before pressing the shutter button, and how I utilize all the elements of the scene to get exciting images without secondary light sources.

Why not hit the PLAY button and enjoy the show.

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today. I’ve got a few hours of work to complete before we head to Ormond Beach, Florida to spend the day with my son, Aaron.

Have a great rest of the day and I’ll see you tomorrow, same time, same station.

Adios, –David

"The Future of America”

"The Future of America”
© David A. Ziser

OK, part of the future anyway ;~)  This image is actually a combination of three images that I made at separate times last year. As a Christmas gift, I took LaDawn and her three kids, along with their significant others, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We all had a great time but, being the only photographer on the trip, it fell to me to do the family portrait. We got the locations scouted, the clothing coordinated, and headed to the beach. During the session I made LaDawn VERY happy with a great series of portrait images of everyone.

Eight months later we were in Florida to visit two kids. LaDawn had the idea of including them in the family portrait session that we had done with her children earlier in the year. The plan for the 2nd and 3rd shoot was to have my kids, wear the same type of casual clothing so that I could easily add them to the earlier portrait of the other five kids photographed eight months earlier.

This image is actually the subject of my Technique Tuesday for tomorrow. There was an extensive amount of Photoshop that had to be done just to extend  the background to include my two kids in the photograph.  I'll get into greater depth about that tomorrow.

Lighting was quite simple – all natural light in all three cases. I had to be sure to have a soft natural light which you see coming in from the right and it had to be from the same direction for all three images.

As a family portrait, I think this image has a wonderful sense of rhythm and good feeling about it. The positioning of each one of the subjects individually complements the entire family group when taken as a whole.

Anyway, I think we are very lucky parents to have such a great family portrait of our combined families. LaDawn spent the weekend framing up the portraits which will hang in our small media room on the second floor of our home. They’ll look great!

Camera specs - Image 1 (Joshua, Kristen, Bob, Lindsay & Zak): Canon 7D fitted with Canon 100mm macro IS lens IS lens at 3.2 @1/500 of a second, ISO 200.

Image 2 (Aaron): Canon 7D fitted with 18–200mm IS lens at 80mm, F9.0 @ 1/250 of a second, ISO 500.

Image 3 (Elizabeth): Canon 7D fitted with 18–200mm IS lens at 70mm, F8.0 @ 1/250 of a second, ISO 500.

Enjoy! – David

"The Soft Curves Of Beauty "

"The Soft Curves Of Beauty "
© David A. Ziser

This is one of my favorite images I captured in Tampa a few weeks ago.  It is a totally natural light image - no flash allowed.  Sometimes the light is just perfect so forget the flash and take advantage of that beautiful soft light.

Not only did I have wonderfully naturally occurring light, I also had a fabulous location to work.  I love the soft curved lines of the railing.  It was a perfect compositional element for leading the viewer’s eye to my beautiful bride.

Next, one of the important ingredients of this image is the very pleasing background behind the bride.  I had to use "Live View" on my Canon 7D because I was reaching out over the railing so that I could frame up the background where I wanted it.  Many times you will have most of the ingredients of a great image but something will be missing to bring it all together.  That was not the case here.

Look at how all the lines in this image, including the lines of the bride, are leaning AND leading your eye to the right side of the image.  Placing the bride at nodal point #3 was the perfect position for her in this composition.  Add a pleasing expression and we have a very nice bridal portrait.

Camera specs: Canon 7D fitted with 18-200mm IS lens at 200mm, F11 @ 1/100 second, ISO 800.  Enjoy!  -David

"Thoughts Of You"

"Thoughts Of You"
© David A. Ziser

Here is another image I captured at the beautiful Jacuzzi Winery on Tuesday.  The class was working with Megan, our lovely model.  They were outside and asked her to sit in the window and just look back at the camera.

I’m sure their photograph looked good but I wanted to see what it looked like from the opposite side.  I circled around and went inside to see what the shot looked like from that vantage point.  This was the image I saw – a beautifully lit profile of Megan. Look at the gorgeous loop lighting on her face.  The natural lighting sculpts her features perfectly giving us a very simple, easy portrait of this lovely young lady.

Compositionally, I positioned her head carefully between the boards  the “interior frame” of the wooden shutter behind her in order to frame her even more effectively for this photograph.  Her head is positioned at nodal point #4 of both the “exterior AND interior frame” of the composition.

I also like the very warm colors and how they contrast with the rich blue color of her top.  You know, when you look at this image, it is a simple/pleasing portrait.  It’s all natural lighting, easy pose, and simple composition that all comes together for a very beautiful and flattering image of Megan.

Camera specs:  Canon 7D fitted with 18-200mm IS lens at 110m, F5.6 @ 1/200 second, ISO 320.  Enjoy!  -David