LIFELINE

It’s time to let everybody take a peek behind the curtain.  Today I’ll be talking about retouching and sharing my views about how it relates to wedding photography.

I one had this bride who was getting her makeup placed  on her face and I stared deeply at her face and it was PERFECT.  I couldn’t find a single flaw.  And then I got her images of the close up of her face and hidden acne, dead pores, crow’s feet and other issues.   The problem is in a nutshell digital camera lenses are too sharp for their own good, and they are unforgiving.   One of my recent brides was in her mid 30’s and liked to spend time out in the sun.   She had a nice makeup artist but in her images she ran the risk of looking older than her age.    I know how women are, if they have an album that has unflattering images of them in it, they won’t show it around.    it will go in the closet under the board games.  But if they look good chances are that she’ll show it around.  In her particular case he skin hue made her a bit hard to work on.  I fixed the image, and then I fixed them again and the effects were still noticeable.   It took a while but once I figured out how to work on one of her images I was able to fix them all.    She wrote me back when she go the album and said I LOVE IT!!!!!

My philosophy on retouching goes like this “I want people to look like themselves, only better.”  What I mean is that if people look at your images and think “Oh, that’s not what you looked like, you’ve been Photoshoped” then your wedding day story looses credibility.  So, I am very careful to not overdo a retouch to the point that it’s obvious. My job is to enhance reality, not redecorate it!

Today’s model is the lovely Erin.  Of course he beauty secret is having highly attractive parents giving her a wonderful genes.  That’s 90% of it.  Make up and other beauty secrets can only do so much, genetics help a lot.  But hey, even my stunning brides need a little help.

The first thing I can tell you about this image is that it was no accident.  After she was done getting dressed I picked out a spot where I knew the lighting was exceptional and I asked her to go to this location.   I like doing the close-ups  of the bride as soon as she gets dressed because I know that’s when her look will be the freshest .  A lot of photographers would have chosen to blast her with on camera flash to get the shot and  it wouldn’t be compelling, just flat boring lighting ,  Erin was this super thin, tiny gal who had lovely blue eyes and a cool swirl to her blond hair.  I wanted the lighting to be perfect so that it gave dimensionality to her face and called attention to her eyes. The diagonal  tilt of her head  gave what is called :”The feminine pose.”    The flowers in front of her and in her hair were her prop.  The yellow in the flowers highlighted her blond hair.  This actually all flowed together very nicely.   From the way I describe it you may think that a lot of time went into this setup, and in reality it was around 20 seconds.

The image that came out of the camera is on the left.    Was I happy with it?  Yes, certainly. Could it be improved, most definitely.  The first thing is that the lighting was very soft and very directional.  As you can see on the image on the left she the lighting was exactly the same on the back of her head as it was on the flowers in front of her.  This is large, flat lighting which is excellent for portrait work.  It softens the skin and doesn’t throw any hard shadows.  But, I felt that her lovely blond hair called too much attention to itself and distracted us from her eyes and face.    The background was this taupe carpet.  All in all it was a low contrast image.  If I were to print this I would simply pump up the contrast a bit more before printing.  But I am showing you what came out of the camera.

When I was thinking of making this print the first thing that came to mind was that the background wasn’t all that important. I could let it go dark and use it to pump up the contrast of her blond hair.    The second thing was that I didn’t  feel that we needed to see that all her hair was as equally blond from front to back.  I wanted more lighting on the front of her face to call attention to her face

When it came to her skin well even with the semi flat lighting and low contrast I did notice some issues with her skin that would have made this an image she wouldn’t show in public.  I blame my ultra sharp lens.  Normally what I would do is paint off the highlights on her face and make her skin matte across the board.  But I liked the shine on her face, it gave her a healthy glow.   I wanted to give her skin a movie star quality to it.   And lastly  I wanted to give this image a little more power by pumping up her pretty blue eyes just  a tad.

The image was used for a trade show booth as a way to grab people’s attention.  You can see both extremes of the image.  For an album we may not go quiet as far with this image.  It really depends on the bride.  It would make a compelling image in the bridal album for some brides while others would want a more natural, toned down looking version of themselves about half way between both images.

Every industry has it’s gimmick.  With rock musicians it’s the line “Hey (insert name of  city) I hear you guys like to rock!”  For comedians its fart jokes, and for photographers it’s the black and white  image with spot color.  When it’s combined with another thing that can be a gimmick, the fisheye lens, it can lead to an image that would be better off not being shown in a gallery, oh but I love it!

Let’s discuss the fish eye lens first.  It’s a tool that can be over used and misused .  Since my late, great mom spent her life as a math teacher she will be glad to know that I am giving a small math lesson.   A circle is how many degrees?  That’s right, 360 degrees.    Half a circle is 180 degrees.  The fisheye lens

can see 180 degrees.  Your normal field of vision is 140 degrees so with a fisheye lens you can see stuff you normally can’t see.  Often when I use it I can see my shoes and I sometimes have to kindly ask people who are standing next to me to move behind me when taking a photo. They can’t believe I can see them and yes you can see a wider area in the camera than you can with your own eye.

The point of the fisheye lens is the distortion.  Things on the edges look smaller and pushed in and things in the center tend to look longer and thinner.  Dead center of the image  is a fairy safe bet because it has less distortion.   Like any other lens I own the fisheye is a tool, and there are right applications for it and wrong ones.

I believe the fisheye lens is one of the least understood lenses from photographers.  Ask any photographer who just got his first camera, it’s on their list of “must have” lenses.   So many impressive images have been made with it that the lens wreaks of creativity.  But used wrong it’s like nails on a chalkboard.

This is clearly from an engagement portrait session.  Many years ago when I shot film and went to a lab I saw one photographer who had these lovely pictures of a couple wearing blue jeans and white shirts sitting on a rock in Little Corona Del Mar at sunset.  Lovely and impressive.  The next week it was the exact same thing, a different couple barefoot, wearing the exact same clothing sitting on the exact same rock in Little Corona Del Mar.    Oh yeah,  I know how to do safe bet photography as well.  But I expect more out of myself.  I like to journey outside my  comfort zone to make images.   On this day we were in Long Beach going from downtown to the water. The stairs were a transition point from the bridge to the water and no it’s nor a lovely place to make engagement images.    But for some reason, to me it works.   First of all there are many geometric shapes in this image.  The lead in lines from the circular railing make the image fun.  The nearly cylinder looking elevator gives the image power.    The black and white tends to make the area look a bit more gritty while the couple pops out in color looking pristine.  No, I don’t expect that they will blow this up large and put it in their house, but for an image in their engagement book it will be compelling.

Today’s shout out!

Martha Hill  951-743-3881

Martha.bagpiper@gmail.com

Ask any Scottish man, everybody knows that the world’s best bagpiper’s are Latinas!  Bagpipers for rent are somewhat hard to find, but a Latina bagpiper, you have to admit the idea sounds cool?  Martha did a great jobs and was a really nice lady.   if you want to throw some curveballs in your wedding, give Martha a call.

Its time to add new images to the gallery, and instead of adding them in bunches like I normally do I am going to give some insight to each image.  What made them special in my mind?

The bride, Hollyn was the younger sister of Chelsea, a bride from about five years ago.  As stunning and gorgeous as the family is, they are also super nice!   Hollyh had some ideas of her own when it came to her wedding.   She was just full of them, and her wedding rocked!    She had some ideas about where to take pictures but the sun wasn’t working for us at the location she had in mind.  I know it sounds strange to tell someone to go behind a barn when there was so much other good stuff to use.

But after using the other good stuff we went to where the sun was which was behind the barn.   I love the placement of the hands and arms.   Yes, the groom has his hands on her butt, people can we talk for a moment here?   I was there, this guy just swore off all other  women for eternity not even an hour earlier.  He can have his hand on her butt.  It’s fine with me.  The embrace was something that was strong, slightly sexual but also classy.   I love the height differences between them.  Call me old fashioned but I love it when the man is taller than the woman.  Their height was just about perfect for each other. He was able to get away with a  slight dip  which breaks up the rigidity  of his stance.  Hollyn of course sells the image in my opinion.  I love her hand on his face and her dip.  There were about 20 variations of this shot, but the smile of this shot is what sold me on this particular one.  The rest they were kissing.  The smile was so very real, she was totally happy and very into the moment.   The warm sun sells the romance angle and the back of the barn frames the shot nicely.    I love the backlighting on their hair and the out of focus foliage in the foreground adds depth.

I could have told a much different story about this image. Would you believe it if I told you that they  had snuck away from the crowd for a few minutes  and they were telling each other about how happy they both were and  what they had planned later on during the honeymoon.

I could have beaten them up a bit more to get a slightly more perfect picture out of them.  There would be a couple of things that could be changed in my mind to make it a more perfect image.   But, he would have stiffened up and her smile would have gone away.   The picture wouldn’t have been as wonderful if it wasn’t for her loving smile in conjunction with her warm embrace.    I’m after capturing love not prints to impress other photographers.   My parents celebrated 50 years of marriage and then my mom got sick right after anniversary party and died five weeks later.    There were no romantic images of them on their wedding day, but from what I can tell you about them they did love each other deeply.  I’m hoping these two are among the 5% of marriages that make it 50 years.   When I look at this image all I can say is “yes, I think they will.”

Other Stuff

I would like to give a shout out to my buddy Dan Douglass at Plug Video.  www.plugvideo.com .  I was talking to him the other day and he’s telling me that he’s getting a ton of phone calls from new clients who are looking into his services.   We are going to be working together on a great wedding this summer at Los Coyotes Country Club.  I can’t wait!

Chances are you have a soft spot in your heart for the brand “Kodak” though you haven’t purchased their film in quite some time if ever at all.  Many of your cherished memories were made possible to Kodak.   Your grade school pictures, your parents wedding photos  were printed on Kodak papers and likely captured with Kodak film.   Kodak is an American institution much like Levi’s Jeans and Schwinn bicycles.   But just like Schwinn their future may be reduced to  a brand name owned by another company.

The net problem Kodak faced was that they saw the digital revolution coming and they were actually ahead of the curve.   The problem was that they had a business model based on the fact that every time you depressed the shutter they made money.    They could have been the leaders in digital photography in a way that would have made them a prosperous company today.  Instead of biting the bullet an securing a less lucrative future they decided to milk their cash cow until it nearly died from dehydration.   They didn’t  scale back fast enough in their demise and they failed to transition to other technologies.   A good overview of Kodak can be found here.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16627167

What do I think will happen to Kodak?  They will sell of their patent portfolio and survive a while longer  They will make the drastic cuts that they need to do in order to be a smaller and more lean company.  Ultimately it’s unfortunately too late for Kodak.   A reasonable suitor for them is 3M.  3M has the channel distribution and can add Kodak to it’s portfolio and probably help manage it better.  3M actually has made film in the past and would probably make a very good match with Kodak.   The brand name Kodak won’t disappear but many of the products you may be fond of as a photographer will be history.  It started with the iconic film brand “Kodachrome” being euthanized a couple of years ago.  To be fair the processing of Kodachrome was was labor intensive and expensive.    They will trim the brands down to just the products that move in hihgly significant quantities.

Kodak was like the Apple computers of it’s era.   In a world that we live in today where you post pictures of an event on Facebook in real time while at the event imagine if there was no photography?   Imagine telling your friends about a dog you have at home only to realize that unless they come to your house they’ll never see it?  Capturing memories of your life was indeed innovative for it’s time.  We are now living in an era where major institution can fail.  It happened with Schwinn, it’s happening with Kodak and it can very well happen with Sears. Though you see nothing but success for Apple at the current time don’t be surprised in your lifetime if falls to insignificance and sold off to a competitor for pennies on the dollar . Though there is nothing that remotely suggests this will happen we are living in a world where a few bad management decisions and a decade or two of bad luck can lead to it’s death.   At one time Kodak was too big to fail and the thought of it doing so was out of the question.   Now people like me simply shake our heads and say “Wow!”

Wedding coordinators tend to run the range from “okay” to downright annoying.  Some of the worst vendors I’ve worked with have been wedding coordinators.   Which is sad because our mutual client pays them to make sure the day runs smoothly .   But instead you get pushy, demanding people who sometimes resort to confrontation to gain compliance.   My all-time favorite was a woman who sat on a stool and yelled at her staff.   They really hated her but she got them work so they didn’t want to mess up a good thing. .

Emiko Hara is on the other extreme.  She is nice, friendly, and doesn’t stop moving.   The first thing that I noticed was that the agenda was well laid out.  I didn’t really have to do any additional research because her agenda was perfect.  No questions whatsoever!.    There were no surprises during the day and the events flowed smoothly.  We were ahead of schedule the entire day.   She not only did her job but helped me a bit with my job by having jewelry set up before I arrived for a photo.  With nearly 15 years experience I’ve never seen this.  Yes, you would expect all wedding coordinators to do this, but they don’t.

Renowned Events also DJ’d the reception and ran the photo booth.   There weren’t any issues that came up at all.  I had dinner with the staff.  I had dinner with the staff.  They were really lively and looked like they had a lot of fun together.  They were laughing and talking it up.  I could tell that they really like working with each other.

Very often when I work with vendors I see them once and never again.   I really want it to be a good experience because I  never know when I may work with them again.  I at least have to forge a working relationship for the day.  This means not stepping on toes and getting my work done so that they can get their work done.   Some people get it, other don’t.   Renowned Events gets it.  There are no frail or funky egos running around.  They seem like they would get along well with anybody.  I just count myself lucky to work with them and would gladly work with them again.

Renowned Events runs the Premier Bridal Show fashion shows.  It’s amazing to watch because it’s just wall to wall people at these events.  They put on a great show.

More than my praise I am passing along their information.   My appreciation for making 2012’s first wedding a great start to the year!

Renowned Events

Emiko Hara

800-749-4990

Emiko@renowenedEvents.com

www.RenowenedEvents.com

Weddings are a leading economic indicator. They suggest how well our economy is doing to some degree.  I say to some degree because just as a strong stock market doesn’t quite go along with our record unemployment, an increase in weddings doesn’t mean that recovery is around the corner.

The year 2012 looks like it will be a busy wedding year.   Right now people are starting to plan more than six months out of their weddings once again, which is a good or bad depending who you are.  Time was a few years ago you could plan a wedding in less than three months and cut deals with all the vendors who were desperate for work.   Those days are past.  Brides are telling me that venues are booking up for summer dates for next year with twelve months to go.

One large golf resort told me a few years ago that they needed 60 weddings to just break even for the year, and they were at 38.  The issue is that for 2012 they may hit this 60 without much effort, and then they will start to consider profitability.  Sure they can run swing staffs and cram through five weddings a weekend.  But chances are that they will raise prices along the way, book 90 weddings and make more money than if they hit 120 weddings at regular prices.

Wedding venues talk in terms of “minimums.”  Do you wish to book the grand ballroom for ten people at a certain hotel?  It can hold 300 people.  At $60 a plate the total is $600.  But, they will tell you the minimum is $15,000.  That means the $60 meal is really $1500 a plate!   Hmm, must be good!

The minimums go up or down depending on the time of year and demand.  As we move into 2012 you will find that the minimums will go start to increase. If for example you talk to a venue that has a $12,000 minimum on a Saturday night, in July and go back a couple months later the minimum may increase to $15,000 for the same date, if its still available.  None of the other costs may have gone up, but you will need to make up the difference.  You can buy more expensive entrees, have more appetizers, invite more people, or do nothing and have the extra tacked onto your bill.

As for key vendors next year, we’ll be working.   There isn’t much to be gained by not placing deposits with your vendors.  Vendors aren’t going to wheel and deal for a job like they have in the past.  Worst yet, the good ones will book up on key dates such as in the summertime.  We are starting to get booked seven to 9 months out fairly consistently.

The danger is that the sage advice that people who got married not too long ago may not work for 2012.  At least for next year the best advice we can give you is that if you find a vendor you like, it’s never too soon to sign up with them.

We certainly appreciate all the support our clients have given us through the years, most importantly the more economically challenging years.  Thankfully, the word is getting around very quickly by our previous bridal couples who have really appreciated what we’ve done for them.  Great photography at affordable prices.

The really great thing about being a wedding photographer is I get to meet some really neat  people.  There are some people who let the days go by and fill their lives up with regrets and excuses.  Then there are others who throw 100% of themselves at every day.   Carmen was one of the most difficult brides I’ve had all year to get on the phone.  That’s because she rarely stopped long enough to talk to anybody.  She was on the go 24/7.  She is an aerobics instructor who teaches 15 classes a week!  She is a professional dancer, a dance coach, a mom, and now a  wife.   As for her age, you would never guess, and though I know it, I’m sworn to secrecy! 

The thing that was great about working with Carmen was that she had a good concept of what her wedding would be like.  I’ve seen a lot of people throw money at weddings in hopes of impressing their guests.   Carmen knew that her crowd would be there and that was enough.  The wedding had touches of elegance and class though  it wasn’t pretentious.  Everything just seemed to flow together on the day.    The classic Buick in the pictures was ironically a slightly older version of the same car my dad courted my mom in back in the 50”s.   Her groom Gary was a bit nervous about the day.  Part of his big day was having a huge formal first dance that lasted five minutes.  How much practice did they put into it?  One night!  It was Spandau Ballet’s  ”I’ll fly for you.”    I’ve never heard this song at a wedding, so, a first dance song was unheard of. I”ve heard “From this moment” by Shinia Twain as a fist dance song about 100 times.   So, before the music started I looked at Carmen and said “You know I love this song, just do justice to it.”  And of course, Gary and Carmen knocked out of the ballpark!

The thing I found most refreshing about the wedding was the fact that they enjoyed everybody who came.  There are many brides who stress out and worry about certain guests who will have too much to drink and make a fool of themselves.  Often they are family and they can’t be uninvited without hell to pay.  Carmen loved them all and didn’t worry who they were or what they would do.  One guy in particular was a bit of a joker and Carmen lovingly told him to knock it off when he got out of line a few times.   The biggest fear for most brides was something that happened at her wedding, the dreaded “Open Mic.’  People, let me tell you something, I’ve seen these things go horribly wrong!  OPEN MIC + OPEN BAR=TROUBLE!  But other than a few somewhat slurred speeches there wasn’t a problem.  Gary had a cute younger sister and one lady finished her speech, planted on kiss on her and went back to her seat.  I asked Gary’s sister “Do you know her?”  And she said with a smile “No!.”    But, in a strange way there was a lot of love in the room and I think people just ate it up and were perhaps a big more expressive than they normally are!

Of course there is the crew Carmen runs with.  There was this funky southern gal who did Carmen’s makeup.  Stacy.  Not only did she do a great job, but she came along with a lot of great energy.  She was the right hand woman to Liz.  Liz will be getting married in July but we may have to keep the images on the down low due to some other issues with celebrity guests.  Regardless, Liz was a ton of fun and provided the energy for dance floor.

The one thing I appreciate about Gary and Carmen is that they are locals of the Long  Beach area.   Carmen grew up in San Pedro.  The reception was at the port in San Pedro.  We were outside at the reception taking a few images and below us there was a bar with a Karaoke night.  Someone selected Jay Z & Alicia Key’s  ”Empire State of Mind” but changed  ”Let’s hear it for New York” to “Let’s hear it for San Pedro”.  Carmen loved it.  Carmen was very vocal about how much she loved  San Pedro and how proud she was to be from San Pedro.

Carmen and Gary put themselves and their personalities into the wedding.  It was a wonderful time, and they seem to embrace three of my favorite F’s.  Family , friends and fun.  Way to go Gary and Carmen!

Tonight on The Fox 11 news (Los Angles) at 10PM in anticipation of the royal wedding, there will be a sad story about good people getting screwed over by a company called “Celebration Photography and Video.”    This was a company that used to take out double page spreads in bridal magazines featuring some lovely work.  While at the same time putting out ads in newpapers and trade journals looking for people to photograph these weddings they were signing up.  And thus the nightmare begins.  DJ’s used to tell me about freshly hired wedding photographers with no wedding experience who kept pulling the bride and groom out of the reception to keep photographing them because they were nervous about what they had.   They would sell the fact that you could hire a videographer and photographer from the same company that knew each other, that actually didn’t.  We had someone who hired them who got disastrous results from their engagement portrait session try to fire them and hire us, only to learn that if they did THEY STILL OWED THE FULL AMOUNT OF THE PACKAGE.  The groom was a cop, but it didn’t matter, the contact was written in stone.

I have just found out that the company is declaring bankruptcy.  Am I happy about this?  No.  I knew who they were and what they were.  The problem is that the industry is no better off with them gone.  Today there are thousands of small fish who talk themselves into wedding photography and get in way over their heads.  It’s an epidemic.   You would expect that with Calibration out of the picture (photo pun) their would be clients are probably in better hands somewhere else.  I’m just saying “Don’t be so certain.”    It pays to avoid “gut” decisions and to do your homework before hiring a photographer.  Also, read the contract before you sign up with anybody.