This post is mostly about photography for photographers, so if you are a bride, a friend, or my mother, feel free to just look at the pretty picture from Holly & Joe's wedding this past weekend below and move along to the wedding posts below this! If you are a photographer, try to bear with me while I babble blindly about my camera issues!
PLEASE KEEP IN MIND: My comments are just my opinion. I don't know nearly the amount of technical things others do, and my observations about color, graininess, etc are just that: observations.
So, if you follow my Facebook or Twitter, you might have seen that I've been, how shall I say, damn pissed off at my camera lately. For the record, I use the Canon 5d, and have since it came out. Not the 5d Mark 2, the 5d.
My motto for my business is that I ALWAYS try to do the absolute very best that I can. The reason I didn't switch to the Mark 2 is because that camera is great for video but I just plain hate the files for still photos. They're noisy, the color is terrible compared to the regular ol' 5d, and it's absolutely no improvement in low light autofocus mode whatsoever. I'm of the mindset that I only switch equipment when there is something BETTER out there for me--not a lateral move, or worse yet, a downgrade. Since I am not and do not plan to shoot video at least not at the same time I am shooting stills, I chose not to get the 5d Mark 2 when it came out.
(** the things I hate about the 5d mark 2 is the color and the ickiness of the files. dontcha just love technical explanations like that?)
Anyway, lately more than ever, I've been having issues with my 5d (I have three, btw). They all go to Canon regularly for calibrating as do my lenses. However, in the past few months, I've had one blow it's shutter and give me err 99 which Canon informed me would be $500 to fix. How about making a camera that costs several thousands of dollars that doesn't blow its shutter?! The other ones, although I just LOVE the color, just plain don't focus very well, which has become more annoying the pickier I get about such things.
I realize that it's my style to shoot wide open, and when shooting wide open I am going to get more misfocused photos than the average person. BUT, when I'm standing still in broad daylight 5 feet from my subject with the focus EXACTLY on the eyes, shouldn't that photo at least be close?! No? How about at 2.0? 5.0? And forget it if my subject does something stupid like MOVE!!! How dare they! And don't even get me started on what might happen if I'd like to shoot after the sun has gone down.
Now, I think that I do a great job with my weddings, and I shoot a TON, so this hasn't affected my being able to produce plenty of focused images. However, there should be more. Seriously.
So I have to consider switching to Nikon, which I'd rather not do, because of all the money invested in Canon glass lenses, and the fact that I LOVE MY LENSES SO MUCH that i just refuse to give them up. But I'm considering it because I hear that Nikon makes cameras that can focus. Even when people are moving. Wow!
Before I get all hasty though, I decided to try out Canon's bigger cameras first. This past weekend at Holly & Joe's wedding, I shot the 1d Mark 4. I found it to be quite responsive and able to focus accurately using all of the focus points, which the 5d does not. On the 5d, the center focus point is the only one that really focuses well, and not always. But the Mark 4 really was good even at the outer edge of the points.
A positive: The Mark 4 has usable ISO's waaaaay beyond the 5d. I shot this photo below at 8000 ISO and I think it looks great:
A negative: The Mark 4 has a crop factor of 1.3, so even though I am able to shoot my amazing Canon lenses, they just don't quite have the feel that they do on a full frame camera.
The weight of the camera was also an adjustment--it was almost twice as heavy as the 5d with no battery grip--I was in major pain after the wedding! It can't hurt me to get a little workout though.
This weekend, I'll be shooting the 1Ds Mark 3, which I hear good things about. I've seen the files and they're beautiful, and it is a full frame sensor. But the high ISO feature of the Mark 4 isn't there on the 3, and that's a huge bummer.
Where is this mythical 1Ds Mark IV anyway?!
A final note: My main canon lenses are the 24 1.4, the 50 1.2, and the 35 1.4. I also shoot the 100 2.8L for macro. These lenses perfectly capture how I see the world. Can Nikon lenses replace that?
One of the things I'm going to try to do a little more often here is post answers to some questions I get frequently. You might not know this, but every day, I post and interact on my FACEBOOK PAGE! From now on, I'd love it if instead of emailing questions, you would post them in the DISCUSSION area there so that the answers can help others too. Questions that lots of people seem to want to know about will get posted here and discussed sometimes too :)
Anyway, yesterday I was thinking about some questions I get asked frequently, and I figured, why not answer a few! So here we go:
Q. What lenses do you use?
A: I am a die-hard Canon prime lens user. The reason is that I find them so much sharper, faster, and easier to use than the zoom lenses. The images have a quality to them that I just never see with prime lenses. Right now, I think the Nikon cameras are better, but I just can't give up those gorgeous Canon lenses. If you ever see me shooting you'll see that I have a Shootsac and a few lenses that never leave my side. They are:
50 1.2: This is probably my favorite lens of all time--it's my go-to for portraits, details, and "money shots"
35 1.4: A relatively new addition to my bag, the first time I used it, it was LOVE! Great for the family photos, bridal party, getting ready, ceremony, and half room shots.
24 1.4: I use this lens for pretty much ALL party/dancing photos and wide ceremony and room shots.
100 2.8L: I just got this lens a few months ago and it is INSANE! It blows the older version of it out of the water. I use it for ring shots, small details, invitations, and it's quickly replacing my 70-200 for long shots as well.
Those are my main lenses. At any given time, I have one on my camera, and three in my Shootsac.
Q: Do you use fill flash, reflectors or other lighting in your outdoor photos?
A: The short answer is, "No", I do not. There is no flash or reflectors used in any outdoor photo you have ever seen on this blog. Years ago when I was first starting out, I was taught how to light outdoor photos for fill and balance. Over the years, my style evolved to use the light available to me, which was a better fit for me with the way I shoot. Since I shoot so quickly and on the fly, I don't want to take the time to set up lighting, so I look for spots where the lighting is already how I want it. No flashes, reflectors, or other lighting are used in any of my outdoor portraits.
Q: Did you go to photography school? Should I go?
A: I find it so hard to answer this question! No, I did not go to photography school, and aside from one class in high school, never took classes. I worked as an associate photographer for four years for another studio when I was first starting out, which is where I learned camera mechanics, how to use and read a light meter, and what to do when I showed up at a wedding. Nowadays, there are TONS of classes, workshops, and forums available to teach you those things much faster! For me though, getting to work as a photographer and not have the responsibility of a business to run myself was invaluable. I think it is safe to say that I wouldn't have a successful business right now if I hadn't had a front row seat to seeing how someone else ran their business, learning both things that were good to do and things that weren't.
I can't tell anyone whether or not they should go to photography school, but I can tell you this--you should educate yourself somehow. If you plan to start and run a photography business, you need information both on photography and on business, not one or the other. I think there are many ways to get this knowledge, and the "how" isn't so important!
And because everyone knows that posts are boring with no photos, here's a shot from the Utterly Engaged party I shot the other night styled by Grey Likes Weddings with desserts by the incomparable Melody of My Sweet & Saucy:
One of my favorite things to do is to shoot bright, fun, creative things! One of the people who shares my passion for decor and photography is Renee Delsigne, owner of OC PROPGIRL, a company who sources and rents props specifically for photo shoots of any size! She really understands style, and she was my first choice to style a little set for the FOUR BRAND NEW SHOOTSAC COVERS launching TODAY!!!
Since styled shoots seem to be all the rage lately, I thought I'd give a little bit of behind the scenes info on how this one came together.
We wanted this shoot to really encompass the theme of "Summer Fun", so where else to go but the beach!
(**The hot models for this shoot all came from my twitter & facebook casting calls, so if you're interested in modeling for Shootsac in the future, that's where you should keep an eye out!**)
In no particular but equally fabulous order they are:
Renee did such an incredible job creating the perfect set for me to shoot the whole group!
It's deceptively simple--look at all the elements she had to put together in order to make this happen:
1. Vintage Yellow Umbrella--found at an estate sale on Balboa Island
2. Vintage Water Cooler
3. Amazing End Table, hand repainted by Renee to add a pop to the shoot
4. Wooden Beach Sign
5. Polka Dot Drink Stand, found at Home Goods
6. Polka Dot glasses, flamingo straws, watermelon, and colorful sodas
7. Antique Radio (looks way cooler than an ipod!)
Next, we needed gorgeous girls to show off the new summery covers! Since the covers are REVERSIBLE, I needed them wearing the covers showing both sides. Here are some individual shots of Sarah, Kathleen, Smita, and Nicole in the patterns:
But style isn't enough--a Shootsac model needs to be able to SHOOT! Here's Elise & hubby Ryan modeling while the group shoots:
I love this shot of Nicole showing off her pattern with the rest of the girls wearing the solid sides in the pattern (Nicole's cover has the gold on the back):
Here's Kayte, Kathleen, Sarah & Smita workin' it:
And you've gotta give it to Elise & Ryan-Elise is rocking a silver swimsuit from Anthropologie that I just LOVE!
Elise & Ryan are simply adorable:
I'll be posting a few more photos of Elise & Ryan's beach shoot tomorrow over a the Shootsac Blog!
For now, I'm so excited to introduce our FOUR NEW REVERSIBLE COVERS!!
And now a contest: LEAVE A COMMENT and tell me which is your favorite for a chance to win your fave! The winner will be announced on the Shootsac Blog tomorrow afternoon!
**UPDATED TO ADD--NO MORE ENTRIES! To see the winner, head to The Shootsac Blog
This past weekend, I shot an absolutely amazing wedding in the mountains of West Virginia. The wedding itself was incredible, very very unique, and I'll post that soon, but I've received a lot of questions about the fireworks photo I posted on my TWITTER:
Specifically, people wanted to know what I did to get this shot! It wasn't very difficult.
In past years, I've gone about shooting fireworks the wrong way. I'd point the camera at the sky, crank the ISO up to 1600, and end up either with a weak, colorless burst, or a grainy and overexposed scene. Neither had the impact I was looking for!
This time, I decided to try a long exposure. My settings for this photo were:
400 ISO, 5.6 Apeture, 8 second exposure, handheld.
That's right--8 seconds, handheld. I didn't bring a tripod with me on this trip.
The reason this technique works so well is that the low ISO keeps the photo from being too noisy. It also forces a longer exposure, which is why the trails of the fireworks are so long. I was able to focus at 5.6 on a previous firework that was set off before this shot.
You can handhold something like this because when the fireworks go off is the only time the frame will be illuminated. Between fireworks, it's pitch black, and the explosion freezes the action like a flash would. If you move during the explosion though, you'll have a blurry shot. It's WAY BETTER AND EASIER to shoot this on a tripod.
Anyway, I hope this helps, and happy belated 4th!
(it also helped that the people setting these fireworks off were...untrained and had them going off waaaaay low. That's why the smoke, ground, and barn are so well illuminated.)
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