Yes, we know you are up to your eyeballs in editing, processing, blogging (omi!).

That’s just a perfect excuse to press the shutdown button on the electronics and turn your party button on! ShootStyle is heading out on the town and we’ve got a guest party goer: the fabulous Steve Z from Colorado will be there doing a shot with ShootStyle. (My vote is for tequila)

Can’t wait to pull your party pants on & show them off? Great! Get yourself to The Beehive 541 Tremont Street
Boston MA 02116 (directions) on Wednesday the 22nd of September round about 7pm.

We’ll be chatting, laughing, sloshing some liquid about. Generally just releasing some mid-season stress. Call it a mental health night & come play!! We’d love to see you there!

At this workshop each ShootStyle member explained their individual approach to lighting receptions. As you might expect there was a lot of overlap in the the lighting basic concepts we all used, but how we applied those concepts to our lighting turned out to be very very different. The topics covered ranged from bounced on-camera flash to off-camera speedlites, to studio lights to light-on-a-stick.

The day started with an informal lecture session where we all discussed our lighting methods and showed examples of those methods in use with images from actual weddings.

After the lecture, everyone broke off into small groups for hands-on instruction. To make the experience as real as possible, participants learned each of our lighting styles using their own cameras connected to our lighting gear.

One of our goals was for each participant to have 1 on 1 time with each ShootStyle photographer, so that if they had any questions specific to how that photographer worked, they’d have a chance to get them answered.

And occasionally, folks got to take their thinking caps off and have a little fun.

Big shout-outs go to Nantucket photographer Mark Crosby for shooting these behind the scenes photos and to ShootStyle Alumni Alicia Williams for keeping us on time throughout the day.

This workshop sold out pretty quickly, and if you missed out on it we have another very special workshop coming up on October 30th. Zofia will be leading a Lifestyle Family Portrait Workshop on Nantucket. We’ll be working with real families and Zofia will be demonstrating her approach to untraditional family portraits. This will be very intimate event with a maximum of 9 participants.  Complete information on our upcoming Nantucket workshop can be found here.

A bit ago, Andree & I were driving to a wedding we were shooting together, discussing some of the traditions we tend to see at our weddings. The white gown, the cake, the first dance, where did they originate, why do they continue to exist & stand the test of time?
One of the traditions we spoke about were the flowers, more specifically, the bouquet.

Why the bundles of colorful flowers for the bride & her gals, what’s the reasoning behind it?
Well, I did a little reading to find out the why.

The history of the bouquet began many moons ago, like set your way back machine to way way way back.

In ancient Greece & Rome, the couple would wear a garland about their necks as a symbol of new life, fertility and hope. Celtic tradition (rah rah!) found use of thistle, ivy & heather in their arrangements. The garlands were a combination of strong smelling herbs & spices, meant to ward off evil spirits & thought to contain mystical powers.

Eventually the tradition of using only herbs & spices transitioned into incorporating other flowers, especially those of the edible variety. Dill, known as the herb of lust, was to be eaten by the couple and their wedding guests at the reception, the herb was meant to increase sexual desire. Me-yow.

Around the Victorian time, flowers were being used based on their significant meanings, creating bouquets of secret messages. Back in the day, it wasn’t proper to blurt out how you felt about Candy, the lovely lass that volunteered at your local library. Sure, you might want to say ‘Candy, you look so sweet you’re giving me a toothache!‘, yet in those days, that would be frowned upon.

In come the flowers, let them do the flirting .. I mean, talking!

Roses are quite well known to be a great symbol for love, it was said that Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, presented a rose to Eros, the god of love. Roses aren’t the only flowers infused with that lovin’ feelin’. Sunflowers (one of my favorites) their faces always to the sun, symbolize longevity and pure love. Where as the Daisy is seen by Roman Catholics as a symbol for the Virgin Mary and a love that conquers all. Sprigs of ivy can be translated as a lifetime of wedded love ahead. The four leaf clover, the elusive little flower, represents faith, hope, love and luck. Passing it onto a beloved tells them that good luck abounds and if accepted, means you belong together. (Silly side note about me: I have found handfuls of four leaf clovers since childhood. I have a knack for finding them.)

Current trends now lean more towards flower combinations that fit within a couple’s theme, using flowers to bring that pop of bright color into the wedding. Some couples may have given their own personal meaning to a particular flower, maybe it was the one presented on the first date, maybe it was in the garden where they first kissed. I adore knowing the meanings behind traditions, yet I also love infusing traditions with your own unique personal spin.

Whatever your choice, it’s fun knowing where & how some of these traditions came about. Do you have anything to add? Feel free to comment away!

Flower on

“Won’t you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you” ~ Richard Brinsely Sheridan

One of the questions I am often asked is how to photograph fireworks when you are trying to include the couple in the frame.  Now, there is more than one way to skin a cat and there are certainly a lot of ways that you can capture great photographs of fireworks at a wedding, but this week I am going to tell you how I do it.

First, it is important to understand that not all fireworks displays are created equal.  When you find out that there are going to be fireworks at your wedding, there are some very important questions that you need to ask.  Where are they lighting the fireworks and in what direction are they planning to shoot them?  How long will the show last, or (even better) how many are they planning to light?   Where is the closest spot that the couple can stand?  Maine, like many states, has very strict laws governing the use of fireworks and there will be a clear line that may not be crossed legally.

Next, you will need to make some observations.  Which way is the wind blowing and how hard?  If it is really windy, this may affect the accuracy of the placement.  In that case, you may need to choose a spot for your couple that gives you more flexibility to move and frame them.  How much moisture is in the air?  If it is humid or foggy, the light will bounce off of the moisture in the air creating an interesting effect and giving you more available light to play with.  How close will the couple be standing to a light source?  If they are near a building, lamp, or a video light it will affect your exposure and how you balance the light on the couple with the light from the fireworks.

Finally, I prepare my couple for the display.  I tell them that I will be shooting at a low shutter speed and I ask them to remain still (hugging each other, of course) for at least a few moments during the display.

Okay- now for some of my favorite fireworks photographs from this year (I will follow it up with an explanation of the camera settings and camera/lenses used):

Most of the time my favorite fireworks photographs include no additional lighting.  I love shooting fireworks with the light given off from the fireworks themselves and from any additional light sources that are close to the couple (the venue, for example).  However, because the fireworks may end up (due to wind or poor placement) farther away from the couple than is ideal for providing the right amount of light, I always have my flash mounted on my camera and I will take at least half with my flash as well.  I have enabled one of the function buttons on the front of my camera to disable my flash so that I don’t have to bother turning my flash on and off- I just hold the button down and the flash will not fire.  The photographs in the top two rows were taken with existing/available light while the photographs in the bottom row were taken with a flash firing.  They provide very different looks, so it all comes down to preference.  I prefer the photographs in the top two rows, but I like to provide my couples with a variety (and occasionally I will surprise myself and like one of the flash photographs better, too).

I shoot with the Nikon D3s, so I am very happy with the camera’s files at 6400 and I set my camera’s ISO to 6400 for the fireworks display.  I use my 14-24 2.8 because I usually shoot fireworks in the 18mm range and I like the flexibility that the zoom offers.  (This is actually the only zoom I use, and I bought it specifically to use for fireworks and sparkler displays although it has crept into regular reception use now as well.)

When I am photographing the fireworks without a flash, I generally shoot at 1/8 of a second at 2.8.  I’m comfortable holding my camera steady at 1/8 of a second at 18mm, but you will definitely want to test yourself before you try it out on a job.  When I am photographing the fireworks with a flash I try to bounce it behind me (onto a building or tent or even a person standing there) to provide some directional light.  Occasionally nothing with be available and I will point the flash up with a white card (to provide a tiny amount of light bouncing forward).  With the flash on I often photograph at 1/25 of a second at 2.8 with my flash on manual.

Obviously those settings are where I start and I take some test shots prior to the start of the display and adjust once the fireworks start if need be.

~Michelle

I began with digital, and one of the things that I have struggled with is how to get accurate and consistent color in the digital “darkroom”.  With the auto white balance settings of most modern cameras easily fooled by scenes with artificial light, I spent hours fiddling with the white balance sliders trying to correct for the camera’s skewed vision.  I needed something that would make color correction quick and easy.

That’s when I found the ColorRight Max tool.  The ColorRight Max disc is two tools in one.  The first tool allows you to take the white balance from a scene the way that traditional white balance tools work.  Simply take a shot with the disc held up to your camera lens, and use the shot to set the custom white balance on your camera.  Flip the ColorRight over, however, and you find a white balance target a variety of colors that allow you to choose from 8 different white balance zones to suit your preferences.

I use the ColorRight as a white balance target.  During a shoot, I leave the camera on the Auto White Balance setting.  Whenever I move into an area with different lighting, I shoot the ColorRight target.  With its quick release lanyard, it’s a cinch to take it from around my neck and move it into the frame.  It takes 5 seconds.  Then, when I’m processing the photos, I use the eyedropper tool in my RAW  processing software to select the zone in the target frame that gives me the color that I want.  Unlike other white balance tools, the different zones of the ColorRight tool allow me to process the photos with a slightly warmer than neutral skintone that I prefer.  It’s that easy!

On a portrait shoot, I ask the client to hold the ColorRight while I shoot a test frame.

Then, in my RAW processing software, I use the eyedropper tool to select from the 8 different white balance zones:

Compared to the Auto White Balance setting of my Canon camera:

At a wedding, I have to deal with multiple types of light throughout the day.  Five seconds with the ColorRight in each of these settings yields accurate, consistent color that is easy to achieve.  Where the ColorRight really shines for me is in the too-warm artificial light that you find in most household lamps.

I’m a big fan of tools that help me spend less time in front of my computer.  That means I’m a big fan of the ColoRight tool.  The one small knock I have against the tool is that it is made of thin glass, as I found out when mine shattered in my camera bag.

Despite the early demise of mine, I still wholeheartedly recommend the ColoRight Max.  I bought mine from the ColorRight website: http://www.colorright.com/

–Jamison Wexler

No words, just a collection of photographs that convey the style of a city wedding to me.

DISCLAIMER : This is my 2c and experience. Nothing more. YMMV.

I started writing this article as the old debate between RAW and Jpg and why I always have and always will shoot RAW. Kinda boring, right? Well, in playing around a bit, I found something pretty interesting. I took 4 RAW files and converted them my usual way in Lightroom. I then took those same original files, converted them to Jpg and then synched my Lightroom settings from the first batch of RAW files. I was really surprised at how different they processed!

But first, here’s the textbook stuff :

I’ve always consider RAW file format to be like a negative of an image, whereas a Jpg file to me is the printed photo. If you need to make adjustments to the image, wouldn’t you rather adjust the negative rather than scanning a print and adjusting that?

Technically, RAW files hold the raw sensor data. They need further processing. This may sound like a pain to die hard Jpg shooters, but that extra processing is where RAW files shine. White balance, contrast, blown highlights, blacked out shadows, are all far more recoverable in RAW.

It’s about freedom to play with a file and recover mistakes.

Some thoughts to consider : I use Photo Mechanic to cull my RAW files and it’s lightning quick. No time lost here vs Jpg culling. Yes, when you work with RAW files, there is an extra step, you have to process them to Jpg. One point for shooting Jpg. You can fit less RAW files than Jpg onto a card and they take up more memory on your hard drive. 2 more points for Jpg.

Here are the images that needed a bit of saving/playing in Lightroom. A few blown highlights, some hard shadows, a little HDR and some of my favorite Totally Rad! Lightroom Presets. Here are my surprising findings, follow me….

18,000 points for shooting RAW. In my opinion, of course.

The images speak for themselves. In my past experience I’ve always found editing Jpg files in Lightroom to yield frustrating results. My examples here show that not only do you get better results in processing from RAW files, but that they process SO differently as well. Just food for thought. That’s all. Not telling anyone their business or anything. ;)

~Zofia

Once upon a time, in what feels like another lifetime, my house burned to the ground. I had my camera and a half a bag of clean laundry in my car, but other than that I lost everything. My college portfolio, the actual film-negatives from my sister’s wedding, all the photos I had shot in my lifetime. All gone. If we’re ever drinking a beer together and you want to hear how stupid one person can be, I’ll bend your ear.

But for now, realize that everything I do regarding backing up my client’s work, I do with the aim of having my business survive another house fire, a burglary or lightning strike.

Backing up files is ridiculously important but still one of those geeky things I don’t want to spend any more brain power on than necessary. I wanted to set my system up so I could establish a back up routine and then forget about it.

Here’s how I keep track of my images from the moment they are shot until they are stored.

I shoot onto individually numbered cards so I can keep track of the cards without popping them into a computer. I write my name and cell phone number on each card, to maximize the chances the images will be reunited with me in the remote yet horrifying prospect that my cards are separated from me before they are backed up.

My first priority is to make a copy of all of the images and physically separate it from the originals. If I am working with my trusted assistant, she will download my compact flash cards onto a small portable drive while we are still at the wedding. I use an old 80 gig Lacie drive with the awesome orange bumpers. I think of it as a really big thumb drive.

My assistant wears a very uncool fanny pack and the shot cards stay in the pack unless they are in the card reader. I impressed upon her early in her career that if the venue went up in flames, all I wanted to do was run over and grab her, confident that the cards were strapped to her body. She’s my niece; so a little drama makes for great comedy.

She knows no matter how many conflicting things I am yelling at her to do, or what I am asking her to balance on her head, that her A1 most-important-job-in-the-universe is to protect those cards. She never ever leaves them unattended. She’s quite a bit calmer than me, so this is pretty easy for her. ☺

Each card gets downloaded into its own numbered folder on the drive that corresponds to the number written on the surface of the card. Later on, when I am reviewing the images, if there ends up being some corruption of the files, this step makes it easy for me to isolate the problem card and re-import or attempt image recovery.

Eventually, you will have a corrupt card on your hands. It’s nerve wracking, but I use Photo Rescue, image recovery software, and, knock on wood, I have always been able to save corrupted images.

My primary goal is to never have every copy of my work in a single physical location (see photo one). As soon as I can, I make a copy and separate them. If my assistant has backed up to the portable drive while we are on location, then that copy stays in the glove box of my car when we stop to eat or sleep on the way home. The cards stay on me. Yes, the instant we walk out of the venue, my assistant hands the dorky fanny pack back to me. With great sigh of relief.

If I haven’t brought my assistant with me, when I get to the office, I download the images to my computer and walk the compact flash cards back out to my car, where they stay until I have made an off-site back-up of at least all of the RAW files. Otherwise, I just download the portable drive to my desktop computer.

I do my actual work on the internal drives of my Mac Pro desktop (tower) and back up to a tower of back-up drives. All four drives on my Mac Pro are mirrored to an identical set of drives in the Burly enclosure system.

A lot people use RAID, as a part of their back-up regime, but I can’t wrap my head around it. I need to understand my back-up system in order to be comfortable with it. I simply copy everything from my working drives to another set of drives. Then copy them again.

I back up my work with Super Duper, which is “Smart Update” software. If you’ve only done minor changes to your files, the backup is very fast. You can schedule the updates to happen automatically, or choose to manually back up at your discretion.

It’s very simple. Select the drive you want to copy and then select the drive you want to copy it to. I name my drives so the copies all start with the same letter. It’s one less thing to confuse myself with. :)

After the job, all my RAW files get burned to DVDs, marked with a media safe pen with the date of the shoot and the clients name. I then store the discs on a spindle by year. (Each job contains up to a dozen dvds worth of RAW images.) There is some debate as to the wisdom of piling dvds on a spindle as a storage solution, but my plans are to never access these dvds again. This is the ultimate oh-my-god all three drives failed at once scenario.

On the drives, I archive all of the “Good” Raw images, finished-for-client jpgs, album layouts, the lightroom catalogue and a folder of high-res “favorites” that I use for blogging, giving to vendors, entering in contests and for updating my website. After I deliver the work to the client, I rarely go back to any other folder than this favorites folder.

I organize my files the same way for every job. I have a folder with the client’s name and inside that folder is a folder for every different type of file I create such as Keepers, Rejects, Album, etc. To stay consistent and speed things up, I have an empty master version of this folder that I use as a template. I copy and rename it with the wedding date and my clients’ names. Then I drag the Raw files to this folder.

Before I format my compact flash cards, I take the back-up drives out of their Burly enclosure system and bring them to my friends house (the “off-site location”) where I have a third set of mirrored drives just sitting on a shelf, waiting for me. I bring the off-site drives back to the office and run my back-up software to bring this final copy up to date. There is now a copy of the clients files in two different locations, and I am free to retrieve the cards from the glovebox of my car and format them for reuse.

This process keeps a total of three mirrored copies of all of my data in two separate locations. I back up my operating system and applications the same way.

It’s boring and dry to think about, but getting a system that runs smoothly will take a huge load off of your mind.

I would love to hear how some of the rest of you back your data up!

What is this Twitter thing all about? Some people are still asking that question, and with good reason.
On the surface, it just looks like another computerized internet time suck. And it can be, if you aren’t careful.

Much like any of the other networking-type sites out there, from Facebook to profession specific forums, you’ve got to be sure that you are using the site as a tool to help streamline or bring in business, not just flush productive time down the intra-webs commode.

I am not claiming to be a Twitter expert, not by a long shot. Therefore, I will not write about how one can gain more followers, how you can create business from Twitter. Sure, I have had my fair share of great connections and jobs that have come from Twitter and therefore do not see it as a waste or a novelty. But others have written far superior pieces on the techniques you can take to gain biz & influence those in your Twitter Stream.

Examples of these would be Twitter tips for bloggers by @ProBlogger and Twitterquette via TwitterTips.org

I will say, it’s an honest to goodness great way to connect with others in your professional circle and in turn connect with their circle. Quickly and easily, literally with the click of the ‘follow’ button.

But following a whole bunch of folks does not a true and lucrative connection make. Twitter is more than just a ticker of info, sports updates and embarrassing quotes from the wee hours of your party night. Twitter is meant to be interactive, if you truly want to expand your network.

You have the opportunity to showcase your talents, your thoughts, your offerings to the Twitterverse. However, to be the one that constantly says ‘Look what I can do’ will annoy your fellow Twits.

How to combat that? Aim to share.

In the Twitter world, that means RT (ReTweet). If someone you follow tweets about an exciting new workshop or informative blog post, RT it! Retweeting goes a long way in forging solid connections within Twitter.

Find interesting articles based on your profession of choice, inspirational posts, fun quotes, and link to them.
While some accounts are based strictly on talking business, the way I use my account is to post a bit of everything. I love to share great blog posts by other photographers & artists, as well as links to YouTube videos & other creative sites that may add a spark of inspiration to some one’s day.

If you come from a place of sharing, others in turn will share for you. It’s the whole ‘if you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours’ approach.

And in this world of high tech connections & Twitter terminology, it’s nice to be a part of that sharing circle.

You could make it all about your celebrity obsessions or you could follow those that you admire in your field or those that inspire you and create your own custom community. It’s a very quick way to compile a network of folks from far or near, whose advice & expertise you may admire, possibly aspiring to one day emulate.

Those you may not have fathomed would ever speak to you through average communication avenues may now tweet you back and say ‘hi.’ A personal example, one of my most favorite artists, @BrianAndreas of @StoryPeople ’spoke’ to me one day after I RT one of his posts. It sent my heart a twitter (ahem) and most certainly made me an even bigger fan just because he took a few seconds to ‘tweet me’ back.

You have no idea who is following you, you have no idea who is reading what you tweet. This may sound like a precursor to a scary stalker film. Alas no, nothing so sinister. I like to view Twitter as a place of possibility, of potential, and of sharing. In 140 characters or less.

RT @ShootStyle: If you follow me on Twitter, b sure 2 say ‘HI’. Would luv 2 know u r out there! @staceydoyle