Wedding photographers must have a steady hand!

    One essential aspect of great wedding photos, is sharpness.  A great photo almost always have one area of the photo that is tack sharp.  Sharpness is something that takes a lot of work to master.  There are a few things you can do to ensure a sharp photo.

1. Keep your shutter speed no slower that 1/(your focal length).  This rule can be broken when you have a tripod, use a flash, or have image stabilization on the lens.
2. Learn to use your auto focus points to ensure you have the desired area in focus.  
3. Use quality lenses.
4. Use walls, tables, chairs or anything you can find to support yourself.
5. Take a deep breath and release the shutter right before you exhale.
6. In low light use a flash or tripod to ensure sharp images.
7. For freezing motion, use faster shutter speeds, flash and focus on where your subject is going to be.
8. Learn to manual focus, there are times when manual focusing is the only way to get the shot.

This picture was taken at a wedding I shot at the Courtyard Restaurant here in Ottawa, last fall.  The sharpness of this photo is what gives the shot character.  You can see every detail in the subject.  For this shot I put my ISO up a bit to 400 and used a slower shutter around 1/30.  The aperture was set at 2.8 to blur the background.  I had to use a wider focal length to allow me to use such a slow shutter hand held.  To freeze any camera shake I bounced a flash off the ceiling at around 1/4 power.

To all you photographers out there make sure you pay close attention to image sharpness.
To all you shopping around for wedding photographers make sure you look for a photographer who produces consistently sharp images.    

The Art of Candid Wedding Photography!

    These days every bride in Ottawa wants a wedding photographer who shoots candid shots.  Candid wedding photographers need just as much knowledge in social dynamics as they do in technical photography.  Here are some things to keep in mind when shooting candid wedding photography.  These are guidelines not rules. 

1. Both eyes of the main subject should be showing.
2. The eye closest to the camera should be in focus.
3. The best expressions for wedding pictures are smiles and surprises.
4. The best candid shots are taken when the subject doesn't know you took a picture until after its taken.
5. Even the most serious of people will smile at some point during the wedding you need to predict that moment.
6. My favorite time to take candid shots is during the speeches.  Most people will give you tons of great expressions during speeches.
7. Use a telephoto lens so you can photograph people from far away.  You don't want the presence of your camera to ruin the moment you are trying to capture.
   

      The shot below was taken during the speeches at a wedding I did last summer here in Ottawa.  This shot was of the brides father.  I knew he would respond well to the brides speech no matter what she said, so as soon as she started talking I pointed the camera at him.  This shot was taken at 200mm at f3.2, shutter of 1/60 and iso 400.  I bounced my flash off the ceiling in order to compensate for the low light, give me a sharp image.

Spanish Wedding!

     Here are a couple shots I took from an Ottawa Spanish wedding I did a while ago.  I have to say ethnic weddings are awesome!  I always have a blast at these, and the food is always something new.  I'm also very interested in the various traditions that each culture has in their weddings.

    The location of this wedding was here in Ottawa but I'm not sure of the exact location.  These shots where from a while back.  (Since my blog is new I'm posting about older weddings and catching up.)

    The first shot I took the groom upstairs and just got him to pose for me. This shot I used a bit of fill flash to light the groom and the rest is all ambient like. I boosted my ISO a little and opened my aperture to get some background details. Afterwards I did some photoshop. First I cleaned up the shot, dodge and burned, his eyes, nose and mouth. Then I changed the ugly yellow, orange cast background to a sepia blue. I found it much more visually appealing.

    The second shot was just as the bride and flower girl were exiting the limo.  The shot was mostly available like with some fill flash to lighten the eyes.  I did very little photoshop on these two shots, just recovered some highlights and sharpened the image.

    Anyone who's doing wedding photography here in Ottawa, do more ethnic weddings... you will fall even more in love with your job....

Soon Ill post about the indian engagement party I just shot outside Ottawa, in Manotick...

It was a blast!!!

 

Another couple shots from when I used to assist.

    Another thing I learned when I used to assist other photographers, was the importance of photographing everything other than the bride and groom.  Don't get me wrong tons of bride and groom shots are essential.  But just as important are the shots of everything else.  Often when I was assisting weddings I would be sent out to take pictures of all the details and the guests.

    This was one of my original cake shots taken at a small wedding just outside Ottawa.  I closed the aperture a bit to get more of the cake in focus.  I also used flash to make up for the lost light.  Afterward I played with the colors a bit in Photoshop, sharpened some of the details and cleaned up the table cloth.  All bride and grooms want detail shots.  Make sure when photographing your weddings that you capture as much details as possible.

    This second shot is of one of the cutest kids I have ever seen.  The whole day she was full of energy bouncing off the walls.  She also had a huge fascination with my camera.  Whenever I would get low to take a shot she would come flying over in attempt to grab onto the camera.  This shot I just got low and took a pic as she came charging towards me.  This shot was taken in indirect day light with a little added flash.  The bright daylight allowed me to increase my shutter speed and freeze the photo, giving a sharp picture.

    Sometimes I miss my days of assisting...

 

  

Wanna be a wedding photographer?

    Anyone out there interested in becoming a wedding photographer? One thing I would recommend to anyone that is interested in shooting weddings, assist someone first. It’s a great way to try new things without any risk. You can learn a lot from assisting and it’s very low pressure.

    If your dream is to be a wedding photographer then there is plenty of room for you in the Ottawa wedding photography market. There is always room for new wedding photographers with passion. If your dream is to make lots of money and you want to shoot weddings obtain your dream, you will fail. Brides here in Ottawa are looking for wedding photographers who are passionate about shooting weddings. They want photographers who love what they do.

    Do you want to be a wedding photographer? If you have a serious interest in photographing weddings I would love to offer you any help and advice I can to help you make it happen. I believe competition in the Ottawa wedding photography business is a great thing. It forces photographers to continually better their skills and techniques. It pushes us to keep improving our product. The photographers with the most heart survive. Don't let anyone tell you there's no room for another wedding photographer in Ottawa.

    Below are a couple shots I took while assisting at weddings. The first shot was at the ceremony in the west end of Ottawa. This was taken using very minor fill flash from quite far away. I shot it using my 70-200mm lens. The light in the gazebo was indirect and quite soft, a quite flattering type of light. After I recovered a bit of highlights, played with the colors, dodge and burned and sharpened and blurred areas of the photo in Photoshop.

    The second shot was taken at the reception. This is one of my original dancing shots. I remember trying so hard to find a formula for getting crisp dancing shots with a well exposed background. This shot was taken at 24mm at 1/30th of a second, f2.8, ISO was somewhere around 400, and my flash was around 1/8th power. They were dancing very slowly so this helped a lot. If people are dancing faster I boost my ISO a bit and use a faster shutter speed to freeze the motion.

    Again, to anyone who is serious about becoming a wedding photographer in Ottawa, I would be happy to offer any help I can.

Yves and Rachelle's Wedding

     I remember this wedding very well because it was one of the hottest days of the summer in Ottawa. We were sweating bullets on this day. It was a great time though. The church was a beautiful cathedral in the heart of Ottawa (the name slips my mind). After the ceremony the bridal party all had bubbles and as the bride and groom exited they all showered them with bubbles. That's when I got the first shot. I got low so I could catch the sunlight shining through the bubbles. That is one of my favorite wedding shots in my portfolio.  

    The second shot was taken at the wedding reception in a banquet hall here in Ottawa (the name also slips my mind), these two were having a blast together and they made my job easy by just having fun together. This shot was totally candid. I had to put my ISO up a bit so I could increase my shutter speed to freeze the motion without getting too much motion blur. My aperture was open at 2.8 to let in as much ambient light as possible and then I used a flash at around 1/2 power to help freeze the motion more.

    Thanks Yves and Rachelle, I had a great time at your wedding!

   

Denise and Joel's Wedding

   

    I met Joel and Denise at Ottawa University back in 2003 and over the years we would bump in to each other here and there. Then one day Joel called and said "Hey dude we want you to shoot our wedding." I have to say it was an honor to cover their special day. Their wedding was definitely one of my most memorable! These are a couple of the best friends I have.

    I remember shooting this wedding using a lot of available light. I wanted the photos to look as natural as possible. I did use a little flash to fill some of the deep shadows, but mostly I went natural on this one.

    Of all the weddings I have done in Ottawa I have to say this is one I will never forget!

    Thanks guys and I look forward to hanging out soon!

My Grandma

This is a shot I took of my grandma a few months ago. Oh man I love my grandma and her chili and spaghetti sauce is wicked!

My camera settings for this shot were: Shutter 1/200, F 4.5, ISO 100 and it was shot with my 70-200mm 2.8 IS at 200mm's.  The lighting was all available light.  We went in the shade for this shot because the light was pretty harsh that day...

Soon I'll introduce you guys to my other grandma.  She makes the the best cookies!

One of my Original Weddings!

Here is a shot from one of my original weddings that I shot back in the day! Shannon and Dwayne were a really fun and light hearted couple. They definitely made my job much easier. This wedding was at the Chateau Laurier, one of my favorite places to photograph weddings.

This shot was take with with a shutter speed of 1/50 at f 4.5 and ISO of 400. The focal length was 32 mm. I bounced the flash off the ceiling at about 1/4 power.


Now if I had to take this shot again I probably would put my settings at shutter 1/30 (to let in more background light) f 3.2 (to let in more ambient light) ISO would stay the same. And then I would have put my flash around 1/8 power to accound for the extra light reaching the sensor.