Basically there are two choices when it comes to the tradition of seeing each other or not seeing each other before the ceremony.

1.  Option 1:  You don’t want to see each other before the ceremony.  No problem, we are a husband and wife photography team.  We split off: Poppy goes with the girls for preparation photos, and I go with the guys to drink and smoke cigars.  (Not really, the guys do actually take a little time to get ready.)  Poppy and I coordinate timing with our phones so that no one accidentally sees each other.  I take the guys out and shoot a set of formals and send them off to hide.  Then it’s the girls turn.  After the ceremony, the rest of the formals are shot before the reception.   Couples that choose this option should plan some extra time in between the ceremony and reception, maybe offering the guests something to snack on before the meal is served.

2.  Option2:  You’re okay with seeing each other before the ceremony.  If possible, the majority of the formals can be taken before the ceremony.  This allows for a shorter span of time between the ceremony and the reception, or we can sneak the newlyweds off for a private shoot of just the two of them.  This is sometimes a nice bonus for the couple as well, since you get to spend a few moments alone together a midst the chaos of the day.

Of course, the are other options as to if, when, and where other photos are taken, but the tradition of “not seeing each other” definitely affects the schedule for the day.  Either way is absolutely fine with us, and we can easily accommodate any couples desires and agenda for their wedding day.  Our clients never have to worry, because together, we plan a picture perfect day, and then capture the moments as they happen.

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The majority of  landscape and scenic photography is all about clarity and maximum depth-of-field.  Most point-and-shoot cameras don’t have the ability to set the aperture manually, so you’ll need to rely on Program or perhaps a better option, Landscape or Scenic Mode.  When you activate the Landscape feature, you are telling your camera to close down the aperture for maximum depth-of-field, or overall clarity throughout the entire photograph.  This is a great mode when you’re trying to have people in the foreground while keeping background clear at the same time.

To use the Landscape Mode, look for an icon that looks like a mountain.  Since it’s a commonly used feature, it might be a button or on the dial, if not, look for the word “SCENE” or “SCN.”  The SCENE menu contains all of your different presets, different ways of telling your camera what type of picture you’re trying to capture.  Inside the SCENE menu, look for the mountain icon, or the word “Landscape,” or “Scenic.”

Note:  When using this feature, your camera might choose a shutter speed that is too slow for you to handhold the camera and still get a clear picture, a tripod would then be required.  Don’t panic, tripods are easy to use, and expand the limits to your photography, more on tripods in a future installment.

Quick tip:  If you don’t have a tripod yet, raise the ISO in increments until the shutter speed is fast enough to handhold.  How to Change ISO

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When you set your camera to Portrait Mode, usually indicated with a profile view of  a head, you’re telling your camera that you want to blur the background and foreground of your photograph while keeping your subject in focus.  This is a great mode anytime you are trying to isolate your subject and create separation from your subject and the background.

Don’t think of Portrait Mode just for photographing living subjects, think of how this mode with affect your photo.  If you were shooting a large group of people, using Portrait Mode would blur-out some of the people in the group because this mode uses a low f/stop number for shallow depth-of-field, whereas Landscape or Scenic Mode would be a better selection for a large group of multiple subjects.  Portrait Mode is best used for single subjects, whether it’s a person, a flower, or any object that you want to showcase in your photo.

To better accentuate the blurring of the background, try backing-up from your subject and using your zoom to compose your photo.  Trying to blur the background while your camera’s zoom is set to wide angle makes it difficult to create the separation of subject and background.  Zooming, and then composing, will not only help to blur the background, but narrow your field-of-view as well, bringing even more attention to the subject of your portrait, whether that happens to be of a person or not.

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Some terrible force has replaced your bright and shining faces with dark, unrecognizable, shadowy figures from the underworld, what happened?  Light, and lots of it.  Your camera did not realize that you were actually trying to take a picture of subjects in front of all that light.  Your camera automatically adjusted for all that bright light behind your subjects, and left your subject in dark silhouette.

Sometimes the results can look really cool, when you want it that effect, like a surfer carrying a surfboard on a beach during sunset, the ocean and sky look fantastic, and the surfer is only recognizable by the dark outline of body and surfboard.  But what if you want to see your subject’s face smiling with all that bright light behind them?  You have two options.

First, find the snow/beach setting in your camera’s “Scene” menu.  By selecting this mode, you’re telling your camera not to compensate for all that bright light behind your subject, you can now see your subject but the background will be even brighter, or overexposed.  The second, and usually better, option is to turn on your flash.  In program, your camera didn’t think it needed to fire the flash because of all that bright light, but you can force it fire by pressing the flash control button, which looks like a lightning bolt.  Forcing the flash to fire will now put light onto the front of your subject, while the camera’s f/stop and shutter speed will expose for the background, balancing out the exposure of your subject and the bright background.

Quick Tip:  Forcing your flash to fire will usually fix any situation when there is more light behind your subject and you’re trying to capture the subject in front of all that light.

If you’re going to fire the flash, simply move physically closer or further away from your subject to get the correct exposure of your subject and the bright background behind them.  Now you can see their shining smiles and that beautiful landscape behind them.

Are you enjoying this series?  Please consider sharing to help-out another fellow photographer, thank you!

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So your color is a little off, no problem.  Setting the correct white balance before you take a ton of awesome pictures will save you time and frustration later trying to make the colors and skin tones look right.  You can try the presets for artificial light, tungsten or florescent, but many times you’ll find that, if AWB can’t get it right, it’s best to set a custom white balance.

For best results, I recommend setting a custom white balance anytime you shoot indoors without flash.

It’s easy, here’s how you do it:

• Turn the flash off and raise ISO if necessary
• Press the WB button (or however your camera allows you to adjust the white balance: Func/set button for most Canon, or button by toggle switch for Nikon and other cameras.)
• Toggle over to icon that looks like a square with two triangles underneath it, or setting that says “custom.”
• IMPORTANT: Make sure you’re pointing the camera at a white piece of paper before you do the next step, (I recommend carrying a folded-up piece of blank white paper in your camera bag.)
• Follow the directions on the screen, it will tell you what to do, for example, “Press Shutter” or “Set DISP” are common directions.  If your screen doesn’t have a message, try pressing the shutter button, (the button you press to take a picture.)
• Some camera’s will ask “Use this photo?” Press OK.  Some cameras won’t have a message, proceed to next step.
• Take a test picture, how do your colors look now?   Is white actually white?  If so, it’s time to party!  If it still looks off, you missed something, try again.

If you get stuck on any part of this, just comment below or use the contact page and we’ll figure it out together.  I really recommend practicing this every now and then, so it will be easy for you to do and you won’t choke “in the moment” when it’s picture time and your colors are off.  You’ll only kick yourself later when you’re sitting at the computer “fixing” your photos instead of “playing” with them.

Tip:  Arrive a little early to your next event and set your custom white balance before the action begins!

If you capture the image colors correctly for your original,  then you can have a million different renditions as copies, and you’ll always have that great original to go back to.  You’re taking more control of the camera now, and with a little practice, you’ll be ecstatic with the overall improvement of your colors, and your photography.  A lot less “What the ?” and “Oh well,” and a lot more “Got it!” and “Yeah baby!”  is coming your way.

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•  AWB:  Auto White Balance, is where your camera should be set most of the time.  It works great for outdoor lighting, especially for scenic shots.
• Daylight:  Icon is a sun shining, to be used in sunlight, but not for shady areas.  Shady areas will look cyan in color when shot with daylight setting.
• Shady:  Icon is a building showing shade on side, to be used in when your subject is in a shaded area on a sunny day.
• Cloudy:  Icon is puffy cloud, is best used on a completely overcast day.
• Tungsten (incandescent:)  Icon is a standard looking lightbulb.  This is used when shooting indoors without a flash, if your test image looks too yellow.
• Fluorescent:  Icon is a skinny rectangle, best for shooting in most school gyms and classrooms.  Some cameras have 3 different flourescent settings, so be sure to pick the one that looks the best.
• Custom:  Icon is a square with 2 triangles underneath.  Many times, if AWB doesn’t get the colors right, it’s easiest to set a custom white balance.

Tip:  Taking a test shot for color accuracy and then adjusting your camera to the appropriate white balance setting before shooting a bunch of images will save you time and frustration later!

Try this:  Pointing the camera out in front of you, start with AWB and keep pushing the WB button to change the settings.  Notice how each setting is affecting the colors?

OK, what if you tried all the WB settings and your colors still look wrong?  In the next installment, we’ll look at setting a Custom White Balance.  Don’t worry, it’s so easy you’ll feel like a pro.  Stay tuned!

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Oh, that mysterious white balance.  Maybe you’ve heard of it, saw it once in your camera’s manual that you’ve somehow misplaced, or avoided the button entirely out of fear.  Fret not, adjusting the white balance is not only easy, but it will save you countless hours on the computer trying to correct your colors, or even worse, settling on colors that don’t look right because it’s easier to call it “good enough.”  Sometimes your camera gets the colors just right, sometimes not.  When the colors in your image looks like reality, then your camera is adjusting it’s white balance setting correctly, hooray!  When the colors look “off,” or not what you see when you’re shooting, then it’s time to readjust the camera’s white balance.

White balance is based on what your camera thinks is “white.”  If the camera gets white correct in it’s rendering, then all other colors will be correct.  Conversely, if what your camera thinks is white is not actually white, then all of  the other colors will be incorrect too.

Usually, your camera will do a great job shooting outside in Auto White Balance (AWB,) it’s when you are shooting indoors without a flash that you will probably need to adjust your camera’s white balance.  Keep in mind that your camera is just a super-sophisticated,  fantastic tool that sometimes gets it completely wrong because it’s doesn’t actually know what you’re taking a picture of, or exactly where you are either.   No problem.  It’s time to start talking to your camera, (without looking crazy in public.)

Next in the series, “How to Adjust Your Camera’s White Balance.”

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The new FASFA form is available if you’re thinking about college next year.  Here’s the link to get started:  http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/

Three quick tips for obtaining your financial aid:

1.  Don’t delay your FASFA application until you complete your tax return, just estimate based on last year’s return and update the new figures later.

2.  Complete the application ASAP, many colleges give money on a first come, first served basis.  Don’t wait until it’s too late!

3.  Fill-out the FASFA again each year you’re applying for aid.

The money’s out there, for now.  We just wanted to give you a heads-up so you won’t miss out.

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Oh, the lies.  The unfulfilled promise of easy auto, you know, the green auto setting on your camera that looks so inviting… so easy, so auto, and it’s green.  Not so fast.  The devil is inside that setting.  Cameras are smart, and they are getting smarter everyday, but you still have one-up on that little rectangle of confusion, you have an opinion.  Green Auto, aka Satan, tells you that you’re just not smart enough to adjust anything, and that your opinion of what you’re trying to capture really doesn’t matter.

When you’re under Green Auto’s spell, you are tricked and deceived into believing that you “got” the shot.  Trouble is, most of the time we just accept what Green Auto gives us, without realizing that the moment could be captured with our emotion and opinion stamped into the images we create.  Do you really want to use the flash for this shot?  Maybe not.  The terrible lie that Green Auto will take care of everything, to just ignore those other buttons and symbols on our cameras, must be revealed to put an end to bad photos and missed shots.

Luckily, we have options.  It’s the letter P.

If you want auto, you can set your camera on P for Program.  It’s just as automatic as the dreaded Green Auto, but now you will have the option of turning off your flash, changing your ISO and white balance, and other settings.  In future installments of this series, we will explore the settings and functions of your camera, and what those settings will do for your photos.  If you’re turning off the flash indoors, and raising the ISO to shoot with available light, then adjusting your camera’s white balance is essential if the colors aren’t looking right, so we’ll look at that next.

Just remember, from now on, if you try to set your camera to Green Auto, your hand will begin to cramp terribly, and you’ll sweat profusely, knowing that deep down you can do better than to accept the lies of what Green Auto has to offer.

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As previously stated: If there’s enough light available, with the camera set to a higher ISO, you can turn off the flash and shoot with available light.  In addition, when the camera is set to Program (P) and not Auto (Green,) raising the ISO will also force the camera to use a faster shutter speed, which may be fast enough now to handhold the camera or stop the action your trying to capture.

So what’s the catch?  Noise.  We called it “film grain” when we shot 35mm:  As the ISO number goes up, photos become more and more “grainy.”  Digital noise equals tiny bits of misinformation that get in the way of the overall clarity of the photo.  As the ISO is raised, our photos don’t look as sharp, crisp, or clean because of the noise.  I think it’s a worthwhile trade-off when trying to shoot candid, nothing kills candid photography like a flash going off, and the artificial quality of flash photography can be unflattering at best.  Using available light, which sometimes in artificial, means that we’ll have to keep a eye on our colors to make sure they look correct.  More on that later when we cover adjusting your camera’s white balance.

The next installment in the series: “Green Auto is The Devil!”

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