Wedding Formals

Today I'd like to address the topic of wedding formals.

You've taken a lot of time and spent a lot of hours scouring over photographer's galleries and portfolios when hiring a wedding photographer. You've chosen your photographer for a reason. Perhaps it's their artistic images that captured you. Maybe it was their personality. Perhaps you really loved the albums they offered.

Now that you've signed your contract and sent in your deposit your photographer may ask you for a list of family members you'd like to have included in your wedding formal pictures.

I've had a lot of brides give me a variety of lists, some very minimal, because they want me to focus more on artistic pictures for the day. And some brides have given me a more extensive list, wanting to make sure they are photographed with each member of their day, which is fine with me, but takes a lot of time and also cuts down on the time I can spend doing more creative work for them. It all depends on what the bride and groom really want, when placing images in their wedding album.

There is one issue I'd like to address with future brides in particular, when considering on who to have photographed in your wedding formals. You and your groom are coming together to create a union.

Mark 10: 7-8 (KJV)

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.

This is a union between two families. Two families becoming one. You will now belong to his family, and your groom will belong to your family. There is no reason to have individual pictures of yourselves with your family members. There are several reasons why it is not necessary. First, it quite often ends up with redundant images and burned up time, which will make less time for more artistically inspired photography. It can also wear out the whole family having to wait around for their turn in the pictures. In the end it can end up being one long portrait session instead of a wedding session. Please consider having only one image with you and your family together without your bride and groom, and then one image with both of you with the entire family instead of individual pictures of you with each of your family members.

When deciding what images you really want in your album to look back on in the next 50 years, think about what is most important to you. When choosing your photographer, what images were you drawn to most? Are pictures of your family what you will hold most dear, or will you want more artistic images?

You make the call.

© 2009 Jennifer Klingensmith

Getting started

I've run into a few people lately that have wanted to get into photography professionally. I think that's great. I love to see new views and new ways to do things, and I love new ideas! Fresh blood is great, in my opinion. I don't think you need to go to college to become a great photographer. Most all of the greatest photographers in history were self taught, or had very little formal education in the field of photography. It is a trade, an art, where the technical parts can be learned, but only the greatest artists have it in them to make the greatest images. You can give someone a pencil and teach them to draw a horse, but it doesn't mean that person's horse is going to look realistic or even relatively like a horse!

I do want to share some thoughts I have on the matter of people getting started into photography. I think, that a lot of people are misguided by mainstream media and advertising to think that mega pixels are the end-all, be-all of cameras. The more pixels the better. This is not so. Unless you are planning to shoot the next billboard going up on I-80, you don't need a whole lot of pixels. A fair amount is good. I'd say 8 is a fair number.

We have a family picture above our fireplace that is a 24x36. It's huge. I can read my husband's atomic watch on it and tell you the exact second that picture was taken. It was taken on a 30D, which has 8 mega pixels. I doubt many people need a picture that is much bigger than that.
I think that some people think that more pixels will make their pictures better. This is not so.

If you'd like to get started, first you need to invest in a good SLR body. Sorry guys, no point and shoot will be able to cut it for very long. Nor, as you improve, will you be happy being stuck with that one lens that is stuck to your camera. You need a good SLR that you can change lenses on, that allows you to shoot full manual (that means you can choose your shutter speed, aperture, ISO and focus).

I'd recommend, if you'd like to keep your costs down to start, finding a good reputable dealer in your area or try Adorama or B&H for used equipment that they rate on a scale of wear. Both are very reputable companies. Beware of the businesses giving a "great deal!". When I first started out I got scammed into buying a camera I thought I was getting a great price on, but then the next day they called me and they told me that the camera wasn't "formatted", whatever that meant and that I'd have to pay major bucks to "standardize it". I still have no idea what that all meant, but I quickly cancelled my order and cancelled my credit card so they couldn't charge me a "restocking fee".

Don't ignore the fact that there are also many great local businesses that have great reputations and can be very helpful in helping you find the best first SLR for you and your needs.

Look for a body that is in good shape. I'm more familiar with Canons, so if you are looking for a used SLR I'd recommend a Canon 20D, 30D or 40D body to start, if you can get it with a kit lens even better. You can talk to a Nikon enthusiast to find out what's comparable for Nikons.

You can get a couple of excellent lenses to start with for little money. Lenses DO MATTER. You can have an excellent camera, and a crappy lens will ruin the picture. One I would recommend to start would be a 50mm 1.8. Don't let it's small price ($80-90) or plastic body fool you, this lens is a sweetheart! It's what's called a "prime lens". It won't zoom, you'll have to do that with your feet, but you can get some amazing depth of field (where some thing's in focus and everything behind/in front of it is blurred), and also can shoot in lower lighted settings.

Learn your camera. Get out and shoot a LOT! And READ a lot! Canon has a great website to help you learn to use your new camera, link here. Check out Erin Manning's tutorials with the Rebel Xsi (it can apply to any Canon SLR) in the Canon Digital Learning Center.

Many people make the mistake of thinking they need the latest and the greatest in the world of cameras, but really with a good body and a good lens you can do a lot of great stuff! Learn to work with and master what you have before investing in the next "big idea". This is really important. If you don't do this, you will find that you aren't getting the results that you want and throwing money after stuff that you think will help you. You will never really get what you want.

Editing programs are also nice if you plan to make your pictures better. You don't need to start with a $1500 program. Finding a program that will let you do simple editing is all you really need when starting out. Some things to look for are "does it let me lighten, increase contrast, clone or crop?" The trick is to get it mostly right in the camera, so that you don't have to edit much, if at all. That takes lots of practice, studying and knowing your camera and subject.

© 2009 Jennifer Klingensmith

| Education Piece #1 |

I would like to dedicate postings here and there to educate the public about professional photographers and the work that we do.

For my first post I would like to address the subject of a photographers prices.

I know that sometimes when we are choosing a photographer it's hard to imagine why they would cost so much just to come and take a few snaps and make you prints. I would like to share with you all the things that will go into your photography session and prints...

When I have a client contact me for a session and the decision is made on where the location would be I not only show up for the day of the session, but likely the day or two before the session to scout out great spots, check to see how the sunlight will be for the session (because I am a natural light photographer I need to know this, it's very important) and that usually takes an hour or two.

The evening before your session I clean all my lenses and charge up all my batteries. I go over my equipment to make sure I have enough memory cards that are cleared and formatted for your session. Equipment can add up to several thousand dollars and each use puts wear and tear on them and shortens the life of each piece, at some point they will wear out and have to be replaced.

If you have scheduled me for a wedding I will have likely rented a battery pack or a lens for your wedding and pick them up the night before, which also requires more time, money and driving.

The day of your session I dedicate my time to you. We will likely spend a couple of hours visiting the great spots I checked out, creating your wonderful images that you will be anxious to see as soon as you can!
For each hour of shooting I can expect to spend no less than 3 hours editing. Editing will include going through each image and marking them as keepers or tossers (tossers are deleted at that time). Each image kept will then go through a routine of editing for white balance, color, contrast, and sometimes converting to black and white, sepia or texture. This editing is done on my calibrated computer screen to maximize the best color, color that will match your prints. It is also done with the skills that I have taken hundreds (if not thousands) of hours to learn and to perfect.

I then go through each image and see if there is anything I can do to make the image better. Get rid of pimples, soften the skin, lighten dark circles under the eyes or smudged lipstick, remove a fly away hair. Then each image is saved in it's full size. After that I go through and do creative cropping and save each image in it's cropped size.

After it's all said and done, each image is given a custom name for your gallery, resized and sharpened for web and then uploaded to your gallery for your viewing pleasure!

I often take the time to talk with my clients about their print needs and help in finding the best sizes and arrangements to suit their projects. I have taken quite a bit of time making sure that the lab I use gives you the best quality, color and paper.

So as you can see, there is much more that goes into your session than just showing up and taking shots and posting them up. Time, knowledge, creativity, money, quality, equipment, programs... it all adds up.

Photographers are in the business because they love photography, but also to make a living, and it's important that they get paid for their time, knowledge, skill and the quality of their products.

I hope this helps some to understand a little more why there's a difference between hiring a professional photographer and having a teenager at Target press a shutter button.