Tag Archives: photographers

Photography Tips Week #8: Filters

April 29, 2008 – 10:02 pm

colorado springs photographer silly picture

As I mentioned in my last post, my 135mm lens took a tumble this weekend at Andrea and Jason’s engagement shoot.  It was a pretty major tumble–it popped out of my lens bag as I was bending over taking portraits and bounced down a flight of cement steps.  Nothing quite like seeing your favorite lens rolling into the street!

It was a hard fall, but the lens itself is fine (I put it through many tests and it’s resting comfortably now).  I had a lens filter and lens hood on it that took the damage like a champ.  Nic had to cut the filter to get it off (he was ready to call in the jaws of life).  Instead of being out hundreds of dollars to repair the lens, I’m out a mere $65 to replace the filter.

And that is exactly what UV filters are for.

Filter pros: Saves you money when your lens tries to commit suicide by jumping out of your bag.  Ensures that any scratches are limited to an easily replaced filter instead of your actual lens.

Filter cons: Any time you add a filter onto your lens you run the risk of decreasing the quality of your pictures.  However, investing in high quality UV filters is a great work-around to this problem (though it will run you $50-$100).

Bottom line: All of this being said, I used our pricey lenses for three years personally without UV filters and for eight months professionally without filters and never once had a scratch.  As long as you’re careful, I think you’re fine.  I always had the lens cap ready to pop back onto the camera the minute my finger was off the shutter.  But with weddings I felt that our lenses were more at risk.  Close quarters with guests, less time to deal with constant lens cap use, and more chaos.  It is nice to have the peace of mind of the filter, but if you will only use your lenses in nice controlled situations (or your lenses are of the $200 variety), it’s an easy purchase to skip.

(PS–not really sure how the pic up top plays into all this, it’s just one Nic snapped as we were packing up on Sunday and it makes me laugh.  It’s the sort of dorkiness that people who drop lenses exhibit.)

By Colorado Springs Wedding Photographer | Posted in Photographer Tips | Also tagged equipment, review, tips | Comments (1)

Photographer’s Tips: Week #7 - Prime vs Zoom Lenses

April 15, 2008 – 8:03 pm

Most of the photographers I know have an obsession with prime lenses.

When you’re first starting out, prime lenses seem like a terrible idea. Why have a lens that just covers one focal length when you can get a zoom lens that covers many?

Convenience is the name of the game with zoom lenses.

You can’t beat the convenience of a lens that goes from wide angle to telephoto without having to make a lens change. But I am a lover of prime lenses. And here’s why:

Prime lenses only do one thing, so they do that one thing very well.

My 50mm lens only has to look at the world at a 50mm focal length, so it can do that job incredibly well. It doesn’t have to worry about 35mm or 24mm or 70mm–it only has to worry about doing the best little job that it can at 50mm.

My 24-70mm lens has a lot more to worry about. It’s got to cover 24mm, 70mm, and everything in between.

Many non-L series prime lenses are sharper than L-series zoom lenses. And when you get an L-series prime lens? Oh my, baby. The image is so sharp it could cut through streak.

Prime lenses only do one thing, so they can be cheaper.

To get excellent sharpness from a zoom lens, and a reasonably fast aperture, you have to pick up an L series zoom for over $1000k. But you can pick up a great prime lens that is very sharp and very fast (even faster than that L-series zoom lens) for $300.

Prime lenses are faster

Dollar-for-dollar, you’ll get a much wider aperture in prime lenses than zoom lenses. Wide apertures not only allow you to blur away backgrounds into prettiness, but they allow you to shoot in much darker situations (like indoor nighttime family snapshots).

Prime lenses are lighter/smaller.

This isn’t that big of a deal, but for going-to-the-park-with-Will lens, I like something that doesn’t make me look like I might also be peeking into people’s bedroom windows.

Prime lenses make me a better photographer.

I can’t really put it into words (so excuse me while I blubber like an idiot for a paragraph or two), but shooting with prime lenses requires more thought. Instead of standing where you’re standing and then zooming in and out until your composition is the way you want it to be, first you must decide on your focal length. Do you want a wide angle look? A normal look? Or a telephoto melting-of-the-background-and-compressing-the-image effect? Once you know that, you fix that focal length in and use your feet to compose the shot how you want it.

I like the way I move and think and compose shots when I shoot with prime lenses. They fit my style well. In fact, I shot 99% of my recent engagement portrait session with Julie and Marc using the 50mm and 135mm. That’s how much I love primes!

And now for the exact opposite

I use primes as my first choice, but here’s a review where the photographer’s first choice are zoom lenses. This is another case where what someone loves might not be your favorite. Give both a try and see what feels best to you!

By Colorado Springs Wedding Photographer | Posted in Photographer Tips | Also tagged lenses, tips, tutorial | Comments (2)

Photography Tips: Week #6 - Lenses (part 2 - my lenses)

April 9, 2008 – 10:29 pm

Continuing with our lens themed week (yesterday I wrote about basic lens information and last week I wrote about what to consider when purchasing a camera), today I’ll cover what lives in my camera bag (as well as the lenses that got booted from it).

Sorry Nikon photographers…this is a Canon post.

My Lenses

Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L IS

It is hard for me to pick a favorite lens, because I love them all, but if I had to pick just one favorite, it would probably be this one.

Pros: I love the beautiful bokeh it creates for portraits, and being a long (telephoto) fast (the maximum aperture is f/2.8) lens with 3 stops of image stabilization (I can take pictures in places that are three times darker), it is my best friend at indoor wedding ceremonies. I recommend it wholeheartedly to wedding photographers–I wouldn’t want to be without it. I also use it a lot for portraits–long lenses are more flattering, they condense a scene making it possible to bring a mountain or city skyline closer to your subject, and long lenses can also isolate a subject from a cluttered background better than a normal or telephoto lens.

Cons: It’s expensive. I think it would be hard to justify this lens if you couldn’t make money from it. People also complain about the weight…but I don’t think that’s a good reason not to carry the best equipment for the job. And needing to carry heavy equipment is a great reason to stay in shape. :)

Canon 135mm f/2.0 L

Since purchasing this lens last month, it has been a disproportionate amount of time on my camera. It definitely comes a close second to the 70-200 as my favorite lens. It’s the lens I keep on my camera for taking family pictures.

Pros: This is a long fast lens, so it has all the benefits of the 70-200 (with the exception of image stabilization). It’s faster than the 70-200 (f/2.0 instead of f/2.8) so the bokeh from it is even more amazing. It’s relatively lightweight. And this is one super sharp lens. The pictures I get from it are incredibly sharp and it focuses very quickly. A fellow photographer and friend of mine calls this her “magic lens.” At $900, it’s also a fantastic deal for such beautiful quality.

Cons: This is a fantastic focal length for my style and on my full frame 5d camera, but on a 1.6 FOVCF body (rebel, 20/30/40d, etc) I can see it being too long (or too “zoomed in”) for many people’s liking.

Canon 24-70 f/2.8 L

This was our first lens, and it is a fantastic multi-purpose lens. Many pros list it as their favorite lens, or the one lens they would keep if they could only have one.

Pros: It is fast, sharp, focuses quickly, and has a great range–a perfect “every day” focal length range.

Cons: I like the 24-70 more on a 1.6 FOVCF body than I do on the 5d–it’s a little too short for my style on a full frame body (but is great in tight quarters or for groups). This is another on-the-big/heavy-side lens.

Canon 17-40 f/4 L

This is our wide angle lens, and it does a great job of that. Perfect for wide angle wedding scenes.

Pros: It is a great wide angle lens. It is a fantastic deal–$650 and fairly small and lightweight. When I need a wide angle shot, I know I’m going to get a great one.

Cons: I’m not a huge fan of wide angles (though I know they are popular right now in portraits)–I prefer the flattering telephoto lenses. So this lens doesn’t get used much.

Canon 50mm f/1.4

This gets my vote for the one I recommend most to new photographers. If you are on a tight budget and can only get one lens, this is the one to get.

Pros: It is very fast, fantastically inexpensive ($250), and has beautiful bokeh (unlike it’s cheaper illegitimate sister, the 50mm f/1.8). This one also spends a lot of time on my camera at home. It’s wide aperture and multi-purpose “normal” focal length makes it a great bet for family photos. It is tiny and very lightweight. (And it’s the least expensive lens in my bag, so if something gets dropped or damaged from being out, at least it’s not an expensive loss!) You are also able to get very close to your subject with it–it has a minimum focusing distance of 1.5 feet, which means I can very nicely fill the frame with my little two year old subject.

Cons: Can’t think of any. Unless not having a pretty red “L series” stripe can counts as a con.

Lenses I have kicked to the curb

Canon 70-200 f/4 L

Pros: This baby is a fantastic value. One of the least expensive L lenses. It is sharp, relatively lightweight, and a great lens for traveling. We broke this one out for vacations and it was fantastic.

Cons: As a telephoto f/4 with no image stabilization, this was not a good indoor lens. The 70-200 f/2.8 IS kicked its butt, and then when we got the 135mm, we sold this one.

Canon 85mm f/1.8

Another prime lens (so far I’ve discussed the 50mm f/1.4 and the 135 f/2.0). Prime lenses are my faves and I plan on discussing the difference between primes and zooms later this week. But in short, prime lenses are usually a totally fantastic value because they only have to do one thing, and they can do that one focal length extremely well.

Pros: A lot of people like this lens.

Cons: I was not one of those people. To be fair, it IS a nice lens with great image quality and fast focusing at a great value (around $350). I think on a 1.6 FOVCF I would like this lens, but it was useless to me on the 5d. Every time I framed the shot how I wanted it, it would turn out I was too close and I’d have to take a step back. It has an almost 3 feet minimum focusing distance (compared to the 50mm’s 1.5 feet). I bought the 135mm to combat this problem (it also has a 3 feet min focusing distance, but being a much longer lens means that I can frame the shot just how I want it from that distance).

By Colorado Springs Wedding Photographer | Posted in Photographer Tips | Also tagged camera, canon, lenses, Photographer Tips, photography, review, tutorial | Comments (3)

Photoshop Friday: Sharpening Your Photos

April 5, 2008 – 8:39 pm

(Photoshop Friday and Scrapbook Saturday are a day late this week thanks to BOTH my blog AND Photoshop wigging out on me yesterday.)

Whenever you are about to print a photo or share it online, one of your last steps should be to sharpen it. Whenever you resize your photo–either making it larger OR smaller–you’ll need to sharpen it.

Here’s the picture we’ll be working with:

denver family portrait bubble blowing

I have always used the “unsharp mask” feature (FILTER>SHARPEN>UNSHARP MASK):

photoshop tutorial screenshot

Next you get a little pop-up window that asks you to pick your settings. This is the setting I usually use, but I think every photographer finds one that they like best:

sharpen mask photoshop tutorial

Yesterday a fellow photographer taught me a new technique that I like a lot.  It gives you a little more power to fine tune the effect.

Start by making a duplicate layer of your photo (LAYER>DUPLICATE LAYER):

Then you head over to the filter drop-down again, but this time you’ll select OTHER>HIGH PASS:

It will give you another pop-up prompt. Pick something around 30px:

Now it’s time to make the scary gray disappear. In your layers menu, change it from “normal” to “soft light” and then adjust the opacity of the layer to whatever seems right.

And there you have it–two different ways to sharpen your photos!

By Colorado Springs Wedding Photographer | Posted in Photoshop Tips | Also tagged photography, Photoshop Tips, tips, tutorial | Comments (1)

I was published in The Knot Best of 2008 Issue!

April 3, 2008 – 1:31 pm

When I was at Barnes and Noble yesterday trying to purchase something with my violated credit card, this is what I was purchasing:

photo of wedding magazine

One of the pictures I took while second shooting weddings for Laura Dombrowski Photography was picked by The Knot to illustrate cute orange decorations! (Laura is a fantastic Denver wedding photographer well worth checking out if you are a Colorado bride!)

That photo (which you may recognize from our wedding site contact page) is a great example of how getting closer can provide an entirely different photo. It began with this idea I had of a picture of the flower girls (they were already standing in a group waiting for the reception to start, so I simply had them bring their flowers together):

I wasn’t crazy about everything going on in the background, but then I realized that I had another great photo right there. Without moving anything except ME, I stepped in quickly and took this second shot:

Colorado Springs wedding photographer\'s picture featured by The Knot Best of 2008 Weddings

Just another example of how many ways there are to take different photographs of one subject. If I hadn’t thought to take one step closer, we wouldn’t have been able to do a happy dance over my photo being published in The Best of 2008 Weddings magazine by The Knot!

By Colorado Springs Wedding Photographer | Posted in News, Wedding Photographer | Also tagged details, flower girl, flowers, magazine, orange, published, The Knot, Wedding Photographer, wedding photography | Comments (4)