Instant Portraits

This is my daughter Christina. Today she got a new doo. Looks nice don't you think? I took this portrait of Christina in my livingroom using a portable studio set up. One Nikon speed light in 15x15" soft box as my main light. One Nikon speed light into an 42"umbrella -1 stop from behind the camera as a fill light. And one Nikon speed light with grid -2 stops on the background. Shot with Nikon D3 using 24-70mm lens @ 70mm. Exposure was iso 320, 125th sec @ f-6.3. It took approximately 20 minutes to set up, shoot and and break down this set up.

Restoration Project

Today I am restoring an image for our client of her Father taken in 1957. The original image is 3"x 3" and was a snap shot taken by her aunt. The image shows normal wear marks with some wrinkles and a few spots. It also has adhesive tape marks on the corners. Our client wishes we restore the image and make the final image 8x10 size. In order to do that I had to crop the image to 5:4 format. I don't think the image holds enough resolution to enlarge to 8x10 so I added a nice matted border. This allows me to keep the actual image size about 8x6 and with the mat the final output will be 8x10. The entire process has taken about one hour from start to finish and is shown above. Click on image to enlarge.

Announcement

Congratulations to Mary Helen Nixon & Dan Johnson on their engagement. They plan on a June 2009 wedding. We had a great time at a photo shoot at the falls yesterday. What a wonderful couple. We met them at the base of the bridge that goes to Goat Island and used the upper rapids for a background. We got a ton of pictures here are some of my favorites. I will be looking forward to shooting their wedding.

Lighting basics

Close up shot of this bumble bee created in my garden. The image has impact because of the great directional lighting used to light this scene. One speedlight on camera left as a main light and the sun from behind as a fill light. This combination gives my subject 3 dimension on a 2 dimensional plane. If you want your photographs to pop out with impact you need to use these types of techniques. Learn to use the light to your advantage to make your photographs look their best.

Amazing image quality

The Nikon D3 has a full frame sensor with great cropping ability without losing resolution. Here is an example. The top image is a raw image straight from the camera ( hand held without a tripod ) from the Joan Jett concert. The three bottom images are 100%crops from within the picture. I used a 70-200mm AF-S VR 2.8 lens with VR off . Click on image to enlarge.

A beautiful ceremony.

Congratulations to Lisa & Scott Dingwall. Married today at St. Mark's Lutheran Church on Oliver Street in North Tonawanda, NY. Here are a few of my favorites from the day. Click to enlarge on each image.

Outdoor Concert

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts performing in an outdoor concert at the Seneca Niagara Hotel and Casino on Friday night. It was a hot and steamy evening and the show was rocking.