Colors of Autumn

We got another opportunity to get out and shoot some fall foliage this weekend. Our trip took us to Letchworth State Park. The trees were just past peak season but still had plenty of color to enjoy. The park was saturated with photographers capturing the last bits of autumn before the season changes. Here are a few from our trip. Click to enlarge.

This interesting image was designed in photoshop using layers and transform tools. I haven't found a use for this , but I am sure it will have a function in some creative project down the road.

I had a chance to try out multiple lighting at Friday nights reception. I used the Nikon CLS ( creative lighting system) . I had two Nikon SB 600 speedlights bouncing towards the ceiling along the wall on the right and a Nikon SB 800 as master on camera. The 600's were set at ttl and one stop over. The master 800 was ttl and used for fill. The red lights from the left side are from the DJ's booth with disco lights. I think the image has a nice natural look to it.

Congratulations John and Karen

We had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of John Steckstor and Karen Kozacki. What a wonderful couple and they have great families too. The ceremony was at Redeemer Lutheran Church in North Tonawanda and the reception was at the Canal Side Restaurant in Lockport.

Everyone had a blast at their reception. A great time for all. Here are a few of my favorites from the day.

When I need to unwind I like to go into CS3 and create new things. This image was completely made up using tools in CS3. The really great thing about CS3 is your only limited to your imagination. The sky is the limit. This technique is quite advanced but I will giving photoshop tutorials in this blog. Stay tuned for future lessons and assignments. Click on image to enlarge.

Lighting Lesson 05

This beautiful outdoor portrait was done easily with two nikon speedlights. As the diagram above shows I sat my subject down with the sun shinning at her from behind and to camera right. I added one SB 600 in a soft box as a main light to camera left. I then used my SB 800 on camera as a fill and master. Both flashes are set to ttl mode. The camera is set to manual and I under expose the background by -2 stops. I have to use +2 on the main light to compensate for the soft box and +.07 on the fill because I used Gary Fong's Lightshere pointed directly at the subject. The result is a perfectly exposed background with a subject that pops out of the picture with great wrap around modeling light.

Lighting Lesson 04

Simple lighting techniques and attention to details will give you great results. Today my self assignment was to take a simple household article, light it and make it interesting. In this case tasty, I hope. I started with a tea cup and saucer and placed them on glass suspended on a small table top with books. I like this technique because it affords you opportunity to light your subject from below if you want. In this particular case I used a SB 600 in a soft box at ttl +1 for my main light. I used one SB 800 on camera bounced behind me set on ttl +1 as a fill light. I then added one SB 600 with CTO gel and a gobbo set at ttl -1 to light my background. The gobbo is used to restrict light spill on my subject. I used the hottest tea possible to my tea cup but I still didn't have the steaming hot tea effect I wanted. I took the image and then added the steam in photoshop with layers. I handheld my Nikon D3 and used iso 640. Camera settings were f-16 at 1/80th sec. using 24-70mmAF-S mm Nikkor lens set to 70mm. Click on image to enlarge and you will see the faint hint of steaming hot tea for a most realistic look.