Fine Art Prints

I have been intrigued by the idea of fine art prints.  A CreativeLive seminar with Doug Landreth explored how he goes about making them.  It was interesting, but there was not nearly enough explanation. In Photoshop, he overlays images with layers that he manipulates into patterns that add barely visible elements and textures to the image.  The result is quite good.

As a first step in looking at that, I took some of the pictures I took last week on Highway 6, and transformed them into Black and White.

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It turns out there are a variety of ways of producing Black and White images.  One is simply to reduce the color saturation of the image.  There are other “effects” in Aperture.  They somehow use selective filters in the operation. For these, the one that I liked the most used a Red filter.  I am not sure what that really means, but it had the effect of darkening areas of the sky until they were almost black.

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It is almost like using a polarizing filter. The rest seemed to exaggerate the starkness of the image.

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Looking at these calls to mind scenes from the old John Ford Westerns.

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Wedding – Reception

After the ceremony, all the guests were made to go out into the foyer while the formal portraits were taken and the chairs removed.  There were refreshments and a calypso band.  Once the ballroom was ready, everyone was ushered back in.  The first event on the agenda was the toasts.  I don’t remember what the best man said, but it got a reaction from the others.

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The bride did not want pictures of the guests at their tables for dinner, and that was fine with us.  There were too many guests, the lighting was terrible, and we got to rest just a little.  After dinner, they started the dances.  The bride and groom danced, then the groom and his mother.  The bride’s father was deceased.  So, she decided to do four dances, one with each of her brothers.  Her brothers came from Puerto Rico.  So, it  was a special occasion for them.  Cindy said that this meant a lot to the bride.  So, we concentrated on getting really good pictures of these dances.  Again, the lights were down really low.  So, focusing was a serious problem.  Even at that, this is a picture of the bride dancing with one of her brothers.

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The rest of the evening was spent dancing and visiting, and we got some nice pictures of the rest of the reception.

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Wedding – Ceremony

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The wedding was in the ballroom of the convention center.  It was obviously not the easiest place to decorate.  The wedding planner did an outstanding job with what she had to work with. The ceremony was held in the center area, and tables and chairs for dinner and the reception were set off to the sides.  After the ceremony, the chairs in the center were quickly removed to form a dance floor for the reception.

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Sometimes you capture a moment.  This was in the middle of the ceremony.  I am not sure of the precise context as it happened so fast.  But, the preacher looked up to the heavens, and I snapped the picture. This made for a unique image for their wedding folio.

These pictures look pretty good because they could not find anyone who could turn the lights down.  Although it was far from bright sunlight, there was really good, diffuse inside light and that helped us a great deal.

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Wedding

I did not have time last night to post, and I have spent all day processing files.

I was second shooter yesterday at a wedding. The primary was Cindy Graf. We also had two more shooters – Craig, Cindy’s husband and her friend Corey. We started at 3:00. I shot some details for a while and then went to the groom’s room. The groom was Keith Meyers. When I got to his room, they were already dressed. I got some standard shots – groom looking out the window, groom and groomsmen, groom opening gift from the bride. We then met in the lobby for shots of the groom and the preacher and then the groom and his parents.

I then went back to the convention center for shots before the ceremony. The ceremony started at 5:30. I shot from the back, but with my (old) 70 – 200, I got some great shots during the ceremony. After the ceremony, I shot guests in the foyer while Cindy and Corey shot the formal portraits. This was while the chairs were taken down and the band set up.

For the rest of the evening, we shot the dinner and reception.

Debbie even came along. Originally, she was supposed to be my “assistant.”  I was going to have her hold a light.  That just didn’t seem practical.  So, she helped out with the wedding coordinator and helped organize the flow of the formal portraits with Cindy and Corey.

All together, I got 588 pictures. The place was very dark, and I was too anxious many times. So, my flash didn’t fire, and the autofocus was problematic at times. I ended up processing about 150 files. Can’t post them for a week or so.

Wedding on Saturday

I’m getting excited.  I’m shooting a wedding with Cindy Graf on Saturday.  It is the Convention Center.  So, lots of glass and reflections.  We will be meeting Friday afternoon to try some things out and get a lay of the land.

Almost there

I have spent almost the entire day getting everything up and ready.  My goal was for this to be done by October 1, and I think I will make it.  I have to add some Commercial/Product images and find a featured image for that page, and that will be it.

Today has not been without problems.  The site crashed twice while I was moving images from one gallery to another.  So, rather than moving images, I just uploaded them again.

Up and running (sort of)

Yesterday, when I said this was open for business, it isn’t really open for business. What I meant is that the site is up and running. I worked a little today and produced new “feature images” for the Children, Families, and Weddings galleries. I also added more pics to the Seniors/Adults gallery.

My goal is to get everything up and ready to start “phase two” on October 1.

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