Fall Time is Family Time!

Fall Time is Family Time, if not, it certainly should be!  In fact Family time should be all the time right!

This is the time of year  when we start to think about Thanksgiving and Christmas, and right now is the perfect time to take family photos so you can get your Holiday cards sent out in time!
You'll also have some pretty new family portraits to show off during all those family gatherings to come.  Of course they make great gifts for grandparents and aunts & uncles too!

We have put together some amazing deals for your holiday portraits, so please click on the link below an have a look.

http://www.kuhlphotos.com/Investment/Promotions/25101126_Vtmm8r

Head-Shots

Here are a selection of Head-Shots I took for a client recently in Temecula Ca.  We only spent about an hour together, but look at all the variations of portraits we shot in such a short time.

Teresa is a professional performer so I wanted to be sure and capture her personality from different perspectives.
She brought five wardrobe changes to the session and you can see here that this allowed us to create quite a diverse set of Head-Shots in just an hour!  Proof that proper preparation is key to a successful photo shoot.  And when you are properly prepared, you'll have a lot more fun during the session as well!

GETTING MARRIED?

Are you getting Married soon, or know someone that is? Then check-out this incredible offer.  Only caveat is that it's valid only in Southern California.

http://www.kuhlphotos.com/Investment/Promotions/25101126_Vtmm8r

Beautiful Ceremony

Here are a few photographs of a beautiful Baptism I had the good fortune of photographing for one of my favorite clients last week-end.

As you can see from these pictures, it's a beautiful church.  This is Saint Catherine's in downtown Riverside Ca.  

Lost in Time

Here is great example of slowing down the shutter to create a more dramatic image.
The photo below was taken downtown Riverside California at around 10 at night.  This image was exposed for 1.8 seconds while an off camera flash fired from camera right.

Had the camera been allowed to control the exposure, all you would see is the couple in the foreground and a sea of black behind them with no people in motion and the buildings would barely be visible.

Create the image you want in your mind, and then use your camera's controls to achieve the result you want.  Don't always let the camera choose for you.

Get it "RIGHT" in Camera!

Get it right in camera?  What?  Isn't that the camera's job?  Well, yes and no. 

Without going into to many details, and to keep it simple, the camera sees everything in shades of grey.  Not only that, it wants to turn everything into an average grey tone often referred to as 18% grey.  

The problem is that not everything is middle grey, think Bride and Groom (White dress & Black suit).  So what do you do?  

Once you understand how your camera thinks you will, with lots of practice, start "seeing" like your camera and you will be able to adjust the exposure compensation on the fly and get pretty close.  The general rule is if the background is dark or your subject is wearing dark clothes (Groom), under expose by .3 to 1.0 stops.  If your background is bright or your subject is wearing bright clothes (Bride), over expose by .3 to 1.0 stops using your exposure compensation dial.  If you have the time, you can also use a 18% grey card and set your exposure manually off of that card.  Hand held exposure meters also work extremely well.  I love my Sekonic L-358 light meter.  The great thing about light meters is that they read the amount of light falling on your subject.  Your camera reads the amount of light that reflects off of your subject and is therefore influenced by how reflective or absorbent the subject is and can be fooled quite easily.  

Most novice photographers do not use grey cards or light meters.  Both of these approaches are a bit more advanced and require a good understanding of light.  Not to mention light meters can be quite expensive too.  For a professional photographer however, getting the exposure perfect is not an option! Can you imagine how a bride would feel if her beautiful white wedding dress looked off white or grey in all her photos?  Run for the hills if this happens and you were the photographer!  Unfortunately I hear these types of horror stories all the time.  That's why it's not worth saving a few dollars and taking a chance that your "once in a lifetime" photos don't turn out perfect!  

The picture below is straight out of camera.  Meaning it has zero edits or adjustments.  A light meter was used to get a proper exposure reading off of her face.  Had I used the cameras meter, it would have over exposed the image because of all that dark hair in the image.  Remember, it wants to turn everything to middle grey, and this hair is a lot darker that that.  The resulting image would have had washed-out skin tones and the details would not be accurate.  

So next time you're out with your camera, start using your exposure compensation dial.  I think you will be amazed at the results you can achieve.  If you have any questions, you can always send me note.

How to Photograph Fireworks

1. Use a tripod
2. Turn your flash off, no need for that here. 
3. Use a zoom lens if you can (until the fireworks start, you won’t know exactly where in the sky the fireworks will appear).
4. Shoot in manual mode.  You don't want the camera to take control!
5. Use a low ISO like 100 or 200
6. Set shutter speed to bulb.  This means you control how long the shutter stays open
7. Aperture should be between f/8 and f/16
8. Lens should be focused near infinity.  If your lens won't focus, set it manually.  
9. Hold the shutter open for about the amount of time you see the fireworks in the sky you are capturing, somewhere between 1-15 seconds. Experiment with this a bit to see what you like.
10. The shot below was captured in one second.  With longer shutter speeds and large bursts of fireworks, the results can be quite stunning.  
11. Have Fun!