Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Kirsti Wedding photos



Photos from a recent wedding in Nassau, Bahamas.  These are from the shots I take prior to the bride leaving for the church.  I spend a lot of time with my brides taking photos of them and their memories of getting dressed before their big day.

I photographed her at the Hilton and found a few new places to take photos other than on the stairs (Thanks Lyndah). 


Please enjoy her wedding photos. 

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The Back End / Wedding Post-Production

 The Back End / Wedding Post-Production

As you head off to a white sandy beach on your honeymoon, your photographer is still going to be hard at work.  Most couples are unaware of the long hours a photographer puts in after the wedding day is over.  Post-production for a wedding can take ten to twenty additional hours beyond the wedding day.  This is one of the major components you are paying for when it comes to your wedding images.  Great photography also needs great post-production and this is really the most time-consuming and expensive portion of a photographer’s workflow.  You have to keep this in mind when paying for a photographer; it’s not just what you get on the wedding day, it’s an entire experience.
Download & Back-Up:
Let’s walk you through a typical digital post-production workflow. First thing is the downloading of images from the media cards they are captured on. This can take up to one hour depending on the number of images captured. Most photographers have RAID systems and the images will also need to be transferred to that secondary storage for safety. (*These drives are expensive to buy and to maintain.)
Editing:
Once the images are downloaded the next step is editing or choosing the best images from the wedding day. Both of us “edit in” which means on the first pass we choose all the images we like as opposed to the ones we do not.  Mathematically this takes less time then choosing the ones that won’t make it. Editing a wedding can take anywhere from two to four hours.  The number of images shot will vary between photographers, but on average it is 2500-5000 for a typical wedding.  It all depends on the shooter.  After an edit there are roughly 800-1000 images.  A good rule of thumb is that you can expect roughly 100 final images per hour of coverage.  More images doesn’t equal better, it’s about quality not quantity.

The editing process is done with software where the keepers are tagged with a color.  Once tagged they get moved  into a separate folder. Right now you are probably asking yourself If they took 2500 and only kept 1000 what are the other 1500 images??  The unused images are made up of blinks, bad expressions, out of focus images, bad exposures or sequences where one image is clearly much better than the other.  A photographer might shoot forty images in a row of the bride walking down the aisle but five of them are the hero shots.  The rest are unnecessary.  This is something you are paying your photographer for. Being a great editor takes years of practice and hundreds of shoots to become proficient. Trust us, you don’t want to go through 2500+ images!
Raw Processing:
Most pros shoot in RAW format.  By itself it is a big fat gray file that looks like a stale doughnut.  But when processed well it turns into the most delicious cupcake you can imagine. (See the couple in storm image below.)  It involves hours of color correction and other adjustments.  This process can take two to four hours.  Besides color balancing there are also tonal adjustments, as well as adjustments for clarity, sharpness, white and black points and more.  Software changes all the time and photographers have to keep up with education of that software as well as third party plug-ins that enhance it.

Conversion & Photoshop:
Once Raw processing is complete the files then need about an hour for conversion to jpegs.  Once in their final jpeg form the real work begins.  Most photographers will spend countless hours in Photoshop doing work that cannot be done in the Raw processing software.  Your photographer will be doing things like adding vignettes, removing unwanted objects, beauty retouching, color pops, B&W conversions, sharpening and hundreds of other things available to them in some VERY EXPENSIVE software.
Raw

Processed Jpeg

Upload & Show:
Once this is done the best of the best is uploaded to the client.  Converting for upload and/or building additional slideshows all take time and can add another few hours to the production times. Every photographer does it differently and ALL have their own opinion on the matter.  The point of this article is to understand what goes into post-production.  The exact methods will vary from shooter to shooter and as long as YOU like the end results than the process is irrelevant.  One is not better than the other and there are many ways to get great final results.  Just know that it takes A LOT of work and ten to twenty hours to get there.

The Real 411: There is a lot more to what a photographer does than just shoot your wedding.  Besides camera gear it take tens of thousands of dollars in computers, software and storage systems to produce high-quality work.  In addition, it costs several hundred dollars a month in electricity to run all the computers.  We hope this post has helped you understand some of the cost involved in hiring a good professional photographer.  They spend hours editing, processing, Photoshopping, backing up and storing your files.  It is a time-consuming process with steep learning curves.  Software changes all the time and your photographer will be purchasing and learning new methods several times a year.  If you hire a photographer who is just going to hand you a disk of unedited images with no color correction or cropping which includes everything he or she shot on your wedding day the results will be disappointing to say the least.  Anyone who does so is doing YOU a disservice.  You are the one who will have to go through 3000-5000 images and pick the best.  You will have to invest in software and the time in learning how to use it.  It takes years to learn to do it properly. This is why it is worth it to pay a professional!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Atlantis Water Park Team Track & Field Day


Last night Atlantis Water Park team had a track & field fun night out with a little friendly inter-departmental competition.   I was asked to shoot the event at the last minute.  I did not except such a large turn-out, but the wonderful thing was it was well attended by the staff and management team. There was the Water Safety team, the Deck and Space Team, the Water Features Team and the Dolphin Cay team.  Each team sporting their own colored t-shirt 

I must say the Water Safety team's 4x100 team was unbelievable.  They smoke the other teams with extreme ease. WOW, I did not know Michellet was so fast, and Kevin Evans, hummmm got speed for a fashion designed. 

As you can see also on hand was Tonique Williams-Darling to present medals and sign autographs.  I must say this is my first time meeting her and she is a true champion.  She has such a warm personality and is genuinely nice.  It was good to see one of our Bahamian Champions giving back to her community.

I just want to say hats off to Jesse and his team for organizing such an event and I am sure everyone is looking forward to next year.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Kevin Evans Sneak Peak

Kevin Evans is a men's clothing designer from Nassau.  This was shoot last Saturday at various location around the downtown area.  It was a long session, but we had fun.  This is Kevin's second session with me and the models are more relaxed.  I love that he uses bold colors and is different from the norm.  This is his summer items, so men get your orders in early.  None on his cloths are in stores all items are tailored to the customers.

I used a Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 lens for most of these shots.

Royann & Brian Engagement session.


I took these photos at the Cloisters on Paradise Island, Bahamas.  The couple was fun to work with.  Royann was a little shy, but Brian was having a ball. Looking forward to photographing their wedding in December.

This is the first session I used my brand new 24-70mm f2.8.  This lens is a must for all Nikon users.  It's very expensive and heavy, but well worth the cost and the weight.  The auto-focus is fast and works well in low lighting.  This was a great investment!!!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Wedding photo in Downtown Nassau, Bahamas

This is one of  my wedding images that's not posted on Facebook.  This was shot in the downtown area of Nassau.  The couple wanted something different than the normal flower garden.  I did a session here with another photographer and thought this would be a great spot for formal wedding photos.  The couple were very open to ideas so we went for it, and the photos turned out great. 

Hope you all enjoyed

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