Forever Moments

Working with Light

2008-04-02T14:29:00.001-07:00

My new friend, Eugene, scheduled a time to meet and work on some lighting techniques based the latest video tutorials produced by veteran photographer, David Sizer. We had a model lined up, but he couldn't make it as agreed. So that greatly limited me and Eugene in what we planned to do. However, us getting together for the first time created an opportunity to get to know one another plan for some future practice dates.

We also spent some time shooting in the State capital building. We first tried setting up a lighting situation in a hideously dark area of the building. But needless to say, it didn't work out very well. So lessons were definitely learned.

Anyway, Eugene has a wedding shoot scheduled near the State capital on Saturday, so that gave him the opportunity to scout around some shooting possibilities. There is a great areas in the building that has an overarching dome and lots of good lighting. We shot at both ISO 640 and 1600 on our Canon cameras. The high ISO really reduced the need for a flash. So that's one thing we learned more in terms of lighting for that building. I often avoid using high ISO in wedding photos because of the noise factor, but I'm beginning to think that for wide shots, the noise is pretty acceptable.

Anyway, I look forward to us getting together again, especially when we can find another model or two to tag along.

Apple's new Mail Stationery

2007-11-12T15:25:00.000-08:00

I'm finding Apple's new Mail Stationery a really great tool for emailing my clients. I've done extended review of this feature on my MyMac.com. When I figure out how to customize and create my own Stationery templates, that will make the feature even better. Until then, I'm selectively using the templates that come installed with the program. I also need to see how well the template-based emails are downloading for my clients. Again, thanks to Apple, I'm able to had some affordable features to my business.

Christine and Daniel

2007-09-24T19:29:00.001-07:00

Cool New Slide Show Program

2007-09-24T18:34:00.001-07:00

Daniel and Christine on the Delta King

2007-09-24T13:14:00.001-07:00

DanielChristineLayout.jpg, originally uploaded by Bakari.

This awesome couple, Daniel and Christine, had a blast at their wedding last weekend on the Delta King in Sacramento. It's the second time I've photographed a wedding there and each time it just gets better and better. These are a few favorite photographs from that day because of the lighting and surroundings. Daniel and Christine were in a hurry to get to their guests, but I'm glad they were patient enough for my assistant and I to get these photographs of them.

Joshua and Pheadra: My First Cinderella Wedding

2007-09-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

More Layouts with Pixel Pro

2007-09-07T22:45:00.001-07:00

Album Creation with Pixel Creator Pro

2007-09-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

For a while I've been looking for a good, simple, album creation program. The various ones I looked at were either too complicated or too expensive for what I needed. But about a week ago, I stumbled upon Pixel Creator Pro. I spent several hours yesterday completing my first album with this program.

I've done a few albums using a few other album applications, including Apple’s iPhoto album program and few online programs supplied by album vendors, but so far I like Pixel Creator because it integrates directly with Photoshop, which means I don't have to leave out of an external album program in order to do further enhancements in Photoshop.

Pixel Creator is basically a Photoshop plug-in which uses Photoshop's various tools and actions to help you layout album pages. The plug-in comes numerous well-designed templates (I've only used a handful so far), photo effects, layer styles, and layout formats that can help you create albums much faster than if you're doing the same thing in Photoshop alone.

Personally I think you need to have some prior experience with Photoshop to get the most out of Pixel Creator, but the developers have created a series of really well done tutorials to help you install the program and learn it's basic and advance features. More tutorials will be forthcoming.

To increase my workflow with this program and other similar tasks in Photoshop, I use the excellent SteerMouse driver to activate a couple of most-often used Pixel Creator key shortcuts, and I've also created a few Photoshop actions for quickly saving files or applying particular enhancements to images.

Learning from some of the mistakes I made with this first album using Pixel Creator, I should be able to complete my next album in about half the time, which would be like 3-4 hours.

While the company doesn't provide a demo version of their program, you can view several of the tutorials to give you an idea if the program is right for you.

I look forward to more from Pixel Creator. I think it has a lot of promise.

High Contrast Enhancement

2007-08-24T09:16:00.001-07:00

Denne.jpg, originally uploaded by Bakari.

This is a technique, "Trendy High-Contrast Portrait Effect," is based on Scott Kelby's latest book, The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers.

Photoshop Actions Finally Organized

2007-08-24T08:59:00.000-07:00

While I don't use Photoshop actions on all my wedding photos, they do come in handy in my workflow when I'm trying to make similar enhancements to different photos. For a long while, my PS actions were very disorganized which caused some wasted time in my workflow—searching for them and not knowing which ones I should use. So I decided to color code my most used actions green, and use violet for useful actions that I might use on lesser occasions.

I'll no doubt be adding more actions as I discover better ones, but in the mean time I'm finding that I can develop quite a few just from using Scott Kelby's excellent Photoshop books.

Hollywood Poster Style

2007-08-13T16:47:00.001-07:00

Created this one with the help of a cool little tutorial I found here: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/

Denné and Daniel are a very sweet and beautiful couple and were really nice to work with.

Stefanie Getting Ready

2007-07-26T23:58:00.000-07:00

I like doing preparation shots. Sometimes brides and grooms will relax and just let me capture them, while other times they need a little direction, like breaking the habit of not looking at my camera every time I point it toward them.

Border Effect for Aperture

2007-07-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

Very cool and easy. A must have for any Aperture user.

You can find it here:

Ethan and Carmala

2007-07-21T12:04:00.001-07:00

Just discovered are really cool and elegant greeting card site called Photo Affections. I copied one of their styles for this layout, but I'll definitely be referring their site to my clients.

Alana & Wesley

2007-07-18T15:44:00.001-07:00

Another layout I learned from Photoshop User magazine. The July/August '07 edition. Thanks Scott Kelby, Felix Nelson, and that Photoshop speed clinic doctor, Matt Kloskowski.

My Little Promo

2007-07-17T21:29:00.000-07:00

This is a little promo I put together this evening. It wasn't planned out, and it's not completely what I want, but it was fun just seeing what I could put together with what I had.

Model Vanessa

2007-07-10T16:02:00.001-07:00

_MG_9167.jpg, originally uploaded by Bakari.

As part of a recent model photoshop for a photography club I participate in, I got a chance to photograph the lovely Vanessa who is simply natural in front of the camera. She's the first model I've ever photograph, so that in itself was a learning experience. It looks like I'll be shooting her engagement photos in August which will be even better.

Carmela

2007-06-27T23:24:00.001-07:00

Carmela 2, originally uploaded by Bakari.

So Digging Show-it Web

2007-06-22T16:25:00.000-07:00

Recently started using David Jay's Show-it Web. This has to be one of the best internet slide show applications on the market today. It's easy to use, smooth, and classy.

I'm also sure that my clients Carmela and Ethan are also happy with their show I just sent them.

Favorite Aperture Workspace

2007-06-10T22:03:00.000-07:00

This is my most useful workspace in Aperture, especially when I'm working on my laptop. The Viewer side works pretty well for both portrait and landscape photos, and the bowser side can be adjusted for various types of use. The only drawback is that there's no way to set up this workspace as a default workspace or a one click workspace set up as you can do in Adobe Photoshop. You have to click W to get rid of the Projects Panel. Then you need to click V to get into Viewer mode, and finally you click Shit-Command W to get this workspace set up. I would like to see that done of course in one click.

Stefanie and Curt

2007-05-29T22:25:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm getting them done. I completed two client projects today and have one more to finish before Friday. Then there's three more upcoming projects in June.

I'm sending Stefanie and Curt their eSession photos tomorrow morning. We did an early morning shoot in the park. The lighting was great, and like all my couples Curt and Stefanie just relaxed with one another gave and me some great smiles for the camera. Rairly now do I have to instruct couples one what to do in an eSession. They seem to catch on that this is a special time for them to show their love for one another and have it documented for a lifetime.

Daniel and Christine

2007-05-29T14:50:00.000-07:00

My goal this week is to get all my productions from the last two months completed and out to clients.

Really appreciate the time with Daniel and Christine. They were pleasant couple to work with for an essession. Very natural together. Their wedding is going to be equally pleasing to cover.

Portrait Project in CS3

2007-05-17T23:11:00.001-07:00

Been learning some creative techniques from one of my favorite online Photoshop instructors, Matt Kloskowski. This is the first project I've done using Adobe Photoshop CS3, which of course is just a seriously awesome program, no with lots more features and a more simplistic design.

The Bride, Carmela, and her flower girl, though, really make the design and photo stand out. It's portraits like this that make wedding photography such a wonderful and creative experience.

Metadata Overlay in Aperture 1.5

2007-04-27T00:59:00.000-07:00

If you select Command-J in Aperture, you get a set of prefernces for the type of information you want to appear in the overlays at the botton of your images. The information varies, but for now I mainly want to know what rating and keyword(s) I have given t0 photo(s). I want to know that information whether I'm viewing a photo(s) in the Viewer mode or the Grid View. Since all a project's files are named the same thing, I really don't need that information.

Also since I work in and out of the Viewer and Grid modes, I simply have the same set of information displayed for both modes of view. That way I can use the hot keys Shift+U or Shift+Y to change to what information I need, no matter which mode I'm primarily viewing photos in.

As I develop my workflow in Aperture, I may find a need for a different type of information in the overlays, but for now Keywords and Ratings will do. Remember the hot keys for changing metadata overlays may take a little getting used to, but they can come in handy when processing images.

Carmela & Ethan

2007-04-27T00:05:00.000-07:00

The Joy of Weddings

2007-04-25T01:57:00.000-07:00

Be sure to click on this photo to appreciate it at a larger size.

One of the things I enjoy so much about shooting weddings is seeing people happy, loved, and honored on their special day. I like being able to capture that moment, even it's in just that one photo out a thousand I take. It's capturing the expression of joy and romance. That kind of joy doesn't come to us everyday, and sometimes it's like once in a life, but to be able to capture it and freeze it so that it can be looked back upon is really what counts.

Tua and Shing

2007-04-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

Except for the rain, this was a very nice wedding, full of love and support. I very much enjoyed covering it.

Engagement Albums

2007-04-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

I'm really jazzed about doing engagement books for my clients. While the traditional framed engagement photo is also nice, I think engagement books are better, because they offer an opportunity to showcase more enagement photos. When I meet my clients for an engagement shoot, I take something like 150 photos. It would be almost a waste of time if a handful of these best photos were not printed and shared. So here's my first sample book. More are forthcoming.

The idea of these signature engagement books is to have say 10 photos with a blank facing page for each photo so that family and guests can write messages to the Bride and Groom.

Books/Albums in Aperture 1.5

2007-04-10T13:56:00.000-07:00

I really like how you can work with images right within Aperture to lay out books, but it it willl be even better when companies like Asukabook and GraphiStudio can produce a plug-in that allows for book creation in Aperture. As it stands now, you can only produce a few specific size books, say 9x11, and the end quality is not that all that classy for high-end clients. The books themselves are more useful for proof books, portfolios, and possibly thank-you type gifts.

Quick (probably obvious) Aperture Tip

2007-04-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

Aperture is like all of Apple's cocoa programs in that you can simply drag an image file (must be a thumbnail in this case) to your desktop and the result is that you have a preview size image file that you can use for emailing and webposting. If you want a larger size, then you have to export. If you try do this in Lightroom, you'll get the master size file that you imported. Note: This is my first little YouTube movie. I thought I'd post something short very to give it try. More to come.

April and Micheal: The Joining of Hands

2007-04-08T18:46:00.000-07:00

I love hands and rings shots. They're almost an art within of themselves.

Wedding Photography and Aperture 3

2007-04-04T00:54:00.000-07:00

Here's my current project and folders arrangement for my wedding projects workflow in Aperture. I start off importing each media card as a project. Each project is named based on the card number. So far I like this method because it helps me insure that I've imported all my media cards for a particular wedding. Plus, I can use this number breakdown to locate a set of particular photos based on the card number. Card #1, for example, typically consists of pre-ceremony and some ceremony images, while cards 6 and 7 will probably be full of reception images. Also, if there's ever a problem with image files, I might be able to identify the problem according to the card number. Finally, I still only use 1-2gb cards. I'm way too chicken or cautious to put the majority of my cards on one or two 4 or 8gb cards. It really doesn't take that long to change cards. And I keep them on my person for the entire time of the wedding. I never put them in my camera bag.

The rest of the folder break down largely consist of smart folders (one of my favorite features of Aperture) that are based on the various keywords I assign images after I import them. I like the smart folders because they automatically update as I make rating and keyword changes to images. I just wish there were a way to quickly create a standard set of smart folders for each client project. As it stands now, I simply duplicate smart folders and change the parameters based on what I want the content to be.

That's it. All these folders will be exported as jpeg files and organized the same folders for burning on a DVD(s) for my clients.

Sima and Amar

2007-04-02T02:09:00.000-07:00

I just had a very nice opportunity to photograph Amar and Sima's wedding reception this Saturday. They held their wedding in India back in January and had a reception here back in the States with something 300+ family and guests. I plan to add more photos from the reception, but I just wanted to post quickly two portrait shots I took of Sima. I only had a very short time with them for portrait shots, but I really like her attractive spirit and formal dress.

Aperture and Wedding Photography 2

2007-04-02T01:52:00.000-07:00

I've only created three or four projects in Aperture so far this year, but one of the features of Aperture that I'm finding useful is to keep the current projects that I'm working on, in the Favorites panel, which means that these projects will be seperated out from all the rest of the projects that are listed in my projects panel on the left side of Aperture. Working in less clutter as possible helps my workflow, so I'm always looking for ways to streamline and organize files and folders within my computer workflow.

To add projects and folders to the Favorites panel, simply click on the project and/or folders and then click on the pop-up menu button on the top right of the Projects folder and click Add to Favorites. Then click on the Projects Menu Button of course on the left side the panel and select Favorite Projects.

Basically I'm just keeping this Projects Panel open to Favorites with the goal of getting projects done and completed as soon as possible. Too many Favorite projects means that I'm not getting work done fast enough, which means I'm making less and less money on the jobs I'm completing.

Aperture and Wedding Photography

2007-03-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

Now that I've gotten back my Powerbook from repair, I'm able to start using Apple's Aperture again. Though I've been using Lightroom, I think utimately I'm going to use Aperture for most of wedding projects. Aperture 1.5 is more fully functional for me than Lightroom, and it provides some workflow solutions that are not yet present in Lightroom. While I love the design interface of Lightroom and its intuitive and easy workflow, Aperture is far better for organizing and managing digital files.

Before sending my Powerbook off for repair, I had started to develop a written workflow for processing my wedding projects using Aperture. One of the niciest things included in Aperture by default is a list of keywords for wedding projects. The list is extensive and will help any wedding photography get started with managing his or her wedding images in the application.

Also, the neat thing about Aperture is the ability to work with preview files while your original files are off-line. This speads up the process of keywording, rating, and selecting images for your workflow.

I'll be adding blog entries on Aperture as I go along. I'll also continue to work in Lightroom because I'm interested in the direction that this Adobe application will take.

The Ring Shot

2007-03-25T11:43:00.000-07:00

The ring shot is part of every shoot, but PS helps give it the added touch. I think after I do enough of these, I'm going to put together a book of just the ring shots. I love the challenge of doing them.

Tua and Shing

2007-03-24T23:30:00.000-07:00

I'm constantly loving the power of Photoshop and what can be done it. Often times, you can get very confused and overwhelmed by Photoshop's almost limitless features and controls, but hunting around or exploring a few popular strategies can provide effective results.

Classy DVD Album

2007-03-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for while for a really nice DVD Album for my clients, and I finally found what I was looking for. These albums preserve CDs and DVDs in very a respectful and classy way. On top of that they come with a very durable deluxe gift box. Every client deserves to get one of these.

Before and After Button in Lightroom

2007-03-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

One of the quick little features in Lightroom that you might find useful is the little before and after button that is a part of each of the Develop modules in Lightroom

So say after you make adjustments to a photo, you click on the little small box in the left side of a moduel heading. Click the bottom of the box and you get the before photo, and then click to see the difference. Yet again, another little feature that may give you some positive strokes for how well you're doing with your photos.

Note: the before/after button is not present in the Basic module, but in the advance Tone, Detail, Split Toning, Lens Correction, etc, modules. A nice improvement to this feature would be that you have three levels of history that would show how the photo looked originially and then how it looked right before you applied another adjusment. You can though use the History module on the left side of the Develop panel under Presets and Snapshots to see all your prior stages of adjustments. That's useful for when you want to see how various subtle affect your image.

Shing and Tua

2007-03-18T23:54:00.000-07:00

After having to cancel three or four scheduled engagement dates in February, we were finally able to hook today, and boy was it worth the wait. Shing and Tua were wonderful to work with and so natural in how they related to one another. Shing said a couple of times that it was hard work "modeling," but I didn't see her straining at all. All I saw was natural love between these two. Like with all my clients, the are beautiful, sweet couple who were very nice to work with.

Presets in Lightroom

2007-03-18T00:09:00.000-07:00

One of the keys to working productively in Lightroom is using presets. The application comes installed with with a set of presets, such as one for converting photos from color to black-and-white or grayscale, but you'll want to start creating your own to fit your particular needs. Once I created a few presets for my workflow, I started processing photos faster and bringing about some uniformity in the color correction.

The process for making presets is about simple as it can ever be. Basically, you open up a photo in the Develop mode and make the kind of corrections and enhancements to a photo that you think could be applied to other photos. For instance you might create simple preset that applies Vignetting to photos. Or you might create two or three different presets that apply various exposure levels that you find yourself using.

Notice in the default set of presets that Adobe puts into the Lightroom, there are three different Tone Curve presets that apply different levels of contrast to a photo. All you have to do is place your cursor over one of the presets and you'll see what affect the selected preset will have on a selected image even before you apply it—a serious time saver. Also, there's a Zero'd preset at the bottom of the default set that reminds of what you photo looked liked before you applied any adjustments to it. Zero'd can make feel you're getting somewhere if you have crappy image that is improved in Lightroom with a view basic clicks.

Now I'm not saying Lightroom presets will magically do all the work for you on all your photos. Even after you apply a preset you will still have to do the work of fine tuning photos to get the look and feel your want. But the goal of Lightroom is to pretty much help you process lots of digital images within one application.

I have several items on my wishlist that I really think must be put in any future versions of Lightroom, but for now I'm thankful that version 1 has been released. I expect a lot of good things to come of this program.

Julian and Mayra

2007-03-16T20:31:00.000-07:00

Well, the photos Julian and Mayra (high school sweethearts and now hubby and wife) are the first ones I used to process using Adobe's Lightroom. Once I got a hang of the program, I really did help me get through and process 800+ photos I took at their wedding. If I can find more time, I want post some more about how I used the program to complete this project.

As you can see, Julian and Mayra are a beautiful couple and their whole wedding day seem to run smoothly. Just wish I had more time to to photograph them outdoors on the steps of the State Capital.

A Great Day for Funderland

2007-02-17T21:08:00.000-08:00

Wesley & Alana

2007-02-17T19:33:00.000-08:00

It was really great to do some shooting this week. Alana and Wesely are two clients now living the Arizona. They were in Sacramento for a couple of weeks to get some things done for their wedding in April, so we met in Old Sacramento around noon. Not the best time for a photo shoot, but they were very patient and really comfortable with each other, so we managed to get the session done successfully. While they haven't yet seen these photos, I thought I'd try some cross processing to what they think. I'm thinking these and some of their other photos would look great in a signature engagement album.

50mm Shot

2007-02-04T20:48:00.001-08:00

IMG_8985.JPG, originally uploaded by Bakari.

This one was on the first wedding related shots I took with my Canon 50mm lens—a sweet, lightweight, affordable lens that delivers really nice sharp photos. Though it's a prime lens, I try to use it in the moments when I don't have to do a lot zooming in and out.

Moving my blogspot

2007-02-04T16:06:00.000-08:00

Well, I decided to move my business blogsite from my iWeb hosted site to Blogger.com, mainly because Blogger a faster way to post photos and blog entries.

So my first few entries will be some of my favorite photos I took from last Summer when I started my wedding business. I really appreciate those clients who hired me and I'm looking forward to all the upcoming weddings this year. It's gonna be a blast.