I love photography.  I love people, art, beauty, weddings, colors, light…  It’s all wonderful…  There is just something great about walking out in the woods with a camera and your family and just having fun.  With this I have decided it is time to launch a new personal project.  Photos by me, for me, and for the art of it.  The project will unveil in about one months time…

In the mean time enjoy some photos, “By me, for me, and for the ‘heart’ of it…”

You may notice at first glance that there is something different about these photos…  I am referring to that watermark in the corner.  These are photos of my wedding shot by my friend and colleague Paolo Ferraris.  Paolo has been second shooting with me all season and I have really enjoyed working with him capturing weddings for By The Light Photography.  When it came time for me to exchange my vows, I must admit I suffered a significant amount of anxiety!  Not about the nuptials but over a small question; ‘Who will photograph my wedding?’  It turned out that the answer was staring me in the face, Paolo!  Paolo does amazing work as my second shooter, and as he proved here, amazing work without me!  He is a seasoned pro with a great eye and it really shows!

As a groom, I am thrilled with the photos from my own wedding.  As a business owner I am fortunate to have such a wonderful colleague shooting alongside me.  In the past I did not stress the importance of a second shooter to couples enough, now I find myself strongly urging couples to opt for a package that includes a second shooter.  The bottom line is that I do great work (shameless, I know) and Paolo does great work!  It’s a simple equation really.

Prospective clients:  Seriously consider adding Paolo to your package as a second shooter!

Connecticut Beach Wedding: July 10th, 2010

Venue: Savin Rock Conference Center, West Haven Connecticut

MUA: Bellissima by Angela

Cake: Del Prete Italian Pastry – They have the best cannoli cake ever made… Seriously!  They use cannoli pastry sheets and cannoli filling to make a cake, it’s unlike any gustatory experience you have had!

Underexposed Gray Snow

A Better Exposure

You may have noticed that many of your photos of snow come out looking gray.  Well this is because your expensive little digicam or your uber expensive DSLR doesn’t know any better.  The brilliant technology in your camera is designed to take a peek at what you are pointing at and take a picture so that everything looks 18% gray.  Go outside with your camera next time it snows and test the theory, white fluffy snow, dull gray photo.  It works great for most other scenes where there is a blend of light and dark that averages out to be 18% gray.  The subjects that cause trouble are bright white and pure black.  Both of these extremes fool your camera into spitting out a nasty muddy looking photo.

How can you fix this?  Well the answer is complicated because for every camera and every camera type there will be a different solution.  Follow the read more link below to find the solution for you and your camera.

For starters we will discuss what needs to happen for your photo to come out looking white instead of gray.  By default your camera will ‘meter’ what it is looking at for 18% gray (yes this may vary in point and shoots but the theory is the same.)  What you need to do is tell your camera that what it is looking at is actually much brighter than 18% gray.  There are several ways to do this and they all depend on how advanced or how simple your camera is.  Let’s start with DSLR because as complex as they may seem they are actually easier to explain, from there I will try to tackle some of the more popular brands of point and shoots.

Manually telling your DSLR that what it is looking at is actually brighter than 18% gray is easy.  Your DSLR has a built in light meter which you are in charge of.  When you point the camera at a subject the camera attempts to expose it for a neutral exposure value (0 Exposure Value, 18% gray.)  What you need to do is use your brain and feed that info to your camera.  The easiest way to do this is to adjust the exposure compensation for your camera.  This adjustment is to tell the camera that the scene is actually brighter or darker than the neutral 18% gray.  In the case of pure white snow, which is much brighter than gray, you need to adjust the exposure up to positive EV (Exposure Value) compensation.  This tells your camera “OK I know you think this is gray but it’s actually white, which is brighter than gray.”  Usually you will need to adjust this between 2/3 of a stop and two full stops.  Here is a link to a Canon explanation of how to accomplish this.

Another DSLR method is to use what is called a spot metering mode.  More than likely you are using your DSLR in a mode called (Canon) evaluative metering or Matrix metering (Nikon?) where the camera takes in the whole frame and essentially tries to figure out what the scene is and meter properly for it.  As we know now this does not always result in a proper exposure.  A simple way to correct this is to place the camera into spot metering mode where the camera only evaluated a small circle of information at the center of the frame.  This allows you to tell the camera what part of the image should be neutral.  On a snowy white overcast day pointing the spot meter at your hand and locking exposure or pointing it just below your subjects eye will usually get a proper exposure of your subject with nice white snow in the background.

Now on to point and shoots…  The long and the short of it is is that there are far to many compact cameras to give a single answer to this problem.  Some of the more advanced point and shoots can be instructed just like a DSLR as above.  Some of the ‘dumber’ cameras actually have a ‘snow mode’ which figures all of this out for you.  I suggest looking in your instruction manual for instructions on adjusting exposure or on setting a snow mode.  What I will do to help is point you towards the various manufacturers support sites.  Now that you know what needs to happen it shouldn’t be too hard to find the right setting for your particular camera.  If all else fails you should at least be able to correct your photos to a degree with software…  But that’s a different article.

Canon Support

Nikon support

Olympus Support

Sony Support

Samsung Support

Fujifilm Support

In closing I leave you with a question:

How difficult would you expect shooting a zebra to be as far as exposure?  Remember that the zebra is basically half pure white and half pure black…

Half Black Half White

A jelly fish

We have had a stretch of really nasty weather here in Connecticut and most of New England.  As a wedding photographer this is not exactly peak season!  I try to fill my time with portraits and boudoir sessions but sometimes I just need to get out and stretch my lens so to speak.  Unfortunately out isn’t too exciting in weather like we have had.  Thankfully my wife and daughter are good sports.  My daughter in fact is more than a good sport, she really seems to love being in front of the lens.  This post is purely the last few days of personal work, enjoy!

Baby teething

Another Glass of Wine

Tall Ship

Michaela Blue Eyes

Tango

Mother and Baby having a good time and laughing