Technique Tuesday: Top 10 Hits of 2011

Good Morning Everybody,

I’m a little light on my report from Imaging USA today.  I was in meetings most of the day and attended the tradeshow late in the day.  I plan to be there all day today so I hope to have more to report tomorrow.

At the beginning of a new year many sites will report top 10 lists on about everything.  Hey, DigitalProTalk is no different ;~)  This is the week for my listings of DPT’s top 10 lists.

For today’s post I spent quite a bit of time reviewing ALL the Technique Tuesday posts from last year, checking the stats, and arranging the posts in order from most viewed tutorials. 

The topics range from off-camera lighting with small speedlights, lighting in lousy locations, my favorite wedding images, Lightroom tips and tricks, and more.  All told, these videos give you about 4 hours of great information. I sure hope you enjoy revisiting each of the links listed today.

TOP 10 Technique Tuesdays For 2011

1 . Trigger Happy Budget Flashes -

2. Impossible Location - Amazing Portraits

3. Supercharge Your Portable Speedlight's

4. You Won't Believe Your Eyes

5. 5 Steps To Better Wedding Portraits

6. Oh, The Lightroom Auto Mask Feature – I Love You, I Hate You!

7.  Light Painting With Lightroom 3

8. 5 Of My Favorite All Time Wedding Images

9. I Just Feel So Vibrant Today!

10. Super Bowls & Weddings

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  The programing starts early this morning and I need to hit the road to get to the show. I still have nearly half the show to cover and hope to share with you the more interesting happenings from the show tomorrow.

How about I plan to see you same time, same place tomorrow.  Have a great one and I’ll see you then.

Keep your pixels smiling -David

Quick Hit Monday: Imaging USA Update; I’m In Polish; 5 Questions; and Great Portrait Tips!

Good Morning Everybody,

We’ve been enjoying the last few days in the Big Easy and especially some great sunrises. It’s always a good time when your in New Orleans and the home team is in the playoffs. Alas, even though the Saints lost, it was still a blast to be cheering with the local fans who are about the most excitable and energetic group of sports fans you can hang with. 

The last time we were in New Orleans was the weekend the Saints won the Super Bowl – you talk about a town going wild!!!  Anyway, we always have a great time in this city.

Hey gang, I’ve got a convention to get to so let’s get right to today’s post.

Quick Imaging USA Update

The Imaging USA convention got off to a good start yesterday with packed speaker rooms and a lively tradeshow.  I poked my head into Jerry Ghionis’ room which was packed with about 800+ attendees listening to the wedding master. 

Oh, BTW, that the same Jerry Ghionis that’s coming to our PhotoPro Expo in two weeks.  So….. if you are reading this today and are NOT in New Orleans, then plan to hear Jerry and 15 other great speakers, including Scott Kelby, Joel Grimes, and Vincent LaForet February 3 – 5, 2012.  Click the link to the right for all the info.

Oh, then yesterday evening, we attended our friend, Drake Busath’s packed house program.  Soft spoken Drake is one of the top portrait photographers working today.  His studio does well over 2M a year. He is also one of the most humorous people we know.  You can even see a bit of that humor coming out in his photography like this family portrait below with the “run-a-way” baby – I love it!  His presentation was fabulous.

I Guess This Makes Me An International Author

The other day I received an envelope from Peachpit, my favorite book publisher.  Peachpit is the company that prints all the Kelby Media books and also printed my best selling “Captured By The Light” wedding book last year.

Anyway, I opened the envelope and found a brand new version of my book – in POLISH! It was a great surprise so, to any of our Polish readers out there, pick it up and give it a read – I think you’ll love it.  And if you already have a copy tell me what you think in the comment section below – I’d love to hear from you.

5 Questions For David Ziser

A few weeks ago, fellow blogging buddy, Rick Sammon asked me to do a guest blog post for him.  I was happy to oblige. Here is a quick excerpt from the interview:

“… I’m not surprised by remarks I hear from photographic labs across the country.  Most feel the quality of wedding photography is at a low watermark right now. But most feel that that will change in the not too distant future.  It's just that there are SOOOO many new shooters that the quality level is skewed in their direction.  As they adapt, continue to learn and grow in the profession, so will their skill set and the quality of their photography. 

I think part of the reason the quality of wedding photography has dropped so low is that the aspiring pro doesn't know where to go to get the education they need to really excel in their craft. 

Photographers today really want to learn and think the only place to get that much needed education is on the web.  Web education is good but only up to a point. There is something special about attending programs and learning from the top photographic masters in person, for example, Scott Kelby, Vincent Laforet, Joe McNally, Jay Maisel, and of course, Rick Sammon. I think that more intimate connect with the speaker in a live setting greatly enhances the learning experience.  You know, when you hear these programs in person, the message just sticks with you in a way that is not easily forgotten.”  Uhmmm… I guess that's why all of us, around 10,000 are at Imaging USA ;~)

You can catch all of my 5 answers over at Rick Sammon’s blog right here. 

5 Tips On How To Shoot Killer Portrait Photography

And speaking of education, check out this link right here.  It’s full of Jim Jordan’s  great images, and important tips on how to make your portraits looks great.

Jim Jordan is a widely sought-after fashion, celebrity, lifestyle, and kids photographer based out of Los Angeles and New York City. Some of his notable clients include Vogue, Elle, J.Crew, and Mercedes Benz. He’s also taken portraits for major celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Drew Berrymore, and Charlize Theron.

You’ll enjoy the read  at Photo Shelter right here.

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  I’ve got a convention to get to.  If you see me walking the trade show today, come on up and say HI, I’d love to visit.

Have a great rest of the day and I’ll plan to see you tomorrow for a very special Technique Tuesday.

Adios everybody,  David

"Saving Grace”

"Saving Grace"
©David A. Ziser

This is one of my favorite images from a recent outdoor senior portrait session. I love the direct gaze of the young lady right back into the camera. She looks quietly strong and confident as she makes eye contact with the viewer.

The style of the clothing, the colors, the white jacket, the soft, out of focus background all enhance the final composition which speaks to that quiet confidence.

Lighting was with my off camera flash through my Zumbrella  creating the desired direction of light and balancing with the ambient light.

Camera specs; Canon 40D fitted with 70-200mm IS lens at 110mm, F 5.0 at 1/125 second, ISO 800, JPEG. Enjoy! -David

Technique Tuesday: Light Is Light, Right? Wrong? & Wedding Photographers Unite!

Good Afternoon Everybody,

I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL holiday weekend.  Ours was quiet and energizing.  I don't know about you guys and girls, but my Batteries were in deep discharge mode before the holidays.  Over the weekend I hardly got near a computer other than the holiday wishes I posted and what I'm mentioning below.

Over the weekend I did discover a very good way to recharge my batteries.  On Christmas morning, before tearing into each others presents, LaDawn suggested we look back over the year and revisit all the high points.  We found it a bit challenging to do it with instant recall - I guess my brain pixels are slowing a bit ;~) So, I headed over to the computer and fired up Google calendar to refresh our memories and review the year.

And what a year it has been!  We were traveling for nearly 20 weeks, like close to 5 months, traveling throughout the USA, Canada, and Mexico.  No wonder it felt busy this year, and me the guy trying to slow things down a bit - whew!  We had some great times, photographed some BEAUTIFUL weddings including LaDawn’s son Joshua and new daughter-in-law Kristen. But more importantly, we met some great photographers along the way and especially the photographers we got to know even better from our Sedona and Napa three-day Experience to our week-long Master Classes.

We smiled and giggled for more than an hour just enjoying the fond memories of these past 12 months.  I think it's a good idea for everybody.  Too many times we dwell on the difficulties in our lives and often forget about or dismiss the true high points of the year.  Hey, we've got New Year's Day coming up in just a few - maybe you could take a peek back at 2011 this weekend…. just a thought.

Anyway, It's good to be back today.  The schedule around here this week is not too crazy, my daughter is coming in to visit, and we have one more holiday party to prepare for tomorrow evening.  It will be a nice few days.

That said, why don't we get on with today's post.  First, I want to give you an update on the "I Do" free wedding web event kicking off tomorrow and then we'll get on with today's technique Tuesday.  Here we go...

Wedding Photographers Unite!

The first of three FREE "I Do" wedding webcasts kicks off tomorrow at 10:00a.m. Each one features a different group of speakers.

The line-up for tomorrow looks great and includes some of my favorite young gun wedding photographers. 

The line-up for this Wednesday, December 28th:

11 am CST - Creating Remarkable Experiences / Becker

12 pm CST - No Cost Marketing / Zach & Jody Gray

1 pm CST - Creating a Successful Wedding Business / Laura Novak

2 pm CST - Picture the Perfect Wedding Album / Joy & Jules Bianchi (Brown)

Remember, you can pick up a DVD of ALL 16 speakers, me included, for only $79, and get $250 worth of super cool goodies to boot.  Whcc, ProSelect, Animoto, Shootsac, PWD Labs, & Successware have put together some exclusive goodies [link]. ONLY for those who buy the "I Do" recordings.

Buy before 11 am CST tomorrow, Wednesday, Dec. 28 to get $250 in goodies, and start making the changes for a blissful wedding business in 2012.

Once again, here is the link for all the info. Or just

REGISTER RIGHT HERE!

Technique Tuesday: Light Is Light, Right?  Wrong?

Today I want to walk you through a short discussion about the characteristics of light.  It's not about one piece of lighting gear filling the bill for all you shooting needs. Hey, you don't just use one lens on a job, do you?  Of course not.  It's the same for your lighting gear too.  You'll have to make choices about what lighting gear to use and when is the most appropriate times to use that lighting gear. 

Let's first talk about the size of the lights themselves. Yes, Virginia, size matters when talking about light.  You’ll get a different feeling from the portrait depending on the size of the light source used to illuminate the image.

Why not hit the PLAY button below and see how the size of your light source affects not just how the subject is illuminated but also how the size of the light impacts your portraits.

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Hey gang, that's it for me today.  I'm the Master Chef for a party of about 20 guests tomorrow and my Henkel's, Cuisinart, and Kitchen Aid are waiting ;~) Have a great rest of the day and I'll see you tomorrow for another great post, "The Most Important Tool In Your Gear Bag". 

See ya' then,  David

"Island Beauty”

"Island Beauty”
©David A. Ziser

This is an image I captured on the beach while in Cabo, Mexico.  Our beautiful model, Greta, a friend of our friends Kent and Sarah Smith, and who we were just with last week, did a great job as our beach beauty subject. 

I choose to use my off-camera flash coming in from camera-right in order to create more contrast on my subject which I thought accentuated the contrasting tones of the surf behind her. That lighting direction also gave me the beautiful and flattering loop lighting pattern on my subject’s face.

Notice too how I have the slight S-Curve of the surf working through the image too. I tweaked "Vibrancy" ever so slightly in Lightroom  which kicked the blue water tones up just a notch, added a slight "squarish" vignette, and enhanced the image in Photoshop ever so slightly. 

I love the finished portrait - it's simple, elegant, natural, fun, and a lovely image of my beautiful subject.

Camera specs; Canon 7D fitted with Canon 200mm F2.0 lens (what a lens), F8.0 @1/320 second (cheating the sync), ISO 200.

Enjoy!  -David

Technique Tuesday: Fun At The Beach

Good Morning Everybody,

It’s another busy day around here today. I’ve got to put together two still multi image videos for a client for delivery tomorrow. It’s our last big project around here we need to complete before the holidays.

My favorite software choice for the job is Apple’s iMovie. I’ve tried many others but, even as a mostly PC guy, I still think iMovie offers the best finished result and it makes about the most compelling video presentation you can get. Anyway, on with today’s post.

My NEW Kelby Training Video Just Went “LIVE”

Hey gang, GREAT NEWS! And I’m stoked. I just received an email late yesterday that the first of my two brand new videos for Kelby Training has just gone “LIVE”.  The title, “Photographing Couples”, walks you through my process for photographing engagement couples.  I discuss clothing selection, lighting, composition, posing, and so much more.

Working with our two models made the shoot a breeze.  Also the fact that they were married to each other didn’t hurt either as we photographed them very romantically together too. I think you’ll really enjoy the video.  You can check it out right here.

Technique Tuesday: Fun At The Beach

I had lots of images and lots of techniques I pulled together for my beach shoot a while back in Cabo San Lucas a while back.

Today’s episode was interesting in how that shoot came together.  We had just started getting some ideas for shooting.  The sun was on it’s way down but there was not a cloud in the sky anywhere.

As I surveyed the surrounds, the rocks above looked promising for my shooting location. The sun was quite bright behind the rocks and gave me a “hotspot” in which I would place my subject.  That was the start of things.

The cool thing about this tutorial is that you literary get to see how the shot comes together – step by step.  First I find the location, then I have to wrestle with the light, then I need to get a flattering pose from my subject – all one step at a time.

The next part of the image making process involved utilizing the digital tools at my disposal – Lightroom and Photoshop.  Just when I thought I was finished with the image I got another idea on how I might enhance it even more.  Again, step by step, I walk you through the process until I obtain the finished image, a result that I’m proud and pleased to share.

To see all the steps come together, hit the PLAY button below and enjoy the show in this week’s episode entitled, “Fun At The Beach.”

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  Lot’s on my plate today and Christmas right around the corner – I’ve got to run.  I’ll see everybody tomorrow for another great post here at DigitalProTalk.com.

See ya’ then, David

Friday Wrap Up; The Costco Adventure Continues; & Creative Color Test Prints

Good Morning Everybody,

Today is our last day in this very beautiful part of the world, albeit a bit chilly today.  We head back to home sweet home tomorrow about mid-morning arriving after a short layover in Dallas, finally to touch down at the Greater Cincinnati Northern KY airport about 6:00 p.m. tomorrow evening.

It's been a great trip – we’ve enjoyed the colors, sounds, tastes, unusual customs (like the Day of The Dead), blue skies, ocean breezes, and fabulous sunrises and sunsets, shared with great friends.  But it will still be nice to get back home and prepare for the holidays - my favorite time of the year. Hope you're looking forward to it too ;~)

Costco Update: The Printing Adventures Continue

OK gang, here is the latest from our Costco photo adventures.  Sarah and I finessed the portraits we captured last Saturday and had them looking great - now could we get Costco to do the same?

Then it hit me, I had the solution.  Costco needed to see exactly what we wanted but I had no test print available to show them. I opted for the second best thing. I loaded the test print and several of our portraits onto the iPad.  They looked WONDERFUL!  Now I had exactly what I needed to show the Costco photo department - a target print and a sampling of the portraits.  Off to Costco we headed.

Once we arrived we were lucky to connect with Rafael, one of the nicest guys in Mexico and luckily he spoke pretty good English too.  That’s Kent and I with the iPad and the old prints from the other day.

We showed him the prints from our previous visit then pulled up the same images on the iPad along with the test print.  He saw what were talking about immediately.

I asked him to run our 8x10 test target without corrections to see what we would get.  Ten minutes later we hit the jackpot - the test print looked perfect!  I turned the rest of the images over to Rafael - 15 8x10's; 12 5x7's; and 105 4x6's.  As the prints were coming off the Noritsu printer, Rafael placed them on the counter for our approval - they all looked great!

About 20 minutes later we had the completed order in hand and were headed to the check-out. 224 pesos later, or about $17 US, we were on our way. OK, I bet you're really curious about what we paid for the images, right? Prepare to be amazed!

I've shown the cost conversion below:

• 8x10's - $9.00 MX or $ .67 US
• 5x7's -   $1.50 MX or $ .11 US
• 4x6's -   $ .90  MX or $ .07 US

I know, I didn't believe it either - pretty darn inexpensive and still printed on Fuji's Crystal Archive paper - I don't know how they do it.

Today we'll spend a little time getting all the 8x10's and 5x7's framed and deliver the entire "order" to the families in time for the holidays.

DAZNOTE: Getting the test prints on the iPad worked like a charm. You don't have test prints to carry around with you all the time, just upload them to your iPad ;~)

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Hey gang, that wraps up our Cabo adventures.  We're going to savor one more day in this wonderful land of paradise.  Hopefully LaDawn and I and all my pixels will make it back home safe and sound so I’ll see everyone again back in a slightly cooler Cincy bright and early Monday morning.  Have a great weekend and I'll see you then!

Adios, David

Technique Tuesday: Print Competition; The Winners Please, Re-Broadcast, and More!

Good Morning Everybody,

I’ve got one heck of a post for you today and it’s jammed packed with some great images!.  Fasten your seat belts – HERE WE GO…

Last Thursday we conducted our first amazingly successful PhotoPro Network HOT SHOTS FALL 2011 Image Competition and review.

We had a much larger turnout than expected all at the last minute, of course. So lots of folks were able to submit images before we could close off the registration.  I think that’s a good thing though.  The viewing audience got a chance to see a much larger body of work judged and evaluated.

Print Competition The Rest Of The Story

First of all, my sincere THANKS to the more than 10 volunteers who put in collectively over 50 hours of their time to pull off the technically complex and most exciting image competition ever!

We had people monitoring the event in Florida, Kentucky, and Cabo, Mexico.  There were also a total of 10 devices - 4 computers for viewing, judging, and monitoring, 3 iPods for scoring, and  3 iPads for monitoring remotely – all were used to pull off the most technically complex print competition ever and to make it the  success it was.

We had 45 photographers enter from 22 states around the country with one entry from Canada which made our competition an international event!  Here are the top 10 images in order submitted for the event.  Enjoy!

Here are a few of the comments from our “LIVE” studio audience:

“Its was great. I started competing this year and it was so much fun…"  John V.

“I am learning SOOOO much.  Thank you!”  Cindy S.

“I enjoyed the presentations and the judges comments on the images.  Thanks for all the hard work for this wonderful learning opportunity.”  Chuck C.

“This is great!  I think I'm going to look into the master photographer classes on PPA.” Mary D.

“This is the first time I've experienced anything like this. GOOD to hear/learn what the judges look for.” John D.

“…Thank you…  Seeing the images and listening to the judges comments was invaluable and educational.” Jammie . G

“Judy and I really enjoyed the Webinar. We learned a great deal from reviewing the photos and then hearing the experts comments. We appreciated your hard work in support of photographers all over the globe.”  Judy and Chuck H.

A Test Drive For A Bigger Event

This was the “test drive” for the much larger event scheduled for next year’s PhotoPro Expo 2012 Print Competition [link] with $5,000 in prizes and awards!

We have several viewers tuned in via our live webcast watching the entire competition “LIVE” as it happened.  I was moderating the event and answering as many of the submitted questions as fast as I could.

What Makes A Great Image?

The Professional Photographers Of America have been conducting Print Competitions for many years. Judges go through rigorous training to learn how to distinguish a great image from one that is close to great.  I was a print judge for many years and it is an exciting and extremely educational experience.

The judges are looking for 12 main aspects of an image and basing their score on that criteria.  The Twelve elements listed below are in accordance to their importance:

Impact, Technical excellence, Creativity, Style, Composition, Presentation, Color Balance, Center of Interest, Lighting, Subject Matter, Technique, and Story Telling.

You can read the long version right here.  It goes into much great depth about each aspect of what the judges are looking for.

And The Winners Are…

We selected three winners from last Thursday’s competition. They are listed as follows:

Highest Collective Score for 6 Images: This award is the most difficult of all the awards a maker can receive.  It demands extremely high quality and consistency across all 6 of the makers entries. Our winner this year is Jessica Edwards with a scoring total of 483, nearly an 81 average for all 6 of her images entered! Congrats! Jessica!

Here are Jessica’s six fabulous entries:

“Lipstick And Leather” scoring 83

“Modern Day Goldie Locks” scoring 82.

“Dance Of The Black Widow” scoring 79.

“Gridiron Great” scoring 80.

“Heartbreaker” scoring 79

 

“Changes are Coming” scoring 80.

Jessica’s Prize: OnOne Software’s new Perfect Photo Suite 6.0 which has been receiving “RAVE” reviews everywhere.

Highest Overall Print Score: Electric Arch

This award is always a crowd favorite. It goes to the maker of the image with the overall highest scoring image of the competition. Our winner for this competition goes to Eric Shalita for his image “Electric Arch” which scored a phenomenal 88 from the judges.  This was also the judges favorite image too.

Eric’s Prize: NIK Software’s new and highly acclaimed Color EFEX 4.0

Best In Category:

These are the top scoring images in each of the six categories.  Each winner will receive a copy of my 2011 Success Collection.

Highest Scoring Artistic (Photoshop,etc.) Image: “Electric Arch”. Please see above.  It was also the top scoring image in the competition.

Highest Scoring Landscape Image:

”Docked” by Jill Davidson scoring 85.

Highest Scoring Portrait Image:

“Old Boys Club” by Jonathon Burton, scoring 84

Highest Scoring Wedding Image:

“Rooftop Romance” by Rosemary Cundiff-Brown scoring 83

Highest Scoring Sports Image:

“Riding The Wave” by Peter Tucker scoring 82.

Highest Scoring Wildlife Image:

“Water Drops On Wings” by Amber Pulse scoring 81.

Congratulations to all our winners.  Hope to see you at PhotoPro Expo 2012. We’re giving away $5,000 in prizes and awards next February!

Now For The Re-Broadcast Of The PhotoPro Network Image Competition and Review

Hit the PLAY button below and enjoy the images and judges comments one more time! Enjoy everybody!

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  I’ve been at the computer too long these last two days with these lengthy posts.  We’re hitting the sunshine early.  I’ll plan to see you sometime tomorrow for another great post from the sunny shores of Mexico.

See ya’ then, David

"Cabo Friends"

"Cabo Friends"
©David A. Ziser

This image was made during our Help-Portrait session on Saturday  in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico. At the end of the session, we arranged this large group photograph of all the children with all of us. From the looks of all the expressions you see in this photograph its hard to tell who was having the best time - the photographers or those who were being photographed. Needless to say, it was a great experience and I'm sure we’ll be offering to do it again next year.

You can see Kent on the left, his wife Sarah is next to LaDawn. Cindy and Ralph in front row. And Donna and Elsa, the church missionaries, in back row.

Lighting was pretty simple – Paul Buff Einstein flash at half power shooting through my 42 inches Zumbrella camera right. The strobe output was balanced to be about one stop brighter than the ambient light. That was just enough to create the detail, depth, definition, and added dimension to the scene that we wanted.

The final image was tweaked in Lightroom3 to bring up the shadow density just slightly. I also added a gradient at the bottom of the image to tone down the bright desert reflections in that part of the image. I added the final “Color Priority” vignette to give us the final result.

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark II fitted with 70–200 MM IS lens at 200 MM, F7.1 at 1/250 of second, ISO 400. Enjoy! – David

Quick Hit Monday: A Great Shoot This Weekend!

Good Afternoon Everybody,

I sure hope everyone had a great weekend in your part of the world.  The highlight of our weekend was working on the the Help-Portrait project.  The goal of the Help-Portrait project, which I've featured here at DigitalProTalk many times over the last several weeks, is to bring portraits to folks and families that could not afford or even thought of having a portrait made.

Our Story:

We worked with the Christian Mission Church in San Jose Del Cabo. The Mission Church helps and supports some of the poorer families in the area and, I have to tell you, from the families that showed up they sure were excited to have their portraits taken.

Wanting the portraits to be especially nice meant bringing along lights, light stands, Zumbrellas, reflectors, tripods, and iPads. iPads you say – yes, so that the families, particularly the children, could see the results instantly.

Our goal was to make these portraits as beautiful as those we would take at our own studios. That meant that we had to consider lighting, background selection, and flattering posing of our subjects. We had six people on the job – Kent and Sarah Smith from Kent Smith Photography (Pickerington, OH): Ralph and Cindy Romaguera from Romaguera Photography (New Orleans, LA: and LaDawn and myself from DigitalProTalk and David A.Ziser Photography (Edgewood, KY).

Fortunately we selected an earlier time of the day to do the portraits. Part of the reason for the morning shoot was the fact that Ralph and Cindy had to catch a plane out of Cabo later in the afternoon. The morning shoot gave us the opportunity to have as many as possible participate in the project. Over the several hours that we were together we got some great images.  Here is a quick re-cap

The Gear:

Kent had just picked up a new Paul Buff Einstein 640 w.s lighting unit and a Vagabond battery power supply. This gave us plenty of firepower for our outdoor portraits in a fairly brightly lit part of the desert. Fortunately, at that time of the day (9:00 – 11:00am) we were shooting into the front of the  church which luckily was shadowed during our session. The wind was blowing so we added a few rocks, a little weight, to the light stand ;~)

Also, we were lucky that the church had just installed the brand-new front doors which offered a beautiful, natural background for our portraits. We all were shooting Canon so we selected one of the 5D Mark II’s, attached a 70–200mm IS lens, and locked everything down on Kent’s tripod.

Kent also attached his Canon WFT-E4 IIA wireless transmitter to his camera so that we could easily shoot the images directly into the iPad.  That way all the families could see the results instantly. I have to tell you the iPad was quite the hit at our portrait session.

We all took turns shooting with the rest of us helping with posing or photographing overall views of the entire experience.

The Portrait Sessions:

Even though none of us spoke Spanish and none of the families spoke English, we were  still able to communicate fairly effectively in spite of the language barrier.

A short while into the shoot, Elsa and Donna – two of the ladies responsible for having the Mission Church built – showed up in our communications issues quickly subsided.

We ended up photographing entire families, brothers and sisters, good friends, the church pastors, and anyone else wishing a portrait. 

LaDawn did a great job in setting up and arranging the groups.

Sarah was pulling out about every trick in the book in order to get great expressions on all the children's faces. Kent, Sarah, Ralph, and I took turns behind the camera shooting the portraits. 

Post Production:

Yesterday, we imported all the images into Lightroom 3 and gave them a quick peek. I have to say, we all thought they turned out pretty good. The game plan is to do the best possible edit on the images that we have, fine-tune those images in Lightroom and Photoshop, put the best crop on each one of the images, and have them printed at the local Costco store.

So far, there is been only one hitch. I readied four images for printing yesterday so we could see what kind of results we would get from Costco. I have to say, we were slightly disappointed with the results. See below to the next image.

Costco is printing on Noritsu printers using the Fuji Crystal archive paper. The problem was that the four images I had given them for testing came out much lighter than what I had seen on my computer screen. But we returned home later in the afternoon. I double checked and verified that my computer screen was accurate and balanced with Costco's printing.

What happens many times when using the services of a Sam's Club or Costco, is that their printers are set up to do “auto color” and “auto density” corrections on the customer submitted images. As a result, our corrected images, were “corrected” again but not in a good way giving us a much less satisfying result.

We have two ways to approach fixing the problem.

1. Adjust the computer screen to match the Costco images which then throws everything else off my computer. Or,
2. Try to communicate the Costco that they need to print our images without any corrections or adjustments. I'm thinking a language barrier may end up having us go with option number one above ;~)

Delivery Of The Portraits:

While shopping at Costco, LaDawn and Sarah saw some 5 x 7 and 8x10 frames that we all thought we could use to deliver the final photographs.

We also brought down a dozen 8 x 10 frames from my studio  which we thought we could use to frame up the images. We've already told Elsa that we would make delivery by Friday so it looks like, in our final vacation days, we've got a little postproduction work to finish up. But, who cares, it's for a great cause and we were thrilled to be part of it.

Epilogue – A Moving Moment For All:

I don't know if this happened to any of the other Help-Portrait projects taking place throughout the world last Saturday but I would venture to guess that we had one of the most heartwarming conclusions to our portrait sessions of anyone in the world.

Most all the families stuck around until we were completely finished with the photography. As we were packing up our gear, the pastor and Elsa approached us to tell us that they would like all us to come into the church and form a circle with all the families and children that were still there.

After we had gathered into a fairly large circle and holding hands, the pastor stood behind each of the six of us offering blessings and thank you's from the entire congregation. He moved each one of us with his hands on our shoulders offering his blessing with the children and the families echoing his blessings upon us.

After he finished, the entire congregation sang us a song of thanksgiving for our very special gifts we've given them that day. My thinking is that they gave us the greater gift. I have to tell you, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. It was probably one of most moving moments any of us have ever experienced in our lives and it will be long remembered after December 10, 2011.

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Hey gang, that's it for me today. I had hope to get an Animoto video posted from our shoot but just ran out of time – maybe later this week.

Don't forget to check back in tomorrow. I’m leading off with a very huge announcement that I think you'll be pretty darn excited about. And secondly, I've got a pretty special Technique Tuesday planned as well.  So I hope you'll join me again tomorrow for another great day here at DigitalProTalk.

The sunshine and the sea breezes are calling, along with, Sarah, and LaDawn telling me to get off the computer and into my swimsuit ;~) I better get moving.

I'll see you then, David

"The Future of America”

"The Future of America”
© David A. Ziser

OK, part of the future anyway ;~)  This image is actually a combination of three images that I made at separate times last year. As a Christmas gift, I took LaDawn and her three kids, along with their significant others, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We all had a great time but, being the only photographer on the trip, it fell to me to do the family portrait. We got the locations scouted, the clothing coordinated, and headed to the beach. During the session I made LaDawn VERY happy with a great series of portrait images of everyone.

Eight months later we were in Florida to visit two kids. LaDawn had the idea of including them in the family portrait session that we had done with her children earlier in the year. The plan for the 2nd and 3rd shoot was to have my kids, wear the same type of casual clothing so that I could easily add them to the earlier portrait of the other five kids photographed eight months earlier.

This image is actually the subject of my Technique Tuesday for tomorrow. There was an extensive amount of Photoshop that had to be done just to extend  the background to include my two kids in the photograph.  I'll get into greater depth about that tomorrow.

Lighting was quite simple – all natural light in all three cases. I had to be sure to have a soft natural light which you see coming in from the right and it had to be from the same direction for all three images.

As a family portrait, I think this image has a wonderful sense of rhythm and good feeling about it. The positioning of each one of the subjects individually complements the entire family group when taken as a whole.

Anyway, I think we are very lucky parents to have such a great family portrait of our combined families. LaDawn spent the weekend framing up the portraits which will hang in our small media room on the second floor of our home. They’ll look great!

Camera specs - Image 1 (Joshua, Kristen, Bob, Lindsay & Zak): Canon 7D fitted with Canon 100mm macro IS lens IS lens at 3.2 @1/500 of a second, ISO 200.

Image 2 (Aaron): Canon 7D fitted with 18–200mm IS lens at 80mm, F9.0 @ 1/250 of a second, ISO 500.

Image 3 (Elizabeth): Canon 7D fitted with 18–200mm IS lens at 70mm, F8.0 @ 1/250 of a second, ISO 500.

Enjoy! – David

DigitalProTalk.com: 3,000th Post Today!

Good Morning Everybody,

And welcome to my 3000th post at DigitalProTalk.com. Yes, it's true, today DigitalProTalk.com is 3000 posts old. That's quite a milestone and I have all of you, my loyal DigitalProTalk.com readers, to thank for giving me the incentive to post 5 days a week for these last 4 1/2 years.

Since starting this blog around September of 2007 DigitalProTalk.com now averages about 350,000 page views a month with its 3.3 million readers coming from 205 countries worldwide!  The countries leading in readership are the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Spain, and Italy in that order.

Again, when I look at the analytics it just boggles my mind. I'm both humbled and grateful with the readers who have shared time with me at DigitalProTalk.com.

Let me give you more a few more statistics that DigitalProTalk.com has logged. The average daily postings totaling over 1500 words each day brings the total words that I blogged to just a little over 1.6 million. That many words would fill 2 copies of the Bible, both Old and New Testament or 3 copies of Leo Tolstoy's epic novel, War and Peace

There have been over 200 video tutorials posted on everything from lighting, photography, light room, Photoshop, and business building tips.

To give you a little hint on how to find all of them just enter Technique Tuesday in the search box in the top left corner of this blog.

Among these 3000 posts are over 200 Business Day Thursday posts. These posts are always targeted to photographers, from aspiring professional to seasoned pro, and focus on success tips that can help you continue to grow your business.

There have also been over 1000 “image of the day” posts. It is sometimes challenging to find an image five days a week. With each image I attempt to post the back story, what I was thinking as I was making that image, the technical details involved, and any pertinent lighting details as well. Nearly all the images have been posted with the pertinent excerpt data as well.

The easy way to explore the over 1000 images is to just search © David A. Ziser and just about all of them should pop since I include this copyright information with each photograph.

Other ways to search content on my blog is by exploring the topics listing in the right-hand column. You may have to scroll down just a bit to see them.

One thing I like about my blog is that there is no easy way to find any specific point of information. It is very much akin to my CD and DVD collection. Those collections to are neither organized or alphabetical which makes it a nice surprise when I find a CD or DVD selection that really intrigues me. I guess a different way of saying this is that, even for the occasional reader,  DigitalProTalk.com is full of surprises.

Another way to enjoy DigitalProTalk.com is to just browse through the post titles also included in the right column of the blog. Just pick any year, and then any month and then read through the titles. I'm sure you'll find something there that you like.

I've been thinking about changing DigitalProTalk.com header to read more simply:

DigitalProTalk – Stop on by, you'll always learn something here.

I think that says it all.  So in closing, let me say once again THANK YOU!! to all of my DigitalProTalk.com readers. Thank you to LaDawn for allowing me to continue to take the time to post/research daily. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'll keep writing if you'll keep reading;~)

I'll see you again bright and early on Monday morning, all the pixels willing. Have a great weekend everybody.

– David