Friday, July 29, 2011

Angel/Gentry Wedding

This was such a great wedding! We started early in the morning, which happened to be the best thing for the day... it was a hot one! The wedding took place in Carthage, TN in a small, sweet church. There were Mason jars, a historic home, and one amazingly huge barn! Lets get to the pictures!

So we started the day off at about 8am. But I must
say I have never looked as good as she did at 8am.

If you dont know by now... I have a thing for shoes.
These were so classy!



And here we go!! Justin wanted these pictures to go as fast as possible.
We were able to shoot the groom pics in about 15 minutes. We were flying!

Tyler snapped this one. And wow, way to go you guys!
Justin looking all smooth and Tyler with his quick trigger finger.


Let me start this by saying these guys were hilarious! I usually try to break the ice with a joke... but none of my jokes were needed, they had plenty to go around all day. Tons of fun!



Classic tackle! It fit them perfect because he is a high school football coach.

Get ready to be blown away by gorgeous blue eyes and perfect red hair!


Did I mention I loved her shoes?



These are some of my favorites of Rachel. Simply STUNNING.

While we were waiting for Tyler to get Justin for the first look
we spotted this awesome back porch. Another fav from the day.

Girl time!

I really did feel like we were long lost friends after about 15 mins of knowing them.


Love me some candids! Props to the hubs.


Justin and Rachel wanted to do the first look! I obviously had no complaints!
This is possibly my favorite part of the day. Pure joy and emotion! LOVE IT!

See what I mean!?

Let the hott-ness begin!


Justin you have one beautiful bride! Lucky man.




This was a pose I have had in my head for a while, but I had to find the right couple. They were it.
It turned out to be such a fun and playful picture.

The results of saying yes to sitting on the ground... a great quilt and sweet moments.
We discussed this weeks before the wedding day so they were prepared
and just as excited as me to use the quilt.

Yet another sweet gem I found on Tyler's camera.

I have never shot a wedding with these colors, but I have to say I simply
loved it. It was perfect for a summer wedding.

You two fit together like a glove.


Taking time to thank God for the day and for the wedding to go smooth.

Yippy!

Mr. and Mrs. Justin Angel!!

I love these kind of moments right after they walk out of the church.

We shot all the family pictures after the ceremony.
They went quick... maybe 20 mins.

Happily Ever After....


Well, there you go! One gorgeous day, one gorgeous couple, and one lifetime ahead of them. I so loved being apart of your day, Justin and Rachel! Best wishes and God Bless.

Love,
CPP

Monday, July 25, 2011

How to… Understand the basics of your camera

My sweet friend Lacy asked me to guest post on her blog about these questions a while ago but I thought it could be beneficial for everyone. So enjoy this "How To" post.

Please explain what ISO, F/stop, Shutter Speed, and White Balance?

  1. ISO (Sensitivity) – Adjusts Sensitivity of the camera, “film” to the light of the subject
  2. F/stop – measure of aperture
  3. Aperture – diameter of the opening of the shutter. This determines how much light enters the lens.
  4. Shutter Speed (ss) – How fast or slow the shutter opens. The faster the shutter speed the smaller the amount of time for light to enter the lens.
  5. White Balance – Controls the temperature/color of the exposure
  6. Exposure – combination of ISO, Aperature, and Shutter speed. Exposure is the outcome of these three.

From this point on, I must say all of the advice I give is going to be for manual settings. I am a firm believer that you will get the best pictures when you know how to change your settings in manual mode. Rarely do I ever use Auto. (Maybe 1-5% of the time.)

How do I shoot indoor with low lighting and without a flash?

  1. First you want to check to see if you can open any windows or doors to pull in any extra natural light. Natural light is the best!!!!!
  2. Then you want to check you ISO. For darker conditions you want your ISO to be higher. 800 is the lowest I will go while indoors with low light.
  3. From there you will want to adjust your shutter speed. In low light conditions, you want to do lower in number. But be aware!!! If you get too low you are more likely to get blurry pictures. For my settings on a Nikon D300s I usually can’ go below 20 or 25 ss. But you want to practice by taking a lot of pictures, so you can find the limitations of your camera.
  4. From there you want to adjust your F/stop. This one is more of a fine-tuning your light. I usually keep my F/stop between 5 and 7.1.
  5. Then play around with your white balance. Every indoor location has different lighting. So play around and see which one gives you the best color.
  6. Final thought on indoor low light: It is oksy to use a flash. Sometimes it is just needed.

Examples:

Indoor low-lighting with post-editing.

Indoor low-lighitng with post-editing.

What is the best way to shoot in direct sunlight?

  1. Well my first thought is –don’t!!! Unless it is during a sunset or sunrise, it is really difficult and harsh light. Overcast days are my favorite days to shoot on. It provides great natural lighting. But if those are the conditions you are shooting in, I would suggest shooting into the sun with a reflector or your flash. This helps reduce the dark shadows on the subjects face and the squinting.
  2. This is the absolute best advice I can give for shooting on a sunny day out side: FIND SHADE AND SHOOT IN IT. You can have the background highlighted with the sun and the subjects will just pop more. Again a reflector or using the flash is of benefit here.
  3. Oh! And don’t forget to change your settings. ISO should go lower in number, ss will go up, and your f/stop to fine-tune.

Direct sun causes dark shadows. With post-editing.

Overcast = nearly perfect lighting. With post-editing.

Shade with sun high-lighting the back- ground and with flash. With little post editing.

How do you reduce blur?

  1. Make sure your Shutter Speed is not too low. You need to have a fast ss to capture quick moving objects.
  2. A steady hand or tripod is helpful.
  3. Use a flash.

How do you take good close-ups?

  1. It’s all about your lens. Lenses are expensive but a great investment. Macro lenses are great for close up shots. We have a 60 mm fixed lens. Meaning there is no zoom feature on this lens. But the depth of field is amazing.
  2. But for those that don’t have money to spare on a new lens you can this one time use automatic settings. Switch your setting to the flower [macro]. This is the automatic setting for close up objects.

I don’t have a dSLR, so how can I maximize my picture quality with a point and shoot?

  1. Find out if your camera has manual settings. Use the same principle above. As far as close up pictures there is a flower icon to signify close up shots. For fast moving object use the icon that looks like a runner. For low light use the moon icon.

This was taken with my little point and shoot. With settings on the flower icon. and the camera is in manual settings to control the flash, ISO, and White Balance. Unedited.

Finally, my 2 cents….

Learn to love editing your pictures. I for a long time used iphoto to do all my editing, which is the basic editing for any photo lover. I now use Aperture, which is professional editing software for Mac’s. There are many free services on-line to use to learn basics of editing. One that I like is Picnik.com. Editing changes good photos to great photos.

Edited. Warm color and clearer picture

Un-edited. Not as viberant color. Less appealing to the eye.

Thanks so much for reading and have a blessed day. I hope all of these tips help you understand you camera better. Have fun with it. If you have anymore questions please go to facebook.com and look up Center Point Photography page. You can ask me any more questions there.

Much love,

CPP

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