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show me | before + after

Inku — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:22:16 +0000

So, here’s another great example that shows the difference between a “digital negative” and an image that has been processed for inclusion in an album or for a print purchase. Digital negatives are great for archival purposes and for printing miscellaneous images. However, if you really want your images to shine… well, that’s why you hired me to be your photographer. I work my magic on your images and you will love me for it.

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exactly how I planned it…

Inku — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:33:14 +0000

So, as many of you know, I was in Cancun last month to shoot Yana + Lenny’s wedding weekend. I started the weekend off shooting their rehearsal dinner the night before their wedding. As a photographer, I’m always trying to capture “that moment” and immortalizing that split-second with my camera.

Here’s a perfect example:
In this picture, I had placed my Canon 580 EX II flash with a Pocket Wizard remote trigger in the corner of the tent behind the woman in the red dress (Lenny’s mom). I stepped outside the tent about 50 yards away. I waited for the perfect moment to press my shutter release – as Lenny was spinning Yana and while Lenny’s mom took a picture (with flash) with her point and shoot camera. The image was lit entirely by the flash on Lenny’s mom’s camera.

Ok, some of you may not have recognized the sarcasm in the last paragraph. This is one of those shots where the planets were aligned and the photography gods were smiling down on me. My Pocket Wizard actually misfired and my flash didn’t go off and I happened to press the shutter release just as the flash on the point/shoot camera was going off.

This image is exactly how I planned it.

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show me | marissa + mike

Inku — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:05:57 +0000

The way I shoot normally is that we start out shooting in one location and then just “go for a walk” and talk and see what we stumble upon. Marissa and Mike’s session started out near their home, then we wandered to this underpass. As I was shooting them by one of the pillars, I noticed the area in the background with strong sunlight and dark shadows. See image below:

So, I said, “Hey guys, let’s go over there. Do you mind sitting on the ground for a little bit?” Then we got the image below:

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before and after

Inku — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:44:16 +0000

Just wanted to share with you what a little post processing in Photoshop can do for an image. I use Adobe Photoshop CS4 for all my photo processing. I tried Lightroom once, but it confused me. It took me much longer to do things that I could do in Photoshop with my eyes half-opened.

If you look below, you will see two versions of the same image. The first is the “digital negative” version. The second is the version that would appear in an album or a professional print ordered through my studio. Now, the first image will still look OK when you print it, but the second one is like so awesome compared to the first.

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show me | seeing things differently

Inku — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:15:31 +0000

So, one of my goals as a photographer is to see any given setting or situation differently. I’m going to show you two examples of two different locations. The images on the left are examples of what the location would normally look like to the naked eye. The images on the right are what you can make using your camera as a tool.

In this first picture, I simply posed Anabella and Renjit in the tunnel and wanted to show the cool pastel colors. (left image) You can see some of the shadows on the ground behind them which were used in the image on the right. The picture on the right is the same location, but I decided to use the shadows.

In this next picture, I took a picture of the groomsmen setting up the chuppah (left image) in the area where I put Michaela and Eric for the second image (right image). I used the direct sunlight coming in through the windows to create what I think is a very interesting portrait of the happy bride and groom.

I will try to do this more often in my blog as I think it is important for you to see not only the finished image, but what the location looks like and the thought process that is behind making photographs.

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