Blog » Noemi Photography - Wedding & Portrait Photography

This photographer was a charmer but, he’s also a gifted photographer! Please check out his website and his album designs…I think they are so beautiful!

Once again, here’s my notes for his session:

I got a couple of great quotes from his session so I’ll start with them…

“Your camera is only a tool, you make the difference”

“Compete with quality not with packages”

“Poses are necessary. Help yourself by helping the bride know how to move!”

“Photography is 99% personality and 1% moving your finger. Your subject will mirror your enthusiasm and your passion. AND Make sure your assistants have the same personality!” 

Ask yourself this question: “When you look at a photo of yourself what are you looking for?” ANSWERS: beauty, glamor, natural, flattering etc. Your clients want the same! They want to look beautiful!

Capture Natural Moments - get the obvious moments and take multiple shots so you can make a series later.

What is Natural? Set the stage for them to create magic of their own. EX. Pose the dad - have him wait, then talk to the bride about her changing relationship…then let them see each other for the first time…wait for their reaction.

Flattering poses - push hips back, don’t rest the arm on the body have it angled with air between, and lean forward to create smaller body.

GREAT TIPS:

1. Light - hold your hand up and turn in a circle…see where the light hits your hand.

2. Location/Background - give them an excuse to be there.

3. Concept/Action - have them do something.

4. Action/Reaction/Expression - wait for it and capture it all.

5. Technique/Exposure - Show them the difference between you and every other photographer at the wedding.

Walk into every situation and ask yourself these questions: “What’s the lowest ISO I can get away with?,  What’s the white balance in this room?, What aperture should I shoot at - consider movement?”

Be the MacGyver of Photography! (For those of you too young to remember this was a great TV show on in the 80’s of a guy who could get out of every situation with whatever he had! Follow this link for pictures!) Take whatever you have and create! Walk into every room of the house and scout out pictures and patterns before you start shooting.

www.noemiphotography.com

I am so excited about this!!! Seriously, it’s a dream come true for me. Anyone who reads my blog regularly knows I love answering photography questions and helping people pursue their passion! So now, I’m going to get to do that in person for 2 days! YEAH!

I met with 3 other Photography studios a couple of nights ago and we nailed down the BIG PICTURE of the workshop we’ll be doing this summer!

HERE’s the main info but of course, there will be tons more coming. Think of this as a “Save the Date” for those of you interested in coming!

It’s going to be held JUNE 19-20th, 2008 (Thursday and Friday) AND I CAN’T WAIT! We’re capping attendance at 30 people and it’s first come first serve. We’re working on getting up a website where you’ll be able to pay the registration fee $750 through paypal. Start saving…you don’t want to miss this!

CHECK OUT THE INCREDIBLE TALENT OF THE PHOTOGRAPHERS YOU’LL BE LEARNING FROM!

Erin Johnson http://www.erinjohnsonphoto.com/

Jason and Stacey Thon http://www.stajastudios.com/

Kristi Kienholz and Tasha Herrgott http://www.dolcestudios.com/

I can’t wait to meet some of the people who read this blog! I promise these two days will inspire and challenge you but, don’t think it’s over your head cause their will be 6 professional photographers there to answer all your questions!

If you have questions please email me and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can! I hope you are as excited about this as I am…I know lives will be changed!

www.noemiphotography.com

Every photographer is going to relate to a different Mentors! I found this out in Vegas…Mike Colon has always been one of my favorites but, my room-mates gravitated to others. There’s no right or wrong with picking another photographer to learn from Mike has similar values to mine and is really easy to listen to. I get the way he shoots and I love his style! (As Simon would say on American Idol, “It’s just an opinion!”)

Here’s his website: http://www.mikecolon.net for all his workshop stuff. And http://www.mikecolon.com/ for his work.

We are historians - photojournalists (capturing stories as they happen)

Real, Timeless, Clean, Simple, Flattering - this is the code he lives by when shooting

His goal is to capture the natural and comfortable moments - real life happening! I love that he said, ” You need to be inspired during the wedding!” There’s nothing like the feeling of taking the shot, looking down and knowing that you nailed it in camera…and it’s magically when you can share that with the bride and groom!

1. REAL: You should know your clients! What is their personality? Pictures should be different from shoot to shoot because every client is different.

2. TIMELESS: Be ahead of your time by keeping some traditional so it’s still cool in 20 years! ex. too many Photoshop actions can date your images.

3. CLEAN: Crop in and keep it simple, revolve around the subject. Shoot with a wide open aperture to blur the background (that just means go as low as your lens will let you - 4.0 or 2.8 or lower) Keep the eye sharp and everything else falls into place.

4. SIMPLE: How do you decide when to switch an image to Black and White? When there’s too many distractions of colors. Note: Bright green will always pull your eye away from the subject. Colors need to compliment the image! Earth tones are simple and compliment skin tones.

5. FLATTERING: You need to make people look better.

Available Light  - preserves natural look, less shine, gives you freedom to move and create, unobtrusive, and don’t forget that everything needs to be done quickly because time is precious…especially at a wedding!

BAD LIGHT is BAD LIGHT! Sometimes you need to use a flash! Be ready and know how to use it! TIP: Use the videographers light during the reception.

When shooting with assistants he asks them to shoot with the opposite lens. If he has a fixed lens then they are shooting with the telephoto and vice versa. This will guarantee variety in your images. AND he only shoots with one camera because he never has to change the settings…only the lens!

www.noemiphotography.com

Here’s Joe Bussink’s website!

Photojournalism

1. When people are unaware of the camera they are more natural. You, as the photographer, need to back up and let moments happen!

2. Telephoto lenses are essential!

3. We’re taught at an early age when a camera is raised and pointed in our direction to stop what we’re doing and smile!

4. Different photographers will “feel/resonate” with different moments. Capture the moments that move you…even if you don’t know why! Ask these questions: What part of me is in that image? What do I feel about that moment?

5. Know your client. Ask questions before the event and find out what they are passionate about. Always try and exceed their expectations!

“There is no perfect image but there are many perfect moments!” Joe Bussink

www.noemiphotography.com

Because we’re all learning together I want you to check out the photographer’s website, look at their images (like them or not - I think it’s important to decide what you like and what you don’t in order to find your own style!), and then read the notes I took from the workshop.

*Remember my notes are taken from my perspective and not word for word what the speaker said…I just wanted to put that disclaimer in there!

Here’s the link to Doug’s site!

His main message was a challenge to be different!

But here’s extra points:

1. Walk into every situation and identify your main light source. Where is the light coming from, bouncing off of and landing?

2. Always shoot from the dark to the light and set your camera to aperture 2.8 for a softer look. Then try putting your subject in the dark and challenge yourself with different lighting.

Posing (*This may be hard to visualize but I thought It would be worth a try!)

In most cases your clients are not expecting to look “just as they are” they want to look better…like the models in magazines they see every day! Here’s some tricks:

1. The Tuck - when positioning a couple, tuck her back shoulder under his back arm.

2. The Roll - Good posture goes a long way! Teach your subject to roll the front shoulders back.

3. The Lean - Have both the bride and groom lean forward (hips back) giving a slender perspective.

He said a ton more but these were the only notes I took from that session!

www.noemiphotography.com