Should I Book a Professional Wedding Photographer
or Get a Friend to Do It for Free? A Cautionary Tale…

Tales like this aren’t very common, but I have heard stories like this before. There really is a difference in hiring someone experienced with weddings, especially when it comes to handling unexpected things.

It’s amazing how little things like understanding light, knowing how to photograph in dark situations, proper composition and technique can make a bug difference when it comes to photographing a wedding. Quite often, we see up to 30 different lighting conditions throughout the wedding day, with about 30 seconds to adjust to new situations. Knowing how to adjust to circumstances is just one of the things an experienced professional is able to do. It means a lot to us when couples their wedding day to our artistic eyes. Hopefully our artistic imagery stands out!

Take a look at the article and let us know what you think!

Rebekah contacted us looking to have some couples photographs done with her husband. She told me they didn’t know what to expect, but wanted something romantic. They were a little nervous when we met, but got into the ession almost as soon as we started.

It’s not secret that romance photography is my favorite. Rebekah and Mark were the perfect couple to work with, They are so into each other, and their love for one another just comes out in every look they give each other. They were playful, romantic, and fun! Rebekah is absolutely stunning, and they both made my job easy.

Norris Dam State Park is absolutely beautiful for photography. The peaceful locations, historic architecture, and peaceful atmosphere help make it a great place for romantic imagery. It made for a perfect background for these two. It had rained just a short while before, and the fog across the river came up to add to the session. We couldn’t have asked for a better day, and I couldn’t have asked for a nicer couple!

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Just in time for Jack’s 5th birthday, we went out to World’s Fair Park and photograph his portrait session! It was a real joy to photograph him – he smiled great and “worked it” for the camera. He even had a few favorite poses! My favorites were on the rocks by the waterfall.

We also went over to the UT campus for a few photographs as well. For such a warm summer day, we captured some wonderful imagery! Happy birthday Jack!

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We had a good time photographing Reid for his senior portrait session. He is very much into music, so we included in trombones, which made for some very nice imagery.

We also went down by the river and took some relaxed images to go along with the tux and polo images. I think my favorites are when he put on the vest and fedora. They had a strong jazz feel to them, and Reid’s personality just came popping out.

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Brandt Photography is this on Groupon! We’re offering our 90-minute on-location portrait session ($150 value) along with $150 in print credit for $55! Portrait sessions include:

• Individuals
• Couples
• Families
• Maternity
• Newborns
• Intimate Sessions
• Marriage Proposals
• Engagement Sessions
• Day-After Sessions
• Trash-the-Dress Sessions

We come to you. Sessions can be at a location of your choosing (within 50 miles of Knoxville, TN), indoors or outdoors (home, park, other location), with up to 10 people or pets (or combination thereof). All proofs go through our enhanced editing process for the best quality images and are displayed in our proofing and ordering gallery for two weeks one month. You can also come into our office for projection viewing. Proofs are ready within 3-5 business days after the session.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Groupon yesterday! If you didn’t get a chance to purchase the Groupon on Sunday, it is still running through all of Monday, so if you would like to take advantage of our award winning photography at a great price, stop on by Groupon before the deal expires at midnight!

We’re starting to show off some editing Before & After shots. I thought I’d take a moment and go through what we actually do to photographs to make them look so good.

Every image we deliver goes through our digital enhancement service. Below is a walk through of an image that shows some of the things we do to make sure every image looks its best!

Click on the images below to see larger versions.

Original Image

Here is the original image as it was captured during the photo session. It’s a nice image, but there are a few things that (personally), I like to change.

The only things added to this original image is the logo branding and copyright notice.

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The first adjustment is a minor one. When the shot was taken, it was based more on the alignment of the tree and Brad’s position.

Once I had it displayed on my computer, I wanted to adjust the horizon. Sometimes, I may adjust the angle for artistic effect, but with this image, it was just the horizon being aligned.

Remove Distractions

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The next adjustment was to remove distractions. The branch near Brad’s head can take your eye away from the main subject (Brad), so I edited out the branch.

The other minor distractions are the warning signs posted in the background. This image has a more natural feel to it if we get rid of the signs in the background.

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When we photograph events, I’m usually editing out exit signs, fire alarm boxes, trash cans, and so on. The important thing is to make sure the image looks natural, just taking away things that will move your eye away from the central subject.

Adjust Color

The next adjustment was the color. I like the original color, but wanted this image to be a little warmer.

It is just a minor change, but when looking at color, I want to make sure we have the right tones (such as skin color, foliage, and so on).  I might even adjust one portion of the image to balance out the colors better.

Face & Skin

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The next step is to remove blemishes and facial touch-ups.

I like to keep a natural look to faces (not making them look plastic) while removing blemishes, softening wrinkles, possibly brightening eyes or whiten teeth, and possibly remove shine (perspiration is common on very hot days).

The face is the one of the most important focal points in an image.

Dodge & Burn

Our lighting made Brad stand out from the background. There were still some shadows across his face, so I did a little dodge & burn to soften them.

We’ll use dodge and burn techniques to help bring out features in an image. Maybe help with having someone/something stand out better, or darken something that might be a distraction.

Adjust Contrast

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The final step was adjusting the contrast. This makes Brad stand out a little more.

This is the image we include in the delivered proofs. Any prints, albums, and other items we produce are based off of this image. When digital files are purchased, this retouched image is what we deliver.

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Artistic Variation

After we’ve gone through all of the images, we will add a few artistic variations. These may include color enhancements, vignettes, different cropping (maybe displaying a square image) and so on.

Artistic variations show what we can do with any image. We can apply artistic effects to any ordered image. We just add the effects to a few of them as examples.

The only other changes we really do to images is cropping and sharpening. Those steps are usually done as a final step before posting the images on our website, or when creating prints. We also add a border to images we post in our blog, just to help the image stand out.

This whole process is a timely one. With weddings, we typically are delivering around 750 images, sometimes a lot more. We might not make the same exact adjustments to every single image, but we do go through every single one and make sure they look their best. We think it is well worth it!

Here is the image again, showing before and after retouching:

If you’ve followed me on Twitter or Facebook, you have probably seen me mention Brad Blackwell before. He is a very talented local artist who won a singer/songwriter contest last year. He already has one album out (Blue Sky), as well as an EP, and is currently working on a new album to come out soon.

I feel very honored and fortunate that he chose us to photograph him for his upcoming album. We’re planning on doing a couple of different sessions at different locations. These photos here were from a couple of days ago. I love the fact that he let us put him in the river (with his guitar no less!) and play around a bit.

If you get a chance, check out his music. Several of his songs are played on The River 106.1 and he can be playing found at several local spots around town (including Mulligan’s, Willies, and the Wild Wing Cafe). He has a show coming up on June 30th at The Square Room as well! It wouldn’t surprise me to see him on the national scene very soon!

Here are a few more images from this session:

Brad Blackwell’s Website

This was such a wonderful wedding day! Lori and Eric came in recently and booked us for their intimate wedding. As far as they were concerned, they would be happy to just elope. But Lori’s 8-year-old son wanted to walk her down the aisle, so they planned a small wedding here in Knoxville.

The day was perfect – a beautiful sunny day (and with all the storms we’ve had recently, there couldn’t have been a more beautiful day!), close friends, and a couple who you could tell were mad about each other. You can’t help but smile when looking at the two of them together.

They were quite playful throughout our time with them. Everything was done within just a couple of hours. Even so, they gave me plenty of time to go around the property. We finished just after sunset, and captured some incredible color in the sky. Check out our Facebook gallery for more photos of their wedding day!

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We were recently asked about our numbering system for photographs. When you look at our galleries, images aren’t numbered sequentially. Most people expect to see images numbered something like 0001, 0002, 0003… Instead, they see a six-digit number, and sometimes letters. There is a good reason for the way we number things:

When we shoot events (and even portrait sessions), we use multiple cameras. For single-photographer events, I typically will be using at least two cameras, sometimes even a third camera, either in a fixed location (fired remotely), or when pulling out a backup camera. With two-photographer coverage, we typically use four to six cameras!

Back when we shot film, we let the lab do the numbering. Once we moved to digital, we started renumbering photographs (001, 002, 003…) and quickly found that once we added multiple cameras, this started to get confusing. Instead, what we started doing was use timestamps. Before every event, all cameras are synchronized to the second. Once we unload the images from memory cards (in date-time format), every image is in chronological order. It doesn’t matter if we use two, three, or six cameras. All of the ceremony shots are grouped together, as well as the reception, preparations, and so on.

Rather than renumber later, we just drop the date from the filename and use the timestamp (hour, minute, second). So, when you see an image numbered 145625, it was taken at 2:56pm (25 seconds). If ever we need to go back to the original Raw image, we can find it easily, since the number matches the filename from when it was unloaded onto our server.

With weddings and portraits, we keep the six-digital number as is. If we are shooting an engagement session, or bridal portrait session, we’ll add an E-, or B- to the beginning of the number. That keeps the engagement/bridal session images from being mixed in with the wedding photos later (we can keep them in the same gallery and not get confused). When shooting multi-day weddings (such as destination weddings), we add the two-digit day number to the beginning (instead of letters) so that the entire event stays sequential.

The other thing you might see is letters at the end of an image number. These are artistic variations, such as bw for Black & White, and st for Soft Tone. We include about 10-15% of the images with some sort of artistic variation as examples of what we can do with the images. Any image can be modified with whatever variation you would like (just let us know when ordering).

One of the benefits we found with the six-digit numbering system was being able to quickly verify images ordered. When we provide a virtual proof CD, sometimes computers renumber the images (001, 002, 003) when they are copied from disc to computer. A mother called us to order some prints and gave us a three-digit image number. Immediately, we could tell the number was not correct. If we had renumbered our images along the way, there might have been a chance we would have printed the wrong images!

So that is why our numbers aren’t sequential! There really is organization to our crazy numbering system.

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Whitney and Grant are such a sweet couple. They booked us for their October wedding a couple of months ago. Since then, we’ve been planning on shooting their engagement session for about a month. Every day we get things scheduled was filled with rain. Each time, we would put it off for another week, again and again. Finally! A day without rain!

They chose to have their engagement session at Blevins Farm in Big South Fork. The location had a special meaning to them as this was where Grant proposed to Whitney. I love hearing stories like that, and when we can meet up somewhere that is meaningful to the couple, I’m all for it!

We had a lot of fun, and I got to live up to my two-wheeled photographer persona (gorgeous motorcycle ride up to Big South Fork). They brought their dog along, who ended up having more interest in the horses at the farm instead of being photographed. Check out the Facebook gallery for a few more photos with their dog (seems to be an engagement session theme lately. )

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