Tutorials Archives

Sep

WPPI’s Second Half Print Competition (2014)

It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I received the results from the WPPI print competition for the first half of 2014. The second half print competition has been open for a while, but I’ve finally slowed down enough that I have been able to consider what images to enter this time.

print_competition_san_antonio_senior_photographers_atagirl_photographyD7I_1395-Edit

Today, I will reveal the images I’m submitting for WPPI’s Second Half Print Competition. This time, I am only entering images into one category—Portrait/High School Seniors. My continued goal is for one image to score at least an 80. By scoring an 80 on one image, I will receive one point towards my Honors of Excellence. If five points are received within four consecutive years, I will become an Associate of WPPI. As soon as five points are received, I will have an additional six consecutive years to receive 15 more points.

This is not an easy task. During the first half print competition, my highest score was a 77—still three points shy of my goal. I took the judges’ critiques from the first half competition and tried to choose images that were better suited. I also chose one image that completely breaks all the rules. Here’s hoping for an 80!

Entries for Print Competition

Until next time, be positive, happy, and healthy, and don’t forget to be photographed.

_______________________________________________________________________________

I am a San Antonio-based wedding and senior photographer who started Ata-Girl Photography Co., LLC in 2010. As one of the up-and-coming San Antonio wedding photographers, I am also available to shoot in Austin, Houston and Dallas and the surrounding areas. I am also available for destination weddings worldwide. Ata-Girl Photography Co. offers an amazing wedding photography service that you won’t soon forget. As a professional photographer, my sole purpose is to provide you the absolute best photography experience.

I am a professional photographer who enjoys documenting the important milestones and captivating moments in people’s lives. I firmly believe that the unique set of circumstances I have faced in life has prepared me to take a personal and genuine interest in my photography clients. When I’m not photographing a wedding, family or high school senior, I love hiking, cycling, reading, listening to Elvis and most importantly, I enjoy seeing my daughters happy!

The post, WPPI’s Second Half Print Competition (2014), first appeared on Ata-Girl Photography Co’s website and blog. Please feel free to comment here, or share this post with your friends via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Please email me if you have any questions about this article or want to share a neat idea for a future blog post with me.

Aug

Master Your Photography Craft

If you are charging people (“customers”) to perform photography-related services, by definition, that makes you a professional photographer. If you are a professional photographer, you owe it to yourself, your customers and the industry to master your craft.

master your photography craft san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photography4D2_1138-Edit

I see too many photographers approach their work with, what appears, as the mindset that they just want to get it done. Over the years, I’ve watched many other photographers’ work without ever seeing improvement. The world is filled with photographers who get things done the fastest and the cheapest, but it needs more artists, craftsmen (and women) and photographers who are willing to improve their skill each and every time they pick up their cameras. Everyone can become a craftsman… an artist, but not everyone is willing to make that commitment.

Master Your Photography Craft

Here are eight simple steps to help master your craft:

Get your camera out of the auto mode
Practice daily or as much as you possibly can
Attend professional-level workshops by accomplished instructors
Network with other photographers and ask questions
Look at others’ work and critique the images in your head
Critique your own work by asking yourself, “How could I have made this image better?”
Subscribe to photography magazines, online tutorials and forums, or electronic newsletters
Step outside your comfort zone OFTEN

master your photography craft san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyD7I_7135-Edit

Once or twice a year, re-evaluate your past work. Be brutally honest with yourself. If you don’t see a noticeable improvement, keep working. Don’t settle for being “just good enough.” If you’re not consistently trying to improve, you’re doing no one a favor—honestly, you’re contributing to a degraded industry. If you’re not willing to get better, you’re getting worse.

Until next time, be positive, happy, and healthy, and don’t forget to be photographed.

_______________________________________________________________________________

The post, Master Your Photography Craft, first appeared on Ata-Girl Photography Co’s website and blog. Please feel free to comment here, or share this post with your friends via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Please email me if you have any questions about this article or want to share a neat idea for a future blog post with me.

Aug

Results of the WPPI First Half Print Competition (2014)

I want to start this post off with a sad face, but I will end it with a happy face. While none of my entries in the WPPI print competition scored the coveted “80” I was hoping for, I did score better than in the very first print competition I entered AND I moved up an entire division within the score key. To recap, here are the two divisions I scored in and their explanations.

76-79: Professional Average—Average professional skill and technique
70-75: Below Professional Average—Requires improvement in technique

For the record, anything below a 70 is not even required at a professional level. So, while my work didn’t score exactly where I wanted it to, the good news (happy face) is that all of the work I submitted is considered to be of a professional standard.

The highest score I received was for this image, titled “Window of my Life.” It scored a 77. The judges didn’t like the harsh lighting on the truck door and said my lighting, posing and post-production were lacking. One comment I kept hearing when I attended the live critiquing at the 2014 WPPI in Las Vegas was “camera awareness.” Images tend to score higher when the subject appears unaware of the camera.

print competition san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyDSC_8375-Edit-2

“Basketball in the Street” scored a 76. The judges would like to have seen better lighting and a shallower depth of field.

print competition san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyD7I_7998-Edit

“Angel” scored a 76 as well. The judges critiqued my lighting, exposure and posing and also suggested that I remove the distracting elements in front of the subject because they were not being used to frame her. In hindsight, I agree with the latter.

print competition san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyD7I_6949-Edit

“Give me Wings” scored a 75. The judges would have preferred more flow and grace in this image. However, I submitted it based on its darkness and edginess. I guess that’s one of the challenges of photography. It is subjective, so there’s a challenge in getting the viewer to feel what you’re trying to convey.

print competition san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyD72_3140-Edit

“City Meets Country” scored a 74. A standard staple in my critiques by now, my posing, lighting and post processing were commented on.

print competition san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyD72_2995

“The NEW Trash the Gown” also scored a 74. According to the judges, my flash was a bit too direct and I should have done something to alleviate the distracting water droplets over the subject’s face. However, they liked the concept and advised that I rework it.

print competition san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyD72_3732-Edit

All of my wedding photojournalism entries scored a 74 including “Over Zealous Flower Girl.” My lighting was critiqued. I’m a bit puzzled by this one being that it’s during the ceremony and it’s outdoors using natural light. Most of the time, you are not even allowed to use artificial light during the ceremony, so I don’t know what I could have done to improve the lighting.

print competition san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyD7I_3081

The judges’ comments for “Marine Escort” indicated that they did not feel a connection between the subjects, but added that I captured a great moment.

print competition san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyD72_4296
Another great moment captured in “Like No One is Watching,” but advised that I should watch for distracting elements in the background. I do agree with this and that’s why I really tried to make the background as low key as possible in post production. The judges also said that the story is not clearly being told.

print competition san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyD72_4203

So, there you have it. I didn’t meet my goal of obtaining one point towards a master photographer accreditation, but I did acquire some useful feedback. Now, I just need to figure out how to implement the feedback for improvement in my future work. The WPPI’s Second Half Competition has already started. I have a few weeks to decided what I want to enter.

If you’d like to see the top three finishers in each of the divisions and gauge the competition I was up against, you can click here.

Until next time, be positive, happy, and healthy, and don’t forget to be photographed.

_______________________________________________________________________________

The post, Results of the WPPI First Half Competition (2014), first appeared on Ata-Girl Photography Co’s website and blog. Please feel free to comment here, or share this post with your friends via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Please email me if you have any questions about this article or want to share a neat idea for a future blog post with me.

Jul

Austin Photo Walkabout

A few weeks ago I downloaded a new app called Roadtrippers®. You indicate where your road trip will start and where it will end. You then select a few parameters about what you’re interested in seeing (attractions, entertainment, history, nature, food & drink, etc.) along your route and how far you’re willing to veer off your course. The app then flags every spot that may be of interest to you. You get to read the reviews, look at pictures and you have all contact info, website and other important information right at your fingertips. You then choose all the stops to add to the trip and then the navigator starts to guide you to all your destinations. Whalla. Fabulous roadtrip.

Since I did a San Antonio Photo Walk a few weeks ago, I decided to give the app a try at an Austin Photo Walkabout. Although I’ve been a lifelong Texan, I’ve never seen, or even heard of, some of the attractions the app directed me to.

austin_texas_photo_walkabout_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photography4D2_0817

I parked my car and walked to each stop on the app in the downtown area. I think I may have walked more than ten miles over the course of the weekend.

I’m not a HUGE fan of Willie (please don’t throw things!), but decided to make his statue in downtown Austin the first stop. I then made a 1.2-mile walk to the Baylor Street Art Wall. I love the feature image (above)! The contrast between the graffiti and trash and the Texas capitol and Austin skyline in the background struck me as contradictory. Though they were only one mile apart, the capitol symbolizes strength, wealth and law, while the graffiti and trash signify freedom of art and illegal activity. One is power and the other is struggle. One is organized, the other, chaotic.

I visited the Congress Avenue bridge to watch the bats fly… but they didn’t. So, I busied myself photographing all the other people who came to watch the bats not fly. I visited the capitol grounds and then strolled back down Congress to my car. I finished up Sunday shooting the Governor’s Mansion and I was lucky enough to be entertained by the governor’s dog for a few minutes when he was let outside. Finally, I caught a quick lunch and headed home.

To all the camera enthusiasts: The nighttime shots during this Austin Photo Walkabout (the last seven shots before the governor’s dog) were shot on my Nikon D4S at ISO 25,600. Yes, you read that right. This ISO produces about the same noise when shooting my D7000 at ISO 3,200. I’m not kidding. I did apply a very slight noise reduction in Lightroom 5.5. I’m adding a before-and-after shot. In case your interested, I toggled the noise reduction sliders to: Luminance 20, Detail 15, Contrast 0, Color 15, Detail 0, Smoothness 50.

compare

Until next time, be positive, happy, and healthy, and don’t forget to be photographed.

_______________________________________________________________________________

The post, Austin, Texas Photo Walkabout, first appeared on Ata-Girl Photography Co’s website and blog. Please feel free to comment here, or share this post with your friends via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Please email me if you have any questions about this article or want to share a neat idea for a future blog post with me.

Jul

San Antonio Photo Walk (with Fred)

This past Sunday, I texted Fred and asked him if he had any plans for the day. It’s pretty rare to catch Fred at home since he is probably ranked #1 among South West Airline’s® frequent flyers. I enjoy spending time with other photographers so much, I’ll do anything for a quick meetup, networking session or San Antonio photo walk. Fred obliged and off we went.

We really didn’t have any formal plans other than practicing our street photography and getting in some long exposures after dark. I also wanted to work on double exposures, but sometime during our seven-mile trek back-and-forth across downtown San Antonio in the 95° heat, I forgot.

Fred and I had been planning to do this for so long, but mostly because of his travel schedule (yes, I’m just going to blame it all on him!), it’s pretty hard to find a slot. I don’t think we’ve shot together since photographing these dead trees. This three-and-a-half hour San Antonio photo walk was so much fun! I can’t wait until we do it again!

San Antonio Photo Walk

Here are a few of my favorite images from the night. I especially am digging the long exposure ones. I shot all my long exposures for 30 seconds.

Until next time, be positive, happy, and healthy, and don’t forget to be photographed.

_______________________________________________________________________________

The post, San Antonio Photo Walk (with Fred), first appeared on Ata-Girl Photography Co’s website and blog. Please feel free to comment here, or share this post with your friends via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Please email me if you have any questions about this article or want to share a neat idea for a future blog post with me.

Jul

What is in my bag NOW!

Over a-year-and-a-half ago, I wrote about what was in my bag. A lot has happened since I purchased my Nikon D60 more than five years ago. Since then, I’ve started a legitimate business, quit my full-time job, hung an image in an Austin art gallery, entered other print competitions, met many other great and inspiring photographers, grew my skill at professional-level workshops, shot with an award-winning, international wedding photographer, and have started my journey to becoming a master photographer. But, the one thing I’m still pinching myself about is what is in my camera bag. Even as I wrote about my camera bag on February 11, 2013—18 months ago, I was already dreaming of owning a Nikon D4. Then, Nikon released a D4s capable of shooting at just about infinity ISO.

The order sat in my B&H shopping cart for a few weeks. This was so unbelievably foreign to me, I could hardly will myself to push the “buy” button. Just when I’d talked myself into the purchase, the other me would talk myself out of it. Back and forth, back and forth… that’s how the weeks went, until one day I closed my eyes and entered into full-frame photography. And, even now that I’ve been a FX owner for over two months, it’s still hard to imagine that I own not one, but two of the best DSLRs on the market today.

The things I like most about the D4s body is that I still have the awesome capability to make instantaneous backups of every image I take with the dual card slots, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the improved ISO capabilities. I can shoot at 20,000 ISO with virtually no noise. I can’t wait to see how this improves my wedding reception and sports photography.

what's in my wedding photography bag

When I left my cropped-sensor bodies behind me for good, it meant that I had to upgrade all my DX lenses. I’m not good at all the science behind these things, but from what I understand, shooting DX lenses on an FX body is something like driving a V8 with only 7 pistons firing. If I wanted to take full advantage of a full-frame body, I had to use the correct lenses.

My two zoom lenses are comparable to what I had and what I’ll use during wedding ceremonies and sporting events. With these two lenses, I will be covered from focal lengths of 24-200mm. This is a Nikon 70-200 f2.8, and a 24-70 f2.8.

what's in my wedding photography bag san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photography4S1_0699

This 85mm f1.4 is the lens I am hoping will be my main portrait lens. Although, after about 15 minutes with it during one of my last senior portrait sessions, it went in the bag and the 24-70mm finished the job. I can’t put my finger on why I didn’t love it other than I felt a little too far away from my subject. My 50mm f1.4 on my D7000 cropped sensor was actually shooting the equivalent of a 75mm lens–so maybe that’s why. I’m now a full 10mm further away from my subject with this new lens. It will definitely take some getting used to.

what's in my wedding photography bag san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photography4S1_0701

This 105mm f2.8 macro lens didn’t replace anything—not even an extension tube. I’ll have lots of gorgeous ring shots to use this on! I can’t wait to have the opportunity to use this!

what's in my wedding photography bag san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photography4S1_0700

what's in my wedding photography bag san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photography4S1_0702

My flashes and firing system are still the same: Nikon SB600s with Photix Odin. I don’t have any plans to upgrade my lighting system, but I may expand it in the future. I’d like to be able to have a set for backup and that my second shooter can use at receptions. With enough transmitters and receivers, we could each trigger our own lights without interfering with each other—especially since the SB600 doesn’t have a slave mode.

what's in my wedding photography bag san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyD7I_4821-Edit

what's in my wedding photography bag san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyD7I_4822

The only other item on my wish list (for the time being) is a Tamron 150-600mm F5.6-6.3 super telephoto. I’d love to have this thing on the football field ESPECIALLY since I can now shoot in infinity ISO! But, I will have to wait until October, 2013 for it to be released!

Until next time, be positive, happy, and healthy, and don’t forget to be photographed.

_______________________________________________________________________________

The post, What is in my bag NOW!, first appeared on Ata-Girl Photography Co’s website and blog. Please feel free to comment here, or share this post with your friends via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Please email me if you have any questions about this article or want to share a neat idea for a future blog post with me.

Jun

The Importance of Competition

Early last week, I made my final decision on the images I would enter into WPPI’s First Half Members Only Competition. I had selected nine images and was trying to narrow it down to eight, but in the end, I just submitted all nine. My goal for entering is to eventually… maybe… one day… become a Master Photographer. The journey will allow me to gain knowledge and growth, and to be judged by my peers while receiving valuable feedback from them. I’ve never wanted to become rich or famous from photography, but I have ALWAYS wanted to be able to create the most stunning images of and for people. This is but one step to help me achieve that.

This is only the second such competition I’ve entered. The first competition was last year’s Second Half Competition. I only had enough confidence to experiment with one submission (image below). I thought the image was spectacular, and to be honest, I still think it’s pretty great. I LOVE all the leading lines, the implied movement and I think the short, but not too harsh, shadows are spot on. William’s expression is one of pure freedom and I think the bridge is a symbol of this important transition in his life.

When I first opened up the email with the results, my heart sank a little. I was hoping for at least an 80 (Above Average; Good standard of professional skill, creativity and technique). This image scored a 75. A score of 75 is considered to be below average and requires improvement in technique. However, after a little thinking, I realized that the image didn’t score in the bottom category (Below Average; Not up to Professional Standards). AND, my score was at the high end of the range (70-75), and not the low end. Had I scored a 69 or below, the judges wouldn’t even have considered my work to be of a professional standard.

So this was great news! This image was considered to be of a professional standard, just below a professional average. This is exactly where many of the greats have also started. According to the feedback, I needed to work on my rule of thirds. I celebrated the critique and started working to make better images!

This isn’t the local talent show. This is an international stage and my work is being looked at and critiqued by the very best wedding and portrait professionals in the world. I am in good company and I am in good hands. How can I not improve?

photography competition

Stay tuned in tomorrow to see which nine images I selected to enter into the competition!

Until next time, be positive, happy, and healthy, and don’t forget to be photographed.

_______________________________________________________________________________

The post, The Importance of a Competition, first appeared on Ata-Girl Photography Co’s website and blog. Please feel free to comment here, or share this post with your friends via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Please email me if you have any questions about this article or want to share a neat idea for a future blog post with me.

Apr

Tips for Taking Better Images

If you’re serious about taking better images and creating the most pleasing photographs you can, then here are a few simple things you can do to take better images. Even if you’re not well-versed with your camera’s settings and even if you still shoot your DSLR on automatic, these three easy-to-follow tips can improve your photography skills by leaps and bounds. Guaranteed!

1. FOCUS!

If it’s out of focus, it is not a pleasing image. Very few images can get away with having a soft focus. If it’s a portrait, 99.9% of the time, the eyes (or the eye closest to the camera) has to be tack sharp. Even if you captured the precise defining moment and it’s not in focus, it’s no good. Toss it. An image may look completely focused on your camera’s LCD, but remember to zoom in to 100% to be sure. Hands down, this is the most important thing you can do to improve your photography!

tips_for_taking_better_images_san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyDSC_8375-Edit

2. Deliberate composition.

So many times I see images that seems as if the creator just blindly pointed and shot. If you want to increase your odds at taking better images, decide what it is your photographing. What is the subject in the image? Compose in such a way that the eye travels straight to the subject and it’s not a guessing game. Include the entire subject or follow guidelines for cropping. One of my personal pet peeves is a crop that involves negative tension—or cropping at a point in the picture that doesn’t make sense to my eye, like at minor joints (ie. fingertips, ankles) or below a major joints (ie. knees, elbows). Make use of compositional layering and leading lines that guide your eyes right to your subject. Deliberate composition also includes checking your background. Make sure no one has trees growing out of their head or extra limbs.

3. Shoot often.

Not only will shooting more often help improve your skill, it will also help to familiarize yourself with your equipment. If you shoot daily, you have more chances to capture life, document family history and be photographed. My unofficial motto is to shoot until my camera is in the ground. My two Nikon D7000’s have a combined total of 118,281 shutter accusations on them. I’ve had one body for a little over two years and the other for a little over one year. I’m not the best at mathematical equations, but I think that averages to 166 images per day over the last three years. Get out and shoot to improve your skills for taking better images!

Until next time, be positive, happy, and healthy, and don’t forget to be photographed.

_______________________________________________________________________________

The post, Tips for Taking Better Images, first appeared on Ata-Girl Photography Co’s website and blog. Please feel free to comment here, or share this post with your friends via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Please email me if you have any questions about this article or want to share a neat idea for a future blog post with me.

Mar

Shooting in the RAW Format

This is not what it sounds like at all. Last week, I spent some time with an aspiring photographer giving him some one-on-one time to pick my brain. We spent most of the morning talking about the importance of obtaining a proper exposure, but then he picked my brain with all sorts of other questions about photography. One of the questions he asked was, do you shoot in RAW and what it that? The answer is yes. I only shoot in RAW—unless I’m preparing to make a same day slideshow on the wedding day for playback during the reception. Then, I’ll shoot in a basic .jpeg mode and RAW so that I can quickly download the .jpeg files from my SD card and give them a quick post process. The .jpeg images are only used for the slideshow, nothing else. Otherwise, it’s always RAW.

What is RAW? The analogy I always like to use is baking. A RAW image is the equivalent to preparing to bake a cake. I have all my pre-measured ingredients laid out on the kitchen counter. However, after mixing them, I may decide to add a teaspoon of salt or three cups of sugar. Or a Snickers® bar. Before I actually bake the cake, I have the freedom to change my recipe with greater flexibility and hopefully, I increase my odds of a better tasting cake. The .jpeg image is the equivalent of the baked cake. Yes, I can add a Snickers bar or three cups of sugar to the cake after baking, but all I can do is just lay it on top and doesn’t have get baked in goodness.

A RAW file captures all the necessary information from a scene, but leaves all the ingredients laid out on the counter for me. When I download the image into my post processing software, I can easily change the white balance, increase the exposure, or maybe even recover some highlights. I can adjust curves, brighten shadows or calibrate the image to a particular lens. I can also do these things to a .jpeg; however, the bonus is, I can do this without degrading the quality of the image at all. Each time a .jpeg is saved it become a bit degraded—writing to your camera, or baking, counts as the first save. Then, you move the image to your computer to edit it and save again, that’s twice. If you bake your cake too many times, it eventually becomes dry and crispy, maybe even burnt. It doesn’t taste good.

Here is an image that was shot in RAW with no corrections. I used a 17-500 f2.6 lens at 19mm, SS 1/60, f2.8 and ISO 200 and using an off-camera flash. This was a very difficult room to shoot in. There was one small window with harsh sunlight, tungsten lights over the mirror and walls, and pine walls with an orange tint. You can see the white dress appears ivory, the bride’s skin is red and dark and the pine walls appear a bit orange.

san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyD7I_2484-2 Having shot in RAW, I was easily able to adjust the temperature, and bump the exposure and contrast. I also increased the shadows, clarity, vibrance and saturation, but decreased the blacks. I slightly adjusted the curves and removed a little of the noise. Whalla. Her dress is nice and white and didn’t lose any detail.

san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyD7I_2484 The downside to shooting in RAW is the size of the files. The RAW files on my D7000 are 20MB each. After I convert it to a high resolution .jpeg, it’s only about 8MB. You have to use big memory cards, have a lot of space on your hard drives and have the processing power to work with files this big. They can easily slow your computer down to a crawl if you’re not prepared.

If you have any questions you’d like me to try and address, feel free to email or comment on this post. Until next time, be positive, happy, and healthy, and don’t forget to be photographed.

_______________________________________________________________________________

I am a professional photographer who enjoys documenting the important milestones and captivating moments in people’s lives. I firmly believe that the unique set of circumstances I have faced in life has prepared me to take a personal and genuine interest in my photography clients. When I’m not photographing a wedding, family or high school senior, I enjoy watching my daughter play softball, hiking, cycling, reading, and listening to Elvis!

The post, Shooting in the RAW Format, first appeared on Ata-Girl Photography Co’s website and blog. Please feel free to comment here, or share this post with your friends via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Please email me if you have any questions about this article or want to share a neat idea for a future blog post with me.

Mar

Custom White Balance

What is a custom white balance? And who is Kelvin? In this short tutorial, I’ll try to explain.

All light is measured in a unit called a Kelvin. Sunlight is different from shade. Shade is different from overcast. Fluorescent, tungsten and flash all have their own measurements as well. Sometimes light temperatures are mixed, like when you are indoors near a big window with the sun shining through, but fluorescents are also lighting the room that has hideously been painted a nice traffic cone orange color. The temperature of an image dictates the color cast it will have. In the example below, I deliberately changed the temperature to 2,000 on the left (very cool) and 50,000 on the right (very warm). I did this in post processing. However, you can also do this in camera using one of two methods. You can either shoot a custom white balance using a grey card or you can manually adjust the Kelvin temperature.

Custom-White-Balance For the record, I thought the image looked best at 5650.

custom_white_balance_san_antonio_wedding_photographers_atagirl_photographyD7I_8966-Edit (There is a whole separate argument about whether to use a grey card or white card to shoot a custom white balance. I am in the camp that you use a grey card. Personally, I use the white card to get a correct exposure. However, I assume that as long as the grey card is 18% grey, and the white card is 100% white, it doesn’t matter.)

I have journeyed to the post processing ideology that I like my images natural, pure and with clean edits. I don’t understand how an image that has been manipulated to a super warm temperature will be aesthetically pleasing to your eyes in 10 years. Remember people, parachute pants were once thought to be a good idea. Choose your custom white balance carefully!

Until next time, be positive, happy, and healthy, and don’t forget to be photographed.

_______________________________________________________________________________

I am a professional photographer who enjoys documenting the important milestones and captivating moments in people’s lives. I firmly believe that the unique set of circumstances I have faced in life has prepared me to take a personal and genuine interest in my photography clients. When I’m not photographing a wedding, family or high school senior, I enjoy watching my daughter play softball, hiking, cycling, reading, and listening to Elvis!

The post, Custom White Balance, first appeared on Ata-Girl Photography Co’s website and blog. Please feel free to comment here, or share this post with your friends via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Please email me if you have any questions about this article or want to share a neat idea for a future blog post with me.

« First ‹ Prev 2 3 456 7 8 Next ›Last »

Hi, I’m Tammy.
I'm a San Antonio-based wedding photographer for outdoor-loving couples who value real moments.

I am a San Antonio-based wedding photographer and I am absolutely in love with capturing the kinds of weddings where there are more hugs than handshakes, the dance floor rumbles all night long, and chairs are pretty much rendered useless after dinner. Whiskey bottles are passed around, most of the wedding party has been best-best friends since kindergarten, Grams is likely to lose her shoes and your partner is much more emotional than you are. These kinds of weddings are my jam!

Since 2010, I have excelled in helping each of my couples plan for one of the very best days of their lives! I’d love to share my very personalized wedding experience, my super-human organizational abilities, and my U. S. Army combat skills (when needed) with you too.

I want your wedding day to be as perfect as you do! I am all in with my whole heart!