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Hi! I'm G.E. Masana and I'm a wedding
photographer in the NYC-Long Island-TriState area. And sometimes other places too.
After reading countless blogs of other photographers, I vowed that someday I too would
have my very own, but with one BIG difference: My first line in my first post in my first
blog was NOT going to be "Hi! This is my blog! This is my first post! Welcome to my
blog! I'm going to blog now!"
Why have a blog? Oh, there's all sorts of reasons, but among the saner
ones... mainly for me to share what one client quaintly termed "My little treasures" (I
love that). That is, my wedding photo images and ideas, my little creations, my little
babies that I give birth to throughout the year. My little works of art fetched from life.
Look! That one said "Dada!" What a clever kid!
Check out the behind the scene stories about my photos in "Scene at a wedding" (clever category name, no?) or my rants and raves in "Musings", my "So What If" series of what to do for your wedding day photos if stuff happens under "Wedding Help". Or just look at the nice, pretty pictures.
So, welcome! This is my blog! This is my first post! Welcome to my blog! I'm going to blog
now!
Hi guys! Thought today I’d blog about something that drives me nuts about newbie wedding photographers, but it’s a good rant because it’s educational! Not only for photographers at the start of their careers but also for brides and grooms-to-be looking through photographers’ portfolios because this will make you more savvy about what to watch for.
Our eyes are amazing contraptions. They work way better than cameras do. For example, you know how you can see a white dress and also see the details in it, without the details being washed out by the brightness of the gown? The way we make out details of white on white is to see shadows that depict the details. We take it for granted that we can see these highlights and shadows at the same time.
The way your eye works, it’s actually looking at the brightness of the white gown, but then instantaneously the very next split mini micro fraction of a second later, your iris closes down to let in less light so that the details can be seen better. Both images are then combined together in your mind in that amazing fast sliver of a moment, making it appear to you that you’re actually seeing it all at the same time.
Pretty impressive, eh?
But cameras don’t work as well as that. They either record the white gown or record the details, but typically not both if the latitude of exposure between the two is too great. The photographer typically has to choose whether to expose for the bride’s face or for the gown’s details, and guess what’s going to take precedence? Unless you want a super dark face in the image, the face will be exposed properly and the gown becomes “blown out”, meaning it will appear all white, losing all the details.
Lots of photographers, experienced or not, don’t even think about the gown being blown out in their images. But I think brides want to see the details in their gown, no? I mean, aren’t the details one of the top two reasons a bride loves her gown (the other being how amazing she looks in it)? So a good photographer ought to be rendering the gown with detail and not distributing images where the gown looks like some big white sheet hung flapping on the bride.
The other thing that drives me bonkers is the blue tinge that digital gives the gown. Lots of photographers overlook that too and don’t eliminate it from their photos. We must be so used to seeing this in mages that we don’t ever seem to notice it – until someone points it out.
Here’s a couple of images I found on the web of photographers blowing out the highlights in the gowns and overlooking those blue tones just so you can see what I’m talking about. I’m not picking on these particular photographers, any google image search will bring up scores more, as this happens all too commonly:
Here’s an image of mine where I’ve made the gown’s details evident and any blue tone on the white fabric has been taken out. Makes a big difference, no?:
All too often when I view through wedding discussion boards, I see posts of wedding album designs… where there actually isn’t any design at all.
A design calls for a theme and uses graphic elements with restraint and consistency not to go all over the spectrum but to stick to the concept.
That’s not what I’m seeing.
Instead, what I see is typically a hodgepodge of wedding images, all cluttered and crammed together, without any reason for being juxtaposed with each other. The alleged design changes from page to page and consists of an abundance of tilted images, overlays, opacities and cheesy text (do we really need the bridesmaids’ picture to say “the girls”?). Effects are heaped onto pictures for no seemingly valid reason other than effects for effect’s sake, it has nothing to actually do with the image itself that enhances anything particular to it. There isn’t any design skill or layout strategy involved at all, yet it’s being called a “design” nonetheless. As a former graphic artist, this treatment doesn’t pass me by unnoticed.
Do an image search on Google and you’ll see plenty of examples of just what I’m talking about. Like these: images.google.com/images
To my eye, many of these designs are all over the place. As I mentioned, there doesn’t seem to be a design at all, as any design specs are inconsistent, if they exist at all.
A well done design enhances the images much like a well designed gallery enhances the art on its walls. Less is more.
Too much of anything looks cluttered. If the design garners more attention than the images, it’s a poor design.
When you think about it, one realizes it wouldn’t be reasonable to expect to see professionally designed albums from photography studios. Why not? Because if you’re a professional graphic artist, schooled and practiced in the principles of successful art and design, chances are you’re not going to go work for the local wedding photography studio down the block. Nope. You’re going to look to work for a firm such as Getty Publications. You’re going to seek to establish a serious career.
Local studios hire whomever is available to them (I know of one that uses some guy in the Philippines because he’s cheaper than them employing a local high school student to work on the albums, another that uses the owner’s wife’s girlfriend because she ’s into scrapbooking), so my guess is they don’t get artists who’ve mastered the rules such as the use of negative and positive space, the ways of breaking space and organizing shapes and the use of compositional techniques. All sorts of little “rules” you may not think of but which contribute to great design. We learn this stuff in art school for a reason.
And that’s before we even start talking about what to consider when determining which of the images to use. That requires prudence and discipline to edit through. You can love, love, love an image, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it has a place in the final wedding album if it really just doesn’t fit.
Lots of great acting and cinematic shots in movie history ended up on the cutting room floor.
And film editors get Academy Awards for knowing what to cut… and doing it.
Jerry Ghionis is an Australian wedding photographer named by American PHOTO magazine as one of the Top Ten Wedding Photographers in the World. Here’s a video he made of a critique he did of an anonymous photographer’s wedding album design. You’ll get an idea of some of the considerations that go into how he chooses images for a wedding album. It’s an interesting peek into the thought process. Mr. Ghionis has won the Australian Institute of Professional Photography’s Album of the Year award 4 years in a row, so he might have a thing or two to tell us!
Storytelling qualities, impact, style, composition and creativity are all components of classic design that stand the test of time when executed well and never look dated. It’s not simply about placing pictures next to each other with all sorts of tilts and effects.
You may think it’s only about having a nice camera.
That’s like thinking having a nice bicycle makes you Lance Armstrong.
A learned Doctor said, “The things we get very good at, are the things we practice the most”. Put another way, to get really good at something, even if you have a natural knack for it, you have to put in lots of work. Michael Jordan was basketball’s greatest player, but he still put practice time on the court. That’s the way it works.
There isn’t barely a day that goes by that I don’t try to learn something, try out something, read something, to expand my knowledge and abilities when it comes to photography. You could say it’s a passion of mine. Other people notice my work and comment that I seem very good at this, that the quality rivals that of higher priced photogs.
I know that what they’re seeing is the application of all my continual education and dedicated practice.
It was while I was working on a wedding in the second week of its post production process that I recalled how some studios require their shooters to turn in whatever wedding images they shot over the weekend within, oh, say, four days or so. The studios want to get those images up online as quickly as possible, you understand, equating that fast turnaround with quality of service.
Four days after a wedding, I’m still working on the images! This can’t all get done in four days.
I’d rather take the time it takes to do the work, and be meticulous. Not rush it through. To me, that’s a quality service.
Well, of course, it’s not the most inexpensive way to produce work either. It’s rather labor intensive. Not only that, it’s rather highly skilled labor intensive.
I guess that’s the point of this post.
Let me show you the difference. Here’s an example from a wedding I photographed at Dowling College in Oakdale, NY.
The first image is the shot as taken. It’s fine, nothing wrong with it (though the electrical outlet holes left in the pillars after they pulled out the lights kind of irk me. Grrrr.)
But again, with digital, it’s just not a finished product. It’s like being a chef with raw ingredients, you still have to cook it well. I wouldn’t be happy just handing people the ingredients and saying “ok, now, cook it yourself.”
(Actually, neither should you be happy going to a restaurant and having the chef give you the raw ingredients to have you finish his work. Or a photo studio to have the photographer do the same.)
The second image is after I’ve worked on it some.
The third image, just on a whim, is from a photographer named Yervant, who is a celebrated wedding photographer in Australia and known all over as one of the top photographers in the world. He’s an international multi-award winning photographer, has been awarded the Grand Master of Photography from the AIPP (Australian Institute of Professional Photographers) and he’s also the recipient of the 2009 AIPP Australian Wedding Photographer of the Year award. He and his wife run a high end couture studio in Melbourne and his fees range up at about the fifteen thousand dollar mark for him to come out and shoot your wedding, and that’s without any albums or prints.
Anyhoo… does my finished work come close to his?
Just wondering…
Here’s another idea of what to do if it rains on your wedding day or if you’re otherwise tucked in a tight spot, and how to come out of it with interesting images.
Had this wedding to photograph where we ended up in the tiniest little room the hall had the audacity to call a “bridal suite”. I mean, it was the teeniest, tiniest, littlest suite I’ve ever been in. I could literally reach out and touch opposite walls. “Tight” doesn’t begin to describe it. We were literally on top of each other.
I had the bride and groom against the wall, and there wasn’t much space on either side.
But it was simple enough to expand the composition later and make something a bit more visually interesting out of it.
That gave me the idea to post further about other wedding photo solutions when encountering less-than-wished-for circumstances in getting your wedding photographs.
Sometimes, for example, a bride and groom may desire to have their wedding photos taken at a place that’s meaningful to them or convenient or desirable, but that spot may have some elements in the setting that impair the image somewhat.
Of course, not all photographers have the same definition for “impair”, or better put, not all photographers have the same standards as to what makes a better image. So I’m only speaking for myself and my sense of artistry and aesthetics (I do have a history however of art education and background, so I hope what I write has some weight, Dear Reader…)
So this bridal couple, for example, had a home backyard that they favored. Great! The thing was, in the background is the neighbor’s house and some other items, and I didn’t think that had a place in their wedding portrait, you know? Kind of distracting.
Again, some other photographers may feel differently. For one, they may say “well that’s the way it was”. But I say, “This isn’t newspaper reporting just the facts – this is a portrait! The great masters of art for centuries painted portraits in which the goal was to flatter the subjects, not paint in the surrounding distracting facts in the composition.”
Others may simply point their camera in the opposite direction so as not to show the neighbor’s house in the portrait’s background, but they may not be considering another factor to a great portrait, the primary factor in photography: light. Where the light is and the quality of it, as well as how it illuminates the image by its direction and effect, is paramount, even more important a consideration in photography than the background. Turn that camera in another direction and you lose that precious light (many photographers may simply use their flash and aren’t aware of using the available light quality, but I don’t work like that. A photographic image is like a recipe: mix in great light with great composition while capturing a story. Anything else isn’t quite as tasty.)
The great thing about digital is how we can remaster the image afterwards to achieve what was seen in the mind’s eye when the image was first captured.
Here’s the progression of that couple’s backyard photo from its raw capture to the finished version.
Your results will vary, depending on who you hire.
First, the raw capture itself, a sweet enough shot. Good enough for many, but “good enough” isn’t in my vocabulary. It’s like, for a hot breakfast, plain oatmeal is “good enough”, but steak and eggs is w-a-y better.
Then remastering the raw image. Now we have high impact, something dramatic, more interesting to view than the first capture. We have steak and eggs!
In my goings about New York City and Long Island (and even other areas!) as a wedding photographer, I naturally come upon other wedding vendors. Now, maybe from having encountered numerous vendors over the years, it takes more than the regular routine to impress me. There are some terrific wedding pros out there but many more not-so-terrific. Vendors can range anywhere from just plain awful to baseline service to enthusiastic yet nothing special to ahhhhhhh!
I tend to pay close attention to details that show me the vendor excels and what their level of commitment and enthusiasm is in servicing the bride and groom.
In other words, I’m way picky.
Such as, I can’t believe how some catering venues tout themselves, but have tiles for room ceilings. That looks like my dad’s basement! And water stained tiles at that! They don’t care to replace them right quick? Or how some limousine drivers aren’t aware of the best routes to get to the next destination (and we’re talking popular wedding spots here) not bothering to map it out. More than once they’ve taken wrong turns making everybody run late. .
Or how some florists deliver bouquets with several wilted flowers in them. It’s just the beginning of the wedding day and already the flowers are already dying off before delivery. Or how some DJs crack inappropriate remarks as part of their patter. Or how some bands have no idea how to keep the party flowing but do a great job at bringing it to an immediate screeching halt.
I could go on and on. There’s a ton of rudimentary service available. No style, no panache. But that makes it easier to spot the ones who shine and stand out. The ones who really show evidence of caring and thought and of putting it into their service and product. Those vendors not only put their heart and minds to their efforts, they take action and do it.
The ones that WOW.
Ladies and gents, let me tell you about some pretty awesome vendors you may want to check out. These are folks I’ve come across and I think they all have something special going for them (I don’t get any money for telling you about them, this is completely unbiased).
Here’s a short list. Check them out! Hope it helps:
There isn’t any, really. Let me explain it this way…
You’re going to see each other for the first time at one point or another during the wedding day, isn’t that true? So it’s what’s surrounding that moment that can enhance it – or break it.
If you wait until the ceremony to see each other for the first time, you spot each other at some point when you’re walking down the aisle and then… what actually happens? This: You have to get right down to the business of the ceremony, hand off your bouquet, pay attention to the officiant, recite the vows, exchange rings and then, when at the end of it you’re pronounced husband and wife (ah, finally, after all that planning), you have to get right to the task of a receiving line and/or getting pictures done quick because you have a limited time, hurrying and scurrying as family is scattered among the guests socializing and you’re steaming that nobody’s keeping in step and cooperating. The limo driver interrupts because he needs to drop you off soon and run to his next job… your MOH says she’ll be right back because she has to change take care of her baby and disappears, mom’s looking for grandma, one of the groomsmen is missing in action the clock is ticking away and all you really rather do is get it over with and party, and so, you’re like, aaargh. Not fun.
… and the resulting pictures look like they were “grab what you can” with a tense bride and groom that are feeling rather anxious and who’d really like to get to their cocktail hour rather than miss it plus have to pay overtime to the limo driver trying to deal with knocking out some needed photos so we can get going.
Do you get what it feels like? This is what it’s like probably 99% of the time, despite all assurances to the contrary.
Compare that moment to this moment: when you see each other for the first time, and it’s prior to the ceremony, away from 100 guests buzzing all over you, away from the necessity to attend to the immediate task at hand, away from the pressures of time – then you’re having that “seeing each other for the first time” experience, but now, in a much more relaxed, intimate manner without the time pressures. You can embrace, you can kiss, smile, snuggle warmly, you can hold each other and take in the moment. You can enjoy it, every second of it, one hundred per cent.
And don’t you think the photographs will show that emotion, will depict that serenity, that happiness? Of course they will.
Isn’t that the experience you really want when his eyes meet with yours for the first time that day?
Memories are made of this.
Now, add in that instead of passively *accepting* a patch of grass in the side area of a catering hall compromising image quality to knock out as many shots as possible in the limited time because the maitre ‘d is tapping his toe impatiently telling the photographer to wrap it up in five minutes (even if he’s not yet gotten everything) because he wants to show the couple their room before he has to open it up to the guests, you’re instead proactively *choosing* to take the time needed to create quality, awesome wedding images in amazing surroundings without any pressure on you but with lots of great, warm feelings, knowing that you’ll soon be fully enjoying every second of the rest of your day rather then missing them.
Which images would you really rather have? Which experience would you rather have? Which memories would you rather have?
You see each other for the first time once at some point in the day.
Make it count.
Here’s the way most wedding photographers work: They take whatever your wedding day schedule is and cram in when the pictures will be taken. It typically goes something like this:
Start at the house, cover the ceremony, then during the cocktail hour get the families and bridal party portraits. If there’s not enough time, get the rest of the portraits during the reception when the salad’s served.
I can’t think of a worse possible schedule than that.
If the wedding day is a once-in-a-lifetime event, one of the most important days of your life, a day when you’re wearing an expensive gown and have had your hair and make-up professionally done, then the images shouldn’t be approached as some sort of after thought or grab-when-you-can secondary type service.
I’m saying that the wedding day photography itself should be optimized as much as possible to really stand out both in service and images. For example, I recently consulted with a bridal couple whose wedding plans call for the ceremony and reception to be held at the same venue. That means immediately following the ceremony, we launch into the cocktail hour and then right into the reception. I already know, from years of experience, if we follow that timeline, it’s going to result in a somewhat harried experience for the bride and groom and certainly will impact on the amount of images that we can create, if we don’t sacrifice quality (which I’m loathe to do!) It also ties our hands, limiting us to whatever spare area we’re given for all the portraits, whether it’s the best area for great images or not. We surrender our choices to people whose priority is absolutely not about your wedding photography when we do that, and correspondingly, it shows in the photos. The photos become a “grab-what-you-can” filler in-between the wedding day events you’ve been looking forward to.
In my opinion, that’s a very poor choice. The wedding day photography should be handled as one of the highlights of your day, rather than a chore.
I don’t believe, as a wedding photographer, the lesser wedding day photography experience is what my clients have to settle with. I think when you hire a wedding photographer, he or she has to craft for the couple the best possible circumstances to create the best possible wedding images and provide an amazing, fun time creating those images. Which is why I recommend such couples in that scenario to seek out another picturesque place for their wedding portraits, such as the Old Westbury Gardens or Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay, where we can set aside another period of time that doesn’t conflict with the cocktail hour, where we can afford the time needed to create something outstanding for them. It’s much more of a relaxed experience for the bridal couple, an easier pace, without pressure. It maximizes the wedding photography and still allows the bride and groom to enjoy every moment of their wedding reception rather then missing it.
Your big day arrives and uh oh, gray clouds are drizzling down your plans for a sun shiny day taking photos outdoors in scenic surroundings.
Those weather forecasters were toying with you all week! Now what are you going to do? What are the choices? Find a hotel lobby to take your pictures in? Take them at the ceremony site if possible? A little nook at the reception site somewhere?
Of course, you depend on the photographer you hired for the answer.
I’d venture to say that most photographers would seek out a spot somewhere indoors at the reception site where they’ll then take the portraits of the bridal party, the two of you and your families. Aesthetically speaking however, the problem becomes that chances are it’s a little nook or cramped area with a not so desirable background and/or other people are floating around getting into the frame, as is the wait staff going about their duties to and fro, with exit signs, fire extinguishers, wall outlets and all sorts of other elements that, in a still photo, would be undesirable in portrait images.
I’ve had the banquet hall manager point me to a blue drape for a spot to take photos in front of. I thought they were kidding! That would look like I took the portraits in 1969! (“That’s what all the other photographers do” is exactly what they told me. Even more reason every instinct in me was pulling in a different direction…) Another well known venue has a little bridal suite room, if it’s not being used by another party, that resembles a small living room. Many such bridal suites are not much bigger than a walk-in closet, add in all the bags the bridal party brings with them and parks there and catering trays and people stuffed into the room and it’s not at all much of any space to get much of a decent image out of, while other popular catering halls may offer a small area that’s basically a wall and a fireplace. The Westbury Manor, Jericho Terrace, Swan Club, for example, have areas like that.
(Note: For the record, I don’t line people up in front of fireplaces for portraits. That’s what camera-hobbyists do, it seems to be a standard pose, and maybe lots of other photographers do it too, but to me it looks like the kind of rudimentary shot any guest would take, and since I’m hired to take better images than the guests…)
So making the best out of a tight area is where the creativity and expertise of your photographer counts (You know, that’s not the time to realize that it’s for reasons such as this that hiring someone who doesn’t have a whole lot of experience in the field may not have exactly been the best move).
When your photographer is faced with limitations, one of two things will likely happen: Whoever you hired will either acquiesce to the surroundings, shrug their shoulders saying “well, we don’t have a choice”, seeing it as a limitation and snap some standard shots of the in-front-of-fireplace kind (being the easiest thing to do), while some others may put on their thinking caps to give it that extra to figure out better angles, planning out how to achieve the goal of portrait quality images in the face of these less-than-hoped-for circumstances.
You’ll know right away which type of photographer you have because you’ll instantly see their eyes darting around, checking things out and thinking.
I like to think I run with that type.
Recently, for example, I photographed a wedding on a wet, rainy day and the venue was small. Tiny, actually. Nice, but, there was really only one area we could use and even that area had staff scurrying around in and out of the kitchen running in and out of our shots due to the tight quarters of the space while guests meandered about, behind and through where we were working, some poking their heads in the background looking on, and it’s usual share of clutter and distractions, exit signs and such, all about, all mixed and packed down in one tight little space. Oh, and, the furniture also took up some of the available space too…
Hey, I could’ve simply lined up everyone in front of the fireplace and come in close for some tight head shots, bam, bam, bam, knock ‘em out, get it done… but IMO that would look kind of boring, unimaginative, uninspired, same old, hey-I’ve-seen-this-before-countless-times… and I would feel as if I gave up instead of rising to the positive challenge of creating something more. What can I do with what I’m given to work with becomes the question.
It’s then that I realized – the answer to “what if it rains on your wedding pictures?” is: it doesn’t matter if it rains on your wedding day for your photography. Inside or outside, it’s up to the photographer’s creativity, skill set and know how. Those are the elements that will make or break the wedding photographs – not the rain.
Here’s the progression of what I actually did from the raw material to the finished portrait.
This is just one example of what you can do if it rains on your wedding day pictures on long island.
Of course, your results will vary, depending on who you hire.
First, the base image itself. I consider this to be raw material, certainly not something I’d present as a finished photograph. My aim is to just capture the data I need to finesse afterwards:
After cropping and vignetting to block out the extraneous objects in the image and to focus the viewer’s eye on the couple, there’s some bumping of the tones and contrast, which is usually needed in any digital photo, as well as little nudges such as tightening his collar and smoothing out skin tones:
Then the last stage is in achieving pleasing hues and giving the image a little warmth, depth and a more polished look. I also brought in her gown from another shot in that series because I liked the way it draped and showed off the gown’s details better:
Okay, so I admit this guilty pleasure: I’ve been watching episodes of My Fair Wedding featuring David Tutera, celebrity party planner.
I like his stylish good taste, and I especially like how he handles his wedding clients to guide them to what he considers to be their best choices for their gowns, floral decorations, even the style and tone of the wedding venue itself.
Because… when we deal with brides and their families, they may have certain ideas and visions they’d like to realize on the wedding day, but many times these are elements that may come across as inadequate, perhaps disjointed, or end up not coming off well, but they’re not aware of the pitfalls or of perhaps a better manner of going about it. This isn’t by any means a put down; who would expect anyone who isn’t versed in an industry, who doesn’t do this multiple times every year, to suddenly become experts of all wedding things marvelous?
That’s why folks turn to experienced pros, such as Mr. Tutera, to enjoy the benefits of his expertise and know-how. He shows them the way. Kindly. Gently. And his results are dazzling.
The premise of the show now in its second season, if you haven’t seen it yet, is he gets involved with wedding plans at the three week mark – three weeks before their big day!!! – and turns it all around to create for the couple an amazing wedding experience.
Plus he’s got a great haircut. I don’t think I could away with that cut. But he does.
