So on a busy friday afternoon we invited Teck and Lillie to spend some time in the Yellow Chair.  What sweet little souls.  It was cute to see them trying so hard to understand what we wanted, and after a few wrong turns they got it!  And with some trial and error on the part of the adults to get their attention – most of which only inspired them to come running to us- we got the hang of it too.

Their personalities came out… and we all shared some priceless moments.

Matching their outfits with the backdrops came easy- the vinyl wall with the black leather collar- the red wall and chandelier with the posh outfits- and the bold white with their house divided basketball outfits.

I think my favorite though was the pups playing around the legs of the Yellow Chair and moms favorite shoes.

I have a whole new respect for the photographers who work with animals full time.  And we are eager to expand our pet photography- so give us a call and we can get to know your four legged family members too!

We’ve been traveling, out of town, out of the studio… but we still want to get post a yellow chair shoot.  It was fun to run out to a local field that we had been eye-ing for some time.  We just needed the right person / photo session.  It was good fun to get the right person, right theme, and the right kind of day.  Enjoy!  if you want to read a little more of what happened in Scott’s techy photographer brain during the shoot… scroll to the bottom.

 The Art and Science

Art - I wanted to shoot looking into the sun because shooting against sun can be dramatic but it also creates significant technical challenges if you want to create an image with a full dynamic range.  ie, you don’t what the highlights/sky to totally blow out or your shadows to go totally dark.  The sky that day was dramatic and illustrated in the first picture.  These pictures were all taken with  in a few minutes of each other under identical lighting situations…. and yet they look totally different.  The last image is all natural light, exposing for the face while the first image considers and adjusts for the sky, adds fill flash to fill light to the face and plans on some post-production computer magic.  Once shot there is a fair bit of post production to take advantage of things that can only be done in the computer. 

Most photoshoots and especially this one are a 2 step process.  First shooting it the way I want it in the camera.  Lighting, exposure ratios, posing etc.  Then Post-Production is used to do the rest of the work. 

Science – The first image poses the most challenge to caputer the dynamic range of the sky, the field and our SR’s face.  Each need to be exposed differently and yet it needs to all happen in 1 exposure.  Here is where we see great benefits from shooting RAW image files and doing the post production rendering in the computer and not letting the camera do the render to Jpeg when shot.  We use Phase One’s Caputer One software to make several renders.  A render for the sky, one for the field and one for our senior.  Adjustments are also made to contrast, saturation, curves and levels. Once we have different renders for each part of the images… they are combined in Photoshop.  Then, once each render is on its own layer and they are blended. ~ Scott

Hey, bring our chair back.

This weeks photo shoot was inspired by the little market at the end of my street.  They have recently repainted – in bright blue, orange, and pink.   I couldn’t resist.  I dressed the kids up in bright colors. grabbed some lollys as big as their heads, and let them have some fun- all to the tune of HONK HONK!  Now I’m seeing brightly painted walls all around town.

Let me know your favorite color- and we can find one for you!

We’ve been shooting with them since they were born- and they are so much fun to work with.  In light of triple digit temperatures we had a last minute mutiny about the outdoor shoot.  I won’t mention who put the breaks on- but let’s just note that I still love him- and looking at these shots I can’t believe I would consider anything else.  We had the lights down low, the music up high (newsboys if you want to feel the complete vibe) and the magic just flowed.  Getting kids to give “a soft smile”  can be next to impossible- but once they caught on to what we wanted- the hour flew by.

I looked at the back of the camera a few times and almost didn’t recognize these funny little creatures who bring so much joy to my life!  I am so excited to share these with you!  And I’m off to the kids next swim meet!

1. I get all the props for the crazy idea
2. I talk someone into participating in my crazy idea- clients, my kids, or perfect strangers
3. My talented husband shows up for the shoot and has to take my crazy idea and make art out of it. And he never lets me down!

So here is our first Vintage Yellow Chair shoot… tell me what you think!