OMG! WOW Thank you all so much. You have no idea what these replies mean to me. I actually almost welled up a little when I read all of this :blushing: I really didn't expect this, especially since I know some of you are quite seasoned pro's. Please forgive my about to be possibly lengthy response
First I have to say that I had my "style" in mind for a long time before I actually new how to execute it. I booked this wedding almost a year ago and then spent almost every single day after that learning and thinking as much as I could about how to actually execute what I saw in my minds eye as well as researching others that seemed to shoot a similar style. This is just one of the reasons I haven't been able to spend much if any time hear for the last 8 months or so!
(PS- If anyone is interested in that whole process I am planning a write up on it in another post) As many of you may know people has always been my weakest point when it comes to actually taking the picture, alot of it for me has been letting go of self fear or people and just making myself "get the shot" no matter how dumb I may feel! :er: Anyway enough rambling . . .
I must say that when I was a very active member here Danalec99 and Alison actually played a big part in influencing my craving for good duo-tone and BW process. Simply put I just always remembered seeing great smooth clean toning examples. I don't remember the individual images anymore just the overall feel of the images. I usuall know already when I am framing and metering an image if I am going to convert it later but usually the image tells me what tone it wants. Sounds cheesy I know but it really is about feeling and emotion with weddings right?
The motion stuff was the most fun of it all. This really was the "dream" assignment in some ways. Basically they said "we know you are basically a freak about your camera and working with pictures so if you can shoot our wedding we will pay you, let us know what it costs. We have seen some of the stuff you have done and like it so whatever you do we are sure will be ok with us
just also do some traditional posed stuff for us ok?" So I used this reception as a 6 hour test session basically!:stun: I had all kinds of ideas and theories floating around in my head (from thinking on it day and night for 8 months straight) but no idea if they would actually work when it came crunch time. I got lucky with alot of them. I should also mention that all of the motion shots are not photoshop filters they are the result of actuall in camera technique. I say this only because even though I know how to do them all in PS I wanted to make sure I have solid mechanics to back it up in the case of a client who want film only. Also lots of panning work at racing events last year got me really comfortable with ultra long shutter speeds which is the majority of this low light stuff anyway. At the reception I was anywhere between 1/4" and 1/15" with ISO 400-800 using my 10D and Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX HSM and a Speedlight 550EX on camera fitted with an omni-bounce diffuser.
OK I'll stop now. Again thank you so much for the warm replies. I don't think I have EVER studied this hard for anything in my life and I still have a lot to learn but to get this sort of response just makes me believe that I am going the right direction. Thanks again all! :hugs:
Sorry for the novel
