Hampton Roads Wedding Photographers Michael and Carina Photography
Yesterday we asked followers on Facebook and Instagram to ask us your questions and promised we’d answer them today! So here goes…
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Contax 645 with our favorite lens, the Zeiss 80mm f2.0; fuji400h film developed by Richard Photo Lab
Britta asked:
What are your favorite lenses to work with? Do you prefer film or digital?
Hi Britta! We love the mix of working with film and digital and the flexibility it gives us. Outside with plenty of natural light, we love shooting with film. Inside at a ballroom reception, we might shoot 1 or 2 rolls of Ilford 3200 film for a soft, grainy black and white look that evokes (at least to us) a sense of timelessness. That said, we love shooting digital inside with several speedlights to really capture the energy that erupts out on a dance floor. Being hybrid shooters really has its benefits. <3
Our favorite lens is definitely the 80mm f2 Zeiss lens on the Contax 645!
Amanda asked:
How do you save your photos to upload for facebook?
Oh, the love-hate relationships we’ve all experienced with how Facebook resizes images upon uploading, right? We use the same program we use for blogging to resize and sharpen our images: Blogstomp. It’s a wonderful addition to the photographer’s “spend less time at the desk, more time shooting” arsenal. Also a great way to get sharp images on Facebook is to resize them for Facebook and save them as a .png file in Photoshop. Photographer Trevor Dayley has a great article on uploading to Facebook on FStoppers.
We hope this helps! We know how much this can be a pain!
Elke asked:
Would you want come (back) to Germany to photograph the weddings of your old friends?
Elke, without a doubt, yes! We’d be honored to! Send us an email so we can set up a Skype date! Let’s chat!
Serena wrote:
Hey you two!
My question(s) is/are:
why did you move to the US and how did you start your own business in the states?
I am asking because I am going through the same right now and wonder how you got the attention of potential clients, how long it took, how you promoted yourselves, if you had a regular job in the beginning … since it is quite hard to get noticed in a big forest of photographers around here.
Looking forward to your reply!
Best wishes and lots of success,
Serena
Well, those are some fun ones! And what a sweet note, thank you! The short answer to why we moved back to the USA is because we could! Haha! Seriously though, we had started getting used to the idea of settling down in Germany when Carina’s greencard was finally approved – three years after we applied for it!
One of the conditions of accepting a greencard is having a US address, so we decided to give it a shot. We gave ourselves 3 months to see if we could make it… and we’re so blessed to still be here a year and a half later!
As far as when we first moved here, how we got the word out about ourselves… Well that’s the thing… aside from admittedly one or two Craigslist ads (there we admitted it, guilty), we reached out to other vendors and tried to help promote them as much as possible. Specifically vendors with a similar target market to our own. Reaching out to them and being genuine about it got us referrals.
The first clients we booked didn’t invest an arm and a leg in our services… but we tried our best to make them feel like they did.
You don’t need to drive yourself crazy trying to book more clients, trying to book more clients…
One bride led to five referrals here, another led to three referrals there… and it just went on from there.
Just get one client… and don’t concentrate on promoting yourself, concentrate on being a good photographer and a genuinely good person!
All you need is one client for you to treat as genuinely as possible… a client to go the extra mile for (which you want to do for all of them!)… underpromising, overdelivering..
And then you won’t need to promote yourself. They’ll take care of that for you.
John asked:
How do you deal with the following issues that could occur during engagement shoots/weddings:
1) Extreme difference in height between the two subjects.
2) harsh light
3) lack of light in a dark room or outside at night.
1. Some people might feel differently but we’re of the opinion that our clients are who they are… we accept them for it and embrace it! When you’re taking photos of a couple with a big difference in height, I’d probably say try less to worry about their height difference and more about composing in a manner complimentary to them!
Granted, poses where the couple is leaning over towards each other, a cute one where she’s on her tiptoes giving him a kiss, or where he is sitting and she’s leaning up against him, those are fine for some shots and put them on a pretty even ground. I’m guessing though they’re aware of their height difference! Imagine how unnatural it would seem if the couple was separated by several noticeable inches in height in real life… then, all of a sudden they look the same in photos where they are standing! Just go for natural, loving shots like you would with anyone else!
2. Easy answer is shoot film <3 We love shooting film in harsh light because of its dynamic range. But even with digital photography, there are some basics to shooting in harsh light that help photos stand out. And no, it doesn’t necessarily mean “FULL RETREAT! BACK TO OPEN SHADE, NOW!”
- Shoot with their backs to the sun to avoid squinty eyes and blown out details on the dress. Having the sun at their back also creates a nice highlight on their hair and shoulders. You might just want to put your lens hood on, though!
- If you can control the situation, such as during portraits at the wedding, it helps to look for natural reflectors (or bring your own for an assistant to hold). Some of our favorite natural reflectors are walls, cement walkways, sides of white delivery vans.
- Shoot closeup, on a longer focal length, and with a shallow depth of field. Shooting a couple posing in harsh light on a 24mm focal length in the early afternoon might yield some interesting results, but put on a 135mm lens at f2, and get up close… and the subjects just glow!
3. Use some off camera flash! As photographers, it’s good to know what to do when it gets dark! Throwing a couple of speed lights up on stands helps you take control of the situation and will help your images stand out, too! If you don’t have a flash handy, you can always get creative with sparklers, streetlights, candles, etc… but if you’re a photographer, it’s a good idea to have at least one flash! Two or three is even better! Getting this action at the ballroom reception that night wouldn’t have been possible without flash.
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Lina asked:
Questions about film.. I want to start shooting film. What camera would you recommend for a beginner, what printing lab and maybe some film roll suggestions?
Sounds exciting! YAAAY! We love it when photographers want to begin experimenting with film! It depends on what you shoot now, but the Canon Elan-7 for example would work with your Canon EF lenses, if you shoot Canon. The Canon AE-1 is older and takes FD mount lenses, (i.e., not current model Canon lenses), but it’s an amazing camera to work with and has a build quality that puts cameras today to shame. Also, it looks awesome.
If you’re just getting started, Kodak Portra 400 is a great option; Fuji400h is our favorite but a bit trickier when you’re exposing it. Indie Film Lab offers very competitive rates and Film Box Lab does an awesome job as well. Richard Photo Lab does amazing work and they have amazingly fast turnaround times, but they can be pricey.
Emma asked:
When you shoot film for an entire wedding, how many photos do they receive? Do you cull them?
Hi Emma, we definitely cull the images but we do find that the keeper rate is somehow much higher when the photos cost several dollars apiece to develop! Shooting film really forces you to think each time you press the shutter button. But of course, there are always still the odd photos of someone blinking, and those are removed in the culling process. In the end the couple usually receives several hundred photos.
Matoli asked:
Do you and Carina also shoot digital during the wedding? Or solely film? If you shoot digital also, how do you make sure they look consistent with film images? Actions? Presets?
Hello Matoli! We shoot a mix of film and digital throughout the wedding. It begins mainly film, and then as the evening draws we rely more and more on our digital cameras. We also shoot a mix of film and digital even during the portraits though. We spent the better part of last year working on our own presets, but the best “film” preset we’ve found that also helps our workflow is the “Kodak Portra 400 Mastin Labs” preset for Lightroom 4. Our own presets reflect our favorite film more, Fuji400h. Although we hear Mastin Labs is coming out with a fuji400h preset soon…
We don’t just apply them and batch edit; we try and match the look of a digital image to a film image in similar light by opening a second window in Lightroom and basing our edit on the matching film scan.
Also, we really try to concentrate on giving the “film look” to images where we would also normally shoot film in a similar lighting situation. We don’t worry so much about matching every single detail of a dance shot where we use flash to how that would look with film, as we never shoot film with off camera flash. We still apply the same basic adjustments to said images, we just don’t try to painstakingly match them to images which don’t exist. We feel how we edit them is consistent for our look!
Kristine asked:
How do you go about getting your soft creamy, and classy look digitally?
We like to think a lot of getting the “soft” look digitally comes in camera and how you expose. Finding the right light and using natural reflectors helps you a long way, more than editing ever could! We like to expose for the shadows of our subjects, turn down highlights in post, push the blacks bar up (+++) and the contrast bar too when we’re editing.
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This shot of Annika was taken on a 5D camera with a 50mm 1.2 lens and was shot wide open. Instead of a natural reflector we opted for the white side of our 3-in-1 reflector.
We also shoot at relatively wide apertures, from f1.2 – f4 is where we stay. Finding the right background, such as where sunlight is coming in through the leaves, helps lend an image bokeh similar to shooting on medium format when shot wide open. More important than how you edit an image is definitely finding the right light. We love shooting on gravel paths for example, because they reflect light beautifully on to ours subjects faces!
Just keep shooting and while it’s easy to get distracted by others work and it’s good to be inspired, be sure to let your own creativity, your own clients and your own love of photography inspire you too!
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Thank you guys so much for taking the time to ask us what was on your mind!
Please let us know if we missed anything! <3
Until next time,
xoxo Michael and Carina
Destination Wedding Photographers | Hampton Roads Wedding Photographers | Virginia Wedding Photographers
