iraellis

<p>One question for you Brooke: How long is a piece of string?</p>

<p>I've done many beach engagement sessions with clothing changes. I have had couples wear bathing attire under their clothes. Changing to another outfit becomes a non-issue. Opening a car door and holding a blanket up for privacy works well when near your car.</p>

<p>Melissa, I couldn't disagree with you more. Marc Williams has presented an absolutely perfect example of sun synch or fill flash. The shadows that he created are perfectly aligned for the subject and background. The whites in the photograph are perfectly exposed showing all the detail anyone could expect. His exposure is spot on.</p>

<p>You may think that the subjects look like "cardboard pop-outs" but I guarantee that Marc's clients were ecstatic with the above image. </p>

<p>Here's a tip from one of photography's gurus, Scott Kelby:<br>

"Here's another tip that will make your flash less "flashy"when shooting outdoors: use your camera's flash exposure compensation button and change the flash exposure compensation to -1, (it works the same way regular exposure compensation works, but for flash exposures). Your flash will still help lift out the shadows, but now without being so obvious."<br>

I quoted from <em>The Digital Photography Book Volume 1</em> by Scott Kelby, page 41.</p>

<p>Shooting RAW will also help you by giving you the added latitude that the RAW format offers.</p>

<p>Hopefully, the wedding you were hired to shoot is far enough in the future for you to hook up with an experienced wedding photog who would be willing to take you under his or her wing in exchange for your assistance. That's how my good friend above, (Bob Bernardo), and I became acquainted many years ago. I taught wedding photography at The Learning Tree in Chatsworth, CA and Bob was my best student, (can you tell how proud I am of the way he turned out?). That's my advice - the more shooters you can become friends with, the better you will become. º¿º</p>

<p>I agree with my good friend Bob Bernardo. One other aspect to consider is that most often an engagement shoot will lead to a guest signature portrait or album, (certainly not free). I have made business cards with the same image that the couple selected for their sign-in board and placed those cards right next to the portrait which is displayed on an easel at the entry to the reception.<br>

If you want to make it real special, have the sign-in portrait mounted with an appropriately large enough bevel cut matte, (for guests to write small messages), and framed in a nice wall frame on an easel with a halogen spot light highlighting the image. I promise it will get you Ooohs and Aaahs and probably new clients.</p>

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I pride myself in being an expert in studio lighting and this is the simplest of lighting set

ups. This overly dramatic and high ratio lighting was done with a single light positioned

about 45 degrees to the subject's left, (our right), and sightly higher than the subject,

(estimated at about 30 degrees). It appears that a small sized light modifier was used

based on how sharp the shadow edges are, although it is a bit hard to tell by looking at

such a small sample image. I could tell better if I could inspect the catch lights in the

subject's eyes. She is also close enough to the background for some light to spill on it for

a little seperation.