dstolman

Hey Mary,

I'm Danielle and I'm from Atherton (SF Bay area), California.

What a great idea!

Danielle Stolman - Atherton, CA

Hi Anthony, By any chance would the bride's fiance of Chinese descent? In that case she's

honoring his culture by wearing red.

Chinese brides have traditionally worn red dresses; in America a Chinese bride may wear a

white or red wedding dress, some wear one dress for the ceremony and one for the

reception.

I have photographed one Chinese wedding, during the ceremony she wore a white dress,

during the reception she wore this red dress. I tried, but could not find any photos of her

standing near people wearing a lot of white or with red hair, here is one of her with red

envelops (they contain monetary presents). If the groom is Chinese, there will probably be

a lot of red things there.

As far as metering, I just did an average of her and her dress, did a quick average in my

hear and picked an exposure that would flatter her skin tones most of all, doing simliar

things for shots of her with others.

Good luck and be sure to post some photos when you are done.

Danielle Stolman

Atherton, CA<div></div>

With the packages I offer that come with a disc of images, I give them large files which are

11 x 14, would resize in the same dimension to 4x5 and 5x7 and with enough room so

they could crop and make 8x10s (which I explain to them with the disc).

Perhaps you could offer two different discs, one with basic proof size, and another

premium disc with the three sizes (for a higher price, after all even if you have it set to an

auto resizing program you are still putting in the time and work to do it).

Danielle - Atherton, CA

Hi Jonathan, Is your computer a PC or an Apple? Right now Photoreflect has software

only supporting their print fufillment program (Labtricity) for PC. So if you have an Apple

you would either have to fufill your own orders (i.e. send or bring the files to a lab

yourself-though could be electronically) or use Virtual Windows for Mac. I use Photoreflect

and I have a Mac, but I take the files to a local pro lab that does a great job.

Danielle

Five months ago I was going to shoot a wedding for a friend (as a wedding present) who was being married by the justice of the peace. The courthouse I was supposed to meet her had this policy that the doors were closed during ceremonies and no one coud enter the chapel while a ceremony was going on.

I was there 20 minutes early and saw people lined up ready to get married, but I didn't see my friend or her soon to be husband, and was really wondering what was going on as the time got closer and closer for their ceremony.

Finally roughly five minutes before the time the ceremony had been scheduled for, the chapel doors open and out walks my friend and her new husband. Turns out that twenty minutes before I got there the registrar had gone down a list of the people to be married and no one but my friend had had all the proper documents early. They told her to get married then or come back another day (a policy I'm still not comprehending), so they did.

They did suspect that I was would be on the other side of the door waiting, but the chapel wouldn't have opened the door anyhow.

Since then, I've been a lot earlier to every ceremony and would be even earlier if asked to do another justice of the peace wedding at that location.

My friend asked me to take pics of her, her husband and her bridal party which I did, and her husband was so happy to have any pics of them he even offered to pay me a little for my time, but especially since I missed the entire ceremony I told them it was my treat.

Thanks again for all the help, suggestions and most of all the pictures.

When the equipment room guy (a good friend of mine) saw how limited my exeperience with lighting really was, all he would sign out to me was two floodlights. He did, however, give me some great advice on placing them and even helped me calm the dog down. I took a lot of photos, here is my favorite, and her owner likes it, too.<div></div>

Hi everyone. A friend has asked me to take "a few snaps" of his dog

for his holiday card. The dog is a huge white standard poodle and is

a little hyper, but she usually calms down around me after an hour or

so. I know I could just take a few pics of her outside and my friend

will be happy, but being a photojournalist student I'd like to try to

do better than that. (I'm not telling my friend that the dog is going

to a studio, if the shots come out great, I'll present him with them,

if not, he'll get the "few snaps" he asked for).

I will have access on Monday to our school's studio for five hours. (I

already have the ok to bring the dog in.) There are a few lights

available, one overhead, one small and two large ones for putting in

front or in back of a subject (as I haven't taken the lighting class

yet, just was shown a quick demonstration of them in one of my classes

I don't know what to call them). We have a black, white, brown and

blue background available, but I think the white would give way to

much contrast.

Any helpful hints would be appreciated, also if you have any dog shots

done in studio particularly of white dogs, please post.

Thanks.

Danielle<div></div>

I just came back shooting a wedding. The couple was a lot of fun, and

right as they were about to cut the cake I remembed Marc telling us

and showing us how visually rewarding placing the couple's wedding

party around the cake cutting could be.

I suggested this to them, and the couple ended up having their

bridesmaids, one groomsman and his one year old daughter in his arms,

and the groom's mother all around them. Not only did this make the

cake cutting pictures more interesting, but then the bride and groom

ended up feeding the bridesmaids, groomsman and daughter and mom the

cake.

I've seen a couple feed a mother before, but the bridal party, never.

It made for really great photos. I would post them, but the bride

wanted it in her contract that the photos of her wedding would never

be posted on any websites, though putting them in an album or

portfolio was ok.

So, a few of those photos will go in my print displays. Thanks so much

Marc, I love that tip and don't know that I would have ever thought of

it without you.

Danielle

Hi Allan. I've only shot one quince (as a second shooter), so my response is based only on that one. The young lady whose event I shot had a really formal church service and a really dressed up fancy, but a little less casual in terms of mood dance.

The main photographer specifically asked me to shoot all black and white for the religious service and color for the dance, this combo seemed to work quite well. Some of the religious pictures really seemed to scream out to be in black and white, you might consider making/taking a few of them in black and white if you think the girl and her parents will appreciate it.

For the church the main obstacle were the priests, they told us to stay far back from the altar, further than you might have to for some weddings, so if you can find out how far back you will be standing, and plan on lens lenghth accordingly. That being said the solemnity was really beautiful, I got some shots I liked of people holding hands in a line and praying, people receiving communion, etc. that the family really liked. Your subject may potentially read from the Bible, give communion to her parents, give a speech or present flowers to the statue of Mary.

For the dance, this event had (and this is pretty typical I'm told) a huge number of guests and a very large honor court (this is kind of like the princes and princesses in a high school prom court, but she had 13 boys and 14 girls (one boy was her escort). Be sure to get a photo of each of the pairs. At the reception was a large and long cake with 14 dolls dressed like the girls, if this one has one you will need a wide angle lens to get the best shot.

I don't know if this is typical, but several items of the day (i.e. food, hall, church, flowers, photography) were paid by family members as sponsors, and the girl gave gifts to them all, so I took photos of them together also.

Good luck.

Hi everyone. I've worked as an assitant photographer and second

shooter for several wedddings (also bar-and bat-mitzvahs and

quincenaras), and shot a few weddings solo.

I can shoot and assist on film and digital systems. I'm currently a

senior at college in a photojournalism program, so I especially like

the candid/photojournalistic aspect of it, and I can also shoot (and

help you organize) posed formals. At one of the last weddings I did

(with over 450 guests in attendance) the photographer gave me the

major task of getting all the groups organized for the photos.

If anyone is interested feel free to email me at notsostilllife@gmail.com.

Thanks,

Danielle<div></div>

Hi guys. Wow that's a lot of answers.

For the first wedding I got all the key ceremony shots and most of the candids I wanted.

For the second (of which there were 2 other main still photographers and 2 videographers,

all besides me), I had been told to get mainly the candid things happening and concentrate

on mainly the reception, i.e. not that I was trying to miss shots at the ceremony, but was

told that the other two were the main for that, get what I could but not in their way. So I

missed some shots because of the sheer number of people trying to photograph, the fact

that the crowd made a semi circle around the couple the photographers were all told to

stand behind and shoot around the minister and also due to running out of film in one

place at the wrong time (missed a noncrucial ceremony moment that was later repeated

again). The ceremony featured a Renaissance theme and vows and a pace I wasn't used to,

also.

As far as rewinding on picture 30 if the lull happens, that is a great idea, I was shooting

duplicate expressions to get through the roll, rewinding early should be what I did and

what I will do in the future.

I can and have shot DSLRs at weddings, done whole weddings all Canon 10D, right now

I'm just trying to do all film if I can. The clients I've been working have been shown my film

work and know the extent to which I've used it for weddings specifically before they have

brought me aboard.

Available light photography is just so beautiful in my eyes and I really would like to

eventually shoot just all that, all film proficently and hopefully a few weddings in just all

black and white.

Thanks to all who have answered so far.

D

Yesterday I just shot the second of two of my first all film/all Leica RF weddings. I brought

my M7 and rented an M6. I tried to have the M7 loaded with color and the M6 with black

and white at all times.

What was interesting to me was that even with two cameras I found myself missing a shot

here and there and wishing I had a third. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't rent a second

camera from the camera shop as they only have the one M6. Also I tended to run out of

film on both at the same time (I guess I'm going back and forth a lot between color and

black and white). Maybe the solution is to look for a wedding that I can do in all black and

white or all color, but I really like the mixture and think the clients will also.

Al, you shoot with 3 at a wedding, is that 1 color, 2 b and w, all b and w, etc.? Do you ever

find yourself running out of film in more than one at a time? Also from the picture I saw

posted of you, it looks like you balance 3 on your neck and don't use a tripod? I wasn't

that confident yet, so the slower speed color I used a mini tripod mounted as a chest pod

for part of the time, and shot the high speed black and white film in the M6 freehand.

Maybe I should start considering buying a M3 or so or two used as I start doing more

weddings. I'll post a few pictures from each soon after I get my rolls back.

Danielle

I have a few questions about magazine style wedding albums:

1)how do you find a good production company to do them assuming you are shooting all

or mostly film (anyone know a company that processes the film also?)?

2)assuming they must put the images into digital format at some place, do you lose a lot

of the film quality in the final product?

3)for those of you that design your own and send the layouts to a company that does just

the final production, what program(s) do you use?

Thanks,

Danielle<div></div>

Stacy,

Your decision to stop using a digital camera and shoot it all film is exactly how I feel right

now. As I'm still trying to establish a market and shooting as an assistant for most of the

weddings I've done so far I've had to shoot all digital or half and half by the primary

photographer's request.

In January I have two up that I'm shooting (one I'm the solo, one I'm one of many

photographers) that I'm shooting all film, can't wait. I still enjoy Photoshop a lot although

I've only recently started using it for weddings. Also as I'm in California I'm curious as to

which lab you use.

Hi guys thanks for the suggestions. So far I have always spoken to the couple together. I

like the idea of meeting with her alone in a neutral place and have made preparations to

do so. Though she hasn't given a reason yet for her dislike of the whole photography

thing, I think part of it is just wanting to relax and not have to feel like she's putting on a

show for the camera, hence why I suggested doing it without any formals.

I just talked to the bride and groom whose wedding I will be shooting this Friday.

This is a first for me, a groom who seems very enthusiastic about pictures, and a bride

who does not. The wedding will take place in the couple's home and have @ 20 guests.

The bride states that not only does she hate having her picture taken she doesn't even

want to be concious that photos are being taken. I promised her my cameras (Leica M7

and the backup M6 I'll have with me) are very inobtrusive and quiet and that I wouldn't

even use a flash. I'll have a 35 f 2, 50 f 2 and 90 f 2.8 with me as lenses. Additionally I

promised her she didn't need to pose for any formals whatsoever, so this will all be pre

and post ceremony candids and the wedding itself.

Any suggestions for getting the best possible pictures without making the bride more

camera shy/nervous about my presence.

Thanks,

Danielle

Hi Everyone.

I have an interview in a few weeks with a wedding photographer who has decided to try

shooting with an assistant for the first time. Her work is stunning-mainly photojournalistic

and

the type I aspire to.

I've worked with a few different photographers before, and I'm hoping to find one to work

with as an assistant for a more longer term.

Regarding showing a portfolio to her: currently I usually show a 18 image

parent type album of one wedding I did and a 5x7 collection of some best of shots from

several weddings. The wedding shots are pretty stanard-some formal, some

photojournalistic.

I don't know if I should invest in some 8x10s for another best of or do another 8x10 type

album. Before the interview I will also be shooting a Scottish themed wedding and a

Renaissance themed wedding which might also be added to my portfolio.

Any thoughts or advice?

Danielle

Today I dropped off the CD of the best images to the assistant for the church's website

designer. I sharpened some and included all the best images (the ones I posted were three

from the biggest problem category, there are some where people were holding more still

and it seemed to work better.

I agree the f stop was the major mistake, luckily I got that worked out now, before

shooting someone's wedding under similar conditions.

As far as the flash, the second I saw the lights go down I wanted to put up my flash,

however, the pastor has made it clear that if he sees a flash during the service that will be

the last time I (or whoever the photographer is) who does it, is allowed to take pictures

during his services.<div></div>

I guess I thought that the 5.6 would bring out more of the areas in focus, I think some

were at 2 not entirely sure, honestly I really didn't know the candle bearers would be there,

but had I known these would come out like this, I would have stayed for the second service

and shot these all at f2. I guess I'm still just really learning when to use what DOF with it.

Yes the tripod was at chest level.

Well I used the tripod roll head set up described above. Not the easiest thing to manuever

into place or comfortable to shoot with....Still.. it burns me up, I know there's a better way

to do this, maybe I should get a Leica sling or something simliar for the next night event.

Trying the image again, also the shutter speed were really slow 1/8th and slower (why I

tried to use the tripod-got one of the roll heads and mini tripods and used myself as a

tripod "stand" as the Leica rep showed me.

Hi Bruno,

I used a Leica M7 with 35 mm Summicron lens f 2 on f 5.6 (probably should have used 2

but trying to get a lot in them), NPH film.