This was one of my favorites from this wedding - there's something about the symmetry, the parallel pews, the bride in the middle. This is a shot that doesn't follow the rule of thirds. In fact, it kind of flies in the face of it. That being said, I think it's a better image because of it.

The other effect that could be done to this image to make it stand out more is the use of selective color. Jamie here had a bouquet of roses that really make an impact. I chose not to do selective color because I think it distracts the viewer from the composition of the photo, but it could still be a pretty neat effect.

Normally, the ideal exposure for an outdoor scene is neither under nor overexposed - it's average. That little exposure compensation dial comes in handy for scenes like this because the truth is that we know better than the camera does (hopefully, anyway). Dial in +2.0 and you'll be pleasantly surprised during your next outdoor shoot when the sun is high in the sky. The next photo is the same concept, just a different pose. 

Here’s one more for this post. Even though we're indoors, the lighting is still a little more than meets the eye - she's lit by ambient, the entire alter is lit by off-camera-flash. See, it doesn't seem like he's lit (which is why it works), but if there hadn't been a light down there, you definitely would have noticed more detail, which would ultimately detract from the foreground.

So even though my assistant and I took over 5,000 photos that Saturday - the shot above was the shot of the day for me. It wasn't forced, it wasn't unnatural - it was barely even staged. We got Natalie to take a seat on the bench and it just came together. Megan (my wife, also known as 'the boss') is off to the left with the softbox, just inches out of the frame. You can really see the light's impact on Natalie's face, dress, and flowers - it creates a really nice shadow on skin, gives the dress a soft gradient, and does the same for the flowers. Because the softbox is small (I think it's only 12x12), it doesn't define the light int he rest of the environment.

When there isn't a great background to work with, I always try and make it symmetrical as not to cause a distraction, then try and get rid of it. In this case, I intentionally over-exposed those windows so the viewer looks at what they're supposed to - the guys - and not look at what's distracting - the background.

Dancing shots are a lot harder to get than you'd expect. Well, that's not true - good dancing shots are a challenge. Most are blurry or out of focus - if you do a get a good shot off, it's probably of people looking all funky and whatnot. Face it, dance-moves aren't often flattering when they're captured in a single frame. Limbs flailing, funny faces, you name it. Like I said, it's challenging, but that's what's so fun about the process!

The past few weeks have really flown by - lots and lots of traveling. Virginia, US Virgin Islands, Pennsylvania, Florida (and every state in-between).  While I was away, I received a few questions about the silhouette and the location. It's a 191-foot-long historic covered bridge in Mount Jackson, Virginia. It's a beautiful place to have your engagement portraits done, that's for sure!

I love Lightroom - it's a great program that makes managing and processing RAW photos a breeze. Until yesterday, I really didn't have much use for the 'develop module' presets that come packed into the software. After exploring them, I fell in love with the Adobe-generated ones and went on to alter 'em to create my own.

The first photo's preset is 'direct positive'. It raises the exposure and the recovery, boosts blacks, increases the s-shape of the tone curve, and boosts some saturation. For all of that, the effect is actually rather subtle - but really, really nice.

This preset is 'aged photo'. You'd think that Lightroom is doing some split-toning, but it isn't. It's altering the camera calibration of the red, green, and blue channels, as well as decreasing the saturation of the blue channel.

The reason I titled this blog post 'Presets that Actually Work' is because, well, just that - they do. When I think 'preset', I typically think things like - 'lame, cheesy, canned, uh…LAME'. It appears that the smart folks over at Adobe were thinking about photographers when they developed these presets, because they aren't any of those things - they're actually pretty great tools.

Selective color can be a pretty neat effect - as long as it's done on the right images, and not overdone...

I think out of 87 picks (the good ones) from the engagement portrait session, only 3 had this effect. It's a great one, don't get me wrong, just don't be 'that guy' using it on every other photo.

Like many things, there are about 100 different ways of creating the effect. Lightroom does it simply in two ways - the adjustment brush and the HSL panel. The adjustment brush was used on the top two, HSL on the third.

Adjustment brush technique is done by using -100 saturation and painting over everything you don't want colorized. You can then go in and create another brush point (is that what they're even called?) and boost some saturation among the colors that are left.

The bottom photo can't be done with this technique due to all the leaves on the ground. Well, I guess you could - only it would take you about a day to select the ones you want. Just select the tones you don't want and drop the saturation down to nothing - that will take care of it. You may need to go back in and paint away some stray tones, but for the most part, you should be good.