Break Free: Bridal Action Photography

It has been so busy around here and not near enough hours in the day to accomplish all that we wish to. I am very sorry for neglecting this blog for two and a half long weeks. Tim and I went out of town to see family and try out some new styles of photography that I know you are going to love.

Break Free: Bridal Action Photography
You might have heard it called “Trash The Dress”, but we don’t like those words. Your beautiful gown should never be associated with garbage. So instead, we came up with something that we believe is a little more befitting.

With a Break Free session, we want you to feel the freedom from worry, anticipation, or any other negative feeling associated with the stress of your big day. We also want you to break free from tradition. Do the things you normally do in everyday life… just do it in your wedding dress. Make these sessions about who you are, as a person or as a couple.
This was our first Break Free session, but certainly not our last. It was a lot of fun and the idea of it has caught on like wild. Charlotte decided to participate for a few reasons. She has been happily married to her husband for five years now. The dress, however, was purchased before she got married, when she was engaged to another person. She wanted to break free from that bad memory in her life.

“But don’t you want to give your dress away?” This is always an option. It can still be an option after one of our Break Free sessions. You don’t have to destroy your dress (hence why we changed the name from “Trash the Dress”). Almost everything you do can be cleaned at a later time, if you wish to still keep it and pass it on. However, if you have no need to hold on to it – we can immortalize your dress in a fun and unique manner that is all about you!
Charlotte and her family are big four-wheeler fans, so her idea about riding her bike with her dress on was fantastic. We got some great shots of it and the most important part, Charlotte had fun doing it. We then headed over to a creek on her grandmother’s property and got some beautiful wet pictures. We hope you all enjoy these pictures as much as we do. Charlotte’s whole gallery is online at http://shutterspire.zenfolio.com/

Extreme Makeover Home Edition is coming to Dallas

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is coming to Dallas this Friday to announce to yet another deserving family that their prayers of a new home will be answered. In the spirit of giving, ShutterSpire wants to find a way of helping the family too.

The two weeks following the build, ShutterSpire will donate our time to providing portrait services and all of the proceeds will go to the deserving Dallas family. We will do special mini-portrait sessions at the Dallas Arboretum all day from Monday through Friday from July 20 through July 31. These sessions will be approximately 30 minutes long and we are asking for a $50 tax-deductable donation for the service. Please RSVP to assure you get locked into a time slot. Call us at 214-516-5088 or email christina@shutterspire.com and I will get you on the schedule.

What else can you do to support the family? The build will take place from Friday, Jul 10 through the following Friday. You can volunteer your time, help build, or just come cheer the family on. For complete details or to register to help, go to the Cheldan Homes website http://www.extremecheldan.com/

Break Out of Automatic Mode

This series will have a new article posted every week on Wednesday and will cover a range of topics to make you a better photographer. If there is a topic you would enjoy reading about, or possibly a question you have, feel free to drop us a line at info@shutterspire.com

Break Out of Automatic Mode

I know it is a scary idea to switch out of your Automatic mode, but that is the only way you are going to learn. You learned to ride a bicycle as a child and eventually took off the training wheels. Now you can ride a bicycle with comfort and ease. These articles will hopefully train you in the same way. You will be taking the pictures that you envisioned in no time.

Our first step is to put on the training wheels. Switch your camera out of its automatic function, and into the programmable function (P-mode). P-Mode works similar to Auto in that it will make sure that you get a properly exposed picture, but it allows you to add in some of your own creativity. You are able to adjust your ISO, exposure, aperture, and flash functions.
ISO, Exposure, and Aperture

These three things together are the recipe the camera uses to create a picture. Changing one (or all three) of these elements gives you all the creative control to create the images that are in your mind. Let me start off with a few definitions.

ISO – This is the same as ‘film speed’. The lower ISO numbers can be taken when you have plenty of light (outside during the day). The higher ISO numbers are more sensitive to light and allow you to take pictures when not much light is present. When you take pictures with this speed, you will also have more grain that appears in the image and many photographers use this to their advantage. Why would someone want grain? It can make the picture feel warm and fuzzy, or aged and delicate. It can add to the mood of the image. I prefer to stay at ISO 100 – 200, and rarely ever go slower than a 400.

Shutter Speed – Your camera’s shutter speed is measured in seconds and you will nearly always see a fraction of a second. This is how long the shutter stays open to take in the image. Again, this has to do with lighting, as well as what effect you are attempting to achieve. If there is a lot of light, you do not want your shutter open very long. A shutter speed of 1/250 of a second would work well here. That shutter speed will also stop nearly all movement in the image. This is an excellent speed to use if you want to take a picture of your child kicking a soccer ball or your dog running across the yard. If you are inside, or the light is dimmer, you should go to a slower speed such as 1/60 of a second. This shutter speed will stop camera shake (the natural shake of your hands), but if the subject is moving, you will see some blur. This is an excellent speed for the photographer to show movement (like at a party).

Aperture – Aperture is very detailed. Think about your eyes for a minute. When you walk into a dark room, you initially can’t see anything until your eyes adjust (iris gets larger to take in more light); then you are able to look around. Now, step outside from that dark room and your eyes start to hurt. It is too bright and your eyes need to readjust (iris gets smaller to restrict the amount of light). This is the same way the aperture works on a camera. The more wide open it is, the more light gets let in, allowing you to take pictures in lower lighting conditions. Now that you get the general idea, we need to move onto the technical information. Aperture is measured in f-stops. The smaller the aperture opening, the larger the f-stop. For instance, when you walked outside, if you were going to take a picture, you may use an f/16. And, you walk back inside with low lighting conditions, you may change your camera to an f/2.8. There are other effects aperture has as well. Most people like close-up pictures with a great deal of bokeh, or blurry background behind them. You can achieve this with lower f-stop numbers (my favorite is a f/2.8 or f/5.6) This is also referred to as “Depth of Field”. A narrow or shallow depth of field has only a few select items in focus, whereas a wide or deep depth of field has nearly everything in focus.

I want to SEE what you are talking about

I took a variety of pictures using different ISO, shutter speeds and apertures so you can see the different combinations that they have.

ISO 100 1/1000 f/2.8
This first image is done outside in the morning on a bright sunny day. My dog was being good, so I took his picture. I am on ISO 100 because it is bright outside and I want the clearest picture possible (very little grain). I also like bokeh, so I put my aperture down to a f/2.8 and in order to get proper exposure with these settings, I need to use 1/1000 of a second shutter speed (I will explain how to determine this in the next article.)

ISO 1600 1/800 f/16
I wanted to change things up a bit to give you a variety. I bumped my ISO as high as it would go. When zoomed in, there is noticeable grain in the picture. I wanted to see if I can make the background come in pretty clear, so I set my aperture to f/16, and to get a decent exposure, my shutter speed is 1/800 of a second. I ended up slightly underexposing this picture, so I probably should have gone to a 1/640 instead to allow just a little more light in.

ISO 100 1/30 f/2.8
I decided to move inside and take a few pictures of my fairies. Again, I wanted to show a shallow depth of field and get a crisp looking picture without much grain. As you can see, only the center figure is in focus, whereas everything else is blurry. This too is a little underexposed, but if I would have gone to a slower shutter speed, I would have had to use a tripod to avoid too much camera shake.

ISO 800 1/30 f/8
This is the midpoint with a much faster film speed, same shutter speed and a smaller aperture. As you can see, the figures on the left and right are coming into focus more.






ISO 1600 1/20 f/16
These are the maximum settings I could use before having to bring in a tripod and flash or additional lighting. As you can see, the figures are mostly in focus (and so is the background). This is due to the aperture giving us a wide depth of field. The ISO is giving us grain. Look at the two images below. They are enlarged sections of two of these images.

ISO 100























ISO 1600

























Your Assignment
For this week, I want you to put your camera in “P” mode and scroll through the different settings that your camera has for the correct exposure. Take pictures using these settings:
ISO 100
ISO 1600
f/2.8 (or as low as your camera will go)
f/22 (or as high as your camera will go)
1/30 second
1/800 second

Submit your images to me to post on our blog. Have a great rest of your week and enjoy our holiday weekend!