Heather and Scott

We photographed Heather and Scott and his family recently. We shot their wedding two years ago and it was fun to see how their nieces and nephews had grown. The youngest was actually just a baby bump at the wedding. He's a precocious two year old now.

Heather and Scott:

This was the FIRST picture taken, I was just snapping a test shot of the area we were going to be shooting in and when Scott saw it on the back of the camera he said that he had to have that picture because his dad stands by his truck like that all the time. (The truck is part of the family so they wanted it in the large group picture)

Some individual shots of the kids:

One of Scott's sisters with her family:

The family is so big we ended up covering most of the truck. But we did individual family shots with the truck as well. We also made sure to get images with Grandma and Grandpa with the grandchildren and some with just the brothers and sisters together. It was a blast, even if it was scorching hot! I teased Heather about how she only picks extreme weather to shoot in. We did their engagement pictures in January on the coldest day imaginable. But we survived!  

Family Picture Time

The most popular time for family pictures is in the fall. The summer craziness is over and the leaves are starting to change into their rich, beautiful autumn colors.

Our schedule really starts filling up soon, so contact us right away to get your family portrait session scheduled.

Cousins

Look at these cuties. The littlest one took scissors to her hair a few days before their family photo shoot! Her mom did a great job of disguising the fact that her bangs are about half an inch long.

This is from a family session on Saturday.

We Heart Memory Grove

Memory Grove is a great location for portraits in Utah. We recommend it a lot for family photos, engagements, bridals... really anything. It's free, has lots of great vignettes for creative posing. There is also a lot of variety in a small area.

More of Shaelee

Here are a couple more of Shaelee's pictures. I featured her in the post about what digital editing is.
We shot Shaelee in our studio and on location at the International Peace Gardens. She chose to have hair and makeup done in the studio. Valerie from Archetype Beauty did an amazing job keeping Shaelee looking fresh and age-appropriate but also glamorous at the same time!

What is Digital Editing?

Photographers are always talking about how digital editing is either included with your session or something that you will have to pay for if you want it. Well what is digital editing anyway?

It goes by different names:
Digital Editing
Retouching
Photoshopping (although, according to Adobe, Photoshop is not a verb)
Airbrushing (again, a term that doesn't make sense to me, I never actually use the "airbrush" tool)
Digital Enhancements
Etc.

I thought perhaps it would informative to explain exactly what goes into our digital editing. This is an example of an image that is SOOC (straight out of camera). It has nothing done to it except to resize it for this blog.

Before:

The camera I use (Nikon) has almost a 4x6 ratio. I shot the image leaving a lot of room to one side so I could crop it to 4x5. This is my standard crop and allows an 8x10 and most other enlargements to be made without much cropping. It's exposed correctly and is in focus. The most important part about photography is to get your image as close to perfect as possible while you are shooting. Photoshop should not be relied on to "fix" an image. It is a great tool to enhance and perfect an otherwise decent shot. Keep in mind that DSLR cameras tend to produce slightly dull images, point and shoot cameras usually add a little saturation, warmth and contrast to the image automatically. I like to have a raw image to work with because I am a control freak and want to do it myself.

After:

Here is step-by-step what I did:

• Opened the image in Adobe Photoshop CS3 and cropped it to a 4x5 ratio.
• Duplicated the layer (so I could toggle back and forth between the edited and original versions to make sure I didn't overdo anything).
• Color corrected the image (took out a touch of red and added a touch of yellow).
• Added a little contrast to give it a boost.
• Used the cloning tool to edit out the utility things in the lawn and added a little bit more of the yellow grass to the top left of the image where there was a dark gap.
• Touched up her skin (this high schooler has phonemenal skin so I didn't do much at all!).
• Took a little redness out of her eyes. It was windy and cold.
• Flattened the image (remember I duplicated the layer in step two, this step turns it back into one layer).
• Slightly sharpened the image (this is where most photographers go overboard) and saved it
• Done!

As you can see the "after" image has a little more Pop! I didn't change how she looked or ruin the image with gimmicky editing tricks. Special effects definitely have their place and I do like to play around with filters and actions, but nothing beats a beautiful and simple photograph.

Keep in mind that all of our portrait and wedding packages include basic digital editing just like this. We want you to see your fnished images just like they will appear when printed. The Hi-Res disks contain the edited pictures as well.

Utah Capitol Bridals (Groomals?)

We had a blast shooting Bryan and Melissa at the Utah State Capitol for Melissa's bridals/groomals. We got a bunch of beautiful shots of Melissa, but I thought this little series would be fun to post. Charles and I were getting ready to shoot and I told Bryan to pose like he was a GQ model. He did his best over-the-top pose, but couldn't hold it, probably because Melissa is totally laughing at him in the background.

Can't wait to shoot their wedding next month at the Historic Southworth Hall in Utah County. We have shot there before and I love the brick walls.

New Blog

Welcome to our new blog. The previous posts are some I brought over from my last blog. Check back often for more updates and pictures.
-Susie

Product Feature - 10" Leather Wedding Album

This is a super popular wedding album for our clients. It's a 10" leather flushmount album.

The albums shown here are a soft black leather, but there are several COLORS to choose from. You can choose a sexy red, demure pink or white or a rich chocolate brown! There are many more and even different types of leather.

These are true flushmount albums. The seams are almost invisible!

This album includes a cameo picture on the front and embossing. This one is obviously our studio sample. You can choose a special message or your name and wedding date or just leave it blank and let the pictures do all the talking for you.

These albums are truly works of art and you have to hold them and flip through them to really appreciate how gorgeous these are.

Let me know if you have any questions about this or any other album or product!
susie@charlesbarnardphotography.com