bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Just thought I'd give a big shout out to Tim Stapp for the great job he did on Saturday.

He hit the ground running. Although, he didn't get to help with the boudoir shoot (don't worry, neither did I, my daughter handles that) he did an awesome job, and didn't complain at all. (except for not getting to shoot the boudoir shots.... he wasn't the only one disappointed that we couldn't help, pretty bride :-) )

He "toted that barge and lifted those bales" with the best of them.

I've got a LOT of editing to do. The one I'm posting is a rough draft of what I hope the final image will look like.

The ballgame (other side of the courtyard) was rained out. You can see, so was the courtyard, there was standing water covering the whole thing. One shot that the bride had her heart set on, was to get her photo taken in the courtyard, in front of the fireworks.

Tim stood in the rain and took the shot of the courtyard. I pulled out some old photos of fireworks, and grabbed one of the shots of them kissing, and put them together.

Anyway I just mocked this up and got it to the couple before they left on their honeymoon, to get them excited about their photos when they get back. I told them that this is only a rough draft. They've already ordered a print of it, without seeing the final version. So, I'm guessing they liked it :-)

Just keep in mind, this is the first draft. I need to fix the bottom of the dress, and I'm going to blend the lighting better, as well as clean up the edges around the fireworks. Just wanted to share the idea, in case anyone else wants to use it. Getting a lot of "likes" so maybe just giving them the "special shot" will generate some business? I hope.

superpijak Loc: Middle TN

In awe of your skills....

gym Loc: Athens, Georgia

VERY nice effort!

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Thanks to both of you. Once I'm done with all the photos, I'll post a few more. (and the final version of this one) De-noising all those ISO 1600-3200 shots takes a while :-)

greg vescuso Loc: Ozark,Mo.

I really like how creative you got here. Because I know how a bride has something in mind of how she wanted a shot and because of the rain we see
In the Midwest a lot of times these shots don't get taken. the fire works is a great effect and since you have all that standing water from the rain a bright reflection from the fireworks in the water would really bring this shot to the next level. Out of curiosity what background did you take the shot of he bride and groom against.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I actually did the fireworks reflection brighter at first, but it looked way too fake. I just couldn't get it to blend in and look like it wasn't just "stuck on" If you have any suggestions on getting it brighter, but keeping it real, I'd love to hear them. I do agree that the reflections (in real life) would probably have much more "pop"

As for the background, that was another story, and why I still want to do a lot of work. They were in the ugliest faux painted yellow/orange mottled room, with a black and bright colored floral carpet. Think of Vegas in the 60's. We were shooting in the local Embassy Theatre which has been restored to what it was originally, gold sconces on the walls, gaudy colors, etc. What I'm envisioning in the end result is to have the bride and groom much cooler (not with the weird yellow cast), but to have a bit of the yellow cast as kind of a "reflection" of the light coming from the fireworks.

They actually love it as it is, but I'm thinking that I can get a much better effect if I take some time.

Like I said, if you have any thoughts on perfecting the fireworks reflection, please let me know. When I get closer to actually spending some time on it, I was also thinking of posting in in the PP section to see if anyone had any ideas in particular on how to jazz up the reflection, so good eye my friend. I think we both are on the same wavelength. Now, I just need to figure out how to do it. :-)

greg vescuso Loc: Ozark,Mo.

You might need to have smooth water to make the reflection look more believable. I separated my step daughter and my wife from the white walls and window shades behind them and was amazed how well it turned out as a compostite since the bride was in a white dress against a white wall, so I wouldn't be surprised how good your shot will turn out.

Beercat Loc: Central Coast of California

I like it .............

Just out of curiosity how did you set the white balance? I see a bit of skin tone being influenced a bit by the fireworks. A pre-set? AWB? color card?

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Wow, the white balance was one thing that I thought needed work. Nothing done at all, I didn't fix the white balance of the B&G, since this was just the mock up. I shot them in a yellow, orangish colored room (orangish is a word in my happy little world) and had the flash bouncing off the ceiling. I didn't have a color gel on the flash, so the only way to "kind of" have consistent color so I could balance it, was to bounce the flash and have little, or no light from the flash hitting the couple. I guess it could be taken as light coming from the fireworks?

I was going to take another crack at it today or tomorrow if I had time. With Tim, we had 4 shooters, and ended up with 2000 photos. As of yesterday, I have it down to a more manageable 600 (plus) One more pass and I should have it down below 500 which is where I usually want to be. I tell you, with 4 people shooting, I was pretty amazed that there were only about 10 out of all of them, that showed another one of us in the shot. We avoided "crossfire" fairly well. Of course, I did photobomb one table, just being goofy, so it was more like 9.

I've seen more accidents when we only had 2 shooters. We made a great team, and Tim did a fantastic job. He's coming back for another one in August!