On Dec. 28th I had the pleasure of participating in a conference call with Eric Hegwer and Neal Jacob. I probably learned as much from Eric as Neal did!

One thing we discovered is that Eric and I do pretty much everything the opposite. He's Nikon / Mac / jpeg...I'm Canon / PC / RAW.

Later that afternoon I had an engagement session with an older bride and groom -- the bride battled and beat breast cancer in her younger days so she is a first-time bride at 37. Knowing that I didn't have too many environmental luxuries shooting outside in late December...I wanted to do something to challenge myself with this e-session.

Having listened to Eric's dedication to jpeg, I decided to shoot jpeg (don't get me wrong...I'm sticking with RAW! LOL). That wasn't enough -- I thought...why not shoot everything manually? Focus, white balance, shutter, aperature, flash...EVERYTHING! It was fun. We had a nice sunset too -- that helped. But what I really enjoyed was shooting with my old Sunpak 544 flash (mounted on a tripod) -- I even forgot my Westcott mini-soft-box so I just had to improvise (by feathering the flash head). We shot the session on a place called "Art Hill" (a big hill in front of an art museum in StL) -- right where they got engaged two months before.

Here are some of the results of the "shooting outside my comfort zone" session.









C+c welcome.

My favourite is #4, the colors are stunning!

Dan the Man, Those are some killer shots for shooting all manual everything and jpg. You are a brave soul. I love the against the wall kissing shot and the last sunset shot. Great stuff.

awesome dan!!!

i wish i had as much courage...and the skill to back it up like you!

Holy Batman ! I love #1 & #4. Awesome colors....did you do any pp to those?

great stuff dan, gorgeous sky, last ones my fav. since you asked, my only cc is #3 the horizon is going through their heads, and on my corrected monitor in the color images the skin tones look very red (but maybe that's just how they were), and this is a style thing really, but I wouldn't crush the black so much that their clothes are completely flat.

I'm a completely manual shooter...but not having a split focusing screen makes manually focusing near impossible, so kudos for handling that very well

great colors. realy like the compositions. cheers to branching out.

Dan, I really like them all but number 4 is my favorite. I like all the negative space. You did a great job stepping out. How do you normally shoot?

Great work on all, 4 is fav

i'm so glad that you went out of your comfort zone to experiment with your camera. even if you're not sticking with jpg. i find that so inspiring! it helps you define your style and understand more about the way you shoot. i would love to shoot with fellow ospers...(OSP WEST!!! WOOHOO!)

anyway, great images...love the sunsetty colors and the statue.

<3 kris

Great job stepping out of your zone!

Nice job, and brave too! It's so FREEING to shoot all manual because then you get to control everything! Still can't get a newborn to smile when I say smile though.

I agree with Stephen about the red skin tones. Even if that really was that way, I'd tone it down at least in the faces.

And by the way, when you said "older couple" and the woman turned out to be 37 I nearly started to cry! 37 is NOT OLD. (Somebody please back me up on that one!!!!!)

Most of those use the LoMo effect from showit -- thought I had to desaturate the skin tones (without looking at the sliders...I pretty much was at -16 EVERY time I backed off the saturation on the faces)...guess I forgot to do that on the one Steve picked out. The groom definitely had reddish skin compared to the bride...and it was a bit chilly that day...so some of it was natural.



Steve. I totally admire your work so I have tons of respect for shooting manual. I tend to get a little sloppy (forgetful) so I really can only shoot manual about 10% of the time! The focus part is tough without the split screen, that's for sure...but I always learned to focus on hair -- or anything else fine enough to be able to nail the focus upon. Even with hair that's tough...the closer you get the more you have to focus on the hair and then compensate to get the eyes. If a guy is wearing a tie -- I always learned that a tie is pretty darn close to the eyes to that's another thing to focus on when focusing manually.

I shoot the 5D so I don't often have to switch to manual focus (unless I'm using non-L glass...then I tend to trust myself a little more than the lens...unless it's the fish...then who cares?). Focus bracketing helps too -- you just have to be persistent -- get the shot you want and shoot it 3 times...each time re-adjusting the focus. Even that can't compete with a good camera / good lens's auto-focus abilities over the long haul...(IMHO).

Great job, I love the colors.

Dan...I enjoyed all of the, especially 1 and 4. Colors look great and for stepping out of the norm, it's all good. Art Hill never looked better.

for the 3rd shot, did you use a lens baby?

I usually shoot raw with a white balance preset (old habit from my jpeg days), and aperature priority. When I use flash I tend to go manual shutter / aperature and TTL on the flash.

But I'm really liking the off-camera flash...maybe I'll have to take in one of Zack's One Light classes!




They were "older" as in older than all of the other wedding clients I have had in the last 3 years. But I never said "37 is old"...I wouldn't do that...I'm 40.



No...just a slight motion blur. I used to do that from time to time in-camera (with mediocre success)...but that was done in PP. I'll do one or two of those in an e-session from time to time...breaks the monotony of vignetting. I like that selective focus look...but I guess I'm too chicken or too cheap to buy a lens baby.




Having some background in nature photography really helped out. If you study sunsets long enough you tend to find yourself able to predict the potential for a nice magenta sky...about 1-2 hours in advance of dusk (and knowing the trend for the days before). We shot for 45 minutes or so...and then we kinda took a break for about 20-30 minutes. I told them we had a really great potential for a nice sunset if they were willing to wait. They were...we just sat on some stairs and just BS'd for awhile -- a great thing to do to get to know your B&G's better. The nice colors lasted about 10-12 minutes...and we fired off a LOT of shots in that time.

I had a similar experience back in November -- this couple tolerated 25-28 degree weather to get some nice sunset e-session shots...this one is a bit hot (exposure-wise) but it was also with the Sunpak 544 on a tripod about 20 feet away.

It metered at about 1 - 1 1/2 stop higher than the background...I'm still working on the "Doug Box" formula of having the flash about 2/3 stop higher than the background.... (I don't know about the rest of you...but it's hard for me to resist the temptation to PS the red out of the groom's shirt in this shot!)

Hey Dan..it's Sam here! What's up?

That location looks like it was fun to get creative with. Glad you pushed yourself, it paid off. I like the last two the best.

Im 50, and that's not old!! 37, still just a lamb chop!!

Fitty is like half a century! just kidding. My dad is like 58 and he can still kick my butt.

LOL!!!

Thoes are just great. Especially since you were shooting Jpeg. I love the color an the zoom. Wow!! Great job. Awesome

Hey, Im 39 and still feel way to young!!! She's a baby:)

Great shots Dan. Gratifying to get out of the comfort zone and have it work so nicely.

Dan! The last one was worth the wait. ;-) I especially love the look in both of their faces in the b&w one. That's my fav. Well done!

the effect on the third one is awesome. great shots! congrats!

Beautiful, beautiful use of flash. I love using the stobes off camera, but rarely do so. You are giving me some much needed inspiration. Thanks!

Great job.

great work Dan-

i like them all-
#1 esp.

congrats on a successful out of the comfort zone session

Dan,

Sweet job on going manual! My only criticism is that it's essentially the same pose in every shot--just different background or camera angle. Let'm free, man! Move, kiss, play, run, etc.

$.02

Great job Dan! I really love the colors you got out of those shots! Really really nice stuff!

It's funny you shot JPEG, I'm a RAW shooter and I tried JPEG too the other day just for fun. I'm not gonna switch either, but it was fun to try!


Opps...that was Chris, not Katie.

EVERYthing?!
Even the focus- yer the man.
Those look awesome...'specially the first one!
-Eddie

Way to go bud
The box only gets bigger when we step outside of it.

wow. kuztpas! i would never try EVERYTHING different with a client. i prefer to go out and practice on things not paying me. looks like you got some good shots. how did you feel about them?

Well...I did have two cameras with me...

One of the podcasts that I like -- the accidental creative by Todd Henry -- uses the quote "fear is an enemy of the creative process." I seriously look at engagement sessions as my chance to practice some stuff...and, with the right client, I'm not afraid to tell them that. I don't tell them that right away...but as I know I have nailed some shots earlier in the sessions, I start taking more and more risks. Uptight brides = Dan only strays out of the comfort zone for about 5-10% of the shots!

Wow...what lovely colors! Another kudos to you for stepping out of your comfort zone. Once you go manual, you'll never go back. (It must be having all that power!! )

I really thought that one image was from a lens baby, too! Cool effect!

Cindy