As always, don’t forget to check out our blog for more images!

After a gorgeous ceremony at St. Anthony’s in New Haven, we headed back to Woodwinds to celebrate. This wedding was special for us since we held our wedding at the same location (even in the same room) just two months prior. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and the party never seemed to end. From a surprise ski boot cake, to an out of this world surprise dance performed by one of the groomsman, it was fantastic! (Should we have thrown in the granny panty garter toss here too?)

So, congratulations Mindy and Anthony! We look forward to many, many, many more spontaneous (and planned) nights out! We hope that you enjoy!

P.S. – We love comments.

M&M

Erin looked absolutely stunning, and Rich was quite the handsome groom. For us, what made the wedding was not only the locations, but the carefully crafted details that they executed flawlessly. From the hydrangeas to the tea lights in glass jars, the setting really personified them as a couple.

It’s not often that we will shoot a wedding and be guests at the same time – the two never mix. But for Erin and Rich, we bent the rules (and did our best to behave). We had an absolute blast and captured some amazing images (we hope that you agree) that we are dying to share with them. Currently, they are on their honeymoon in Turks & Caicos – so why not leave them a bunch of comments to come back to!!

M&M

Best wishes Kristen and Matt! I just loved the sparklers and matches that were used as favors! It was perfect for the holiday weekend. We hope that you enjoy!

Marcie

Erin and I go way back: Guilford High, High School Sports, SCSU North Campus, late night cheez whiz maulings… We have had some very silly memories together I will never forget. Erin and Rich as a couple are SUCH a blast and we have had some unforgettable wine drinking / double date nights recently (which we hope to continue for life). Here are a few pics of Erin and Rich I shot last minute for them in Stony Creek, CT – right across the street from the church where Mike and I were married in May.

They are a gorgeous couple and we cannot wait to be a part of their wedding day. Hope you enjoy. And don’t forget, we love comments.

Marcie

For us, we have been experimenting more and more with video – and we absolutely love it! Here are a few tips and tricks that we hope you can use.

Focusing

Get use to manually focusing – it’s the only way to get the shot. At first, it can be extremely frustrating, but there are a few things that you can do to help (outside of practice, practice, practice). With that said, we are going to first focus on the cameras aperture setting.

You should already know that the wider your aperture, the more shallow your depth of field will be. Therefore, any mistakes in focus are far less forgiving, and the end result is blurry footage. If you don’t need a shallow depth of field for your shot, stop down the lens to a higher, narrower aperture and you’ll have more room for error in your focusing.

Shallow Depth of Field:

Wide Depth of Field:

Pulling focus when your subject is far way is pretty easy, but as they grow closer you’ll find you have to run the focus ring a lot farther to keep up. Keep this in mind so you don’t lost your subject in the bokeh. If your subject is approaching, it can be hard to follow them and keep them in focus. Often times there are other objects in the frame that are different distances from the lens. Pulling focus to those objects as your subject reaches them can often be more effective because those objects are stationary and you won’t have the additional distraction of pulling focus on a moving subject. With that said, know which way your focus ring turns. On our Canon bodies, turning the lens’ focus ring to the right wilier ace focus to objects closer to the lens.

Stabilization

Unless you require a shaky shot to promote a certain feel or effect, always stabilize the camera. Aside from accidental bumps, never rely on post production software to stabilize your shots. From hand-held stabilizers, to full blown dolly’s, manufacturers have realized the opportunity and continue to release DSLR centric products. Personally, we have used, and recommend the Glidecam 2000, Glidetrack, and Cobra Crane.

Be Creative

Let’s face it, HD DSLR technology is still in it’s infancy – therefore, who’s to say that there is a right way or wrong way to do things? More times than not, you need to come up with creative solutions to get the shot. On one shoot, we broke out our Cobra Crane to get some really nice pans. Manual focusing a moving / pivoting camera definitely proved to be a challenge, but with a little creativity (and nerves of steel) we got exactly what we were looking for.

It amazes us how many DIY articles there are when it comes to HD DSLR’s. From home-made dolly’s, to shoulder brackets made out of wood, there is something for everyone. (You wouldn’t show up to a paid shoot with a wooden shoulder bracket – but it definitely gets your mind going!)

Frame Rates

When it comes to frame rates, everyone seems to have an opinion. For us, we primarily shoot at 24fps. Not that we have noticed a major difference between 24fps and 30fps, it seems that the industry standard is 24fps. Again, everyone has an opinion and their are countless articles on the topic.

So there you have it. We hope that you found some of the information in this article helpful! If you have any tips and tricks of your own, please leave a comment to share them with others. Enjoy!

M&M

Sources: Michael Maler Photography, and Life Hacker

Here are a few shots from their special day. A big thanks to Jennifer Dougan Photography for helping out. We hope that you enjoy!

M&M

With that said, I wanted to share a trick that most photographers have not been turned onto. We apply this treatment to almost every “polished” image that we release. The premise is to paint natural shadows and highlights to add drama, emphasize a feature, etc.

In Photoshop (any version), create a new layer by either selecting Layer > New Layer from the top menu, or by using the key combination Apple + Shift + N (Control + Shift + N on a PC).

When the New Layer dialogue appears, set the Mode to Overlay, and check the box for “Fill with Overlay-neutral color (50% gray)”. Here is what your window should look like:

Once the Layer has been created select your brush tool from either your Tools Palette or by hitting the key “B”. The size of the brush is up to you, but make sure that the Hardness option in the Brush Options Panel is set to 0%. Finally, set the Brush Opacity to 10% (you can increase or decrease the opacity, but we have found that 10% works the best).

Now you are ready to rock! Use black to paint shadows, and white to paint highlights. Pretty cool huh?

Michael