We recently had a private, ‘professional-level-beginner’ workshop in our studio that made a number of spouses jealous – so in the name of equality, we’re hosting a beginner workshop on Saturday, April 7th. This will be no different than our other beginner sessions – which means an intensive, hands-on workshop with live models, catered deliciousness, and fun things to drink. We keep the class sizes capped at 10 to ensure lots of one-on-one attention, so be sure to reserve your spot! See you there!

*** SIGNUP, FAQ, PHOTOS ***

Our revolving gallery in the Keweenaw Brewing Co. in downtown Houghton is ready to revolve – just in time for Winter Carnival. Between tattooed bottoms, embalming tables, and photos of our favorite scenic vistas, we’ve found ourselves apologizing a lot lately… SO – here is your chance to absolve us from any near-future “we’re sorry” posts by telling us what you want us to print at 30″. Imagine yourself in the KBC drinking an IPA, stepping on peanut shells, and wondering where you put your overpriced ski gloves. What do you want to be gracing the wall above your head? A beautiful bride on the Lake Superior shoreline? An elegant shot featuring long legs and tall boots? Aerials of the Keweenaw? Sled dogs racing through the night? Zombies? Alpacas? Look through recent content on Tumblr (NSFW), Facebook , or the website and let us know. Final selections (we can usually cram about 10 into the taproom) will be posted with a tag that says for example: “Zombies in an El Camino – selected by Adam Griffis.” Fun fun. Get your selections in by the weekend before the bartenders get irritated with us for the blank walls in there. Enjoy and thanks!

1/1600 sec at f / 1.4 ISO 1600, 50mm 2:35PM

We’ve got a fair number of fans who are pretty geeky when it comes to photography, and we get asked many questions about ‘how’ we shot something. You know us – we don’t like post-processing. We can’t remember the last time we opened up actual Photoshop, and we (and our clients) tend to think that processed / filtered photos belong on Instagram (though we’re admitted addicts!) and not in a wedding album. So – we chose this photo this afternoon to simply give the technical aspects behind the art.

This beautiful Chicago bride did her bridal prep in a very dim cabin, and even in the early afternoon, the light was quite low. The camera was set with a high ISO to be safe, in this case, 1600 on a Nikon D3. The D3 is famous for low noise at high ISO, so even pushing this higher would not have been too much of a noise-risk. The lens in this shot is a Nikkor 50mm that is opened up all the way to f/1.4 – again, because it was so dark, but also because it is a compact lens, and gives a super-pleasing depth of field – buttery almost. Its not the most cost-effective lens, and we recommend the f/1.8 for most beginner / intermediate shooters, but ANYWAY…

This shot was unplanned. The previous shot was a feature shot at 1/100 of a second in a dark part of cabin (thus the high ISO!) and when we quietly ran into the bedroom for this single, fleeting moment – the sunshine in the window forced a scroll of the shutter wheel up to 1/1600 to not blow out the whole thing. The shot was so fleeting in fact, that there are only two shots of this moment, so thanks to Nikon for the fast focus and good metering. Even if the camera had been in a non-manual mode however, the electronics would have forced an exposure that would have darkened the image more than what was intended. Much like a point & shoot trying to capture a portrait against a bright window, flagship bodies are susceptible to the same flaws. Just like the ability to drive fast in the winter requires disabling the traction control system, a camera needs to be completely controlled by the photographer to get the result they want.

In terms of post-processing, the image history on this shot includes:

- import
- a profile assignment – which includes a lens profile, some noise reduction, and black clipping
- a preset assignment – which includes a caramel tone and a contrast tweak

Vignetting is not added and is deliberately removed from the lens profile to keep the flaw in the shot. The 50mm is a film lens and the D3′s sensor is FX, which is the same footprint as 35mm film – so the effect is natural.

(And what a dress!)

Email us with questions, or if this has piqued your interest in photography, join us for a workshop!

Remember our secret project this past November? This is it. We were honored to be able to provide footage for our new friends at Palace Sports and Entertainment in Auburn Hills – covering their project at Horner Flooring. Over the course of a week and a half, we spent some quality time with King from StandUP Media and an arsenal of gear – covering the process of the final stages of the creation of a new floor for the Detroit Pistons. Using a trio DSLRs and an x100, we captured panning shots, features, and interviews in multiple locations – (which is why we chose King for this job!) A neat trick was mounting a Nikon D700 with a 17mm lens to a scissor lift to capture a single shot, every 5 minutes, for 24 hours, for 5 days. No room for error once it was setup either: manual everything from focus, to white balance to make every shot for 5 days identical. The real trick however was trying to get down from the top of a 15′ high platform once we were in place. Um, yeah… hindsight… Doug and his team at Horner were great to work with, and running the interviews was a highlight of this job. Stan and his media team at the Palace were equally fabulous, and produced this 3:22 video. Can’t wait to see the floor with some players on it. Fun!

one shot every 5 minutes, 24 hours for 5 days

We’ve had a lot of interest in more workshops, including an intermediate one – so we’re pleased to announce that we’ll be offering two sessions on Jan 21! We’ll open registration up at 2PM on Friday the 6th (today.) See below for the schedule and the details, and lots more on the workshop page. Both promise to leave you smiling, exhausted, stuffed, and excited to shoot with new knowledge and skills. Just like previous workshops, we will have some of our best models on hand to serve as models in multiple scenes, lunch will be catered by the Keweenaw Co-op, and hands-on instruction will switch rapidly from “showing” to “doing.” Fun fun! So… brief details are below, and after 2PM, use the workshop page to learn more and sign-up. Put that new, confusing camera that Santa got you into good use!

workshop participant: before vs. after

- NEXT DATES -

Beginner Workshop – Saturday – Jan 21 – 10AM – 2PM (limit 10, catered lunch)

Intermediate Workshop – Saturday – Jan 21 – 3PM – 6:PM (limit 5, cocktail reception)

Participants for BEGINNER sessions bring their own camera for a hands-on, intensive session that will cover:

• basics on photography (light, depth, framing)
• mechanics of your own camera
• image processing, sharing, printing, and archiving
• hands-on exercises in-studio with live models
• mobile phone camera tips
• photo critiques, tips, and equipment recommendations

Participants for INTERMEDIATE sessions also bring their own camera for a hands-on, intensive session that will cover:

• controlling depth of field
• creative framing
• workflow and edits
• working with subjects
• advanced lighting (reflecting, diffusing, remote strobes)
• advanced controls (exposure compensation, auto ISO, flash sync, focus tracking)

Learn more here…

Holy cow everyone – great questions! We picked four from the day, and here you go. Looking forward to the next ones!

Q: I’ve looked online everywhere, and followed the advice of others but still fail to make my snow look white when I shoot on my SLR. Any tips for shooting photos in the snow? All the photos I’ve seen Adam shoot, the snow is as white as it should be. HELP!

A: Its painful to see so many blue winter photos, but it is indeed tricky. There are two ways to correct this, one at the capture stage, and one at the post stage. To capture, make sure you are NOT using an auto white-balance setting (you might see this as an “AWB” in the menu.) Cameras are smart, and getting smarter, but nothing beats being able to tell the camera what you want. Exposure & color algorithms are programmed to look for neutral colors and compensate based on what it interprets the scene and the color cast to be. Bright snow – especially in the middle of the day when the color temp. of the sun is already a rather blueish 5500-6500 deg. K – will almost always turn photos blue and under-exposed, so force the white-balance setting through the menu system or controls to the actual ambient light. Depending on the time of day, a daylight, or shade setting will give you a consistent, controllable color. If your camera allows it, just change the manual white balance setting to ~6000 deg. K. OR do this really manually by shooting a reference card. But if you are lucky, your camera has a little snowman icon as a white balance setting

The other option is in post-process, and that is to simply adjust the myriad of color temperature tools in programs like Aperture, Lightroom, and iPhoto might even do this… In Aperture or Lightroom, once you set one image to the proper (or preferred) color, you can easily sync the entire set to look the same. As a rule, as minimal amount of time-consuming-post-processing the better, so the closer you get to capturing the shot in the first place, the better!

Q: I’d love to use you guys for my summer wedding in the Houghton area, but not sure I can afford you. Do you offer variable shooting prices, etc? And can I pay you in money from the UAE?

A: And we’d love to have you as a client of ours! We start with a flat rate and build up or down depending on location / distance, number of photographers, days of shooting, etc. Each client is a little bit different, and we work with everyone personally, to make sure that we can provide what they are looking for and what is within their financial means. We’ve cut travel rates if our lodging is provided, we give discounts to military, we discount for sheer flattery, etc… While we can’t accept dirham as currency, the Brockit wine rack always looks better when it’s sagging from the weight of bottles from central Italy and northern California, hint hint…

Q: Is it difficult finding work here in the Keweenaw?

A: Yes and no. There is a cyclic nature to photography during the year, so over the years we’ve balanced ourselves between commercial / adventure, wedding and portrait work. (actually, that should read “wedding / adventure”) Having a large studio also allows us to shoot at any time, and in any weather. Our workflow is thin in comparison to larger cities, but we are happy, busy, quite traveled, and have a nimble team with some pretty stellar clients. We take none of it for granted and spend a lot of our time helping non-profits, fundraising efforts, and supporting fine arts.

Q: What makes you think everyone wants to look like a rock star? What if I want to look like me? Can you handle that?
(Sorry, that’s three questions.)

A: We know that deep down, everyone wants to look like a rock star. When people look at a photo of themselves, even on the back of the camera, and they exclaim, ‘woah! that’s me?!’ we know we’ve succeeded. Its our job to flatter by bringing out your natural beauty. If you want to look like yourself, you are probably already familiar with the sound of your blingy jewelry clanking against the side of a cocktail glass at noon in a chromed-out Prevost coach… We can handle that.