Often when I’m at weddings I like to show the bride or groom or guest an image or two off the back of my camera. Sometimes I’m so excited I just have to show someone. [ASIDE: I'm not the gushing emotional type, so what is uber excitement to me, might come off strikingly similar to a simple smile to you.] At other times I do it to boost the confidence of the person I’m shooting. I want them to see how great they look in the hands of someone that knows how to make them look their best. IOW, I want to build trust.

That said, I show images off my camera against my better judgement. The reason is actually pretty simple: I feel like it fosters the idea that we photographers take all these photos at your wedding and then we go home, download the images from the cards, then upload them to facebook or twitter or whatever proofing system we use. I mean, it can’t be THAT hard to press the upload button, can it?

See It In Your Head
If you’ve read my previous posts about how I process images behind the scenes, you know that couldn’t possibly be farther from the truth. A lot of the time when I’m shooting and deciding how I want to frame a photo or what exposure I want, I’m not thinking about what the image will look like when I click the shutter. No, I’m thinking about what type of photo is going to make it the easiest for me to get to the image I see in my head once I take the image home, process it in Lightroom (and maybe Photoshop) and output it. In other words, I see the final result in my head and work backwards.

If you saw one of my previous posts, you saw the image of Nikki standing in front of a large set of french doors…

So here we have Nikki standing in front of those same doors. But here’s the problem: the blazing sun outside is AT LEAST 5 or 6 stops brighter than she is standing inside this comparatively dark room. I knew I didn’t want to create a “properly” exposed image. If I wanted to do that, I would have set the camera so the outside looks correct and then light Nikki up with a death ray flash pop that would probably send my flash in for service when I got done.

Not very compelling is it? No, I wanted to create Nikki engulfed in that light.

Know Your Gear
One way to do that is simply to overexpose the image so much that Nikki begins to look “normal” while the rest of the image blows out to pure white. One problem with that approach is that once the detail is gone, it’s gone. In this case, I’m dealing with a white dress and a fairly dark-skinned bride so that approach makes it nearly impossible to preserve the dress detail and brighten Nikki enough at the same time. The other problem with that approach is simply dealing with lens flare issues and the loss of contrast that come with it.

So I decided to split the difference. IOW, I didn’t care about the details in the trees outside, but I DID care about her dress and I know the Nikon D3 well enough to know that it preserves an amazing amount of detail in the shadows. More importantly, I know how to get all those details back using Adobe Lightroom. So this is what is going through my head when I’m telling a bride to “turn around and face me but try to twist at the hips.” And here’s the image I was seeing in my head, the same image as above but processed in Lightroom…

Everything you see above is straight Lightroom. Zero Photoshop. In addition to pushing and pulling the exposure of the image, I rotated it ever so slightly so the railing is level and I added two masks: one to increase the contrast in her face that was lost to flare and another to add color saturation to her flowers. Oh, and I toned the image slightly in the split toning panel.

Bottom Line
Know your gear! Every system (be it a camera/lens, strobes, printers, whatever) has strengths and weaknesses. I know what the Nikon D3 can give me and I know where it fails. Once you get there, you can take artistic advantage of it’s strengths and in some cases, even the weaknesses. Go out and shoot!

For the technical among you, here are all the relevant adjustments in Lightroom:

They could not have been more relaxed and fun on their wedding day. My associate Huy and I had a great time documenting their wedding day at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. It’s nice to have everything taking place in one location so we don’t have to worry about transportation between sites. Gail Johnson and her fabulous team from Wedding Soiree in Atlanta were on hand to keep the entire day stress free!

Enjoy the photo sneak peek!

Here’s Nikki vogue’ing it up like a super model as she puts her dress on.

How sweet is this photo? She’s helping with the long veil as Nikki has it placed.

Congratulations Nikki & David!

The pre-ceremony images you see below were taken at the beautiful Georgian Terrace Hotel. The ceremony was held at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church in downtown Atlanta and the reception followed at the Piedmont Driving Club. Many kudos to Lisanne and her team from Watermark Weddings who all did a fantastic job of keeping everything on track.

So without further ado, take a look and let me know what you think in the comments below!

Congratulations Jennifer & Brandon!

First off, I have to thank my great friend, Patrick, from PWP Studio for coming out to shoot with me. Patrick used to shoot weddings here in Atlanta for years but is now focussed solely on corporate photography and taking care of event photography for the Coca Cola’s and Microsoft’s of the world. It was fun seeing Patrick meld into my world for a day.

Check out this necklace… just… WOW!

And these Badgley Mischka shoes!

The super fabulous Formal Faces was taking care of hair and makeup for all the ladies…

Okay, I have to tell you… Noelle was about to hyperventilate when she realized that Patrick had given her this gift…

I’m fairly certain that Noelle can’t take a bad photo…

I love shooting at St Peter Chanel! It big and roomy and the light is so nice compared to most churches.

All of Noelle’s friends from Priscilla of Boston in Atlanta were there to bustle her dress, which was quite the feat!

Okay, there’s a story here… we decided to grab a few photos outside just after the sun had set… it’s past 9pm and it was still SOOOO hot outside. After just a few minutes Noelle hikes up her dress to cool off a little bit. I just love Patrick’s reaction in the first photo. Of course, we decided to make the best of the situation.

For the photographers reading this: this is completely available light. In fact, the Nikon D3 is such a crazy good camera that I had to add all that grain in Photoshop Lightroom. That’s f/2.8, 1/60s @ISO 5000 and I pulled another stop and 1/2 in Lightroom so that’s roughly ISO 15,000…

Congratulations Noelle & Patrick!

Leighanne and Brian’s vow renewal came just weeks before they announced the NKOTBSB Tour, so they were throwing a lot of hints at the Entertainment Tonight crew that was also covering the event for national television. In fact, I was excited to see the back of my head gracing big screens in living rooms across the nation!

They had placed their original wedding attire on display overlooking the back of the house. That’s a stunning Vera Wang dress from the earlier days of Vera’s success.

One thing I learned in our meeting in the days leading up to the event — Leighanne and Brian are the biggest hams. They love to make each other laugh and have a great time.

These are Leighanne’s flowers from her wedding day and a few more getting ready details…

You won’t often see this side of Brian!

This was just a fun snap of the E.T. crew at work (and yes, that is Steve Moore with the Moore Agency).

Their son, Baylee, was happy to entertain everyone. You don’t see pictures of it here, but he even grabbed a Sony HD camera and was documenting the crew documenting him. Already an entertainer…

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do…

Behind the scenes of the main interview that was aired on Entertainment Tonight.

Look at all the fabulousness!

As people gathered, synchronized swimmers entertained the guests.

From here on out, it’s all about Leighanne and Brian!

Robert Long Flora Design provided florals for the event and Tents Unlimited/Event Rentals Unlimited provided the tent, outdoor air conditioning & equipment. As an aside, even though the Littrell’s have a gorgeous property, having the fully air conditioned tent as an event space was truly a God-send when we had a torrential downpour right after the ceremony. The event went off without a hitch thanks to all the hard work of these folks.

Look at this amazing cake from Classic Cheesecakes and Cakes… and Baylee doing his best Michael Jackson!

The Littrell’s with Howie and his wife, who both had a blast at the reception!

Brian surprised Leighanne with a song he wrote for their first 10 years of married life.

And this, friends, is how you cap off a party!

Here are a few images of the happy couple… thanks so much to Kelly and Anthony for letting me experience your joy!

We started the day at one of the top salons in the Atlanta area, Muse Salon & Spa, where Daniel and his staff doted on Kelly:

The entire shindig was held at Flint Hill Mansion in Norcross, GA. Having never shot there I didn’t know what to expect. As you can see, the grounds are just beautiful…

It wasn’t until months later that I got a call from them inquiring about having us cover their wedding day at Montaluce. The best part is that it took us a while to put two and two together that we had already met at Montaluce… total coincidence. As it turns out, Jessica had also hired Amy Osaba Event Floral Design who does just fabulous work as you can see below.

Montaluce Winery is about an hour north of Atlanta, beautifully situated in the North Georgia mountains with some breathtaking views!

Here’s her dress hanging next to her grandmother’s wedding dress. This is a special photo for Jessica!

Did I forget to mention that Raney O’Keefe, Extraordinaire, was on hand to doing hair and makeup?

Check out this awesome Cadillac from Classy Car Limo!

This is one of my favorites details of the day, captured by my second shooter, Brian Steele. What are the chances he could catch the flower girl running by in the reflection of the hub cap?!?! Amazing job!

Robert Rogers on bagpipes announced the beginning of the wedding ceremony and serenaded their exit. Highly recommended!

Jessica and Scott chose to have the ceremony in the production room where the wine is actually made. How cool it that?

Also, a shoot out to DJ Dobbs from Spectrum Entertainment who was in the house to keep the reception moving. Awesome!

Congratulations Jessica and Scott!

You may remember Erika and Leroy from their engagement session earlier this year. One of the most important aspects of their wedding and photos for Leroy was that he wanted to make sure that Atlanta was represented. With that in mind, they chose the Ventana’s rooftop venue for their reception location. I’ve shot at Ventanas a number of times but this was my first wedding there so I was uber excited.

And this is why… does the view get much better than this?

My good friend and amazing photographer, Shawna Herring, was on hand to 2nd shoot with me. It’s been a long time coming so I was absolutely delighted to have her along.

Enjoy a few more photos…

As usual, there’s a whole host of vendors that are working together to make a beautiful wedding like this take place.

Planning/Coordination: Eliana Baucicault with ellyB Events
Ceremony Venue: North Avenue Presbyterian Church
Reception Venue: Ventanas
Videography: Ryan with Rodinis Films
Florals/Design: Jackson/Durham Flowers and Events
Catering: Affairs to Remember
Cake: Couture Cakes
DJ: Dale Thomas “DJ SixFive”

Congratulations Erika & Leroy!

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving

Baillie is the very picture of class…

My associate Huy Cat was on hand to 2nd shoot with me. In fact, he shot the image above. Here are a few more images from Baillie & Nick’s beautiful wedding day.

Congratulations to you both!