Imaging USA Day Three

WE SURVIVED! Imaging USA was fantastic as usual. Cami & I are so pumped up and inspired by all the great speakers and beautiful images and ideas we’ve seen and heard. Here are a few fun shots from the final day with some of our FAVORITE photographers in the whole world. 🙂

Cami cuts the rug with Rick Dean at the closing party.

Cami with the always sweet and lovely Kay Eskridge.

Ed Pierce shares his knowledge.

Mike Corrado gives me the universal symbol for Rock-n-Roll during his presentation.

Jose Villa answers questions with Liz & Kip Bulwinkle in the background.

Cami & I with the generous Garrett Nudd after his exceptional presentation.

Kellie McCann, Rick Dean, Cami & I, Kate McKinley, Kip Bulwinkle inside the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.

Kellie, Rick, Kate, and Kip all demonstrate Flow Posing. 🙂

Posted via email from Chris & Cami Photography

‘Tis the Season

I still remember Anne-Magill & Brad’s wedding like it was YESTERDAY! When they found out little Merritt was on the way, they signed up for our “Welcome To The World” collection. So I’ve had the pleasure of photographing their beautiful girl since she was just a part of Mamma’s belly! 🙂 She’s now 6-months old. Here are a few of my favorites from their Christmas session on their beautiful property.

High Dynamic Range Photography

High Dynamic Range (or HDR) photography has fascinated me for some time. So I finally decided to take a crack at it. It involves photographing a series of bracketed exposures of the same image, then merging them together.


I used a popular HDR program called Photomatix. Here are a couple of my first attempts from last week. Any thoughts or suggestions on what I could do different?!?

Depth of Field

Here’s an interesting question I received this morning:
“Hey Chris, I had a question about something I’ve been struggling with when taking pictures. In short, how do you get good background blur yet maintain good sharpness in a group shot. I know increasing f stops (or closing aperture) will help but I don’t know what range i want to be in to get uniform sharpness through the group and blur the background. What looks good on the LCD screen isn’t always translating when I upload on my computer. Hopefully, this makes sense and any advice you could provide would be greatly greatly appreciated. I’m really enjoying your posts on your blog and FB. I never realized that setting up shots was so complicated. thanks for sharing your knowledge!

J.
And my response:
“Hey J! Great to hear from you. There are lots of variables when it comes to DOF in group photos…how big a group, what focal length you’re using, and how far away you’re shooting from, for example. My general rule of thumb when doing wedding parties and family shots with 2-3 rows of people is f5.6. Rows of 4 or more I move up as high as f8. I’m usually shooting with a moderate wide angle from 10-15 feet away. (Also remember I’m shooting on a full-frame camera, which is important since you get slightly more depth of field at a given aperture when using a camera with an APS-C sized sensor.) One key to getting the most use out of your available DOF is to focus 1/3 of the way into the group. Logic would have you focus 1/2 of the way in. But DOF doesn’t work that way…there is more “in-focus” room behind your point of focus than in front. So put your focus point on someone 1/3 of the way into the group and you’ll be maximizing your available DOF and be able to use a smaller aperture to still get everyone in focus. (And another tip is to position your group as far away from the background as possible.) There will definitely be some variations between your cameras LCD and your monitor…like brightness and color temp. However, DOF should NOT be one of those. If there is a difference, it’s probably just because your camera’s LCD doesn’t have enough detail to properly show exact DOF. Do you have a DOF preview button on your camera? Try using that if you have enough available light to see the image at that dim an aperture. Hope all his helps. Cheers!”
Here’s a group photo I did yesterday for Anchor Commercial’s holiday greeting card they sent out to all their clients. Nothing fancy, but it’s got enough DOF! 😉

Photoshop Magic

Here’s a problem I encounter all the time! I photograph a number of corporate team photos. But it’s an ever-evolving process…people leave the company, new employees are hired, etc. Here’s a team photo I took for one of my favorite clients, Caldwell Commercial, last year.

Larry just joined the team this year. Instead of dragging everyone back down there, I met up with him at the same spot I had taken the team photo. I brought along the previous team photo on my iPhone so I could position him and light him as close as possible to the original group shot.

Finally, he gets merged in with the others. MAGIC! 🙂 The key is, by paying attention to details and photographing Larry’s image with the same variables as the one I’m trying to fit him in to…the Photoshop work is a piece of cake!

Claudette Bell

Recently I had the pleasure of photographing the AMAZING low country artist, Claudette Bell. Those are her beautiful paintings behind the lamp and above the mantel. Her husband, Bill, has commissioned me to do several shoots for his company. So it was neat to see their beautiful home and get to meet his lovely wife. Visit her website at http://www.claudettebell.com/ or stop by Spencer’s Art Gallery and the Charleston Artist Guild Gallery where her fine work is featured.

Tara & Will’s eSession

I had an AWESOME Engagement Shoot with Tara & Will the other day. Will drove all the way down from Charlotte to make this thing happen. YOU ROCK, Will! It was one of those days that less “adventurous” couples would have called off due to weather…kind of overcast with pockets of rain throughout the day. But Tara & Will were all hyped up to create some unique and dramatic images. I get excited when clients are willing to push the envelope a little bit! Everything just clicked and the three of us knocked this one out of the park! 🙂