Brads Creative Images Photo-blog

Below you will find 3 images that all utilize selective focus techniques to isolate details and create a sense of drama and or mystery. By leaving something out of focus, you are leaving the viewers mind open to "fill in the blanks", creating a much more powerful look at what might be a fairly ordinary subject. Often you can combine several techniques in one shot...ie Macro, selective focus, directional lighting, natural lighting, and low light natural lighting using "faster lenses" as described in some of the earlier posts this month.

Keep on shooting!! Brad

Well its that time of year again. Time for the one portrait kids will have taken that you will keep forever. Your senior picture. We do ours on location....any location you choose.....and please, choose one that will let your personality shine thru!!! Dont settle for the typical canned portrait in some studio, let us show the world who you really are.

Call us today to schedule yours while there's still time!! Brad

Well you asked for it. So by popular demand we are introducing a new package for 2008!! Its called the Masters package. It has all the new goodies in it and fits in nicely between the Renaissance and the Grand Floridian. Check it out on our website today!! (you can have this package too even if you're already booked)!!

Hey guys, we've gotten huge amounts of love for our infrared imagery!! Thank you to all you who have inquired about it too. The most popular question is: "What is infrared anyway???" Well here's a geat definition:

"Infrared is an energy similar to visible light, but with a longer wavelength. Infrared energy is invisible to the human eye, however, while visible light energy is emitted by objects only at a very high temperature, infrared energy is emitted by all objects at ordinary temperatures."

In reality, digital camera sensors are very sensitve to IR wavelenghths of light. In fact, all digital cameras actually have a filter on the sensor to eliminate IR light, as it degrades the visible light image if left unfiltered. What we did is have one of our Canon digital cameras custom configured such that it ONLY see's the IR Spectrum of light. The resulting imagery is unlike any photoshop effect or any other simulated effect. Our digital sensors truly record the scene's actual IR lighting....we'll let you be the judge on how it looks!!!

For more information on IR images just give us a call or email us!!

Hey Everyone, its almost that time of year again. For those of you who are planning on making coffee table style albums. Please be aware that due to heavy volume at the book manufacturers; the cut off for Christmas Delivery on these is going to be October 15th. That way we will have enough time to create your unique design, have you approve it and send it back, then print it and send it off to the book maker.

Hope that helps. Brad

Well in a continuing bit of photo education, we'd like to introduce you all to a term known in the trade as "foofing". No, its nothing to do with the dress; rather its a lighting technique that each of you can try at home. All you need is a flash for your camera. Almost any kind will do so long as it can swivel. You probably all tried taking flash exposures yourself. Probably the results were rather flat. Thats what happens by nature when you use direct on camera flash. Sometimes there simply isnt any other choice. Now what? Well, you can either strap on a really expensive fast lens (see earlier posts) and shoot natural light, or find another way to light the scene. Enter foofing. Basically its a further extension of bouncing the light from your flash off virtually anything. The ceiling is the most obvious thing...as it spreads the light out..but what if the ceiling is way up there? And often overhead lighting (from the ceiling) leads to heavy shadows in the eyes, well just turn your flash toward the wall on the side...or even backwards over your own head and use the wall behind you as a huge softbox reflector!! Try it a few times and you'll see the results are much softer with no harsh shadows or shiny faces. If you bounce on the sidewall, you all of a sudden have directional lighting to add dimension to your image. The more you play with it, the more you will discover its possibilities. Then if you combine this technique with one of those fast prime lenses we talked about earlier, you can make it look almost like there was no flash used, yet the scene is properly lit and no racoon eyes!!
Heres to better pictures everyone!! Keep checking back as we add more photo tips all the time. Feel free to add any comments on this or any other post you see too. Thanks Brad

We've been talking on here a bit more about photo equipment lately. Many of you have emailed us to ask about some of our equipment choices and why it makes a difference. In the photo above for example, we used a "fast lens". What that means is simply any lens with a maximum aperture thats larger than normal which allows in more light, and by letting in more light it allows us to use faster shutter speeds...thus the term faster lenses. By using the faster lenses, we can shoot without any flash in many cases where most can not. It allows us to provide images that normal lenses simply can not make. Another by product of using these fast lenses...is that the area that is "in focus" (called depth of field) is very small. Why in the world would we want that??? Well by casting the background way out of focus, it draws the eye directly to the subject. The top photo shows this off very well, your eye goes right past everything else, and fixes on the bride in the limo....You just cant do that unless you use a large aperture lens. (Also..if you look in the corner, that blurry thing is the video guy sticking his camera in the way...) Again notice in the photo above how the farthest candle is seriously out of focus while the nearest is very sharp. Isolating the subject is one of the main reasons top pro's spend the extra dollars to utilize these lenses, which typically cost 4-6 times as much as the same lens with a "normal" maximum aperature. Feel free to ask us any photo questions you like. We will continue to pop a few educational tips here for you to help improve your own shots too so check back often!!

Thanks for looking Brad

Hey guys, taking our little show on the road the next few weeks. We will be in the Boston area this weekend, then in Milwaukee Wi, Norcross Ga, and Raleigh NC, all in the coming weeks. Check back and see some shots from these great locations each week!!!

We will be introducing a new Destination wedding package too in light of all the destination weddings. Look for it on our website in the coming days.

Just a reminder, you guys can add comments to any blog entry you see, just click on the little comment button under each posting. Thanks all!! bb