Wedding Photography Testimonials

Just had feedback from Sue and Chris regarding their wedding photos (Kent wedding photography in Folkestone).

Thank you for capturing all the moments from our special day. The photographs are fantastic and everyone who has seen them has commented on how great they are. David made us feel very relaxed throughout the whole day and at times we forgot he was even there. He captured all aspects of the day including the small details so we never forget them. A professional service, great value and we can’t recommend the service highly enough to others. Thank you.

Sue & Chris Myers

I love doing wedding photography!

Digital trickery with Photoshop

I decided to add an 'About me' page to my main website yesterday (Kent wedding photographer profile) and thought I'd include a quirky family shot, hopefully demonstrating creativity, humour and Photoshop skills in the process. The shot above took only ten minutes to put together. The three separate photos were placed in layers and then the shots of my wife and I were reshaped using Edit - Transform - Distort. Very simple when you know how!

Adding a professional touch

A very easy way to give a professional touch to your photographs is to add a stroke line and border - as in the photograph above (taken in Trinidad, Cuba). In Photoshop this is accomplished by Edit - Select All, Edit - Stroke (choose colour and thickness, then set location to inside) and then Image - Canvas size (click relative and then specify the width of the border). Very simple. Check out some examples of this technique on my Kent portrait photography page.

Portrait photography when travelling

I love taking pictures of the locals when I travel. I always check that they're happy having their photo taken by waiting for a smile or nod and am happy to grease a palm if they're particularly photogenic. The above shot was taken at the magical Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I have a selection of travel photos on my website but there's no direct link - go to my Kent wedding photographer homepage and then type travel after the backslash.

AI servo mode

Autofocus systems are so sophisticated that they have no trouble locking on to moving subjects, such as Lucy above (click to see her portrait gallery). There's no need to pre-focus on a set point and wait for the subject to run into focus, just set your Canon camera to AI (artificial intelligence) servo mode, lock focus on the subject and then fire away. Combined with the high frame rate of modern cameras this makes it easy to capture sharp action shots.

Autofocus systems can be fooled

The idea of having to shoot a wedding without autofocus would not be an appealing prospect. Autofocus allows you to respond to situations incredibly quickly and is stunningly accurate. Modern cameras and lenses are designed specifically for autofocus - the throw on lenses (the distance the focal plane moves in response to adjustments to the focusing ring) is not suitable for manual focus. Autofocus is more accurate than my eyesight, even though I've replaced the Ee-A focusing screen in my Canon EOS 5D with the Ee-S variant (only suitable for lenses faster than f/2.8 due to reduced light reaching the viewfinder the Ee-S delivers - to quote Canon - "a steeper parabola of focus to make the image pop in and out of focus more vividly"). Autofocusing systems do, however, occasionally struggle. In the photograph above (wedding photography in Sandwich, Kent) the camera has focused on the wall behind the subjects, despite the fact that I focused upon the line of contrast between the bride's face and her hair, and the camera confirmed locking focus on this point (I only ever have one autofocusing point active on the camera - for the above shot the central one). I've got away with it in this case as shooting at f/8.0 has given me sufficient depth-of-field (DOF) [this photo has been significantly cropped, I was standing much further away than it appears giving a greater DOF which extends 1/3 in front of the focal point, 2/3 behind]. I've looked through a lot of other wedding photographer's books and online photos recently and noticed that this is a common occurence. The solution? If there is a tempting target for your autofocus system sitting just behind your subjects, focus on something else at the same distance - in the case above I'd be tempted by the border between the white and blue dresses. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Emily in black and white

Since the English summer is in full flow today, and may not last long, it's going to be a brief post. A picture of my daughter Emily (click to see her full portrait portfolio) taken this morning with bright sunlight streaming in through the window. hence the high contrast.