Special Effects in Your Wedding Album, Part II

Since digital photography took over wedding photography around 2005, the black and white image with touches of color has become very popular. The standard version is putting the flowers in color and everything else in black and white. Flowers lend themselves to this, of course, but this effect should not be overused, or else it will outshine the bride! I've found other ways to use it that avoid predictability: on the dance floor, for example, only the bride and groom are in color (and they're usually wearing very monochromatic clothing—a tux and a gown); or in a Jewish ceremony, put only the highly decorative Katuba, or marriage contract, in color. Sometimes during a unity candle lighting, I'll put only the flame in color.

Here are some examples:

Projecting Images at a Wedding Reception or Party

So you think you've planned everything so your wedding reception (or party) will go perfectly and everyone will have great fun. But wait—there's one more thing that will make it even better than you anticipated: projecting the images from the first half of the wedding day (preparations, ceremony, family portraits, romance photos) or the first 2/3 of the party AT the reception/party itself.

At weddings, the guests can now see parts of the day they weren't around for, and closeups of the ceremony they didn't have access to. At both weddings and parties they see themselves in portraits and in candids, frozen in the act of having fun—in ways they've never seen themselves before. It's always a heart-warming revelation, always exceeds expectations. And it's a regular feature of coverage by Joel Simpson Photography.

Here are some examples:

Here the Bat Mitzvah guests watch themselves on the screen.

Special Effects in Your Wedding Album

Although everyone has at least a camera in their cell phone nowadays, and even simple image editing software (e.g. iPhoto) contains special effects options, the special effects available to a skilled user of Photoshop are considerably more subtle and expressive, and it would be good for brides shopping around to know what's available.

First of all, what is the purpose of special effects or f/x? Sometimes it's merely to provide variations on a theme, or, in the case of graying out a background photo, less visual confusion on the page. But why render a color photo in black and white? Why render it in sepia, or any of the nearly infinite variations in between, such as subtle sepia, or "soft" black and white? Why use another tone, such as rust (slight reddish brown) or moss (a slight green), or "platinum" (subtle silver-brown-purple).

First of all, it's important to understand the basic distinction between full color and any monochromatic variation.

The eye loves color; it is drawn to color. Color is like sugar or salt: it gives immediate gratification. This means that when something rather subtle is going on in a photo—like an emotion or the suggestion of an emotion, the eye may be distracted by the color and not immediately see the emotion. But almost magically, when you remove the color, any monochromatic variant will reveal the emotion much more clearly. Sometimes it even jumps out at you, whereas in the color version, it was just a feature, or maybe even not noticed.

So then why add toning—sepia, soft black, rust, moss or whatever? Well, once you've enabled the emotion to jump out, you can then condition the viewer's reaction to the emotion, to bring out the particular character of the emotion—it comes out to the same thing. So if you're showing warmth, love, tenderness, or dedication, you would use a warmer "black," namely a brownish or reddish black, which should be very subtle. When you go all the way over to sepia, the photo takes on a vintage or old-timey quality, since sepia toning was very popular 100 years ago.

On the other hand, if the emotion is humor or anger, you might favor a cold black, even one that's ever-so-slightly tinged with blue. Again, if you go too far with a blue tone, you arrive at cyan, which references the period of the 1880s and 1890s, when the cyanotype was in vogue.

Here is a color photograph taken during the bride's preparations:

Soft focus is another special effect than can be very effective, especially combined with toning. It produces a dreamy quality. When I apply it to photos of the bride getting prepared, surrounded by her bridesmaids, first putting on her gown etc., I'm trying to convey a sense of dreams about to come true. This can also be very effective with moss toning, which the viewer doesn't see as green, normally an unfavorable color for skin, but rather as "past," a flavor of dreamy.



Here is the same photograph in "soft" (that is, slightly brownish) black and white, and with soft focus:

Now, you'll have to try to ignore the color version, which automatically gratifies the eye with the bridesmaid's blue dress and other color details. But without that color the bride's feeling of excitement and anticipation is actually clearer in the image.


(To Be Continued)

Remember that you're welcome to respond, or feel free to call or email me at 908-686-9539 or jssphoto@verizon.net

Digital Negatives, Hi-Res Images, Printable Images

Many brides have heard about digital negatives or high-resolution images and would like to have them. These are the version of your wedding photographs that you can print yourself. You don't have to pay the photographer for each print, if you have the hi-res images, so there you should be able to save a lot of money, especially since Aunt Harriet wants pictures of your cousins from the wedding, etc. etc.

The reality is, however, that this is not just a straightforward subject.

First of all, we photographers have been told by our high-end gurus and advisers never to sell the digital negatives or hi-res images, even though unlike real negatives, we always have copies.

On the other hand, many photographers plying the low-end side of the business, will offer coverage with digital negatives in a relatively inexpensive package, known pejoratively in the industry as the "shoot-and-burn" photographers.

What should you as a bride want? What can you ask for? What can you expect to get?

The first thing that you should know is that unlike film-based photography, the digital image almost always benefits from some sort of editing. Well, so did film negatives, and this was done laboriously in the chemical darkroom, mostly by dodging and burning in, that is, intensifying or diminishing the light from the enlarger hitting the paper. I did it for years.

With digital photography, though, we have many more controls than this. We can take a mediocre image, or even a bad one, and turn it into an acceptable or even outstanding image. This is the final edit of the image. After putting so much work into a small number of images from a wedding, will your photographer just give you this final version for you to make unlimited prints from?

So the digital negatives you receive may not be the final edits. They will probably have some preliminary editing done, just so that they are reasonable images, and you might not know the difference if you don't see a final edit alongside. So they will still probably look better than your uncle's point-and-shot photos. You may not be able to make really big (wall portrait size) enlargements from them, however, and this might not be a bad thing.

So if the photographer is willing to give you the digital negatives for you to print, they will probably be decent but not outstanding images (no skin softening, no teeth whitening, no bringing up the dark background, etc.) If there are any you end up wanting as wall portraits, you will want a second, more intensive edit, to make the photograph the very best it can be, since you'll be looking at it for a long time—and your perceptions may change. So it is probably worth it to have your photographer handle the really big enlargements. You can still use the digital negatives you receive for "snapshot" distribution, and you really can save money this way.

Another thing to consider is when you receive your digital negatives. If the photographer will give them to you only after you order an album, this, too might be to your benefit. After all, any image that goes into an album will receive a second, more detailed editing, and you will get this re-edited image among your digital negatives. If you don't purchase an album from your photographer, be ready to receive "snapshot" level images in your digital negatives.

My own policy is to include the digital negatives in my middle and high-end packages, after my bride and groom have ordered their album. This means they get high-quality edits, well above the usual "snapshot" grade. Any wall portraits they order will receive a third edit and look really superior blown up, including details that might not be visible in a 4x6 or even in an 8x10.

If you have any other questions about this or any other topic, just give me a call at 908-686-9539.

Joel Simpson
www.joelsimpsonphoto.com
jssphoto@verizon.net