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I shot a couple of backstage headshots of models in the Ottawa Fashion Week Frank Sukhoo show…
What a great wedding in the country just outside of Ottawa. The bride, a commercial client of our studio had the reception in her own back yard. Yes, thats her Dad`s barn and the potato was one from her garden. Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!
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Wedding Dreams, Canada`s National wedding magazine is headquartered right here in Ottawa. I was thrilled and honored to be asked to write an article on choosing a wedding photographer in the digital age and hope it explains some of the mysteries behind the process.
Please download and print the article if you are an upcoming bride…perhaps send it to friends who are about to start the research into what I believe is one of the toughest decisions in wedding planning.
http://www.couvrette-photography.on.ca/weddingdreams_2012-04-30-98.pdf
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I can see why folks don`t quite know how to peg me…am I a fancy portrait specialist, a food photographer, a world travelled photojournalist…or a fashion photog.
Ok…add one more…daredevil. I have shot in the frozen Artic at -55, two kilometres underground for Time at Big Nickel and now on a series of Ottawa roofs for an annual report.
The roofing guys told me no photog had the guts to get up there with them…but I explained that I had cured my fear of water and small places by spelunking so they
let me go up top….
I liked the irony…my grandfather on the Couvrette side had been a roofer in Ottawa and this was my tip of the hat to him.
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Photographing business executives is one of the mainstays of our studio. We operate the largest studio in the city with a 4000 sq ft Centretown Ottawa location.
This shot was done for one of our commercial clients as PR for an upcoming TV show. Commanding the attention of execs who have a high premium on their
time is all part of the process and our favorite specialty. We shoot on location with a fully portable studio as well as at our Gladstone Street studio.
Why anyone would want to send their boss on a mission to the suburbs wasting gas and the execs time and having them do a shoot in a makeshift “studio” is beyond my comprehension, but as
they say….let the buyer beware.
A great portrait is worth hundreds of times its price. Over the life of a Real Estate agent, Consultant, Author or a Lawyers portrait they would have invested tens of thousands of
dollars in printing, online and distribution fees for that one image and have generated hundreds of thousand of dollars based in part of the public`s perception of that image.
In todays world of social media and online imaging it is simply bad business to have a less than fantastic portrait.
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Last week I posted about the Photoshop work that goes into our final product. I put out a challenge to photogs worldwide to take my original file and match or better the post production work. I even offered a cash prize. Over ten photogs and two art directors took me up on it and we sent them the original JPGS…to date…not one submitted an entry for the prize. Case…as they say…closed.
What can we learn from this…first, that creating a digital image is more than just pushing the button. Second…the original photog is probably the best person to do the post work on an image.
Could someone take my file and create something to match it…definitely. But what most non PS literate folks do not realize is the time involved and in many cases the previsualization and the understanding of the PS tools that begins at the shoot/lighting stage and ends with the PS work.
OK…here is todays post.
The top image above is simply the Raw file converted to a JPG…It is correctly exposed, and if a client saw only this, they would think its a “good” shot. Photographers who play the “shoot and burn” game may prove to be a little cheaper…but in the end, many clients will never know just how good a shot could have been. Thats just life.
What I “saw” in my minds eye was what you see in the bottom image. No digital camera at any price can capture this tonal range…we have to finesse it.
No contest this time, just a post to show what our Photoshop artists do every day.
FYI the shot above was part of an assignement for an Ontario Log Homes builder…nice stuff indeed.
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We shoot most of our business portraits in our Centretown studio. Its a 4000 sq ft building and execs feel good about coming into a pro studio. Occassionally an organization wants the shot done on location and we are happy to comply. In this case, the head of a major medical facility wanted something a bit more thoughtful shot in his environment. We did perhaps a half dozen variations in a 20 minute session but this is the one they went with…Its always great when clients step out of the box and pick the best shot.
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This was a shot I did during the Celebrity Chefs event organized by Michael Blackie at the NAC. It was one of the best parties of the year and I always enjoy the NAC facility whether I am shooting the artists performing, the food, or the many weddings we shoot at that location. Head to my commercial site and click on products if you would like to see more…
Want to see an NAC wedding….
http://www.couvrette-photography.on.ca/ottawa_wedding_portrait_photography/
