Today is another shooting day for me. There is a studio showcase this evening in Jessup, MD. I will be photographing the students and their teachers performing what they have been working on recently. When they dance, it will be a mix of ballroom, Latin and possibly some formation pieces.
Overall, it is fun to show off all the new choreography for your friends and studio classmates! Additionally, I look forward to the theme of the showcase. On this occasion, the staff comes up with a theme to tie in all the performances together. Having a theme keeps a cohesive focus over all the numbers. It helps the audience follow along and pay attention to see how the next number relates to the previous.
A reminder too that this Monday is the end of the American Star Ball photo sale. All prices return to normal rates for that event. The photos will still be able to view until September 23, 2013, so you can still view and share them for a while now.
Just a quick reminder note today. I wanted to let everyone know of the early bird 2013 sale ending on photo purchases from the American Star Ball. At this time the sale will expire on Monday, June 10, 2013. In summary, the sale is 20% off your entire purchase and includes prints and digital file downloads. In the hope that this will explain further, there are 3 different sizes of digital downloads available. The small download is a good size for email, blog, and Facebook use. As can be seen on this blog, these images are small download size. The medium download can be printed up to 4×6 size at the lab of your choice. And the large download can be printed up to 8×12. Of course having the digital download will help find photos in the future. Since you will have the filename with the download, it will make it easier to find in the archive later. Visit the proofing website to view your photos and printing / download options:
There are some constants that survive no matter how much photography evolves. Because of standards organizations, we had film speeds in ASA or ISO that now go by light sensitivity on digital cameras and F-stops for describing aperture openings. The softer “standards” that have survived include cropping dimensions of photos for presentation.
Photo Dimensions
8×10, 5×7 – these dimensions are some of the popular frame sizes that are sold here in the US. When my customers start looking at purchasing photos, these are the sizes that they purchase the most – why? These are the frames that are available in the decorator and craft stores. The problem? Look at the files that are coming out of your camera at this time. If you have a DSLR, the dimensions of the files that it makes are 4×6! This goes back to the days of film. 35mm film was the most popular consumer and small-format professional size of film that was available. For this reason, manufacturers keep the form of the cameras and the lenses the same as film cameras. With this in mind, most sensors have retained this ratio.
What this means is that if you want to have an 8×10 photo that is printed edge to edge, you need to crop your image files. Cropping is much easier in software than after the photos has been printed. It is non destructive, and it can also be used to improve composition of your image. To make an 8×10 image, the original file needs to be cropped down from 4×6 to 4×5 to fit on the page without borders. Here is an example:
The 4×6 crop is more “panoramic” with a long dimension left to right in the frame. This is popular for landscapes and can give a better sense of scale. To fit this image into an 8×10 frame, however, a crop is needed. In trying to keep it close to the original composition, I didn’t move the frame in the software and came up with this:
The frame looks much different to me! Even though printed it would be a “larger” photo, I think it feels more cramped. It doesn’t convey the open space that the photo was taken, it seems like many of the elements are much closer together in the frame – the house in the background with the box in the foreground. Now changing the 8×10 crop to a portrait mode (where the longest size run up and down) the background house is a much smaller part of the images, an the emphasis goes back to the foreground. The best part is that you can change these easily in software until you really find the photo that suits you best.
