Posts Tagged ‘Wedding’

Tech Thursday – Fisheye Lens

©TimeLine Media - Fisheye Jefferson Memorial Corrected

For today’s Tech Thursday post, I wanted to go to the opposite side of the focal length scale. Last time, I posted about the 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. This is by far the longest lens I use on a regular basis. One of the widest lenses that I have is the 16mm Fisheye lens from Nikon. This is undoubtedly an extremely wide-angle lens. In sum, it allows for a complete 180-degree field of view in the camera frame. This is one piece of camera gear that is overused by photographers when they first get their hands on it. You definitely need to get this out of your system with interiors and landscape images. Here is an example of a shot with the Fisheye lens from the balcony of a church overlooking a wedding ceremony.

Wedding Photography

©TimeLine Media - Fisheye wedding ceremony
©TimeLine Media – Fisheye wedding ceremony

These make nice scene setting images for wedding albums. These are suited for photos where people faces are not prominent. The bowing of the image at the sides do not make this a good portrait lens. No one likes to be the curved/distorted one at the edge of a fisheye image! The wide field of view allows you to put lots of elements into a frame without resorting to a lot of post-production work to combine images. Here is another wedding image to put the cake in it’s complete setting.

©TimeLine Media - Fisheye wedding cake
©TimeLine Media – Fisheye wedding cake

The characteristic fisheye distortion is clearly seen in the columns. You will notice that the distortion is not as bad through the center of the picture. Place your subject as close to the middle of the frame to reduce the effect of the lens on your subject. This makes it challenging to keep the rule-of-thirds in the frame, but that is normal with these extreme lenses. If you do not want to have the curvature in the image, this can be corrected easily with software. In Adobe Lightroom 4, there is a lens correction feature that will fix the distortion in the image with a few clicks. I took a photo of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC and corrected it Lightroom. Here are both the corrected and uncorrected versions of the photo:

Washington, DC

©TimeLine Media - Fisheye Jefferson Memorial Uncorrected
©TimeLine Media – Fisheye Jefferson Memorial Uncorrected
©TimeLine Media - Fisheye Jefferson Memorial Corrected
©TimeLine Media – Fisheye Jefferson Memorial Corrected

Now the angles have all been straightened, and the photo looks more “normal”. But you have the added benefit of having more of the area in the photo than is possible with a straight or rectilinear lens. Give these lenses a try next time you are thinking of visiting somewhere large expanses of views, or enourmous ceiling heights. They can be a lot of fun!

©TimeLine Media - example Fisheye photo
©TimeLine Media – example Fisheye photo

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Wedding photos – Ruth & Don – part 2

After the ceremony, is where the photographer is front and center. There are the must-have formal photos that need to be taken. With all the family gathered at one place, it is an important milestone in two family’s history. These are the wedding photos that are on the top of the list when asked what the first thing will be salvaged in a fire! At no other time will all these people be assembled at the same time to celebrate a new marriage. For this wedding, I took as many separate groups as I could – from both families together, to just siblings, to immediate families only, to the entire extended family together in one photo.

Bridal Walk – Wedding Photos

When the formals are complete, I can relax a little. The next part is my FAVORITE during a wedding day – a bridal walk with the bride and groom where I can get time alone with them without any other distractions. Lots of brides and grooms like the little break before the reception to recharge. Some of my best images from a wedding can be crafted during these mini sessions. Ruth and Don were very brave going out in the cold to get some photos at a beautiful church in downtown Hershey, PA. This had a beautifully lit cross that I could place in the background – got lucky again!

Wedding photos - Bridal walk photo - www.timelinedc.com

The bright red doors gave a nice background to the still-hanging Christmas decorations:

Wedding photos - Bridal walk photo - www.timelinedc.com

Being in Hershey, PA, you can’t get out of town without getting a photo of a kiss underneath a lightpost “Kiss” in the shape of the famous chocolates:

Bridal walk photo - www.timelinedc.com

The light was just perfect for photos – a little overcast, and the slight breeze kept the veil out of the way. The passing traffic honked their horns to the bride and groom! Both of them took it in stride – sharing the day with their motorized well-wishers.

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703-864-8208

Wedding photos – Ruth & Don – part 1

Wedding photo - Rassi Borneo - www.timelinedc.com

Palmyra, PA – This was a crisp, beautiful day in December for wedding photos. I have known Ruth for a long time – she attended my 2nd birthday party. (This was proven by film in fact, not by my recollection.) Her parents have been friends with my parents for long before we were around. So, it was quite an honor that she asked me to photograph her wedding to Don. We met earlier in the Fall, and we looked through weddings albums. Some that I had made, and some of her family’s wedding albums. This overall helped to plan what we wanted to shoot on her wedding day. I think we were able to get a lot of nice images.

Wedding photos – Portraits

Wedding photo - Rassi Borneo - www.timelinedc.com

Portraits of the bride and groom are some of my favorite images from the wedding day. There is so much going on, so many people around that it’s nice way for photographers to give them a chance to breathe. We can say, “Sorry – I need to get a few shots without any distracting things in the background.” The groom never seems to have as many “getting ready” shots – I wonder why?

After finishing the shots of Ruth adjusting her dress, and veil, I went over to the church to see how the guys were doing. The room where the groom and groomsmen were getting ready had a strip window on the door to the outside. I used this like a strip-light, a long rectangular softbox that creates a beautiful light for the groom. It was just luck that behind the groom in the background was a sign “God is Love.”

The ceremony in their church with friends and family attending was one of the most personal I have attended. They were blessed to have all their parents there to witness the ceremony, and Ruth’s brother sang during the ceremony. I always consider it a privilege to photograph weddings. But this in particular was special for me since I knew one of the families. They treated me as a guest, not just a vendor, and I think it pushed me to get the best images of their day.

Wedding photo - Rassi Borneo - www.timelinedc.com

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703-864-8208

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