Allan Levene Photography 770.919.7993

Why photography is in my blood – literally!

allan — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:07:42 +0000

When someone uses the term … in my blood, it illustrates the deep attachment to that discipline. Well yes, photography is in my blood and more ways than one. I think I can claim I’m unique but have no way to prove it. I’ll explain…

When I was six, and living in London, England I used to watch my father, a professional photographer in his own rite, develop film and print photographs in his darkroom in the house. Back in the day, long before digital it was a routine, Kodak D76 film developer, a water rinse and then a fixer to stop the chemical reaction. And a similar story for the printing side. It was a lot of fun, and probably why I became interested at such a young age. Anyway, one day I was thirsty and went to the refrigerator to get a drink while the family was watching TV. I saw a nice cold glass bottle of soda and took a long drink while standing there.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t realized that my father was using the bottle to store film or print fixer, a poison, and keeping it in the ‘fridge so it would last longer. I remember the odd taste and made it four or five steps back to the TV room when everything went black. The next day I woke up in the hospital after having my stomach pumped out and spent a nice week at the seaside convalescing which my mother was giving my father hell for his stupidity.

Needless to say I didn’t stop loving photography, and used my father’s cameras – Leicas, Robots (yes, Robot brand), Contax and others, any chance I got. So that’s my brief story – I can now make the legitimate claim that photography was really in my blood, at least until it got pumped out!

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Why photographers should wash their hands at weddings

allan — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:07:01 +0000

I know that you’re wondering what hand washing and wedding photographers have in common? Actually a lot, and I’m not referring to eating food, although its a good habit to have to avoid illness.

The actual reason is creativity based! Wedding photographers take the same images over and over again… the ring exchange, first kiss, first dance and so on. It can get to be repetitive, and that’s the problem. On one hand you an want experienced wedding photographer and not a Craig’s List special as the photography has to be done properly on the wedding day. You can’t shoot it twice. Think about it. On the other hand the photographer you want to hire should be consistent, so you “know” that at least the photography will be good.

But good is not enough, and that’s where washing hands comes in.

One of the problems that experienced photographers have is that they are consistent! The can look at a scene and fall back on tried and true techniques, ones that will produce good photographs but not necessary great ones. And its the great ones that couples love. For example, shooting formals is not great photography, they are more record based to show everyone in the combined family that they were there. The problem with consistency is that it can lack the creative spark.

It has been found that if you have an argument where you take a position then washing your hands will likely create instant flexibility in that position! Women know all about this, having to deal with men. Men can sometimes become inflexible and refuse to budge. As an experiment just have them wash their hands and watch what happens! It can be remarkable. Clearly, don’t tell them what you’re up to, but find some simple excuse.

Now, as this applies to photography I like to wash my hands (excluding the food aspect) probably two or three times just before the different wedding phases if possible. Before washing them I may see just a few ways to shoot a scene; after perhaps two or three times as many! I assume that a psychological barrier to new ideas is lifted. I find it opens my mind to more creative, non-repetitive ideas… ones that my clients will love.

And that’s why photographers should wash their hands at weddings. Make sure yours does.

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A death in the family

allan — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:08:33 +0000

I just heard from a bride that I photographed this year that her father had died suddenly. She was distraught, and I saddened. He was a nice man.

I’ve just gone through the proofs again, and find many photographs of him – walking his daughter down the aisle, dancing with her and enjoying himself. She says that she will show these photographs at his funeral, the last pictures of him and her together that she will ever have.

I am proud to have taken these photographs, ones that will be treasured forever. That’s what wedding photographs are all about; treasured memories.

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Be sure to watch your back

allan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:43:14 +0000

One area that most brides don’t think about but should, is watching their backs. I don’t mean it the way you’re thinking, but from a photographic perspective. While commercial weddings venues usually do a good job, from my observation, churches don’t.

Here’s what I mean. Be sure to watch your back(ground). Brides like photographs of themselves getting ready in a special, or not so special changing room. Here’s the problem… if the venue’s (church) changing room is really a glorified junk room (yes, I’ve seen it) then your photographs are going to have junk in the background.

I’ve found that venues usually spend money on the froo-froo in their changing room so that the photographs will have nice backgrounds, but churches don’t. Venues depend on quality photography for their livelihood, but not churches. So if you’re planning on getting married in a church, in particular, take a close look at the changing room’s furniture, and level of junk. If it’s awful, either make sure its moved to another room or see if there is another room that’s nicer. And be sure to bring your own props, so your photographs will not have distracting junk in the background.

If their isn’t a way to get rid of the junk, just move it behind screens, into closets or anywhere that it will be hidden.

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Does your car have a spare tire?

allan — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:33:24 +0000

No, I know these blogs are about wedding photography, but the question is valid. Your answer will be yes. You don’t think about it, except to add air to it (I hope) once in a while so it won’t be flat when you need it but other than that it’s “out of sight, out of mind”.

Car tires are very reliable nowadays. How long has it been since your tire has failed, either by blowout or even a flat? You may not remember, but you still have a spare tire. Why? It’s because the car manufacturer knows that when it eventually happens, they want you to have a way to self rescue. Even if your tire could run with a nail for a hundred miles, it’s cheap insurance.

Here’s how it relates to wedding photography. It’s called photographing a wedding with two cameras, and if your budget affords it, two photographers.

Cameras are sophisticated packages of electronics, and machinery. And they fail on occasion. If that occasion is in the middle of your wedding, your wedding photography is ruined with the photographer’s only liability is to give you your money back. As I’ve said before, you have to get it right the first time; you can’t re-shoot a wedding.

Personally, I buy two identical camera bodies at a time so I won’t have to think about how each operates and miss the shot. Speaking of missing shots, I actually use both during every wedding… one with a telephoto zoom and the other a wide angle zoom. In that way, I don’t waste time changing (and possibly dropping lenses) but just grab the second camera, take the shot and move back to the primary. As another benefit, it also prevents any possibility of getting dust inside the camera as the lenses are rarely removed during the wedding.

And a second photographer can get shots that a single photographer can’t, as you cannot be in two places at once. All good insurance.

Remember, what’s good for your car, should be good for your wedding photographer. When you book yours, be sure to ask and make sure that you see two around your photographer’s neck. It’s cheap insurance, and from my perspective just good common sense.

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Don’t rush it

allan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:11:09 +0000

I cannot remember a wedding when the bride and groom didn’t rush the photographically important parts, where I didn’t have to ask them to s-l-o-w down. Some of those important parts are the processional (towards the altar), recessional (away from the altar), the first dances, throwing the garter and the bouquet and so on. My observations are that while the bride and groom are physically there, they are mentally in a thousand places and are so excited that they don’t move slowly enough or take their time. I think that the venue typically have a process and want to efficiently execute the wedding steps, because that’s what they do. The couple on the other hand want to experience every blissful moment, but feel pressured to go with the flow. I wish they would resist.

So my simple advice is “Don’t rush it”. As it’s your wedding, this is the one day where the world revolves around you. You’ve spent a huge amount of time planning, and a also lot of money so savor every single minute. In the years that follow, the cost of the wedding will be long forgotten, but the only things left will be your memories and your photographs, wall prints and albums. The longer you take in the key moments the better the chance that your photographer will get those great shots that will make you smile… forever.

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The end game

allan — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:30:01 +0000

There is one thing that almost no one ever thinks about when they choose a wedding photographer. And that one thing is “What is the end game? End game, what’s that?

The end game, in this instance is what do you want the final results of your wedding photography to be? An album, small prints, large prints, very large prints? On what types of materials, glossy, matte, canvas?

In general, the larger the end print the more megapixels you need to maintain a finely detailed image. And not only that. Asking the photographer to shoot in “RAW” becomes vital when you expect to receive large prints. I am ignoring the viewing distance in this example. Just about any digital SLR will produce excellent prints up to 16×20; the reason that camera manufacturers keep introducing cameras with up to 50 megapixels is to attempt to persuade the photographers that newer is better.They don’t make any money if people don’t continue to buy.

In truth, it doesn’t make a hill of beans difference to the end result. For example, I have a friend who is a motorcycle mechanic. If you give him the crappiest tools, he will do an excellent job. If you give me the finest tools, I will ruin the motorcycle. Giving someone the finest paint brush, does not make a Rembrandt.

Let’s talk about RAW files for a moment. Digital SLR camera can record digital data in several ways. Point and shoot cameras cannot. Point and shoot cameras process the image recorded on their tiny optical sensors and produce a jpg file which you are all familiar with. The problem with that, as well as their SLR cousins is that the cameras discard much of the data recorded to produce a file to the jpg specifications. It’s like buying a map of the country and then throwing away all but Georgia, thinking that’s all you need. Just don’t drive to Florida.

RAW files, however, are the closest representation to what the camera sensor can produce. The file sizes are much larger, just like the map. The RAW files are copied to the computer and then processed with infinitely more powerful software and computer hardware to produce an much better result. The good photographers shoot RAW to get the finest result they can for their clients. In addition, as software technology is leaping forward RAW files produced a few years ago can be reprocessed to create potentially, much better results.

So what should you take from this post? Just that if you don’t want to produce photographs of over 16×20 inches then the megapixels is not that significant, but do ask for RAW images. Today’s digital SLR cameras will produce great work, no matter what the generation. It’s the photographer that makes the difference.

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I do something that no other photographer does (that I know of), and why

allan — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:18:09 +0000

This topic is white balance, the process of making the colors in the final print look the way they should. For example, a white wedding dress should look white and not orange or green. That process is called white balance adjustment by the camera manufacturers. Each SLR camera has a number of settings to resolve this, as cameras will just “see” a white dress based on the light color bounced off of it. If it fluorescent light, it will be recorded as green, if a light bulb, orange. The cameras make a valiant attempt to fix this problem by using a setting known as automatic white balance. The computer circuitry makes a best effort and usually is fairly close to what the colors should be. It will also have a variety of settings such as sunshine, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent and so on. For example, if you’re shooting under clouds, the light is a little blueish. By changing the setting to cloudy, you’ll get a closer result by making a slight blueish cast become white; or you can leave as auto and you’ll likely get a similar result.

The problem is this, one that I’ve never read anybody commenting about. When a photographer leaves the settings on auto, the camera continually makes guesses from photo to photo to fine tune the white balance adjustment. That wouldn’t really matter if you only shoot a dozen shots (especially in RAW, see adjacent post) as the actual white setting can be adjusted in post production software. Here’s the problem… when I shoot a wedding it’s between 1-2,000 images so can you imagine trying a individually tweak the settings of 2,000 photographs after the fact to get consistent results in similar surroundings? It a horrendous task.

So what I do if to switch from auto to sunshine, cloudy or whatever and leave it there. Although the RAW files may have be off (sometimes way off) by having a distinct color caste, by shooting in RAW I can adjust that out for the entire session in a matter of seconds. And without a loss of quality. Whites looks exactly the same in the same settings.

If given time, I photograph a special card with white, gray and black panels. Not only does it let me set the white balance exactly for those lighting conditions, it also is very useful for setting the correct exposure. With a few button clicks, the custom white balance is set and the photography begins. The more you get it right in camera, the less work in post production. If you multiply 2,000 images by just 1 minute each, you get over 33 hours of non-stop work after the wedding. That’s why thinking ahead saves a huge amount of time.

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Context, and why it’s important

allan — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:49:31 +0000

When I shoot weddings, I’m not paying a lot of attention to the minutiae all of the time, but I am paying a lot to context. What’s context? Context is focusing on the subjects and the background. For example, when I shoot the cake cutting, I always stand behind the cake so I can photograph this couple, and the guests. Many photographers shoot couples from the side, and miss the context… in this instance the guests. After all, shooting the couple cake cutting without guests screams a staged shot. The guests make all of the difference.

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Exclusively Wedding Photography

allan — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:40:20 +0000

I only shoot weddings, and have been a photographer for over forty years. I don’t shoot corporate, don’t shoot sports, no boudoir, no head-shots, no pets, no architectural and no commercial.

Why should you care? Because as all I do is wedding related I’ve learned how to do it right, every time. You can’t shoot your wedding twice; it’s done right, or have a lifetime of regrets. I specialize in a lifetime of smiles. It’s my job to create permanent memories using my skills so I create art for your special day, that tells your story. Reach me at allanl@allanlevenephotography.com

Do you want a wedding photographer that’s -

* Reliable? Will be at the agreed location on time, when you expect him.
* Consistent? Will produce consistently high quality results.
* Responsive? Will answer your questions quickly and accurately.
* Thorough? Will carefully think through your wedding, and offer advice and recommendations to provide you with a better experience and less stress.
* Produces great, creative images? Makes photographs that jump off the page.
* Highly experienced? Has many years of photographic experience, resulting in better pictures.
* Offers great value for your dollar? Provides the best value in the metro Atlanta wedding marketplace.

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I have been watching the (Internet) slideshow over and over. You made me look like a Super Model! I love the different angles and effects. The close-ups are exquisite. You made me feel so comfortable and able to experiment with different poses. A.T.

Everything turned out great, you did a wonderful job. You don’t know how much we appreciate all your hard work, everyone was talking about what a great job you did, and how dedicated you were. D.M.

I’m so happy that we have received our engagement photos. They more than exceeded our expectations! After showing a few family members and friends, all of them want copies. M.M.

Upon the receipt of the pictures you sent I have some things I would like you to know. Your work is unsurpassed. You are a master in the art of photography. You have gone so far past my expectations I cannot express it. Thank you for all you have done. C. P.

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