Noisy picture tutorial...

One of our fine Flickr group members, Only Josie, uploaded this picture with the following commentary:

"just a portrait I love even though it's terrible quality - iPhone 3G camera, low light, noise from hell - but it just captures my older daughter in sleep so well!"

Now I didn't ask her if I could use here picture for this tutorial (and probably should have) so my hope is that she does not come to Maine and do me great bodily harm! Here is her image.


Let me say first that I love this picture! You look at it and it gives you a sense of peace and quiet that comes only when our child is asleep and I am willing to bet you are not going to get this little girl in bed without her puppy.

Another reason I love the picture as that it reminds me of my daughter when she was little, in fact she still has that exact dog (his names is bones) and even though she is now a teenager and high school that dog not only sleeps with her, but when she makes her bed he is tucked in nicely.

Back to the picture, the first thing I think of when it comes to noise is "black and white", though noise can be a distraction in a color image it will work wonderfully in black and white.

Here is what I did:

1. Converted the image to black and white

2. It appeared even noisier after the conversion so I reduced the noise

3. I ever so slightly brightened her face

Here is the image after these adjustments:


As I looked at it the outer aspects of the image were brighter than the center which would cause your eyes to drift off center (the subject) and (eventually) off the image itself so to keep your eyes in place I:

1. Added a vignette

2. Added a 2 pixel black border (stroke)

And here is my final edit:


Josie, I hope you don't mind that I used your image, and REALLY hope you don't hurt me.

(click on any image to open larger and in a new screen)

The "Sessions with JoeyL" contest starts today...

If you would like a chance to with "Sessions with JoeyL" here's what you have have to do:

1. Join the Weekly Photo Tips Flickr Group (details on how to join can be found here).

2. Upload one (or more) portraits of a person, animal, or car to our Flickr Group.

3. Leave on (or more) comments on any blog post on Weekly Photo Tips.

The contest starts today and ends November 15th, the winner will be randomly drawn from all contest entries and announced on November 16th.

The winner will receive a link from Joey Lawrence to download "Sessions".

The rules are pretty simple, you can enter as many times as you like (one comment + one image upload = one contest entry), ownership of all images remain with you.

The only thing we will use them (the images) for is to show an occasional "sample" of image contest entries and to announce the winner.

Good luck everyone.

MELISSA & BRENT GET MARRIED!!

Viva had so much fun working with Melissa & Brent this past year planning their October 9th 2010 wedding at the NAC. Melissa was a coordinators dream! Always keeping us in the loop, it was a sad week at Viva la wedding when an email from this fabulous bride didn't appear in our inbox. And the constant communication paid off. The end result was an absolutely flawless wedding day for this amazing couple. Here are a few images of the newlyweds captured by Ron of RZ Photo. Viva had never had the pleasure of working with Ron before and can happily say we're looking forward to collaborating on many more weddings in the future. Congratulations Melissa & Brent!!

Venue: National Arts Centre

Invitations: Urban Fête

Officiant: All Seasons Weddings

String Trio: Cadenza Strings

Flowers: Flowers Talk

Linens: Groovy Linen

Cupcakes: Isobel's

DJ/Lighting: Quality Entertainment

Videographer: C'est Bon Productions

Photographer: RZ Photo

PIE POPS! MMM, MMM GOOD!!

In the past Viva's blogged about wedding cakes, cupcakes, cake pops, and even cake shooters so we thought it was only fair to give pie a little love too. And what better way to do it than with these pie pops. Fill them with your favorite jelly or pureed fruit, seal the edges, then brush them with a little egg white before baking for that golden flaky texture. Mmm, mmm good!

Whether you display them with other tasty sweets on the dessert table at your wedding or wrap them up as favors for your guests to take home at the end of the night, they'll be hard to resist.

Photo Credits: Luxirare

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

For a little inspiration this Thanksgiving weekend Viva turns to the one and only Style Me Pretty. This is just a sneak peek of the fabulous Fall shoot recently posted on SMP's blog. To see the rest of the images and read all about the details click here.







Photo Credits: Allan Zepeda

GOODBYE SUMMER, HELLO FALL

Fall arrived just over two weeks ago and while we usually start the season off with an inspiration post of warm Fall images to get you in the mood, we thought we'd save the inspiration for Thanksgiving weekend and keep this post short and sweet. With the summer behind us, Viva's looking forward to all our upcoming weddings this season! Happy Fall everyone!!



Photo Credit: Caroline Tran

It's funny...

Not funny ha ha, more like amusing... but I get far more emails sent to me than comments left on the blog.

And the latest batch (of emails) have been asking how I made lighting diagrams like the one in yesterdays (and other) posts.

You have several options:

The first is from Kevin Kertz, he put together a layered .psd file that allows you to add, delete, and modify commonly used lighting components and is really easy to use.

He put it together in 2006 so some newer photography wiz bangs and oohh la la's will not be available to you. If you hit this link the download will start.

The second option is newer, in color, does include some of the newer wiz bangs and oohh la la's and is from QH Photography. Not only is this one newere, you also get the option of a Photoshop and/or a Photoshop Elements version. You can download them both at this link.

Lastly, if you have an iPhone (iPod touch, or iPad) you should consider downloading the Strobox lighting diagram app. This one allows you to document your lighting setup while on location.

All three are free and come in handy for documenting a lighting setup that can be referred back to at some time in the future.