Henri Cartier Bresson

Henri Cartier Bresson was a French photographer who was most famous for his photojournalism, in particular his work on everyday life in France. I like his street scenes of children, and there is one photo in particular that stands out for me. It is a photo of a child holding two bottles of wine and his expression is priceless. It looks like it is the first day that he has been allowed to hold one bottle of wine and now he has two.

Cartier Bresson influenced a lot of photographers through his work. For over twenty years he worked for Life magazine and he covered many of the major events of the twentieth century. I don't think that it is any coincidence that he trained as an artist and then became such a successful photographer. He also gave us a lot of quotes and any of them could be the subject of a blog. 'In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv' is one such quote. In my wedding photography I used Cartier Bresson's idea of a leitmotiv (I prefer leitmotiv to logo) and used a photo of a cravate and a rose as the theme for each of the pages.

Happy snapping

Sharpening 2

I remember asking one very well respected photographer how many photographs he sharpened on the computer. My question arose because the common comment on photographs is that they are very clear - they are very sharp. This is ususally a positive comment which relates to the quality of the digital equipment and the skill of the photographer. So if you have an ability to make any photo sharper do you use it all the time? His answer was yes.

For the next few months I was sharpening all my photos. If you sharpen too much then it does mean that a curve in your photo can look like a staircase. Also there are many contrasting differences within the same photo, which means that sharpening one line perfectly may mean that another line is over (or under) -sharpened. I don't sharpen everything now, because sometimes I was sharpening so little that I could not see the difference, and I started to wonder why I was spending time on it. You can start to see how sharpening should be viewed as an art and not a science.

One final thought on sharpening. Make it the last thing you do to the photo. If you sharpen and then resize you will change the sharpness.

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Depth of Field

Depth of field sounds very technical and complicated but really it doesn't have to be. You can think of depth of field purely in practical terms. The 'depth' is the part of the picture that is in focus. Have you seen this effect on television? The focus is on something in the foreground and then the focus changes to something in the background. A lens is only perfectly in focus at one particular point, but the focus is acceptable within the range called the depth of field.

This field depends on the aperture (the size of the hole that lets the light in) and if it is a sunny day the aperture doesn't have to be big because light will get in anyway. This means that most things are in focus. However on a dull day the aperture is bigger and there is a smaller depth of field. This is not necessarily a disadvantage if you want to take pictures with some things in focus and others not in focus.

One tip is that the depth of focus is smaller if you focus on something close to the camera. This means it is easier to get the focused/not focused effect if something near the camera is in focus. If you have the ability to manually focus on your camera then give it a go.

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Wedding photography - manipulation

I really don't mind guests taking their own photos when I am the main photographer. The guests want to record their memories of the day. They may even have the skills to produce a gift for the bride and groom. The really important thing is to get happy smiling expressions. It doesn't delay the photography.

Take a look at the secrets page on my website at www.gradwellphotography.co.uk to see the original of this photo and for more examples of photo manipulation. This is a very nice photo of the bride and groom with the church in the background. In the original I managed to also capture a couple of photographers in the bottom corner of the picture and one photographer who was moving quickly to get his photo. I did wait for him and I manipulated my photo to remove these people. I also had to tidy the church grounds and I find that commonly I will be removing weeds from the lawn. The couple received the adapted photo in colour and black and white, and also my preference which was a sepia version with a vignette because the grass looks a little dry and you can't see that in sepia.

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Wedding Photography - the Scottish question

On the theme of unusual photos at weddings, I must include the groomsmen who were dressed in kilts. The bride had suggested that they should have their picture taken as they jumped in the air. This is not a photo that I would have suggested. Fortunately kilts are fairly heavy and the question as to what is worn under a kilt is still unanswered. However this gave rise to natural smiles and a close-up of the faces meant that one photo could easily become three or four photos.

Sometimes the bride throws her bouquet to the eligible females. This gives another opportunity if not for a natural smile, then at least it is a natural facial expression. At the end of the wedding day I often hear the comment that facial muscles are aching because of the smiling during the day. I often ask for a serious photo of the bride and groom and they often work very well, but smiling on a wedding day is so natural that it can be hard to get that serious photo.

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Wedding Photography - natural smiles

Last time I wrote about the classic poses at a wedding. I don't think that I have taken photos at a wedding without learning something on that day, so there is a lot to be said for experience. Each wedding is different and I learn something each time because the couples bring something to the day.

One thing that I like to do is take the couple for a short walk from the venue. This means that you get the whole of the building within the photo. In the case of the Ashton Memorial in Lancaster you have to walk for a few minutes to get a picture of the whole building. I did not expect this but the bride jumped into the arms of the groom. It made a great photo but this is obviously not a post for every couple.

I like natural smiles and I usually get natural smiles when someone makes a joke, when the confetti photo is taken, when I am lying on the floor taking a picture of the groomsmen in a scrum formation, and when the bride is lifted horizontally by the groomsmen. Another pose that I do not generally ask for is the 'piggy back'. However it does give a natural smile. At one wedding the best man walked round with us and was holding a card which said 'thank you'. Shortly after the wedding I received a 'thank you' card with my photo on it.

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Wedding Photography - classic poses

I don't think that you can get through a wedding day without taking the classic poses. The signing of the register, the first kiss, walking down the aisle - you know what I am talking about. However I always have a favourite photo of the day and it is hardly ever one of these standard poses.

When I am taking photographs at a wedding I have another photographer with me. They take photos from a different angle of the same scene or they just take photos from a distance while I am setting up those usual poses or the group photos.

I feel that my photos should be the best. People are looking at me and smiling, but when the bride and groom pick up their photos generally they tell me their favourite photos, and more often than not it is the other photographer who gets the acclaim.

A friend came to me who had just bought a compact digital camera and she had not used it before. She had taken one photo of the bride and groom as they walked down the aisle. It was taken at an angle , it needed cropping and I blurred the people in the congregation who detracted from the focus on the bride and groom and they dominated the picture. It turned out to be a great photo.

So the morals of this story are firstly, never discard a photo. Computers have huge inexpensive memories. Secondly, just because there is a photographer at the wedding, it may well be you who gets the best picture of the day.

Happy snapping