Photography
Mill Creek Park
Event Photography – Industry Needs You
Next Level Photography once again partnered with the Western Central Job Partnership to create event photography for their industry job fair. It was obvious that many hours of preparation, planning, and organizing happened in order to pull off an event of this size, and we were honored once again to be a part of it.
Below are just a few of the images delivered to the Western Central Job Partnership. We pride ourselves on being able to deliver professional and beautiful photography, crisp, sharp, vibrant images that tell the story of your event.
The full gallery can be viewed here. Visit www.nextlevelphotographers.com to learn more about our photography services.
Why We’re Not Available Light Shooters
What is a natural light shooter?
So many photographers today advertise themselves as “natural light” or “available light” photographers. The idea is to persuade their clients that their shoots are natural, honest, free of the popping light of flash photography. What I read is that these people are openly admitting (and somehow throwing on a positive spin) that they are intimidated by off camera lighting and wish to stay well within their comfort zone.
The truth is, many of these natural light photographers obviously have a great love for picture taking, spent many hours behind the lens, and have an extensive knowledge of how to use their cameras and create desirable imaging. I can tell by the beautiful images that span the 100% width of their website’s home page. And when you only need an hour to shoot in the summer when the sun starts to fall perfectly into the trees, you really don’t have to carry around or use lighting gear to capture a young family for their annual photo shoot.
But what they are advertising as an advantage is exactly what allows Next Level Photography to say yes to many of the jobs that these photographers are forced to decline. This is part of what makes us a professional photography business.
Do you have an actual studio?
Knowledgeable customers, particularly business or commercial customers, who are weeding out non-professional photographers will ask this question. I have been asked this question hundreds of times.
Having a studio not only provides the space and organization to do business, but with so many talented hobbyist photographers advertising their services, it is an obvious differentiator between a mom-with-a-camera and a full time, serious, professional photography service.
While hobbyists advertise how they are “natural light” photographers first thing on their website, we proudly show pictures of our studio location.
Photographing Events, Parties, and Weddings
We love to be hired to photograph events and weddings. They are challenging, can be long, we have limited control, venues are usually dim or poorly lit, and lots of things can go wrong for a photographer. Bring it!
There are always two of us and we love to shoot all day long. We’re professional and know how to work with the staff and event planners to ensure you get the shots you expect. We enjoy meeting and working with new people.
We know where to set up our lighting so you get bright, clean, sharp, vivid photography when available light just doesn’t cut it. And we bring back ups, so when the day comes that something of ours doesn’t want to work – you won’t even know it.
Products with a white background
Another thing that you can’t pull off without knowledge and use of professional lighting is isolating objects, people, or pets on a white background. This is not an ideal job for Photoshop, you need to get this right, right out of the camera. Places like Amazon now require you to use professional images with a full white background if you want to sell on their site. Catalogs and magazines often request products and models to be isolated on white.
Green Screen
Also known as chroma-key. Not only does the subject need to be properly lit, but the green screen needs to be evenly lit to easily remove the subject from it in post production.
“What is color? No object of itself alone has color.
We know that even the most brightly colored object, if taken into total darkness, loses its color. Therefore, if an object is dependent upon light for color, color must be a property of light.
And so it is.” ~ Paul Outerbridge
Difficult Photo Restoration
Before and After Restoration
Photo restoration is about saving memories. Above, this 11×14 photo happened to be in a home that caught fire. Luckily the photo didn’t catch fire, but the water damage caused afterward was slowly destroying the photograph.
This restoration took about 7 hours of detailed work. Photoshop is a wonderful, often magical tool, however there is no simple push-button solution for restoration.
The Restoration Process
I start out by making a digital copy of the image. Using an advanced camera system and proper lighting, I photographed the original photograph and opened it up in Photoshop CC. For restoration it’s best to work at 100%-200% magnification.
The mold spots were generally easy to remove with the clone stamp tool and healing tools. Luckily most of the most damaged areas occurred in the background parts in the image. Color correction happened over time using levels, hue saturation, and color balance, masking different areas to achieve the most flattering results. Obviously the most difficult task was recreating the arm. There was simply nothing left to work with from the original photo. You can see from the detail image below that the arm was completely gone.
The dress color was the last thing I worked on. I had thought throughout the process that her dress was white, but the more I studied the image the more I thought it was a pale pink, matching the little flower detail on the collar. Using a color adjustment layer and the brush tool, I painted in different shade of pale pink, careful not to color the white layered lace. Finally I sharpened the image for print and made the client’s final restoration prints.
Weddings By Next Level Photography
2016 and 2017 dates are booking fast. Don’t delay. Contact Next Level Photography and schedule a photography consultation and reserve your day.
Weddings And Beyond
Planning Your Wedding?
There’s going to be more than 30 wedding related vendors at the Confluence this Saturday from 11-3 including Next Level Photography! Matt and Mary of Next Level Photography will have a display of some of our recent wedding photography and also our amazing photo booth will be set up and open to try out for yourselves!
Weddings and Beyond – Address and Info
The Confluence is located downtown New Castle at 214 E Washington St, New Castle, PA 16101. The Weddings and Beyond event is a free wedding show that takes place Saturday, January 30th, 2016 from 11:00-3:00.
We’ll see you there!