I just heard from a friend, Ellen, who I met through Pittsburgh Filmmakers. She was writing to let me know she noticed a photo of mine is on the front page of Filmmakers’ Web site and on the cover of their 2010 summer catalog which is also available on the site. It’s the small photo of Ellen swimming in waves of light on the right of the site above the summer classes info. This was one of those experimental projects that we just had a lot of fun with. Here’s a larger version of the photo:
You can also check out our classmates photos on Flickr. This class had lots of great ideas.
As a wedding photographer, this project forced me to let go of my obsessions over making sure everything is just so. For those who have hired me or are considering hiring me in the future, don’t worry I’m still meticulous about the details, it’s in my nature.
We were painting with light and there were lots of people involved in making this photo: strobe operator, light painters, and of course, the talent. I was behind the camera and directing the scene during the 30 or so seconds the shutter was open. So given the chaos of the process and the fact that it’s a Polaroid, I have come to accept that it’s not perfectly focused and that the multiple flashes cause ghosting of Ellen’s face as she made breast strokes while balanced on a coffee table. It was so much fun and helped us all to remember some of the reasons we fell in love with photography in the first place. Thanks to Sally Bozzuto who scanned in the Polaroids and submitted them for the summer catalog!
https://www.captivatingimagery.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Web-Use.png00kmillerhttps://www.captivatingimagery.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Web-Use.pngkmiller2010-02-22 10:44:442010-02-22 12:31:42Light painting at PGH Filmmakers
Sarah and John were married earlier in 2009 in Texas. For the family who could not travel to their wedding, they held a reception in Butler on Valentine’s Day. Here’s a glimpse of two favorites from this beautiful couple’s Valentine’s Day reception:
Sarah is such a beautiful bride and there’s more to come. Blessings to you and John!
https://www.captivatingimagery.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Web-Use.png00kmillerhttps://www.captivatingimagery.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Web-Use.pngkmiller2010-02-16 22:11:192013-11-18 16:33:33Sneak Peek: Sarah and John’s reception at the Days Inn in Butler, Pa.
Have you heard of the new University Center in Oakland? Ok, this isn’t an ad, but this beautiful new venue prompted me to post a Oakland venue review as part of my Bride’s Guide. Oakland is a popular setting for many Pittsburgh weddings, with the surrounding college campuses, beautiful churches and parks. For a long time, this college town was more limited in reception venues, but the University Club is definitely a stand-out in my opinion. I photographed a corporate event there in the fall. However, I don’t have any photos that really show the beauty of this venue, because my assignment was mainly what we photographers call “grip and grins” or informal group shots of guests at the event. So you’ll have to check out their site to get a sense of what this place looks like.
It seems that lots of brides and grooms nowadays are planning for their ceremony and reception to be close-by to save time in their busy day and also to keep it simpler for guests.
Whew! There are more Oakland reception venues than I thought. And that’s just off the top of my head from my experience in photographing events at these locations.
One last consideration if you’re planning for an Oakland wedding: there are plenty of great locations for the photography within walking distance. Can you tell I’m a fan of Oakland weddings? Check out a few of the great Oakland locations in the photos below.
I’m taking an advanced class and workshop this winter to keep my skills sharp through the slow season and this post is my first project for my class at Pittsburgh Filmmakers. We were assigned to choose two photographs and try to recreate them as much as possible by matching lighting, subject matter and composition in camera, and then by matching tone, saturation and cropping in post-production.
So, being a wedding photographer, I was instantly drawn to two photographers I recently learned about in Professional Wedding Photography: Techniques and Images from Master Photographers, published by Amherst Media. The first image is from Chenin and Doug Boutwell of Boutwell Studio in Southern California. For the wedding photographers out there, Doug is the guy who put together Totally Rad Actions. I knew his name was familiar… This couple is a great team and it was interesting to see their own Photoshop actions on their work.
So here’s the image I scanned from my book:
And here’s my shot at it:
Many thanks to my dear friend, Kelly, for modeling for this project. She was brilliant and even laughed on cue!
The second image is from Jen and Stephen Bebb of Bebb Studios in Vancouver. This husband and wife team is awesome and they have over a decade of experience in the business.
Here’s the scanned image:
And here’s my take:
The lighting in my image is less soft and more directional. It was about 7 p.m. when we were shooting, so I relied on my speedlights the best I could, and while the lighting is not a match, I kind of like it!
I’m preparing a presentation on HDR photography and thought it might be nice to share some highlights ~
HDR photography stands for high dynamic range, meaning that the range of tonal values in a photograph is greater than what can be achieved in a single exposure. This is accomplished by merging together multiple exposures. The result more accurately represents the scene as seen by the human eye. Our eyes are able to see a much greater range of tones than one exposure can possibly record. However, it’s anticipated that someday cameras may have the capability to capture an HDR image in one exposure. And that day may be here sooner than we think!
To create an HDR photo, you need to use a tripod so that the multiple images are in exactly the same position. You can use a function on your camera to take a series of under- and over-exposed images or you could manually under and over expose subsequent images in varying increments of a stop, a third of a stop, etc. You can use three, five, seven or any number of exposures to create the HDR image. Although, the higher number of images merged, the longer it will take and the larger the file will be.
To merge the photos, you can use Photoshop or other programs that include tone mapping, such as Photomatix Pro. In Photoshop, you go to File, Automate, Merge to HDR, and select the photos you would like to merge. Photoshop will automatically align the images and create the HDR image. I like to use Lightroom and export the photos to Photomatix Pro, which also aligns and merges them. I purchased Photomatix Pro, so that I could refine the HDR images with tone mapping. The amount of information you have in an HDR image can be overwhelming and it doesn’t always look good. With tone mapping, you can choose to condense and expand qualities of the HDR image to either represent the vision of the photo in your mind’s eye or the true to life scene, as seen by the human eye.
Here’s the finished version of the organ at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood:
The best subjects for HDR photography are those that don’t move, such as landscapes or architecture. People are generally not a good subject for HDR, because of movement. However, you could simulate an HDR portrait by using one exposure and adjusting it and saving it at varying under- and over-exposed increments.
Light painting at PGH Filmmakers
/by kmillerI just heard from a friend, Ellen, who I met through Pittsburgh Filmmakers. She was writing to let me know she noticed a photo of mine is on the front page of Filmmakers’ Web site and on the cover of their 2010 summer catalog which is also available on the site. It’s the small photo of Ellen swimming in waves of light on the right of the site above the summer classes info. This was one of those experimental projects that we just had a lot of fun with. Here’s a larger version of the photo:
You can also check out our classmates photos on Flickr. This class had lots of great ideas.
As a wedding photographer, this project forced me to let go of my obsessions over making sure everything is just so. For those who have hired me or are considering hiring me in the future, don’t worry I’m still meticulous about the details, it’s in my nature.
We were painting with light and there were lots of people involved in making this photo: strobe operator, light painters, and of course, the talent. I was behind the camera and directing the scene during the 30 or so seconds the shutter was open. So given the chaos of the process and the fact that it’s a Polaroid, I have come to accept that it’s not perfectly focused and that the multiple flashes cause ghosting of Ellen’s face as she made breast strokes while balanced on a coffee table. It was so much fun and helped us all to remember some of the reasons we fell in love with photography in the first place. Thanks to Sally Bozzuto who scanned in the Polaroids and submitted them for the summer catalog!
Sneak Peek: Sarah and John’s reception at the Days Inn in Butler, Pa.
/by kmillerSarah and John were married earlier in 2009 in Texas. For the family who could not travel to their wedding, they held a reception in Butler on Valentine’s Day. Here’s a glimpse of two favorites from this beautiful couple’s Valentine’s Day reception:
Sarah is such a beautiful bride and there’s more to come. Blessings to you and John!
Oakland venue reviews
/by kmillerHave you heard of the new University Center in Oakland? Ok, this isn’t an ad, but this beautiful new venue prompted me to post a Oakland venue review as part of my Bride’s Guide. Oakland is a popular setting for many Pittsburgh weddings, with the surrounding college campuses, beautiful churches and parks. For a long time, this college town was more limited in reception venues, but the University Club is definitely a stand-out in my opinion. I photographed a corporate event there in the fall. However, I don’t have any photos that really show the beauty of this venue, because my assignment was mainly what we photographers call “grip and grins” or informal group shots of guests at the event. So you’ll have to check out their site to get a sense of what this place looks like.
It seems that lots of brides and grooms nowadays are planning for their ceremony and reception to be close-by to save time in their busy day and also to keep it simpler for guests.
Now there are a lot of gorgeous churches in this neighborhood: Heinz Chapel (photographed above), St. Paul’s Cathedral, Bellefield Presbyterian Church, just to name a few. Other reception venues include: The Twentieth Century Club, the Concordia Club, the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, or St. Nick’s Cathedral Room, as well as the local hotels. These venues have the catering covered from linens through glassware. Other unique venues include Soilders and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum, Carnegie Museum or Carnegie Music Hall, and Phipps Conservatory. These venues might require more planning, for instance, renting chairs and collaborating with outside caterers, etc.
Whew! There are more Oakland reception venues than I thought. And that’s just off the top of my head from my experience in photographing events at these locations.
One last consideration if you’re planning for an Oakland wedding: there are plenty of great locations for the photography within walking distance. Can you tell I’m a fan of Oakland weddings? Check out a few of the great Oakland locations in the photos below.
Copycat project
/by kmillerI’m taking an advanced class and workshop this winter to keep my skills sharp through the slow season and this post is my first project for my class at Pittsburgh Filmmakers. We were assigned to choose two photographs and try to recreate them as much as possible by matching lighting, subject matter and composition in camera, and then by matching tone, saturation and cropping in post-production.
So, being a wedding photographer, I was instantly drawn to two photographers I recently learned about in Professional Wedding Photography: Techniques and Images from Master Photographers, published by Amherst Media. The first image is from Chenin and Doug Boutwell of Boutwell Studio in Southern California. For the wedding photographers out there, Doug is the guy who put together Totally Rad Actions. I knew his name was familiar… This couple is a great team and it was interesting to see their own Photoshop actions on their work.
So here’s the image I scanned from my book:
And here’s my shot at it:
Many thanks to my dear friend, Kelly, for modeling for this project. She was brilliant and even laughed on cue!
The second image is from Jen and Stephen Bebb of Bebb Studios in Vancouver. This husband and wife team is awesome and they have over a decade of experience in the business.
Here’s the scanned image:
And here’s my take:
The lighting in my image is less soft and more directional. It was about 7 p.m. when we were shooting, so I relied on my speedlights the best I could, and while the lighting is not a match, I kind of like it!
HDR photography
/by kmillerI’m preparing a presentation on HDR photography and thought it might be nice to share some highlights ~
HDR photography stands for high dynamic range, meaning that the range of tonal values in a photograph is greater than what can be achieved in a single exposure. This is accomplished by merging together multiple exposures. The result more accurately represents the scene as seen by the human eye. Our eyes are able to see a much greater range of tones than one exposure can possibly record. However, it’s anticipated that someday cameras may have the capability to capture an HDR image in one exposure. And that day may be here sooner than we think!
To create an HDR photo, you need to use a tripod so that the multiple images are in exactly the same position. You can use a function on your camera to take a series of under- and over-exposed images or you could manually under and over expose subsequent images in varying increments of a stop, a third of a stop, etc. You can use three, five, seven or any number of exposures to create the HDR image. Although, the higher number of images merged, the longer it will take and the larger the file will be.
To merge the photos, you can use Photoshop or other programs that include tone mapping, such as Photomatix Pro. In Photoshop, you go to File, Automate, Merge to HDR, and select the photos you would like to merge. Photoshop will automatically align the images and create the HDR image. I like to use Lightroom and export the photos to Photomatix Pro, which also aligns and merges them. I purchased Photomatix Pro, so that I could refine the HDR images with tone mapping. The amount of information you have in an HDR image can be overwhelming and it doesn’t always look good. With tone mapping, you can choose to condense and expand qualities of the HDR image to either represent the vision of the photo in your mind’s eye or the true to life scene, as seen by the human eye.
Here’s the finished version of the organ at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood:
The best subjects for HDR photography are those that don’t move, such as landscapes or architecture. People are generally not a good subject for HDR, because of movement. However, you could simulate an HDR portrait by using one exposure and adjusting it and saving it at varying under- and over-exposed increments.