ave I mentioned how much I love Texas clientele?  Kimberly & Derek are a beautiful couple that came all the way from Dallas for their wedding at Caesar’s Palace.  Ironically, I had just flown back from San Antonio just a few hours before we met with them, so my Texas-centric weekend was still in full swing.

The importance of hair and makeup artistry

We began the day with some getting ready and details photos, which I insisted on after learning that James from Glamsquad would be present.  If I could go off on a tangent for a moment – watching James work is like poetry in motion.  The intense focus of his eyes and each brush of makeup is entrancing as a bride is transformed into a princess. 

You will never be as beautiful and young as you are on your wedding day (and that’s not to say that it is all downhill afterwards) and you owe it to yourself to hire a professional hair and makeup artist.  The cost is much less than you would expect and the difference shows in every photo.  Clients flying into Vegas are often jet lagged and dehydrated and having a coat of airbrushed makeup leaves you looking fresh and vibrant and best of all, airbrushed makeup rarely runs, so you’re free to let those emotions and tears out all day long

I talk often of the importance of camera gear and the role that it plays in image clarity, but I tend to be a little vague.  In the days of 35mm film cameras (insert nostalgic sigh here) image quality was determined entirely by lighting, photographer technique and the type of film used.  The camera model had little to nothing to do with color balance, contrast and clarity. 

With the rise of professional digital cameras, the camera sensor itself *is* the ’film’ and the camera model is of the utmost importance in overall image quality and should be of the utmost importance when considering a wedding photographer. 

We currently utilize the Nikon D700 camera bodies and the difference in quality between that and nearly any other camera model is immense. 

As a long time film supporter, I like a bit of fine grain and softness to my images – it makes an image look a bit more contrasty and adds a three dimensional organic quality to photos which looks great when printed.  To accomplish this, I increase the ISO (film speed) which makes a digital sensor more sensitive to light at the cost of image quality and grain.  At least that’s what it is supposed to do.  The problem is that the D700 does such an amazing job cleaning up digital noise and grain that images look amazingly sharp, with little grain, no matter what settings I select.

Here is a link to one of the full resolution images (selective focus on James, with the rest of the scene fading off into smooth bokeh).  Note: Most image viewers will scale a large image like this down and to get the full effect, view it only at 100% and scroll to the right

http://www.dtyler-photography.com/images/D3D700/812708496.jpg

Logic would dictate that the above shot should have been taken with my Nikon 105mm prime macro lens with vibration reduction (quite possibly the sharpest lens Nikon has ever produced) at a reasonably low ISO of 200 or 400, but instead, the image was shot from thirteen feet away at ISO 2000 with the D700 and a fifteen year old 80-200mm zoom lens that I purchased used in 1997.  It has never been calibrated and I make no special care towards its transport or cleaning and should be considered the worst lens in my kit.  It has also been dropped a few times over the last decade and a half and has a UV filter that usually cuts down on sharpness and image quality. 

I shot most of Kimberly’s getting ready photos at my zoom lens’ maximum aperture of f/2.8 to achieve the selective focus, which is the aperture which a lens looks its absolute worst.  The resulting image is so clear that it reveals even the tiniest of pores and hair follicles in stunning clarity and shows that while lens quality is important, at the end of the day the camera wins out.  While I have over a dozen newer lenses, there’s some imperceptible quality in my old 80-200 that I just don’t see from my other lenses and it remains my default ‘go to’ telephoto lens even after all these years.

I mention the above in response to a question I received from a client that read a thread on The Knot debating the merits of digital camera model on image quality, but I digress.

Kimberly and Derek had a bit of rainy weather to contend with and their ceremony was moved from the outdoor gazebo at Caesar’s Palace to the indoor chapel, but nothing could slow these two down and they exited the chapel with as big a small and bright personalities as I have ever seen. 

I’m not usually too crazy about hotel chapels, but Caesar’s has this amazing staircase that we couldn’t help getting tons of shots on before moving onto the reception at the Trevi restaurant in the forum shops. 

I absolutely love Sarah’s detail shots here – all taken with a 50mm Nikon lens @ f/1.4.  Having a second photographer with me at all times is wonderful, as she always finds little details that even I would have missed and seeing alternate angles from her keen eye really breathes some variety and freshens up a shoot well!

Mazel Tov to Kimberly and Derek and may your days and nights be filled with wonderful memories of a long and happy life together!