Author: blogger

On Hiring Professional Photographer For Wedding Photography In London

blogger

Different moment that truly fills one’s life with joy and pleasure should be cherished in the best romantic and memorable way. Choice is yours; it also depends on your budget, timing and preference. Today, there are a number of acclaimed photography studios in London, Greater London and surrounding cities. You have to select the right one or go through the galleries of the selected one to select the hiring for next photo session or wedding photography in London. Majority of studios and photography are run by skilled photographers who have expertise enough in all kinds of photography ranging from wedding photography in London to birthday photography, anniversary photography, and photography for various other events.

These photography companies have got specialization in endowing with a new concept in contemporary wedding photography. Not only brides and grooms, but their family members also choose reputed photography firm or studio for wedding photography according to their choice. Urban Bridesmaid is also one of the allegedstudios run by Louisa Coulthurst who has been offering services for last more than a decade. The professional photographer also work as a documentary photographer who not simply observe everything, but also capture the wedding day in the most memorable and impressive way.

Capturing wedding photography with impressive personality is the main motive of Louisa. Numerous extra vital points are also kept in mind during the job like wedding photographs should be clear, and attractive that can catch bride, groom and all the attendees in the most impressive way. As everyone knows that bride and groom are the centre of attraction on that special day; therefore their images should be gorgeous and memorable that can make them feel as if the marriage is organized recently, even after many years.

It is a common phenomenon to have short formal family session after the wedding ceremony to capture the more traditional formal shots. Accurate from full wedding day coverage to capture from the bridal preparations to first dance and from walking to smile on both faces the bride and groom, everything small to main points is given high priority to make the wedding photos ever more special.

When it comes to choose the album option for wedding photography in London, it depends on your choice and budget. So what you are waiting for, book a photographer for impressive and memorable wedding photography in London to make the day ever more different.

Wedding Shirts And Indian Salwar Kameez To Dress Up For A Special Occasion

blogger

We live in a country where weddings are larger than life; and to dress impeccably for a wedding is expected out of both men and women. This is why some exclusive wedding shirts and Indian salwar kameez must be a part of your wardrobe. We help you choose the right one, based on your needs.

Wedding shirts for men:
Wedding shirts are very important attire in any mans wardrobe. Whether you are a groom looking for wedding shirts to go inside your suits or are the grooms brother or best friend, your outfit will make a stark difference to the wedding reception and the pictures captured will serve as memories you cherish forever. Hence, picking the right wedding shirts is important, and special care must be given to the colour, cut and detailing.

If it is a church wedding it is much easier because you cannot go wrong with the standard tuxedo wedding shirts. These are stylish tailor made wedding shirts which are fixed with cuff links and collar studs. These wedding shirts make sure that you stand equal to the bride who will be in her lovely gown. Grooms wearing custom dress wedding shirts with embroidery or custom accent have become the fashion nowadays. There can be various accents like the plain interior cuff and custom made plackets, collars or cuffs on wedding shirts.

For functions prior to the wedding like the Mehendi or a pooja, you do not have to necessarily wear a tuxedo shirt. A plain neutral or light coloured shirt with broad collars for a cravat or a tie makes good formal wedding shirts. You can also think of stylish shirt accents with side pleats and French cuffs as wedding shirts.

Try and avoid wearing shirts with textured materials or pin stripes as wedding shirts. When weddings are held during summer wedding shirts made of linen can be used. Whatever the fabric you are using for your wedding shirts, it has to look fashionable and classy.

Indian salwar kameez for women:
While many women do prefer sarees, salwar kameez are far more common for special occasions. The Indian Salwar Kameez has become the most favoured costume among the numerous costumes available in India, and it is not uncommon to see foreigners sporting smart Indian salwar kameez designs these days too. Traditionally it is supposed to have started its journey from the Indian state of Punjab. Now the Indian Salwar Kameez comes in different variations and styles and it has become an integral part of the wardrobe of any woman.

Churidar Kameez is the most favourite variation of the Indian Salwar Kameez. It is almost like the Indian Salwar Kameez but the difference is that the woman wears a churidar instead of the normal pajama. Churidar is the slimmer version of the salwar giving more emphasize to the ankles and knees and has a slimming effect. Kurta or Kurti Kameez is the other variation which is very famous among the youngsters now. Kurti or Kurti means a shorter kameez and women prefer to wear these Indian salwar kameez without the dupatta (the cloth used to cover the bosom). Many well-known brands are coming out with this kind of Indian Salwar Kameez because of its demand.

Every Mc Must Be Well Prepared With Some Rib-tickling Jokes Before The Wedding Reception.

blogger

The Emcee runs the show, directs traffic and delivers some hilarious wedding jokes and one-liners like the host of a comedy show. It is therefore very important to have good, clean, humorous material in his or her arsenal.

There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to where or when the Emcee should deliver jokes. Good jokes can and have been delivered practically anywhere during the reception. However, one of the best times to share some jokes is when introducing the guest speakers. A few of the attendees who usually give speeches and toasts at most wedding receptions are the Best Man, the Maid of Honor and, of course, the Groom.

The Emcee must have enough funny material for the entire reception because there are other guests who may want to say a few words, particularly the bride and groom’s parents.

The Master of Ceremonies must not take over the proceedings with too many jokes at one time. The jokes should be spread throughout the entire program. Jokes can be delivered before the introduction of each guest speaker or after the guest has given his or her speech, or both. Balance is the key.

If the Wedding MC is not too familiar with the speakers, here is a good tip that can make things a bit easier. A few weeks before the big day, he should gather all the relevant background information from the bride and groom concerning the various guest speakers.

With some background knowledge at his disposal, he will be more confident that he will not embarrass anyone or himself by incorrectly pronouncing the person’s name or telling an inappropriate joke.

Without this background knowledge one could easily introduce the groom’s father by commenting that he is a good example to follow, not knowing that he has been divorced 4 times over the last 10 years. Before the reception, it is always a good idea to run a joke by any one of speakers if, for any reason, the MC feels it may embarrass that guest.

Another good time to give some humurous jokes is during the announcements. Throughout the reception the Emcee will be required to give a few announcements. Some of these announcements may include the arrival of the newly married couple, how long the formal part of the program will be, when the speeches and toasts will begin, the sequence in serving the meals, where and when the bouquet and garter toss will start, directions to the bar, the name of the DJ or band, and what time the dancing will commence.

Other announcements may include directions to the restrooms and where the designated smoking area is. These are great opportunities to deliver some related jokes to liven up and entertain the guests.

Jokes can also be introduced during the various activities, whether its when the meals are being served, while the guests are eating, during the selection of the music, before the sticking of the cake or during the bouquet and garter toss.

Proper selection of jokes is vital to avoid embarrassing or humiliating the audience. Generally, the use of dirty jokes which include swearing should be avoided at all cost, particularly if there are children around. Of course, there are weddings where only adults are invited and the couple may request or allow dirty jokes. One must never assume this is the case.

Wedding jokes are an important part of any wedding reception and proper delivery of jokes is essential to be successful as an Emcee. Jokes can be found almost anywhere, but it takes know-how and practice to deliver them effortlessly to bring the house down.

Get Dofollow Backlinks To Your Wedding Photography Blog!

blogger

If you have a wedding photography or digital photography blog, getting free targeted traffic is heavily based on where you are sitting on the SERPs listings. In other words if you type in your keywords that you are campaigning for on Google, have a look to see where you are ranked.

Trying to improve your rankings on Google is known as Search engine optimisation or SEO. Google ranks websites based on the external backlinks pointing to a given site and is also determined by the quality of the link and its relevance.

The higher up you are on the search display the higher the page rank and the more traffic you will receive for that particular keyword.

Improving your rankings is by getting backlinks to your site which have the Dofollow tags in the website source. One method is known as blog commenting on sites which are relevant to your niche. If you have a wedding photography blog then you would actively comment on these sites with good relevant feedback that will add to the discussion.

There are two types of tags implemented on the blogs in the source section. They are known as Nofollow and Dofollow! Google basically ranks a site by the quality of the Dofollow links that are pointing to your website.

NoFollow Blog Links!

Blog commenting on NOFOLLOW tages have ZERO effect on Search Engine rankings, and is a complete waste of time in terms of SEO.

Where Can You Find Dofollow Blogs!

A Quick method to find these blogs is by placing the keywords Dofollow Wedding Blogs in the Google search box. You will find hundreds of blogs that have these tags implemented on their sites. There are also software tools that can do the work for you when it comes to finding these Dofollow blogs.

A word of warning, Google has changed its laws and can penalise blog owners for spamming sites to increase their page ranks via automated means. So, build your links naturally over time rather than trying to get 1000 links pointing to your site in a week.

To check if a blog has enabled the Dofollow tags, Mozilla firefox has a great SEO plugin which can easily find the tags for you. Do a search on the Mozilla Firefox add on for Quick Search Status and install the plugin.

You will get knocked of your page rank faster that you got there! Earning respect from Google is by building your keyword campaign naturally. Avoid spamming blog sites, implement different URL’s when commenting to allow for deeper linking, indexing and of course making the process natural and in compliance with Google’s stringent rules.

BUT since many people used this system to post spam, most blogs have inserted the NOFOLLOW tag to their commenting systems, which tells Google and the other search engines to ignore the link. So keep it natural and don’t spam!

Easy Aperture 3 Workflow For Photographers

blogger

Aperture 3 is an all-in-one work flow software which allows photographers to work without having to go into various programs during their work flow process. I’ve been using Aperture since it was released, I can more or less complete entire work flow all in one program.

From import to output, Aperture delivers a simple work flow solution for photographers, specially for someone like me who wants to work in a single program as much as possible. The quality of the output files is uncompromising.The best feature is the ‘non-destructive’ way the images are processed so the images always ‘as shot’ if I ever need to go back to my originals.

Here is a typical work flow for my wedding or portrait shoot:

Downloading / Importing / Renaming Images
Importing images is quick and easy. Images can be imported from a camera, card reader, DVDs, hard drives or from iPhoto. At the point of importing, you can add copyright, keywords and other meta data all in one go. From a wedding, I may need to import about 600-700 images and as soon as I start import, I press P which gives me the Quick Preview of the imported images and I can immediately start to cull images which are not good. I shoot with 2 camera bodies and the first thing I do is to sort the images by time order. So after the images have been imported, I sort by time order and then rename them.

I’ve created a ‘Custom Name with Counter’ for my images. All I do I select all the images and ‘Batch Change’ all the names which takes a few seconds or so to do. Stacks is a handy tool which automatically group images shot in a sequence, this helps browsing a wedding with lots of images to really speed through the whole shoot. So once all the images have been selected to show case to the couple or client, I then proceed to adjust / enhance the RAW files.

Adjusting / Enhancing Images
Once I’ve sorted and renamed my files, I’ll go through them and apply any adjustments if needed. Simple tasks like fixing white balance, enhance colors, straightening, cropping and improving exposure are all done non-destructively. I’ve made presets which I apply on the fly.

If there is a batch of images shot under the same lighting conditions, then only one image is adjusted and the settings applied to this image ‘lifted’ from it and ‘stamped’ on all the rest of the images in one go. Then I export them as ‘versions’ and saved as high quality JPEGs.

Presenting images to clients
This is where Aperture 3 (and Aperture 2) comes on to its own. When a client books an appointment to either come and see my work or to preview their wedding / portrait images, firstly the images are shown as a slide show with music, all available in Aperture 2 & 3. I have a dual-monitor set up as a 30″ & 23″ Apple Cinema Displays. To fully take advantage of Aperture, you’ve got to work with a dual-monitor set up. This really does speed up the work flow.

The selection process
This process takes around an hour or so for a wedding (400 images) and about 15-20 minutes for a portrait (60 images) session. Multiple images are selected and displayed at a time and the ones which the client love are rated as 1 star. Once we’ve gone through all the images, I do a quick search for all 1 star rated images, this brings up all these images. Now if we need to take some images out of this selection, then I just press ‘2’ and rate the images as 2 star which are definitely selected for the package. This way I can quickly go between the first & second selection if need be.

Event Photography: Need for Speed
Event photography is a big part of our business. When we need to print images on-site at an event, we really did struggle to find a decent program on the Mac. However, all that changed when Aperture 2 arrived. We download, sort, rename, print contact sheets and then print the images from our Mitsubishi dye-sub printer to whatever size we require up to 9×6″. No matter how big or small the event is, whether it is a corporate ball for 100 couples or an equestrian event for 600 riders, Aperture 3 (and 2) effortlessly & painlessly handles our work flow. Even tethered camera support is also available, allowing the images to go straight from camera into Aperture.

Case Study: Corporate Event
Images of guests are shot as they arrive. Using wi-fi, the images are sent to a ‘hot folder’ which Aperture keeps an eye on and import images directly into its library. This is real-time and as soon as the images are shot, the couple are requested to view their images on the monitor. The Mac Book Pro has an additional Apple display attached to it on which only the full screen image is shown to the client without any palettes or the Aperture interface. We can also display multiple images to the client at the same time so they can see which one they like.

There are preset sizes saved under the print window. So if we need to print a contact sheet of 9 images as thumbnails, we just select the images and select the 9-up Contact Sheet or when a customer’s 9×6″ print needs to be printed, only one image is selected and then the 9×6″ Print option is clicked. It is a straight forward way of printing on-site.

Case Study: Cross Country Equestrian Event
A very busy event where we really do need our work flow to be at 100 mph!! 600 riders, 4 photographers shooting 4 different jumps, 6000+ images, all in a day’s work!!!
This is where we make use of the ‘Smart Folders’ in Aperture 2. One Smart folder is created for each photographer, the criteria usually used is the photographer’s name as a keyword. Upon receiving the CF from say Photographer 1, this is entered as a keyword and all images from that CF card are imported. These images will automatically show in the Smart Folder named ‘Photographer 1’. Now to make contact sheets of all the images as small thumb nails so clients can see their images and select the ones they like.

All the images are selected and then to print preset of ‘9-up Contact Sheet’. This will print 9 images on a 9×6″ printer. Once the printing is done, press ‘1’ with all the images selected, this will rate all these selected images as ‘1’ star. Now the next CF card comes from the same photographer, the images are imported with the keyword ‘Photographer 1’ and they all go into the Smart folder of Photographer 1. Only the new images need to be printed as contact sheets, so a quick search of ‘unrated’ images is done, this shows up only those which are not rated ‘1’ and are unrated. All these images are selected, printed and then rated as ‘1’. The same is applied to all the other photographers. A very sophisticated work flow with a simple solution.

In my opinion, I don’t think there is any other professional work flow application which offers such ease for managing, editing, sorting, previewing and outputting in a very user-friendly interface. There are loads and loads of other powerful features which I have not even discussed but are there in Aperture 3 to make our workflow a lot more easier.

Indoor Sporting Events
With most indoor sporting arenas (not at international level), the lighting is not ideal and in many cases not sufficient. Tungsten lighting is usually used at these arenas which gives a very ‘orangey’ cast to the images. Once all the images are shot and imported into Aperture 2, we correct one of the image, lift the settings from it and can apply to either dozens or even hundreds of images at the same time with the ‘Lift’ and ‘Stamp’ tool saving invaluable time and no need to correct each and every image individually.

Aperture 3 only works on a Mac, so if your are on a PC, what other alternatives you may have. The first product which comes to mind is Lightroom by Adobe, but you don’t have the video editing feature on it currently. The other obvious comparision is to Photoshop, but Aperture is not meant to complete with something like Photoshop. Aperture can work alongside Photoshop’s PSD files but it will not work with individual layers. Photoshop is more of a creation tool and Aperture is ideal for workflow and is a digital darkroom on a Mac. Most professional photographers will use both Photoshop & Aperture 3.