In addition to posting information about some of my photo shoots, I'm going to start using this blog to talk about some of my experiences with Utah's fashion industry. Collaborating with models, makeup artists, and hair stylists has given me a strong appreciation for style and fashion, so I figured I'd use this space to call out some people and companies who are worthy of mention.

Wilhelmina Urban is conveniently located right around the corner from my house, on 300 West just north of Downtown Salt Lake City. They have many beautiful, professional models who are as easy to work with as they are on the eyes. They do a fantastic job on the runway, too! Their staff is professional, knowledgeable, and friendly. Wilhelmina Urban is a licensee of one of the nation's top workhorse agencies, Wilhelmina Models, which is depicted in the VH1 reality television series, The Agency.

W Talent hosts frequent fashion shows at Fashionplace Mall, and their own modeling school campus on Highland Drive in Holladay (SLC Metro area). The W Talent campus serves as a training center for new models looking to learn the ropes and build a portfolio. They charge money for the variety of services that they provide, and there's no guarantee that you'll get work if you sign up. That said, some of Utah's best fashion photographers have done portfolio shoots for their models, including one of my favorites, Dave Tada (currently in LA). They also have one of my favorite models in their lineup, Sveta (pictured above). Models who turn to W Talent come out of their first year with some really stunning portfolio shots, and some actual experience walking runways at W and local malls.

Labels: fashion, industry, utah, w talent, wilhelmina, wilhelmina urban

I'm preparing example photos for a lecture I'm giving on digital photography at the SparkArts: Digital Arts Festival, October 12, 2007.

These were created to illustrate the noise caused by high ISO settings. One common mistake I see is people setting their cameras to high or auto-ISO, causing noisy images, when they could have created terrific, clean images just by adding a little light to the scene, or letting a little more light into the camera.

ISO controls the gain of your sensor's light sensitivity. Think of it as a volume knob for light. Turning up the ISO boosts the volume of the light, but it doesn't change how much light actually struck the sensor, just like boosting the volume of your stereo doesn't change the volume your music was recorded at.

In other words, if you didn't get enough light in the first place, boosting your ISO is going to brighten the image, but it will also raise the volume of random background noise, which shows up as little multi-colored dots.

Even in a properly exposed high ISO image, you'll find that the image isn't as sharp as it could be. Digital noise obscures fine detail. The image has lower contrast, because raising the noise floor reduces the available dynamic range. Shadows and blacks are not as deep as they could be, and that makes colors appear to be less rich, too.

These examples are straight from the camera with no photoshop, and no level, color, or contrast adjustment. I created two images, and made detail crops from them to illustrate the points.

ISO 3200:

ISO 100:

ISO 3200:

ISO 100:

ISO 3200

ISO 100

As you can see, an ISO boost should be your last resort. So what do you do first?

• Add more light to the scene - turn on a lamp, open some curtains, or set up a flash (off camera!)
• Open your aperture wider (smaller numbers)
• Lower your shutter speed as low as you can go without motion blur from camera shake. For me that's typically around 1/30th of a second, but many people find that 1/60th of a second works better for them.

I don't like to use high ISO settings for my professional images, but never say never. If you have a choice between grainy photos or no photos of a cherished memory, go ahead and boost that ISO!

I'm giving a talk on Digital Photography for the SparkArts: Digital Arts Festival at the Salt Lake City Public Library Friday, October 12 at 3:00pm. It's scheduled for 50 minutes, and will provide a basic overview of digital photography techniques, technology, and resources. Whether you're new to photography, or a long-time shooter, there's sure to be something new here for you to explore.

1. Photography Basics Unchanged
   • Composition
   • Aperture
   • Shutter speed
   • Depth of Field
2. Reading Histograms
3. Metering and Exposure
4. Using ISO
5. White Balance
6. RAW vs JPEG
7. Digital Darkroom
   • Whitebalance
   • Exposure
   • Curves and contrast
   • Color adjustments
8. Using Flash
   • TTL flash metering
   • Using gels to balance with ambient light
   • Off-camera flash (radio and IR wireless remotes)
   • Lighting in a nutshell / light modifiers

My photo workstation is fixed, and the 80's prom photos are online!

From the SmugMug gallery, you can purchase prints (at very low prices), or purchase the high-res (printable) versions of the photos for unlimited personal use. Buying prints and high-res photos helps me pay the bills so I can keep offering my photo services to the nightlife community at affordable rates.

Feel free to use Flickr photos for personal MySpace pages, etc, but please credit me so I don't have to start stamping photos with silly water marks. If you wish to use the photos for promotion or commercial purposes, please contact me for permission, first.

Labels: nightlife, photo, photography, portrait, saints and sinners

My very first shots of one of Merryl at the decks. She's a legend around here. We love her. I was thrilled to find out she was spinning at Johnny's tonight. I love the crowd there. If you want to meet some of SLC's best DJ's, promoters, and scene supporters, Tuesday nights at Johnny's on Second is absolutely the place to be.

Labels: dj, johnny's on second, meryl, nightlife, photo, photos, portrait