Knapp Imaging

Yesterday was a very challenging day for me and the couple who I photographed.  We travelled to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, VA with a 40% change of rain and overcast skies.  As it turned out, we were all wishing for rain before the shoot was over!

It was very hot and very muggy and extremely buggy, and so despite the beautiful surroundings, it was very difficult for Josh and Melissa to get comfortable.  However, they both did a fantastic job despite the difficult environment we found ourselves in.

I look forward to the wedding in a little over a month, and hope for cooler weather.

Thanks so much Josh and Melissa for letting me share in this most special event with you!

– BK

No matter how good a photographer you are, there will always be photos that are less than what you hope for in quality.  When shooting sports, the problem is often blurriness.  In some cases, in fact, the only thing wrong with a given photo is that it is blurry.  The composition, exposure, etc. may be completely fine, but the shutter speed was set too low, or you didn’t hold quite as still as you should have.

In this case, there are a variety of approaches you can use to “recover” a photo.  For instance, there are sharpening tools that give you some level of recovery, but cannot overcome a really blurry image.

Another entirely different approach is to “embrace” the blurriness of the image by way of a special-effect.  Many such effects are available as “actions” in PhotoShop, and one such supplier of these actions is Addicted To Design.

Take a look at the “before” and “after” images below, to see what a well-designed special effect can achieve!

– Before –

– After –

– BK

Today was the first soccer game for my youngest, and I was at the game with camera in-tow!

Here are some tips for sports photography:

- Fast shutter speed is a must if you want to capture action - 1/1000 sec or faster is best.  I used shutter-priority mode and let the camera dynamically determine the appropriate aperture.

- In order to get that fast a shutter speed, you might have to bump the ISO up a bit depending on how bright it is out.  I was able to get away with an ISO of 200 because it was full sun today, and hot!

- Continuous auto-focus is also a must, especially if your little soccer star is running towards you or away from you (i.e. the distance is changing faster than if they were running past you).  Most DSLRs have this as an option.

- A long lens is a must.  I used my 70-200mm f/2.8 with VR.

- A monopod is also helpful to add that extra bit of stability.

Even with all of this effort, you are probably going to have more throw-away shots then you would if you were just shooting a bunch of kids playing around.  I shot around 330 pictures, and ended up with 38 that I thought were worth keeping.

Some sample shots are below …

– BK