Marsha and Jordan E-session

mmmatt

Hello all!

here are a few from Friday's session with Marsha and Jordan.

Marsha is originally from Milwaukee but lives in NYC where she met her soon to be husband Jordan. Jordan is an actor and is starting on a new HBO series in the fall. He was a funny guy and the two of them were a blast!

I was hired by Marsha's father on their behalf and we met for the first time Friday at the family farm. Originally her Grandfathers farm, it is now owned by her father and occupied by her Uncle and aunt. The mosquitos were truly unbearable... I think my concentration was a little off because of it but we all made it through and even Marsha, who had about 30 blotches on her back, had a lot of fun shooting it.

So, here are a few from my session with the big city New Yorkers on the farm in Sullivan, WI. Please feel free to post any comments good or bad. They are all appreciated!

01. A little warm up by the horse stall. I'm debating on what to do about his hair... not sure if I should offer to do a little ps transplanting for him.




02. Front stoop of the old farm house with overgrown weeds and all. This is not the most attractive angle for her I know, but throughout the session they nuzzeled each other a lot. A VERY affectionate couple and because of that this is my fave from the stoop shots, though she will probably like the ones where she faces the camera better... I guess we'll see.




03. A little old school processing for the tractor shot. I had a few that were better but jordan was hamming it up here and this is the real Jordan.




04. This is inside the old barn in the hay loft. I love the light pouring through the spaces between the barnwood.




05. Look how gorgeous this girl gets when she just lets it loose and forgets about posing. This just came up in one of Zoomers thread and it is so true!




06. Another real moment between the couple.




07. A ittle something for the press release




08. Probably not the best shot of them with the horse, but by far the best shot of the horse. I can't remember exactly what old Mr. Ed was saying, but he sure thought it was funny.




09. It's soybeans... last year they had corn. that would have been much more fun!




10. "Ok... just walk down the path, and then walk back. Just forget I'm here."




11. Killing time before the sun hit the horizon. Thought we could get a little serious.




12. Sunset Silouette. We were on low ground so I cropped the top half to make it look like something and then I really liked it this way.


Thanks for looking.

Matt

zoomer

Hi mmmat,
You caught some really nice moments with this couple. They looked relaxed with you, that is half the battle.

I really like a few of these. Watch the skin tone in the second to last one it appears a bit orange.
I love the crop in the last one.

Nice work, I bet the couple was very happy with these.

mmmatt

zoomer wrote:

Hi mmmat,
You caught some really nice moments with this couple. They looked relaxed with you, that is half the battle.

I really like a few of these. Watch the skin tone in the second to last one it appears a bit orange.
I love the crop in the last one.

Nice work, I bet the couple was very happy with these.

Thanks Zoomer. I feel pretty good about this set. I have only gone through about 2/3 the shoot too, so hopefully there are some even better ones. As for the orange tone, I just switched back to vista last week and updated my drivers so my monitor is outa whack. I gotta recalibrate my monitor. In the mean time, I think I will start telling people that all clothing must be a minimum of 20% either middle grey or pure white so I have something to white balance off of! They started out helping me out but then the ac-tor had to have his costume change! Here is the redo.



thanks again for the comments Zoomer.

Matt

mmmatt

Just a few more from the final set in case anyone is interested. C&C is still very much appreciated.

13.



14.



15.



16.



17.



18.



19.



20.



Thanks for looking and for any additional comments!

Matt

pwp

Great set, Matt! The only nitpicky thing I noticed was the little bit of redness in her arms on #12 that was a bit blotchy. If you can clone it out or tone it down even more, I'm sure she will be thrilled. Us girls can be sensitive about those things.

mmmatt

pwp wrote:

Great set, Matt! The only nitpicky thing I noticed was the little bit of redness in her arms on #12 that was a bit blotchy. If you can clone it out or tone it down even more, I'm sure she will be thrilled. Us girls can be sensitive about those things.

Thanks pwp. That would b e from the mosquitos and I will take another look at that one. I was cloning out a lot of mosquito bites and actual mosquitos on this set. It was really rough out there!!!

Thanks again for the comments.

Matt

pwp

mmmatt wrote:

Thanks pwp. That would b e from the mosquitos and I will take another look at that one. I was cloning out a lot of mosquito bites and actual mosquitos on this set. It was really rough out there!!!

Thanks again for the comments.

Matt

Oh goodness, not fun! I noticed the black/biting flies were getting thick around here last weekend on a shoot. But, the pics are great and their chemistry is fantastic. I wish every couple I shot was like this one.

Swartzy

I'm truly enjoying the connectivity between these two Matt. Great captures. I also like your variety of processing styles (spice of life!). The couple of midnight sepia are iffy for me...but hey, that's just me dude. Well done.

mmmatt

Swartzy wrote:

I'm truly enjoying the connectivity between these two Matt. Great captures. I also like your variety of processing styles (spice of life!). The couple of midnight sepia are iffy for me...but hey, that's just me dude. Well done.

Ha! Thanks David. Yeah, my glowing sepia thing isn't the most popular with anyone except me. I love it and find myself wanting to use it on many of my favorite shots, though I have to hold back on it a bit. To me it has an old movie feel to it, but whatever right? Thanks for the kind words my friend. With some couples it is easier to find that magic than others but these two really gave me the moments between poses that I live for. I'm real excited for the wedding in November. Also looks like we are going to do a sign-in book/album from this set and a November TTD session. November in Wisco can be snow and sub zero or green and 70... should be interesting.

Matt

Swartzy

mmmatt wrote:

Ha! Thanks David. Yeah, my glowing sepia thing isn't the most popular with anyone except me. I love it and find myself wanting to use it on many of my favorite shots, though I have to hold back on it a bit. To me it has an old movie feel to it, but whatever right? Thanks for the kind words my friend. With some couples it is easier to find that magic than others but these two really gave me the moments between poses that I live for. I'm real excited for the wedding in November. Also looks like we are going to do a sign-in book/album from this set and a November TTD session. November in Wisco can be snow and sub zero or green and 70... should be interesting.

Matt

Heck.....I ought to come on over and shoot it with you....I don't have any weddings booked in November...especially in Minnesota...

mmmatt

Swartzy wrote:

Heck.....I ought to come on over and shoot it with you....I don't have any weddings booked in November...especially in Minnesota...

Well David you can consider that offer WIDE open! They live in NY so want to do it the day after the wedding. I'm not even ready to start wrapping my head around it yet, so I have no idea what I will do.

Along that vein , I do get up to MN a couple times a year to see friends, and I may be open for a day of 2nd shooting if you ever have a fun one on the books.

Matt

Mishka

Really gorgeous set. I particularly like number 2...the colors are so lovely and their expression is adorable.

Agnieszka

Really cute set mmmatt

mmmatt

Thanks ladies!!!!

Matt

jeffreaux2

Very nice set you have posted here!!! They will be very happy with them, Im sure.

I do agree that the coloring in the foreground is too yellow on #11. It seems to be stronger nearest the flash....an indicator that the color temperature of flash is not matched to the ambient. It almost appears as though a CTO gel was used.

mmmatt

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Very nice set you have posted here!!! They will be very happy with them, Im sure.

I do agree that the coloring in the foreground is too yellow on #11. It seems to be stronger nearest the flash....an indicator that the color temperature of flash is not matched to the ambient. It almost appears as though a CTO gel was used.

I kicked it down once, but I guess maybe I should kick it down again. Unfortunately I have also given him hair in that one, cloned out a million mosquoito bites on her arms, and cloned out actual mosquitoes on them so I'm not to anxious to go back to raw.

Good eye on the color Jeff. These were shot with a gold umbrella/580 off camera except for the horse shot was ambient only.

Matt

jeffreaux2

mmmatt wrote:

I kicked it down once, but I guess maybe I should kick it down again. Unfortunately I have also given him hair in that one, cloned out a million mosquoito bites on her arms, and cloned out actual mosquitoes on them so I'm not to anxious to go back to raw.

Good eye on the color Jeff. These were shot with a gold umbrella/580 off camera except for the horse shot was ambient only.

Matt

I can definately feel the pain on "going back to RAW"....but....the Top Secret wedding photographer's trick of going to BW is still wide open....eh?:D

I havent been super satisfied using anything to warm up the flash on outdoor photos. I have used CTO gels on a few very late afternoon occasions with some success, but it is easy to over do it. I only have white umbrellas.

My typical approach is the opposite...which is to add blue to the flash and then warm up the whole image in post. This works very well in shade and in cloudy conditions. Out in the open...in daylight...I forego the gels altogether.

mmmatt

Yeah... I tried something new with the gold umbrella. Actually an old worn-out silver one and some gold paint. I've since put a light layer of white over it to tone it down some. I used to use a gold card in my lumiqust pro bounce for outdoor and I loved the color but it is too cumbersome and I wanted a larger light source. I will have to work on that brolly more and test it. I hate the look of white light when the rest of the world is a nice golden color and I like a brolly when the wind isn't too bad. Here is another redo



Thanks Jeff for the cc

matt