Biltmore House - Ashville, NC

For those of you who have never been to or heard of it the Biltmore House is a 250 room, 34 bedroom, 43 bathroom, 65 fireplace, 174,000 sq ft, 115 year old house in Asheville, North Carolina.  Amazing! You really have to see it to believe it. In fact, a hundreds of people visit the house a day which is why this was one of our more difficult shoots. 

The property was open to visitors on the day of the shoot so in order to make it work we had to shoot at sunrise only had about 2 and a half hours to set-up shoot and break down. On top of that we were shooting outside and it was about 30 degrees that morning. Just as the sun started to rise a heavy fog rolled in pretty much erasing the idea of having the awesome Blue Ridge mountains as a backdrop. Luckily we were able to make the fog work for us. It gave an erie castle feel to the project.

With that in mind here are a couple of tips to help you on your next location shoot:

1. Whenever possible (especially on location) arrange for a walk-thru of your shoot site prior to the day of the shoot.

2. Always try and have a "Plan B".

If you can salvage a shoot you'll really impress your client and they'll always remember that.

Until next time....

Queen Me!

We had a great shoot with some of the new Miss USA state titleholders.  Miss South Carolina USA - Jamie Hill, Miss South Carolina Teen USA - Brittany Pjetraj, Miss North Carolina USA - Andrea Duke, Miss North Carolina Teen USA - Julia Dalton, Miss Louisiana USA - Michelle Berthelot, Miss Louisiana Teen USA Lindsey Evans. There will be  a "Behind the Scenes" dvd of the photo shoot available soon as well as clips on our soon-to-be unveiled new website. Stay tuned for more photos as well.

Shot Detail: Engagement Beach Shoot

Once a month we will be posting an image from a recent shoot along with information about how it was done. (lighting technique, equipment used, exposure setting, etc.) This month we chose an image we posted a couple of months ago.



This photo was taken at Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet, SC just before sunset. This is one of my favorite lighting techniques to use on the beach. It's a slightly modified version of how I shoot for most of my swimsuit clients. It may be a bit to surreal looking for some, but I love the type contrast and saturation you can achieve from this setup.

The main light source was a Nikon SB800 inside of a medium soft-box to the left of the camera and about 3 feet from the subjects (I can't even begin to describe the home-made contraption I use for that. I promise to post photos of it later). To camera right is a reflector to supply a small amount of fill. The most important aspect of this technique is the sunlight. It acts as the perfect side and hair light as well as a fill light via the reflector.

The first thing I do is get an ambient light reading making sure to use a slow enough shutter speed that will still allow me to be in sync with the off-camera flash. Most pro SLR cameras sync around 1/125 - 1/250. I now set my flash to be 1 stop higher than my first reading.

In photoshop I usually bump up the contrast in the yellow color range just a bit to bring out the colors in the sky.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

JC

New Website !!

Our new website will be up in a couple of weeks. Our Weddings and Family Portrait sections will be housed in our existing site. Pageant, Fashion and Commercial photography will be part of our new section . All sections will be accessed from our main web address.  (www.carterstudios.com)

Photo Shoot Video

This was a photo shoot for Stephanie Smith. A Miss South Carolina USA contestant. This is a typical pageant/fashion shoot.

Enjoy!

Congratulations!

CSI would like to take a moment and congratulate some of our clients from this years pageant season.

Jillian Wunderlich

Won Miss Florida Teen USA and was the "Photogenic Award" winner.

Photo shot with a Nikon D2x, 1/320 @ f2.8 in shade with reflector just below subject.

Casandra Tressler

Cassandra was crowned Miss Maryland USA 2008

This is one of Jonathan's trademark lighting techniques.

Photo shot using natural light w/reflector. Nikon D2x, 1/400 @ f3.2

Brittany Pjetraj

Brittany is the new Miss South Carolina Teen USA

Photo shot with Nikon D2x, 1/200 sec @ f/8.0

Profoto Lighting with medium softbox and rear kickers.

Courtney Turner

Courtney was 1st Runner-up to Miss South Carolina Teen USA

Photo shot with Nikon D2x, 1/250 sec @ f/4.0

Natural light

Melody and Steven Engagement

Melody and Steven will be getting married in May of '08. The shoot was done in our studio and at the Huntington Beach State Park.

1st photo: Nikon D2x 1/320 @ f/4

2nd photo: D2x (in studio) 1/200 @ f/8

3rd photo: D200 /w SB800 in softbox 1/200 @ f/8

Jason & Jennifer

Jason and Jennifer are good friends of ours from Charleston, SC.

Their wedding ceremony took place at the Citadel Chapel and the reception was held at the Charleston aquarium. One of those things that "Just Happens" just happened and it rained for a good part of the day. That would have been enough to send most brides into panic-hyperventilation-meltdown mode, but not Jenn. Nothing was going to ruin their special day.

And Their Off!!

Pageant season has begun!

The race to be crowned as the next Miss USA, Miss America or Miss United States has begun.

Pageant photography has become on of our specialties since we started catering to contestants about 4 years ago. 

I know what it sounds like ...  and its not what your thinking.

Before I started shooting for the Miss Universe Organization I had the same mental image. Some five year old forced to act way beyond her years, wearing way to much makeup and sporting a Bride of Chucky wide-eyed demonic smile. 

This is not the case AT ALL. It's more like shooting fashion or at least that's the approach we take and it's worked well for us.

In the pageant world it's all about standing out. One way for the girls to achieve this is by having head shots that jump off the page. For my fellow photographers out there I plan on blogging about how to make your images pop and really stand out. It's a lot easier than you think.

Check back for photos of some of the girls (and hopefully winners.. I'll explain this comment in a future post) we've worked with this year.

Megan and Matt

We'll be shooting this couples wedding in the Turks and Caicos Islands next year. Great couple!! Can't wait to shoot the wedding. 

An engagement shoot is the perfect way for the photographer to get to know the couple. Take in as much information as possible. The better you get to know them, the easier things will seem on the wedding day. It will seem like shooting old friends...

Uh... Hello?

Well, after much encouragement from our clients and fellow photographers, we've finally decided to actually start using the blog we set up months ago.

I know what your thinking! "Please!! Not another photographers blog!!” Well, I promise to try and keep it interesting with more photos, tips and technique explanations and less rambling. Besides, I’m not the rambling type. I’m barely the talking type.

Feel free to contact me with questions about any of the photos that we post.


Thanks,
JC