Pro Techniques

We have all had the experience of looking at old photographs that transport us back to a different age, whether it is 20 years ago, or 120. It can be very tempting to try to recreate a vintage look, whether for a particular emotional effect or simply because we can. But what are the actual differences, and how can we recreate them?

There are at least 10 answers or groups of answers...

Photography gives us the ability to freeze moments in time that are impossible for the human eye to see. The collision of a drop of water with a pool of water is an event that is intriguing to see, and without the aid of a camera and flash it would be impossible to study, appreciate and admire.

It’s pretty easy these days to do what seemed a monumental task in the past—create a website that makes navigation easy, displaying and selling images simple, and that does not require eight-weeks attendance in an HTML class in some bleak basement classroom of an adult ed evening program to get to stage one. True, there are plenty of browser and editing programs that can create a web...

Andy Marcus and son Brian are second- and third-generation portrait and wedding photographers. Their New York City studio, Fred Marcus Photography & Videography (www.fredmarcus.com), continues a tradition of dedicated service established by Fred Marcus back in 1941. “Back then my dad would use a 5x7 view camera for studio work and could be seen shooting portraits in bridal salons in the prestigious Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue, among other venues,” Andy recalls. “When he shot weddings, he’d bring a Speed Graphic to the event—and flashbulbs.”

There was a time when all wedding photography was pretty much the same. Well-trained photographers worked from “shot lists” and used high-end, medium format equipment. They took wedding portraits (many in-studio) whose hallmarks included great color, sharp details, beautiful lighting, and well-posed subjects. Wedding albums were filled with 8x10”, 8x8”, and 5x7”...

My friend wanted to begin shooting digital images of small objects for his company’s website, so he asked me to get him a deal on an expensive, full-frame D-SLR. The images were to be used primarily online at low resolution, and occasionally in an HTML e-mail newsletter. They were using a professional photographer to shoot the artwork for brochures, packaging, and their trade show booth.