Tolsma Family Group Outdoor Portraits Edmonton Area

I recently spent a couple hours with the Tolsma family out near Spruce Grove on their acreage taking a few family photos to mark the moment.  They were having a family reunion and had not taken any family pictures in a long time.  Everyone had a lot of fun and we kept things pretty casual.  Thanks again to Joe for all the help with keeping everyone organized and together.  It is a lot of work trying to arrange people especially if you just met them!  So again, Joe, thanks.

The Tolsma Family, friends, and relatives can view their photos by clicking here.  

Like all of my Portrait sessions, whether its for a couple, family, kids, pets or whatever, I always include a DVD of all creatively edited images in web and print formats.  I charge $250 for a portrait session that lasts 1-2 hours at your location.  Please contact me for more info :)

Kurt Stenberg

stenbergphotography@shaw.ca

Stenberg Photography | Graduation Oregon

This summer I was down in Oregon, specifically in Salem, shooting a graduation.  Graduations in the US seem to be a 'big deal' compared to up here in Canada.  It's not that they are not as important or have any less significance, there just seems to be a lot more graduates and everything is on a larger scale.  Bigger venues, more people, big families!  It was a pleasure to have this experience and take part in my first event outside of Canada.  I was faced with many challenges, some I had not experienced especially in the morning of the shoot in the salon.  I took a few set-up shots of what I was up against and how I used my equipment.  My next post will have behind the scenes shots and more tech discussion.

Kurt

Children's and Family Portraits Edmonton

Looking for a few pictures of the family this fall?  I know you hate the Portraits studios at the department stores and would like something a bit more original, casual, and not so "posed".  I offer portrait packages that can be customized to suit your needs.  For a couple hours shooting time, we can get individual pics of the kids, pets, and even the whole group.  We can meet on location at one of your favorite places or even near your home.  Its great to get pics of the family doing something they love and interacting with each other.  These make the BEST portraits.  Give me a shout and we can exchange ideas :)  

Estimated cost for a session is $250 for approx 1-2hrs of shooting.  This includes ALL creative editing, and rights to all of your digital negatives on DVD.  I provide pictures in two formats for print and for displaying on the web.  I can also setup on online gallery with or without password for viewing and download by family and friends.

Talk to you soon!

Kurt 

STENBERGPHOTOGRAPHY

stenbergphotography@shaw.ca

780.238.0678

BIG Aperture = Soft, Professional Portraits

Hey there,

I finally returned from holidays and began to edit some photos from a graduation I shot down in Salem OR.  I came across these two portraits and thought they would show a good example of what aperture can do to your photos.  

When using a DSLR and you have a lens that can shoot as low as F 2.8 you get a very very shallow depth of field (DOF).  This means you have to be very precise and quick were you focus and must realize that everything in front and behind your focus point will blur very quickly.  This means 2.8 can be great for portraits giving skin and background noise a very soft look while keeping the eyes sharp.  It is important when shooting portraits to always focus on your subjects eyes for obvious reasons.  A sharp nose and blurry eyes will not have the same impact and will leave the viewer uninterested in the photo.

The color photo and the monochrome picture were shot with almost the exact same settings as follows : F2.8 ISO 400 1/160th second.  The color photo was with a length of 70mm on my 24-70 lens.  The b/w photo was almost the same at 67mm.  This means that I was "zoomed" in as much as I can with my lens.  Zooming in and using a lens of at least 70mm creates the best portriats as well since it helps to further blur the background and tighten up the DOF focus point.

Although the b/w photo isnt my favorite composition for a portrait or nessessarily what I would desire for soft focus, I thought it was unique and shows a great example.  The one eye and lips show some nice sharpness but falls a bit too quickly into blur to the farther eye.  To improve this I could have used a slightly smaller aperture of 3.5?  This probably would have dont the trick.  However, it is subjective and sometimes something out of the ordinary makes the best photos.

PS:  I uploaded both photos in a large size so you can click on them and see up close where the sharp vs blur interacts on the photo.

The color photo is what most photographers would consider more desirable since both eyes are in focus and the blur quickly falls to the background.  Her face was more square to the camera (90 deg) where as the other photo was on a sharper angle.  Please click on both photos and compare the difference.  It is quite noticeable.

Anyways, hope you enjoy and feel free to comment

Kurt

Wildflowers of Kananaskis Country

Hey

I am in-between camping trips and couldn't stop myself from previewing some of the pics I took while away.  I got carried away and thought to heck with it I will just edit them now and put up a post.  

We camped off of the Forestry Trunk road perched up above a big valley with a great view of the mountains as you can see in the last photograph.  It was an almost 180 degree view when we woke up from our tents in the morning.

When we first arrived we immediately noticed the huge number of wild lilly's that were so vibrant red and orange so I knew I had to at least get one shot of them before leaving.  It was pretty cool to have such a variety of flowers all around us and not have to  hike up a  mountain pass to find them for once!  In the end I got a good variety of pictures of many flowers in the area.

TECH INFO: I took all of these shots in the morning shortly after sunrise with a nice cross-light.  I only used natural light for these and didn't bother experimenting with flash.  I wish I would have brought my tripod so I could have opened up the DOF a bit more but oh well.  So in the end I boosted my ISO slightly to 400 F8.0 and shot in a range of 1/60th to 1/500th sec.  In PS LR I adjusted the WB and exposure and adjusted the black values, added some needed contrast and got rid of some of the noise before sharpening.  Some of the photos also have a slight boost in saturation but most of the flower photos didn't need it because they were so vibrant already.

Hope you enjoy.  I will be gone again tomorrow and back after the weekend so I will have another post up after that.  Thanks!  Please leave comments, critique, or let me know which one(s) are your favorite and why.

KURT

if you have any questions or would like to inquire about getting any of my photography custom printed, please send me an email at    stenbergphotography@shaw.ca

Away on holidays until July 27th 2009

Hello, sorry, another post with no pics.  I will be away on holiday until July 27th.  If you need to get in touch with me for any reason, please do not hesitate to leave me a message on my cell and I will get back to you ASAP

780.238.0678

Take care!  

:: Kurt

stenbergphotography.com

Hello everyone! It is now official that I am using this blog as my only website at its new alternate address :: stenbergphotography.com. If you are unaware, I was using this page under the address of stenbergphotography.blogspot.com. You can still access this blog through it's old address as well.

My old "stenbergphotography.com" is going to be deleted and I hope to launch a new website this fall. So for now, please enjoy this blog as my main page and current portfolio. In the meantime, please bear with me as I get back up to date and change some things around and add some missing information.

If you require any information that you may have found on my old website please don't hesitate to send me an email at

stenbergphotography@shaw.ca

Thanks everyone!
I promise to post photos in my next post!

Kurt

Edmonton Photographer Stenberg Photography

Hello everyone. Happy Canada Day! Just updated the blog so that anyone can now post comments on my blogposts. You no longer have to be "signed in" or have any sort of membership or username etc etc. So I hope this encourages all of you to leave comments on the blog posts you see on my homepage or archives now and
in the future. I would love the feedback and even some critique! Do you have any ideas? Is there anything you would like to see? Do you have any questions about the post or the photos in the post? Here would be a good place comment or ask any photo tech questions as well. That way I, or other photographers that visit the site can try and help answer your questions.

Take care and don't forget to post post post! I appreciate it.

kurt