Photography Meeting Weddings are obviously expensive, we all know that. Often times the photographer is one of the biggest bills on the wedding day – accounting for 10-15% of the total wedding budget. That means that the average wedding photographer is asking for a 2500-3500 dollar check. That’s a lot of …
MAKE IT ABOUT THE WORK FIRST
Sometimes we forget that we are more than brands. Sure, we are Pabst Photo, but we are also just people. We interact with others. We are selling more than photography, more than art even. We are selling ourselves. Not in the dirty way. 
Jamie and I are people and almost every time, we become friends with our clients. We share such a special day with our couples. It is such a unique experience. We are grateful every time we get to shoot a wedding. It truly is a privilege to share in their day. When we have satisfied clients it does feel amazing. Sure, there’s money involved, but hearing from a bride/groom about how happy they are with their photos feels pretty incredible.
Dealing with a large bridal party. Make it fun. Photography tips and how we got the shot. Before and After Bonus. This post is two parts. First, I want to talk about the importance of having fun. As a wedding photographer, we are often asked to wear a lot of …
Shooting the Wedding Dress | Before and After Photojournalism in wedding photography is not exactly photojournalism at all. It’s not like we are shooting the news overseas. If there is a Corner Bakery bag in every shot while the girls are getting ready nobody is going to be happy about that. …
Bride and Groom Before and After This is a simple before and after shot. As we were walking around the Chicago Art Institute we were looking for good light. We were just wandering the halls waiting to see something that looked interesting. I always look for large walls of color or …
Artistic Night – Wedding Photography using Flash This post has two purposes. First, I want to talk about doing an artistic shot to end your wedding day. Second, I want to talk about this shot in particular. When we shoot a wedding we spend almost all day with the bride …
The Business side of Photography Starting, owning, and operating a small business is hard work. For those outside looking in, it might seem glamorous at times. It is not. There is this impression that you get to make your own hours, work from home often, and do what you love to …
Before and After, bridal party, and fixing the floor. Great photos don’t happen by accident. At least not very often. This is a very simple post, but I think it’s an important not to make. We live and shoot in an imperfect world. We cannot control our environment all the …
How to take large bridal party pictures Taking large group photographs is not easy. Nay, doing it well is very difficult. It’s not something you master overnight. In fact, I volunteer to say it’s one of the things I still struggle with. It’s difficult. First of all you are trying …
Bridal Portrait Posing Tip Posing is hard. In fact, it’s so difficult, I think it’s why half of the photographers in the industry are claiming to be ‘pure photojournalists’. Bogus I think. A true photojournalist would never tell a bride how to pose – they would only shoot the event …
There are many things that make a good wedding portrait. Lighting, posing, background, just to name a few. Don’t let anyone fool you, they are all important, but lighting is the most critical. Light is what allows us to take a picture in the first place. It is a necessary ingredient …
Outdoors| How I Got the Shot I really wanted to share this photo from a recent senior portrait session because I love the way it turned out and I think there are several things worth pointing out. As we were walking the west loop looking for locations to shoot we …
Photography in the Past When we flip through our parents wedding albums we can’t help but laugh at many of the pictures. Why is that? Is it because everyone is lined up staring straight at the camera or is it because dad has a handlebar mustache and long hair and …
Lowepro Pro Roller x200 Review vs the x100 We were in the market for a gig bag to be used primarily shooting weddings. Ordering such things online is difficult because you can’t touch it, can’t load it, roll it, lift it, or get a feel for its overall size. We …
Digital Images Backup Strategy | Lightroom, the Cloud, NAS, and more Backing up and keeping our data secure is something we take very seriously at Pabst Photo. Weddings are big business and they only happen once. Forget about lawsuits and all the terrible things that could happen if you lost …
Natural Light Wedding Photography What does it really mean to be a natural light wedding photographer? Is it a good thing? I’ll do my best to answer these questions and more in the following paragraphs. But first, I want to state that when I first started taking pictures I was …
Large Family Pictures Lighting Setup after the Ceremony Let’s face it – these pictures are not the most fun to do and rarely will they show up in a photographers portfolio. That said, they are an important part of what a wedding photographer does. This is also not to be …
Posing is not easy to learn, but it is critical to take your photography to the next level. There are many wedding photographers out there who claim to be pure photojournalists – and if that’s true, I believe it’s because they don’t know how to pose, they don’t know how …
T1i, T2i, T3i, T4i, xsi, Rebel Wedding Photography (d3300, d3400, d5300, d5500, d5600) Get Over It There are going to be a lot of people who will not like, will not agree with, this post. I don’t care. A camera is just a camera. Real talent, real artistry, comes from …
How I Got The Shot – Bride Putting On Dress As with all the HOW I GOT THE SHOT series I have started with a 3D diagram to better illustrate the concepts behind what is happening. This was a difficult spot, but we can’t always control where the bride has decided …
IS, VC, DG, DX, Canon, Sigma, Tamron, EF-S, L, USM, XR, LD, IF, DI, DI-ii – Making Sense of all the different lens terminology. Just about every camera lens manufacturer has the same features in their lenses. They of course all use different terms to describe those features.
I have been using Bitcasa Infinite Storage for a couple days and will give my initial thoughts below. I am coming at this post from the perspective of a photographer, but anyone with hundreds of gigabytes of data will hopefully find this post helpful. I’d love to keep every RAW …
Camera Exposure Compensation-Metering There’s a reasonable chance that you have never used or adjusted your exposure compensation. That’s okay. Some photographers never do. Let me start by saying it is an advanced feature. Photographers at this level often shoot in full manual or shoot in a semi-auto mode like AV or …
A look at Aperture Settings and the Numbers in Photography I’m sure we can both agree, there a lot of numbers in photography; especially to those just starting out. It’s a lot to keep track of. There are fundamentally only three ways you control your camera to take a picture. …
Camera ISO, What is it? One of the questions I get most often from people just learning to use their DSLR camera is what is Camera ISO and what does it do? Most people are pretty keen on shutter speed and aperture even if they don’t know exactly what they …
This is not the typical “how I got the shot“. It’s more involved, but it does represent an idea that anyone can play with. Let’s start with the concept of taking a picture, in the studio or anywhere for that matter, and then transporting our subject matter to some other …
This Is How I Got The Shot | Natural Window Light Not every picture we take is a huge production. In fact, more often than not we have our camera and little else. No strobes and reflectors and so forth.That means we have to take advantage of what the natural environment has …
This is How I Got The Shot | In The Snow This photo was taken in the winter of 2012 (see more from this photo shoot in the snow. There was about five inches of snow on the ground. As any photographer knows, shooting in the snow offers a unique set of …
Photoshop Image Manipulation | Post-Processing Photoshop is an extremely valuable and powerful tool for tweaking images. Just about every photographer who shoots digital photography uses Photoshop. It can be used subtly and to excess and both are not hard to do. To do the simple tweaks like brightness and contrast …
This is How I Got the Shot This senior portrait was taken in our Chicago Photo Studio. In this short tutorial of sorts, above you can see 4 images in the slide-show. This is a recurring theme from Pabst Photo, check back for more 3D photography tips. Number 01 | …
