Before & After with Mircea Brânda

Several weeks back, our friend and colleague Mircea Branda had us scraping our collective jaws off the pavement with these gorgeous images. So, yeah, we had to learn more about how he crafts these rich and intimate wedding portraits. Check ‘em out, guys!

Mircea. You. GO!

Hi there. I am a photographer from Romania. More recently I've been shooting weddings, but it all started as a hobby seven years ago when I bought my first camera. For a long time my artistic focus was macro and street photography. Then, a good friend of mine and a great photographer as well, Lucian Borza, asked me to join him and shoot a wedding together. That is how it all started.

By what artists/creatives are you influenced? What inspires you?

I'm inspired by the work of some great wedding photographers such as: Ed Peers, Jonas Peterson, Dylan Howell & Sarah Byrne, Gabe Mcclintock, Gianluca Adovasio and many others. Also, the fact that I did macro and street photography for many years has trained my eye to focus on the little details that matter.

Do you have a vision in mind before going out and shooting? Tell us about about your workflow and how the vision comes to life before shooting and in post.

Before a photo session, I like to meet with my clients first and find out a little bit about them. What are their interests or passions?  I also observe them as a couple. Are they adventurous or reserved? These bits of information can really set the mood to a session and even inspire a location. Then during the session my main concern is to keep it all natural. The first thing I tell my clients before a wedding is to try to forget that I am even there.

I like to keep my workflow as simple as I can. At a wedding I shoot somewhere around 3,000 photos. The first step, which I consider most difficult, is selecting the photos that I give to my clients. Then I import all my photos to Lightroom, choose an action and start working.

Now tell us how this amazing image came together, from conception to completion.

I had this location in mind after finding out that the groom is an architect and that the couple also loves nature, just like me. The place itself is a complex of traditional houses in a village near my hometown. We woke up very early in the morning and started shooting. Long after the sun rose, as we were heading back, I accidentally saw this wonderful place behind a hill where the sun hadn’t shown up yet. That is where I took this photo. Back home, I selected Kodak Gold 200 and started to get to work.

SOOC

Final Edit

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Post by LOOKSLIKEFILM contributing editor, Seth Langner | www.karmarthartic.com Jacksonville, Seattle wedding photographer

Before & After with Brook Cutts

This image is pure gorgeousness and so, yeah, we wanted - no - had to get all the details on how our friend and colleague, Brook Cutts, created this epic bridal portrait. And, man, did she deliver. To wit:

Brook. You. GO!

My name is Brook Cutts and I was born and raised in North Carolina.  I grew up on bluegrass music and sweet tea--living in the country and enjoying the simple things in life.  I own Urban Bloom Photography with my husband Joey.  We have been a husband and wife photography team since 2010.  Photography started out as a couple’s hobby for us and now it has turned into something more than we ever imagined!  

I would love to say that I always knew I was going to be a photographer, but that was not the case.  I don’t think I even realized what my interests were until I started doing photography.  I would say, however, that my desire to be creative and different from the norm has always been there.    

By what artists/creatives are you influenced? What inspires you?

I am completely influenced by Nessa Kessinger.  She is lovely, kind, and most importantly, so incredibly talented.  Her photos ooze with romance, elegance, and softness.  She is my original favorite—she was really the first photographer that inspired me to produce these amazing dreamy photos and actually bring them to life. We had the opportunity of meeting her in 2014 when she did photos of my family.

Sam Hurd is another great influence. I can’t really talk about photography without mentioning his name.  I love all that Sam stands for. His work is effortless, it pushes boundaries—when you see his images, there is never a question to whose it is.  

Dylan Howell is another incredible photographer and an amazing influence. His photos are beautifully crafted.  His style is consistent and vibrant. Every session or wedding looks like he has gone on some great adventure with his clients.

Jordan Voth.  His images are just breathtaking. I absolutely love this work!

Sean Flanigan with A Fist Full of Blots.  He is edgy, fresh, and original.  He knows no boundaries.  No limits.  What more could you want to be as an artist?  I can respect that.

My husband and children inspire me.  They inspire me everyday to push, to fight, and to be something that I never knew I could be.  I do my best to make them proud.    

Do you have a vision in mind before going out and shooting? Tell us about about your workflow and how the vision comes to life before shooting and in post.

When we started Urban Bloom we always had a vision of producing beautiful, timeless, and creative photographs for our clients.  We always get input from our clients on where they would like to shoot and just try to get a feel for what they like and enjoy.  Every session and wedding is a new canvas, a new opportunity to produce something great that the client can cherish forever.  Honestly,  I work best going blindly into things.  I have found if I think too much about things, it makes my expectations feel out of reach. When I arrive at a session or wedding I just soak in everything and appreciate all the things around me when shooting.  Too many times I have started out with a plan of exactly what shots I want to get and it rarely (if ever) worked out the way I envisioned.   Each time though, I try and push a little harder than last time and try not to stick to my “go to” shots.   It can be very exhausting being a creative.

Now tell us how this amazing image came together, from conception to completion.

The wedding was held in a mansion on a mountain top in the mountains of North Carolina.  The bride told us beforehand about an area on top of the mountain (about a quarter mile beyond the mansion).  She said that there was a popular place for pictures and she wanted to shoot there.  We had never seen any of the photos that were taken up there and I’m really happy that we didn’t.  Whatever photos we took up there would be from our own vision and not someone else’s.   Once we got to the top of the mountain we saw that the view was out of this world, but it definitely wasn’t the greatest time of day to shoot.  The sun was still high in the sky and the tall trees were casting very hard shadows.  Hard shadows,harsh light, a beautiful mountain view, and a beautiful bride is what we were working with.  We worked some different places on the mountain top.  We did some group shots and some bride and groom shots.  We also wanted to get some shots of just the bride. We stood her out on a rock alone and everything lined up perfectly.  The sun moved its way between the trees so the shadows were gone.  The wind was blowing just enough to get some movement in her dress.  I had her face turned away from the sun and it was a bit dark so I told her to turn her face toward the sun.  Once she turned her face toward the sun, the magic happened.  She kept her shoulders back and presented such a beautiful silhouette.  In the bright sunlight, it was a blessing that she had on a rose colored wedding dress.   The movement of the dress in the wind was breathtaking.  I knew that the shadows would soon return, so I fired off as many shots as possible.  I really didn’t have to tell the bride what to do.  She just knew how to hold her body.  She looked like an angel.   I felt like the shots I got were epic, but you never really know until you get them up on a computer screen.   I had to move so fast and there definitely wasn’t going to be a second chance on this one.  

The image was shot with a Canon 5D Mark 2 with a Canon 50mm 1.2.  For post processing we used Lightroom and Alien Skin Exposure.  In Lightroom we use all custom presets.  In this image we brought down the highlights, lighten the shadows, and then crushed the blacks just a little to give it a hint of the filmy matte look.   Because of the direct sunlight, we had to bring down the contrast quite a bit to smooth the image out.  The bride was fair skinned so she didn't have a lot of color in her skin.  I love the way it turned out in the image.  Also, the dress she was wearing was a pale rose colored dress that gave the image just a hint of color.  

One tool that we always use in Lightroom is the Radial Filter.  We use this to lighten, darken, sharpen, or unsharpen specific areas in an image.  Once edited in Lightroom the image is then moved to Alien Skin Exposure.  We use Exposure for all of the finishing touches.  In Exposure, I added some grain and sharpened the image.  The grain in Exposure is just awesome!  I am just thrilled with how everything turned out.  This is definitely one of those images where everything just came together perfectly at the perfect time.

Mouse over the image below & SEE some of that sweet B&A Magic!

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This post by Seth Langner of Karmathartic Studios --> www.karmathartic.com 

Before & After with Thomas Morel

This image by Thomas Morel is just gangbusters! Now get the low down on how this fine art masterpiece came to be . . .

Thomas. You. Go!

I am Thomas Morel, Dutch photographer living in Norway. Born 1988. Official Hasselblad ambassador. I have been working professionally since 2007, with customers like Nike, Puma, IOC and Maui Theatre and Scandic to mention a few. For the past two years, I have mainly been focussing on creating art for customers who wish to decorate their venues with taylor made photography. I am specialized in freezing motion that goes by too rapidly for the human eye to register.  I don’t have any education whatsoever, and have chosen to rely on my own instincts to shoot imagery that I feel comes straight out of my heart. It is simply a way of trial and error; if something doesn’t turn out good enough, I have to change something until it is exactly how I want it to be. Don’t let anyone define the value of your work, stay true to yourself at any time.

I make a point out of not creating the motion or gesture in post production. Off course I do use photoshop for minor adjustments like color correction or removing disturbing elements, but the motion itself is unmanipulated. I do this because I believe the true art of photography is it’s ability to tear something completely out of context, it is a slice of time within the absolute universe of the frame. You only see what I want you to see, and the fact that it is not manipulated is something that I hope intrigues the viewer even more as to how the shot was taken. The beauty of photography is that you don’t see the sweating of the models, you don’t hear their heavy breathing, and you don’t see that they don’t land on their feet right after the shot is taken. You just see the slice of time that I find interesting, without seeing the context.

By what artists/creatives are you influenced? What inspires you?

I am inspired by perfection. Other artists who don’t stop until they have exactly what they are looking for, artists who keep pushing their own limits as far as they can go to create something that gives the audience a glimpse into the creative mind of the artist.

This basically involves every singe creative artist who follows his or her heart, no matter if it is music, painting or photography etc. that they create.

Creativity, and the feeling it gives you, is really personal. So I would be an idiot to point out artists that do “good" work; you have to decide for yourself. But artists that create photographic work that inspires me tremendously, are for instance Lois Greenfield and Tim Flach. The technical perfection of their work is something from another planet, another universe. I get emotional when I look at their work, just because of the sheer technical and creative perfection of their imagery.   

Do you have a vision in mind before going out and shooting? Tell us about about your workflow and how the vision comes to life before shooting and in post.

I started working the way I do because I felt that I wanted to control the situation that I was shooting completely. I don’t want to be a spectator, because I want to create something that I find interesting rather then something that is “correct” or “realistic”. I much rather manipulate the truth to get my results then manipulating the photo in post-production, and that means that I have to be able to control the setting completely in order to visualize my idea. Before I start organizing a shoot, I know exactly what I am looking for, and what I need to make it happen. That is basically the whole essence of my workflow.

Off course, during the session itself, there are always surprises, and I am completely reliant on the models to be able to do what I want in a natural way. The fact that I always shoot tethered enables me to communicate the vision to the models, and they can come with their input to get is as good as possible. It is always a close collaboration between me and the people I shoot. When it comes to post production: as you can see the only thing I did was darken the background even more to point the focus as much as possible on the dancers and their gestures.

Now tell us how this amazing image came together, from conception to completion.

I took this shot in Lois Greenfield’s studio in New York. I had no gear or experience at the time, I just knew that I loved the way Lois worked, and I knew what I wanted to create. This was my first ever try at doing something professional, and I owe Lois a lot to give me the chance and confidence to realize it. After this shot, I went back to Norway and persuaded the bank to give me a loan to buy my own gear to continue creating artwork like this.

It was such a great experience to get to work with such talented dancers like these four (Miguel Quinones, Dario Vaccaro, Patricia Foster and Colleen T. Sullivan) it is one thing to have a vision, but a whole other thing to find the dancers who are able to actually realize it. 

BONUS EYE CANDY

Now mouse over this image for that sweet B&A magic!

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This post edited by Seth Langner ~ www.karmathartic.com 

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