SW Photography

Portrait of Dee

Sheryl Widberg — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:29:10 +0000

I love taking portraits of people that love their picture taken. Dee is so gorgeous and is very comfortable in front of the camera. We had an absolute blast going to three different locations and I think the results that we got are amazing. All the pictures are taken with off camera flash fired with a TT5. I used different flash modifiers during the shoot including a beauty dish and a snoot, but most of them are with just the bare flash. If you look at the last picture in the series, I turned my flash off, so you could get a good idea of what the photo would look like if I were just an available light shooter. If I were only using available light, none of these pictures would be possible….well, except the silhouette! Enjoy!

Editing and Blogging

Sheryl Widberg — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:01:33 +0000

I’ve been getting a few questions lately on how I edit my photos and what my process it. So, I figured I share here how I process images. But first a little history….

Back in the day, you’d send your roll of film off to a lab and you would get the images back completely processed. What this means is that the lab would color correct and white balance correct the images. However now with digital, we do all that on a computer. So while digital has been easier for the masses, it has also become more difficult for professional photographers. We now have taken on the task of color correcting and white balancing the photos that used to previously belong to the lab. We could choose to outsource this to task to a photo editing house and I know a lot of photographers do, however it adds to the expense of running the business.

So, how do I work? Well, first and foremost I try to always get it right ‘in camera’. Do I always succeed? Of course not, I’m human. So when I am done with a shoot, I download the photos to my computer, then upload them to my editing software. I use Lightroom for any of the software junkies reading. In Lightroom, I am able to tweak exposures, white balance and contrast until I am happy with the files. These are now my proofs for the wedding or portrait session. I do no major edits on the proofs.

For a client that orders an album or a large wall print/collage, I do additional editing in Photoshop for these photos. I will enhance the colors, do some skin smoothing, take out background annoyances and make the eyes pop a little. However, what I do not do is make the photos look like someone else. It is still you!

So, what do I put on my blog? I only post images that are just color corrected. I want you to see what a majority of your images, your proofs will look like. I could only add Photoshoped enhanced images to my blog, for the WOW factor, however I do not think that would be a good representation of what your final product will look like. In my next post, I will post some pictures that are straight out of camera images, color corrected images and fully enhanced images so you can see the difference.

Hope this was helpful!!

Continuing Education with Neil van Niekerk

Sheryl Widberg — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:11:52 +0000

I love to continue to learn how I can help my camera create magic. Last month, I drove down to NYC to learn from a master, Neil van Niekerk. I had seen him before at various photography forums, but thought, I could really benefit from some hands on learning. We started the day with some classroom learning and shooting. Then headed out to the meat packing distrist to shoot with 2 lovely models. These women were troopers! It was freezing and raining and 10 photographers were snapping away at them and they were so professional. Thanks to Neil for sharing your knowledge and to the ladies for putting up with us on such a long day!! Check out some the fun images that we created.

Dear Blog

Sheryl Widberg — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:09:28 +0000

I have been ignoring you. I apologize. I do have a million things to post and I promise, I will get around to it.

Love,

Your busy photographer, Sheryl

Scary weather in New England

Sheryl Widberg — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:11:21 +0000

We’ve had some wacky and scary weather here in New England. Springfield saw a tornado touch down yesterday, killing four and doing millions of dollars of damage. My hearts and prayers go out to those families who were affected by that disaster. Here in Quincy, we saw a lot of rain, some very loud thunder and even some lightening. After the rain had stopped, I watched the light dance over the water and had to take the opportunity to see what my camera could ‘catch’. I’m pretty happy with the results. Hopefully, the crazy weather will die down for a while, so we can have some sunshine. Happy June everyone!

I never get tired of seeing a good sunrise!

Sheryl Widberg — Mon, 23 May 2011 13:20:14 +0000

This is not today, as today is yucky raining! Hopefully, this will make the day a little brighter though!

More Love!!!

Sheryl Widberg — Mon, 23 May 2011 02:20:22 +0000

It was freezing and raining, but we still snuck outside with flash lights and my camera for 3 minutes to make this photo at the Tirrell Room. I love working with my clients to create fun, timeless images that they can look back on for years to come!

What kind of Mommy would I be???

Sheryl Widberg — Mon, 23 May 2011 01:51:32 +0000

If I didn’t post a picture of my boys every once in a while. This is back from a hiking trip in March. Aren’t they sweet?

Steph and Jason Engaged!!

Sheryl Widberg — Mon, 23 May 2011 01:03:18 +0000

It is 43 days until the wedding!!! We met up this morning to take some engagement pictures….it was freezing!! They were both such good sports and I look forward to their July 3rd wedding where hopefully, it will be A LOT warmer! Thanks for hanging out with me today!! Check out some of the pictures from their shoot.

Crazy New England Weather

Sheryl Widberg — Mon, 23 May 2011 00:56:37 +0000

We’ve been having the most crazy weather here. It’s May and it is supposed to be nice, but mother nature has thrown us quite a curve ball. It is very cold and raining and foggy….basically, it is hot chocolate weather, not beach weather. We had so much fog the other day, you could barely see the end of the pier. I can not wait until mother nature decides to give us a break and some sunshine….