Contax 645 Review

Posted on For Photographers

I had dreamed of the Contax 645 for years. Mostly due to “gear acquisition syndrome.” I believed this camera would make me a better photographer. In the back of my head, I knew it wouldn’t, but I learned to ignore the rational voice. Six years ago, I finally reached a point where I could afford a Contax 645. Surprisingly, it did change my work for the better. With the camera, I could finally achieve the vision I had in my head. I was immediately in love! But the camera also has a dark side. I thought I would share my experience with others, so I created the detailed Contax 645 review video below. To sum up my feelings from the Contax 645 review above, I…

How to Organize and Sort Photos

Posted on For Photographers

If you’re a digital-only wedding photographer, then sorting and organizing a mountain of photos is easy. After all, the camera has a built in clock and each photo is tagged with the capture time. Film cameras have no such feature. Once you add film into the mix, then sorting and organizing the photos can become a tedious pain. A single wedding might have a pile of film rolls with no obvious way to keep them in chronological order. There is a better way! In the video below, I describe how to organize and sort photos the easy way when shooting film+digital or just film. How to organize and sort photos breaks down into a few simple steps – Number the rolls as you shoot Ask your photo lab to develop…

Cull Images Faster with Photo Mechanic

Posted on For Photographers

Professional wedding photographers know that you can easily drown in work. Especially when overwhelmed with photo editing. Editing can be slow, mind-numbingly tedious, and tiresome. So finding efficiency in the photo editing process becomes paramount. Most of us use Adobe Lightroom to edit photos and house our photo library. However, the first step in editing is always culling images to find the best ones. This step can be done in Lightroom, but you can cull images faster with Photo Mechanic. In the video tutorial below, I explain why Photo Mechanic is the better choice. I also take some time to cover my process to culling, some detail about how I capture weddings, and a little bit about how I shoot. The real issue with culling…

How to Safely Ship Film

Posted on For Photographers

Tons of thought goes into how to safely protect images for any professional photographer. Consideration is given to image protection when shooting, photo archive back-up, and even protection against hazard using cloud storage. For the digital photographer, any concerns usually stops there. However, for the hybrid or film photographer, film must be shipped to their photo lab for processing. This extra step can bring with it extra risk. But there are steps you can take to mitigate this risk. In the video below, I cover how to safely ship film to your lab. The steps aren’t about choosing the best shipping company. I’ve heard so many people complain about FedEx, UPS, and USPS. Fact is, they’re all the same. Each shipping company delivers regularly and occasionally has issues. Choosing…

How to Use an External Light Meter

Posted on For Photographers

From time to time, I get an itch to produce tutorials for fellow photographers. It usually starts with a Facebook post asking a question, or a friend seeking help. In one of my favorite Facebook groups, I’ve recently noticed a lot of questions about how to use an external light meter with film. It’s so much easier for me to record a short video to demonstrate my techniques. So in the video below I quickly cover how to use an external light meter with film. However, the video isn’t specific to film. I also cover how I use the same meter for digital photography. The video is specific to color film, as black and white film is a little different. Once I got used to using…