The countdown is on! This time next week Tim and Beth will be newlyweds. We had the pleasure of capturing their engagement at the Botanic Gardens where Tim proposed, so romantic <3 You can see the love in their eyes, neither of them could stop smiling. November 5, 2011 is the day these two become one, stayed tuned for photos of their big day!

We teamed up with City Girl Weddings and Events and White House Black Market for the official launch of
City Girl Weddings and Events. During the launch party we had the opportunity to meet and mingle with
various vendors, and many potential clients. Part of the promotion was for us and other photographers to
take models around the city for mock wedding photoshoots to show off the types of weddings City Girl plans,
style of photographers they work with, not to mention help generate buzz!

www.citygirlweddings.com

Ahhh, the crisp breeze, vibrant orange, gold and red adorning the tree tops. Autumn is here!
This is one of our favorite times of year for photos, nothing compares to nature’s backdrop of
transforming foliage. As quickly as Autumn falls in it falls out, get an Autumn session booked
before the winds of change blow through again!

We have had the pleasure of following these adorable kiddos from birth and now Joey is 1! And Lydia is 3!
Always playful and exuberant we couldn’t keep these siblings inside for long, after some in-studio shots
we made our way to the backyard. Parents Marc and Katie joined in the photo fun too!

This quirky couple’s big day was filled with personality. Each detail infused with a little James and Nikki.
With bright pink, butterfly touches, custom made M&M’s for the candy table and a quaint country chapel
this truly was a day to remember. Congratulations to the newlyweds.

In May of 2011 Rich and I visited my home away from home, Florida! My grandmother, aunt and cousins
live there – Shelby recently moved back from Chicago, miss her tons! No trip to Florida is complete without
visiting the beach. Growing up my aunt would always dress my cousin Tia and I alike and take our photos
at the beach, this year we decided to recreate this event!

John has two dogs, and they told us that they must have them in the photos! Which is great for me, because I love animals!

Here are the two and their pups at Montrose Beach in Chicago.

City scape background.

Cubs gear!

Cottage look.

We can’t wait to be a part of your wedding guys! Hope the planning is going well and all the details are in place.

Colors are important in photography. But with digital photography, it is a long path from the light of this world to the computer. At the heart of the digital camera is the image sensor which records the image. Almost all digital cameras actually record image data with a complicated array of colored filters over tiny light-sensitive photosensors (more detailed information on Bayer filters is on wikipedia. Foveon sensors use a different technology but they have their own set of issues). At this point, more advanced models of cameras allow this image to be recorded in this “raw” format (we recommend always shooting in raw format over jpeg, but that’s another discussion).

Now, in its raw format, a photo would be unrecognizable. Complicated algorithms can process—the digital equivalent of darkroom developing—the raw file to create a jpeg file which is viewable by web browsers and printers alike. Part of the raw processing is determining the colors of individual pixels, or points, in the picture. Although engineers at companies such as Adobe have camera color profiles for most models of cameras, each specific camera may handle colors a little differently due to manufacturing tolerances. To ensure the best accuracy in the colors coming out of the camera, a standard color chart can be used. A popular color chart is the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport, which a friend generously let me use on a recent shoot. This contains a number of colors which are very accurately printed.

After taking a picture of this chart, you have to tell the computer to analyze these colors. In the past, people used slow, complicated Photoshop scripts. I found that Adobe now provides a DNG Profile editor which will create a camera profile. I followed the directions on their tutorial, though I had to convert my Canon raw file to a DNG file (Adobe also provides a free converter program but you can also do this when importing photos with Lightroom).  This quickly and easily created a profile for my camera.  The last step was to move this profile into a location for Adobe programs to use, which on a mac is /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles . That’s it! Now you can use the new profile in Lightroom or Photoshop as a starting point for your editing.