Yesterday our friend Melissa Jill wrote a blog post about using back button focus to achieve the sharpest possible images. Because she shoots with Canon equipment, she posted a link to a thread on Open Source Photo that talked about back button focus for Nikon equipment. What’s kinda of funny about that thread is that it all started because we couldn’t figure out how to make this work on our Nikon cameras back in 2007! Wow, things have changed a lot since then! Denise and I have been using back button focus for years now and it has made a huge difference in the way we work.

By separating the act of focusing with taking the actual photo (shutter release), it allows you to choose your focus point, lock it in, and have the ability to recompose your image without refocusing. For all you Nikon users out there, here’s how you can set it up in camera because unfortunately it is not the default setting. These settings should be pretty much the same on the D300 & D700 and possibly the D3 model.

Separate Your Focus & Shutter:

Step 1: Go into your custom settings menu

Step 2: Select A (autofocus)

Step 3: Select A5 (AF Activation)

Step 4: Choose AF-ON only

Now, you can use your AF-ON button to set your focus and the shutter button will only release the shutter. Once your focus is set you can release the AF-ON button and reframe the shot. By separating those two functions, it allows you to be more creative and think outside the box when it comes to composing your images. It also, helps in getting the sharpest possible photos.

Lock Your Center Focus Point:

We also used to manage our focus location by moving the focus points all around with the dial. When your camera has 51 focus points, this method is slow and frustrating. Once we started shooting with back button focus, we locked the focus in the center by turning the lock focus dial to the L position and never touched it again. This part of the set up isn’t required to use back button focus but we have found that it works well for us and simplfies the process even more.

Now you can simply put the subject in the center, lock in the focus, release the button and have the freedom to recompose them in the frame. If any of our fellow “Nikonians” have any other questions about this, feel free to leave us a comment or send us an email. Hope this has been helpful!

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I recently learned that the word “slapdash” is a synonym for the word random.  After laughing about it for a while, the thought occurred to me that it would make a fabulous title for an ongoing blog series about completely random things.  One of the goals of our blog, along with sharing our work and giving our clients a way to share their photos with others, is to be able to document our personal lives and help our readers get to know us personally.  Well, up to this point, we’ve never been very good at the “personal” part :-(  Maybe it’s because we worry that people won’t really care?  (And maybe they really won’t – I don’t know.)  But if there’s one thing that Facebook and other forms of social networking have taught us, it’s that people just want to connect and sometimes that means finding common ground on the most mundane of topics.

So, in the interest of relationship building, personal disclosure, and overall slapdashery (yep, I think I just made up an awesome new word) – the first ever addition of Slapdash!

Movies are a big deal in the Gotcher house.  We have A LOT of them and watch A LOT of them.  No particular genre either – our taste is pretty much all over the board: comedy, drama, romance, action, classic black and white, even the occasional documentary.  In our house the true test of how much we liked a movie isn’t just based on our initial viewing.  The next day, one of us inevitably asks the other one, “So, did you think about [insert movie title here] today?”  (I tend to think about the previous night’s movie in the shower the next morning – not that you needed to know that.)

Recently, the movies that have been leaving the most lasting impression on us have been independent films.  There’s something so awesome about low-budget, film festival type movies that just blows the big name blockbusters out of the water.  It seems that when filmmakers don’t have the benefit of an actor who’s name can open a movie all by itself or the money for huge stunts and crazy special effects,  they have to get back to the heart of what makes movies so amazing – like story line and character development, making you actually FEEL something and THINK about something.

Here are two of our recent favorites you should totally check out:

Adam: An incredibly heartfelt love story of a man with Asperger’s Syndrome (a form of Autism), that falls in love with a woman who moves into his apartment building.  Not only is the story super charming and heart wrenching at the same time, the film does a great job of surrounding the central story line with supporting characters that have purpose and are thoughtfully written (a major drawback in a lot of movies.)

500 Days of Summer: If you’ve seen it already, SEE IT AGAIN.  Yes, it’s that awesome.  It’s a quirky, clever NON-love story that’s great on too many levels to describe.  And of course, Zooey Deschanel is in it – one of the few women Ryan would probably leave me for if given the chance and I would pretty much totally support his decision.

All kidding aside, check these movies out – they’re so great!  And you won’t walk away thinking, “Well that was two hours of my life I’ll never get back.”

A couple of shout outs to other random things that have made my life especially happy these last few weeks:

New Boots!: Ryan got me these AMAZING knee high boots for Christmas and I simply can NOT have a bad day when I’m wearing them!  (I couldn’t find a photo of my exact pair online, but this ought to give you an idea.  Mine have a slimmer heel and awesome detailing on the side and top – they’re way cuter actually!)

Apple TV: Ryan’s dad got us Apple TV for Christmas!  Yay!!!  Being the avid movie watchers that we are, it gives us access to tons of great movies without having to go to the video store (who does that anymore?) or wait for a Netflix movie to come in the mail.  We can just browse the selections and a great new movie is only a click away!  I also love that we can listen to all of our iTunes music and view photos on our big TV screen – so cool!

Twitter & TweetDeck: I have to admit, I’ve been a little lax in my Twitter duties for a few months, but with a little extra time in my schedule lately, I finally took the time to do a little Twitter clean up.  I’m now following a bunch of new awesome “tweeters” and I’ve unfollowed all the random people that I’ve unknowingly collected while I’ve had my account set to automatically follow everyone who follows me – big mistake!  Now that things are back in order, I’ve fallen in love with Twitter all over again :-)  TweetDeck, the ultimate desktop Twitter management tool has made this all much, much easier, although I have to admit that my productivity at the old day job has probably taken a bit of a hit with all those happy little notifications flying in all day.  If you want to follow me on twitter I’m @denisegotcher and Ryan is @ryangotcher.  We also have a Simply Knot Photos account @simplyknot, but we don’t update it quite as much as our personal ones.

Have a great week everybody!

For more information about bridal sessions, feel free to email us at studio@simplyknotphotos.com.

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Couples come to us all the time looking for answers about their wedding photography. Here are a few questions that we hear a lot:

“We want to get married at our church, but it’s not very pretty and we’re afraid we’re going to miss out on having great photos.”

“We want awesome shots of us as a couple, but we also don’t want to miss out on spending time with our family and friends on our wedding day.”

“We are on a tight budget so we’re having a friend take photos on our wedding day, but we really want to have a professional take the most important shots – the ones of us as a couple.”

The answer: A Bridal Session!

A bridal session is a portrait session of a couple in their bridal attire on a day other than their wedding day. These types of sessions can take place before or after the wedding. The concept may be a little untraditional, but it can also be the perfect solution for couples struggling with how photography will play a role in their big day. In addition to that, we LOVE to shoot them! We decided that rather than have us tell you how awesome bridal sessions are, we’d have some of our past clients do it for us! We sent a little survey to three of our awesome couples and here’s what they had to say about their experience . . .

Why did you choose a bridal session?

Meghan & Matt: We choose the bridal session for two reasons: we wanted to get some great photos of Matt and I in our wedding attire and secondly, we wanted our wedding day to just be about our love and sharing that love with friends and family. The bridal session enabled us to get amazing wedding photos with many different poses and backdrops without worrying about taking time away from the activities on our actual wedding day. On our wedding day we had no idea when photos were being taken, we were simply in the moment. I think that’s the way it should be!

Julie & Jimmy: We decided to do a bridal session to eliminate stress and pressure from the day of our wedding. I wanted our photo session to be a personal, intimate time as a couple that did not have the pressure of time and schedule. We also had the chance to use a unique location for our bridal session other than our actual wedding venue. In addition, taking photos on the day of the wedding keeps your guests waiting around and getting impatient so we wanted to minimize that too.

Katie & Justin: We chose a bridal session for many reasons, but primarily to allow us to have a variety of backdrops for our wedding photos. We knew our backyard would be a great ceremony site, but did not offer many photo backdrops. By choosing a bridal session we could choose a location that reflected our personalities and taste. On top of that, by shooting our photos before the wedding we were able to spend more time taking our photos and enjoying our wedding day with our family and friends. After all, you pay for the wedding you should be there to enjoy it, right?

How did you choose the setting for your session?

Meghan & Matt: We choose Sedona for our bridal session because that’s where we were getting married. We originally choose Sedona because that’s where Matt proposed while we were in college :)

Julie & Jimmy: We were blessed to have someone volunteer their amazing old fashion 1920’s car and their beautiful home and landscape for our photo session. The scenery and old car totally fit the classical big band theme of our wedding. Our second location was a suggestion from Ryan and Denise. The resort had a great variety of backgrounds and was very clean so I we wouldn’t have to worry about getting my dress too dirty.

Katie & Justin: We were very conflicted on what type of location we wanted for our bridal session. Justin wanted an intimate location well known to us. I wanted a picturesque location with a lot of background options. Ryan & Denise listened to our needs and came up with the perfect place – Jerome, AZ. With the small town Arizona feel that we love, we were able to have the best of both worlds.

Tell us about your “first look”. What was it like? What kind of emotions did you experience?

Meghan & Matt: The “first look” was AMAZING! I was filled with excitement to see my handsome soon to be husband in his tux. I have to admit, I did get a little teary eyed. It’s a magical moment meant just for the bride and groom (I will remember the look on Matts face forever).

Julie & Jimmy: (Jimmy) I was anixous to see her and when I did she looked so beautiful. She was breath taking. (Julie) The thing I liked about the first look was that I had the freedom to react and have personal moments with Jimmy. Our first look was filled with tears, hugs and some sass ;-) I have such amazing photos capturing a progression of emotions that I would not have been able to express while walking down the aisle. Our first look photos captured our personality and approach to each other; they are some of my favorite ones.

Katie & Justin: When we were deciding whether to do a bridal session, I had been worried about our “first look” not being at the ceremony. Would the ceremony still be as special? Absolutely yes. Seeing my husband waiting for me at the top of the aisle was an exciting moment that our “first look” could have never changed. Our first look was in a park in the heart of Jerome, AZ, just a few days before our wedding. Ryan & Denise scouted the location before the “first look” in order to find a gorgeous and intimate backdrop. They thought of every detail in choosing the location – from the ivy enveloped staircase straight from a fairy tale to the perfect lighting. When I arrived at the top of the staircase, Justin was faced away from me. Justin and I were both giddy with excitement about this moment. We had looked forward to it almost as much as our wedding day. When it was time for me to call Justin’s name to turn around, I couldn’t stop giggling. Knowing I was there, Justin turned and smiled. We kissed and we laughed. It was the perfect start to our wedding weekend.

What was the most memorable part of the experience?

Meghan & Matt: We loved hanging out with Ryan and Denise and coming up with all kinds of different photo ideas. The most memorable for me was getting in the water with our wedding attire on . . . burr! I love the pictures and it was so fun! Ryan and Denise were troopers, and they even got partially into the water too!

Julie & Jimmy: The most memorable part was probably our first look. Also, there are so many fun moments we had with the old fashion car. One of my favorite moments I did not even know was being captured till I saw the photos. There is a great shot of me resting in Jimmy’s arms during a break when we didn’t even know they were shooting!

Katie & Justin: Because of our location, we were able to walk around and explore on foot. We found stairways, courtyards, benches, windows, and nooks that we felt were our very own; each one was a special memory. We remember the bench that seemed sculpted from ivy and twinkle lights, the jungle gym where we played (yes, in our suit & dress!), the baby blue VW bug behind the “No Trespassing” sign, and the inconspicuous parking lot with the amazing view. Our bridal session became a memory in itself, apart from our wedding day.

Would you recommend this type of session to another couple and why?

Meghan & Matt: I would highly recommend a bridal session to other couples. Actually, my advice would be that it’s mandatory. The bridal session decreases stress and increases happiness on your big day!

Julie & Jimmy: Absolutely! By doing a bridal session, we were able to have multiple locations outside of our wedding location. We were also able to have personal intimate time on a relaxed schedule taking away the pressure of our wedding day. We have photos of intimate moments and photos that capture how we interact over just posed shots.

Katie & Justin: In talking to my married friends, many regret that they rushed their photos in order to get to their reception. They were often disappointed by the number of photos or the lack of variety. By choosing a bridal session we didn’t have to sacrifice the number or quality of the photos. The bridal session allowed us snuggle and kiss for an entire day AND experience our entire wedding reception. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

For more information about bridal sessions, feel free to email us at studio@simplyknotphotos.com.

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