Another teaser…Fill the Frame!

0 Comments February 1, 2012||Education

With only a week left before the next Intro to DSLR class, I thought I’d send out another little teaser with some other information that students who attend the class will learn.

Fill the Frame

Making the subject too small in the frame of an image can make the viewer wonder what the intended subject is.  The image above left was intended to display a bit of Rachael’s personality and highlight her smile.  While we can see her smile, when I look at this image, my attention drifts away from her to the items that surround her on the ground and in the background.  This is the result of her being relatively small in the frame (and maybe because I’m getting older) and having a cluttered background.

In the image on the right, she fills the frame of the photograph, her gaze keeps my attention where it should be and we’ve removed the distracting background clutter.  This image shows some of Rachael’s personality, and highlights her eyes and fantastic smile instead of letting the viewer check out all of the other stuff.

The upcoming February class is the last one for this quarter.  I’ve tentatively scheduled the next class for sometime in May.

Oh!  Before I forget, we will not have class on Tuesday February 14, I think we’d all like to be somewhere else that evening.  We’ll decide when to move that date on the first night of class.

Okay that’s it for now.  Hope to see you in one of the classes!

 

Spotlight Video Interview

0 Comments January 30, 2012||Commercial, Education, General

An interesting thing happened to me at a meetup…a video was produced!

Last week, in the sponsor spotlight section of the meetup “It’s a Great Day for Business Atlanta”, I was interviewed by a group panel consisting of Louis Agudo, Lorrie Todd, Todd Wilson and Eric Romero.

This meetup group supports small businesses by showcasing established and emerging small business owners to reveal their secrets of success.  One of the ways they do this is by creating videos, shot by Randall Philips of PDB Group Ventures, to add to their blog, website or just leaving it posted on YouTube to increase their internet presence.

In the video below, you’ll discover a few interesting bits about me, my approach to commercial photography, why I created di Sogno Photography and started teaching a course on photography.

Those were some great questions and I want to say thanks to Louis, Lorrie, Todd, Eric and Randall for creating this video.  If you’re interested to know more about the meetup, check it out at meetup.com.  In the meantime, it’s back to creating images for my business clients for me!

A little teaser…Depth of Field

0 Comments January 23, 2012||Education

With the questions I’ve been getting about the introductory photography course I teach, I thought I’d start giving a little teaser from time to time and share some of what is covered in the course.  So here’s the first one!

Depth of Field

Without a focus, we drift around not being very successful at anything we may do.  The same is true for an image, without a focus, the viewer doesn’t know where to look and the image isn’t very successful.  Depth of Field (DOF), defined as that part of an image that is acceptably sharp, provides creative control over what is in-focus or not in-focus in the image.

The figurines in these images are twelve inches apart and by changing the aperture to control the DOF,  the photographer can isolate individual figurines or have them both in-focus thereby controlling the focus of image and where the viewers attention is going to stay.

This is just one of the many tools students in my Introduction to DSLR Photography & Creating Better Photos class learn to use.  So if you or someone you know would like to learn more about photography, check it out by clicking the above link.

That’s it until the next time!

Holiday Party

0 Comments December 29, 2011||Commercial, General

On the 17th of this month I again had the pleasure to shoot the MedAssets holiday party at the Country Club of the South. It was a great time and attended by more than 500 people. Covering the entire CCS clubhouse there was plenty of food, entertainment, gaming tables and dancing. The images below are of the event decorations that were put together by Paul Brummer of Rooms in Bloom, the theme this year was meant to resemble a mountain ski lodge.

This post will probably be my last for the year so I want to take a moment and say thanks to all of you who follow my blog and to wish you a happy and prosperous new year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

from

Ann & Tony

di Sogno Photography

Gather Round Your Troops!

0 Comments December 1, 2011||General

Hello everyone!  I’m doing something special for our military members this year and you can help me.  I want you to imagine what it must be like to be in the military and stationed overseas – far from your family and friends during the holidays and unable to get home.

Now imagine with the press of a button ‘teleporting home’ and being surrounded by your friends and family, seeing their smiles and reveling in their holiday greeting to you by watching it come to life as a 360° virtual tour.  Don’t you think that’d be a great feeling?

I’m joining other professional virtual tour photographers who are creating special holiday greetings for our military.  I’m looking for families and friends of soldiers, sailors, marines or airmen who would like to create a special greeting for their special someone at no cost to them.  I’ll post it on my hosting site, and they can then send their special soldier a link to view their personal holiday greeting.

If you know someone who would like to create one of these greetings, please pass my card or connect us in an email; I’ll take it from there.

Thanks!

I can hardly wait!

0 Comments November 28, 2011||General

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday and aren’t too stressed about being in the Christmas season and all that brings.  For me, it’s almost here and I can hardly wait.  No, I’m not talking about Christmas like Alvin, Simon and Theodore; I’m talking about teaching the Introduction to DSLR Photography and Creating Better Photos course starting tomorrow night (11/29).  As a reminder, it’s a total of 12 hours training for $149.00 and spans four nights over two weeks, Tuesday and Thursday of each week.

I’m gathering the presentation, the textbooks, the projector and screen and even a lot of my equipment in one place so I don’t forget anything.  I’m really looking forward to meeting all of the attendees in the class and being able to transfer knowledge and techniques that will help them understand their camera and create better photos.  They’ll get a lot of information each night and go home with a 70 page book that can be a reference for the future.

Yes, there’s still time to register if you or someone you know would be interested, and yes, it will be repeated after the first of the year for those that might be getting a new camera from Santa!  So, as far as the course is concerned, hurry fast cause I can hardly wait!

p.s. I promised not to tell who, but I know there are some LUCKY folks out there because Santa has already picked up some tickets for next years classes to hand out as gifts.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

 

Training Now Available

0 Comments October 26, 2011||Education

For the past few years, people I’ve met have been telling me that if I had a class on digital photography, they would attend.  I’ve listened to them and I’m pleased to say that I have added a new service to my business, training.

I am now doing personalized individual or small group (up to 5 students) training.  This training is fully customizable for the student’s needs and is targeted at the beginning or intermediate photographer who cannot find time for a regularly scheduled class but wants to better their skills.  Click on ‘TRAINING’ in the main menu to find out more info and pricing for this training.

I have also developed and published a new classroom style training course called ‘Introduction to DSLR Photography & Creating Better Photos’.  This course is a hybrid of a digital photography 101 class and a photographic composition class.  It’s designed to be given in four (4) evenings over two weeks and covers some of the technical aspects of photography, what the camera’s buttons and functions do, how to compose images to make them more interesting and what to do with those images after you capture them.  This is presented at a fairly high level so the student won’t get lost.  Click here for more information and to register.

Additionally, I’ve made the book for that course available for purchase by anyone who wishes they could get a copy for reference or self study, including those who can’t find the time in their busy schedule to attend.  Click on the image below to see a preview and to purchase a copy of the book.

That’s it for now, but don’t forget, if you or someone you know has a DSLR or will be getting a new DSLR for the holidays, this course is an excellent opportunity to learn more about digital photography and how to create better photos.  It makes a great holiday gift, too!

 

Shooting for a Class

0 Comments September 23, 2011||Education, Portraits

In the next month or so, I’ll be starting up a beginners course in using a digital SLR camera and how to take better photos.  I’d have thought that with all of the images I’ve taken in and around the Atlanta area, I’d have everything I needed to visually demonstrate the various concepts outlined in the course.  But that wasn’t the case.  To fill in the holes, I placed a casting call on a popular modeling site; Rachael Boone answered the call and the shoot was scheduled.  Two of the concepts we shot were lens perspective and the effects of aperture on the image.

We started in a small square in the Roswell Historic District that’s quiet, has fairly low foot traffic and shops that show in the background. Rachael posed so the shops were to her back and I started across the square from her using a long focal length lens.  The lens perspective effect is seen by keeping the subject, in this case Rachael, the same size in the frame and shoot with a consecutively shorter focal length lens.

This series demonstrates the effects lens perspective has on images.  At 400mm, the image shows the effects of lens compression and it looks as though Rachael is directly in front of the shops.  As the focal length decreases, the images start to show depth and finally at 24mm, it looks as though the shops are very far away.

The lens aperture used to create an image has large effect on the image too.  It creates the depth of field, the area in the image that is in focus, in the image.  Depth of field can bring the total image in to sharp focus or allow the photographer to keep only the subject in focus and thus keep the viewers attention there.

In these images, at the shallow depth of field an aperture of f/2.8 creates, the foliage behind Rachael has a pleasant blur and the viewers attention is drawn to her great smile.  An aperture of f/27, creates a large depth of field and adds the probability that the viewer will glance at Rachael but then start scanning the image to see what else may be in it.

These are just small tastes of what will be covered in the class.  I’m looking forward to starting it up and transferring some of the knowledge I picked up as commercial photographer over the years.

I also want to thank Rachael for helping me in creating these images.  She made my job much easier!  Stay tuned for more info about the “Introduction to DSLR Photography and Taking Better Photos” class.

 

 

 

Looking for an Atlanta photographer…

0 Comments September 12, 2011||Commercial, Education, Portraits

“I ‘googled’ using terms like ‘Atlanta’, ‘Alpharetta’, ‘head shot’ and ‘photographer’ while looking for someone to create my image.  You came up in the search.  I looked at a couple of other websites prior to viewing yours and compared to those sites, I thought yours was very professional, well done and easy to navigate.  When I looked at your images, I knew you were the photographer I wanted to create mine.”  Steve said that when I was curious and asked how he had found me.  Because he’s a salesman at a technology company, I wasn’t surprised when he answered using search terms instead of just saying “Google”.

He’s been with his company for a while now and they’ve long asked him to get a professional head shot done for their website, marketing and sales collateral, and to have something to use for speaking engagements.

The images were created on a standard white background to make them as generic as possible.  Steve, being a bit more discerning, wanted his images to stand out more.  Working some Photoshop magic, I exchanged the standard white background with a mid-grey color and added a gradient to separate him from the background.

Backgrounds make a new image!

Both images are fantastic and although I’ve been doing this for a while now, it sometimes surprises me how a change like this creates a different feel to the image.  Steve decided to go with the image on the right.  What do you think?

As an Atlanta photographer I strive to separate myself from the pack and it’s always nice to hear when people notice.  I want to thank Steve for being so detailed in his answer to my query and for choosing me to create his executive portrait.

How can I use a virtual tour?

0 Comments August 31, 2011||Commercial, General

Lately, the people I’ve talked to have asked me this question when I mention virtual tours.  To provide one answer, I’d like to use the advertisement and the story of how a new client of mine, Garrett Backman owner of Rubicon, LLC, is using them on his upcoming new website as an example.

When I met Garrett, he told me that he was updating his company’s web site and wanted unique images of his Gainsville, GA office property.   Because  Gainsville is a pretty good hike from his corporate offices in Roswell, GA, he wanted the ability to show the property when potential tenants were interested, any time of the day or night.  He settled on virtual tours as the solution to his problem.

His building offers a fantastic view of Lake Lanier, and after shooting one of  the virtual tours, I captured a panorama image showing its proximity to the lake.  You can see in the ad below how Garrett is using that image in the Gainsville Times newspaper.

Rubicon - Gainsville Times Ad

Although his new website is not up at this time, I’ll show a couple of his virtual tours using the hosting service option that my clients have when I create a virtual tour for them.

As seen in the ad above, the patio area and the offices on the back of the building have a great view of the lake. Click on the image below to enjoy a popup virtual tour of that view. While viewing these tours, be sure to use the cursor to move back and forth or up and down to see a total view of the space.

 

This virtual tour is of the impressive two story atrium. Again, click on the image below to enjoy a popup of that virtual tour.


So how can a business owner use a virtual tour?  They can use them to:

  • Wow customers
  • Offer immersive viewing experiences of their properties
  • Expand their buyer universe
  • Help them sell more
  • Be available even when they aren’t – 24/7/365

Any business owner, property developer or architect, and hotels and resorts can use virtual tours to differentiate themselves from their competition and provide outstanding views of their locations to potential clients.

Visit the Virtual Tours page under the Services menu to find out more about di Sogno Photography’s virtual tours product.

 

Contact us

Photography is by appointment only.
Call or email now to setup a consultation!

di Sogno Photography
1005 Alderman Drive
Suite 101
Alpharetta, GA 30005

ph: 770-817-0945
e: info@disognophoto.com

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