Most of our clients only cares about what final art work we create for them and it is irrelevant for them what camera and lights we use. However, this page is for our fellow photographers, specifically for newcomers, if they are interested to know what gears are being used behind the scene.
Camera System for Wedding & Special Events
- Canon EOS 5D DSLR
- Canon EOS 40D DSLR
- Canon EOS 70-200mm f/2.8 "L" IS Zoom
- Canon EOS 24-70mm f/2.8 "L" Zoom
- Canon EOS 50mm f/1.4 Prime
- Canon EOS 85mm f/1.2 "L" Prime
- Canon EOS 15mm Fisheye
- Canon 550 Speedlight Flash
- Quantum Flash
Camera System for Portraits & Fashion
Our primary camera is a medium format system with following combination:
39 Megapixel PhaseOne P45+ Digital Back, a creative genius!
Mamiya 645 AFD II medium format camera body
Mamiya Sekor Zoom AF 75-150mm f/4.5 D lens
Why do we need such high-end equipments? Well, Size Matters, Bigger is indeed better! The bigger format (6x4.5) is nearly 3x larger than 35mm SLRs and 4x or larger than most D-SLR cameras being used by most of our competitors. Larger sensors result in better color and tone, less noise, and greater detail. In addition, the large viewfinder is an excellent visual workspace for us to composing images. With our state of the art equipments, we are able to offer high-end digital print size up to 30" x 40" without any digital enlargement artifact.
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Lights & Backgrounds
We usually bring following professional lighting equipments. However, what exactly we will carry will depend on the objective of each individual portrait session.
2 Novatron M600 Digital Monolights -- these professional lighting instrument are fully microprocessor controlled, with power output that is variable in 1/10 f-stop increments, over its entire six f-stop range. These we use as our main light and fill light.
In addition to our main light and fill / catch light, we use Novatron D1000 Digital Power Pack. This is a 1000 watt-second fan-cooled pack,fully microprocessor controlled with output that is variable in 1/10 f-stop increments, over its entire 5.8 f-stop range. We use this unit along with 3 flash heads to create background and hair lights.
Novatron D1000 Digital Power Pack and 3 Flash Heads
We use following Westscott light modifers on Novatron M600 to create soft / catch lights.
Apollo Light Modifiers allows for 104-degree soft light spread. This is our main light.
The Halo Light Modifiers allow 140-degree wraparound lighting with a circular catch light.
Westcott Stripbank offers a hot spot or specular highlights in the center. We use this with 40 Degree Egg-Crate Grids to create hair light / edge light.
Backgrounds
Generally we offer white background for high-key images and black background for dramatic low-key images. We also offer chrome-key green background and replace the green background in Photoshop with a matching complementary color background of subject's cloth.
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Digital Darkroom
After initial capture, we load the images onto computer and seat in front of a large color calibrated monitor.
We use PhaseOne's Capture One Professional RAW Workflow software to evaluate image quality, correct white balance and basic exposure corrections (if required), and export the image to TIF format.
Apple 23" Cinema Display
After RAW conversion, we open the image in Photoshop CS3 software to make further adjustments to extend tonal range, and color and contrast adjustments. Per our client's request, we also do other finer adjustments to make the image stronger and more compelling.
Capture One Pro RAW Workflow Software
Adobe Photoshop CS3
After all adjustments are done, we save images in multiple files with varied resolution like 360 dpi for prints, 72 dpi for web / email etc. At this point we load images onto our web server, so client can select their favorite images to order final prints.
We offer both Black & White and Color Prints. Our workflow is 100% color managed. We calibrate our display with EyeOne 2. For prints, we use printer profile created by Bill Atkinson, a member of the original Apple Macintosh design team, and a pioneer in graphics software.
GretagMacbeth Eye-One 2 Display monitor calibrator and profiling package
We print images up to 16" width on our in-house Epson Stylus 4800 Pro printer. The following are silent features of this printer:
- 17" Wide Desktop Printer
- 8-color Epson UltraChrome K3T Ink
- Advanced Black & White Printing Technology
Epson Stylus 4800 Pro Printer
Advanced Black & White Printing Technology
We also offer following paper options:
- Epson Premium Luster Photo Paper (260)
- Epson Premium Semigloss Photo (250)
- Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper (250)
- Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper (250)
- Breathing ColorT Brilliance Chromata WhiteT canvas paper
- Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl (for Black & White prints)
