Ask Ryan Brenizer

• Question: Are you gonna post that Brenizer method photo you made at your wppi platform class :) - stewartuy
• Answer:

  Ask and ye shall receive…

  

• Question: Hi Ryan, I am a HUGE fan out of Ontario, Canada. I just wanted to know about DNG files. I heard DNG files are show better than JPEG in terms of quality for Facebook. What are your thoughts about this and how do I get a DNG file? - Anonymous
• Answer:

  I think you mean PNG files. You can save things as PNG in Photoshop or many free apps, like Mac Preview.

• Question: You've mentioned a few times that you have a custom tone curve in camera, could you elaborate on that a bit? I've never heard of someone doing that and frankly I didn't realize my camera was capable of such features. - Anonymous
• Answer:

  Absolutely — you can do it in View NX, which is free. There’s a module in it that lets you create custom curves and then upload it to your camera via card. More info here: http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/microsite/picturecontrol/application/application.htm

Apparently the sun also rises. Excited to be headed back to Vancouver. (at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR))

• Question: How many folks do you have working for you? (Public relations/Emails, second shooters, maybe an editor?) Do you do most of the editing yourself, part, or all of it? - finkphotography
• Answer:

  One full-time employee, who is awesome and worth the Manhattan assistant prices. I generally have one photographer as contracted help at each wedding (usually picked from workshop attendees as I know their personality and abilities), and sometimes two if the couple has paid for extras or we’re having a big wedding with a photobooth. All of the editing is done in-house between Wendy and I.

• Question: Hi Ryan, do you leave the default sharpening in acr then output to a jpeg, then use unsharp mask? Or do you zero out any raw default sharpening first? Then use unsharp mask? Thanks. - Anonymous
• Answer:

  Sharpening is always the very last stage of an image, when you know it will be output to a certain size and medium. If I’m outputting my regular files straight from Lightroom I use the normal settings. If I’m making a print I use settings for the size of print and the material. And if I’m outputting to web size then I have photoshop presets for that.

• Question: Hi Ryan. Do you use LR & Photoshop? If so, what are your thoughts on the Adobe CC? - Anonymous
• Answer:

  Abstractly, I appreciate the karmic elegance. adobe is doing this to combat piracy. They can only pull off a move like this because they have a monopoly. But they have a monopoly BECAUSE of piracy. It makes an interesting narrative. 

  But of course it’s one I’m caught up in. It makes me less likely to upgrade for a while, and especially I know I won’t start using InDesign for albums any time soon. 

• Question: I know you have amazing second shooters that work for you, but, if you could pick any photographer ( dead or alive ) who would you choose and why? - Anonymous
• Answer:

  I’d have Platon run the photo booth.

• Question: How many views does your website have & how many mails you get per average per day? - Anonymous
• Answer:

  A lot. I haven’t checked my web site recently because I’ve had hosting issues (which I’m fixing today, huzzah!) but I have a well-paid full-time employee whose primary role is to manage the e-mail stream. 

• Question: How do you keep track of all your social media sites? Denise - Anonymous
• Answer:

  http://ryanbrenizer.com/socialmedia

  Thanks for the reminder to update that with this Tumblr!

• Question: Hey Ryan. I've noticed your photos look sharp (but not too sharp) and often not very compressed on Facebook. How do you prep an image for uploading to Facebook? - Anonymous
• Answer:

  I don’t know if this actually helps, but I upload images at 960 pixel PNG files. I do whatever I can to keep Facebook from hacking my shadows and tones apart.

• Question: After I shoot a wedding, get home and try to sleep I find myself staying up late getting mad on shots that I forgot to take. Thinking," why didn't I do that?!? How did I forget to go to that location?! Or why didn't I use that technique!?" Does this ever happen to? Or am I just being to hard on myself? Thank you, Joey, CA. - Anonymous
• Answer:

  Well without being so mad at yourself, this is a good process. Review the day and see if there is anything you could do differently next time. Just working a lot won’t do much for you — there are plenty of people who have done 700 weddings and are shooting the same way as their seventh wedding. The important part is learning as you go.

• Question: What is you fave lens of all and why? - Anonymous
• Answer:

  I don’t really fetishize gear very much, but there is something special in my heart for the Nikon 58mm f/1.2. I have to keep selling my copies because I’m a user, not a collector, and know I’m going to quickly destroy them.

• Question: Hello Ryan, do you have any custom contrast, saturation or sharpening setting on your camera. Please share how do you get the beautiful tones in your photographs. And more importantly how do you get it right in the camera. I have tried best lenses, cameras, lighting and nailed the exposure but still do not get the tones you have in the photos. - Anonymous
• Answer:

  I have a completely custom tone curve (although it isn’t all that dramatic.) Getting it right in camera is more about finding your light and waiting for the right moment than anything else. If I took pictures of a brick wall it would just as terrible as anyone else’s.

• Question: What white balance do you use for the weddings. Do you use a grey card before the wedding or custom set on camera. Thank you. - Anonymous
• Answer:

  Auto in RAW, since I go back and forth from flash to ambient quickly. Ideal balancer is the highlight of a tux since there is a lot more off-white out there than off-black.